The Lincoln Half Marathon

The morning of Sunday, May 5th, 2008 could not have been more beautiful. It was 40 degrees and sunny, not a hint of a breeze when the race started at 7:00 am. The wind picked up and by 9 there was a pretty cool breeze but it was perfect.

I met up with my PT school friend Stacia and gave her brother (our Sherpa) our gear and headed off to the starting line. The cannon went off and it took us about 3 1/2 minutes to get across the line. (There were about 5400 racers for the half and full marathon combined.) We headed out and ran a slow first two miles to get warmed up and then fell into a comfortable natural, very conversational pace. We chatted for about 10 miles and at mile 11 got a lot quieter. We had planned to run easy, maybe 9:30 miles.

Stats:
Time: 1:56:45
Pace: 8:55
Overall Place: 1430
Place in Gender: 550 of 2540
Division F2529 Place: 141 of 540
10K Split: 56:03

Splits:
Mile 1 - 9:22
2 - 10:18
3 - 9:00
4 - 8:48
5 - 8:58
6 - 8:46
7 - 9:18
8 - 8:50
9 - 8:38
10 - 8:46
11 - 9:10
12 - 9:10
13 - 7:09

These splits are from my iPod so they may not be completely accurate (and NO I didn't have any earphones, I just took the ipod and the sensor so I could measure my splits).
The first mile was a little faster I think because I turned it on before we got out of the chute so I wouldn't have to mess with it. Anywho, gotta love #13! 7:09. I rock. =-)

My mom and dad were out cheering us on at about mile 6 or so. My dad took this pic of us on the way by.



So, all in all my first official half marathon went awesome. I felt great endurance-wise, definitely could have kept running or run faster. Had some pain in my right Achilles by about mile 5, pain in my left ITB by about mile 11.5 and a really sore low back the next day. No idea why.

This may be where most people's days ended but not us triathletes. I had a long bike ride to go on. Stacia and I and a few others went and had lunch at a local bagel shop. It amused me that they were ordering bagels with light cream cheese. Sign me up for a whole wheat bagel with egg, cheese, and bacon! I actually drooled on my plate when I went to take my first bite! I laughed out loud at myself but not for long, I was trying to get that sandwich in as fast as I could! I drove back to Omaha and relaxed for an hour or so and then got on my baby blue TT bike and headed out. I took a bottle of Gatorade in my bottle cage and a Camelbak of water and a Snickers Marathon bar. My plan was to eat 1/4 of a bar every 30 minutes and drink Gatorade every 20 minutes with water throughout. I didn't take into account the wind. It was about 17 mph from the WSW which made it a cross wind for a good portion of the ride and a head or tail wind for a little chunk. I ended up riding for 2 hrs and 45 or so minutes for about 45 miles. Now for those of you who are math challenged, that means that I didn't have enough Gatorade or bar for the last 40 minutes or so. I was tired when I left and I was really, really tired by the time I got home. I would extend my leg on the pedal, flex my quad and it would fatigue immediately. Pretty awesome.

The funniest part about this whole day...
I decided to take an ice bath when I got home because my Achilles tendon was even more sore when I got off my bike. No kidding, I DROVE the block and a half to the gas station to get the bag of ice because I wasn't sure I would be able to get it home. Sunburned where I missed the sunscreen on my thighs and forearms, sore joints, some little blisters, and a huge smile! What a GREAT Sunday.

Check these out... Yikes

Okay, my running shoes were shot and I desperately needed a new pair. I have been wearing the Asics Gel Nimbus for the last bazillion pairs and decided to have my foot and shoe looked at to make sure it was still my best bet. This ended up being the case again. Now, I have had two pairs of almost all of the following dark blue, light blue, alien green, orange, and gray and purple. All I am asking for is the shoe to come in red. Just one time. If this show ever comes in red I will purchase at least three pairs of them. The shoe salesman said he can't remember that this shoe (ladies version) has ever come in red. So what color did I end up with?



Root beer and Latte. The ugliest shoes on the planet.

Well, I guess no one can say that I am buying shoes just because they are pretty.

What?!!

My alarm woke me out of a very sound sleep this morning at 6 am just in time to put on 50 layers of clothes, grab the leash, the dog and my iPod and go running. I got dressed with bleary eyes (usually do pretty well in the morning but this was an exception) and Kona and I headed out the door to get in at least 4 miles before work. I have NEVER, I repeat, never, gone out for a run and then turned around due to weather. It is just not in my nature. This morning, however, my mother would have been proud of me. The temps yesterday may have reached 50ºF. Nice, I know. The temp this am was probably hovering at about 32ºF. Not a great combination when there was still 6-8 inches of icy snow on the ground at this time yesterday. Lots of melting, which was good and sloppy combined with a refreeze last night meant slippy conditions for my run. I don't mind running on ice and snow but this was different somehow. The sidewalks looked alright but let's just say I got about 100 yds down the hill from our house and had a heck of a time getting back up, especially with Kona. I tried the street, it was worse because of the snow that had refrozen and the grass was out because of the giant ice piles from everyone taking advantage of the nice day yesterday to chip the ice off the end of their drives. I decided that it just wasn't worth it. I turned around twice, the first time I thought to myself, "self, don't be a wimp, the temperature is decent, you and Kona both need a run, just go". I turned back, took one or two steps, slid about 3 feet with my running shoes supposedly planted and called it a day. We slid our way back up to the house and that was the end of that. I decided 30 minutes of abs would due and I have a 90 minutes swim workout tonight so I will switch things around and run tomorrow. Just not worth an injury.

Runnin', runnin'

Kona and I had a nice.super.slow.easy.comfortable.lazy.lovely run this evening. I am guessing it was about 45 degrees out and completely dark. Beautiful, in fact I was a bit over dressed. I took my gloves off halfway through! Kona and I meandered through the neighborhoods and looked at the lights and then ran the big hill in the park to head back towards home.

I have to say that I am a morning person overall. I love to run early in the morning when it is still dark out. There is a certain quiet beauty about the early morning. It is almost like a secret, something people don't know about. They are snuggled up in their beds (which is also a nice place to be) or pouring caffeine into their systems trying to wake up all those cells. It is a darkness that is trying to let go as opposed to the evening darkness that is just going to get darker. I almost forget what being out in that nighttime darkness is like. This time of year, I prefer the evening runs. It gets dark so early (officially 4:55 pm here today) that after work you can throw on the running tights and a favorite stocking hat and head out to look at the lights on foot. I base my running schedule each week around the 10 day forecast on www.weather.com. If there is going to be snow overnight, I run in the morning first thing. I love it when the snow is clean in front of me and all that can be seen behind in the moonlight are my footprints with a set of little doggy prints beside.

I wish I could take a picture of that but it never turns out the same as it looks in real life. If there is going to be a really nice day, I try to sneak in a run after work to catch the tail end of the warmer temperature. I just love to be out there running. I love all kinds of weather, each has its own adventure.

However, today's adventure was not weather related. Today as I was running down the street of a very nice neighborhood, I noticed lots of trailer trucks, lights, cords, people, and yes even fake snow. I am thinking that they may have been shooting some sort of movie or commercial or something at this house. It looked beautiful. There were wreaths in every single window with tiny white lights and red bows. (And these are not little houses, there were A LOT of windows to decorate.) I just kept running as I passed and was glad that they had a nice night to do something like that and that it wasn't the sub-zero, Arctic weather that we get here in Nebraska.

So... see, it does pay off to slide off the couch, lace up the shoes and get out the door.

GO RUN. OUTSIDE. TREADMILLS ARE FOR WIMPS!