DNF

On Friday, we headed down to Huntsville to run the Rocket City Marathon.

I got out of work later than planned, so we didn't wind up leaving the house until after 4pm.  Straight to the Expo around 6:30pm (all the vendors were packing it up).  G did wind up finding a pair of shoes for $45, and I got a couple of $10 tops.  Not too shabby.

After we left, straight to the hotel to check in before eating.  I was exhausted and every place was PACKED, so we decided to try and find a place to eat away from the hotel.  Yeah, we wound up at the Olive Garden. Not just any Olive Garden, this place was gross.  When my food came, it was unrecognizable and had clearly been microwaved (dried food stuck to the plate.  At this point, it was around 9pm and I was starving, so I ate it anyway and we went back to the hotel.

Start time for the race was 7am, so we quickly went to bed.

Wake up time 5am.  Embassy Suites was awesome and started their breakfast service at 5am for the marathoners, so G went down and grabbed breakfast for us from there.  My stomach was still NOT happy (shock) from dinner.  Add to that the fact that I had eggs with breakfast, and I never eat eggs (should have eaten my go-to bagel with peanut butter and banana which I brought with me).

G was having a lot of pain in his back, he did something to it on Friday and was hoping it would feel better.  So, whining the entire time, we got dressed and ready to go.  Our hotel was less than 2 minutes walk to the starting line.  At 6:45am, I decided I had better settle on what I was wearing and pin on my number.  Apparently, we wasted too much time because we started to head down to the start at 6:59am.  As we were walking to the start line, we heard them start the race.  Running for the starting line after the rest of the runners have started?  Not my idea of a pleasant way to start a race.  Add to that the fact that I was wearing short sleeves and it was a breezy 30ish.  UGH.
So, G takes off his shirt and gives it to me.  He then picks up a discarded shirt from the side of the road to wear.  That guy.

As we're running the first 5 miles, I'm OK but not feeling great.  Stomach is iffy.  G is hurting with every step.  We are both burned out from training too much this year.  So, when he suggests that we bag it, I was quick to hop on board.  We stopped at mile 5.7.  I don't regret it one single bit.

Changed the plan for the rest of the day and had late lunch at 2pm.  Then, we proceeded to drink all the day and night long.  This was the last place.  Feeling no pain.

FUN

The next day, we had tickets to the Ryman with my sister and her husband. Good time, and I really enjoy that venue.  I will post no pictures of that night because I look like I drank the entire day before.  LOL

Monday, we decided not to get up early to work out since we were out late on Sunday.

This morning (Tuesday).  Nope.  4am alarm was ignored and we both wound up oversleeping for work.  This is not a big change for me, but G is never late for work.

My intent is to bag the idea for tomorrow.  G is off work Friday, and our flight to Vegas is 6am Saturday morning.  Yeah, I'm throwing in the towel for this week, except for a run with the run club tonight if we both get home early enough.

The week after Christmas, I'm working and G is off (planning to have his daughter for the week).  Maybe that will be the rehearsal for early morning wake-ups.  We won't have to be up as early since I leave for work 1.5 hours after he does.

Planning for 2015

2014 has been a huge year for me.

HUGE

1- Got married.

2- Trained for 4 marathons, ran 2 (so far, running #3 on Saturday)

3- Injury - Plantar Fasciitis  - thus only 3 marathons rather than 4 completed.

4- Accepted a new job

5- Moved from Indiana (where I only lived for 1 year) to Nashville, TN

6- Married for 3 months when I started working in another town.  Only saw each other on weekends for 2.5 months before he got moved.  Stressful

7- BABY MOMMA DRAMA.  Yuck.

8- Moved my daughter into her own place (IU).

9- Bought House #6.  Owned 2 houses for a month (more stress).


I'm exhausted.
Once I get through the next couple of weeks:

Rocket City Marathon 12/13

Concert with my sister and BIL 12/14 (this is important because I will already be exhausted from "celebrating" the marathon:)

Las Vegas (DD turned 21 in September, taking her to Vegas)  12/20-12/24

Christmas with the parents  12/24-12/27

One of DH's kids for the Holiday break:  12/27-12/30

New Year's celebration (I'm hoping my daughter will stay with us through her school break)


THEN, I will be ready for a serious break.



2015:

NO SPRING MARATHON

I will run Half Marathons, though.

Lose this weight gain that I managed to maintain all through 2014.

Stop going out to eat so much.  When I do the math on how much we spend per month on groceries and going out to eat, it's massive.  Could be related to the weight maintenance.  :/

More overall fitness.  I'm starting with PiYo, which I managed to be suckered into buying a couple of weeks ago.  I'll do that on non-running days starting the first week of January.

Perhaps I'll sign up for a Fall marathon, depending on how it's going when Summer gets here.

I'll make these more specific before the New Year rolls over, just putting it out there for now.  I need a year of low stress.

How my 20 Mile Long Run Became 10

Plantar Fasciitis.

I've been fighting it for several weeks now.  My foot will feel better for a while, then it will start hurting so bad I hardly want to walk from my car to my office.  Since I'm expected to spend part of my time at work knowing what's going on out on our production floor (concrete), this poses a problem.  I refuse to drive a golf cart at work.  I can't bring myself to do it.  We don't have trikes, so off I go walking on the hard concrete floor.  This can tend to make my foot hurt more.  Ugh.

We took off on Saturday afternoon on the "People Trail" in a nearby town.  The goal was to run as many miles as possible while G's daughter was at her school book fair (3 hours).  The original goal was 20 miles, but I didn't want to get up at 5am to run them before taking her to the book fair.  We got in maybe 2 miles before my foot started hurting.  A few more miles, and my leg started hurting from compensating too much.  In the end, we wound up cutting the run short at 10 miles with plans to make up the other 10 miles on Sunday morning.

Yeah, Sunday morning didn't happen for me, either.  G had to run those without me.

Luckily, I should still be OK for the marathon on 5/31, since I just ran one in April.  Unfortunately, I feel like I've let G down in his training.  He should have done a lot more miles than I was able.

I felt pretty good last night, so we ran 6 miles after work.  That's 26 miles in 3 days for him.
Today, ouchie foot.  Aargh!!

Any suggestions for dealing with plantar fasciitis are welcome.  Bear in mind, I'm quite stubborn and probably won't stop running.  I may take a week or two off after the marathon, hopefully that will be enough.

Next race:  Noblesville Mini Marathon - 5/24

Lazy Weekend

Lutherun 5K was on tap for Saturday.

Then the alarm went off.

Let's back up.  My husband and I have been dealing with some minor drama in our lives (something I swore I would never be involved in again, but here we are).  Don't worry, it's not between us.

Anyhow, I calmed that with wine on Thursday evening.
Then, Friday night, we had date night (more alcohol and much yummy food).

Saturday morning, 7am was not happening.

Saturday afternoon, we ran across the mess that was my son's bedroom.  So, we spent Saturday evening cleaning my 19 year old's room (no running, no workout).

Yep, I did that.

Mess, I can handle.  Stink is a different story.  He may not be happy about it, but next time I'll bet he thinks about cleaning it himself.

Sunday morning, it was storming.  I run in the rain, but not in a thunderstorm.

Sunday afternoon, champagne brunch.


The plan is to get a run after work today, since the weekend was a bust.  Now, it's in writing.

Throwback Thursday

So, getting back into the habit of blogging, I'm going to try to post every day when I can  -  at least a couple of times a week when I can't.

For Throwback Thursday, I went back to when I first created this blog in 2007 and grabbed the first picture that I posted here.

I had captioned this picture "What Happened to my Waist?"

Seriously?  I'm young, I'm fit, and I just won a trophy at a 5K.  And, I'm COMPLAINING.
Hopefully, I've learned to be a bit more kind to myself since then.  I try.

52 Minutes?

There's a loop that I tend to run at home on most of my weekday runs.  It's 4.3 miles.
Last night, G and I decided to go for a run after work, since I said "Hell No" when the alarm went off at 5 in the morning.

First run after our Half Marathon on Saturday.
I didn't care about time, but I always wear my Garmin and he likes to "Map My Run".

Anyhoo, we get home from the run, and I'm just happy that we ran the entire time with only a short walk break at mile 2.  When he ends his workout on his phone, it informs him that it was 52 minutes.  He actually had to make me show him on the Garmin that, yes, it WAS 52 minutes.  Yeesh.  I mean, yes it was much slower than we normally run our loop, but I needed it to be.

I enjoy running together, and he hates running alone.  But, I'm afraid there is going to come a point where I'm going to have to tell him to go and get his run on and let me trot along at my turtle's pace alone.

Or, I'll magically get my old speed back.  Time will tell...

Indianapolis Festival 500 Mini Marathon

What a good time!

I had registered for this race way back in October, shortly after registration opened.  Since I live in Indiana now, it was a given that I have to run this race.  The nation's largest Half Marathon, of course I have to run it.

We went to the Expo the night before, and I ran into an old colleague from my former workplace.  Small, small world.  We then ate at Fazoli's.  Yep, we're big spenders.  Actually, I was hungry and wanted to eat and go home, so we chose the fast food route.  Full of spaghetti and meatballs, and exhausted, my husband too excited to sleep.  Yes, it was his first half marathon.  It was enough to almost make me excited about race day again.  

Anyhow, we get up Saturday morning and make the trek to Indianapolis.  For such a huge race, there was ample parking very close.  And cheap!  Where else can you go to such a large event and pay a flat $5 for parking?  

G was assigned to Wave 3 and I was assigned to Wave 4 (due to an oops when I registered him).  We decided to try and get into Wave 3 and get started 15 minutes earlier.  That was no problem.  We started with the Wave 3 group, at 8:15am.  G was shocked by how crowded it was along the course (imagine if there wasn't a wave start! Oy!).  There was almost always entertainment along the course, bands and cheering and tons and tons of water/Gatorade stations.

Yes, we got to run around the speedway, but after a mile of this, I was ready to get out of there.  Still another mile left.  Ugh.  Boring.

When it was all said and done, I was pleased with how we ran (he stayed with me the whole time, even though he could run quite a bit faster than me if he would go).  I felt stronger and stronger throughout the entire race (plus, NO HILLS!).  Just check out those split times!

Finish Time
Finish Net	2:35:31
Finish Gun	3:07:45

Location	Net Time	Clock Time	Time of Day	Pace	Pace Between
Start	00:00	32:15	8:20:26
5K	37:41	1:09:55	8:58:07	12:06 /mi
					11:59 /mi
BRICKYARD	1:32:45	2:04:59	9:53:10	12:02 /mi
					11:56 /mi
11M	2:12:11	2:44:25	10:32:36	12:00 /mi
					11:03 /mi
Finish	2:35:31	3:07:45	10:55:57	11:51 /mi

Our next Half Marathon is on May 24.  G plans to run it with his brother and see how fast he can go.  I'm just hoping to beat the time I posted on Saturday.  

Next race:  May 10, just a 5K.  

Run for the Ivy 10K, 4/26/14

I was supposed to work all day Saturday.

Well, "supposed to" is strong language.  A consultant was in, and I had sat in on the sessions with him Thursday and Friday, planning to spend Saturday.

We had already registered for a 10K race on Saturday.

I had already worked over 60 hours for the week.

Friday evening, when I left work at 8pm (and skipped out on their after-dinner session), I decided that I had enough and was going to run the race on Saturday morning anyway.

Saturday morning, up and at 'em.  Only, not that early.  The race had a 9am start time, and the high for the day was predicted to be in the 80s.  I dressed in a running skirt and tank and hoped for the best.

The race started a few minutes late (as most races do around here, from what I've seen so far).  I was a little worried when we started because I felt like my skirt was slipping down my hips (it was new).  As we got going, it seemed to stay put after the first half mile or so.

I pushed myself harder than I usually do the first run after a marathon.  With the long hours at work all week, I hadn't had a chance to get a run in before the race.  I was on my feet all day most of the week, so I did work out all of the soreness and felt strong for the 10K.

The 10K course was 2 laps of the 5K course.  Ugh.  I hate those.
BUT, we did manage to lap the last group of walkers.  Woot! for us.

I got a little warm by the finish, but manageable.
Our finish time was 1:10:17
Yep, they recorded my husband and I with the exact same finish times.
And we were almost last.  Aargh!  One of my least favorite things about small town races.  We averaged 11:20 per mile, granted not my fastest but I thought it was respectable.  And STILL almost finished last.  There were only 2 finishers behind us.

A couple of observations now that I've done some races in my new(ish) small town.

1- Why do they never start a race on time?  If I go to warm up, I'm always cool by the time they start the race.
2- They give out more awards to the walkers than runners.  This is the opposite of what I've seen in my past in other towns.
3- All of the women look MUCH older than they are.  I finished right behind a woman that I guessed to be mid-50s, and she was MY AGE.  This has happened with multiple women at every race I've been to in Indiana.  I have since stopped drinking the tap water here.

Next race is the Indy Mini on Saturday.  We are certain not to be last place for such a huge race!
Saturday will be my husband's first half marathon.

Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon 2014

Never a dull moment around here, let me tell you.

March 29:  My wedding day.

March 31 - April 7:  Honeymoon in Hawaii

I've been back to work for almost 3 weeks now.  The first 2 weeks were 60 hour weeks.  This week is shaping up to be a 70+ hour work week.  I'm exhausted.  But, I decided to throw a marathon in there on the same weekend that we travel 4 hours each way to visit my family for Easter.

Yeah.  It's been a full couple of months.

I registered for the Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon several months ago, when I still had grand plans for completing the training.  I started out not so bad, but then it all fell apart.  I had one 16 mile run, and a couple of 14 mile runs in there as my long runs (one of those was in Hawaii, so I should get bonus points for doing a long run on my honeymoon).

The race itself was well organized, and I have zero complaints about the weather.  I didn't know what to expect from myself, but I was hopeful that I would beat my time from the Monumental Marathon back in November (6:02:45).  I was completely untrained for that one.

I felt strong for the entire race, and I only walked at the water stations (and up a couple of hills in the park, because dang).  I managed to best my last marathon time, finishing in 5:34:57.

Hopefully, I'll improve on that for my next marathon (and my husband's first marathon) in South Bend, IN on May 31.

He's running his first half marathon with me next weekend, we're doing the Indy Mini.  I've been registered for that one for months, too.  We just realized it wasn't full and registered him last week.  Should be a good time.

It's so much easier training for these races with a running partner. If only our work schedules would cooperate and get back to 40ish hours per week...

Less than 18 hours after leaving Louisville from the marathon, and a 4 hour drive later, we were off for Easter service at my parents' church.  With half of our kids (my daughter had to work, his son is a drama queen and didn't come with us).

It's a race filled few weeks.  We ran a 5K on 4/12, my first 5K in ages.  I ran it in just over 31 minutes.  I was quite pleased with that, considering my lack of faster runs lately.

Up next, a 10K race scheduled for 4/26.  This will be my first run since the marathon.  I can't wait (not sarcasm).

Going to the Chapel

Yup, I'm getting married.....  Again.

I never realized before I met my fiance that love is really not supposed to be so difficult.  So, when he asked, I couldn't wait to say YES.  We aren't wasting any time, either.  The wedding will be March 29.

Now, because we all know that I have to put all kinds of undue pressure on myself, this falls right in line with the rest of my calendar.

March 29:  Wedding
March 31-April 7:  Honeymoon (Maui!!!)
April 19:  Kentucky Derby Marathon
May 3:  OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon (Indianapolis)

The fiance is pretty stoked about these races, too.  He's even been running with me even though he's never really been a runner before (with the exception of the last month or so, I'll tell you about that in a minute).  So, no matter how hard I try to convince myself that I should just skip the marathon on April 19, he's not going to let me.  Urg.
Dam him for being so dang supportive.

Anyhow, we had been doing really well earlier this year.  Going to the gym and running on alternate days, worked up to a 12 mile long run, getting stronger and faster.  Well, and then this winter happened.  There came a point in time where I just couldn't take the cold and the snow and the cold cold cold.  All I wanted to do was stay in bed until the last possible moment when I had to get to work, then come home and put on something warm and fluffy and go to bed and hibernate.  The cold got me down, too.  I just can't stay happy when I can't stand to step outside.  So, I've been a bit of a slug for the past 4-6 weeks.

Now, I only have a few more weeks until it's marathon time, with a wedding and a vacation stuck in there.  Everything may not be perfect, but it's going to happen, and I'll be happy no matter what.  Ha!

I've been an engineer for 17 years and never had an interest in dating an engineer.  Ever.
I'm marrying........     an engineer.