Going Back to Where it All Started

December 7, 2012 by · 10 Comments

This weekend we will be running the race that started it all for us as Life is a Run…well, kinda.  We say kinda because they changed the name on us from White Rock Marathon to Dallas Marathon and the race course is very different.  Not to mention the starting line is no longer in Fair Park, but that’s been the case in years past since this race did start in 1971 and this wouldn’t be the first time the start is actually in downtown Dallas.

Excuse us while we steal a couple words from some of our frunners (stolen word #1 – credit to Mama C), but there’s one frunner in particular, Michelle, who just had her half-a-versary (stolen word #2) and we are about to have our’s!  Hearing that phrase from MK really puts this coming weekend into perspective.  Because really this weekend is kind of a big deal in our world or at least a reflection on where we started and just how far we have come since 2010.

47613_10100478927417494_8304354_69753456_6030092_n 2

2010 when we became half marathoners!

We both had been runners in different times of our lives, but 2010 was when Teal asked Beth if she wanted to run a half with her, a distance neither one of us had come close to running.  It’s cute to think now how we use to run for time not for distance, you know like, long run this weekend is running for an hour and a half – oh my!  It’s also cute to think how neither one of us ran with a phone or any device with GPS.  We ran on feel alone. Ohhhh how the times have changed!  And who would have thought in 2011 we’d come back to run White Rock Marathon as our first marathon!? By the time we come back this year to toe the line at the half marathon distance it will be our 15th half marathon upon it’s completion.

In 2010, we had pretty much the perfect weather and little did we know that we were actually going to be spoiled by that.  We would like to pat ourselves on the pack for actually starting our first ever half in very appropriate running gear.  Yes, in the above picture we have fleeces on but we had Michael, Brent & Kate holding onto all of that for us while we ran.  Then 2011, for this very week leading up to the marathon we were both panicked.  WHAT?! Rain on marathon day??  What will we wear? What do we need?  Well, we learned lessons from that one. You could read about them here.

Teal finish photo

Teal becoming a Marathoner!

634593774914707227

Beth becoming a Marathoner!

It’s race week once again for White Rock/Dallas Marathon and per usual we have no idea what we are going to wear because we are pretty sure the projected forecast for Sunday has changed in some form or fashion each day this week. We mentioned in our weekend post how we’d hit a record high last Sunday in the 80’s. Well, we’ve had chances of a cold front coming through Sunday and we’ve had highs of 77 or something like that, so we’ll just have to see how it all plays out. As long as there isn’t rain we should be good! 🙂

In pre-race posts of the past we’ve given you a goal and we are going to kind of do that for you here.  Our individual thoughts, expectations and what not going into Dallas Marathon this weekend –

Teal: I am actually for the first time in a while nervous about a race. I usually just go and run and that is that. I know for a fact that I can make 13.1, clearly!  I haven’t set goals for a while because they started to have the opposite effect on me and they weren’t motivating. I am nervous because I do really want/need this race to go well. It is the last one before the Marathon… dun dun dun. AND I seriously, as dumb as it sounds, am still stuck on how completely and totally crappy last year was for this race (i know it was the full), but still and that has carried over into my marathon training. Sooo really if I was goal setting, my goal is to have an awesome race and to gain some confidence going into the Marathon, confidence that I pretty much do not have right now. I don’t even need a PR, I just want my race to feel good. How to make that happen?? I don’t know. So there goal set. Wish me luck.

Beth: White Rock Half 2010 holds my half marathon PR.  The closest I’ve come to my 1:56:39 PR was at Big D this past April, but I was still 34 seconds away from my PR.  I want so bad to beat that and I want to say that I could do it this weekend, but I just don’t know if I can. I’d like to run a smart race where I definitely do not start out too fast and have enough left in me to speed across that finish line.  I’m afraid of making “get a new PR this weekend” a goal because I’m not fully sure I can do it.  All year I though I’d come back to this race and conquer it with a new PR, but when I heard about them changing up the course it kind of changed things for me a little bit. So just like Teal is nervous, this goal I so want is making me nervous for race day Sunday.

So there you have it some of our reflections as we run our Half-a-versary race this weekend and what we think going into it.  Bring on half marathon no. 15 for #LiAR!  May the speed be with us!

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

Turkey’s Done!

November 29, 2012 by · 6 Comments

Some races just get complicated by life events.  We know some of you out there know what we are saying!  This Thanksgiving brought some firsts for both of us.

For Beth it was the first time that she and Brent actually spent Thanksgiving together, so we were finally forced to figure out how we would get time with each of our families.  We spent it with his family and they start earlier than my family does and my family had Thanksgiving at the house I lived in for the past 3 years so doing a race and getting ready for family was no big deal.  This year I had barely any time.  And why does the Turkey Trot start at 9 a.m.?! I didn’t remember it starting so late.  I vote we go with 8 a.m. next year! OK? OK!  And isn’t it cute how in my world 9 a.m. is now late? Haha

For Teal, well, we will just share with you the lists of things that includes firsts and therefore annoyances with Thanksgiving. 🙂

1. My dad did not come from Maryland (like he was going to) and I had to make a turkey (instead of my dad making it).

2. I had to get up at 5am to deal with stuffing a turkey, which I don’t know how to do so I was automatically stressed. Oh and I had the words of Michael’s cousin in my head, who was being playful but said “Don’t ruin the turkey, you will ruin Thanksgiving” Great.

3. The neck of a raw turkey is absolutely GROSS and I almost gagged and then the intestines bag had a hole and I had to touch the liver. Gag, again.

4. I turned the turkey roasting pan on and I thought it was going to catch on fire, smoke everywhere! Had to send my husband to Wal-Mart to get a new one, and for those of you who may not know I don’t like that place and once pushed one of their front doors off the track. I don’t go there!

5.  I felt bad for waking him up, making him go to that dreaded place, being annoying, and oh, by the way Happy Anniversary,  sorry I suck and can’t cook or read directions… see 6….

6. Turns out it wasn’t actually going to catch on fire, perhaps, read the directions first?

7. I didn’t know what to wear. I know, #firstworldproblems

8. I was going to be late and was afraid Beth would kill me, so then I worried (not that she ever would, but a girl can worry, we are people pleasers)

9. Ohhhh, you need to eat before a race?? I didn’t have any food so I ate Oreos, 2 of them to be exact, and I should have eaten 12.

10. I was starving, that starving where you want to throw up starving.

11. It cost me more money to take money out of the ATM then it actually cost to park.

12. The original $3 parking lot machine wasn’t working, so we couldn’t park there.

13. We drove to $5 lot and it was full.  Full as in the car in front of us got the last spot.

14. I HATE PARKING!

There. I feel much better. WOOOSSSAAAA.

Ok, so after surviving all of that, the two of us and Chase (Beth’s cousin) made it over to the race start.  We all three got hooked up with VIP wristbands so we got to use some nice port-a-potties with a not so ridiculous line.  Ohhh, the little things that make racers happy!

After that it was pretty much time to get lined up to start the race, but oh, yah…they put up a fence that makes it impossible to enter the racing area.  How quickly we forget these things after multiple years of running the same race. Ha!

Mile 1 to 5K Split

Teal: This is like a fun game of  “let’s try not to run any children over, kick a dog, elbow an elderly person, trip over a fire extinguisher, speed bump, or sidewalk,  have to come to a screeching halt every 5 seconds.” It’s sooooo fun. So needless to say, the first part of this race is a complete and total pain, if you would like to run, but I still managed to keep a somewhat decent pace. And just a disclaimer, I know this, and have known this, and still run because I like this race, and will always like this race, it’s just kind of a pain to do. AND I don’t think it will change, so this is more of a statement and not so much a complaint, although I am not sure maybe it’s both! I knew I would not PR at this point and was letting my list of 14 annoying things get to me. I wanted to take the 5k turn off, just wait for Beth and Chase and be done with it all but I didn’t. Just run the stinking race, and get happy.

The sea of people before the start of the race

Beth:  Maybe I’m a jerk for saying this, but while the 3 of were trying to get into the starting area I made probably the comment I make every year “why don’t they let the timed racers start in the front? or why don’t they start the 5K and 8 mile in waves?”  This man next to me informed me that “the mat will pick up your time when you cross it!” WHAT?! It will?? Haha, bless his heart. I am pretty sure that every year in the first about 2.5ish miles of this race I ask myself why am I running this race?? I hate this!  I’m fairly use to going out and running around White Rock Lake and hearing cyclist say “on your left” so I just decided to use that with the walkers.  Man the people that come out to the Turkey Trot spa-read themselves out on those streets!  This race always makes me think that people need to go through a Common Courtesies of Race Course before they can embark on their first race.  Not that that will ever happen.

5K Split to Finish

Teal: LESS CROWDS! We lost half the race to the 5k turn off! Yippee!! I actually got in a better mood, ran a lot faster and didn’t feel as pissed. This is the best reason to run! They changed the course and I liked the change in the long run, but not as it was happening. It was way hillier than it was last year, but we didn’t have to run through a very boring part of Dallas. This change made the race feel fast at the end.  I really was trying to pick up my pace to overcome the first 2.5 but I just felt like it was not going to happen. I ended up being annoyed (theme of the day) with this women who kept on running at my shoulder up the hills and would then linger back to keep doing it again. I was determined to make her go away so my last 2 miles were about and 8ish to 8:30 minute pace, where I had been running more at a 9:30 min pace. My last mile was 8:03, which is fast for me, mainly to be done and away from the lady.

Overall it was not bad and I am glad I ran and I am still very proud of my time. It was not a PR and it was not as bad as 3 years ago so there! That’s a win in my book. And despite everything, I would and will still run this again, BUT I will not cook a Turkey, which will then make me less stressed and annoyed. MARK MY WORDS PEOPLE!

The sea of people after the race and a little bit of downtown Dallas

Beth: Ahhhh, this is why I run this race! It is amazing how much a 5K split can change things!  Not long after the split off we ran by where Brent and I got married which put a big smile on my face! 🙂  I had started noticing some small changes in course and was really hopeful that this one area would be cut out.  It was! I remember thinking the last few years on the last few miles being like when is this going to be over?  But this year it just seemed like it was over in no time.  That was when I remembered the trickster finish line they have! Haha, you see the start line and think, almost there!  You aren’t your going to fork to the right, go up a small but long  incline then keeeeeep going even though you already started your last minute sprint to the end and then BAM! you’re done. According to my runkeeper I had an overall pace of 8:35 for the race.  Also according to my runkeeper I ran 8.36 miles which makes me wonder how much of that is extra mileage from my dodging at the beginning, and then there is always one area in downtown where the GPS gets off.  Don’t start telling me how GPS systems are not always 100% accurate because I know!  And please don’t start talking to me about running tangents because, again, I know.  And I”m also admitting that the dodging of people in the beginning was me probably adding on some extra mileage.  Pretty much like Teal said this is a race where you get frustrated in the beginning, but ultimately the annoyances get overpowered by the last two thirds of the race roughly.  It is a great race and great that it brings so many people out together to get some activity in before a full day of eating far too much!

So, Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot (that is a mouthful), we will see you again next year!

Results:

Teal: 1:15:33, finished 73rd in age group and 1,850 overall

Beth: 1:11:36, finished 66th in my age group and 1,396 over all

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

Princesses for a Day: Race Recap

February 28, 2012 by · 19 Comments

(source)

Our alarm clock went off at 3:00 a.m.! Holy cow, Disney! We get it – you want everyone to get through and out of your parks before they open, but that is one early wake up call for a 5:45 a.m. race not to mention you HAD to be in your corral by 5:00 a.m. or ELSE! Ha (Guess who wasn’t in their corral by 5:00 a.m.??) We got dressed in our princess costumes and were out the door of Sheraton Safari by 3:40 a.m. ready to face race traffic.  Pretty sure we in the car for an hour which gave us time to make peanut butter sandwiches to keep us fueled.

Yummy - peanut butter sandwiches made with Beth's finger! Ha

Once we parked we had a good 20 minute walk to our corral, so we decided to not stop to use the rest room because it was slight madness. Plus we were running late at this point to get into the corral on time.  When we got to the corral area we knew that Heidi was in corral B so we began looking for her just knowing we would see her at the front of that corral.  Good thing we started looking early because there were Heidi & Brian at the front of corral C. Apparently if you are a Prince running this race you can’t go any higher up than corral C.

such a colorful picture!

We are not quite sure how it happened but we both were assigned the same corral for like the first time EVER and we were in corral A! It was awesome to be up front in a line of 20,000 people!

see how close we were to the start line?

We started right on time! Way to go Disney and since we had made getting to our corral a priority over anything else we both decided to make an immediate stop at the first port-o-potties we spotted on the course!  The whole first of half of the race flew by so it’s hard to remember everything by miles totally.  Our plan was to run together, treat it as a training run and take pictures with characters when we wanted to do so.  The competitive side to both of us still lives on a bit in that we still wanted a decent time despite the stops, but again we were fortunate to be in corral A because this gave us the advantage of being in front of thousands of people who would want to stop as well.  We did stop at the first group of characters that we saw….

We loved how real looking the step sisters and Cruella Deville were!

Cinderella's Castle was the half way point of the race

The volunteers out there were awesome!!  We didn’t even have to ask someone to take that picture, the volunteer noticed us stop and she just came up to us and asked if she could take the picture for us!

We really didn’t have a plan at who to stop at or what we wanted to do we just knew that we wanted to see our princesses! We ended up stopping at Buzz Lightyear who of course is a favorite not only to us but our little nephews!   As you will find out through our pictures it’s a good thing we stopped because Princess Ariel ended up not being on the course! 🙁

the other side of Cinderella's castle

Somewhere in the mile 7 part of the course we found Beth’s character – Belle!  Wonder what all the characters came up with to say to people as they were having their picture taken because Belle said to Beth “it looks like you’ve been in my closet!”

Speaking of mile markers! We loved the signs for each mile!  At mile 8 we finally snapped a picture of one:

There were a couple of hills in the last few miles and thanks to one of the toy soldiers from Toy Story for the encouragement to conquer the hill in  mile 10.  It was amazing how his voice was exactly like the movie!  We’ve said before we aren’t really big on stopping and starting on a run which is completely a personal preference we both share.  The picture breaks were hard on our bodies, but we pressed on despite that.  In hindsight it might have been a blessing in disguise that Ariel was not seen out there because our last stop at Belle was rough!  Our bodies might have been hurting but  with the kick we gave it at the end you never would have known!  If you look at our runkeeper entries for this race Teal finished her last .1 in a 6:20 pace and Beth finished in her last .1 in a 8:03 pace.  Perhaps this speaks to how it’s hard to have a GPS device be completely accurate as we crossed the finish line right next to each other.  A more accurate pace would probably be an average of the two times something more in the 7 minute range.  We were hauling!  We are really good at keep training runs JUST training runs. 🙂

Half Marathon number eight is in the bag!  We did and our very proud of ourselves!  Our official time was 2:13:35 exactly for both of us, and we tried to stop and start our runkeeper when would take picture breaks because we wanted to know the difference :), so that time was 2:03:49.  By the time we were finished both of us had A LOT of our fuel for the race leftover – swedish fish.  Once Teal got some ice on her foot and knee and Beth put biofreeze on her knees and calves we grabbed our checked bag and were out of there to find food. We were staaaarving!

Isn't it purdy?

So now we have 1/2 of the Coast to Coast challenge finished and just need to complete Disneyland Half Marathon in September which we thankfully got signed up in time as it was sold out before we left for the Princess Half!  Check back with us tomorrow to see what all we did in the non racing parts of the weekend! 🙂

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