New Year’s Double Eve & Day

New Year’s Double Eve & Day

February 3, 2014 by · 3 Comments

We have decided to blame #Icepocalypse on a lot of things we have found annoying lately. We also approve of any Dallasites doing the same! Prior to #Icepocalypse, we signed up to run the Day part of the New Year’s Double race to support and keep our friend Catherine entertained. She was going to use the double races as training for her 50 mile race in February. 50, yes,  50 miles, we think she is nuts too! BUT… the stupid weather gods had other plans that basically changed the makeup of the two days. Catherine trained super hard for Dallas and wanted to race for a PR and instead decided to race the Eve portion of the the New Years Double and drop the Day race all together. That left Beth running the Day marathon solo (she would have run with Catherine the entire race) and Teal running the day half solo.

We whined…. a lot and then just decided we would make the best of it.

We woke up New Year’s Eve day and headed to Celebration Park to cheer on Catherine and Paul as they worked towards a sub 4 marathon.

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Jesse found us!

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Race spectating is hard work! …..especially when you’re preggo 🙂
photo cred: Jesse Puentes

 It totally looked like Beth was drinking a mimosa or some sort of adult bev in that giant cup until you actually learned she was pregnant, huh?

Catherine is flying!

Catherine is flying!

 We also gotta to help out another runner fan club/cheer squad and jump there car for them. 🙂  Thankfully, Teal comes prepared for such a situation!

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@mcgaritydotme having fun out on the course

@mcgaritydotme having fun out on the course

Beth and Brent stayed the night at Teal and Michael’s house and basically had a chill evening of Aggie football watching. We say “chill” but did anyone watch that game? Madness! Beth, in true Beth fashion left her Garmin at home and trekked home at midnight to get it putting us both in bed after midnight, we made it to see the ball drop! Which we really didn’t expect to happen but are glad it did. Brilliant plan for marathon and half marathon running, right?!

Luckily the race had a late start and we strolled up, went to the bathroom, chatted with Ninja and began the race. Super laid back with a small race, we even missed our wave starts, whoops.  From here there is really not much else to say except we ran the entire half together, again in true preggo running fashion, we took it super slow and cautious. 🙂 Thank god for patient running buddies who don’t kill you when you have to go to the bathroom during the race!

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After the first lap of the race we were greeted by basically the BEST bicycle cheering squad one could hope for. All of our frunners were in the area knocking out a New Year’s Day bike ride together and they decided to bike over and cheer us on! We LOVED it and it gave us a boost to run around that dang course again!!

photo cred: @thatpinkgirl

photo cred: @thatpinkgirl

We also LOVED the Frisco Running Clubs water station. They sure know what they are doing. Our crazy friend Mark was at the station and we swear you could hear is voice all over the park. He kept us motivated and ran alongside us in a few spots, but don’t worry, never more than .25 of a mile. 🙂 We might also add this station had it all, oreos, m&m’s, skittle, coffee station, and black eye peas! That’s a first for us.

photo cred: Nancy Howard

photo cred: Nancy Howard

 

Running by Frisco Running Club's water station! photo cred: Nancy Howard

Running by Frisco Running Club’s water station!
photo cred: Nancy Howard

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We are both proud to say we finished our races and love starting out the new year with a healthy activity. Next year however, we think we are sleeping in!!

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Wordless Wednesday No. 42

Wordless Wednesday No. 42

December 11, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

AugSep Collage v2

Oct Collage v2

 

Nov Collage v2

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How the Ice Ate Dallas Marathon

How the Ice Ate Dallas Marathon

December 10, 2013 by · Leave a Comment

Just in case you didn’t know or somehow missed, we were supposed to run the Dallas Marathon this past Sunday (Beth the full and Teal the half), but Mother Nature had a completely different plan for us and the rest of the Dallas Marathon hopefuls. Thursday afternoon Dallas weather turned from what was a warm, high in the 70’s during the week to what we Dallasites refer to as the #Icepocalypse2013.

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Our favorite weatherman, Pete Delkus, basically told us on Thursday night that we were all about to be “entombed” by ice. We of course spent our evenings in denial and really just seemed worried about what the heck we would wear to run in this weather. Beth tweeted our Colorado friend Courtney for advice on what to wear since she is used to this sort of thing. We were not thinking at all that we actually not run this race at all, or at least if the thought was there we were trying to ignore it!

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Turns out Pete was right (and he’s apparently now a weather god) and when we woke up Friday Texas looked much like this…

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Roads were ridiculous and not drivable. We southerners are not prepared for this type of thing, it’s not just that people can’t drive or don’t know how to drive on it, we simply don’t have the road clearing equipment like they do in the north, and the little we have is not enough to clear the metroplex with any type of speed! We are always just stuck when this happens, entombed, if you will! Ugh! We still were pretty much in denial and thought the weather would get above freezing before Sunday and we could run. Surely it would, right?? We thought maybe they would just delay it. Dallas Marathon folks let us know what they could and instead of canceling the expo they delayed the opening until 2pm on Friday. That has to be a good sign right?

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Well, then Friday lunch time came around. Nothing was improving, and we were all trapped. Then it came. An email from Dallas Marathon at 12:50ish Friday afternoon, cancelling not only the expo but cancelling the race altogether. 🙁

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The worst email we’ve gotten in awhile! 🙁

There it was. Months of training seemingly wasted, especially for those who battled months of marathon training. Devastating really, without trying to be hugely dramatic, we get there are worse things in life, but for this, at this time, it is devastating. It was hard not to have a pity party. We did and started to Google. There has to be another marathon close that is open? We can drive (wait, can we??) Either way. We looked. The BCS marathon in College Station was the best bet but just still wasn’t feasible for us. :-/ We were out from running.

Commence eating all the carbs…

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We ate, slept, did puzzles, and talked with Catherine (we are positive all of our husband’s rolled their eyes on this one) all weekend, and continued to live in denial that this had actually happened.

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Come Sunday, we really hadn’t heard much about the details about the cancellation. We knew, having run a ton of races that we were not going to get a refund and we knew that and were not mad. We didn’t know about anything else.  Dallas Marathon again sent us another email…

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They are giving us our participant shirts!!

We think this was an awesome response and we took to Facebook to thank them for handling it so well.  We were pretty shocked to see some of the responses given to the race. Like “where is our refund”, or “ how could you do this”, or whatever other idiotic response you can think of. We knew, everyone knew, you had to click an agreement before you could complete your registration that there would be no refunds for the race. This is pretty much a standard in racing and SUPER rare that you would actually get money back due to weather or cancellation. We get it. Apparently many others do not.

This race is put on by RUNNERS for RUNNERS. It is not one of those races that travels all over the country making tons of money putting on races. We can point you in the direction of some of those if you would like. This is different and this should be a learning experience for all. We do not claim to know what all goes in to race directing but we do know that this race gives a medal, a participant shirt, a finisher’s shirt, fancy bibs, food for runners, water stations, Gatorade, safety, police, port-o-potties, and anything else you can think of that we left off! We know money comes from different places and there are donations, but we also know that Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children benefits directly from money raised by Dallas Marathon. Hopefully others know this now because to call them thieves we think is a little ridiculous!

Needless to say we vented and then thanked Dallas Marathon for making the decision. They did what was best for the safety of runners and also for the city already strapped for resources. They knew it is not a good idea to take resources from the city to clear a race course when thousands didn’t have power, the roads needed to be scraped and sand poured, and officers needed to help those in need. Thank you for that!

Also, if you haven’t met our friend Erik. You are about to. He, and his friends, have been a part of an unofficial, which should be official (wink, wink Dallas Marathon) cheering section at the Dolly Parton hills (more frequently referred to as “The Dollies”), one of the most challenging areas of the course. Erik dresses as a Dolly, and helps runners up and down those hills in style. He sent us these pictures to cheer us, and everyone else up.

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Pretty Sexy isn’t he? (sorry, he’s taken!) Who would want to miss this cheer section? Not us, and we didn’t have to this year either! He made our day and made the blow of the cancellation a little more bearable! Thank you for that, Erik!

Thanks again Dallas Marathon!! Mother Nature we are still pretty irritated at you, but we will be back in 2014!

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Running for Two: Trimester One

Running for Two: Trimester One

November 5, 2013 by · 2 Comments

Beth and I ran our first half marathon in 7 months yesterday and this was obviously the first while simultaneously growing a human. I am currently at 15 weeks just so you have a reference of time and how long I have actually been running pregnant.

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Running has been interesting and I have been asked tons of questions about how it is going, so we figured I could update you guys on how that is going and if anyone else is in the same boat or maybe will be in the same boat it might be helpful.  Also even though I have been a runner for a while now and run tons of races, I still had/have a lot of fear about running even though the doctor has cleared me to run, even at longer distances, and that I see women do it all the time. It’s almost like a switch changes when it’s your kid in your body. I went to Google and that just scared the crap out of me, so here is what I have experienced, and have done, and so far this baby is doing perfectly well and I have had no issues *now finds every piece of wood around to knock on*

Here is how the first trimester has gone:

  • I was scared to dehydrate so I only now run with water or where I know I can get water every other mile or so. I was NOT good at this before but also never had problems. We have pretty much taken all of our runs to White Rock where there is tons of water available.
  • I have avoided the heat as much as possible and am glad the majority of this pregnancy will be in the winter. I did not run when it was too hot and actually stopped all my hot yoga as well.
  • I eat during the run way more than I did before. Typically every 3-4 miles.
  • I wear out much faster, it’s harder to breathe in even though this baby is small there is a lot more blood to move around and it really does feel like it when you are running. At first it just felt like I was out of shape, which I knew was not possible and now I know why it’s like that and am pretty prepared for that to get worse.
  • I take more breaks and I don’t beat myself up for them. I have to stop and walk or stand even for just a minute or so or I won’t make it. During my ½ this weekend I walked every single water station and took water at all of them, which I never did before at all. I also walked about .5 of a mile to eat.
  • I was never one to be blessed in the boob area and never really thought twice about that ever being an issue. I thought that “those” came later in pregnancy and quickly learned that that is not the case AT all. This change happened around 8 weeks and that long run left me in so much pain. Invest in good bras!! I have not really had a problem since, but no one really told me about that so early and I never expected the pain that comes with not being prepared for that. I could barely roll over and I called my mom convinced I might be having a heart attack! Ha.  So far I have not had to wear anything around my stomach. That might change soon!
  • Exhaustion in the first couple of months is just stupid. It’s an exhaustion I have never really experienced before, and you can’t shake at all. I had to cut myself A LOT of slack when it came to running. I couldn’t stay awake passed like 7:30 at night, was napping all the time, and didn’t want to do ANYTHING.  My husband jokes that I haven’t lifted a finger… I didn’t want to move let alone but on shoes and run alone outside.  I cut running during the week for a while until that total exhaustion phase went away and now I rest when I need to.
  • I cannot do this without Beth. I wouldn’t run at all. She has been there for all my long runs and if she wasn’t I wouldn’t do it. You need a running buddy for sure, and one that won’t want to kill you when you have to do all the aforementioned things during your runs. She is training for a marathon and has stuck with me! I catch her on the last half of her run so hopefully she is worn out a little and it seems to be working!  I also do not run alone anymore unless it is like 3 or less miles in the daylight by my house.
  • My motivation level has changed more toward just being careful then getting a PR or running fast. I have not and will not push my stride speed at all passed what I have done this entire pregnancy. I have lowered my pace somewhere between thirty seconds to a minute and a half a mile, and am fully prepared to either not start a race based on how I feel or DNF if I need to.

I am running still because I love it and my pregnancy is healthy. I have been cleared from my doctor to run all the way up until I give birth. I am a super worry wart so this might seem like madness to some of you but I do have fear, so I am super careful and have more or less decided I will do this as long as it feels good. I want to stay healthy and in shape to prepare for delivery and carrying a baby all the way through. Running can help this and working out does as well.

I’ll keep you posted about how the second trimester goes with running. We do have Dallas Scheduled for December 8th and that race will hit at start of week 20, and also a race about 6 weeks after that.  Happy Running!

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B is for Back to School, Birthdays, Barbies & More!

September 4, 2013 by · 4 Comments

It seems like for the first time in a looong time we had a completely race-less month! We have had a couple times where one of us made a race without the other, but August 2013 was completely race-less for both of us!

But it worked out for us and was in hindsight just what we needed. Also, yes, we know y’all are tired of hearing us say we are busy.  We are too and really who isn’t?! And let’s just go ahead and stop with the glorifying of that word. Many of y’all might not know that Teal took a new job and is back to the world of middle school and this time as a counselor! So if you were tracking her professional timeline it would be 5 years as a middle school teacher, 1 year as a high school counselor and now the new gig back in middle school.

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In Beth’s family everyone was born in August. OK, not really but it sure feels like it. 🙂 It starts with celebrating her Mom’s birthday (hi, Fancy Nancy!), moves into an August birthday celebration that includes her uncle, aunt, sister and husband and ends with at least some sort of friend celebration for sister (Kate) and husband (Brent). Since those last two are just two days apart in birth days it makes it that much more fun (challenging)!

Kate's Surprise Birthday Party

Kate’s surprise Birthday party was a success!

Teal & Michael got Brent this awesome Aggie Yell Leader Barbie as a Birthday present. Best Birthday present ever!

 

Thankfully, we’ve still had time to de-stress with running! We’ve put in a lot of hill work in the month of August with our fellow NTX Runners.  Actually that statement is true for pretty much the entire summer!

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We’ve also added to our fall racing calendar with a not so surprising registration for Dallas Marathon!  It is our halfiversary race!  This year will be the 4th year we’ve participated in some form of this race (half or marathon).

So, anyway, we survived race-less August, we’ve been doing our training for Dallas, but now that it’s September bring on the next race!

What have YOU been up to? 🙂

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The Louisiana Marathon

February 6, 2013 by · 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…

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the logo on the Capitol Building

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!

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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

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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!

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 –

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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 –

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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! 🙂

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Final Louisiana Marathon Thoughts

January 18, 2013 by · 7 Comments

the la marathon 9.25.12

Well folks its time!! Louisiana Marathon time!! As you might have seen yesterday we are super excited to go, I mean heck, we have 26.2 reasons. Do you need more proof?? Yea we didn’t think so.

This time around will be a little different. We are not running this entire thing together, Beth will carry on for the full and Teal will run the half. A super tough decision but ultimately the right one! Now this is not totally what we had planned on so we are doing this one a little different. We decided that we will each make race signs for each other and keep them super secret until the day of! It’s actually kind of funny because both of us had this idea individually and then it just came out so we decided to make it a surprise! Fun, right?? So guess they will also be surprise for YOU! Stay tuned…

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We will set out eeeearly Saturday morning and make our trek to Baton Rouge via a road trip with our husbands. Whoa that is weird to say…we both have them now! We will make the stop at the expo, of course, and then head to dinner and bed! Duh, really what else is there to do the night before a race?  If you know something better we are totally up for suggestions!

As far as goals go, we, as usual want to run smart before anything else. Smart and safe! We don’t think this will turn out anything like the White Rock Marathon but if Mother Nature just so happens to be a biotch Sunday, we know what to do.  We are excited about this course because there is actually A LOT of it together. PLUS, for the second 13.1 we will easily be able to find Beth multiple times in that the race loops back around at some pretty hard miles. 15 and 16 turn into 21 and 22. Good job there race director, we like the way you think about the spectators too! The half marathon doesn’t split away from the full until about 10.5 meaning we can run with each other for that long. Our plan, well as of now is to stay together for that part and Teal will stay with Beth and almost pace her a little slower then she might just go normally (not slower per se but just at a steady  pace that’s not like “oh here I’m just gonna run my normal half pace”) hope that makes sense. This will hopefully help maintain energy throughout the race and avoid the ever scary problem of going out too fast due to adrenaline. We think this will be helpful but who the heck knows?? I think we both have mentioned to each other throughout this that the Marathon is a CRAZY BEAST. So even the best laid plans fail sometimes but we have super high hopes that this will be great!

Hopefully the fact that our signs are a secret will keep our minds busy and watching for what is to come and the time and miles will pass by super fast! This could totally work right?? RIGHT!!

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26.2 Reasons We Are Excited to Race the Louisiana Marathon

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

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

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

from Beth & Brent’s trip to NOLA in 2009

26.2. Beth will finish marathon no. 2!
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December Goal Recap

January 11, 2013 by · 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.

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!

christmas tree mr kitties

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?!

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!

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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. 🙂

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To Marathon or Not to Marathon?

December 12, 2012 by · 37 Comments

Remember that goal I set… have an awesome race, gain some confidence going into the marathon, and don’t need a PR, just a good race? Yea, that didn’t happen.  Then immediately you start to reflect. Why did it not go well? Maybe it was because I did 15 on Sunday, 3miles of speed work Tuesday, and 10 miles at marathon pace Wednesday, and 2 weight training days? So 28 miles right before a ½. Probably not the best idea.  Or, blame it on the weather? It was hot, humid, and gross. My chaffed sports bra lines can show you that for sure.  My legs ached the entire time, even hinging on cramping, especially around miles 7-9. Or maybe it is because this isn’t fun for me right now? I’m more or less running scared. I had a lot of issues last year,Plantar Fasciitis, I have very little cartilage in my knees (thank you dad, he doesn’t either), I have a random hip issue stemming from no cushioning in my bottom two vertebrates (like what happens to 70% of people over the age of 65, except I have it now). I know… I may sound like a whiney excuse maker, but it’s the reality of the situation. So I hope this doesn’t cause your eyes to roll at me. So really I’m not sure… but either way, I should be happier about finishing a ½ marathon than I am.  Boooooo hiss on this attitude but I can’t shake it!!

I have tried everything. EVERYTHING!! Rereading race stories of people, looking over my plan, making changes, looking at the shiny medal I would get at Louisiana Marathon, positive self-talk, negative talk, self-bribery, sarcasm, rest, breaks, I even at this point would pay someone to run next to me the entire time. Takers?? Anyone? Bueller… Bueller?

As of right now, I am NOT going to run the Louisiana Marathon. My heart has also never really been in this race, which to me makes it wayyyy harder. I have refused to let myself get excited (revert back to running scared, White Rock Marathon memories, pain, disappointment). I say this, but I have not gone as far as to change my race, or really even stop training. I have looked at a few other plans, more “finish” a marathon type plans, instead of what we have been doing, that have a few less miles.

The main huge issue is I just truly don’t think my body likes anything over 13.1 miles. I have just now started to feel those issues pop up that kind of remain bearable running under 13. Really half training is not bad on my body, but upper mileage just starts to cause everything to freak out. I’m still sore on Thursday from Sunday long runs. Everything hurts, and every remedy doesn’t work, ice baths, foam rolling, stretching, adult beverages… ha. Nothing. It just feels like crap. This doesn’t happen for a half. I mean it does but NOT to the same level, and it requires way fewer miles per week to run. Duh, half!   So I am not sure if it is “worth it.” I can do it, but what will I feel like after, what will my body do? Can it handle the rest of training and the run? Maybe I’ll just play it on feel? Can you train like that?? UGH!

I could run another marathon… and finish… I think. But I don’t know how fast, how happy, how painful/painless it will be, what damage will be done… etc? Am I supposed to drop to a half and not ever attempt the distance again to “save” my body/mind, so that I’ll actually keep running.

Am I a weenie?

Then to add further confusion to this madness. I am not a lone runner. I have a race buddy. A badass race buddy. I don’t want to not do it and her do it alone, train alone, be out there alone. Not that she wouldn’t be anyways… I’m slower (and ps I’ve known this forever, check out the about us page, so this is not it either) Don’t worry I have run that option through my mind as being a “mental” reason for this. It’s not.  But you get the point. Also that jealous streak sets in of “I’m so close to this person, and she can do it, and I don’t feel I can.” (race distance not speed) Ouch… but it’s true, and you all know what I am talking about. We are human. So yea… I don’t know what to do.

Do I just need to become a bike rider?

So there you have it. My sad whiney, god only knows what rant.

What would YOU do?

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