Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon

I picked up my running friend Ivana and we headed into the expo for the Rock 'n Roll marathon that was at the DC Armory (which was surprisingly easy to get in and out of). It was a ton of fun!!
Note: my hair looks seriously bad from behind. ICK!

I spent too much money I'm sure, but it certainly didn't go to waste. Three headbands, one waist belt, a pair of arm warmers, and a new pair of sunglasses for running (not pictured since I have them out in the car). Katelynn picked out the pink headband (I think it'll work great for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler coming up on April 7th!)...she didn't want to take it off either.

I changed my mind about what I was going to wear at least a dozen times. The shirts we got were blue (I was hoping for green since it was St. Patty's day weekend) and short sleeved. It wasn't supposed to be very warm, but I figured the arm warmers would help IF I decided to wear the blue shirt (I really wanted to wear green!!). They were calling for rain too. Every where I looked said something different. I debated on taking a change of clothes incase I got soaked, but I figured it'd be quicker to just catch the metro home and change later. After running for almost 3 hours in the rain what's another hour to get home before changing?!? This is what I ended up wearing...

I tied my jacket around my waist incase it ended up raining then I could just throw it on (it didn't bother me until about mile 11 or 12 then it started flapping and it drove me nuts - LOL). I did wear my shamrock headband, but I wore my hat too incase it rained. I was so annoyed! I had no idea the hat looked so funny. I couldn't find my race hat anywhere so I just grabbed one of Chris's - it did bring me good luck though! My arm warmers were awesome!! I loved wearing them. I also decided not to wear my skirt since I've never worn it for long runs. I was very comfortable except for my feet. I need new running shoes. My Brooks just rub my foot the wrong way below the toe. They are great for low mileage but once I get pass mile 8 or so it starts to throb.
Race morning: I got up super early since we were taking the metro into the race. I met Jennifer at her house and Ivana followed us (we had our own little caravan going on). We picked up Jennifer's friend Heather along the way too. The trip in went very smoothly and we found the start line easily enough.
I found the setup a little odd. They had different start corrals for the different waves (which was fine), but in each of the corrals they had port-a-potties facing into the corrals, so you ended up having these weird snake-like lines in the corrals of people trying to use the port-a-potties before the race began. There was no one separating the corrals either so once the race started everyone just moved forward and kept mixing together...which actually meant there were no port-a-potty lines closer to the front since they had already left to start the race. I ended up starting 30 minutes after the gun.
Also, the baggage check lines were quite ridiculous!! Drop off seemed easy enough (some of them had longer lines then others though); however AFTER the race those lines were insanely long and I was so glad I didn't have to wait in them. I was expecting it to run a lot smoother since it was a big race. I was quite surprised with how poorly the set-up at the start and finish were laid out.
The race: I ended up running the entire 13.1 miles with Jennifer's friend Heather!

We hit it off and chatted the entire time. Her pace was perfect for me. We walked up one or two hills (there were several and two of them were seriously huge!) and through some of the water stops, but that was it. She was an excellent partner! She liked to count things while we ran - men in kilts (I think there was one), person using the bathroom in the woods (that was hilarious! They just pulled down their pants and did their business - and they were wearing bright orange! It was too funny), number of men in tutu's - 1, number of barefoot shoes - 3, etc. It did help the miles go by.
Here is the recap on how we did...

Not bad at all!! I'm super happy with my time - 2:26:29!! I told Heather at the start that I wanted to finish under 3 hours, but I'd be really happy with 2:30-2:45. We definitely beat it!! She told me to leave her if she started to fall behind or hold me back, but I stressed that I'd rather have someone to run with then try and do it alone. Besides, I hadn't run more then 10 miles in training I was going to really, REALLY need help with those last few  miles. And help me she did! She was great. I hope to run another race with her again sometime.

I might also look into fuel belts. I didn't grab any water at the first few stations, but around mile 7 I believe (right after the massive hill) I started using the water stops and I tried the GU. I had a pb GU at one stop and an orange one (I believe) a while later. I actually really liked the taste and followed by a few sips of water it really did work well for giving me energy. Some of the water stations were crazy (I learned later that a lot of the volunteers didn't show because of the rain)...some didn't have any cups, some had cups, but no water in them, it was just craziness. A water belt would've helped me with those stations.
An unexpected surprise: my friend Patti came to cheer me on! Well, that, and she volunteered. And believe it or not she found me! In a crowd of 30,000 racers she managed to find me before I started running! And that was without using a phone. She found my corral and just started moving forward - she found me in a line for the port-a-potty - ha, ha!! After the race she gave me an awesome gift and even drove me to my car at the metro stop (it was on her way home) so I didn't have to ride the metro back. Only one small problem with the ride - we had to walk 3 miles to her car!! HA! What's 3 more miles after running 13.1?!
Here is a pic of Jennifer, Ivana, and Heather. They all had bags checked, so I headed home while they stood in those crazy lines. Katelynn had a birthday party at noon that I was trying to make it home for (my sister ended up taking the kids to the party since I was running so far behind). Next time I promised I'd stay for the after party - then maybe I'll make it into a photo. LOL

Catch-Up

I'm still here. I've just been avoiding talking and/or thinking about exercise/weight/fitness/health/etc. I have been completely unmotivated lately...really it feels like ages since I've been excited about working out and getting fit. I didn't feel like blogging because then I'd have to admit how horrible I've been feeling and doing with all of it. I signed up for challenges hoping that would motivate me, but all it does is make me angry that I'm not doing any of them like I wanted. My back has been bothering me a lot lately too, so every time I did the burpees or jumping type motions (similar to burpees where your in push-up position and jump your legs in out, sideways, which ever) it would hurt and then the next day I was hobbling. I missed the plank challenge, and wished that one wouldn't have gotten so crazy with times at the end. I was actually thinking of creating my own little challenge just to keep me going. Something I know I CAN do and that I'll WANT to do and that will keep me motivated and not feel deflated at the end of the month when the numbers are so overwhelming. I'm going to work on it while I'm away for Easter. The break will be nice - it'll be good to see my folks and to get away from this big, empty quiet house. HA! My house is super tiny, but it feels HUGE when Chris is gone. So, anyway, just wanted to say that I'm still here, just haven't felt the urge to blog about anything, and the few times I did feel like it I was embarrassed that it'd be so long. I'm going to disappear again for a bit while I'm at my folks place, but when I get back I plan to be focused and ready to get with the program.
Since Chris has been gone I've been seeing a trainer. We've met a few times now. Her name is Shannon. I like her a lot! I'm always sore after our workouts. I also like anyone who says I'm a beast and that I'm one of her only clients who could hang with her. She also told me she could have me ready for a fitness competition by the fall. Really?! I don't think she was looking at the same body. It didn't help with the blues any either - all I could do was look at fitness competitors and then look at me and I felt so discouraged. There is no way I could get these thighs that small, um, pass the pizza please. LOL
I also had my computer crash on me which caused some panic for a few days. My sister came over and got me all squared away with a wireless router and my laptop and phone all connected and running off of it! She's so awesome!!! I found someone to fix my desktop, but that's taking forever, so I'm so thankful my sister had an extra wireless router and could hook me up.
I'm still running too. I'll do another blog on that so I can recap my first half marathon. It was awesome!!

March Madness

We have our own type of madness going on around here. The end of February was crazy with getting Chris ready to head out. I finished up the challenge with 19 out of 28 days, so not bad; however all the days I missed were the last 9 - oops!
Tomorrow I'll be tackling my final long run before the big race on the treadmill. I attempted it on Friday and it was a complete nightmare. My friend Tabitha watched my kiddos and I met Jennifer to run, and I was miserable. I couldn't keep up with her, I couldn't breath, it felt like I'd never ever ran one mile, yet alone the 12 I was shooting for. I ended up giving in at mile 4. Today there will be no running. I will have fresh legs when I hit that treadmill tomorrow. The kids room only keeps your kids for two hours, so I'll see what I can get done. Hopefully it won't get too crowded otherwise I'll be hopping from machine to machine to get it all in.

I'm taking over Chris's personal training sessions while he's away. It didn't take me long to figure out which trainer I wanted either! I was running on the treadmill on Thursday and one of them hopped on the treadmill next to me and started doing sprint training at 9-point-something. She looked so happy when she was done, I waved her down and started talking to her. Before long I blurted out, "will you train me?" She got super excited and told me she'd love to help me get in shape for when my husband gets home. Her husband is military too, so she understands a lot of the stuff I go through. Anyway, we hit it off pretty well and I scheduled my first session with her for the following day - yesterday!
Knowing it was my first one and that we'd probably spend the majority of time working out a schedule, I figured it wouldn't hurt to run the 12 miles afterwards. It really wasn't a bad/hard session. Did some pushups, burpees, lunges, dips, clean and jerks, some ab stuff. She really just wanted to see what I was made of, and the more we did the more excited she got. She said, "oh this is going to be awesome!" Well, sweet! She wants to meet 3 times this week with one of them being an hour (they only meet with you for 30 minutes at Gold's) AND she said she'll e-mail me a meal plan. Cool!
I was feeling really good afterwards and really "excited" to do my last long run. I have no idea why it was so hard. I seriously couldn't catch my breath, and honestly, I felt like a huge failure. It could've been because I was tired from the trainer (doubt that one though), or maybe I was too hungry (didn't feel hungry, had a good breakfast and a protein shake 30 minutes before I ran), or maybe the cold (it wasn't really that bad). I just don't know what it was, and I guess it was bound to happen sometime. I won't let it get me down. I'll try again tomorrow on the treadmill. Next week it's all short runs for me, and then it's the race!! I'm really super excited!!! I can not wait for the energy of a road race.
I found some challenges again for March. I'm doing 3 of them. Two are leg challenges and one is an arm one. Combining the two leg ones makes for a nice, quick at home workout.

 

 Then I found this arm one to add to it (Curvy, Confident, and Fit is an awesome and very motivating facebook page).

I saw an ab one too, but I couldn't complete his plank one and I'm pretty sure doing 300 ab exercises every other day for a month will drive me insane, so I'm skipping that one. I might try and do it once a week just for fun - ha, ha!
I'm hoping to stay positive through out March; with Spring right around the corner it shouldn't be too hard!