Chuck Norris Never Ran a Marathon

...and other fun signs I saw along the way: "Your feet hurt because you're kicking so much ass!" "26.2 miles, because 26.3 would just be crazy!" "Waking up early to make this sign was hard work!" "I may be old and slow, but I'm still ahead of you." (As seen on the back of Marine, Staff Sergeant Nuniz's shirt. I was with him for the first 5 miles and it made me smile every time I glanced at it--so thank you wherever you are!)

The marathon was awesome--the crowds, the enthusiasm, the Marines--everyone was so supportive and for the most part cheered regardless of who you were. And with that many people running, there was always someone running past them, so they cheered constantly. A few places stood out to me as having really great crowds and energy: the start and first 2 miles through Rosslyn, Georgetown was great, the second half of the Mall by the old Smithsonian, Crystal City, and of course the finish. Having a Marine put a medal around your neck was an inspiring experience.

To be honest I'm a little disappointed in my time. I went into this saying I wanted to run one marathon and just finish (no time goal). Everyone says, how can you be disappointed, you just finished a marathon? I think after training for 6 months you build up in your mind what finishing will feel like which after 6 months of building up and building up, the reality may have a hard time living up. I posted my thoughts on the Run Like a Mother facebook page which is a book written by 2 women runners and mothers. One of the authors commented that she was only really happy after one of her 7 marathons. A bunch of other women were having the same feelings as me. Another posted this: "Congrats on finishing! I wasn't even across the finish line this past October when I was sure I wasn't happy with my time and was going to do another. I think it fits with the personality type of some of us..." which made me laugh because I'm pretty sure she's onto something. A few days out now, I'm feeling better about it. But during the last few weeks of training I was looking forward to doing something else exercise wise. Now, I really just want to go for a run. Hello Runner's Anonymous....?

Somewhere during all this, something changed for me and it became enjoyable and something I wanted to do it longer. Sure there were really really bad runs, but there were really good runs too. Another marathon isn't completely out of the question for me somewhere down the line. Will it be soon? NO! Probably not next year either but maybe the following (depending on life and other things going on). I'd like to get faster at shorter distances. Run a 5K in less than 30 minutes and a 10K in less than 60 minutes (this one will be more challenging for me). I like having goals or something to accomplish. I'd like to do a 1/2 marathon or 2 or 3 and then see what happens.

I'm still trying to decide if I want to buy a fancy schmancy GPS running watch the tells you your speed and distance constantly with my birthday money--last month I would have said "I don't need that!"

Also got access to the official marathon photos and trying to decide if I want to spend $15 per 5x7 or pay $90 for access to digitally download all of them. I mean I don't want all of them but seriously, $15 for a 5x7? And it goes up from there in cost.

My soreness is gone (and it wasn't as bad as people said it would be) so tomorrow I'm going to the gym for a quick run and some weight training. We'll see where this takes me...

yep, I'm still here

living life, chugging along, running...or at least that's what I feel like I live to do these days. And most days I feel like that's all I do. 8-1/2 weeks left, which isn't much. But those 8 weeks will contain the longest runs yet--probably up to 22 miles. I eat to run, I sleep to run, I schedule my days to run. And I'm only running 4-5 days/ week so on the computer screen it doesn't seem like much. What hasn't been happening as much as normal? Cleaning and other general chore/household like stuff. Scrapbooking--although there is a layout in progress, maybe I'll finish it sometime soon. Reading. Blogging....well duh.  I have bad runs and I have good runs. And I've learned I like running. I want to keep running--maybe not train for a marathon all the time--but 6 or 7 miles is good for me. Unlike when I trained entirely on a treadmill and then ran a 1/2 marathon. I didn't run again for months. I want to get faster at shorter distances. I want to run 5K's and 10K's. So here's the past few weeks with times (mostly for my record, so I can get them out of my head!):

14 hilly miles: 2:52
16 hilly miles: 3:10 (a faster pace than the previous week)
18 flat miles: 3:33 (up to mile 15 I was on pace to beat my 16 mile time which wasn't surprising because it is  relatively flat. But I'm not going to lie, those last three miles were a sorry excuse for anything you might call running. There was quite a bit of walking happening. I was done. I blame vacation: bad diet, bad sleep, etc)
14 hilly miles: 2:47 (same course as the first time, 5 minutes faster! I'm not breaking any sound barriers here but I'll take any improvement I can get)

This weekend: 18 flat miles. Different course as the last 18. So we'll see what happens. I now have a mental block to get around since I died at mile 15 last time.

Bragging moment: Because we were on vacation I ran the 18 on a Monday, did speed work on Wednesday, ran on Thursday, took Friday off, and ran the 14 on Saturday. That makes my total mileage for that week: 43 miles!

happy 4th (on the 6th)

or what we did on the 4th....
spent most of the day hiding inside--it was hot. Or at least it looked hot from the window! :)
And then we went to an Aberdeen Ironbirds baseball game with Margaret (aka: Grandma) and Aunt Susie (aka: Aunt Susie). Luckily there was shade and a slight breeze so altogether it wasn't so bad out. Had some cotton candy, Rita's Ice, cracker jacks, a crab pretzel, a beer, hamburgers and hotdogs and french fries--oh yeah, we were watching baseball during all that eating.

Joe Flacco's brother, Mike (I think?)

bejeweled, bedazzled, and bespeckled for the 4th

And we saw some fireworks. I tried a photography technique I had read about for taking pictures of fireworks and took about 50 pictures of them...

I also ran 11 miles in 2:06 on Saturday morning. There was actually a chill in the air when I started and I can't even begin to tell you how absolutely amazing that was. Not to mention how much better I felt when I was finished--come on fall! Total milage for last week: 21-1/2 miles.

So few and far between...

...blog posts that is.

What have I been up to?

A little birthday party planning.

Some running: 9 miles at 1:46, 10 miles at 1:57, and last weekend when I was going to run 11-12 miles I didn't feel well on Saturday and it was really hot & humid even at 6am on Sunday so I skipped it. To make up for it I ran 6 miles this morning. I needed to switch my long run days to Saturday anyway since I joined a training program through Charm City Running and they do long runs on Saturdays. I also learned through this program that the coach doesn't believe you should run more than 20 miles for training (which we'll do 2-3 times). This isn't the first time I've heard of this so he's not making this stuff up. I'm just not sure I can psych myself up at the end of running 20 miles to run 6 more. But I'm all for running less for training! :) So I'm not all that concerned about missing a week with a long run since I was ahead of schedule for the training program I was using and that one went the whole way to 26 miles.

Katherine got to see a real baby yesterday. Which has only renewed her desire to "get one" for us. Since she's decided she wants to marry Aidan, we thought now that he has a brother maybe she'd change her mind and want to marry Peyton instead. Which means these pictures will come in handy at the wedding...

And some recent craftiness:

 

depressed bunnies, dance recitals, & running (sorry couldn't think of anything else starting with a "d")

Apparently the bunny world around our house needs some help...like a psychiatrist's help! In the past week or so we've found three bunnies that have commited suicide (bunnicide?) in our pool--THREE! It's a little unnerving to see a dead bunny floating around and kinda feels like a bad omen coming our way or something. Every year we have a bunny nest in the grass above the pool--it's probably a good spot because that grass is fenced and therefore protected from dogs or other predators. Once we know they're there--we stop mowing that grass until the bunnies are old enough to leave the nest and we keep all dogs out of there--that's what bunny lovers we are! So why, I ask, are they killing themselves in our pool?

The much awaited dance recital went well for Katherine. I was hesitant that she would get out there and do it since she's not a fan of being in the spotlight, but she did awesome. And we're really proud of her for doing it! The photos onstage are from the dress rehearsal and we couldn't use a flash...and yes the girls are supposed to be doing the same thing at the same time! :)

Last Sunday I ran 8 miles in 1:34 which wasn't too bad considering it was about 956% humidity. I did get up to go at 5:30 to try and beat some of the heat...The week before I ran 7 miles in 1 hour 23 minutes. But that was guess-timating my distance. I figured out (before I ran the 8 miles) how to use the personal trip odometer in my car (amazing how that there technology works) and discovered my 7 miles was a tad short. I also felt like crap running that 7 miles so when I ran the 8 miles, I was pretty happy with my time. This Sunday--9 miles!

I'm a dork.

Just downloaded the theme song from "Rocky" to start running to. I may be a dork, but it seems to work...along with some Nickelback, Snow Patrol, and Green Day. I just ran 5 miles at the gym--54 minutes and technically I only needed to do 45 minutes, no walking, and I even increased the pace at the end (ok so it was only from 5.5 to 5.7, but still!)--so there--I'll take my dorkiness and run with it.

And because I know you'd rather see Katherine than hear about my dorkiness...

twirliness

I told her to smell the flower for the picture. Apparently the flower thingys (the stamen, I believe?) went up her nose.

So innocent...what an actress!

Marathon Watch 2010 and other exciting updates

So yesterday I ran 6-ish miles--from Whiteford firehouse to the 3rd telephone pole past the horse farm on the left past where Old Pylesville Rd comes out on 165 and back (distance was pre-measured in my car, hence the -ish part). Only 20 more miles to add (and yes I know it's 26.2, but if I can get the 26 part done, I can crawl the rest of the way--it'll make a great Kodak moment, don't you think!). It's amazing how flat a road will look in a SUV going 50mph. However when you actually get out and move say 5.5 mph, there's lots of hills you never noticed before. That stretch of road they call "the flats"? Anything but! It took me 68 minutes which wasn't bad considering the pace I've been doing on the treadmill should have clocked me at 65 minutes--and there's no hills there! 

Before I ran I was dreading it, questioning why I was doing this. Really wanted to go home and take a shower instead. But I did it and felt great afterwards to have accomplished it (mostly because I ran the whole way--I'm much less likely to stop and walk outside than I am on a treadmill). I need to remember the good feeling at the end and channel that next week when I run 7 miles. Although there was a moment at around 5-1/2 miles when I needed to speed up to get out of the way of a turning car and I'm pretty sure my legs said, "what the hell Robin, you think we're going to sprint NOW?" Yes they have their own personality...

Katherine has been accepted to 1/2 day kindergarten. They save the full day spots for kids who need extra help and we weren't sure with her dog barking if she would qualify for extra help or not. But I guess they were more interested that she could write her name, knew her address and phone number, and knew her letters and numbers and could count to 29 (except for 15, she always misses that one?). According to her preschool spring evaluation they did at school, her points accumulated were equivalent to a 6 year old (except for the reading part, I'm guessing). Which just goes to show, what she'll do when she's comfortable in her environment.

And 2 scrapbooking layouts about Katherine (because blog posts without pictures are just boring!)

(you can click on the photos to make them bigger if you want to read the journaling)

Just for me

Yea! I won a $5 credit at Studio Calico for submitting a scrapbook layout for a sketch challenge. Check it out here!

Other layouts I've made recently because I haven't posted any in a while:

Running Log (I was going to do this in a Word document but then I figured why not here? More accountability to keep going from the 4 people that read this.) :)

Friday, April 9th: 10 minute walking warmup at 3.8mph, 32 minutes running at 5.7mph on the treadmill

Sunday, Spril 11th: Ran ~4 miles on Wiley Road (insanely steep hill at the end and all) time: 47:13