Race Picture

I have never ordered a race photo but I thought this one was pretty neat! The next few races I have on my radar will probably not have great back drops so I decided to go ahead and order this one. Anyone else out there order pictures? What is your opinion on it? Thought it could serve as motivation or one day when I get a medal hanger I could hang some pictures around it.

The next one...

Registration Details

Confirmation #:	48215652-032811185130
Date & Time:	05/14/11 - 05/15/11
Location:	Downtown Cleveland (Map)
Purchased at:	03/28/11
Group:	Marathon
Category:	Marathon
Name:	Twila Montgomery

It is official : ) Here I come Monica!

New Plan and Glad I don't bet : )

This week starts a new "plan".... I follow plans as well as my best ADHD kid : ) BUT I really need to work on other parts of my body besides my legs! The legs can run but my week core and no flexibility are killing me! I can not touch my toes and am inches away from it. I did P90X Yoga and well it was horrible. I need to stretch for like 8 hours a day to make improvements. So I have made a plan that addresses other areas of my body. I am also recording some of those cheesy Yoga workouts that can come on TV for the days I don't have over an hour to devote toward Tony and his Yoga. Here is the plan...

Sunday – Yoga and Run (5 miles @ 9:00 min pace)

Monday – Speed 5K and AB work

Tuesday- walk/yoga after class; when class is over 5 mile 9:30 run

Wednesday – 5-6 mile speed work/arms OR 8 mile run at 9:00-9:30 min pace

Thursday – Plyometrics 0r P90X cardio or Insanity

Friday- rest

Saturday – Long run

I have given myself options on most days but I really want to get in more other stuff than just running but I will need to get in plenty of running because....

Somebody is talking about ME running ANOTHER marathon on May 15h in Cleveland! Who would have such a crazy idea??? Okay it might be me : ) My friend Crystal bet me I would be registered for something by summer. Little did she know it would actually be a week and she should have put some money on it! BUT it is a great way to knock off an close by state and I get to stay with my friend Monica. She is running the half so it would be a good time. I think I am going to make it official tonight. I really want to do another one quick because I feel like I could have done better in Virginia. I think the illness and lack of running for 2 weeks really caught up with me. I had trained so hard and much faster than what my time showed. My "big" runs were all sub 9:30 up until the funeral and illness stuff happened. SO we shall see : )

Skinny Runner is giving away tons of stuff! Go check it out!

Dang It!

So a few weeks before Virginia I looked at the Kentucky Derby Marathon. I had heard the half was full but the marathon was still open. I did not want to register for it in case I came back from Virginia injured or really wanting a break. Well when I crossed the finish in Virginia within minutes I was wanting to sign up for something else. SO I came home and was going to hit up the Kentucky Derby Marathon since it is so close to home and would be easy to "retrain" for. BUT it is full : ( BOO! There are plenty of other races that weekend but they are more expensive and they would require much more traveling. So I guess I am on a short break. Might looking to a summer and then I think Outerbanks in November is the plan! The only other big item on the schedule is the Bourbon Chase in October. If I was rich and not a teacher I would make my goal next year "12 in 2012" BUT hard to get off work that much to jet around the US to run marathons. Plus plane tickets aren't cheap.

If you need me I will be googling upcoming marathons like a crazy person! 2 states down and 48 to go. I told my husband I wanted to be a 50 stater by 60 and his response was "Where is the fun in taking so long?" I guess he is giving me permission to run more marathons a year!

Virginia Beach Race Report

We were up bright and early to beat traffic and get good parking. We left my brother's house at 5:45 and had plenty of time to park. Minus the idiots that let us in a parking garage that was full. We found a nice lot about 5 blocks from the finish which would give a good post race walk. It was SUPER cold this morning! 44 degrees and crazy wind. Luckily the wind died down for the most part and the sun was out the whole race. We did run into a head wind the majority of the race.

Taking off finally! There was a 15 minute delay to prevent the halfers from bumping into the full runners. I started off great and was keeping sub 10:00 min miles easily. I was hoping to at least PR by a few minutes. Miles 1 - 12 were uneventful. I Gued at mile 5, ran thru Camp Pendelton around mile 8 and loved the support, met some nice people at mile 6 and talked for awhile, gave my top shirt to my mom at mile 12 and peed (which is something I usually don't do)

During the first place I had enjoyed talking to two guys. When they stopped to pee at mile 11 I was worried I would not see them again but they caught back up with me at mile 14. I knew they wanted a sub 10 average so we hung together from 14 to 21 and had a blast! Their names were David and David. We did the pony dance at mile markers and stopped to dance at the band and told jokes to pass the time. Making friends is the way to go! I hate people that take is all serious and won't joke about stuff. I also loathe tutu wearers but that is another issue in itself. Lets just say I make it a personal mission to pass people in annoying clothes : ) Mile 21 the slower David started having a real hard time and the faster David wanted to get closer to a 9:30 pace. So I was left solo again.

However, I was able to stay strong mentally and push thru. My pace slipped and I would guess I was averaging more of a 10:15 at this point. Crowd support finally started coming back at mile 23 and the run down the boardwalk was great. Everyone screamed your name and I wanted so bad to run as fast as I could but apparently 10:24 was all I had left.

Clock time was about 6 minutes fast so I am thinking I was a 4:23 something which would be four to five minutes better than my previous time.

Found my mom and brother at the fish. Had some calf cramps AGAIN so I drank some water and ate a banana before walking to the car. Marathon #2 is much easier than #1. I will update this post when official time is posted or texted to me.

Thanks to everyone that has sent messages and commented!

*Official time 4:23:12 which is 4 minutes and 34 seconds faster! Which is a 10:02 pace. My last marathon was a 10:14 pace. I was really hoping to be sub 10; even if it was 9:59 pace but I apparently did not have it in be today. I could blame the head winds but it was probably the result of 2 crappy long runs and the weeklong stomach bug! OR I am just a 10:00 minute kinda girl : )

Pre Race Stuff

Virginia Beach is about 10 hours from where I live so we drove 6 hours on Friday. We stopped at a hotel with an indoor pool and it felt great to get in and stretch around after all that time in the car. It was not so great that a hound dog checked in next door and howled all night and it was less great that a team of 50 high school track boys checked in! Nothing a tylenol PM didn't take care of.

Great Expo! Super quick pick up and there were quite a few vendors. Picked up my 26.2 sticker for my truck and some new block flavors. I was in and out pretty quick.

Everyone else was doing it so I took my picture with the little guy.

In Virginia Beach they have an awesome bakery that is yummy and they employ individuals with disabilities. They are non profit and I love supporting them when I am here. I had my favorite cranberry muffin and I ate it too quick to take a picture.

We had some time to kill before we headed to my brother's house so we killed some time at the beach.

They were hauling in all the bananas and waters! That is A LOT of bananas! Plus there were like 5 other crates.

We picked out our meeting place at the finish line. The orange fish : ) Bet I look a lot worse tomorrow!

I will post sometime tomorrow night how I finish. I am going to enjoy it and run as fast as I can.

The Plan

Well as I laid around Thursday night and sat in the ER getting fluids I seriously considered e-mailed the race directors and deferring my place until next year. BUT I never could bring myself to do it. Even when I spend the whole day Friday sick and then on Saturday when I was still living off of dry waffles and ginger ale I was thinking there is NO way I am running. BUT....

I have trained by butt off since the first of the year and I really want to go to Virginia this weekend to see my brother and his family. It will be a great trip with my mom and I get to see the ocean : ) I have no plans other than to cross the start line and the finish line. Any times/paces that I had in my head are out the window. I am just going to go enjoy the large race and the view of the ocean. Thanks so much to those people that commented and offered advice. I will blog one more time before I leave talking about all the goods I am taking.

One heck of a Taper

I said taper and my body said "I will make sure you don't run AT ALL"...

Finished the craptastic run on Sunday (22 turned 19) and then had a light 5 mile treadmill run on Monday. Monday night/Tuesday Morning (2:00 am) woke up with 102 fever. Sick Tuesday and Wednesday. Worked Thursday but am at home now with more throwing up : (

So my question is.... Do I pull out of the marathon? Tomorrow is the last day to transfer my payment until next year. I think I could pull off a short run Saturday and then treadmill runs next week. I leave Friday the 18th to drive to Virginia Beach and run on Sunday the 20th. I have trained really hard for 10 weeks. I started off with a real strong base and long runs at 10 miles. I have had two 20 milers. I know I will finish and am looking forward to the time with my mom and getting to see my brother. However, my body is going to be completely wiped and I will do good to get in 15-20 miles between now and then. Suggestions?

22 miles or NOT!

I really wanted to get in a 22 mile run before the marathon. Well the running gods must be playing mean tricks on me because last weekend I had the funeral and was forced to do 20 on the treadmill and this week the stomach bug infected my little guy : (

Friday night at 5:00 the bug started and from then until 4:00 in the morning I was doing lots of yucky clean up about every 30 minutes. The hubs had to work the next day so I took night duty solo which also meant I had Saturday to do solo as well. I was going to do my 22 on Saturday while my parents watched Parker but no one wants to baby sit a sick kid AND the weather was POURING down rain for hours straight and 30 mph winds. So Saturday I sat on the couched, held my boy and watched Disney movies for hours on end. Don't get me wrong there is no where else I would rather be than taking care of my little guy. But I think all the sitting and stress had me all messed up.

Sunday I woke up and luckily my running partner was still willing to tackle 14 with me. So I did 6 (felt great) before I met up with him and then we went out for 14. Felt great for the 1st 6 we did together (12 total for me) but it started getting bad when I hit my 16 mile mark. I handed the Garmin off so J could have a decent run without my slow, out of whack self. Basically I was cramping up in all kinds of ways! I am thinking it was dehydration but lets just say I was in pain from my lower back down and I walked. WALKED down a very busy road where other people were driving. I hardly ever walk during a run so that tells you I was in some serious pain. I hobbled back to my car and ended up somewhere close to 19 miles. Also, to make matters worse I realized my keyless was not in my running belt and was freaking out that I had lost my keyless. But one good thing that happened I had left it laying on the hood of my car. Real safe huh?

I am on my way to wallow in some high calorie food and a cupcake (peanut butter banana) and hoping that 2 weeks from now will be a different story. I am going to taper and start stretching more. Hope everyone else had a better training run than I did.

***Giveaway @ Am I Runner or Just Crazy to celebrate post #100

ABCs of me...

Waiting to go to close and I needed something mindless to do after a long day at work so here it goes....

A~Age: 29

B~ Bed Size: Queen

C~Chore you hate: mopping and cleaning bathrooms; which is why I have a cleaning lady. I also dislike putting away laundry. I will wash it, dry it and fold it but I hate putting it away! Matching socks is the worst and I don't do it.

D~Dogs: 2; Weimaraner named Milly and a Pug named Rancher plus 2 cats! We are slightly insane for having so many pets.

E~Essential Start your Day Item: Fiber One pop tart and I am scared that have stopped making them.

F~Favorite Color: Blue

G~Gold or Silver: Silver; simple earrings, marathon necklace and rings are my basic go to unless I am getting all fancied up

H~Height: 5 feet 2 inches

I~Instruments you play: HA! That would require me to have rhythm.

J~Job Title: Special Education Teacher

K~Kids: One, Parker who is 2 1/2

L~Live: Danville, Kentucky

M~Mom’s Name: Brenda

N~Nicknames: Don't really have one

O~Overnight Hospital Stays: Just one for having Parker and then back to the hospital for post delivery complications

P~Pet Peeve: I have a lot! No turn signals, people that whistle, when people are late, talk radio in the mornings, people that make excuses and plenty more but I don't want to look like a complete grump!

Q~Quote from a Movie: I am sure I could think of something profound if I really thought about it but this is the first thing I thought of:

From Sweet Home Alabama

Jake: [not recognizing Melanie in her sunglasses] Can I help you?

Melanie Carmichael: Well, for starters, you can get your stubborn ass down here and give me a divorce.
Jake: You're shittin' me, right?
Melanie Carmichael: I never fully understood that expression, but no, I am not "shitting" you.

S~Siblings: Older Brother (32) and Older Sister (33). They are half siblings

T~Time you wake up: 6:15

U~Underwear: I wear them except when I run

V~Vegetable you Dislike: It is easier to say I only eat green beans, corn and potatoes and well broccoli if you cover it in cheese and crackers : )

W~What Makes You Late: I am NEVER late; if I am it is someone else's fault (usually the kid)

X~X-rays You’ve had Done: ummm maybe 3; not counting dental

Y~Yummy Food you Make: I am not a good cook but I can make desserts and pretty good mexican food. Scott says I make the best salmon croquettes.

Z~Zoo Animal Favorite: Pandas : )