26.2

I finished! I am too tired to blog and upload pictures so here is the mini recap.

Great race, great course, AWESOME pace group beat my A Goal (4:30)

4:27:46! Freaking thrilled! I am on cloud nine. I will have a huge blog tomorrow with pictures since I have no plans of leaving the bed, couch, recliner : )

My Bag is Packed!

I am going to admit that I have my bag packed already! Since I am taking it easy this week by biking and going on light runs I will not need my good running stuff so I decided to go ahead and pack. My husband saw the bag and was like "I wouldn't expect any less". Basically I am Type A to the tee. I have also e-mailed directions and times to the family coming up. Anyone out there wondering what to pack for a marathon? Well here is what is in my bag:

Running shoes : )

Thorlo socks

Capri running tights (45 degree start, 65 degree finish and prevents chub rub)

Running shorts to wear over tights (prevents camel toe and other TMI views)

Long Under Armour tank

Long Sleeve Wicking shirt that can be tied around waist when I get hot (mile 2)

Sweaty Band

Hat in case it rains

Throw away shirt to wear while waiting

Throw away gloves (will be off within one mile)

Running belt stocked with 3 gus and 1 thing of Clif Blocks

Garmin

iPod with new playlist

Standard Pre-run breakfast (2 cereal bars)

3 bottles of water (I hate buying over priced water at hotels)

The after Marathon outfit:

Really tight Skinny Jeans to show off my running legs! HA! Or maybe for the compression.

I am super excited! I only get nervous for a minute or two. I feel very ready! My training has been light due to daily demands and a couple of brief illnesses but I really feel like my body is ready for this. The weather is suppose to be beautiful and my family is coming to watch. My parents, husband and son will be getting up at the crack of dawn to drive to Indianapolis to watch me finish and then they are taking me for a victory dinner. Since I am never hungry right after I am going to go shower and then drive towards Louisville (sorta half way between Indianapolis and home) to eat. I have picked Los Aztecas a yummy Mexican restaurant my husband and I ate at in August for our anniversary trip. I will be stopping at The Cheesecake Factory for a huge piece of cheesecake on the way home!

Thanks to everyone that follows! If anyone out there is doing Indianapolis let me know!

1 week!

I did a 10 mile run today and then it will be taking it easy until next Saturday. I feel good about next week and only have three goals:

1) finish

2) not be last

3) not have to crawl : )

My run today was great and I felt strong! I found a new Gu I like; Mint Chocolate and that will be in my belt for sure next Saturday. I am trying to enjoy a low key week and get ready for the "big day" : )

Another celebration for me is that I am one year smoke free. I started smoking when I was in high school and was a moderate to heavy smoker during college and when I first got married. I did not smoke during my pregnancy and made it until he was about 3 months old before I started again. I only smoked one cigarette a night when I was smoking after that. When I started running 5Ks in May 2009 I was still smoking but when I signed up for my first half (February 2010) I decided I should stop smoking. SO the end of last September/early October I smoked my last cigarette. I do not know the exact date but I know it has been a year or a little more since I smoked. I will tell you that it is not easy. There are MANY nights I want to go out on the deck and smoke with my husband. There are MANY times when I am stressed and I think about smoking. But is obviously not the choice to make for many reasons.

Today I am loving that the Ironman World Championship (Kona) is on! Really bummed that Chrissie Wellington had to drop out due to sickness. I have a lot of respect for these athletes and love watching the phenomenal accomplishments they make. I will never go to Kona or do an Ironman anytime soon but I still love to watch it! Definitely worth setting your DVR on December 18th to record the NBC special on Kona; you will be motivated by the pros and age groupers.

I am already looking into future races; some on my radar are:

Nashville Rock n Roll Half (with parents)

Virginia Beach Half (Mom and Brother?)

Disney Marathon January 2012 close to my 30th birthday

Outerbanks Marathon (fall 2011, fall 2010)

Race to Recovery HIM (June 2011)

Who knows? Just need to have something on the calendar to keep my butt in motion!

20 miles...

Thumbs up for:

* Ran the first 8 by myself and had a great time! Listened to some new music to and the time went by fast.

*Met up with my fried Crystal for the last 12 miles and that always helps.

* The song "Shackles" by Mary Mary for getting me to the end. I am sure people were giving me second looks as I was giving praise running down the road.

*My little 10 mile cheer that made some lady stop and stare at me! Seriously people running is fun!

*2 buses parked at the back of a church (see my thumbs down and you will figure it out)

*My mom who came to check on me : )

* The pike for being beautiful and giving me a good workout.

* All the other runners out on the road today; I really like the "older" men and women out there who inspire me to still be running when I am 60+

* Clif Blocks the cran-razz flavor; I look forward to my mile beep just so I can eat another one.

* My always faithful tangerine 2X the caffeine Power Bar energy gel that gets me going! Ask Crystal who was probably thinking "please shut up" when she joined up with me.

* Last long run before the big day! Can you say taper?!?!?

Thumbs down:

*Mile 15-17 when I had some weird calf pain that was enough to make me cuss.

* Steven Tyler did not inspire me to run harder. I love Aerosmith and have a huge crush on Steven Tyler but he was not doing it for me today.

* TWO bathroom breaks.

* The pike for all the hills (it is a love/hate thing)

* The viscous rottweiler looking dog that came lunging at me! Thank God for invisible fence or I would have been a doggy treat.

Overall I was very happy with my 20 miler! Hoping those other 6 come easy : )

Kris' Next Race

Kris well being doing a duathlon this coming weekend on Saturday. It is a 5k run, 15 mile bike and another 5k run. She has been trying two other ladies to do the race so Kris will be doing a lot of coaching and encouraging! I was a bad blog friend and did not make a ticker for her : ( Good luck Kris this weekend at the dual!

Wellness Center Triathlon Race Recap

Before I get to race day I have to recap the night before. Friday night was my 10 year reunion tailgate. I did not eat super bad or drink alcohol but I did have a hot dog and a Sierra Mist. Apparently this was a bad idea because on top of my nervous stomach I woke up at 1:30 a.m. with a huge knot in my stomach and gas and heartburn. I did not go back to sleep until 4:30 a.m. On top of that Scott got a phone call at 3:30 a.m. that his Mamaw passed away. Not the best way to get good rest for race day. I did get 2 good hours of sleep from 4:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. More in a minute about heading to my first tri with a 2 year old in tow.

I also owe a huge "Thanks" to Big Daddy Diesel for his encouraging e-mail the night before. I was going to be with nervous thoughts in my head and it was a nice last minute "You got this!" plus some advice. It did not prevent me from dreaming that they had turned the pool into a wave pool and there were 4 foot waves to swim in. : )

My swim coach and friend Crystal. Crystal has been a huge support and help this summer as we have both worked to be better runners, bought road bike and signed up for our first tri together. We might not be fast but we made our goals!

Setting up my transition area! I feel like that part was easy enough not as stressful as I thought it would. Minus the 2 year old : ) Somebody called me Super Mom for having him with me. I owe a huge thank you to my Superintendent's husband for not only helping his wife set up but getting my bike together and helping until my parents go there.

Since Daddy was taking care of his family my parents came and were on Parker duty. They were great about keeping him entertained! Grampy racked him like Mommy's bike. They made sure he was at all my finishes and stars and giving me a big "Go Mommy" or "Good job Mommy" AND they took all of these awesome pictures.

My mom said when I was 50 I would like this picture! I was just pumped they wrote my number on my arm and leg! I was not doing a tri without a body marking. I had my own Sharpie in my truck just in case.

So thankful to be out of the water. I hate swimming and struggle with it greatly. This summer I "learned" to swim but still have a long way to go. Most days I can put my face in the water for 1/2 of each lap. But I was super nervous, getting passed, swimming into sunlight and sucking in water like a small child so I just said forget it and swam with my head out the whole time. Finished in 9 minutes 20 seconds which is freaking great for me! I was hoping for under ten minutes and I made it!

SWIM in your TRI SHORTS! Seriously should have know better. I had a big 4 minute transition. I also Gued and wonder if that was even necessary! OH WELL! It was so cute when I was transitioning to the bike Parker asked if I was going to go eat Pancakes with him : ) Oh how I wish that is what I was going to do!

Off to bike! It was a beautiful fall day and I truly enjoyed the ride. I was being so leisurely about it I was afraid I was going to be dead last (there was only 2 guys behind me) but I was just having fun. Well the 1 guy passed me; oh well! I did finished in 1 hour 2 minutes which is 8 minutes faster than I had ever done on that course. I wanted under an hour but I still call the bike a success.

Off for the run. I was racing not to be last! I think there was one guy behind me and there were 2 people ahead of me. I was hoping to pass at least one person. I was passed by 10-12 people in the swim and passed by 2 people on the bike so I just wanted to pass 1 person for the day. I can't help it I am competitive. Notice the gentleman in the blue long sleeve in the back. That is Scott #2. He is my Superintendent's wife that was a great help all day! Super supportive and ver encouraging.

I got rid of my dead legs at .5 miles and was bouncing from 8:30 pace to 9:30 pace. BUT I had the worst catch ever in my ribs basically the whole time. Not one of the "push on it and it goes away" pains but one of those "take your breath and try to cry" kind. UGH! BUT I pushed thru and finished my run in a little over 28 minutes. My goal was to keep it under 30 minutes so I am more than pleased with the run. AND I passed three people on the run : ) Too bad it was my friend Crystal, my superintendent and some guy that was at least 70 : ( I am usually running to be first but this time I was running to not be last. Definitely a race of a different color for me.

Finished in 1 hour 44 minutes (wanting 1:40 to 1:45) so that was success! I did get an award for being 3rd in my age group. I am betting there were only 3 people there in my age group.

Will I do it again? Not so sure. I will not be swimming until next summer. It is too time consuming to go the gym and I don't have a gym membership so it costs a lot. I might take the time next summer to work on my swim or I might just find some local Duals. Right now I am putting my focus on my October 16th marathon and continuing to improve my running. Running is definitely my favorite of the three! I have a lot of half-marathons I would like to do and will be doing another marathon close to my 30th birthday in January 2012. Overall I am just thankful I am healthy enough to do what I did today! Thanks for reading and following.

Finished

Thanks to all those that have supported me and given my advice going into my first tri. I will have a race report once I have the pictures to go with it.

Here is a general break down:

Swim 9:20 (my best ever)

Transition 4 minutes (bad clothing choices)

Bike 1:02 (fastest ever on that course)

Transition ? but it was quick I think

Run 28 minutes and some change

Overall 1 hour 44 minutes and something

3rd in my age group : ) Not telling how many were there!

45th overall ??

Once my mom gets pictures to me I will write about all the ups and downs of doing my first tri. It was interesting to say the least!

Parker's 1st Race

Tonight I participated in a local 5K to finish off my Serres. Since yesterday was my 18 mile day I ran with Parker in the stroller. It was suppose to be me and friend but her stroller had a broke wheel. It was a lot of fun to run just for fun. I don't even know my time. Someone said maybe 33 something.

Parker running in his "first" race. He ran with his buddy Seamus (Shay-Shay as Parker calls him) and poor Parker was quickly at the back of the pack. Seamus on the other hand took off!

Unprepared, Mismatched, Mystery Workout

All excited that I was going to get a swim for the first time this week and I got there to find out I had no swimsuit or towel! SO I wore my new tri-shorts (didn't like swimming in them) and a random sports bra tank. Good news is the swim went well. It is a short pool because it is a yard pool instead of the meter pool I typically swim in. I know that is not that much BUT my time was 9:40. FASTER my one whole minute!

My running clothes were horribly mismatched! I had hot pink shorts, yellow COTTON shirt and some random winter wool socks.

Mystery distance since the Garmin would not get a signal. Pretty sure it was 2 miles but I had to go get my little guy so it was more of a run just to get in a run.

The Sprint Tri is next weekend! Sorta more excited about that than the marathon!

Recovery.... week?

Mid week and it has been more of a recovery week than a day. My long run was Saturday so I basically took Sunday off (really easy 3 mile treadmill run). I attempted to work out Monday and Tuesday but lacked the energy so read the clues my body was giving me and didn't push too hard. Tonight I did get in a 5 mile run but I did not wear my Garmin because I did not want to know my pace or time.

The pictures above show what I have been focusing on; my family. Mostly Parker! He is really growing right before my eyes and I want to get in all the extra time with him I can. Scott has been working lots of overtime so my works outs have been in the basement late at night and that is not motivating. He also leaves the house at 5:00 a.m. so an early workout is impossible. I am hoping to step it up this week and get ready for the Sprint Tri and then drop the bike and swim schedule and focus on the run for the Marathon. I will still bike for days off but less pressure to bike.

AND the no sweet thing is IMPOSSIBLE in my job! I think I am going to be more reasonable and say once a week or something. Tomorrow is the "one month away" day so I am going to get more serious about diet/training schedule.