Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hampton Half Marathon Photos

I finally found race photos from the Hampton half marathon! There were a few interesting photos, but the Capstone prices are outrageous! First off, I have no interest in prints, which is mostly what they're pushing. Seriously...we live in a digital world, and I am a digital girl.

They do have a few options for digital prints. For a 300 pixel digital print they want $20! For a single photo! 300 pixels is probably the resolution of the pics below. I'm guessing they just strip off the Capstone Photography proof. That's just ridiculous. Anyway, here are some photos courtesy of Capstone Photography.


My Mom Running Strong

At the beginning of the race...we did lots of weaving


Me with my eyes closed. I do that a lot.


Finishing! I'm smiling because I can see the clock!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Hampton Half Marathon RP

Sunday I ran the Hampton half marathon with my mom. Because I haven't been racing (more on that next week), I'm living vicariously through my mother. I'm not sure how she feels about that...after my last post my mom preemptively emailed me letting me know that her goal would be to run 9:00 minute pace for the half. I thought this was a great goal because that gave us a finishing time of 1:58, breaking that two hour mark!

Let's give some background to my mom's running. She's been running a bit over two years now. Before that she never ran, only walked or biked. She has a great build for running though. Anyway, when she started she just wanted to be able to run a 5K, and her goal was not to be last. She went from training for a 5K, to training for a half-marathon, to training for a marathon. She was planning to run BayState, but a new house and job a month before the marathon interfered with training. Probably not a bad thing considering how miserable the weather was at BayState. She ran her first half marathon last May and her time was 2:04. So this was her second half. And she broke 2 hours! She did great!

For the first 4 miles, we were averaging 8:30 pace. By mile 9, we were averaging 8:40 pace. By the time we hit mile 10, my mom was starting to feel a bit tired. You know how the last 5K can be in the half. We slowed a little and then she got a cramp. She was so frustrated, but I told her we'd be fine. We crossed the line at 1:57:35! That's 8:58 pace! Woo Hoo!

It was a great day and a great course. Very picturesque. I had a lot of fun running. I have a few more races lined up for my mom. I'm just waiting for her to tell me, "No more! You're insane!"

Here are a couple pictures I found online from the 5K. I'm hoping to have some half marathon photos to share soon!


Here we are with less than 0.1 to go!


Talking after the race...my eyes are closed.

Training Journal (2/8-2/14)
Total Miles Run: 41.25
Total Time Running: 6:05
Average Pace: 8:50
Stationary Bike Time: 1:05

Training Journal (2/15-2/21)
Total Miles Run: 45.35
Total Time Running: 6:43
Average Pace: 8:53
Stationary Bike Time: 1:40

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Racing: a crazy runner's viewpoint

Over the last week, I've read two posts that discussed racing attitudes. The first was over at Running and Living, where she discusses how runners who race have different goals from those who run for fitness. She mentions how many times her goal in a race is to suffer. The suffering and pain let's us know we're pushing our limits. The post is great, but I couldn't help thinking when I read it that I just don't think of racing that way. My goal when I race is almost always the same...to run as fast as I can. And yes, I've said that to people who ask before a race, and yes, they often look at me funny.

Inevitably, running as fast as one can run in race will come with a certain amount of discomfort. To me though, the discomfort or suffering that comes along with racing is something that's in the background. I know it's there, but it's not my focus, it's not why I love racing, and during some of my best races I haven't even noticed it. Running fast is why I love racing. I realize that might sound a bit ambiguous. After all, one person's fast can be another person's slow. Maybe I should say, running as fast as I can on any given race day? Besides the goal of running fast, I do have specific time goals for every race I run. I almost always have a stretch goal, which I often don't accomplish (but I do sometimes). I have a more realistic goal, which isn't easy to accomplish, but it's more realistic. Finally, I have a goal that I tell myself if I meet it I won't be disappointed. Sometimes I miss all three goals, more often than not I'm able to achieve the middle goal, and rarely I achieve the stretch goal. I always feel compelled to have a stretch goal though, regardless of the fact that I often miss it.

What it really comes down to though is, did I run as fast I could? I can miss all three goals for a given race, but if I ran as fast I could that day it's hard for me to be too disappointed. For example, I ran awful at the BayState Marathon in October, but no matter how many times I go through that race in my head I just don't think I had a faster time in me that day. That was as fast as I could run. Yet last spring I ran a 5K in 21:45, a time many people would be happy with, but I was so disappointed in myself at the end of that race because I just knew I hadn't run as fast as I could. That's the question I always ask myself at the end of a race, did I run as fast as I could today? And if the answer is yes, I'm usually happy.

That brings me to the second post I read regarding racing on TRI'ing to balance it all. She talks about pre-race rituals and how no matter the race she always gets nervous. She writes "There is something about putting your toe to the line and committing to mentally and physically challenging yourself for a 110% effort that just gets me riled up." I love this quote! Yes, this is how I feel every time I race, and I believe that although stated a bit differently, that Running and Living was trying to make the same point.

Okay, now this brings me to why I was really thinking about racing attitudes. Sunday I ran a 5K race, but didn't race it. This was the first time I've ever run a 5K and not raced it. Not racing during a race was much more difficult than I thought it would be. On the plus side, I didn't get nervous or worked up. What's funny though, is I still had goals. I ran the race with my mother, and I didn't realize this until long after we finished the race, but I had three time goals based on her last 5K time. Basically, I had goals for my mother, because yes I'm crazy. I guess if I'm not going to run as fast I can during a race, I want to make sure someone else is running as fast as they can...my poor mom.

There were no timing chips for the race and we made the mistake of starting farther back from the start. It took us at least 20 seconds to get to the start line and weaving through the crowd really slowed us down. We got through the first mile at 8:50 (which was the official time and about 50 seconds slower than I was hoping for). So of course, I started picking up the pace. My mom, being quite the trooper stuck with me. We crossed the second mile mark at 7:40 pace. Then I settled down a bit. I could tell my mom was running hard. The last mile was 8:10. Our official finish was 25:30, but by my watch it was 25:10 (5 seconds from her PR)! And her second mile was a PR in the mile! So she ran awesome. What I find funny though, is the fact that although I wasn't racing I still needed to have time goals even if they were based on someone else. I'm such a crazy runner!

Training Journal (2/1 - 2/7)
Total miles run: 39.1
Total time running: 5:45
Average pace: 8:49

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Vomit is Yucky

My week was more interesting than I expected. During my run on Monday, I wound up with a weird cramp in my hamstring. I stopped the run around 8 miles, decided to cut back my weekly miles to 40-43 miles, and spread the miles a bit more throughout the week. This meant that Sunday I had a 10 miler planned. (Usually all my miles are run by Sunday.) But alas, it was not meant to be. Kaylee, my tiny tot, had a bit of diarrhea and vomiting on Saturday night. It wasn't too bad actually. She had diarrhea once and vomited once. We spent Sunday recovering. Do you have any idea how mad a toddler can get when you won't let them shove their face with food, and make them eat more slowly? Let me tell you...she was peeved. Anyway, then Sunday afternoon came and I started feeling nauseous. Like really nauseous.

I managed to keep all my insides on the inside until about 1:00 am, when I woke up, ran to the bathroom, and vomited. Ewww. I hate vomiting. Really, really, hate it. The whole experience is so violent for me. When Kaylee threw up, it was like she burped and out came a bunch of gross stuff. Nothing more to it than that. I throw up, and and it's like my body is trying to expel some of my internal organs. For about 24 hours, I was vomiting. And I didn't start eating anything for about 36 hours. I was able to take sips of Gatorade here and there. I broke a bunch of blood vessels in my face. At least I think I did. All around my eyes are red spots. They look like freckles, but are red. My throat was messed up too. When I took a look with a flash light, it looked like bloody hamburger. Lovely, I know.

My stomach bug got me thinking about eating disorders. I honestly have no idea how someone could be bulimic. I just can't stand the thought of vomiting, never mind doing it on purpose. Then there's anorexia, and you know what, I don't like starving either. I'm just miserable when I'm hungry and weak. Oh yeah, and I like to eat, let's not forget that.

So my week didn't turn out exactly how I planned, but I still ran 33 miles. I have no idea what will happen this week. I haven't run yet. Just haven't felt like it. We'll see. I'm going to play it by ear and see what happens.

Training Journal 1/25 - 1/31
Total Miles Run: 33
Total Time Running: 4:57
Average Pace: 9:05
Elliptical Machine: 9.1 miles at 7:08 pace
Stationary Bike: 1:30
Push ups: 5 sets of 16