Running for Two: Trimester Two

Running for Two: Trimester Two

May 27, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

I had to go back and really remember what range of time made up the second trimester for me which is kind of sad since I’m really still early on in the third trimester.  My second trimester was made up mostly of February, March, April and a little bit of May.  I was hoping to still put in at least another 100 mile month in either February or March, but that just did not happen.  February ended with 71.81 miles while March came in at 67.41 miles. During this time I had the fact that I was registered for Rock n Roll Dallas as my last half to run while pregnant as my motivation to get the miles in as much as possible.  A lot of my running at this point had become solo which was not really what I was use to and made for some lonely times out on the pavement.

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16 weeks 3 days pregnant

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an overall pace of 9:52 don’t be fooled by the garmin set to current pace

I had already seen somewhat of a decline in my pace (which was to be expected), but then the month of April came and not only did I find another pace decline but also an overall mileage decline. 🙁  For me personally April was one of the busiest months as far as work was concerned and then to try and motivate myself to run solo after long days at the office or just feeling guilty about how late Mr. H and I would be eating dinner if I ran before cooking for the night.  I really have never been an early morning workout person.  Pre-pregnancy I faked it for about 6 years with my Tuesday & Thursday 6:00 a.m. weights sessions at Private Training Zone.  But when you have a group waiting for you AND you’ve already paid for the sessions it’s easy to get your lazy behind out of bed.  During this pregnancy those weights sessions have moved from the a.m. to the p.m. because there is just no will power whatsoever to get up and especially not get up for a solo run.  I’m hoping that one day this may change. Fingers crossed.

WW 45 Beth

Back to April, my total mileage came in at a lame 16.96.  Talk about a drastic decrease!  But you know what?! I may have only gotten out there to run on four different days (one of them being a race), but that’s better than 0 days of running!

It was probably in this month as well that I started noticing when I started my runs that my legs just felt like bricks.  And the times when you would dig down deep and pull from your core for a run, nope, that wasn’t really happening anymore.  I found myself one day on the treadmill trying to bust out a mile but in the last tenth of the mile I bumped the speed up a couple of notches, got an ache in my stomach and had to stop.  I walked at an incline for 5 minutes on the treadmill before it finally went away and I finished out the last bit of that mile at a very reasonable pace.  My body just can’t do the things it use to with running.  All of this is such a HUGE lesson in constantly listening to your body and not pushing it past its limits.  I like to think for the most part I’m doing a pretty good job at obeying it.  It’s just a weird combination on run of feeling like your legs are bricks, your mind knowing you really can do this and your body just saying, “Nope, slow it down! We’ve got a baby to look out for!”  It is also pretty incredible the protective mode your body goes into!

25 weeks 3 days pregnant at the Running Moms Rock 5K

25 weeks 3 days pregnant at the Running Moms Rock 5K

Being in Texas we should be in a regular stint of just HOT weather, but we have been completely blessed with some amazing weather so far this spring!  Don’t get me wrong there have been some hot days, but then a little cold front comes through and we’ve had some mornings in the low 50’s.  The weather is just another aspect of this pregnancy that has spoiled me! Regardless, for the past month or so you will NOT find me outside running without at least a handheld water bottle.  Staying hydrated and taking care of my lil guy is a high priority to me!  Pretty soon if I’m still outside running my camelbak will make it’s glorious return to my runs.

While my numbers might have been down in April and they might not be much better for this month either, but as a whole I’ve put in (according to Runkeeper) 428.4 miles in this pregnancy. I am so very proud of each and every one of the miles! I don’t really have any goals going into the third trimester other than to get runs in when and while I can.  And in the times when I can’t run to make sure I’m getting other forms of cardio in as well!

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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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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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Twenty Miles: Check

October 31, 2011 by · 3 Comments

As you can see we’ve had an interesting few days here with Beth’s engagement 🙂 and the event of the rangers in the World Series! 🙁 Seems like a whirlwind around here really. Originally we both were supposed to be in College Station this weekend but a bunch of stuff came up with Teal at work at her Dad’s and teaching so she stayed in Dallas. Beth went to College Station with her new fiancé and we decided to do our long run on Sunday night. This is the first long night run I think we have ever done. Because we ran at night we had all day to think about it and believe me we did! I was back and forth in my head about if my legs were going to be tired and refused to stand up just about everywhere I went. My husband, Michael and I had to get laundry done so I just sat around in the cart at the laundromat to not wear myself out. Beth had many errands to run as people wanted to see her and her ring so we didn’t start until about 5:15 p.m. Both of us where nervous and we prepped Beth’s sister, Kate on where she would be just in case we needed a rescue…

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No rescue was needed! We headed out on our usual route and ran at a pretty good training pace for the rest of the time! Its seemed, honestly if as if the traffic world was on our side. We hit the right lights basically every time and did not have to deal with moving around traffic much which is seriously awesome! People were very happy it seemed like- for example no one half stopped on right turns, they waited at stops signs for us, moved over to the middle lane- It was awesome. At one point this kid leaned out of his car and screamed “I love your camelbaks” at us and gave us a thumbs up. That boost of friendliness always helps!! I think at around mile 8 we both felt really good. In our heads I’m sure we were both like 12 more- that’s nothing! Beth even looked over at one point and was like, “See we can totally do this.” Neither of us felt really winded or tired at that point. We had both fueled with GU and Swedish Fish and we both kept our Camelbaks this time ( I learned my lesson- don’t leave home without it).

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We both ended at the same time, walked into the house and just laid down and stretched. I am not sure how we ever actually got up. Our legs actually felt much better than other long run days, but for me the pain of sitting sets in. We talked about sleeping in our Tommie Cooper calf sleeves and worried about waking up starving in the middle of the night. Both of which happened on my end. I also kept waking up with weird pains that felt like growing pains all night but it has been much better than expected.

We both ended up with some weird chaffing again- dang running and Beth has moved onto a second runners toe! Battle scars galore but we love it!

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All and all this was an awesome run together. This is some insane mileage and it’s hard to honestly believe we can do it. We are a little over a month away from our goal this year and couldn’t be more excited.

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Commuting by Foot

October 26, 2011 by · 5 Comments

A month or so back after chatting with Lisa on twitter and learning she bikes for her work commute, I decided it would be cool if I ran home from work! So I immediately go to google maps to see just how many miles it is – 8. Perfect!

See my sister actually works in the same building as me just for a different company AND we live together! We can totally just ride into work together and when the end of the day comes I’ll hand over my purse and work clothes for her to take home!

I figured this would be an awesome way for me to get in one of my weekday lengthier runs aaannd then I forgot ALL about this idea! It’s either that OR I thought I had all the time in the world to make it more than an idea! 🙂 Until last Thursday I went for a short run around my office which I declared my scouting run. Yah, I learned I was totally wrong about there being sidewalks on the majority of the route because right by my office they’re kind of non-existent. Then I remembered Daylight Savings! When is that? Will that mess up my plan? If it does I’ll be so pissed AT myself! Oh good, it’s not until November 6th (if ya were wondering -now ya know!)

So anyways, last night was the night! And when I left my office I was the only person there so there would be no turning back. A run can be kind of different when if you don’t do it you won’t make it home. All day long I had the I’m running home from work – no big deal attitude – then when everyone was gone and it was time, I was nervous!

Had everything I needed - camelbak, Go Sport ID, my iphone and a house key

Nervous because one, I’d have to run under George Bush Tollroad and two, there are some sketch areas I’d be running through.

The run started off fine, I actually ran by my friend Kim as she was leaving a gas station! Then I found it hilarious when I was almost run into by another runner. She wasn’t paying attention until we were right up on each other. I was on the right side of the sidewalk – what else does one due to avoid being hit by another runner coming at you? I might have been a little freaked out when I ran by the dude with a tatt under each one of his eyes walking down the sidewalk towards me. I’ve decided the drivers who freak me out the most are the ones turning right that never actually look right and/or those turning who are looking at their phone so you’ll never know if they’ll see you in time.

I survived the sketch areas and believe it or not running under George Bush Tollroad really wasn’t bad at all. Throughout the entire 8 miles I hit most of the lights JUST at the right time!  There were two instances where I did a loop around a building to hopefully come back to the light when it was green and that worked.  Under George Bush I did one loop around all the pillars that hold it up and made it back just in time to make it across.  Right after that I was coming up on a small area where I not only ran out of sidewalk I also ran out of ground to run on – bridge.  Also, in case you are wondering why I am crazy to run through some sketchy areas, I felt it was fine because I was running during traffic times and at all times there would be cars on the road that could see me should someone try and kidnap me, steal my iphone, etc.

The two things I dislike about outdoor running are:

1. Having to stop because of lights as I really lose momentum and jogging in place does NOT do it for me!

2. Not knowing what kind of ground you’ll be running on if there’s a not sidewalk.  I don’t have to have a sidewalk, but it kills my feet if I’m ever running on a patch of grass that has a side incline.  Do you know what I mean? My left foot has had some slight pain underneath the big toe ever since I killed my feet in a pair of shoes in college and those side inclines just bring that pain back.

So at the end of the run was it much different than what I normally do when I got out running? No, not entirely, but I couldn’t exactly just stop and go home if hit a wall – I HAD to cover those 8 miles on my own.  Less than 2 miles of my whole route was an actual part of other runs I’ll go out and do, but it was something different and I’m glad I tried.  My dad and Bossman called me just as I was walking up to my front door to make sure I made it home ok.  Everything considering, I felt good during the whole run even when I was running up the hills! Happy running!

This probably isn’t the most exciting post, but it’s something I’m glad I did and probably not something I’m going to do regularly. 🙂

Do you have some sort of out of the ordinary running goal for yourself that you’d like to accomplish and just haven’t done it yet? What is it?  And how are you going to make sure you get it done?

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Thirteen Miles & Feet Problems

October 18, 2011 by · 1 Comment
Because we ran/walked Susan G. Komen 5k on Saturday, we both set out for our long training run Sunday morning. Not sure that either one of us was really in the mood to run. Our plan was to start at around 7:00 a.m., but Beth sent a tweet about 7 that said –
“I am trying to use mind control to tell @Likethecolor she should come over at 8am and we’ll run our 13 miles. Haha.” 
It worked and we really didn’t set out until after 8:15.  Luckily the weather is much better now so starting later isn’t as big of a deal. Thank God!

Teal decided to try running without her camelbak for this long run. She has this thing where once she feels tired she doesn’t want anything to touch her and starts to blame being tired on crap touching her. Lately it has been getting worse, all though about half way in the run, Teal wished she had it based on thirst alone. We started out fairly fast given our prior training runs, but really we both still feel kind of slow. Beth felt pretty good body wise but just lacking in speed for this run. Teal was actually hoping to feel the same, but that didn’t happen.

We both had a rather scattered training week all together. According to our marathon training plan, we were supposed to run 5 on Tuesday, 8 Wednesday, and 5 Thursday and basically that didn’t happen. Beth ended up with 4.71 on the treadmill which is not bad considering it was the treadmill without music. Teal made it 4.47 but literally stopped twice to walk. Then the 8 was interesting too, Beth made it 3 of 8, she said her mind was just checked out from her crazy week, and Teal made it 7.72 but it was not pretty, it took her 1:22 minutes and she walked, her mind was all over the place too. Neither one of us made the 5 and then really we walked the 5k so we lacked some miles this week. You would have figured our legs were pretty rested, but thus they were not. Beth was sore from Johnny’s and as soon as Teal started running her knee kept popping out of place. She figured it would go away but it literally never really did. We are worried about this knee. Teal ended up stopping at about 10 miles, (shoe issues) then had to run/walk that last 3. Beth ran some circles around to stay close and asked Teal if she wanted to stop but really was like- you keep going- I’ll eventually keep moving.  Teal decided to walk up the hills (really there was one left) because that hurts the most. Teal made it 12.54, Beth made it 13.1. Slow but done, we guess that’s what counts- or at least we hope??!!

We both went to brunch after the run with a bunch of friends and both of our significant others joined for the first time. We were both surprised they came! They usually avoid the social brunch thing, typically make fun of us in their loving way but they came! We actually think they ended up enjoying brunch more than either of us expected.

Teal’s foot was bothering her so much she could barely touch it and her hubby had to carry her to the car. Teal also b-lined it back to Luke’s Locker who graciously helped her change shoes as well. They are so much better than buying shoes at like Academy or other places – very helpful.

 

 We both decided we needed some stretching and went to Yoga that night as well to stretch out and de-stress! Yoga actually felt really good on our sore muscles.  Teal had been contemplating the yoga thing again due to price, but decided it might actually be much better for my body then what she was currently doing — maybe save her from muscle issues. We shall see! Beth goes a lot and it seems like she has way less issues- she has some feet and knee problems, but is usually able to recover quickly.

We are hoping that this week brings a better training week altogether. I am sure you saw Beth’s post a couple weeks ago about what was happening with her work outs and Teal’s has been fairly similar. We need out of the funk!! This week we are supposed to run 5, 8, and 5 again and we had to change our long run around because Teal is leaving for San Fran Thursday and Beth to Austin so the plan is to run 12 miles alone and then 19 miles the next week Sunday night (10/30). We are actually going to make our planned 19, a 20 miler possibly inspired by fear and also reading one of our Twitter Friend’s blogs— Courtney actually ran two 20 milers, a 22 and a 24 before her first marathon. We are slightly worried about the fact that training to 20 miles is all we have; there are still 6 more miles to cover!  Surely some of that is newbie worries – right??

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Mileage Milestone!

October 4, 2011 by · 4 Comments

This past Saturday we ran the FARTHEST either one of us has ever run before! Mileage milestone!

It was kind of shocking because for the first time in a long time we stepped outside and were kind of chilly!  Nonetheless, we had our camelbaks, our fuel and the tunes to entertain us!

The previous Saturday we started out on our 15 mile run [ultimately we only ran 11 miles of it] and I know both of us walked away from it feeling defeated and how we’d really make it a whole marathon!  After running the 17 miles on Saturday we realized that the previous Saturday it was 1. a hot day again and 2. we hadn’t paced ourselves accordingly for all of the hills in our course.  So in an effort to complete the 17 miles we knew we needed to give ourselves a flatter course this week.

Ok – back to the 17 mile run! We had our flatter course and positive attitudes that we would put in the exact mileage we were scheduled to run this week [Marathon Training week 9]!  Rarely do either of us walk when we ran, we just lack the ability to get going and for a long time after walking.  However, on this run we may have had to take a short potty break after only going about 2 miles, but we were barely in the run so starting up again was no big deal!  When we were in mile 4 of our run we were running towards a group of about 8 women, as we got closer they all parted and moved off the sidewalk so the two of us could just keep on going.  When we were close to them we realized they were out training for the 3-Day for the Cure and they started cheering & encouraging us on in our running!  It was so neat since it happened to be October 1st and they were training and sporting breast cancer awareness shirts and what not.

We actually saw quite a few people out walking or running that morning and when we were in our 8th mile we ran into [not literally] the same ladies again.  We got more cheers and encouragement from them!  They really were great and it was such an unexpected awesome thing added to our training run.  It was just extra inspiring since we are doing our #TeamCindy fundraising and they are walking for the same cause!

It was somewhere around this point that one of us said – I wonder if people think we actually talk to each other while we are running, you know, since we don’t. Which then led to us being the chattiest we have ever been on a run before besides the occasional “we’re half way finished!,” or “do you want to go this way?”  We talked about running New Years Double, and wanting to do the Coast to Coast challenge in 2012.  It was also around this point that we busted out our fuel for the day – swedish fish!

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After hearing multiple times swedish fish are a great source of fuel for your long runs, which I think this can mostly be credited to Katie.  Just in case we did not care for them while running we each took a GU gel out with us, but the swedish fish were good!  Definitely refueled us and since we put them in individual baggies they were easy to grab from our camelbaks and continue running while eating.  We’ve got quite a few more long runs so if you have any other fuel suggestions we’d love to hear them!!

We finished up our 17 miles exactly where we started and were immediately ready to lay down.  In the last mile or so Teal started to feel some man in her achilles which kind of altered her running stride to make it through the pain and mile 17.  This is what we look like after running 17 miles –

After our run Teal had to get to work at MowerMedic, and Beth opted to try out an ice bath.  Thanks to Heidi, for all her tips & tricks to not feeling completely tortured during an ice bath!  It completely worked and made a huge difference in the ol’ legs that day and the next day.  Definitely did not feel like I’d done 17 miles!  We are pretty proud of ourselves! Next week we are on to our next mileage milestone of 18 miles!

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