26.2 Reasons We Are Excited to Race the Louisiana Marathon

January 17, 2013 by · 9 Comments
1.  It will be our first time to run in Louisiana not just race but actually do even a run in this state!
2.  ROAD TRIP!!
3.  Look at this pretty bling we get to add to our collection:
la marathon medal
4.  This will be the 1st time either one of us has been to Baton Rouge! Unless there was sometime when we were little kids and do not remember………..
5.  We will have two of the most handsome dudes out there cheering us on!
just the two in the front, we don't know the guy in the white shirt! :)

the two in the front, we don’t know the guy in the white shirt! 🙂

6.   We can’t wait for the race swag! Whoever does the design work for their logos ROCKS!
the la marathon 9.25.12
7.  We heard the Race Director has a brother-in-law who lives in Texas – who doesn’t love a good Texas connection?!
8.  This is the Louisiana Marathon’s 2nd year and they have runners (as of 1/15/13) from 47 states and 12 countries participating.
9.  There are designated Cheer Zones on the course that are actually stocked with snacks, refreshments AND cheering supplies! Talk about a great race for runners and spectators!
10.  We get to run with each other until this mile, ok, really it is like until 10.5.
11.  We hear it’s a fast course which who doesn’t like a fast course?!
12. The weather for race day is looking awwwwwesome! *knock on wood*
13.  The course is suppose to be beautiful!
13.1.  Teal will finish her 16th half marathon!!
14.  People have constantly asked us WHY we are running THIS race, well, we think this best explains it: THE WHY
15.  This race starts and finishes right by the State’s Capitol.
16. To steal the words from Brian, we are excited to “carbeaux leauxd” for this race! 🙂 In fact let us point out one more time if you aren’t following Brian on twitter then you’re doing twitter wrong! Might we also point out, if you are in the market for a running coach you should get in touch with Brian! OK, enough about Brian….
17.  Po’ boys!
18. ALL of the snacks we have planned for the car ride! 🙂
IMG_7760
19. Not only are there cheer zones set up on this course, but a lot of great opportunities to see runners multiple times without having to cover a lot of ground!
20.  We will actually run on the campus of LSU!
21.  Race weekends in which Monday is a holiday are awwwesome!  Though please note Teal was the only one who didn’t have to request this day off from work. Ha.
22.  Our pre-race dinner at Mike Anderson’s…unless something happens between now and Saturday night to change that!
23.  The two of us and our husbands all sharing one hotel room the night before the race!
24. Craft beer at the Finish Festival.
25.  Gumbo, Jambalaya, Crawfish Etouffee and more food selections at the Finish Festival.
26.  We will end our trip to Louisiana with a celebration in New Orleans! 🙂
from Beth & Brent's trip to NOLA in 2009

from Beth & Brent’s trip to NOLA in 2009

26.2. Beth will finish marathon no. 2!
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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?

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Someone Hold Us We’re Running a Half This Weekend

August 10, 2012 by · 9 Comments

That’s right if you’ll remember from our little countdown a week ago we are in fact running the Hottest Half on Sunday!

This week we’ve discussed the race and how we will survive it plan to cross that finish line together.  Once again being us, we were totally in sync with each other.  Are you sickened by our ability to be like that? Running partner match made in heaven!  On a side note, can we tell you how hard it is to NOT type NSYNC whenever we talk about how in sync we are?

Anyway, we also recently let you in on how our running has been not so excellent lately so we are enacting a run/walk strategy into this weekend’s half marathon.  We both are not big fans of the run/walking because our racing legs just don’t do so well with that method. (disclaimer: if you do that method we ain’t judgin’, you might cross a finish line faster than us doing it, but it’s just not OUR preferred method – that’s it! Promise)

We have no time goals for this race although in the back of our minds we’d both like it to be faster than our ZOOMA half times.  Thankfully the high on Sunday is only 99, no triple digits! Haha

Maybe you sense the dread in our posts about running such a hot half marathon and wonder why are you running it?  It’s the bling!  You see we signed up for the Four Seasons challenge and this is race 2 out of 4.  We crossed off spring half marathon with Big D Half and hopefully this weekend we’ll be crossing off summer half!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

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!

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Reasons We Love to Run

February 14, 2012 by · 7 Comments

So we love all things #runchat which means we HAD to participate in their blog challenge to list 10 things we love about running keeping in mind if we were never going to run again.

1.  All the fun gear – shoes, jackets, socks you know….ALL of it! 🙂

2. FRUNNERS!!! [we stole this term from our Dallas area running friends] We have met so many people since we started blogging and our twitter account. We are SO thankful to them for the advice, support, encouragement, motivation and so much more!

(pictures courtesy of Mama C)

3.  Bling Bling!  Who doesn’t love being rewarded at the end of a race with shiny medal?  And who doesn’t love being reminded of the things they’ve accomplished by looking back at a shiny medal?

4.  Getting a break! Love being able to get out on the road and be free of the stresses and concerns of the day!  It’s so liberating to free your mind of all of that!

5.  Testing your limits and realizing you are a whole heck of a lot stronger than you even knew you were!

6.  That we each have a an awesome running buddy! 🙂

Running through Angels Stadium

7.  Those mornings when you don’t want to get out of bed and run because you just don’t feel like, and then you go anyways and the run is freakin’ fantastic!

8.  Feeling healthy on a daily basis because we are active and watch what we eat so that we can be better runs.

9. Travel to races!  While we have only left the great state of Texas once so far for a race we LOVED having that opportunity to travel to California and experience new things there as well as a new course.  At the end of this month our racing will take us to Florida, and we are looking into other states for our next marathon!  There are plenty of races in cities that we might not experience or we might just experience in a new way because we came there to run!

10.  Eating!  There are so many calories and so many food items we would have to cut back on if we just flat out stopped running.  We aren’t talking we run and then go eat the greasiest hamburger and largest order of fries ever, but there are a lot of foods we get to partake in because we are so active with running!

As a side note it was fun seeing our picture on the #runchat website this morning!

Did we leave out something that is key to your running?  Let us know – we want to hear what you love about running!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,