The South's Toughest 15k

I am still recovering from the "little" 15k race I did yesterday. There were a few rolling hills in it. Actually, they were more like rolling mountains, but what can you expect from a race that claims to be the "South's Toughest 15k" and the route is almost entirely in a city south of downtown Birmingham called Mountain Brook.

The race course is a point to point race starting near Vulcan Park and the Vulcan statue and ending near Liberty Park and Birmingham's own version of the Statue of Liberty. My running partner, L and I got to the race start early to meet another friend M and to pick up our race packets. There was a blue and yellow ribbon in all the race packets to wear in support of Boston and the bombing that took place during the Boston Marathon. Also, $1 of all the race entries is being donated to help the victims of the bombing. I think the Red Cross was there to take blood, but I'm not sure and I needed my blood after running those hills so, like I said, I'm really not sure if they were there or not. I didn't look for the blood mobile. I'm kind of a chicken that way!

Image from mRuns.com

Image from mRuns.com

Image from mRuns.com

Images from mRuns.com

The morning started out an usually chilly 40 degrees F, but quickly warmed up and turned out to be a beautiful day. I haven't run this race in about 8 years or more and really didn't remember it being so hilly and tough. The biggest hill is around mile 7 and it was steeper than I remember and I walked more of it this time than I remember doing the past times I've run this race, but that's okay because I'm much older too! I also may have a mental block on the hills.

My goal time was under 1 hour 20 minutes and I made it in 1:19:33 so I was very happy with that time even though it put me fourth in my age group. Since the third place winner did right at 1 hour and 11 minutes, I didn't feel too bad. There are just some freaking fast 45 - 49 year old women here in Birmingham! And it is a tough race! 

I probably won't be living in Birmingham next year to do this race, but I am so glad I got to do it this year before I leave and for those of you who live in Birmingham, I highly recommend it. You will appreciate the pain! I promise! It will make you mentally tough or maybe just mental! Anyway, today my quads are a tiny bit sore and I'm walking around kind of funny, but by tomorrow I'm sure I'll be good as new.

This was my fourth weekend race in a row and I'm not sure what I'll be doing next weekend since I have nothing on the schedule for once. Might be a good weekend to get a long bike ride in or there is a triathlon about an hour away from Birmingham that I could do. We'll see!

Image from David Christy Photography

Image from David Christy Photography

The real statues that the race is named after...

Image from Wikipedia.com

Image from birminghamrealestate.com

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.

Runners Will Run For Beer

I don't remember if this is my race number from the Pensacola marathon in November or from one of the half marathons I did in Pensacola last Fall and Winter.

 I found it (of all places) in the trash can in the Murph's office (man cave) the other day.   I immediately rescued it and pulled it out of the trash because I save these things.  I'm planning on covering an entire wall with all my race numbers and crap when we move.

These things are valuable!

The Boy saw the number and questioned why there are three beer coupons and only one food coupon. He has a lot to learn about races!  Everybody knows that runners run for beer!  If the race officials offered three food coupons and only one beer coupon, nobody would show up.

What I don't understand is why are all the coupons still attached to my number?  This could only mean that I must not have shown up.

I missed out on three cups of beer and some free food at one of those races!

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Travel Day and A Visit With The Boy

Busy travel day yesterday.  After two days at home catching up, running errands, etc we headed back to the coast with a little stop to see the Boy and take him to dinner.  He looks like he needs more sleep.  He says he has been getting about 4 hours of sleep at night.  Not enough!  He is doing good though other than the sleep.  I had to clean the bathroom in his dorm room.  Sorry couldn't control myself.  It just needed cleaning!

I ran with the Running Nazi Wednesday evening about 5 miles and Thursday morning at 6 am about 6 or 7 miles. (hey, 6 at 6!).  I also went to the gym both days and got on the exercise bike for about 30 minutes.  Today I slept late and then went to the gym and did 15 minutes on the bike and then swam about 800 yds.  I am as ready for the race tomorrow as I am going to be.  Picked up my race packet this afternoon.  The place is packed with triathletes!