Well, at the beginning of the year I went from barely being able to run for 30 seconds, to running 3 miles using the Couch to 5k program. It is an AMAZING program, and one that I recommend to all new runners, or people new to fitness, or to girls who just want to be able to finish a 5k without thinking that they’re going to have to be carted off the course after the .5 mile marker.
Then, things got in the way, it was the end of the school year, it was my last semester of grad school, it was time for summer internship, it was time to pack for my trip to Spain, and basically… running began to take a back burner.
That isn’t to say I didn’t stay active, I still did yoga, elliptical, and other random ventures like tennis… But I managed to convince myself to stick to that easy, comfy 3 miles and stop pushing.
I spoke to the ladies on the message board to corroborate my story. “I like running 3 miles. Three miles is fun and easy. Three miles makes me feel good. Three miles is meditative, and relaxing. So, basically, there isn’t any reason for me to try to run more.”
Now, to be fair, training for greater distances DID freak me out, but, duh, yea… that’s cause its HARD.
Doi.
Anyway, I’ve watched some of my peers, and fellow couch to 5k grads, like the lovely Jess of Let’s Get Fit, and Katie of Life in the Fulmer Lane (in a few weeks) take on the 13.1… and I’m ready.
The old, lazy, frightened Kelsey is the one who would quit training because the easy way is more fun. The new me is going to take it head on. So… Wish me luck, but more than luck, wish me determination, focus, and resolve… because I’ll need that much more.
Have you run a half marathon? What training plan did you use?
On Halloween morning, I got up and turned into Robin Hood…
I modified the costume that I wore to work on Friday for my race. I swapped my buckled boots for brown and black fur topped leg-warmers with my nikes, and added extra pins to my green pointy hat.
I arrived at the race extra early because I needed to register on site. I was the first person to arrive in costume (there were only 5 people there anyway), but I got a few looks. The 5k was beginning at a park in my town, and it was just so cute. The decorations looked decidedly hand strewn, but perfect. The goodie bag was well stocked, and the volunteers were exceptionally friendly. It was about 47 degrees when I arrived, so I stayed scarved and walked around for a bit in the calm, quiet darkness. It was surprisingly still and beautiful. I was grateful for a quiet moment…
…a quiet moment that was interrupted by an overwhelming urge to pee. Now, I’m a shyyyyyyyy bathroomer-very shy. But knowing that I was a quarter mile away from the registration table, and that it was super dark, and that I couldn’t find a restroom in the unlit park anywhere, and that there were no more than 10 people there at the moment, I found bravery I hadn’t expected. I found a tree at the farthest part of the park and a tree that was 3 feet wide, and yes. I peed. I know, I know… my bravery knows no bounds.
As light spread and more people arrived, I realized that there would not be too many people there… a few hundred at most, and that I was HIGHLY costumed as compared to these runners. There were lots of kids from a local school, as well as their teachers, and several track teams too.
When it came time to head to the starting line, I took my proper place near the back (though the starting line was on a sidewalk, so it wasn’t like being 50 yards from the start) and waited for the “go”.
As we started running, I immediately set to working on keeping my pace MY PACE. I’ve gotten used to people passing me, and learned pretty effectively how to not let fast runners get me down. I plodded along, pretty aware that it had been 2 weeks and some change since I’d last run, and just knew that I’d have to do my best.
About 3 minutes in, a woman fell into a stride beside me. She took off her headphones, and asked if I’d mind if she ran by me. She said that she was afraid to look back and see that she was the last runner. She wasn’t totally sure that she’d be able to run it, as the distance was new for her, and she didn’t feel totally confident that she’d knock it out of the park. Instantly, I knew that this race was NOT about my time. It was about her. I just felt it in my bones that I was gonna run with this woman and that we’d finish together.
I didn’t know that the route was not all on a hard surface, more than half of the course was on grass, and another portion was through very wet and muddy wooded areas with puddles 4 inches deep. I was not prepared for that. We kept trudging through, and ran over 1.6 miles before taking our first 30 second walk break!
I learned that this woman is also a teacher, and that we work in the same area. She was sweet, funny, and quite possibly my PERFECT running partner. We knew when to push each other, we knew that if we needed a 30 second break we could have one, and we knew when to talk and when to stay quiet. Her name was Kelly, and as we approached the final half mile, we challenged each other and said, “after this break, we make the last half mile with NO stops”. We had talked previously about separating if necessary for a sprint to the finish, and I expected I might.
By this point my knees were aching and I was really, really ready to finish the blasted thing, but I was sure we’d finish strong. Suddenly, about 100 yards away, I started to want to die. I didn’t want to sprint, didn’t have the strength, I wanted to WALK to the finish line with all my heart. Then I looked over and saw Kelly’s stride falling EXACTLY with mine, and listened to hear her breaths exhaling EXACTLY with mine, and I wanted to finish for her… with her.
It was surprisingly special, and we finished with a respectable 38:27 for the 3.35 mile course (I’m not sure why it can’t ever be a true 5k!?), which is, by a few seconds my new 5k race (official time) PR!
Oh, but one more thing, I won second place!!
…For my costume, silly!! I’ll proudly display my ribbon knowing that it is a reminder of a WONDERFUL race.
FYI, I wrapped up my run with a chunk of banana, some fruit gummies, and a coconut water.
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*as usual, google readers may have to visit site to see all pictures*
BIB 401 AGE 26 RANK NA TIME 38:27 DISTANCE:3.35 PACE 11:28/M
Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer
Hey guys, sorry that this race report is a little behind schedule…
So, The Bloomin’ 4 Mile is a club race put on by the Dallas Running Club. It is at a pretty and woody lake in Dallas, and was well attended. There were something like 500 runners at this race.
When I woke up in the morning, I wasn’t entirely sure it Daron would be coming. After all, it was just a “little race” and not terribly exciting, and not really a big goal race, so I had no expectations. In the end he decided to come, which meant so much to me. It really makes a difference when you have someone waiting for you at the finish line.
For breakfast I had a peanut butter and bananawich, but I kept gagging and didn’t really want it… that was weird. I also decided to see what effect caffeine would have on my race, so I went to the tea shelf. The only tea that we had that had any reasonable amount of caffeine was a box of lipton chai bags (which you would later add to milk to make a latte), which I drank black. It didn’t really BOTHER me, but I need to remember to get a tea that is a little less… spicy…
At the race, I got my bib and started stretching a little bit. I really didn’t feel very excited, and I didn’t feel like myself… so the mind games started early.
I lined up, kissed my man, and set off.
I KNOW I started at the wrong pace. I could just feel it. I’m not sure if I was feeling a need to keep up with others, or if I just misjudged, but I rectified it as soon as I could. I felt pretty much fine all the way to the turn around point at 2 miles. Right at about 2.5 miles, the trek that was downhill on the way there, was now uphill (obviously) and I decided that because I felt a little dehydrated, and a little too hot (HRM said my bpm was 194) I should walk up the hill. That took about 1.5-2 minutes.
After that, and after dealing with my “disappointment” at taking a walk break (and yes, I know I shouldn’t be upset about walking) my little heart just felt heavier. I really needed water, and knew that I wasn’t going to be getting any until about .5 miles from the finish line, so I kept going. At some point, my HR got too high again, and I decided that I would walk until I got to the 3.5 marker. This walk lasted about a minute, so I wasn’t too far from it anyway.
When I saw that sign that said .5 miles to go, I just wanted to be back to the finish so I could GET it over with! My legs felt like they weighed about 200 lbs each, and I was just all blah. Rounding the last corner, with the finish in sight, I couldn’t really even sprint to the finish!!! Daron commented later that it was the first time he saw me after the finish line that I didn’t look completely spent.
Anyway, Despite all of that, I am not disappointed in my performance… I know that some days just aren’t good running days… even RACE DAYS!
Even more disappointing than any of that, is that when I uploaded my garmin data, somehow, my race data, and data from one other training run just vanished!!! I really wanted to see my split times… oh well.
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BIB 1232
AGE 25
RANK 376/430
TIME 48:06.4
PACE 12:01/M
My big race was yesterday, and I was beyond pumped.
I started my day with some toast with peanut butter, and a LOT of good stretching.
I also wrote my goal time on my arm as motivation:
So, here is what I knew going in… I knew that -based on my garmin- I had pulled paces around 11:00/mile pretty regularly. I had also run that pace, for right around 3 miles before. That is how I determined my goal time. 11:00 x 3 miles = 33:00 minutes + 2:00 for the .10 and some change.
Well, I mentioned on my Wednesday run, that it was windy, and unfortunately, it was very windy on race day as well.
I decided to run with an audio book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone), in lieu of music, because, I think I’ve decided that running with music might not be the best thing for me.
1) I can’t help but think of songs as units of time. Unless I pack my playlist with 12 minute Meatloaf songs, I know that each song is only around 3-5 minutes of running. I like listening to a whole chapter, looking down, and seeing 20 minutes has elapsed.
2) I CAN’T not run to the beat of the song. It makes me feel all out of sync and frustrated to not have my footfalls land on the steady rhythm of the song. This makes it very difficult for me to listen to myself, and pace myself when hearing music. With a book, I can really listen to my body and find my footing.
Anyway, I was around the middle of the pack, and set off. I felt good, but was instantly aware of how humid it was and how windy it was. Around .7 miles, on the median, I was shocked to see my Aunt Cassandra, and my 3 awesome little cousins there cheering me on!! They made posters, and were telling me to keep running! I couldn’t help but smile, and I almost started crying… I know it sounds silly, but, it means so much to me that they were there. Running, and being fit isn’t something that many people in our family can claim. So, it was awesome for my Aunt (a runner herself) to be there knowing how mental running can be.
At mile 1, my garmin said I’d gone about 1.15 miles, so it wasn’t totally spot on, which I wasn’t surprised about. But we were being literally blown off course by the wind. It was blowing really hard once we were out of the protection of the buildings.
I was going strong until around 2.5 miles. Then, I really started to feel it. Based on my watch, and knowing how far away the finish line was, I could tell that it would be really tough for me to make my goal time. My legs were starting to feel a little tired, but mostly, that darn wind just wouldn’t let up. It was then, that the inner dialogue started.
“Just walk for 1 minute. You’re not going to make your goal time anyway, and you’re aching. Doesn’t your chest hurt, don’t you think 30 seconds would give you a great burst until the finish!?”
I think I might just be proudest that I fought back those thoughts, and kicked my OWN butt, and ran every STEP of that race!! I didn’t walk at all, though I wanted to, and that is a huge victory. My garmin said that I ran 3.1 in approximately 33.35, but I was still about half a mile from the finish line.
Crap.
Around the last bend, a girl tried to pass me, and almost laughing, I said (too quiet for her to hear), “hell no.” I kicked into high gear, passed her, and crossed the finish line strong.
My garmin said the race was 3.58 miles long, and mapmyrun has it at around 3.35 miles long… either way, I think the race wasn’t a true 5k. That, combined with the wind lead to my not meeting my goal time. Which is fine, but I do have a new PR! All in all, I am proud of my work on this race, and look forward to earning that sub 35:00 soon. Thank you all for your support and well wishes, it means a lot to me. I’m trying really hard not to get down on myself about it, but I’m sure I’ll pull one out next time.
Big thanks to Daron (my sweet), Mom, John, Lawson, Grams, Art, Aunt Cassandra, Jacob, James, and Julia!! I couldn’t have done it without knowing you were there and not wanting to be embarassed! you!!
Who’s racing with me in May??
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BIB 957
AGE 25
RANK 257/318
TIME 38:32.5
PACE 12:25/M
Garmin splits (which may or may not be accurate, as the race was longer than 3.1!!)
Split
Total Time
Total Distance
1
0:10:47
1
2
0:10:44
1
3
0:10:50
1
4
0:06:09
0.58
Summary
0:38:32
3.58
(google readers, you may need to come to my page to see the pics. )
I decided I needed to finally write my race report from this weekend’s “freakishly flexible 5k (fffk)” which was in honor of non runner nancy… who will be having surgery in March.
I don’t really know nancy–even as well as I could know someone from the blogging world–but, I feel so empowered, and THANKFUL that I finally started using my body, that it seemed like a no brainer to offer up a few miles with her on my mind. I’m well enough to run *knock on wood*, and I will not take that for granted.
So, I got to the starting line, after a 6ish minute warm up walk, and a little stretch.
I pressed “start” on my Garmin and took off! I felt really great, and it was such a beautiful day, it didn’t take me very long to get into the swing of things. It helped that earlier that day, I’d taken advantage of the sale on Amazon, and bought No Doubt “Singles” which has some of my favorite old school ND songs (Excuse me Mr., and Spiderwebs to name a couple). I had mapped out a route, and had a pretty good idea of how I was going to be running, but there are a LOT of twists and turns when you’re trying to get 3 miles out of a pretty tiny neighborhood, so I ended up checking the map (which I’d saved to my phone) more than a few times.
I’ve been having a bit of a stitch in my side while running around 2 miles, lately, but it wasn’t too bad, so I didn’t need to stop. I wished I’d had a sip of water around 2.5 miles, but knew I was in the home stretch, so I just kept trucking.
The clock stopped at 35:27!! That is a HUGE improvement from my January 5k time, which was 42:20!!
I’m aware that its a little lame, (and I’m more than a little embarassed at the STUPID look on my freeze-framed face before you click play) but I made a little video after my run, and thought I’d post it.
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In other news, I’ve stayed under my goal calories for the past several days, but I HAVE to confess that I have eaten some real CRAP in those calories. I’m actually eager to wake up tomorrow, so that I can have a wholesome food day. I feel heavy and sticky inside, and its horrible!
First of all, it is so great of her to share the wealth, and gear with someone who loves her blog. Secondly, it is so awesome, because I’ve REALLY been wondering how I was gonna deal with wanting to have some water on runs, but no means to carry it.
Thanks for visiting KelseyToney.com, where I'm becoming better, one day at a time! I'm Kelsey (you may know me as KelsNotChels), conductor of this crazy train! To learn about my healthy living journey, please visit my health page! If you've come seeking my music or photos, check their respective pages. Thanks again for visiting! ----------- kelsey @ kelseytoney . com
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