I'm on a roll...

Yesterday I 'applied' for status as a Half Fanatic.

Today I found out I was 'accepted'!

I can now enter the Fanatic AsyLum! How exciting!!

Thank you Holly and Priscilla for the inspiration!

TGIF...

Happy and Healthy Training!!

This just in...

This came in last Friday's mail!
I waited forEVER for it!
(Only 5 weeks actually for the results)
I am now a Certified Personal Trainer!


Happy and Healthy Training!!

A long way...

Tomorrow I will be going a l-o-n-g way. It is my first 70.3 distance of the season. And only my fourth ever! I have one more coming in July and more than likely a second in October. All in preparation for the BIG day: 11/20/11...aka Ironman Arizona! And that is in 190 days. *gulp*

Anyway, back to tomorrow. It will be a long day, but a long training day. It will be my first time to practice some things going into the season. Specifically nutrition! And of course my heart rate zone. It will also be my second ride on what I've decided to call, Trixie:

So tomorrow, in the rain most likely - what else is new where the team is concerned, I'll join several hundred other crazies for the Kinetic Half! This will be a first time for me at this event. I was entered two years ago but had to skip due to a family emergency. The bike course has changed since then. Of course it doesn't matter to me since I won't know any different!

Now I have done the Kinetic Sprint twice. Once as an individual in 2008 - my first Z race (and in the rain I might add) and last year (2010) as the bike leg of a relay. I do remember having to run up a hill to get to transition. And biking up a hill to get out of transition. Other than that...I have not ridden 56 miles in quite a while. But since it is 'just' a training day, I'm not going to worry about that - or the weather - and just try to have fun! Besdies, afterwards I'm signed up for a great massage from Robin or one of her colleagues at FitProMassage AND I get my own personal pizza from Papa John's. And there will be other food. And drink...

Today happens to be Day 5 of my Diet Coke (DC) ban. I have tried off and on to quit the diet soda habit. I generally feel better when I do. I also need to make a few other nutritional tweaks and thought it best if I conquer DC first. So far, so good. And I am going to ignore the soda cooler tomorrow...

Happy and Healthy Training!

Gina Tris for St. Jude!

Here is a short "Gina Tris for St. Jude" update. I had a Pampered Chef party two weeks ago and used it as a fundraiser. I was able to raise $246.47 – a percentage of my sales – for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Thank you very much to all my friends and teammates who either came out to the show or placed orders online or through me. It is very much appreciated! I'm sending in the check today and my fundraising progress should be updated in 2-3 weeks.

Thanks again for helping me reach my goal! If you have not yet donated and would like to help I'm still several months away from the big event. You can click here to donate!

Yikes - only 4 days till the Kinetic Half...

Happy and Healthy Training!

The finish swine....

(I apologize in advance. This is really, really long... )

Saturday morning I headed out to Cincinnati for the L-O-N-G awaited Flying Pig Marathon weekend. I was doing the half! I got to the airport easily and had no trouble parking. I could not see the garage exit in the part of the garage I was in though – and took a long walk to the opposite end to get into the terminal. Then once inside took another long walk back in the direction I’d basically come from to get to security and the gate. Oh well – good for keeping my legs loose and I was not in any kind of hurry. I got through security quickly and then found coffee and a chocolate croissant! Yumm – had not had one in years.

The flight was not full and while we left a bit late we arrived a bit early. I had not checked any bags, so I found baggage claim quickly which was where I was to check in for the airport shuttle – Executive Transportation – which also happened to be one of the official sponsors. Since I was a flying pig participant I also got $5 off my round trip transportation. Cool! We had a full van leaving the airport but one of the passengers was a native of Cincinnati and he had lots of good advice! It was a good sign – I was the first drop off!

Once dropped off I made the two block trek to the Expo. It was huge and I got though the check in pretty quickly which then left me free to pig shop. I did not go too crazy with pig stuff: a cute T-shirt (non-technical to wear for fun) that is white with a pig symbol on it, a pig with wings, a Flying Pig Marathon patch, and a pig rain poncho since they were calling for rain. After paying for the pig wares I made my way through the vendors. I did not need anything but got some free hair ties from Girls on the Run (cool) and a Flying Pig thermometer magnet with the WLWT.com/5 logo on it. Who knew that this was connected to my Z-mate and fellow Pig participant, Sally? (I found this out later!)

I looked at hats but did not find any I liked except for the one that said something about Piglet on it. It was white with pink embroidery...after Mark’s comment on my status after finishing the Half “Although I can believe they don't call the half The Piglet,” I sure wish I’d bought it!! The last items picked up were the technical T-shirt, awesomely fun backpack, and 2011 race poster.

On my way out of the expo I was spotted by / ran into some Z-mates: Tracey, Emily, Meghan, AJ, and Mike. It was not yet 1PM, and even though we were having dinner at 4PM, we decided to go to lunch together at Potbelly. It was my first visit there. Mmm, good bread. I was good and had water with lunch. After lunch I went to see if I could check in to my room at the Westin early. Success! I was on the 14th floor and my room overlooked Fountain Square where we’d just been standing after lunch as Potbelly was located there. After reviewing my outfit choices for Sunday I put my feet up for a bit and looked at my race stuff. Of course NCIS was on...and it made me think of pistachios...

A little before 4PM I headed down to find the restaurant we were all meeting for dinner. There were to be 9 Z’s (me, Jennifer (former Z), Meghan, Sally, Emily, Tracey, AJ, Mike, and Priscilla) there, down from the original 11 (2 non-Z’s)! The restaurant was right across the street in Fountain Square! Emily and Meghan were already there. They told me there had been a ‘mix-up’ in the reservations and they did not have our group down! The ‘nice’ hostess said she would ‘do her best’ to accommodate us. Yeah. They put some tables together for us. Oddly enough as our dinner went on a table right behind us set for a party of 11 went strangely unoccupied... It turned out THAT was our table. That’s all I’m going to say about that.

After dinner we went on to have ice cream at Graeter’s! It was delicious – as promised! This was one of the places the passenger in the van recommended. I was good and only had one scoop of coffee in a sugar cone. What I really wanted was a banana split...

After the ice cream we took pictures with one of the official Pigs. Then we watched the Piggest Raffle. We took a few more fun pictures then headed our separate ways. On my way up to the room I stopped off at the hotel gift shop for some necessities: Advil, toothpaste, 2 Diet Cokes, 2 waters, a package of Strawberry Frosted Pop-Tarts, a small bag of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies. The gal working there was very nice!

Finally back up in the room I started to get settled for the night. A few phone calls, a snack of cookies, more NCIS, alarm clock set, and TV off timer set. It was finally time for bed. I slept pretty well, but I think I woke up twice. But fell back to sleep quickly. Then the alarm went off...

Once up, I made a cup of in-room coffee. It was not bad. I tried to eat a Pop-Tart but it just was not that good. Bummer. I finished the cookies for breakfast along with a Diet Coke I had started the night before. Got myself together and finally headed out, with my cute new pink camera in tow.

As soon as I got on the street I realized it had started to rain – as promised. I went back upstairs and swapped the camera for the rain poncho and back downstairs I went. I followed the crowd to the start of the Pig. It was pretty easy to find. Once I finally made down to the street level in front of the Paul Brown Stadium – home of the Cincinnati Bengals – I had a hard time finding my way into the Pig Pens. Once the race officially started and the crowds cleared out I made my way in and started the walk to the line. Right before I got there I ditched my poncho into a pile of other discarded rain gear. Oh – it had done some pouring then! At one point I thought to myself, “boy not bringing a second pair of shoes was really dumb in case these get soaked.” Fortunately, my shoes did not get crazy wet!

I knew that the course would be hilly and had seen the course profile and noted the 3 mile climb between miles 5-8. I was very pleased to basically run the entire race with the exception of walking only the water stops. I took in water and Gatorade as needed. It got a bit warm at times – heck it was already 65 degrees at start time – 6:30AM! But there were a few good breezes as well. Once I hit the 8 mile point there were several really nice downhills. I’m also happy to say that I really used the gravity to my advantage and was passing people left and right on my way down these last hills. (This is very unusual for me!)

Right at about Mile 5 I ran into Tracey and Emily cheering! It was awesome to see them and get hugs. I think it was the GREEN AFRO that helped me spot them! :) But all along the course there was entertainment. At the 11 mile mark there was a group of I think 3 rappers singing about the Pig and it being all down here from here. They were hilarious. I passed them on the way up the same hill. I give all the entertainers and volunteers props for being out there for us in the rain. I think my favorite volunteers were a football team - all wearing their jerseys. Sadly, another group of volunteers - cheerleaders - were not even cheering! :( In addition to all the volunteers out there in the rain there were tons of crowd support out there as well cheering us all on. They of course get props as well!

Nearing the finish I saw a woman in a pink T with “GOOSE” written on the back. I’d seen her before earlier on the course. I ran up to her and asked her if she’d lost “MAVERICK”. Funny enough her running partner – who she said is a faster runner - was up ahead and also wearing a pink shirt with “MAVERICK” on it. That came about when they first started running together and they joked about not leaving their wingman. Don’t you just love “Top Gun?”

I FINALLY hit the finish swine! I made my way through the finish area for my mylar blanket, finisher’s medal, and of course goodies! I skipped the bagels and bananas but got some potato chips, orange slices, and then the BEST ever: chocolate milk. Now, I don’t really do much dairy anymore, but I had to have some. It. Was. Delicious!! After, I had to figure out had to get back to my room! After some guidance from a nice police officer I was on my way. It was perfect because I got to hang out along the finish and I got to see Priscilla finish. She looked GREAT! (It was Priscilla’s inspiration that got me to go to the Pig! I’d read about the race a few years before and wanted to go some day. When she said a group was going, well...I jumped in the pig trough! Thanks, P!)

I ended up with a time of 2:25:48. Based on my training I did not really have a time goal anymore but was hoping for 2:30. So, I was happy with the time! Not a PR, but not a PW (personal worst to quote Steve in a Speedo!) I was 241 of 711 in my age group and 2897 out of 6860 in my gender and 5741 out of 10871 overall. I'll take it. Best part of all: my foot did NOT hurt! Not during the race. I did ache a bit after but it went away and today feels just great! My legs actually hurt a bit since they are (1) not quite used to running and (2) not used to longer distances. I'm very happy and pleased about that. Whew!

I walked with a small group back up to 5th street. It was amazing – all three had done the half marathon and all three were former smokers. They totally rocked for making that change in their lives. One’s – the woman – mother and father had both died from lung cancer. What a great inspiration they all are for people trying to quit and kick that habit. I am so glad I’ve never been a smoker...

Once back in the Westin, I visited the café where they made me a sandwich – way ahead of the lunch rush. I also got a much deserved soy latte! Back up in my room I totally pigged (haha) out. I rested a bit then finally cleaned up. I was – no lie – hungry again. Really. I went out for more food and to take a few pictures in the city. Namely the Paul Brown Stadium and the Great American Ballpark. I really wanted a slice of pizza but could not find any so I hit up Chipotle, which I knew would be good. After inhaling that it was time to check out. I went down to the lobby to wait for my shuttle and watched some of HP7.1, which I had on my iPod.

My shuttle arrived right on time and this time there was only one other person going for the ride. She was a full marathon finisher and wore her medal proudly! She had just finished her 30th marathon in a year!! She started on 5/2/10 and yesterday being 5/1/11...that is truly amazing! And she had just come off of running Boston! We had a fun conversation on the drive to the airport.

Now, I again had a fast trip through security at the airport. I bought a couple of books and a Kentucky magnet since I did actually run two miles through that state! I finally got my slice of pizza a S’barro – eh, it was ok, but not quite what I wanted. I may need to visit Flippin’ Pizza in the near-ish future... anyway, I made it to my gate area and continued to watch HP7.1. I heard the announcements that my flight was overbooked. Yikes! I finally managed to find out right before boarding that I was confirmed. I was one of the first in in my boarding group so I got my bigger backpack up in the overhead bin and store my new Pig-pack below the seat in front of me. then I started one of my books. Oh my gosh – it is SO GOOD so far! I cannot wait to finish it. And I’d better read fast because I have book club in one week and need to start and finish that one too!

All in all my trip to the Flying Pig Marathon was fabulous! I did not get to see the mother of a friend of mine, but hopefully, when I return to conquer the full in a couple of years I’ll plan the timing better and be able to get in a visit with her.

Next up: Kinetic Half on 5/14. Since my foot was super happy during the race and for the most part after and right now as I type, I will attempt the entire race and not switch to the Aqua-Bike. It will be a good, long training day!

Happy and Healthy Training!