Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon Race Report

My boyfriend David and I arrived in Phoenix on Friday. That day utterly sucked because I had one of my cats put to sleep, so the less said about that, the better. We went to the race expo to pick up my packet. I spent a ridiculous amount of money to buy the official race jacket as well as a cute pink fleece hoodie with the race name embroidered on it. On Friday evening, I met with my TNT teammates to decorate our singlets.

On Saturday morning, I met with our coach Sandy and a teammate, Kimberly, for a quick 2-mile run. Some TNT people from Oregon joined us as well. It felt great to run in 50-degree weather after all the cold at home.

On Saturday afternoon, we had a wonderful experience because we had lunch with a friend from an online forum and her husband. I've known her on the forum for 5 or 6 years, but this was our first meeting and it was really cool. I was really nervous about it, but they were great. Very easy to talk to.

Saturday night was the TNT pasta party. I didn't actually eat anything because I was still so stuffed from lunch. There were about 2,000 TNT runners from all over the country. Amazing! They announced the biggest fund-raiser. One girl from New York raised $34,000! Wow, made me feel like a total slacker! John "The Penguin" Bingham was the emcee for the event. I absolutely love him, since I am a penguin myself! He lost his first love to a blood cancer back in the 60s, so TNT is near and dear to his heart. We also had a speech from a woman who lost her daughter a few years ago. It was very emotional and touching, and reminded us all why we were there.

After the pasta party, I laid out all my stuff so I'd be ready on Sunday morning.

On Sunday morning, I wanted to be up by 5:30 because the 1/2 marathon folks were due on a shuttle to the start line at 6:15. I set the hotel alarm clock and also set my cell phone alarm as a back-up. Unfortunately, I forgot that my cell was still on Eastern time, so it went off at 3:30am Mountain time. Whoops! But despite that, I slept surprisingly well the night before the race. I ended up waking up at 5am so I got dressed and went downstairs to get some pictures of my full marathon teammates, who were leaving on the 5:30am shuttle.

When the time came for my shuttle, I met up with my Michigan teammate Becca. We rode over together and then wandered around checking everything out. I don't know why they made us get there so ridiculously early since the 1/2 didn't start until 8:30, but at least we had a chance to hit the porta potties and watch the start of the full marathon.

Finally our start time was coming up so I checked in my gear bag and we headed for our corrals. Becca was a few corrals behind me so I never saw her again until after the race. The half has so many runners (about 20,000) that they do a wave start, releasing one corral at a time. John Bingham was back, releasing each of the corrals and making lots of jokes about how the people in the back have a lot more fun. :) My corral was released at about 9am. I was so excited to finally get started, I wasn't even nervous at all. I made sure to keep a nice slow and steady pace instead of leaping out of the corral like a maniac and wearing myself out.

I highly recommend a Rock 'n' Roll event to everyone. It helped so much to have the bands there at every mile. I always found myself picking up the pace when I ran past a band. I wish I'd brought a camera with me to take pictures of all the bands.

Having my name on the front of my singlet was great, because lots of people were calling out encouragement to me by name. It's amazing how much it helps to hear a total stranger say "looking good, Cathy!"

I really don't remember a lot of individual details of the race. I know I made a pit stop around mile 6 or 7, which took 4 minutes because there was a line. I ended up missing my goal time by fewer than 3 minutes so I really regretted that bathroom break!

I made a few cell phone calls during the race. I talked to my sister, my sister-in-law, my TNT mentor, and David. Perhaps that was a strange thing to do, but I enjoyed it.

I felt really strong through the first 9 1/2 miles. Then I sort of conked out and took a little walk break. I probably walked 5-6 minutes in all, but never more than 2 minutes at a time. When I got down to the last mile, I saw our Coach Sandy so she ran with me the rest of the way. I was so happy to see her and was glad she was there to run with me.

When I crossed the finish line I was so happy! I was just wandering around and totally walked past where they were handing out the medals. Needless to say, I went back and got one!

After I found David, we went back to the hotel so I could get a shower. He went out to buy me some pain killers because my legs were so sore. And he was considerate enough to also bring me some chocolate milk - exactly what I needed at that moment! Then we took a walk, which made my legs feel a lot better.

I'm proud and happy to have completed my first half marathon and I'm looking forward to the next one in May. I will hit my goal time next time around!

Mission accomplished

I did it! I completed the Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon on Sunday. More to come later. :)

The value of setting goals

Yesterday I had a little lesson in the importance of goal setting, at least for me. I was due to run 3 miles. I got up at 5am, with a plan to run after work. After work, I was tired. The gym was crowded. I almost turned around and left when I saw how jammed the parking lot was. But I sucked it up and went in.

Got on the treadmill and just felt too lazy to run so I thought about walking my 3 miles instead. But then I remembered that I set a goal to run 1,000 miles in 2009. So I ran the 3 miles, and of course felt great when I was done. But if I didn't have that 1,000 mile goal I might not have run yesterday. Goals are good!

And I got up early today and ran another three miles before work. :)

Only a week to go!

Today was my last group run with Team in Training. I feel really sad! It's a great group of people. I'll miss it so much that I'm still going to show up for the Saturday group runs, because I know several people who'll be doing the same. Also, a few people are talking about getting together for short runs on Wednesdays after work, so I'll probably do that, too.

I can't believe the half marathon is just eight days away. I feel ready for it and I'm looking forward to high temps in the 70s. And even better, I have an online friend who lives in Phoenix, so my boyfriend and I are going to have lunch with her and her husband. We've known each other online for probably seven years, but have never met. So this will be a really cool trip for multiple reasons.

I have this urge to get my suitcase packed already. Heh, I will wait a while on that. But I tend to overpack, which is a problem since I only want to have carry-on for this trip. So packing will probably be a challenging process for me.

Still loving it

I've run two more times since my last post and I did indeed do three intervals at the faster speed. It's challenging me and I love it. It's like I had some sort of running epiphany - it can be lots of fun to push yourself! Who knew? :)

Tomorrow the schedule calls for two measly miles. I'll get up early to do those before work, like I have done lately. It really starts my day off right.

I'm at 18 1/2 miles so far this year, so a long way to go to reach my goal of 1,000 miles. I'd like to have more mileage these days but I'm doing what Coach Sandy says and respecting the taper. I don't want to end up injured right before the half marathon so I'm following the schedule. But after 1/18, then I can do what I want for a while. Some time in February, I'll have to dig up a good half marathon training schedule and start prepping for Bayshore in May.

Also, once I get back from Phoenix I'll start working on strength training, which is one of my other fitness goals this year.

I feel great

Today was a strange day for me. I was filled with positive energy for some reason. I had three miles to run, so I went to gym and got on the treadmill. Just like yesterday, I was wishing I could run more. So I pushed myself and made my base speed a little faster than I usually run. And then I did a couple of three-minute intervals at an even higher speed just to push myself. I found that I really enjoyed it! Now I'm excited for the next time I get to run, when I will aim for three intervals at the faster speed instead of two.

I think I've finally started to love running, instead of just loving the way I feel AFTER I run.

New goals

Today was the six mile "long run" with Team in Training. It was great. Never before did I think I would say it was "only" six miles. But I said it today. It felt like a short run. I wanted to run more. I think this taper is good for me; it's leaving me wanting to run longer so that will be handy when I have to run 13.1 miles two weeks from tomorrow. :)

I signed up today for the Bayshore Half Marathon, which takes place in beautiful Traverse City the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I figured it would be a good idea to get another race on the calendar to keep me motivated when the Phoenix half is done. I'm excited about it. My dear boyfriend David will go with me and we'll make a fun weekend out of it. We snagged a great hotel room overlooking the bay and within walking distance of downtown. Also within easy walking distance of the race shuttle and the end point of the race. Yay!

I don't really do New Year's resolutions, but I did set some fitness goals for 2009:

1) Keep running at least 4x per week and complete at least one more half marathon in addition to Phoenix. In fact, my goal is to run at least 1,000 miles during 2009. I think this is totally feasible, just 20 miles per week. I will exceed that during many half marathon training weeks. I suspect I will sign up for another half marathon or two later in the year.

2) Lose the last 25 pounds. Possibly I'll stop before I reach 25 pounds; it really depends on how I look and feel. I won't starve myself to reach an arbitrary number. I do need to lose at least 10 more pounds to get to the top of the healthy weight range for my height, so I'll achieve that at a minimum.

3) Do strength training at least 2x per week. I've kept away from strength training for far too long and I need to get back to it. Woman cannot live by cardio alone!

4) Remain injury free. Other than my weird foot problem that I experienced a while ago, I've been really lucky not to hurt myself and I dearly hope to continue that. Just means I can't get stupid with my training.

That's it! I think they're good goals - a little challenging but certainly not impossible.

Long run

I did indeed do Thursday's run outside at the park where the TNT team usually runs. I will admit there was quite a bit of walking in there. The path had quite a few spots that were icy death traps.

On Saturday, the weather warmed up considerably. It was more than 50 degrees! However, I was feeling disgustingly lazy. So I slept in very late (no group run due to the holidays) and completely blew off my 10 mile run.

Fortunately, guilt got the better of me so I made up the 10 miles this morning at the gym. Go me! And I ran the whole thing, except for the 5-minute cool-down period that the treadmill at the gym does when your time is up. The treadmill only lets you program in an hour at a time so I had a 5-minute cooldown in the middle of my 10 mile run. Kinda weird, but it worked out well. I felt awesome after running. Then it was off to a family holiday gathering where I ate well, but didn't overdo it, and felt quite virtuous since I'd run off a good 1,200 calories this morning. :)

The taper is in full force - the longest run between now and the race in three weeks is just six miles. Three weeks! I can't believe it's almost here. I feel ready, but still nervous.

The taper

Now we're into the taper period before the race, so the miles will be decreasing up until race time.

I felt quite ill on Monday. Fortunately it was a day off anyway, so I didn't have to worry about running. On Tuesday, I felt much better so I headed to the gym after work for my five miles.

I still kind of mentally trick myself into running. When I started, I said to myself "just get through the first mile." Then after the first mile flew by, I said "you can stop at three if you want to." But of course when I got to three, I told myself just get to four. And when I got to four I figured I may as well complete the full five.

I feel great after I run so I'm not sure why I have to con myself into doing it sometimes. This morning I had four miles scheduled and it seemed to go by pretty quickly, despite the fact that all my weekday runs are happening on a treadmill these days.

Tomorrow is Christmas day and the gym doesn't open until 3pm. I'll be at my brother's house celebrating the holiday then, so if I'm going to do my planned five miles it will have to be done outside. I'm hoping there isn't any precipitation since I don't particularly enjoy running in the rain or snow. I'll do what I have to, though. I'll probably head over to the park where we do our weekly TNT group runs.

Happy holidays!

Final 12 mile run

We had a honking huge snowstorm on Friday so I was a little apprehensive about Saturday morning's group run. But kudos to the Metropark staff, because they did a great job plowing the parking lot and getting pretty much all the snow off the path where we run.

This was the final 12 mile run. Woo hoo! Now we're into the taper so the miles just decrease from here until the race on January 18th. I did most of Saturday's run on my own. Started out with a few people but they split off around 3 miles in because there were a couple of team members who had to run 20 miles for marathon training. So they were doing a different route than me.

I should have followed last week's successful run one mile / walk one minute plan. But I didn't. Why didn't I? Who the heck knows! Instead I tried to be all tough girl and run the whole thing. Which only led to me having really sore legs and walking more distance than I would have if I'd followed the run/walk strategy. Live and learn! I still feel like this was a successful training run. I'm fully confident that, barring some freak injury, I'll be able to complete the half marathon in January.

And when that's over, I'll probably sign up for a spring half marathon somewhere to inspire me to keep training. I really love the way I feel after I run.

Last week's long run

Last Saturday was my second 12-mile run and the first one that I did outside. It was very cold, but it wasn't snowing and the path at the park was pretty well cleared off. Quite an improvement from the snowy long run the week prior!

I had a really hard time with the 12-mile run I did on the treadmill over Thanksgiving weekend so I approached this run with a different plan. I wanted to take a one-minute walk break after every mile marker. I was running with the TNT coach, who intimidates the heck out of me, so I ran the first four miles without doing the walk breaks. I finally decided to grow up and let her know what I wanted to do, which she was totally fine with.

So I took the walk break after each subsequent mile and it helped me so much. Thinking "I have to run 12 miles" is daunting to me, but thinking "just one mile until a walk break" is much easier. I was very pleased with the run. And my legs were super sore for the rest of the day, but felt much better on Sunday.

Never thought I'd be a morning person

Okay, I'm still not a morning person, but I did manage to get up unreasonably early (4:45am) three days this week to go to the gym and get my scheduled runs done. I did six miles on Tuesday, four on Wednesday, and six on Thursday as per the TNT schedule. It wasn't much fun but I'm so glad I did it, because otherwise I would have ended up skipping runs due to a busy week.

It's amazing to me how many people are at the gym at that hour of the morning. The dedication is really impressive and inspiring. I don't think I'll make a regular habit of early morning gym visits, but I think I'll be doing it for at least until Christmas break rolls around.

Tomorrow I'll be running 12 miles with TNT. Fortunately, this 12-miler will be outside rather than on the treadmill. I really don't ever want to be on a treadmill for that long again! The only thing that will change my mind is ice. If the path at the park is icy, then off to the gym I'll go. I already fell on my butt on the ice once this week, while walking to my car. I don't care to repeat the experience!

Running in the snow

Today was another group run day with TNT. I was scheduled for 10 miles. When I woke up, the temperature was less than 20 degrees. Not unexpected for an early December morning in Michigan! As I headed out to the park where we run, I saw it was starting to snow. It was snowing fairly hard, actually, and starting to accumulate. A new adventure! I've never run in the snow before.

I went into the warming room where we meet and here's what I saw: two coaches, two mentors, one LLS employee, one LLS volunteer. NO other runners from the team! The coaches and mentors said "We were just talking about whether anyone was going to show up and we all said Cathy will be here." Ha! I told them I had strongly considered just going to the gym instead, but running 10 miles on the treadmill alone isn't my idea of a good time. I really enjoy the group runs because long miles are more fun with other people around and definitely better done outside.

So we headed out into the snow. It's kind of intimidating being the only team member there and having two mentors and two coaches focusing themselves on me. I tend to be a pretty slow runner and I feel more conspicuously slow with all those people paying attention to me. Everyone is really awesome and supportive, though I suspect the running coach is not too impressed by my pace. She's quite athletic and usually runs with another team member who is impressively fast and also athletic (in addition to being a very nice guy).

As it turns out, running in the snow is not totally fun but is WAY better than running in the rain. The snow accumulated quite a bit as we ran, so it wasn't easy going. My legs felt much more tired than normal so I took some walk breaks. We all had snow frozen to our eyebrows and lashes. My lips were blue, as usual!

It felt great to finish and I rewarded myself with a delicious oatmeal cranberry cookie. Yeah, yeah, rewarding yourself with food is bad, but the cookie was fabulous. Plus, I burned over 1,000 calories on the run so I can get away with eating one cookie. :-)

12 miles!

This week was a little flipped around, but I did get all the training in.

On Tuesday I was supposed to run 7 miles, but I was busy with errands all day so I did the 7 miles on Wednesday instead. I did 4 miles on Thursday as planned (on a treadmill at my sister's house, where I was visiting for the weekend) and then on Friday I made up the 3 mile run that I was supposed to do on Wednesday. Confusing enough?

On Saturday I was scheduled for my first 12 mile run. Since I was still at my sister's house, I was going to do that on the treadmill. I got through it, but it was a pretty miserable experience. I'm disappointed in myself because I probably walked at least 3 of those 12 miles. Ugh. But I'm glad I got the miles in. My legs aren't as sore today as I would have expected them to be. But then again, I haven't done much of anything today, since we got home late last night (1am) and I slept in. Probably will go for a walk later today just to get a little activity in.

No, I haven't stopped running

I've been lazy about posting updates here this week, but I haven't been lazy about training! Here's what I've been up to since last time I posted.

Wednesday: Ran before work again. Still very cold out, but I wore two layers of pants this time and my hiking socks instead of my regular running socks. That worked out really well and I was definitely warm enough.

Saturday: Another 10-mile run with the Team in Training group. It was quite cold on Saturday, but beautifully sunny. A definite improvement over the week before with the miserable rain. Nevertheless, only four of us showed up for the run. I guess the cold was just too much for people to take. I bundled up again so the first mile was cold but after that I was fine. I'm so happy to report that the run went really well. I actually ran the whole 10 miles, unlike the week before when I walked approximately a billion times because I was feeling so gross. Not eating junk food the night before certainly helped out this time.

Sunday: I totally did not feel like running, but I did it. Sundays are just a three-mile run, but getting motivated to get out there is always hard for me for some reason. The run went just fine, though my legs were feeling pretty tired - not only because of Saturday's long run, but also because David and I power-shopped for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. Lots of activity on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, David and I attended a bowling fundraiser organized by a couple of TNT teammates. They were impressively well-organized and I think they raised a lot of money. They had a great turnout and it was lots of fun.

Today is a scheduled day off from running. The weather is supposed to get sloppy, snowy and slushy so I'll be sticking to that day off and not getting all ambitious. I'm on vacation from work this week, so today will be a clean out the closets day. I have lots of clothes that no longer fit (too big - YAY!) that need to be given away. The running will resume tomorrow with a seven mile run. I just hope the sloppy snowy stuff will magically disappear over night.

Much better!

I've run twice now since that miserable, rainy Saturday run and both experiences were much better.

I took a vacation day on Monday and decided to do the seven mile run that was actually scheduled for Tuesday. Much easier to get in the longer mileage when I can do it in the daylight! The run went really well. I actually ran the whole way, no walk breaks, and only had to contend with a bit of a snow flurry rather than ugly rain.

This morning I went for a three mile run before work. It is COLD at 6:15am, but I warmed up pretty quickly. I was warm everywhere except my legs. I need another layer besides my running pants. I probably should invest in some tights, but for tomorrow I'm just going to layer a pair of my running capris under my long-legged, looser running pants and hope that keeps my legs warmer.

That's it for today!

Another group run

Today was another TNT group run. I had to go 10 miles today. Unfortunately, it was raining and windy this morning, so it made for some unpleasant running. Plus, I ate a bunch of junk yesterday (highly unusual for me these days) so I felt totally gross and my stomach kept cramping up. But I got through it. It was a good lesson for me to learn - don't eat junk, especially the night before a long run. So it's all good.

We didn't have a big turnout for our team this week. A few of the team members are actually in San Antonio to do their race tomorrow. But of the remaining members, only four showed up this morning. I guess the weather scared everyone else off. Too bad, it was a good experience even though it was a bad experience, if you know what I mean.

This week so far

Nothing much to report so far this week. Here's a round-up.

Sunday: Did my three miles - didn't feel like it, but I did it and then I was happy I did. Also, my foot felt awesome all day.

Monday: Day off. Foot still felt awesome. I'd been planning to call the podiatrist but I decided not to since the foot was feeling so good.

Tuesday: Went to the gym to run six miles on the treadmill. It was dreadfully boring so I only ran 3.25 miles. Blah. Foot still feeling good.

Today: Left work right on time. It was nearly 50 degrees outside so I went out to run. I did my six miles that I was supposed to do yesterday. Yay! I love being back on track. It was raining a little bit, but it wasn't a big deal. Right now (about 20 minutes after the run), my foot is feeling good. I am quite encouraged!

Back on track

Today I did another nine mile run with the TNT team. It went well, though it was freaking windy out today and rained just a tiny bit. I did walk a couple of times when the wind was too much for me to fight.

This was the first time I've run since I did three miles this past Sunday. Work was crazy busy this week, I was tired all the time, and I just wasn't up to it. It felt good to give my foot a break to heal up, too. The foot definitely feels better. Not back to 100% but still feeling pretty good even after running today. We'll see how it goes. My sister-in-law, the awesome Milissa, gave me contact info for a great podiatrist she knows who also happens to be a marathon runner. So I'll get an appointment with him if the foot continues to be a problem.

In other TNT-related news, I hit my minimum fundraising goal of $3500 this week. It felt awesome to get there. Of course, now I'd like to see how much higher I can push it by the time the race rolls around in January. Would be quite lovely to get to $4000 or even higher!

Nine miles!

I ran nine miles on Saturday! NINE! I'm sorry to always gush like a dork, but I'm so amazed that I'm able to run that far. My progress so far has made me really happy. I would have thought nine miles would leave me feeling dead or at least super-sore the next day, but that is not the case.

Saturday's run was, as usual, a TNT group run. I enjoy our team very much. Everyone is so nice. Because I was pressed for time, I actually showed up early and got three miles in before the rest of the group showed up. Then I just had six more miles to do with the group. For the first time, I ran the whole six miles with someone else instead of dropping back and running by myself. This wasn't due to any improvement in my own speed, but because mentors Debbie and Sue took turns staying back with me and with team member Melanie, who has a dreadful cold and was having a hard time running. It kind of cracks me up that I'm the person everyone chooses to run with when they want to take it easy. It doesn't feel easy to me! :)

Now, about the shoes. I have these sweet new Adidas running shoes, with pink accents. So girly. Heh! I wore them for the aforementioned nine mile run and I think they're working out okay so far. It's hard to tell. My foot already hurt before I ran, so it still hurt after I ran. But I don't think it was any worse after running than it was before, which seems like progress. I guess time will tell.

I have a three mile run scheduled today so as soon as I can drag myself away from watching the Top Design marathon on Bravo, I'll head out and do that. I also need to go to the drugstore to pick up a prescription so maybe I'll actually combine this run with an errand. Crazy thought - running to do an errand instead of driving. How green of me - ha!