Happy Half-a-versary to LiAR

December 11, 2012 by · 12 Comments

Let’s just start by saying good Lord this was an early and long morning. Ok, fine, we’ve gotten up earlier for Disney races, but still. Everything said you should NOT be in downtown Dallas later than 6 a.m. Fiiine, cue alarm clocks going off in the 4 o’clock hour. Beth picked up Teal at 5 a.m. and we were in a parking spot by 5:30 a.m. So there we were with 2.5 hours to kill before the start of the race. Our early arrival insured us an awesome parking spot and first use of port-a-potties!

The corrals and port-a-potties all to ourselves!

The corrals and port-a-potties all to ourselves!

Portapotty

It’s normal to be this excited about a port-a-potty, right?!

Thankfully we realized the Luebs were down there just as early as us. More people to entertain ourselves! Then of course it was time to head to our corral where we found even more frunners to hang with before the official start.

LiAR before the race!

LiAR before the race!

Frunners in Corral A!!

Frunners in Corral A!! Photo courtesy of Heidi

Teal: I, for the first time in a while, prepared for this race in terms of, eating right the few days before, getting enough sleep before, laid out my clothes, painted my finger nails, downloaded a new playlist…etc. I reallllly wanted this race to go well. I said I didn’t need to PR and I still say that, but I did want it to feel good. You know like, those runs that almost feel effortless. I haven’t had a single one since the marathon. I wanted one just as a boost of confidence. NOPE. Fail, giant zero. This didn’t feel good. It felt like work, and I did work.

I really had debated this week’s training runs. We were scheduled for 10 at Marathon pace on Thursday. I decided to still do the run, thinking more long term to the marathon, and decided to run it a day earlier, and then rest my legs until Sunday. I figured it would be ok, but I didn’t know. Running a half marathon with 28 miles on your legs that week was probably not the best idea. I really didn’t think much of it, apparently I have more faith in my legs than they have in themselves, I thought they would recover. I don’t think they did.

Beth: So it was kind of important to me to do all that I could to make a potential PR happen at this race. This means I skipped my 10 mile run at marathon pace on Thursday. A big oops there since it goes against one of my December goals. Brent and I actually had two Birthday parties we wanted to go to the night before which had me eating a sushi dinner – not my norm, but at this point with food I don’t really have tons of issues. *knock on wood* Something I don’t take for granted, trust me! When I didn’t get full from sushi I ate goldfish on the way to the next Birthday party.  I made Brent take the bag of goldfish away so I wouldn’t eat them all, but I was still hungry. Which resulted in me stealing part of someone’s spinach quesadilla. Haha. Not my typical night before a race! Oh and not to mention we hit traffic going home, so I definitely got to bed later than I had anticipated.

Miles 1-4

Teal: These actually felt good, my pace was good, I felt like I could keep it, my legs didn’t feel bad. It was super super humid 90% and even on some accounts I saw 100% humidity and close to 70 degrees. And huge eye roll to those who say perfect running conditions. Nope. They are not; try 50 degrees, no humidity. I’ll take that. I was drenched by mile 4 and my hair was sticking to me. LOVED running over Large Marge (also known as the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge). Love that bridge and it’s a great addition to Dallas. Brian L. was at 4 to cheer us on with Mama C, Fiona and Dat! Boost of energy!!

photo courtesy of Mama C which means she's not in it :( Dat, Fiona & Brian L.

photo courtesy of Mama C which means she’s not in it 🙁 Dat, Fiona & Brian L.

photo courtesy of Mama C

photo courtesy of Mama C

Beth: Back to my goals again, I said I wanted to run a strong race and I knew that had to start from the beginning. I told myself this wasn’t the Turkey Trot and I’m not about to start being a crazy people dodger. I did the bare minimum to go by people slower than me. I kept making a conscious effort to see how I felt and slow down if necessary. My mind was also all, look! Old Red where I got married. Look! Belmont Hotel where your Bachelorette Party was and the Shepard Fairey mural you took some engagement pictures in front of that! I knew after I crossed Large Marge I’d see my first set of familiar faces and was ready to see them too!  And I looooved hearing Mama C call me Beeper at this point! Pumped me up!

photo courtesy of Mama C

photo courtesy of Mama C

Miles 5-8

Teal: Love, loved, loved running passed Scottish Rite. I love that hospital and spent a ton of time there in High school. I volunteered in Child Life my senior year, and in other areas of the hospital my Junior year. Patients and parents were outside cheering us all on. This was new and a totally good addition.

I start to feel more pain in my legs at this point. I feel labored and pretty stiff. My calf muscles were really tight and my quads ached. I just wanted to stay steady. I saw my husband and Brent around 6 and high 5’ed them. Wasn’t expected to actually see them so that was super awesome! I ended up getting super tied up at the water station around 7. I actually just stopped. It was a cluster. I think I probably spent 2 minutes here dealing with the madness. My music stopped playing and it was in my skirt zip pouch in the back. I couldn’t get it out or then back in. I asked a spectator to help me get it fixed. I think she was like “what in the world do you want me to do?” I was annoyed here and the stop made me stiffer. BONUS!!

Beth: Parts of this section of the course were similar to the past two years. Um, so I kind of just blew by Scottish Rite without paying attention.  Oops? I think I was just really determined and focused that I really kept to myself a lot this race and I might not have survived had I not done so.  I only really expended extra energy 3 times and it was each of the 3 times I saw familiar faces. Well, I guess, I expended energy in trying to see my husband which I never did. :-/ But gah, that looking for him in the crowds was tiring me out.  That’s probably just the weather factor right there. I kept thinking in this stretch, why didn’t I ask him w hat he’d be wearing? Why didn’t we figure out a mile for him to be in? I did know that Rebekah would be right around the split of the half and the full, so I kept looking for her father-in-law since he’s much taller than her. 🙂  Loved getting that high five from her at that point it totally pumped me up. Also, the wind that was occurring in random bouts during this part pumped me up as well!

Miles 8-10

Teal: I was looking everywhere for people. I thought Rebekah would be here and she was but I missed her. It really does kind of make you dizzy to find people while you are running. Which leads me to another weird thing about this race, it NEVER thinned out. It was seriously thick with people the entire time. This surprised me and it almost felt like maybe the streets were skinnier this year. I’m feeling very labored at this point and I really just wanted to stop. My legs are tight, super tight, and this is affecting the way my knee works. It always has affected it, and I have had some issues recently with the longer runs. Post runs it will hurt to even touch. This is what is happening now around 9ish. I really just want to get done and it was somewhere around this point I see the 2:10 pacer on the loop around and just said, stay in front of him and I’ll be happy.

Beth: I had known where the mile 8 sign was because we had already run by it and the split was really us running down the other side of part of the street we had just run up.  In my mind I was just trying to get to the last 5K get there and you go this.  I was going back and forth between you could PR!! It’s not happening today! Either way I knew I just need to keep going. Then I saw Brian E. in here, yelled at him but you know just to get his attention not in angry way and was glad to see a familiar face right then and there! Thanks for being out there Brian!

Miles 11-13

Teal: Just really wanted to be done. I really had no desire to keep going except I just wanted to be done. I think my shoes are too big too… I’m running this stretch just thinking of stupid things like “ I want to eat at El Fenix, can I actually ride the escalator at Ross Perot, can I have a mimosa when I’m done, how close are we, if I was a snake my feet wouldn’t hurt, why am I not Harry Potter or Meb, or a super speedy runner, what am I going to eat for lunch next week.” I just kept thinking of the dumbest stuff to make the time go. Also, while I do *think* I like this course, it has a lot of uphill, I clearly was on another planet for the down hills because I don’t remember them. Dallas is a big city, I hated the little loopy out and back thing we did between 12 and 13, there is plenty of room to not do that, it was such a tease too, because you could see the finish line and you still had to run up and around for about .70 of a mile. Lame.

photo courtesy of Brian L.

photo courtesy of Brian L.

Beth: It should also be noted that my thought process was kind of similar to Teal’s here – what is this new restaurant next to El Fenix? I wonder if it’s good?? We should try it sometime! Anyway, and then here’s where we make our back into downtown.  Here’s where I start thinking, man, I didn’t actually give the course map a good lookin’ at, did I? Surely they wouldn’t give us a hill right here before the mile 12 marker? But we are coming into downtown from this side it’s pretty much inevitable there WILL be a hill right here. And I’m kind of glad I figured that out so I could back off my pace a little and make it to the top of that hill alive. The out and back thing was miserable and I kept wondering if people would just cut it? Haha. It was also in this stretch I saw a runner laying on the ground and being worked on by EMTs.  I have no idea what the outcome of that was but in that moment it made my heart heavy for sure!

13.1

Teal: Done and I stayed under 2:10. Not bad and really in retrospect pretty good for my week’s work itself. Not disappointed in time because that is about average for me. I am more disappointed in the feel of it, how labored it was, and the fact that my knee proceeded to be in throbbing pain for well over an hour after and then just dull pain even as I type this a day later. Damn knee…. Anyone want to trade??

Beth: Somehow, someway I had a last little kick to give at the end. You better believe I crossed that finish line with my arms up in the air.  I knew I was teetering the line because I’d heard my Runkeeper tell me I’d hit the 1:55 mark however many yards back.  So I immediately got out my phone, got on twitter to look up Brent’s twitter (I’d set his to tweet my time) and saw that I had PR’d by 11 seconds!!!! Holy crap!  Later that day I looked online at the official results which put my time at a 12 second PR. WHOOP! I had opted to wear my Aggie ring to this race and try and take some of good juju that was out there from Johnny Football winning the Heisman! 🙂

We did it! Half marathon no. 15 for the two of us and two years of racing under out belts!

with MK! We are so awesome that we are standing in number and height order!

with MK! We are so awesome that we are standing in number and height order!

Us with Melvin! We can't even tell you how much his encouragement and support means to su!

Us with Melvin! We can’t even tell you how much his encouragement and support means to us!

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To PR or Not to PR, What Did We Do? [Part 2]

March 29, 2012 by · 16 Comments

This post should start off with the Rock ‘n’ Roll expo on Saturday because our day was made when we officially got to meet @KatieRUNSthis and @cajun_runner!  Both of these ladies are truly fabulous and we were so lucky to get to spend some time with them!

The one and only picture taken at the expo..ha

We left the expo and dined with our dudes at Breadwinner’s Cafe. MMMM!  A must visit place in Dallas if you are ever visiting from out of town! Anyways, race morning was upon us and we got down to the start line super early just so we could be sure and not stress before the race, used the facilities 🙂 (sorry Mom, we just blogged about that) and looked for people we knew!

We saw Mama C & Marci all fancy in the VIP tent pre race until we saw Katie that morning who hooked us up big time and before we knew it we found ourselves smack in the middle of the VIP tent as well!

Teal, Katie & Beth

Thank you SO much, Katie!

And then up walked Melvin a.k.a. @apa1906!  If you don’t follow Melvin on the twitterverse you need to march yourself over and click follow!  We have been twitter friends with Melvin for awhile now and missed an opportunity at the Hot Chocolate Run to met him, but he is such an encouragement to both of us!  We are so thankful to you for that!

From here you are going to get our race play by plays from both of us! 🙂  Enjoy and hope we don’t bore you to death! 🙂

Teal: It was not until we entered the corral that I started to get very nervous. I had joked all week that I was going to end up walking this entire thing and Kacie’s run, while not bad, hurt. My legs were shaking after the race and marked only the second real run since Disney- over 4 weeks ago. In case you were wondering I had taken a two week break and then really had really taken 2 more from running, but had done some shorter cardio.

We found the Luebs!

Miles 1-3

Teal: We met up with the Lueb’s (also known as Heidi & Brian :)). I had known Brian was working on running a PR and wanted to hit 2 hours. So really I decided that I could stay close to him for as long as I could and then I would be fine if I slowed down. I stayed with Brian until about 3 miles. Ha- so much for that! I actually felt good despite dropping back. He was hauling and those first miles were all around 9 minutes or less. I knew I would see people at 3 because Greg and his crew (ladies, She-Ninjas, what have you) would be there to cheer us on. I passed him at 3 and he told me I was only seconds behind Beth, Heidi and Brian. I got nervous. There is no way I will be able to keep this up but just decided to stay with where I was regardless.

Beth: My biggest fear for this race was starting out way too fast and bonking!  In the first 3 miles-ish of the race not only are those miles fast because hey, you’re racing but also because you have some nice down hills like when we ran right by Dealey Plaza.  We also ran by the Old Red where I’m getting married, but that has nothing to do with a downhill I just wanted you to know that. 🙂  The one time my runkeeper alerted me in the first mile to my pace was on that decline at Dealey Plaza and said I was going at a 7:45ish pace.  Errrr, tap the breaks, Beth!

Miles 4-7

Teal: These miles were still not bad. I knew that Kate and Brent and Michael would be at 7ish and decided to make that my next goal. I still was feeling pretty good but getting tired and hot and not to mention started to feel the ridiculous blister forming. The hill between the relay exchange stations is NUTS. I hated every last second of that part and remember thinking, I am so glad I ran leg two last year. That was a beating. It took me a while to recover from that hill.

This picture is where you play "Where is Teal??" Can you see her?

Beth: This whole section of the race had pretty constant inclines.  We knew this because we drove the course the day before and I knew that I would slow it down in this section.  That was my plan run the first three at a pace that wasn’t exhausting, slow for the hills and pick it back up for the last third of the race as I have gotten second winds after hill work. I knew there was a chance I could bust it out!  Plus I knew somewhere in mile 7 I’d get to see Brent, Kate & Michael!

Brent caught Brian in this picture too! I had NO idea we were basically running with each other. Ha!

Miles 8-10

Teal: Here goes my mind. I’m still convinced that I was going to end up dying and really I was not dying “lung wise” but my body (legs, things, calves, and feet) just hurt. I got to 9 and decided that due to just feeling blah that I would walk the water station. I had really only eaten like 4 Swedish fish at this point and was hungry but it took a lot of effort to eat. More than I was willing to give. I hate this and hate admitting it with a passion but I had to walk those stations. I was running pretty fast in general and was starting to feel the effects of heat and little training in between. It also felt really good on my blisters to stop and give them a little rest and walk on the side of my foot. At 9 I had literally had 4 cups of water and dumped one on my head.

Loading up Teal's pocket with Swedish Fish

Beth: And this is where things start to get hot! Neither one of us has mentioned yet that we have done zero, zip, zilch in the way of running in heat so far this year, so the last half-ish of the race was weather conditions we hadn’t been in since sometime last Fall.  It’s so funny to me that Teal and I both struggled with food out there…it’s like even though we aren’t together on the course we still have something that aligns with the other.  I had eaten a shotblock minutes before the race started and by the time I needed to start eating – yah, I just didn’t have the strength to pull the Swedish Fish out of my sports bra.  Yes, that’s wear I keep them when I’m running sans camelbak.  Overall I think I ate a grand total of 4 or 5 Swedish Fish. Hmmm, perhaps if I had fueled properly this race would have ended differently.

Miles 11-13.1

Teal: At 11 I was certain I would make it, but kept the plan to walk the water station because the in between parts where exhausting. You enter the park around 12.5 and then spend the next half of a mile running turns through Fair Park. BLAHHHHH! I wish they would change this finish because it really does suck. You can’t see it, it takes forever to run through there and based on other races that end there you finish as soon as you get in the park, which is so much better.

Beth:  These last few miles were not very shaded at all.  I had been taking water at the water stations but I was just getting to a point where I needed more water than I had.  It always disappoints me when I walk water stations because for me personally I don’t like doing that.  I say that like I’ve done that a bunch but I haven’t this might have been the 2nd half I’ve done where I walked, but I felt like I was going so slow carrying my water and drinking it I might as well just stop.  The last water station I walked all of a sudden I heard “Beth Lynch!!”  I turn and there’s Brian which was funny after the race realizing he was pretty much with me the whole time – how in the world did I miss that?  We entered Fair Park for the never ending finish that then just pops out of nowhere.  I tried to warn as many people as possible about that because, uhh, it’s annoying! BUT I finished in 1:58:13, sub 2 hour half marathon number three is in the books for me!  I didn’t get a new PR, but I am proud of that sub 2 hour for sure!  Big shout out to Brian for knocking like 19 minutes off his half marathon, you my friend have an awesome, new, shiny PR! 🙂

Teal: I finished and decided I was scared to look at my feet because the blister was either going to be the size of my entire foot or bleeding. As you can see it’s the size of my foot.

I finished in 2:06:31. Which I am completely not upset about. I ran hard and listened to my body. I honestly thought I would not finish as well as I did. Guess I have underestimated my body. I hope to be back on track now! The foot is healed (at least I think so) from the rest and I don’t seemed to have lost much!

Half Marathon #9 is done!

And shoutout to Chase who came out and joined us at another Rock ‘n’ Roll race!

cousin/friends, Chase & Beth and look Beth and the girl in the background have the same shorts on! Ha

And an even BIGGER shout out to Teal’s gym buddy Cynthia for completing her first half marathon!! You did awesome, lady!

Pre-race pic courtesy of Mama C!

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Playing Catch Up: Running & Wedding

November 30, 2011 by · 4 Comments

Normally we’ve kept you up to speed on our long runs and how they went.  Our last two were far from awesome as far as running goes. 🙂

In early November Beth had a plan for one of our long weekend runs, but then we decided to run the DRC Half so it couldn’t be that weekend.  The next weekend we ran Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio, so it couldn’t happen THAT weekend. The following weekend we were due to put in a 12 mile run and Beth had a little surprise for Teal staged in our first 3 miles, specifically at a gas station, which we’ve had to stop at before when starting out a long run.  Beth’s fiance was in on the surprise and suppose to hide until we got close and then kind of pop out. =)  I’ll just let the pictures tell the story:

Way too blurry but here we come running

And out pops Brent with the surprise!!

 

Haha, he literally jumped out from behind two telephone poles and scared the crap out of Teal!  On and off as we kept running one of us would be chuckling about her scream when he jumped out.

I am so excited to have Teal stand up there with me on my wedding day!  While it sometimes feels like just yesterday that we met and in reality it’s going on 6 years, we have been through a lot together!  Especially after Sunday when we finish our first marathon together! 🙂  Thanks to Brent for helping me ask her! He’s so awesome to get up early and wait for us to run by!

Back to the running aspect of this day –  Beth was excited to get to the gas station for a break – already not feeling it for the day. 🙁  But we started going again on our normal route and somewhere right around the 6th mile Beth got light headed and started to walk.  Teal kept going a bit further and then came back to meet up with Beth.  I don’t think either of us felt exceptionally great out there, and we talked about how we felt like our bodies where screaming at us “When are we going to start tapering??”  It might not have physically been a great run, but at least it is a run we will always remember!

For a little bit more of a wedding update, the first weekend in November Beth & Brent along with some other members of their family went and scouted out wedding venues.  And then that Monday booked their wedding for October 27, 2012 at the Old Red in downtown Dallas!  Which will mean they will be engaged for exactly one year since he proposed October 27, 2011.  That same day Beth asked her sister to be her Maid of Honor!

And of course all the things listed on the right side of that photo were purchased and put into a gift bag to go with all of that!  Hopefully those items will help her to survive this year! 😉

From the first moment of ever thinking about getting married I knew my sister would be my Maid of Honor!  I am pretty sure I’d be lost in life without her!  I am SO truly blessed with an amazing & beautiful sister that has not only been a sister but also a friend to me!

Can you guess which one of us is older?

Two other ladies, who I have had the honor to stand up with them at their weddings, are going to get to be there for me and my big day as well! 🙂 You have probably seen us mention Mandy & Rebekah A LOT in our blog (they kind of happen to be very important & special friends to both of us).  We threw Rebekah a baby shower in October along with Mandy.  It was Mandy’s wedding in February that took the two of us to Puerto Vallarata.  Beth met Mandy & Rebekah in college and who knew at the initital meetings of those two awesome ladies that 9 years later we would still be friends – friends forever!  The three of us have done SO MUCH together!  We’ve traveled to Mexico, Dominican Republic, Canada, Vegas, and some other domestic destinations.  They are two ladies that I can and do turn to for everything!  Somewhere back in 2005 a tradition for the 3 of us started where we would take a picture with a green drink.  It came from sharing a weird green colored drink at the Star Trek bar in the Hilton in Vegas in 2005 and then green beers for St. Patty’s day in 2006.  We have kept the tradition going –

Rebekah's Wedding in 2007

Mandy's Wedding in 2011

 

Both of these pictures were actually used in the card I sent them and underneath them on the front of the card said “Will you help me finish the collection…” and then the inside said “…and do me the honor of being a bridesmaid in my wedding?”  CanNOT wait to have a green drink  picture on October 27, 2012!!

Then the weekend before Thanksgiving Beth went and found her wedding dress! 🙂  And this past Saturday all four of the ladies mentioned in this blog threw Beth & Brent an engagement party!  It has been a whirlwind of a month and cannot be more thankful for these ladies!

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