I know it's been a while since I last posted. Good thing nobody reads this but me :) I have a lot of respect for people who keep up on their blogs, I do not have that fortitude.
It's Oct. 17th and I'm looking outside to a beautiful sunny day, blue skies and around 55 degrees going up to around 70. Seriously, it doesn't get any better than this. This has to be the best summer/fall EVER!! I don't want to forget it for a number of reasons.
Yesterday I ran my first half marathon in Indianapolis, 13.1 miles and yes I will specify that .1 because I earned every tenth of a mile!! I started on my weight loss journey on May 25th, never with the intention of running a half marathon. But running has ALWAYS been the key to quick weight loss for me and I enjoy it. It's a true solo sport and being the fiercely independent person that I am (Brett would say anti-social) running totally suites me. I don't have to depend on anybody but myself.
In the beginning I just vowed that I will walk every day no matter what as long as it wasn't raining. How hard is that right? I mean there is no pressure to walk. Then I started to walk/jog, then jog more than walk until I worked myself up to trying to jog 3 laps around my trail which is 3.6 miles per lap. It was sometime in August I think where I ran my first 10 miles nonstop!! I was so proud of myself. It was NOT an easy feat. Most people can't imagine running nonstop for more than 2 hours. Trust me, it's grueling. So why did I want to try and do 13 miles?? Easy answer, just to see if I could do it. I wasn't out to break any records. I just wanted to finish the race with a mini-goal of doing it under 3 hours.
I ran 12 miles for the first time last Sunday. A week before that I had an intestinal virus from hell. I was literally on the toilet every day almost every hour of the day spilling my guts out. Needless to say, I did not run one bit that whole week which was the most I've not worked out since I started in May. That started to freak me out knowing that I was a week away from the race.
So when I finally started to feel normal again, I did not hesitate to get back on the trail and see if I could do it. It really was more of a mental thing than a physical. My legs actually felt awesome from not running in a week. Talk about fresh legs. And because I was so sick I wasn't eating and lost 2 lbs and actually broke the 167 barrier!! Too bad it was all water weight but I didn't care, it was still awesome to see 164.4 on the scale. So physically I felt really good, I just needed to know that I could do it. And I did! It took me 2 hrs and 15 mins which was about 11.25 min miles. Not bad. Now I felt confident that I could finish the race.
I did not run on Monday, ran 7 or so miles on Tuesday, didn't run on Wed even though I wanted to which left me to decide if I should run on Thurs before the race. I've been reading a bunch of marathon blogs and first timer tips and almost all of them said to not workout 2 days before the race so your legs can rest. Of course, I couldn't resist. I did a light run of 3.5 miles. Again, it was really just a mental thing. I figured I'm not running a marathon and wanted to approach this race with the same mentality as any other time I've ran more than 10 miles. I usually run every day during the week, then when Sat comes around, I get up, drink my protein shake and go run.
I didn't want to psych myself out because it was an actual race. I wanted to treat it like a typical Sat run. Grant it, there was going to be 6200 people and it's an actual event versus a jog in a forest preserve but mentally I didn't want to make it more than that. And that worked for me. Now I have to admit, I was a little anxious about it. I did not sleep well at all the night before. Just being in a different bed in a different location doesn't allow me to sleep well. Add to that a screaming crying kid a few doors down and I definitely wasn't going to get a peaceful nights rest. I also woke up every couple of hours because I was afraid my alarm wouldn't go off and I'd be late for the race. I knew I had to be in the parking lot well before 7:15 so my plan was to leave around 6:15. I had already drove to where the race was going to be held and knew exactly where I had to be so at least that wasn't stressing me out. But I wanted to make sure I beat the traffic and because I am extremely anal about stuff like this, I knew I'd leave extra early. Which I did.
I was probably one of the first cars in the lot. The volunteers hadn't even started working yet. They were still in their pre-game huddle so I picked a spot on the end for easy exiting and literally sat in my car for about an hour and a half reading my book. Luckily I was parked right under a street light so that made for easy reading. By 7, I had to pee so bad that I left my car and went looking for a portapottie. Unfortunately the closest ones were by the start of the race so I had to walk about 10 mins away. At this point I still needed to drink another protein shake and get my sunglasses because it was suppose to be brillantly sunny. So I rushed back to my car and took care of those things and grabbed my ipod and headed back to the race site.
At this point, there were TONS of people milling about and a ton more waiting to use the portapotties. I couldn't believe how long the lines were and there were probably 50 potties. Of course I knew after just drinking 8 ounces of shake I'd have to go again so I jumped in line. I barely made it through before the race started (had about 5 mins to spare). I registered under the slowest pace 17 min mile because I knew I wasn't going to be fast. What was amazing is all the different shapes and sizes of the people participating. There were people in their 50's, 60's, there were people who were overweight, there were the typical runner-shape people who were lean with no body fat. It was pretty cool seeing all kinds of people taking on a marathon/half marathon. So I felt pretty comfortable in my skin.
The one lesson I learned is that I need to register under a more realistic time. There were 7 corrals based on your pace. Obviously the ultra marathoners are in corral A because they run at least a 5 min mile pace. Then you have corral H which is the slowest at 17 min mile pace. When you are in the last corral, it takes forever to get past all the slow people. I was shocked by how many people were actually walking the race! These people create huge bottlenecks so you have to zigzag around them which wastes a lot of energy in the first few miles.
I am not and never plan to be a professional runner. I don't have the fancy garmin watches which give you your pace, speed, heart rate, calorie count, etc. I have a POLAR watch with a close to dead battery and I only use it for the time watch function. I consider myself a recreational runner with the sole purpose of allowing me to eat some of my favorite foods without feeling guilty. So I guess I learned that it would have been helpful to honestly figure out my pace and get placed in the right corral. I don't know how that would have affected my final completion time since your official start time is when you crossed the start line. I don't have the official results from my time chip but when I crossed the finish line the time on the billboard said 2:38:44 or something like that which equates to about a 12 min mile pace. Not bad for the first time.
In the end, I'd totally do this race again. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. The trees were all in full color and spectacular! I LOVE fall. The weather was actually perfect, if not a tad brisk at the start. It was 42 degrees and clear blue skies which made it colder. I debated if I wanted to leave my fleece jacket in the car but I couldn't handle the cold. When you can see your breath it's hard for my mind to accept standing outside in a long sleeve underarmour shirt and t-shirt. But I saw a lot of people with short sleeves and tank tops on!! Brave souls. Although by the middle of the race, I was so ready to take off my jacket. But I knew I wouldn't because it would take time to take off my ipod and headphones. But it wasn't too bad. There were a couple of steep inclines along the course. Around mile 3 and a horrendous incline after mile 10. I was trying my best to jog up those hills but felt like I was barely moving. Most people were walking them but at this point I was determined to not slow down. And I got through them. What was funny was there was a guy in front of me with a bright orange shirt on that had the quote from Phillipeans 4:13. Something to the effect that through Christ, I can gather the strength to endure anything!!! It was so motivating and at a perfect time. Running the last 3 miles was brutal. By the last 1/2 mile I was so ready to stop but all the people cheering you on really helped me finish strong. I literally sprinted (as fast as I could at that point) to the finish line. It was a little anti-climatic since I didn't have anybody there to share it with which was okay but would have been nice to have a little celebration. Guess that's the price you pay for being so independent.
Today my calves are screaming sore because of those inclines but I'd totally do it again. The race was very well organized and in a beautiful location. I still don't have any plans to do more than 13 miles even though I said before that I'd never do more than 6 miles. At the 12 mile mark there is a turnoff for the marathoners to go on and I couldn't imagine having to run another 13 miles! I give them props, it is an incredible challenge. When I was running to mile 6, there were marathoners who were coming up to mile marker 12. They were running twice as fast as me which means around 6 min mile pace. Incredible. Every single one of them was skin and bones and mostly guys although there were a handful of girls. Inside I was cheering them on because it is not an easy feat. And right now, I still don't aspire to be them although Brett wants me to try and run a marathon just to see if I can do it. No immediate plans for that. I would like to do the Arizona half marathon in January. I think it would be cool to travel to different cities and run races as a hobby. You get to experience different scenery and run on a different course and get to spend a little fun time there as well. Most vacations you tend to gain weight because it interrupts your workout but this would be the best of both! I know, how obsessed am I :)
Now my fear is trying to maintain this regimen during the coming winter months. My biggest fear is slowing down, not watching my eating habits and gaining all the weight back. I've come so far and worked so hard that I don't want to mess it all up. I guess that should be my motivation. That was the other bad thing about not having somebody else with me on my first 1/2 marathon, I didn't have somebody taking pictures of me or the event to visually document my achievement. Sometimes pictures are worth more than words. I'll just have to lock the day away in my memory!
Congrats! I'm proud of you.
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