Getting Stoked for the Big Day!

My mom and sister's gave me this necklace today! I love it! Especially during this taper time when all fears and nerves start lingering in the back of my head. 

26.2 Believe! I'm believing.

I've done the training. More months of training really than I had to given that I was running 18 back in March.

Now it's just getting me healthy and ready.

The outfit is about there... New Brooks Glycerin 11s. And new compression socks. The rest of the outfit is to be determined based on weather.

All that's left is figuring out the kids and logistics of the weekend. No problem. Right? 

Oh yeah, and running the 26.2 miles!

Smoldering Bronchitis

Just in case you were not aware, I am 22 days from the Abilene Marathon.

I'm so glad it's taper time, cause guess what. I have a case of "smoldering bronchitis." What does that mean? It means that the bronchitis from August never fully resolved and that my life of late has not been very conducive to rest... which means that the 20 miler last weekend triggered something.

So here I am taking another antibiotic. Hopefully this time I'll get rid of this junk.

And to answer the burning question of the marathon?  There isn't a question... I'm running it! Thankfully my doctor understands and is supportive! She is on board and going to do her best to make sure I run it healthy!

The Epic 20 Miler... CHECK! Next stop the Marathon!

I have heard so much about the dreaded yet epic 20 mile training run from friends, from reading running blogs, from training books that I have to say I was nervous and a little worried about my ability to complete it upright! Everyone says that it's a mind game and given that my last 18 miler was horrible, my mind was in a whirl all week!

But guess what?

It could not have been a better run! And even better, I know why. I took it SLOW!! Yes, my very slow pace kept me on the road longer, but it worked. I finished feeling great and knowing that I could have done another 6 miles! How cool it that!

My friend Sharla and I started at 4am... well, you can see from runkeeper that the official start time was 4:06AM.

It's pretty nuts, I'd would NEVER get up at 3:45 for work, to go anywhere or do anything... but running well sure! We started out and got to see some of the teenage/college kids coming home. Scary to be on the road with people who have been up partying all night! 

It was low 70's with 70% humidity, but at this point in the year, that feels cool-ish. 

At mile 4.5 we picked up some more friends at the park and continued on.

At mile 8 we dropped off a friend.

At mile 13, the winds changed, it got cool and started sprinkling. It was so nice. I'm guessing the temperature dropped 10 degrees!

At mile 15 we dropped off another friend and picked up more friends.. fresh legs are always welcome!

At mile 18.5 it was just us again.  

At mile 19, we decided to kick it in gear and finish well by conquering "splashville hill" a steep grassy hill at our city park. We did it!

And at Mile 20, we knew that if it had been race day, we would have conquered that too!

What a feeling!

Here we are at the end of the run. For just having run 20 miles we look fantastic!

So what do I do for the next few weeks. TAPER! My training plan calls it Sharpening. But nonetheless, a little less mileage on the weekends.

I am really getting excited about the Abilene Marathon now!

A video of the Big Show

Okay, here is my last Big Show post...

The production company that filmed the show and put the live footage on the mega screens sent us a copy of the performance.  I'm proud of myself and my google-abilities as I was able to convert the DVD to a file that I could upload to youtube!

And here is the performance.  It includes a few minutes of our jazz band prior to the performance.  With the extra footage the video is still only 34 minutes.

Enjoy.



Trailblazer IV Two-Fifths Marathon

Last Saturday morning, since I was in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and had time on my hands, I decided that instead of a long training run on the hotel treadmill, I'd run at a local race.

I was still exhausted from the Big Show the day before, but since the race didn't start until 8:30am, I could sleep later than I sleep on Saturday mornings anyway.

I got up and left the hotel in downtown Dallas and found the park in Arlington where the race was held. It was already humid and not cool. When the race started at close to 9am it was officially 82 degrees and 82% humidity. That makes for painful conditions.

I enjoyed the first half of the race a lot. The course was on the bike/running trails around Arlington and easy to follow. It was just so hot! After the turn around, I struggled. As I ran through mile 7, I was kicking myself for eating so little on Friday. Fueling up for a 10.486 mile race means eating more than 1/2 of a egg/spinach wrap for breakfast, 1/2 of a 1/2 of a ham sandwhich and a couple of pieces of pizza for dinner. Worse, I only drank probably the equivalent of one glass of water all day. OUCH! Needlesstosay, I was not fueled or hydrated to race.

In the end, I finished slower than I had wanted, but I was proud of getting through the race. I really felt like it was a good simulation of the mid 10 miles of the marathon.

After it was all over, my time was 1:55:30 for 10.6 miles unofficially. There wasn't a chip time, so I'm not sure exactly how they get true times.

I placed 3rd in my age group.

As you can see, getting the medal was a great pick me up!

And another thing I'm really proud of is that I have learned to keep moving throughout the day. I used to race and crash. Now I race, shower and keep going!

And lastly, the Abilene Marathon is 31 days away!