Half Marathon Recap

I can officially say that I have completed a half marathon! It was amazing and feels great to have accomplished that. We had beautiful weather; sunny and in the 60s.

I ran the Let's Move Festival of Races in Mt. Clemens. I don't think it's a huge event, but it seemed well organized and I had fun. I really just picked this race because I wanted to run a half marathon at the end of April. This was the only one that I could find for this particular weekend that was  either close to my house or close to my mom's.

My husband took Friday off of work so that we could make it to the race expo. I always hear about some fun sounding race expos. This was not one of them. It was really just a packet pick up. The hubby was definitely disappointed that he wasted a vacation day. We did score a free shirt from last year's race though and they were nice shirts so I was okay with it. :) We also picked up packets for the rest of my family. I don't think I mentioned it before but I managed to get 4 of my family members to do their first 5k! I was so excited for them. My aunt and her 2 sons signed up to walk the 5k and my cousin decided to run her first 5k. My hubby was also signed up to run the 5k.

Anyways, back to moi. I spent Friday morning just feeling excited for the event and that I was getting more of my family into the active lifestyle. I was talking with my cousin off and on all morning because she was super nervous. I was feeling all excitement until we started the drive to the expo. I felt like I wanted to throw up. Anxiety was finally setting in. Once we had the packets, I spent the evening chatting with my cousin about our pre race jitters.

I tried to go to bed early but did not sleep well. I think I woke up about once every hour panicked that we would be late. The race started at 8am and we were planning on leaving at 6:45am. I wanted to get up around 6am to have a cup of coffee and get ready without feeling rushed. Little lady usually sleeps until 7ish so I had to rely on an alarm clock which I rarely do these days. So every hour I shot out of bed to check the clock. Ugh. I don't know why I even doubted my daughter because some how she knows when I have to wake up and will always wake me extra early. At 5:45am I could hear her chatting away...of course. I got up and got her dressed and enjoyed my coffee.

At 6ish I woke up my mom. She was going to the race with us to watch little lady and my cousin's son while we ran. My mom had been out late Friday and I didn't know if she had seen the note that I left her about what time we would leave at. She reluctantly got out of bed and had some coffee. We all slowly got ready and out the door by 6:45am 7ish. We made out way to Mt. Clemens and around the closed streets and found awesome parking. We also easily found everyone else! Off to a great race morning start!

We brought out own cheerleaders!

The 5k runners took off at 8:15 and the walkers at 8:25. I ate my Clif bar and finished my coffee and water while they took off then headed with my mom and the kiddos to the finish line. My start time was 8:55 so I was hoping to catch my husband crossing the finish line. I waited until 8:45 and then headed back to the starting line, hitting the port a potty on the way.

I hadn't really had a plan for my half marathon. Friday night I calculated that if I some how managed to run an 11 minute/mile pace that it would take 2:24 hours and if I ran a 12 minute/mile pace (much  more likely) it would take 2:37. I told my family to head to the finish around the 2:24 mark and that I should be done by 2:45. Usually on my long training runs I preplanned everything. I knew at which point I would slow to a walk and drink some water. I like to break up my long runs into manageable pieces.

I don't know why, but I did not do that for this race. At the start line I found the 2:20 and 2:30 pacers and positioned myself between them. I usually averaged about an 11:45 min/mile pace on long practice runs so I really should have started behind the 2:30 pacer. I decided at the start line that I really wanted to beat 2:30, I should not have done this. I never really care how long my long runs take and this was supposed to be a race that I did just to finish.

I started off really strong. I averaged 11 min miles for the first 3 miles. I think I was trying to slow down, but for some reason I just really wanted to stay ahead of the 2:30 pacer. I should have just ignored it and ran slow and comfortable. Around mile 5 I was starting to get tired and walked for about 10 seconds. Around mile 5.5 I ate 3 Shot blocks while running. At mile 6 my entire left leg hurt. There was some strong pain in my hip, knee and ankle. I occasionally have ankle pain while running, but not usually hip or knee. (My hip occasionally bothers me at the end of longer runs.) I didn't know what to do. I had slowed by pace and was sticking near the 2:30 pacer. I walked and ran and kept myself close.

Miles 4.5-7 were a loop in a park. On the way out near mile 7 we could she the sweep bus turning into the park. The bus was only about 2 miles behind me and this stressed me out for some reason. I was afraid of falling behind and finishing last or even worse, really getting hurt and having to get into that bus. I pushed myself through and by mile 9 I really thought I wasn't going to make it.

At mile 10 I gave up my 2:30 dream and just tried to keep the pacer in my sights and hoped for some miracle that maybe the last mile would be easy and I would pick up the pace. Mile 10 was my only mile that took my over 12 minutes (12:08).

Once I hit mile 11 the pain had lessened or I became more used to it. I picked up the pace slightly but didn't try to out do myself. Mile 12 was the longest mile that I have ever run. When my watch beeped to tell me that I had run 13 miles, I teared up. I had to get that under control because it was making it hard to breath. :) I kept running. My watch said 13.1 and I kept running.

I had never wanted to walk more in my life than at mile 13. My body hurt and I think I was slightly dehydrated. I had the chills and felt nauseous. I did not want to walk over the finish line. I did not train for months and run my ass off for over 2 hours to walk across the finish line. I sucked it up and told myself not to puke, at least not in the pictures. :) As I turned the corner and saw the finish chute, I felt relief. I saw my hubby waving at me, my cousin jumping up and down and my mom holding little lady out to me. I high fived little lady and crossed the finish line. It felt amazing!

I am in the grey shirt. When I saw this picture on the small camera screen I actually didn't believe it was me. The girl looks to skinny to be me. Hubby had to zoom in to show me that it was in fact me.

Water, apple, and medal. I did it!

I also felt really out of it. I grabbed a water and apple and walked back to where my family was. Hubby ran up to hug me and I found out that both him and my cousin did awesome. (She was so excited and ready to sign up for more!) My aunt and sons had left because they had plans, but we saw them later on. We checked my official time and I officially finished in 2:30:23. I was actually feeling bummed about my time for awhile. I had spent so much of the race focused on finishing in less than 2:30. However, I never thought about that during any of my training runs. I just wanted to do a half marathon.

I spent the whole car ride home feeling awful. I still felt physically sick and was so bummed about my time. I also hadn't really had time to process the race because as soon as I was done and checked my time, we were in the car.

As soon as we got home to my mom's I jumped in the shower. That helped a lot. I reminded my self that my watch said that I actually ran 13.24 miles so I technically did finish 13.1 in less than 2:30 but even more importantly...I had just ran my first half marathon! I came out of that shower happy and refreshed!

Good thing because family was coming over in a few hours to celebrate little lady's 2nd birthday! I'll have to leave that for another post. This one seems to be a novel.

Spring is such a tease!

Yesterday was 40 degrees AND sunny! Little lady and I were out running errands and by the afternoon I wanted to take my winter coat off and soak up the sun. I immediately sent the hubby a message asking if I could run outside when he got home from work as long as he didn't pick up over time. I was so excited when he agreed and didn't think there would be overtime.

He came home and I was all dressed for an outdoor run. It felt great and my time wasn't to bad. I averaged an 11 minute mile for 4 miles. My first 3 miles were faster than an 11 minute mile, but my last mile is uphill and was 11:30 minute mile. I felt great and was proud of my time.

The bright sun had actually melted the snow covering the trail. This is just one day after my previous picture of this trail (snow covered).

It felt so good to finish and feel accomplished. I realized the treadmill is not for me. I really don't feel awesome when I am done on the treadmill. I am just glad that it's over and I think about quitting about every 0.1 mile. Recently I have been thinking that maybe the half marathon would be to much for me and I was worried that I got myself in to deep. The treadmill makes me slower and not as happy. These past two runs outside have made me remember that happy feeling from running. (Not exactly runner's high on both of these runs, just the "I am done running and now feel awesome!") I feel like a half marathon will be totally doable again!

I will still have to use the treadmill a bit, but I am going to try really hard to get my long run and the longer run of the weekdays done outside. Once spring is actually here and temps are above 50, I can push little lady in the jogging stroller again. I am excited for that too. I loved her being a part of my running experience too. I felt like a positive example for her. (Although, I also really like my runs alone.)

Today I am actually taking my rest day from Sunday. I haven't had a rest day in a week. I am proud of that, but actually felt a bit sore today. I am happy to rest. I also noticed that I felt starving today. I ate breakfast an hour earlier because I was just so hungry. I still felt a little hungry after eating breakfast but if I eat to much in the morning, I lose all control. We went out to little lady's "school" and when we got home I scarfed down lunch with her. I had planned on eating lighter today since I wasn't working out, but I haven't eaten any "extra" calories from any of the past few workouts. (I have eaten at the high range of the day though.) I plugged in everything I planned on eating for my meals for the day and was still almost 300 calories under the minimum for the day. I decided to have lunch part 2 while little lady was napping. I made a sandwich (which I have been craving- I used to have one every day for lunch and I don't think I have since last summer.) and it was delicious. I still felt like eating more, but I drank a few glasses of water and got working on the house. I still feel slightly hungry, but I don't want to turn it into a binge. I am thinking I will need something else before dinner so fruit will be my friend today.

Well, I need to go finish cleaning up this house. My brother and his family should be here tomorrow and I can't wait to see them. We are expecting some serious snow though and I am hoping that somehow things will still work out.

Random three day weekend

I have already had two Non Scale victories this weekend! Although to be fair, the hubby took yesterday off work so I am halfway in to a three day weekend and both victories are fitness related.

Friday is my cross training day for half marathon training. I have decided that I will mostly use my elliptical for cross training until spring weather is here and I can enjoy bike rides. So Friday morning I put on my workout gear and headed down to the basement where all workout equipment goes to die the elliptical is stored. I dusted it off and hopped on. Of course the batteries were dead. I could still use it, but I wouldn't be able to see any info or change the resistance. I dug through our batteries and found every single type of battery other than the kind I needed. Normally, I would throw in the towel and complained about it all day and of course used it as an excuse to just skip the elliptical until we got batteries.

Something miraculous happened instead, I headed back down stairs with my heart rate monitor on and made up a workout and just focused on keeping my heart rate up. I did some jogging, jumping jacks, jump rope and even dusted off an old step for step aerobics and spent a song 'stepping.' I had decided I would just spend a half hour cross training, so I moved it for 30 minutes and burned 150 calories. Not my strongest workout, but I burned more calories than I would have feeling bad for myself and lack of elliptical batteries. (While out on Friday I did pick up batteries so crisis averted for next week.)

Today, Saturday, is my long run day. I had decided that I could do most of my weekday, short runs on the treadmill during little lady's naps until spring when I break out the jogging stroller again. I had planned on doing my long runs on the weekend so I could run them outside while hubs watches little lady. I did not want to do ANY long runs on the treadmill.

This week we have been covered with about a foot of snow. I don't mind running in the cold or snow, but I am afraid of slipping on ice. The trail that I run on is used by snow mobiles if there is more than an inch of snow on the trail. I figured the snow out there is a snow mobiler's dream and I feared I would be run down by a snow mobile. I debated about switching the long run to Sunday, but figured it would be just as snowy tomorrow and I had to face reality. I would be doing a long run on my treadmill.

I felt so happy when I actually completed my long run. To be fair, the run was only 4 miles and as training progresses I will have to run 4 or 5 miles during the week, which may have to be done on the treadmill. It was a huge accomplishment for me since; 1- I didn't use the snow as an excuse to skip a run and 2- I actually ran 4 miles in my room today! It felt good and I ran 3.15 miles and then walked for .1 mile and finished the rest running. Completing that run on the treadmill made me feel much more confident for my week day runs. I was hesitant that I would ever do the 4/5 miles runs on the treadmill, but I know that if I could do 4 miles then I can definitely do 5 miles. There is no stopping me now!

With that run I have officially completed one week of half marathon training! Only 11 more to go!