Is these last few days, there are a few more songs that are either A- getting me through the giant knots in my stomach or B-keeping me distracted. So, I thought I would share them. Like I said before, my music taste can be a little all over the place.
I first saw Skillet on the free stages at the Mid State Fair years ago. I had never heard of them before and was a little taken aback by the enthusiasm of their fans. I mean, who takes a frying pan to a concert? Now, I would love to see them in concert again. They’ve become on of my favorite bands. And it’s great timing that they have a new album coming out next week.
Feel Invincible-
Back From the Dead is pretty awesome too, but this one pumps me up.
Would it be embarrassing to say that I have a marathon song or 2?
I always hesitate to share my music choices because they are all over the place. However, I have had these songs on repeat since January and I still am not over them.
I call this one my marathon song. I first heard it around the time I was debating registering for the full. I think it fits. 😛
B.I.G
This one joined in the middle of March. I admit I never knew what the band looked like until I pulled the video for this post. 😛
Frak, it’s Friday. How did that happen? Don’t get me wrong, I am looking forward to it but wow that was fast.
My calf is screaming these past few days. Grrr. Monday night saw some drama and I ended up waiting in the ER with my mom and brother for 6+ hours. He’s ok now. My legs did not appreciate running then immediately sitting in a horrible, cramped chair for hours. We also got new chairs at work and I haven’t adjusted yet. I now realize just how crappy my original chair was. And I cleaned my car last week (finally) but I’ve had some trouble getting my seat back into the right spot. In heels I’m fine driving but am way too far away in flats and it’s aggravating it. I’ve moved it but still. I am rolling and stretching but I have adjusted my running plans this weekend. Double grrr.
I am obsessed with my new hat- seriously the best-
Work is having an employee appreciation day today- they’re buying lunch. I love my coworkers- they picked the BBQ place. Tri tip for the win! Bonus- they now sell cornbread too. You can bet I am trying that. Carbs be damned. Especially since it’s cookie Friday. 😝
Something about summer time makes me turn a little country. I don’t what it is. Country used to drive me nuts. Well, truthfully some of it still does. The point to this is I turned early this year. My first new download was in April. What is happening?
different day, same hat
This week’s tempo kicked my ass. I hit my paces but it was seriously hard. I wanted to quit the entire time. Surprisingly it wasn’t my calf that was the problem. I was just tired. I swear I need a just a week to sleep. Can I be a Harry Potter nerd for a moment? A time turner would really come in handy right now.How many colors/ patterns can I wear at one time?I have a new Fitbit Charge HR. Let’s just say some of the numbers are freaking me out. I’ve been a little numbers obsessed the past few days. I’ve been wearing the Fitbit and my Up band. Holy discrepancies Batman. I think I will post more on that next week.
Ok, think that’s enough randomness for one post. I should go foam roll again.
Going into this race I had very few expectations and more than a few concerns. In an effort to keep things light and fun (and help my indecision) I took to Instagram with a race day outfit vote. The outfit I was leaning towards got zero votes. Oops. 😢
I only ran 2.5 very slow treadmill miles in the week leading up to the race. My left foot was bothering me and my left knee has been aching for a week or so. What I was not expecting was the sharp stabbing pain in my rightankle that I woke up with on Monday. It even hurt lying down. WTF? My left leg is the problem child never the right. Taper crazies, maybe? Who am I kidding I don’t run enough to need to taper but I was holding on to that thought all week. Better a phantom pain than a real injury. My attempt at running on Tuesday didn’t end well and I tend to run oddly on the treadmill so I just rested the rest of the week.
I was so worried about my weird aches and pains I somehow forgot about the one thing that can really mess up my running- my stomach. Saturday morning was not a good one. I was taking all the emergency medications my doctor has prescribed in hopes that I would be fine on race morning. Grr, but let’s move on. Monterey is a little over 2 hours away but the drive didn’t seem that long. We stumbled upon the expo as soon as we hit town- sweet! The expo was medium size and well-organized. I think it hit a new record for distance between bib pickup and shirt pickup though. I picked up a few things- 2 shirts, a Sweaty Band (my first!) and some Gu gummy things. I don’t know why I buy fuel when I never use while running but it’s better to be prepared right? We then wandered around Monterey on foot before checking into the hotel. Dinner was decided by proximity to the hotel and was California Pizza Kitchen. Gluten free pizza for the win! Not that I have a gluten problem but my stomach was so jacked up already I wasn’t taking any chances. Then it was back to the hotel to get some rest. I was super tired and my left foot was starting to hurt. I was in bed by 9.
Race day!
The rain they had been predicting was coming in later than they thought and that made me happy. I got to the starting line around 6 for a 6:55 start. Seriously this was the chillest start I’ve ever seen. Over 8000 runners and there was no wait for the port-a-potties. What? No one even got into the corrals until about 5 minutes to the start. I also met Heather of wholehearted wife while loitering around the start line- Hi Heather! The announcer was upbeat and very clear about the course and race directions. I had my headphones but I was going to try to run without them. There was supposed to various types of music played throughout the course so I figured I would try to go with just that.
I kind of look like I am stumbling home from a party not heading out for a race.
I was in corral D which was for a 2:00 hour finish prediction. Apparently I was feeling optimistic when I registered 6 months ago. 😉 I put myself in the very back of it. While I said my only goal was to have fun, I did have a time goal in mind. I was hoping for a 2:15 finish. If I could do that under trained and tired than maybe I have improved a little this year. I tossed my sweater to the side just as the first wave went off. My corral crossed the starting line a little after 7:00am, sooner than I had anticipated. The start was that smooth.
Miles 1-2 – 9:51, 9:36
We were running back up into the city. I noticed there were still runners walking to starting corrals. I know it’s chip timed but really? There was also a woman in front of me running barefoot. Really? Ouch. I also got the first shout out about my socks. 😃 The first course music was a keyboardist playing the Rocky theme song- sweet! Mile 2 led us into the Cannery Row tunnel. Never having run through a tunnel, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The far end of the tunnel was manned by a DJ and had a light show rigged up. It was kind of awesome. But the way Gangham Style was reverberating around the tunnel made me glad when I was out of it. I had expected my Garmin to lose signal in the tunnel but somehow it picked up distance. From there out, my Garmin was about 2/10th’s ahead of the mile marked. It stayed consistent so I am fairly comfortable with my mile splits.
Mile 2
Miles 3-5- 9:56, 10:30, 9:41
Ocean views, Cannery Row, dancing jelly fish outside the aquarium? This race rocks! Then there was the elementary cheerleaders and a drum line. I love drum lines. I was keeping the pace I wanted and feeling pretty good. And I was still taking pictures as I ran. Which came in handy during the first out and back section. The elites!! I noticed the course marshals and lead cyclists coming so I had my phone ready. They are so damn fast! Kara Goucher snuck up on me and she was the lead female! Sarah Kiptoo passed by a few people later- she didn’t look like she was having a good day. I was also surprised to see a man running in a loin cloth carrying a spear running the race. What?!
She won!
Miles 6-9- 10:03, 10:23, 10:47, 11:00
I was feeling a little tired but was still holding onto a 2:15 finish. Seriously the ocean views were awesome. Aid stations were well stocked and run well. Water, gatorade, Gu’s, Vaseline and sunblock. Seriously awesome. And people were loving my socks- spectators were actually shouting it out to me. 😉 More DJ stations, a blues band and a jazz band. Then a Tonga drum line. Did you know they hold a squat while drumming? Holy burning legs, batman. The turn around came at mile 7.7. Mile 8 is always my favorite mile- home stretch baby!
Mile 9.4
I was feeling pretty good and loving the race until…stupid stomach. I cramped, badly, I felt like I had been stabbed in the middle of stomach. Come on! I was so close. First walk break. I wish I could say only walk break.
Miles 10-13.1- 12:37, 11:51, 12:01, 11:40
Riding the struggle bus. It was run-cramp-walk-breathe repeat for the next 4 miles. I never felt like I needed a restroom break but it just kept hurting. To add to the pain, both quads and IT bands started protesting the walking portions. Come on legs- don’t fail me now! A woman I had been near in the starting corral came up behind me during mile 12. I was walking. She encouraged me to keep pushing and I ran it in the rest of the way. Finish line- yay!! I lost 8 minutes over those 4 miles.
Finish- 2:23:26
The otter was worth it, though. I also learned how very breakable the medals are when another runner dropped his. From there on out through the staging area, I was cradling it. 😄 I almost didn’t take one of the silver sheets since it had warmed up a lot but I was glad I did. I cooled off very quickly. The finish area was my only gripe about the race- It wound around and round and I just wanted out. I grabbed a cup of water and skipped the finisher photos. The post race food won points for the tiny bag of Fritos and pineapple juice. As I was leaving the food tent a volunteer was coming back with boxes of something. He offered one to me- chocolate milk!!! I told him that he had just made my day. I finally sat down by an ambulance while waiting for mom to find me. My knees and quads were pissed but that random ankle pain never made its presence known.
This race was awesome. It is definitely on my list of races to run again. It is a very PR friendly course, it has the right amount of flat, incline and descent for most people. The last 4 miles are some of the flatter miles so negative splits are likely. That might have been what aggravated my legs though as I am not a fan of flat. I need to work on that. Back to the race, the course is amazing and the crowd support was pretty awesome, and I’m not saying that just because they liked my outfit. 😎 Did it go like I had hoped? No but that’s not the races’ fault. That’s all on me and some things I need to work on. However, this was half marathon #6 of 2015- the most I’ve ever run in a year before. That’s something all by itself. It’s number I’m proud of. My last race of the year may have been my slowest but it was still worth it. And now I have something to beat next year. 😜
Saturday I ran the third annual Bands on the Run 10k. This race did nothing to disabuse me of the notion that 10K’s are hard. Maybe reinforced it; that said it was a fun race.I managed to run away from work for a few minutes on Friday afternoon for packet pickup. For a small local race, they are very organized. I was impressed last year and this year was more of the same. Last year, I though it was really cool that the volunteer shirts all said “I’m with the band” instead of just the usual “volunteer”. So this year I was very excited to see that the race shirts said “I ran with the band” on the back. I also like that for a smaller race, only in their 3rd year, they design their own bibs. There’s nothing wrong with the Road ID ones, I just like the extra touch that the personalized bibs gives. The race is a fundraiser for the high school music department. Start and finish are the high school track and a band performs through out race morning. They also have a bag drop table which for a small race is virtually unheard of.
Pre-race shiver
The weather here has been very odd for May and with the race being predominantly on the beach, I knew it was likely to be cold, windy and more humid than I would like. I wore pants, a tank and a long sleeve layer for the race and I was still cold. My 25K in January was run in shorts and a tank and it hit 80. Get it together, California! Race start for the 10K and half marathon was 9:00 with the 5K starting at 9:15. Some of the local races like to have a warm up/ fitness routine before them. This was like a full on Zumba class. I don’t think I could pull off those moves on a normal day let alone right before a race!! I just observed. 🙂 Following the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem, we headed to the start line. Having been so far back in the pack at my last 2 races, I made sure to move up to the front this time. I had placed 2nd in my Age Group in 2014 but the crowd looked bigger this year and I felt out of shape so I was just aiming for a steady race. After some confusion about the starting horn, we were off!
This slogan made me laughVery hard to see Zumba warm up
The course is very scenic for this race. It starts on the high school track before heading through the parking lot to a paved walking path before turning in the Cypress Tunnel. The tunnel is a dirt trail that comes out a street before turning right and heading across the dunes and down to the shoreline. That’s all in the first 1.2 miles. From there to mile 3.1 you run along the water then turn around to go back the way you came. It’s one of the few out and back races I like. A half mile in, I felt like I was huffing and puffing already and that wasn’t a good sign. I had used my inhaler 3 times over the course of the morning, so I thought that would help. Then I checked my pace- 8:15. Oh yeah, that explains it. Oops! I knew I was hitting a dune sand patch – in the tunnel- and would slow down so I just kept running. Then we hit 20-30 yards of sand and we all slowed. The upside though is that this is where the drum line was and it’s kind of awesome running past a drum line. 🙂
I lied to myself after last years’ race. I really believed there was only about 20 yards of soft, dune sand total through out the race. Yeah, no. There was 20-30 yards in the tunnel and then a freakin’ football field worth to get to the water line. I tried to run it, but knew walking was more efficient. Now that my pace had been reigned in, I was breathing much better too. 🙂 From there I just kept a steady pace to the turn around and back. There were hula dancers at the right before the water line and 2 guitar players along the beach providing the on course entertainment. Once turning around, I notice that the clouds, the beach, the rock and the stacks at the old plant looked kind of awesome but I wouldn’t let myself stop to take a picture. Particularly when I had to pause to tie my shoe that had come undone. I was beginning think I had a good shot at breaking an hour and didn’t want to miss it. I had forgotten how hard beach running is but I thought I would be close.
I finally made it back to the hula dancers and had that dang football field of sand to deal with again. I tried running it once more but my calves and quads were feeling the burn. So walking again. A woman came running up next to me and mentioned that I was zig-zagging. Oops, but I was just trying to get through it. We paced each other for the remainder of the dunes discussing how much we hate sand. Once through that, I felt exhausted and all I wanted to do was walk but I could hear the drums so I pushed on. Past the drum line again, through the tunnel one more time and back into the parking lot towards the track. I knew I might just miss an hour. Once hitting the track, I tried to push it but I felt like I had nothing left. Rounding the last corner, I could see the clock and knew I just had to hang on. Finish- 59:37. This was one of those cross the finish line gasping kind of races. Some of the pictures my mother took are hilarious, I look beat, like I am going to fall over. I stretched a bit and then began the process of getting the 5+ pounds of sand out of my shoes. I was very happy that I finished under an hour. It was about the only real goal I had for this race. I also realized just how tough this course is, maybe I hadn’t phoned it in last year after all. I felt like I was passed by more than a few people on the way out and only managed to pass a few on the way back so I figured an age group place was unlikely. I wanted to check my finishing time though, so once we figured out where the board was this year, we headed over. Times hadn’t been updated yet so we waited a short moment while a volunteer hung new pages. At which point I laughed out loud. I’d finished 1st in my age group. How? Sweet! Last year, my only complaint about the race was the lack of communication about how the awards were going to happen. Even when they did start, things were announced in an order I still don’t understand. This year, there was little fan fare- you just walked over to the awards table, gave them your name and they handed you your ribbon. So much smoother than last year. And since I was cold, the ease of it was awesome.
Overall, I am still impressed with this race. It is very organized and the volunteers are great. The course is tough but pretty and I look forward to running it next year. When it is sunny and hopefully a little warmer. 🙂
Slacker Runner 