Marathon Success!!!!!!

Me on the left in the white hat and jacket and Tamara on the right 

Hooray!!!!  We did it!  Finally the day came and went and now we are on to planning our next 26.2 mile adventure.  What a day!  I have to say, I totally agree that the last 6.2 miles are the most important of the race and boy did I ever tank.  I definitely became a mental case once I hit mile 22.  It may have well been another 26 miles to the finish line at that point because my mind was done.  I think my problem was fuel.  I had done a great job through the beginning of the race, taking in water and my gels/shot blocks.  As the race wore on, the heat increased and I became more dehydrated and I chose to drink more water and that in turn made me not want to eat anything.  I believe I was glycogen depleted by the end of the race, therefore I believe my brain was starving since all my energy stores were going to my muscles.  T kept telling me, take in more fuel and at that point I don't think it would have mattered because I was sooooooo deficit that it would have taken a bit to get me out of my downward spiral.  All of that being said, the race was terrific.

Obviously I was focused on the finish line, too busy to turn and look at Tamara's husband for a picture.

Forget about the last 6 miles because they are a distant memory.  The fact is, when the going got tough, T didn't let me give up, and I pushed through all the horrible lactic acid and delirium to finish.  Overall, the race was great.  I felt perfect the majority of it and I feel like some more training, fuel plans and mental preparation and I will be good to go on the next one. I didn't like finishing when it was so sunny and hot outside, I could have dealt a bit better if it was on the cloudy/cooler side, but all in all, the wind was only bad the last 5 miles because it was in our face.  I guess all your prayers for good weather were answered!!!  Hallelujah!  It could have been awful!!!!  Sadly, there were only 20 people entered into the full and hundreds signed up for the half.  So, it felt a bit like we were on our usual long training run, which I preferred.  BUT, it is always nice to have someone cheering for you when you become a mental basket case.  I was super fortunate because my wonderful husband and three kiddos followed along in the truck and would get a head of us and cheer.  Also, my awesome brother in law and sister in law did the same thing with their 3 kiddos.

They even made the most spectacular signs for me to see as I ran down the road.  Final time was 4:43.05 to complete the 26.2 which meant my average was over a 10 minute/mile.  Ugh.  Kinda disappointed with our time, but that is my fault because I just lost it at the end.  My time just gives me motivation to do better on the next one!  Sorry for no pictures of me with my kids!

Race Day!

Here's the course!

Here's the attire for 26.2

The Weather!!

It's looking like it should be a pretty good running day! Wish me luck!!

M

***Important***

We must take a break from our regularly schedule blog update for this important request.....10 day forecast is not looking good for November 3rd.....you know, the day I run 26.2 miles!!!!!!! I have been watching the weather and crossing my fingers ever since we decided to run Marathoning for Miracles.  I need your prayers, your reverse rain dance moves, uh, I don't know, can you pull some strings for me in the rain department? I LOVE rain, but I'm not sure that I want to run that far, soaking wet and in 50 degree weather.  Here are the screenshots I took from two different weather apps I have.

We still have 10 days for the weather to completely change on us, which has been known to happen here in West Texas. The one thing that can remain the same is the temp and the only 5mph wind that is suppose to happen.  I will keep you all updated as we go through the week. I did, however manage to get my goodies for the race! Super pumped!!!

We had a 5 mile run yesterday morning and felt great! My legs are good, my feet are better today than they have been in a couple of weeks. I really wish I had some new shoes right now because I feel like I need more cushioning, but will hold off until after the race. Don't want to rub blisters in new shoes! We have a 6-7 mile run planned for tomorrow morning and a 8-10 miler Sunday morning and then we will just take it easy until next Saturday. Can't believe we are so close!!!

Hope you all have a great day! I'll leave you with a picture of Miss Macy this morning. She chose her outfit....pretty stylish I must say!

Recap of the 20 miler and Misc.

I have no clue where to start, what to fill you in on first or just dump my phone pictures and let you piece the puzzle together yourself?  I'm almost opting for the latter, but I will save you some grief.....

Let's go in reverse, shall we?

Ignore my avg. mile time as I never paused or anything when we made our fuel stops or when we walked in the last .86 of the run.  I know, excuses, excuse.  I know we are not fast, but the entire time we were running we kept under a 10 minute mile pace.  

Sunday was EPIC.  I mean, who in my life ever thought I would crank out 20 miles of running glory?  Especially when that was into a 16mph wind with gust between 20-25mph.  Not me.  It was a total recap of last years Marathoning for Miracles when we ran the Half.  Fortunately or not, the temp was pretty warm this week.  I think it hovered around 75 the entire 4 hours of running.  That's right folks, 3 hours and 59 minutes is what it took us to complete a WORKOUT!!!!!  The wind was the biggest killer of it all because we ran into it for the first 10 miles.  On a side note: we saw a total of 3 shooting stars while treking up the highway.  By mile 11/12 the sun finally started to peek out at us and we decided we liked running crosswise into the wind.  We were thankful for turning off our main road.  All in all, we took it easy.  We did not want to beat ourselves up, the wind did that for us....however, we managed to fuel properly and I think we will be golden in 2 weeks.  I am feeling great, a little sore, but I'm sure that is to be expected.  Going to church after that run was a bit challenging.  I was sore and sitting in the hard chairs in class did not make my rear happy.  Thanks to Ali Mc, I cannot keep from coming up with crazy poster ideas for my kids to hold up while I run the marathon.  She suggested someone have a, "Worst Parade Ever" sign for your family to hold up......Could not stop laughing....I know I'm strange.  I'm still working on other poster ideas that could keep your spirits up and the humor alive while traveling 26.2 miles.....that's a long time people.....a very long time.

Here is Hayden modeling the newest addition to our lighting effects while running.  Who needs ground effects, we have head effects?  To be honest, I think the lights on my head and the reflector vest T wears, scares the living daylights out of the people on the road.  We immediately know when they see us because they veer off across the highway to avoid taking us out.  Thank you for the kind people who do that.  Others I'm nervous about are the drivers who think driving towards the bright, reflective object, for better clarification is a good idea.  I almost come out of my shoes.  I don't know, maybe they think hitting a runner gets them bonus points?  I don't leave the light on, only when we are looking for our water bottles stashed along our route.  Well, and when we get on completely dark roads.

Saturday we went to my alma mater, ACU, homecoming parade.  The kids enjoyed seeing everyone dressed up and it was nice seeing some friends from school.  I can't believe I graduated from college 10 years ago!!! Ack!  I'm sorry to the friends I didn't get to catch up with.  I backed out of going to our reunion dinner because I had to get up early for the 20 miler......I did catch a great picture of my kids with their cousins.

Friday night we took the kids up to ACU for the carnival and fireworks and the kids had a blast.  Half way through, Mark took off to go support his younger cousin who plays highschool football.  Hayden went with him so they could have guys night.  I enjoyed hanging with my girls.  Oh yeah, somewhere in this weekend, Ella lost her 5th tooth....

Sorry for the scary up close photo.....I'm not in denial....this kid is going to need braces.....Wow.  Just like your parents......We're sorry for the bad teeth and eye genes.

Back to Saturday night, I worked on editing a slideshow/movie for Mark's press release we had today.  Which leads me to what our big project has been.......Actually, I think I'm going to have to do an entire post on that so.......you better stay tuned in!!!

Adios!

Training update

This weekend we had a blast running our 14 miles. We took it easy and kept a relaxed pace, but definitely enjoyed every minute of it. We laugh because it only ever feels like we run half the distance because the sun doesn't come up until we are at our half way mark.  We made it around 9 miles before the sun appeared and after that I feel like the road gets a bit longer at that point. I think I enjoy the running amnesia thing a little too much. We both agree we felt good enough that we could have gone further.  If you feel that way after 14 miles, that is success in my book.  I don't really want to talk about the fact that at mile 12 I started to feel some pain in my left foot. I don't want to give it too much attention because we are almost to our goal. I think it has to do with the fact that I run on the shoulder of the road that kind of rounds down.  After running for 2 hours like that day in and day out, I think my foot is telling me it wants to run on a more even surface. We are going to try to stay more on top of the road until we see cars coming so that it will help me on next weeks workouts.

We are debating how far we need to train up to. This next weekend we thought 16-20, but from things we have both heard and read, I'm not sure if we should go past the 16. I know a marathon is 26.2, but we do not want to do damage before we get to the starting line. We have enough mileage throughout the week that I believe we can make it through, but I am kinda mental. I like to know that I've entered into a race that I know I can run the entire distance. I'll keep you updated on what we decide.

In other news, I just devoured the most amazing salad for lunch. Yep, from Subway. You can make any sub into a chopped salad. This will be my new lunch from here in out. I'm stuffed!!!! Time to get back to work!!!

Q and A
What's the farthest you would be willing to train leading up to a full?

Have you ever had Subway's salads?!?!?
Yes!!! Buffalo Chopped Chicken!!!!!!

Wacky Week

What is our weather doing?!! I know my friends are tired of hearing how baffled I am about the temps we are having, but yesterday it was 85!! Right now we are at 58 and its lunch time! This morning T and I had a 5.5 mile recovery run and it was over 60, so we are getting colder. I think tomorrow we are suppose to be back in the 80s. Today though is a perfect Twilight movie weather kind of day, cold, wet and dreary. I love it!!!

I am pumped though because my lunch for today is perfect for the weather.  I think every time weather is like this, I'm going to have to do lunch in the same office, since they know what is up.

Zuppa Tuscana Soup, Salad and Breadsticks......oh yes.

In other news, I am sporting the same color combo as I have the past two days. Scarf, magenta or teal has been the sweater color of choice or a mix of both. Good thing I don't work in the same town everyday. Shoot, come to think of it, I could be saving myself tons of laundry if I just wore the same thing all week. Hmmm......something to think about.  (Seriously, the color combo streak lasted ALL week.  Non-intentional.  Strange.)

Please ignore the crazy shiny forehead and orange glow, no clue?

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The above part of this post was all written on Wednesday and I'm just now completing it on Saturday..... below.
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Fast forward.... It's Saturday, I've attempted to finish this post every day this week.  I've had to erase each time since nothing was making sense.  I should just start over on Monday, but here we go at a recap of today.   The kids have been entertained with riding bikes while Mark and I worked on our big project.  After lunch they decided it was time to work on their Christmas list and that meant cutting out pictures from the toy catalogs and taping them down to pieces of paper.  It really is a great way to work on their scissor skills and Hayden wanted to label everything so he had extra work on his penmanship.

While working outside we got hit with some rain and decided to call it a day.  Mark had to play music in Ft. Worth tonight so after a bite of lunch he headed out and now I'm just hangin' with the kiddos.  It is definitely nap time and I think I'm planning on a nap as well considering I have a 14 mile run scheduled in the morning before church.  I am hoping more rain comes through and we can all enjoy the rest.  

The girls cuddling together before nap time....Macy still has a dirty face.  Yikes!

We are under a tornado watch right now though and that is a bit creepy.  Not as creepy as the OU/Texas game right now....3rd Q, 46-8.  Come on Texas!!!!  What is this?!?

Oh, lastly, we did get the tank filled in!!!  I can't remember if I posted about it in the last update or not, so just deal with me in my laziness to go check on that fact.  I have a picture on my phone somewhere, I think?  It may have gotten erased when I did my phone update, I'll post one soon......And Shelly, thanks for commenting....I cannot believe your husband has run an ultra!!  How awesome is that?  I am fascinated by ultras because I cannot wrap my mind around 50 miles or more in one race.  On top of that I cannot believe he ran a marathon afterwards!  Wow Wow!!!!  I don't think we have to worry about me taking that type of race on.

Toodles!  (Sorry for the random post that doesn't really flow!!!)

Working Weekend

We've made it through Tuesday!! What crazy weather we have been having.  I absolutely love Fall, but I do not know what to call this.  Saturday and Sunday were pretty cool, the highs only in the 50s, but Monday morning when I got up to run the temp was only in the 30s.  However, it actually made for perfect running weather for all 12 miles.  That's right folks, I think we are finally recuperating around here!  I am still coughing a bit and have some congestion still, but I felt great on our run.  We were unable to go over the weekend because my running buddy had come down with the stomach bug.  What I think is funny is we knew that we need the mileage, but were limited on time, so, I got up at 4am and we met up at 4:15.  Luckily, we were done and I was back home a little after 6am so that I could get the kids up and ready for school.  I am definitely feeling the lack of sleep today, but my body feels fantastic.  No soreness!!!  Looking forward to our 14 miles this weekend.  Crossing our fingers that we continue to feel well and no more sickness or injuries!!!!

Sunday I hung out with these cool kids and worked outside moving wood piles.  The kids kept busy finding lizards that were hibernating in the cold temps.   Here is a great example of Macy's wild personality in a matter of seconds.....

I love her crazy mood even though it can make me crazy at times.  She is such a bundle of laughs and quite dramatic.

Sunday night I decided to update my iphone which proved to be a dumb move on my part.  I seriously thought for a split second, "Hey, you should sync your phone with the computer before upgrading."  But no, did I listen to the wise, intelligent voice in my head?  nnnnnnnope.  The other, carefree, ridiculous, gets you into trouble voice that said, "It'll be okay, you haven't heard of anyone losing all their info with this update" was the one I chose to listen to.  Well, thankfully I had started using iCloud back this summer and all my contacts and music were restored.  Pics on the other hand were gone.  Thankfully, I also started using google + and it syncs all your photos to a private online album. Sooo, atleast they aren't completely gone.  All in all I learned my lesson.

Quick question for anyone reading that may be a runner....how soon after your first marathon did you run your second?  I may be interested in running another in February and  the reason behind this crazy idea is that we want a goal that will help us keep up our training through the holidays and not slack off.  I'm a goal kinda girl......

That's all for today!! Talk to you soon!!