healthy-living Archives - lifeisarun.net

August Report Card

September 9, 2013 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

Here’s how we measured up for the month of August!

Teal –

1. I HATE doing weight lose goals because I always disappoint myself because my body clearly loves all of its fat (and you probably roll your eyes that this is another stupid weight goal), BUT this month is the month before my birthday and IF I lost 5 pounds I would weigh what my goal was for 30. So it would have taken me until 31 and a rather roller coaster year for my weight but it would be off! SOOOOO there you go, lose 5 pounds and make my 30 year old goal weight (not really what I want in life just what I wanted at 30) but really do it at 31!

C- : I ultimately lost like 2.5 pounds if I get to count the morning weight! Hahaha. We shall keep working on the forever struggle of being consistent, healthy, and fighting the fat gene!

2. I changed my half marathon training plan slightly from Beth’s because I don’t want to burn myself out like I did last time so my goal is to make my runs! This is totally doable because I have basically started an “I am a newbie and haven’t run” training plan to not destroy my love of running again!

B: I have missed a few “short” runs but have been getting the longer ones in and loving my plan. I do not feel discouraged, slow, or overwhelmed by the plan. I know my next half marathons will not be my “fastest” but I am 100% ok with just enjoying the run!

Beth –

1. To get up once a week and do a workout before work. If you follow me on twitter you pretty much know that usually on Tuesday & Thursday mornings I am up at Private Training Zone by 6:00 a.m. to get in an hour of weights with Johnny and the other ladies in my workout group. This goal would mean I have to get up an additional morning to do a workout on my own. There was a time when I would do this with yoga, but that has been awhile and I know I just need to transition into this type of routine. Let’s hope this makes a habit of it!

F: Haha, this one is gonna take a lot of work on my part. I’ve reverted back lately to even having a hard time wanting to get out of bed for my Tuesday & Thursday mornings, but I do! I did get up early in the first week of August, but it was to try and get a bunch of reading done for my book club. lol

2. Finish yet another project at our house.

A+: There are now two walls in my house that are no longer blank! Hooray! I even bought some fabric for a window decoration project, but still have a few more supplies to get for that one!

now to finish accessorizing the shelves 🙂

3. YOGA! Haha, my goals are back and the idea for this month is to get in at least 3 yoga classes a week.

C-: Ok, so there were two weeks where I didn’t go, BUT I still went to yoga 10 times throughout the month of August so that’s why I’m still giving myself a C range grade. All things considered with Birthday celebrations and work picking up steam with busyness I’m proud of those 10. I love me some yoga and glad I’m making it a priority during this marathon training cycle!

this was before I missed a week…then another…. :-/

See you tomorrow when we lay out all of our hopes and dreams for the month of September! 😉

Filed Under: Goals, Uncategorized Tagged With: goals, Half Marathon, half marathon training, healthy-living, marathon training plan, Private Training Zone, running, training plan, weight loss, workout group, yoga

Must-Dash 5K

August 1, 2013 by Life is a Run · 4 Comments

Basically the whole mustache incorporation for this Father’s Day weekend race made it necessary for us to run this 5K! 🙂 This was kind of an interesting morning for us as a whole as well. Beth ended up having a flat tire so we got there by way of her husband’s car. You know how sometimes little things like that can throw you off your game?

We got there and ended up having about 20-25 minutes to kill before the race actually started, so we grabbed mustaches that were being passed out and then took pictures with them. Naturally. That’s what you would do too, right? Being a June morning in Texas it actually wasn’t really that hot outside….

….until you started running and it was pretty humid. 😛 This was a new area for us to be doing a race so it was definitely nice to have new to us scenery. Neither one of us ran our best 5K, but we ran it and it was worth it! Only complaint would be that whoever put the 3 mile marker sign down really put it at 2.75 miles. If you weren’t wearing some sort of GPS and decided to give it your all for the last .1 well then you misled and still had .35 left to go. Ha.

We even ran into one of our NTX Runners buddies, Clara! NTX Runners are eeeeverywhere! We love it!

This will probably be our favorite race tee for awhile!

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 5k, healthy-living, Must Dash, NTX Runners, races, Run Project, running

The Vineyard Run 5K

July 12, 2013 by Life is a Run · 1 Comment

The Vineyard Run basically popped up in our email, most likely because we have run our fair share of Mellew sponsored races. Teal really wanted to run this race because the Vineyard run is set at Delaney Vineyard where Teal got married!

Plus it offers a few more bonus points such as a free wine tasting and live band. Although we didn’t actually enjoy any wine while we were there. But it’s at a winery and since that is somewhat rare in our parts it’s a nice change of scenery! We should also mention that it was actually a little chilly that day! Hello cold day in May in Texas, what?!

Brian you are all over this blog now!

We headed out together as normal and perhaps our need to be at races super early is dwindling because we really almost missed this one. Oopsies! We hadn’t picked up our bibs and the cut off was like 30 minutes before the race. We thought we left in time but due to the fact that one of us updated our phone to the stupid new operating system that brought with it a horrible update to google maps, and its lame, and the fact that the area around the DFW airport is the biggest cluster of construction, we found ourselves driving in circles trying to get to the stinking race. We finally figured it out and ended up getting in the back way and then running to packet pick up. Apparently that is a way to force us in to a pre-race warm-up?

We made it and got to hang with our fellow NTX Runner Brian for a few minutes before the race started. He was out there volunteering for the race! We might add that he was wearing his 100 miler sweatshirt. Show off 😉

Waiting for the race to start

SOOO really we ran a 5k. It was flat, it had 2 kind of annoying hills but nothing we couldn’t handle and then it was over. Also we might add that it was in no way our fastest or our slowest race, so we can call that a win right!? How do you like that for a recap?? Recapping 3 miles is much easier than 13.

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 5k, Delaney, Delaney Vineyard, Grapevine, healthy-living, live band, races, running, Texas, wine, winery

Fairview Half Marathon

July 1, 2013 by Life is a Run · 4 Comments

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This year has been a little scattered with our running as you might have noticed. We are seriously behind on recapping races and really surprisingly enough we are currently only registered for a 5K and one half marathon that seems like forever away. When we get asked what we have done this year we seriously have to think about it. We both keep forgetting the fact that we have run 2 half marathons this year. We told you about Sugarland already so here is our “this is what we remember” recap from the Fairview Half. Get excited!

As you may know The Fairview Half is put on by the awesome Libby Jones who runs The Active Joe, and she is also the creator of our running group NTX Runners! She is responsible for the New Year’s Double, Showdown Half, and her newest race, The Fairview Half. She gives awesome perks to repeat runners of her races and also those that volunteer. We were able to get in super early and for super cheap because we have both run and volunteered for one of her races!

This race is actually a very pretty race. It runs through some very fancy neighborhoods in Fairview, through what feels like the middle of the country, and it starts and ends at the Fairview Town hall. Our only disclaimer for this race is it is HILLY. Not as hilly as the ZOOMA race we ran last year (we don’t think anything is that bad hill-wise) but this one is a somewhat distant second. Really that is about all we remember! Great scenery, hills, and the BEST PART is tons of our fellow running friends were at this race. So we will just go ahead and skip to the fun part…Post race pics of all the fun people we got to see and some awesome race bling photography!

We might add, we don’t have a picture of The Unlikely Runners but we saw them out there volunteering the crap out of this race! And also big props to Ninja for making it out to one of the steepest hills to cheer us on to the top! You were a great site on that hill around the mile 9-ish marker!

As soon as the race was over we booked it out of there to pick up Beth’s sister and then make a 4+ hour drive to San Antonio to see our friend Rebekah and hang out for the weekend! We clearly like to jam pack as much as possible into a race weekend.

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: Active Joe, Fairview Half, Fairview Half Marathon, Half Marathon, healthy-living, New Years Double, NTX Runners, race bling, races, running, Showdown Half, training

Friday Food Finds {1}

June 7, 2013 by Life is a Run · 4 Comments

We are so fortunate these days with how readily available information is to us especially with blogs! From our own blog posts about the times we’ve done the Advocare cleanse to providing you with healthy recipes we think y’all know we are always on the look out for doing what’s best for our bodies. Blogging, twitter and instagram have all played an awesome part in connecting our blog with other bloggers and finding food bloggers that share delicious and healthy recipes. Delicious and healthy recipes that we love! So we wanted to periodically share some of the foods we find elsewhere and are constantly making at home with you! So without further ado let’s really get to what this post is all about:

Fit Foodie Sam – Wonton Tacos: These are delicious and a fun twist to turkey taco meat! This dish has become a regular at our house and they are easy to put together and don’t take long to bake at all. I’ve also heard Sam has done a pizza spin on this recipe as well, which will be tried soon!

Peas & Crayons – Confetti Pasta Salad: If you are look for a dish to bring to your next potluck, to a pool party, to a 4th of July party or if you happen to already be looking for dishes for Labor Day Weekend – look no farther! This is your dish! I have made Jenn’s dish multiple times in the past couple of months and have heard nothing but good things from everyone who has gotten to have a serving!

Happy Friday! And happy cooking! 🙂

Filed Under: Food, Uncategorized Tagged With: advocare, bloggers, blogging, cooking, finding food, food, healthy recipes, healthy-living, instagram, pasta salad, taco meat, turkey taco meat, twitter, wonton tacos

The Louisiana Marathon

February 6, 2013 by Life is a Run · 14 Comments

We know you have all been eagerly anticipating our recap of the Louisiana Marathon. 🙂 Not! But without further ado we give our Louisiana Marathon experience…

the logo on the Capitol Building

Mile 1-3:

Teal: I was really not nervous about this race at all. I knew exactly what I was going to run and how to do it. Beth and I had talked a little bit about White Rock and how much adrenaline we had at the beginning and we definitely went out too fast. I figured since I was there and generally run around a 9:30ish pace that I would focus on that and Beth would stay with me to not go out too fast. That is pretty much exactly what we did. We hung within 10 seconds of this for the majority of our miles together. I just kept a constant watch on my Garmin, which really helps pass time, in case you are looking for ways to do that. I did get a little nervous because at about half a mile in the women next to us took a huge spill and actually slid down the road. It was nuts, she got up fast and kept running but it was huge. I know I am a huge weenie because I might have cried and stopped. Props to her! I looked down at the road at this point and saw just how bad it was. Large holes and rivets everywhere. I made sure to keep an eye out from here on.

Beth: The main thing I remember in these first few miles was starting my runkeeper and no music starting. Then when I did get music started it was SO LOUD. So lots of messing with that then putting my phone in my flipbelt and then thinking about all the energy I just wasted doing all of that. Then there was the lady who fell and all I could do was cringe inside as I saw her body kind of slide on the concrete. From there on out I understood why occasionally other runners were pointing at the ground when there were rough areas of the road.

Mile 4-6:

Teal: This part takes you closer to the LSU campus which was probably the nicest part of the race. We kept a steady pace here and really not much else could be said for me. I really thought that we would see these trees in the pictures for the race that look like that have legs, but we didn’t. Boooo on that!

Beth: At some point early on I thought that a good game plan would be take this one 5k at a time. Then I turned my thoughts to when will we see our husbands? I hope Teal likes the sign! Just gotta make it another 5K to 6.2. You got this!

Mile 7-9:

Teal: We saw the boys right around here, I believe at Mile 7 and I got to see the sign Beth made me. She threw in my love of Mark Salling and it gave me a good burst of energy in this part. Mile 7 is a really good place for me to need people because it is about here that I get a little bored and the feeling of being tired usually sets in for me around here. Example – at Dallas Marathon this year I actually stopped and stood. Something over an hour for me is a mental block. Also my feet are burning here. The stupid roads were harder or something. Yep, harder roads is totally possible in my runner mind!

Beth: Husband! YAH! I’m sure he appreciated me throwing my GU trash at him. 🙂 It was in these miles that we were running a curvy path which kind of annoyed me because I was having a hard time seeing ahead to attempt to run the tangents. As mile 9 was approaching I was starting to get sad that my time with Teal was almost over. I think it was also somewhere at the end of this section we saw a man near a water stop telling everyone, “the finish is just up ahead over the hill!” He was holding a sign that said “Course Liar,” I think we both got a good laugh out of that. Plus I saw the “liar” part and read it as LiAR since we are LiAR!! Haha

Mile 10-13.1:

Teal: At nine I knew I only had about a mile and a half left with Beth and I actually started to get kind of anxious for her. Right about 10 she said, “ok, if I am going to pretend like I started my race now, I can do 16.” In my mind I was like OH Lord, that is still a lot of miles. I was super excited about my 3 left. No worries! At 10.5 we saw our mark to split. I just grabbed Beth’s hand and just said “you got this” and we split. I stopped here to take a picture of her leaving and to tweet about the split. I figured that would have been the first update anyone got from us about where we were and there really wasn’t any tracking so I went with that! I am glad I stopped because that pain that was in my feet stopped with just that minute or so stop and the rest was pretty much a breeze. Well except for the fact that the last 2ish miles of this race are probably the hardest. There is a huge hill up the bridge and then the road in to finish is definitely rolling. I kept thinking, this will suck big time for the marathon people. You remember that lady I told you about at .5 into the race? I actually crossed the finish line with her. I stopped her and told her how crazy I thought her fall was, and yep she was COVERED in blood. It had dripped down her leg and was a mixture of wet and dry. It was gross (aren’t you glad I told you that). I was impressed and love runners for that!

Beth: With the half and marathon split just .5 into this section I was sad, but I had made it through 15k and on my way to a 20k! When Teal grabbed my hand I just wanted to yell “Noooooooooo!!!” I got a little choked up, but managed to start breathing normally again and not hyperventilate and cry all at the same time. That would have been some uuuuugly crying fo sure. I could see the 4:10 pacer ahead of me and I pressed on! Made it through the 20k…keep on truckin’! Wonder if Teal’s done now? Did she see my other sign? Hope she liked it! Wonder when I’ll see them again?

Teal: The guys meet me at the finish line and we literally b-lined it out of there. We had planned to get over to about 16-17 to see Beth. When we got there I knew she was still doing fine because we had come up on the 4:20 pacer and she was still a head of it. I hoped that she saw my sign at 17 since we missed her and we just hung around and cheered. I think I would have been so bored.

LOVE these mile markers!

Mile 13.2-16

Beth: Here, I didn’t let myself think halfway done because let’s be honest the hard stuff hasn’t even started yet! And in this stretch of the race I was able to do a better job of running the tangents which is also a fun game of keep your mind occupied. A dude passed me with a Dallas Marathon shirt on under his marathon maniac tank. I made some comment to him about the weather being nicer for this marathon, talked to him for a minute and eventually wished him well and told him I didn’t want to slow him down any longer. But that was fun to see as well as all of the Dallas Running Club shirts on the course. Coming into this race I had a rough game plan of taking fuel every 5 miles, which is not actually something I’ve ever done in training or any other race. Normally I just go by feel, but I definitely get bursts of energy throughout races and was hoping that plan would just keep me on the burst the majority of the time. Well, pretty early on I knew this plan wasn’t going to work, but what sucked was I was HONGRY before I even hit 10 miles. I burped at some point around then and realized I could not feed myself much more GU or I might vomit.

Miles 17-20

Beth: This was where I saw my sign! I had still been wondering when I would see Teal and the guys again and she had mentioned where the boys were to put a sign she had made, so I was on the lookout for all those things. Then I saw it –

and I proceeded to tear up and have to not hyperventilate again. Just what I needed! I loved it! Right after the sign was a spectator heavy area and I heard lots of “still smiling! Great job!” And I just thought yep, because I just saw my sign from Teal! Just up ahead was the 20 mile marker for coming back and I was excited to see a little girl with a container on one side of the road and who I assumed to be her dad on the other side of the road with a container full of sliced oranges. Food! I took one and was so excited that there would be another one waiting for me at mile 20. The majority of this stretch was lonely. There were times I’d look ahead and I was pretty much alone on a random street in a neighborhood. I’d also at this point lost sight of the 4:10 pacer. But I did find another person passing out orange slices, took one and I got a five from this like two year old boy who was out cheering with his mom and siblings. As I grabbed my orange slice at mile 20 I started to think, I really need to see my peeps. I don’t want to see my peeps! I wanted to see them for the motivation and energy, but I didn’t want to see them because I’d started to get hot, my hips were starting to ache and I just wanted to be done. I saw them! Loved the cheers! Threw my arm sleeves at Brent and kept going. Then I stopped. Ahhh! I was wearing my I Run This Body shirt from Mile Posts so I kept saying to myself, your shirt doesn’t say I Walk This Body! Let’s goooo! I let my mind get to me.

Teal: That last part of the race is out and back and there are not many cheerers. We hung around and as soon as we saw Beth at 20, I knew it would be a good idea to see her one more time at finish. We booked it to 24 and got one more chance to see her. She was still kicking ass and still a head of the 4:20 pacer! The boys and I booked it again back to the finish. I was so nervous for her and kept watching the clock. 4:11 was the time on the clock at that point and I am pretty sure at this point I texted her one more cheer because I figured there was no way she didn’t have it!

Miles 21-26.2:

Beth: Struggle city. I don’t walk in races! I can’t do the run/walk thing! I’ve run a complete marathon without walking why am I walking? I text messaged Teal and told her I’d been walking. I saw them again at 24, ugh, and I was walking! After the last seeing of my peeps I told myself, just run this! It doesn’t have to be fast just get it done. I was dreading the end with still an overpass incline and the rolling hills. When I was at the rolling hills part a man behind me said “THIS is the worst hill of the race!” True story, mister! But I ran it then all of a sudden bam! Done! And somehow I managed to look like this in my finisher photo –

In all honesty, I am disappointed in my performance somewhat at this race, but then I think, my training really did have quite a few hiccups in it so maybe I should be really impressed considering? It is a PR which was probably my C goal for this race. I just don’t walk in races (and every time I say that I feel the need to reaffirm that I’m not dissing you if you do, I just personally don’t do well with the run/walk combo). Ultimately though I did run a marathon and completed it. It got hard, but I didn’t just all out give up. This also just reaffirmed to me that I’m not done with the marathon distance – we shall meet again! 🙂

Final thoughts:

Teal: I am pretty impressed by this race. And I am sorry if this offends anyone but Baton Rouge is not a pretty city. The race literally took you through the best parts of the city and showcased the good. Thank you for that! The organization was awesome and everyone was so friendly. The art design was amazing and Beth and I used every chance we had to snag pictures of what they had done. I seriously think of all the races we have done this has my favorite design! I do not regret for one second not running the full. I know I enjoyed cheering on Beth more than I would have enjoyed running it and even the accomplishment of running it, cheering her on was my purpose for that last part and I think that made it all fitting. I ran a pretty decent race for myself and was proud of that. Also, I am so in love with this race’s design, if you have seen my foot you know I have a think for feet with trees on them!

Beth: My running partner is better than your running partner!! Haha, ok, not entirely, but so much YES at the same time. Or maybe what I really mean by that is I am 100% lucky to have a friend first and running partner second in Teal. I know she’s proud of me for completing this race even when I’m not 100% proud of it, but at the same time I’m proud of her for being brave, for being vunerable with y’all about not running the marathon, for putting out there the why for everyone to read when I don’t think a lot of people would and for that being a strong runner who takes care of herself! It’s moments like these where I see why our local frunners wondered if we were not just running partners but partners in real life. HAHA Yes, to everything Teal said above. The Louisiana Marathon is a great example of a local race doing things right!

If you are still reading this then thank you! Thanks for sticking through this long post with us and we promise the next post will be WAY LESS wordy! 🙂

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 5k, Dallas Marathon, Dallas Running Club, GU, Half Marathon, health, healthy-living, Louisiana Marathon, LSU, Marathon, marathon signs, pace, races, runkeeper, running

An Open Letter to Runners Who Wear Running Tights

February 4, 2013 by Life is a Run · 8 Comments

Dear Runners Who Wear Running Tights,

A.k.a. 95% of the running community. We have mentioned maybe only one time before how your running tights are NOT acceptable for wearing. Rarely do we tell you to your face because, um, if we did, you’d be stuck knowing how not a good idea it was to wear those tights outside of your home and here you are partaking in a lengthy workout that is not close to being done.

What are we talking about?

Your butt crack. The design of your panties.

Why?

Because we can see them through your running tights!

Ok, yes these aren’t running tights, but the legging epidemic helps us prove our point

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Here’s our advice to you – when you purchase said running tights try them on either before you buy them or immediately upon receiving them in the mail. Get in front of a mirror, turn around and bend over. Can you see your butt crack through them? Can you see your underwear through them?

Ok, so like this but running tights not jeans and bend over. Are they see through?

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If you answered yes to any of those questions either a) don’t buy them b) return them or c) never wear them without a shirt that completely covers your rear end.

Additionally, here’s yet another piece of advice from us to you – do not stop checking your butt in the mirror before leaving the house in said running tights. Why? Because the fabric could have worn thin and just because originally we couldn’t see through them, um, NOW we can! OR because you developed a tear that just happens to run parallel to your butt crack. Trust us, we have seen it before.

You’re welcome, ladies!

At this stage of our running life, we just feel it is our duty to put this information out there. Please heed our advice!

And for those of you who don’t have this problem due to you already being conscious of the need to look out for your butt and the pattern of your panties or just your butt crack you pat yourself on the back right now!

Love,

LiAR a.k.a. Teal & Beth

Filed Under: Runner Information Tagged With: apparel, healthy-living, running, running tights, see through running tights, workout apparel

December Goal Recap

January 11, 2013 by Life is a Run · 4 Comments

Don’t worry we didn’t forget about our goals during our hiatus in the month of December. Yah, yah, it’s the 11th and we are just now posting them…oops? Story of our lives?! Here’s how we did during the crazy month that always is December:

Teal-

1. Complete all marathon training runs.

Um, I really don’t know how to give myself a grade for this since I am not actually doing the marathon now. But at the same time I really haven’t altogether been running consistently either. There are many reasons why this has happened, all I am sure you really do not want to hear about. The holiday season is just crazy anyways and if I was still running the marathon it would have taken a lot of discipline to not partake in holiday festivities at the extent that is SUPER fun!

2. Go to the Ross Perot Museum. This place looks awesome and just opened on December 1st!

F-: I blame my mother for this because she told me that she was going to go with my cousins and so I waited to go with them and then they never went so yea.. I’ll try it in January.

photo source

3. Not last minute Christmas shop although I may already be setting myself up for failure.

B-: I finished 2 days early! Haha! This is actually not bad and I had to do no wrapping of the presents the day of which hasn’t happened in a while!

4. Don’t be a scrooge and actually put up the Christmas tree this year

A-: I have to thank my husband for this! We actually put up decorations and a tree. It was only 3 feet tall but it was up! Anyone have one of those tall skinny ones they want me to have? That is what I decided I would do next year because part of my problem is my house doesn’t have a good “Christmas tree” spot. Anyone else have this problem? It drives me nuts! So a tall skinny tree is my answer for next year!

Beth-

1. Complete all marathon training runs.

C+: I haven’t completed them and some of that is due to a weird pain in my lower leg, so ummm yah…..we’ll see how this all works out for me in a little over a week at the Louisiana Marathon.

2. Get another room in my house organized this month!

A-: Last month I got our office darn near close to organized and our guest room darn near close to organized. They both look SOOOOOOO much better! There’s still some work to be done, but I am proud of what I accomplished so far! I even spent part of an afternoon organizing our pantry because it was driving me crazy!

Isn’t it purdy?!

3. In addition to organizing there are a couple of crafty projects I want to do around our house, so I’m going to commit to complete one of them this month!

F: The closest I came to accomplishing this was printing out something I needed in order to do said craft project. No craft project was accomplished……

4. Run a smart race at Dallas Marathon (only the half though).

A+: I’d say getting a shiny new PR at Dallas Marathon (half) accomplishes this goal!

5. Actually make use of my handy dandy Kitchenaid stand mixer and make Christmas cookies!

A+: I made two batches of Grandmom Lynch’s ginger snaps. They are deeeeeelicious!

There you have it! We are kind of toying with revamping the way we do our goals, so you aren’t going to find any January goals in this post. We’ll let you know what we decided to do! 🙂

Until our next post – have a fun and safe weekend! Good luck to all of our friends who are racing this weekend! May the speed be with you. 🙂

Filed Under: Goals, Uncategorized Tagged With: Christmas, Dallas Marathon, Half Marathon, healthy-living, kitchenaid, Louisiana Marathon, Marathon, organizing, Perot Museum, PR, racing, Ross Perot museum, running, training

Ft. Worth Marathon But You Know Only the Half

November 13, 2012 by Life is a Run · 5 Comments

Perhaps it was the mix of activities for Beth’s wedding or the fact that both of our houses have been a complete disaster, or that we didn’t see each other for a week, or any number of other things but let’s just say this half definitely snuck up on us. We didn’t even do a pre-race post! Whoops?? Perhaps just another bit of proof of our not preparedness.

We double bagged our phones in case it really did rain during the race

Because we were driving to Ft. Worth we wanted to make sure we got to the race in time and especially since we had to get our packets that day! Teal wasn’t even actually sure she had registered and the guy couldn’t find her name on the list… Oh, he was looking at the list for the marathon, but it was rather hilarious that we really couldn’t remember. So by the time we finished picking them up we had about an hour and a half to kill before our race started. The different distances at this race are staggered by 30 minutes, so it was a 7:30 a.m. start for the marathon, 8:00 a.m. start for the 20 miler and a 8:30 a.m. start for the half.

Look at how long this race shirt is?!

Miles 1-5

Teal: We talked to Caron before the race and she had mentioned taking it 5 miles at a time. In my head that sounded like a good plan, I hadn’t fully registered that she was running the 20 mile when I decided that sounded great, and it sorta works for a ½ so I went with that. 1-5 seemed to take forever and I couldn’t really figure out why. I am usually done with a mile in about 3ish songs and by mile one I had heard 5. This was not registering with me. Apparently not being prepared also causes my brain to not work. The course was flat for the most part which made me happy! It was too windy to deal with hills too. The wind at points was rather ridiculous.

Beth: I really didn’t have a game plan in my head AT ALL about this race. I knew I needed to not start too fast considering the month of October I let my marathon training and mileage be all over the place. 🙁 Plus Thursday night I was hit with a 24 hour stomach bug. So I thought I’d just kind of play it by ear! Soon after we started and I had turned on my runkeeper there was no music coming from it. Then I remembered how I had turned the music option off in the app while I was in Hawaii, so I just tried to turn on some music. When I did it was a slow song, so then I remembered how Thursday night I’d just put my music on shuffle during my stairmaster workout. To make things even more fun I’d turn down the brightness on my iPhone to help save some battery life which means I couldn’t see through the two plastic bags I had my phone in to turn on a playlist. My music during this race consisted of almost every slow song on my phone and Christmas music. Ha.

Miles 6-8

Teal: Still not bad but super freaking windy. I was ready to get to the turn around. Not to mentioned this women that had thrown her water on Beth was about to get my foot up her toosh! ( I mean I really would never do that) but she was that much on my nerves. She kept cutting me off for no reason, or running right next to me within like breathing distance. Sometimes Beth and I run like that next to each other but that is because we are LONG TIME RUNNING BUDDIES!! Back up off lady! At 8 I finally was annoyed at how long this seemed to be taking and the time not adding up so I asked Beth what we were really at. She said 7.96! Sweet! I had us at 7.41, so apparently my trusty little Garmin was also not prepared for the day! I actually felt a little energy

Beth: Um, yes to the freaking windy! Do you remember how at the Taco Run there was a guy that messed with my head for the last few miles of the race? Guess who was here at this race? Did you say the Mind Messer Man then you are correct! I forget when but at one point we caught him and passed him a teeny tiny little bit, but don’t worry, y’all, he surged and he passed us! There was just this nice stretch of me being annoyed that he was there and with the lady who dumped the whole cup of water on me. It’s one of those things where I get that you don’t want to STOP and walk with your water, but for the love, at least slow down a little. Her technique of trying to grab a small cup of water at full speed was not affective. At one water station where I didn’t even get water I was excited because she behind me so no water on me! Wrong, she spilled a cup on my feet. We should also mention that I for one ran more than 13.1 on this race course. Yes, I know tangents, we wrote a blog that included that in it. There were a couple parts of the course where it split and was either a gravel/dirt path or a paved path and there were no markers to say stay this or what not. I just don’t like courses when it makes me wonder if I’m on the intended path or not?

Miles 9-13.1

Teal: My energy from that .6ish mile increase made me happy and until 10 I was happy. Then at like 10.1 I wanted to die. I had dropped a little behind Beth but just at the perfect timing she slowed to let me catch her! We stayed together until about 11 again and then it was just get home to the finish line. I could see the storm coming in and was just ready to be done mentally but my body just said, Nope you are staying at this pace. I managed to get in and done but was ready to die. My legs hurt and I was pretty shaky and actually a little dizzy. I think the fact that the running was off and 10 mile long runs missed made this difficult. Overall however, I am not disappointed! I finished with a clock time of 2:07 something and really wanted to find out the real time! I am not disappointed with that as it is still pretty quick for me!!

Beth: I was going back and forth on how I was doing and telling myself when you get to 10 it’s just going to be another 5k. I kind of got pumped at one point and was like LET’S DO THIS!!! Then at 10 I told myself to take a chill pill. I was pushing myself too much too fast. I was coming off inconsistent running and being stick with a stomach bug (a.k.a. not holding food down). So I stopped to find Teal because I was pretty sure if I didn’t chill out and run with her I was not going to make it. When we were about 2 miles out from the finish line I knew I could do this and pushed a little bit harder and at some point in here I passed Mind Messer Man when he stopped to get water. YES! All, I had to do was keep him behind me now! And I did! We actually talked briefly after he crossed the finish line. He was all – weren’t you at the Taco Run? Considering how the last month has been and being sick I am dang proud of this race, but now I got some work to do! We have another half coming up that if I don’t PR at it I better be dang near close!

Results:

Teal: 2:06:27, finished 17th in her age group

Beth: 2:05:15, finished 16th in her age group

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 20 miler, 5k, course, Ft Worth Marathon, Ft. Worth, Half Marathon, health, healthy-living, Marathon, PR, races, running, running buddies, running the tangents, stairmaster, tangents, training, water station

October Report & November Goals

November 6, 2012 by Life is a Run · 9 Comments

There are just really not many clever ways to make the title of these blog posts more exciting….anyway!

The Report:

1. Complete the Tyler Rose half marathon for our 3rd race in the 4 seasons challenge. It’s coming up October 7th!

F: We bailed on this race because we decided it was the best life choice at the time in terms of getting to goal number 3 in one piece. Not to mention the fact that it was Beth’s dad’s birthday and it would have been madness to run the race in Tyler and get back to Dallas. We decided that Texas doesn’t really have 4 seasons anyways. 🙂

2. Start marathon training!

C: Sorta? We have done some of our running and have for sure missed 2 long runs so we shall see how the rest of this month goes. We hope it won’t kill us too much as they were “shorter long runs”

3. Get Beth married!

A++: Done! She is now a Holland! Recap of the wedding coming shortly!

This picture cracks me up!

It really was an an incredible night! Oh, and check out that ring – he’s really my husband now! 🙂

The Goals:

Teal –

1. Get my house in order without losing it! I am too routine and orderly for this mess. See this madness…

2. Get my butt/mind in gear for marathon training. I feel so blah about it right now. It doesn’t feel right or like it is supposed to happen and I need to figure out how to get excited about it!

3. Send out Christmas cards by the end of the month! We have only done this once and I want to make it a tradition.

4. Successfully host Thanksgiving at my house for the first time (ties to number 1 big time). Pressure is on for number 1 for sure!

Beth –

Please be shocked and amazed that I find myself in sync with Teal and have almost all the same goals for this month! 🙂

1. Get my house in order! I didn’t get ALL of my stuff moved out of my sister’s house before the wedding and with wedding presents there are A LOT of boxes over at my new house with my husband. 🙂 🙂 We both don’t like messes so this is hard to look at right now until we get it all organized and into place.

2. Get in the game with marathon training!

3. Have all Christmas cards addressed and ready to be sent out by December 1st! I’m so excited to send out Christmas cards this year! 🙂 I have them already to order, so this goal shouldn’t be too hard to tackle!

4. I’m bringing back my yoga goals, and in baby steps. Yoga once a week! If I don’t start doing this I’m going to need to either cancel my membership or freeze it to save some moolah.

Filed Under: Goals, Uncategorized Tagged With: Christmas, Dallas, Half Marathon, healthy-living, long run, Marathon, marathon training, races, running, Texas, Thanksgiving, tradition, training, wedding, yoga