Marathon Hibernation

Well hello there!  Yup, I'm the world's worst blogger.  Hardly any posts lately and the ones I have written don't contain any selfies or pictures of me with my hand on my hip!!!  Oh, the horror!  But what I can give you right now is a rundown of what's been going on in my little bubble of a world, sans cheesy selfies or teapot pictures.

Running: 

Hmmmmm......what's that??  Kidding.  Well, sort of.  

Weekly mileage since Jan. 1.  The last three weeks have been sad but wonderful.  May miles will mostly be race miles.

Week 18 was the week of the Indy/Flying Pig double.  I then took almost two entire weeks off from running!!  <Insert collective gasp.>  And ya know what??  The world did not end nor did I spontaneously implode!  The Pig was my last marathon of the "season", which I proclaim as October through May.  The months of May-October are oppressively hot here in Mississippi so I take this time (especially most of May, June, and July) to sort of go into a running hibernation.  This is my time to rest my legs a bit, try some new cross training, and (most importantly) save some money.  Sometime in July I'll start to increase my mileage again in preparation for my first marathon double in October.  Until then, I will enjoy 20-ish mile weeks and a bigger bank account.  Oh, wait.  I do have one race planned for the summer.  In June, hubby and I are going to visit his family in Colorado and I would just be dumb if I didn't also schedule a race while we are there.  I got a smokin' deal on the Slacker Half Marathon - just $25!!!!  Check out this elevation profile:

Slacker Half Marathon Elevation Profile.  Over 2000 ft net elevation loss.  Source

As you can see, I'm pretty much going to die.  We start at over 10,000 feet and I am positive that I will not be able to breathe.  

Flabby arms:

Remember my flabby arms??  No??  Well here's a reminder........

Flabby arm selfie

Oh, and I also have massive amounts of fat on my inner thighs and stomach, but I'll spare you a picture.  I'm pretty much a mess all over.  Since summer is low mileage, I decided that it might be a good idea to work on these ham hocks so I decided to invest in a personal trainer.  Sure, I know how to lift weights and whatever, but I'm probably not going to do it with any regularity.  I have committed to four months of personal training.  I will actually work with the trainer one or two times per week and then he will write me plans for the rest of the week (goal is three total strength training sessions per week, either with him or on my own).  The day I signed up, he took me through a 10 minute "sample" leg workout just to see what it was about.  Two days later, I felt like I had just ran my first marathon and had to walk down the stairs backwards.  Ugh.  My goal at the end of this is to be able to do ONE unassisted pull-up, which I think is pretty laughable.  We shall see.

I don't think I like GU anymore - Flying Pig Marathon 2013 Race Recap

So where were we?  Ah, yes.  Jenny, Sarah, and I just finished the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon and were on our way to Cincinnati, OH, for the Flying Pig Marathon, which I affectionately nicknamed "The Pig."  If you didn't know, I'm a huge fan of pigs and anything that looks like a pig.

Tell me this isn't the cutest little piggy doggy that you've ever seen.  Go on, I'll wait.

I don't think I mentioned it, but Indy was FLAT.  Like flatter than NOLA.  That flat.  The drive to Cincinnati turned from flat to not so flat to rolling hills to giant mountains.  Well, not really, but I like to exaggerate!  Anyway, Cincinnati is not flat and we had heard that The Pig is a little hilly.  Our hotel was again connected to the expo, so we made our way over to grab our bibs and stuff.  Upon checking in, Sarah learned that they had given her bib to someone else so she had to go get another bib that didn't have her name on it and I don't even think it was connected to her name the whole weekend.  We then had to walk through the entire expo to pick up our t-shirts.  And guess what color they were???  My absolute favorite color for a tech shirt - WHITE.  Barf!

We then took this awesome photo.

For dinner we met up with a few other Maniacs at Arnold's Bar and Grill.  It was nice to meet some new peeps and hear all about their running experiences. The food at Arnold's was ok, not great.  And the portion size was pretty small.  The bathroom situation was quite interesting at Arnold's.  The toilet was all by itself in one room and then you had to go out into one of the small dining rooms to wash your hands right next to people trying to eat their dinner.  There was also a bathtub in this same room.

Of course we got in the bathtub with total strangers.  Duh!

So then after dinner we needed to hit up a Walgreen's (or similar) for something to eat in the morning.  Yes, we are very prepared.  Well, Walgreen's was out of any type of bread imaginable or any type of anything that I would want to eat the morning of a marathon. So I figured that I'd just have to make due with the Hawaiian Bread that we got at the Indy expo and some Kind bars that Sarah had.  Definitely not my normal pre-race breakfast, but it would have to work. 

Typical race morning.  We woke up, checked the weather, and were delighted to see a giant green and yellow blob hovering right next to Cincinnati. The start was a little further from the hotel than we thought and we ended up in our corral almost exactly at 6:30 AM when the race was to start.  No rain yet.

Ready for The Pig

For the first mile, we ran along the river and through downtown finally making our way to the bridge that would take us over into Covington, KY.  The streets of Covington were lined with spectators cheering us on.  We stayed over on the Kentucky side of the river for about 2 miles before heading back to Cincinnati on another bridge.

Back in Cinci

The hills weren't too bad at this point but we knew that they would start at about mile 5.  Plan for this race was to take it easy, walk the water stations, walk 1 minute every mile marker, and probably walk up some of the hills.  So pretty much walk whenever we felt like it.  I didn't carry my own water/NUUN so I tried to take water from every water station since it was pretty humid.  Right from the very first aid station, the water tasted a little off to me but I knew I needed it so I took it anyway.  Somewhere around mile 4 we picked up Marathon Maniac Kelly who ended up staying with us for most of the race.  The hill starting at mile 5 ish was no joke.  I think it finally ended around mile 8.  It seemed to wind on and on forever, but I knew that we were promised gorgeous views once at the top in Eden Park.

Eden Park montage

Once at the top of the hill in Eden Park, we were treated to Elvis, amazing views of the river, and lots of spectators and entertainment.   I continued to drink the water through the aid stations even though it still didn't taste quite right to me.  I also took my first Peanut Butter GU at mile 5 just like I always do and it tasted just awful.  I've slowly been getting sick of PB GU, so this just solidified that I need to stop eating it.  I have definitely had too much GU in the past 6 months and may need to find something else.  Just before mile 9, the half split and Sarah had to leave us.  Boo!  

Bye Sarah!

I honestly don't really remember a lot of specifics about the race.  I know for the next 10 or so miles we wound our way through several neighborhoods and that I just didn't feel quite right.  It started to drizzle a little around mile 16 or 17, but nothing major.  We had brought hats, so we put them on to keep the water out of our eyes.  There was a pretty big hill between miles 17 and 18 and it was here that I knew that something wasn't right.  I knew I needed to drink water, but the thought of drinking another sip made my stomach turn.  I knew that I needed GU, but the thought of eating one of those made my stomach turn.  I started to get light-headed and felt nauseous right at mile 18, so we stopped at the next medical aid station to ask if they had any Gatorade.  I sat down for a few minutes and sipped on some blue Gatorade and started to feel a little better.  Jenny and Kelly were nice enough to wait for me even though I told them they could go on.  After I thought I felt a little better, we started back to running, but it didn't take long before my body revolted.  Every time I ran, I felt nauseous and light-headed.  I so did not want to walk the next 6 or so miles, but it was looking like that was my only option.  Around mile 21, we said good-bye to Kelly.  At some point I thought I was ready to run, so we took off at top speed.  Yeah, not a good idea.  So we resorted to walking again.  

Obligatory picture with a pig

At some point we did start running, but very slowly, and that was ok.  We knew the Three Little Pigs Bacon Challenge station was supposed to be around mile 25.  This is where you eat three pieces of bacon (regular, turkey, or vegan) and you get another medal mailed to you.  Jenny insisted that we all do it and signed us up.  I was feeling a little better, so the thought of eating the (vegan) bacon wasn't so repulsive at this point.  Plus I knew they were supposed to have other treats there.  We finally got to the stop around mile 25.5.

The girl's face behind Jenny in the top left picture is priceless.

So I ate my three pieces of fake bacon and also about 438 pieces of candy and Jenny ate her real bacon.  I took a bunch of candy with me.  They had little individual packs of Peanut Butter M&Ms, which are my favorite and I really like candy.  Plus I was really hungry.  We had about a half a mile to go and I was really close to another PW, although this one would not have been intentional.  We ended up crossing the finish line with my second worst marathon time ever.  Yippee!!!  I was glad to be done running.  I then made Jenny take about 100 pictures with me.

Just one of the pictures I made Jenny take with me.

None of the post race food looked appealing to me.  The bananas were all cut in half and had turned brown and looked absolutely disgusting.  So I just ate the candy that I took from the bacon station.  After passing through the food area, I then felt another wave of nausea and light-headedness.  To make a long story short, I pretty much felt bad for the rest of the day.  I was starving but couldn't eat very much.  I was thirsty but couldn't drink very much.  I felt like I had food poisoning but never actually threw up.  But the next morning I was as good as new.  Was it the dinner the night before the race?  My pre-race breakfast?  The off-tasting water at the aid stations?  The GU? 

Pig butt on back of medal

I do recommend The Pig for an Ohio race.  It is a large race (I think over 30,000 people in all the races) and I think that they have races all weekend (5k, 10k on Saturday I think) that you can participate in.  The course is rolling hills but they aren't really that bad.  Aid stations are plentiful and the city really comes out to support the runners (even in the rain).  It is also a good opportunity to double with Indiana by running the 500 Festival Mini Marathon on Saturday. 

A new PW - 500 Festival Mini-Marathon 2013 Race Recap

This past weekend, I made my way up to Indiana and Ohio for my very first double race weekend!!  The weekend started on Friday with Jenny and me meeting Sarah at the airport in Dayton, OH.  We haven't seen Sarah since February, so this was quite the exciting reunion!!!  At the rental car counter, I was told that they only had Fiats in my reserved size car.  Being the total dummy I am, I said that should probably be fine.  Yeah, if you don't know, Fiats are about the size of a pack of gum. 

Not gonna work for three girls and three suitcases!!!

So after we exchanged the box car for a more roomy Altima and me telling the rental car guy that I was white trash, we made our way to Indianapolis.  I was sure that I would encounter some sort of traffic when we got close to the city since the 500 Festival Mini-Marathon is the largest half marathon in the nation (35,000 participants).  To my surprise, there was no traffic coming into the city and once we were actually downtown (around 3:30 pm), it was so dead that we thought we might have come on the wrong weekend.  After circling the block about eight times trying to figure out how to enter the hotel, we finally checked in and had confirmation that we were in fact there on the correct weekend.  We stayed at the host hotel (Westin) which is connected to the Indianapolis Convention Center, the site of the expo.  This was convenient since it started to pour right about the time we headed over to pick up our stuff.

Expos are so much fun.

The expo was pretty typical for a big race.  We didn't stick around too long since none of us needed anything in particular.  We then had a drink and ate some tasty dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery.  They even had "marathon" specials..........

I didn't know there was also a marathon!

After dinner we walked around downtown Indianapolis for a bit.  It's such a nice clean city.  We saw the Colts stadium, the canal, White River State Park, and the NCAA headquarters, plus amazing views of the city from the river/canal.  

Fun in Indy!!!

Since our corral was right outside the hotel door, we got up as late as possible.  Getting into our corral was quick and easy.  It was a little windy, but nothing too cold.  If I haven't said it already, this is a pretty big race (35,000 people) and has both a 5k and a half marathon.  I think the 5k started 30 minutes before we did.  The plan for this race was for us all to stick together and to just have fun, something I've never done during a half marathon.

Ready, set, go!

The first five miles of the course were all about making our way towards the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and were less than scenic.  Spectator support and course entertainment were excellent.  I feel like we were always being entertained by someone or something even though there wasn't much scenery on this part of the course.  Once we were almost at mile 5, we entered Speedway, IN, and this is where the race got really good!!!!

My life is about to be changed.

For about a half mile we made our way down a road lined with shops, bars, restaurants, etc until we finally reached the entire point for running this race - the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

That lady on the left is super excited!

Running on the Speedway is probably the most awesome thing that I have ever done during a race.  I mean, running through Churchill Downs last year at the Kentucky Derby Mini-Marathon was pretty cool, but this topped that by far!!!!  I seriously never wanted it to end!!!  And I don't even care about NASCAR (**just learned that Indy is not NASCAR.  It's Indy)!!!!  As we crossed the 10k mark, some dude that must be really bad at math shouts very loudly (in his best Bon Jovi voice) - "Ooooooooh, we're half way there...."  I was confused since 6.2 + 6.2 = 12.4...........

More Indy fun!

We walked A LOT on the track because we did not want the fun to end!!!  We even passed a photographer as we were walking so that we could commemorate the occasion.

PROOF we were walking and having a good old time. 

More Speedway shenanigans.

So I knew at some point that I was supposed to see some bricks and that I was supposed to kiss them.  I have no idea why (well I didn't then but Google helped to educate us after the race).  I was having so much fun that I almost missed them!!  Good thing either Sarah or Jenny were paying attention!!!!

Oh, ya know.  Just kissin' the bricks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Typical Saturday morning run.

I will say here that every time we tried to take a picture of ourselves (or a "selfie," but I despise that word, so I refuse to use it), someone stopped and offered to take it for us.  This is almost unheard of in half marathons.  Once we kissed the bricks I got pretty sad because we were almost out of the Speedway.  I even suggested that we go back and do it all over again, but no one wanted to.  When it was all said and done, we ran about 2.5 miles on the track.  Someone that knows NASCAR (**again, not NASCAR, but Indy) better than me could probably give you a more accurate distance (or someone that wasn't lazy and asked Google).  Once out of the Speedway, we wound our way back to downtown Indy.  This part of the course was again pretty un-scenic until about 12 when we could see downtown Indy across the river.

About to cross the bridge into the final mile!

Once across the bridge, the course becomes "The Final Mile" and is lined with checkered flags and tons of spectators.  There is also car racing type sounds playing on the loudspeakers, whatever that means.

Final Mile

We crossed the finish line and I earned myself a shiny new PW - 2:28:48!!!  Haha!  Totally worth it though!  We grabbed our medals, which are AWESOME, and some grub (typical big race stuff).  

Half Marathon #26 in the books with a PW!!!

Indiana half marathon done!  21 states down.

We did not stick around for the post race party so I can't comment on it.  I HIGHLY recommend this race for an Indiana half marathon.  This was BY FAR the FUNNEST (yes, I'm using that word) race that I have ever done!!!

After getting showered and all packed up, we made our way to Cincinnati for Part 2 of our Indy/Cinci double.  Flying Pig Marathon, here we come!!!!

Double Fun and Flabby Arms

Since I'm the world's best blogger, you may or may not know that I've got my very first double header this weekend.  "Doubles" are pretty common amongst people that want to run in all 50 states since they significantly reduce travel costs.  If I can get TWO races out of ONE plane ticket, why not??  I have pretty specific rules for my upcoming doubles though.  I REFUSE to do a race because it just so happens to be in another state in close proximity to another race in another state that I may be doing.  I want to do the BEST race in each state, so I'm not going to sign up for any old race just for the sake of knocking out a state.  That being said, what I consider the BEST race for a particular state, may not be the best race for you.  We all have our preferences.  These just happened to be the two races that I wanted to do in these two states and they just happened to be on the same weekend.  Two states in one weekend: 500 Festival Mini Marathon (Indiana - State #21) on Saturday, Flying Pig Marathon (Ohio - State #22) on Sunday.

Source

Source

So what has double training been like?  This particular double is going to be a half marathon on Saturday followed by a marathon on Sunday so I probably didn't need to do any sort of special training for this but since I like to be super duper prepared for anything that I do, I of course took this as an opportunity to change up my running schedule a bit by doing half marathon type long runs on Fridays before my marathon type long runs on Saturdays.   After my epic PR in NOLA I continued to do weekly tempo/interval runs until I realized that I wasn't going for any sort of time goal in the near future.  Then I quit doing those.  No need to kill myself.  I really don't run all that much.  Just four days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday), and I peak at just over 40 miles/week.  So since the GA Marathon back in March (can you believe that was my last marathon), my Friday/Saturday runs have looked like this.  I won't bore you with the deets on my mid week runs. 

March 22-23: 

6.2 @ HMP + 60 s

12 @ MP + 60 s

March 29-30: 

10 @ HMP + 60 s

13.1 @ HMP (Viking Half Marathon)

April 5-6: 

9 @ HMP + 45 s

20 @ MP + 15 s (13.1 @ Rise and Shine Half Marathon)

April 12 and 14 (SUNDAY): 

8 @ HMP + 30 s

13.1 @ MP (Hogeye Half Marathon)

April 19-20: 

11 @ "Hurry up and get this done so we can eat brownies" pace

21 @ "Don't crap your pants" pace

April 26-27: 

- (that means no run on Friday because I wanted to sleep instead)

8 

And I should probably say here that this is in NO WAY a training program.  It's just what I did.  I am not a coach.  Besides the 21 miler where I thought that I was going crap my pants for the last 4 miles, I thought all the runs felt pretty good.  Goal for this weekend is to just have fun.  I've also gotten into the habit of inhaling a giant brownie after my Friday long run, which leads me to my next topic.........

I have pretty much determined that I have the flabbiest arms ever.  Seriously, no joke.  I actually have cellulite on my arms!!!!

Look me in the eye and tell me you don't see cellulite!!!

Now what am I going to do about this??  Not sure yet.  Plastic surgery seems like the easiest option, but my bank account is holding me back.  Option #2 actually involves maybe doing some sort of upper body strength training (gasp!) although I'm pretty sure I'm just always going to have flabby arms so why even bother.  Plus I'm really lazy, so this option may or may not materialize.  We shall see.  After next weekend, I go into marathon hibernation until September or October so this should leave me with plenty of free time work on my guns.

Woooooooo, Pig! Sooie! - Hogeye Half Marathon 2013 Race Recap

This year was the 37th running of the Hogeye!

Last weekend I headed to Fayetteville, AR to run the Hogeye HALF Marathon.   I had already done a marathon in Arkansas (Little Rock Marathon 2011) so I picked Hogeye as my Arkansas half marathon because of its university theme.  The drive to Fayetteville was long and boring.  From Jackson to Little Rock you basically drive through the scariest parts of Louisiana and Arkansas.  Between scary parts, it is farm after farm after farm.  

This is pretty much what you look at for 4 hours.

Once I hit Little Rock (which I decided that I am going to do the Little Rock Marathon again next year), I jumped on the interstate for the last 200 miles of the trip.  I made a final stop at a gas station in Rudy, AR, where I saw the most interesting collection of folks.  It's like I had been brought back in time to 1981.  A few of the rest stop patrons appeared to be shopping for clothes and/or accessories in the gas station.  One lady was looking at skull caps and proclaimed to her significant other which one was her favorite.  Needless to say, I didn't stick around too long.

Fayetteville turned out to be quite pretty.  I've never been to the Ozarks so this was all new to me.  Earlier that day I made a last minute change in my hotel situation.  The hotel I had booked just looked a little sketchy, and since I was traveling alone, I thought it might be best to stay somewhere a little less sketchy so I called the host hotel (The Chancellor) and booked a room.  One of the many perks of a small race.

Much better view compared to a view of the highway that I would have had at the other hotel.

The expo was held right in the host hotel so I dropped my stuff off in my room and headed downstairs.  There were several vendors, but I didn't need anything so I just picked up my stuff and left.  Typical race SWAG - red tech shirt, a marathon bar (yummy), and some water.  I was sort of sad that I wasn't doing the marathon but not all that sad considering how far the drive was and it's not that fun to drive that far right after a marathon.  Dinner was from a tasty place right around the corner from my hotel - Taste of Thai (recommended by a friend who is an Arkansas alum).  

Drunken Noodles with shrimp.  Yummy in my tummy!

Start line was literally right outside the front doors of the hotel so I woke up as late as I could.  I decided to wear my Maniac shirt even though I was only doing the half.  Once downstairs with all the other runners I saw several Maniacs and immediately felt like an imposter for wearing my Maniac shirt with a half marathon bib.  I'm pretty sure no one else cared.  

Lined up ready to go.

The temperature was pretty much perfect but it was super sunny out.  I hoped the course was shaded.  I knew the course was supposed to be hilly but in the first two miles I swear we climbed two almost vertical inclines.  The toughest first two miles of any race I've done.  By the second of those two vertical inclines, I just said eff it and walked.  It was also during these first two miles that we ran through the University of Arkansas campus.

Beast hill #1 up ahead.

Razorback Stadium

Beast hill #2

Lots of other people saying eff it too and walking.

Once off campus we wound our way through some neighborhoods and eventually onto some sort of multipurpose bike/walking trail.  We ran through some farmland and past some cows.  The cows were pretty smelly.  

It was very sunny and there was little shade on much of the first 2/3 of the course.

Along the multipurpose trail.

Mooooooooo!

Since this is Fayetteville, AR, it wouldn't be appropriate to not take us past a Walmart or a Sam's Club.  It was during this time that I couldn't get away from a girl that was playing her music without headphones.  And it was pretty crappy music at that.  Am I the only one that finds this incredibly rude????  You should only do this if no else is around you.  Just past mile 8, we split from the marathon.  At this point I was pretty darn happy that I was only doing the half.

Glad to be going left.

 

For the rest of the course, we pretty much stayed on the multipurpose trail, only this part was shaded and a lot more scenic.  There was a little stream next to us and it was nice to hear the running water.  We also ran over some cute little bridges and through several little tunnels, the longest being about 100 meters long.

And the award for the worst race photos ever goes to........ME!

Pretty trail

Pretty bad picture, but you get the point.

Just before hitting mile 13, there was another pretty steep incline.  I probably could have walked up it faster than I was running.  Once at the top, it was all downhill to the finish.

I'm pretty heinous in these pictures.

I finished in 2:08:xx, a pretty typical time for me if I'm just running for the fun of it.  I got my medal, which I think is pretty awesome.  They were also giving everyone cute little pig noses to wear.  I will definitely be wearing mine for Flying Pig in a few weeks.

Sans pig nose.

Pretty cool medal.

Post race food spread was a little disappointing for a small race - bananas, chips, chocolate milk, Gatorade, water, granola bars, etc.  At small races, I pretty much expect pizza.  Yes, I'm very spoiled.  I didn't stick around too long since I was alone and I didn't want to look creepy standing around by myself.  Plus I wanted to shower and hit road since it was going to be a long drive back. 

So I think this race is a good one for an Arkansas race.  Sure, the Little Rock MARATHON is a must do race, but I wouldn't suggest it for a half marathon.  The most important reason to do Little Rock is for the MARATHON medal.  And the LR half course isn't very scenic.  Hogeye is small and scenic.    I think they could do a better job of showcasing the University though.  We were really only on campus for the first 2 or 3 miles.  If you've never been to the Ozarks, they are very pretty.  I like that with a goal of eventually doing a half marathon and a marathon in each state that I will have the opportunity to see more than one part of a state.  Before this trip I had only seen Little Rock and Little Rock isn't all that pretty.  But keep driving about 200 more miles northwest and Arkansas actually becomes a place I may want to visit for non-race purposes.  

Arkansas bling.