Celebrity Status+Sweatfest

The other day while my office ex-hubby and I were scouring the Mankato Marathon site looking for a course profile map for the half course working diligently, a picture of the race start popped up on the site.  All cockily I stated, yeah that's totally me.  And as soon as the little word bubble was floating above my heads with the words in it I realized... huh... that really is me.

ZOMG I'M FAMOUZZZ!

YAYZIES!

GLITTERFARTS!

Ok, totally not, but it made my day for 6 seconds (ok, clearly longer since this happened days ago.  Whatevs.)

(Red pacer shirt, white hat towards the left on the picture.)

Sunday I was supposed to run a 6 mile tempo run.  However, my Garmin has been acting up, and by the time I rolled out of bed, the humidty was at 96%.  Barf.  I decided to do next week's 800m repeat workout instead, and hit the gym, so the treadmill could keep track of my time and distance for me.

I had 4x800m in 3:30-3:40.  After my warm up mile (and thoroughly soaking the treadmill in the process... this oughta be a FUN run... :/), I got after it.  The first one felt *cough* easy *cough*.  I decided to take less of a break in between to toughen up the run.  Er... not necessary.  #2 was tough, but #3 felt like death.  Towards the end I decided I would just call it a day if I could survive the remaining 30 seconds.  When I did survive, I told myself I could walk until my heart rate came down after #3, and then jog the rest of my recovery before I had to start #4.  Of course #4 felt great, even with the speed bumped up a bit.  Silly body.  Second to last is ALWAYS the worst.

3:38, 3:38, 3:38, 3:36.

Probably a good thing I was on the treadmill.  I think #3 would've been 6:30 minutes if I had a choice in the matter.

And just so you don't think I'm kidding about the sweatfest that took place, I was 3 lbs. lighter post-run.  And that's with drinking a 16 oz. water bottle while/after running.  Sweatiest gym-goer of the day goes to:

JERBEAR!

A (Wo)Man with a Fall Race Plan + Sometimes Weekly Wishlist

Thanks so much for all your excellent advice on the fall marathon debate.  I've decided to not run a fall marathon.  Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, I know.  I decided that if I did attempt to train for it, and suddenly became way too busy (definitely a possibility) it would be the least of my priorities.  I can't even bring myself to run a 10k or 5k half-assed, so I would be kicking myself if I had to line up for 26.2 miles feeling un-prepared or worse, dropping out entirely.

To calm my sadness over this decision, I went in to race planning OVERDRIVE this weekend.  Next on the agenda is a local 10k on July 4th.  I did the 5k last year, and it was a blast.  There are also local (free!) Monday night 3k and 5k races for the month of June.  Depending on the weather on June 20th and 27th, I may hop in for those as well.

After the 4th of July 10k, my 10 week training will start up for the Sioux Falls half marathon, my goal race for the fall.  This'll be my 7th consecutive year running this race, yayzies!  I hope to run at least one 5k in July and possibly pace the Minnesota Half Marathon in St. Paul in August.  I absolutely loved pacing the Mankato half last year, and really want to do it again.

If all goes as planned, I may have another shot at PR busting in October in Fargo for the Fargo FM half marathon.  Flat course..... chilly weather.... 13.1 miles..... Fargo redemption?  Yes please!

There's a small chance I could be pacing the Mankato half again in lieu of or in addition to the Minnesota half, depending on what happens.  Let me know if you'll be doing any of these races.  Don't you just love a full race schedule?!?!? :D

Buy it here.

omgenius.

omgorgeous

omiwantone.

omwhydidn'tithinkofthis?

I saw this on Aron's blog and need.to.have.it.  Seriously.  KK, half birthday gift?  K sweet.
Naturally after I drafted this blogpost, I saw Megan tweet that she had got a new hoodie in the mail.  And then saw another tweet from Jenn about the same hoodie.  Hoodie TWINSIES.
Sidenote:  Anyone at first glance think this chick looks like me?  Creeps me out whenever I scroll through this post quick.....

Buy it here.

Buy it here.

I'm always on the look out for a great green dress. 

Holy mother of cuteness.  I've had a mini Hello Kitty lovefest lately.  Still debating getting the HK sleep mask from a past post (my current sleep mask is in a dire state).

Buy it here.

I have this weird obsession with hot air balloons. This is so freaking beautiful.

Buy it here.

Nook v. Kindle + Mankato Pacing Pictures

Some extreme weather the last few days has me at the gym logging my miles on the treadmill.  I can do cold (mid-30s) I can do wind (40+ mph), I can not do cold+wind.  Those of you that did....well....I bow down to you with my un-wind burnt face.

Tuesday I had an easy 6 miler today.  And I actually enjoyed running on the treadmill.  It was the darndest thing really.  I read a few trashy gossip magazines while flying through some miles, and before I knew it, I was done.  And drenched in sweat.  But that's beside the point. 

I did 6 miles in 56:50 for a pace of 9:29.

Wednesday I had originally had a 10 mile run w/8 miles at tempo pace, but knew I'd want to catapult myself through the window in front of the treadmill if I had to do it indoors, so I did my 7 miler from Thursday instead.  Again, I was really digging on the run.  Until mile 5.  Then I was o-v-e-r it.  And I had this really weird pain in my foot that I think resulted from tying my shoe tight, but also teetered on the possibility of being a seriously painful muscle/bone/something or other.  I'm going to go with bruise for now.  The good thing (or not so good thing, I guess technically) is that I bruise like a peach, so I'll know for sure before too long.

I did 7 miles in 1:06:00 for a pace of 9:26.

All of this treadmill running (and I know it's only the tip of the iceburg) has me thinking that I really want a Nook or a Kindle.  Now hear me out on this, I am a die hard book lover.  My greatest dream for my future home is to have an actual library inside of it (I plan on marrying a prince apparently).  We're talking floor to ceiling bookshelves with that sliding ladder that I will siiiiiiiiiiiiiing on whilst floating across my library gazing upon all my books.  But for the sake of running, it would be super/fabulous/amazingly awesome to have an electronic reading device so I can READ BOOKS WHILE I RUN.  I love to read.  I love to run.  To read while running might actually cause my world to spin out of orbit (don't worry this shouldn't effect you.  you may think that we're living in the same world, but I can assure you that I am very much so in my own), and that's a good thing.  I saw a gentleman walking on the treadmill last winter with the font at 48 and realized that I too could devour some books if I could crank up the font a bit (and not have to worry about holding a book and physically turning some pages.

Do any of you do this?  I am seriously thinking it may be my Christmas/Birthday present to myself.

And now some super fabulous photos from the Mankato race.

I'd like to say we're talking race/pace strategy, but more than likely we're discussing our dance moves.  Raaaaaaaaaage.

This is my stoic runner look.

Was unaware that there was an official photog ahead as I was fishing a GU out of my sports bra/GU holding receptacle.

Weeeeee........... downhill.

Excellent bug catching opportunities.

Being sweaty is neat-o.

Race Report: Mankato Half Marathon

Race Expo

I got in to Mankato around 5pm, and somehow managed to get to the expo, even though I am notorious for getting lost.  I grabbed a seat at the Minnesota Pacers booth and introduced myself to a few folks that were pacing either the half or the full on Saturday.  I got to talk to a TON of people that were looking to run with me (2:10 half marathon pace group) and the pace bands were going like hot cakes.  :)  Jeff stopped by the booth to say hello and snapped this picture for me.  (Danke Jeff!)  I haven't seen him since the Sioux Falls Half Marathon when he ran a mayjor PR and then up and moved away.  LAME.  Jk.  It was nice to catch up with him briefly.  Shortly after, I ran into Tom and Sara.  Tom was planning to run the full and Sara was ready to dominate the 10k on Saturday.  I also got to meet Sam from Operation Jack who was pacing the 3:40 group for marathon #51 of the year.

Then it was time for Dick Beardsley's speech at the expo.  Amazing.  We watched the final 10 minutes of his 1982 Boston runner up finish, and it was awe inspiring.  He recounted some of his amazing races and got me pumped up.  This was the first time of many times of the weekend that I wished I was racing v. pacing. :)

After the expo it was time to check in to our hotel and then meet for our pacing team dinner.  We chowed down on some pasta and went over some pacing tips.  After dinner everyone split, and Alyssa and I headed to to the restaurant next door to partake in our pre-race brew ritual.  :)  My stomach was super duper upset because some dumb-dumb decided it would be ok to eat some pasta with alfredo sauce.  Luckily the beer really does the trick for chilling out my upset stomach.  I love catching up with Alyssa (probably why I plan to race with her all.the.time.).  We talked running, racing, and life.

We headed back to the hotel to get everything in order for race morning, and then I introduced Alyssa to the athlinks website.  Which we then spent waaaaaaay too much time looking up people's race results.  We quickly realized it was bedtime and called it a night.  Unfortunately,  I was super duper nervous and could not sleep.  The last time I checked my phone it was 1:30am and I had yet to sleep a wink.  Alyssa's alarm went off at 4:30 and I thought it was our alarm.  Sadly, I couldn't fall asleep until our real alarm of 5:30.  Ugh.

Race

I woke up and my stomach was still upset from my dinner choice and I struggled to get any food down for breakfast.  I choked down almost half a bagel and a banana, which was so not enough.  [Priority #1 in the next 5 weeks is to figure out my fueling!!!]  We headed to the finish line in the dark and scrambled around hoping we could find a bus to take us to the starting line.  Also, we were running a tidbit late for the pacing group photo so we thought it was perfect time to do our fast warm up run to catch a shuttle.  :)

We made it to the start and met up with the group of other pacers.  They were blasting some great raging music so Alyssa and I spent our warm up dancing in lieu of running.  :)  And by dancing I mean flailing about spastically (in my case).  :)  Before too long it was time to line up for the race, and I was surrounded by tons of people who were looking to run a 2:10!  There were some who were shooting for PRs, others were just hoping to finish with me, and many many others.  I tried to chat with them all and get them pumped up for the race.

Before too long, we were starting!  I was concerned that the 10k, half marathon, and marathon were all starting at the same time (roughly 2000 runners) and that it was going to be a royal cluster-eff (it was Mankato's inaugural half and full marathon, so you learn to not expect perfection on race day) but it went off fabulously!  It took about 2-2 1/2 minutes and we were on our way!  Within the first few blocks of starting the crowds spread out a bit and I had runners running on my shoulder chatting it up with me.  For a 2:10 finish, the pace was to be 9:55.  I was instructed to come in ~30 seconds under to right under 2:10, so I had assumed a 9:54 pace.  I kept a good eye on my average pace to keep us on target as well as to check our mile splits against the pace band I was wearing.

We ran with the full marathoners through the first few miles and we were just slightly under our goal pace.  I gave the runners some tips about the water stations when we were coming near to them (pinch the sides of the cup and drink out of the spout to cut down on the amount of air you swallow, grab a cup and run a ways before trying to down it, etc).  Our average pace dipped down to 9:51-9:52 after some downhill stretches so I consciously tried to slow up the pace a bit so we wouldn't lose some runners.  This, I feel, was my only mistake as a pacer for the day.  At this point, we were almost right on with the mile markers and my garmin miles, but unfortunately that would change.  

Mile 7 brought a tough hill (tough for me, so I'm sure the 2:10 crew were struggling as well).  I naturally run a little slower up hill and did the same for this mile.  We ended up just a little bit behind pace after the 7 mile spot.  Of course, if I wouldn't have slowed things up a mile or two earlier we would've been right on.  Grrr.  The next mile ended up being right on pace, but long.  Gah!  If you are to run a 9:55 pace, it doesn't matter if you're running a 9:55 pace for the 1 mile your watch says, it matters from mile marker to mile marker.  For the remaining 4 miles we worked to make up the .05 miles (almost :30 seconds at the pace we were at) difference.

I felt TERRIBLE, because I know a lot of runners who run in the 2:10 range will run 10-11 miles as their longest long run in training, so they were already pretty fatigued at this point and probably did not want to make up the time difference caused by the mile being long.  I had a group of about 10-15 runners still surrounding me for the final 5k of the race and we pushed to get them there in their sub 2:10 goal.  I tried to chat with a couple of gals to give them extra encouragement.  I also heard a LOT of runners that we were passing say, "Oh $#!t! We just got passed by the 2:10 group!!"  I tried to encourage everyone along the way.  

At mile 12.5 Dick Beardsley was on the course cheering on folks and cheered for me!!!  "Great job 2:10 pacer, keep it up!!!"  Uh...heck ya!  I told the group we had roughly 5 minutes of running left, and that you can do ANYTHING for 5 minutes.  I told everyone I wanted to see their final sprint once we rounded the corner to head in to the finish.  One gal told me she was already giving it everything she had, and I convinced her she would have an extra gear somewhere when she saw and heard all of the people surrounding the finish line.  And she did.  :)  I started pumping my 2:10 pacer sign to encourage the crowd to cheer even more and then I crossed the line after my crew.

Amazing.  That's all I have to say about pacing.  It was so much fun.  I had such amazing conversations along the course with runners.  I met some amazing other runners that were pacing as well.  I got to run a gorgeous course for a completely unselfish purpose. [sweetest most awkward self timed photo EVER.  love it.]

I had so many runners come up to me after we finished to thank me, I was just beaming for them and all of their hard work.  Those that finished before me stuck around to stay thanks.  Those that fell off pace tracked me down to thank me for being there for the miles they were able to stick around for.  A-ma-zing.

I finished the 13.18 mile race in 2:09:26.

I learned so much about pacing just from one attempt at it, and I can not WAIT for the next opportunity to do so.  As I said, I wish that I would've kept the pace around 9:51-9:52 when it fell to that and let the race gradually eat up that time as the course inevitably reads long, or to have an extra cushion for tough hills, but I'm so proud of all the runners on Saturday, especially the 2:10ers, whether they finished ahead of me, with me, or just behind me.  What a truly amazing experience.

I only have a couple of suggestions for race improvement, which is shocking because as I said before, it was their first.  There were a couple of points on the course where I was dyyyyyying for some water.  I sweat like a crazy person (as I've mentioned once or twice before) and so I was super duper thirsty in the 80+% humidity.  A lot of the folks in my group were as well.  I think it was after mile 5 because I had just taken a GU.  Also, there was one water stop that I got a cup of water that tasted really rusty.  My stomach was already pretty upset since I wasn't able to eat much before work, but that water DID.NOT.HELP.  Ickers.  Otherwise, everything was great.  Not just good, but great!  I'd recommend this race to everyone, but be prepared for hills if you're doing the full. :)

Marathon Spectating

Alyssa and I both had 20 miles on our schedules for the weekend, so we had planned to do our remaining ~7 miles together while spectating the race.  After I was done pacing, I felt super super nauseous.  I know I hadn't eaten enough before the race, and because of the 80+% humidity, I was probably a bit dehydrated as well.  After chugging down some water and gatorade my stomach did NOT want to run.  We made it about .8 miles before I had to call it quits.  Let's just cheer instead.  :)

We watched the 3:20 and 3:30 ladies come in and talked about our future marathon time goals.  I watched for Jeff and saw him running strong just before mile 26.  I cheered my face off for him but could not even get a small smile.  He must've been working hard.  :)  I waited for Tom to come through and after 4:30 started to freak out that I hadn't seen him yet.  I sprinted to find my car and grab my phone so I could call Sara, his fiance, to figure out what the heck was wrong.  I sadly realized that I had MISSED HIM on the course, and was so so disappointed.  :(  It was time to say goodbye to Alyssa and then we both FREAKED when we realized that we'd see each other in 6 weeks for Vegas BABY Vegas!!!

Pacing Practice + Mankato Half Marathon Prep

Thursday night I had an easy 7 miles on the schedule and decided to attempt to do them at half marathon pacing pace for Saturday of 9:55.  I did some quick reading on how to change my Garmin to show average pace for the run and I was off.  I magically had a 7 mile route mapped out on runstoppable so I was excited, especially because it went through my old stomping grounds.  It's a bit hilly to get there, and a little hilly to get back home, but it's a great residential area that makes running at night okay (IMO).  Plus there's very little traffic, so I'm able to run on the road for a majority of it.  Win WIN win.

I referenced my watch whenever I came under a street light, but just took the run at an easy pace.  98% of the time the average pace was right on with the 9:55.  I naturally sped up the last mile just because I was ready to be DONE and EAT, so I made myself slow down so I could finish right on the nose.

I did 7 miles in 1:09:26 for a pace of 9:55.  Hurrah.

So tomorrow I head to Mankato MN to spend some time at the race expo and meet the other pacers for the Mankato Marathon and Half Marathon, and meet up with Miss ALYSSA!!!  She's pacing the 1:55 group because she's speeeeeeeeeeeeedy.

Now it's time to unpack my suitcase from the Twin Cities 10 Miler (yes it's still sitting on my kitchen floor not fully emptied yet) and fill 'er up again!  I love race weekends.  :)  And I of course mean that I plan to do all of this at the very last minute tomorrow when I get off work, because I'm sleeeeeeeeepy.  :)

Pacer Jerbear

Whilst perusing the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon expo, a random guy inquired on the pace bands that Alyssa and I had snatched up at a previous booth.  We explained that neither of us were doing the TC marathon, but were grabbing them for our next marathon in Vegas BABY Vegas!  Ahem....  He explained that he was pacing the 4:00 group for tomorrow, and I got super excited and starting badgering him with questions, mainly:  how do you become a pacer?  To which he responded, you talk to me.  (!!!!!!!!!!!!)  We chatted with him and briefly explained our running backgrounds.  One of my new years resolutions/yearly goals was to figure out how to become a pacer (in the half marathon distance, mind you), so I was beyond excited to meet up with him (and so was Alyssa) and beyond excited is an understatement, let me tell you.


After talking more, he let us know that he had a couple of openings for pacing opportunities for the Mankato Half Marathon.  It didn't take much convincing for Alyssa and I to jump on the chance.  You are hereby reading the blog of the official 2:10 pacer for the Mankato Half Marathon.  Woohoo!  I'm so excited!  And it should actually fit in with my marathon training well, as I'll have to tack on another 7 miles post-race.  I hope the pacing goes well, because this is something I would truly love to do on a more frequent basis.  Rest assured, I'm already having nightmares about performing badly.  Crazy brain. :p

Thursday morning I hopped out of bed bright and early to get in a quick and easy 4 miles before I had to head to work.  I expected my legs to feel like trash after running a tough tempo run not more than 12 hours before, but they felt fresh as daisies.  Whatevs, I'll take it.  With a mile and a half to go on the run, I noticed what looked like smoke from a fire off in the distance.  As I got closer I realized that there was a truck spraying white smoke along the bike path.  I jumped to the road to try to avoid it, but of course there was a southern wind blowing it right to where I was.  Remind me of October 7th if I end up with lung cancer/bronchitis/etc.  Parks and Rec FAIL.

Despite getting gassed, I did 4 miles in 39:03 for a pace of 9:46.

And lastly (but obviously most importantly) I've recently been given an award.... TWICE.  Yes, alert the presses....somebody's a big deal.  psssst..... it's me.
The rules are as follows:

*Thank and link back to the person(s) who gave you this award.
*Share 7 things about yourself
*Pass the award along to others who you think are fabulous

Sarah is seriously super mom who is a new mommy and is already back to running, racing, and getting back in to shape!  Tres impressive.  ;)

Danielle is my 5k arch nemesis/virtual rabbit/running buddy.  We both have a 5k goal of hitting 22:xx.  We may have come up short (or technically I should say long) this summer, but next year it is ours.  Muhahahhaahahahha.  Ok, the Dr. Evil laugh was a bit much.

And for my list of 7 things:
1.  My eye color is some what of a mood ring.  It varies from blue to green.  Blue = happy as a lark.  Green = pissssssssssed.  It's really too bad because they're the prettiest when they're green.
2.  I almost always go to bed with socks on, because my feet are always freezing.  Once my feet warm up, I chuck them.  There have been times when I've woke up with my socks in my hands nuzzled up on my face.
3.  I have one older brother, and he's the crazy good athlete of the family.  We're talking state champion in basketball and football his senior year, and a college football scholarship.  But he didn't go to state in track, and I did, so neener neener, yes? :)
4.  I have this weird thing with dating left handed guys.  I think there's been one guy I've dated seriously that's been a righty.  So bizarre.
5.  My favorite sport growing up was basketball.  I played hundreds of hours of basketball every summer.  My best friend Nikki and I would live at the gym in the summer.  Sadly, the sport I was the best at was volleyball, which was my least favorite (behind bball and track).  Makes me wonder what I could've done if I put some effort in to it.  Oh well.  :)

6.  I was a cheerleader in college.  Gooooooooooooo Vikes!  I cheered for football my sophomore and junior year.  I hated doing it my junior year because all of my friends were getting playing time and I couldn't see the game from where we had to stand.  So I didn't try out my senior year.  Tailgating was more fun. :)
7.  I have a birthmark on my shoulder that is 5 indentations, and if you were to connect them it would be in the shape of a star.  My parents had plans to name me Montana Star (if you know my last name, you will understand how truly atrocious this would have been).  Yes they were hippies, and yes, I'd probably be blogging about my stripping career instead of my dabblings in running if this had gone through.  Luckily my parents didn't take it as a sign, and instead named me after my daddy.... Jerry Lee and Jeri Lee.

And now I nominate:
Slomohusky
Jenn
Alyssa
Cynthia
Susan
Glenn