We’re Running in the Rain, Just Running in the Rain

April 17, 2012 by · 17 Comments

Should we get out of the car now? Or wait a few more minutes?

Well, Saturday afternoon the winds started picking up here in Dallas.  It never really rained in our neck of the woods that day and even when we went to bed that night it was still dry.  By the time we both woke up think the rain hadn’t fully started until it was time to actually drive down to Fair Park. But enough about that let’s just cut to the chase. Here’s how Big D Half went for each of us…

Miles 1-3

Teal: Ugh! Where is a water station when you need it? These first few miles were HOT! I think I had more sweat in these 3 miles then I did during any other stretch of the race. It was hot and humid and the air was seriously thick! I kept coughing because it honestly felt like something was stuck in my throat. I start looking to the sky and thinking where is the rain we’ve been hearing about and if it doesn’t rain I am going to be pissed because I decided to forego buying new shoes because I felt like that would be a dumb idea to run in new shoes in the rain and then feel like they were ruined after one time.

Beth: I didn’t really have a goal in mind for this race because I knew I needed to see how the weather would play out so my goal would be determined out on the course. Somewhere in mile 1 a man asked where the water stops were and I told him I had heard they were few and far between out here. In these miles I saw a man who is a regular with me in spin class and talks to me about my running. He asked me why I wasn’t further up and I told him I was trying! Ha. Teal and I had decided we needed to take advantage of each water stop since we wouldn’t know how the weather would be throughout the race. At the second water station we had to stop and wait for water to be poured in a cup for us.

Miles 4-6

Teal: Not bad but I was worried about being too hot as there was still no sign of rain and I was like, I’m not in the mood to deal with this heat and decided to slow down. Not based on total need just based on me really only going to do what makes me happy right now and that is not run fast in the heat. Happy also meant eating all my gummi bears, which I did! At this point, I was thinking, just do what you feel like, just be happy, and who really cares about the rest. At mile 6.5 the air started to cool and you could see darkening clouds! I kept crossing my fingers!

Beth: I forget when exactly now, but somewhere around 3 or 4 miles I’d seen the 2 hour pacer pass and thought welp, there goes that, but if it’s going to end up being hot this whole time I can live with that. Still have yet to get many runs in while it’s just been HOT outside. At some point running along White Rock Lake a breeze was coming through periodically so I started to feel good and knew I could pick up my game some but that there where still hills to conquer! Even though I had my Runkeeper app going I wasn’t fully aware of where I stood to finish this thing at the pace I was at, but I knew if I wanted it I could possibly bust out another sub two half. Just as we were leaving the lake we had pretty much switched over into a new climate. It was cool! I let out a woohoo!! And the people around me said yes! This feels good! This next part I mention only because it gave me a laugh out there but shortly after this I’m coming up on this muscular guy running without his shirt on and then I see him raise one arm, flex and admire his bicep. Ha! Then I passed him. Ha!

Miles 7-10

Teal: Sweet RELIEF!! The rain hit at 7 and I could not have been happier. Had the crazy humidity kept up it would have been a different story. Everyone around me literally started to cheer! Most people put their hands in the air and you could just tell we all wanted that rain. This excitement died shortly after, and honestly I got a little worried. I didn’t want to deal with lightening or anything and decided to speed it back up and just get off the course. It pretty much rained consistently during these miles!

Beth: After the rain hit in the beginning of mile 7 I knew a sub two half was mine that day I just had work to do to in this last half! The rain was completely exhilarating to me and from there on out I was running happy! I thanked as many police officers and volunteers as I could. I also high fived as many little kids as I could! I just felt awesome so I picked up the pace! Go time!

Miles 11-13.1

Teal: Not bad at all. Not too tired, didn’t feel great but didn’t feel bad. Just wanted dry clothes. I usually count when I run but instead of counting as pace keeping I just decided to repeat the phrase “ dry clothes, dry clothes” as motivation to get this over with! I saw Beth at 13 and she ran a few steps with me and then it was over!

Beth: To me some of this last half truly runs together because I was happy. I was constantly thinking you got this! Let’s get it done! It was also somewhere in here I spotted the 2 hour pace and eventually passed him! YES! Running through numbers in my head and somewhere in here I thought, wait a second, could I get a new PR today?! So I kept pushing. When mile 12 came I knew I’d put in a ton of work and my body could only take so much more pushing. I knew if I did PR it would be a close one and I thought if I don’t I don’t care. I’ve run a strong race and I am so proud of myself!  It was kind of nice that Teal and I happened to walk by the 13 mile marker that morning as we made our way to the start and knew just where the finish was.

Teal: Not my best run and not my worst run. I can honestly say I am excited for the break. I have not expected a PR or anything in a while for the simple fact that I have not been training at all. I have done a couple hill work outs and nothing over 2-3 miles randomly besides the hills. I am ready to have time to train, change things up and use the second half of the year to work getting faster and stronger. Continually just running races and using them as “training” is no bueno and does not make you faster! I’m healed now and ready to go. Can’t wait until August when I feel better about doing actual training work and regaining the confidence that I have worked on speed! The break is needed because I really have not felt that huge desire to push!

Beth:  I didn’t stop my Runkeeper app right away, but I’d gotten across the start fast and when I crossed the finish line I knew I was in the 1:57 range.  I missed my half PR by 34 seconds meaning 34 seconds faster and I would have hit my same exact PR so 35 seconds faster and I’d have a new PR barely.  But I didn’t care! I had a good race! Overall, I finished 22 in my age group and 326th in the race. The past few months I had put in a lot of hill work and with just the two short stadium workouts my trainer Johnny has had me do in the last two weeks I had that push in me during the race.  Yes, we are taking a few months off from running halfs and I’m excited to take this opportunity to get stronger!  I know that I’ll come back in the Fall making sure I conquer my overall goal of having mostly sub two half marathon races.

Once the race was over we wanted to try and see a few people who were running the marathon.  After the marathoners hit the mile 26 marker they had to keep running up this road that takes them along the gate of Fair Park and we stationed ourselves where they’d make their last turn into the park.  We cheered for a good two hours out there!  Ultimately we ended up missing the people we knew, but we managed to see Army Amy as she was closing out her marathon!  We still haven’t met you in real life, but it was good to see you out there! You were looking strong, lady!  So there you have it our Big D race recap and if you’d asked us 4 months ago after White Rock Marathon if we would ever be grateful to run in the rain again we both would have probably yelled NO!! But the rain made this race bearable!

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The Day We Got to Be Superheroes

April 15, 2012 by · 5 Comments

If you’re not from the Dallas area then you probably have no idea that the forecast called for rain on Saturday and Sunday this past weekend. Well, at least in the beginning of the week! The weather gods must have smiled upon Dallas CASA as they put on their first ever Superhero 5K because the rain did not make an appearance!

If you read our pre-race post then you know that neither one of us really  had a goal for this race, weeelll, we aren’t fully capable of just making a race an easy/laid back/casual race.  There is very much a competitive edge that lives on in each of us.  Plus as the temperatures are staring to go up and bring us the hot weather goals for a race can change in our minds in an instance.

Lindsay, Teal a.k.a. The Green Lantern and Beth a.k.a. Ms. Marvel

Lindsay, Brent and Beth

The race start was counted down and we were off!  We got going running side by side with each other and the course started out with a couple of hills right around Lindsley Park (where the 5K was held).  We powered through them though and from there the course took us onto the Santa Fe Trail which neither one of us had ever run on before.  About the last half mile we got off the Santa Fe Trail and pushed on towards the finish line.  It was probably about here were as a result of how hard we were running Teal first felt the need to throw up.  As we got to about the 3 mile mark Beth was starting to need to throw up. Ha!  Both of us successfully made it across that finish line without any throwing up.  Although Beth can’t say that for after crossing the finish line. 🙂  But that’s a sign of knowing you gave it your all in a 5K right???

Teal had paid more attention to how many females may or may not have been in front of us finishing the 5K.  We thought that at the very least Teal might have placed in our age group, so Beth & Brent stuck around in the end to find out since Teal had to get to work.  Before they announced any results they gave a big shout out to a little girl named Teal for being a Superhero that day by bringing all of her allowance to the race to donate to CASA.  How sweet is that?  And kind of fun that her name is Teal!  Unfortunately, the awards part of the race only mentioned who won the race and from there who won in each age division.  In our age group it was a man so he was the only person announced.  So Beth left there still not knowing exactly how we did.  It wasn’t until results were put up online that we found out we finished 1st and 2nd in our age group and 18th and 19th overall!

If only they had done an award for the male and female in each age group Teal would have gotten an award!!  This race brings a new PR for Beth!  We are both so proud of how we did especially considering Beth’s previous PR and Teal’s PR was from an all out flat course.  We definitely gave it our all and owned those hills instead of letting them own us!  You should definitely consider signing up for this race next year! Just a fun atmosphere with everyone dressed up in their Superhero costumes!  They had everything from Quail Man (who remembers him??) to generic superheroes to Wonder Woman.  Lots of great costumes out there!

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

March 27, 2012 by · 10 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Are You Ready for Some Racin’?

March 23, 2012 by · 11 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello there, Troy Aikman!

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

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

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

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

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Dr. Seuss, Levee Run & New Book

March 2, 2012 by · 5 Comments

So many things going on this Friday, but first of all – Happy Birthday to Dr. Seuss!  So fun that we just got to visit Seuss Landing less than a week ago!  Anyone going to see The Lorax this weekend?  This is one movie that Teal will probably catch in the theaters despite not being a big movie person because The Lorax is her favorite Seuss book.

Tomorrow Beth will be running the Trinity River Levee Run 10k!  Sadly, Teal being the good teacher that she is, will be on a field trip with her students and cannot participate in this run. 🙁

(source)

The new Margaret Hunt Hill bridge is officially open in Dallas as of this weekend, and the 8th Annual Trinity River Levee Run is the kickoff to a day of celebrating.  Part of the selling point for this year’s run is that this will be your only chance to run across the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge, well you know in a safe way were it’s blocked off for runners. It has also been a long time since either one of us has raced the 10k distance, so it’ll be good to get back out there and give it another go!  But we’ll have to find another 10k to do so Teal can revisit that distance too!  There isn’t really a goal for this race, but Beth’s 10k PR stands at 56:46.  That PR was accomplished in the July Texas Heat, so guess there could always be hope of a new PR this weekend!

On a completely different note, perhaps aimed more at the people who are big readers – Beth’s sister Kate as of today is an author!  About four years ago, Kate wrote a “chicklit” book, attempted to get publisher for it, and when that didn’t work she decided in today’s technology that she would self-publish!  We are both really excited for her in this endeavor and so proud of her for following one of her dreams!  The book is called Creative Chaos and will be available to purchase as an iBook & on your Nook today, and then to follow all you Kindle users will also be able to purchase it!

You can learn more about Kate over at her blog which also has some more details on the book!  If you buy it you have got to let us know!  And a big CONGRATS to Kate, the author! 🙂

Happy Friday to you all!  What do you have in store for your weekend?

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Wordless Wednesday No. 14

December 28, 2011 by · 9 Comments

Our 2011 Race Medals!

 

Our favorite medals for 2011!

Oops…we are putting words in this post!!!…..We each picked our favorite medal for 2011 as you can see above. Teal picked the medal from our Disneyland Half in September because it was her fastest half and most memorable run in terms of the crowd and scenes.  Beth actually had a hard time choosing between three (Disney – SO memorable like Teal said and Rock ‘n’ Roll SA – went sub 2 hours on a half again!) but ultimately picked the Dallas White Rock Marathon medal!  What you probably can’t really tell is Teal has one more medal than Beth – remember back in September at the Heroes for Children 5k where she hit a major PR AND won her age group?  Yah, she’s got a medal to prove that!

Top left to bottom left: Rock 'n' Roll Dallas, Wounded Warrior, White Rock Centennial Half Marathon and Disneyland Half

 

DRC Half, White Rock Marathon and Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio

 

These are our 2011 medals!  All of these medals represent our original goal for this year, BUT we still have half of a medal to earn December 31, 2011 and complete the other half on January 1, 2012 at New Year’s Double!

Do you have a medal you are most proud of this year?

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