Well, this morning's race had some highs and lows...
The highs:
Everybody was there! There were about 300 runners, so I got a chance to see a lot of the runners that I don't normally see at races. There were a lot of runners from the St Louis area that I've met over the years but only see a couple of times a year.
The atmosphere was fantastic! This was the village's Sesquicentennial, so the festival was bigger this year than it has been in previous years. You could really tell that they had put a lot of effort into it.
Free beer.
The lows:
It was HOT! The race didn't start until 8am, and it was already over 80 degrees and humid.
The race was in the open, there was NO SHADE on the course at all.
I ran my slowest 5K time ever. Garmin said 31:14, but I haven't seen the official results yet. I did wake up this morning with some stomach issues, so I didn't eat or drink ANYthing before the race. No caffeine and no fuel. This contributed to my bad time. I didn't have anything to give after the first mile.
All in all, it was a good race. I had to leave before they gave the awards, but one of the girls that went to the Flying Pig with us won 2nd place overall and there was a cash prize!
On tap for tomorrow: Long run, somewhere between 13-15 miles...
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Off to a Stellar Start
My marathon training, that is...
I ran v-e-r-y slowly on Monday morning, only 4 miles.
I had to travel to Boston for work on Tuesday morning. My flight was at 5:40am, so I had to get up at 2am to get to the airport early enough. My return flight from Chicago on Wednesday was delayed (big shock), and I didn't get home until 10pm. Thursday, I was still exhausted- no run. This morning, I was lazy and my AC is still acting up - no run.
Is it just me? I can NOT get out and run when it is hot inside and hotter outside. I've called a different repairman to come and look at it today, since the first guy couldn't find anything. Grrr!
Today, one of the managers at work brought me some pictures from our company wide Manager meeting/outing 2 years ago. I looked at the pictures and thought, "YUCK! I was fat!" So, I checked. At that time, I weighed about 10 lbs less than I weighed this morning. Yes, now you are all going to know how OCD I am about numbers... I have a spreadsheet that goes back through January of 06 with all of my weigh-ins. Before that, I was tracking it manually in my running logs. Ahhh, Excel, now I can graph it and look for trends.
I am truly sick.
I have a 5K tomorrow morning. Then, I will stop in to work and check on my project. Sunday, I plan a long run. Then, I will stop in to work and check on my project again. This entire project continues for 7 weeks before they finish up. I may go insane before it is over.
I ran v-e-r-y slowly on Monday morning, only 4 miles.
I had to travel to Boston for work on Tuesday morning. My flight was at 5:40am, so I had to get up at 2am to get to the airport early enough. My return flight from Chicago on Wednesday was delayed (big shock), and I didn't get home until 10pm. Thursday, I was still exhausted- no run. This morning, I was lazy and my AC is still acting up - no run.
Is it just me? I can NOT get out and run when it is hot inside and hotter outside. I've called a different repairman to come and look at it today, since the first guy couldn't find anything. Grrr!
Today, one of the managers at work brought me some pictures from our company wide Manager meeting/outing 2 years ago. I looked at the pictures and thought, "YUCK! I was fat!" So, I checked. At that time, I weighed about 10 lbs less than I weighed this morning. Yes, now you are all going to know how OCD I am about numbers... I have a spreadsheet that goes back through January of 06 with all of my weigh-ins. Before that, I was tracking it manually in my running logs. Ahhh, Excel, now I can graph it and look for trends.
I am truly sick.
I have a 5K tomorrow morning. Then, I will stop in to work and check on my project. Sunday, I plan a long run. Then, I will stop in to work and check on my project again. This entire project continues for 7 weeks before they finish up. I may go insane before it is over.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Fab 4th Weekend / Joker's Wild Half
My weekend started on Wednesday, since I took Thursday off as a vacation day.
Wednesday night: The kids and I went to the Cardinals game and saw the Cardinals beat the Mets, 8-7 with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th.
GO CARDS!
Thursday: Such an exciting day off... I got up and went for a 7-mile run in the rain. It rained the e-n-t-i-r-e- time. It has been hot hot hot, so the rain actually felt pretty good.
In the afternoon, I took the boy (my son) to the dentist for his root canal and went to the eye dr for myself.
Friday (4th): The kids and I went to St Louis and checked into our hotel at Westport. We ate at Pujols restaurant in Westport Plaza and went for ice cream at Coldstone Creamery. Yum! We saw Carol, and we confirmed our plans to run together the next morning. Sweet!
Then, we rode the Metrolink over to Fair St Louis and saw Joss Stone performing and the beginning of the fireworks. My daughter was worried about the crowded Metro on the way back, so we watched the fireworks as we walked to the Metrolink station. Got back to our hotel around 11pm, and of course I couldn't sleep.
Saturday (race day): The race start time was 6am, so my alarm was set at 4:30am. I didn't want to get up, but felt ok once I got moving. I went to the race start around 5:30am and started my pre-race ritual of hitting the port-a-potty repeatedly. I saw Ed, who is also a local runner from our run club, and we chatted for a few minutes. I hadn't expected to see anyone I knew except for Carol. I never did see Carol on Saturday, and she didn't have any results posted today. I assume she must have gotten sick or something. This is a normal occurrence for Carol, backing out of races at the last moment.
I went ahead and lined up and the race started at 6:15am (yup, 15 minutes late). The course was 2 loops of the same 6.5 miles. There was also a "quarter marathon" that was one loop. The first loop went great, I finished the first 10K in 1:03. My goal for the race was to finish in under 2:20, so I knew I was well on my way. There were a couple of pretty good hills in there, one of the hills was very rough and killed me on the 2nd lap. I knew at mile 11 that I was going to make my 2:20 goal, even if I fell apart for the last 2 miles. My official finish time was 2:17:46. That's a 20 minute improvement over the Flying Pig 2 months ago, and I'm still not really training. It's embarassing how little I've been running this year! Aside from the 7 mile run in the rain on Thursday, the only running I've been doing for the past couple of months, is races!
After the race, I went back to the hotel and the kids were still sleeping! So, once we got cleaned up and checked out, the kids and I went to the zoo to see the penguins (the penguins are a fairly new addition to the zoo). Let me just say how much I love the St Louis Zoo. My favorite part: it's free!
Then, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Union Station for a late lunch/early dinner. I had a big, juicy cheeseburger. I deserved it! Then, we headed home and went to the movies to see 'Get Smart'.
Sunday: I enjoyed a day of rest. And, my air conditioner quit at some point yesterday. It was hot in the house when I went to bed, and it was almost 85 degrees in my bedroom when I woke up this morning. I did NOT get up and run. Grrr!
Tuesday and Wednesday, I will be in Boston for meetings. I'm hoping to get a run in on Wednesday morning. And, hoping to have my AC fixed by the time I get back!
Wednesday night: The kids and I went to the Cardinals game and saw the Cardinals beat the Mets, 8-7 with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 9th.
GO CARDS!
Thursday: Such an exciting day off... I got up and went for a 7-mile run in the rain. It rained the e-n-t-i-r-e- time. It has been hot hot hot, so the rain actually felt pretty good.
In the afternoon, I took the boy (my son) to the dentist for his root canal and went to the eye dr for myself.
Friday (4th): The kids and I went to St Louis and checked into our hotel at Westport. We ate at Pujols restaurant in Westport Plaza and went for ice cream at Coldstone Creamery. Yum! We saw Carol, and we confirmed our plans to run together the next morning. Sweet!
Then, we rode the Metrolink over to Fair St Louis and saw Joss Stone performing and the beginning of the fireworks. My daughter was worried about the crowded Metro on the way back, so we watched the fireworks as we walked to the Metrolink station. Got back to our hotel around 11pm, and of course I couldn't sleep.
Saturday (race day): The race start time was 6am, so my alarm was set at 4:30am. I didn't want to get up, but felt ok once I got moving. I went to the race start around 5:30am and started my pre-race ritual of hitting the port-a-potty repeatedly. I saw Ed, who is also a local runner from our run club, and we chatted for a few minutes. I hadn't expected to see anyone I knew except for Carol. I never did see Carol on Saturday, and she didn't have any results posted today. I assume she must have gotten sick or something. This is a normal occurrence for Carol, backing out of races at the last moment.
I went ahead and lined up and the race started at 6:15am (yup, 15 minutes late). The course was 2 loops of the same 6.5 miles. There was also a "quarter marathon" that was one loop. The first loop went great, I finished the first 10K in 1:03. My goal for the race was to finish in under 2:20, so I knew I was well on my way. There were a couple of pretty good hills in there, one of the hills was very rough and killed me on the 2nd lap. I knew at mile 11 that I was going to make my 2:20 goal, even if I fell apart for the last 2 miles. My official finish time was 2:17:46. That's a 20 minute improvement over the Flying Pig 2 months ago, and I'm still not really training. It's embarassing how little I've been running this year! Aside from the 7 mile run in the rain on Thursday, the only running I've been doing for the past couple of months, is races!
After the race, I went back to the hotel and the kids were still sleeping! So, once we got cleaned up and checked out, the kids and I went to the zoo to see the penguins (the penguins are a fairly new addition to the zoo). Let me just say how much I love the St Louis Zoo. My favorite part: it's free!
Then, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Union Station for a late lunch/early dinner. I had a big, juicy cheeseburger. I deserved it! Then, we headed home and went to the movies to see 'Get Smart'.
Sunday: I enjoyed a day of rest. And, my air conditioner quit at some point yesterday. It was hot in the house when I went to bed, and it was almost 85 degrees in my bedroom when I woke up this morning. I did NOT get up and run. Grrr!
Tuesday and Wednesday, I will be in Boston for meetings. I'm hoping to get a run in on Wednesday morning. And, hoping to have my AC fixed by the time I get back!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Change in Plans
Okay, so we must all be open to change, right?
My ride to this Friday's 5K has an injury. I wasn't real excited about running this 5K anyhow, as there are no post-race wine-swilling activities planned. Meanwhile, I found out this week that there is a tiny 1/2 Marathon in St Louis on Saturday morning (race start time 6am- yikes!). Another running buddy is signed up for it, and we're running about the same pace these days. So, I decided to strike while the iron is hot and sign up before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.
I'm going to take the kids over for the Fair St Louis on the 4th, run the 1/2 on the 5th, and give myself ZERO excuses for not getting a long run over the weekend. So there!
My ride to this Friday's 5K has an injury. I wasn't real excited about running this 5K anyhow, as there are no post-race wine-swilling activities planned. Meanwhile, I found out this week that there is a tiny 1/2 Marathon in St Louis on Saturday morning (race start time 6am- yikes!). Another running buddy is signed up for it, and we're running about the same pace these days. So, I decided to strike while the iron is hot and sign up before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.
I'm going to take the kids over for the Fair St Louis on the 4th, run the 1/2 on the 5th, and give myself ZERO excuses for not getting a long run over the weekend. So there!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Marathon Training is Underway!
OK, so today marks the "official" start of my marathon training. I'm pretty psyched about it! But, technically I did not run today.
I had to come in to work early today for a project. I can't actually trust contractors to have things ready for start-up when they were working on this stuff over the weekend. I've been burned one too many times with that!
That leads me to the question that begs to be asked... If I TELL a project manager to let me know if there are any problems, give him my cell # repeatedly, and then they have problems on Saturday afternoon, why doesn't he CALL??! I hate being surprised at start-up! Grrr!
~Vent Over~
Back to the subject at hand...
I'm pumped about this marathon training. This time, I intend to DO the training, not half-ass my way through it and skip half the long-runs and 75% of the weekday runs. I'm going to RUN, dammit! I'm going to see what I'm capable of. And, if I can drop 30 lbs or so, I'm going to qualify for Boston.
I realize that is what it will take. I've never ran well when I've put on weight.
I've ordered a fresh pair of running shoes, filled my kitchen with healthy stuff, and I'm rarin' to go!
I had to come in to work early today for a project. I can't actually trust contractors to have things ready for start-up when they were working on this stuff over the weekend. I've been burned one too many times with that!
That leads me to the question that begs to be asked... If I TELL a project manager to let me know if there are any problems, give him my cell # repeatedly, and then they have problems on Saturday afternoon, why doesn't he CALL??! I hate being surprised at start-up! Grrr!
~Vent Over~
Back to the subject at hand...
I'm pumped about this marathon training. This time, I intend to DO the training, not half-ass my way through it and skip half the long-runs and 75% of the weekday runs. I'm going to RUN, dammit! I'm going to see what I'm capable of. And, if I can drop 30 lbs or so, I'm going to qualify for Boston.
I realize that is what it will take. I've never ran well when I've put on weight.
I've ordered a fresh pair of running shoes, filled my kitchen with healthy stuff, and I'm rarin' to go!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Sesser Homecoming 5K
I can tell that everyone is on the edge of their seat with my indecision from last week. Unfortunately, I was having internet issues at home and couldn't post :-(
My 5K time was not as bad as it has been, but I've got some improving to do! I finished in 28:08. 
Of course, I chose the 5K race. It was Angie's birthday, there was celebrating to be done!
My 5K time was not as bad as it has been, but I've got some improving to do! I finished in 28:08. It was hot, but the course was very nice, country roads with some rolling hills. This was the first year for this race, so they did have some issues... No water on the course, the miles weren't marked, the age groups were not standard (how can 35-50 be an age split?). All in all, it was a good race, though. I truly enjoyed the run, but I have to admit that I was mostly looking forward to checking out the winery down the road afterward, since I had never been there before.
The winery was nestled in the woods, and was very peaceful and made for an enjoyable time. What better way to celebrate Ang's birthday!?
"OFFICIAL" marathon training begins on Monday, June 30. I will probably be running the marathon in Columbus. We are now trying to get Angie (who has never run more than 5 miles) to try and complete the half. The more peeps on the road trip, the merrier, right?
Friday, June 20, 2008
Decisions, Decisions
Hmmm... Do I run a 5K race tomorrow morning, just down the road from a winery that I've heard positive reviews about... OR, do I run on my own at home and get in a longer run?
I'm leaning toward the 5K. And not because I love running 5K's.
They. are. torture.
Give me a Half Marathon any day. I was built for distance, not speed.
I have Monday and Tuesday scheduled off from work, so I can get some extra miles on those days. I have no plans for them at this point. I am sooooo looking forward to resting and cleaning my bedroom.
I'm leaning toward the 5K. And not because I love running 5K's.
They. are. torture.
Give me a Half Marathon any day. I was built for distance, not speed.
I have Monday and Tuesday scheduled off from work, so I can get some extra miles on those days. I have no plans for them at this point. I am sooooo looking forward to resting and cleaning my bedroom.
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