Houston Double

It's no secret that I haven't been running very long. I still find it hard to call myself a runner. A few years back I was in a car accident that tore apart my shoulder and neck. After 8 months of PT and steroids and surgical steroid injections. I came out of it it 30 pounds heavier. At damn near 200 pounds I decided to start walking. The walking lead me to a couch to 5k program. At which point I began the Galloway method of running intervals. It was June 2011 when I started, they said you need a goal. So I picked a 5k to run. The El Paso (the Oil and Gas company not city) 5k which was in January 2012. Come September I was "running" 5 miles during my long run on the weekends so I thought I should try this 5k stuff sooner. So I signed up for the Health Museums Run for Your Life 5k. I did good, I finished under 36 minutes which for me seemed like a miracle. That day a vendor was giving out free entry into this Energizer Night race on 11-11-11, an 11k. So I figured why the fuck not. By the time my OFFICIAL first 5k came around I was proud to say it wasn't my first. But something happened that morning. As I stood on the start line looking ahead at the runners who were running the Houston full and half, I was inspired some day I would be among them. The next year I entered the lottery for the half and did not get chosen. I was so bummed out.I kept on running but this goal to be in the Aramco kept haunting me. I am not sure why. It can't be the distance, I have run 3 halfs now and before the 2014 I will run at least 3 more and maybe a 25k if I have guts enough to do it. I guess it's just about the "getting in" aspect. No one wants to be left out and being told you CAN'T do something I guess makes me want to do it even more. I am happy to say that this year I got in! I even registered for the double since next year, most of my goal races are doubles, even some are back to back.

Virtual Races

I have a love-hate relationship with running. I love to hate it. One of the things that keeps me going to signing up for local races. In most months I can get at least two in but for July and August when it is hotter than Hades in Houston races are pretty scarce. So to keep up my running motivation I sign up for virtual races. What's a virtual race? They are just like any other race, except there is no packet pick up, you choose when and where and off you go. Some virtual want proof that you finished, most work on the honor system and will automatically mail you out your medal. Medal? Yes, you read that right, these races also include medals. There are 3 basic types of medal, dog tag, insert, and die cast. A dog tag run generally costs about $10, whereas the other 2 start at about $25 and go up from there. The difference between and insert and a die cast? Well an insert medal is one the is generally pre-made with a sticker made to reflect the race and then placed on the medal. Die cast are just that, die cast medals that are uniquely designed, like most medals you find at live races. So races charge more depending on the distance you run but for me unless the medal is different or bigger I try to stay away from those. My reason being the cost to the race director is the same, no matter what I run a 5k of half costs them the same. On the other hand IRL races there is a true difference in cost for putting on a 5k to a half, ie, security, general race support (water tables, water, volunteers, t-shirts, venue costs). If you collect running t-shirts most have those available for an extra fee. I have only come across one that includes it in the cost of the race, the For the Love of the Kids racing series.  Over the weekend I ran two of these, the Fit 4 Life "Wait Until Your Father Get Home (5k)" and the Will Run for Bling "Father's Day Beer Run (10k)". If didn't have these to races on my schedule, I probably would not have gone out and run on those day.

StrideBox

I got my June StrideBox yesterday. I was kind of disappointed. I know it's June and as summer heats up (hahaha Houston...anyways) I know I will use the hydration stuff but there were two items that stuck out for me. First off I LOVE me a good massage anything. So the Foot Rubz really grabbed my attention, so much so that my youngest ran off with have the stuff in my box before I knew that I had been robbed. It's this tiny golf ball sized knobby ball that you can stand or sit and roll on the floor under your foot. Works fucking GREAT. It is small enough that you can even roll it between your toes. It is durable enough that you can apply pressure to where it really hurts on your foot without it collapsing. I think my husband will be the most thankful one for this product, since hopefully now I won't be begging him to rub my feet all the time. The other item I found interesting was an electrolyte popsicle, kind of like a runners Otter Pop. I didn't get to try it yet since A it wasn't frozen and B it was one of the items my kid ran off with. But it is something I didn't know was even on the market so in the next day or two when the empty wrapper turns up I will have to research it.

Got to go out this morning and get my first true beginning of summer run in. Way slow but it felt good being able to get out the door and not have to worrying about if I go a certain way will I get back before I have to wake the boy up. Managed 4 miles before I made the turn home.

Big Little JC 5k

I ran the Big Little JC 5k on Sunday. Well I didn't so much run it as I did kind of "trotted" it. My oldest daughter is 12 and well she is a big girl. No really we are the same height 5' 7" and she outweighs me by at least 30 pounds. My husband thinks I have been in denial about her weight but he comes from a family that puts a person value and how much (or little) they weigh. I come from an entirely different place. I am not willing to shame her or talk down to her to make her lose weight. I would rather she have a healthy view of herself and know that every person has value regardless of how much (or little) they weigh. I have spent the past few years working with her on things food items, like making better choices. And for me making sure that there are better choices for her to make. She has also watched me struggle with my weight, so many of the things I preach to her have been b/c I am also practicing them. This is the first year she and I have worked on her physical fitness. I don't expect the scale to move for her, in fact I do not think a 12 year old belongs on a scale but it is time for her to do some sort of daily activity. Which kind of leads me to this 5k. My youngest school did a 9 to 5 program and then at the end all the kids ran a 5k. While she was doing it she kept bugging me about when she was going to get to run a 5k with. She is wishy-washy so I signed us up for one sooner rather than later, which would have been this race if it hadn't rained 4 inches in the 48 hours before it, if the race course wasn't part of the Addicks Reservoir, if the flood district hadn't been controlling the water flow to downtown, if the course didn't end up under 6 inches of water. We had even gone so far as picking up our packets for the race, only to hear that it would be rescheduled. About a week later I got word of the new race date and after lots of discussion she backed out. Just as well, she had been a real PITA while we semi-trained for it. Her wanting to run with mommy had become a chore for her. Clairissa however, took her stepping out as an opportunity to step-up and told me she would take her place. We had 2 weeks to go from her walking a half mile to "running" 3.1 miles with me. She took on the challenge like the champ I know her to be. We started with a half mile loop running 30 seconds and walking 1 minute. As we increased distance we also increased time. In the end we settled on a 1:1 ration which pushed her but it didn't overexert her. We took the time during these training sessions to talk about the things that were going on at school, nutrition, her father, her sister, the lazy big brother, pretty much anything to keep her mind of the fact that her legs hurt or she was getting a cramp. We decided on how we were going to work out training for the next 5k. Finally on Friday we took our last training run and decided to take Saturday off so we would have fresh legs for our run.
If you've ever been in Houston during this time of year, you understand why Houston is the most air conditioned city in the USA. (Not joking, it's a real title.) It has rained for the past few days, not a lot just enough to bring the temps down. Which of course brings the humidity up. It was nice out, before the sun came up. As it came up it was a different story. Things heated up quick. By the time 8am rolled around I am sure it had to be about 80 out. We kind of meandered around. If there is one thing I am, it's early for everything except my birth. If I am late something is normally up. Even when my kids were little, you know when most people us that "I have 3 kids to get ready" thing as an excuse to screw up other peoples' time frames, I never did. If you told me to be somewhere at a certain time there we were, all 5 of us. Anyways... The Race...

I didn't have high hopes for this one. The day we picked up our packets, their facebook page said it would start at 11am, we got to Bike World and were told 12pm, so by the time they finally showed up and were ready to start it was quarter of 1. I am not a big fan of disorganization, I was hoping it wasn't a sign of how race day was going to go. It wasn't. They really had it together. When we got there they were setting up cones and getting the balloon arch ready, with in a few minutes the music was pumping and the jumpers were blown up. This was a really family oriented race. So much so that the kids was free. Not many races will do that, most want every single dime they can get out of ya. 20 minutes before race time they had to very high energy Zumba instructors get the crowd really and warmed up. Zumba is not my things but it did give me and Claire a few bonding moments as we watched a few people look like they were going into convulsions. The race started right on time. Down the trail we went, mainly paved path but a few stretches of grass, we went over two bridges (twice out and back) and I had to laugh at the sign right before the second one that went over the bayou, "Watch out for alligators" and another one that said it wasn't safe to swim here. You would think the alligator warning sign would be enough but who knows, people are so dumb these days. The path is a dual use trail, so there were tons of bikes, lots of "on your left". We managed to about the half way mark with Claire being miserable but I think when she realized how far she had come and what it was that she was accomplishing she dug down and persevered. She could have quit. I would have let her. I would rather her have stopped to walk than injure herself, I would rather her give up to know what giving up feels like so that she can learn from it. Not every challenge is accomplished on the first try, but as long as you keep working at it and don't stop at failure there is nothing that you can't do. It was when we hit mile 3 that I became really impressed with her. Our training included a 100-200 yard dash at the end. Finish Strong is what I call it. We talked about it when we could see the sign, I let it be her decision, are we going to all out sprint or just trot in, she hit that 3 mile sign and killed it, she picked up her feet, ran thru the crowd and crossed that finish line out of breath. I crossed a few seconds behind her. We got buttons instead of medal, they fit into our scrap books nicely. We hit the post race food, tacos, bagels, kolaches, bananas and oranges and water (this one had water yea). We didn't stay for much else. On the way home it hit her what she had just done. She had Gallowayed herself to a 5k run finish. Official finish time 52:07.

Hot air balloon floating over the start line.

National Run Day part 2

This time it really is about National Run Day.

Last year I went to the run day festivities held by the Houston marathon committee at Memorial Park and I thought, man it's too hot to run, how the hell are all these people surviving out here. I must have semi-ran about 1/4 mile and then turned around and walked back picked up a t-shit and drove home. What a HUGE difference 365 days can make. This year, I planned ahead. I made sure the hubs had money to order in, gave him plenty of notice that I was going to be late (I still have runners guilt about putting my evening run time over my family), apologized 20 times, gathered my oldest running shoes to donate to the recycling effort, ducked out of work early and headed out to the same venue for the same festivities as last year but this year I had way different results. My plan was to drop off the shoes and then run the loop, grab a shirt and fight traffic home. Pretty much the same plan as last year. Only difference is this year I think it was hotter out, oh and this year I actually did it. I started out at a 6/1 ratio, I finished with at a 1/1 due to the heat. Seems I am having problems adjusting to running in the cooler weather. My new mantra for the next few weeks is going to be "slow down, don't pass out". By the time I got to the turn on to Memorial dr I noticed something, I was really enjoying myself. There is a short cut that a few other runners took and I thought to myself "nope this time sweet heart you aren't taking the easy way" and I kept on keeping on. As I kept going I passed a few of those short-cutters and I said to myself cheaters never prospers and these fools just got lapped my slow ass self HA HA!! By the time I turned the next corner the heat got the best of me and that is when I dialed down the run/walk ration, as I did I noticed the mile marker "2". I had managed two miles in 93 degree heat in 25 minutes. WOW!! last year I ran 1/4 mile and quit. HOLY COW. This side of the trail is full sun so I am really thankful I changed the ratio, only problem was I didn't change my tempo, I should have and will work on it during the next few weeks. I ran past the point I quit at last year with pride for once I was proud of my running. I ran on to the festivities site where they had begun giving out t-shirt for this years race, it was decision time, you only get one shirt, for the race you are signing up for (or in my case entering the lottery for)  the guy says to those of us in the line "Marathoners here, you halfers over here" I really wanted to yell at him "HEY, were all marathoners, some of us just haven't crossed the finish line yet" but now wasn't the time for confrontation I had to choose full or half, half or full. Then Sheldon entered my mind and as he says, the cup is neither half full or half empty, when the liquid is removed it is replaced with air, therefore the cup is always full. So I grabbed a shirt for the half, it's the sensible decision, I obviously am not ready to do the full, but it is in me.

National Run Day

Today is National Run day. In Houston it is also the opening day of the lottery for the Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Half Marathon. I have a big decision to make and it is kind of blowing my mind, I didn't think I would be thinking about running a FULL marathon so soon. In December I ran my first half and hated it! I ran a great 10k, struggled thru the next 4 miles and spent the mile from 10 to 11 cursing myself for doing it. The last 2 miles I screamed at myself to pull it together that under no circumstance was I going to not finish and low and behold I crossed the finish just under the 3 hour mark, however the goal was 2:40ish. I went back to the hotel that day and swore to my husband that he had won (oh yea he's not a run fan) that I would never run another half marathon, that from here out 10k's were my game. 3 maybe 4 days later I signed up for not 1 but 2 more halfs, a series. So yet again I booked a motel and found a family friendly place to take the fam and went off to erase my first disastrous half off the books. Only this time I hit the wall yet again at the 10 mile mark, or so I thought. Come to find out after I finished (about a minute and a half faster that last time) that due to the course not being marked properly I had actually run about .80 miles longer than a half. In reality it was about the 11 mile mark that I began cursing my unwise choice to do this to myself again. Except this when it was over I was left this feeling that I really had something to prove. No way was I going to leave 3 hours as my half mark. My best 10 miler is just at 2 hours, no way I was I going to believe that those last 3.1 miles takes me an hour, I really needed to fix that. So on my 3rd attempt, on the same but corrected course as my 2nd half, I did it. I made the list, these are the things that went right, these are the things that need to be fixed (not went wrong, they just didn't work) and I worked out a new race plan. My nutrition was off, I was running the first half too fast, I wasn't listening to my body, I needed to break in new shoes, at mile 8 I need to pee so by 10 I don't feel like I am about to explode. And then I went out to work things out. As far a nutrition goes, I have always been on the cusp of diabetes, so I am very aware of how much sugar and what kind of sugars I am putting into my body. I trend towards honeys and splenda, stevia, and sorbitol. I love Nuun and try to keep away from Gateraide but I have learned that this practice while running has been holding my body back. Somewhere in the middle of the half I would need to take in actual sugar. I was also using the Stinger honey waffles for fuel, turns out it wasn't enough. I tried out a few different gels and on one long run, at the 1 hour mark I sucked down a Clif Mocha, and about 15 minutes later my mind cleared out of that fuzzy groggy been running for an hour mode. So this is why people dig these, that was IT I found my nutrition. And then the actual race day came. I had learned a few things from the past race, location wise, since this is the second in the series there were some stead fast things that would be the same. Like limited parking, left the hotel early found a great spot just  along side the finish line. The last race had only had 300 women runners and this one was going to be about 1200 male and female runners, with the long lines at the porta-potties at the last race, I lined up early to get that business out of the way. 40 minutes before the race I drank my cup of applesauce (yep, I jumped on that bandwagon, turns out the fiber in it keeps me from getting the ever loving runners trots) and began my water sipping routine but not too much, mile 8 was the goal before I had to pee not 6. I lined up further back closer to the walkers too avoid that rush of going out too fast. I was pumped, 3rd times a charm and all. I kept it easy for the first 6 miles, and then let it rip for the next few, at mile 8 I had to pee but the lines were too long, next cans weren't until mile 10, I kept up tempo making it to 10 at the 2 hour mark and then stopped to take my break. Things people don't talk about when it comes to running, your bottoms go on much easier when you are dry, once they are soaked with sweat and you body is sticky they come back up about as well as a rolled up bathing suit might. Runners trots are a real thing, as I witnessed this by the fact that someone who hit the can before me shit on the floor of the potra-potty. So if you can imagine, as I come out gagging, with my shorts in a knot trying to get back into the run of things, I kind of lost it. 10 mile wall and I just hit it. I did myself check, feet how ya doin'? They weren't killing me, knees are you with us? Yep they were holding strong, stomach? Queasy but nothing a little Nuun couldn't fix. Head are you in this? Sure but let's dial it down a bit. I switch my timers from 12/1 to 6/1 and went for it. Somewhere between mile 11 and 12 there was this glorious puddle. I couldn't resit it. My feet thanked me about 10 feet later. I thought OMG I'm gonna do this, I really going to get this done in a decent time. Yep I was delirious. Had. To. Be. I was actually enjoying myself. Holy Crap! I finished with a 2:45, a 15 minute difference between my 1st and 3rd (#2 still doesn't count, since it was a longer distance). Looking back at it I think that was the first day I thought of myself as a runner. I know from these experiences that if I choose to run the full it won't be pretty. I know that I will be demanding more from my body than I have ever asked of it. I know that it will be a challenge. I know that I will be lucky to finish in under 6 hours. I know that I will be wrecked and exhausted beyond my imagination AND yet maybe just maybe...

Race photos

Normally race photos don't come in until Tuesday or Wednesday following a race but today (Monday) a glorious email arrived over night that the photos for The Heights 5k were up. Of course mine were shit, they normally are I always think next time I am going to have to come up with some signature goofy look or gang sign to flash but normally I am too busy thinking about silly things like breathing or just getting across the finish that the most I can muster is a thumbs high or peace sign. On longer races I have taken to flashing the number for the closest mile marker so when put in order you can see the progression from cheery runner to sweaty hot mess that I normally return home as. So today at work I am happily going thru the race photos. I have to ask does any one else click thru from beginning to end as fast at they can, so it looks like everyone is in motion, like a flip book? And sometime backwards?

The Heights 5k

So, I ran The Heights 5k today. Yea, yea, yea another running blog wtf? We are every where. I am not sure who the announcer is for this race but I have heard him many times before at other races. His voice has become like the voice of God before the storm. As the horn sounded today he sent us off with some sage advise, "Take your time going but hurry back" how great is that for a send off. I chuckled. All I could think as I crossed the start, was about how crowed it was. Normally once you pass the walkers (more about walkers who insist on lining up before runners later) races tend to spread out but that wasn't the case today...it was the street, two really narrow lanes that forced many people to run the median in order to get out of the crowd. The course was good, down Heights ave (blvd, st, whatever) catch a turn around and head back up where you started, most pointed out and back race I have been at. The 3 water stops were a welcome change, so directors see a 5k as a no biggie and skip the water tables altogether but with this heat it was more than justified to have them. Did I mention it was 73 at 6 am when I left for the race, and about 50% humidity, the weather guy said today was going to be the hottest day of the year so far, (it's only June 1st, summer has yet to hit Houston) 93 is what our predicted top out temp.  Anyways, I brought my handheld bottle b/c you never know. I always check out what gear other people feel the need to bring for a 5k. I mean as far a races go it's not really that far and even the walkers finish under the 1 hour mark so the need for true running gear is small. BUT people still feel the need to run with full 4 bottle belts or even camel backs. I don't get it. I ran well for the first mile, I knew I was going faster than the heat was going to allow me to continue at but I trucked on hitting the first flag at 11 minutes, hit the turn around slowing to about a 11:30 pace until the 2nd mile marker. By then I knew I was in trouble, running too fast for the heat. So I switched to a 1 minute run :50 second walk (hey it was the last pace my kid and I were working at for her first 5k) it took a bit to settle in but over all it was the best choice for the heat. Here comes my next biggest pet peeve, crowded finish lines, oh you finished that's great now get the fuck out of my way. Crossed the finish, no thanks to the lady pushing her running stroller across the street, and on the other side...nothing...no water. Temp over 80 by now and they have run out of water for finishers and what is that I see on the park bench a runner struggling with the heat, looks to be about passed out, sad sight. BUT MAYBE had there been enough cold water at the finish for everyone his distress could have been diverted. Lots of tents up in the park for the after party, plenty of apples,out of bananas, tons of stale bagels (so sick of stale bagels at races), a iced coffee line that is bigger than any beer line I have ever waited in BUT NO FUCKING WATER! On the way out I crossed path with an ambulance with full sirens blazing, I hope that runner down is alright and no one else was hurt. I ran about a C race for me, heat really kills it for me and for the race itself, D+ no excuse for running out of water.