Chicago Marathon Recap…

It’s been a few weeks, so I need to get my recap of the actual race done. More on the trip to Chicago (later this week, I hope!) because the weekend was FANTASTIC!

The racing, not so much.

I haven’t talked a whole lot about my training this summer, but in a word it was awful. I was really run down after OKC, and I don’t think I had enough time to recover from that before I jumped into (trying to) training for Chicago. You really should not sign up for your next marathon BEFORE you run the one you are training for. Lesson learned.

You might think that I am saying I wish I hadn’t gone to Chicago, but I am not saying that at all. I don’t regret a single mile, no matter how horrible they might have been. After last years injury (sprained ankle), accident (bike), surgery (appendix), I am so happy that I have been able to make it through the miles I have. You regret the miles you don’t run, not the miles you do.

So I headed into 26.2 #4 with very low expectations. I think I might have been a little delusional, really. It is not possible to slog through your training miles and expect to show up on race day and be able to run.

We were all in separate corrals for the race so it was pretty lonely at the start. It was probably over an hour between the time I left my friends and the race actually started. I took one horrible picture by the fountain though.

Pretty awful, right? I had just dropped off my gear bag and was heading over to my corral. This race is so big, you can’t even see the people that are starting before you, it was just a huge mass of runners.

After an eternity we were off. I love Chicago, really, I think the city was fantastic, and this was a great way to see it all. I was fine for about the first 12 miles or so. My walk breaks in the water stops started getting a little bit longer but I still felt like I was doing ok. The crowds were amazing, I think that has to be what it feels like to be an elite runner, there were some parts of the course that had so many people it was just a wall of sound.

Somewhere between miles 13 and 15 it all just fell apart for me. I can’t even point to one specific thing that happened, it was not like I hit a wall it was like the wall fell on top of me. It just got harder and harder to keep running. Around mile 17 I got stung by a bee on my left shoulder. That was painful, but I think the fact that my whole body hurt so bad by that point it didn’t hurt as bad as it could have. For the rest of the race whenever I was walking and I would try to stand up straight and put my shoulders back I had a very sharp pain in my left shoulder. Turns out the stinger was still in there and I didn’t realize it until I got home and Josh removed it for me on Monday.

I kept trying to tell myself that my family didn’t care how long it took me to finish, but then I would think that my friends were all going to be waiting for me at the finish line and I felt awful that it was taking me so long. It is a long time to be inside your head when it all feels impossible. The last six miles were probably the hardest six miles of my life. I would run a little and then I would walk and I would cry and then I would run a little more. I drank a beer. This seems to be something I am doing a lot during my marathoning in 2014.

I did make it to the finish line, they gave me my medal and another beer. Almost immediately after crossing the finish line my wonderful MIL texted me and told me that I was amazing and they were all proud of me. (More tears.) I managed to make it to the gear tent and hobble to where Carrie, Lauren and Rochelle were waiting for me. (More tears.)
Since we didn’t get any pre-race pictures we got a post race shot, but apparently it was not taken with my phone. That’s okay, they are all changed and had massages while they were waiting for me and I looked absolutely awful.
I set a PR for my worst marathon performance to date, but I am so glad I went. I love Chicago and I am hoping to be back there one day at the starting line feeling much stronger than I was this time.

A Little Shenanigans...

I feel like I have been baking non-stop lately! That is not complaining at all, but I have been super busy. I thought I would take a break from running and show off some of the cookies I have been baking up...

There have been lots of football cookies, including OSU (gasp!), WVU and Arkansas. I will be sad to see football season go.

I love cupcakes, and I especially love cupcake sugar cookies!

Sometimes the design I have in my head doesn't actually translate in reality, and the cookies I made before these roses are definitely in that category. Multiple cookie cutters to get the shape I wanted made these not the easiest cookies I have made, but they sure turned out cute.

Custom cookies for a shower. I was so happy with how these turned out. I always say I am not very artistic, but I was amazed that I could take an invitation and get parts of it to translate into a cookie. Not the easiest to make, but the end product was one I was very happy with.

The horse shoes on these cookies were royal icing transfers that I made myself. Another pat myself on the back moment. I had to make them a little shimmery with gold edible dust, they were for a little girl's birthday party after all.

October is breast cancer awareness month, and I was super excited when my older sister asked me to make cookies to go along with her Halloween costume. Here theme was "Fight Like a Girl" and she gave out these individually wrapped goodies.

Lastly, for today, it is always someone's birthday, right? These were last minute cookies done for a birthday. I am a big fan of sugar cookies to celebrate birthdays. Okay, to celebrate any day, really.

 

 

So that's just a bit of what has been happening in my kitchen lately. I am hoping to find more time to blog about all the shenanigans. (I really love the word Shenanigans!)

Protein Powder Review...

I was recently selected to review a new protein powder for Manitoba Harvest.

Who doesn't love free stuff? And to be able to talk about it, well even better.

I received a sample of the chocolate and vanilla Hemp Pro 70 protein powder.

Sadly, I was not blown away by the product.

I drink protein shakes after my workouts most days, it's easy to throw it all in the blender and take it along as I commute to work. My first complaint was that each of the sample packets were not a full serving, each one was a half serving with 7g of protein in the sample.

I mixed them up on rest days, and was not impressed with the consistency. The recipe says to mix in a shaker cup, but I blended mine with my hand mixer like I usually do. It didn't seem to dissolve completely and I had a cup full of gritty protein shake to drink for breakfast. I hate that. The chocolate sample was not near as chocolaty as I had wanted it to be, but that might have been the small sample size. Maybe I should have mixed it up with only half the amount of almond milk.

I am a vegetarian, and I was really excited about the prospect of a plant based protein powder. It was quite a bummer (yes, bummer) for me that it wasn't as fabulous as I wanted it to be.

If you'd like to try it out, you can get 20% off the chocolate and vanilla flavors by using discount code sweatpinkpro70.

Another Brookhaven 5K...

I have a love/hate relationship with the Brookhaven 5k. I ran my first race there back in 2009, and somehow have managed to not miss one since then. Even after my bike crash last year, I was back and laced up for a 26:40, and 6th place in my age group.

I picked up Rochelle and we met up with the group at about 7. Even during the warm-up it was hot, but I slogged through two easy miles.

We had one good photo op during the warm-up.

We made it back to the start, got in a few strides, and had time for some pre-race selfies. You should always carry your camera, and time management is important when you want starting line pics.

Kristy, me and Rochelle

Lauren, Kristy, Rochelle, me and Tiffany

It has been a few years since I actually felt ready to run Brookhaven. In years past I always managed to kill myself in the first mile, and I resolved to not to that this time. My plan was to settle into a comfortably hard pace for the first mile, hang on for the second, and hopefully kick it in on the last.

My watch clicked out a 7:47 on mile one, and I kinda felt like I was in trouble. If you unfamiliar with this race, it's sort of a big loop, but after the first mile you make a right hand turn and head straight into the sun before turning right again. Just when you think you are about done, you head back into the neighborhood and wind to the finish line.

My right hand turn into the sun about killed me. It was a perfectly clear day, and it was hot and humid. After all, this is Oklahoma. By the time I turned right again, my stomach started to not feel so well, I think the Advil I took when I got up was not agreeing with me. Mile two clicked off at 8:10, and I was ready to be done.

I had no kick for the last mile, I felt empty. Mile three was 8:15 and I was so glad to be almost done. I finished with at 25:23, and fourth place in my new age group. I was happy with how I did, and even happier to see all my super sweaty friends at the finish.

More pictures!

Rochelle and I.

Me, Kristy, Lauren and Ro

 I do love this race! I always see lots of friends, and it's put on by my favorite running store. I sure wish it was put on in weather that is more agreeable to running. There's always next year.



Foodie Pen Pals...

It has been a while since my last Foodie Pen Pal post, and I'm not sure why I decided to join in again, but I got on the list for August and was looking forward to seeing who I would get paired up with.

Basically I send someone a package and that person sends me a package, you can get more details here. It is fun to see what someone you've never met before picks out to send you.

I got paired up with Melissa over at A Pearl and Her Pilot, and after some missed communication we emailed and found out a little bit about each other and then it was off to shop.

My box came last week, and seriously, who doesn't love to get packages in the mail?

Looks like a box full of yumminess, if you ask me.

 

The fig bars are fabulous. I have very limited experience with figs, aside from the fig newtons I have eaten during marathon training in the past, and figs on the Skinny pizza at Cool Greens, this would be the first time I have ever had something fig-like in my house. I am having a hard time NOT eating them all at once.

 



The Sahale granola is pretty tasty too. Although, I must admit the cranberries make me think of raisins, which I kinda hate. Anyone else think raisins are just humiliated grapes? (Name that movie!)

I have not had a chance to crack into the honey, but this was a great pick for me as well.  I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches drizzled with honey. I might have to make that my pre long run breakfast this weekend. It is possible that I am the only person in the world that doesn't know the difference between raw honey and what I buy at the store, but I do love that my pen pal shopped local for me.

I will admit, I was a little skeptical about the green chile and white bean soup by The Spice Hunter. Mostly because I am a soup snob, but I love having soup in my lunch so I gave it a shot, and you know what? It was really good. Makes me want to throw some green chilies in my next pot of soup.

Anyone else loving Kind bars? I stumbled on the dark chocolate with sea salt recently and I have been buying it exclusively. I love the chocolate with the saltiness. This has been my pre long run breakfast as of late. Yum.

Finally, almond butter. It's funny that Josh and I were just having a conversation about almond butter at the grocery store the other day. What better way to try something out, that tens to be a little more pricey than peanut butter, than in individual size packets? (I love individual sized things.) I threw the plain one in my smoothie this morning and it was pretty tasty.

So there you have it, all the goodies that someone I have never met before decided I needed to have in my life. It was a good box, and I can't wait to see what happens next month!

Marathon Training...

It has been a month since my last super whiny marathon training post. So I thought I would check back in and see how it's going.

A few weeks ago, I am not going to lie, I had a "Holy crap, what was I thinking, I never want to run again" run. It was 14 miles, and my fabulous friend Sarah stuck with my slow self the entire time, and by slow I mean, how about we walk about three of these 14 miles? It was awful. It was so freaking hot outside and so humid that I could squeeze the sweat out of my socks and my shoes were soaked. It was not raining, that was a couple of shoes full of my sweaty, not so fabulous, self.

I even considered, and said, more than once, that I was doubting my decision to even be training for this race. Yes, I have said it a few times since then, but less this week than in previous weeks.

The Saturday after that horribleness, I ran 16 miles that turned out to be a tad less horrible. It has been so hot, and humid here. It is crazy. I feel bad when I need to take walk breaks when I am running with others, but I can't run without them. My last seven miles were all on my own, and with my headphones on I managed to have the best five mile run in a while. I ran and walked when I needed to. No pressure to keep up, or to not walk.

Last week was better, although the fact that it didn't feel as humid as it had been probably was a big factor in this. I ran some of it by myself, and then ran some with a friend that is training for a half ironman and said that she would be walking during the half portion of her race so it was okay to have some walk breaks with me.

When we got back I looked like I had jumped into a swimming pool. NO joke.

You should thank me for not including my super sweaty self in this picture, although it's kind of rude of me to block out half of Anne's face with my visor. The second after I snapped the picture Ro stuck her tongue out, so it's a pretty big group selfie fail.

Oh well.

So this run was much better for me mentally. It felt manageable, even if it was painfully slow. This weekend I am planning for 18, although I think we are running on Monday, which sounds awful. We are running the Brookhaven 5k on Saturday, oh if I didn't love our local running store so much I would not do it. I guess we will see if my track workouts are paying off, but I did skip the track party yesterday in order to get an hour more sleep, so that might not have helped much.

Running is an adventure, and it's supposed to be fun. It is getting to be more fun, but I sure can't wait until Fall.

My Girls are 14...

I know, everyone says that time flies, right? Well, except if you are a five year old waiting for Christmas, but the older I get the faster time seems to speed up.

My little girls, will always be like this to me.

And yet somehow they have turned into this...

Post hair cut pic, headed down to Dallas. I swear I have a picture of me when I was a kid with the exact expression Carson has on her face in the kitty picture. Those kitties look like they are just loving the photo session.

 

We headed down to Dallas for a long weekend to celebrate, and we went to Six Flags on Saturday. First up, the carousel.

Camy

Josh

Camy and a very thrilled Carson

After this picture we melted the whole day.

 While Camy and Josh rode the Batman roller coaster, Carson and I sat in the shade.

We didn't last out in the heat the whole day, and instead of getting ice cream at the park, we opted to find some on the way back to the hotel. Oh boy, did we find some good ice cream. Carson and I used to be avid Cupcake Wars watchers, so we were familiar with Sprinkles Cupcakes, but we had no idea they had ice cream. Best. Ice. Cream. Ever.

Plus, they had a cupcake ATM right outside the store. Of course we had to try it, because it's a cupcake ATM. I went with the vanilla ice cream with the crumbled fudge brownie and I cannot tell you how good this was. As for the cupcake, it was good, but we all agreed that we have had better. I thought it needed a little more frosting, and it just didn't knock my socks off like this cup of ice cream.

We headed back to the Embassy Suites and jumped in the pool for a bit, and then headed down to the Managers Reception. When you travel, you should stay at the Embassy Suites, not only do they offer an amazing free breakfast with made to order omelets but they offer free adult beverages and snacks every night. I had a few too many of these, and we ordered a pizza and relaxed the rest of the evening. 

My wonderful mother-in-law got there Saturday night and we spent Sunday back to school shopping at one of the outlet malls. Outlet Mall + Tax Free Weekend = ALOT OF PEOPLE!

 

We ended Sunday night with dinner at The Melting Pot. Yum.

Me and my beautiful birthday girls.

A meal that starts with cheese and ends with chocolate is probably the best thing ever.

 

We headed back to the hotel and Josh decided he couldn't wait to get gas. While we were waiting at the gas station we rolled the back driver's window down, and it did not roll back up. Don't you just miss the old crank windows? Technology is not always good. Josh headed out to find supplies to make the X5 a little more classy and we thought we did a good job, until we got on the road Monday and the tarp just wasn't going to last.

So we made a short pit stop and took the classiness up another notch with our duct tape window. I would recommend that everyone keep a roll or two in your car, because in a pinch it makes a fabulous window. We drove almost 200 miles home at about 75mph and this held up like a champ. The noise was not bad, and Carson even had her new hoodie on the whole way home.

As much as we liked it, our first stop after picking up the pups, and taking everything out of the car was the repair shop. I am hoping to get my car back with a brand new motor in this window this afternoon.

We had a great weekend, lost of great memories, and now it's time to get ready for the girls to head back to school.