It seems I finished in 01:07:02!!! Slightly better than I thought!
That comes out to a 10:47 minute mile pace (cool that I shaved 23 seconds off my mile pace in only a week!).
Other results:
* 85th out of 107 in my division (Female 30-34)
* 722nd out of 868 over all
* 353rd out of 468 women running the 10K
So, I had a strong run (for me), and actually beat 115 women and 31 men! huh.
BUT ACTUALLY, that's not the entire story!
See, The Bridge to Bridge... to Brew run was both a 10K and an 8K race. If I include the results from the 8K race since they started at the same time and followed most of the same route as us....
... from what I can figure, it seems I physically crossed the finish line before 89 8K runners (meaning they crossed the finish line after 1:07:02), AND had a better race pace than a shocking 240 of them!!! Who'da thunk it?? There were 681 runners running the 8K race overall actually... which Sheryl and I found weird since it was only a 2K difference in length (1.3 miles or so?)... and we were wondering what the huge difference was between the 2 lengths. Why wouldn't you just go 10K if you can run an 8K?
Anyway, I'm surprised that technically, I beat more 8K runners than 10K runners on Sunday! Who would have thought?
Monday, April 21, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
two 10Ks (sorta)
So, the Friday following the Race for the Roses, I went ahead and ran a liesurely 6 mile run from my house.
I had noted on mapmyrun.com that the intersection of Evergreen and Gillis is exactly 3 miles from my house, so on a beautiful Friday afternoon in nearly 80 degree weather, I ran there and back home.
Turns out, I was a touch overdressed, and could feel myself getting hot. I also had to stop at the Marshall Community Center to refill my handheld water bottle after emptying it roughly 2/3rd the way through the run. I was drinking a lot of water. I forgot what running in NICE weather was like... silly me. The run took me about an hour and 7 minutes which translates to a 11:10 minute mile or so. I can do better, and I know it, so I'll keep working on improving that.
Oh, and another fun fact. On a whim, I weighed myself before and after the run. I lost 1/2 pound on the run, even tho I was drinking as much water as I could manage. I went about drinking 1/2 lbs of water after the run to make up for the liquid loss.
I would have a chance soon enough to try to improve my 6 mile time though.
+++++++++++
This morning, I went ahead and ran a 10K organized event called Bridge to Bridge... to Brews. This was a 10K that started and ended at the Widmer Brewery and Tasting Room on Interstate Ave in Portland.
Not by design, I met up with a number of TNT people at the purple TNT booth there to distribute TNT material to potential future participants (cause I didn't know where else to hang out before the race). Frank and Kim, my mentees, were there... as was Lori, my fellow TNT mentors Heidi, Tracey, and Mish, and TNT alum Karen. It was great seeing everyone! This guy named Percy who is also a TNT alum, but not on a season I ran, asked to pace me and Sheryl too. He ran with us for about half of the Portland Shamrock Run, and he said he liked our pace.
I showed up early, 7:45am or so, to pick up my race day packet (I wasn't able to get it on Saturday). That was a little earlier than I needed to be there. Finally around 9am we stepped over the start line. I was freezing by then... the weather forecast the night before said it was going to be mid-30's and raining and even possibly snowing... but in reality this morning it was just cold and overcast. No precipitation.
The course went up a hill to the east end of the Fremont Bridge, and then over the lower deck and down the long sloping ramp on the other side. It was a TOTAL THRILL to run over that bridge (no pedestrian area on the bridge. It is strictly a freeway bridge that I-405 goes over, they closed a couple lanes of the freeway off for the run this morning). GREAT VIEW of the Willamette River and downtown Portland! Way down below we could even see the Widmer Brewery/Tasting Room. Then, once in NW Portland, we just ran a route that was similar to the Race for the Roses... the 8K runners split off at a certain point, and we caught up with them later on Front St. Over the Broadway Bridge and back to the brewery. There was a surprise uphill at the finish line which was a little annoying, but Sheryl and I made it over the finish line in roughly 1:07:30 or so. So, since a 10K is 6.214 miles, that means I ran it in about a 10:52 minute mile pace. Not bad!! I still think I can do better tho.
We weren't too far behind the other TNTers either... They all met us at the finish line (which Sheryl and I decided to do a cartwheel over), and told us they were surprised at our pace... that it was the fastest that any of them had seen us run. heh. Go us! We got in line for the brewery at that point and went in for our free brats, potato salad, sauer kraut, and Widmer beer. :) We couldn't find a table, so we ended up parking on the floor and having a great time.
Photos to follow...
Oh! My mentees told me I had a couple additional pictures from Race for the Roses in a random person's photos. I went ahead and looked where they told me to, and sure enough, 2 more photos of my sprint to the finish!!
Neat, huh?
I had noted on mapmyrun.com that the intersection of Evergreen and Gillis is exactly 3 miles from my house, so on a beautiful Friday afternoon in nearly 80 degree weather, I ran there and back home.
Turns out, I was a touch overdressed, and could feel myself getting hot. I also had to stop at the Marshall Community Center to refill my handheld water bottle after emptying it roughly 2/3rd the way through the run. I was drinking a lot of water. I forgot what running in NICE weather was like... silly me. The run took me about an hour and 7 minutes which translates to a 11:10 minute mile or so. I can do better, and I know it, so I'll keep working on improving that.
Oh, and another fun fact. On a whim, I weighed myself before and after the run. I lost 1/2 pound on the run, even tho I was drinking as much water as I could manage. I went about drinking 1/2 lbs of water after the run to make up for the liquid loss.
I would have a chance soon enough to try to improve my 6 mile time though.
+++++++++++
This morning, I went ahead and ran a 10K organized event called Bridge to Bridge... to Brews. This was a 10K that started and ended at the Widmer Brewery and Tasting Room on Interstate Ave in Portland.
Not by design, I met up with a number of TNT people at the purple TNT booth there to distribute TNT material to potential future participants (cause I didn't know where else to hang out before the race). Frank and Kim, my mentees, were there... as was Lori, my fellow TNT mentors Heidi, Tracey, and Mish, and TNT alum Karen. It was great seeing everyone! This guy named Percy who is also a TNT alum, but not on a season I ran, asked to pace me and Sheryl too. He ran with us for about half of the Portland Shamrock Run, and he said he liked our pace.
I showed up early, 7:45am or so, to pick up my race day packet (I wasn't able to get it on Saturday). That was a little earlier than I needed to be there. Finally around 9am we stepped over the start line. I was freezing by then... the weather forecast the night before said it was going to be mid-30's and raining and even possibly snowing... but in reality this morning it was just cold and overcast. No precipitation.
The course went up a hill to the east end of the Fremont Bridge, and then over the lower deck and down the long sloping ramp on the other side. It was a TOTAL THRILL to run over that bridge (no pedestrian area on the bridge. It is strictly a freeway bridge that I-405 goes over, they closed a couple lanes of the freeway off for the run this morning). GREAT VIEW of the Willamette River and downtown Portland! Way down below we could even see the Widmer Brewery/Tasting Room. Then, once in NW Portland, we just ran a route that was similar to the Race for the Roses... the 8K runners split off at a certain point, and we caught up with them later on Front St. Over the Broadway Bridge and back to the brewery. There was a surprise uphill at the finish line which was a little annoying, but Sheryl and I made it over the finish line in roughly 1:07:30 or so. So, since a 10K is 6.214 miles, that means I ran it in about a 10:52 minute mile pace. Not bad!! I still think I can do better tho.
We weren't too far behind the other TNTers either... They all met us at the finish line (which Sheryl and I decided to do a cartwheel over), and told us they were surprised at our pace... that it was the fastest that any of them had seen us run. heh. Go us! We got in line for the brewery at that point and went in for our free brats, potato salad, sauer kraut, and Widmer beer. :) We couldn't find a table, so we ended up parking on the floor and having a great time.
Photos to follow...
Oh! My mentees told me I had a couple additional pictures from Race for the Roses in a random person's photos. I went ahead and looked where they told me to, and sure enough, 2 more photos of my sprint to the finish!!
Neat, huh?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Race for the Roses part 2 (with more details and pictures)
I got up, got dressed, put the temporary TEAM IN TRAINING tattoos on my cheeks (face), and headed out the door. The lobby at the double tree where the running team was meeting was really crowded and chaotic. We didn’t have time to get the team photo. sad. I, before drifting off to sleep the night before, decided to bring the new water-proof light-weight caution orange windshell that I had gotten recently. I knew the weather forecast was kinda drizzly, and mid-40’s... actually pretty good for a run, but the race course sorta stayed close to the Willamette River here in Portland, and I knew the breeze off of that can be bone chilling on colder days. I decided it was in my interest to bring this extra layer... if nothing else, cause I was still sick.
I mindlessly followed Sheryl around. I think I was annoying her a touch actually. I don’t think she was sure how ready I was to run, but I knew I was ok. I just didn’t want to lose her in the crowd, so I stuck with her.
We couldn’t quite get behind the starting line for the race start. It was too crowded, and we were kinda stuck to the side of the race course when they blew the bullhorn indicating the race start. We cheered the serious-looking runners on, and then decided to move into the starting area, and finally crossed the start line.
We ran, she slowed me down at the beginning a touch, and I thanked her for that. It’s really easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event and start out faster than you should.
Shortly after we started (while crossing the Broadway Bridge) my TNT run mentor from the Portland Marathon season caught up with us. Sheryl and Vicki are really good friends, so we were both excited to see her. She ran with us for a couple miles, and we happily chatted. We got to the slight uphill section between mile 3 and 4, and Sheryl started falling behind us. I was torn... I was doing fine and could have stuck with Vicki, but I decided to fall back a little and stick with Sheryl.
Vicki pulled ahead.
Around mile 5, while Sheryl was complaining about her knees, I guess I might have been empathetically channeling her complaints or something, but I noticed my bad knee starting to hurt. I tried adjusting the ace bandage on it on the run, but that just made things worse. Right about then we ran into Coach Julie and Captain Karl, and they asked how we were doing... I was like, "uh, my knee is beginning to bother me." We kept going tho, and I asked Sheryl if she would mind me taking the bandage entirely off and rewrapping at mile 6... that I thought it was slipping a touch and getting tighter ineffect... and pulling my kneecap in a weird direction. She said that was cool. I rewrapped... and let me tell you, that solved EVERYTHING with my knee.
Just before we crossed Burnside there was an aid station where there was also a girl (she looked maybe 30’s and probably had down syndrome) handing out honey sticks from Whole Foods. She was shrieking this fact at us actually "honey sticks from whole foods. honey stick from whole foods"... very high pitched... almost like she was trying to lose her voice. She reminded me of the receptionist lady in Office Space "Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Can you hold please?"
Sheryl and I made our way through the pearl and NW portland, then to the ugly industrial area out and back. I saw many of my mentees during the out and back and was able to cheer them on, which was pretty cool. I was starting to feel fatigued at this point (approaching 2 hours?). I kept having to re-evaluate my running form and tried to lighten my attitude so that I wasn’t dragging myself along as much as actually running. At one point after silently re-evaluating myself, Sheryl encouraged me to go ahead and not feel slowed down by her, which was pretty funny... as I guess my re-evaluation actually worked. I assured her I was at my top speed at the moment, so not to worry. heh.
We watched as we approached mile 9, mile 10, mile 11. About then, I was really digging deep to find my energy (hitting the wall?) when my phone rang. Yeah, I was carrying it. This was like, 9am? I looked at it and it was Val. I answered with, "are you insane!?! why are you calling me??" She was sufficiently cowed. I think I was a little mean to her actually. She was asking where I was on the race course, and I was like, "far enough along that I really am not in the mood to talk." She apologized, I told her I’d call her back when I was done and hung up. As an additional note: I did call her back after the race, she was calling to see where I was, hoping to be able to come out and cheer me on, which is TOTally sweet of her, but we both agreed that was better discussed the day before the race (I could have calculated with my expected pace where I’d be when) instead of at mile 11, with less than 45 minutes left in my race, and me exhausted off my ass. I’m not sure she could have driven downtown, found parking, and gotten to the race course at the appropriate spot in time even if I was up to telling her where she could see me.
Every once in a while on the race course (about every 3 miles?) there was some stereo system setup playing music loudly. I heard an old Michael Jackson song, the Love Shack, I Will Survive, stuff like that. Pretty fun and distracting. We were just passing a sound system like that and Sheryl got pumped. I commented that she was suddenly amped up, and where ever that energy came from I wasn’t quite in the same place. I encouraged her to go with it and not feel like she had to stick with me. She pulled ahead of me.
A second annoying out and back along the river that was WAY longer than I was expecting, and now I was running it alone. I found myself actually closing my eyes while I ran and thinking specifically about my breathing, my strides, my form. I could tell my leg muscles were threatening to cramp if I tried anything they didn’t like. All I could do was continue and push myself as much as I dared.
FINALLY the turn-around came up on me. I was noticing that the runners had REALLY thinned out where I was, it was thicker where Sheryl was (I saw her running "back" while I was still headed "out"), we cheered eachother on. Running back is always faster than the out bit. At the end of this second out and back was the ramp up onto the Steele Bridge. This ramp is the biggest "hill" of the entire course, and altho only 200 meters long is pretty brutal at mile 13. The coaches and captain Karl were at the base of the bridge ramp and gave me high fives as I psyched myself up for the ascent.
I ran... slowly. Some other runner passed me on that uphill like I was crawling. poopy head.
Finally, almost at the top, I actually said out loud, "who am I kidding?" and I slowed to a walk for the first time of the entire run. I was walking kinda bull-legged too till my legs got used to not running, and continued to strut up to the top of the bridge like the walking wounded. Others had caught up to me, but didn’t pass me. They were all feeling that hill I think. Finally on the flat on top of the bridge, knowing it was only like 0.15 miles left in the race, I took a deep breath and started running again. The people who had caught up to me but hadn’t passed me on that uphill (4 of em?) all slowly passed me as I was coming off the other end of the bridge. It was pretty sad. I came across some other TNT people who were done already and were on the side of the road cheering my progress by saying "you’re almost there!"...
(side note: this, along with "pick up the pace!" is THE WORST thing you can say to a runner in an endurance event. When you are running, you’re only "almost there" when you could literally pass out and fall inert over the finish line... much better shouts of encouragement are:go [name of runner here]!, looking good!, you’re doing great!, way to go!, we’re proud of you!, you make running sexy!, and other such endearments which touch on neither how slow you are actually moving, nor how much further you still have to go)
... These TNT people were trying to entice me to keep running by telling me about the carrot cake and cookies after the finish line. I pathetically whined that I don’t much like carrot cake and cookies (I don’t have a sweet tooth). I’d rather have beer and cheese. They gave up and told me that the finish line was up ahead, and that was a good reason to keep going. I said, "ok, finish line. I want the finish line." By this point I was coming to the little underpass just before the sharp left-turn and then the finish line is RIGHT THERE... I knew this. Those 4 people had pulled ahead of me as I was approaching that left turn... and I got a little fire in my belly. I started running faster... and faster... and faster... and I broke out in to a sprint.
I rounded that corner at a pretty good clip, but kept getting faster. I passed all 4 of those other runners and crossed the finish line a good 20 feet ahead of them running my little ass off. The spectators at the finish line were cheering my late-in-the race push with "whoah, nice!" comments that I could hear. The announcer guy called my name out as I crossed the finish line. I smiled to myself and came to a panting stop after the finish... then hobbled over to where they had volunteers clipping the timing chips off your shoes. I was done.
I was able to be there 20 minutes later to cheer my mom over the finish line also. She said it was cool to hear me cheering for her.
There was supposed to be a victory party at a bakery after the run, but I was done. I was completely out of energy and cold and sore and needed to have a hot shower and a nap. I went straight home.
I mindlessly followed Sheryl around. I think I was annoying her a touch actually. I don’t think she was sure how ready I was to run, but I knew I was ok. I just didn’t want to lose her in the crowd, so I stuck with her.
We couldn’t quite get behind the starting line for the race start. It was too crowded, and we were kinda stuck to the side of the race course when they blew the bullhorn indicating the race start. We cheered the serious-looking runners on, and then decided to move into the starting area, and finally crossed the start line.
We ran, she slowed me down at the beginning a touch, and I thanked her for that. It’s really easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event and start out faster than you should.
Shortly after we started (while crossing the Broadway Bridge) my TNT run mentor from the Portland Marathon season caught up with us. Sheryl and Vicki are really good friends, so we were both excited to see her. She ran with us for a couple miles, and we happily chatted. We got to the slight uphill section between mile 3 and 4, and Sheryl started falling behind us. I was torn... I was doing fine and could have stuck with Vicki, but I decided to fall back a little and stick with Sheryl.
Vicki pulled ahead.
Around mile 5, while Sheryl was complaining about her knees, I guess I might have been empathetically channeling her complaints or something, but I noticed my bad knee starting to hurt. I tried adjusting the ace bandage on it on the run, but that just made things worse. Right about then we ran into Coach Julie and Captain Karl, and they asked how we were doing... I was like, "uh, my knee is beginning to bother me." We kept going tho, and I asked Sheryl if she would mind me taking the bandage entirely off and rewrapping at mile 6... that I thought it was slipping a touch and getting tighter ineffect... and pulling my kneecap in a weird direction. She said that was cool. I rewrapped... and let me tell you, that solved EVERYTHING with my knee.
Just before we crossed Burnside there was an aid station where there was also a girl (she looked maybe 30’s and probably had down syndrome) handing out honey sticks from Whole Foods. She was shrieking this fact at us actually "honey sticks from whole foods. honey stick from whole foods"... very high pitched... almost like she was trying to lose her voice. She reminded me of the receptionist lady in Office Space "Corporate accounts payable, Nina speaking. Can you hold please?"
Sheryl and I made our way through the pearl and NW portland, then to the ugly industrial area out and back. I saw many of my mentees during the out and back and was able to cheer them on, which was pretty cool. I was starting to feel fatigued at this point (approaching 2 hours?). I kept having to re-evaluate my running form and tried to lighten my attitude so that I wasn’t dragging myself along as much as actually running. At one point after silently re-evaluating myself, Sheryl encouraged me to go ahead and not feel slowed down by her, which was pretty funny... as I guess my re-evaluation actually worked. I assured her I was at my top speed at the moment, so not to worry. heh.
We watched as we approached mile 9, mile 10, mile 11. About then, I was really digging deep to find my energy (hitting the wall?) when my phone rang. Yeah, I was carrying it. This was like, 9am? I looked at it and it was Val. I answered with, "are you insane!?! why are you calling me??" She was sufficiently cowed. I think I was a little mean to her actually. She was asking where I was on the race course, and I was like, "far enough along that I really am not in the mood to talk." She apologized, I told her I’d call her back when I was done and hung up. As an additional note: I did call her back after the race, she was calling to see where I was, hoping to be able to come out and cheer me on, which is TOTally sweet of her, but we both agreed that was better discussed the day before the race (I could have calculated with my expected pace where I’d be when) instead of at mile 11, with less than 45 minutes left in my race, and me exhausted off my ass. I’m not sure she could have driven downtown, found parking, and gotten to the race course at the appropriate spot in time even if I was up to telling her where she could see me.
Every once in a while on the race course (about every 3 miles?) there was some stereo system setup playing music loudly. I heard an old Michael Jackson song, the Love Shack, I Will Survive, stuff like that. Pretty fun and distracting. We were just passing a sound system like that and Sheryl got pumped. I commented that she was suddenly amped up, and where ever that energy came from I wasn’t quite in the same place. I encouraged her to go with it and not feel like she had to stick with me. She pulled ahead of me.
A second annoying out and back along the river that was WAY longer than I was expecting, and now I was running it alone. I found myself actually closing my eyes while I ran and thinking specifically about my breathing, my strides, my form. I could tell my leg muscles were threatening to cramp if I tried anything they didn’t like. All I could do was continue and push myself as much as I dared.
FINALLY the turn-around came up on me. I was noticing that the runners had REALLY thinned out where I was, it was thicker where Sheryl was (I saw her running "back" while I was still headed "out"), we cheered eachother on. Running back is always faster than the out bit. At the end of this second out and back was the ramp up onto the Steele Bridge. This ramp is the biggest "hill" of the entire course, and altho only 200 meters long is pretty brutal at mile 13. The coaches and captain Karl were at the base of the bridge ramp and gave me high fives as I psyched myself up for the ascent.
I ran... slowly. Some other runner passed me on that uphill like I was crawling. poopy head.
Finally, almost at the top, I actually said out loud, "who am I kidding?" and I slowed to a walk for the first time of the entire run. I was walking kinda bull-legged too till my legs got used to not running, and continued to strut up to the top of the bridge like the walking wounded. Others had caught up to me, but didn’t pass me. They were all feeling that hill I think. Finally on the flat on top of the bridge, knowing it was only like 0.15 miles left in the race, I took a deep breath and started running again. The people who had caught up to me but hadn’t passed me on that uphill (4 of em?) all slowly passed me as I was coming off the other end of the bridge. It was pretty sad. I came across some other TNT people who were done already and were on the side of the road cheering my progress by saying "you’re almost there!"...
(side note: this, along with "pick up the pace!" is THE WORST thing you can say to a runner in an endurance event. When you are running, you’re only "almost there" when you could literally pass out and fall inert over the finish line... much better shouts of encouragement are:go [name of runner here]!, looking good!, you’re doing great!, way to go!, we’re proud of you!, you make running sexy!, and other such endearments which touch on neither how slow you are actually moving, nor how much further you still have to go)
... These TNT people were trying to entice me to keep running by telling me about the carrot cake and cookies after the finish line. I pathetically whined that I don’t much like carrot cake and cookies (I don’t have a sweet tooth). I’d rather have beer and cheese. They gave up and told me that the finish line was up ahead, and that was a good reason to keep going. I said, "ok, finish line. I want the finish line." By this point I was coming to the little underpass just before the sharp left-turn and then the finish line is RIGHT THERE... I knew this. Those 4 people had pulled ahead of me as I was approaching that left turn... and I got a little fire in my belly. I started running faster... and faster... and faster... and I broke out in to a sprint.
I rounded that corner at a pretty good clip, but kept getting faster. I passed all 4 of those other runners and crossed the finish line a good 20 feet ahead of them running my little ass off. The spectators at the finish line were cheering my late-in-the race push with "whoah, nice!" comments that I could hear. The announcer guy called my name out as I crossed the finish line. I smiled to myself and came to a panting stop after the finish... then hobbled over to where they had volunteers clipping the timing chips off your shoes. I was done.
I was able to be there 20 minutes later to cheer my mom over the finish line also. She said it was cool to hear me cheering for her.
There was supposed to be a victory party at a bakery after the run, but I was done. I was completely out of energy and cold and sore and needed to have a hot shower and a nap. I went straight home.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Race for the Roses
well, I ran the half marathon this morning. I'll add a second event blog once the event photos are posted online at the end of the week.
It was a pretty rough run for me. I woke up with a NEW and different sore throat this morning... more like a tonsil ache really on the left side of my throat. blah.
I packed some kleenex, a handful of cough drops, and my new light weight, high-tech, caution orange windshell pullover on me to go to meet the TNT team at 6am at the doubletree hotel.
I ended up needing all of the coughdrops, but none of the kleenex before 10am. BUT, regardless of my infirmed condition, I MADE IT! I ran the half in 02:42:47, roughly a 12:30 minute mile pace. Ok, my personal goal was under 2 hours 37 minutes... but i think considering how sick I've been for the past 2 weeks (and still kinda am), only 6 minutes slower than my intended goal pace isn't half bad. PLUS it gives me something solid to strive to beat next half!!
You should have heard me coughing through the send-off party on Saturday night. It was pathetic. I clearly was NOT the vision of health I should have been. oh well.
I can honestly say: today's run was HARDER than running the portland marathon last year. I was more exhausted at the end, and just as sore. I'm glad it's done. My mom and I celebrated with AMAZING italian food tonight and lots of wine. :D
She finished in 03:03:02. Pretty fricken fast for a walker. Thats quicker than a 14 minute mile pace (faster than my marathon pace).
So tonight, I sent out a conclusion email to my mentees:
"WELL DONE EVERYONE! I'm so proud of all of you, even those of you who have run marathons or half marathons before!
It was cold and prehaps a touch drizzly at times, but I think I can say all of you had a great run today! AND, today's mid-40's degree overcast weather treated all of us well (after hail and sleet and snow and whatever else we've trained in!!). I think I even spotted the sun on occasion today!
- Amy and Gabrielle had their best pace of the season today, you ladies did a FRICKEN GREAT job!!
- Kim and Frank were a good 2 miles ahead of me kicking serious ass on the course, I was at least able to cheer them on on the first out and back! Great job you two! NEW PRs!!! You'll have to run another half to try to beat your times today!! ;)
- I last saw Teresa going up the Broadway Bridge at the beginning of the race looking strong as always, and I had a funny feeling that was the last I was going to see of you today! I'm hoping today was more fun than any other half or full marathon you've ever ran!! This was your first event as PART of the "purple" group, so I'm hoping that made today more fun!
- Rebecca, you've been running strong all season long! I hope you had a great day too! I'm sure you did, even tho I never spotted you on the course!
- And... last but not least Sheryl, my running partner for this season, even had to ditch my poor, sick, cough-drop-sucking butt at 11.5 miles cause she was so amped up on whatever special run formula she had. She looked remarkable, even from 100 meters behind!! :)
GO TEAM!!!
Besides spotting all of you that I could on the race course, I'd have to say my most notable moments today were:
(1) finding *my* TNT run mentor, Vicki, running today's race!! She ran with me for a couple miles even! Even tho she wasn't wearing TNT's purple race day jersey she still was thanking every TNT supporter with a HUGE genuine smile and chanting "Go TEAM!" more than I was managing! It's no wonder I was inspired to support TNT after having her as an example! I'm hoping I was at least half the mentor to all of you as she was to me!!!
(2) spotting Sherman at the TNT water booth handing out water at mile 4. He was on the Portland running team during the Portland Marathon (fall) season in 2007, and it was amazingly uplifting to see him today volunteering with TNT. I know some of you will go on to do other events with TNT in the future (you'd better, you all did GREAT this season).... but for those of you too busy to train for another "event" (OR to mentor *hint* *hint*) in the near future, please consider volunteering with TNT for booths or support or other things! Being there to hand water to TNT participants is an amazing help to LLS! Plus, you never know who you will run in to!!
(3) seeing Amy with her son after the finish line! It's true, you all have personal lives, work, friends, family, etc to manage/balance on a day to day basis, and the fact that you gave so much to TNT and LLS is so amazingly selfless of you! I don't know if you felt like heros today, but watching Amy pose for pictures with her son, and seeing how PROUD her family was of her, reminded me that each and every one of you ARE heros. I'm lucky to know the group of you!
(4) running into our coaches, Joe, Julie, and Pri, and Captain Karl today! MULTIPLE times! They did such a great job at training us, and it's always gratifying to validate their training by making it through the course. The look on their faces when they spot us is not only heart warming and inspirational, but I feel like I'm reinforcing the strength of TNT (no matter how much pain I'm in) when I'm where they hope they'll see me during the run. Without their support, TNT wouldn't be as amazing a program as it is today! It's nice knowing someone is looking out for you!
(5) every time I heard a cow bell today I smiled. That is the signature sound of a TNT supporter.
I honestly had to dig deep today to be able to run.
It's true! Today was personally harder for me than the Portland Marathon last year, probably due to my week+ illness I'm (still) fighting off. I, on multiple occasions this morning, found myself closing my eyes (while running, yes. Dangerous (!), but safer on a 4-lane police-blocked-off race course) and thinking about my pain and lack of strength to continue, and then thought about the LLS mission and reminded myself that the people going through cancer treatments today, no matter HOW bad it gets, don't have the option to "walk" or quit like I did today... and somehow that gave me the strength to push through.
I thought about my running form.
I thought about my breathing.
I thought about Joan.
... and I thought about how much I honestly DID have still left in me to put into my run. I straightened my posture as best I could, lightened my attitude, and ran like I meant it... simply because I COULD and there wasn't any reason not to.
Today is what we trained for after all!
So, this morning with the aid of 3 cough drops, no kleenex, and walking a total of about 50 meters, I finished the course.
Thanks for making the journey of the past 3 months worthwhile! I hope to see all of you at TNT alumni events or future endurance events, whatever they may be!!!
btw, I'm currently registered for the Cinco de Mayo 10K on May 4 (http://www.terrapinevents.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm), if you are planning on running this event look for me! I'd love to say hi!!
Cheers!
jacqueline"
Incase you're wondering. Yes, a handful for me is 3 cough drops. I have small hands.
oh yeah, and YES I'll be continuing to run. stay tuned!!!
It was a pretty rough run for me. I woke up with a NEW and different sore throat this morning... more like a tonsil ache really on the left side of my throat. blah.
I packed some kleenex, a handful of cough drops, and my new light weight, high-tech, caution orange windshell pullover on me to go to meet the TNT team at 6am at the doubletree hotel.
I ended up needing all of the coughdrops, but none of the kleenex before 10am. BUT, regardless of my infirmed condition, I MADE IT! I ran the half in 02:42:47, roughly a 12:30 minute mile pace. Ok, my personal goal was under 2 hours 37 minutes... but i think considering how sick I've been for the past 2 weeks (and still kinda am), only 6 minutes slower than my intended goal pace isn't half bad. PLUS it gives me something solid to strive to beat next half!!
You should have heard me coughing through the send-off party on Saturday night. It was pathetic. I clearly was NOT the vision of health I should have been. oh well.
I can honestly say: today's run was HARDER than running the portland marathon last year. I was more exhausted at the end, and just as sore. I'm glad it's done. My mom and I celebrated with AMAZING italian food tonight and lots of wine. :D
She finished in 03:03:02. Pretty fricken fast for a walker. Thats quicker than a 14 minute mile pace (faster than my marathon pace).
So tonight, I sent out a conclusion email to my mentees:
"WELL DONE EVERYONE! I'm so proud of all of you, even those of you who have run marathons or half marathons before!
It was cold and prehaps a touch drizzly at times, but I think I can say all of you had a great run today! AND, today's mid-40's degree overcast weather treated all of us well (after hail and sleet and snow and whatever else we've trained in!!). I think I even spotted the sun on occasion today!
- Amy and Gabrielle had their best pace of the season today, you ladies did a FRICKEN GREAT job!!
- Kim and Frank were a good 2 miles ahead of me kicking serious ass on the course, I was at least able to cheer them on on the first out and back! Great job you two! NEW PRs!!! You'll have to run another half to try to beat your times today!! ;)
- I last saw Teresa going up the Broadway Bridge at the beginning of the race looking strong as always, and I had a funny feeling that was the last I was going to see of you today! I'm hoping today was more fun than any other half or full marathon you've ever ran!! This was your first event as PART of the "purple" group, so I'm hoping that made today more fun!
- Rebecca, you've been running strong all season long! I hope you had a great day too! I'm sure you did, even tho I never spotted you on the course!
- And... last but not least Sheryl, my running partner for this season, even had to ditch my poor, sick, cough-drop-sucking butt at 11.5 miles cause she was so amped up on whatever special run formula she had. She looked remarkable, even from 100 meters behind!! :)
GO TEAM!!!
Besides spotting all of you that I could on the race course, I'd have to say my most notable moments today were:
(1) finding *my* TNT run mentor, Vicki, running today's race!! She ran with me for a couple miles even! Even tho she wasn't wearing TNT's purple race day jersey she still was thanking every TNT supporter with a HUGE genuine smile and chanting "Go TEAM!" more than I was managing! It's no wonder I was inspired to support TNT after having her as an example! I'm hoping I was at least half the mentor to all of you as she was to me!!!
(2) spotting Sherman at the TNT water booth handing out water at mile 4. He was on the Portland running team during the Portland Marathon (fall) season in 2007, and it was amazingly uplifting to see him today volunteering with TNT. I know some of you will go on to do other events with TNT in the future (you'd better, you all did GREAT this season).... but for those of you too busy to train for another "event" (OR to mentor *hint* *hint*) in the near future, please consider volunteering with TNT for booths or support or other things! Being there to hand water to TNT participants is an amazing help to LLS! Plus, you never know who you will run in to!!
(3) seeing Amy with her son after the finish line! It's true, you all have personal lives, work, friends, family, etc to manage/balance on a day to day basis, and the fact that you gave so much to TNT and LLS is so amazingly selfless of you! I don't know if you felt like heros today, but watching Amy pose for pictures with her son, and seeing how PROUD her family was of her, reminded me that each and every one of you ARE heros. I'm lucky to know the group of you!
(4) running into our coaches, Joe, Julie, and Pri, and Captain Karl today! MULTIPLE times! They did such a great job at training us, and it's always gratifying to validate their training by making it through the course. The look on their faces when they spot us is not only heart warming and inspirational, but I feel like I'm reinforcing the strength of TNT (no matter how much pain I'm in) when I'm where they hope they'll see me during the run. Without their support, TNT wouldn't be as amazing a program as it is today! It's nice knowing someone is looking out for you!
(5) every time I heard a cow bell today I smiled. That is the signature sound of a TNT supporter.
I honestly had to dig deep today to be able to run.
It's true! Today was personally harder for me than the Portland Marathon last year, probably due to my week+ illness I'm (still) fighting off. I, on multiple occasions this morning, found myself closing my eyes (while running, yes. Dangerous (!), but safer on a 4-lane police-blocked-off race course) and thinking about my pain and lack of strength to continue, and then thought about the LLS mission and reminded myself that the people going through cancer treatments today, no matter HOW bad it gets, don't have the option to "walk" or quit like I did today... and somehow that gave me the strength to push through.
I thought about my running form.
I thought about my breathing.
I thought about Joan.
... and I thought about how much I honestly DID have still left in me to put into my run. I straightened my posture as best I could, lightened my attitude, and ran like I meant it... simply because I COULD and there wasn't any reason not to.
Today is what we trained for after all!
So, this morning with the aid of 3 cough drops, no kleenex, and walking a total of about 50 meters, I finished the course.
Thanks for making the journey of the past 3 months worthwhile! I hope to see all of you at TNT alumni events or future endurance events, whatever they may be!!!
btw, I'm currently registered for the Cinco de Mayo 10K on May 4 (http://www.terrapinevents.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm), if you are planning on running this event look for me! I'd love to say hi!!
Cheers!
jacqueline"
Incase you're wondering. Yes, a handful for me is 3 cough drops. I have small hands.
oh yeah, and YES I'll be continuing to run. stay tuned!!!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
the virus and the half marathon
I'm sick.
Been sick since Wednesday last week. Started as a horrible sore throat, over the weekend it spread to a stuffy head, runny nose, and swollen sinuses. I skipped the Saturday morning group run, but it was ok cause we're tapering right now and it was only a 6 mile run. Coach Joe and Captain Karl both told me to stay home.
On Monday this week I woke up with an itchy, crusty, red eye. I said, "enough," and dragged myself to the doctor.
She checked me out from head to toe, and pronounced that it was most definitely a virus. And, in fact, this virus had given me viral conjunctivitis (pink eye). She suggested I'd be feeling a lot better on Thursday, and I would probably be able to run my half marathon on Sunday, but I had to take it easy.
Because of my race this weekend, she prescribed me general antibiotics. Not because it would help me with my virus directly, but because if I had anything else going on that would theoretically SLOW DOWN my getting over the virus, the antibiotics could help play defense there. She told me if it wasn't for my race this weekend, she wouldn't have given me the antibiotics.
Anyway.... my eye is still pink. My sore throat is mostly gone, I'm still dealing with sinus and runny nose things, but that's about it. I'm still hoping I'll be better in 4 days.
The doctor also gave me Rx pseudoephedrine. Holy cow, that stuff works.
Anyway, that's my status right now. It probably WAS a good thing I stayed home instead of going out for the group run, I understand this virus is pretty fricken contagious, so I could have infected the entire running team if I went. That would have been very bad.
Oh yeah, and I met Rebecca at the Send-Off party! She's really nice! Now I feel silly for declaring that she was avoiding me on purpose. heh.
... and just cause I'm starting to go stir crazy here at home, I made this:
enjoy.
Here's hoping I can run this weekend!
Been sick since Wednesday last week. Started as a horrible sore throat, over the weekend it spread to a stuffy head, runny nose, and swollen sinuses. I skipped the Saturday morning group run, but it was ok cause we're tapering right now and it was only a 6 mile run. Coach Joe and Captain Karl both told me to stay home.
On Monday this week I woke up with an itchy, crusty, red eye. I said, "enough," and dragged myself to the doctor.
She checked me out from head to toe, and pronounced that it was most definitely a virus. And, in fact, this virus had given me viral conjunctivitis (pink eye). She suggested I'd be feeling a lot better on Thursday, and I would probably be able to run my half marathon on Sunday, but I had to take it easy.
Because of my race this weekend, she prescribed me general antibiotics. Not because it would help me with my virus directly, but because if I had anything else going on that would theoretically SLOW DOWN my getting over the virus, the antibiotics could help play defense there. She told me if it wasn't for my race this weekend, she wouldn't have given me the antibiotics.
Anyway.... my eye is still pink. My sore throat is mostly gone, I'm still dealing with sinus and runny nose things, but that's about it. I'm still hoping I'll be better in 4 days.
The doctor also gave me Rx pseudoephedrine. Holy cow, that stuff works.
Anyway, that's my status right now. It probably WAS a good thing I stayed home instead of going out for the group run, I understand this virus is pretty fricken contagious, so I could have infected the entire running team if I went. That would have been very bad.
Oh yeah, and I met Rebecca at the Send-Off party! She's really nice! Now I feel silly for declaring that she was avoiding me on purpose. heh.
... and just cause I'm starting to go stir crazy here at home, I made this:
enjoy.
Here's hoping I can run this weekend!
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