Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Surprise
Well, it looks like I won't be running in the marathon this year. I will have to post pone the marathon until 2012. I can't say I am too sad about it. We are expecting. Wahoo! so yes, surprise surprise. I have been advised that I can still run, just not the Marathon. So I will still keep up with my 3 mile runs and do more if I think I can. It's all new right now. We are excited for the addition to our family and look forward to what God has planned for this next year.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Update
I am a slacker at writing. I don't write my friends, or my family. So what in the world made me think I could keep up with a blog. I'm not sure. At any rate I started this one last year when I was training for the Richmond 1/2 Marathon. I started it mainly for accountability purposes, but also to track my progress. I'm not consistent enough to ever dream of being able to review products, so not sure how that thought came into my mind. But I do have several products that I will review on my own, just for the heck of it. One day I may print these out in book format so I can have a record of my progress. Who knows.
At any rate I'm back. After several months of trying to simplify my life I am slowly getting there. I no longer have a facebook account, I have ended my responsibility with several groups that I participated in, and I have become pretty good at saying no to things that I don't feel lead to do. Then we put our house on the market to sell and my time was all of the sudden filled up again. C'est la vie right!?
The Richmond Half Marathon
What a fantastic event in which to participate! I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone in the Virginia area, and especially for first time racers. Everyone is so friendly and encouraging. The neighborhoods are lined with residents cheering you on. People have stereos on their porches to provide music along the way. Signs of encouragement lined the paths. My favorite was this huge sign that read "Quiters hold signs like this. Good job runners!" Made me laugh!!!
Things we learned:
Make sure you make arrangements for dinner the night before though. Either bring your own, or plan on ordering carry out from Olive garden or wherever. ALL of the restaurants in the area were PACKED!!!!!!! Would also be a good idea to have someone that is not running drive you there and drop you off. Parking was a nightmare. We almost missed the start. YIKES. That was not fun having to worry about. Thankfully we found a church that had one space I was able to squeeze into. They were so nice and let us use their bathrooms too. Bring a safety pin for the time tracker they give you. I happened to have some extras and we were able to pin our tracker band to our shoes so we didn't have to worry about it coming off. Super glad I did.
My Training:
My training didn't go as well as I had planned. Running with a two year old hinders one a little bit as far as time is concerned. The farthest I was ever able to run on before the race was 5 miles. Then I also took a boot camp class that actually didn't end until the week after the race. Brilliant me went to the class 2 days before the race and we did four sets of stair drills up and down Mt Trashmore. NOT A SMART THING TO DO 2 DAYS BEFORE RUNNING 13.1 MILES!!!!!!!!!!!! Just in case anyone was wondering. My calves still hurt at the starting line.
The Race:
Just out of the starting line I saw an orange tracking band on the ground. Oh how upset I am sure that person was. Immediately made me grateful for the extra safety pin security! =)
Like I said, my calves hurt. We got started and I was worried about how I was going to do ( our plan was to finish around 2:45-3hrs). The tightness thankfully let up around mile 2 or 3. My partner, Christa, was such a great encouragement. We ran together the whole way except for one bathroom stop that I took, and the final 1/4 mile. We talked the whole time, and she was so great about splitting it up into mini races that the daunting task wasn't so scary. I think it was around mile 5 or so that we realized that was the first time we had ever hung out. We didn't do our training together and even though we go to church functions together and talked quite a bit, we had never hung out. Silly. We made a great team though. We kept each other motivated and when we saw how well we were doing on time we made a new goal of finishing before 2:35.
We were pacing so much better my mom almost missed us at the half way point, and then again at the finish line. She had just barely made it to both spots when she saw me. It was such a great encouragement to see her and Faith at the half way point. It gave me the get up and go that I needed!
Post Race Thoughts:
We truly had an amazing experience together and because of that we've decided to run the Marine Corp Marathon 2011. My kneed gave me some trouble starting at mile 12 and kept up until 2 weeks after the race. Thankfully my Uncle Bill is a two time Iron Man participator and has given me some great exercises to help strengthen my knees for the future. We have a race training plan we are trying to follow. This Friday will be 8 miles. Next will be 10. I will keep this posted (hopefully) for nothing other than motivation to keep myself improving. Do I believe anyone cares. No. I'm not that important and would never pretend to me. But I love to get my thoughts out in words. So why not! Plus, an online journal is one less thing hanging around the house I am trying to sell.
At any rate I'm back. After several months of trying to simplify my life I am slowly getting there. I no longer have a facebook account, I have ended my responsibility with several groups that I participated in, and I have become pretty good at saying no to things that I don't feel lead to do. Then we put our house on the market to sell and my time was all of the sudden filled up again. C'est la vie right!?
The Richmond Half Marathon
What a fantastic event in which to participate! I HIGHLY recommend it for anyone in the Virginia area, and especially for first time racers. Everyone is so friendly and encouraging. The neighborhoods are lined with residents cheering you on. People have stereos on their porches to provide music along the way. Signs of encouragement lined the paths. My favorite was this huge sign that read "Quiters hold signs like this. Good job runners!" Made me laugh!!!
Things we learned:
Make sure you make arrangements for dinner the night before though. Either bring your own, or plan on ordering carry out from Olive garden or wherever. ALL of the restaurants in the area were PACKED!!!!!!! Would also be a good idea to have someone that is not running drive you there and drop you off. Parking was a nightmare. We almost missed the start. YIKES. That was not fun having to worry about. Thankfully we found a church that had one space I was able to squeeze into. They were so nice and let us use their bathrooms too. Bring a safety pin for the time tracker they give you. I happened to have some extras and we were able to pin our tracker band to our shoes so we didn't have to worry about it coming off. Super glad I did.
My Training:
My training didn't go as well as I had planned. Running with a two year old hinders one a little bit as far as time is concerned. The farthest I was ever able to run on before the race was 5 miles. Then I also took a boot camp class that actually didn't end until the week after the race. Brilliant me went to the class 2 days before the race and we did four sets of stair drills up and down Mt Trashmore. NOT A SMART THING TO DO 2 DAYS BEFORE RUNNING 13.1 MILES!!!!!!!!!!!! Just in case anyone was wondering. My calves still hurt at the starting line.
The Race:
Just out of the starting line I saw an orange tracking band on the ground. Oh how upset I am sure that person was. Immediately made me grateful for the extra safety pin security! =)
Like I said, my calves hurt. We got started and I was worried about how I was going to do ( our plan was to finish around 2:45-3hrs). The tightness thankfully let up around mile 2 or 3. My partner, Christa, was such a great encouragement. We ran together the whole way except for one bathroom stop that I took, and the final 1/4 mile. We talked the whole time, and she was so great about splitting it up into mini races that the daunting task wasn't so scary. I think it was around mile 5 or so that we realized that was the first time we had ever hung out. We didn't do our training together and even though we go to church functions together and talked quite a bit, we had never hung out. Silly. We made a great team though. We kept each other motivated and when we saw how well we were doing on time we made a new goal of finishing before 2:35.
We were pacing so much better my mom almost missed us at the half way point, and then again at the finish line. She had just barely made it to both spots when she saw me. It was such a great encouragement to see her and Faith at the half way point. It gave me the get up and go that I needed!
Post Race Thoughts:
We truly had an amazing experience together and because of that we've decided to run the Marine Corp Marathon 2011. My kneed gave me some trouble starting at mile 12 and kept up until 2 weeks after the race. Thankfully my Uncle Bill is a two time Iron Man participator and has given me some great exercises to help strengthen my knees for the future. We have a race training plan we are trying to follow. This Friday will be 8 miles. Next will be 10. I will keep this posted (hopefully) for nothing other than motivation to keep myself improving. Do I believe anyone cares. No. I'm not that important and would never pretend to me. But I love to get my thoughts out in words. So why not! Plus, an online journal is one less thing hanging around the house I am trying to sell.
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