21 Miles... D-O-N-E!

Yesterday morning I completed my last long run (and longest run ever) before the Disney Marathon - 
21 miles!

Oh my fucking hell, it was HARD!

This was my Facebook status yesterday:
Finished my last long run (21 miles) before the Disney Marathon. My thoughts... Running and walking can go f*ck themselves. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Surprisingly, I got several "Likes" and comments on this :)

Why... no, HOW, can people run multiple marathons?
I was in the worst pain of my running life during miles 18 to 21.
If I had another 20 or 22 miler planned before January 8th, I simply wouldn't do it.
I am over the marathon distance.  Over it.
Give me back my happy little world of half marys and lets call it a day.

I had been dreading these long runs since I signed up for the marathon in April.  I thought signing up for a running group would help me to get through them.  Unfortunately my running group ran their 20 miler last Saturday when I was coming home from vacation.
Clearly I did not do a great job of prioritizing the marathon training, so this left me to run 20 miles on my own.

Here are the basics of the run (many of these places will mean nothing to you, if you are not familiar with Miami, but just know it is a popular running area)...
I drove over to Bayshore Drive and did the first half of the run out on Key Biscayne.  5 miles out and back for a total of 10 miles.  Key Biscayne has several public bathrooms and water fountains, so it was nice to know I could go to the bathroom if I had to and refill my hand held if necessary.
At mile 10 I was back at my car where I had a banana, rubbed some Icy Hot on my hips and knees and refilled my hand held with an electrolyte drink.
For the next 11 miles, I ran in the opposite direction, through the little town of Coconut Grove with the turn around point on Edgewater Drive.  3 miles away from my car was the Starbucks at CocoWalk, so I knew that would be a good half way point (in either direction) where I could use the bathroom and get water or shots of espresso as needed.  I stopped at Starbucks twice.

The good things about the run
-It's over
-The first half actually went really well
-My left foot and knee, which had been bothering me, were fine and are fine today!
-My mom sent me all these Hammer Nutrition things to try: Gels, Endurolyte pills and electrolyte drinks and none of them made me poop my pants, yipee!  The Montana Huckleberry Gel was especially good!
-Calf cramping comes on later and later as I run longer (is this a good thing?)
-The lady who rung me up at Starbucks is training for the Miami half marathon so she was all excited & supportive to hear I was running the Disney full.  Thanks Starbucks lady!
-In a twisted way, I am now SO EXCITED for Marathon day (WTF is wrong with me?!)

The bad things about the run
-Insane pain for miles 18 to 21
-Weather at start of run was 68 degrees (nice) with 100% humidity (kiss my ass)
-Weather at end of run was 82 degrees (kill me now) with 90% humidity (kill me again if 80 degrees doesn't do it)
-For whatever reason, unknown to me, I had the worst pain in my hips and ass (both cheeks) that I have ever felt.  I don't know why... I have never had pain there before.  It came on at mile 8 which was even stranger since I have been running so many 10 & 13 milers in the past 3 months.


Things I learned
-Should have brought another shirt to switch out half way through, mine was soaked!
-Unless it rains on Marathon day, I feel confident I can deal with whatever the weather is... high humidity or not
-I will take GU every 4 miles during the marathon... only took two yesterday, so I will definitely up that number January 8th

Once that shit show was over, I spent the rest of the day I switching between here...

and here...

Wearing these... so thankful for compression socks!

And watching a crazy amount of 'Friends' reruns...

Kudos to all of you who have trained for multiple marathons.  You are impressive.
People may say that about half marathons, but come on, those are easy... :)

P.S.  Can someone tell me if marathoners cry when they cross the finish line because they are proud of what they have accomplished or if it is because they are so unbelievably relieved  it is over?
There may have been a teary eyed moment filled with relief when I got back to my car and could take my sneakers and socks off.

Palm Beaches Marathon Festival Half Marathon

This half marathon took place Sunday December 4th.  I ran this as part of a 16 mile long run I had scheduled for that weekend.  It worked out great for this purpose as I didn't get bored and the 16 miles went fairly easily.  Having said that, this is not a race I would recommend. This is a shame since the course is absolutely beautiful... all along the water and through some neighborhoods in Palm Beach.

Source

The course was on the road right along the water, I told you it was beautiful :)

The things I tought were the worst parts of the weekend:

-"Expo" was a joke, so small.  They should have just called it Packet Pick-Up

-The shirt I received was a cotton tee shirt, not a tech shirt.  Not that I am desperate for anymore running shirts, it is just lame for a half marathon

-Started late

-Ran out of water by Mile 6.... so LAME.  There was the half and the marathon going on at the same time, but at Mile 8.5 we broke off from the marathoners and started heading to the finish.  At that point the half peeps were getting first crack at the water, so I can only imagine that there was nothing left for the marathoners when they were making their way to the end.  Feel so bad for them.  I have never experienced Mile 24 or 25 of marathon (yet), but I would assume water would be one of the few things to make me happy.  I would be so mad if there was nothing available.  

There was also no electrolyte drink available.  That made me nervous because it was kind of warm that day and I sweat a lot.... like salt covering my face a lot.

Luckily for me, the hotel I stayed in the night before was right on the course, so once I got to it (at mile 11), I ran over to my room, chugged some coconut water and got my own bottle of water to run with the rest of the way.  Marathoners, I did not drink any of your water... you're welcome.

Yes, I totally left the course during a race.  Since I was running 16 total that day I totally could not have cared less about my time.  As I was running off the course, one of the cops was like "Hey no cheating"... the direction I was heading in was the opposite way of the finish line, so that wasn't even a possibility :)

Not to be a total downer with this post, the good things about the race:

-I got an Active Schwaggle deal and only paid $45.  Total bargain... love those Active Schwaggle deals!  Last minute registration fee was $90. Totally not worth that.

-Beautiful course.  It is an extremely flat, fast course and the marathon is a Boston qualifier.  For people interested in that sort of thing, this would be a good race... just bring your own water.

-Start/finish lines were close to the hotel I stayed at so I could run to and from the race to get in my 16 miles

-Volunteers decorated their water stops, very cool!  The cops along the course were great.  This wasn't a big race, so not every road was closed, but they were great about cars crossing, etc.

-Medal... not super fancy, but I do love the bling!

Sorry for the blurry picture

My first Group Run

Marathon training has officially begun.  Well, it officially began back on August 6th but I was on vacation.  When I got back I wanted to get in a few longer runs before the Disneyland half, and the group was only running 5 and 6 miles... apparently I am a running snob.
This past Saturday they ran 8 miles and I was excited to jump right in!  There are probably about 25-30 people in my pace group, and about 6 to 8 different pace groups with the running store I am training with.  There were a ton of runners everywhere.  
Saturday we ran out on Key Biscayne.  Parking at the Miami Seaquarium we headed back into town on the Rickenbacker Causeway and over the big bridge.  I loved the bridge!  After the Beach to Beacon 10K I know how weak my hill skills are, so the burning I felt in my lungs and legs was tolerable because I knew this would make me stronger.  

Rickenbacker Causeway bridge   Source

After running through part of a neighborhood, there was a table set up with water coolers for a quick stop.  Running with a group is pretty fun, it's like a little party.  Very social setting and the miles zip by.  I really hope I still think this when we start running 16, 18, 20 miles.
I had never run with anyone before and I had never run 8 miles without music, but really enjoyed both!
After the water break, we ran another mile before turning around and heading back to the Seaquarium.  We were all done by 7:45am, just about the time the sun was starting to feel hot - nice.
I met a lady from my group who lives in my neighborhood and was looking to run with someone early in the morning during the week.  Count me in!  Running in the dark sounds great to me, so we are going to meet up a couple days a week at 5am to get our weekday runs in.  It was great yesterday to be done running and showered by 6:30am.  
This weekend I am heading to Orlando to run the Miracle Miles 15K with Annnette and then I will be back in Orlando next weekend for the Disney Wine & Dine half marathon with Leah, Annette, Brian and some some people from Leah's work.  I am so, so excited for both weekends in Orlando, but I am a little sad I won't get to run with the group for the next couple of weeks.  Oh well, I am still getting the miles in which is the most important thing.
You may have noticed above that I removed the 'Sweat!' tab.  I hadn't been keeping up with it and just got bored, so it's out.  I know I don't need to write everything down to keep motivated.  The fact I have to go 26.2 miles on January 8th is motivation enough.
If you are bored, check out the updated 'Me & My Blog' tab and the 'Bling!' tab.  Someone had a lot of time on her hands Sunday afternoon :)

Beach to Beacon 10K

Well after three weeks away from blogging, and after three GREAT Guest Posts (thanks ladies!), I decided it was time for me to get back to writing!  My vacation was so great and as soon as that was over I got to spend 4 nights in Vegas for work.  That meant long and tiring days, but hey, I was in Vegas baby!  More on that work trip later...
First up is the 10K I ran in Maine on my first full day of vacation.
Back in March, I was lucky enough to have gotten into the Beach to Beacon 10K.  Registration opened at 7am and by 7:08am it was sold out.  7,000 runners were in and it was awesome that it included me, my sister, my brother-in-law, my cousin and my uncle.
This race takes place in Cape Elizabeth, Maine... a beautiful little town along the Maine coast.  This race was established 14 years ago by Joan Benoit Samuelson, Cape Elizabeth resident and winner of the 1984 Gold Medal in the first Olympic Women's Marathon.  Dave McGilvray is the Race Director (as in he is the Race Director of the Boston Marathon), so you knew this would be a first class event.  
There were elite athletes from all over the world running for the money.  The winner (from Kenya obviously) got through the 6.2 miles in 27:46.  Amazing!!  14 seconds separated the male runners 1 through 4.  Would have loved to have seen that coming down the home stretch!  Rumor had it, Dana Kastor was suppose to be running, but we couldn't find her in the results afterwards... well it was my brother-in-law looking up the results.  I was drinking coffee and relaxing :)
The course starts outside the entrance of Crescent Beach State Park and finishes at the Portland Head Light, the nation's first commissioned lighthouse and a really beautiful spot!
The below two pics are from Brightroom's Beach to Beacon 10K promo site:

Start line outside of Crescent Beach

Finish line at Portland Head Light

The race is described as a fast point-to-point course along the Maine Coast.  Ok, yup, I agree with that.  It is also said that it is a net downhill course.  The first mile... all downhill, great!  The rest of the course... rolling hills.  This Florida-living girl was not prepared for the ups and downs of this course.  I did great my first 5K... regular race pace, right on track and then the last half, my legs were just shot.

It got to the point where I was not dreading the uphills, but the downhills.  Usually when running down a hill, I just drop my arms to the side and enjoy the ride... weeee!  The 'weeee' factor was done after the like the gatrillionth (you didn't know that was a word?!) hill.  I walked a couple of times, yet I was excited approaching the finish area.  I had practiced running the last 800 meters of a long run as fast as I could on tired legs and that is what I wanted to do during this race.  I was fine until I saw one last, steep hill at about mile 6.1.  I definitely said "F*CK" as soon as I saw it.  Man that last little hill really blew.  They actually keep a paramedic at the top of the hill because there has been a history of people going down at that spot.  Anyways, I did get through it and finish, a good 5 minutes slower than I wanted, but what can you do.  I am use to running a quick, little hill and then have a mile and a half to recover before getting to the next quick, little hill.

The rest of my family were all fast and awesome!  They had all run the race last year and I heard a lot of "It wasn't as bad as I remembered".   Yea... whatever...

Here's me barely making it
into the finish line photo

You know when you are done a race some of the things you say are negative, "Heat, humidity, hills, blah, blah, blah, crab, crab, crab" but then right after you say all that, you are ready for the next race?!  That was me, my sister and brother-in-law that Saturday.  It was a pretty funny drive home.  

Honestly none of my complaining was towards any of the race organization... it was a fantastic race!  I recommend it to anyone who wants to try signing up at 7am on a March morning.  Great crowds pretty much the entire time... my favs were the house that had 'YMCA' blaring, so fun!  People had their garden hoses out and were showering us with much needed cold water, thanks!  Parking was easy, buses were easy.  The course was really nice and Joan was at the finish line congratulating runners.  I missed her, but my sister saw her.  Water, bananas and watermelon (score!) post race, loved it all!

I hope to run this again one day... I WILL be better prepared for those hills!

Preparing for Wine & Dine

This weekend I received the latest email from runDisney about Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend.  Included in the email was the weekend program.

Link

You can bet your bottom dollar that I have read this bad boy from cover to cover.  I mentioned before that I am a Disney dork, so this should really come as no surprise.

I am really excited to run this race again this year and I may or may not look like this right now.

I have never taken a picture with the Apple photo booth before, so fun!  
Totally don't even care that I look like a mess in the morning :)

Last year when I ran the Wine & Dine it was my first half marathon, so I definitely have a soft spot for this race.  I love the Disney Parks at night, my absolute favorite time to visit, so I really enjoyed this course.  Loved the electrical light parade floats, the Osbourne family light display at MGM (I’m old school) and the band they had on Osceola Parkway.  

It was also my first half marathon and I was really nervous, yet hopeful, I would make it through the race with minimal pain and actually enjoy myself a little bit.  Both were accomplished with hard work and planning on my part.

There were some complaints from the participants last year with this inaugural race, so here are my tips for having a great time at the event.  Since I do not work for Disney I can tell you exactly what I think and don’t have to be all nice and politically correct.

1.  Read the Final Race Instructions from Disney when they are emailed to you.  Absolutely every detail you will want to know is in there.  They do a great job communicating the logistics of their race weekend.  If you are wandering around like a lost child on race weekend, it is because you didn’t read the instructions.  Read them.  Also while you are at it, read the program from cover to cover… it’s already available. 

2.  While Disney gives great race instructions and preparation tips (absolutely above and beyond any other race) they are not going to run or walk the actual race for you.  BE PREPARED.  Do not let the guise of a Disney race fake you out.  You still need to get your body, on your own accord, through 13.1 miles to the finish line.  Does that freak you out?  Good.  Prepare yourself because it is not a walk in the park.  Disney races are first timer friendly, but 13.1 miles in the real world is still 13.1 miles at Disney. 

3.  On race weekend, take care of yourself.  Sure, you are likely at Disney on a family vacation of some sort, but on Saturday (the day of the race) you need to take care of yourself.  I saw a comment on runDisney’s Facebook page where someone said they ate lasagna at 5pm on race day and then did not feel good during the race.  Are you seriously kidding me?  And when I say “seriously” I really mean “f*cking” with a big dose of annoyance.   If I ate lasagna 5 hours before a race (Wine & Dine starts at 10pm), I wouldn’t feel great during the run either.  In fact, I may be pooping my pants at around mile 10 or so.  So ridiculous.  In this year’s program, Jeff Galloway outlines a great race day preparation routine.  Read it.  Live it.

Last year my family, friends and I had eaten our big meal that day at lunch.  By 4pm I was napping, woke up around 5:30ish, showered, then had a banana, power bar and water pre-race.  I felt great that night and had a blast.  Can you imagine that I figured all that out without Jeff Galloway’s help?  Common sense, people.

4.  There were some complaints about the 10pm start time (it’s too late).  Here’s a tip, you know the start time of the race before you sign up, so if you are not down with the time, don’t sign up.

For me, running at 10pm and being up until 3am was no different than waking up a 3am, running at 6am and retuning to the hotel by 10am for one of runDisney’s morning races.

You know the time of the race when you sign up.  BE PREPARED.

5.  Sure the race takes place in October and sure it is at night, but you are still running in Florida.  The weather at race time will likely not be cool or humidity free.  Last year’s temp was around 75 degrees.  I was psyched about this, as come October, anything feels better to me than 95 degrees with 90% humidity.  Plus I love the night race since there is no sun.  The sun really drains me.  My sister and brother-in-law are from Maine and thought the conditions were HOT and HUMID.  I did not notice the humidity, but they did.  Non-Florida residents, BE PREPARED for hot and humid weather… and be thankful there is no sun thrown in there.

I hope this has shed a little light on what to expect during race weekend.  BE PREPARED to tackle 13.1 miles at 10pm in hot, humid weather.  You were the one who signed up for this race, so sometimes setting the right expectations is half the battle.

* Please note these are my opinions based on last year’s experience.  I am not any sort of professional anything and if you choose to follow this advice it is at your own risk.

3 Things Thursday

1. Trash talk follow-up.  For those of you who are interested (Trish, Annette)  yes I was able to dump my bag of trash yesterday after work.  And no my car did not smell too funky.  After I sprayed my Yankee Candle Macintosh Apple air freshener it was like my whole blonde moment never happened.

2.  Got in a good run on the treadmill today.  I did 400 meter track repeats, which I am really starting to love.  It makes the run go by so fast.  I also added in a few hills for fun.  Hills for fun, huh, who knew?

Following my run, I was pressed for time, so it took awhile to really cool down.  I was still a hot sweaty mess after my shower, on the way to work.  After about 20 minutes in the car with the A/C on full blast I started to feel better.  Aside, from getting my lazy self out of bed earlier, does anyone have any tips for a good post run cool down?

3.  Over a month ago I saw these cute reusable snack bags on my friend Martha’s blog and loved them.  I hated using so many plastic bags everyday, so I thought I’d give these a try.

Obviously mine are polka dot!

The outside of the baggie is 100% cotton, has a nylon water- and stain-resistant lining and a thick strip of Velcro to keep it tightly closed.  They are ideal for all kinds of dry snacks, sandwiches (they come in 3 sizes) and fruit.  I did keep a couple of small slices of watermelon in one, and the outside of the bag got kind of wet, something to keep in mind.  Plus the bags come in so many cute designs!
You can find them at Mels Sells on Etsy.com, check them out!

9 Miler in Ogunquit, Maine

My parents live in the town of Wells, Maine, but I knew the route I would run for my 9 miles last Sunday would take me through the cute little town of Ogunquit.  OGT (as it is abbreviated) is a seaside town very popular with New Englanders and Quebecers in the summer time. 

I was planning on taking it pretty easy on my run and even brought my camera along for some pictures, take a look…

Cute little breakfast place in Perkins Cove

Harbor in Perkins Cove

Only in Maine

Shops in Perkins Cove

Perkins Cove from the Marginal Way

running along the water

Main beach in Ogunquit

Heading back into Ogunquit

Town center, The Front Porch is a
piano bar that has been around forever

Main Street in Ogunquit

My parents house is so cute & "New Englandy"

My niece Lily likes to run too!

Overall, it was a nice easy run.  The weather was amazing... 70 something and cloudy.  Really dreamy running weather when compared to the 305.  One thing that really kicked my ass (I could really feel it in my bum all day), was the rolling hills all along the way.  My runs in Florida are flatter than flat, so it seems even just a few hills make a difference.  Need to work on those incline runs on the treadmill before next month's Beach to Beacon 10K!

Red-eye from FLL to BOS and my 4th of July weekend

Did you know there was a red-eye flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Boston?  Me neither, but last Friday night I got to fly on it!  My flight was originally scheduled to leave at 10pm, but then got delayed until 11:30 and then until 12:15am.  We finally took off at about 12:45am. 

A two and a half hour delay isn’t so bad, it just seemed worse because I didn’t get into Boston until 3:30 in the morning.  Once my cousin picked me up at the airport (thanks for waiting for me Mandy!), we still had to drive an hour and 15 minutes up to our parents’ places in Wells, Maine.  By the time I got to sleep that night it was 5:30am.  Definitely felt like a red-eye from the west coast situation.  JetBlue did send me a $50 credit though.  I hadn’t even had the chance to complain before the credit showed up, but I am sure others complained… thanks JetBlue!

The rest of the weekend felt like a whirlwind, it was a lot of fun!

I got to see my neice

Thanks Lil for looking at the camera

The only way to get her to look at the camera,
was to give her an ice cream sandwich...

...and to take a "self-portrait" shot.
Whatever works for the 2 year old

Went to the beach – after playing in the sand, Lily was all about her watermelon and chips & salsa lunch buffet

Saw the musical “Summer of Love” at the Ogunquit Playhouse – great 60s & 70s music!

Took a trolley ride into Ogunquit, walked around Perkins Cove & walked the Marginal Way

Public transportation in Ogunquit is by trolley, love it!

Lily sitting with the big girls, Laura & Amanda

Perkins Cove - cute fishing/tourist village

Nice walk along the ocean

Played Mini Golf – my team won!  No, thanks to me though, I came in last out of me, my sister and my brother-in-law

Who doesn't love mini golf!?

Two of my cousins ran through the human maze and the rest of us watched and yelled out directions

Hannah

Mandy

Enjoyed Happy Hour at the Beachfire Grill – yummy martinis!

Greg is pointing out how my mom is talking and talking

See, still talking

Ate lobster – duh, of course, I was in Maine

Had a campfire in my parent’s backyard and lit sparklers. 

*there was no one under the age of 20 participating in the sparklers.  Are we a little too old now?  I am going with no.

Cousin self portrait

Ran a 5K with the fam on 4^th of July – the little area in Kennebunkport known as Goose Rocks is so nice.  Great race with lots of crowd support!

Didn't get a pic of all the runners, so I had
Lily pose with my race bib in the car

Showed Lily how to flip through a book on my iPad

Kids these days know so much about technology

Got some kitty love from my parents cats, Calvin Klein & Liz Claiborne

Cal is seriously the best smelling cat ever!  So weird, but when he
turned up at the cat shelter, he smelled great.  That is why the
volunteers named him Calvin Klein.  True story.

We named Lizzie, Liz Claiborne, to match Cal.
Now I usually just call her Fattie Bobalatti.
She is totally the sweetest cat, so low maintenance.

Visited my friends Celeste & Derek at their new place in Charlestown (as in “The Town”)

No picture, but I should have taken one of their view of the Boston skyline from their roof deck, so awesome!

Good times with family and friends!  Can’t wait to head back up there in August for a week!