Mobile First Light Marathon

This time last year when we took the Boy back to college after the holidays, we went to the beach for a few days (you can find that post Here) and I ran in the Pensacola Beach half marathon.  It is a very fun, scenic half marathon that starts at the public beach in front of Crabs restaurant and runs out parallel to the beach and back.  If you aren't up for the full half marathon, there is turn a around for the 5K and 10K so you can decide during the run how far you want to go.  

My plan was to do that race again this year when we dropped the Boy off at school.  Unfortunately, someone (and I'm not naming names) forgot to reserve our condo for us for this weekend.  It's rented all of January and February, probably with some snow birds trying to escape the cold from up north.  This is good and bad.  Good because it's rented for two entire months, bad because we can't stay there until March.

Mobile First Light Half Marathon

Lucky for me, there was a race in Mobile, Alabama this weekend.  The Mobile First Light Marathon and Half Marathon.  I've done the half marathon before and really love the course.  I would love to do the entire marathon one day.  The half marathon is flat and runs through some very quaint, old neighborhoods and then along Government Street, Spring Hill Avenue and back in on Dauphin Street. I've heard the full marathon has some hills.

It was overcast, warm and humid, but not overwhelming.  I prefer warm to cold any day!  It was fun and everybody out there was friendly and seemed to be in good spirits.  Even The Murph made a comment about how everyone seemed to be having a good time.  I think it was because it wasn't freezing cold like Chickamauga Marathon and Mercedes Half was last year.  Maybe people are in a better mood when they aren't freezing.  I know I'm happier.

We dropped the Boy off at school on Saturday evening and tried to purchase his books, but the bookstore was closed.  I hope the Boy doesn't have any trouble getting them Monday.  This is the first time he will have to do it himself and sign up for a meal plan.  He didn't want to do it by himself and I am worried too, of course.  At some point he needs to get out of his comfort zone and do it himself.  It's not like he doesn't know where to go or how to do it.  This will be the fourth semester he's had to do it.

I started worrying about it on the way home today.  The Murph says I do way to much for him and he needs to do things for himself.  I have to agree on this one thing.  It would be different if the Boy did not know where to go or how to do it.  He knows what he's suppose to do, he just feels more comfortable when I'm there helping him.

I can't really blame him.  That little old lady at the bookstore can be very intimidating, but he has to deal with her because she's in charge of the financial aid distribution.  She doesn't take crap from him.  He didn't have his class schedule printed out when he went to get the books and she made him print it out so she could make sure the books were for those particular approved classes.  She wouldn't except just looking at them from his phone.  We had to find a printer and print it out.  I had already told him before we left the house to print it out, but he didn't listen to me.

I guess I need to text him and remind him to print that thing out before he goes to the book store.  Yes, helicopter parent I am!

More First Light Marathon/Half Marathon pictures below.  A short, but fun trip!

Last Workout Of The Year

 The Murph and I just got back from workout of the day number 2 at the gym.  As we were leaving, I realized that this was our very last workout of the year.  I mentioned this to The Murph and he mumbled, "Yes, that's why I did such a terrible one."  I guess he means that tomorrow starts a new year with some serious gut busting workouts, not these little sissy workouts we've been doing for the past month or two. With all the holiday foods and easier, shorter workouts, I've gained six pounds since the Chickamauga marathon in November.

As I sit here typing on the computer, eating cookies and drinking sweet tea full of high fructose corn syrup and saturated fats, you can see I'm really concerned.  Not!

Tomorrow is a new day!

I already have my 2013 race schedule planned out, but I'm not doing the early registration so they could fill up before I register. I'm still going to take the chance of the races filling up and sign up for most of them at the last minute.  I figure that's better than registering now at the lower rate and then not being able to do the race.  The lower fees are not that much lower anyway.

My race schedule for 2013 looks like a half marathon in January and one in February, a marathon in March, one or two sprint triathlon races in May and June, an Olympic distance triathlon in July, USAT Nationals in August which is a sprint triathlon that I qualified for last summer at the Coastal triathlon, a sprint in September and a sprint in October and maybe, just maybe a 70.3 half Ironman triathlon at the end of October.  Then a marathon in November or December.  The marathon I really want to do is in December if I can make it out there.  It's sort of far from here and I don't know where we will be living.

Actually, four of the races I want to do are not close by.  It will require flying or a really long drive and I've only flown with my bike one time and it was tough getting it into that little box.  The other times I've either driven to the races or used Tribike Transport which is a really great service.  They pick up your bike at a designated bike shop near you and have it at your race all put together and ready to go.  They did not offer this for Hawaii, but I did use them when I competed in Ironman Canada.  It was great.  I just left my bike at the local bike shop and picked it up at the race venue, did the triathlon, then turned the bike over to Tribike transport after the race and a few days later picked it up at my local bike shop ready to go.

I think I'll let the bike shop take my bike apart and pack it in the bike box next time.  I could use Tribike Transport again, but now I have the bike box so I should probably use the box.  When I tried to pack the bike up for Hawaii, I left gaps in the box and some bike parts slipped out in transit.  I ended up having to purchase replacements parts.  This meant I had to go into town in Kona, Hawaii to find the bike shop and buy the part.  Then we had to take it back to the guy at the race expo who was putting my bike together because he couldn't leave the expo.  They were very busy putting bikes together.

This would not have been a problem if my bike and luggage hadn't arrived two days after I did and on the day it arrived I had a little mishap while doing a warm up swim that required stitches.  I got into a fight with some coral and the coral won.  Something that could only happen to me!  The Murph and I had to find the hospital, which was on one end of the island, so I could get stitches in my hand and elbow and then rush to the other end of the island to find the bike shop and then bring the part to the bike guy so he could have my bike put together and race ready in time for me to get it checked into transition in time.

This is me getting out of water with my hand and elbow cut up and bleeding,
 but The Murph doesn't realize it yet as he snaps away

I barely got the bike checked in transition in time and didn't get to test ride it except for the 20 minutes that it took me to ride from the hotel to the race start.  The seat was too low and my hand hurt, but there wasn't much I could do about it at that point.  I will say the Hawaii 70.3 was an awesome race in the most beautiful place in the world and I can't wait to go back and hopefully one day do the full Ironman.  Hopefully, without stitches in my hand and with plenty of time to ride my bike and test everything out on the course before race morning.

I don't know if I will actually do a 70.3 in 2013 or wait until 2014, but it keeps calling me.  I'm nuts!    I'm addicted!  What can I say...

Happy New Year!

In Search Of The Perfect Spring Marathon

I've spent the past few days looking for a good Spring marathon to do.  This always happens right after I do a marathon or triathlon.  Suddenly I am super motivated and searching for the next race to do.  The Murph is totally baffled by this since I am usually so cranky the day before a race and sometimes race morning too.  He's told me more than once that if I don't enjoy it I should just quit.  He doesn't understand that my crankiness is my way of showing just how much I do enjoy it.

Besides the fact that I can't quit.  It's who I am.  A cranky, obsessive compulsive triathlete, type A personality who, if God forbid I did "quit," would be WAY more cranky than any pre- race crankiness you've ever seen.  Nobody would want that.  That would be BAD!

I reminded him that I was not cranky at all last weekend.  He even made a comment about how pleasant I was the day before the race.  He was very surprised at how NOT cranky I was.  I was kind of surprised myself.  Am I mellowing out in my "older" years?

My all time favorite Spring marathon was the Boston Marathon.  It was the third marathon I had ever ran in 2003.  My qualifying time for my age group at the time was 3 hour and 45 minutes.  I ran Hunstville Marathon in 3 hours and 43 minutes, barely making it to Boston.  Now my qualifying time is 3 hours and 50 minutes.  I do hope to run Boston again one day, but right now I am more interested in running a marathon in different states until I've run in all 50 states.

I wasn't very successful finding a marathon to run this Spring although there are several out there.  I would love to run the Big Sur International Marathon which is in April, but it is full and not very close. California is a long way from Alabama. Another option I'm considering is the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, which isn't very close either and it is in May.  My friend L (who is no longer the running nazi - just for the record) wants to do the San Diego Marathon which is in June.  That's getting into triathlon season and still far away and there are so many states close by that I haven't done yet.  Any suggestions?

For now, I am going to keep looking in hopes of finding the perfect March or April marathon to run in a state I haven't run yet.  I am almost totally recovered from my the marathon last weekend.  Only my calves are still tight.  I always have trouble with them since I seem to always run on my toes.  I ran my first real run that didn't involve a treadmill today.  It was a very easy 7 miles half on trails and half on pavement.  It was a beautiful day in the 50's warming up to almost 70 later.  It's no wonder I'm feeling motivated!

Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon- 43 States To Go...

I ran my 8th marathon (not including the 2 at the end of the Ironman races) Saturday in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia.   Now I can check Georgia off my list of states.  I'm already looking for a spring marathon to run.  I don't know if I will be able to find a race close by in March or April, which are my preferred marathon running months since they don't interfere with triathlon season.

This marathon was one of my favorites, if not the favorite one other than Boston.  I like New Orleans too.  This one was smaller than the others, with no crowds so not very many spectators. That can be a negative if you like that.  It didn't bother me.  I loved Boston and New Orleans with the crowds and the cheering, but I loved this one too in a different way.  Twenty three miles of the two loop course was inside the Chickamauga battlefield park in the mountains of north Georgia, right outside of Chattanooga.  We actually had to go through Chattanooga to get there.

You can see the Confederate soldiers behind me getting the cannon ready to shoot before the race start.

The course was rolling hills, mostly on paved roads through the park.  It was a beautiful Autumn day running in the woods with all the colorful leaves.  At one point at around mile 15, I thought I saw someone in a red coat up in the woods.  My first thought was that it was the ghost of one of the dead soldiers who was killed there, but I quickly realized that, hey, that was the wrong war.  No red coats in this battle.  Only gray and blue.  Besides it was probably just the red leaves I saw.  It was a long day.

All the runners took off at the start line after the boom of the cannon.  It was so easy to get lined up at the start.  I was right behind the 3:50 pace group and decided to try to keep up with them.  Ha!  They disappeared by mile 2 and I was somewhere in between the 3:50 and 4:15 pace group.  For most of the race I thought I could make it to the finish in 4 hours. I was 2 hours and 2 minutes at the half and feeling great.  That made me think for sure I would do at least 4 hours 10 minutes on the marathon.

 I was wrong!  The first loop was easy and I hardly noticed the hills.  The second time around those hills were much more noticeable.  I think they got steeper.  Somewhere after mile 17,  I slowed down, not because I wanted to, but because my quads were toast.  The 4:15 pace group caught up with me around mile 19 and I picked up my pace to try to hang with them the rest of the race, but after mile 20 I had to slow down and I watched as they got further and further away.

All that downhill running on uneven roads shredded my quads.  By mile 21, my quads were hurting so bad I could barely run.  It was painful.  I began to wish I could pull the compression sleaves I was wearing around my calves up to cover my quads.  It was at that point when I knew I was paying for my lack of proper training.

Yes, I did the long runs as needed, but I just didn't put in enough weekly running mileage.  More specifically, I didn't do the mid week long run I needed to do to get my mileage up.  In most training programs I have followed in the past, I did a run mid-week that was half of the mileage of my Sunday long run.  If my long run on Sunday was 20 miles, then on Wednesday I would have done 10 miles, usually at race pace and then Sunday 20 miler at slightly slower than race pace.

I haven't done that in two years.  As a matter of fact, I rarely do a run over 4 miles during the week.  If I had done the extra run, I think I could have held out a little better and maybe even have gotten in under 4 hours and 15 minutes instead of falling apart.  One good thing is I didn't fall apart until after mile 19, unlike this time last year when I did the Pensacola marathon and fell apart around mile 12 because I started out too fast and I hadn't done any 20 mile training run either.  I won't do that again!

My finish time was 4 hours and 24 minutes and I was very happy with that.  I loved the finisher medal with the woman holding the sword up in one hand. It matches one of the monuments in the park that we ran past between mile 2 and 3.  In 2007, the race officials started picking one monument in the park that represents each state (or battle or something) and this year was the Kentucky sword lady. 

I really, really would love to have a sword of my own, but the Murph said that is out of the question.  I don't know what  he thinks I might do with a sword if I had one.  Nobody would mess with me that's for sure!  I would put my highlander moves on them.  I could just see me now doing one of my long runs in a seedy part of town with my sword in tow.  Who needs pepper spray when you have a real sword?

But anyway, I don't see a sword in my future so the pepper spray will have to do and if I run in a seedy part of town, I will stick with a large group.

I think it would be fun to come back and do this marathon again when they have the Alabama or Florida monument on the finisher medal.  (if they have an Al or Fl monument)

At the finish line they were giving framed certificates to all the first time marathoners.  I thought that was a great idea and they were really cute.  It made me wish this was my first marathon so I could get one too.  

The expo wasn't huge, but it had all the essentials.  All I needed was a couple of extra Gu and they had that, as well as a few other things.  They were giving Gu out at some of the aid stations on the course, but I always carry some of my own during the race, as well as some salt tablets.

Another plus was the hotel where we stayed was only about a mile from the race start.  There were shuttle buses that were taking racers to the start at 6 a.m and 6:30 a.m, but I didn't want to get to the race start that early and stand around in the cold.  The race didn't start until 7:30 a.m.  We left the hotel at 7:10 and drove to the start in our own car.  We got to the start around 7:15 and found a parking spot right away not far from the start line.  Easy!  

Then I headed straight to the porta-potty line, as usual!  I drink lots of G2 before a race and it makes me have to go.  I made it to the start line somewhere between the national anthem and the cannon blast.

Driving through Chattanooga brought back memories for both me and The Murph.  It has always been a favorite vacation spot and the mountains are beautiful.  We headed straight home after the race and passed up on going to some of our favorite spots.  We have no children with us anymore to take to these places.  Sad, I know.  I did pick up brochures on some of the places we have taken our kids in the past when they were little.

I remember going to Rock City and Lookout Mountain when I was kid and taking The Boy to the TN Aquarium when he was about 5 years old.  He loved it!  I miss those days!  The Murph has taken The Girl to all those places as well.

Enjoy your children.  They grow up way too fast!

Because He's Cute and He Can Get Away With It

Friday, The Murph and I were getting ready to head to the Chattanooga area.  I was running in the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in Ft. Oglethorpe, Georgia on Saturday.  Ft. Oglethorpe is right outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee and about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Birmingham, Alabama so we were just going for one night and coming right back home after the marathon.

As I was trying to pack up and get ready to leave, I guess Cadence decided to take a stand against my leaving.  He doesn't like it when the suitcases come out.  None of our cats do.  They don't like us to leave even for short periods unless we are going to the gym and it's their nap time.

It happened when I couldn't find my arm warmers.  Before I knew it, Cadence was on top of my bag.  Actually inside the bag getting cat fur all over my running clothes.

He refused to budge as I went around him taking pictures with the camera.

He just sat there and watched.  Refusing to get out.

I could have picked him up and tossed him off my clothing, but...

He looked pretty cute and he has been known to bite.

Besides he had that - I dare you, double dare you look on his face.

Then I threw one of his toys across the room, thinking he would jump off my bag and go after it.

Didn't work.  He just gave me "the look".

After about 30 minutes (and I found my arm warmers), he finally jumped off for some Friskies Party Mix cat snacks.  He likes to snack as much as I do.

Only my pre-race snacks included bananas, Power Bars and G2.