30th Marathon and 24th State!

So the month of November ended up starting with a marathon after all!  It's amazing how much I craved running a fall marathon once we decided not to run one.  I got reminiscent about Iowa, Chicago, Baltimore, West Virginia, and all of the other fun fall races we've done!  I kept feeling sad. So one day I looked up Indianapolis just to see if we'd missed the marathon there or not.  We had talked about it and then dropped it back in August for various reasons.  The Monumental Marathon had a counter on their website saying, "13 Days Until the Marathon."  So I knew we still had time!  I had to persuade Rick quite a bit, but I really did think we could do it even though we hadn't trained specifically for it (though we'd both built up to run long runs of around 14-15 miles). 

And so, the crazy tale of Marathon #30 and State #24 begins!  I will post more later!

Liz Hurley Ribbon Run and Spooktacular--5K Runs in October

Liz Hurley Saturday, October 19, 2013

I ended up just watching this race this year so Rick could run it.  It was a sort of chilly day, and the kids didn't have jackets, so I had them wear my Mountain Mist and McKay Hollow Madness jackets to stay warm.  We found some pretty leaves that they wanted to play in, but they were all wet.  

Waiting for the race to start

The runners!

Something that was new this year was that men and women started together (had they not, we both could have run!).  Since I was just spectating, I don't really know how that went or whether or not the start was too congested.

Spooktacular 5K Saturday, October 26, 2013  

Nothing big to record here!  Rick and I had just decided to run a marathon the following weekend (more on that later!), so I used the Friday before Spook to run 18 miles.  I never do that before a 5K. I need to rest before a 5K if I am going to run fast!  Also, I hadn't been doing speedwork.  I expected my time to be slow for me, and it was!  I ended up with around 6:40 miles for a total of 20:54.  My splits were so consistent that I knew they were all I could do today, and I just focused on having a good time.  I was 5th OAF and still managed to get 1st in my age group.  

Mile 1-6:43

Mile 2-6:44

Mile 3-6:44

.1-:45

20:54

As usual, Gregg Gelmis found a great spot and took some wonderful pictures of the runners.  To get this shot, he was actually lying down on the street!  I love how fallish it looks!

Autumn Chase 2013

A post with no pictures! (but you can refer to last year's entry)

This year the Autumn Chase was on Thursday, September 19.  Autumn Chase is a set of free runs for children up to 8th grade. It is actually several 1-mile events broken up by grade and gender (see link for full explanation).  At the last minute, the kids decided that they wanted to run it.  Rick and I saw that our team needed help pacing the runs, so a plan was hatched: We would each run the race with our kids and then we would alternate pacing the remaining races.  As a mom of young kids, I sometimes feel don't feel like I have much to offer my racing team.  Then I realize that sometimes a little creativity is all it takes.  Rick and I could both help at the races by working together. Childcare is usually our biggest hurdle, so we look for ways to work creatively around that.  Today we did that nicely.

Our son got 10th place, and our daughter got 5th.  It was fun running with my daughter.

Then it was on to the pacing.  Our team captain, Eric, was there, along with fellow teammates Kylie and Julia.  Also pacing some of the earlier races were some local high school track team members.  The pacers' job is to run alongside the front runners, offering encouragement and support.  I found it to be very different from pacing the marathon!  These kids are not trained at all and have no idea how to pace themselves.  Most start out too fast and then quickly fade.  Our job is to stay with them and encourage them, making small conversation and guiding them to finish the best they can.  We want them to have a positive experience with running.

When I paced the 2nd grade girls, I ran/walked with a cute little girl who was telling me how hard it was for her to catch her breath.  I slowed down and walked a bit with her, then I asked if she wanted to jog a little.  She seemed comforted when I told her I'd stay with her until the end.  I have to remember that these kids may have no idea about how long a mile is.  To them, it's really long!  Sometimes that grown up running beside them gives them the confidence to keep going.

After I paced the 2nd grade girls, Rick then paced the next group of boys, and we alternated that way.  All in all, I think I paced 5 different groups of girls, and he did the same with the boys.  At the end, it was a little hard to see how HARD some of these moms/coaches are on these poor kids!  There was a mom/coach just yelling at one girl at the end (6th, 7th, and 8th grade girls).  These races should just be for fun!  I felt so bad that this girl was being yelled at like that.  I wasn't pacing her, but my friend was.  I was proud of how Kylie ran alongside her and encouraged her the whole time.  All in all, Eric and Kylie paced all 13 races, with the first few miles being more like 9 minute miles and the last few miles around a 6:00 pace.  But I'd had enough with my every-other approach.  As usual when volunteering, I ended up having a lot of fun and learning a lot too.  I know there's many other ways of volunteering where you are also running (such as leading training groups), and I recommend this type of volunteering to anyone who, like us, is short on free time.  One of us watched our kids the entire time, and they even decided to run/walk in a later race together since they grew bored watching us and the other runners!  After the races were over and we were getting ready to leave, we noticed people breaking down the course.  There were many flags and cones to remove.  We started doing that, and the kids joined in with great enthusiasm.  At home, we all just crashed that night from a long school/work day and then staying out late at these races, but it was definitely worth it to me!

2 5Ks and A Lot of Schoolwork!

Summer is over, and the school year is going full blast!  I've kept a long run of about 11-14 miles each week and done some faster runs with teammates Julia and Kylie, but mostly I've taken it easy and am not training for my usual fall marathon.  Rick went out of town for 2 weeks, and I did laps around my neighborhood in the mornings for my daily runs and hired a sitter for my long run.  I was really touched by Kylie's insistence that she and Julia meet at my house one morning to run laps with me.  As I've said, these girls are great teammates, and that gesture meant more to me than they'll ever know.

Speaking of the girls, we "faced off" at the Running of the Bulls 5K on Saturday, August 24 in Hampton Cove, AL.  I ended up third from our trio (time of 20:03), falling behind Julia for the first time in a race (her time-19:51)!  Kylie took first in 18:42, so you can see that Julia and I are much more evenly matched than either of us are to her!  My splits were 6:14, 6:29, and 6:34.  I started too fast and just faded at the end.  Kylie says that you have to "remember how to hurt" to do these 5Ks well, so I hope to do that as we approach the fall 5Ks!

I couldn't pass up an opportunity to try another 5K the next weekend.  This one was the Monte Sano 5K, following the Monte Sano 10K held right before.  My family came up for this one.  Usually the 5K competition is pretty light since you can run both of the races for the price of one (many people take advantage of that).  But I faced a 15 year old girl from out of town, and she was tough!  Unfortunately for her, she kept making wrong turns (some of the course is on gravel and dirt trails).  I kept yelling directions to her from behind!  And the women start 10 minutes after the men, so we were weaving through the slower men by this point.  Still, I took first place in the end of the 2nd mile and kept my lead until the end, finishing in a time of 20:28 (6:36 pace).  Splits were 6:17, 6:54, and 6:37, with .39 (6:24 pace) for the .1.  The prize for winning was really nice: $40 to Outback, a gift card for a 30 minute deep tissue massage, a poncho, and a drawstring bag.  Rick took the pictures below unless noted.

Start line for the Monte Sano 5K

The women getting ready to start

Gregg Gelmis was on the course taking pictures.  Here you can see how tight the first women were in that first mile.  I looked down at my Garmin and backed off once I realized that I was going sub-6!  

Top 3 women race the first mile

Finishing

I did a 1-mile cool down with my daughter

Quilt made with all of the shirts to commemorate the 25 year of Beth directing the race!

Accepting prizes from James

Our goodies!

I have sometimes wondered over the last 3 weeks if I will have time to blog (and sometimes even run!!!) during this school year.  But then I find those minutes and snatch them up!  So my apologies if my blogging suffers a little this year as I shift my priorities around to accommodate new commitments.

Wearing Down

I'm 35 years old, and at the dentist this week, they recommended a procedure for me called a gum graft.  I thought about linking pictures of gums that need to be grafted here, but I will spare you from that!  Basically, the gums of several of my teeth have been eroded so much that the root is exposed and bone loss is occurring as a result.  If I don't have the procedure, my teeth will become loose and fall out.  As you can imagine, this isn't a typical 35 year old's mouth.

I could not get this upcoming surgery out of my mind as I ran yesterday morning.  Though I was trying not to, I got onto myself for brushing too hard all of these years and for rubbing my tongue over gums in the back of my mouth to the point of erosion.  These behaviors have been a part of my anxiousness and my need to be hard on myself for years.  As I mentioned here before, I've had an eating disorder where I just about delighted in being hard on myself and feeling myself be worn away a little more each day.  Being too hard on myself comes with the territory.

And then my thoughts turned to how running is another area where I allow myself to be worn away.  Specifically, I thought of a recent family member's double knee replacement and about how each visit with this person was accompanied with tales of how running will do the same to me.  Thinking of my knees being slowly worn away while I was doing something that I loved that very moment brought me down.

I thought of my running shoes which for whatever reason show tons of wear after about 150 miles.  Shoes that provide the cushioning, stability, and protection for my feet, legs, and body!  Many people find my blog by searching for this very topic (this is my most viewed blog entry!).  They, too, want to know how to keep their shoes from wearing out so quickly and thus possibly damaging their bodies.  They want to fix the problem.

The thing is: our bodies are not meant to last forever.  They will wear down.  They will wear away.  Yes, I can do what I can to slow down this process and I can and should try to live pain-free, but I am not going to live forever no matter how hard I try!  The idea that my teeth may fall out and my knees may give out upsets me, but why should it? 

My thoughts turned to a Bible verse and about what God has to say about the brevity of our lives:

James 4
13Go to now, you that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15For that you ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. [emphasis added]

I find peace in knowing that God didn't intend for my body to last forever.  I love the imagery---that our life here on earth is but a vapor!  It speaks to me so much to know how short this time really will be in all of eternity. 

But I still must honor Him by respecting the body He gave me.  With anorexia, I was a slave to starvation.  As I became healthier, I was able to enjoy the foods He gave me.  I restored much of the damage I had done to my body.  With my teeth and gums, I will do everything recommended by my dentist to save my teeth.  For now, it's a special fluoride rinse and a hydroflosser each night, plus the awareness of what I'm doing to damage myself. 

With running, awww running.  It's so hard to know what is "too much" there.  Part of the reason that I run is to ease my anxiousness.  I feel God's presence on my runs.  So what can I say?  Maybe I am wearing down my knees and my shoes too much. See here for an entry where I reflected on some of high mileage running's possible harmful effects.  How do we really know?

So today my gums eroded just a tiny bit more.  My knees' cartilage wore down just a fraction of a degree more.  The scuff on the bottom of my shoe got the smallest bit bigger.  Another 24 hours ticked away in my precious and fleeting life.  But in the realization of these things, my hope and reliance on something even bigger increased.  My need for God's salvation and my eternal life with Him was felt even greater than before.  My thankfulness for my eternal life and my heavenly body free from age and pain increased. 

And finally, thanks to the wonderful healing power of 45 minutes of tough running and uninterrupted thoughts, my problems with my eroded gums seemed a whole lot smaller.

Twilight 5K Race Report: Running with my 7 year old!

My son and I ran the Twilight 5K together on Saturday, July 20.  This is a night race with a 1 mile fun run followed by a 5K.  My son, who just turned 7, has been wanting to do a 5K for a couple of months now.  He even went as far as to "train" by doing a couple of runs with me where we jogged 20-30 minutes together.  But my son is a typical 7 year old boy with LOTS of energy.  He runs, walks, hikes, crawls, jumps, swims, and bike rides as much as he can fit into each day.  That is "training" enough for him.  How much should you train with a young child?  That and more questions are answered in a descriptive blog entry by Tia found here.  It was helpful reading her opinions and finding out how she's helped her encourage her oldest daughter's running.

 

We arrived at the race, and Rick went to volunteer at the aid station with our daughter.  Rick snapped this picture of us before he left. 

 

 

Then began a long period of waiting for the race to start.  It takes place on a local college campus surrounded by many pine trees, so my son and I went exploring under the trees while we waited for the start.  Much different than my typical pre-race warm-up routine! 

 

He spotted a boy about his age with his shirt off, so my son took his off too!  I thought that was a good idea to help keep him cool.  Running in the 80 degree weather without much training would be easier if he was cool.

 

The Race

I had the Garmin on to see my son's pace as we ran.  We started near the middle of the pack and pretty much maintained a steady pace throughout the run.  For me, the pace felt incredibly relaxed and easy, but I had to remind my self that, for my son, this pace was challenging. 

 

Rick and I each had given him "pep talks," which I think is inevitable for two runners to do!  We did our best to explain how to do your best, how running can feel VERY hard, and about pushing yourself to achieve your goal.  Our son's goal was just to finish and have fun, hopefully while running/jogging for most of the race.  I enjoyed running with him.  I distracted him as much as possible as we ran.  I've run this course many times, so I know it well.  We passed a small lake that we'd launched his remote-controlled boat in earlier this summer, so I made sure I pointed that out.  I explained how we would reach a turn-around cone and then head back to the start line.  And I knew we would pass the aid station twice, so I talked all about how Daddy and Sissy would be waiting to see us and cheering for us.  Sure enough, the aid station boosted my son's spirits both times, and the water cooled him off.

Approaching the aid station the first time

He's telling his sister to "pour the water ON me!!!"

Coming back around for the second time

He's looking tired here!

Sister hands him water!

Sister splashes water on him!!

A volunteer pours more water on his back at my prompting

The end of the course has a little hill.  I knew here was where my son would really be tempted to walk.  I was really proud of him when he didn't and noticed a nice man encouraging him as he passed the man.  As we got to the end, I reminded my son to push himself, especially when the finish line was in sight.  He later told me that he was picturing a large trophy at the finish line with his name on it.  How did he learn to usual mental imagery to help him as he ran?!?!  That is a great technique for all runners!

He finished in 30:15--a 9:44 pace!  We got water and walked for a bit and then sat down on a curb.  I asked him, "How do you feel?  Are you happy you did it?"  And I honestly had NO idea what he would say.  He said, "Mommy, I'm proud of myself, and I'm so happy you pushed me."  That made my day!

The best part was finding out that he has gotten 3rd place in his age group (0-9 year olds)!  He is so excited, because here in Huntsville, age group awards usually mean Fleet Feet gift cards!  He was presented with a $10 card for FF, and he is so excited to pick something out there!

 

This was a great experience for both of us, captured nicely by our local race photographer, Gregg Gelmis.  I am so happy to have this picture of us running together.

 

Surprise Date Night

from here

 

Rick surprised me on June 12 with a date night to see Spirit of the Marathon II!

As I stepped into his car, he had a bag with a new Fleet Feet jacket and a really sweet card for me, but the movie was a surprise until we got to the theater.  I thought all along that we were going to see The Great Gatsby, since we tried seeing that a couple of weeks ago and we hadn't been able to.  It turns out that our local theater had one showing of Spirit of the Marathon II, and Rick had knew it would be a great date night for two marathoners!




New jacket and nice card 

The movie followed seven runners from around the world as they prepared for the marathon in Rome.  Even though the theater we went to see the movie at was nearly empty, I didn't care.  I felt an instant connection with all of the other people in the theater and to the people featured in the movie.  I understood what the runners were going through as they trained and ran in the marathon and felt surges of adrenaline watching the race.  I got to see a variety of athletes train and run too---not just the people around my pace like I normally have the most exposure to.  The person I connected the most to was Ylenia from Milan.  She was a mother to two kids like me.  You can read much more about the movie and the other cast members here. From their website, the filmmakers tried to "capture the truly international nature of the marathon and how its transformative power has a profound effect on all who run it."  I know what they mean when they talk about the "profound effect" of marathons, since I know the effect they've had in my life.  I recommend you watch it if you get a chance, but I don't know if that is possible since there was only one showing on the same day all over the nation!

Even more special about the night was how Rick had all of this planned for us as something special to do.  Sometimes I fault running for making things so hard for us as we try to fit two marathon training schedules into our lives.  I forget that running is how we first fell in love.  Without running, there would be no us.  Now running is still a connection that we have, thought we rarely do it together anymore.  We still understand what the other one is going through during training, we still know what it feels like when the other one misses their goal by a single minute or two in the marathon, and we still get to enjoy traveling to marathons and starting each marathon together.  Somehow, we've been able to run marathons in almost 23 states together (we didn't do Georgia together but I think we did the rest?).  And we've managed to run 12 of those states after having our kids.  These marathons will be memories we will never forget.  I give Rick credit for finding a movie that unites us with the greater worldwide community of marathon runners, but I credit this movie and date night with reminding me of how running unites the two of us even more.