Thursday Randoms

• I love running when it's just starting to sprinkle. I love it even more when I step foot in my driveway and it starts to pour - now that's good timing!
• If I had a dollar every time someone said that I should be careful of the swine flu since I'm running the Flying Pig this weekend, I'd be rich. :)
• My hubby is awesome - for a good luck gift for my marathon, he left me a bag with my favorites for after the race... peanut M&M's, a Reese Cup, and a box of Kraft Mac and Cheese. He knows how to win my heart!
• A friend asked me today for my marathon times at certain points. Even after 4 months of training, I couldn't tell her where I'd be. I could run 8:30's, I could run 10:30's We'll see on Sunday won't we...
• I'm not good at being alone. Tom's gone for 5 days and I turn every light on and have to have noise... the tv, radio, something.
• I get to meet my friends tonight for dinner at Noodles. They have the bomb mac and cheese (noodles, not my friends, although they probably do too because they are awesome like that). Just sayin'
• A few people I know that are very close to me are going through something super big right now. Next week is going to be a hugely important week and I'm saying lots of extra prayers for them!!! love you...
• My attitude on the hills of Cincy have changed... they don't have nothing on me! :)
• We finally got the menu for my event in October that I'm chairing - yummo! It's worth the price of admission!
• The above event is called High Heels and High Hopes. Every time I go into a shoe store I look at the highest heels I can. I'd probably break my ankle if I wore them, but they are fun to look at.
• Tom's enjoying the beautiful weather in Cali, while I'm looking at the rain. Figures...

Off to shower, fill order and maybe sneak to the mall. While Tom's away, the cat will play! :)

My friends...

I have an amazing group of friends. We haven't always been friends... I only met them in person last year, but you'd think that I've known them my whole life. They are all girls that I've gotten to know through thenest.com which is a post wedding planning website (I have a trend of meeting all the important people in my life on the Internet - my hubby, my friends, my dogs, you get the point). Anyway, I just need to say how great these ladies (and their hubbies and children) are!

This past Saturday we celebrated Erick's graduation. He recently finished his MBA so his wife decided to surprise him by having a bunch of us meet out at Club 33. A few of us did dinner before hand and then met up for a VERY fun filled night (too fun if you asked me Sunday morning... I now remember why I don't like Red Headed Sluts, Bomb Pops, Vodka and Cranberry (with VERY little cranberry) or any liquor for that matter! BUT, with all the being said, we had such a great time!

These pictures kind of sum up the progression of the evening.

I love you girls!!!

Race Week

It's hard to believe that it's already race week for both Tom and I. Tom leaves on Wednesday and is heading to California to race Wildflower. He's super excited as it's the first Team Type 1 Tri Team race so if you are racing there, check out the 11 men and women in white, lime green and purple. They are a kick ass group of athletes! He'll be gone until Monday. Boo hiss...

Sunday, I have the Flying Pig Marathon. I'm getting excited. I had a little freak out period where everyone I talked to told me how horrible the race was in terms of difficulty, but whatever. I welcome the challenge. I don't think that I'll beat 4 hours which was a goal that I had kind of unofficially made for myself. I just want to have fun with the race and enjoy the fact that I trained for a marathon by myself and am racing the marathon on my own. I'd love to finish in maybe 4:10 or so, but we'll see how I fare. That would be a 35 minute PR so we'll see. I'm number 1232 if you feel like checking me out on Sunday, although I'll definitely post a race report when I get home.

Where do the days go? I mean, the last I remember it was winter. Now it's nearly May and topping 86 degrees in Ohio. Guess I shouldn't complain!!!

New Toys

I love getting new toys. Today I was like a little kid waiting for Santa (or the guy in the UPS truck) to bring my new phone. Tom got one too. Full touch screen Samsung Instinct S30's. Although I've only had it about 3 hours, I'm totally smitten! :) Doesn't take much to make me happy!

And just a quick thank you to all of you for your kind words about me and the marathon. Guess I'm going through a little bit of a taper tantrum, questioning how ready I am. I know I'll rock it because well, I've trained my arse off. And if I don't, that's fine too because I know I'll be having a blast on the 3rd! :)

Nerves

My nerves are starting to get to me a little. I don't know if it's because I'm starting to taper and am doing the inevitable questioning of my readiness, or if it's the fact that it seems like I've heard more and more about the hills of Cincinnati in the last week, but I'm seriously a wreck about the marathon. YIKES... it's just a marathon. Heck, I've done an Ironman and I don't think I was this nervous a week and a half out for that. :)

Training Camp

Tom and I set up a little training camp this week out of town. I had my 20 miler to run and he wanted to get some hills so we decided to head to Belterra Casino in Indiana for a two night stay. Since we're high rollers, we got our room comped for both nights (gotta love being a "high roller" when you play penny slots!!!). Monday night we drove down and scoped out a running course for me and found a perfect 20 miler. Slight panic... it's not as flat as Delaware Ohio. :) I guess that's good for me since Cincinnati is nicknamed the City of 7 Hills. After getting my course and seeing the hills that Tom would climb (this area is also known as Little Switzerland because of the landscape), we tried desperately to find an Italian place to eat. We settled for THE ONLY restaurant that we could find nearby. It ended up being an awesome little dive! It was called GG's Grill and if we ever go back to Belterra, we'll hit this place up. Funny thing happened though - there was no pasta on the menu at all but the special board was offering "GG's Mac with Cheese". Sounded like a good carbo load meal. Um yeah, it ended up being a double cheeseburger. I was totally confused when the waitress handed it to me (of course I acted like that's totally what I thought it was) until I put two and two together that it was GG's version of a Big Mac. Nothing like a great pre-race burger and fries! :) Oh... and they had AWESOME cappachino soft serve for dessert!

Tuesday (the day of the 20 miler) we woke up a bit hesitant to open the blinds. They had been calling for rain all day. We were a little worried to see this...We lucked out and actually didn't get a single drop the entire day. But it was icky looking (the perfect day for a long run in hindsight, minus the humidity which I wasn't prepared for). I got up, ate my bagel, drank my caffeinated Diet Pepsi, drove the course with Tom to put out nutrition and came back, turning around as soon as I could so I couldn't think about the slight fear I had of running 20 miles alone.

The run actually went REALLY well. I didn't really look at my pace the entire time and just ran what I could run. I think this is going to be my game day strategy as well on May 3rd. No pace group, no goal pace. Just run what I can run and finish when I finish. I felt really good albeit lonely, even with the hills, until about mile 17.5. At this point, I was outside of the hotel and running straight into a headwind. I knew that the last 2.5 miles would be the hardest because mentally I always check out a little early on long runs and I knew that the penny slots where calling me, but I pushed through. I ended up finishing in 2:54:59!!! I averaged 8:45's for the 20 miles (I did stop my watch at my nutrition stations, but I figured that difficulty of running 20 miles on absolutely deserted roads by myself would be harder than the marathon setting and thus justifying not adding the stoppage time to fend for myself without aid stations! That's what I told myself at least!) I was super thrilled with my pace. My fastest mile was an 8:19 and my slowest was a 9:23. Even my last deadly mile was a 9:08 which I can't complain about at all. I did it! I felt awesome! I finally feel like I'm super ready for the marathon!

I came back to the room, waited about 15 minutes for Tom to walk in from his TOUGH bike (he told me that he didn't hit hills, he hit walls). We showered, blew some money in the casino and then treated ourselves for a fabulous dinner!

Overall, training camp was just what I needed. I'm now in taper mode. Resting and recovering for my potential PR in Cincinnati. I'm anxious to see what kind of time I can post!!!

I'll leave you with two pictures from Easter. Me and the hubs: and then a picture of my awesome grandparents, my beautiful sister and her wonderful hubby with Tom and I.

Simplicity

As a runner turned triathlete, I sometimes forget the simplicity of running and I think that training for this marathon has reminded me of something I enjoy. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing as fun as racing tri's, but let's face it, it's a lot of prep work. With three sports, all jammed packed together that you have to prepare for, there's just nothing really simple about it. And the list of "things" needed to race seems to go on and on. The night before a tri is one of the craziest times, with goggles, swim caps, wetsuits, bike shoes, helmets, numbers, running shoes, running belts, food, hydration, etc, etc.

Running is so simple. I literally just have to put shoes on and I'm ready (alright, my shoes, socks, shorts, a sports bra and a shirt, but you get my drift). Some days I'll include a Garmin and my headphones. Some days I won't. There's not much thought that goes into it. It really is such a simple sport.

Last night I ran around 5:00 at night. No Garmin, no headphones. The sun was shining, it was 60 degrees, and it was peaceful. My mind wandered. I didn't think about anything in particular, except for how simple my workout was.

Simple, yes. Easy... nope! It's never easy! :)