Vegas Marathon Race Photos

Friday night (yes I'm so cool that I go to the gym on a Friday night) I hit the gym for run #2 post-Vegas.  Can I just say how hard it is to find motivation to run when A) it's balls cold outside (yes that's an official temp here in SoDak) and B) the treadmill is sooooo boring.  Luckily I don't start official training until mid-February, so I'm cutting back my mileage quite a bit to give my body and brain a break.

I had another 3 miles to run.  My legs felt like junk again for the first half mile, but after that they loosened up quite nicely and the run flew by.  I would've actually done 5 miles if I had the time to do so. Social life calls!  Apparently the word has got out that cuckoo runner Jerbear isn't quite as cuckoo right now, so everyone wants to hang out before I disappear off the planet again.  Yippee!  :p

I did 3 miles in 27:53 for a pace of 9:17.

The good news is that my heart rate wasn't terrible high after the run, and came down really quickly when I was doing my cooldown walk.  Much much better than Wednesday's run where it was still 150-160 2-3 minutes after being done.  Haha.  Yikes.

I know I included a lot of the proofs from the race in to my race report, but I ended up breaking down and buying my race pics.  About a quarter of the way into the marathon, when I knew it wasn't going to go as planned, my new race goal was to take great race photos.  It seemed only right to have this as my goal after spending the weekend with The Angry Runner whom is known for taking some amazingly awesome race photos (to be honest, it's because she's a b.a. runner, not because she's not cute).

I can't believe the peace sign chick is trying to steal my cuteness thunder in this photo.  Damn her.

This is my fakey mcfake smile. 

My favorite photo of the bunch.

Naturally I found the lady in green to pose with for my finisher photo.  

Cute touch by RnR.

And there's gotta be one deathly awful photo right?  

What is it that my arms are doing exactly?

I wish there was a close up finisher picture.  

At least we can pretend that it's uber cute since there's no proof of otherwise.

Also, apparently I got a nice little tan frolicking around the desert for 4 1/2 hours.  

The best part of the race pics is that Luke and I were out celebrating life on Tuesday night when he got the email that the race photos were posted.  You'd better believe we stopped in our tracks to view all of our race photos immediately.  We're really cool like that.  :)

_______

I gave in and did the Top Words on Facebook that tells you the top 10 words that were used in Facebook statuses for 2010.  I thought mine were not even a little bit surprising and wanted to share them.....

My Top Words of 2010

Here are top words from my Facebook status messages!

1: Marathon - used 28 times

2: Run - used 17 times

3: Miles - used 17 times

4: Running - used 12 times

5: D - used 11 times

6: Thanks - used 10 times

7: Great - used 10 times

8: Season - used 10 times

9: Green - used 9 times

10: Happy - used 9 times

I'd say that pretty much sums me up to a T, no?  Except the D.  I'm willing to bet that D actually equals :D....so yeah... again.  Sums me right up.  Hah.

Race Report: Las Vegas Rock 'n Roll Marathon

Race morning started at 4:45am, and Laura and I were up and at em.  Nerves were in full force, so I was glad that everything was set to go for the morning, and I all I had to concentrate on was forcing food down my throat.  Before too long, the gents, Dan, Ryan, and Luke were at our door ready to head to the start.  My stomach was maaaaaaaad as normal.  We left our hotel and I was perfectly content in my shirt and shorts.  I laughed on the inside at all the wussies out there in pants, jackets, headbands/hats, gloves, etc.  Seriously, it was like 40 degrees out there!

We stayed at the Excalibur so we were right around 1 mile from the race start.  It was pretty crazy/awesome to see all the throngs of runners migrating to Mandalay Bay.  We saw some totally douchy guy strutting around smoking a cigarette thinking he was the coolest thing EVER.  We were all pretty annoyed, so we couldn't help but laugh that he tripped trying to climb over a fence.  Karma is a B.  Some people just look really good bright and early before races, no?  :)

I ditched the boys early on since they were heading for corral 1, and apparently I'm not quite that speedy.  I found the bag drop and met up with Slomohusky!  It was great to finally put a face to his writing and comments.  Unfortunately my stomach was still in freak out mode so our convo was cut short to accommodate yet another port a potty wait for me (I think this puts me at 5 for the morning :/).  And to make matters worse, not only was I in line for the bathroom as the star spangled banner was being played, I was also waiting while the first 2 corrals were released.  Stress meter:  max.

A couple of minutes later it was our turn:  marathon #2 here I come!  Because I spent 97% of my race morning in line for the bathrooms I didn't get much of a warm up in.  As in, I got zero warm up in.  No biggie.  When I first started out, I was a little concerned about how tired my legs seemed to be.  I chalked it up to not getting the warm up in, and after the first mile they did appear to warm up a bit.  The course was packed.  There was a lot of dodging and weaving for the first 4-5 miles.  It was so cool to be running down the strip with thousands and thousands of runners.  I tried to keep an eye out for Luke and Ryan who I knew would be towards the front of the marathon pack on the out and back portion of the strip but didn't get to see them.  Boo!  I was keeping a 9:20-9:30 pace, but it definitely wasn't feeling as effortless as it should have.  

I decided from the race start to run ~9:20 for the first half of the race and then either maintain the pace the second half for a PR or drop the pace for a sub-4 if my legs felt good.  Based on how fatigued my legs felt just 5-6 miles in, I decided to shoot for a PR party!

1. 9:28
2. 9:24
3. 9:20
4. 9:20
5. 9:26
6. 9:20 

I had my music off for the first 9-10 miles just to really take in the experience.  There were a ton of bands along the course, lots of spectators, and plenty of scenery to take in.  Around mile 6-7 my left hip started to throb.  Uh oh.  I've had issues with this hip when doing some aggressive speedwork this summer, and again during my 20 mile long run while training for Vegassssssssss.  Sadly, once this hip pain presents, itself, it doesn't disappear.  At this point I still thought a PR was possible, but the hip pain was also around a 2-3.  Within a couple of miles of the hip pain in the left leg, I had a ton of pain start up in my right knee.  Oy.  Clearly I was compensating my form to try to ease the pain and aggravated something else.  I decided right around the halfway point that a PR was just out of the question for the day, and I was just going to enjoy the race as much as I possibly could!

At the point that the half and full split, I was a little jealous of everyone who was just about done.  I was starting to make my trek out in to no man's land when I heard, "yeahhhhh TEAM GREEN!!!!"  Uh wha????  Laura!  No idea how she saw me, but she had already finished with her crazy fast half and was heading back to our hotel room.  We had discussed her possibly pacing me the last couple of miles if I needed it.  I yelled out to her that I WOULD need her and to try to find me at all possible.  :)  I started counting down to mile 24 from that point on for my company. :p

7. 9:25
8. 9:30
9. 9:31
10. 9:37
11. 9:53
12. 9:48

Once we split off from the half we got to the sucky part of the course.  There were some crazy hills and not much for shade.  Swell.  I just kept running and trying to give myself pep talks along the course.  I was bummed that I felt soooooooo terrible for this race that I had trained hard for, but kept reminding myself how lucky I am that I can run!  I just kept taking in all of my surroundings and kept a smile on my face.  At one point I thought I saw Luke off in the distance (if you saw his race outfit, you'll be able to see why I could pick him out from a mile away).  And he was walking.  Uh..... I yelled out to ask him what the heck he was doing, and realized that he had gotten hurt along the course.  0/2 for us for the day I guess.  I told him I was enjoying a total suckfest as well.  Hey-o!

13. 10:27
14. 10:24
15. 10:13
16. 10:26 

As much as the course sucked, the out and back areas were actually pretty cool for seeing other runners out on the course.  I saw Sam and yelled out to him.  Later I saw Emil as well.  Both of them weren't able to see me waving frantically and screaming their names....not sure how this is possible given my highlighter yellow shirt, but whatevs. :p  Eventually I caught up to Emil and we ran together for awhile.  Nice to meet you Emil!  You know you're a runner/blogger when:  you "meet" someone during a marathon.  :)  

At one point, Natasha Beddingfield's Strip Me came on my iPod and I desperately wished that Jenn was out there working on that $hit $how with me.  I had to listen to it on repeat for a couple of miles, and it helped to pass the time.  

17. 11:10
18. 10:21
19. 10:37
20. 11:31 

I was letting myself walk through water stations to give my hips/knees some reprieve, and because I was running ~10 minute pace otherwise, my legs weren't too fatigued to get going again, which was good.  I was also struggling with my GUs (I know, I need to try something new, because I always have problems, I'll learn eventually).  I kept burping/puking up GU flavored bile.  Sexay, I know.  Ickkkkk.  

It was entertaining assessing how my pain would rotate every half to one mile:

"Oooh left hip hurts the most..... oh wait... congrats left knee.... you're now in the lead.... but look out..... right knee is coming on strong in the back stretch!"

I had to stop a couple of times during the final 10k to try to stretch my hips out.  Not sure how I went from B.A. sub-4 finish to being ok with walkbreaks and all out STOPPING in a race, but whatever. :)  During a water station, a guy stopped to walk with me and asked how I was doing.  Apparently he had been pacing off of me for much of the race and was finally catching up.  We talked running/racing/life for a bit and it was so nice to not be alone in my misery (he was shooting for a 3:45 finish).  He finally had to take another walk break, and my legs had gone slightly numb so I figured I needed to go with it!

The last 4-5 miles were HORRIFIC.  They were just the worst out and back/curvy/unscenic route ever.  Being able to see the Mile 25 sign when you're at Mile 22 should not happen.  Seeing so many people just struggling to put one foot in front of the other really messes with your brain a bit at this point.
21. 12:18 
22. 11:28 
23. 12:53

With about 2 miles to go my savior, Laura, came to join me.  She was exactly what I needed.  She told me how her race went, and how the boys' races seemed to be going.  With about a mile to go, I realized that there was a bitch of a hill standing between me and the end of my race.
Me:  Uh.... does the course go up that?
Laura:  Uh..yeah.  I was hoping you wouldn't notice that.

Haha.

We made our way there, and I resolved to run up it until my hips felt like they were going to fall off (oh wait, that was mile 7).  She just kept babbling at me to not stop, so we just kept plugging away.  Hill win o' the day.  :)  Just shy of 26 miles I realized that I could come in under 4:30 if I hauled some booty (I had stopped looking at my watch around mile 14 for sanity sake so had no idea what my estimated finish would be).  I picked up the pace and just tried to pick off people.


I saw the finish line and ran as hard as I could counting all the dudes I was chicking in my head in the process. ;)
24. 12:13 
25. 10:39 
26. 11:02 
.39 1:56 (9:10 pace)


It wasn't pretty, but it was done.  Marathon #2.  :)

Sadly, because I suck at math while running, I ran fast enough (under 2 minutes) for the final .2 to put me under 4:30, but failed to remember that I had ran almost .2 extra.  Haha fail.  :)

I finished 26.38 miles in 4:31:53 for a pace of 10:18.


I was really bummed early on to realize that it was simply not.my.day. from the get go:  stomach issues, tired legs, intense pain in my hips and knees, puking up GU, but I was beyond proud of myself for sucking it up and gutting it out.  I have never felt that bad for a race right out of the gate, and many times I thought about quitting because I was afraid I was going to hurt myself by continuing with a different running form.  While a 4:31 is pretty far off from what I wanted to run, it's a damn good time all factors considered, and I really did enjoy about 95% of the race, which is what it's all about.  :)

There will be others, and redemption will taste oh so sweet.  

 Of course I had to take my finisher photo with the green showgirl. She said she liked that we matched. WIN!

Apparently I'm so excited that I'm rocking the Harrison squinty eyed smile.  Oh well. :)

**Oh and all is not lost.  At least I got some great race photos, which is really what running/racing is all about. :p

'arry Pottah + Vegas Marathon

Heyo, remember me?  Apparently I fell off the face of the earth last week.  Ooopsies.  I ended up getting sick last week and was out of commission from work and running.  I attempted a 4 mile run on Friday night in a windy 17 degrees that can only be described as "It felt like someone was cracking me across the face for 40 minutes."  Seriously, it was horrendous.  So week 1 of taper was a mega taper:  4 miles.  Whoo!

I've been looking forward to last weekend for months!  'Arry Pottah!!!!!!  If you may recall from previous posts, I'm a bit of an HP fanatic (HP6 anyone?)  :)  I rounded up my HP6 date and off we went.  Sadly we both thought we were too old to hit up the midnight showing, which after reading my post about the midnight movie of the last one, I'm glad we picked that option.  And Friday was just fine anyway.  I've been hearing that the movie was "the darkest one yet" which I think has been said about every movie, and was concerned that it wouldn't be as good because of it.  OMG it was amazing!  There were just enough light-hearted/humorous/awkward teen love moments to break up the seriousness.  And can I just say that Dobby is quickly becoming my favorite character ever?  He's so precious.... ha.  And could Emma Watson be any more gorgous??  Holy guacamole.

It was back to running this week, since you know... I'm about 12 days out from the MARATHON!!!  I knew it was probably silly to jump back in to a tempo run after taking it easy/partially comatosed (comatic?) last week, but when your body and brain want to do a tempo run, you kind of have to go with it (this is probably time #6 in my life).  Part of the reason may have been that I got my MARATHON!!! outfit in the mail and needed to give it a try.  Yes, ideally this should've been worn on my 22 miler (or at the very least a long run) but it's difficult to do that when my LRs are ran in the tundra and you're racing in a desert (p.s. I just typed dessert, and now I want some....for breakfast) it doesn't really work.

I figured the shirt would be a-ok but the shorts were a bit questionable.  Alyssa loves racing in hers that are similar, and my favorite pair of running shorts are a super old school shorty-short adidas pair that feels like I'm running naked, so I thought I'd give them a try.  I would've much preferred to do this test run outside, but alas, it was in the teens temp wise and I may actually lose my butt cheeks somewhere along town.  The verdict:  Uh yeah.... sorry to all the gym members.  Shorts are a no-go*.  I think they'd be pretty perfect for a 5k where I'm only running for a little bit, but I think I'd get annoyed pulling them back over my butt cheeks for slightly under 4 hours.  :/  One highlight, is that the sweatier I got the more they stayed in place, and we all know it doesn't take too long for me to work up a good sweat.  The good news is that the shirt was fab.u.lous.  It seriously feels like it's made out of baby skin; it's ridiculous soft and light.  And I was drenched in sweat-post run and you couldn't even tell!  Win-WIN-win.  (Ignore the crookedness of the pic.... I used to use my old tv as my self-timer photo tripod, but have since got a new one.  TV is much better, but a far worse tripod.)


At the gym I had 7 miles with 5 at tempo pace of 8:09.  I was ridiculously surprised at how good the 8 minute pace felt when I first started out.  My body has been super achy lately, and I didn't know what was going on.  I think someone told it that I'm turning 27 soon and need to begin old lady aches and pains asap.  Not cool.  A few miles in my right knee started to feel like there was a lot of pressure under the knee cap, so I spent some time figuring out that when hitting the treadmill with your heel while you're going forward and the treadmill going backwards has to cause even more force and pressure on your IT band and knee, so it's probably doubly important for me to FIX IT since I'll be doing a bit of treadmill running through the winter blizzard season.  I was pretty tired during mile 4 of the tempo miles, but got my second wind during mile 5 (probably just because I was almost done).  When I got done my quads/IT band area cramped up majorly, it was so strange.  I did some stretching quick and then jogged a super slow 1/2 mile cool down.


I did 6.5 miles in 55:44.  Tempo mile average:  8:05.


1.  9:40
2.  8:04
3.  8:06
4.  8:06
5.  8:06
6.  8:02
.5 4:50


Heck ya!  Considering my mile repeats were about 25 seconds faster with considerable breaks in between I was pretty happy in my effort.


And now the quest is back on to find the perfect marathon outfit.  But the bigger question is:  black or glow in the dark?

*They may in fact be perfect for the Post-Marathon Post-Rage Race or the PMPRR. :D

New Training Run Personal Distance: 22 Miles

When I originally came up with my MARATHON TRAINING program, I toyed around with the idea of adding a 22 mile long run.  I got a lot of mixed reviews.  Some encouraged me to do so if I thought it would help with a mental barrier (it would).  Others said that the extra risk outweighed the added benefit (possibly true for oft broken Jerbear).  Since I was dealing with some IT band issues which led to knee issues, I decided to scrap it and kept my training at 2 20 milers.


After last week's 20 miler I was shocked at how great my legs felt immediately after as well as the next day.  I decided to put 22 back on the table.  When I did Green Bay I s-t-r-uggled after about 3 hours of running because I hadn't gone farther than about 3:10 in my training.  I really wanted to allow my legs to practice a run that was 3+ hours.  I originally had planned to do my long run Saturday, but after checking the weather report Friday afternoon decided that was a no go.  30 degrees, snow flurries, 25+ mph winds.  Pass.......  Of course after sleeping most of the day away (can I just saw how glorious it is to sleep in on a Saturday for once?!?!? wowowowowow.) the weather wasn't nearly as bad as originally forecasted.  Meteorological fail.


Sunday I woke up bright and early and laid in my check reading through old text messages on my phone.  Because...you know.... that really allows for a successful long run.  After putting off just getting out of bed, I realized I didn't have any breakfast to eat.  So of course I just threw on my running shoes, a hooded sweatshirt, and a hat on over my pajamas and called it good.  :)  While walking around the grocery store, I started feeling my hip pop out of place.  Uh.... uh oh.


After dawdling as long as humanly possible, I finally headed out to take on my run.  I texted Aaron to let him know I'd be up for a biking buddy in roughly an hour if he wanted to meet me at my place (I was doing a 7 mile route before circling back to my place and hitting the bike path).  My calves were super tight and tired for some reason but seemed to warm up after a few miles.  Of course I was going in to the wind for the first 3-4 miles on a hilly route, so I got my B.A. award pretty early on in the run.  I brought my little handheld with water and the miles were really flying by.  I took a GU at mile 5 and at mile 7 I was back at my apartment.  I switched out my little empty handheld for my big guy mixed with water and gatorade and more GUs.
1. 9:19 
2. 9:15 
3. 9:29 
4. 9:28 
5. 9:20 
6. 9:21 
7. 9:08 


Shockingly I found Aaron sitting on my patio step bundled up like a little kid ready to bike with me.  I think Aaron can attest to the fact that I've never been so happy to see him.  I immediately handed off my handheld and we were off.  For some reason I do a lot better with a biking partner than a running partner.  Or perhaps Aaron just knows to talk a lot so I can listen and not worry about responding.  We encountered the Nike Cross Heartland Regional Championship going on.  I was half tempted to jump in and show the little tykes what was up, but decided it was best to save my energy for my miles.  I'm nice like that.  I remember shouting out that I only had a half marathon left at the 8.9 mark.  Because I'm insane.  I think Aaron's fingers were going to fall off from cold.  What a friend.  My biking bud took off around mile 13 and I was left to carry my water bottle alone.  That puppy is heavy for my little t-rex arms!
8. 9:22 
9. 9:37 
10. 9:31 
11. 9:22 
12. 9:38 
13. 9:33 


It was around this time that my left hip started hurting.  This is the hip that I injured doing speed work this summer.  And also apparently during breakfast shopping at the grocery store.  Very common.  I had downloaded some sweet new tunes, so I was enjoying Jimmy Eat World's new album, some new Glee tracks, and of course Katy Perry.  I hit the turn around at 14.5 and another 7.5 miles seemed like a long g.d. way to run.  Of course I started thinking about Vegasssssssss, hmmm..... if I was running the marathon I'd still have 11.7 miles left.  Holy hell!  


Fact:  I should not be allowed to think while running.  


After stopping a couple times to stretch my hip it seemed to be doing ok.  Of course then my chest/back started freaking out.  I feel like my back has been out of alignment for awhile now, and it started making me feel nauseous every time I'd try to breathe in.  As if something was pressing on something it shouldn't.  So weird.  Plus I wasn't able to take a normal breath because of the pain, so my breathing was really short and choppy which was causing me to be light-headed.  Gahhhhh.


Eventually I just had to crank up my music and just run.  Oh hey...... don't think, just run.  The last mile was actually somewhat fast, but I think it was just because I was ready to be done.  :)
14. 9:23 
15. 9:24 
16. 9:15 
17. 9:29 
18. 9:25 
19. 9:28 
20. 9:38 
21. 9:42 
22. 9:28


I ended up with 22 miles in 3:27:35 for a pace of 9:27.  Faster than last week's 20 miler.  Hey-o!

And in completely random news:  apparently I have been a little "out of it" while doing my long runs lately.

• On my 22 miler when I was running by my apartment at the 7 mile mark, I was shocked to see a bum sitting on the step of my patio.  Until I looked closer and realized it was Aaron coming to bike with me while I ran.  
• When I started my run, I could've swore I saw a squirrel pull up as if to shoot a jump shot.  Good form squirrel!  
• When we got to a kid's day camp area on the bike path, I suddenly remembered that I had saw a plane across the river at the camp last Saturday on my 20 mile run, and remembered how much I freaked out thinking that a plane had crashed (deathly afraid of planes and crashes if you remember).  I set about finding the plane to point out to Aaron since he was shocked there would be one too, but of course it was gone.  Uh yeah.... where does an airplane go?  Hmmm.....  Perhaps shrooms are not an okay substitute for GUs, mentally noted!  
• When I got home from my run, my back hurt SOOOOOO bad that I just laid on my yoga mat for awhile hoping that it would realign itself.  Well wouldn't you know it, my entire ceiling was moving up and down while I was laying there.

Yeah, I'm a little bit concerned for me too.  :/

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