2015 Memorial Half Marathon Recap

This is super late, but here's my brief recap of the half on April 26. It was the 20th anniversary of the bombing. I didn't live in OKC, and I was only in 5th grade, but I remember what I was doing when they told us. I was in detention, of all places, for not doing my math homework lol. The teachers didn't tell us until lunchtime, even though the bombing occurred at 9:02am. The bombing is a sensitive memory for many Oklahomans. The moment of silence by the survivor tree was poignant and emotional.

 

I decided to wear my calf sleeves to fend off any lingering shin problems from changing shoes. They worked alright. I felt very color-coordinated, lol. Mike dropped me off near the start line around 5:15am. The survivor tree service started at 5:30, I think. The race started at 6:30.

 

The race went as expected-I was slow. My garmin said that I averaged a 11:28min/mile, which isn't too shabby, but I've done better. My time goal was not a PR, but to just finish in less than 2:30. I was struggling, but still managed to continue on, and I was on pace to finish in time. Then, around mile 11 or so, my left big toe completely curled up, and I couldn't uncurl it. It didn't hurt at all, which was weird, but I couldn't continue running. I ended up sitting on someone's lawn so I could take my shoe off and massage my toe until it straightened out. It took about 3 mins, and of course, my finish time was 2:33. Once the toe was straightened out, the end of the race was fine. I even tried to race some dude at the end, but he refused. Weirdo.

I got my shiny medal, and a finisher's shirt that actually fits (woot!), and went home and slept for several hours.

Over halfway done!

Ok, so we can all agree that I suck at blogging. But I'm busy with work, school, plus I have to actually run. This is week 12 of training. So far, it's going fairly well. There have been some weird issues going on, but I'm trying to figure out how to manage them. I've run 5 races so far: 3 5Ks, one obstacle run, and one half marathon. I've got 2 new PRs and 1 age group placing. As Inigo says, "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up..." (kudos to you if you have to complete that quote in your head. We should be friends!)

8/16/13: Hottest Friday Night 5K
28:32 (almost a PR! dang it), ave pace 9:12. Wiley Post Park, 82F
21/68 in F25-29

Sizzling Summer series overall: (rankings based on gun time)
F25-29: 9/34 (top 26.5%) <----top 10 of my age group, ya'll. :D
Overall F: 59/173 (top 34%)
Overall: 138/283 (top 48.8%)
Total time 1:30:19

8/31/13: Choctaw Nation Labor Day Festival 5K
31:57. Ave pace 10:18. Tuskahoma, 85F at 8:30am, full sun. (In other words, a heat stroke suck-fest. This is why I slowed down.)
2/18 in F24-29. This is likely to be my only age group placing for a long time, folks. I can't place in city races because I'm a turtle. If the heat isn't too bad, maybe I could win my age group next year. I never got my medal for this race, which makes me sad.

9/28/13: Gravedigger Obstacle Run
1:51:14. I was seriously scared of this race after my experience in the mud factor, but this was amazingly fun. Seriously, it was one of the best races I've ever run, and I will do it again next year. I at least touched all of the obstacles, but I didn't complete 5 of them. I ran this with my bootcamp friends. It rained for the entire race, but the temperature was perfect while we were running. I fared much better after this race-I only had a few bruises, and my left ankle was a little sore. No broken skin, and no sprained ankles this time.
25/42 F25-29
73/135 F
191/299 overall

Before:

After: (OMG it was so cold once we stopped running, hence the terrible pic)

This is me on the following Tuesday. I am a fan of periodical locker-room selfies, but I love how I can see the bruises on my underarm from the 2x4s that I hugged at the top of one of the platform obstacles (I'm scared of heights!). Plus, it's sort of nice to look back and have something to compare myself against.

I have had the Spirit of Survival (SoS) Half on my calendar since they announced the date for this year's race. My LRS announced a 5K on the same day, and I immediately dismissed it because I can't be in two places at the same time. Then one of my bootcamp friends kindly pointed out that the half started at 7:30 in Lawton, but the 5K didn't start until 3pm in OKC. Plenty of time to get from point A to point B, with some time to shower and eat in between. So, I present to you the craziest thing I've ever done (to date): 2 races in one day, one of which is over 10 miles long lol.

10/6/13:
SoS Half, in Lawton. I had to leave at 5am to get to Lawton by 6:45am. The race started at 7:30am. It wasn't nearly as cold this year, but I still consider 44F to be below my comfort level. As usual, I started out a little too fast. My first 2 miles were both under 9 mins. Funny how last year, my first mile was in the upper 9s, and that was way too fast. Anyway, things were great until my left hip started hurting around 10 miles in, and I started getting a cramp in one part of my abs. The ab pain was enough to stop me and I had fingernail marks in my palm. This feels different from a side stitch; I'm not sure what's going on. Sucking in will help reduce the pain, but I still have to ride it out. In all, I had 3 ab cramps during the run. The hip pain was bad enough that I had to fight to run the last mile. My A goal was 2:15, and my super-secret goal was 1:59. I knew around 8 miles that 1:59 was impossible, but 2:15 was attainable. When I approached the finish line, the announcer said "and now we're at 2:16." I was so angry! I knew that I had probably gotten 2:15 on my chip time. It wasn't until later that I was able to check the results: My gun time was 2:15:57, and my chip time was 2:15:26. But my previous time was 2:36, and I was over there upset about a 20 min PR! But I'm very happy that I met my goal time.

Time: 2:15:26, ave pace 10:20 <----20 min PR!
23/39 F25-29
108/253 F

So I went home and showered, tried to eat something, and then went to work to meet my bootcamp friends so we could carpool.

Runtoberfest 5K
I ran way more of this race than I thought I would be able to. It's amazing how running with very motivated friends can help you push yourself. My hip was ouchy, and the cranky ab attacked me 2x during the run. We had to walk one hill, but other than that I think I ran most of the run. I was fairly calorie-deficient at this point, so most of it is a blur. Actually, most of the day is a blur too. I fell asleep by 7pm lol. I wore the tech shirt from the half during the 5K; I think my favorite part of the entire race was a guy cheering on the sidelines. When I passed him, he saw my shirt and said "hey I ran that this morning!" I said, "I did too!" and kept running right past him. That made me feel a little bit badass. :D

Time: 30:38, ave pace 9:53
80/199 F25-29

This was my last race in the F25-29 age group. My 30th birthday is this coming Monday. I don't have any races scheduled until the Nov 24 marathon. The Putnam City Cancer Classic 5K that benefits my workplace falls on the same day as my 20 miler, and I'm not willing to compromise that long run in any way. I think I'll go cheer on my friends, and then go do my long run. The 5K is at Lake Hefner, but I might go do my long run at Earlywine instead. The wind coming off of the lake can be really cold, so it'll depend on the weather. I'll probably have to pull out my thermals by that point.

I am in an ASL interpreter program at school, and they have an upcoming ASL walk at the OKC zoo on October 19. If anyone local reads this, please consider going! I sort of groaned a little bit because it's a walk (I want to run!), but it's still going to be a good time. I have a scheduled 18 mile long run that evening. Because my 30th birthday is on the 14th, I am going to make that long run a 30K and do 18.64 miles.

44 days until the RT 66 marathon! I have a few kinks to work out,  mainly my IT band and mysterious ab cramps. I am making extra sure that I foam roll regularly; I've sort of slacked on that over the last few weeks, and I hope that that is why my IT band/hip acted up during the half. I don't know what to do about the random ab cramps, beyond knowing that sucking in makes it go away a little bit quicker. I have plenty of time to figure all of that out though. This is my motto for this cycle/semester, because both running and learning ASL are tough. But I am tougher.

Training starts tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the big day! I have been counting down to July 22 almost since I finished my first marathon. Today I weighed and measured myself and took some before pics. I'd like to see what kind of changes that my body goes through this time. When I trained for the OKC Memorial Marathon, I was still working 2 jobs, and my eating habits were not so great. There was a lot of redbull, coffee, and mcdonalds in my diet. I gained about 10lbs over the course of training, and it was not all muscle. This time, I'm eating healthier snacks and I'm doing weekly speedwork sessions. I bought a new scale last night that measures weight and body fat percentage. This morning I weighed 102.6 and the body fat percentage was 20.4%. I'm not entirely sure that I trust this new scale, as my weight is about 4lbs less than normal. But we'll see. I'm going to try to track my calories every day on Myfitnesspal.com.

I've been told that the Rt66 course is quite hilly, so I'm adding hills to my longest mid-week run on Tuesdays. The vast majority of my Tuesday runs will be on a treadmill. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm going to do the hills towards the end of the run when my legs are already tired. I hope that it will be enough. I am planning to drive to Yukon to run what I've been told is a legendary hill with some friends at least once this fall. This is my hills plan:

Date                Mileage           Hills Workout

1: July 23       3          1m run, 1m hills, 1m run

2: July 30       3          1m run, 1m hills, 1m run

3: Aug 6          4          1m run, 2m hills, 1m run

4: Aug 13       4          1m run, 2m hills, 1m run

5: Aug 20       5          2m run, 2m hills, 1m run

6: Aug 27       5          2m run, 2m hills, 1m run

7: Sept 3         6          3m run, 2m hills, 1m run

8: Sept 10      6          2m run, 3m hills, 1m run

9: Sept 17      7          3m run, 3m hills, 1m run

10: Sept 24    7          4m run, 2m hills, 1m run

11: Oct 1        8          4m run, 3m hills, 1m run

12: Oct 8        8          5m run, 2m hills, 1m run

13: Oct 15      9          4m run, 4m hills, 1m run

14: Oct 22      10       5m run, 4m hills, 1m run

15: Oct 29      11       5m run, 5m hills, 1m run

16: Nov 5       9          5m run, 4m hills, 1m run

17: Nov 12     6          3m run, 2m hills, 1m run

18: Nov 19     4          Easy run, no hills

                       

One Hill:         1%-5%, then 6%-7% for 4 mins, then back down to 2% for 2 min.     

I have a few goals for this training cycle:

• Track calories every day
• Drink a minimum of 55oz of water daily
• Complete 90% of my scheduled runs
• PR in both the SoS half and Rt66 full

In other news, I have met 2 of my between marathon goals: run a sub-30 minute 5K, and do a 5K race without any walking breaks. Funnily enough, they did not happen in the same race. My sub-30 came on the 4th of July. I ran the Stars & Stripes Forever 5K at Stars & Stripes park. My time was 28:13! My first mile was 8:33, so I went out too fast as usual. I ended up taking 2 brief walking breaks that I can remember.

On Friday, I ran the second race of the Sizzlin Summer Series, the Hotter 5K. It was so very hot! The temp was still 93F at the 8pm starting time. I managed to run the entire race without stopping though! I picked a girl that was running just the right pace that I could keep and I followed her for quite a while. Then I picked it up at about 2.8 miles or so and sprinted to the end. I wish I had started the sprinting just a little sooner though-my time was 30:03. So close to a sub-30! The weekly speedwork has been paying off!

Training starts tomorrow with treadmill sprints in the morning!

Spirit of Survival Half Marathon Race Recap

I did it! I finished my first half marathon! My time was 2:36:45, which blew out both my official goal of <3:15 and my secret probably-not-attainable goal of 2:45. I'm fairly sore today, but I'll be ok.

Earlier last week, the weather reports all said that the temp when the race started would be around 45F, which I could probably handle since you're supposed to dress like it's 20 degrees warmer. However, as we got further into the week, it became clear that the temp was more likely to be in the upper 30s (correct-it was 38F at the start). I wasn't really worried about running 13.1 miles, but my nervousness manifested in a freakout about my clothes. I had my clothes planned out for the past 2 months, and I've done all of my long runs in them. I wanted to wear an underarmour tank and compression shorts. That won't work for 38F, so I wore some compression capris, my underarmour tank, and my running jacket. I added some cute gloves and an ear warmer and I survived.

Here are the tech shirt and my bib number. I find it very ironic that my number for this race was 17, and my number for my first race (the redbud classic) was 717.

We were freezing to death before the race. I'm pretty sure I was about 10x colder than Gnome was.

The race itself was fairly smooth. Either my mymyrun's GPS was off, or the mile markers were off. My app would yell at me about .1 miles or so before I passed each mile marker. I took my water bottle with me so I could use the pouch to hold extra sport beans (cherry and grape). I drank water until about 4 miles or so, and then I started drinking gatorade at every other water stop. I refilled my water bottle at the other stops. I went through 2.5 of the 4 sport bean pouches I brought with me (both cherries and 1/2 of a grape). I managed to not stop for the portapotties, although I don't think I'll be able to avoid it when I run a marathon. I was not able to run the entire race, but I didn't walk as much as I thought I would need to either. The turnaround point is at the top of a hill, and it was a bit rough getting up there. The rest of the course had gradual hills, and part of it was flat (mostly the part on the city streets). There was a tiny hill at the end of the race, which I thought was a bit cruel, but I ran it anyway.

Here I am, about 50 feet from the finish line:

And now I'm finishing:

My app says that I actually ran 13.59 miles, although I did forget to turn it off for a few mins in the confusion after I finished. It was like my brain completely shut off in the excitement of finishing. Also, my legs decided that they were going to cramp up if I stopped moving, so I had to keep walking. At one point I was walking circles around Liz and Katie because I just couldn't stand still.

We took our obligatory photo with our medals and went back to the hotel. Liz refused to get in a pic with us, unfortunately.

Stats:
13.1 miles
2:36:45
12:01 pace
165/233 females
24/33 in 25-29 females

Other stats:
Mapmyrun says I ran 13.59, with an 11:37 pace. I'll go with the official stats for this, but I like the MMR stats better :)

Training for this race was sort of difficult, since I initially pulled my hamstring on the Tuesday before training started, and then re-injured it in week 8. I ran about half of the mileage that I should have (108.74 of the 177.4-204.4 scheduled). I only ran the mileage that I was supposed to for 4 of the 12 weeks. But I'm proud of my effort, and I've learned some things about injury management, listening to my body, and differentiating between regular pain and injury pain.

I have finished this:

Now I'm starting this:

139 days until the Cowtown Marathon in Ft. Worth, TX, on Feb 24. It'll be the first marathon for both Liz and me. She started training 10 weeks ago, and I am jumping in at week 11.

**Note: the end of the half marks 252.77 miles on my shoes.**