Wanted: Faster Running Shoes To Make My Legs Go Faster

I've been looking for a light weight racing shoe for running marathons and half marathons to replace the Zoot triathlon racing shoe that I sometimes wear. I love the Zoot tri shoes, but I want to save them for when I do triathlons and get light weight racing shoes just for runs.

During the Mercedes Half marathon I wore my regular training shoe, the Brooks Glycerin 10.  It's a great shoe for me to train in,  but it's a little heavy for racing.  I wore the Zoot Tri shoe in Mobile for the half and the Brooks Glycerin Sunday and could tell the difference in weight.  I thought that by wearing the more cushioning Brooks shoe that the bottoms of my feet wouldn't feel so beat up after the race as they did in Mobile, but there wasn't much difference than when I wore the Zoot tri shoe.

The choices I am considering for a light weight running shoe are the Newton Women's shoe which is only a little lighter than my Glycerin 10.  I love the color!

Image from Newtonrunning.com

Newton Women's Distance U

I also found out there is a new pink performance running shoe coming out this Spring by Karhu.  The Karhu reps were at the Mercedes marathon expo and had pictures of it.  It is very cute and pink and worth checking out before I purchase anything.  And did I mention it's PINK!

I love the Brooks Glycerin 10, but as I said before it is pretty heavy for racing at about 9.6 oz.  I really want something under 8 oz for a racing shoe.  I wore the Glycerin 10 in the Chickamauga marathon and the Mercedes Half marathon.

Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon

Brook Glycerin 10

For most of my races the past couple of years, I have worn these Zoot triathlon shoes.  The difference between these and regular light weight running shoes is that these have built in lace locks that makes it easier to pull on in the transition area after taking off your biking shoes.  All you have to do is pull them on, give the laces a quick yank and go.  No time wasted trying to tie them.

Similar one here - Zoot Tri Shoe

Before I got these to do triathlons in, I had to put lace locks on my regular running shoes.  They weren't as easy to deal with as already having them built in the shoe itself.  The Zoot tri shoe itself is designed to tug on quickly and easily.

Image from Profile-design.com

I've worn these Zoot tri shoes at Rock And Roll New Orleans Marathon,

Heading to the Port a let where all well hydrated runners hang out pre-race

At the Buster Britton Triathlon,

Buster Britton Triathlon

Mobile Half marathon, and many other races throughout the past few years.

I have two other pairs of Zoot Triathlon shoes that I don't wear as much.  One pair is turquoise and the other is white and pink and very similar to the ones above except the laces are white instead of black and they are a little stiffer than the ones above so not as comfortable.  When I went to Hawaii two years ago to do the half ironman triathlon in Kona, I absent mindedly packed up one of each.  The right Zoot shoe with the black laces and the left Zoot shoe with the white laces.  What's worse is they made it all the way into my transition bag like that.  I didn't realize I had two different shoes until I was in the transition area ready to put them on race day.

Imagine my surprise after swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and then reaching in my transition bag and discovering what a stupid mistake I had made.  I said a short prayer right there in the middle of transition for God to PLEASE make one of them a lefty and one of them a righty or I was going to have to

1.   Put two right shoes on and run "awkwardly" for 13.1 miles hoping nobody would notice

2.  Run barefoot for 13.1 miles and hope there was skin on the soles of my feet at the end of the run

or

3.  Abandon the entire race right then and there and that would have been a toughy because I'm not a quitter and I had just flown thousands of miles all the way to Hawaii just to do this race!

Lucky for me I had a lefty and a righty so the entire run part of the race became a science experiment to find out which Zoot tri shoe felt the best and most comfy to me during a race.  It made the run go by just a little bit faster since I was going over in my head which foot was crampy, which one felt all cushiony like it was in a glove, etc.

Guess it's easy to see which pair won!  Unfortunately, they are getting a little worn out.

Mercedes Marathon Madams

As always the night before a race, I didn't sleep very well.  Nerves about the race and fear that my alarm clock wouldn't go off are the two main reasons.  A third reason is all the G2 I'd been guzzling down all day and night had me up at least twice.  I like to make sure I'm fully hydrated before a race and I probably overdo it just a little sometimes.

As it turned out, I didn't need the alarm clock to wake me up any way.  I was up before it went off.  Since the Murph wasn't going to be up at 5am and he's the one who usually makes the coffee in the morning, he got the coffee maker all ready so all I had to do was push the "on" button so I would have my caffeine race morning.  He was concerned that I wouldn't know where the "on" button was so he put a sticky note on the coffee maker pointing to it.  He was so sweet to idiot proof everything for me.   I think he was more concerned about what kind of damage this wrecking ball could do to the coffee maker.

It was going to be 29F at the start and sunny so I knew I wouldn't be cold after I got started running.  I actually wore too much.  I could have worn capri pants or even shorts instead of the long pants because I had on knee high compression socks that covered most of my leg.  I didn't need the arm warmers I had on under my long sleeve shirt either.  I was glad I had them on after the run though.  That's when I got cold!

I wanted to cross the finish line faster than I did at Mobile Half in January which was 1:56:49 something ( I don't remember the exact seconds, but it was right under 1:57 min).  I started off a little slower than I did in Mobile, but picked it up the last 5 miles thanks to a quick stop at the port a let.  My legs felt much better the last few miles than they did in Mobile.  I finished in 1:56:11 which was only seconds faster, but I'll take it.  Next year I'm going to train harder to go faster and maybe start doing speed work again and running more days than I do now.  I keep up with my training on my daily mile app that's to the left on my blog.  I don't have to look back through the weeks to know I don't run enough miles during the week.

Mel, the gal in the top picture wearing the tutu with the red sunglasses and head thingy, was the only one of us that did the full marathon and she did great!  She placed fourth in her age group.  Ken, aka Morgan Freeman, did the full as well, but you can only see his glove up there in that picture.  We took a picture of our group a couple of weeks ago when we did a trial run of the course and Ken, L and I were all leaning in so we would all be in the picture and realized afterwards that we didn't have to lean in and we looked pretty goofy.

This time Ken should have leaned in!

Here's the matching tech shirt, baseball cap and bling for the half marathoners.  I almost missed getting the cap at the finish line.  The shirt was in the race packet at the expo.  They also gave out gloves from The Trak Shak at the expo.

Photo from the Facebook page of Mercedes-Benz Marathon Weekend

I love the color of the shirt!  One of my favorite colors besides black, white or pink.

Overall it was a great race and a beautiful day!  And as usual, after the race there was Jim n Nick's barbecue sandwiches and plenty of beer.  I passed on the beer, but grabbed a barbecue to go so I could eat it later for lunch.  It smelled so good in the car that I ate it on the way home.  It became breakfast instead of lunch.  Delicious!

Mental note:  Next race don't hydrate quite so much before the race.

As Ready As I'm Going To Be For Mercedes Half Marathon!

Tomorrow is the Mercedes marathon here in Birmingham.  I 'm going to run the half marathon in the morning, not the full marathon.    My friend L and I went to the expo today to pick up our race numbers/chips and shopped a little bit.  I found some really great deals on half off running pants and a long sleeve running shirt.   I also bought another pair of compression socks, pink, of course, and a head band to match.  

I tried to explain to the Murph how much money I saved on everything, but I don't think he bought it.  I really did have a gift certificate to the The Trak Shak, a local running shop, that I needed to use.  That took even more than half off my purchases.   Win Win!!

A group of girl scouts were at the expo selling cookies so I bought some boxes just to support the girl scouts, you know.  I got a box of Thin Mints for the Murph, but he wasn't as thrilled about them as I thought he would be.  Apparently, he's eaten a ton of girl scouts cookies in his life when his daughter was in the Brownies and her mom was the Brownie leader.  He had boxes to last all year.  Oh well, they won't go to waste!

I looked at the weather for tomorrow and discovered that it isn't going to be as cold as I thought it was going to be.  Nope.  Instead of the 22F that was forecast earlier in the week, now it's saying that it's going to be a balmy 29F at the 7 a.m. start and sunny!  No snow, no rain, no windchill!  I'll take it!

• Tonight

  Feb 16

  Mainly clear and coldLo 26°

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  Cool with bright sunshine51°Lo 34°

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  Feb 18

  Partly sunny and pleasant61°Lo 45°

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  Feb 19

  Rain possible in the morning58°Lo 33°

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  Feb 20

  Partly sunny52°Lo 33°

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Thunderstorms Monday night

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Sake At Surin

I had lunch today with K, a dear friend of mine that I've known since 8th grade.   We went to Surin, one of my favorite Thai restaurants.

First up was Sake, a Japanese rice wine, served warm.

Then both of us had Pad Thai noodles.

photo from foodspotting.com

And Coconut Soup with tofu.

photo from foodspotting.com

I hadn't seen her since right before Christmas when we got our picture taken while sitting on Santa's lap.  You can read about that Here.  

I hear the temperature is going to be 22 F at the start of the Mercedes half marathon Sunday morning.  I'm trying to decide how many layers I will need to wear.

I don't run well in the cold!

It Was The Tequila That Screwed Up My Training Plan

This week starts my taper for the Mercedes marathon which is coming up this Sunday.  I'm doing the half marathon, not the whole, but I'm still going to cut back on my volume of training this week.  Last week was a big training week for me.  I've started putting more time either on the spin bike or my bike trainer and still doing the same amount of running and weights.

My long run is usually on Sunday, but this past weekend I decided to run with the group on Saturday morning instead since the Murph and I were going out with friends Saturday night and that would involve adult beverages.

 I still tentatively planned to do a short run with L and M on Sunday morning too, but the longer run was Saturday so I didn't have to worry about what I ate or drank (or so I thought!).  The only problem was that I got up in the freezing cold Saturday morning, ran 8 miles with the group, then went to the gym with the Murph and put some time in on the exercise bike, then got on the bike trainer at home for another hour and a half and THEN back to the gym for weights.

I guess I didn't eat enough during the day Saturday or before I got the drinks because after about three frozen margarita's later, I suddenly wasn't feeling very good.  And the drinks were only about this size.

photo from foodio54.com

The Murph said I didn't eat enough, but I was shoving chips and salsa down the entire night.  This reminded me of that time last March when we were in New Orleans doing the Rock and Roll New Orleans marathon and I got a little ill. ( New Orleans Blog Post)

All I remember is I was feeling really good and having a great time and we were about to get burgers at midnight in Harrah's casino and then BAM!  It hit me out of the blue.  And I can usually hold my liquor, especially tequila.  No problemo!

This was me right before the fun stopped.  Never before published picture.  As you can see I am already looking a little pale.

And then things started spinning and I got really, really sick.   It's all fun and games until you get on that merry-go-round from hell that just won't stop.  That wasn't a fun night.  I vowed to never, ever drink tequila again.  EVER!  Okay, well at least not on the day I run a marathon.

It was almost the same feeling Saturday night.  I was feeling great and not even that hungry, but I did eat anyway and only had those three very, very small margaritas.  Needless to say, by the time I got home I was hugging the toilet and the room was spinning.  Cadence, my cat was looking at me like, "geez, mom's got a hair ball too!  I can so relate!"

 The Murph missed all of it because he was downstairs eating a roast beef sandwich, but knew something was wrong when I didn't want anything else to eat and he had gone through Arby's drive thru to get some more food.  (at least I think it was Arby's)

The cat followed me to bed and The Murph tucked us in.  I didn't make it to run with L and M like I had planned, but at least I had already done my long run for the week and now it's taper time.  I'm going to have to take tequila off the list of safe foods/drinks during my intense training weeks/days.  Maybe forever.  I know, I've said that before!

Sunday morning I woke up to find the Murph standing over me and Cadence, my cat, saying, "Oh, what do we have here?  The VomiTER (that would be me) and the VomiTEEE!  (that would be Cadence because he's usually the one doing all the vomiting).

My training plan wasn't too screwed up Sunday though.  I still made it to the gym later to do 30 minutes on the exercise bike.  The Murph thought I was too sick to do doubles at the gym yesterday so he was a little surprised when I did 40 more minutes on my bike trainer and then 1/2 mile on the treadmill while I watched Honey Boo Boo's Christmas special last night.  I think he got a little upset that he missed his workout because of me and then I ended up doing doubles anyway, just not at the gym.

I've tried to explain that a little vomit doesn't stop workouts.  It can just delay them or make them less intense.  I mean how many times have I felt like throwing up after a race.  I can't count the number of times.  A 5k race has more throw up potential than a full marathon does for me.

I can't blame that on the tequila though.

February Things- Mercedes Course, New Yoga Cat Position, Etc

It's hard to believe it's already February and now we are on a new cat yoga pose on the wall calendar.  Is that really a yoga pose?  Because I'm no yoga expert, but I don't think it's physically possible to do what Ms. February is doing in that picture.

Downward dog yoga pose is good for runners like me with tight calves.  It has really helped keep me from having chronic achilles pain.  No runner wants this.  Believe me!  

This is my finisher medal from last year's Mercedes Half Marathon.  We had a huge group turn out to run the course Sunday.  There was a little bit of a change in the course from last year, but just a tweak. Overall, I really like the course.  It isn't too hilly and it is all familiar to me.  The full marathon does two loops of the course.  I personally haven't done the full since they changed it to two loops, but it is probably better this way if you are trying to qualify for Boston Marathon.  The old course was much hillier than this one.

After the run, the race director had Dunkin Donuts and coffee for all the runners at Boutwell Auditorium.  That was a very nice surprise!  I don't have any pictures, but I can promise you I had some of each!  Eating healthier is wearing me down!

I do have pictures of the almond pillow cookies I bought for my dessert as I watched the Super Bowl Sunday night.  I am very disappointed the 49ers didn't win.  The cookies helped me drown my sorrows.     The Murph doesn't like to have these in the house and he told me to hide them so he won't eat them.  The only problem is he knew they were in the house and in a weak moment he asked me to get some for him.  Since these things are valuable and we don't have them around that often, I had to put my foot down.  

No way was I giving up any of these babies!  Later he thanked me for not giving in and letting him have a cookie.   One of us has to stay strong!  

Besides, I don't share cookies very well.

Is anybody running any marathons or half marathons this Spring?  I'm still looking for a marathon to run.

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!