Annandale Atoms 5K!

My kids' old high school (Annandale High School) is putting on a 5K on Saturday, May 19th. The Atoms 5K! It should be fun and supports the athletic programs and college scholarships!! Click here to register! I am going to run with a friend, Heather, who will be doing her very first 5K ever! She is awesome and recently quit smoking as well. You go Heather!! I'm very excited to cross the finish line with her! She is also an Annandale HS alum!

This Sunday is the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler! I missed doing this race last year (1. I forgot to enter the lottery and 2. my foot - plantar fasciitis - would not have been ready for it anyway) so I'm very excited to do it again. Of course, I'm *still* tired from the Shamrock Marathon two weekends ago, but will have fun regardless. It is always nice to run around Washington, DC!

Then in just 2 weeks and 5 days the first triathlon of the season will be here: Rumpus in Bumpass International! Thank goodness I finally rode more than 18 miles on the bike. Yesterday I managed a 2 hour spin for a little over 27 miles. At least I know I can managed the 24 miles required...Maybe the weekend in between Cherry Blossom and Rumpus I'll actually get outside on my bike! Better yet, maybe I'll get a weekday ride outside...I have not been outside on my bike since November 20 back in Tempe, Arizona.

Happy and Healthy Running!

Race Report: Shamrock Marathon

It was a Sham'ROCK'n good time!

Prior best: 4:55:30 (11:21 pace)

New PR: 4:40:27 (10:42 pace)

And it only took 9 years and 5 months to do it!

What worked – I guess positive splitting – but that was not my actual ‘plan’ as I was supposed to negative split. But I’ll take it! I was supposed to start at a 10:40 pace for the first 10miles then drop down. Umm, I started at about a 10:09 pace for the first 7 miles (I just could NOT slow down) then really worked to slow down so I wouldn’t fall apart later. I did get progressively slower and the last 10K was hard but that was partly the heat. I also resorted to counting my steps – 100 at a time – as I ran. Hey, it worked in Arizona! And I only walked the water stops.

Week of race: started to carb-load and drank at least 2 bottles of nuun a day. My War Eagle son was in town and we ate out basically every night so I took in lots of ‘good’ carbs. Friday night I had my pre-race massage with Robin. It was AUsome! I also prepaid for my post-race massage and was the first one to do so and get the new ‘prepaid tattoo’ to wear on Sunday. Yeah! The plan was to head out Saturday morning with Pam and Carol at 10AM. We were on the road by 10:30 I think – not too bad. We made great time to Virginia Beach with a lunch stop at Central Park for Chick-fil-A! It was our density. I mean destiny...

We got to packet pick up around 2:30 or 2:45 – can’t remember. It was pretty smooth sailing through. We met up with Robin there, too. Took a few fun pictures at the expo and saw the Chick-fil-A cow! By the time we left – we had almost closed the expo down (there’s a theme here...) it was time to head to the team dinner. I had neglected to print out that info so I had to call Alexis for the address. Got there but then couldn’t find a place to park. It was totally a comedy of errors. And we ended up in the parking lot across the street. Especially when I thought the Nails Only (nail salon) was a hardware store and wanted to get a hammer. Then there was the Chinese restaurant that had No1 Chinese Food. Anyway, back to the team dinner. That was a low key affair and fun. Christy and Linda sat with us after dinner and before the presentation and we cracked ourselves up with old training stories. Laughter is so good.

After dinner we headed to hotel check in. Sadly I had to drop Pam and Carol off on 19th street because I was staying alone at 34th. But I was not sad on race morning – as the start line was AT my hotel. Carol was running the half, which started at 7:00, so by the time I headed downstairs to meet Pam she was well over halfway done! We did not have to wait around long to get in the corrals and mistakenly ended up in the back of corral 1. We did not have to wait long and after a few announcements and the National Anthem, at 8:30 we were off!

My race plan was to run the first 8-10 miles at a 10:40 pace then drop it to 10:38-10:35 at that point if I felt comfortable. Well, needless to say, I felt excellent at the start and was at a 10:09 pace for the first 7 miles – as noted above. I really forced myself to slow down and did. I was still feeling great. At the halfway point Carol was waiting as promised and did one burpee for me! She also did one for Pam when she came through a few minutes later! Carol who had finished the half had done 3 burpees at the finish. We have been practicing our Ironman Lake Placid finish line moves at the end of every long run. Anyway, back to the race! I knew that the false flat was approaching and let myself slow down even more for that. And I took time to read the funny signs along the road. There was one in particular I had wanted to remember for Priscilla...but after reading so many others, well, I forgot. Boo! I was pretty happy when we made the turn into Fort Story. At that point there was a little more than a 10K left. The only problem was the sun was out in full force now and I was feeling the heat. It was at the first water stop here that I started the counting. I kept running along and only walked the remaining water stops.

Once we were out of Fort Story it was nice because I finally saw Coach Alexis! And the street regular signs were back and I think the first one I noticed was 87th. That meant only 57 blocks (more or less) to the finish! I was definitely feeling tired by now. I was pretty excited when we hit the Cavalier Hotel – which I could see the original one well before we got to it – and the turn off for Atlantic Avenue which means were were a bit closer to the turn off to the boardwalk! We picked up the boardwalk at about 37th street and the finish is at 30th! There was a huge group from Livestrong cheering at the turn off. And a lot of fun yellow chalk artwork!

Once on the boardwalk I saw a yellow hopscotch...I figured ‘why not’ at that point. So I did! Then as I’m running along I see Carol on the left cheering! High fives - so exciting!! Evelyn were too but I missed her – but she got my picture! I’m running along next to “Buff Daddy” who I’d seen on the course a few times. He was getting a ton of cheers! I was worried about trying to do the cartwheels because so many people were on the boardwalk the finish area was kind of narrow. Fortunately it opened up once we were almost there. Right before the timing mat I stopped running and walked, looked around and started doing my damn cartwheels! I did manage three and did not fall of my face! One spectator past the finish line complimented me on my ‘cartwheel’. I said, “what do you mean cartwheel? I did three of them!” He laughed and apologized and said he only saw one. I was kind of kidding anyway... Finisher’s medal – check; finisher’s hat – check; finisher’s sweatshirt – check! I even got an official finisher’s photo taken which since I PR’d and all I will probably purchase! Now, if I could just figure out how to keep my finisher’s video clip showing the damn cartwheels...

After getting through the finisher’s area I headed straight to the beer tent to pick up my first beer and then headed straight to the Team Z tents outside so I could bump to the front of the post-race massage line, seeing as I was sporting my new Fit Pro Massage temporary race day tattoo! Thanks, Robin! Carol caught up with me here and handed me an ice cold Diet Coke! Yes!!! Thanks, Carol. Carol told me Pam had come in under her goal, too! Woot!! After the massage I had a second beer then headed back to my room to change clothes and get my phone and wallet then headed back to the party tent so I could meet back up with Carol. Then we (me, Carol, Evelyn and a couple of other Z’s I’d just met) closed down the party tent. Carol and I literally had to be...kicked out! J Then we went in search of Pam and the Team Z after party at Abbey Road. We had fun at Abbey Road and got ice cream after. Then we went our separate ways. I was exhausted and so wanted to sleep...but could not! At least not right away. I met up with Pam and Carol for breakfast in the morning then we went out on the hazy beach for a bit before grabbing lunch at Pi-zzeria and heading home. What a fun weekend!

Nutrition: My nutrition plan, which I’ve been practicing consisted of nuun from my fuel belt and on=-course Gatorade; vanilla bean Gu – about every 40 minutes; and salt tabs – 2 about every 40 minutes to start, then 1 every half hour after. I could have used twice as many salt tabs and will make sure I fix this before the Rev3 Quassy and tweak further for IMLP if need be. I also took a half a banana at the mile 21 water stop. My legs did get a bit crampy in the last 10K which I think more salt tabs could have helped.

Marathon history:

10/2002 4:55:30 (Baltimore Marathon)

10/2004 4:58:54 (Marine Corps Marathon-Halloween)

03/2009 5:37:51 (Lower Potomac River Marathon)

07/2009 6:40:03 (Ironman Lake Placid)

10/2010 5:15:15 (Marine Corps Marathon-Halloween)

11/2011 6:48:30 (Ironman Arizona)

03/2012 4:40:27 (Shamrock Marathon)

Next Up:

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler 4/1
Rumpus in Bumpass Oly 4/14

Happy and Healthy Running!

It's race week...

Well just under 6 days from now I'll be lined up and ready to race the Shamrock Marathon! YIKES!! My last full marathon was October 31, 2010...that seems like such a long time ago. We are heading down around 10AM on Saturday and will go straight to packet pick up and then on to the hotels. I wish Carol and Pam were staying in the same hotel I was but I found out the other day that Linda and Christy would be. I'm just veryhappy that my hotel is at/near the start finish. Especially after race end! Of coruse, I'll have to make my way from the finisher's party anyway....which I know can be a long walk through the sand!

I had my final long run on Saturday - 10 miles. It went very well. I'm trying not to be overly confident for this weekend but just...confident. It seems I really do have my nutrition worked out, so that is good. Starting today I'll be hydrating - using nuun - the electrolyte enhanced drink tabs. I will also start my carb loading process - but not to the extent I did the week before Ironman Arizona. Boy - did that seem like a LOT of carbs! Almost to the extent I felt sick! But I guess that worked out in the end.

Non-training news: I had an especially fun weekend! It all started on Saturday after my run!

First I celebrated a friend's birthday (it was back in October)

by going on a 3-hour tour (and yes we had lyrics to the tune of the Gilligan's Island theme) of Washington, DC by Segway! It was the birthday girl, me, and two of her friends.

So. Much. FUN!

The individual segways had names! Mine was 'Ole Glory'. We also had Riggins and...I forget the other two. Oh well. But all DC-related names!

Then on Sunday, another "S" word! I went to an indoor shooting range

with my son, my friend's husband, and their son. I've been thinking of

getting a gun, so...this was a great opportunity to try out some firearms!

And Carol's husband Tim is going to take us sometime, too! More fun!

Anyway, back to the guns! On Sunday I tried out 3 different semi-

automatic hand guns (two 9mm (Luger and Glock) and one 22 caliber

(Luger with a sight) - if I'm getting it all correct) as well as one AR-15

rifle, pictured here. I didn't particularly like the rifle. Yet. The third

handgun I tried (the Glock) was my favorite.

I'm looking forward to trying out more!

So back to the regular stuff. I cannot believe nearly an entire year has gone by since last year's Shamrock weekend. When I deferred to this year's race it seemed like so far away. But so much has happened since then! And now, in just 4 months and 11 days I'll be in the midst of Ironman Lake Placid. But...first things first! The Shamrock Marathon! I will be a little sad that only a part of Team Z will be racing Shamrock. One part will be staying local for the Rock N Roll USA Marathon and Half while another part of the team will be headed to the Rev3 Costa Rica 70.3 and 32 events.

Happy and Healthy Training and Racing!!

Race Report: Colonial Half Marathon

My first half marathon was the Colonial Half in 2002. I thought it would be fun to do this race again! And I though I remembered the course but come race day the only thing I really remembered was the finish and a little bit of running on the streets. If we ran on the park trail 10 years ago I clearly blocked that out! I headed down to Williamsburg Saturday afternoon with Carol and Pam and we made good time as there was no traffic. We found our hotel easily and after checking in went out to find some dinner. We had pizza at a local place called “The Library” which was right near the William & Mary campus. Since the race wasn’t to start until 1PM on Sunday I decided I’d do something different and have a beer. Or two. After dinner back at the hotel I promptly crashed out watching The Bodyguard...

Morning came and it was kind of nice to not have to get up before the crack of dawn (like on a swim morning) to get to the race start. We took our time getting ready and headed out for breakfast at one of the many pancake places in town. Not the best choice for me and Carol but they work for Pam. I won’t be doing this in 12 days before the Shamrock Marathon! Look at the cool street name (Ironbound Rd) we saw driving to breakfast?

Anyway, my goal for this race was to ‘run hard’. After breakfast we headed over to the race site – which was about a mile from the hotel – or William & Mary Hall. This is where the basketball team plays. And where the finish of the race is – they open the end of the building and we run into the hall where they’ve got the finish line, a beer section, a food section, and other hydration. Pretty cool finish area, actually! Each runner (over the age of 21 of course) gets I think it was 2 beer tickets. I carried mine with me during the race! We had lots of time to kill and took our time heading to the start which was a pretty good walk away. I really had forgotten all of this from 10 years ago! We took a little group photo and Carol practiced her three finish line burpees while I practiced my three finish line cartwheels. We are practicing these for the finish of Ironman Lake Placid and after every long run do these. So we finally decided it was time to walk to the finish. And as I mentioned, it was father than I remember/we though and even with a little jogging to get there we were late! We heard the horn go off and were still a couple of minutes back. Oops! But we were not the only ones!

We finally cross the line and start running. We stayed together for a bit – the first couple/few miles. I really cannot remember. Carol pulled ahead and Pam fell behind a bit. I just concentrated on ‘running hard’ and using my nuun and taking my Gu and salt cap tabs on schedule. At some point before the turn around I caught up to Carol who was having a slight reaction to breakfast. Boo. I pushed on. I swear I do not remember this trail. At all! In fact, the course did not even seem to resemble the drawing I’d looked at at check in. Oh well. It was nice heading back. I tried to take advantage of any downhill areas and only walked three times at the aid stations where I’d got a bit of water for my salt tabs. I was pretty happy with that. It was a pretty warm day – I was in a run cami and shorts. I have not run in real running shorts in, well, years. Shorts don’t like me and vice versa. So this was my test run for Shamrock, too, because I’d wanted fun, green shorts so I could be festive! The shorts worked great!

I was finally getting closer to the finish area as we got out of the park trail and back on the streets. I had been going back and forth with one runner for a bit and lost him in the last mile. Thankfully, the last section is a downhill to the finish area where you turn the corner and go into W&M Hall. With all the stuff inside it seemed so small! I went right through without doing any cartwheels and headed right to the beer area for my one beer I was going to have. I was sipping on that when Pam came through. She had been running with Carol till a short time before. As I worked on my beer Carol came through. She joined us and I finished the beer then we grabbed some food and water and headed to the restrooms. Out in the hallway Carol got motivated and did her three burpees! I in turn was motivated and did my three cartwheels. I cannot believe we did that in the hall outside the ladies locker room. We didn’t waste any time hanging around and headed out to the car and back home. We got lucky again with a traffic-free trip back home. We stopped for food in Fredericksburg but other than that we sailed right along. Fun race weekend!

Last weekend was my last long run before Shamrock. I had an 18 mile zone 2/3 run on my schedule and Carol had 11 on hers for the Shamrock Half. We started running at about 9AM and tried to go out on the trail between Wakefield Park and Lake Accotink. Due to the heavy rains from the day and night before the trail was a tad flooded. We only made it about ¾ mile and had to turn back. So we back tracked a short bit and headed up into a neighborhood instead. IT was then a pretty uneventful run but perfect run weather: overcast and a bit cool. And no puddles to dodge! We ran around Ravensworth Farm and North Springfield more or less an out and back before heading back to the RECenter for a total of 11.5 miles. Carol did her burpees then headed home. I headed out for 6.5 more miles. The first three were actually really easy but the last three a bit hard. But, I got them done. And only 7 minutes off my planned time. I walked several hills when my heart rate got into zone 4. And at the end I did my three cartwheels!

All in all it was a good last training run. My legs got pretty crampy near the end and I took extra salt tabs. I did a pretty good job on my nutrition overall. I think for race day I will plan on taking the salt more frequently or even taking 2 at a time. I won’t wait so long for the first Gu either. And I may also make the nuun a bit stronger. Bottom line though my legs felt great after and I went out that night and had no problems, nor had no trouble walking stairs the next day. Success!

Next up: Shamrock Marathon – a ShamROCK’n good time!