Race Schedule and Results

Thursday, October 28, 2010

I had to...

Since Tom and I discussed last night that he and I will never be doing another WTC event, I had to post this video. ***WARNING*** There are a couple of F-bombs dropped so don't have it up too loud at work!



My sentiments EXACTLY! All the more reason Rev3 is going to do amazing... and why races like the Great Floridian and the Full Beach 2 Battleship are going to start selling out. Yay for smaller race companies that treat athletes like athletes, no billionaires.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A fun food tag...

Kim at "Teta" Means "Booby" in Spanish tagged me in this great food post. Some things might surprise you because I don't eat clean (or anywhere near clean) and generally have a love for food, but I'm SUPER picky. :)

  1. If you could eat anything without any health repercussions or guilt, what would your meal be? Well... I love me some cheese. Fried cheese, cold cheese, string cheese, processed Velveeta cheese, cheese puffs, cottage cheese - you name it, I'll eat it like a fat kid eats cake. And although I said that I'm picky about food, cheese is just about the only exception (although I don't like swiss.. it smells funny). You can put cheese on just about anything and I will eat it. Especially pasta. I could eat cheese and pasta every day, every meal. And not whole wheat pasta... I'm talking the real enriched white stuff. So I would eat a big bowl of that, with a diet coke and for dessert, a fudgy brownie with peanut butter smeared on top and vanilla ice cream (sounds like I've done that before doesn't it???) MAYBE...
  2. If you could meet anyone living or dead who would it be and why? I'm with Kim on this one and would love to meet my blogger friends. You guys have been so supportive and I'd love to thank you all in person. I would also like to meet two others who aren't with us anymore... Tom's Paw-Paw who he talks about all the time, and his old dog Sammy. Both of them were a big part of Tom's life before I met him and I know that he has great memories of them. Someday I'll meet them... I'm confident in that.
  3. Why did you start blogging and what did you expect when you started? I started blogging because I wanted to have a place to be accountable for losing weight. I've struggled for years with my self image. After I graduated college, I was about 35 pounds heavier than I am now. My dad came up to me one day and said that I was getting a little pudgy - I love him to pieces, but that's all I needed. I joined weight watchers and dropped about 25 pounds before meeting Tom. Once I met him, I started working out, but I always struggled to maintain my weight. Either I had to count points or I'd gain and I felt like I was trapped. I fell into that whole "wife weight gain" mode - the one where you gain because you eat as much as your hubby who is 50 pounds heavier than you and 4 inches taller.. I didn't gain a lot... maybe 5 pounds, but I couldn't kick it. I started this blog about my weight loss journey and eventually it grew into my training log, my ramblings, my Ironman journey, etc. I still (every once in a while) talk about my weight issues, but I've since lost those last 10 pounds. Of course I still struggle with my self image, but I try to keep that to a minimum in public! :)
  4. What is the one book you could read over and over again? Hum... I'm so not a reader. I'll admit it. And when I do, I like chick-lit books. You know, the ones about girls meeting the men of their dreams (who happens to be their boss's son, their neighbor, their waiter, etc.), stalking them and falling madly in love with them (without telling them), the man leaves and dates something else, the girl finds the guy again, have an amazing chemistry and get married, have kids and live happily ever after. Every chick-lit book is the same, but I can't get enough. That and trashy celeb autobiographies/books. Loved Tori Spellings books, loved Chelsea Handlers books and currently have Kendra Wilkinson's book on reserve at the library!
  5. If you could travel anywhere, where would it be? I have two places that I was to take Tom. I want to go back to Europe - take him to Maastricht where I studies abroad, but visit the places that I loved in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Ireland, England, France, and Spain. But I also want to go with him to the French Polynesia. I sailed there for 17 days with my mother-in-law about 3 years ago and it was amazing. There are no words to describe the islands.
  6. If you could have a TV show on the Food Network, what would it be? I love to do a show where I take really fattening foods and make them healthy. I've learned a lot of tricks along the way to make things healthier (like a box of cake mix and a diet coke makes a fabulous cake!)
  7. What was the best meal you ever had? I'm kind of with Kim on this one too - nothing tops the box of REAL Kraft Macaroni and Cheese that my mom so graciously made for me after both of my Florida Ironman races. That florescent orange yumminess made my night!
  8. Who has been the greatest influence on your love for food and learning to cook? Well I get my mom's pickiness in terms of food, but she's a fabulous cook and many of the meals that I make are her recipes or recipes that her mom handed down to her.

And now I have to tag 5 people. I think any one's answers to these would be interesting, but I'm very interested to see what these people say...

Christi @ Pedestrian Runner

Aimee @ I Tri To Be Me

BDD @ Big Daddy Diesel

Emz @ If I Can't Convince You, I'll at Least Confuse You

Tressa @ Training With A Track Coach and His Adorable Wife

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Ugh... off season

I hate feeling blah during off season. I mean, I know I did a marathon a 8 days ago and I need to take some down time, but I get in such a funk. I feel like I've gained a trillion pounds (I haven't, but I am seeing the scale creep so I'm being super careful now, especially with the giagundo bag of Halloween candy that's taunting me in the dining room - I haven't opened it yet!). I have this huge desire to get back into training, but when I start working out and I just want to be in bed... or on the couch... or working (did I just admit that?) Yikes... if I didn't have Beach 2 Battleship in 18 days, I wouldn't mind. Buuuut - I haven't swam since the end of September. How the hell am I going to get through a half Ironman... it ain't gonna be pretty folks!

I heading back to kickboxing tomorrow and I'm super excited. I went before the marathon for my intro class and loved it. But then I had the marathon, then I couldn't walk after the marathon, and then we went to Austin. So I couldn't go. I've drawn out a plan that I'm going to follow through the spring and it allows me to kickbox 3 times a week, swim twice a week, run twice a week and bike twice a week. I'm going to work on a lot of short fast stuff - no rides longer than 80k and no runs longer than 10 miles - that means intervals, intervals and intervals (with some tempo stuff and maybe some hills thrown in for fun). If all goes well, I'll be primed for the start of my season... which is still in the works. I have probably 80% of my races picked out. I need to finish that list.

Austin was great - Tom and I went into it thinking that it was going to be this amazing town and don't get me wrong... it was great, but we didn't want to move there immediately (that's usually how we gauge if we love a town). I will have to say though that the trail along Town Lake was amazing... I would love to have a place to run and bike that was filled with so many fit people. And we loved all the running and tri shops. That was about the only difference than Columbus (and the 90 degree heat, but I could do without that all the time too). Oh... and everyone there worships Lance. Like a lot. Glad we went... I'm not in a huge hurry to go back though.

Oh... and super exciting news - I won 2 blog giveaways!!!!! I never win anything! When I get my goods, I'll post all about them! Friday was my lucky day - although I should have played the lottery... maybe we would have stayed in Austing if I had won the $300+ million dollar jackpot. I could have been neighbors with Lance!

That's really all that's new in my world. We're having a little get together this weekend with 6 couples and I'm super excited. We haven't "entertained" in forever so it'll be nice. Not all of the couples know each other, but we know that they will all get along great and have things in common with each other. I love bringing new people together - especially such great people. Tom and I are really blessed to have such amazing friends. I value friendships so much and have learned so much about myself and my friendships in the lat few months. I can finally say that I'm happy with how things are. It hasn't always been that way and quite frankly - it flat out sucked there for a while. So Saturday will just be a reiteration of how great true friends are - and how lucky we are to call all of these people friends!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Catching up...

Tom and I just got back from Austin. It was nice to get away, but of course we didn't have internet access other than our phones and for whatever reason, I can't comment on blogs through my Blackberry so I didn't even read any this weekend. I'm slowly catching up and will try to get to everyone's happenings as soon as I can.

:)

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Marathon pictures and race report

So marathon photos are up. Sorry that they are so small. I noticed something about myself when I run... look at my thumbs. It's like I'm hailing a cab! EVERY.SINGLE.PICTURE! It's too funny!



Look at this one... I'm like 6 inches off the ground - with BOTH feet! :)

Me and my cutie patootie husband!

So here's the brief race recap -
I'll be honest... I didn't give the race much thought going into it. After the Ironman, I signed up feeling a totally failure and thinking that maybe this would make me feel better. As the month passed between IMLOU and the Columbus Marathon, I drifted further and further away from wanting to run a marathon. I did three long runs - a 13, a 16 and a 20. Between the long runs, I didn't do much. I was checked out. Multiple times I thought about pulling out of the race or even changing my entry to the half. I didn't feel like I was in the shape that I wanted to be in for a marathon or in the right mental state.
With that being said, Saturday was totally calm for a prerace night. I didn't think much about it. We ate some pasta and chicken because that's what we do before long races, but that was it. As I laid down for bed, I started to cry. I was flooded with emotions of the fact that I gave up in Louisville. It's easy for the mind to forget the bad of the day. I don't forget how I felt, but I was just overcome with a sense that I gave up before I was ready and that I possibly could have made it to the finish (in retrospect, I don't think I could have but who knows). I eventually fell asleep, but the 5:30 wake up came early.

We drove to the race site and parked at the start. It was EMPTY. I figured with 15,000 runners, it would be packed. The start and finish are about 4 locks from each other and I think 14,900+ runners decided to park at the finish! Tom and I sat in the care for a while then I realized I needed to pee so we made our way to a portojohn and then sat back in the car. No need to waste energy trying to stay warm. About 7:10 we got out of the car, used the potties again and then made our way to Coral 2. Nightmare... it was packed and they weren't letting anyone in until the race started. People had gotten into the coral but then stopped so there was a huge backup. Someone informed me not to worry about it because our times wouldn't start until we crossed the line. Thanks... but we'd be starting behind the 4:45 pace once we got in. I wanted to start around the 3:45 pace. Ugh. Tom suggested we leave the coral line and move up a bit and try to hop the fence. It worked perfect... tons of room and we were able to join our pace people!

The race started right at 7:30 and we immediately fell into our pace. People were passing us left and right (which is common, we know that, but we are better at pacing ourselves than a lot of people right out of the gate). We didn't have a Garmin on, but could check our times and splits at the mile markers. It was crowded, but the miles ticked by quickly. We hit the 10k spot in 54:28 which was fine. I stopped to pee right before that so even with the stop, we were running a good consistent pace. The course was crowded until about mile 12.9 because the half marathon ran with us to that point and then broke off. It was a nice relief when they split though... much less crowded. The crowd support was awesome the whole day! My feet were starting to burn (some weird new thing that's been happening... I think I need new shoes!) and Tom was complaining that his knees were bothering him. Half way there though ... I knew we'd be fine.

We hit the 13.1 mark at 1:56:06. We had slowed a little, but were fine pace wise. We were eating and drinking and hadn't put our MP3's on yet. Around mile 16, we decided to use the music for a pick me up. I had started to slow. Tom kept running ahead and catching up. Around mile 18 I told him to go. I would gut it out, but I knew that I couldn't maintain the pace for a sub 4 like he could (he's a tough cookie mentally... me, eh, I'm a soft batch when I start to hurt). I hit mile 20 at 3:03:32. I made a pact with myself to run to the aid stations, walk while I drank, stretch if I needed and move on. I wanted to PR... or break 4:10 if at all possible.

Oh but my feet were burning. Bad...

Miles 20-25 were slow. I stuck with my plan but knew that my walking and stretching were slowing my pace. The last 1.2 miles took forever. The crowds were awesome. I saw Meredith and Dave, Brooke and Chris, my mom and dad, Stevi. Everyone was screaming. I knew I had done it... despite my lack of wanting to do this marathon at all, I PRed. I ran the last .1 miles with the biggest smile.

I didn't break 4 hours (which I thought I could this year), but I was super happy with the results. Tom had a great race and I'm so glad that he didn't wait for me... he got his sub 4. I'll get mine... maybe next year, maybe way in the future. I'm not worried about it.

For now, my legs hurt like a son-of-a-gun. Much worse than after my first two Ironman races or any half Ironman. But I have a sense of accomplishment and the disappointment from the whole Ironman thing this year is just a distant memory.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

2010 = the year of PR's

I'm not going to write a full race report now, but the short version is that Tom and I had good races today (besides feeling like hell from about mile 16 on).

I had two realistic goals (beat my PR (4:21:20) and to go sub 4:10) and one far out goal (sub 4)... I hit two of three!

I PRed by 12 minutes (woohoo!) and finished in 4:09:19. I was on track to go sub 4 with Tom but blew up with some weird burning where my toes meet the balls of my feet. Weird...

Tom did awesome - PRed by 2 minutes and hit his sub 4 goal!

And I made it to Max and Erma's in one piece (although my stomach only let me enjoy some pretzels and a cup of soup. I did order cookies to go and have polished off 1.5 of the 6 already!)

Friday, October 15, 2010

It's marathon time...

Um, so I feel like I just put myself through hell recently (oh wait, I did... well in August at IMLOU, but I digress). I'm really hoping that Sunday isn't a repeat of that hellish feeling.

It shouldn't be (because it's not going to be a gazillion degrees)

Really (and I'm not swimming 2.4 miles first or biking 112 miles first).

Buuuuuut...

Who am I kidding? I haven't been running much. My heart just hasn't been in it. I did a 14, a 16 and a 20 in the last month and a half so I know I can do it. But I think it's going to hurt.

And I'm a wuss when it comes to pain.

So I have no goals, other than to not die and not cry. If I can make it to Max and Erma's by the time Sunday football starts, I will consider it a success (for the record, Max and Erma's is about two blocks from the finish line, and the race starts at 7:30. What time is the first game on Sunday???)

There are a bunch of people racing this coming weekend. Can't wait to hear how your races go!!! If you get a chance, pop over and wish these fabulous people good luck too (and if I forgot you, let me know and I'll add you to the list!!!!)
Shannon @ Iron Texas Mommy
Lora @ The Iron Mountaineer
Katherine @ Forward Foot Strides
Aimee @ I Tri To Be Me
Miss Zippy
TMB @ Racing With Babes
Lori @ Adventures in Grownupness

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Something new

First, wasn't the Ironman World Championship awesome yesterday? I had the live feed on all day and it was awesome. Congrats to everyone who raced... maybe some day I'll get there (most definitely through the lottery unless I want to race when I'm 80).

We're a week out for the Columbus marathon. It's funny how the mind works though - it's only a marathon. When did I get to the point when 26.2 miles is only a marathon. I guess it becomes that way when you aren't swimming 2.4 miles and biking 112 miles first. I'm slightly nervous about it. I'd like to PR, which shouldn't be hard since I've had some piss poor marathon results in the past, but I don't know if I'll be there. I went out for an 8 mile run this morning and felt like poop. I tried to convince myself that it's because I'm in taper, but I think it's really that I'm just done with training! :) Oh well...

I am super excited though because I've been searching for something new in terms of training and I FINALLY found a kickboxing class that I can join. I don't want a fufu taebo kind of class, led by the likes of Billy Blanks. I want a good hour of all out pounding. I want a bag, and some sparing, and some of these...

I used to kick box back in the day (before I met Tom) and I loved it. When I moved in with him, it was just too far to drive back to the class and I've searched and searched for the last 7 years for something that was comparable to the butt kicking that I'd get a few times a week. Everything came up short. Finally, there are two places - one locally and one about 15 minutes away, that offer the beating that I'm looking for. I just have to decide which one I want to join. One offers classes 6 days a week, the other (and the closer one) is only twice a week, but is cheaper. Since I'm looking at it as cross training, I'll probably stay local and just hit it up twice a week.

I am so ready to punch and kick for a while and have actually some faces that will help with imagery as I'm pounding the bag! A little reminder of those who didn't treat me right!

Oh how I love cross training...

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Updates

First, sorry if some of your google readers or whatever show that I wrote a blog titled "Purging". I did write it this morning, then deleted it. It was just about clearing some things from my life and well... who needs to be bored with that nonsense! :)

So, one REALLY great update. I'm the chair of an event called High Heels and High Hopes. I've talked about it before (like here when I wrote about last year's event). Long story short, it's a women's night out fundraiser for Women's Health at the local hospital. I was the chair last year and we started the new event and totally had a great time, super successful, raised about $25k for women's health, yada yada yada. The pressure was on for me to get my committee rallied to make this year's event bigger and better - not an easy feat in this economy!!! We worked so hard for the last 9+ months though and I'm happy to report that it was AMAZING! On Thursday night, 300+ women came together, ate, drank, enjoyed spa services and then shopped their little hearts out at our silent and live auction. All proceeds for the evening go directly to the hospital and I'm so excited to report that this year, we'll be writing them a check for $60,000!!!! I might have been the chair woman and definitely got a lot of the credit for such a successful event, but I have to say, without my amazing 10 committee members, my two favorite Grady Foundation Sues, my contacts at OhioHealth, all of our sponsors and my hubby, it wouldn't have been the success that it was. I finally realize the unbelievable feeling of giving and saw first hand on Thursday night what a commitment my community has to helping women's health. I don't know if I could have asked for a better success story. Question is... do I do it again next year and if so, how do I ever top that? Not a bad situation to be in!

In training news, Tom and I did our last long run before the Columbus Marathon. It was weird that we ramped up for Ironman (our longest run was 18 miles) and then had to ramp up again less than a month later, although after Ironman, we did a 13, a 16 and then the 20 so it wasn't like starting from scratch. I'll be honest, I was seriously considering backing out of the full and just doing the half. I signed up for the full just because... it wasn't one of my key races this year and I did it just because of the frustration with IMLOU. After Sunday's half Ironman, I kind of just wanted to enter my off season. You see, I can't though. I have Beach 2 Battleship in 41 days and I have some concrete goals that I'd like to hit there. Might as well do the full marathon then right? :) We decided to run 10 miles out and 10 back, down the same road, along a river. We train there a lot, but usually turn around at the 5 mile point. Tom said that the last time he ran all the way to the end of the road, it was 2002. I've never done it. It was a great day for a run - overcast, 50 degrees maybe, a little breezy (okay, a lot breezy). It should have been a piece of cake... At mile 2 I had mentally convinced myself to back out of the full, do the half and just turn around at the 5 mile point. Everything hurt - my head, my ovaries (yes men, they can hurt), my hammies, my quads. Mile 2. How the eff was I going to make it to mile 20? But it just happened and I remember the power of the human body. Something clicked and I just ran. Tom and I talked about the past, our future, new things and old things. It was awesome. Before I knew it, I was turning around and heading home. The last mile, we both found another gear... and then another. We finished around 3:05 and were thrilled with that. Tom wants to go sub 4 at the marathon in two weeks. We'll start out together and if I can't hang, I'll drop back. I'm hoping to just PR - anything under 4:21 would be a good day for me!

Today... I feel like I ran 20 miles. It's cold, crappy and blah out and I couldn't be happier. I did a little shopping alone this morning (Tom's out of town), and now I'm home in sweats, making applesauce, eating snacks, enjoying my Zensah's (sweet relief on my tired leggies) and about to catch up on my trashy tv.

And finally, most of you have seen this around, but it's such a great video, that I want to post it again! What an inspiration...