It takes a village

After Kristi finished her first half she enjoyed it so much she wanted to try the full together. I may have groaned a bit inside. Looking back over last year, racing sucked. It sucked because my training sucked. As I've told my students I wasn't good at doing my running homework. When you don't do the homework, race day is not much fun. 

This marathon is going to be different. The village is coming together to keep me accountable. First kristi's husband Shawn is currently deployed. He is state side for now. He is running the marathon training program along with Kristi even though he is not running a race. He is also checking in on my training to help me keep on track. He knows I'm not the best at keeping to a program. I randomly get messages on Facebook and texts asking about my long runs. 

Thanks Shawn for keeping me honest!

Kristi also checks in on my training. She doesn't want me to be left at the start line on race day. It's great hearing her excitement as she runs longer and feels pretty good. I guess that is what happens when you follow a program. 

Jen has been great about running long with me. She has a half in February and yet she is currently plotting our 15 mile run this weekend. It is so much better to run with someone. I think Megan may be joining us in a few weeks too. She has a full coming up in May. 

It definitely takes a village to get me across the finishline of my third full marathon. But come March it will be worth it. 

The day my cheeks almost fell off!

On Sunday Jen and I met up to get our long run in. She is training for a half marathon in February and I have the full in March. She was looking to run ten and I was looking for 13. Being the good sport she decided to run my 13 with me. We picked Sunday to run since it was the warmer weekend day. I was hoping that the temps would reach 30 degrees.  I don't think it got that warm. 

We headed out after talking about our outfits. You would think by January I would figure out what to wear in the cold temperatures. No, I still am figuring it out. I'm sure I will get it right around March. I decided to lose the knit hat and go with a baseball cap to keep the sun out of my eyes and some ear headband. Turned out the headband didn't last a mile before I had to tear it off. I also had my tights on with some shorts overtop since my rear always gets cold. 

We took off and had a nice slow run along the Potomac river. 

By the turn around point everything from my butt down was starting to get icy.  It was great having Jen to run with because I'm not sure I would have completed the entire cold thirteen miles. But we slogged through them. We even stopped to a photo along the way. 

By the 11th mile I was convinced that I was not going to have a$$ cheeks left because they were ice cubes. My knees were also turning into ice cubes too. The last two miles were by far the most horrid of the entire 13 miles. Im also convinced that someone moved Jen's house farther away!

When we got back to Jen's she was kind enough to make some hot chocolate to help warm us up. It didn't really work.  I couldn't get warm at all.  I headed home and took a nice hot bath. That is the only way to warm up my body, a hot bath. Next weekend I have 15 on the calendar and it is supposed to be in the 40's. So hopefully my lower half will stay warm. 

Human Frogger

I woke up at 5 am to get my long run in..did you know it is really dark at 5 am?!  I had a doctors appointment at 9:20 and knew if I couldn't get my run started at 5 I wouldn't be able to get my miles in..I looked at the weather and decided that I could do my long run in the evening and went back to sleep.  What a mistake I made.

I know you are thinking I ditched my long run..I didn't.  I got it in, but I will tell you there is a big difference running at 6 am as opposed to 6 pm.  More on that later..  I parked my car where I usually park and had my route planned in my head.  I figured I could do the loop that I normally start off with and then head down towards the park that I discovered and head back towards the car..which should put me around five miles...and I can then grab a drink of some Gatorade and then head back out on my run.  Sounds like a great plan right?  Well the thing that I didn't plan for were the cars.  I felt like I was playing frogger with them.  I was on the left side of the road and I was hugging the side of the road.  Cars would drive by and not move over a bit.  Now if a car was coming on the right side I could understand, but nope, no other cars except me and the car coming at me.  So I kept having to jump off the road.  The jumping off the road was annoying but not that bad when I had a berm to jump to..but sometimes there really wasn't much area on the side of the road.  I really didn't have all of these cars the last time I ran this neighborhood at 6 am.  Note to self, this road sucks to run in the evening!

The one nice thing about last night's run was that it was nice and cool for the summer.  I think it was mid to low 80's when I was running.  Talk about some nice temps!  I headed out on my loop and waved to some neighborhood people.  (I know someone is bound to invite me soon to a block party) and then headed down the road to Government Island Park.  I couldn't wait to run the shaded wooded area.  It is located down a dead end road, so you would think not a lot of traffic. Which compared to the neighborhood was a lot less.  The problem was there was no real side of the road and the road was windy..so I was always worried about not being able to be seen by the speed demon cars coming up and down the road.  So that will be my last run down towards Government Island. If I want to run there I will drive there.  The heart attack while running was not worth it.

 A bit sweaty but not too bad.  Can you see the stress lines on my face from the worrying about getting hit to get here?

I headed back towards my car and got my drink and fixed my Camel Back.  I am really blonde because it took me a while to figure out that my mouthpiece had a shutoff valve.  I couldn't figure out why water kept coming out.  When I got to the car I also had to adjust the straps on the Camel Back because it kept bouncing and I had to get the air out because it kept sloshing.  Once that was all settled I was off again.  I headed off to the next neighborhood.  No real issues.  I did realize that the speed limit of 25 mph was apparently just a suggestion that nobody follows!  60 was the way to go!

I enjoyed exploring the neighborhood.  I thought I could circle around back to my car but turned out all I found were dead ends.  It was fun exploring though.  As I was coming back to my car..tired and ready to be done with playing Frogger with yet more cars..btw..I apologize to the nice red car that moved all the way over for me.  I thought you were not going to move at all and I was secretly cussing you out..turned out you were the nicest car of the night.  Thank you for looking out for me and not trying to run me down.

Well two hours later I am almost to my car and I spot about 6 deer crossing the road in front of me.  I tried to take a picture but I couldn't get my iphone fast enough.  When I got to where they crossed they were long gone.  I did see a random cat in the driveway though.  I did not take a picture of the cat.

So my lesson on this run is that I need to get my long runs in during the morning hours when there are less cars on the road.  I just do not like dealing with cars.  If I put off my run until the evening I need to go to a bike/run path to run.

Half Marathon Training to start

So it is official, I have to stop being lazy and start..ugh...training!  This weekend is the first week of half marathon training for the Flying Pirate Half in April.  So no more excuses.  I don't know if it says anything that I have only written down one week's worth of training though. ;)  This weekend I will finish writing out the rest of the plan.  Well hope everyone enjoys the long weekend.