Hills, friends, and finishing strong: the 2012 Arbutus 5K

I just returned from a morning run with my husband-to-be. Now, I'm spending my remaining pre-work hours on my favorite post-vacation hobby: Catching Up On Life. My "catching up on life" to-do list includes blogging about several recent events. First up: my most recent race!

The Arbutus running crew!

 On Saturday, Andrew and I ran the 3rd annual Arbutus 5K Spring Fling, organized by my original running buddy, Val. The first running of this race, back in 2010, was the subject of my first-ever blog post about a race. Since then, both the race and Val's crew of running buddies has grown (see above). In 2010, just Val and I ran this race together. This year, we had a whole pack!

What has not changed about this race is the challenging course. Even though it is "just a 5K," the combo of hills and sun had me thinking "when will this be over?" by about the 1.5-mile mark. Last year, I got a jolt of inspiration around mile 2 when I caught up with a usually-faster running buddy. This year, I was on my own and I had a tough time staying motivated. I actually walked for a few seconds on an uphill- something I haven't done in a 5K in years. I finished in 29:06, which was nowhere near a PR, but still under 30 minutes. Lately, my 5K mantra is "Just finish under 30."

Andrew did much better. Having heard my war stories about the sun and the hills, he was anxious about this race. Still, he finished nearly 2 minutes faster than his first 5K! He also made his first finish line sprint. While we were in London, we went for a run in beautiful Hyde Park. During that run, I gave a mini-lecture about finishing strong: "When you can see the finish line, go all out." I'm pretty sure he was exhausted by the time we finished that run, but he surprised me by sprinting as soon as he could see the park gates. Then, he did it again in the race! It was awesome to see him zipping across the finish line.

In Hyde Park, London. 

I can't wait to see who joins our pack for next year's race!

The marriage plot.

I'm home! I am also now free to share one of the worst-kept secrets of 2012: I'm engaged!

Moments after the official engagement; months after the unofficial one. 

I met my fiancee, Andrew, just about 8 months ago after a brief exchange of dating site emails. By our second date, I had decided that he would be a good person for someone to marry. By about 2 months in, I had decided that he would be a good person for me to marry. Around that time, I told some of my friends "Whether he knows it yet or not, I'm going to marry this guy." At about 3 months, we had a conversation and I learned that he was thinking the same things about me. By New Year's Eve, we were making plans: engagement sometime in 2012, wedding sometime in 2013.

Then, in late January, our plans got accelerated. Andrew had to move and his original plan was to find a place in DC. He would live there for a year, and then move in with me in Annapolis after our marriage. Andrew spent a few weeks touring DC apartments that were almost comically bad (ex: washer/dryer in the bedroom!). One night, he came to visit me in Annapolis and shared his tales of apartment woe. Then, over dinner at a local pizza joint, he raised an idea: instead of moving to DC, he would move to Annapolis. I considered his idea and raised another: if he moved to Annapolis, we could move up our schedule and get married by the end of the year. We both calmly agreed that these were good plans.

For the next few weeks, I waited for one of us to freak out and change our minds. I even had a few mini-freakouts myself when I started paging through wedding magazines at the store. Every time we talked about it, though, we grew more and more certain that our plan was a good one. Pretty soon, we started leaking the idea to close friends and select family members. We expected somebody to say "but you two barely know each other!" Instead, we got the opposite. Everyone seemed to say some variation of "Its obvious you two should get married, so why wait?"

Then came a watershed moment. One night, I spent some time online looking at wedding dresses, trying to get myself used to the idea of a wedding and to convince myself I could find a nice dress without spending a million dollars. One of the first sites I visited was Bhldn, which is Anthropologie's wedding line. (I love Anthropologie more than anyone should love a store.) Lo and behold, the very dress I was imagining for myself appeared on the screen. And it was well within my financial means. I called Andrew and said "This is crazy- we're not even engaged and I think I found my wedding dress. Should I buy it?" I expected him to tell me to slow down. Instead, he said "You should. This is going to happen." I still waited nearly a week, but finally I took the plunge.

Once I ordered the dress, the floodgates opened. Andrew and I got more involved in planning and we told more and more people. By the time he moved to Annapolis, both of our families and many of our friends were in on our plans. Several had seen my dress and heard our potential date. Pretty soon, our forthcoming engagement was the worst-kept secret in the DC metro area.

All this time, we knew we were going to London in April. We had scheduled the trip back in December, when Andrew's brother mentioned that he had to go there for work. It would be my first trip abroad and our first vacation together- the perfect time for a proposal! So, the next step was choosing  a ring. Fortunately, my grandmother had already chosen one for me:

This ring belonged to my paternal grandmother, Cleo, who died in 2001. The upper stone, a green diamond, comes from a necklace given to her by her second husband. Sometime in the late 70's or early 80's, after her husband died, my grandmother was working in her yard wearing that necklace. All of a sudden, the stone fell out and landed in a thick patch of ivy. Grandma Cleo spent hours on her hands and knees searching, and eventually she found it! After that, she didn't want to put the stone back in the necklace for fear it would fall out again. She gave it to my mother, along with her engagement ring, and asked Mom to get a ring made. This was the result. As soon as it was made, Grandma told my mom that she wanted me to have it one day. I've always loved it, and couldn't imagine a more perfect engagement ring. So, a few weeks before our trip, Andrew snuck over to my parents' house to ask for the ring and their blessing. They were happy to give him both!

In the weeks leading up to the trip, I had a lot of fun trying to guess Andrew's big proposal plan. The only thing I was pretty certain about was the timing. We were getting to London on Thursday; his brother would arrive Friday. I assumed he would plan the proposal for the time we were alone, and probably do it pretty early in that time so that we could both relax and enjoy our time together.

Sure enough, as soon as we had settled into our hotel on Thursday and taken a much-needed nap, Andrew put on some of his nicer clothes and said we were going for a walk. First, he took me to the chapel and home of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church. This wasn't the proposal site, but I was still excited:

We kept walking and I learned that our ultimate destination was St. Paul's cathedral, designed by Christopher Wren. Wren also "designed" (long story) a building at Andrew's college, W&M. That little detail told me St. Paul's would be the place.

My first glimpse of St. Paul's in the distance. 

When we arrived at St. Paul's, we wandered around for awhile, and then Andrew steered us up toward the dome. As soon as we reached the stairs, I knew this would be the spot, and I got a little nervous. Along with the nerves, I was still a little nauseous from jet lag and it was HOT inside the cathedral. We started climbing the 300+ tightly spiraling stairs and things got unpleasant pretty fast. By the time we reached the first gallery in the dome, I had to stop and sit down. We were both nauseous and dizzy. I assumed that Andrew planned to propose at the top of the done (another 200 or so steps up), so I did my best to rally. After about 10 minutes in the first gallery, I told him I thought I could keep going up.

As we got up to head for the stairs, Andrew pointed to a sign that said "The Whispering Gallery," and said "I wonder why they call it that?" He stopped a tour guide and asked. She explained that the dome is a perfect circle and, if you whisper into one part of the wall, you can hear it anywhere else in the dome. Andrew said he wanted to try it and sent me about 30 ft away. We both put our faces up against the wall and Andrew whispered "Can you hear me?" Sure enough, I could hear him as clearly as if he were whispering right in my ear. When I said "Yes, I can hear you," he responded "Alicia Brooks, will you marry me?" 

At the whispering wall. 

I was so surprised! I ran over and grabbed the ring from him, put it on, and said "Does this mean we don't have to climb any more stairs?" 

After that, we weren't sure what to do with ourselves. We went outside and took pictures (including the first one in this post), went to the St. Paul's gift shop and dropped a small fortune on souvenirs, and then went and toasted ourselves in a little cafe/bar: 

We had a lovely time, but it still didn't feel quite right. We were both missing our friends and family. So, despite the fact that it was past dinnertime and we were both starving, we went back to our hotel and got online. We made Skype calls to our families and did the thing which really makes an engagement official in these modern times: announced it on Facebook.

Within minutes, both our accounts had BLOWN UP. Literally, we had so many notifications that our computers kept freezing! The outpouring of love from every little corner of our lives was overwhelming. So were the requests for the full story of the engagement. And now, internet friends, you have it. Thank you so much for being such an important part of my life. I can't wait to share our wedding plans with you and all of our future adventures! 

The end of Lent and the beginning of vacation!

For those who don't know, this past Sunday was Easter, aka: the end of Lent. So, naturally, the question on everyone's mind is "How did you do with your Lenten resolutions?" Here is the final report:

On resolution #1, exercise every day, I did okay. I did not succeed in working out every day, but I made 30 out of 40 days. This was a major improvement over the beginning of the year. In January and February, I had several weeks where I only worked out 3 times (which is below average for me). Once Lent started, I never went below 4 times, I got to 5 times twice, and I worked out all 7 days one week. Even better, I got back in the pool and started swimming again- something I had been putting off for months. I am happy to report that my return to swimming is going better than I expected and I'm grateful to this resolution for pushing me back to it.

On resolution #2, track my food every day, I did better. I am a pretty typical long-time Weight Watchers member in that I know tracking is a key to reaching my goals, but I have a hard time staying motivated to do it. Tracking is something I had been really slacking on for several months, and my numbers on the scale showed it. Fortunately, this goal turned out to be a real motivation boost. My WW data only goes back 4 weeks, but I know that I tracked for 23 of the past 28 days. I didn't see a huge result on the scale, but I feel like I've made tracking a habit again and that can only lead to good things.

All in all, I feel pretty good about this Lent. From the start of my new job in December until Lent started, I felt like I was slipping out of my healthy habits. Now, I feel like I have some traction again. Just in time, too, because Andrew and I are going on vacation! We are off to London for 1 week, where I will try my hardest to match my worst vacation habit (overeating) with my best vacation habit (I like working out in new places). I'll let you know how it goes!

The next level.

This morning, I did my 3rd running of the Annapolis Striders' Cherry Pit 10-miler. I went in with fairly low expectations, which is typical for this race. Cherry Pit comes about a month after the B&A Half-Marathon. After spending the winter in half-marathon training, I tend to do almost no running between these two races. This year was a little different, since I ran the Rock 'n' Roll DC half two weeks ago. Still, one run- even a big one- hardly counts as "training." My only goal going into this race was to beat last year's time: 1:47:31.

I've been a little sick the past few days, so I started out the race feeling pretty lousy. In the second mile, I caught up with a couple friends from last summer's marathon training group, Mary and Meghan. They took my mind off things for a couple miles, but I found myself struggling to maintain their pace and fell back. A mile or so later, I looked to my left and realized I was running next to another training buddy, Mike. We wound up sticking together for the rest of the race, and even caught up to Mary and Meghan.

Cherry Pit is not an easy race (read: HILLS), but having good company made it much easier. At mile 9, I looked at my watch, saw 1:31, and realized that I was on pace to beat last year's time by several minutes. I mentioned this to Mike and he said "I think you and I lucked out running into each other." He was right! I finished the race in 1:41:53, a new PR and almost 6 minutes faster than last year.

When I got home, I got another happy surprise. I plugged my Nike+ watch into my computer and learned that I had earned a new level in their running software. Nike+ assigns levels based on your mileage, and the levels get exponentially farther apart as you go along. They are:


Yellow (0-49km, 0-30mi)
Orange (50-249km, 31-154mi)
Green (250-999km, 155-620mi)
Blue (1,000-2,499km, 621-1,552mi)
Purple (2,500-4,999km, 1553-3,106mi)
Black (over 5,000km or 3,107mi)

As of today, I am now on purple! That's over 1500 miles run since I started with Nike+ in 2007, with the bulk of those miles in the last 3 years. The levels aren't good for anything other than bragging rights, but I'll take it!

Rock 'n' Roll reunion!

Pre-race festivities.

Back in November, my friend, high school classmate, and IronMan, Scott, posted on Facebook about registering for the inaugural Rock 'n' Roll DC marathon and half-marathon. He put a call out for friends to join him, and several of us signed up. Pretty soon, we noticed a pattern: we were all graduates of the same high school from around the same time period. So, Rock 'n' Roll DC became the unofficial South River High School 15-ish year reunion race.

The race happened on Saturday (aka: St. Patrick's Day). I originally signed up for the full marathon, but for reasons described in previous posts, I decided to run the half. I took it easy in the B&A Half two weeks ago, and finished in a little over 2:19. For this race, I planned to push it and try to come in at or under 2:15.

In the beginning, everything went smoothly. I had no problem getting to the race, parking, and finding my start corral. I wasn't officially part of a pace group, but I positioned myself within sight of the 2:15 pacers. The crowd of 24,000 runners had a very excited, positive energy. While waiting for the start, I chatted with some friendly fellow runners, including a nervous first-time marathoner (I hope she did great!). At the time of the start, the temperature was an unseasonably warm mid-50's, but I was comfortable in capris, a short-sleeve shirt, and arm warmers.

I stayed comfortable for maybe 1 mile. By the time I hit mile 2, I was pouring sweat. I had stripped off the arm warmers and was seriously regretting the decision to wear capris instead of shorts. I was also having some muscle pain up high in my right leg. Nothing awful, but enough to worry about how the rest of the race would go. Fortunately, my awesome boyfriend Andrew and his equally awesome brother Chris were waiting for me a little after mile 3. I was able to give them the arm warmers and a request for some Advil. They agreed to pick it up and meet me between miles 7 and 8.

I held on to a good pace for the first 5 miles. For 1-4, I was a little ahead of the 2:15 pacers. Around mile 5, they caught up with me. I was pretty tired by that point, so I decided to slow down and just keep the pacers in my sight. That worked for maybe 2 miles. Around mile 7, they pulled ahead of me and I never saw them again. I also didn't see Andrew and Chris. The crowds were thick and I heard that Metro was backed up, so I figured we missed each other. A little sad, but no big deal.

By the time I got to mile 9, I was very ready for the race to be done. I was hot, tired, and a little demoralized because I knew I would not achieve my goal for the day. As I rounded the corner toward mile 10, I got a pleasant surprise: Andrew! He had missed me at mile 7, but hopped on another train to catch me later. Better yet, he had my Advil! I thanked him, took the pills, and headed for the finish.

When I hit mile 12, I knew that 2:15 was way out of reach. So was my previous half PR of 2:16:30. At that point, I just wanted to do my best and finish ahead of my 2:19 from two weeks ago. With the finish line in sight, I tried to do a "finishing kick" and just couldn't muster it. This actually made me feel better- if nothing else, I knew that I had left it all on the course.

I wound up finishing in 2:18:52. On Saturday, I was disappointed with that time. Not only had I dropped back from the full, I hadn't even achieved my goal for the half. A couple days later, though, I entered my time into my race results database and got some perspective. I've run 11 half-marathons, and this was my 3rd fastest. So, not a PR, but not bad!

After the race, I found Chris in the family meet-up area, but no Andrew. Chris explained that Andrew had "Metro issues." A few minutes later, a breathless Andrew turned up and gave me the full story. He and Chris had major train issues between miles 3 and 7. When Andrew realized he wasn't going to catch me at 7, he panicked about not getting me the Advil. So, he hopped on another train to meet me at mile 10. After that, he couldn't find a train that would get him to the finish line in time to see me come in. So, he decided to run. The same boyfriend who just struggled through his first 5K ran over 2 miles through hot and crowded streets in jeans and regular shoes just to get to my race finish! He was upset that he didn't make it in time, but I was too flattered to care about that. He is the best!

Finished!

After the race, several of the SR alumni runners met at Scott's house for a post-race BBQ. With the exception of Scott, I hadn't seen any of these people since our graduation in 1997. It was great to catch up and hear everyone's race stories. Among the achievements of the day: Scott PR'd in the marathon by 20 minutes, my friends Amy and Jeremy ran their first marathons, and Scott and his husband made some AMAZING post-race burgers.

South River runners! We were all over-achievers then and it seems we stayed that way!

All in all, a great day. Several days later, Amy is still on her post-marathon high and already planning the next SR reunion race. So, look out Baltimore- Edgewater is coming for you!

Progress not perfection.

As of tomorrow, we will be 3 weeks into the season of Lent and about 3 1/2 months into the new year. As you may recall, I made resolutions for both. My New Year's resolution is to establish new routines. My Lenten resolutions are to exercise and track my eating every day. 

So how am I doing? I think a popular phrase from AA is applicable here: "Progress, not perfection." I have not been as successful with any of these resolutions as I had hoped, but I am happy to report that progress is being made.

The first resolution- establish new routines- is probably the one I struggle with the most. My job is new to me, and its also new to the agency where I work. I was hired as part of a new team to learn and implement a specific type of therapy. So, there isn't a senior person on our team to teach us things like how to mange our schedules. We're all figuring things out as we go along. A little more than 3 months in, I feel like I'm just getting the hang of how to schedule my work week. I'm also adjusting to the fact that I no longer have a 9-5 schedule. My new schedule is more like noon-8. 

What have I learned? Most importantly, I've realized that "before work" is my new "after work." Any non-work thing I need to do on a weekday- the gym, appointments, cleaning the house, seeing friends- has to happen in the morning before I go into the office. The challenge of this is not sleeping in. In the beginning, I did that at least a couple times a week. Now, I'm doing much better- once a week, tops.

On a related note, I've learned that I must get to bed on time. When I get home at 10 or 11, I have to resist the temptation to watch whatever TV I have on the DVR or get into some other project. If I stay up late, I will blow my mornings. I don't get this right 100% of the time, but I am steadily improving.

I have not been 100% successful in my first Lenten resolution- to exercise every day- but I am still trying. Before I made this resolution, I was down to working out about 3x/week. That's low for me. Now, I'm back up to at least 5x/week. As an added benefit, I'm finding that this resolution helps with my goal of establishing routines. If I want to exercise every day, I have to get up on time. In turn, every day that I get up on time helps me continue getting up on time. 

In service of both my routines and my exercise, I recently join a pool across the street from my office. In fact, I joined it so recently that I haven't done any swimming yet! Its going to take a little work to figure out when I can get away from the office to do my swimming, but joining the pool was the first step. Maryland is currently experiencing an early Spring- temps in the 70's in March!- which is a good reminder that tri season is coming up fast.

My second Lenten resolution- tracking my food- is where I have been most successful. As with the exercise, I'm not at 100%, but I've probably improved from 50%-85%. I am happy with that, even though I'm still waiting for the results to show on the scale.

So, there we are. Progress, not perfection!

Milestones, numerous.

My two AS Ironman awards, in their place of honor-
flanking my Alison Bechdel book collection!

Greetings from the land of the late winter/early spring cold. I've been feeling a little off for over week now, but things got bad enough to keep me home from work this past Monday. Today is sick day #3, aka: the day I'm not well enough to work a full day but I am well enough to catch up on things at home. Things like blogging. So, here I am!

Since my last post, I achieved several milestones in my running life:

Ironman Award #2: On Saturday, 2/25, Andrew and I attended the annual Annapolis Striders awards banquet, where I picked up my second consecutive Ironman Award. I got this award for running all 8 races in the 2011 Champ Series. It was really exciting and gratifying to "graduate" from the first-time Ironman group into the (much smaller) multi-year group. It was also inspiring to pose for a group photo with people who have earned the Ironman 5, 10, 15, and even 26 years in a row!

B&A Half Marathon #3: This past Sunday, 3/4, I ran the B&A Trail Half-Marathon for the 3rd time. The 2010 B&A Half was my first half-marathon, and I am excited to report that the 2012 B&A was my tenth! I really hoped to PR in this race, but that wasn't in the cards. As I've been saying a lot the past few months, all of the recent changes in my life really threw off my winter training. I just wasn't in the shape I would have liked going into the race, and I finished a little behind last year's time (2011: 2:18:55; 2012: 2:19:46).

My 10th half deserves a good picture... but this is the one I got! 

BUT- there were bright sides: (1) I got to run the whole race with my awesome running coach Susan. Susan had a major injury a little over a year ago and this was her big comeback race. Seeing her get back out there was very inspiring! (2) I followed up the race by doing a bike/run workout with the Wonder Women tri-training group. I wound up having less than an hour to nap in between the race and the tri group and I had no idea if I would make it through the latter. To my surprise, however, I was okay. I definitely took it easy in the tri group, but I still finished the day having done just under 4 1/2 hours of intense cardio. I've been down on myself lately for not completing my planned winter marathon training, but this day taught me that I'm in better shape than I thought!

MCM registration #2: Just within the past hour, I registered for my second Marine Corps Marathon. I had a very tough time with my first MCM, but my experience in NYC this fall really boosted my confidence. So, now I look forward to actually enjoying this marathon, rather than just surviving it!

All in all, a productive few weeks!