Rock-N-Roll AZ race report

Wow!  I just realized that the last time I blogged was Jan. 6th.  That is insane!  Hopefully now that the marathon is over, we're back from our trip, and our carpet is installed (yay!) things will get back to normal. :)

RNR AZ
Going into this race, I really wasn't sure how I was going to do.  Because I was sick so often during my training, I let go of any sort of time goal and just decided to run it for fun.  Originally, my sister was going to run the full marathon too, but she got some crazy foot injuries and decided against it.  Her goal was to just run as far as she could and enjoy the race.  I decided that my new goal was to run with my husband and support him through his first marathon.  It was kind of strange because I wasn't nervous at all, but my husband was.  I don't think I've ever gone into a race not being nervous, and it was actually really nice not to have that nervousness.
Because this wasn't a typical race report for me, I thought I'd just list some of the pros and cons of the race as my race report!

Pros:
*  An awesome race shirt!  I LOVE the colors, the design, and the fit.  Yay!

*  The way the event was organized was awesome!  The shuttle service to the start was great, there were hundreds of port-a-potties in different locations, and gear check was a cinch.  It was put together so much better than the Denver RNR marathon.

*  My husband and I met up with  my sister at the start and we were able to run together for the first few miles.  It was fun to all be together, even if it was for just a short while.

*  My mom, dad, and brother-n-law met us at different points throughout the race.  It was awesome to have them cheering for us!  I don't care what anyone says, but for me, having friends/family on the sidelines cheering definitely gives me a boost during a race.  Here is a picture my mom took of us.  I love it! :)

My husband, me, and my dad! :) 

*  The bands were awesome!!  I had my own music with me, but whenever I started to hear a band I would turn it off so I could  hear their  music.  I have to say that there were some great musicians playing out there for us!

*  There were packs of junior high (high school??) cheerleaders throughout the marathon that were awesome as well!  They all had different costume themes and you could hear them cheering before you ever saw them!  I made a point to high five as many of them as I could.  I thought it was awesome that they chose to spend half of their day cheering their hearts out for people they don't even know, and giving them high-fives was my way of letting them know I appreciated them!

*  The first part of the race went by soooo fast.  We hit the 13.1 mile marker and high-fived each other!  My husband was doing awesome and I was so proud of him.

*  There were these 2 big guys that I saw throughout the race on the sidelines.  They had a big sign that said, "Go (your name)" and for some reason I just thought it was hilarious.  I never heard them cheer, and their faces were blank most of the time, but they showed up in random places throughout the course and they always made me smile when I saw them.  So, thank you random guys with the sign! :)

*  I nailed my nutrition and hydration and never experienced any stomach issues like my last marathon.  I was pretty terrified of dry heaving and throwing up again, but it never happened!  Woohoo!!

*  Around the 24 mile mark, I crossed over a bridge that went over Tempe Town Lake.  I decided to stop and look out over the lake to where my Ironman Arizona swim start will be in November.  It was amazing!  I got a little dose of butterflies looking out over that water, imagining myself swimming 2.4 miles, and I was thankful for that moment.

*  I was hurting pretty bad at this point in the race (see the cons), but after I crossed the bridge, I saw my mom, dad, brother-n-law, and sister!  It was awesome to see them again!  I told my dad that I would be walking the 2.5 miles to the finish and he and my sister decided to walk them with me.  It was actually pretty fun (if you take the pain part out of it) walking that last part with them.  I think it would have been torture for me if I would have had to do that by myself, and I  may have had my first DNF, but with them by my side, we finished the race together.  

*  My sister was able to run 19 miles before having to stop!  Woohoo!!  I know you don't know about her injuries, but that is awesome for her, and I was so proud of her!!  She may not have finished the whole 26.2 miles, but 19 miles is still amazing!!  Yay for her!!!

*  When we reached the finisher's shoot, my dad went off to the side because he couldn't come down the shoot with us.  I told my sister that I wanted to try and run it in, so I fought through the pain and we slowly made our way to the finish.  When we got close to the finish, I grabbed my sister's hand and we crossed the finish line together!  It was awesome!!

* My husband finished his first marathon in 4:44!!  Woohoo!  It wasn't exactly the time he wanted, but he did awesome for his first marathon and I am sooo proud of him!

*  Check out the medal!  I love it!

*  We got to run in the SUN!  The weather in CO has been cold, so it was awesome to run in 70 degree weather with the sun shining down on us.

Cons:
*  I wasn't able to meet up with the other bloggers on Friday night.  Boo!!

*  The entire course was on hot, hard asphalt.  I don't know about all of you, but I rarely train on asphalt.  Running on that the entire 26.2 miles was not the greatest!

*  Around the 15 mile mark, my husband's pace started to slow.  He made it clear that he didn't want to "hold me back," and he wanted me to keep going, but I wasn't going to leave him.

*  Around the 18 mile mark, my right knee started REALLY hurting.  I have never had any problems with my right knee, but I have had ITB issues with my left knee so I know what it feels like.  I ran through it, but it only got worse.  Before long, I could feel a burning pain from my ankle all the way up to my hip.  My ITB was NOT happy with me.

*  At the 22 mile mark, I told my husband I had to walk.  I told him to keep going and finish strong!  We gave each other a high-five, then separated for the first time in the race.  It sucked to see him run ahead, but I needed to walk, and I didn't want him to stop for me.  The pain was so intense that it literally brought tears to my eyes.  I would walk/limp for a couple of minutes, then try to run again.  The first step of running was always the worst, but I pushed through the pain.  I started doing this pattern of walking then attempting to run for the next 2 miles.  It HURT so bad!

Final Thoughts:
Although this marathon turned out completely different than I thought, and I was in pain the last part of the course, I can honestly say that I had a blast doing it.  I had fun out there and was smiling pretty much throughout the entire race.  The music, the cheerleaders, my husband, and my family all made it an awesome experience.

I think I'm pretty much done with marathons for now.  I can honestly say that I have no desire to do another one...not for awhile anyways.  In fact, the next one I do will be during Ironman Arizona.

Although I'm going to start swimming again, I am really looking forward to not having any type of training going on.  I start my official training for IMAZ in April, and until then, I'm going to take it easy.  I think I deserve some time off! :)

Denver Rock-n-Roll Marathon Race Report

The short version:  I finished!  Isn't this medal awesome?  I love how it says, "Inaugural" on it and "26.2" on the guitar.  The mountains are actually sparkly too to look like snow!


* Warning: This post is pretty long!  :)
Pre-race:
We woke up, had a pre-race breakfast of a bagel with almond butter, got dressed, and headed to the race.  My husband was nice enough to wake up early and drive us so we didn't have to deal with trying to park with thousands of other racers.  As we got closer to the freeway exit, the traffic was basically at a stand still.  Luckily, my sister had her phone with her that has GPS, so we were able to figure out some side streets to go down to get close to the site.  We were so glad that we didn't have to deal with parking because there were literally hundreds and hundreds of cars coming from different directions trying to find parking downtown.  We finally just decided to hop out of the car and walk to the start.


We ended up having to walk about 1-2 miles, which was kind of good because it was cold out and that brisk walk warmed up our legs.  Once we reached the start area, we basically had 15 minutes to gear check our bag and visit the port-a-potty.  Gear check was CRAZY!  Again, there were hundreds of racers trying to check their bags all at the same time.  Once that was done, we got in line to use the bathroom and the first coral of racers started.  We knew we wouldn't make the official start, and would probably miss our coral, but we weren't going to stress about it because there was nothing we could do about it.  Finally, we got done, ran towards the start, and joined in the masses of people.  We crossed the start with coral #7, said our good lucks to each other and took off!

The Good: Miles 1-19
The start of the race was amazing!  There were so many people cheering and yelling, and the energy was pretty intense!  It was so loud that I don't think I actually heard the music on my Shuffle until several miles into the race.  I had so much adrenaline running through  my body, that I had to work really hard not to run too fast.
The course wound through downtown for about 5 miles before heading to City Park.  I was surprised by how fast the miles were clicking by.  One thing that was kind of frustrating though was that my Garmin was ahead on mileage by about .4 of a mile.  So, when my Garmin said I reached the 5M mark, it was actually .4M ahead of me on the course.  This doesn't sound like a huge deal, but it would come into play later in the race.
The course continued for about another 5 miles around City Park.  I love that park, so it was nice being able to run through it.  I was holding my pace and I felt really good, and was just excited about being there doing my first marathon!  I kept reminding myself that my goal was to finish happy, so I embraced the Rock-n-Roll aspect of the course.  I high-fived all of the cheerleaders throughout the course, and said, "Woohoo" to all the bands!  I was just having a good time.

After leaving City Park, we got a taste of a pretty good sized hill.  I swear it was a mile long!  My legs were definitely feeling it, but I just kept going.  We ran towards another park, Cheeseman Park, before the course split into the 1/2 marathoners and full marathoners.  I saw a row of about 5 port-a-potties with hardly anyone waiting and decided to take advantage of it.  I did my business and started off again.  It was a little hard to get going again, but it was worth the stop.  

From mile 12-15 we were graced with some other hills.  They weren't exactly steep, but long.  My husband and boys were planning on meeting me around the 15M mark so I could exchange my Nathan bottles and ditch my long sleeve shirt.  The thought of seeing them really helped me mentally keep going.  I was still feeling good at this point, but my legs were definitely feeling the effects of the hills.

This is a picture my husband got of me running towards them.  I look like a complete dork, but I was SOOO excited to see them!
I pulled off to the side, kissed my husband, took off my long sleeved shirt, exchanged my bottles, gave my boys hugs and kisses, and headed off again.  I know I wasted several minutes doing all of this, but it was completely worth it to me.



And, I'm off to do the remaining 11.2 miles!



The next 5 miles were all ran around and within Wash Park.  I was actually looking forward to this part of the race because it is one of my favorite places to run.  However, around the 18 mile mark, I started burping A LOT!  I wasn't really worried about it, but after awhile, it started getting annoying.  I came around a bend and saw my husband and boys again!  This was such a great surprise because I didn't think I would see them until the finish!

Between the 19 and 20M mark I started feeling a little nauseous.  I knew that I needed to eat a gel because I hadn't had one since a little before mile 15, but it just did not sound appealing to me in the least bit.  However, I knew that if I didn't get it down I could potentially pay an even bigger price later in the run.  I tried to eat the gel while running, but it just wasn't happening.  I slowed to a walk in order to get it down, but it was not easy.  Once it was down, I started running again.

The Bad: Miles 20-26.2
I have read numerous times that the race in a marathon really starts at mile 20.  I guess I didn't really understand this, but I have to say that I completely agree with that statement.  After the 20M mark, I was entering the unknown.  Every step past that mile was further than I had ever run before, and it was hard!  As I mentioned earlier, my Garmin reached the mile markers before I did in the race and it was just mentally hard to see that.  I stopped looking at my Garmin from mile 21 to the finish.  It just wasn't worth it any more.  My stomach starting revolting and I got really nauseous.  * Warning: gross parts coming up.  When it got to the point that I thought I was going to throw-up, I would pull over to the side and proceed to dry heave over and over again.  I HATE dry heaving. Every time it happened, my back and abs would just tighten up and hurt like crazy.  I really wish I could have just thrown up, but it didn't happen.  I would start walking, start feeling a little better, start running again, then the nausea would take over again and I would repeat the same process.  I did that 3 TIMES in 3 miles!  It was horrible and disgusting and I didn't know how to stop it.

I felt like crap and I just wanted to be done.  The miles felt like they took forever!  The worst part was that between miles 23 and 24, we had to go up a hill, down the backside, turn around, then go up and down it again.  This was torture!!  I couldn't believe that they would put that hill in the last few miles of a marathon!!!  It took every thing that I had to keep going and just put one foot in front of the other.  

Around mile 25, I saw my sister!  She had run the 1/2 marathon, and had come out on the course to help me finish the last mile.  It was soooo awesome to see her and she gave me the motivation to keep going!  She told me that my husband and boys were by the finish shoot waiting for me.  She kept telling me that all I needed to do was run to Bannock street, then turn left into the finishing shoot.  I could see the runners ahead of me turning left towards the shoot, but they looked so far away.  She ran with me all the way to Bannock street into the shoot, then stopped and told me to, "Run to the balloons!"  The finish was lined with balloons and her saying that made me laugh enough to push through the nausea.

I saw my husband and heard my boys cheering for me and it was awesome!  I didn't feel any more nausea and was just overcome with joy at what I was about to accomplish.  I was finishing my first marathon!!! :)

Here is a picture my husband took of my coming into the finish.

I crossed the finish line and was so happy to be done!  There were two women with signs that read, "Free hugs" and I went up to them and got a hug!  It was great!


The Ugly:
I got my medal, then proceeded to be handed water, apple slices, and fruit snacks.  I just grabbed the stuff for my boys and kept walking.  It was at this point that my stomach started revolting again.  My sister called my name and I saw her on the other side of the shoot.  I told her I was going to throw-up and she just kept saying, "Keep going and we'll take care of you."  I was so nauseous, but I didn't want to throw-up in the shoot where all the volunteers were handing out food and drinks.  That would have been horrible!
I finally made it out to the grass, found some trash cans, and proceeded to throw-up over and over again.  It was horrible!  There were runners and their families all around me and I was so embarrassed.  I finally stopped and actually felt a little better!  My sister and I walked to an open grassy area, sat down, and waited for my husband and boys to join us.  

This is a picture of me and my sister after the race.  She rocked the 1/2 mary with a time of 2:08!
Can you see how white I am?  My lips have no color in them!

My biggest supporters...my husband and boys!









                
Final Thoughts:
26.2 Miles !!   (My Garmin read 26.6 miles...ugh) 
Overall Time:  4:01:43 (9:14pace/M)
Division Place:  55/270
Sex Place: 252/1357
Before I share my thoughts, I just want to take a moment to thank all of you.  I carried all of your good luck wishes and encouragement with me throughout the entire race!  :)

I don't really know how to feel about this race.  Because this was my first marathon, my main goal was just to finish.  I had a time goal in mind, but honestly, I didn't put much emphasis on it because I just didn't know how my body would perform.  I have no idea why my stomach revolted the way it did.  I have never experienced that in a race before.  I used gels, water, and NUUN like I did in all of my training runs, so I didn't do anything differently.  Any ideas???
I am so happy that I finished, but I wish it would have been under less pukey circumstances!  :)  One thing is for sure though, I now have something to work towards for the Arizona Rock-n-Roll Marathon in January!

As far as whether or not I think a marathon is harder than a Half Ironman, I have to say that I don't think it is.  How I felt at the end (besides being pukey) was really similar to how I felt after my last 70.3.  I think mentally it's harder because you're doing the same thing over and over again, whereas with the HIM, you mix it up with swimming, biking, and running.  I don't know, it's interesting to think about.  What do all of you think?  

Congrats of all of you that raced this past weekend too!  I'm a little behind on blogs because my family was in town, but I can't wait to read about all of your racing experiences too! :)  

Expo Fun!

Rock -n- Roll Expo!
My sister and I decided to hit up the expo on Friday rather than today to try and avoid a massive amount of runners.  We were so glad that we did because it was crazy downtown.  Trying to find parking was very frustrating, and there was traffic and people everywhere.  I can't even imagine what the expo was like today!  Probably total chaos!
Here is the swag that we got:

I absolutely love the race shirt, but big surprise, it is too big for me.  I ordered a small, but their sizing is way off. The small was huge!  I asked if I could exchange my shirt for the x-small, but they said I had to wait and do it by the finish line at the info. booth.  Whatever!  The good thing though is that my sister fits into my shirt, so my plan is to take her shirt (a medium) and try to exchange it.  If it doesn't work, then my husband gets another one of my awesome race shirts.  He's already a 70.3 poser (I gave him my 70.3 finisher visor), so adding a marathon shirt to the mix is no big deal! Ha ha!

Knowing I may not  have a race shirt, I decided to take matters into my own hands and buy another shirt.  I never do this because they're usually pretty pricey, but the shirt was actually reasonably priced and just too cute to pass up!  Oh, and I got a GoBelt too (a spin off of the Spibelt).  I won't be using it at the marathon, but I think it will be perfect for some of my mid length training runs where I need my cell phone, keys, gels, or when I do another 1/2 marathon.  It's pretty neat because it has loops for gels and clips to attach a race number to.  Yay for expo shopping! :)

I'm also excited because look what arrived in the mail yesterday?

I've been having a hard time with my earphones lately.  So, I took advantage of the deal Yurbuds was offering during Kona and ordered a pair.  They are really neat and fit my ears perfectly.  They feel really comfortable in my ears, so I'm looking forward to using them in my race.

 I wanted to do something fun with my sister for the race, so I found the coolest nail polish at Target.  It is called "Speedy Sunburst," so I'm hoping it will give me that extra speed I need to make it to the finish line!  Here we are all painted up!  I don't even remember the last time I had my finger nails painted, so the color is pretty shocking! :)

Oh, and a couple of you asked what I would be wearing so you could look for me on the course....thanks!  I need all the encouragement I can get!   Unfortunately, my outfit is going to be pretty boring.  I'm totally going for comfort and what I know will not chafe me for this race!  I'll be wearing my black visor, black Sugoi shorts, CEP compression socks, a blue short sleeve shirt, and my long sleeve blue shirt for the first part.  I'll also have my Nathan waistpack on!

Alright, it's 12 hours to go time!  Yikes!
I want to wish all of you racing tomorrow the best of luck!  I can't wait to hear how your races went! :)

Family fun and some yum!

So, I know I've been MIA for awhile and I missed a post for Humpastry Day, but I had a good reason!  My sister, her two boys (3 and 16mo.), and my mom are in town!  Yay!  We have been super busy catching up and trying to keep up with all four boys in the house!  It has been a little crazy, but they are all getting along really well and loving being together.

Yesterday was a free day at the Denver zoo, so we decided to bring the boys and battle the herds of people that take advantage of the free day.  It was crazy!  There were so many people there, but all of the boys had a lot of fun and loved seeing all of the animals.

Today, my sister and I went for a 5M run together.  I was supposed to do a tempo run, but I figured that since we're not really going to be able to run together on Sunday (she's doing the 1/2, I'm doing the full) that it would be nice to run with her today.  With the boys taken care of, we headed off for our run on the Highline Canal.  She is from AZ, so the altitude was definitely effecting her a little bit, but she did awesome!  It was nice to be able to spend some time with her and we ended up having a great run!

 My sister and me after our run :)

Guess what I found on my doorstep yesterday just in time for my marathon?  Woohoo!

Thank you Scott and Outside PR!  I haven't had the chance to use one on a run b/c I'm tapering, but I opened one and tasted it with my sister and mom.  I have to say that I really like the flavor!  It is super yummy!  We came to the conclusion that it is a mixture of peach and pineapple flavors, kind of like the taste of a pineapple lifesaver.  And, it has a dose of caffeine in it for that extra burst of power...ha ha!  I will definitely be using one of them during my marathon on Sunday! :)  

I hope you are all having a great week!  

A week in review and other things too

Training:
*  This was a pretty good training week considering I didn't get  much done last week.  It was a little hard to get back into the swing of things after my in-laws left, but once I did, it felt great to be back at it.  Here are my numbers for the week:

Bike:  3 1/2 hrs.
Run:  12.75 M (not great, but oh well)
Swim:  7034 yds (woohoo!)

*  I got to do another OWS swim this morning.  I stopped off at Starbucks for a pumpkin scone and soy chai latte (I know, I know, not the best breakfast, but it sure was yummy!), and headed for the lake.  I got in the water and realized it was much warmer than Sunday, and it actually felt great (no aching, frozen feet today!).  This means that the water temp. for my sprint tri on Friday will be nice too!  Hooray! :)

*  I officially started my marathon training this week.  I looked at many different plans and finally decided to go with this one here.  What I like about it is that it incorporates speed work and tempo runs.  I also like how it has me running 3x a week (although I'm adding a 4th easy run day), which is totally doable with my Half Ironman training.  So, I did my tempo run Thursday, which was awesome, and a long run (8M scheduled) today.

Now, I'm usually pretty good about my nutrition when it comes to working out, but for some reason, I totally blew it today!  As you know, I didn't have the best breakfast.  Then, I did my swim, came home around 9:30, then at 10:15 we headed to Wash Park where I could do my long run and my husband could run with the boys in the jogger.  When we got to the park I realized I had not eaten anything except a pumpkin scone since 7:15 this morning.  Yikes!  Luckily, I had brought a Gu to eat during my run, but I knew I might be in trouble.  Oh, and it was HOT this morning too...nice!  I started my run and was feeling fine.  I took some swigs out of my handheld every once in awhile and ate my Gu around mile 4.  I was sweating like crazy and was getting really hot.  Around mile 6, things started to turn.  I started cramping really bad and knew that there was no way I was going to make it to 8 miles.  I tried to regulate my breathing, but the cramps just started getting worse and eventually led to back cramps.  I made it to 6.5 miles and finally had to stop and walk.  I walked to the playground where my husband and boys were and called it a day.  This is another one I can chalk up to dehydration!  I feel so stupid for letting it happen, but for some reason my brain just wasn't functioning properly today (see bee post below for a possible reason why).

Hot and red post-run.  My husband joked that the white sweat marks on my visor looked like the Rocky Mountains.   Ha ha.

Other things too:

So, last night around 11:30, my youngest son woke up crying and calling for me.  I went into his room and he was sitting up straight in his bed.  I asked him what was wrong and he said he saw a "buggy" that was buzzing and flying around him.  I turned on his lamp and looked around and didn't see anything, but he was so scared and was on the verge of tears.  Then, I remembered how there were a bunch of bees swarming around our flowers earlier and how we watched them at a safe distance until they flew away.  So, I thought maybe he was just imagining the bees.  Anyways, I tried to lay him back down, but he wanted his daddy, so I called my husband in.  Again, he kept asking if we could see the bee, and we never saw anything or heard anything.  We would get him calmed down, he would fall asleep, then wake up a little while later crying about the bee.  This went on ALL NIGHT.  Finally, after a 3AM cry, he went to sleep for good.

So, here's the kicker.  I got back from my swim and my husband hands me a glass jar and says, "Look what I found in his room this morning."  I looked, and there inside the jar was a tiny bee.  OMG!  I felt so bad, but honestly we never saw/heard the bee all the times we went in there.  We just assumed he was having a bad dream about bees.  Poor little guy!  We made a point of letting the bee go into the flowers so he would know that the bee was no longer in his room.  But, he's probably going to be scarred for life!

*  My oldest has his last week of preschool this week.  I can't believe how fast the year just flew by!  It's crazy to think that it's almost June.  Wow!

*  Our peonies finally bloomed yesterday.  We have two big bushes of them in our backyard and I absolutely love them.  I look forward to them blooming every year because I just think they are so beautiful.  :)

* I had to get another new training watch.  I'm pretty sure the watch I got from Amazon was a total dud.  It fogged up the first time I wore it swimming and has since lost all of its waterproof abilities.  Ugh!  I contacted Timex warranty and they said I had to send them a $7 check with the watch so they could mail it back to me.  And, they said they couldn't guarantee that they could fix it or replace it!   Are you kidding me?  So, instead of dealing with them, I went to REI which is having a 25% off sale on Timex watches.  I talked to the guy and ended up getting this lovely watch:

 Yes, it's pretty much the same thing I had, but I love the design so much better.  It actually reminds me of my honeymoon in Kauai!  And, because REI has an awesome return policy, if anything goes wrong with it they will replace it, no questions asked!  Yay!