The Hottest Half

August 15, 2012 by · 10 Comments

Well, we survived The Hottest Half, but it was not pretty.  That idea of “you race like you trained” definitely comes to mind here. As you might have read, we have been in a lull for a while. Our last half was in April and we have been fairly inconsistent since then and very inconsistent the past month or so. With that said, this race was in fact our slowest EVER.  On top of that we both did pre-race things we normally don’t do like enjoy an adult beverage or two, and oh you  know, hang out on the lake all day water tubing. Water tubing also caused a very stiff, cramped like right calf for Teal. That was fun for 13 miles.  Neither make for a rested body, and it definitely does not aid in a body that is already NOT in half marathon shape. Then we really started to wonder if we are supposed to run because Beth’s car keys were left in her sister’s car in Austin on Saturday, and our race bibs were locked in her car in Plano. We had to get replacements bibs, which has never happened before. Whoops! Luckily with such as small race it was super easy. Also for some odd reason we both ran this entire race sans music. Beth’s headphones were in the locked car and Teal just forgot to get them out of the car. Notice our trend of excuses? Ugh! Must fix!

Our replacement bibs

Our original bibs and shirts

We honestly can’t really blame it on the heat, it honestly was hot but not that hot.  We had discussed during the week somewhat of a strategy to get the race over with. We had to make it to the finish line. Run-walk came to mind… ugh…but with Teal’s cramped calf and how our running had been we had to play it by ear out on the course. We both knew 13.1 straight was not going to happen.  We started out the race and we are pretty sure neither wanted to say it was time for a break first. We made it to the 4 mile mark, ha, impressive right? Then ran what felt like 2-2.5 at a time, until we were down to resting every water station. (Wow- typing this is not fun!) As we got towards the end we really just wanted to get home without stopping and to pass up a women that was clearly twice our age. We both ended up beating her, thank god, but did not finish together.

The race was not all bad, we had a few highlights. We got to see our friend Jesus from our running group (North Texas Runners), he was well ahead of us and he passed us coming back from the turnaround. Our friend Lesley was at the turn around waiting for her Racing It Off ladies so we got to say hi to her, and again towards the end of the race! Always love to have smiley, happy runners around when you are ready to get the heck off of a course.

Teal about to finish the last .1 of the race

Beth about to finish the last .1 of the race

(Thanks to Jesus for the pictures of us running!!)

A couple things worth noting from the race.  We did in fact run the entire hill that put us at the 5 mile mark on the course!  A hill we come in contact with a lot since the Hottest Half had us running around White Rock Lake and so many Dallas races like to include at least a portion of the lake in them.  On the way back to that hill where we’d be running the decline Beth noticed a girl squatting off to the side close to the lake.  I wonder if she’s ok?  Beth was so close to checking on her, did a double take, ooohhhhh, she just has her shorts pulled down going the bathroom. HA! Sometimes when you want to help someone on the course be sure to look twice before it becomes an awkward situation!

So there you have it. Our Hottest Half race…Gross. We have Disneyland Half in a few weeks and we plan on having very different results. We are totally getting back into the swing of things and have a long list of races ahead of us. The inconsistency of our running must get better or these crappy race recap blogs are going to become very difficult to write and we are sure you won’t want to read them. At least we are in this together right?

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Wounded Warrior 10K

June 11, 2012 by · 8 Comments

This weekend was another solo race weekend….well, kind of!  Teal was off at a friend’s wedding in the Dominican Republic and I was still here in Tejas! 🙂  I might have driven to the Wounded Warrior race alone, but managed to see some friends out there!  Before I could even get out of my car I saw my friends Ashley & Jason walk by.  Somehow I always miss them at races so I jumped out of my car as fast as I could to catch up with them.  I’d also planned on meeting up with a few other twitter ladies, but sadly we didn’t all see each other! :-/  We’ll have to work on that again for another race, Caron & Kyra!!  But it was SO good to meet Shannon as well as your mom and Cory!

Totally stole this picture from Shannon! 🙂

The half marathon started 15 minutes before the 10k, so we all parted ways.  I walked up to see the half marathoners take off and chatted with a mom and her daughter who were also doing the 10K.  Loved hearing about how her other daughter was running the half and she had gotten them into doing races.  They’d driven up from Katy (Houston area) to participate in the Wounded Warrior race.  The mom told me she would probably be the last person finished.  I quickly told her I doubted it and with her run walk method she had she would be ahead of others.  I was proud of her when I saw her on the back part of my race and there were plenty of people behind her.  I quickly gave her a high five and told her good job and to keep it up!

Anyways, back to the start of this race, I had run this same race last year and kind of knew what I was getting into.  I just kept thinking let’s get this done and over with before it’s reeeally hot out there.  Off we were!  Within the first half of a mile I realized they had made the course different this year which was nice because it created less direct sunlight as a lot of it was on the Campion Trail in Irving.  I ran without any sort of water on me, but grabbed some at each water stop.

Thanks to my Runkeeper app I knew I was coming up on the 3.1 mark and therefore the turnaround because I might have missed it.  I didn’t need to make this a longer race than it was suppose to be like I did Too Hot to Handle last year! Ha, but there was only a small sign that said turn around.  Not a human being there to reassure you that you do in fact need to turn around.  Turn around here? Or like this is my warning sign that it’s coming up??  A barefoot man in front of me yelled TURN AROUND and I then said this is really the turn around??  But I followed his lead and figured if I needed to I could just admit to all of you I accidentally cut my run short.  That is probably my one and only complaint about the race, but I think the Race Director does such a good job with this one that I can let it slide. 🙂

Once I turned around I kind of had a need to vomit feeling hanging around me for the last three miles.  I just wanted to be finished with the heat.  I drank water, dumped water on myself, took cold towels from the awesome volunteers and kept chugging along.  When I got off the Campion Trail I was in the home stretch for the finish line.  I kept telling myself to push but not so hard that you do in fact vomit.  Well, guess I did push too hard bc in the last .1 of a mile I had to pull over to the side and you know…vomit not once, not twice, but three times. Ha.  See I knew my pace had a potential for a new PR, so I was having an inner struggle of get that PR yet don’t kill yourself.

I didn’t get a PR yesterday and I’m completely OK with that.  I crossed the finished line running with 2 minutes and some change until the hour mark and I’m proud of that.  If you look at my results online I finished 10th in my age group and 170th overall and I’m proud of that!  If you look at the ladies who finished 8th and 9th in my age group even if I hadn’t have had to make my little stop before the finish line I wouldn’t have gotten there faster than them and would have still been 10th in my age group.

(source)

Thanks to April who got to see my fun incident right before the finish for checking on me!  I got some water, powerade and pop ice in me and was feeling MUCH better!  I absolutely love that they provide pop ice at the end of this race!  Love it so much I ate three of them!

After that I hung around to see if I might see anyone else that I know plus I knew Ashley was around somewhere with their cute dog, Atlas, since she’s sidelined from running right now. 🙁  Hoping your recovery time heals you up all the way, lady!  Overall, it was fun just sitting and watching people finish and the soliders that were out there.  Love this race! It is for such a good cause that even though it’s freakin’ hot in Texas in June it still draws a crowd!  This was the Wounded Warrior Half Marathon & 10K’s third year and drew in over 3,000 runners and doubled their fundraising this year from last to over $50,000 raised for the Semper Fi fund.

I ran into Jason, Ashley & Atlas again after Jason completed his half.  Congrats to you on a new PR and completing a half in that heat!  So impressed with everyone that goes out there and runs the half in that toasty weather!

If you are in the Dallas area you should really consider adding this race to your schedule for next year!  Like I said it’s for a great cause, but it is also a race that is put on really well!

Do you have a race that you go back to every year that despite everything else the cause gets you signed up again and again?

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DRC Bloomin’ 4 Mile Race

June 5, 2012 by · 6 Comments

 

Yep, you see that right, 4 miles. This was definitely a first for me in terms of race distance. I was slightly nervous because the last 5k we ran, we both wanted/did vomit so I had no real idea about how hard or fast to run 4 miles.  I didn’t set any goals, no need. It’s a free race if you are a DRC member and I figured it would be super low key and fun.

Beth ended up getting some kind of stomach bug and was out of work for two days so she decided Saturday morning to sit this one out too. I don’t blame her at all. She texted me early to make sure I knew and was fine. I was nervous because I have never been to a race completely alone before. Eeek! Had to be a big girl and go alone.

Luckily as soon as I got there I saw a familiar face! Jesus, who runs a lot of the hill work with us and is a fellow NTX Runner was in the parking lot getting his stuff ready for a warm-up! While Jesus went out for a warm-up I just hung out in my car. I was way too early. I was there at 7 for an 8 o’clock race because I was worried about my bib. No need, DRC had everything out, organized, and easy to get to!

Eight o’clock sharp the race started. I had decided that I would figure out my pace after I saw how I felt. Mile one was great! Mile 2 felt the same, 3 was ehhh, and 4 was awesome. Here are my splits!

The course was super flat, except for one small area in the middle, but that was nothing compared to our hill work. The weather was awesome in Texas. The sun was fortunately still hiding behind the clouds and there was a slight breeze!

Overall results:

8th in age group

169/497 overall

Gun: Chip: Name City
0:34:29 0:33:55 Teal Perez Carrollton

Jesus snapped these pics at the end! Thanks Jesus!!  I actually felt really good, surprisingly good. I haven’t really felt that way in a long time, running lately has been hard for me, I haven’t felt like doing it, and it hasn’t seemed to be coming easy at all, so I was very happy with this race! Hope that feeling continues!

 

 

Have you ever run a 4 mile race? What is the craziest distance you have ever run before for a race?

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May not have totally Rocked it, but at least I didn’t Roll!!

May 7, 2012 by · 15 Comments

After spending a few hours Friday helping with packet pickup for White Rock ‘n’ Roll I was getting pretty excited to participate in the race.  If you aren’t already excited all on your own for a race there’s no better way to get pumped than volunteering for a race.  Or at least maybe that’s just my opinion?!

(source)

I slept in until 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning and was thrilled that I got to do that.  I was out the door by about 6:30 a.m. and immediately thought “man, it’s gonna be hot…wish this race was starting in 30-40 minutes from now Buuuuuttt I still liked sleeping in!”  Then I realize that my plan of bringing both my camelbak and my armband for my iPhone to choose between running with or without water was no longer an option as my armband was still sitting on the counter in my kitchen.  Pretty sure I was a big mess that morning as I also didn’t know where my headphones were but they magically appeared in my car. 🙂  Guess I should just be glad I made it to White Rock Lake period. Ha 😉

Before the race got started I got to see some familiar faces out there!  Fellow NTX Runner, Jesse, and two tweeps I’d made friends before knowing we all had running in common, Tom & Matt.  Great to see all of you out there!

The race got started and I’m pretty sure the whole time I was out there could be equated to me having hot flashes.  One minute I’m thinking this isn’t so bad there’s a breeze here in the shade! The next minute the shade goes away and holy cow I’m HOT!  This basically sums up how I felt the whole time.  The course was an out and back so I kept thinking just get to 5 miles and you got this!  A little bit before mile 5 I saw Jesse and was able to give him a little cheer since he was really one of the only people I knew running the 10 mile distance he was the only one I was looking for to see out there.

I know I started out fast which was not on purpose at all and I tried to keep it steady the rest of the way so I would survive in the heat.  Plus if I was going to have a chance of kickin’ it up a notch at the end I knew I needed to keep it at a steady pace.  My  main goal out there on the course was to finish it without walking. Accomplished. Very early on I thought that I should try for finishing under 1:30, but then I realized I was forgetting it was 10 miles not 9 and altered that goal to finishing under 1:35.

Another nice surprise out on the course was a familiar face at a water stop along the course, Paul!  He was giving out lots of encouraging and happy words to all the runners!  His pep was just what I needed when I saw him again on the way back! Thank you for that, Paul!

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned before I usually run with music, but there’s a majority of the time that I’m actually lost in my own thoughts than the actual music.  My ears did perk up though in the last mile as Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right. Which helped push me to the end.  I didn’t have enough in the tank to kick it up a notch in the last mile, but I did have enough to sprint it out at the very end.

sprintin’ it in!

(Thanks to Jose Vega posting this picture on Facebook – hope it’s ok I stole it :))

My official results were 10 miles in 1:32:16 and I finished 6th in my age group.  Not too shabby!  Which also means my goal of running under 1:35 was accomplished!

Overall it was a good race!  Thank you DRC for putting on a great race and everything that y’all do!  Once the race was over I parked it on the grass to catch my breath and was able to finally meet a twitter running friend slash fellow NTX Runner, Alicia!  Just love getting to connect with people you spend time chatting with on the twitterverse!

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We’re Running in the Rain, Just Running in the Rain

April 17, 2012 by · 17 Comments

Should we get out of the car now? Or wait a few more minutes?

Well, Saturday afternoon the winds started picking up here in Dallas.  It never really rained in our neck of the woods that day and even when we went to bed that night it was still dry.  By the time we both woke up think the rain hadn’t fully started until it was time to actually drive down to Fair Park. But enough about that let’s just cut to the chase. Here’s how Big D Half went for each of us…

Miles 1-3

Teal: Ugh! Where is a water station when you need it? These first few miles were HOT! I think I had more sweat in these 3 miles then I did during any other stretch of the race. It was hot and humid and the air was seriously thick! I kept coughing because it honestly felt like something was stuck in my throat. I start looking to the sky and thinking where is the rain we’ve been hearing about and if it doesn’t rain I am going to be pissed because I decided to forego buying new shoes because I felt like that would be a dumb idea to run in new shoes in the rain and then feel like they were ruined after one time.

Beth: I didn’t really have a goal in mind for this race because I knew I needed to see how the weather would play out so my goal would be determined out on the course. Somewhere in mile 1 a man asked where the water stops were and I told him I had heard they were few and far between out here. In these miles I saw a man who is a regular with me in spin class and talks to me about my running. He asked me why I wasn’t further up and I told him I was trying! Ha. Teal and I had decided we needed to take advantage of each water stop since we wouldn’t know how the weather would be throughout the race. At the second water station we had to stop and wait for water to be poured in a cup for us.

Miles 4-6

Teal: Not bad but I was worried about being too hot as there was still no sign of rain and I was like, I’m not in the mood to deal with this heat and decided to slow down. Not based on total need just based on me really only going to do what makes me happy right now and that is not run fast in the heat. Happy also meant eating all my gummi bears, which I did! At this point, I was thinking, just do what you feel like, just be happy, and who really cares about the rest. At mile 6.5 the air started to cool and you could see darkening clouds! I kept crossing my fingers!

Beth: I forget when exactly now, but somewhere around 3 or 4 miles I’d seen the 2 hour pacer pass and thought welp, there goes that, but if it’s going to end up being hot this whole time I can live with that. Still have yet to get many runs in while it’s just been HOT outside. At some point running along White Rock Lake a breeze was coming through periodically so I started to feel good and knew I could pick up my game some but that there where still hills to conquer! Even though I had my Runkeeper app going I wasn’t fully aware of where I stood to finish this thing at the pace I was at, but I knew if I wanted it I could possibly bust out another sub two half. Just as we were leaving the lake we had pretty much switched over into a new climate. It was cool! I let out a woohoo!! And the people around me said yes! This feels good! This next part I mention only because it gave me a laugh out there but shortly after this I’m coming up on this muscular guy running without his shirt on and then I see him raise one arm, flex and admire his bicep. Ha! Then I passed him. Ha!

Miles 7-10

Teal: Sweet RELIEF!! The rain hit at 7 and I could not have been happier. Had the crazy humidity kept up it would have been a different story. Everyone around me literally started to cheer! Most people put their hands in the air and you could just tell we all wanted that rain. This excitement died shortly after, and honestly I got a little worried. I didn’t want to deal with lightening or anything and decided to speed it back up and just get off the course. It pretty much rained consistently during these miles!

Beth: After the rain hit in the beginning of mile 7 I knew a sub two half was mine that day I just had work to do to in this last half! The rain was completely exhilarating to me and from there on out I was running happy! I thanked as many police officers and volunteers as I could. I also high fived as many little kids as I could! I just felt awesome so I picked up the pace! Go time!

Miles 11-13.1

Teal: Not bad at all. Not too tired, didn’t feel great but didn’t feel bad. Just wanted dry clothes. I usually count when I run but instead of counting as pace keeping I just decided to repeat the phrase “ dry clothes, dry clothes” as motivation to get this over with! I saw Beth at 13 and she ran a few steps with me and then it was over!

Beth: To me some of this last half truly runs together because I was happy. I was constantly thinking you got this! Let’s get it done! It was also somewhere in here I spotted the 2 hour pace and eventually passed him! YES! Running through numbers in my head and somewhere in here I thought, wait a second, could I get a new PR today?! So I kept pushing. When mile 12 came I knew I’d put in a ton of work and my body could only take so much more pushing. I knew if I did PR it would be a close one and I thought if I don’t I don’t care. I’ve run a strong race and I am so proud of myself!  It was kind of nice that Teal and I happened to walk by the 13 mile marker that morning as we made our way to the start and knew just where the finish was.

Teal: Not my best run and not my worst run. I can honestly say I am excited for the break. I have not expected a PR or anything in a while for the simple fact that I have not been training at all. I have done a couple hill work outs and nothing over 2-3 miles randomly besides the hills. I am ready to have time to train, change things up and use the second half of the year to work getting faster and stronger. Continually just running races and using them as “training” is no bueno and does not make you faster! I’m healed now and ready to go. Can’t wait until August when I feel better about doing actual training work and regaining the confidence that I have worked on speed! The break is needed because I really have not felt that huge desire to push!

Beth:  I didn’t stop my Runkeeper app right away, but I’d gotten across the start fast and when I crossed the finish line I knew I was in the 1:57 range.  I missed my half PR by 34 seconds meaning 34 seconds faster and I would have hit my same exact PR so 35 seconds faster and I’d have a new PR barely.  But I didn’t care! I had a good race! Overall, I finished 22 in my age group and 326th in the race. The past few months I had put in a lot of hill work and with just the two short stadium workouts my trainer Johnny has had me do in the last two weeks I had that push in me during the race.  Yes, we are taking a few months off from running halfs and I’m excited to take this opportunity to get stronger!  I know that I’ll come back in the Fall making sure I conquer my overall goal of having mostly sub two half marathon races.

Once the race was over we wanted to try and see a few people who were running the marathon.  After the marathoners hit the mile 26 marker they had to keep running up this road that takes them along the gate of Fair Park and we stationed ourselves where they’d make their last turn into the park.  We cheered for a good two hours out there!  Ultimately we ended up missing the people we knew, but we managed to see Army Amy as she was closing out her marathon!  We still haven’t met you in real life, but it was good to see you out there! You were looking strong, lady!  So there you have it our Big D race recap and if you’d asked us 4 months ago after White Rock Marathon if we would ever be grateful to run in the rain again we both would have probably yelled NO!! But the rain made this race bearable!

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The Day We Got to Be Superheroes

April 15, 2012 by · 5 Comments

If you’re not from the Dallas area then you probably have no idea that the forecast called for rain on Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Well, at least in the beginning of the week! The weather gods must have smiled upon Dallas CASA as they put on their first ever Superhero 5K because the rain did not make an appearance!

If you read our pre-race post then you know that neither one of us really  had a goal for this race, weeelll, we aren’t fully capable of just making a race an easy/laid back/casual race.  There is very much a competitive edge that lives on in each of us.  Plus as the temperatures are staring to go up and bring us the hot weather goals for a race can change in our minds in an instance.

Lindsay, Teal a.k.a. The Green Lantern and Beth a.k.a. Ms. Marvel

Lindsay, Brent and Beth

The race start was counted down and we were off!  We got going running side by side with each other and the course started out with a couple of hills right around Lindsley Park (where the 5K was held).  We powered through them though and from there the course took us onto the Santa Fe Trail which neither one of us had ever run on before.  About the last half mile we got off the Santa Fe Trail and pushed on towards the finish line.  It was probably about here were as a result of how hard we were running Teal first felt the need to throw up.  As we got to about the 3 mile mark Beth was starting to need to throw up. Ha!  Both of us successfully made it across that finish line without any throwing up.  Although Beth can’t say that for after crossing the finish line. 🙂  But that’s a sign of knowing you gave it your all in a 5K right???

Teal had paid more attention to how many females may or may not have been in front of us finishing the 5K.  We thought that at the very least Teal might have placed in our age group, so Beth & Brent stuck around in the end to find out since Teal had to get to work.  Before they announced any results they gave a big shout out to a little girl named Teal for being a Superhero that day by bringing all of her allowance to the race to donate to CASA.  How sweet is that?  And kind of fun that her name is Teal!  Unfortunately, the awards part of the race only mentioned who won the race and from there who won in each age division.  In our age group it was a man so he was the only person announced.  So Beth left there still not knowing exactly how we did.  It wasn’t until results were put up online that we found out we finished 1st and 2nd in our age group and 18th and 19th overall!

If only they had done an award for the male and female in each age group Teal would have gotten an award!!  This race brings a new PR for Beth!  We are both so proud of how we did especially considering Beth’s previous PR and Teal’s PR was from an all out flat course.  We definitely gave it our all and owned those hills instead of letting them own us!  You should definitely consider signing up for this race next year! Just a fun atmosphere with everyone dressed up in their Superhero costumes!  They had everything from Quail Man (who remembers him??) to generic superheroes to Wonder Woman.  Lots of great costumes out there!

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We Are Seeing Doubles Again!

April 13, 2012 by · 3 Comments

We liked our double race weekend in March so much that we decided we needed an April repeat….or something like that! 🙂

As you probably already know from previous blog posts tomorrow we are running the Dallas CASA Superhero 5K at Lindsley Park! This race will bring a bit of newness for both of us as neither one of us have ever run at that park AND it’ll be the first time that Beth gets to run a race with her future sister-in-law!

(source)

Then Sunday morning we are running the Big D Half the first half marathon to kick off the start of our Four Seasons Challenge we decided to participate in and you know, get extra bling for when we complete it! 🙂

(source)

So it’ll be a full weekend, but hopefully a good one!  Though we have already gotten a heads up email from Big D that they are closely watching the weather for Sunday since right now there is a 70% chance of rain and/or thunderstorms for the race!  If it does rain at least it won’t be in the 40’s like White Rock Marathon was in December! =)

We both do not have set goals for this race!  We are going to go out there do our best, race smart and hopefully have a lot of fun while running! 🙂

What are YOUR weekend running plans?  We want to know!

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ZOOMA Zoom Zoom & a Boom Boom!

April 4, 2012 by · 9 Comments

Perhaps if we believed in signs we would have seen this weekend’s madness coming but alas we did not…..

As you may know  we had a race this weekend in Austin, the ZOOMA’s [women geared yet men are welcome!] race series half marathon. Because we live in North Dallas we were not able to make the expo so we had to have our bibs mailed, and due to uncontrolled matters Beth did not receive her bib. We were a little worried/stressed but we were able to get that solved [thanks to Tricia for helping us out!].  Teal, worried about chaffing as usual and really wanted to stop at Lululemon for a running skirt. So much so she was willing to try anything (and yes, body glide is not totally working). We stopped, shopped, and then sat down and ate dinner.  We actually didn’t leave North Texas until after 8. Whoops?? We arrived in Austin to literally crawl in bed to wake up in less than 6 hours.

We got up, realized we hadn’t prepared food wise for the race and basically were like – Whelp, what can we do? Not a good sign here for us. We had PB sandwiches and shared some Swedish fish left over from our Rock ‘n’ Roll race weekend. Haha.

The race started right on time and it is clear that neither of were really paying all that much attention because as soon as we crossed the start line we had to run up our first of MANY hills.

This one was not too bad, but we kind of looked at each other in a “oh lord, is this a sign of things to come?” way.  We knew the race was a “challenging course” per the website, but we really had NO CLUE what we were about to get into, we hadn’t seen or maybe missed an elevation map. So we were completely clueless!!

As you know we both had just come off of pretty successful half’s the week before at RnR Dallas, and it was clear within a mile that our legs were not feeling it. Teal looked at Beth and was said “I feel like a brick” Beth agreed. Crap! We kept running along, Beth decided for fun to keep track of the hills we ran because it was that crazy. After mile two, we had counted 9 hills. We are not talking little ant hills, these things were insane. We started walking up the 9th hill at mile 2. NINTH! Oh crap. We have 11.1 miles left.  13.1 had never seemed so long before to us.

We continued this,  “run down, walk up,”  business that we are both very sad to admit happened.  Because for us, it’s just personal preference for the two of us, but we aren’t run/walkers.  There was just no way! We can honestly say that we checked out mentally and our bodies were not there physically, which made matters worse.  Oh and maybe we can pour a little salt on the wound with this screen shot of our weather.

Stinking spring humidity in Texas is no joke. There was a breeze but yuck, thick air.

We decided that we would basically not let the 2:20 pacer pass up. 2:20! Good lord! What was happening?? The hills literally just kept coming. Some were so steep that EVERYONE around us walked. We honestly think crawling them would have worked just as well.  After the race our trust Runkeeper app informed us that this was our highest elevation EVER.  We have used Runkeeper for going on almost a year and a half now.

We had no clue where the course went but luckily we ran (haha!) into this lady in front of us who was running this course for the 4th time. We give her uber props! She said we had about 2 miles out and back then around the golf course on the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines resort. Ok! How bad could that be? Yah, bad. We made it down the 2 miles out and still just felt blah, we walked a little, ran a little, ran up a few hills, but then we were just both so mentally checked out that pushing anything was just terrible.

Beth had miscounted (yep, did we mention mentally checked out??) and thought we had 3 left just as we hit 9. She looks at Teal and was like 5k left. Right?  Nope 4. We walked. That is deflating!

We hit the golf course at around 11. This is a mental issue too.  We had to do a little “trail” running. We had to run on this mulch stuff that takes every ounce of bounce out of your legs. Teal looked at Beth and said “ I do NOT want to finish.” Luckily, Beth in her logic was like, “you don’t have to, but you’ll still have to go back that way.” UGH. Might as well finish at this point.

We did some more walking. Grrr!! and managed to run it in right around 2:20ish. This marks our worst half marathon to date for each of us. It was bound to happen, we know, but we were still a little blah about the entire thing. This marked our 10th half marathon but really you wouldn’t know it by how it went for us.

We hung out after and were luckily able to grab a glass of wine from the Barefoot Wine garden and met some nice ladies out there! Fun hearing other ladies’ running stories, but ultimately we decided to just get home to Dallas!

Oh, but wait, we consulted the twitterverse as to where in Austin we should get lunch so with the recommendation of a twitter friend we stopped off at Moonshine for lunch.  If you are ever in need of a place to eat when you are visiting Austin then store Moonshine in your memory bank!  And uhhh, we HAD to stop by an Austin Lululemon and uhhh, we were in Austin we HAD to stop by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf!  Y’all, have we told you we love that place??

We pretty much passed the time in the car singing along to and every CD that Beth had in her car.  There might have been some dancing too….

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To PR or Not to PR, What Did We Do? [Part 2]

March 29, 2012 by · 16 Comments

This post should start off with the Rock ‘n’ Roll expo on Saturday because our day was made when we officially got to meet @KatieRUNSthis and @cajun_runner!  Both of these ladies are truly fabulous and we were so lucky to get to spend some time with them!

The one and only picture taken at the expo..ha

We left the expo and dined with our dudes at Breadwinner’s Cafe. MMMM!  A must visit place in Dallas if you are ever visiting from out of town! Anyways, race morning was upon us and we got down to the start line super early just so we could be sure and not stress before the race, used the facilities 🙂 (sorry Mom, we just blogged about that) and looked for people we knew!

We saw Mama C & Marci all fancy in the VIP tent pre race until we saw Katie that morning who hooked us up big time and before we knew it we found ourselves smack in the middle of the VIP tent as well!

Teal, Katie & Beth

Thank you SO much, Katie!

And then up walked Melvin a.k.a. @apa1906!  If you don’t follow Melvin on the twitterverse you need to march yourself over and click follow!  We have been twitter friends with Melvin for awhile now and missed an opportunity at the Hot Chocolate Run to met him, but he is such an encouragement to both of us!  We are so thankful to you for that!

From here you are going to get our race play by plays from both of us! 🙂  Enjoy and hope we don’t bore you to death! 🙂

Teal: It was not until we entered the corral that I started to get very nervous. I had joked all week that I was going to end up walking this entire thing and Kacie’s run, while not bad, hurt. My legs were shaking after the race and marked only the second real run since Disney- over 4 weeks ago. In case you were wondering I had taken a two week break and then really had really taken 2 more from running, but had done some shorter cardio.

We found the Luebs!

Miles 1-3

Teal: We met up with the Lueb’s (also known as Heidi & Brian :)). I had known Brian was working on running a PR and wanted to hit 2 hours. So really I decided that I could stay close to him for as long as I could and then I would be fine if I slowed down. I stayed with Brian until about 3 miles. Ha- so much for that! I actually felt good despite dropping back. He was hauling and those first miles were all around 9 minutes or less. I knew I would see people at 3 because Greg and his crew (ladies, She-Ninjas, what have you) would be there to cheer us on. I passed him at 3 and he told me I was only seconds behind Beth, Heidi and Brian. I got nervous. There is no way I will be able to keep this up but just decided to stay with where I was regardless.

Beth: My biggest fear for this race was starting out way too fast and bonking!  In the first 3 miles-ish of the race not only are those miles fast because hey, you’re racing but also because you have some nice down hills like when we ran right by Dealey Plaza.  We also ran by the Old Red where I’m getting married, but that has nothing to do with a downhill I just wanted you to know that. 🙂  The one time my runkeeper alerted me in the first mile to my pace was on that decline at Dealey Plaza and said I was going at a 7:45ish pace.  Errrr, tap the breaks, Beth!

Miles 4-7

Teal: These miles were still not bad. I knew that Kate and Brent and Michael would be at 7ish and decided to make that my next goal. I still was feeling pretty good but getting tired and hot and not to mention started to feel the ridiculous blister forming. The hill between the relay exchange stations is NUTS. I hated every last second of that part and remember thinking, I am so glad I ran leg two last year. That was a beating. It took me a while to recover from that hill.

This picture is where you play "Where is Teal??" Can you see her?

Beth: This whole section of the race had pretty constant inclines.  We knew this because we drove the course the day before and I knew that I would slow it down in this section.  That was my plan run the first three at a pace that wasn’t exhausting, slow for the hills and pick it back up for the last third of the race as I have gotten second winds after hill work. I knew there was a chance I could bust it out!  Plus I knew somewhere in mile 7 I’d get to see Brent, Kate & Michael!

Brent caught Brian in this picture too! I had NO idea we were basically running with each other. Ha!

Miles 8-10

Teal: Here goes my mind. I’m still convinced that I was going to end up dying and really I was not dying “lung wise” but my body (legs, things, calves, and feet) just hurt. I got to 9 and decided that due to just feeling blah that I would walk the water station. I had really only eaten like 4 Swedish fish at this point and was hungry but it took a lot of effort to eat. More than I was willing to give. I hate this and hate admitting it with a passion but I had to walk those stations. I was running pretty fast in general and was starting to feel the effects of heat and little training in between. It also felt really good on my blisters to stop and give them a little rest and walk on the side of my foot. At 9 I had literally had 4 cups of water and dumped one on my head.

Loading up Teal's pocket with Swedish Fish

Beth: And this is where things start to get hot! Neither one of us has mentioned yet that we have done zero, zip, zilch in the way of running in heat so far this year, so the last half-ish of the race was weather conditions we hadn’t been in since sometime last Fall.  It’s so funny to me that Teal and I both struggled with food out there…it’s like even though we aren’t together on the course we still have something that aligns with the other.  I had eaten a shotblock minutes before the race started and by the time I needed to start eating – yah, I just didn’t have the strength to pull the Swedish Fish out of my sports bra.  Yes, that’s wear I keep them when I’m running sans camelbak.  Overall I think I ate a grand total of 4 or 5 Swedish Fish. Hmmm, perhaps if I had fueled properly this race would have ended differently.

Miles 11-13.1

Teal: At 11 I was certain I would make it, but kept the plan to walk the water station because the in between parts where exhausting. You enter the park around 12.5 and then spend the next half of a mile running turns through Fair Park. BLAHHHHH! I wish they would change this finish because it really does suck. You can’t see it, it takes forever to run through there and based on other races that end there you finish as soon as you get in the park, which is so much better.

Beth:  These last few miles were not very shaded at all.  I had been taking water at the water stations but I was just getting to a point where I needed more water than I had.  It always disappoints me when I walk water stations because for me personally I don’t like doing that.  I say that like I’ve done that a bunch but I haven’t this might have been the 2nd half I’ve done where I walked, but I felt like I was going so slow carrying my water and drinking it I might as well just stop.  The last water station I walked all of a sudden I heard “Beth Lynch!!”  I turn and there’s Brian which was funny after the race realizing he was pretty much with me the whole time – how in the world did I miss that?  We entered Fair Park for the never ending finish that then just pops out of nowhere.  I tried to warn as many people as possible about that because, uhh, it’s annoying! BUT I finished in 1:58:13, sub 2 hour half marathon number three is in the books for me!  I didn’t get a new PR, but I am proud of that sub 2 hour for sure!  Big shout out to Brian for knocking like 19 minutes off his half marathon, you my friend have an awesome, new, shiny PR! 🙂

Teal: I finished and decided I was scared to look at my feet because the blister was either going to be the size of my entire foot or bleeding. As you can see it’s the size of my foot.

I finished in 2:06:31. Which I am completely not upset about. I ran hard and listened to my body. I honestly thought I would not finish as well as I did. Guess I have underestimated my body. I hope to be back on track now! The foot is healed (at least I think so) from the rest and I don’t seemed to have lost much!

Half Marathon #9 is done!

And shoutout to Chase who came out and joined us at another Rock ‘n’ Roll race!

cousin/friends, Chase & Beth and look Beth and the girl in the background have the same shorts on! Ha

And an even BIGGER shout out to Teal’s gym buddy Cynthia for completing her first half marathon!! You did awesome, lady!

Pre-race pic courtesy of Mama C!

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To PR or Not to PR, What Did We Do? [Part1]

March 27, 2012 by · 10 Comments

We ran Kacie’s run this weekend and guess what!?!?! We have a new PR!! We don’t run many 5K’s as you may have noticed so Beth has not had a chance to PR in a 5K in a long time, but this weekend she did! Beth finished Kacie’s Run in a new PR time of 25:28 winning FIRST in her age group. We really have no idea what Teal’s official time was because we broke tradition on accident [tradition being Beth always puts her chip for her] and her chip timer never made it on her shoe. Whoops! We are pretty sure if she had had her chip on she would have come in about 40-50 seconds behind Beth and made third, but who knows. And in case anyone was ever wondering, chips only work if they are on your shoe! It stayed on the bib but never registered the time. Schwoops!

Really we blame the madness of the morning on the chip problem. We ended up getting to the race an hour and a half early because they were doing bib pick up the morning of instead of pre-race. Teal thought that this might be a disaster because about 20 of her students signed up to run this race as their first ever raceand really didn’t know what to do. We got there early to pick up everything for them and meet them in the parking lot.

For Beth this is rather funny to watch. Teal’s kids are cute in that they really didn’t know what to do at all. We helped them pin bibs, get their timer chips on and listened to all the random things they ask about what to do. Most didn’t have the right shoes, wanted to run in spikes, or wondered if we would see cars on the course. They also made a point to let their teachers know they planned on beating them. They are funny and it is cool to be present during someone’s first race!

Haha! Our faces in this pic...and notice the timing chip on Teal's bib

We want to know when your first race was!! For Beth her first 5K was in 2008 at the Mardi Gras Run 5K and for Teal back in 2000 at the Susan G Komen race in Plano which was super small compared to what you see now!  So leave us a comment with when your very first race was!

Also because it is Tuesday! We wanted to again let everyone know about Girl’s Night Out we are going to tonight!  If you are going to be around the Carrollton area and would like to show some support or just see how awesome some local, business ladies are then come on out and join us from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.!  There will be door prizes that include items from the vendors there – Creative Chaos the book, a Glitzbandz, a piece of jewelry, a wine gift card to Dee Lincoln’s Restaurant, a gift card to Matador, etc.  There will be wine and treats! So come join us!  Check out the flyer below for further details!

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