Disney's Tinkerbell Pixie Dust Challenge- May 9 & 10, 2015

I've really been dragging my feet on blogging, and part of the reason is that I like to post in some type of chronological order, and I wasn't ready to talk about the Disney Land Pixie Dust Challenge that took place over mothers day weekend at Disney Land in Anaheim California.

Prior to registering for this race, I had actually sworn off Run Disney. I am certain that saying this will get me drawn and quartered, but I am really not a fan. My first half marathon was a Run Disney. I've done a number of their events before, and I really have been left with a bad taste in my mouth. Now before anyone tars and feathers me, let me explain... I am a solo runner. I like races because I can be with other people and get the crowd experience, but Disney races are over crowded. The course in Orlando really cannot support the 30,000 + runners that it hosts, there are bottle necks, and the crowds are intense. I am really NOT a crowd person. The Miami Marathon sees the same number of participants every year, and the course doesn't even feel a quarter as crowded. Then factor in the money. A Disney race is expensive. And with the fees, it feels like a lot of the participants feel a sense of entitlement. Yes, you are entitled to get a good race experience and entitled to have a great time, but you are NOT entitled to some of the shenanigans that I have seen at Run Disney events.  So all that being said, I am not a huge fan.

But a dear friend of mine is. She came out for Wine and Dine last year (yes, the race that we essentially swam because it was raining that hard), and then she came to visit me not long after that to defend her doctoral dissertation. She told my darling husband that she was running the Pixie Dust Challenge in the spring, and my husband thought that (although I had sworn off Disney except for a repeat of Wine and Dine this coming November) I should join her on the trip. Except the registration had come and gone already, so I might have been out of luck.

The following week, I got an email from my friend saying that she had found a charity group that I could partner with in order to get a race bib. I should probably also say that I am not a big fan of charity groups because usually they take a huge cut of the money raised for frivelous stupidity like airfare, travel and lodging, and astronomical salaries... but I looked into the group she recommended to me.

The name of the group is Team Muscle Makers, and as it turns out, they are absolutely fantastic. Their fundraising requirements per person are reasonable, and they are able to keep them reasonable by not including airfare, travel, and lodging. But best of all... the organizers of the charity do not take salaries. YES! you read that right. They donate 100% of the monies raised to the Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego where there is a state of the art muscle disease clinic that provides care absolutely free to their patients... which included the son of one of the founders of the charity group. I have to say, I was nervous signing away my soul to raise almost $1,000 for this group of strangers, but they made the entire process seamless. And I walked away with dozens of new friends. In fact, although I swore off Run Disney races, and I don't need to run California again for my goal of all 50 states, I am actually considering partnering with this group again in 2017 for another charity race.

The weekend itself left me with mixed feelings. I was dealing with a lot of stuff in my personal life in relation to my job. I didn't have a lot of time to take away from Florida because it was the middle of the semester, so it was a super quick trip. As soon as my plane landed, I actually had more work stuff dumped on me via email, and I spent the weekend juggling work stress and frustration, all while spending time with my best friend in one of the happiest places on earth. Because of this crazy stress, we didn't spend a lot of time at the parks between races, and most of the weekend was a blur. What I do remember was that packet pickup was much messier than it would be at a Florida Run Disney event, so that left me feeling a little nervous.

yes, that's me. 

But the morning of the 10K, all those jitters went flying out the window. The pre-race party and the corral system were absolutely spectacular, I didn't feel overwhelmed by crowds, I had the space to breathe, and I was relaxed... unlike the other Florida events where the crowds get me antsy.

My friend had a bad experience a few months prior while she was attempting the Goofy half marathon & full marathon challenge. She got swept during mile 19 or something during the full marathon on day 2... so she was nervous about attempting another 2 day challenge... but I've done these before and knew how to tackle back-to-backs. The number one rule is to start SLOW.

The first mile or so of the 10K is outside of the park, then you run through the park for a few miles, and finish with another mile or so outside of the park. It seriously went by in a blur. I think I can chalk that up to my frustration over my job situation. We finished in a respectable time, and I was happy... although, there really wasn't much post race nutrition available as there had been a fiasco with a recalled item in the snackbox. Oh well.

10K
Gun: 2:01:01
Chip: 1:31:03
Pace: 14:39

On Day 2 (half-marathon day), my friend woke up with some serious stiffness from her fibromyalgia. And then combine that with her fears of being swept, and she was a jittery mess. I vaguely remember it being chilly at the start, but I don't much remember.We took a pre-race photo with other TMM runners, then chatted with them in the starting corrals. The plan was to start slow, and I told my friend to stick with me and I could keep her ahead of the balloon ladies and free of being swept. We started slow. REALLY REALLY SLOW.

We were already in the last corral, but toward the front of the pack in the corral, but we started just over 17 minutes per mile. The first couple of miles were once again on city streets, followed by 6 or 7 in the parks, then another few miles on city streets at the tail end. My friend immediately started to panic when she looked at her Garmin to see more than 17 minutes per mile... but I just told her to relax and trust my process. She was sore, so she didn't have much choice. By mile 1.5, we limbered up a little. I picked up the pace to bring us to just slightly over 16 minutes per mile. Then by the time we entered the parks, we were closing in on just under 16 minutes per mile average.

Once in the parks, I tuned out my own aches. I think that actually translated into tuning out a lot of the parks too. To be honest, the parts of the course that I remember the best were actually outside of the parks on the city streets. My friend was still in a lot of pain, so I pulled a few steps in front of her to help encourage her to keep pace in order to talk to me. It worked. by mile 7, although she was still in a lot of pain, out pace was closing in on 15:30 overall.

Around mile 8, we came across a fellow #Run3rd runner who was having a bad go of it. I encouraged her to pace with us, which she did. We exited the parks and were back on the streets of Anaheim and I realized I had a lot of gas left in the tank. Out of nowhere, I started pushing the pace even more. The 3 of us were single file along the median of the city streets, and we were suddenly flying past other runners who were struggling. I know we were a sight... I was barking out commands to them about being strong and ignoring the pain, one might have thought I was a drill sergeant in a previous life... and I looked at my Garmin and realized that our overall pace was dropping to 15:20, and realized that with close to 4 miles left, I could PR.


And then with the encouragement of my friends, I did something that I never thought that I would do.

I abandoned them.

I was going to chase that PR. And I was going to get it.

Everything was blur. I had 4 miles to get that PR that I had been chasing for almost 2 whole running seasons. I vaguely remember passing people that I knew and saying hi, but other than that, everything else was so far in the periphery I can't even begin to explain what was going through my mind.

I was shocked out of my blurred thinking about a half a mile before the finishline. I looked at my Garmin and saw that I had already registered 13.1 miles, and I had indeed broken my PR... at least according to my Garmin. And it was like the wind was just sucked right out of me as I realized that the finishline was still so far away. I was devastated. I wanted to do nothing more than cry and throw myself down on the ground and cry some more. I had gotten my PR, but it wouldn't count because the course was registering much longer than my watch.

this is actually a pic from day 1, see? shoes still here.

I crossed the finishline with tears in my eyes, frustrated but determined. Next time, I would get that PR. If I did it once, I could do it again.

And then I lost my shoes.

But that's a story for another time.


Half Marathon
Gun: 3:51:07
Chip: 3:18:46

Half Marathon #38
State #14

Ft Lauderdale Valentines Day 5k- February 14, 2015

It was my plan all along to run the Gasparilla Distance Amber Challenge in Tampa at the end of February, and I was falling a little behind on my training schedule. The Amber Challenge consists of a 15k followed by a 5k on the first day, then a half marathon the following day. Obviously, I have done challenges like this before, however, I was always a bit more trained. So at the last minute, when I found out that there was a Valentines Day 5k as part of the A1a half marathon weekend in Fort Lauderdale, I signed up in a heartbeat.

There aren't a lot of places to plan a 5k course through downtown Ft Lauderdale, so the course was one that I had ran numerous times before. My familiarity with the course helped me to break up the distance a little more and provided some much needed distraction.

REMEMBER... I don't usually run 5K races because it usually takes me about 3 miles to warm up during a run and shake out the aches and pains. And because of this, I needed all the distraction that I could get.

As I meandered my way through the course, and cursed the nagging pains in my shins and lower legs that have become my standard for the beginning of any run, I chatted with fellow runners. I wound up meeting a woman who was really struggling, and I offered her a little encouragement along the way.

It was a short race, the crowd was pleasant, the weather was nice. I was home before my husband even woke up for the day... so that was good. And although I treated it like a training run for the half marathon that would follow the next day, and for the Gasparilla Distance Amber Challenge a couple of weeks later, my pace wasn't that far off from a 5k PR.

I was proud of myself. And when I ate those chocolate covered strawberries later, I didn't feel guilty one bit.

Gun 45:03
Chip 43:45
Pace 14:05
Cat 52/57
OA 639/838

Melbourne Music Half Marathon - February 1, 2015

I might have gotten a little crazy with my registering for races for the 2014-2015 race season.

There, I said it. It was much harder to actually get that to come out of my fingertips than I thought that it would be.

My first and second year of running I was gung-ho about everything. I wanted to run ALL THE RACES, even if that meant pushing myself just a little too hard and bending the doctors orders just a little so that I could get back out there without a full recovery on an injury.

As 2015 started, I was realizing that my big problem was that I had spread myself a little too thin the previous two seasons. And while I realized that, I also think I might have finally gotten it through my thick scull that some races you run for the fun of it, and some races you go all out and race, aiming for a PR. By choosing to separate my races between competition mode and joy mode, I realized that I was able to bring joy back into this sport for me.

All along, I had planned to run and RACE the Melbourne Music Half Marathon. On paper, this race looked flat and fast. I was intrigued by the fact that they would have 23 different musical acts on the course for entertainment, and I thought that this would be a good race to PR at... particularly after what happened not long before that at the Miami Half Marathon.

My friend Vikki and I had actually planned an entire girls weekend (a mini-runcation) of sorts for the weekend. We would drive up two days befoe, stay at a decent hotel overlooking the beach (which I rarely indulge in), visit the sweet artsy little town of Melbourne, and we would run the race. It was a great plan, and we really enjoyed our time away from our men.

Our men, that sounds so caveman-eque, my other feminist friends would gasp!

Anyway, the race was ultimately not really anything to write home about. It was essentially a big square that hit a decently sized bridge at mile marker 6, then another really large bridge at mile 12. The first half of the race had really interesting scenery, and it was easy for me to maintain a nice easy race pace.

The problem was that going into the first bridge, I started to have a nagging feeling in my hip and groin that appeared to trail down into my foot. I had done too much too hard the week before, and I was certainly paying for it now.

So Vikki and I eased up and brought it back to a walk. She hadn't put in any significant high mileage since Halloween, and she was also having some nagging pain to a recent injury. So we decided that we would walk the rest of the race, and enjoy the company, enjoy the bands, enjoy the crowd support, etc.

But the course was really front-half friendly with entertainment and things to distract us from the distance. We were left with little more to entertain us than giggling as we bit the heads off of gummy bears or catcalled one of the course marshalls that constantly rode by us on a moped with his 80s music blaring.

By the time we finished, I was almost delirius from the boredom of the course and the excruciating heat that seemed to increase exponentially (welcome to Florida!). I really didn't care about the time when we finished, because I was laughing and joking with a good friend the whole time. And we have pictures to prove it.

Half Marathon #34
Gun 3:49:49
Chip 3:46:54
OA 1103/1127
AG 679/699

Run Til You're Boared 50K Ultra Marathon- April 5, 2015

I know that I am still really far behind in blogging about races from this year... 9 races behind to be exact, but I had to jump forward to talk about my most recent race. Look at the title of this post... that's not a typo. It *is* supposed to say 50K... also known as just over 31 miles... also known as absolutely insane! I wanted to blog about it while the memories are still fresh, so here goes...

***

If someone had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be an ultra marathoner, I would have accused them of being into some fairly serious drugs. I've only been running for 4 years, and my first half marathon was in January of 2012. I attempted to train for my first marathon which was scheduled for January 2013, but I gave up after chronic injuries left me in constant pain.

When I backed out of my marathon experience, I realized that I really wasn't all that sad. When I stopped to think about it, I realized that I didn't really want to be a marathoner. Sure, it would have been nice to put in the training and get it done, but I wasn't doing it because I wanted to do it, but rather because it felt like the only logical step after completing countless half marathons already.

I'm a back of the packer.  I have asthma. I'm overweight. I struggle with foot issues. Sure, I wanted to take my running to the next level while overcoming great obstacles, but deep down, I knew that marathoning wasn't for me. Friends would ask me all the time when I planned to take that leap, but after that failed attempt at training for a marathon, the answer was always the same: I just don't want to. Maybe you want to, but I don't.

And then something crazy happened.

I spent the weekend at a race with my dear friend Mel, and he paced me through a 15k, a 5k and a half marathon. And he kept talking about this crazy event he would be doing on Easter Sunday in Jacksonville: a 50K Ultra Trail race calledthe Run Til You're Boared. I thought he was insane, but I wanted to check out the website. He told me repeatedly that this was the perfect race for me to take my running up a notch without the pressure that is normally associated with a full marathon.

But I was so untrained...

By the time my interest was piqued enough to pull the trigger on registration and get airfare to Jacksonville, I only had 5 weeks to train. And training wouldn't be easy. I had never logged over 14 miles at a time, and never logged over 18 miles in a day... somehow I had to get my head around how this was all going to work. I messaged Bobby Green (the race director) a few times to ask about terrain, I talked to a couple of established ultra runners for their advice, and I told a couple of very select friends. I was afraid that if I told everyone before the event, that they would think I was a failure if I didn't cross the finish-line.

On the day of the race, crossing the finish-line seemed like the easiest thing in the world. The real struggle for me was crossing the start-line. From the moment we pulled into the park, I was nauseous and overcome with an intense feeling of dread. 10 seconds before the start of the race I burst into tears and started to hyperventilate. But my friend Mel was right there by my side, as were other veteran ultra runners who turned to me and gave me encouraging smiles and words.

Even after the gun went off and we started our VERY long day of running, the attitude of other runners never changed. People were absolutely exhausted, some were downright miserable in their own socks and shoes, but they were each out there doing their own version of epicness... and they were supportive of each and everyone else on the course.

We were taking liberal bathroom breaks, breaks to change and refuel, and enjoying the opportunity to be in such a gorgeous setting, and this reflected in our time. For the most part, the course was fairly straightforward. 5 loops of 6.2 miles, all relatively flat, mostly in dirt roads through the wildlife preserve. But there were a few tricky areas of the course where we were routed through burn-breaks (where the course significantly narrowed and the footing was through deep loosely packed dirt and sand).

But although the course was tricky at times, the support more than made up for it. There were 3 aid stations on the course, and the race director did an excellent job of anticipating everyone's needs. My stomach was so upset during the race that I had to survive almost entirely off of pepsi (for sugar) and pickle juice (for salt), but there were options for both vegetarians and carnivores alike... with food ranging from gummy bears and marshmallow peeps, to bananas and oranges, to pb&j and bacon. Because the field of runners was so small, the volunteers at the aid station quickly learned what each runner preferred and made certain that it was immediately available to them when they came through. In retrospect, the only thing that I think the aid stations should have had at the very front of their tables was sunscreen... the weather was perfect, but it was overcast... so although I applied sunscreen, it clearly wasn't enough... note to self: next time be more careful.

Anyway, There were a few moments where I worried that I wouldn't be able to finish the race in the prescribed 10 hour time limit, but not once did I allow my mind to go to the negative side of questioning whether a finish was possible or not. Which I think leads me to the most important revelation of the day...

Anything is possible with the right attitude and mindset.

With an eye on the finish, you can do anything you put your mind to... as long as you really put your mind to it, failure is not an option. Barring any unforeseen injuries (which are always possible), your mind gives out long before your body ever will. If you enter a situation with the right attitude, the power of positive thinking will get you far. This is obviously not just a lesson for running, but sometimes it takes a crazy experience like an ultra to bring something like this into perspective.

At the end of the day, I was the last finisher with a time of 9:44:16. Not bad, all things considered. Age awards are 5 deep in ultras, and my time also qualified me as having achieved 4th place in my age division. I still can't believe that I did it! 

My name is Amy, and I'm an ultra runner!

I think the best way to really understand what this event was all about is to watch a video or two. Here are a couple of videos that my friend Mel took while we were out there... if you had to watch just one, I might suggest the last video which shows us coming into the finish line and all the excitement that went into it:

RTYB 50k 3rd loop video
Posted by Mel Abando on Monday, April 6, 2015

RTYB 50K 4th loop video
Posted by Mel Abando on Monday, April 6, 2015

RTYB 50k 5th and last loop video 2 - Finish line
Posted by Mel Abando on Monday, April 6, 2015

13.1 Ft. Lauderdale - November 10, 2013

One of my side jobs is that I do some promotions work for US Road Sports at local events, and in exchange I get complementary entries to their local events. This year, I wanted to take full advantage of this opportunity and complete all 5 of the races in the Florida Storm Series to obtain their special Category 5 finisher's medal.

The first race of the season for the Storm Series was 13.1 Ft. Lauderdale, and I was stoked. What I love so much about Ft. Lauderdale races is the amount of time that we actually spend running on sea wall and the spectacular views. I joined my dear friend Seth for the race and we sadly were minus our third in the trio as Brina was unable to make it... which I knew might be hard for me as Brina is so good at pacing me and that meant I would be on my own for the duration.

With Seth at the start. Yes it will be a good day.

But sadness over not having my friend there wasn't gonna get me down. I've run half marathons before, I knew that this would just be different. I would use the time to get deep within myself and focus on all of the important things... like why I enjoy the feeling of being at a race. I've been pushing myself for so long to get a PR, that lately I had been feeling like maybe I was losing some of the centering feelings that turned me onto running in the first place. This was a great opportunity to regroup and reevaluate my approach to races.

I arrived in downtown Ft. Lauderdale nice and early and found parking. I got ready in the garage and waited on Seth, then we went to the start line where I had the goal to meet up with a co-worker and friend who was participating in the wheelchair division. After a few obligatory photos (which I wont share because I don't want to share without permission), we headed to the start line. We ran into a few race regulars that I knew and a few old friends, and before we knew it the anthem was finished and the race had started. Seth and I said our goodbyes as we herded through the start corral, and he was off. Me, I surprised myself.

I started really strong. I reminded myself that recently I had learned to take shorter quicker steps to increase my time and reduce my energy output, and felt myself plowing through the first few miles. As I am still a run-walk-runner doing 1min:1min ratios... my overall pace was slower, but I was easily doing 11 minute miles while on my run intervals. I was impressing myself at how strong I felt. And what's more, I had NO FOOT PAIN.

The worst part of the tunnel experience

We ran through the city streets for the first few miles and down through the New River Tunnel, which was very cool. I have always wanted to run a tunnel, but now that I've done it, I don't think I ever want to do it again. The downhill is easy but right before the bottom, the air quality gets bad with poor ventilation and no movement to the air at all. It is hot and humid, and on my exit from the tunnel I felt like I had an elephant sitting on my chest. Thankfully it was a short foray into Tunnel-world and we exited back to the streets where there was a nice breeze.

I was pacing with 2 lovely women and we chatted a little. Turns out that one of them knew me from a group that I am an admin for on facebook, and we were able to enjoy our time together (I actually ran into her yesterday at a football game and I think I'd like to continue a run-panionship with her, but I digress).

Horrible photo of me with my new Run-panion, Kim

I think the tunnel and my pet chest-sitting-elephant caught up to me somewhere around mile 5... I saw these women pulling away from me a bit as we hit the beach, but I wasn't running for time (remember, this was a regroup race), so I was OK with that. I felt myself slowing down a bit, but with each moment of slowing down, I felt my joy for running and my positive thinking increasing. How different it was to run for me and not for the clock.

4 miles north on the beach, then 4 miles south to the finish-line, and the finishline was in sight. Seth ran over to me about 50 feet from the finishline and told me that he was going to bring me in (I LOVE when he does this), but he had to stay out of the chute, and I pushed full steam ahead. I was exhausted, but it was over. And I felt great.

I never steal photos, but with a pic like this...

That is... until I crossed over the mat and I revisited the huckleberry hammer gel that I had around mile 11 and I couldnt clear my airway. Before making it to get my medal, I doubled over choking on this viscous huckleberry flavored nastiness. I couldn't catch my breath and we called for medical who forced 4 bottles of water into me in rapid succession to induce vomiting. The medics stood over me while the color returned to my face and my lips went un-blue. And Seth stood nearby watching, shaking his head and laughing at the fact that I can't seem to push it like that without needing medical.

No PR for me that day... depending on who you ask. Officially, no PR... but my garmin measured the course at 13.38 miles with a pace per mile of 14:56... which would be a 1 minute 5 second PR. I'll take that. Amazing what a no-stress race will do for a person's time.

is this thing real?

OFFICIAL:
Gun-3:21:37
Net- 3:18:43
Pace- 15:10
OA- 2002/2088
Female- 1079/1151
Age- 33.11%

AND I had enough energy left over that Seth and I skipped the shuttle back to our cars and instead chose to walk an additional 5K... guess that is a good 16 mile training session for my upcoming full marathon in January.

P.S. The foot pain returned on the walk back to the car... guess we have learned an important lesson about my feet and concrete. Time to look into cortisone shots.

Trip Day 1: Montana Half Marathon- September 15, 2013

I am struggling with how to write the posts about my 6 in 6 challenge. At first I thought this was going to be just about running, but it became so much more than that. Other than running (which was a big part of the trip), this was about pushing myself to my limits, about physical and mental perseverance, about strengthening old friendships and about kindling new ones. It was about blood, sweat, tears, and blisters. It was about having a life-changing, perspective altering experience. It was about overcoming adversity, and remaining strong even while feeling incredibly weak.  If I had only one minute to say what this trip was about, this would be it, and I could end the blog post right there. And that would be OK.

But there are so many things I want to remember. And an occasional few things that I would really rather forget (see bedbugs in previous post). But in the end, it was all of these things that made my trip so amazing. And how do I write about it and ensure that I do it justice?

If you haven't figured it out yet, this is part 2 (day 1) of a seven part (6 day) set of entries.

• Part 1 can be found here

The next installments are coming, but it might take some time... Afterall... I've got a lot to say. When do I not?

*****

Sunday September 15, 2013, Seth, Brina and I woke up before dawn in our warm little hotel room in Billings MT, ready to start the experience of a lifetime with the Billings MT Half Marathon.

The course was fairly straightforward. It was a Point A to Point B course with the Finish line at the local high school in downtown Billings. All runners for the full marathon were brought via bus to the start line 26.2 miles away, and half marathoners were brought to the midway point for our start about an hour later.

When we boarded the bus to the half marathon start line, we immediately realized how chilly it was going to be. We all knew that Montana would be cold, but as honorary South Floridians, we really weren't quite prepared for this type of cold. My heel was bothering me, but I knew that this was the only race that my time really mattered to me on. I was determined to set a PR and bring my half time down by 2.5 minutes so that I could get a better corral for my first full marathon (upcoming in January). The drive to the start was spectacular with the Rim to the north, and the mountains to the south. I had never quite seen such beauty (this would be an ongoing theme throughout the trip, you'll see).

Our claimed sagebrush

While waiting for the start, Brina and I both had to use the restroom, but the lines for the port o potties were too long. We debated waiting, but ultimately figured that if peeing in the fields was good enough for the local cow population, it would be good enough for us. Brina scouted out a lovely sagebrush to provide coverage for us to squat behind, and we each took a turn.

I am only bring this up because it was probably the most heavenly moment I have EVER had while relieving myself. I squatted behind this beautiful little bush to pee, and my face went right into the sage brush and I inhaled deeply. The smell was soothing and refreshing and really settled my nerves. It was pure bliss for me, though for Brina, it was entirely different. Turns out she must be allergic to sagebrush... and she spent the next 2 days with itchy watery eyes and sneezing. Poor girl.

So anyway, what was really cool about this course was that the majority of it was downhill, and that it basically followed the same route that the bus took to bring us out to the start. The field of runners was small and with this being the first time that I ran on my bad heel, I knew that the field was going to thin out fairly quickly and leave me behind.

But Brina knew that I had a goal. I needed to get a good proof of time to be able to move up a corral during my first full marathon. I hate to remind people (lest they he shocked that this is a run pace, or try to call me "lesser than"), but I do run, walk, run intervals of 1min/1min. My times have increasingly lowered and lowered as I have become more accustomed to running, but I still seem to average approx 15:15 minutes per mile with a PR of 15:04 per mile. The goal was to bring my pace down to approximately 14:45 per mile.

And this is why I love Brina. She sees my goal, she tells me to cover up my garmin and not look at it. then she coaches me through the entire event so that my goals become my reality. She's tough, and sometimes on the course, she can irritate me, but I am CERTAIN that goes both ways and I drive her batty as well. During previous races we have done together, she has NEVER left me behind. Even during that terrible horrible no good very bad race that made me so incredibly sick for days afterward. She repeatedly forgos reaching for a personal best to instead stay with me, socialize with me, and try to usher ME into a new best.

When this injury had cropped up this summer, we had a long discussion about how I didn't want to hold her back during this trip, and how if my heel was acting up and I had to take it easy, I wanted her to make the best of the moment and do something great for herself, and she was hesitant on giving me an answer. I isn't that I didn't want her company (because we all know that I love her dearly) but I didn't want to be the thorn in her side holding her back from awesomeness.

So there we are slogging our way through the miles in what I thought was the most gorgeous course I had ever seen, and Brina was pushing hard. She started bumping my running intervals out to 1:15 and walking intervals to 0:45 and kept encouraging me to move forward. She stopped to pick up pennies, she relished in looking at the wild turkeys and the horses (even screaming at them like a giddy 4 year old, which I LOVED), but my heel pain kept building.

And I thought to myself, "Oh shit. If I have 5 more of these things to run, I should probably back off just a little." But I didn't, and the pain kept building. And by mile 8, I was at my breaking point. Brina was no longer pacing me from beside me, she was about 10 feet ahead of me. And I couldn't keep up. I was limping (although not really that badly), and I was near tears. When the timer went off to tell me that it was time for another run interval... I just couldn't do it.

Brina looked at me irritated at first. And tried to encourage me to move forward. I begged her to leave. I told her that I was at my breaking point, and she saw this as reality, wished me luck and left. I'm sure she was irritated with me, because *I* was most certainly irritated with me.

I walked for a few intervals to allow myself a nice cry and a good pity party, and when I was done with the tears, I looked at my garmin.

My average pace for the first 8 miles was 13:58.

How the heck did that happen???

I picked up my pace again and finished the race out strong completing almost all of the run intervals as planned at 1/1 ratio. My heel pain was so excruciating at that point though, I was well aware of the fact that I was running SLOWER than I was walking.

That last couple of miles felt like they took forever (and they most certainly did), and I watched the time on my garmin slowly creep higher and higher. As I rounded the park near the finish line, I knew that making my time for Disney was out of reach, but I still wanted a nice strong finish.

And I did. Because entering the chute at the finishline, I saw Brina leaning over the railing taking a picture of me with my nice strong finish. I flew through the chute at a sprint, fueled by the fact that one of my closest friends was there cheering me on.

As I crossed the finish line they announced my early birthday, gave me my medal and water, and congratulated me. I looked down at my garmin, and realized that I may not have gotten my time for Disney, but I still managed to get a PR!

At our post race celebratory lunch.

Time: 3:16.36
Pace: 15:00/mile
OA: 360/370
AG: 57/57
Gen: 328/278

Incidentally, It wasn't Brina at the finish line but a look-alike instead. Brina and Seth were at the car, thinking I wouldn't be finishing for another 15 minutes or so. Guess I proved them wrong. ;)

So we did it. 13.1 miles down, only 65.5 more to go.





To be continued...

Coral Springs Half Marathon - March 30, 2013

I've got to admit, this spring, I have become completely addicted to the half marathon distance. 

13.1 miles sucks. At my pace, it takes me well over 3 hours, and with my attention span? I'm lucky if I ever do anything for more than an hour at a stretch.

But there is something about 13.1 miles that just really works for me. Unlike 3.1 miles (a 5K) or 5.12 miles (my normal training run), 13.1 miles gives me that opportunity to do something other than just focus on running and finishing. In a 13.1 mile run, I get to really enjoy the process. 

I think maybe it is the difference between rushing through something for the destination, vs. really enjoying the journey.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but as a general rule, I try to avoid inaugural events. There was a time when we didn't care if it was an inaugural event or not, but we've been burned one too many times with promoters who have a disregard for safety or organization... and after experiencing the poison-water-pocalypse that Sunshine State put on, you could say that I've become a little gun-shy.

On the other hand, in order to get a good jump on my absolutely ridiculous goal to finish 13 half marathons in 2013, and knowing that the race season pretty much stops between May and September in South Florida, I knew I didn't have many options. The race season was winding down, and my options were running out.

So that meant I had a decision to make, would I register for the Coral Springs Half Marathon because it was really close to home, and take the risk? In the end, I decided it was worth it, and I promptly roped my friend Brina into attending with me, as her first race as a Half Fanatic. 
 
I'm glad that I entered this race. Despite the half marathon distance being a first time event for this promo group, whether it be the location or the give-aways, the volunteer support, the amount of law enforcement and traffic control, the friendly faces, the SUPER clean port-o-janes that came complete with running water for handwashing, the fuel and water stops, etc... I found that this race surpassed all of my expectations. I will DEFINITELY run this event again.

HFs Juanita, Bobby, me and Brina

The field of racers for this event was small, and the starting location was at a park, so this meant that parking and finding the start line was easy. After arriving at 5:00 for a 6:00 am gun, I met up with my friends Brina and Juanita for a pre-race Half Fanatics photo. 

When the gun went off, Bobby and Juanita said goodbye, and took off at their own pace. Brina, who had previously run the 13.1 Miami Beach race with me and later claimed to have really enjoyed our time together, opted to run this race at my pace again. I was thankful for the offer, because truth be told, after the excruciating pain I had felt not 2 weeks before at the Shamrock 10 Miler, I was concerned about whether I would be able to finish this race. Better have someone fun to distract me, than get swept in the first couple miles of the race, right?

Just like in other events, the race started and I began to regret my decision to enter. I don't know what's wrong with me. I go to these events, I get pumped about actually doing them, but then right before the gun, I get sick to my stomach and want to go home. Then I actually start running, and the first tenth of a mile I question whether I really want to be doing this, whether I enjoy this, and whether I might have been better off staying home in bed. That first tenth of a mile ALWAYS gets me.

The gun goes off, and we inch our way forward and begin our first running interval, and my brain wont let me get out of my own way. To distract myself, I picked a woman about 10 yards in front of us, and the goal was to pass her. In 13.1 miles, we didn't manage to pass her, but it was a distraction for a little while.  We giggled our way through the first 5 minutes settling into a nice pace.
 
We got to about a half mile in, and I realized I was holding back. I don't want to push it today, I said.

I'm scared my feet are going to hurt, I told her.
  
I (legitimately) was scared. I had no arch pain yet, but I knew better than to count my chickens.

You know? I just want to enjoy the journey. Lets forget about times and pacing. Lets just enjoy the morning, I suggested. 

And it sounded like a great idea. I did want to just enjoy the journey and forget about packing and times. But that is so much easier said than done.  

At mile marker 1, I didn't care. But by mile marker 2, I was chomping at the bit, dying to know what we were pacing. The sun had come up, I was enjoying myself, Brina and I were joking with one another, and we were having a great time with other runners too. But I was itching to know what kind of pacing we were making. I had a vague idea based on the clocks at the mile markers, but I wanted more accuracy.

Every so often Brina's Garmin would chirp and she would look down and smile.  I'd beg her to tell me, and she would just brush me off and start in on another story. By mile 4, I was going nuts.

Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! I begged. 

56:12. She said. 14:03 per mile.

Call me shocked. And still no pain. And we kept that pace up until around mile 10, when I began to feel some blistering in my left baby toe. And then after another half mile, there was some blistering at the right ball of my foot area (probably from compensation from the blister on my left foot).

Then around mile 11, when we began to get into the home stretch, I bottomed out. Because of course, nothing is easy with me and something always seems to go horribly wrong.

The sun was high in the sky, the temperature was rising and the air was becoming thick with humidity. I felt under-hydrated, and my stomach was upset. Every time I tried to push forward with a run interval, it felt like a 10 ton elephant was sitting on my chest. I couldn't catch my breath.  Up until then, we were on pace to finally make it to my goal of a 15 minutes per mile finish time, but I also knew the risks of pushing it when I can't catch my breath. We slowed down.

Me with my 6th finish for '13, Brina with her 3rd

At mile 12, we passed a girl from Black Girls Run who was having some severe dehydration issues. I always said that even when I had a PR so close I could taste it, I would stop for another runner in distress... so of course I stopped to help her out. After giving her some much needed fluids from my hydration belt, we kept going.

Pretty soon, the finishline party area was in sight. And Juanita was standing there with her post-race flip flops and sweatpants on. I heard Juanita asking Brina if she knew what the clock was reading, and I heard Brina whispering back that she didn't want me to know.

Juanita jumped onto the course with us and I heard the thwap thwap thwap of her flip flops behind me.

As I rounded the corner and the finish line clock came into view, it was like having my own private cheerleaders.

You can do it! You're almost there! You're gonna PR!  Push it! Go! Go! Go!

And like that, I pulled out all the stops. The 10 ton elephant sitting on my chest and I sprinted toward the finish line. With Brina quick on our heels, that elephant and I ran like we've never run before.

Brina later told me that in the home stretch, we were running at just over 8 minutes per mile. I would never be able to sustain something like that long distance, because even doing what I did made me nauseous, dizzy and turned my lips blue... BUT, I did it.

Oranges, just what this (future) doctor ordered.

And that's got to count for something.

Chip - 3:17:23.330
Pace - 15:04
Overall - 509/531
Gender - 303/321
Category - 53/53

I had hoped to finish at or below 15 minutes per mile... which I didn't quite do, but I'm happy with what me and my own personal elephant accomplished. And hey, no arch pain.



*As an aside, in order to reach the next "moon" level with Half Fanatics, I needed to either complete 3 halves in 16 days or 6 halves in 6 consecutive calendar months or 8-11 in 365 days. For those playing at home, the Coral Springs half was my 6th in 2.5 months. Finishing this race qualified me to move from the Neptune (1-moon) to Uranus (2-moon) level.

The next stop is Saturn (3-moon) level with 4 halves within 37 days or 12-18 halves within 365 days or 4 halves in 4 different states, countries or Canadian Provinces in 51 days. If  When I finish my 13 in 2013, that will qualify me to moon up. Saturn, here I come.