Miracle Match 13.1

Last year I ran this half as part of my marathon training & felt really strong through it. This year? Not even close to feeling strong. I simply did not put in the amount of effort necessary for me to feel as though I successfully completed a half.

The furthest training run I had done was 7 miles. I chose to sleep in, spend time with my friends/family over the holiday break and just fell back into my running slump that’s been hanging around since last March. I briefly considered not running it but then I remembered Amanda from The Lady Okie was going to be there – and seriously, I couldn’t back out. I was also living on that runners high from the previous days 5k.

We met up about 30 minutes before the start of the race so I could give her bag/bib I picked up at the expo and also, to you know, awkwardly hug and say a little prayer of thanks that neither of us appear to be psycho serial killers. You can read Amanda’s recap of the experience here.

Originally, Amanda was going to go for a PR but when she saw how awesome I was (I’m assuming) she decided she’d slow down and stay at my pace. Which means, I basically had a 3 hour run-date where we talked about running (duh), life, God, stupid water stations that had no water, and took selfies (something neither one of us usually do on runs).

Around Mile 4.

I don’t normally get to run with someone, so it was definitely a nice change of pace for me – and I’m pretty grateful for it since I was over it by Mile 9 due to my wonderful training schedule I didn’t adhere too.

Telling Amanda to hurry up.*

*Lies. We actually think we’re just super funny & clever.

We ran through Baylor campus and the new stadium, the zoo, and the hills. Those damn hills. I was already in pain from them so at Mile 11 when a dancing chicken (literally) asked us if we wanted to do Jacob’s Ladder for extra bling, both Amanda and I hit those stairs like a boss.

Amanda’s mom (who is super wonderful & sweet) found us right before we were set to hit the finish line and then we were done!

We ended up getting a bunch of great photos (they were free this year) and ate some fajitas at the finish line once we got our extra bling for Jacob’s Ladder. 

It was a great experience – although, it makes me a little sad that Amanda doesn’t live closer because I’m pretty sure we’d have BFF necklaces if we did.

Well, now that I think about it – we kind of do – I mean, race medals are just like BFF necklaces, right?

Yep, that’s what I’m going with.

It was beautiful weather, a fun experience and knowing me – I’ll end up doing it again next year (creature of habit when it comes to this race). Ha!

Until we run again, friends!

Miracle Match 2015 Training Shenanigans

This was my first week back into half-marathon training. I’ve been out of the running long distance game for what seems like forever. I have done a couple of 5ks over the past few months but the last time I ran anything longer than 3.1 miles was in April (just a few short weeks after my failed marathon.)

After devoting so much time to running over the past few years, I think I got a little burned out. I told myself that when I start running again, I want to do quality over quantity. I mean, last year I ran 14 races. FOURTEEN. I never really got much better/faster even though that’s something I kept saying I wanted. I’m pretty sure it was because I refused to focus my energy on one race. Instead, I was all like I WANT ALL THE RACES AND I WANT THEM NOW. It was fun though.

Also, race registrations can be expensive and with the starting of Alfred’s business, I’ve been a little more conservative in my spending.  When I chose my next long-distance race I wanted to devote some quality running to it.

So, what race did I choose?

Miracle Match 5k & Half-Marathon 2015!

I ran this last year as part of my marathon training. I love the course, it’s practically in my backyard & you get extra swag for running the 5k on Saturday, then the half on Sunday. I do love me some swag. (Also, this was my first ever 5k five years ago, so it holds a special place in my heart.)

But to make this even more exciting I’m actually going to meet Amanda from The Lady Okie. I plan on giving her a wonderfully awkward hug & forcing her to take fake running selfie’s with me.

Here is my tentative training schedule. This is fairly fluid, depending on what’s going on in my life I’m up to being flexible as long as I end up getting my long runs in. We shall see.

On the speed/tempo days I’m just going to use my Jeff Galloway running app. It will tell me exactly what to do and when. I’m clueless when it comes to actually getting faster, so I’m just going to trust he knows what he’s talking about and take it from there.

Moj days are whatever she sets up for us. Sometimes that’s a 40 minute burpee session, other times it’s a 40 minute stair workout. She likes to make me swear & sweat. I like her for putting up with my snarky attitude. Win/Win.

Rest/Lift days are just that. If running is wearing me out, I’ll take a rest day. If I feel up to a weight lifting day, I’ll pop open my BodySpace app and get some dead lifts in.

I’m excited to see how this training schedule will work with my WeightWatchers. I’ve never actually lost weight on a running plan (EAT ALL THE FOODS) and it will be interesting to see if it can be done.

(I know it can but dude, running has the ability to make the best of us HANGRY, so yeah.)

Any races in your future?!

Runners Tell All: My Proudest Moment

Your Favorite and/or Proudest Running Moment
Crossing that first finish line? Running a mile without walking?
What’s your proudest running moment to date? Brag on yourself!

When Amanda first mentioned this link-up, I scanned all the topics with excitement trying to figure out what I’d post for each one of them, and I knew – without a doubt – that when this topic came up what I would choose. I just knew it’d be the moment I crossed the finish line of my first marathon. (This link-up started a couple months before my race.)

But that didn’t exactly pan out like I wanted, so while I’m very proud of what I did accomplish, it’s not at the top of my list when I start scanning my brain for great race moments over the past 2 1/2 years. (Dudes. I’ve been actively running that long, CRAZY.)

The thing my mind always settles back into is my third half-marathon – The Bearathon. In that blog post, I explain a little why it meant so much to me at the time but to sum it up – it was the race I had worked for (in my mind) for at least a year. It was ultimately my goal race, even though it wasn’t technically my first half.

Everything just came together – the weather was great, I felt strong (despite the freakish hills), and I made sure to enjoy every single mile (even when I wanted to chew my legs off and jump in a taxi). There was also no one there at the finish line for me.

Does that sound sad? I promise, it wasn’t.

It made it full circle for me. No one was there to push me to start running, I was just there – alone in a gym, scared as hell that people were going to judge my 200 lbs of awesomeness for jiggling on a treadmill but I did it. And I did it over and over again, until finally – there I was alone at a finish line knowing I fucking did it. And it was wonderful. I proved to myself what I was capable of and …then I videoed my reaction. I’m glad I did, it serves me a good reminder of who I was, who I am and who I’m going to be.

National Running Day 2014

Last year on National Running Day I went back & forth on whether or not I should post something inspirational or motivational – I eventually decided on doing neither.

Instead I decided to share some of my “best” race photos over that past year. And by best I mean – absolutely shameful. The kind of photos you would un-tag of yourself if they showed up on your Facebook feed and then give your friend the stank eye for even uploading them in the first place. Well, everyone except me.

You see, I love every single race photo I take. Even the bad ones (especially the bad ones!) because they share my personal message that you don’t have to look like a runner to be a runner. It’s all in the attitude you have.

 From sliding down a 40 foot tarp into a pool of mud.

To using all your strength for a jumping photo in a race only to find out the photographer didn’t even capture the jump. Or maybe he did and the fact is, you really just have no ups.
#whitegirlscantjump

To running incredibly fast by your husband that he catches the most amazing action* shot known to man. Even though clearly there’s a girl in a boot beating you.

*this photo may or may not have been staged for the purposes of this blog

And there was that one time when I had no neck. After the race, I went home and the only shampoo I could use was Head & Shoulders. Get it? Get it?! BECAUSE I HAVE NO NECK, IT’S ONLY FOR HEAD AND SHOULDERS.
Oh, I kill me. 

Hope you all had a wonderful National Running Day! Until next year!

Bearathon 2014

I signed up for this half-marathon before my marathon thinking that 3 weeks would be plenty of time to recover, get back in the groove of things and knock it out of the park.

I was right about it being plenty of time for me to recover – 3 days after my marathon my legs and body actually felt well enough to begin running again. However, emotionally I was not ready to get back in the groove of things and did nothing for two weeks after my marathon. Except, like, eat everything. The Tuesday before the Bearathon I managed to run 2 miles (thanks to social media for accountability!).

Basically, I ran 24 miles one day, did nothing for 2 weeks, ran 2 miles and then woke up early Saturday morning to attempt to run 13.1 miles on a notoriously hill driven course. If you didn’t already know, I clearly make good life decisions.

If you’ve been here for a while, you may recall this post – Bearathon 2013 – from last year. It was the race I had been working towards which kind of catapulted me into this runner lifestyle. I even vlogged my reaction to killing it. I never knew I was a crier until I had my daughter and started running. Hormones be crazy, yo.

Anyway, back to the current race recap.

I woke up around 5:30 am, got dressed, took a selfie, (because duh) and made it to the start line around 6:30 am. The half-marathon portion was set to start at 7 am and the 5k portion at 7:20 am. The race started 5 minutes late but they had music going and kept us informed, so it didn’t feel like a big deal to me.

What did feel like a big deal to me? THE HUMIDITY. The weather was in the low 60s but the humidity was 100%. I hadn’t even made it to Mile 2 and I was already sweat-soaked.

Around mile 2.5, I talked with a lovely older lady named Lynn, who I thought was maybe in her early 50s – turns out she was 69! She had been running for over 30 years, had both her hips replaced and was still trucking along. She was pretty motivating and right around mile 3, I said goodbye and pushed forward.

Like last year, they had students at every mile marker for the water stations – and it was insane. There was so much cheering and yelling, you could actually hear it from the previous mile marker. If you are ever in the Waco, Texas area and want a challenging course that has some wonderful crowd support – Bearathon is for you. (Also, I’ll totally do it with you too and then we can go day drinking!)

Mile markers had water and Gatorade, a few of them had snacks (there was bacon at one, but I learned my lesson last time and politely refused). I ended up using Shotbloks for my ‘fuel’ by downing a couple every 4 miles or so, it kept me feeling from empty and I’m starting to find I like them better than energy gels.

I’m only smiling because I was finally done with the hills.

I went into this race not expecting much considering how little I had been running and I crossed the finish line in 3:00:31 – which is a normal for me. The course had a time limit of 4 hours which equaled a 16 minute/mile pace.

Sometimes my music doesn’t do it for me, so I’ll cut it off and count to myself with every step. 1.2.3.4.1.2.3.4. Some people have mantra’s, I have numbers. It works for me. And with all that said, the above photo is my counting face. Lovely, isn’t it?

Something I did notice was the support dwindling/stations running out of Gatorade near the end of the race for me. I mean, I’m slower than average but still finished a full hour ahead of the time limit and it can be discouraging - so I can only imagine what it felt like for those that finished after me.

For the record, this is not the first time I’ve noticed feeling like a ‘loose-end’ in a race where I was near the end of the pack. So, it’s not just a Bearathon thing (and I don’t remember feeling that way for the 2013 race) But, I do think it’s something that should be addressed for those of us out there who love to run but just do it on the slow.

After I grabbed my medal & t-shirt, I stuck around for a bit to cheer on people and then managed to steal a whole pizza. I am not ashamed.

I know I’ve provided you all with a lot of fairly decent pictures in today’s post, and that’s probably a little disappointing. I mean, who wants to see someone looking good while running – no one. No one wants to see that.

So, I know the real reason you’re here – for the crappy race day photos I’m always so proud of. So, without further ado:

This was my attempt at a jumping photo.
All it resulted in was a head shake from the photographer & weird hand placement.

 

Sweat, hills, and counting make me lose the ability to form a neck.

And this next one is for those of you who have asked me how I can be so happy during a race. The fact is, often times, I’m not – I’m just struggling to get through the next mile – but when I see a camera, it’s automatic. I turn into a giant hamball who immediately goes for the thumbs up.

Until we run again, friends!

Miracle Match Weekend Race Recap

This past weekend I double upped with a 5k on Saturday and a half-marathon on Sunday plus I added 5 miles after the half on Sunday to give me 18 miles for the day.

Sounds crazy, right? It is but I have only 4 weeks until I lace up my shoes and throw down 26.2 miles so it was a necessary evil. And one that just helped affirm that while my legs may be tired and the sweat may be flowing from my pits, my mind & heart are ready to tackle this.

And what’s the thing they say about running being mental? Yeah. That. Anyway, less about marathon madness and more about race shenanigans!

For the past 4 years, I’ve ran the 5k portion of this race. It’s actually the first 5k I ever participated in (before I was hit with the running bug) and has kind of been a tradition for me since. I considered running the half portion last year but had already registered for the Houston Half and since I was fairly new to running longer distances, I wasn’t sure if could handle it.

Besides Miracle Match boasts as being the Toughest Little Marathon in Texas, so it was a little scary as a newer runner. Below is the elevation change/hills for the half marathon course from my Garmin.

I knew after I finished the 5k in 2013 that I would sign up to run the half in 2014, just to see. And when an email showed up in my inbox with a discount code for signing up to do a double race weekend, I couldn’t say no.  Also, 100% of the proceeds of this race goes to Be The Match to help people who need marrow transplants.

Yeah, not 80% or 90% but 100 freaking percent. How amazing is that? It was also one of the most personable & personal races I’ve ever run. I would highly recommend this race to anyone – even out-of-staters. On to the recap.

January 25th, 2014 5k

The weather was cold. With wind chill in teens & upper 20s so I went with running tights, long sleeve shirt, pullover, gloves (touch screen that I scored from my MIL over Christmas!) and a headband.

Overall, good choices. I was definitely over the gloves by Mile 1 and considered chunking them at My Emilie (who was awesome and volunteered at the water station!) but didn’t want to seem like a drama queen so I powered through the finger sweat. I didn’t want to really push crazy hard for this simply because I knew I was planning on doing the half the next day and overall, these races were set up as part of my marathon training. Last thing I want is an injury.

Time: 38:25 with a 12:23 average per mile.

My 2013 time was 40:30 with a 13:03 average per mile, so maybe not a 5k PR but definitely a course PR! Since starting to run one of my favorite things has been to do the same race each year (if possible) just to be able to compare. It’s a great way to remind yourself of where you are and that the work you’ve put in isn’t in vain.

Here’s a few race pictures from the 5k. They turned out, in one word, glorious. I seriously couldn’t stop laughing at myself when I checked them out. (Yes, it’s true, I’m easily amused.)

Totally not planned but couldn’t have been more perfect. Leo + Tam = Running Love

Once I crossed the finish line, Emilie & I had a girls day where we went to Target and then carb-loaded on some Italian food at Johnny Carino’s. I thought about taking a picture of my Smoked Chicken & Jalapeno Ravioli to share with you but then I took one bite and pretty much shoveled the rest in my mouth at an epic speed. It was amazeballs and I have no regrets.

January 26th, 2014 Half-Marathon

The weather was warmer (in the 30s) and it really was a great weekend for a race. Based on my experience for the 5k, I opted to not wear gloves and a headband. I thought I might still need a pullover so I started the race with a newbie I picked up at Target during our Emilie & Tam day. I’m actually wearing it today as I type this and y’all, it’s wonderful. I love it. The brand is C9 and everyone should have one. I wore running capris instead of tights (Christmas present from My Emilie. Have I mentioned lately how much I love her? Because I totally do.) and I recently purchased a SpiBelt to try/use for my marathon. This was the first race I’ve used it with and it did wonderful. I’ll do a review on that in a later post.

I started the race telling myself I’ll run as I’m comfortable and try to focus on just getting to the 13 since I had planned on running 5 more miles afterwards (and I did!) to make my total for the day 18. Almost immediately I felt a presence right next to me, same pace, same relaxed mode for at least a quarter of mile before she turned to me and said, “ 12:30 pace?” and I turned back and said, “That’s the plan. Fingers crossed, right?”

We introduced ourselves (side note: runners are amazing and wonderful and crazy friendly) her name was Adrian and her dad/sister were also running. We ran the first 6 miles together before we hit the hills. Once we got to the hills my plan was to speed walk up them and run down, her plan was to run the entire race so for the rest of the race I was a minute or two behind her.

This was at Mile 5 right before I ditched my pullover (thanks Adrian for holding my watch!) and just tied it around my waist. She really helped pull me through and it was nice having someone to run with for a bit.

At Mile 8 I got bacon. Like, literally, I got bacon. We were running through a residential part of the race and there was a group of 5-6 college kids in front of their home cheering runners on with cowbells. One girl had a giant bowl and as I got closer, I heard someone yell, “We got bacon!” So as I ran by I grabbed a handful and yelled, “HELL YEAH”. They started jumping up and down screaming, “SOMEONE TOOK THE BACON!” I popped a piece in my mouth and immediately regretted it. Not that it wasn’t tasty but it was bacon and kind of dry and I had no water for the next half mile.

I’ve decided that at any point in my life when I think something is going to be great and it turns out to be a bad decision I’m going to call it “Got Bacon”.

Yo, I decided to run a marathon but then I got bacon when my legs fell off at mile 21.

The race split up based on the race you were running right after Mile 5 too – the half went straight, the full & relay turned left and the 10k turned right. The half & marathon courses met back up around mile 10 I believe.

At Mile 11, the lead racer for the full marathon passed me. So basically this dude ran 26 miles faster than I could run 13. Dude was in beastmode.

At about that time I met another running partner (didn’t grab her name but she was from the Dallas area and said she loved the course and it was better than the Austin 3M she ran the weekend before – winning!) and we talked for about a mile before I started getting eager to finish and decided to push it a bit.

I know, I know, I run slow enough that it looks like I’m walking but I promise I was running. Also, the guy in the background is getting sassy about it, so don’t mind him.

I wasn’t expecting to run this (much harder) course any faster than my last race since I still had 5 miles to throw down but y’all, TOTALLY PR’ED ON THIS BITCH.

Time: 2:56:09 with a 13:26 average per mile.

When I crossed the finish line I was thrilled! I really think it helped that I had people to talk to during the race to keep my mind off the mileage.

I picked up my extra swag (for running two races, I ended up getting 3 shirts!), my medal and seriously considered grabbing a free fajita & margarita but instead I booked it to my truck and then to the house to finish up my mileage for the day on the treadmill.

I was exhausted by the end of it but I didn’t sit down (I do have a kid/husband to tend to) and tried to keep myself busy in hopes that I wouldn’t be too crazy sore come Monday. I finally sat down at 7pm to watch a movie with the husband and I didn’t make it 15 minutes before I passed smooth out. I woke up around 9pm with stickers on me (thanks Lillie) and a husband telling me I’d be more comfortable in our bed.

I moved around a lot on Monday to ward off the soreness, and it wasn’t too terrible. Mostly if I sat for an extended period of time (desk job, woohoo) and then sat up and by Tuesday there wasn’t much soreness left in me. HOWEVER, I did manage to chafe fairly bad on thighs (even though I wore capris) so I busted out the Desitin and am now aware that for my marathon I should probably have some Vaseline I can get to incase I need it.

Overall, this was a beautiful course that you should totally do. It’s for a wonderful cause and they really do a great job at making it personal. There were signs along the course for motivation and the volunteer stations really out-did their selves.

Until we run again!

Jingle Bun Run Race Recap

On December 14th, 2014 I participated in a Half-Marathon put on by Schlotzky’s in Temple, Texas and I’m pretty sure my legs fell off at some point.

I was not as prepared for this race as I had thought I was going to be – which is, actually all my fault seeing as I didn’t get off my ass and put in the miles for it like I should have. Luckily, I was not alone in my faults – as my friend Courtney was in the same predicament!

This was the first race I’ve ever run with someone and y’all, it was pretty awesome. We talked prior to the race about our plan of attack and when realizing we had roughly the same pace, figured we’d stick together. It helped me through some of the later miles when my legs were like, “YOU DID THIS TO YOURSELF I SHALL CRAMP NOW! HAHA.” We chatted, talked, complained, and tried to keep moving as the wind was shoveling his skanky face down our, uh, face.

Temperatures were in the high 30s, with wind gusts up to 20 mph – so it wasn’t exactly pleasant but I managed to finish in 3:01:30. That’s about average for me, so despite not really putting in the time on my feet I still got-r-done.

We were pretty much all over the place with our mile times, there was stretching, walking & talking going on so we figured as much. The course was a loop we did twice (turns out I’m not a fan of loop races), so when we hit the 10k point I was like man, I’m feeling better than I thought – let’s do this thing! And uh then, mile 10 happened and yeah, well I was fucking done. I tried to just focus on pumping my arms, so my feet would move and telling myself that “I get to do this.” It helped just enough to cross the finish line.

I knew I was going to be pretty miserable and sore the second I crossed the finish line, so I was really looking forward to grabbing some food and taking a shower. Unfortunately, the daughter had other plans and we ended up going to the Urgent Care for a serious ear infection situation. I love that she can talk now, but hearing a kid scream “MAMA I NEED MEDICINE” for 45 minutes on the way to the doctor is no way to celebrate 13.1 miles.

We finally made it home with medicine and I hit the shower around 5pm that evening.  It was a long, cold day but really was a great race. Schlotzky’s & Temple Parks & Recreation did a great job organizing the run, and all the volunteers kicked ass motivating us to keep on trucking. I wouldn’t mind running this one again next year (better prepared of course) simply because the medal is pretty adorable. And incredibly tasty looking.

Mmm..medal.

My next race isn’t scheduled until the end of January (unless of course I get suckered into one – which happens) where I’ll be double medaling. Yeah, that’s right. DOUBLE MEDALING. Basically I’ll run the 5k portion on Saturday and the half on Sunday. In the meantime, the soreness I felt after this race and my mental attitude really has cemented the fact that I need to get fucking serious about this marathon training and stop letting excuses make my long weekend runs fall to the wayside.

Here’s to running over Christmas break and not dying!

Until we run again!

Underprepared 2.0

A few weeks ago I had written how I felt underprepared for a 10k I participated in. I didn’t think I was (obviously not, I mean I did PR – yahoo!) but I sure felt that way. Even though I had been following my training plan, I guess I was just nervous because it was the longest distance I had covered in months.

And tomorrow, I’ll be throwing down twice that with a half-marathon I signed up for on a whim.

But where I felt underprepared for that 10k, for this half – I actually am underprepared.

I haven’t ran anything in over a week (I have done a few other workouts though) and my longest run so far has been an 8 miler (done about 3 weeks ago). If you’ll look over most training plans circulating the internets they have you run at least one 10-miler and yeah, uh, oops.

I thought about bailing. (I couldn’t really since I have a friend running with me. Hi Courtney!) And who knows, I may get to mile 8 and just can’t go anymore, but I’m still going to go for it. If I didn’t, I think I’d really just be disappointed in myself. But I have no intention of trying to push the hell out of myself to PR. When I said I was going to run a marathon I planned on killing my training schedule, just knocking that shit right out of the park but other things have taken priority (one of the reasons I’ve been fairly absent around here) and like I said, the past couple weeks have been a struggle for me emotionally & physically. All of the races I’m participating in up until the big 26.2 are on my schedule with the understanding that they should be handled as a training run. (Just, like one with 300 other people.) Even though when I step up to that starting line the little bit of competitiveness I do have surges forward and I want to smash any of my old times.

This time last year I had just finished my first half in Vegas and completely stoked about it. Crazy where a year can take you. It almost feels like I’ve been lazy with my training simply because I know my body is capable of running 13.1 miles already.

I feel like this race tomorrow is going to be a massive failure on my running ego, but I’m still excited for it. Weird, right? It’s supposed to be in the 40s but with the wind chill, low 30s and for this Texas girl, that’s going to be um, interesting. Hopefully the rain will stay far, far away but even if doesn’t - been there, done that.

So, here’s to me – admitting my faults as a runner and saying, “Fucking shit. Sometimes I suck at running…and pig & cow shaped pancakes. Definitely suck at those.”

 

Bearathon 2013

On Saturday March 23rd I, Tamara AWESOMESAUCE Lehmann, completed my third half-marathon.

And it was spectacular.
Spec-freaking-tacular.

If you’ve been reading along you know I’ve been a little worried about the course. Because there are hills. Like, 5 miles of hills. And these aren’t little “Oh isn’t she precious” hills. These are “Sweet baby Jesus WHY!” hills. According to my Garmin watch, Elevation Gain was 700 ft. I mean, whaaa?

You can see how my pace slowed down during the hills too according to my splits. I tried not to focus on how I was going to conquer the hills (I was already nervous enough) so about mile 4 you see my pace slowed down, it was because I was prepping to figure out miles 5-10. I went with power-walking up the hills (like seriously swinging the eff out of arms and the ol’ hips) and running down. It worked out well for me. I think doing all the stair workouts this semester with Moj really helped me. So, if you have hills in your future and no real hills to train on, I suggest stairs. They’ll kill you but totally worth it.

My plan going into this race was just to finish. I assumed because the course was so much harder than my other two that I’d probably finish somewhere around 3 hours and 15 minutes. So, I was pretty pumped when my official time was actually :

I’m sure you remember all of my race times, (you guys are awesome friends!) but just in case you didn’t – this is the fastest I’ve ever ran 13.1 miles! Houston I finished in 3:00:27.

This means I totally PRed on the “Toughest Half in Texas” course.

Yep, you know a badass. Go ahead and let that soak in while I make an awkward race photo pose for you.

This particular race meant a lot to me because it felt as this was the start of my running journey when I completed the 5k portion of it last year. So, as I waited at the start line I was already tearing up before I even started running. I wanted to enjoy every moment of it. And I did. At every mile marker there was a water station, so to help Sar out with her Acts of Kindness, I clapped and cheered every one of those water stations volunteers. They didn’t have to be out there at 7am on a Saturday morning, and yet, there they were cheering us crazies on.

Speaking of Acts of Kindness, Sar was totally there cheering me on (as well as all the other runners!) around mile 11. It was definitely a huge boost since I was just coming off the hills. I also got to meet RP3 for a whole hot second. Like literally. I waved, he waved. We had a moment. Sorry Sar. It’s true.

At one point, someone chalked hopscotch out, I totally hop scotched my way into mile 9 I think. I also stopped at mile 10 I believe to let everyone know I was currently listening to Baby Got Back. I got big cheers on that one.

As I crossed the finish line, I started tearing up again and when I grabbed my medal/finisher shirt and free slice of pizza – I just sat down and soaked it in. I had finished. I had done something I never thought was possible – and I had enjoyed it. Alfred was out of town, Lillie was with her godparents and basically, I had no one at the finish line. But I didn’t care. I had done it and no one could take that away from me. I cried sporadically on the way home. And then when I walked in the house, I decided I wanted to record how I was feeling because I knew that the longer I waited the less emotional I would be. This feeling was something I wanted to remember.

Heads up, it’s a lot of rambling because I didn’t really give myself time to plan out what I was going to say.

Until we run again!

Training Tuesday

It's another Tuesday, so you know what that means!

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.
 

Grab the button up above & link-up down below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training
3/19 – Nothing. I think I went to the grocery store during lunch? I don’t know.
3/20 – WHY GOD WHY workout with Moj. We did stairs again. I told her though that I wanted to take it easier since I had my half on Saturday. 55 minutes of stairs at our own pace, but we still got our sweat on. And my calves were still sore. Damn stairs.
3/21 – Rest.
3/22 – Moj puppy-dog eyed me into another workout. I told her I only wanted to do upper body because of the half. She said, “Suuuureee thing, friend!” Basically, my arms are STILL on fire from Friday. Generally when we workout we go down to the free weight area, but this time we did a lot of different machines where we would do 20 pushups or plank in between.
3/23 – BEARATHON! I have another post coming up (hopefully this afternoon) and I’ll update this to reflect that. Trust me, it deserves a post on its own. I PRed (Personal Record) on a course that had 5 miles of serious hills. I totally cried. And then I made a video. Yep, I vlogged that shit.
Edit: Bearathon Post!




3/24 – Bitch please. I just ran 13.1 miles I ain’t doing nothing.
3/25 – See 3/24.

For this week, I’m just taking it easy. My hips are still a little sore from the half and to be honest, up until this morning (when I weighed myself, ha!) I had no desire to workout. I’ll do my WHY GOD WHY with Moj tomorrow (stairs!) and Thursday she’s convinced me to join her as well.

And so now, here I am. Trainingless. I don’t have another race to commit too. I’ll keep up shorter distances and continue working on my speed per my New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t not run – 1. I enjoy the shit out the way it makes me feel. & 2. I promised my friend Sunny that I’d run her first 10k with her at some point in the next few months. But I won’t have a specific training plan to follow, so everything will probably just be willy-nilly all over the place.

Ha. Willy-Nilly.
 
I’m thinking for the month of April, I may focus on my willy-nillyness & doing Jillian Michael’s 30 Day Shred. Then in May, starting up the Insanity workouts. Insanity is intense, and the 30 Day Shred should be a good pre-cursor for that to prepare my body. By the time I’m finished with that, we should be closer to the fall where more races will definitely be happening. The closer it gets to May/June the less opportunities there are to sign up for a close race. Why? Because it’s Texas. And this shit is hot here.

Here’s to keeping up the motivation even though I’m trainingless (I have to tell you, it feels pretty awesome to not be tied down to a schedule finally!)

I just do.

So. In less than 24 hours I’ll be running the Bearathon.

That’s the sign I saw for about a month every time I went into the gym. It was a nice reminder that I’ll soon be dead so I may as well give it my all. Why dead? Because look at it closely – go ahead, get your glasses on or just get all up and personal with your computer – it’s fine. No one is looking.

“Toughest Half in Texas”

Yep, it says that. And yep, I believe it. I mean, look at these hills? This is a serious situation I’ve gotten myself into. Why didn’t anyone try and talk me out of it? What friends you are. Sheesh.

But on the serious, this race specifically has been the one I’ve been working towards this entire past year. It was always sitting in the corner of my mind, staring at me, reminding me, of something I said in passing.

You see, last year, I ran the 5k portion of it and as I finished it 9 minutes faster than my 5k time in January – it hit me. I like running. Total weirdness. After the race, I spent the day with My Emilie where we decided to stop by the Farmer’s Market which happens to be located near the end of the Half-Marathon course. So, we had to wait for people to run/walk/puke by before we could park.

I remember saying, “I don’t care how much I like to run, there’s no way I’d ever run for 13 miles.”

And we both laughed hysterically at the idea of running that far while agreeing that was pretty much for the crazies in the world. 

And much like my food post the other day where I mentioned how I explicitly remembered calling someone fat – I remember saying that like it was just 10 minutes ago. I remember me feeling that was true. I would never call myself a half-marathoner. I wasn’t capable of that.

And here I sit. Typing to you. Getting ready to run my third.

Getting ready to run the one that started it all.

I am more nervous than I have ever been before a race. It feels so surreal to think that I’ve been running for a year. A YEAR. And that I want to run for many more. When did I become such a motivated person? I’ve always just coasted through life, doing what I had to do to get by, so this. THIS. This just shows me that I should never close the door on something because I don’t think I’m capable.

When people ask me how I do it, how I run for 3 continuous hours, you know what I say?

 I just do.

And it’s true. I just keep swimming, err running. (Nemo FTW!)

More often than not while running I’m fighting a constant battle within my head,

“Do I keep going? Do I stop? Why would I stop? I’ve already gone this far. Because this is stupid. It’s your legs. Just stop if they hurt. Sheesh. But they don’t hurt that bad, do they? I could go another 3 minutes. Yeah, that’s it just another 3 minutes.”

And tomorrow, I’ll be fighting again as I lace up my shoes, wipe the sweat from my brow, hit play on my iPod, and just do.

Training Tuesday

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This link-up is just a way to talk about training [in any way, for anything] to help hold ourselves accountable and possibly brag a bit. I mean, you ran 1 mile without stopping – you totally deserve a chance to brag about it! That shit is hard. You did 10 push-ups in a row, HOLLLEERRR.

And even if you’re not training for anything, you’re just putting yourself out there to be healthier, to get slimmer, to whatever you can share it on Training Tuesday. Let’s say you were sitting at home and instead of eating a carton of Oreos you instead ate 20 baby carrots and just imagined they were chocolate-y crèmey goodness [hypothetical situation, of course] – share it here!

Abbey & I don’t discriminate – we congratulate.

Grab the button up above & link-up down below to let us know what’s going on for your Training Tuesday (or any day really, linking up throughout the week is good too!)

My Training

3/12 – It was Spring Break on campus, so I took the day off to enjoy with Lillie (we did come into work for a bit to visit); I thought I might work out during her afternoon nap but I chose to clean instead. Sometimes I’d rather be clean than fit. Truth.
3/13 – Lunch with Jenna – where I made awesome healthy food choices but no working out.
3/14 – I don’t remember why I didn’t work out, but I didn’t. So, I had 3 rest days.
3/15 – My mind was not feeling any type of workout but because I knew I wasn’t going to do anything this weekend (not because I was too busy, just because I didn’t want too. Yes, sometimes I’m lazy.) so I forced myself to head to the gym. I did some hill training for 2 miles on the dreadmill.
3/16 – 3/17 – I drank too much (no kid, yay! #saidwithloveipromise) All my awesome hard work of eating well throughout the week, totally gone with a 6 pack of Bud Light. I did have a great time bowling & catching up with friends though, so it wasn’t a total loss.
3/18 – 2.25 miles on the dreadmill.

I’m keeping this week “light” because Saturday is the Bearathon. I woke up yesterday morning incredibly nervous. Like more nervous than I was with my first half. I want to think it’s because this is so close to home (only 30 minute drive) and I’m familiar with the turf, but in reality – I think I’m so nervous because I’ve been working towards this half-marathon since last year when I competed in the 5k portion of this race. Which means, not only have I been officially running for a year but I’ve also been enjoying it. I have a lot more to say on this topic, in fact, typing out this little bit is a little emotional for me already, so more on this in a future post.

Wow. Did I just get emotional about running? #whoami

In other topics, I talked yesterday about my relationship with food. Basically, it’s delicious & I have no self-control. Oops. But I’ve been making an honest effort, not just one where I pretend to do good 40% of the time & whine about nothing working, these past three weeks using My Fitness Pal (tracking everything I eat) and eating better per my goals for Abbey’s Forever Fitness Challenge.

After the Bearathon, I don’t really have anything on my race schedule. So, if you’re nearby and want a running buddy (pick me! pick me!), or you’re faraway and want/need an online supporter – let me know. #motivationstation

I love to cheer people on. It’s like my crack.

Haha, I said crack.