Kacie’s Run 2014

Kacie’s Run 2014

July 3, 2014 by · Leave a Comment

Not to get all sentimental but Kacie’s Run is special to us! We have now run it 3 times and was one our first races together when we started all this running madness. Last year we got rained out, booo mother nature, but this year the weather was awesome. As you know this race is put on by Teal’s school district to honor one of their former students and to raise money for Special Olympics! What’s not awesome about that?!

Kacies Run 2014 Pic 1

We met up Saturday morning and found some of Teal’s old co-workers. We have talked about our friend, Chris, a few times before and he actually ran his first 50 miler with Catherine at Rocky Raccoon in February. We found him dressed as a Flying Monkey from Wizard of Oz. Yep, we really don’t know why but his entire school was dressed as Wizard of Oz… at least the ones cool enough to dress up. He cracked us up because he was going to just “run” the race until another co-worker, Duncan, wouldn’t dress up because he wanted to “race”. Chris said “Now, I am racing this thing and he will get passed by a flying monkey!” It was on and it was cracking us up!

 

How cute were this year's shirts?!

How cute were this year’s shirts?!

Teal really had no idea what would happen with this race. She basically just showed up either ready to walk the entire thing or run/walk, but probably not run. She really hadn’t run in over 2 weeks and the last time she ran she made it .25 of a mile and had to walk and pee. She basically ran/walked 2 miles and wanted to die. Sorry TMI, but good lord the bladder pressure is REAL! She didn’t drink water before the race (she knows this is bad) to give herself the best  chance at not having to pee over the 3.1 miles. IT WORKED! She was actually able to run that entire dang thing without peeing and without walking! It was very interesting to run sans headphones and that pregnant! People on the course were super awesome and supportive and really made it easier to keep running.  It’s nice to still be able to move at this point and just be active!

Kacies Run 2014 Pic 2 (1)

Beth ran this race at just over 21 weeks pregnant! Remember how Chris was going to work on beating Duncan dressed as a flying monkey, well he did and Beth… pregnant Beth, was just behind Duncan by about 8 seconds. Take that! Ha

This was Teal’s last race before Baby Perez got here! We are glad it went well and we look forward to coming back next year. You guys should totally join us!  We say this every year, so when are some of you going to take us up on that?!?!

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To PR or Not to PR, What Did We Do? [Part1]

March 27, 2012 by · 10 Comments

We ran Kacie’s run this weekend and guess what!?!?! We have a new PR!! We don’t run many 5K’s as you may have noticed so Beth has not had a chance to PR in a 5K in a long time, but this weekend she did! Beth finished Kacie’s Run in a new PR time of 25:28 winning FIRST in her age group. We really have no idea what Teal’s official time was because we broke tradition on accident [tradition being Beth always puts her chip for her] and her chip timer never made it on her shoe. Whoops! We are pretty sure if she had had her chip on she would have come in about 40-50 seconds behind Beth and made third, but who knows. And in case anyone was ever wondering, chips only work if they are on your shoe! It stayed on the bib but never registered the time. Schwoops!

Really we blame the madness of the morning on the chip problem. We ended up getting to the race an hour and a half early because they were doing bib pick up the morning of instead of pre-race. Teal thought that this might be a disaster because about 20 of her students signed up to run this race as their first ever raceand really didn’t know what to do. We got there early to pick up everything for them and meet them in the parking lot.

For Beth this is rather funny to watch. Teal’s kids are cute in that they really didn’t know what to do at all. We helped them pin bibs, get their timer chips on and listened to all the random things they ask about what to do. Most didn’t have the right shoes, wanted to run in spikes, or wondered if we would see cars on the course. They also made a point to let their teachers know they planned on beating them. They are funny and it is cool to be present during someone’s first race!

Haha! Our faces in this pic...and notice the timing chip on Teal's bib

We want to know when your first race was!! For Beth her first 5K was in 2008 at the Mardi Gras Run 5K and for Teal back in 2000 at the Susan G Komen race in Plano which was super small compared to what you see now!  So leave us a comment with when your very first race was!

Also because it is Tuesday! We wanted to again let everyone know about Girl’s Night Out we are going to tonight!  If you are going to be around the Carrollton area and would like to show some support or just see how awesome some local, business ladies are then come on out and join us from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.!  There will be door prizes that include items from the vendors there – Creative Chaos the book, a Glitzbandz, a piece of jewelry, a wine gift card to Dee Lincoln’s Restaurant, a gift card to Matador, etc.  There will be wine and treats! So come join us!  Check out the flyer below for further details!

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Are You Ready for Some Racin’?

March 23, 2012 by · 11 Comments

As you know from our post yesterday we have got Kacie’s Run AND Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas on tap for this weekend!  This is almost exactly what we did this weekend last year – we say almost because last year we paired up with our friends Joe & Bitner to do Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas as a relay!

Saturday morning we will head out to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton to run this 5K benefiting Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD Special Olympics.

We have been pretty fortunate this week in Dallas with some rain on a couple of days that have left us with some nice cool temperatures!  We are hoping we’ll be in the 50’s the whole time we are out there for this 5K.

Goals: Teal will run this 5K as a race.  It is a nice flat course so maybe she’ll bring home a PR.  Her current 5K PR sits at 23:58.  Beth will be treating this 5K as more of a shakeout run so don’t expect any new PR from her, put in 3.1 at a nice easy pace and be ready for what the next day has to hold!

And Sunday holds our longer day with Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas!  We’ve been watching the weather all week to see what it would do for Sunday morning and not to mention it seems like a lot of Rock ‘n’ Roll races have had some HOT weather lately! Anyone else notice that?

As of now we are looking at a low of 62 and a high of 84. Here’s to hoping it stays in the 60’s for as long as possible!  Something else we are hoping for on Sunday is another Troy Aikman sighting! 🙂  Last year Teal saw him as she was running her leg of the relay!

Hello there, Troy Aikman!

Goals: Well, Beth made it one of her March goals to run a sub 2 hour half marathon at this race so that is the goal!  Ultimately she’d like to see a bright shiny new half PR come out of this race!  Kind of scary admitting it because there could be a huge chance it doesn’t happen, but she’s gonna try gosh darn it!  For Teal, she’s just wanting to complete the race!  If you remember from her March goals that she was taking pretty much two weeks off from any type of working out that wasn’t yoga or weights with her trainer, Will.

We are excited for this weekend! There are lots of people we know who will be out running Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas and to all of you good luck!  We would like to give a special good luck to Cynthia MacDonald!  Girl, you are going to rock your first half marathon!  Soak up every second of it because you’ll never get another first half marathon! You’ve trained hard and will do GREAT!

If you are going out to Rock n Roll to spectate you will hopefully be able to spot Beth easily in her yellow Nike shorts, gray top and yellow headband.  Teal is trying to figure out what outfit combo will result in the least amount of chaffing (yes, she wears BodyGlide sometimes it still happens!) possible so maybe you can just look for the tall girl running down the streets of Dallas! 😉

Oh and one last thing – we’ll be hitting up the expo tomorrow afternoon! When are YOU going? Maybe we could meet up!

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Three Things Thursday [Ladies Themed]

March 22, 2012 by · 5 Comments

Sorry to the dudes…this is geared more towards the ladies! BUT you can still read if you would like! 🙂

1.  In two days we are running the Kacie’s Run 5K, in three days we are running Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon AND in nine days we’ll be running the ZOOMA half marathon in Austin!! Like how we snuck three things into this one thing? We’re awesome like that!

2.  For our Dallas area people – come join us and some amazing vendors at this Girls Night Out! Event!  If you are coming PLEASE let us know!! 🙂

If you’ve been meaning to find a Scentsy person – there will be one there!

If you’ve been meaning to buy one of those cute no-slip headbands you see other ladies wearing at races – GlitzBandz will be there!

If you’ve been meaning to buy a new chicklit book – self published author, Kate O Lynch will be there!

If you’ve been meaning to get cute new jewelry – Melissa Vest will be there selling her handcrafted jewelry!

If you’ve been meaning to checkout a new line of skincare products – 3000BC will be there!

There will be little of something for everyone there plus a door prize and who doesn’t love wine?

3.  In keeping with the about the ladies theme of this post..check back with us on Monday as we have a GIVEAWAY coming!

Happy pre-Friday, friends! 🙂

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Come Join Us at Kacie’s Run

March 8, 2012 by · 2 Comments

Last year you might remember that Beth and I ran the Kacie’s Run to support Carrollton Farmers Branch Special Olympics (and ps if you look back at our post from last year its is slightly funny to see what a difference a  year makes, check out our stats & nervousness over this race last year and then our actual results from the race!)

So with that we are of course going to run again! This year I was able to take on the role of campus liaison and help register & get our campus motivated to run. This is a super easy, fast paced, flat race and will also make a GREAT “shake out” run for us and anyone running the Dallas Rock ‘n’ Roll Half the next day! Which means this year’s Kacie’s Run is March 24th!

Here is a little background as to the purpose of the race. The race is held in honor of Kacie Brekhus who as an R. L. Turner High School freshman became involved in the Torch Run, benefiting Special Olympics.  As a senior, she served as the student coordinator for that race. Kacie died in a traffic accident in October 2003 while a freshman at The University of Texas at Austin and many in her life believed that Kacie’s contributions to CFB Special Olympics and the Torch Run where so great, that they changed the race to honor her memory.

We are both registered and would love to meet and see you guys out there if it is possible. CFB has made it super easy to register and there are options for everyone – even the procrastinators. If you do decide you would like to join us and register we would so LOVE it if you joined “Team Perry!” Which is the school that I teach at and we are working to break last years number for participants!

How to get registered:

1. Go to https://secure.getmeregistered.com/KaciesRun

2. Register in person at Run On Coppell March 20-22 10am to 7pm

3. Register in person at Chick-fil-a Carrollton on Old Denton March 19th– 5-7pm

4. Race Day March 24th at Standridge Stadium, Carollton, Texas at 7am.

 

Hope to see you there! 🙂

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September Race No. 3

September 27, 2011 by · 2 Comments

Since we both did different things on this race day here is a race post that’s a little back and forth from both of us! Enjoy! 🙂

Beth – Going into race morning I had NO idea what I was going to be doing exactly, but nonetheless I was excited to be behind the scenes of a race!  I got to the Shops at Legacy at 5:00 a.m. and shortly thereafter I was given a golf cart.  I’d actually never driven a golf cart before, so it was exciting for me.  At this point the majority of our vendors were setting everything up.  Only problem we had was the barricades hadn’t exactly been put up so off I went (on the golf cart) with my boss lady for the morning to keep people out of our 5k course.  I am not even sure how the time passed so quickly from 5:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. when opening ceremony began, and I can’t even remember everything I did but I basically was a gopher.  I’d already determined I was not going to run the 5k as I’d have no clue what I’d be doing the moment it started not to mention where I’d keep my bib, armband for my iphone, headphones and anything else I might want to run with while we were getting ready for the race.

Teal – I was excited about the race this weekend because I knew how much Beth had been involved in the process and also because I was going to get to run with a few friends from teaching. My friend Chris from work joined the team- he is also training to run the White Rock Marathon in December and we talk basically every day about our running. The last time we actually got to run together was back in March for Kacie’s Run for our school district. My fellow work-out buddy, morning motivator, and friend Cynthia also joined the team and ran with us this morning. She has recently come off a long, nagging foot injury and is currently building and training to run the Rock n Roll Dallas half in March, so they are awesome fellow runners! Cynthia and I also ran into our personal trainer friend, Nemo from 24 hour fitness and one we both see at least twice a week when we are training with Will. While he’s super in shape he is not a distance runner so it was fun to pick on him at the end!

Beth- As the runners began to arrive I was pretty much just hanging out in the golf cart after eating my Chickfila chicken biscuit and waiting for my next job.  Thanks, Chickfila for providing the 5k Committee and volunteers with breakfast! Haha  But I got to see my mom and sister who I’d signed up for the race. 🙂 As well as a bunch of other friends that had started to arrive to support this great cause!

Teal – I met Chris early and we were able to catch Beth in full volunteer mode and chat with her a while. Somebody at Heroes for Children gave her a golf-cart to drive around—she seriously looked official. I was sad she wasn’t running with me but just overall impressed by her volunteer spirit! The race did a very cool balloon release thing at the beginning. The yellow balloons were released to represent each child battling cancer & their family that had been helped in the past year by Heroes for Children.  Then they also released 2 red heart balloons to represent the two little girls of the mothers who started Heroes for Children in their honor!

 

Beth- I do not think I’ve mentioned much about the co-founders of HFC, so let me take this opportunity to do so.  I met Jenny Scott (co-founder) through yoga at the end of January this year, and learned her story and her daughter, Allie.  She was Jenny’s first born child and at 8 months and 27 days passed away from Acute Myeloid Leukemia in September of 2004.  Larissa Linton’s (co-founder) 4 year old daughter, Taylor passed away in Novemeber 2001 of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  It was after the death of Taylor that Larissa formed Taylor’s Angels, a non-profit that provided financial assistance to families who had a child battling cancer.  Larissa and Jenny meet in October of 2004 and realized the need for Heroes for Children.  On race day I actually saw a runner wearing a Taylor’s Angels race shirt which was very neat. If you’d like to see a picture of Taylor and Allie or read a little bit more about them then please visit the HFC website here.

Teal – Chris and I had discussed prior in the week how fast we wanted to run. He mentioned 24 mins and in my head I was like- no way. I’ll try but I highly doubt I can do that, my goal was 25:19. We both lined up together at the start line and we were not paying attention and had to wait a while to start after the gun went off, because none of my technology was ready… Runkeeper wasn’t up and my music hadn’t start- priorities!!! One day I may learn to do with out but for now this is a requirement! We took off and dodged and ran on the outside until about the end of the first mile, we passed the clock at about 7:14—what?? Really? I knew we were a little behind the clock but not more than like 30 secs. In my head I was like 1 down 2 to go, which mentally at this point is NOTHING, we are used to saying 1 down- 13 to go or whatever the crazy distance is for that week. I was able to maintain this pace fairly well; I lost Chris at about the 2 mile mark, but only by a few seconds. I managed to run the rest of the race right on the tail of what looked to be a 7 year old, this kid was hauling! Keep in mind I am 5’10” and I could not pass this kid who was like 4 feet tall! My goal at that point was to beat him, or at least attempt to keep up with him since he was the closest person around. I crossed the finish line at what I thought was about 25 minutes. Slightly wondering what my official time was. Chris was able to stay for the entire awards ceremony which was awesome because I can never stay. I managed to set a new PR by over a minute! I was seriously surprised and super excited because Chris even stayed long enough to pick up my medal! I was second in my age group! I have not won an individual medal for running before!!  Overall the race was awesome! Flat, spread out, not a lot of issues with walkers, dogs, strollers, all those random things you get at a lot of races! Cynthia and I also discussed at the end how awesome it was to see the pictures of the kids along the way that HFC has helped and how it was hard to not get choked up by the pictures. Very inspiring race and atmosphere!

Beth – Just as the 1 mile race began I got to drive Hannah & Hannah to the pace car a.k.a. a Ferrari provided by Boardwalk.  Hannah & Hannah were selected to ride in the pace car by the nurses at Medical City Children’s Hospital.  I loved it – they were getting driven over along with one of their little brother’s and a HFC staff member and I heard one of them say “I wanna ride on the one with the girl!”  So I happily drove them over on the golf cart and told them to have fun! Then I quickly took off to get some trash cans out to the awesome volunteers at the water stations and made it back to the start line just as the 5k was beginning.  Here’s a picture right after the gun went off – 

I kept looking for Teal and Chris and never saw them.  Maybe it was because of their technology mishap – I just figured since they are both so tall there would be no way I missed them, but I was wrong!  Then I met up with my mom and sister at the finish line a few minutes before Hannah & Hannah were on their way in on the pace car bringing in the first runner who finished in 17:38.  Then I got to see Teal coming up on the finish –

And just a minute or so behind Teal there was Chris (on the right) coming up on the finish line-

All three of us got to watch Cynthia cross the finish line! [So sorry Cynthia I didn’t snap a picture! :(]

Chris & Teal

Teal & Cynthia

Nemo & Teal

Since we did not take any pictures with Disney characters while we were in California for Disneyland Half we took advantage of all of the Disney characters that came out Saturday for the 5k.  Here we are with Tiana from The Princess and the Frog –


This is such a great race to bring your little kids to since there were the Disney characters and there were also firemen out there with their fire truck – SO many fun kid things!  It was such an honor to be a part of this race.  If you live in the Dallas area we’d definitely encourage you to put it on your calendar/racing schedule for 2012.

Results:

Teal: 23:58; 2nd in age group, 13th female to finish and 39th finisher overall

And one last picture for the road…we ended up having the same workout shorts on that day AND the same yellow band to go with our Go Sport IDs

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March’s Races

March 28, 2011 by · 8 Comments

This past weekend was a very busy race weekend and is a little bit of a glimpse into how crazy the two of us are with a short race on Saturday, Kacie’s Run, and a bit of a longer run on Sunday, Rock ‘n’ Roll Half.  But first let’s back up to our week leading up to our race weekend – Teal had a lingering cough and ultimately started treatment for bronchitis.  Mid-week Beth got a cold and with a double race weekend we would be lying if we said we were not nervous.  We looked and sounded crazy, Teal would break into coughing attacks, and Beth had to carry around a box of tissues.  Not a pretty sight.

Kacie’s Run on Saturday went GREAT!  CFBISD had over 500 people participate in either the 1 mile or 5k races.  The crazy wind we had all week in Dallas stuck around for the run but the sun was definitely out and the temperature was in the high 70’s by the time we ran.  The course was awesome as it is super flat and plenty of space to not run into or have to dodge other runners.  I am pretty sure our nerves had taken over slightly as we both ran the first mile in right under 8 minutes. By mile two we were great, only one small coughing attack but we pulled through!

Our Results

Teal: 26:26, finished 6th in age group and 68th over all

Beth: 26:19, finished 4th in age group and 63rd overall

 

 

For the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, we decided to run the relay and that we might have a better chance of placing if we ran on co-ed teams than as a Life is a Run team.  Teal partnered up with Joe and Beth partnered up with Bitner.  The boys were given the first leg of the half marathon to run, 7.1 miles, and the girls got the last leg, 6 miles.  As crazy as we were expecting the race to be with making sure we got to the right place, Rock ‘n’ Roll staff seriously had it under control.  The exchange area was well organized and it was awesome to see all the race action.  At about 35 minutes in, the first place runner passed all of us waiting for our partners at the exchange.  Oh to run a 5 minute mile…

L to R: Bitner, Beth, Teal & Joe

 

The weather in Dallas literally changed over night – Saturday we had a high in the 80’s and by the time we went to run our relay Sunday morning I think the temperature had maybe gotten up to 50 degrees with no sun.  Even the Rock ‘n’ Roll staff said that it must have been some kind of cruel joke.  It was freezing.

None of us had run a race in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, but we were so impressed with how organized and just how great overall the event was.  There were spectators everywhere, awesome bands, and even the High School cheerleaders from Teal’s school district.  We both talked after the race about being moved, almost to tears, by some of the pictures on runner’s shirts.  Beth saw a girl who ran with an extra bib that said “I run for my mother” and Teal ran behind a boy who had lost his mother to breast cancer, he had a giant picture of her on his back.  It is seriously motivating to run for a good cause and to see those affected by cancer, working for a cure!  This race also supported Susan G. Komen!

One of the exciting parts of the race was when Teal actually ran beside Troy Aikman!  Teal said that he literally just ran up on the side of her, he was on the left and his pacer on the right, and was talking about his race bib.  He thought he was the only one wearing it.  She looked up at him as it is weird to hear a lot of talking during a race and realized who the heck it was!  She looked at the girl on the other side of her for reassurance and yep, it was really him.  Teal looked right at him and asked, “Can I take your picture?”  He said, “Sure if you run fast!”  He had a pace to keep afterall!  Teal, who was running with her iphone to use the runkeeper app, took a quick picture and tweeted it while running.  Seriously cool!  Troy even contacted Life is a Run afterwards to find out about the picture!  How cool is that?

Beth and Teal both finished the race with an excellent pace.  It is safe to say our best 6 miles run ever!

Our Results

Teal & Joe: Ran the half in 1:50:22 (an avg. 8:26/mile pace) Teal’s half in 51:44.  They finished 8th amongst the co-ed teams and 19th out of 305 relay teams!

Beth & Bitner: Ran the half in 1:44:55 (an avg. 8:01/mile pace) Beth’s half in 50:37.  They finished 4th amongst the co-ed teams and 13th out of 305 relay teams!

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Kacie’s Run

March 23, 2011 by · 2 Comments

Well, Kacie’s Run is this Saturday and I think we are both a little nervous.  For some reason the shorter races are more stressful.  This will be the second year I have run the race and Beth’s first.  I am so excited we are running this together and she can see some of what I work with everyday.  Also, we are a little crazy this month as we are in fact competing in two races this weekend, Rock ‘n’ Roll Half relay is Sunday.  When I found out they were the same weekend I was a little worried, but then Beth said she would absolutely run this one too, well here we are.

Just to give you a little background, Kacie’s Run has been a Carrollton Farmer’s Branch Independent School District tradition since 2003, and honors one of its own students, Kacie Brekhus, who was tragically killed in a car accident during her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin.  You can read more about her story here!  This race supports CFB Special Education and it is actually really cool to see CFB staff members, students, and the community come out for the race.  The part that makes me nervous is that current and past students participate,a nd of course they talk a lot of smack the week of.  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard, “Mrs., you can’t run, you can’t beat me,” etc.  They are also up on my running life, and the fact that Beth and I run together all the time.  I always tell them stories about running long runs on the weekends while they are still sleeping, and they have seen pictures of Beth and I, so in essence I am sure they are talking to her too.  No pressure!

Last year I had just started running again and Kacie’s Run was my first 5k in I don’t know how long.  I ran a very scary 34:58 minute race and was honestly surprised I didn’t die.  The goal was to not walk, which I accomplished, but barely!  This year is much different.

Here are our goals for Saturday’s race.  We’ll let you know how it goes, both of us are crossing our fingers that the wind dies down and that it doesn’t actually rain.

Goals for Kacie’s Run

Teal:  27 minute or better 5k

Beth:  Well, my last 5k I ran in 25:50 and I haven’t been running as much each week lately, so I am mainly hoping to not add a lot of minutes on to my time this weekend!  Definitely under 30 minutes!

 

Weather Forecast

High: 86* F

Low: 53* F

Wind: 12 mph

Prec: 30% chance, calling for Isolated T-storms

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