I have to say, I was a little nervous about this race. Last year was my first time running it and I did better than expected. I had heard horror stories about "the big hill" and when I actually ran it last year, it wasn't as bad as I expected.
This year, my plan was to race it a little faster than last year (last year's time was 3:33:31), but I wasn't feeling much confidence because I didn't really have an official training schedule, I just kind of winged it, and got help from Chris and Roger for my important running days. We stuck to very hilly long runs on Sundays, speed work on Wednesdays and hill repeats on Fridays, I didn't make as many Fridays as I should have.
Anyways, got up really early on Sunday morning (5:30am) and got ready, went over to High Park to catch the Longboat bus. We had enough people from Longboat running the race that we rented a school bus so we could all go together. I really like that idea, you really feel like part of a team. We left a little later than planned because we were waiting for a couple of people who never showed, but we had to wait a little.
We arrived at Copps Coliseum about an hour before the start. The race ended in Copps Coliseum, so we had a designated section, we left our stuff there because there were a couple of people from Longboat who were there as spectators, so they could watch our stuff... yay, no bag check!
Getting ready was kind of difficult because I wasn't really sure what to wear. It was cold, but would it stay cold or would it get warmer as we were running? Hard to tell. I decided to go with a winter shirt and a windbreaker over top, gloves and a hat. It ended up being a good call, I only had to take my hat off, otherwise the outfit I chose served me well.
We got to the start. I wasn't really sure where to stand, so just picked a spot kind of in the middle and waited for the gun to go off. I had planned to go a specific pace for the first half and see how that felt and then if it felt good, to go a little faster towards the end. The pace I was running at first was a little faster than I had planned, but it felt good, so I just stuck with it. I have to say, I don't have much to complain about in this race. It was great, except for the emergency bathroom break I had to take at the 15k mark... it made me so angry because I was really doing well, but you can't argue with your body for stuff like that! So, I stopped. I told myself, whatever, just get back into the groove and keep going, if you don't make your time, you can blame it on that stupid bathroom break!
Got back on the road, picked up my previous pace and just kept on truckin'. Got to "the big hill" and told myself, under no cirmcumstances am I walking up this thing! I did hill training all winter and it really paid off, I passed lots of people walking up that hill... it was awesome!
After that big hill, it was pretty much smooth sailing. Just keep running and the end will come soon, that's what I was telling myself. I was really tired, but the last 2k ran really hard, I finished really strong and was very happy with my overall performance.
As it turns out, I shaved off 4 minutes from last year's time. My time was 3:29:29. I was very happy with that. This race gave me my confidence back! Now I just have to remember not to get too cocky!
Chris did really well in his race too! Way to go Chris!!
Next big race coming up will be the first trail race of the season... Seaton Trail in Pickering. Stay tuned.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Getting ready...
Okay, so Around the Bay is on Sunday. I'm really nervous, don't know why, but I am. I've done lots of hill training, speed training and I know I can run the distance. I would like to beat last year's time, but am not very hopeful. For some reason I feel like I'm slower, but I don't think I am. Weird. Why do we, as runners, always doubt ourselves like this? Maybe we don't want to be disappointed if we don't run as fast as we plan to.
So here's hoping that my training will kick in and all will go well. Good luck to everyone else who is running it too!! I will write an Around the Bay race report next week... stay tuned!
So here's hoping that my training will kick in and all will go well. Good luck to everyone else who is running it too!! I will write an Around the Bay race report next week... stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Melbourne, FL Half Marathon
After my Miami half marathon, Chris and I headed off to Orlando. We rented a car, and drove to Orlando. Everything was great until we almost got to our hotel. We drove around in circles and couldn't find it. It didn't help that there were a couple of other hotels with similar names. So frustrating... this was cutting into theme park time... dammit! We finally pulled over, called the hotel and got directions from where we were. We were so close. It was so worth it, our hotel was amazing! It was a 2 bedroom suite with a full kitchen, laundry, the works! There was also a pirate ship in the pool... how cool is that?!! We checked in, went to our room, changed, then immediately went to Epcot. So much fun!
The rest of the week was great, lots of theme parks. Universal, what a great park! Chris had this book which told us the best rides to do, the best time of the day to do them. It was awesome! Some of the rides of note at Universal were: Duelling Dragons Roller Coaster, Harry Potter Ride, The Hulk Roller Coaster, The Simpsons ride and Jurassic Park, so cool! We also went on this river ride called Popeye. It was one of those rides where, depending on where you sat, you got soaked. If you didn't get soaked while riding down the river, have no fear, there was the opportunity for everyone to get soaked at the end, going through a car wash like cave. I walked around for 3 hours before I was dry. You could pay $5 for a dryer session, but we decided we would air dry instead.
Walt Disney World, was cool, but so tame compared to Universal. Chris had never been, so it was all new for him. I had been when I was 15. We went on all of the rides that I did back then, they were still pretty cool. Space Mountain was the best there.
Disney MGM was also pretty cool. There were a couple of stunt shows that were pretty awesome, lots of explosions and stuff.
We had signed up for the Melbourne Marathon, but were not sure if we would go. I was paranoid that we'd get lost again, like when we were driving around looking for our hotel. I told Chris that if we went, we were renting a GPS with the car this time!
Saturday, before the race, we left for Melbourne to pick up our race kits. We had no trouble finding the place at all, it was great! Picked up our stuff and headed back to Orlando, then went to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day. We got soaked from rain and then again from a river ride, although not as soaked as the poor kid sitting beside me... man, he totally got dumped on, hilarous! I could have gotten Popeye soaked, but managed to dodge that bullit!
Got up at 4:30am on Sunday, Feb 6. Checked out of the hotel, got on the road to Melbourne. The highway was pretty quiet, so it was pretty fast going. When we got to Melbourne, we had to try to find the start. We kinda got a little lost, but then found it. We saw a bunch of runners warming up, so we knew it had to be close. We found the parking lot. We were getting our stuff together and heard this tick, tick, tick on the roof across from us... it was a huge vulture looking down at us. That was weird. It was too dark to get a picture, but that would have been a good one! Got to the start and there was a huge line for the toilets... were we going to get to the start on time? Chris was thinking this was going to be another Scotia... you'll have to ask him about that. The line ended up going really fast. They actually had "ushers" at the end of the line to make things go quicker.
Got into the coral, wished Chris good luck in his race. The temperature was kind of cool, it was a little bit rainy, perfect running weather. I was running along and my heart rate monitor was showing 67, then 77... what the hell? I finally pulled over and checked, it was upside down... DOH! Fixed it quick and I was off again.
The course was really amazing, lots of nice scenery. There were a few people along the course cheering us on. The race was well organized and I think they were a little short on volunteers, but they were great! The only thing is, they had plastic cups at the water stations, can't really bend those.
There were only two hills, which were actually bridges. The first one was about halfway through the half marathon, it was okay. The second one was much steeper, it was towards the end of the half marathon. I ended up passing a lot of people running up this bridge, lots of people were walking. I have to thank Coach Roger and his Boston Special Sunday runs for that! (It's a very hilly course in the west end of Toronto.)
It was getting a little humid by the end of the half marathon and I was thinking, man, Chris has to do this again, he also has to run up that second bridge again... I was very happy I was running the half and not the full.
I saw the finish line. By this time, I wanted it to be over. I heard someone say "man, she looks terrible"... was he talking about me? I didn't feel terrible, just tired of running. I ended up running a better time here than in Miami. My finishing time was 2:25:18, about 3 minutes faster... yahoo! It was kinda fun to run both, but from now on, only one race per trip!
I went back to the car to change into something else so that I could wait for Chris to come in. The finish was small enough that I could see him come in. I milled around, wasted $2 on some coffee flavored water... yuck! Finally saw Chris coming. He looked really strong coming in. I had a bag of stuff that I knew he would need, jacket, Advil, etc. We sat down for a little while so that Chris could relax and get unmarathonized (yes I make up words). We walked around for a bit, then decided to head back to Orlando and see if we could get one more visit to Universal. We still had to ride on the Jaws ride, which was closed all week and was just reopening that day.
The drive was good, except that we had to stop and get gas, then get some junk food (McDonald's). When we were pulling out, I couldn't get far enough over, so had to take a detour which shaved off about 15 minutes of Universal time. Then the GPS sent us to the Human Resources parking lot... really? Finally got to Universal. We had time for about three or four rides. The Jaws ride was totally worth it! Then we had to get the car back to the airport, check in and get our flight back home. Whew, what a busy day!
Next time, I think we're going to book direct flights. We saved money on the connecting flights, but had to pay for checked luggage, which kind of defeated the purpose... WTF?
It was a fantasic trip! We had so much fun. I'm looking forward to many more Kimmy and Chris adventures!
Next big race, Around the Bay, Hamilton.
The rest of the week was great, lots of theme parks. Universal, what a great park! Chris had this book which told us the best rides to do, the best time of the day to do them. It was awesome! Some of the rides of note at Universal were: Duelling Dragons Roller Coaster, Harry Potter Ride, The Hulk Roller Coaster, The Simpsons ride and Jurassic Park, so cool! We also went on this river ride called Popeye. It was one of those rides where, depending on where you sat, you got soaked. If you didn't get soaked while riding down the river, have no fear, there was the opportunity for everyone to get soaked at the end, going through a car wash like cave. I walked around for 3 hours before I was dry. You could pay $5 for a dryer session, but we decided we would air dry instead.
Walt Disney World, was cool, but so tame compared to Universal. Chris had never been, so it was all new for him. I had been when I was 15. We went on all of the rides that I did back then, they were still pretty cool. Space Mountain was the best there.
Disney MGM was also pretty cool. There were a couple of stunt shows that were pretty awesome, lots of explosions and stuff.
We had signed up for the Melbourne Marathon, but were not sure if we would go. I was paranoid that we'd get lost again, like when we were driving around looking for our hotel. I told Chris that if we went, we were renting a GPS with the car this time!
Saturday, before the race, we left for Melbourne to pick up our race kits. We had no trouble finding the place at all, it was great! Picked up our stuff and headed back to Orlando, then went to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day. We got soaked from rain and then again from a river ride, although not as soaked as the poor kid sitting beside me... man, he totally got dumped on, hilarous! I could have gotten Popeye soaked, but managed to dodge that bullit!
Got up at 4:30am on Sunday, Feb 6. Checked out of the hotel, got on the road to Melbourne. The highway was pretty quiet, so it was pretty fast going. When we got to Melbourne, we had to try to find the start. We kinda got a little lost, but then found it. We saw a bunch of runners warming up, so we knew it had to be close. We found the parking lot. We were getting our stuff together and heard this tick, tick, tick on the roof across from us... it was a huge vulture looking down at us. That was weird. It was too dark to get a picture, but that would have been a good one! Got to the start and there was a huge line for the toilets... were we going to get to the start on time? Chris was thinking this was going to be another Scotia... you'll have to ask him about that. The line ended up going really fast. They actually had "ushers" at the end of the line to make things go quicker.
Got into the coral, wished Chris good luck in his race. The temperature was kind of cool, it was a little bit rainy, perfect running weather. I was running along and my heart rate monitor was showing 67, then 77... what the hell? I finally pulled over and checked, it was upside down... DOH! Fixed it quick and I was off again.
The course was really amazing, lots of nice scenery. There were a few people along the course cheering us on. The race was well organized and I think they were a little short on volunteers, but they were great! The only thing is, they had plastic cups at the water stations, can't really bend those.
There were only two hills, which were actually bridges. The first one was about halfway through the half marathon, it was okay. The second one was much steeper, it was towards the end of the half marathon. I ended up passing a lot of people running up this bridge, lots of people were walking. I have to thank Coach Roger and his Boston Special Sunday runs for that! (It's a very hilly course in the west end of Toronto.)
It was getting a little humid by the end of the half marathon and I was thinking, man, Chris has to do this again, he also has to run up that second bridge again... I was very happy I was running the half and not the full.
I saw the finish line. By this time, I wanted it to be over. I heard someone say "man, she looks terrible"... was he talking about me? I didn't feel terrible, just tired of running. I ended up running a better time here than in Miami. My finishing time was 2:25:18, about 3 minutes faster... yahoo! It was kinda fun to run both, but from now on, only one race per trip!
I went back to the car to change into something else so that I could wait for Chris to come in. The finish was small enough that I could see him come in. I milled around, wasted $2 on some coffee flavored water... yuck! Finally saw Chris coming. He looked really strong coming in. I had a bag of stuff that I knew he would need, jacket, Advil, etc. We sat down for a little while so that Chris could relax and get unmarathonized (yes I make up words). We walked around for a bit, then decided to head back to Orlando and see if we could get one more visit to Universal. We still had to ride on the Jaws ride, which was closed all week and was just reopening that day.
The drive was good, except that we had to stop and get gas, then get some junk food (McDonald's). When we were pulling out, I couldn't get far enough over, so had to take a detour which shaved off about 15 minutes of Universal time. Then the GPS sent us to the Human Resources parking lot... really? Finally got to Universal. We had time for about three or four rides. The Jaws ride was totally worth it! Then we had to get the car back to the airport, check in and get our flight back home. Whew, what a busy day!
Next time, I think we're going to book direct flights. We saved money on the connecting flights, but had to pay for checked luggage, which kind of defeated the purpose... WTF?
It was a fantasic trip! We had so much fun. I'm looking forward to many more Kimmy and Chris adventures!
Next big race, Around the Bay, Hamilton.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Miami Half Marathon
Chris and I ran in two races in Florida, Miami on January 30th and then Melbourne on February 6th. I'm just writing about Miami right now, then I will write about Melbourne a little later.
We got up super early the day before the marathon to go to the airport to fly to Miami. Our flight was due to arrive in Miami at 4pm. We were a little concerned because as soon as we arrived in Miami, we would have to go to the expo, which closes at 6pm, to pick up our race kits for the next day. What if we were delayed? We were thinking we'd have to go straight to the expo from the airport, suitcases in tow, that would be a pain. Lucky for us, we had a tail wind and we arrived about 20 minutes early. We got a cab from the airport, went to our hotel, checked in and then walked over to the expo, it was only about a 10 minute walk. The expo was like any other, lots of booths, people selling stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. We picked up our bib and shirt then cruised around. The race shirts were really cool!
Then we got to thinking about how to get to the start on race day. When we initially signed up for the race, there was an option to buy transportation tickets to the start. Of course, we did not do this. We walked over to the booth, they had no more paper tickets, but we were able to get on a list for a one way ticket.
Race Day. Got up at 3:30am... waaaay too early! Got ready. Our room had one of those teeny-tiny coffee makers. There was enough for only one cup. I told Chris he could have it. He said it was pretty awful, but it would have to do. We got dressed, pinned our bibs, got everything we needed. We decided not to check a bag, so off we went. Got to the bus transport, there were lots of buses. Got to the line and they were asking for tickets. We told them that we didn't have a ticket, but we were on some kind of list. They said go ahead and get on the bus. I'm so glad we decided to get a ticket for that bus. I can't imagine trying to figure out how to get to the start, basically in the middle of the night.
We got to the start... man there were so many people! It was amazing! Also amazing, the American Airlines Arena in Miami was open for everyone to hang out in, use the washrooms, etc. There were all kinds of people in there, some were standing around, others were lying on the floor stretching... everyone seemed to have the same sort of anticipation feeling. I remember one very cold race in Burlington where we kept getting kicked out of the warm places, Chris you know what I'm talking about, right? Big difference.
We decided that we should get into our corals. We decided to try to meet after the race where the baggage check was. If for some reason we couldn't, we would meet at the family meeting place under the letter "M". We wished each other luck and off we went.
Got into my coral. Was talking to this woman, it was her first half marathon. She was really excited and really nervous. I told her she'd do great. They started playing the US national anthem. Everyone really does hold their hands over their hearts, very cool. The gun went off, lots of cheering, eventually we were off. It took me about 15 minutes to reach the start, it was finally getting light out.
It was very crowded, even where I was! It took me about 2k to get out of the crowd and get into my groove. About 5k into the race, I passed a woman who was sobbing... not sure what that was about, but I heard someone else ask her if she was okay. I hope she was okay.
The course was really nice. I was going to try to really race this one, but because of the crowd, I wasn't really going as fast as I wanted to, so I thought I would just go with the flow and do my best.
Around the 10k mark, there were three guys on the sideline, one of them had a Canadian flag hanging from his belt. I ran past and yelled "yay Canada!", they yelled back "way to go you're looking great!" Nice to have some fans... ha! There were people spread out throughout the course cheering us on. About 5k from the finish there was a cheering section which was really cool!
Finally, saw the finish... yay, I can stop running now. My time was 2:28:47, not bad, I was hoping for a little faster, but what can you do?
Got to the finish. We got coralled through the food, etc. There was no way I could meet Chris at the baggage check like we had planned. As it turned out, the family meeting place was right there as you were getting coralled. I hoped that Chris would see this right away. After getting some food, I kind of stuck around there waiting for Chris. Finally I saw him in the crowd, then he saw me. He looked tired and like he normally does after a marathon. We just went and sat under a tree for a while until he relaxed a bit. Now to figure out how to get back to the hotel. We decided to try to find the buses and see if we could buy a ticket back. Found the buses, we were able to buy a ticket back, no problem at all... totally awesome!
Overall, the Miami half marathon was an amazing experience! It was very well organized, the course was great, I would highly recommend this race!
After the race, went back to the hotel, I changed into my bathing suit and went to the beach! It wasn't really super warm beach weather, but I had to swim in the ocean since, you know, it was there! The water was cold. After watching everyone's reaction getting into the water, including mine, Chris decided to stay on the sand.
We walked along the beach for a while, went to pick up the rental car we were going to need for the next day to drive to Orlando. Then got back to the hotel, got showered and ready to go out. We decided for dinner that night we would spoil outselves at Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant... amazing!
Stay tuned for my Orlando report.
We got up super early the day before the marathon to go to the airport to fly to Miami. Our flight was due to arrive in Miami at 4pm. We were a little concerned because as soon as we arrived in Miami, we would have to go to the expo, which closes at 6pm, to pick up our race kits for the next day. What if we were delayed? We were thinking we'd have to go straight to the expo from the airport, suitcases in tow, that would be a pain. Lucky for us, we had a tail wind and we arrived about 20 minutes early. We got a cab from the airport, went to our hotel, checked in and then walked over to the expo, it was only about a 10 minute walk. The expo was like any other, lots of booths, people selling stuff, nothing out of the ordinary. We picked up our bib and shirt then cruised around. The race shirts were really cool!
Then we got to thinking about how to get to the start on race day. When we initially signed up for the race, there was an option to buy transportation tickets to the start. Of course, we did not do this. We walked over to the booth, they had no more paper tickets, but we were able to get on a list for a one way ticket.
Race Day. Got up at 3:30am... waaaay too early! Got ready. Our room had one of those teeny-tiny coffee makers. There was enough for only one cup. I told Chris he could have it. He said it was pretty awful, but it would have to do. We got dressed, pinned our bibs, got everything we needed. We decided not to check a bag, so off we went. Got to the bus transport, there were lots of buses. Got to the line and they were asking for tickets. We told them that we didn't have a ticket, but we were on some kind of list. They said go ahead and get on the bus. I'm so glad we decided to get a ticket for that bus. I can't imagine trying to figure out how to get to the start, basically in the middle of the night.
We got to the start... man there were so many people! It was amazing! Also amazing, the American Airlines Arena in Miami was open for everyone to hang out in, use the washrooms, etc. There were all kinds of people in there, some were standing around, others were lying on the floor stretching... everyone seemed to have the same sort of anticipation feeling. I remember one very cold race in Burlington where we kept getting kicked out of the warm places, Chris you know what I'm talking about, right? Big difference.
We decided that we should get into our corals. We decided to try to meet after the race where the baggage check was. If for some reason we couldn't, we would meet at the family meeting place under the letter "M". We wished each other luck and off we went.
Got into my coral. Was talking to this woman, it was her first half marathon. She was really excited and really nervous. I told her she'd do great. They started playing the US national anthem. Everyone really does hold their hands over their hearts, very cool. The gun went off, lots of cheering, eventually we were off. It took me about 15 minutes to reach the start, it was finally getting light out.
It was very crowded, even where I was! It took me about 2k to get out of the crowd and get into my groove. About 5k into the race, I passed a woman who was sobbing... not sure what that was about, but I heard someone else ask her if she was okay. I hope she was okay.
The course was really nice. I was going to try to really race this one, but because of the crowd, I wasn't really going as fast as I wanted to, so I thought I would just go with the flow and do my best.
Around the 10k mark, there were three guys on the sideline, one of them had a Canadian flag hanging from his belt. I ran past and yelled "yay Canada!", they yelled back "way to go you're looking great!" Nice to have some fans... ha! There were people spread out throughout the course cheering us on. About 5k from the finish there was a cheering section which was really cool!
Finally, saw the finish... yay, I can stop running now. My time was 2:28:47, not bad, I was hoping for a little faster, but what can you do?
Got to the finish. We got coralled through the food, etc. There was no way I could meet Chris at the baggage check like we had planned. As it turned out, the family meeting place was right there as you were getting coralled. I hoped that Chris would see this right away. After getting some food, I kind of stuck around there waiting for Chris. Finally I saw him in the crowd, then he saw me. He looked tired and like he normally does after a marathon. We just went and sat under a tree for a while until he relaxed a bit. Now to figure out how to get back to the hotel. We decided to try to find the buses and see if we could buy a ticket back. Found the buses, we were able to buy a ticket back, no problem at all... totally awesome!
Overall, the Miami half marathon was an amazing experience! It was very well organized, the course was great, I would highly recommend this race!
After the race, went back to the hotel, I changed into my bathing suit and went to the beach! It wasn't really super warm beach weather, but I had to swim in the ocean since, you know, it was there! The water was cold. After watching everyone's reaction getting into the water, including mine, Chris decided to stay on the sand.
We walked along the beach for a while, went to pick up the rental car we were going to need for the next day to drive to Orlando. Then got back to the hotel, got showered and ready to go out. We decided for dinner that night we would spoil outselves at Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant... amazing!
Stay tuned for my Orlando report.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Robbie Burns 8k
All my non-running friends think I'm nuts for running outside in the cold for the Robbie Burns 8k this past Sunday. It was very, very cold (like minus 27 C... brrrrr). Like Chris said, the bus ride was great, but cold. I hate being cold.
Got to the race and got to warm up a little in the school, getting ready. So many layers! With 20 minutes to start, I decided to do a warm up. My warm up didn't go all that well, I didn't really warm up, my toes were numb. Before we left, back at the house, I said to Chris, maybe I should wear two pairs of socks... he just laughed and said "don't be silly... two pairs of socks." I wished I had two pairs of socks standing in the start corral!! People were jumping around to keep warm... we were all thinking, come on, let's just get this over with so we can have some nice warm oatmeal!!
The horn goes and we're off. There were lots of people in the race this year and I misjudged where I should have been, so for the first km or so I was trying to get out of the crowd. Where I am in the crowd you always get 3 or 4 people all running side by side, so it's hard to get past and you don't want to be mean and shove them out of the way, although sometimes I think about that...
Once I got to my pace, everything was okay, my feet finally started warming up, it was cold, but sunny, so I just kept on going and saying in my head, just get this over with. Then we turned a corner to go south and right into the sun. It was so nice, it was a bit of a downhill, so I remembered what coach said, take advantage of the hill... so I did. Then I started getting hot. I thought, maybe I should take off these big mittens, but then I thought, as soon as I turn the corner again, it will probably get cold... which it did later, so I'm glad I stuck with the mittens.
Then we turned the corner again and headed north. A "slight incline" all the way to the finish. It's amazing how a "slight incline" can make you feel so tired and winded! I could see the school, which was just before the finish, also where we started, up in the distance and just kept telling myself, just get to the school! It seemed to take forever to get there. Then, once you get to the school, you have to turn the corner and there's the finish line. I saw Chris in the crowd cheering me on. I was so winded I couldn't even smile. I could see a fellow Longboater ahead, so I gave it all my might to catch up... almost, but not quite. My poor lungs! I was so happy to stop running!
I did manage to take of 54 seconds from last year. Not what I was shooting for, but hey, I can live with that!
Chris was not happy with his race. I think he's too hard on himself sometimes, but that's what he does. It was cold and not very many people had a good race.
Robbie Burns is a great race and I'm looking forward to running it again next year!!
Next race... Miami Half Marathon this coming Sunday. At least it will be above zero!
Got to the race and got to warm up a little in the school, getting ready. So many layers! With 20 minutes to start, I decided to do a warm up. My warm up didn't go all that well, I didn't really warm up, my toes were numb. Before we left, back at the house, I said to Chris, maybe I should wear two pairs of socks... he just laughed and said "don't be silly... two pairs of socks." I wished I had two pairs of socks standing in the start corral!! People were jumping around to keep warm... we were all thinking, come on, let's just get this over with so we can have some nice warm oatmeal!!
The horn goes and we're off. There were lots of people in the race this year and I misjudged where I should have been, so for the first km or so I was trying to get out of the crowd. Where I am in the crowd you always get 3 or 4 people all running side by side, so it's hard to get past and you don't want to be mean and shove them out of the way, although sometimes I think about that...
Once I got to my pace, everything was okay, my feet finally started warming up, it was cold, but sunny, so I just kept on going and saying in my head, just get this over with. Then we turned a corner to go south and right into the sun. It was so nice, it was a bit of a downhill, so I remembered what coach said, take advantage of the hill... so I did. Then I started getting hot. I thought, maybe I should take off these big mittens, but then I thought, as soon as I turn the corner again, it will probably get cold... which it did later, so I'm glad I stuck with the mittens.
Then we turned the corner again and headed north. A "slight incline" all the way to the finish. It's amazing how a "slight incline" can make you feel so tired and winded! I could see the school, which was just before the finish, also where we started, up in the distance and just kept telling myself, just get to the school! It seemed to take forever to get there. Then, once you get to the school, you have to turn the corner and there's the finish line. I saw Chris in the crowd cheering me on. I was so winded I couldn't even smile. I could see a fellow Longboater ahead, so I gave it all my might to catch up... almost, but not quite. My poor lungs! I was so happy to stop running!
I did manage to take of 54 seconds from last year. Not what I was shooting for, but hey, I can live with that!
Chris was not happy with his race. I think he's too hard on himself sometimes, but that's what he does. It was cold and not very many people had a good race.
Robbie Burns is a great race and I'm looking forward to running it again next year!!
Next race... Miami Half Marathon this coming Sunday. At least it will be above zero!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Florida!
Me and my husband, Chris, have decided to take our honeymoon at the end of this month... going to Florida. Of course, for some reason, we can't take a vacation without some sort of running involved.
You see, Chris is an ultra runner, he's pretty amazing. Me, not so much. The longest distance I have run is a marathon, which is nothing to sneeze at, but for these ultra runners, it's a training run!
Anyways, back to Florida. So, we've decided to go to Miami, Chris will run the marathon and I will run the half marathon. We will stay there for a couple of days, hang out at the beach. Then after that, we go to Orlando. Chris has never been to Disney World, I was there when I was a teenager. Chris and I are both excited about this trip.
Then, the Sunday after the marathon in Miami, we will be running in the Melbourne marathon, Chris will run the full marathon and me the half.
I will post something after our trip, see how it goes. It will be busy, but fun!
You see, Chris is an ultra runner, he's pretty amazing. Me, not so much. The longest distance I have run is a marathon, which is nothing to sneeze at, but for these ultra runners, it's a training run!
Anyways, back to Florida. So, we've decided to go to Miami, Chris will run the marathon and I will run the half marathon. We will stay there for a couple of days, hang out at the beach. Then after that, we go to Orlando. Chris has never been to Disney World, I was there when I was a teenager. Chris and I are both excited about this trip.
Then, the Sunday after the marathon in Miami, we will be running in the Melbourne marathon, Chris will run the full marathon and me the half.
I will post something after our trip, see how it goes. It will be busy, but fun!
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