A Cleansing Recap

January 16, 2012 by · 12 Comments

Well, we did it! 🙂  We survived our 10 day cleanse!  This was really Teal’s 3rd time doing the Advocare cleanse since as we mentioned before she is a distributor for it.  A few years back a teacher colleague recruited a bunch of people to participate in the cleanse and that’s ultimately where Teal got started with Advocare.  If you’d like to purchase any Advocare products you can through Teal’s website.

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There is any additional Advocare product called Spark Energy Drink that is a recommended part of the cleanse that we left off.  As far as the pills and what not go with the cleanse it is broken up into 3 days, 4 days and 3 days.  You start your first 3 days by drinking a fiber drink each morning, take 4 to 6 of the OmegaPlex pills with your dinner and a packet of the Herbal Cleanse tablets at bedtime. For the next 4 days, wake up and take a packet of Probiotic Restore pills, take 4 to 6 OmegaPlex pills with your dinner and packet of Herbal Cleanse tablets at bedtime.  The last 3 days of the cleanse consist of the fiber drink in the morning, 4 to 6 OmegaPlex pills with your dinner and packet of the Herbal Cleanse tablets at bedtime.

Part of why we both wanted to do this cleanse was just to jumpstart back into eating right – you know kick off 2012 the right way!  It was kind of rough combination of coming off marathon training and then three weeks later Christmas where it’s too easy to eat and drink too much, so we were both ready for a fresh start.

A lot of people asked what are you allowed to eat on this cleanse?  Well, you are allowed to eat a lot of clean food!  You can eat fruits, veggies, proteins, and clean carbs.  So if you are a carboholic then there is a bit of a transition for you, but ultimately you eat in a way that you really should be eating regularly.  We both ate about 5 meals a day and here’s an example of the plan Teal mainly stuck with throughout:

Beth recruited two people she is around the most to also participate in the cleanse – her fiance, Brent and her sister, Kate.  It was definitely nice having other people who were doing the cleanse and to stay strong in not drinking and not eating anything that wasn’t on the list of approved food.  So when it came time to eat dinner with Brent’s family at Cheesecake Factory for his sister’s Birthday it was easier to stay strong in clean choices together than alone!

One thing to be said about the cleanse and working out – Advocare does recommend that you workout every day while participating in the cleanse but in your first five days you might want to keep from pushing yourself as hard as you would like because you might experience light headedness.  As your body adjusts to the difference in eating it will begin to adjust to your normal workout routine as well.

For Beth one aspect of the cleanse she really enjoyed was finding some healthy food options that are realistic to carry over past the cleanse.  One such item that can be prepared for the whole week would be chicken salad using chicken boiled in chicken broth with whatever seasoning you’d like, bell pepper, celery and Kraft Mayo with Olive Oil (reduced fat).

Overall, all four of us that participated in the cleanse feel better and it doesn’t hurt that all of us combined together lost a total of 32.5 pounds!  Teal dropped 5.5 pounds and Beth dropped 9 pounds.  Thanks to Kate and Brent for participating too and hope that the 9 pound drop each was well worth those ten days!  The cleanse is recommended every 90 days so in April you might hear about us cleansing again! 🙂

Have you done a cleanse before?  What keeps you going  back to cleansing? Or what keeps you from participating in a cleanse?

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Other Parts of New Year’s Weekend

January 5, 2012 by · 3 Comments

Well, Thursday isn’t totally a weekend day, but it is pre-Friday so we let’s just go ahead and include our day trip to College Station! You might remember from last week the arrival of baby Eliza, well, we took a road trip to meet her and see the new parents, Rebekah & Zac!

Eliza is an absolutely adorable, teeny tiny little girl! Congrats again to Rebekah & Zac! She’s lucky to have the two of you!

Friday Beth spent the afternoon with her sister and cousins for their annual Meatyball day! All of them are a quarter Swedish and get together every year to help Aunt Cindy make a big batch of her mother’s Swedish Meatball receipe and then have a feast!

Cousins! - Chase, Beth, Brice & Kate

Teal was one productive lady – she prepared an entire month’s worth of breakfast options to freeze and ready to go whenever she needs them! She made burritos full of egg whites, green bell pepper, a can of diced tomatoes & onions on flat outs and egg white, mushroom & spinach quiches.

Saturday after the first day of the New Years Double we went and watched a free screening of The Spirit of the Marathon thanks to Cinemark Allen who was one of the sponsors of the New Years Double race! A certain number of tickets were available to NYD runners and one guest per runner, so we jumped on the tickets and brought Michael and Brent along with us.

Ironically enough when we went to google map on our phone how to get to the theater this was the distance –

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Should we have just run there?? Ha

If you have not seen or even heard about this movie – it follows the story of 6 people who will all be running the 2005 Chicago Marathon. They range from first time marathoners to Olympic athletes, and it is definitely an inspiring film to watch! The movie is available for purchase on it’s website, DVD or streaming on Netflix or Hulu Plus. After the movie the four of us headed to Maggiano’s to enjoy a nice New Year’s Eve dinner and fill up on some carbs for the next day’s race! And maybe a glass of wine too. *gasp* 🙂 Pretty sure neither one of us lasted until midnight to officially ring in the New Year. Big thank you again to Michael & Brent for putting up with our low key NYE this year!

The New Years Double race allowed us to meet quite a few people we find ourselves chatting with on twitter regularly….though there were still some we missed! 🙁 Hopefully we can change that at another race though!

After the second day of the race we went out with some running friends to feast on dim sum! Sooo good and we definitely enjoyed the company! Looking forward to doing it again soon! 🙂

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New Year’s Double – Day One

January 3, 2012 by · 1 Comment

Well, the day finally arrived for our first ever double race weekend! Ok, we might have done a 5k and a half marathon relay in the same weekend back in March, but that doesn’t compare to back to back half marathon.

As we mentioned before, Michael & Brent were both coming out with us for this day of the race.  We showed up to the race relatively unprepared.  Neither of us had done a good job of having a good breakfast, Teal didn’t have any food for during the race and we both had forgotten gloves.  We stood around talking to running buddies until the last minute when we decided maybe we should go ahead and get in our corral.

Teal keeping warm before the race got started

Teal: I had no idea how day one of this weekend would go and really had very little expectations of anything good happening.  Being relatively new to running I had no idea how fast or easily endurance for a half marathon is lost and how well my other types of cardio had kept up my endurance.  I really didn’t know if this would be a holy mess of walking or not.

Beth:  I had no idea what to expect for this weekend.  I’d run a grand total of 14.3 miles since the marathon.  Most of the runs were on the treadmill and I kept noticing a pain in my foot which played a major role in my lack of running.  I just wanted to complete day one without walking at all.

Teal:  Prior to the race we had met up with Brian & Heidi and had discussed running together.  For the first few miles of the race all four of us did and kept up a pace faster than I had expected.  The running was not coming as easy as before, but it was not bad.  My foot was definitely feeling the pounding and I compensated by running more to the outside.  Not really a good thing, but it worked for that time.  Brian and I were basically running side by side behind Beth and Heidi because on the course you couldn’t run more than two people wide.  We chatted with them, waved at all the runners we knew and seriously had a good time.  We started to lose ground between Beth and Heidi and decided to try and keep them in our sight, but that ended up failing.  The race was entertaining based on the simple fact that we knew so many people out there.  It passed time to look for runners we knew and cheer them on.  The out & back loop made it super easy to see people three and four times.

Thanks to Michael for this picture! Brian & Teal on their way back in from their first loop

Beth:  Just as we got started I realized I had left my headphones in my fleece that I’d passed off to Brent.  So of course as we run off I yell that too him. 🙂 Before we even made it a half mile I had to stop and go the bathroom so he found me as I was exiting and handed off my headphones to me.  But in that short period of time I figured if we were running with Heidi and Brian I would not really need my headphones at all.  After my pit stop I caught up to the three of them to carry on!  Thanks to Heidi’s veerry colorful outfits it wasn’t hard to find them again.  Once I had my headphones in my hand I knew I wouldn’t actually end up using them at all.  Since the course was a loop there were people to see out there and had my running buddies with me to chat with!

Teal:  We hung back and ended up getting right in front of these two guys from Rockwall who seriously pushed our pace.  We ended on average at a 10:30ish pace, but when we ran with these guys it was about 10 minutes or better.  They ran right on our heels, which has never happened to me before it and it kind of made me nervous.  I couldn’t decide if they wanted to pass us or not.  They just kept talking to us about running and all the races they had been at and what not.  At one point the guy was like “this is a good pace” and I started to feel more comfortable about the face that that pace was where they wanted to stay.  We slowed a little because I felt less pressure now and then they ended up passing us just to wind up back behind us again!  Clearly they were determined to hang and chat.  Oh, and if you haven’t noticed there was a lot of chatting in this race.  Way more than ever before.  I even only ran with one ear phone in and really never listened except to get mileage updates (I kept losing track of the mileage though).  This made time fly and I really didn’t feel much during all of the stories.  By the time we stopped talking with them we were already around mile 9 or 10.  In my head I was like – Really? We are here already, I’m not totally dead, haven’t walked and all the pain is manageable! Score!

On the back part of the out & back course! Photo courteousy of Lesley J. also known as @RacingItOff

Beth:  I can’t even remember now all of the things Heidi and I discussed out there.  We did randomly enough discuss pregnancy weight.  Where that topic came from – yah, I don’t know! Ha  We just enjoyed seeing people out there.  Cheering them on, receiving cheers from them.  Also me feeling stupid because I missed Mama C’s hand when she tried to high five me. Hahaha  I made up for that later!  But somewhere around the middle of the race I noticed my knees were aching and my feet were hurting and I knew I should have trusted my gut – buy new shoes before this half marathon!  I didn’t and knew all of that pain was a result of it.  It’s very rare that I get knee aches and foot pain.  And I told myself that I would not be running the next day’s race in my same shoes which happen to be the same ones I ran White Rock Marathon in – they have to be tainted!

Teal:  By around mile 10 I was starving.  I think my expectations of not making it were kicking me now.  I wanted to eat!  I started to grab whatever was available from the volunteers.  Which ended up being a handful of gummy bears and pretzels and a jolly rancher during the last 3 miles.  I am in LOVE with gummy bears for fuel now!  It settled my stomach and passed the time to make it through!

Beth:  Since I wasn’t running where I could hear mileage updates from my Runkeeper app and Heidi and I got separated somewhere in mile 10 I was having a hard time keeping straight what mile I was on exactly.  And since we had been chit chatting a lot I really only paid attention to the times Heidi updated me on what mile we were at.  Plus there were signs out on the course for the marathoners, half marathoners and 5kers and I kept getting them all mixed up! Ha

Teal: Once we hit the 12 mile mark I was so excited! I never thought I would make it that far with this foot and the lack of running.  We crossed the finish line with a 2:16 something time.  Seriously not bad considering everything! I would not have made it had I not had Brian out there to run with me!  Mentally I was already done with the race before I got there and any kick just came from someone running next to me.

Beth:  Those last 2 miles and change I was just ready to get to the finish.  I was excited because I figured I could still make it across the finish line in under 2:15.  This would be my slowest half marathon time ever, but that didn’t matter to me since I was taking on a new challenge this weekend!

Teal:  I crossed the finish line and that is when the pain rushed up.  My left knee hurt so bad that I was sure I would pass out.  I didn’t look up and just sat on the edge of the medical truck.  I was grabbing my knee; it was seriously a pain I had not felt in a long time.  One time at my house I bumped my knee on a desk and ended up passing out due to the pain, this was similar.  I laid down on the ground, Beth got me ice and then held my hand to try and divert the pain!  I did not know how long I would be able to stand it.  I am not sure how long I was down there but all I wanted to do was go home and make it go away.  We got up and walked slowly to the car, iced on the way home, at home, and then again at night to try and calm whatever was happening.  All to get up and do it again the next day.

Results

Teal: 2:16:19

Beth: 2:12:18

Our first half of the New Year's Double medal!

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New Year’s Double

December 30, 2011 by · 3 Comments

We are beyond excited for this weekend because it is officially time for the New Year’s Double! This race is seriously unique and amazing and comes to us via Libby Jones, who we absolutely love! For those of you who don’t know her she is also the director of North Texas Runners, a full time race director and mommy! She runs like a wild women and is truly amazing! We admire her for her work, organization and passion about running.  You can read all about the growth of this race since last year at here. It’s really incredible to see how this has taken shape.

This race is so amazing because it is a true double race. Runners could choose from a range of distances to run over a two day time from, either a 5K, ½ relay, ½ marathon or a full marathon and you could mix and match any way you choose to run one on New Year’s Eve Day and one on New Year’s Day. Brilliant huh?? What better way to start and end a year RIGHT! We decided that we would run two half marathons. So starting tomorrow morning we will head out and run our NYE half, marking the official end to what has been an awesome year. We felt that this was just so fitting to do and can not be more excited to end the Year of Running like this. After the race we will then go home, rest up, and get to watch a free screening for The Spirit of the Marathon courtesy of Cinemark Allen! Our boys will even go with us to this! 🙂

Then NYE we will spend with our significant others, eat and wake up NYD and do it all again! Seems nuts but this really is the best way to start out the year being active!

The race is located in Allen, Texas not far from us and is a a looped course.  We will complete 2 6.55 mile loops. It’s a very nice course and will all be on paved sidewalk!

We will update you on the cool perks and loot from this race in our recap, we don’t want to give that away now 😉  Let’s just say if we really have ever been excited about race bling its for this race!

We usually set goals for our races as you have seen from the past, but we are not going to set time goals for this race. Coming off of the White Rock Marathon and the training for that we have definitely needed some recuperation. As many of you know Teal has had a nagging foot problem since the race and has been working hard to heal that foot (read about her foot problems here). She is still having some pain and has literally only run 8 mile total since White Rock. Beth has been keeping busy with yoga, Johnny’s, spin and has run very little as well and just healing her body.

Our goals are to run smart, safe, and to not be stubborn. We have never run a double before and while we know we can make 26.2 WAHOO! We do not know how our bodies will feel this weekend given the amount of running compared to the lack of running this month. The goal is to come out of this race enjoying the experience of a small, local, well put together race! It really is, as cheesy as this might be, a good time to reflect on the past year and to think about the year to come! Wish us luck! We’ll tell you all about it next week 🙂

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December Tweener

December 15, 2011 by · 1 Comment

Thanks to Beth’s trainer, Johnny, for the term “tweener!” 🙂  At workout whenever one rotation of weights is completed he always gives a tweener before you start your second rotation.  Tweeners are fun things like mountain climbers, cherry pickers, spider pushups…you get the idea!

 

Once we finished our FIRST EVER MARATHON 🙂  we knew we had a few weeks before we would do the New Year’s Double race, so if we were going to keep up with the running we needed a PLAN!  So above is the plan we devised – we knew the first week of it would be questionable since we would have done our first marathon and had no idea how we’d feel after it.  Do you know how we are doing?  Check back with us tomorrow to find out! 🙂

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Thankful Thursday

December 8, 2011 by · Leave a Comment
While a marathon is an individual event it is not something that happens alone or without support. We are so grateful to be surrounded by tons of family and friends who support us more than they may even know. We wanted to thank you guys today for everything you have done to help us get through this year of races and to achieve this crazy goal. We love you all and are beyond thankful.

Quote from Matt Long's The Long Run which perfectly describes how White Rock Marathon went for us

Michael – I am not sure how you have put up with me for so long. Thank you for encouraging me and cheering me on since day one. You deal with the light switch on at 5 am, banging of the doors and waking you up to say bye when you are in deep sleep! You deal with my endless amounts of sweaty cloths and shoes all over the place without complaint! You have never once become annoyed or frustrated. You deal with my insane schedule, running not included, and are so flexible when I added all this into the mix. You are seriously my rock! You support me more than anyone ever has and I know that is not going anywhere. Mmmmmmmmm.

Brent – A big, huge thank you to you, honey!  You’ve endured my lame Friday nights so I could get up early and run Saturday mornings.  You’ve given up drinking wine with me in effort for me to be the most prepared that I can be for races.  You’ve had confidence in me and pushed me when I was down on myself.  You have been such a huge and needed support system for me this year and don’t it all without a single complaint! I love you so much for it! 🙂

Kate – Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the times you rescued just one or both of us on long runs!  For putting up with our stinky selves as we lay on the den floor in pain after our long runs! For your willingness to see us at races and organize getting the rest of our family together!  You’ve been such a big support for the two of us!  You’ve picked up slack for me in SO many ways when I was trying to squeeze in a workout before a family or social commitment!  You are the best big sister ever!

#FancyNancy – Mom, thank you so much for also being someone that came to our rescue and picked us up from a long run!  Thank you for the many prayers I know you’ve said for me and for Teal as we are out running whether it be a training run or a race!  I am so glad you’ve gotten to see me do a couple of races this year and seen me in action! Thanks for enduring cold temperatures for both of those and thank you for all of your support! Love you!

Bossman – Dad, Pops, JSL, you support me in so many ways…you put up with me going to yoga at lunch a lot! Leaving work a little early to make it in time to an expo for a race or head out of town for a race.  You encourage me in all of my races that I am running! Thank you so much for coming out and seeing me complete my first marathon!  Thanks for coming out there with one of your fancy cameras and catching us on film! You are the best! Love you!

Johnny – Hopefully you know that I have been thankful for you ever since I met you & Angie back in 2007!  Thank you for continuing to be there for me this year, for pushing me harder, having the confidence in me, being there when I need advice & just putting up with me in general!  I couldn’t imagine there being any other trainer out there as amazing as you are! Oh, and “not today, baby, not to today….it’s too cold!” 🙂

Will –  Thank you for always looking out for me and calling me out when I am being stubborn and for worrying about my knees even when I don’t.  I would not be anywhere close to where I am now without your help and encouragement every week. Thank you for pushing me beyond what I think I can do or even want to do. I truly feel like you care about me as a person and not just a client. You are consistent and motivating and I couldn’t ask for a better person to train with. Thank you so much for coming and cheering me on it means more to me then you can imagine.

Cynthia – Thank you for being my wake-up call, last text of the day to remind me to get up and my motivation to actually go! You make working out so much easier and more enjoyable at the crack of dawn. You are loyal, constant and such a good support system for me. You look out for me and keep me in the know! I am so glad that we have become friends and I thank you so much for everything you have done for me these past couple of years!

Bitner, Chase, Joe, Mary Alice & Zac – Running buddies!  Running races with each of you this year has been awesome!  We have loved having the opportunity to share those times with you and some of you actually do training runs with!  Hoping for many more runs together!  Each of you mean so much to us!

Ashley, Emily, Heidi, Brian & Jason – Or should we say @ciaobella7 @EmilyRatcliff @HeidiRuns @bmlueb @reigning1 – Twitter friends who became real life friends!  To the ladies – we did it!! We are marathoners!  Thank you for all your support, for the laughs, for sometimes freaking out with us and for being awesome friends!  To the guys – thank you for always supporting all of us ladies and reminding us that we can do it! You two are wonderful men. Heidi & Ashley, you married well!

Chris– I am so glad to have a fellow running buddy here at work. I have enjoyed every conversation we have had this year about running! You are an awesome person to just be able to complain, rant, discuss, and brag to. Thank you for being so encouraging and you are an inspiration to me. I say daily that I don’t know how you do all the running you do and the way you do it. Can’t wait to hear more and you are an awesome runner, coworker, and person.

Mandy, Josh & Meranda – We cannot believe you drove ALL the way over from Ft. Worth in the cold and horrible weather to see us run by for two seconds, but we are so grateful to you guys for doing that!  It was such an awesome surprise to see you! Love you guys!

Sommer, Edward, Lilia and Brad – Thank you for braving the elements, traffic, and crowds on Sunday to come watch us even though we know there are 10,000 other things you could have been doing. We truly loved seeing you at the finish line and it makes this experience so much better.

Bossman #2 -Thank you for dealing with my crazy Saturday work schedule and not complaining when I have to rearrange everything, your flexibility is awesome. Thank you for dealing with my tardiness due to long runs and all the whining I do while there. Thank you for texting me with your support and being there for me.

Aunt Neil & Uncle Fred – Thank you for your support & encouragement!  I appreciated the text messages on Sunday and heard you both tried to make it out to the lake to see me.  That means the world to me!  I am so lucky to have such great family members!

There are numerous other family members, friends and tweeps we have to thank for merely asking us about and encouraging us in our runs and races.  We hope you do not feel like you have been forgotten because we can assure you that you have not!  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

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December’s Race

December 6, 2011 by · 39 Comments

Well, it’s that time for a recap on the race that ends our 2011 goal – you know until we added New Years Double to the schedule! 🙂

There are quite a few people to mention in this post and instead of interrupting every sentence with an explanation of who they are we thought a reference chart of names might be the best way to go. Voila –

Our race day starts out with Beth, Teal and Mary Alice running late to meet Bitner because Beth couldn’t find her arm band for her iPhone. 🙂 We encounter no traffic really getting to Fair Park because we know the back roads to the fair grounds from many a trips to the fair and to see musicals at the fair’s theater. Pretty much we end up only having time to walk to the fair grounds, go the bathroom and go line up in our corrals. It’s in our corral that we see Lisa a.k.a. @blossum15! So fun seeing you and meeting you!  From here we’ll let you into each of our heads –

hanging out in Corral C

Teal:  I am not 100% sure how to write a recap for this race because I still am not 100% sure I know how I feel about it and that says a lot considering I am basically a counselor and I know far too much about identifying feelings. Here is my range – maybe you can help me sort it out: Angry, sad, happy, excited, celebratory, pissed, irritated, jipped, annoyed, relieved, exhausted, irritated, accomplished, like a weenie, like a badass.  I’m sure there is more but you get the idea. I figured I would just give you a recap of the entire race to start with just to let you know I felt all of these ways.

Beth: Miles 1-6, don’t have tons to say here because I was familiar with this route from running the half last year. I wasn’t soaking at this point and felt good running. In mile 4 I saw a lady holding a sign that said “You are a Marathoner” and that was when the tears made their first attempt to show themselves. I knew I still had a lot of miles to cover but I was on my way to being a marathoner!

Teal:  Miles 1-6, I felt awesome. The rain was bad but not too bad, I was cold but not too cold and my feet were still relatively dry and we were both hanging with the 4:15 pacer, which I know now was WAY too fast for at least me. About the end of 6 maybe sooner my feet were officially crazy soaked from running through puddles. The theory of “you are already wet, it doesn’t matter” is bogus. It does matter, it adds so much more weight when you step in a pile than from just running. My feet were starting to get heavy.

Beth: Miles 7-12, I still don’t have tons to say here either. The words of Alex a.k.a. @aeross played in my head somewhere in here “remember to smile,” and Alex, I gave it my best! There was a point where I almost twisted my ankle from smiling and not paying attention to the ground. Ha. A chunk of this section is still familiar to us from our half last year and what’s not familiar is still off from White Rock Lake. At mile 9 the Marathoners and Half Marathoners turn off from each other and that was the second time in the course that tears tried to come. “I am doing this I am really doing this!” was what was running through my head.  If I’m remembering correctly it was somewhere shortly after that turn that we saw our first set of familiar faces, Ted & Kimberly! I remember thinking in mile 11 that there was a water station coming up and we’d see another familiar face – Michelle also known as @UltraDrum, and when we did see her I pointed at her and yelled “UltraDrum!!” then I see @runmassagerun next to her and yell “Eriiin!!”

Teal: Miles 7-12, Not bad still in terms of running. I took off my gloves somewhere within this stretch. BIG MISTAKE, big huge mistake. Even though they were wet I should have never taken them off. It was about this time that I noticed my neck and face were numb.  The neck part was a little scary and I started running thoughts in my head about if I was too cold or not.  I ate like 5 Swedish fish right after 6 and I wanted to eat again at 12 but my right arm was not working. I am internally freaking out at this point. My right arm is completely numb and my right hand is turning all shades of random colors and slightly swollen.  I tell Beth I am freezing at this point.

Beth: Mile 13, This mile starts out fine – I’m still cruising along.  I start to worry about Teal some at this point because I kept looking over at her and she’d never look back at me.  But I kept thinking, “Familiar faces are coming! Familiar faces!” Then I see one I wasn’t expecting! I hear “Beth Lynch!” and see a friend from college, I wave at Reid and keep trucking along!

Teal: Mile 13, The bad miles begin—I am so freaked out about my neck, face, and now arm that I fall back from Beth and pull to the side to take my damn arm sleeve off. It’s soaking wet and from the way my arm feels, I think its cutting off circulation. It was so hard to get off. I tried to hold my straw and I couldn’t – I dropped it and Beth told me I did. I knew I did but I couldn’t hold it. It is from here that I never see Beth again.

Beth: Miles 13 – 16, all of mile 13 I am paying attention to the spectators trying to find Kate, Brent & Michael!  Thank God I got a purple poncho for my sister to wear out there because that’s how I spotted them!  Right before I see them is where I lost Teal.  We got separated at a water stop a little but caught up to each other.  Then I turn around just as I see her stop to mess with her fuel.  I didn’t know if I was making the right decision to keep going or if I should have stopped with her, but I kept going.

Teal: Miles 13-16: I see our cheer squad!! Finally, a non-running human I know. I think I was still basically out of it and internally freaking out. At this point I am thinking, “there is no way in hell I am finishing this damn thing.” I high five Brent because he was the closest and hand them my arm sleeve because it was too cold to hold on to.  At this point I am mile per mile. Just get to the next one, just get to the next one.

Beth around Mile 19

Beth: Miles 16-19, Somewhere in Mile 16 is the first time I say to myself, “you have come too far to quit!!”  And then the rain picks up and is bad and my mind immediately goes “get me the [censored] away from the lake!” Sorry mom, but it was HARD!  For the first time I wonder if the hood of my poncho is collecting water and it was so I emptied it out.  I attempted to run here with my arms underneath my poncho, but I gave up on that, took my gloves off and stuck them in my pocket.  Then towards the end of this stretch there’s our cheer squad again!  But this time there’s Chaz & Colleen Bitner…and Mandy AND little Meranda…and Josh.  Again with the tears here!  I couldn’t believe Mandy & Josh had driven from Ft. Worth to come see us and brought my favorite 2 year old with them!

Mandy holding Meranda

Teal: Miles 16-19, REALLY?? Why?? I am not sure I have words. This stretch sucked! If there is a word better than sucked—insert here. This my friends is the “cold” side of the lake. It’s like pouring salt on the wound when you are already freezing your ass off and scared you are too cold to run a full marathon. I’m drenched, have been for a while, feet feel like bricks, I am in and out of feeling like I should just stop and then comes the BIG rain drops. You know the ones that hit your car window and you wonder what rock just hit you. It HURT. The girl next to me at this point was like “This sucks” and I was so tired that I could not respond to her. It was seriously hurting so bad and my eyes were burning and my poncho was every where. I am thinking – “if you make it off this lake you will finish. Just get off the lake! You have run for a freaking year, just get off the lake. It has to get better??”

Teal around Mile 19

Beth: Miles 20-23, One of the first hills I run up at this point I am wondering if what I’m doing even resembles running.  Here, I just keep telling myself “this is the last of the hills! Get through this stretch!” and of course the chanting of “you have come too far to quit” resumes!  It’s at this point too that I am thinking about Teal and wishing we were still together! Then I see Corina, point at her and yell “UltraMamaC!!!!” Haha, apparently all I could do was point and yell people’s names.  Then I realize that Marci (@BA_MarciRuns) is next to her – sorry I didn’t actually point and yell at you! 🙂  Oh and I forgot to mention previously that I had already been enduring some nice back pain since about mile 16 that would continue on for the rest of the race.  Something out on the race course I had decided was that I would only eat my fuel that was solid food.  I couldn’t do the gels, so I had 2 things of GU chomps and 1 baggie of Swedish fish to hold me over.  So in this stretch when I saw one of the beer tents you better believe I grabbed that cup and had my little chug of beer.

Teal: Miles 20-23, I knew the hills were coming and I heard a guy say next to me at about 20 that we have 1.5 more miles of hell then it’s easy. 1.5- OK I can do 1.5 just get me there! I was ok. I saw the hooters tent at 20.5 and knew I only had 1mile left to get over the hills. Then comes the signs “You are now entering the Dolly Parton hills” I see the dudes dressed up as Dolly and for the first time in a while I have an emotion other than fear of failure. I smiled at the guy and he ran with me up one of the short hills. PRAISE JESUS- I would have stopped if this crazy dude with his hanging out hairy belly hadn’t run/cheered me on. I assume he saw the fear in my face.

Beth: Miles 23-25.5, before the race even started I messed up my Runkeeper app by starting it early.  So when I tried to start it again it counted 10 minutes of me standing waiting to start the race.  Then somewhere along the lake the GPS decided I was further along than I really was. So this stretch I was missing mile marker signs, trying to decide where I might be in mileage based on my messed up app and losing my mind trying to do math. Ha  There was one point I was like “surely I’m almost to mile 23″ and then I went “duh, you already passed that mile marker and SAW the mile marker!”  Then in mile 25 I see Ted & Kimberly again!  I half hear Ted giving me a motivating pep talk “…..Beth!! You finish this race you started….” Then I almost start hyperventilating because I was about to finish what I started!! I was so close!  So I had to hold back my tears, but I loved that motivation at that point!

Teal: Miles 23-25.5, I made it over! A 5k left!! I am seriously in my head going, “you will finish this, who cares what the time is just finish.”  I had been back and forth with the 4:30 pacer for a while and had seen them again here. That 4:30 pacer lady was nuts so I tried the best I could to stay with her to hear her stories but I lost them. I saw Ted & Kimberly around here and their cheers were seriously awesome. Ted as like “you’ve got this, just keep going!” I’m dying for real here. I was not able to open my food so I have only eaten twice and the first time didn’t really count. I’m starving, freezing, and my feet seriously are killing me. I’m thinking this is the home stretch why do I not have a second wind? Why am I not excited. This crap sucks. Why is no feeling I thought I would have coming to me?

Beth: Miles 25.5-26.2, My iPhone dies. Haha.  The music stops which is no big deal.  Yes, I run with it but a lot of the time it is just background noise for me.  I know I’m getting closer to seeing my cheer squad again.  Right around mile 26 I see my dad with his camera then I see my mom! Brent stepped out and gave me a high five before I made one of the first curves to the finish line.  I had this! I just had to finish!  I crossed that finish line with my hands in the air! I did it! I AM A MARATHONER!  I knew I had finished just barely in a time that I had been hoping for – I wanted to cry and good Lord, I’ve never had so much trouble walking!

Teal: Miles 25.5- 26.2, Cynthia and Will were there – standing in the freaking corner. I hear Cynthia yell “TEAL” and Will cheering. I basically pass them and start crying. I needed to see them. I was dead. I’m thinking .7 miles left. This is two laps around the track. Michael and our cheerers were right at 26. I think at this point I was so emotional I didn’t even realize they were there until I passed. I saw the finish line! This lady had basically stopped and I watched this guy guide her in and remember thinking- “ok, no matter what I’m crossing the line” – I started crying. Once I stopped I felt like I was going to die. The world was spinning, I can’t stand still, I keep moving randomly in a weird circle motion. I see my brother, Brad & Lilia and am crying. Then turn the corner to see Sommer & Edward and Sloopy, the dog and I am hysterical at this point! It’s freaking over. Not good but it’s done.

.2 miles left

Beth: Once I crossed the finish line my legs were in pain.  The inside part of my right leg had some weird quiver going on in it during the last mile or so, I was told a little while later by Derek (@trigolfer) that was the muscle I used to pick up my leg and with the heavy & wet shoes my leg felt like it put in more mileage than 26.2.  I tried to stretch a little before walking in to get my medal and finisher’s shirt.  Once I walked in the building and had my medal I waited for Teal.  I wasn’t going to miss seeing her the moment she walked in!

Teal: I walk in the building and am searching for Beth- I have no clue how far ahead of me she got, I walk in and she is right there. I just hugged her and start crying. I know for a fact that I would have never in a million years made it this far with out her in training and in this race. Even though I didn’t see her for the hardest part I knew what she would have said to me. Once in the building from then on I don’t talk much. I didn’t have it in me and I was freezing. To the core freezing. I never really got warm. My arm was killing me, my feet are in so much pain, and all I want is dry clothes. This was by far the craziest thing I have ever done. It might take me a while to get to where I really know how I feel. Right now I still don’t know.  That was the worst conditions- I think snow would have been better- it’s softer, and I probably would have stayed dryer. I’m do not want to run White Rock again, unless it’s the half, it might take me a while to even run a race around that damn lake BUT I will run another Marathon because that was TERRIBLE. Memorable for sure, worth it, I think, but what I wanted, NO WAY.

Beth:  I am with Teal and do not want to run that marathon again.  The half? Sure! No, marathon!  Ultimately I am SO proud of us – I think that we both still killed it in those horrible conditions.  I like to believe that we are not only Marathoners but Survivors of horrid running conditions.  Neither one of us had done THAT much running in light rain that’s actually enjoyable, so this was a huge unknown to us!  Here’s to hoping Marathon No. 2 has good weather conditions!

Lessons Learned from this race:

  1. Really and truly do NOT set a time goal, especially in crappy weather as there is NO point!
  2. Wear a hat, do NOT take off your gloves (or if you do keep them in your pocket) and never take off the poncho.
  3. Investing in a rain coat is the smartest thing we did before this race!
  4. If it rains you need people with drying things to give you.  Having dry gloves might have made the biggest difference for Teal as she was too cold!
  5. If you can’t open your food, ask a volunteer to open it for you.
  6. Bag check dry clothes so you do not have to wait around forever freezing & wet.

 Results:

Teal: 4:40:12

Beth: 4:29:31

WE ARE MARATHONERS!!

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Thirteen Miles & Feet Problems

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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Goals??

September 1, 2011 by · 2 Comments

We are suppose to have monthly goals?  Are the two of us slackers because we have only set goals for the year of 2011?  As we have made the switch from August to September I have seen quite a few of our fellow runners posting about how they did with their August goals and what their new goals for September will be.  Do the two of us have blatant goals set forth for this brand new month? – No, not exactly….

Our goals for this year in my eyes are as follows:

1. Run a race every month

2. Run a marathon

3. Raise money in honor of Cindy Marshall-Death (Team Cindy)

So far we have succeeded in completing 8 out of 12 months of races and after this weekend 9 months!  September we actually have 3 different race weekends. We’ll be posting our pre-race blog for tthis weekend so let’s just go ahead and skip over the Disneyland Half for now.  Next up this month we will be running one of our favorite races – Tour des Fluers and the weekend after that for the first time we will be participating in the Heroes for Children 5k at the Shops at Legacy.  This race is for such a GREAT cause!  The HFC 5k committee is just barely behind their goals for the 7th annual run – we are still short a few teams and behind a little with our fundraising goal – if you can help please visit the site here.

The new and, to steal a word from Courtney (@CisforCourtney), nerve-citing thing for this month for us is going further than we ever have mileage-wise!  Essentially the last few weeks of our half marathon training has also been the start over our marathon training.  This month we’ll find ourselves running 15 and 17 miles.  So yah, a nerve-citing time for us!

Our last goal is the one we are falling behind in – we are not even quite half way to our fundraising goal and we have LESS than 2 months to get the rest of our $1,200 (a $100 for each month) raised.  We’ll be running the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half proudly wearing Team Cindy shirts in honor of a great women who passed away in March of 2010.  Please read her story and if you feel compelled to donate we would be forever grateful to you for the support of Team Cindy and the two of us as Life is a Run!  Donations can be made here.

And to completely change subjects we’ll leave you with a music video of one of the songs currently on one of our running playlists! 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdvXM45nIY&ob=av2e]

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Halfway Mark

July 1, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

Wow! It is seriously hard to believe that it is JULY 1st! This year has flown by like crazy and we both just took a breath and realized we are only 5 months away from running our marathon and reaching our goal for the year. We decided that this would be a really good time to kind of reflect and recap what has happened so far in our running life and put this all into perspective a little bit, because most of it seems to already be a blur. We are always super busy and half the time just start to feel like we are on autopilot. So here is just a recap of what we have learned, where we were and what we have in store for the next year. Thanks for staying with us!

White Rock Half - December 2010

 

Beth:

I have enjoyed this year so far SO much! I’m at a point right now with the heat that I’m struggling with my running. But I (as does Teal) the mantra that @rnrgrltx told us “miles are miles.” This summer and heat has brought on a big mental struggle with me, but I can only assume that as I try my best and persevere I’ll be growing that much more as a runner! Through this blog and the running community we’ve gained on twitter I’ve loved seeing the heart of fellow runners and the causes that are the reason so many run. This year and the time Teal and I spent training last year has shown me how much difference a partner in the sport of running can make! I’m truly grateful to have her by my side as we push each other further and succeed together in this goal year of ours!

 

Teal:

I have learned many things over the past few months of running some greater than others, but all equally important. The first of these things I really think is actually being comfortable with calling myself a runner, before this year I never actually felt like this was true but just based on what we have been able to do this year I really think that that statement is more true than ever before. I have learned that there is a huge community of runners who are out there to encourage and motivate and it has been awesome to see that and be a part of it. I have found that keeping track of my running, setting goals, and actually looking back on them is a great source of motivation and makes this even more enjoyable. I have realized that I will forever live with some sort of blister, grinding in my knee (yes I have had it looked at J), or soreness and I am just learning to deal and find ways to control it. Finally through all of this I have realized that I am stronger than I actually think I am!

 

What we have done together:

-Run two ½ marathons, which is something I don’t think either of us really had ever thought would actually happen this year.

-We have achieved our goal of running a run race per month together and even surpassed that goal in some months!

-Beth joined and is heading a 5k race team for Heroes for Children

-As a team we are raising money for Team Cindy to support Breast Cancer Awareness and research through the Rock N Roll series

-Achieved new PR times in just about every distance we have run repeatedly

-Gained a huge community of support through the blog and through our new friends and fellow runners from the running community and twitter world.

 

Where we are going:

-We will run in the Too Hot to Handle race next week which perhaps a huge milestone for us being very cold weather runners

-The Disneyland ½ in Anaheim California will be our first out of state race! We hope we can make this a trend but we are both super excited for this step!

– Complete our goal of at least 1 race per month. We have something for every month but August but we are confident we can find one if we haven’t gotten scared of the heat by then

– We hope to reach our goal of raising $1200 for Team Cindy to represent each month of our goal and to honor Cindy and her family

– Train, Run, and Complete the Dallas White Rock Marathon December 4th!

We are really nervous about running a full marathon and we both want to learn as much as we can about that process from those who have gone through it! We would love to hear what has worked for you for just about anything, to stay motivated, what you say to yourself when you hit that “wall”, what advice you have for being consistent and making those long runs, how you deal with pain and soreness, heat, chaffing, hydration and the elements. We also would love running partners for our long runs if anyone out there wants to have company let us know and we would love to meet up and tackle those grueling long runs together. Let us know your biggest tips and best advice! Our ears are open and we really love to hear what has worked for you!

Want to end this post with a quote we saw tweeted by @RunningQuotes:

“Anyone can run 20 miles.  It’s the next six that count.” – Barry Magee

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