Little Rock Half-Marathon!

Megan and I started our day off early at the La Quinta Inn in Little Rock, AR. After only a few short hours of sleep due to some drag racing (not us, but on the street outside our room), and a loud a/c unit, we were excited to be around all the other runners.
We got in the elevator on the way to go to the trolley, and some 'older' runners were already in the elevator. They made comments about our ipods. In the form of, 'you do know that ipods are illegal in the race.' Well, of course we know that ipods are 'considered' illegal, but most race officals just turn their heads. But, I started joking with the guy that I wasn't too worried about getting DQed. I was joking 'Yeah, if I get DQed they may take away my prize money.' Then he went into a long explanation of different certifications of courses, etc. Mostly I just nodded my head thinking-wow, is my ipod really worth this lecture?
Luckily, we got off the elevator, and the atmospere was contagious! We were soon riding the adrenaline rush as we waiting in line to get on the trolley.
As we arrived down to the starting line I then realized that this was going to be a big race! We met a few friends, Brenda, April, and Glen. Had a few minor snags as we waiting to get started, Brenda realized she left her timing chip at the hotel (her husband brought it down), I walked in on a guy in the bathroom (use the lock!), and I thought that the air sprays in the potta potties were hand sanitizers. But, we got through the craziness, and lined up!
The Race!
We started lining up in the 'corrals.' Yes, I did say corrals, like cattle. I kept joking with Megan, that if they had cattle prods, I bet we would all run a lot faster!
Mile 1 & 2-These miles were rough due to the amount of people. There were a lot of people entered as 'walker' and it was tough going to try to get through the people. Lots of weaving back and forth, and that is tough.
I hate to see them leave, but I love to watch them go...
Megan and I came upon a photographer, and we began smiling, until we noticed he was actually facing the other direction (like he was taking pictures of the back of the runners.) We both, being typical women, start freaking out! We didn't want him taking pics of our backsides. Then we realized that he was actually taking pics of the wheelchair 5K participants coming from the other direction. Ooops!
Mile 2 & 3-My own personal cheerleader. Megan had thought she would run with me for the first few miles, then want to slow down. I swear it was the other way. She was so great-she knew I had a time I wanted to make, and she was going to make me get that time no matter what!
Mile 4 & 5-Megan is riding her own personal running high. I am struggling-I now fully am understanding the effects of not doing a very good taper. A taper is when you don't run as much the week before a race, so that you are fresh the day of the race. I decided that I was superwoman, and ran just as much as I normally do. And, we are keeping a faster pace than we would normally for a long run, as well as trying to play catch up from our slow start.
Other notable mentions from these few miles, Little Rock is a marathon town! The entire way has spectators cheering you on. At one point there is a house handing out beer-which we did see a girl take a quick swig as she ran by! We also ran by the mayor of Little Rock.
Mile 6 & 7-We begin to slow a little bit, we had been running a fairly quick pace for about 4 miles, and are both beginning to hurt. But, just when I am thinking that this is getting too hard, we encounter the 'Methodist Mile.' Which I have to say was the coolest thing ever to me for some reason! The entire choir from the church is standing outside singing, and there are a bunch of people outside cheering. I loved that moment, and it is one that has stayed with me.
Mile 8 & 9-Wow, what to say...not much at this point! We run by a lady yelling at all the runners, comments vary..'you are not tired'...'you keep going girl'....'you can do this'...'you better pick up the pace'...'you run up that hill, baby'...'you better stop slowing down!' This cracked us up! Also, around this point we run by the governor's mansion. Kind of neat.
Mile 10 & 11-Okay, we are getting close. All I needed to see was that Mile 10 marker. I pick up the pace-Megan mentions that I now 'have a little pep in my step.' I remember this so well! Thank you Megan! Also want to mention at this point, we have our names on our race numbers. I took my long sleeve shirt where mine was pinned at about 1/2 mile! But, Megan still had hers on, and people have been saying 'Go, Roper(her last name)' for the entire race. But, she is just now noticing that people are calling out her name!
We also pass another church that has a ton of kids standing out front with their hands out for high fives. I have to stop to give them all high fives-I figured that a better time, was not worth not giving these kids that were out on a Sunday morning to cheer us on a quick high five. Another highlight of the race for me!
Mile 12 & 13-So we pass the mile marker for mile 12 twice. It appears that since the marathoners veer off course for about 1/2 mile, their mile 12 comes a little before the half marathoners mile 12. What the h***! Are you serious! I was seriously excited when we saw the first mile 12 marker, because I thought Megan and I were about 5 minutes ahead of our goal. Then when they told us that was only for the marahoners-I was a little ticked off. Oh, well off and running! We hit mile 12 with energy. Megan stops for a drink yelling she would catch up, but I just keep going. At mile 12.75 there is a L'oreal lipstick stop which was pretty funny! But, Megan has caught up, and we are really going by this point. We cross the finish line, and I am in awe because we are so close to my goal time! Which would mean I took 10 minutes off my Route 66 time. We go get our metals, and they are offering those funny foil blankets again. So I line up telling the guy 'Wrap me up, please!' Megan finds this so funny that I finally was willing to get wrapped up in the blanket. We grab our snack packs and head off to get our picture taken.
Megan is riding the high from finishing her first half marathon! She had thought she would finish in 2:30, instead our 'official time' is 2:12! We are both excited, and both agree if we wouldn't have had to weave so much in the first couple of miles, we would have hit 2:10.
Things I learned:
1) A friend that is willing to make sure you get your goal time is one of the best friends you will ever have!
2) Never ever, ever believe the people who tell you things such as 'It's all down hill from here' or 'the hills aren't that bad.' They are never true! A bunch of people in Little Rock have shirts saying either 'What Hills?' or 'Got Hills?' Funny, huh? Just wait until you are the one running!
3) Tapering is a serious thing-I will take tapering very seriously from now on!
4) Some older gentlemen runners do not find it amusing when you bump their hand on accident, then joke 'sorry, I just just trying to hold your hand.' Just ask Megan! This guy had no sense of humor.
5) Hey as long as you are not planning on winning, or trying to qualify for Boston, blow off the rules! We both ran with our ipod the entire race (neither one of us turned them on), but hey some rules are made to be broken!
6) Body Glide, or Vaseline can save your hide! I had to use some in a sensitive area where my skirt tag rubs (my backside!) But, it literally saved my butt.
7) Last but not least, those foil blankets are lifesavers. They really keep you warm as your body cools down. Plus, it makes me laugh to watch everyone look like baked potatoes that are about to go in the oven.
Oh, and I want to thank Little Rock Marathon organizers for my new obsession with Little Debbie treats. Those things are awesome!

Jack Rector Beacon 25K-2/28/09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtjI5_K4qEU

I completed the Jack Rector Beacon 25K in OKC on 2/28/09. And, just so you don't have to complete the math, 25K=15.5 miles. This was my longest run to date!

Above is a link to me running the last half mile of the run, thanks to my friend Glen! Now before we get to the last half mile, I better start from the beginning of the day. The morning of the race brings 30-40 mph wind, and wind chills in the teens. It took some major urging that it wasn't going to be that bad to get my Aunt Susie out of the door on time. But, we were running late! When we arrived at the race, she let me out and said that she would go park my car, so that I could attempt to make the 9:00 a.m. start. Susie was going to run the 5K, but it didn't start until 9:20 a.m. So I get out of the car with approximately 5 minutes to get my chip and get lined up. So I take off running accross the park. Now, we know I am not exactly the most graceful. So I am sure we all know what is coming next, I manage not to see a wire rope in between two posts, and of course catch my foot as I am running. So I fall over the rope to the ground! Some guy comes running over asking me if I am okay, do I need to go see the medic? I let him know that I am fine, just embarrassed. So I continue on with my pride, and my knee hurting before I am even started! I get in line, and I am trying to put my chip (it records your time) on my shoe when the gun goes off. So we are off and running. The race takes place at Lake Hefner which has no wind protection, so I am bouncing around like a rag doll. But, the only thing I can think about is where is the bathroom?
Mile 1-Where is the bathroom??
Mile 2-Where is the bathroom??
Mile 3-Where is that guy going? Oh my goodness, is that a bathroom I spy? Hurry guy hurry!
Mile 4-This is about when I realize I haven't turned on my Ipod. So I start listening to my music. I also see that I am really at the back of the pack, never a good feeling.
Mile 5-6-I am just battling the wind, and praying that it will eventually be at my back.
Mile 7-8-This is when I am starting to contemplate that I don't really know exactly how the course is laid out. I am thinking that we have to run around the lake twice, but that seems way too long. Then people start coming at me, and I realize that we must have a turn around somewhere.
Mile 8-13-I picked up a new friend. She (Mary) was going to quit, but I talked her into finishing the race with me. I was kind of excited at this point, we had made the turn around, and I was realizing that we weren't going to have to run the lake twice! I was a strong woman! If I could do this in the wind-I could do anything. The marathon is going to seem easy. This is no problem, I have it. Who knows where all these crazy thoughts came from, dehydration, exhaustion.
Mile 14-15-I am pumped up! Mary tells me to go ahead, she can see that I have the energy to push hard for the final two miles. So I run hard in the wind for those miles. I can't wipe the smile off my face!
Mile 15-15.5-Who in the hell designed a course where you run by the finish line, then have to continue running a loop before you can actually go back and cross the line? But, I spy Glen and the video camera at this point, and for some reason that gives me motivation to keep going strong!
I finally cross the finish line at about 2 hours and 50 minutes. Way longer than I ever expected it to take me. But, I reason that I was practically running backwards for 75% of the race, so it was a really good time.
My aunts are waiting for me, and I am so excited to get into my warm car. But, guess what, someone accidently left the lights on (I am not naming any names), and we have to jump the car! But, all in all it was a pretty good day.
And, for anyone who is curious, yes, I have several bruises on my leg, and a scrape.

Marathon Training 2/14/09

So here you all go-another installment of the marathon training! So I have a 25K (15.5 miles-my math skills are improving!) coming up at the end of Feb. Then a half marathon in Little Rock, who's motto is 'Got hills?' What the heck was I thinking! OKC Marathon in April, then the biggest daddy of them all San Francisco in July.

So the marathon is starting to feel real! I have officially completed my longest run to date of 14 miles. It was rough; it involved getting up in what I classify as the middle of the night (5 a.m.) on a Saturday morning in the cold to go run for several hours. Wow-I may need to rethink of what I classifly as fun!

As you all know from the last email I have been running with a group. But, I mainly run with three girls. It is kind of unusual for us all to run together, but I almost always run with on of them. One of the girls I have run with from the beginning set up a new acquaintance of hers, and me up on a ‘running date.’ Hence, I am meeting some girl in a parking lot that I have never met to go run together. She turns out to be super runner! She has been challenging me to run faster. Of course the first time, I thought I might pass out from lack of breath, because I was too embarrassed to tell her that I could not run at super human speeds. But, we have become good running buddies, and have recently had a couple of notable runs together.

1) We were running on a rather new trail, and ran by a little girl on her bike. She called out ‘hey runner girls!’ It was rather cute. My new running buddy swears she has not had as much attention from passer bys as she has had running with our little group. Just proof of what a great looking group of girls we are!

2) We went out running with a group of older gentlemen one unseasonably warm night. We decided to run a little extra (a couple of miles). We got more history on the houses in Tulsa than I have ever heard in my entire life (we ran by someone from Hee-Haw's house)! Plus, I should note that I was super impressed/disappointed that we were running with these men that had probably a good 30 years on us.

The other notable run I have had recently was a run with one of the other girls. We were scheduled to run 10 miles. But, we had discovered that it was an out and back, that could be made into a loop if you ran an extra 1 ½. We had both agreed at the beginning that we didn’t want to be over achievers, so we were only going to run the 10 miles. Well, that all changed after we ran down the ‘steep mountain’ in Turkey Mountain. When it became clear that there was no way in the world that we would be able to make it back up the sucker, we signed ourselves up for the extra 1 ½ no problem!

These girls do tease me about always trying to get out of running hills. The big question-how am I going to run SF??

Of course, we have met a lot of characters along the way, the man who does not drink milk because it creates extra mucus, but continues to smoke so that he has something to do with his brother in law. The man that promotes running with ‘your flow.’

Anyways, I just want to thank all of the girls for helping me along the way! I could not have made it this far in the program with out them.

Oh, and I just want to share that I saw a man wearing some sort of flame colored tights this weekend, so don’t forget to keep passing on the word about men and tights.