[Not Entirely] Marathon Running Weekend Part 2

January 26, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Last year we both ran the Too Cold to Hold race together and just on whim decided to do it again. Beth mentioned wanting to run and Teal of course agreed. It’s not too hard to persuade each other to run something around here! You might recall Teal’s recap of her 5k on Saturday which started out at 36 degrees and in keeping with the craziness that is Texas weather, we were again not too surprised that our run started out Sunday morning at 52 degrees and ended up with a high of 78 for the day. Definitely NOT Too Cold too Hold!

We really were not all that prepared again for this race and had to discuss directions again.  Whoops!  Hopefully this direction problem isn’t turning into a trend. 🙂 We got to the park and made a b-line to the port-o-potties as usual. We ran into one of Beth’s Fiancé’s friend’s Hanes who we didn’t know would be there!

We waited around and met/chatted with many of our twitter friends and even met some new people in real life! SO good to meet Lee a.k.a. @runneronabudget and his son, Angel out there! Bonus for sure and really chatting with them was the only really highlights of this day.

We started out the race together as we both basically decided to run this race as a training run and not a true race since we have been a little off in our training. Beth had run about 9.5 miles on Saturday and Teal around 7, plus both of us did yoga, so our legs were in no way shape or form rested.

The race was in a word “normal”- nothing new or different and no real problems besides this dude who kept swerving in and out from us. At one point he basically cut Beth off weaving, would run backwards, look back and weirdly smile and randomly cheer for people whilst running backwards.  We couldn’t decide if he was running tangents or dizzy or what…We have no clue what he was doing but kept us entertained for a while due to he weirdness. 🙂

Around 4.5 we got the BEST surprise! This race is kind of boring because there are literally no spectators besides finished runners at the end so we were both pumped to see Heidi and Brian cheering us on around the turn around. This pumped us up and made it a little easier to keep running.  We made it a point to wave and cheer on our fellow North Texas Runners in an effort to pass time and keep from being bored, and of course be supportive.

A post race pic of our cheerleaders! The Luebs are awesome!

Teal and Beth split at about the 6 mile mark which made the last 3 miles a drain. At around 9 Teal saw Heidi again and she ran her in right up to the finish line! Such a great cheering surprise for a relatively routine and regular race!

Afterwards we hung around to celebrate Michelle’s birthday and eat with our running friends at Fuzzy’s! We got to here all about Greg’s upcoming 100miler at Rocky Raccoon in Huntsville and hang out with their precious girls, an all over great ending to the day!

Frunners!

Shout out to Mama C the awesome picture taker…we stole two pictures from you and the term frunner! =)

Love this photo! Marci and her age group award...a lil Ninja!

Frunners at Fuzzy's!

It was also SO good to meet Michelle a.k.a. Drum at this race!  We finally after a long time of chatting it up on twitter we saw her for two seconds at White Rock Mary but actually got to meet this weekend!  Also, a shout out to Stacy it was SO good to meet you too and hope that we see you again soon..you know not just on twitter! 🙂

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July’s Race

July 12, 2011 by · 6 Comments


We made it!! We survived Run On’s Too Hot to Handle!!  Apparently we CAN handle the heat although it isn’t necessarily our favorite thing to do. 🙂  This post we are going to break it up again and let you get a recap from both of us and our different perspectives –

Teal:

Ok so that was definitely rough. The race started out fine, had to weave my way in and out of people until the 5k/15k split, but not as bad as some other races we have been through.  Beth and I ran together for the first part, but I really never saw her again. I was seriously fine until about the 6th mile when I could feel a full blister forming on the bottom of my big toe, I knew it was happening the entire time but it was starting to become fairly unbearable. Then to make matters worse at about mile 7.5 the damn thing burst after stepping very weird on a large crack in the ground while I was running! I was like, awesome, I am dying from the heat, and my foot feels like a tiny needle is poking it. Oh and I decided that another piece of important running etiquette is to seriously watch were you SPIT! This dude in front of me kept spitting, twice he spit backwards and his gross wad of a spit landed close to me. I decided to get the heck away from him! I managed to finish the race about 5 or so minutes longer than I ran the course in January but I was relatively fine with my results. I had to walk through a couple of water stations and definitely took advantage of the sprinklers at the last few stations. I knew I was getting almost too hot because I started to get the chills, which is never a good think when it is crazy hot outside.  We were greeted at the finish line with ice cold towels which was amazing. I immediately sat down and took off my shoes to see how bad my feet were. GROSS for sure! I felt a little dizzy and seriously hot and just laid down for a while, my favorite thing to do after running! I don’t care how bad that actually is to do. I had last seen Beth at right about the 6th mile marker, but I started to get a little nervous waiting for her at the finish line as time kept passing. At one point the announcer came on and asked everyone to stop talking because someone needed to go to an ambulance. Right about that time I decided I would get up and start to look for Beth. She crossed the finish line just as I was getting too nervous to sit and wait any longer! I was very impressed with her and our ability to push through even though we hate the heat.

And just in case you wanted to see just how bad my blisters were, here you go:


Beth:
Once we got to Norbuck Park, Teal and I immediately get in the bathroom line and then by the time we get to the starting line there are only 5 minutes to spare!  Race starts, we are separated, then I find Teal again and when she darts off to pass someone I think, “nah, I don’t want to tire myself out in the beginning, I’ll stay here.”  So we are running and I get to a turn around and don’t see Teal who should be in front of me.  It’s not until I see a 3 mile marker that it dawns on me – I took the wrong split!  So I asked one of the volunteers on a bike where I went wrong and she graciously rode next to me as I jogged and showed me where I should have gone!  She also commented, “so you’re going to come very close to running a half today.”  Awesome! In my mind I just went that’s it – I WILL run this!  I’d started the 15k thinking I’d walk a couple times, but now it was game on!  It wasn’t until I was almost at the 4 mile mark for the 15k race that  I finally caught up to the back of the pack of walkers.  It was a very humbling experience seeing the faces of other runs as I was the last runner for a majority of the 15k course.   Some runners even cheered me on.  The whole time I was running I was thinking “if Teal ever worries about being last in a race again, I will remind her that I pretty much was at this race.”  There really was a lot of shade in the Too Hot to Handle 15k and it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be in my head.  By the time I had been running for an 1:50 I decided I’d run over a 15k I could walk for 2 minutes, so I did. And eventually I made it across the finish line.  When all was said and done my runkeeper app said I ran 12.4 miles.  Oh, and thankfully I’d seen Teal at one point and was able to tell her I ran the 5k first before doing the 15k so she at least knew what was up with me a little bit even if she had no clue if I would go ahead and do the whole 15k course too, which I did.
The temperature not that long after I was done running:

And then we brunched at Campisi’s. Buffet…nom nom nom! 🙂

Results
Teal: 1:36:14, finished 33rd in age group and 524 overall
Beth: 2:08:46, finished 75th in age group and 884th out of 936 (I think) people, but can’t we just say I won my division of 5k & 15k race combined? haha
Thanks for a great race Run On!  And thank you to all the wonderful volunteers out there!  Hopefully in the next month or two we will be out at a race volunteering!
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Too Hot to Handle

July 7, 2011 by · 1 Comment

 

This Sunday we’ll be doing our July race with the Too Hot to Handle 15k put on by Run On!  We actually ran the same race just on the opposite end of the spectrum in January – Too Cold to Hold.  This 15k matches up right with where we are in our training for our half marathon in September, but we’d be lying if we didn’t say this is yet another race we are scared to run.  Are you beginning to see a theme in our summer/hot month races?

 

The great thing about all the races we’ve run or been apart of have sponsored some sort of organization.  Certain races are promoted by their cause, and some are popular in and of themselves without an organization to donate money to yet there’s still a cause behind it.  Too Hot to Handle would be a race I’ve heard about because of its reputation yet every racers entry fee benefits PAL (Protective Animal League – Altering the world, one pet at a time) as well as the Richardson Rotary Central.  Giving back to the community in some form has always been a very big part of our lives and we can really appreciate that in some way it’s a part of every race that we run.

Goals:

This is another race where we have very high expectations – finish it. 🙂

Weather Forecast:

Wind: 14mph

High: 100*

Low:  78*

Precip: 0%

Love that one of the weather websites said that on Sunday there would be “abundant sunshine.”

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