Wednesday, April 30, 2014

(Mostly) Wordless Wednesday- A Little Derby Expo Fun

Here is just a little look into the fun Sherry P and I had at the Ky Derby miniMarathon Expo!

That looks like serious business!

Getting measured for some compression sleeves

Ahh the mountain of Bondi Bands:)

Spank that horse, LOL!


And NOT sure what I'm doing???

Awww aren't we sweet, GO TEAM BEEF!!

My biggest, best and most supportive fan, my MOM aka The Picture Lady!!

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Ky Derby miniMarathon- An Experience Like No Other

The day was beautiful almost perfect, the training was done maybe not the best or on schedule but was done, I was race day ready........so I thought anyway!

Gerard (orange). Sherry P(pink tank) beside him, Ricky(black) beside her and me(pink with Bondi Band) in front of them!
Miles- 1, 2, 3
The crowd was large with spectators and people rushing to get the start line or maybe we left the hotel lobby a little too late, either way we was rushing to get to the start. Yes many will say we was bad but we just jumped in where we could get in and didn't try to find the right corral ~whoopsie! Although it was a little cool I was already wishing I took off my long sleeve shirt. Everyone all kinda had personal goals to achieve in this race so no one really planned on running together, when it was time to go everyone just went! I passed Mom right up not seeing her but Gerard did to throw his long sleeve so I just went ahead and took mine off and tied it around my waist. We lined up pretty close to the start with the faster people so I was trying hard to not get caught up in the quick take off thing and just run my comfortable fast. By the end of the first mile I could no longer hear Gerard and Ricky talking so I really wasn't sure how close they was, my first mile was pretty fast so I told myself to slow down just a tad but keep running on how I felt. The beginning of this race has several turns around the city streets even though its flat that part annoys me I saw one girl go down pretty hard after one of the turns. My second mile ended up being faster than the first and running into the bright sunshine, I was wishing I had worn my visor, and it was into sunshine for about 2½ miles it wasn't making me feel to great at all. Towards the end of the 3rd mile my stomach was churning and not liking me at all!

Miles- 4, 5, 6
Yep my stomach was feeling awful almost like I was going to throw up I just tried my best to not think about it and push on. I caught up with Sheri about mile 3½, she has trained pretty hard and was quite a bit faster than me so I was surprised to see her, I did a little speed jaunt to catch her. I told her I was feeling awful and probably wasn't going to keep up with the pace much longer, she said she wasn't really feeling it either and wasn't sure how much longer she could hold it. I stayed with her for a little over a mile until I stopped for the bathroom around mile 5. I was nervous about stopping it was the same spot last year and I couldn't run hardly at all last year after I stopped. I untied my shirt from my waist, thankfully it was a throw away shirt so I just left it, grabbed some water and waited for the bathroom. I saw Gerard and Ricky go by while I was waiting I was glad they was still together and I kept looking for Sherry P (its confusing with two Sheri's:) but never saw her. I was able to start running again after leaving the bathroom but I slowed my pace down and by mile 7 I was having to take small walk breaks.

Miles- 7, 8, 9
I noticed I was running about ¾ of a mile at a time then walking so I tried to keep this pattern and limit my walking to as little as possible. In mile 7 comes the first hill of any kind where you go down the underpass and back up its small but its a hill. The underpass is a little dark and the road is not the best, the girl in front of me went down and went down really hard I almost tripped over her. I knew she had to have hurt something but I think she was in a little shock, she got up and tried to take off running I told her to stop and look her self over but she just looked at me like I was crazy so I told her friend the same thing. Mile 8 going into Churchill Downs is the most beautiful thing ever however I was feeling AWFUL by this time and I just really wanted to be done! I stopped again for another bathroom stop and took my time. After coming out of Churchill its the split for the Full Marathoners and knew we was getting closer to the finish!

Turns out Ricky was struggling as well and Gerard helped him to the finish! Must have been our day for being helpers:)
Miles- 10, 11, 12
I caught back up to the girl that fell in mile 10 she was walking and I was ready to as well so I asked her if she was ok. She thanked me for stopping earlier and asking again she told me she thought she had knocked her tooth loose! I knew she hit pretty hard!! I was struggling to keep running for an entire ¾ mile at time now and I was super shocked to see Sheri ahead again so I ran to catch her and really got a SHOCK! When she turned her head and looked at me she just started crying and really crying! It scared me. Here was one of my Bestest friends who should be having the best race and she's crying and talking about quitting?!?!?!?? At first I thought she was hurt but she was having something like a panic attack and was worried about her 1½ year old son, I felt so bad for her and knew there was NO WAY I was leaving her like that HECK NO! NO WAY! We walked together and I talked and talked a lot to try and get Sheri's mind off everything and get her to the finish. I tried to get her to "jog" a little but that wasn't working so well either and I didn't want to put any more pressure on her so in the last 2 - 3 miles we pretty much just walked. She kept telling me I could go on and I didn't have to wait and that her (step) dad should be coming through soon but I told her I was fine and wasn't leaving "sorry but your stuck with me"! Stoney, Sheri's dad, finally saw us around mile 11½ it was his first half and you could tell he was loving every minute of it. When he saw Sheri he looked panicked and told me to go ahead he would stay except I wasn't having any part of that and I told him "Its YOUR first Half you go on and finish strong! I'm just fine right here and not leaving Sheri!" and that's what he did!
Me & Sheri after seeing Chap!
Miles- 13, ½
After we went under the last underpass I told Sheri the finish was really close and maybe we could try to jog to it but I still wasn't going to push any limits by this time I had already walked so much it hurt to try to run again but I didn't care. I told Sheri several times during our conversations while walking "Sometimes there are things more important than having a fast time and I definitely put and think friendship is way more important!" We saw my mom and her mom with her son in the last ¼ mile and I think it helped her push on till the end! Although I really wanted that 1:59 or less finish I couldn't have asked for any better finish! 
Met as running friends turned into much more! So HAPPY to finish together!
Mile 1- 8:42                                             Mile 8- 9:51
Mile 2- 8:38                                             Mile 9- 11:19
Mile 3- 8:47                                             Mile 10- 10:43
Mile 4- 9:22                                             Mile 11- 11:05
Mile 5- 11:47                                           Mile 12- 13:27
Mile 6- 9:19                                             Mile 13- 13:51
Mile 7- 9:54                                             Mile ½- 5:48

Finish Time- 2:22:37 Overall Pace- 10:34 Even with almost 3 miles of walking it still wasn't my slowest half. Not sure how I ended up with 13.50 must have stayed on the outside of every turn! This race has been added to one of the best race memories ever!

Awesome Mrs Sherry P! I'm so PROUD of her she PR'd by about 4 mins!
My girl Jenna (team Beef) rocked it!
Aww aren't we sweet :)

 Dang I need some sun, LOL!!
Just plain AWESOME! That's what we are!
Pictures provided by The Picture Lady. Please don't steal them:)

Thursday, April 17, 2014

It's Race Week Again- A Great 10 and Not so Great 10


This Saturday is the second Half Marathon of this year, the wonderful Ky Derby miniMarathon! This is the half that I got my first under 2hr PR of 1:58:23, at the beginning of the year I through out a goal time of 1:57 this year but.....(cont at the end)

When Run the Bluegrass was over it left 3 weeks until the Derby miniMarathon I had thought about getting in at least one 12 miler but decided to stick with two 10's. Usually when training for half's I try to do at least one 12 mile run this year the most I went was 10 and it seems to be working ok.

Sunday, April 6 was the first 10 miler and it was my first 2014 run in SHORTS!!! Although I wore my compression socks and really the only thing showing was my knees lol! It was a beautiful day sunny and about 55°. The half is super flat but around us locally we don't have a flat enough area to train for that so we tried to not take on to many hills, but we ran one of our same usually routes that has a few good size hills. We stopped about every couple of miles not really sure why but we did. I felt really good until the last mile, that last mile felt like 10 all at one time! When I looked at the overall pace I was thrilled 9:06!

Sunday, April 13 we ran pretty much the same 10 mile route. It was another beautiful short wearing kind of day except this week it was HOT! Sherry's parents came to visit her for the weekend so I told her I would wait for her to long run, we didn't go until 5pm. That was one of the hardest 10 miles I think I've ever ran! I'm blaming and really hoping it was due to the heat. This time I averaged 9:46 and struggled to keep it under a 10 min pace! :(

So now I'm thinking about that goal of 1:57?? Do I think I can do it? NO I just don't feel confident enough at this point to say YES I CAN DO THAT even though I KNOW I can. I'm going into Saturday with no pressure and what happens will happen! All I positively know WILL happen is this Medal is one of the two medals that will be hanging around my neck Saturday no later than 10am!!



What are you Running/Racing this weekend? Is it a Goal Time race for you?

Run Happy :)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Oh What a Day for Run the Bluegrass!


It's been a little over a week now since Run the Bluegrass(RTB) its come and gone! Going into the race that week two things became issues 1. My hip and/or whatever was hurting and hurting bad! 2. The weather forecast was Cool, Breezy and Rain! Oh this is going to be so much fun!

When we first started training for RTB I thought this really isn't a "goal time" race but of course I have to at least do better than last year and I think I could pull off at least a 10 min pace. The closer it got I decided to go back to original plan of just be happy and enjoy it no matter what!


Miles 1 - 4
So the weather it was pretty all week long until race day of course! I swear to goodness when we stepped out of the car it was comfortable maybe 50° but by the time we walked forever to the start went into the potties and came out I think it was about 40°! When the race started so did the rain but it was light and not soaking so thankful I wore my hat! I had also decided that I was going to stay with Sherry no matter what I was staying with her, a course like this you are much better off running it with someone and enjoy. The HILLS I've tried to count them before but I loose track of the count I've always heard 21 hills in 13 miles! The first one hits about a ¼ mile in but we took it like champs, in fact I think in these miles we took all the hills like champs! Other than stopping for the first potty stop in mile 4 there was no walking during the first 4 miles!
Not sure if you can see him but Gerard (my Hubs) is pointing!
Miles 5-8
The first 5 miles are pretty much tree lined and even though the leaves aren't out yet they still kept the rain from pounding us but once we turned onto Old Frankfort Pike its wide open. The rain still wasn't heavy but enough to chill you to the bone with the now 40° and 20 mph wind! We made another potty stop for me in mile 6 and right after that is when the roller coaster hills started, up and down one after another. My strategy was to run up as far as we could walk the rest and jog down back up the next again I think it was working pretty good we was able to keep up with the 2:15 pace group! And then my hip issue started becoming more present to me I was not going to push it into injury.

Miles 9-12
Mile 9 is the dreaded S curve that I bet you couldn't guess goes uphill! It is really long and goes on forever! And the rain was slowly picking up a little more each mile. Miles 10 & 11 it was all catching up to me, my legs were tired, my hip issue was hurting, my hamstrings were hurting from the hills along with my butt and lower back! This is probably where we did the most walking. We also met up with a girl and her dog and started talking with her. It was her first half ever and her first thing she said was "I sure wasn't expecting all these HILLS, these HILLS can kiss my As$!I'll never do this crap again!" I told her not to look at it that way get a buddy and run it together its so much MORE ENJOYABLE:)!! In 12 I got a little kick and said let's go and finish this thing I was beginning to get annoyed with it all!

Miles 13 - .13
My kick didn't last nearly as long as I hoped it would and we did some walking in the last mile! Then we made the final turn to the finish stretch, we made that turn and OMG the wind was blowing so hard I was running sideways on top on the now pouring rain. We saw another friend Jennifer walking ahead when we caught up to her she looked so sad and said "Where have you all been!" We walked together a little ways and pushed through to the finish line!

I was FREEZING COLD & WET with puddles in my shoes all I wanted to do was get inside the building and find the rest of our crew including Gerard. The building was suppose to be set up for a warm place for race participants spectators not allowed except that none listened to that. Thankfully we found everyone right away. The best thing ever was they had plastic "baggies" at the finish line to put your after race snacks in but with the terrible weather they was hard to hold. Then inside the building there was food set up. We ALL assumed as Half Classic participants (and some of us was told to enter) that we was included in the food area. So we all ate. There was lunch meat for sandwiches, grapes/strawberries, chips, beef stew and cookies & brownies! It wasn't the best but was really nice. Then the announcement was made that only VIP people that paid $50 was supposed to be in there eating?? Whoopsie! I really think we should have been included at no extra cost though!

Mile 1- 9:32                                        Mile 8- 10:09
Mile 2- 9:33                                        Mile 9- 10:00
Mile 3- 9:44                                        Mile 10- 11:10
Mile 4- 11:39                                      Mile 11- 11:07
Mile 5- 9:27                                        Mile 12- 10:31
Mile 6- 12:25                                      Mile 13- 11:07
Mile 7- 10:36                                      Mile .13- 1:09

Finish Time 2:18:15 with an overall pace of 10:32! Considering how I was feeling I am very happy with it. I am VERY happy with how I ran and even though I walked I'm happy with how little overall I walked! It wasn't my fastest RTB time but I beat last years time by 3+ minutes! And the Medal, the Medal by far made every last minute worth it. It is one of my most favorite Medals EVER!
LOVE THIS! I should have taken a pic of the back to duh?!?!

Jenna such a superstar she finished in 1:59!

Jason & Angela always smiling:)

Gerard in black with visor tag on his leg, our friend Ricky to the right of him.
As Always thanks to The Picture Lady for the photos! They belong to her so please don't steal them:)!!