Ky Derby miniMarathon / Team Beef

Today is the last day to ENTER TO WIN INJINJI SOCKS & GU CHOMPS!!

On the lovely morning of Saturday, April 27 Gerard (the hubs) and I completed our 2nd half of the year in Louisville at the Ky Derby miniMarathon. But let me also tell you, some time after the start of the year my buddy Jenna told me that she applied for Ky Team Beef and they still had some open spots. So I sent in applications for Gerard & I and we both was accepted!!  Several of my friends was accepted as well!

 What is Ky Team Beef? (Sorry but I'm being lazy and coping info straight from there site :)

The Kentucky Team Beef is a team of athletes focused on living healthy lifestyles by combining physical activity and a nutrient-rich diet full of lean meats, whole grains,fruits, vegetables, and low-fat and non-fat dairy. Made up of athletes from all over Kentucky, they believe in the nutritional benefits of lean beef and its vital role fueling their training.

This race is about an hour & a half away and almost everyone else stayed in Louisville the night before, we didn't(even though we had to get up SUPER early and be ready to leave by 5am!!) so we made a plan to all meet in the hotel lobby. Geez there was people every where! I really thought we would have a hard time finding our friends, BUT we are a group and always find each other:)

This was my (first) PR Half last year, last year I KNEW I could do it, this year I didn't have that confidence and although I struggled with that fact a few weeks leading up to the race I was ok with it by race day. I wasn't nervous or anxious I actually felt good and ready to see would happen a good run, great run or a bad run? For me I can't judge it until I start running, I might wake up feeling like a champion but when I start running it can go downhill fast crazy I know!

Sheri, Me & Jenna

It was so fun hearing people cheer "GO TEAM BEEF!!"

Sheri & Gerard

The weather was actually PERFECT conditions for running a half (and even better for people in shape and ready for PR's!!)  it was cloudy and about 45° with a little slight breeze. Again I was not in PR shape or even 1:59 shape for a half like most of my friends was but I was going to stay with them for as long as I could. While we was waiting to start I had to pee but didn't have enough time to go, ERRRR I was hoping that once we started running I would sweat it out! 

Miles 1- 5; 9:02, 8:56, 8:55, 8:50, 8:53

Once we finally got started I was feeling GREAT and very hopeful this was going to be an awesome run. I was able to stay with my friends and we was able to chat and we all still felt comfortable! I was super impressed with myself:) Gerard has been battling knee pain, normally he is way faster than me but he held back not wanting to end up with a series injury, I really thought that he was right behind me or at least fairly close but then I realized that I couldn't hear him any longer, yes even though there was 18,000 runners I know the sound of how my husband runs☺ Unfortunately I never sweat out my bathroom call and it was getting to the point I couldn't wait any longer, I hated it and REALLY didn't want to stop I waited until I found the potties with the shortest lines around 5.5mi and still had to wait in all it took me about 5mins to get through! I figured for sure Gerard passed by while I was in there.

Miles 6- 13.2; 10:44, 9:13, 10:17, 10:18, 9:50, 10:28, 10:13, 10:10

Umm did you notice the huge difference in those miles? Yeah so did I, LOL!! What happened?? I have no clue! After the bathroom stop (which was the 10:44 mile:) I literally felt like I couldn't run anymore at all! I got light headed, dizzy, nauseous and my legs felt like weights! I felt so awesome up to that point and really have no idea what did happen. Maybe a combination of running so well having to stop then when I came out of the potty my first thought was to try and catch back up to my group so maybe I took off too fast I really do no know but it sucked and sucked big time! I wish I would have never stopped but just couldn't hold it anymore:( For the entire second half I did run/walk, I tried to run at least a half mile at a time and take as few walking steps as possible. Around mile 10 I caught up to Jennifer and she said the funniest thing, she was struggling a little at that point as well and when she saw me she said "Oh Bobbie, Everyone thinks your really far ahead of them and they are trying to catch up to you!" LOL half of my "group" of friends didn't know I stopped for the potty break and thought I was speedy fast!! WRONG!! When I got to mile 11 I got behind a couple and tried pacing with them to not walk anymore and I just couldn't do it! Then at about 12½ while I was walking someone came right in front of me almost cutting me off!! It was Gerard! I was so happy to see him:) I told him to go on I knew he still had his "kick" in him to make it to the end but we stayed together and finished it out TOGETHER:) ♥

Love this man with ALL my ♥

Me: 2:07:27     Gerard: 2:07:14

I was expecting 2:15 so I was pretty Happy overall even though I didn't hit that 1:59 or less!!

Enjoy some pics from my wonderful MOM & our groups "Runners Mom"!

Jenica, Jenna, Me & Gerard

Jenica in Gray, such a sweet girl!

Jenna & her Uncle Todd

Jennifer, Jenna's mom

What?? LOL Gerard

Full of concentration~ Go Sheri

Angela looking for Mom

Jason (Angela's hubs) always smiling for the camera!

Ricky~ Look of pain & dedication 

Things I'm Lovin: Do you Injinji? (+Giveaway)

Last year when I was marathon training and was having problems with getting blisters I reached out to the wonderful blogging community for help! Several suggested trying Injinji Socks so I did. They were like a life saver!! I couldn't believe the difference they made! I only bought one pair at first to try out, I quickly went to our local sporting store (Hibbetts) to see if they had any. It was my lucky day they had some on clearance!! So I bought 3 pairs:) I also ordered two pair of the breast cancer ones online when they were half price! Do you think I like Injinji??

Then after the first of the year when we started training for half marathons I saw that Injinji had compression socks and just knew they would be EXACTLY what I needed!! I reached out to the folks at Injinji to see about trying them out for a review, thankfully they passed my info along to Jenny with Outside PR and she was happy to work with me:)

And they sent me Purple, my favorite color!! (I also got white:) I had only used compression socks for recovery and not during running as the only other brand I had I was afraid they would make my feet too hot and if my feet get hot I'm done! Since it was winter time I decided to try wearing these while running and see what happens.  Needless to say I fell in LOVE with them!! I wore them on almost every long run we did and I wore the white ones in the RailRunner 10miler! I would highly recommend these Injinji compression socks!!

I also received two pairs of the New Performance 2.0 socks as well. One pair was blue and one was pink, so I was nice enough to ask the Hubs if he wanted to try out the blue ones.

He absolutely LOVED them!! He came straight home and took this pic himself and posted it on Instagram! He was hooked! He even had me look them up online to order some but they wasn't available to order yet. He was so super impressed that HE was had something that wasn't even out on the market yet and I think he was somewhat impressed with the fact that I was sent something to review that wasn't out yet:) On one of our many trips we took to Dick's Sporting Goods he went ahead and purchased a couple pairs of Injinji Socks and one day when I was there without him I finally found the new 2.0 Performance ones and bought him a few pairs!

So I guess in our opinion.....Everyone should wear Injinji Socks!!!!!!

Wanna win Two pairs of the 2.0 Performance socks and a package of the New Lemon GU Chomps (I haven't tried the chomps but I love lemon flavor stuff so I'm sure they are awesome:) ??

Here's how you can enter:
*Be a Blog Follower**Mandatory to enter**
*Like Injinji on Facebook
*Like Injinji on Twitter
*Like GU on Facebook
*Follow GU on Twitter
*Tweet about this giveaway "Enter to win @Injinji & @GuEnergyLabs w/@bobbie087 @http://tinyurl.com/ccp63gl"
*Visit Injinji's site and tell me what you want to try and why
**Please leave one comment for each entry**

Entries will be taken until May 15!!
**The opinions above are our (mine & hubs) and wasn't paid for:)**

2/3 Failure + 1/3 Successful = Not too Successful w/Goals

Umm yea, so at the beginning of April I posted about 3 Goals I was setting for myself in April. WELL....I really don't like goals, for some reason I am not to successful with them so let's see here How terrible Did I do?

I did go back to aerobics BUT I didn't make it the entire month twice a week:( Excuses excuses I know but they started doing a class called RIPPED on Tuesday nights. Don't get me wrong I really like and enjoy the class but its a lot of jumping and up & down and my knee started hurting as well as my shin. With a half at the end of the month I really didn't want to take my chances!

Weight Loss?? NOPE!! Well maybe one pound but basically nothing at least I didn't gain! I know my problem is choices! I have a terrible LOVE of sweets, I NEED them every day & every night!!

To NOT be a complete loser I was DETERMINED to get the 90 miles in!! The first two weeks of the month I stayed right on track third & fourth I started slacking off! Thankfully I took a couple of vacation days and had some "free" time to run. In order to complete it I had to run 9.5 miles today !! I just ran a half on Saturday (recap coming up:)!!

For good measure I rounded up and did 10mi, not gonna lie it was tough, slow, lots of walking BUT I DID IT!!

Now it's time to think about May!!?? 
How was your April?? How do you handle NOT reaching your Goals? 

3tt- Long Run & Goals Update

1. Update to my three goals a) Last week I made it to both nights of aerobics, this week I skipped out on tonight :( back was hurting, very tired didn't sleep well and got up early to run excuses I know and NOT proud of it. b) Weight loss hasn't happened AT ALL so  yeah not sure what to say there c) I am 30miles in to the 90 miles goal :) last week I MADE sure to get every run needed to complete goal same this week:)

2. Usually a group of us get together on Sundays for long runs. Last week we passed this sign

Notice anything else??? Yep we dressed alike unplanned:) This is a common occurrence with Sheri and I, in the past at several different races we would show up dressed alike maybe not exact same as above but we will have the same colors on. In fact recently at a 5am run this happened

Yep we have the same shirt on EXCEPT hers is on backwards, LOL silly girl:) Just goes to show great minds think alike!

3. Hooray tomorrow is Friday!! Anyone have big Races or Race Goals this weekend? Good Luck to All that do!

RTB- Run the Bluegrass Half Marathon

Great group of friends/running friends!

RTB is the first Half for me this year (2013) and the first Half EVER for my hubs!!

So yeah he was a little excited:) I knew that we was heading into 13.1 miles of pure you know what in HILLS!! (Here is my 2012 Recap of my first RTB experience!) I knew that I was no where close to the running shape as I was last year and not too expect anything spectacular.

YAY let's go torture ourselves, LOL!!

The look of determination...

Me, our friend Kelli and Gerard(the hubs) all stuck together for the first few miles in, then Gerard said his knee was hurting! The last run we did it started hurting him and it was bad, he would run a little and stop over and over. So I told him no problem we wasn't going to be fast anyway we will just slow down Kelli and I just kept a steady pace well steady for us because our pace jumped all over the place but in the first 5 miles #4 was the slowest at 10:13! I knew though once we turned onto Old Frankfort Pike around the 6mi mark it would begin some series roller coaster hills! I had already walked very little but I knew once I hit those hills I would really start walking but I thought maybe Gerard would catch back up to us and we could all finish together. We even walked backwards a couple of times to try looking for him. The problem with wearing the shirt they give (race shirt) is that lots of people is wearing the same shirt! By the time we got to the half way marker and still didn't see him I was worried and thinking the worst of course, "Is he ok? Is he still running? Maybe its really bad and he's just walking? Oh I sure hope he's ok!" all of that and more was going through my mind. Around mile 8 we decided to stop for a potty break, both Kelli and I had to go from the very start but didn't want to wait in the long lines, at this point I didn't really think it mattered any more and it would give us another chance to watch for Gerard. With standing in line and using the bathroom we was stopped there for about 5mins. Still no sign of Gerard. The worst hill of them all is at mile 9, a nice LONG curve to the left did I mention LONG UPHILL that has zero downhill! Umm yeah I was pretty much run/walking by this point but that one really did me in. Miles 9- 13 was the slowest with the fastest mile being #12 @ 11:18! All I wanted to do is be finished and find Gerard! With only a half mile left and I was walking I said out loud to Kelli "This is pitiful only a half mile left and I am walking and don't even feel like I can run!!" One lady that passed kinda speed walking said "Hey at least you are out here!" EXACTLY is what I said back to her:) and when she was a little ways up she looked back and said "And better than everyone still on the couch!" RIGHT again my friend right you are!

Umm yeah I am SO GLAD that's over!!

 I came through the finish so slow I might as well been walking! Kelli and I finished in 2:22 which is about 6mins slower than last year but if you take off the time in the bathroom line then its only about a minute, sounds better that way:)

Kelli & I

 And I have to give Kelli a HUGE THANKS!! She stayed right with me the entire time even though she could have left me in the dust. I told her she could go on any time but she insisted on staying with me. She was even giving me motivation when I needed it the most! We have been friends since high school and have just recently reconnected through running. I couldn't have done what I did without her so Kelli I THANK YOU:)!!!


NOW you are probably (and hopefully) wondering what has happened to Gerard (my hubs)?? Here he is on his first half marathon, the hilliest one there is (like 21 hills in 13.1 miles!!) with knee pain and I haven't seen him since about mile 4??

Cruisin' through the finish

What is going on?? How did he get there??

Not sure if you can REALLY see the look on my face in the pic above? When Kelli and I came through the finish there he was with a MEDAL on?!?!??? WTHeck ?? How did he do that? Some how he passed us without either of us seeing each other and it was before the half way point according to the times at the half way split. Apparently the knee was bothering him bad but he never stopped running, then he said something snapped or popped and it really felt better and he picked up his pace. Although I AM VERY HAPPY for him that darn turd finished one of the hardest half's and his first one ever in 2:01!! Beginner's luck I guess!!

3x the Fun for St. Patty's Day

My St. Patrick's Day weekend was doing 3 races in two days! Woo Hoo I LOVE racing season.....EXCEPT when I'm sick:(

1. The first race was the Shamrock Shuffle 3k in Lexington, Ky on Saturday March 16. This is one of my favorite races, its just a 3k, its a fast course, there's always a huge crowd and lots of fun wearing Green! (one of my favorite colors:)

Making sure Mom sees me!

This year there was the largest crowd I have ever seen(2800+), it took us at least 10 - 15 mins to get parked we literally parked stopped to pee, pick up bib, walk out to hear race starts in 3mins, give mom a kiss, find my spot and GO!! Whoa that all happened really quick?!?!?!%% And ever so lucky me has a terrible cold!!! Last year I was in shape and came in 4th in my age group, this year I'm out of shape and sick just hoping I'm not last, LOL! I didn't take off overly fast and tried to run comfortable, I had to take a couple of short 10second or so walk breaks towards the end to try and control and the junk coming out of my nose and going down my throat~ yucky!! I was a minute and 20 seconds slower than last year but I still came in 5th out of 193 in my age group, to me that is awesome!!

2. Next up was the St. Patty's Day 5k at Renfro Valley on Sunday March 17 another race in the Rockcastle Regional County Wide Strides Series. These races have grown so much in size which is a great thing because each of these races are for different charities! This is not a hard course and I actually got my first 5k PR there last year, but I had the stupid terrible cold and knew it wasn't going to be too great plus when we finished there we was heading to another race that I would rather do better at. I took off once again not overly fast and comfortable the first mile was lots faster than I wanted it to be (8:25ish) so I slowed way down and then I started having the snot attack so I had to walk to clear my throat a few times, the way I was feeling I didn't even care I just really wanted to be finished:(

Look at that "Race Face" yep that ones mine:) 

The hubs did awesome though and came in 3rd in his age group!!

3. And finally the last stop on Sunday, Run for the Gold 3k in Frankfort, KY another one of my favorites! And another race series the Frankfort Trifecta Run/Walk Series. Frankfort is the beautiful capital of the great   state of Kentucky and all three of the races in the series goes by or is around the capital or downtown by the old capital building, I think Frankfort is a neat downtown area and always so much fun:) Why do I have to have the worst cold I have had in probably over 3 or 4 years on the weekend of my favorite races UGGHH!! By the time we left Mt. Vernon and got to Frankfort the temperature had dropped about 10+ degrees (30^) and it was a little breezy not the greatest weather for someone with a cold. I was starting to get a fever when we got there so I knew this was not going to be anything too great thank goodness it was just a 3k. I walked way more than I really wanted to and I ended up getting behind (or in front of) a boy that was running the entire race backwards??!! Ok that's a little crazy. He was really nice though I was trying to help him out and say when people was close behind him, in return he was trying to help me out when I started walking telling me to hang in there we was almost done. A lady I know from aerobics passed me (WHILE I WAS WALKING URRRGHH!!!) and I thought to myself "Your not going down like this sick or not your almost there LET'S GO!!" and I gave it all I had!  Once again I was one minute and 20 seconds slower than last year and way farther down the age group than I wanted and of course the hubs smoked it!

3tt- GOALS

I am not a big goal setter, for some reason every time I set a goal for myself I end up failing and disappointing myself.
HOWEVER for the month of April I have set 3 goals for myself!! I hope to report success at the end of the month:)

1. Start going back to aerobics twice a week! Although I'm not a huge fan of aerobics I do think it helps with running. That is the only thing I did different last year and I gained lots of speed (for me), since the beginning of the year I haven't been going and my running has taken a nose dive! I made it Tuesday night now if I make it tonight I'll be on a GREAT start!!

2. To loose 5 pounds this month! Another thing I think the aerobics will help with. I have about 15lbs total that I want to shed but I think I'm better off with small goals for now:)

3. To run 90 miles this month! In the words of my husband "Geez that's a lot!" No dear it really isn't. We are running a half at the end of the month so there is 13 miles already:)

I've been working on a St. Patty's Day race weekend recap for two weeks, maybe I can finish it tonight ~ WHERE DOES ALL THE TIME GO!?!?!?!?!?!!!

How is YOUR week going?
Any current GOALS your working on?