Goodbye 2014...

 There are just a few hours left of 2014, so what better time to be nostalgic about the year that has passed then now? No big plans for the evening, except a few extra teenagers, a little take out, and a midnight run planned for later.

There has been a lot of baking this year, but how about everything else?

There has been some running...

1. Chicago Marathon, definitely a bucket list race, I got stung by a bee, and I'd like to do it again and run stronger.
2. OKC Marathon, the last time I ever run the full in OKC, it was brutal.
3. National Running Day, that day that I didn't actually do any running.
4. Route 66 half marathon, the horrible half that turned into an upper respiratory infection and pneumonia
5. Sooner State Games trail run, the day I seriously thought I was going to be last.
6. Strides of March half marathon, my second fasted half ever, and the reason I decided to run the full at OKC. What was I thinking?
7. Birthday running, I love birthday running with the girls.
8. Walking the Turkey Day 5k, got Josh out of bed to walk that with me.
9. Scorcher half marathon, the wettest race I've ever ran, and my last race in the 35-39 age group.

 And some other fun stuff...

1. My 40th birthday, when my aunts and great aunt flew in to surprise us.
2. Joshs's 41st birthday and one of those times he did a shot of tequila on his birthday.
3. Rochelle's birthday celebrating at Blu.
4. The girls' birthday at the Melting Pot in Dallas
5. Food basket deliveries for the Elks Lodge before Christmas.
6. The tailgate after the crappy OU game Josh and I went to.
7. The Daddy Daughter dance, only one year left...
8. Spring break in Branson, or that time we tried to go to Silver Dollar City and it freaking snowed.
9. Birthday celebrating for Sarah and Rochelle.

By the numbers:

• 1,047 total miles
• 7 100+ mile months
• 2 marathons
• 3 half marathons

I think I ran my most miles in a month in October with 147 total miles, and my least amount of miles this December when I logged only 9 miles. That is quite a drastic change. Two marathons in one year is a lot. 

I am looking forward to a fresh start that the new year brings. Time to get back on track, set some new goals and decide what comes next. I can't wait!

End Of The Year Plan…

This year of running has been much different that 2013, some good, some bad. If you had asked me in January if I would be running two marathons in 2014 I probably would have laughed at you. But now the year is starting to wind down, and my family is getting very irritated by the Target Christmas commercials that are ALREADY on tv.

So with the holidays just around the corner, I thought I would take a minute and see what’s next. Because as a runner, there is always a next, right?

Well, first of all, what is NOT next is another marathon. It will be a while before I jump into another 26.2, and I have let all my friends know that if they pick another marathon PLEASE let it have a half marathon. I don’t want to even consider a 3 hour training run for a long time.

So what is happening next is Route 66 Marathon in Tulsa, where I will be running the half. I am mostly running this for nostalgia, this will be my fifth year in a row. It was my first half, and while it hasn’t always been a great race (read: it was below freezing last year), I love this race.

We go up, hang out with the in-laws, and I go run a little with my friends and then we go home and get ready for Thanksgiving. Sounds like a great weekend to me.

What kind of expectations do I have? None. Last year I was coming off injuries, surgeries and accidents. This year I am coming off about six months of pretty horrible running. I am in search of my love of running so I will lace up, hopefully not have to bundle up too much, and go run for the fun of it. Plus the medals this year do this little spinny thing like my first medal in 2010. I do have a couple of friends that are running the marathon, so there might be some marathon stalking after I cross the finish line.

After that there will be the Turkey Day 5k. The inaugural race was last year and it was so much fun.
Plus I didn’t have to drive All The Way to OKC, it was practically in my front yard. Need I mention that they gave us long sleeved cotton race shirts, and Christmas ornaments?

Then there is talk of some of my friends running a marathon in December. If that happens I would definitely up for going with them to run the half, but we will see how that turns out.

Running for the fun of it, seems like such a novel ideal. I am hoping to get my head on straight so I can set some goals for 2015.

---

One of my favorite things about running is birthday runs! I love that my friends love to get up on their birthdays and log some miles as the start of their special day! We celebrated one yesterday, in fact.
My friend Sarah turned one year better. (Not older!) We had to take pictures!


When I posted this on Instagram, I managed to cut most of my fact off.

I have mad photography skills. Anne’s son Pace said “I can see Becky’s eye!”

---

Finally, I posted that I didn’t have a copy of the pictures we took after we finished Chicago. Almost immediately my friend Lauren texted me the pictures.

What a great shot of Chicago in the background! Notice that they all have on their comfy clothes and look well rested, while I look horrific. Oh well!

The Non-Running Part of Chicago…

Even though the running part of Chicago wasn’t fabulous, it was a really good weekend. I have said it before, but I love Chicago. It really is my favorite city. I did like that it was much warmer this time than it was for Christmas last year.

We flew out early on Friday morning, so we got to Chicago pretty early.

We dropped our bags off at our hotel, headed out for lunch and then hit up the race expo.

The expo was huge! Very efficient packet pick up and we shopped around a little bit.

And had our picture taken in front of a giant pink bra.

On Saturday morning we headed out for a shake out run right by the home of Josh’s favorite football team.

I hate the the stadium looks like a space ship landed on top of it.

We got to meet Bart Yasso…

And Deena Kastor.  How cool is that? We ran an easy two miles and headed back to the hotel to relax.

We did wander the city a little bit. Rochelle and I headed to the Navy Pier. I had to take a picture of the Ferris wheel from Divergent! I sent that one to the teenagers and got no response. I guess they weren’t impressed.

We opted for take out and dinner in our hotel room and called it an early night.

After the race on Sunday we headed back to our hotel to rest up a little before we ventured out for food. We headed to Giordano’s for deep dish pizza. It was right by the Sears (Willis) tower.

I was so glad that Jordan came and hung out with the crazy runners.

We ended the evening with drinks at the top of the John Hancock building. The drink was fabulous and the view was amazing!

We had a later flight on Monday so we got up, grabbed breakfast and headed to the bean, or as it’s formerly known Cloud Gate. I am surprised I’ve never been there before.

After we hit up Lululemon, got rained on and road the train again we headed to the Art Institute. With our race bibs/medals/registration info we got in for free.

 

We saw some beautiful art, and a whole lot of runners hobbling up and down the stairs. I’d like to go back when my legs aren’t killing me because there was plenty we didn’t get to see.

It really was a great trip, and I can’t wait to go back to Chicago.

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.

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.

Why Am I Doing This...

 

A few months ago, when I was a few weeks out from the OKC Memorial Marathon, and a friend of mine suggested we all get into the lottery for the Chicago Marathon it sounded like a FABULOUS idea. Now I am just over 78 days away from my next 26.2 and I was wondering why I am doing this.

This will be marathon #4 for me, and I am super excited to go run in one of my favorite cities with some of my favorite people. Plus, it'll be FLAT, FLAT, FLAT! Our hotel is booked, plain reservations are made, and we even have a reservation to carb load on Saturday night.

But holy cow, do I feel like I have a long way to go! After recovering from over training for my last 26.2, I have been working for the last month on building up my miles again. I am back to running 6 miles during the week pretty regular and have been turning my Saturday runs into something that would resemble a long run.

I have 14 miles planned for tomorrow and I am trying to not feel super intimidated by the distance. I have a good plan, which won't involve many solo miles, and I will be running with as many friends as possible. I am hoping the miles will just fly by. What are the chances there is another polar vortex that swoops into Oklahoma in the next 12 hours or so and I wake up to temps in the 40s? Probably not very likely.

I always think, after a marathon, that maybe it's not the race for me. I much prefer a half marathon. I love a race for which it doesn't take much to be trained. Marathons are time consuming! But, I am still chasing that perfect race. The perfect course, the perfect weather, the perfect raining, and I think that is what is keeping me coming back.

Will Chicago be that race? Will I get my 4 hour marathon? Will I at least get a PR? Only time will tell, and I will continue to slog through these summer runs, knowing that cooler weather should be coming at some point, and the heat will make me that much stronger.

78 days to go...