Month of mayhem, part 2: the Kauai marathon.

This is what running in Hawaii looks like. Sigh. 

I have been back on the mainland for a little over three weeks now, and I am finally adjusting to not being in Hawaii. Now that the longing has receded (a bit), I can tell you about one of the highlights of our trip: the Kauai marathon.

Andrew and I actually planned our honeymoon around this race. We decided early in our wedding planning not to go on a honeymoon right after the wedding, for a variety of reasons. One of those reasons is that we both prefer adventurous vacations, and we knew we would be too tired after the wedding to go on a trip like that. Of course, the problem with postponing a honeymoon is that you can keep postponing it. A few months after the wedding, we still had no honeymoon plans. We both knew we wanted to go to Hawaii, but we didn't know when, which islands, or what to do there. Finally, I started looking for Hawaii marathons, and struck gold. The Kauai marathon was far enough away for planning, training, and saving money. Kauai- known for beautiful scenery and outdoor activities- looked like a perfect fit for us. Best of all, I found it less than a week before a price increase, which forced us to make a decision. After a couple days discussion, Andrew signed up for the half-marathon, I signed up for the full marathon, and we started planning.

Given the 6-hour time change and (slightly) different climate, I knew that I wanted a few days to settle in before the marathon. So, we decided to start our vacation by visiting my friend Katie on Oahu, and then head over to Kauai the day before the race. So, on a lovely Tuesday morning, we set out for Oahu. Trying to save money, we booked a flight with two long layovers in the middle.

Toasting to our honeymoon in the Minneapolis/St.Paul airport.

By the time you factor in the time difference, we wound up travelling for about 23 hours on the trip out. I have a terrible time sleeping on planes, so I stayed up pretty much the whole time. By the time we landed in Honolulu, I couldn't care less that we were in paradise. I just wanted to sleep. We got our rental car, drove to our 1-night hotel in Waikiki, and crashed.

The good part about staying up through a marathon of travel? Minimal jet lag. At a totally reasonable time the next morning, we woke up and took a walk around our hotel.

Not bad.

Now, it could sink in: we were in paradise. After hitting the hotel gym (go us), we spent the morning checking out Waikiki beach, and then drove about 30 minutes to Kailua to check into a micro-house we rented for out Oahu stay.

Welcome to our tiny home.

We found this place on AirBnB (you can see the listing here.) Its an 8x10ft. mini-house which our hosts built in their backyard. It was truly tiny, but had everything we needed and was in a great neighborhood right near the beach. As an added bonus, our hosts Denise and Henrik were super-nice and turned out to be runners and triathletes themselves. We spent a great happy hour with them swapping race stories and they helped us find a perfect local running route (see photo above).

Not counting the night we arrived, we were on Oahu from Wednesday-Saturday. During that time, we ran on the beach, ate at a famous restaurant for our (dating) anniversary, visited Pearl Harbor and a really cool museum, and checked out some of downtown Honolulu. Most importantly, we got to spend a day with Katie, my former roommate/running buddy (often featured in this blog) who moved to Hawaii 3 years ago. Knowing that I had a marathon coming up, Katie took us on an "easy" hike to see a waterfall:

Climbing. There was a lot of that.

Andrew and Katie at the waterfall.

Our "easy" hike was certainly scenic, but it involved a LOT of climbing. Knowing that I had a hilly marathon less than 2 days later, I freaked out a little. As we climbed, I mentally reviewed everything we had done so far and did not find much resting. We probably walked 5 miles in the course of our sightseeing, plus our run in Kailua, plus the hike. I tried to put it out of my mind and enjoy the visit with Katie, but I was worried.

On Saturday, we said goodbye to Oahu and got on a plane to Kauai. En route to the airport, Andrew and I kept exclaiming over the beautiful mountain scenery and lamenting our short time on the island. It was truly beautiful and Kailua had a laid-back, outdoorsy vibe that we both enjoyed... But then we saw Kauai.

After we landed at the tiny Kauai airport, we picked up a shuttle for the 30-minute drive to our hotel. We told our driver we were running the race, and she pointed out parts of the race route for us. It was spectacular. Here is just one tiny example, taken from the marathon's Facebook page:

This is called the "tunnel of trees."

We got more and more excited as we drove along... and then we got to the hotel. The host hotel for the marathon was the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa. Andrew and I consider ourselves more "micro-house" people than "grand resort and spa" people, but we got a discount for doing the race, and we saved a ton of money by doing AirBnB on Oahu, so we decided to splurge.  GOOD DECISION. This hotel was literally breathtaking. Our first view when we walked in was a cavernous lobby, open on one end with a perfect view of the ocean:

"We get to stay here???"

We also got the full "lei treatment" for the first time, which left us both fairly giddy:

There was a slight problem getting our room ready, so we went straight to the race expo. It was small, but very nice and friendly.

Very happy to be doing the half.

Gulp.

I don't usually buy things at race expos, but when were we going to get back to this one? We both picked up some t-shirts and a few things we forgot to pack (electrolyte tablets, earbuds, etc.). After the expo, we checked into our amazing room and took it easy for the rest of the night.

This is where we had dinner our first night in the resort. Amazing!

The next morning, we got up very early to catch a 4:45am shuttle to the 6am start. We took a short ride to a well-organized and friendly start area. The announcer told us that 1700 people were running that day, but only a little over 300 of us were doing the full marathon. At that point, I got VERY nervous. I was already intimidated by the course, which features 2,205 feet of climbing, much of it in the later miles. Now, I realized that I would probably be running those later miles with no company. Gulp.

At 6am, the gun went off and Andrew and I headed out together. While he and I usually run at our own paces, we had decided to run together for the first 11 miles, where the half and full marathons run the same course. For Andrew, this meant slowing down. He could have handled a faster pace for a half, but I did not want to risk going out too fast. We decided to do 10 minute/2 minute run/walk intervals and enjoy the scenery as much as possible.

It was beautiful. Andrew tells me that the first 11 miles were hilly. Looking at my GPS, I see that he's right- we gained over 600 ft. of elevation in the first 7 miles in a long, slow climb. Somehow, though, I don't remember any of that. I think the remaining 15 erased all of those memories. I do remember how beautiful it was. Andrew and I didn't stop to take pictures because we didn't want to load and unload our phones, but we did slow down to take it all in more than once. The early miles were all about beautiful trees with mountains in the background (see above). We also had one brief downpour, which helped with the 80+ degree temperatures.

Back when we were training, I asked Andrew to do me one big favor during the half: not to countdown the miles. I knew it would not be good for my mental state to hear him say "only 5 more miles!" when I still had 18. He did exactly as I asked. Later, he told me that he was really tired toward the end of the half and ready to be done, but I had no idea. The only time I got reminded of how far I had to go was when we ran through a neighborhood at mile 9. Some very nice people who had set up a full cheering section on their lawn yelled "Only 4 miles to go!" I yelled back "I have 17!," and they groaned sympathetically.

All too soon, we reached the spilt at mile 11. Andrew gave me a kiss and headed downhill toward the finish. I turned and headed... uphill... alone. Of the 50 or so people who hit the mile 11 mark with us, only myself and 2 others headed for the marathon course. To add insult to injury, another downpour started just as I headed up the first big hill. I think I actually said "Really?" out loud.

At that point, I did something I pretty much never do in races: I put on headphones. I generally consider it rude (not to mention unsafe) to wear headphones in big races, but I always carry them along with an IPod containing an "In Case of Emergency" marathon playlist. In three previous marathons, I never needed it. This time, though, I was headed uphill by myself, missing Andrew and the crowds. To make things worse, I was heading into a long out-and-back loop, which meant I faced a steady stream of runners headed back. They were approaching mile 23 and I was only at 12. I needed a little boost to keep me from turning around and heading to the finish with them. The music definitely helped me re-energize and forge ahead. I do have one regret, though: a few minutes after I put on the headphones, Dean Karnazes (otherwise known as "Ultramarathon Man") ran right by me. He is known for being really nice and encouraging and he looked me right in the eye and said something... which I couldn't hear. I appreciated it anyway.

Off to tackle the big hills.

Shortly after Andrew and I separated, I started losing track of the 10/2 intervals. I think the music gave me some steam because I actually ran straight through a couple of walk breaks. This turned out to be no problem, because my planned intervals became irrelevant somewhere in mile 12. Mile 12 was totally uphill, with an elevation gain of a little over 200 ft. Mile 13 was a little downhill break, and then the real fun started. Miles 14-16 were literally straight up hill. We gained over 400 ft. of elevation in those two miles, with 300 ft. of that happening in mile 15. Picture one long hill, getting steeper and steeper for 2 solid miles. Every time we turned a corner, I thought I might get a break, but instead it just kept going up. Even better, I spent the whole climb watching most of my fellow runners coming down. For this whole stretch, I ran when I could and walked when I had to. There was a lot of walking.

(This would be a good time to note the awesome crowd support in this race, which was one of only things making the hills bearable. Because of the heat, the race directors put a water stop nearly every mile in the marathon loop, and almost every stop had musicians or dancers. In addition, it seemed like everyone who lived along the marathon route came out to cheer and stayed out to the last runner. I was on the course for over 6 hours, with only 20 people behind me, and I had people cheering me the entire way. That says a lot about the people of Kauai!)

Finally, at the 16 mile mark, I reached the top of the climb. The course leveled out on top of a ridge. I ran by a clearing in the trees and was greeted with a breathtaking view:

The picture doesn't do it justice. I could see all the way down a beautiful valley, with mountains at the top and the Pacific in the distance. It was awe-inspiring. I might even say it was worth the climb! We were treated to this view, and some steady downhill, for the next 2 miles. I started skipping my walk breaks again and just running through. I also started passing people, which felt awesome. By mile 18, when we hit some more hills, I had joined a small group of fellow runners who were walking the uphills and running everything else. I resumed my 10/2 intervals until I got through those hills, which (thank God) were the last big ones.

By mile 20, I was feeling fairly good. Going into this race, I was really worried about a total breakdown like the one I experienced in the 2010 Marine Corps Marathon. Once I hit 20, I knew that danger had passed. I felt really proud of myself for toughing it our through the long, slow climb of the first 7 miles and the shorter, brutal climb of miles 12-16. I also felt ready to be done. As my coach Susan always says, the last 6.2 miles of a marathon are finished on mental strength alone. That was never more true for me than in this race. My body was pretty much done and it was only the thought of crossing the finish line that kept me going.

Waving was a major effort at this point.

At mile 24, I passed the place where Andrew and I had separated and started a 2-mile downhill "sprint" to the finish. At that point, "sprinting" translated to "not walking." Once I made the final turn, I started running toward the resorts of the southern beaches and saw the spectacular ocean in the distance. It was so hot that I wanted to run right into it!

I always get a little teary when I see the mile 26 sign in a marathon. As an added bonus for this race, that's where Andrew chose to wait for me. As soon as he saw me, he started running next to me and tried to get me to do a sprint, but I explained that a fast jog was the best I could do. FINALLY, 6 hours and 15 minutes after I started, I crossed the finish line!

Into the chute!

DONE.

Andrew and I got our finish photo taken, and I started telling my war story.

Craziest honeymoon ever!

Almost immediately, a fellow marathoner overheard me and said "Please don't talk about mile 16- I'm still traumatized." We had a little chat, which was my introduction into the "Kauai marathon survivors" club. Over the next few days, I had several chats with fellow marathoners of varying ability levels. Some had finished in under 3 hours, others (like me) took over 6, but everyone agreed that it was the toughest marathon we had ever run. I also had a lot of conversations with half-marathoners, which all seemed to include the phrase "You ran the whole thing?" One of them even high-fived me. So, even though this was my slowest marathon by a decent margin, I wound up feeling really proud about it.

The best part of running a super-hard marathon in paradise was that, once it was over, I was still in paradise. Andrew and I spent the next two days relaxing and enjoying the resort and the rest of the island. When it came time to leave, we were talking about our favorite parts of our vacation and I said "As sick as this sounds, I really loved running that marathon." Andrew just rolled his eyes. I'm hopeless.

Toasting my finish at a post-race luau.

Done and done!

 

Month of Mayhem, part 1: IronGirl Columbia and the A10.

Aloha! I'm writing this from the saddest place on Earth- the airport, leaving Hawaii. Over the past week, Andrew and I celebrated our (belated) honeymoon ran a big race! On Sunday, I ran the (brutal) Kauai marathon and he did the (also challenging) half-marathon.

 

The view from one of our morning runs.

 

I'll write more about Hawaii and the marathon later, but first I should explain that Kauai was leg 3 of what I have dubbed by “month of mayhem.”

What is a month of mayhem? That's what happens when a normally organized person like myself signs up for a bunch of late summer events independently without plotting it all out on a calendar. Then, when she does look at a calendar, she sees this:

Sunday, August 17^th: Iron Girl Columbia Triathlon

Sunday, August 24^th: Annapolis 10-mile run

Sunday, September 1^st: Kauai marathon

Sunday, September 8^th: Iron Girl Rocky Gap Triathlon

Oops. Just in case that wasn't enough fun, I had my little wisdom teeth debacle (see previous post) which nixed a few key training weeks. So, I headed into this month poorly prepared and fairly scared. Fortunately, with three events down, I can say- so far, so good. Here's the report on legs 1 and 2:

IronGirl Columbia

When IG was my first tri in 2011, I was terrified and prepared really well. Two years and four additional tris later, the fear is gone. While its nice to line up at the start without my heart pounding, I could use a little of that fear back as a training motivator! I went into this year's event fairly well prepared for the run, moderately prepared for the swim, and poorly prepared for the bike. Not surprisingly, my race performance corresponded with my preparation (or lack thereof) in each area.

 

No fear here!

 

I posted a better swim time this year compared to last year, but felt like I struggled more. I just couldn't hold the proper form, which meant I had to work way harder than I should have. The good news, though, was that I never had a moment of feeling afraid or like I might not be able to finish. Having experienced that feeling in pretty much every other tri I've ever done, it was a relief to have some confidence!

 

Forcing a smile for the camera.

On to the bike! This year's bike course was pretty different from previous years. Going in, I had some vague hope that “different” might mean “easier.” That hope was promptly dashed. The new course was every bit as challenging as the previous course. On one particularly difficult hill, a very kind biker on a road bike passed me on my hybrid-with-a-broken-lowest-chain-rig and said “I honestly don't know how you are doing this on that bike.” It was a nice boost and made me feel good about all the time I spend lifting weights! Still, this may prove to be the ride that pushes me to finally buy a better bike.

SO HAPPY to be near the finish!

I went into this year's run resolved to take it easy. Knowing I had three more events to go this month, I didn't want to push it and wind up super-fatigued for days. I ran when I could and walked when I had to. It was my weakest run performance in this event, but I still pulled out a sprint at the end and felt fairly good overall.

As usual, the best part of IronGirl was seeing lots of my local athlete friends. I started the morning with my friend Christin from the Wonder Women group:

 

Making our coaches proud.

I also saw several other Wonder Women and a few friends from the Striders. This year, I was most excited for my grad school buddy, Jaquisha. Jaquisha is an accomplished runner and all-around great athlete. I always knew she was capable of doing tris and encouraged her to give it a shot. What I didn't know, though, is that she's deathly afraid of water and swimming. This year, she decided to try IronGirl anyway. She spent months with a coach learning how to swim and bike. She told me she cried at nearly every swim practice. Nevertheless, she pushed on and made it to the start line of IG.

As soon as I finished my race, I was dying to know how Jaquisha had done. I thought there was an 85% chance that she blew through everything like a champ and finished an hour before me, a 10% chance that she struggled in the water but made it and kicked butt at everything else, and maybe a 5% chance that she had major trouble on the swim. I found some ladies from her charity team and asked about her. They told me that she finished the swim, but spent over 2 hours in the water and was at risk of not finishing the bike course within the time limit. I was simultaneously terrified for her and deeply impressed. I was so worried that she might not finish in time, but so amazed with her for pushing through on the swim! I am not a quitter, but I think I may have given up on the swim after an hour. Pushing through for over 2 hours is simply remarkable.

Andrew and I weren't able to wait for Jaquisha because we had to get home for a friend's party. So, as he drove us home, I frantically hit “refresh” on the IG results being posted. Finally, I saw Jaquisha's name- whew! I was thrilled for her and she was thriled for herself. Way to go, friend!

The A-10

Regular readers of this blog will know that I was the victim of an apparent A-10 curse in 2010 and 2011. My luck started to turn in 2011, when the race was cancelled, but I met my future husband on what would have been race day. Then, in 2012, the curse was broken when my then-fiancee ran the race with me. I am happy to report no curse activity in 2013! In fact, this race was fairly uneventful.

Given all of my training hiccups in recent weeks, I've been doing my long runs in run/walk intervals. (I'll write more about that soon.) This isn't my usual way of doing things, but its been working for me. For this race, though, I really wanted to run the whole thing. Even though I planned to run Kauai with intervals, I had some psychological need to prove to myself that I can still run 10 miles with no breaks before marathon day. Andrew took a saner approach and worked in some intervals. Judging by our finish times, intervals were the right choice!

I wasn't trying to PR in this race. I knew I had no chance of approaching the 10-mile PR of 1:41 that I set last year. All I cared about this year was coming in under 2 hours. I pulled that off (just barely) with a time of 1:57. Andrew was a different story. He knocked 14 minutes off his time from last year to finish in 1:56. Even more amazing, he went from finishing 19 minutes after me in 2012 to finishing 1 minute ahead of me in 2013. I'm a competitive person by nature, but I can't help being thrilled for him. Way to go, husband!

So, that's the report on legs 1 and 2. Stay tuned for race reports on Kauai and IronGirl Rocky Gap!

From Down and Dirty to Dog Days.

Since I last wrote, Andrew and I have done three races and I hit one major training snag. Here are the updates!

The John Wall 1-mile race

On Saturday, 7/20, Andrew and I completed the Striders' annual 1-mile race, which is the 4th leg of the Champ Series. This race is always challenging because it comes right in the middle of marathon training season, ie: the part of the year where I focus on running long and slow. Being asked to go fast all of a sudden is tricky. I have to try, though. I know some marathon training friends who simply run this race at their training pace in order to get credit for the series, but I always try to push a little harder.

This year, Andrew and I were joined by his younger brother Marquis, who was dealing with the opposite problem. Marquis is a recently-graduated high school track star, but he's used to running races measured in meters. A mile is a long distance for him.

This race is run in heats by expected finish time (over 12 minutes, 10-11 minutes, 9-10 minutes, etc.). Runners select their own heats. I always try to pick one where I expect to be challenged but able to finish within the allotted time. Two years ago, that was 7-8 minutes. This year, it was 9-10- a couple steps down. Andrew, on the other hand, moved up. Last year, he ran 10:33, but this year he knew he could do better and also chose the 9-10 minute wave.

Our heat started and Andrew and I ran neck-and-neck for the first two (of four) laps. Somewhere around #3 though, he pulled a little ahead. I tried to maintain my pace for lap #3 and speed up to catch him in lap #4, but it didn't work. He finished in 8:50 and I came in at 8:57. Considering that I ran 8:11 in this race two years ago, I was a little bummed about my time. Still, I was relieved that I managed to stay under 9 minutes and thrilled for Andrew! He had no idea he could run a mile in under 9 minutes and was really excited about it.

Two waves later, it was time for Marquis to run. It was pretty exciting to track him through his four laps and cheer as he went by. He finished in 7:30, which I think is a slow day for him. Andrew and I were still impressed!

Down and Dirty

The very next day, Andrew and I did another race: the inaugural Merrell Down and Dirty obstacle course 5K. I have wanted to do an obstacle course race for awhile now, but I was still very nervous going into this event. Having scrupulously studied the course details online, I was pretty sure I knew where my strengths and weaknesses would be. 5K trail run? No problem! Crawling through tunnels and other low obstacles? Easy. Push-ups? I love them! Wall and cargo net climbs? Uh-oh. Despite all of my weight lifting, I still find climbing challenging. I also seem to have a slight fear of heights that only comes out in activities like climbing. I have no problem standing on a 30th-floor balcony, but climbing a 10-ft. tire tower scares me half to death.

Going into this race, Andrew and I decided to forego our usual pattern of running our own races and stick together for the whole thing. Several friends who had run obstacle course races told us that sticking with friends is the way to go. We also learned from them that you need a good "before" photo, so we took this one:

Before.

The race went off in waves to try to minimize congestion around the obstacles. We chose a later wave and wound up in a pretty small group. The first few obstacles were no big deal for me: a low-crawl, a short water crossing, and a climb over some inflatable logs. The first climb was pretty easy too: it was basically fence with plenty of places to grab on. Still, I was impressed with how fast Andrew got up and over!

Then came the real climbs. First, there was a 20ft. cargo net over the top of an inflatable slide. This was pretty easy, but it was the first place that the fear of heights kicked in. When I got over it, my heart was beating so fast that I had to take a walk break to slow it down. After that, we reached the obstacle I had worried about the most: a climbing wall. Mercifully, they had lower options for those of us who were climbing-impaired. Andrew scrambled over one of the taller walls in a second and then helped talk me through the lower one. It took several failed attempts to even get up on the hand and foot holds, and I briefly considered giving up, but finally I made it!

Once we finished the climbing wall, I had conquered my biggest fear and thought it would be smooth sailing. I wasn't counting on the "Monster Climb." I had seen this photo on the race website, but didn't think it looked very scary:

Scarier in real life.

When we go to this, though, I realized I had underestimated it. It involved climbing up about 10ft, then across some netting, then up a few more feet, across again, and then back down the other side. Once again, Andrew scrambled over it like a monkey. I, on the other hand, took it one step at a time with my heart pounding, thinking about how badly I might hurt myself if I fell. Eventually, though, I made it!

We completed our final obstacles in view of Andrew's family, who took some pictures. First, we climbed the "slippery mountain":

I'm all the way in the right-hand corner.

This was a little greased platform that you ascended by pulling yourself up a rope. I impressed myself by zipping right up, but then got a little stuck at the top. Thankfully, Andrew was there to help me get up and over. Then, we headed for the mud pit:

As gross as it looks.

As far as obstacles go, this was an easy one. The real challenge was getting over the grossness of having mud everywhere, including in my mouth and my eyes. After that, we crossed the finish line and got our "after" pictures:

Dirty enough?

 

 

My dog-tag medal.

All in all, this was a very fun event and I'm glad I did it, especially because it pushed me out of my comfort zone several times. I am also very glad that I had Andrew with me for support and cheerleading!

Tooth Hiatus

The week after the Down and Dirty race, I had all four of my impacted wisdom teeth removed. When I scheduled this procedure, my surgeon assured me it would be no big deal and I would probably only need a couple days off work. I took four just to be safe (Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday). The surgery went smoothly, as did the first few days of recovery. By Sunday, though, things started to go downhill. By Monday, I was in awful pain, which continued for several more days. I wound up being out of work for that Thursday and Friday, plus the entire week afterward.

All of last week, I was in a great deal of pain and semi-sick from the combo of pain pills and barely being able to eat. The most difficult part of the whole thing, though, was frustration. First, I was frustrated at my surgeon. When I called for help with the unexpected lingering pain, he just said "Well, back teeth are difficult. This isn't unexpected." (Why didn't you tell me that in the first place???) I was also frustrated to be sitting around my house for days on end, staring down many long-standing to-do list tasks and feeling too sick to do them. Finally, I was frustrated and worried as I watched the days until my next marathon (9/1) tick away, with me too sick to work out. Which brings us to...

The Dog Days 8K

My original plan for this past Saturday was to run 18 miles. By the middle of last week, I was questioning whether I would be able to run at all. This was worrisome for two reasons. First, I need to get long runs in to be prepared for my marathon. Second, I was scheduled to run the Dog Days 8K on Sunday, which is the 5th leg of the Champ Series. Being halfway through my fourth year of running the whole Champ Series, I did not want to lose my IronMan award over some teeth!

On Saturday morning, Andrew headed out with the Striders for his own 14-mile run. I gave myself a couple additional hours to sleep off the pain meds (which are still imperative at night) and then joined him toward the end of his run. My goal was just to see what distance I could handle. It was rough, but I wound up covering 5 miles, which was enough to reassure me that I could do the Dog Days (which is just under 5 miles). Andrew and I both spent the rest of the day recovering.

Sunday morning, we set out for the race and I felt lousy. Once we got going, though, it wasn't so bad. I passed Andrew in the first 2 miles, but he caught me in the 3rd and held onto that lead through to the end. He finished a little over a minute ahead of me and 8 minutes ahead of his time from last year! I posted my worst time in this race so far, but it barely registered. I was just relieved to have finished in under an hour and to know that my IronMan award remains secure.

So, now I am continuing my recovery and trying to get in whatever training I can manage for my upcoming tris and marathon!

Summer craziness.

It seems to happen every year: my June gets so crammed with fun events that it winds up being totally nuts and I can't wait for July. Weddings, birthdays, races, travel, preaching- its like my whole summer gets crammed into one month. This has been going on for several years now, but this year is the craziest ever. When Andrew and I married each other, its like our calendars got married too, and gave birth to more and more places to go and things to do. Here's the run-down for this summer so far:

May 24-26: Andrew went to KY for a bachelor party. I went to NC to see some seminary friends. While I was there, I visited the US National Whitewater Center, which is basically a massive outdoor adventure playground for grownups. Amazing.

May 31-Jun 2: Andrew and I were scheduled for my first tri of the season and his first tri ever, with his parents visiting to cheer us on. Those plans went a little awry when I injured my foot May 30th, but Andrew was triumphant! (See two posts ago.)

June 5: My birthday. For the second year in a row, I didn't have time for a real party because my birthday was surrounded by weddings, but Andrew and my family still made it nice.

A "cake" made of flowers, which Andrew sent to my office.



Best card ever from my niece.



 

June 7-9: Andrew and I went to Richmond, VA for an awesome wedding at a camp, featuring a bluegrass band and lots of friends from my Yale Divinity School days. Bonus: I managed my first workout post-toe injury.

June 15-16: Andrew and I went to another great wedding, this time for two of his friends in Washington, DC. The next day, we got up bright and early to run the Striders' Father's Day 10K. Not the strongest showing for either of us, but it did get us closer to IronMan awards for 2013.

June 21-23: I did my 4th annual stint volunteering for Camp Forget-Me-Not/Camp Erin DC, while Andrew spent the weekend going to my nephew's 13th birthday party and having breakfast with my parents. Who has the best husband?

Andrew teaches my family his unique photo stylings.

Which brings us up to the craziest of crazy weekends:

June 28-30: Two parts of this weekend were planned out months ago. I've known for a long time that Saturday was the first day of the Striders' 2013 marathon training group and also that Andrew's parents would be coming to visit and celebrate our mothers' close-together birthdays. As if that weren't enough for one weekend, Andrew and I made a last-minute choice to add some craziness. When I had to back out of the Rock Hall tri on June 2nd, I signed up for the Annapolis Tri Club's first-ever sprint tri on June 30th.  Even though he already had one tri under his belt for this month, Andrew gamely signed up too.

In previous years, I've gone easy on the first few weeks of marathon training and jumped in closer to the fall race season. This year, though, I'm signed up for the Kauai Marathon, which is a mere 8 weeks away. So, no skipping the early long runs! With that race in mind, Andrew and I got up bright and early Saturday morning and headed out on our first 10-miler since April. It wasn't easy, but we got to see lots of friends from the Striders and we took a lovely coffee-and-scenery break during the last 3 miles.

When we got home from the run, we took quick showers and set about cleaning the house and prepping food for the mothers' birthday party. Then, we drove down to southern MD in the afternoon to watch my nephew win 2 baseball games (yay!) and back home to host said party. We had a great time, until we looked at our watches and the drinks in our hands at 9pm and remembered we were doing a tri first thing in the morning.

At 5am on Sunday, we got up and packed our tri gear. The race was just a few minutes down the road inside the beautiful Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. From the moment we arrived, we started seeing friends: people from our gym, Striders, members of the Wonder Women tri group, even members of my high school and college classes. Andrew and I still can't get over the fact that all of our local friends are athletes, and we're thrilled to be part of that group! The sign-in and gear set-up, like all aspects of this race, were low-key. We didn't even have assigned spots on the bike racks, which was nice because we got to be next to each other and our friends.

When I signed up for this race, my brain somehow confused "low-key" with "easy." Big mistake. This race was far from easy. The swim was a pretty basic 1/2 mile out-and-back in warm, calm water. It would have been lovely, if not for the jellyfish. I got stung once, which I thought was a big deal until I chatted with people post-race and realized that most of my fellow athletes (including Andrew) were stung at least 5 or 6 times. The bike course was an easy 10 miles (two 5-mile loops), which I made hard by not training. Then came the run. It was billed as a trail run. In my experience, this often means "a lot of road and a little bit of trail." Not this time. This was a true trail race: mud, tree roots, steep climbs, and slow finish times. Beautiful, but very challenging.

I finished the race in just over 2 hours with a distinct feeling that it had not been my day. Just a couple minutes later, I watched Andrew cross the line, and realized I was witnessing a first. Andrew had started two swim waves- or 6 minutes- behind me. He crossed the finish line about two minutes after me. Thus, for the first time ever, he beat me in a race. When we got our official times, we learned that my math was spot on. I finished in 2:02; Andrew finished in 1:58.

Savoring his well-earned victory.

After the race, we finally got to relax. We spent the afternoon eating, napping, and going to the movies. Good thing, because we need to rest up for the rest of the summer. Events still to come: the rest of marathon training, 5 more road races (for both of us), 2 more tris (for me), a family trip to PA, Andrew's birthday, the removal of my wisdom teeth, and finally our honeymoon to Hawaii!

I'll sleep in September.  

Weekend warrior.

Recently, Andrew and I have been working on changing a few of our habits. We're trying to eat out less, drink less, eat more fruits and vegetables, and get to the gym more often. We also returned to Weight Watchers, where I picked up a little tool to help with those goals:

This is the ActiveLink active monitor, a fairly new addition to the Weight Watchers program. It tracks all your movement throughout the day and then calculates activity points to offset your food points. Under the regular WW program, you calculate your own activity points by entering any exercise you do, the duration, and the intensity. So, under that system, I give myself about 5 points for my weightlifting class.

What's different about the ActiveLink is that it considers your whole day's activity and requires that you hit a "base line" for the day before you earn any activity points at all. In other words, if you work out hard at the gym for an hour, but then sit for the rest of the day, you may not earn any activity points at all. Just this morning, I did a really challenging TRX class, but it wasn't enough to hit my base line for the day. Once I do hit that base line, any movement I do for the rest of the day (walking, fixing dinner, etc.) will earn me activity points.

The whole point of the Active Link is to promote movement and discourage being sedentary all day, every day. I decided that this would be good for me because I've fallen into a bit of a "weekend warrior" pattern, where I slack off on my weekday workouts and then go all out on the weekend with hard trainings and races. This isn't good for my health or for my performance in those races, so I wanted a little push in the right direction.

I had been thinking about this for awhile when I happened to attend a WW meeting specifically about the ActiveLink. I was a little skeptical (as I am whenever anyone tries to sell me something), but the device was cheap enough ($35 on sale plus a $5 monthly fee, no contract) that I thought it was worth a 1-3 month experiment. I took it home, set it up, and clipped it on (first pleasant surprise: it really is invisible under your clothes).

From the moment I activated the ActiveLink, it started an 8-day "assessment" of my activity. For those 8 days, I was instructed to just go about my normal routine. I plugged it in periodically to charge it, but I couldn't see any data until the assessment was over. My assessment week wound up being an extreme version of my weekend warrior pattern. Literally within a few hours of putting the ActiveLink on, I came down with a bad cold. I did half of a tri-training workout the next day, but I spent 5 days after that too sick to go to the gym. I even left work early a few days to come home and lie down. So, a very sedentary work week. Then, come Saturday morning, I forced myself back to the gym and out to run a many errands as I could manage.

Sunday was my first "real" day on the ActiveLink and what did I do? I ran a half marathon! The IronGirl Columbia half-marathon, to be specific. I was still pretty sick and knew I had no business running a race, but it was an expensive one and I hated the thought of losing the money. This was also the first leg of the IronGirl "Triple Crown," which consists of the half and two IronGirl triathlons later this summer. If you finish all three, you get a special award at the end. I love special awards. So, I did my best and it wasn't pretty. The course was super-hilly and I was dealing with chest congestion that hampered my breathing. I ran my second-worst time ever and felt every second. Still, I had a moment of pride at the end when I realized that this was half #15 for me!

When I got home from the race, I plugged in my Active Link to get the results of my assessment and personalized 12-week challenge based on those results. Sure enough, the weekend warrior problem was right there in my data. On weekdays, I earned between 0 and 1 activity points. On the weekends (ie: the two days I worked out), I got up to 5. Based on those results, my initial challenge is just to get up to 2 activity points each day.

The first day of my challenge was race day and I got a whopping 26 activity points (or 421% of my goal). Day 2 (yesterday), I was beat from the race and feeling lousy again. I reached my base line, but I didn't exceed it enough to earn any activity points and only met 73% of my goal. So, with just these 2 days, I can see how the ActiveLink is helping me. If I think of my goal in weekly terms (ie: 14 points/week), I'm already way over it. But I'm thinking of it in daily terms- a minimum of 2 points each day. Its not about crazy weekends (I got that); its about more active weekdays.

April was a race-heavy month. I did the Cherry Pit 10-miler, the Arbutus 5K, and the IronGirl half. Now, I have a bit of a break with no races until the Rock Hall tri on June 2nd. With lighter weekends, this is the perfect time to work on steeping up the weekdays. Wish me luck!

Mrs. O'Brien will blog...

...Ms. Brooks is finding that difficult at the moment. Its been nearly a month since my last post, which probably has something to do with the fact that its less than a month until my wedding! Some very quick updates:

Turkey Trots

November tends to be a very race-heavy month, thanks largely to all of the turkey trots. In addition to the Down's Park 5-miler (see previous post), Andrew and I each did a couple other runs in November. First up was the Striders' Cold Turkey 10K. I was really dreading this race for some reason, but then I did great! I felt strong through the whole thing and came in with my 2nd-fastest 10K time ever: 1:03:30. The pictures of me are all terrible, so here's one of Andrew:

Finishing strong! 

On Thanksgiving day, Andrew and I were in separate cities, but we both found local turkey trots. I did a 5-miler sponsored by the local Fleet Feet store. This wasn't a race- just a "fun run"- but 800 people still turned up for it!

The sea of people at the start. 

I love living in such a fit town!

Andrew was down in his hometown of Norfolk, VA on Thanksgiving where he ran his fastest 10K to date! I told him that he became a real runner that day because he registered for and ran a race completely without me. His brother took this photo:

Looking strong! 

The Annapolis Half Marathon

Last Saturday, Andrew and I completed the 2nd running of the Annapolis Half Marathon. I did the inaugural running of this race last year, and there were some major issues (see this post for details). This year, things were MUCH better, but there were still a few hiccups. The mile markers were way off. According to my GPS, some were only 3/4 of a mile apart, while others were well over a mile. Every time I passed one, I heard at least 3 or 4 people turning to their friends and saying "Wait a minute- is that right?" It became a bit of a joke by the end. Also, the overall course seemed to be a bit short. It was certified at 13.1 miles, but my GPS said 12.95... and so did the GPS of everyone else I talked to. It was the most consistency I've ever seen between many GPS watches!

If the course was short, I'm not complaining because it was also HARD. It changed a lot from last year, and there were several little out-and-back stretches added, all of them hilly. By about mile 5, I knew I was on pace to finish really well. I wasn't sure how well because of the issues with the mile markers (which was frustrating), but I tried to put that out of my mind and keep pushing. Miles 10-12 were brutal, but I hit mile 13 at about 2:05 and knew I had a decent shot at a PR. When I knew I was near the finish, I went into a sprint so aggressive that I actually dry-heaved at the finish line, but it was worth it when I saw my time: 2:16:15! Not only is that a PR, but its way faster than any other half I ran this year.

After I finished (and stopped heaving), I found my mother and Andrew's parents, who had come to watch the race, and we started looking for Andrew. I had spotted him at mile 8, and he looked good, but even I was surprised when he came around the final turn for the finish. He crossed the line at 2:36:19, a nearly 8-minute improvement over his 2:44:22 finish at the Baltimore Half! He was so excited that he got a little choked up, and so did I.

Smile if you ran a PR a month before your wedding! 

I think a little credit for Andrew's stellar performance goes to my friend Jaquisha, who was out cheering with the group Black Girls Run! She saw me around mile 6, and I told her to keep an eye out for Andrew. When she spotted him, she told him to hurry up and catch me, and then she started running with him. Their photo wound up on the Black Girls Run! Facebook page later that day:

My new favorite running photo. 

Now, we have one more race left for the year (the Striders' Anniversary 15K this weekend) and then the sprint to our wedding!

Five miles and feedback.

I'm so into voting, I have a shirt for it! 

Happy election day! If you haven't voted yet, please go now. I'll wait...

Okay, back to running!

This past Saturday, I got to run one of my favorite races of the year: the Annapolis Striders Down's Park 5-miler. I love this race because it takes place in a gorgeous park, and because its usually my first post-marathon run. After months of marathon training, it is such a relief to run something short! I love that I don't have to worry about going out too fast, fueling properly, or any of that long-run stuff.

Last year, I ran this race the day before the NYC marathon. I was leaving straight from the race to get to the marathon expo, and I was terrified that I would not make it on time. So, the very kind race organizers allowed Andrew to volunteer as a parking attendant so I could do a "worker's run" an hour before the regular race. When you run a worker's run, you get credit for running the race (in the Striders' Champ Series), but your time is not officially recorded. So, naturally, I ran a PR of 48:35. I tried to repeat that time a month later in the Celtic Solstice 5-miler, but only managed 49:28. So, I went into this race with 49:28 as my official 5-mile PR. I doubted that I could beat that, but I still hoped to come in under 50 minutes.

When Andrew and I arrived at the race, we were greeted by my running coach Susan, who declared that she was running the race with me. As she noted, we've run many of this year's Champ Series races together, and she decided we should keep our streak going. I was happy with that plan!

Before we started, Susan said that her plan was to take it easy in the beginning and save something for mile 4 1/2. I said that I wanted to go out a little fast and try to hold onto that pace. In the end, we sort of did both. Based on my Nike+ data, we ran the first two miles at about a 9:43 pace, slowed up a bit in miles 3 and 4 (about 9:55) and then ran our fastest time in mile 5. By mile 3, I was definitely struggling to keep up the pace. Somewhere in that mile, we saw a marker for the 1-mile "fun run" happening elsewhere in the park. It said "Fun," with an arrow pointing away from us. I turned to Susan and said "So THAT's where the fun went! Its definitely not here."

Coming into the last mile, I wasn't sure I would be able to pull off a finishing sprint. Then, about 1/4 mile from the finish, Susan and I were met by Bob, another of our running coaches. Bob had finished his race a good 10 minutes before and came back to help us run it in. I couldn't let Bob down. I picked it up and sprinted across the finish line. I swear I saw a 48 on the clock when I crossed the line, but my official time is recorded as 49:02. A new official PR!

After I finished, I grabbed a bagel and returned to the finish line to wait for Andrew. I was expecting him to have a good race. In fact, I was pretty sure he could finish in under 1 hour, but I hadn't said anything to him about it because he seemed a little nervous. As I waited a couple friends came by and said "We saw Andrew and he looks good!" Then, I saw him- crossing the line at 55:33! He was thrilled, and so was I.

Later that day, I paid a visit to the local Lululemon Athletica store. I ran Marine Corps in a pair of their running crop pants. I love the fit of these pants, and they are the perfect length for Fall running. They have three gel pockets: a zippered one in the back and two open ones in the waistband. Prior to MCM, I had only used the back pocket, but its not big enough for the 5 gels I needed to carry to get through a marathon. So, on race day, I tried out the pockets in the waistband. They were really shallow- only deep enough to fit about 1/2 of a Clif Shot packet. The rest of the packet was resting against my stomach. It didn't bother me during the race, so I thought it was fine... until I got home and discovered this:

This doesn't happen in a 5K.

In case you can't tell, that is chafing straight from Hell. Its basically a 2-inch open cut on my stomach. As of today, MCM is 9 days ago and this thing is still healing and still hurts. A lot. It will definitely leave a scar.

I absolutely hate to complain and generally avoid confrontation, but I know that Lululemon really appreciates product feedback and I thought they should see this. So, on Saturday, I nervously went to the store and showed the salespeople. They could not have been nicer! They wrote down my feedback ("Deeper gel pockets, PLEASE!"), and even took down my info so they could invite me to some kind of promo in the future. You know a store has good customer service when their product scars you and you still intend to shop there in the future!

So, the moral of the story is always give your feedback- at the running store and at the polls!

MCM: the rematch.

This time, I won !

I'm writing this blog post quickly, as Hurricane Sandy is intensifying outside and I don't expect to have power much longer. But I'm not worried, as the major challenge of this week is over: Marine Corps Marathon 2012!

Those of you who have been here from the beginning know that I started this blog to document my training for MCM 2010... and that it didn't go so well. Anything that could have gone wrong in that training did (remember the appendicitis?), and the actual race day was one of the hardest of my life. (You can read all about it here,) During that race, I was 100% sure that I would never run a marathon again. My time was 6:10:03.

Then, on a lark, I entered the NYC marathon lottery in 2011. Against all odds (seriously, about 95 to 1), I got in. My 2011 training went way better than 2010, and the NYC marathon was one of the best days of my life. The only hiccup in that race was some stomach trouble, probably caused by poor food choices the night before. I went into that race hoping to come in under 5 hours, but wound up making something like 8 bathroom stops in the first half of the race. My final time was 5:31:05.

New York taught me that I am actually capable of running a marathon, but I was still a bit intimidated by MCM. My first experience was bad enough to give me a mental block against that race. In 2012, though, I decided to push through that and run it again.

Most of you know what happened after that. The story of my 2012 racing season is that I set a very ambitious training and race schedule, which almost immediately got derailed by major life events, most notably a new job and a wedding to plan. This year's combo of less training plus some weight gain has resulted in some of my slowest times ever. It also meant feeling like was I essentially "crashing" the year's major events.

By August of this year, I was so far behind in my MCM training that I seriously considered deferring to 2013. (Read about that decision here.) When I decided to go ahead, I jumped into a month of crash-training: ramping my long runs up from 10 miles to 20 during September. I got through that training, as well as the Metric Marathon (16.3 miles) and Baltimore Half, but I was still nervous about attempting the full distance.

As race weekend approached, my nervousness was amplified by a little event they're calling Hurricane Sandy. Over the past week, my fellow racers and I watched in horror as the previously predicted race forecast of sunny and 60 degrees morphed into soaking rain and 20-30mph wind gusts. On Saturday, I saw this image several times in my Facebook newsfeed:

For about the millionth time, I considered bailing. I kept thinking "I've run a marathon before. Heck, I've run this marathon before. What is the point of running it in a hurricane?" I decided to get up Sunday morning and let the conditions decide for me.

So, Sunday morning came. A little cloudy and a little drizzly, but not too bad. Game on. Andrew and I went to the Metro and began the long journey to the start line. First, a ride on a couple of packed trains. Then, a long slog around the Pentagon to the start area, where I quickly found my Striders' buddy, Noreen. Finally, another walk into the packed corrals with 30,000 or so other crazy people:

Can you find me? 

In 2010, it took me close to 40 minutes to get across the start line. This year, is was only 17. I started the race with Noreen and some of her friends, but fell back around mile 3. My strategy for this race was to stay at a 12-minute/mile pace. That's a little slower than I naturally run, so I planned to walk every 10 minutes if necessary, just to keep the pace down. For the first 9 miles, I paced it perfectly, without walk breaks. I literally hit mile 9 at 108 minutes.

Then, nature called. I started needing a bathroom break around mile 3, but I held off as long as I could because of long lines. When we came into Georgetown, I knew I couldn't wait much longer and the lines weren't too bad. I stopped and then sped up a bit, taking advantage of the great crowd support to try to make up for lost time. By mile 10, though, I was 4 minutes behind and I never got those minutes back.

At mile 11, I saw Andrew for the first time. I was feeling good and the weather had held out, so I gave him my jacket and hat and ran away feeling much lighter.

Bye, rain gear! 

I was really happy to see Andrew at 11, as I was approaching what I knew would be the biggest mental test of the race. Miles 11-20 were where everything fell apart for me in 2010. Would it happen again?

I hit mile 13 more aware than usual of pain in my feet and legs. I was carrying two Advil, which I usually save for the final third of a long race, but I went ahead and took them. Then, I continued through the dreaded, desolate Hain's Point section of the race. This was where things really collapsed in 2010, but I made it through this time with no problems. As I passed the mile 15 marker, I felt a huge wave of relief: I was done with Hain's Point, and I knew I would see Andrew soon!

I met up with Andrew again at mile 16. I had asked him to carry an extra pair of shoes with him in case of rain. By that point, I hadn't felt so much as a drop, but my feet were hurting. So, I switched out of my new Brooks shoes and into my trusted old Nikes. Instant relief! I don't know if it was the shoes themselves, or just the change, but I will do this again in future races!

Mile 16! 

Miles 16-20 are a particularly scenic, crowd-heavy portion of the race. In 2010, I was in so much pain that I literally noticed nothing. This year, I was able to take it all in and enjoy it. Approaching mile 20, a women's drumming group was cheering people onto the dreaded "Bridge" (back into VA) and I felt ecstatic passing them...

...and then came the bridge itself. The actual "bridge" portion is rather short, and it leads onto a long stretch of highway overpass. In just a few minutes, the race changes from monuments and huge crowds to diesel fumes and hurting, lonely runners. Andrew actually walked a portion of it himself while heading to his next stop. He snapped this photo and told me later "That bridge really does suck."

Slogging toward Crystal City. 

Miles 20-22 were rough. The accumulated fatigue of the race really set in, with no scenery or crowds for distraction. I just pushed ahead for Crystal City, where I knew I would see spectators again, along with my coaches and Andrew at the Annapolis Striders water stop.

I hit 22, and there they were! My coach Susan, who had seen me when I was a complete mess in 2010, took one look at me and said "Better this time, huh?" I gave Andrew a quick kiss, but didn't hang around. Instead, I told him "Not stopping. I need to finish this f'ing thing."

I continued through Crystal City, where the course was a little different this year. In previous years, the Crystal City section was an out-an-back loop through downtown. This year, they changed it to a wider loop around the area, eliminating the out-and-back. I preferred it the old way. The back half of this year's loop basically ran along the highway, with no spectators at all. I really missed the crowd support.

We exited Crystal City just before mile 24 and headed for the finish. This is another less-than-scenic portion of the race, so I just put my head down and tried to get it done. By this point, I was having trouble hanging onto to even a 12-minute pace. Dreams of finishing in 5:20 were past, but I knew I could make it under 5:30 if I just kept pushing. When I hit mile 26, I immediately started choking up. I had made it! I pulled out a little sprint and crossed the line at 5:28:24.

A new feature this year: in lieu of space blankets, a "Mission Accomplished" jacket. 

After chatting with some friends at the finish festival, Andrew and I made the l-o-n-g trek back home. We stopped en route for probably the best Mexican lunch I've ever eaten. Once we got home, we started to really focus on the weather forecasts. Both of our offices officially closed, which was a huge relief. Through some kind of brain lapse, I had scheduled myself an 11-hour day on Monday. I have no idea how I would have accomplished that, as I can barely move right now! Still, I feel amazing. My MCM rematch was a success! My only disappointment comes when I think about NYC in 2011. I was in great shape then, and now I realize just how well I could have done if I hadn't had the bathroom issues. Oh well.

Now, I have to decide if I want to go for best 2 out of 3...