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DRC Half 2014

January 21, 2015 by Life is a Run · 1 Comment

Not only was DRC Half our first half marathon since having Lane and Miles, but it was also our first time to be separated from our babies and/or breastbumps for an extended period of time – you know what we are saying?? (sorry if you’re a dude reading this) Because we planned to get there at the last possible minute we both rode down there separately. On top of getting down to the race site at the last minute we also planned to leave as soon as we were finished with the half. Not time for dilly dallying for LiAR!

We should mention too, thankfully we both got to run this race together! Teal ended up having to register for the race the morning of. When she got to the registration tent it was 7:14 a.m. (one minute until registration closed) the volunteers were already closing up their computers. This is where we get to insert the babies make getting things done harder excuse, riiight?! Ok, fine, we know we aren’t the first in this world to have babies, but it is interesting to get things done. So don’t be surprised if we periodically use that excuse. 🙂 Anyway, Teal got registered and we met up at the port-a-potties. Do people meet up at other places on race mornings?

When we got to the start line we ran into the lovely Lauren of The Unlikely Runners. So good to briefly catch up with you lady! Our main goals for the day where and stop us if you’ve heard this before – don’t die and finish. 🙂

Oh how goals sure change when you have major things happen to your body! But of course, Lane and Miles are more than worth temporary setbacks in running!

Thanks, Robert, we stole this picture from you! 🙂

We stuck together, chatted each other’s ears off, occasionally listened to the conversations of other runners and appreciated having the other with us!

The weather was nice for our first half back and to that we are thankful to the race day weather gods! 😉 We complete our half running the whole way! We were pretty darn proud of ourselves. If we could run DRC Half then surely we would be able to make it through the half at Dallas Marathon with continued training right?

Well, it would be kind of sad if that was it for the day. Rode by ourselves to the race, complete our first post partum half and then rode home by ourselves, that’s it? No way! Naturally we forced our husbands and our babies to come celebrate with us at brunch afterwards! And we love celebrate with a tasty mimosa. 🙂

With all of that said….that is a wrap on half marathon no. 22!

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we love the medal series the Dallas Running Club is doing with this race!

Fun fact: DRC 2013 was our first half as pregnant ladies. Doesn’t it make it fun that 2014 was our first half as moms??

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: Dallas Marathon, Dallas Running Club, DRC Half, Half Marathon, postpartum, pregnant, race, race goals, running

The 2014 Running of Tour des Fleurs 10K

December 4, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

This was the first race we ran together post baby for both of us! If you’ll remember when we ran Liberty by the Lake on the 4th of July that was Teal’s first race back and Lane’s first race on the outside! 🙂

Let’s stop for a second and admire how beautiful White Rock looks in the background of the above and below pictures.

Neither one of us had really run as far as a 10K since having Lane and Miles so we knew that we weren’t reeeeally ready to run TDF, BUT we’ve run it the last 4 years so we didn’t want to miss it this year. We love this race! In fact we probably say that every year. Plus you basically have free admission to the arboretum so we forced our husbands and babies to come along so that we could have photo time afterwards.

Per usual we ran this race with Bitner because he’s part of the tradition of it too. 🙂 Not to mention it’s his birthday weekend so it’s an all around Bitner weekend and we are so glad he made the trip up here from Austin. We are still in denial even now that he has left us for Austin. And our girl, Catherine, came out to run it for a second year with us too. You’re welcome for that, TDF!

The plan for this race was stick together, know there will be some walk breaks and finish! It was a good hour plus of catching up on life, babies and everything in between. We were even lucky enough to catch Mark out there on the lake getting in a 20 mile run for the day.

We finished the race, got our finisher’s hats and made our way to the pumpkins for photos.

hehehe #newmomfail

We will see you next year, Tour des Fleurs! 🙂

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 10k, arboretum, pumpkins, race, running, Tour des Fleurs, White Rock Lake

Liberty by the Lake 2014

October 21, 2014 by Life is a Run · 1 Comment

Soooo you are pretty used to us being super behind in our race recap so here is our race from JULY!! Whoops!

Liberty by the Lake is a super small local race that we got turned on to by our runner friend Michelle! She hosts a Fourth of July Waffle eating party at her house directly following the race. Who doesn’t love waffles and these are cooked by the lovely and super talented Chef EK?!

We are also a little sentimental about this race because last year we watched our friend Brian run all the way to the race from his house, run the 10k and kill it, and then run to MK’s house, and then home! He was kind of a running badass.

We wanted to squeeze this race in but it was going to be rather interesting. This was Baby P’s first race on the outside and only a week after Teal was cleared to actually run again from her C-section. Beth was also still running at a good 36 weeks pregnant!

Teal had not yet really mastered getting out of the door by a set time and this was really the first time she was going to try and figure out how to nurse an 8 week old, run a race, and get back to nurse him again within a 2 hour window. Let’s just say it was rather interesting! We both got to the race separately and with enough time to check in and find our friends! We managed to squeeze in a few pictures with our favorite runners before the race started.

Thanks, Mama C, for letting us steal this picture from you!

We set out for the 5k and just decided to be super conservative about the “race.” Teal pushed Baby P in the stroller! We basically ran that entire thing, minus a few “insert the pacifier” stops and a small water break at about 2 miles! Baby P survived his first race on the outside with flying colors! Teal was super nervous to take him out and actually run a race but he did awesome!! Beth was still seriously doing awesome and still running with Baby H already at 36 weeks.

It was then off to our Fourth of July celebrations! Beth headed over for waffles and Teal to her granny’s to watch the neighborhood Fourth of July parade. You can definitely say that this year’s Liberty by the Lake was a little more “low key” than last year but nice to see friends and celebrate! 🙂

Finally a picture of MK in the post! Thanks for letting us steal this pic from you too!

Waffle Party attendees

Filed Under: Pregnancy, Races Tagged With: 5k, breastfeeding, Fourth of July, liberty by the lake, postpartum running, pregnant running, race, running, running and nursing, The Colony

New Year’s Double Eve & Day

February 3, 2014 by Life is a Run · 3 Comments

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

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

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

Jesse found us!

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

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

Catherine is flying!

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

@mcgaritydotme having fun out on the course

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

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

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

photo cred: @thatpinkgirl

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

photo cred: Nancy Howard

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

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

Filed Under: Races, Uncategorized Tagged With: Dallas, double races, Half Marathon, Marathon, New Years Double, PR, race, running

Wordless Wednesday 39

September 25, 2013 by Life is a Run · 2 Comments

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday Tagged With: balloon festival half, Dallas Arboretum, dallas contemporary, faile exhibit, Fall, gourds, Half Marathon, pumpkins, race, race spectating, running, TDF, Times Ten, Times Ten Wine Cellars, Tour des Fluers, wine

Turkey’s Done!

November 29, 2012 by Life is a Run · 6 Comments

Some races just get complicated by life events. We know some of you out there know what we are saying! This Thanksgiving brought some firsts for both of us.

For Beth it was the first time that she and Brent actually spent Thanksgiving together, so we were finally forced to figure out how we would get time with each of our families. We spent it with his family and they start earlier than my family does and my family had Thanksgiving at the house I lived in for the past 3 years so doing a race and getting ready for family was no big deal. This year I had barely any time. And why does the Turkey Trot start at 9 a.m.?! I didn’t remember it starting so late. I vote we go with 8 a.m. next year! OK? OK! And isn’t it cute how in my world 9 a.m. is now late? Haha

For Teal, well, we will just share with you the lists of things that includes firsts and therefore annoyances with Thanksgiving. 🙂

1. My dad did not come from Maryland (like he was going to) and I had to make a turkey (instead of my dad making it).

2. I had to get up at 5am to deal with stuffing a turkey, which I don’t know how to do so I was automatically stressed. Oh and I had the words of Michael’s cousin in my head, who was being playful but said “Don’t ruin the turkey, you will ruin Thanksgiving” Great.

3. The neck of a raw turkey is absolutely GROSS and I almost gagged and then the intestines bag had a hole and I had to touch the liver. Gag, again.

4. I turned the turkey roasting pan on and I thought it was going to catch on fire, smoke everywhere! Had to send my husband to Wal-Mart to get a new one, and for those of you who may not know I don’t like that place and once pushed one of their front doors off the track. I don’t go there!

5. I felt bad for waking him up, making him go to that dreaded place, being annoying, and oh, by the way Happy Anniversary, sorry I suck and can’t cook or read directions… see 6….

6. Turns out it wasn’t actually going to catch on fire, perhaps, read the directions first?

7. I didn’t know what to wear. I know, #firstworldproblems

8. I was going to be late and was afraid Beth would kill me, so then I worried (not that she ever would, but a girl can worry, we are people pleasers)

9. Ohhhh, you need to eat before a race?? I didn’t have any food so I ate Oreos, 2 of them to be exact, and I should have eaten 12.

10. I was starving, that starving where you want to throw up starving.

11. It cost me more money to take money out of the ATM then it actually cost to park.

12. The original $3 parking lot machine wasn’t working, so we couldn’t park there.

13. We drove to $5 lot and it was full. Full as in the car in front of us got the last spot.

14. I HATE PARKING!

There. I feel much better. WOOOSSSAAAA.

Ok, so after surviving all of that, the two of us and Chase (Beth’s cousin) made it over to the race start. We all three got hooked up with VIP wristbands so we got to use some nice port-a-potties with a not so ridiculous line. Ohhh, the little things that make racers happy!

After that it was pretty much time to get lined up to start the race, but oh, yah…they put up a fence that makes it impossible to enter the racing area. How quickly we forget these things after multiple years of running the same race. Ha!

Mile 1 to 5K Split

Teal: This is like a fun game of “let’s try not to run any children over, kick a dog, elbow an elderly person, trip over a fire extinguisher, speed bump, or sidewalk, have to come to a screeching halt every 5 seconds.” It’s sooooo fun. So needless to say, the first part of this race is a complete and total pain, if you would like to run, but I still managed to keep a somewhat decent pace. And just a disclaimer, I know this, and have known this, and still run because I like this race, and will always like this race, it’s just kind of a pain to do. AND I don’t think it will change, so this is more of a statement and not so much a complaint, although I am not sure maybe it’s both! I knew I would not PR at this point and was letting my list of 14 annoying things get to me. I wanted to take the 5k turn off, just wait for Beth and Chase and be done with it all but I didn’t. Just run the stinking race, and get happy.

The sea of people before the start of the race

Beth: Maybe I’m a jerk for saying this, but while the 3 of were trying to get into the starting area I made probably the comment I make every year “why don’t they let the timed racers start in the front? or why don’t they start the 5K and 8 mile in waves?” This man next to me informed me that “the mat will pick up your time when you cross it!” WHAT?! It will?? Haha, bless his heart. I am pretty sure that every year in the first about 2.5ish miles of this race I ask myself why am I running this race?? I hate this! I’m fairly use to going out and running around White Rock Lake and hearing cyclist say “on your left” so I just decided to use that with the walkers. Man the people that come out to the Turkey Trot spa-read themselves out on those streets! This race always makes me think that people need to go through a Common Courtesies of Race Course before they can embark on their first race. Not that that will ever happen.

5K Split to Finish

Teal: LESS CROWDS! We lost half the race to the 5k turn off! Yippee!! I actually got in a better mood, ran a lot faster and didn’t feel as pissed. This is the best reason to run! They changed the course and I liked the change in the long run, but not as it was happening. It was way hillier than it was last year, but we didn’t have to run through a very boring part of Dallas. This change made the race feel fast at the end. I really was trying to pick up my pace to overcome the first 2.5 but I just felt like it was not going to happen. I ended up being annoyed (theme of the day) with this women who kept on running at my shoulder up the hills and would then linger back to keep doing it again. I was determined to make her go away so my last 2 miles were about and 8ish to 8:30 minute pace, where I had been running more at a 9:30 min pace. My last mile was 8:03, which is fast for me, mainly to be done and away from the lady.

Overall it was not bad and I am glad I ran and I am still very proud of my time. It was not a PR and it was not as bad as 3 years ago so there! That’s a win in my book. And despite everything, I would and will still run this again, BUT I will not cook a Turkey, which will then make me less stressed and annoyed. MARK MY WORDS PEOPLE!

The sea of people after the race and a little bit of downtown Dallas

Beth: Ahhhh, this is why I run this race! It is amazing how much a 5K split can change things! Not long after the split off we ran by where Brent and I got married which put a big smile on my face! 🙂 I had started noticing some small changes in course and was really hopeful that this one area would be cut out. It was! I remember thinking the last few years on the last few miles being like when is this going to be over? But this year it just seemed like it was over in no time. That was when I remembered the trickster finish line they have! Haha, you see the start line and think, almost there! You aren’t your going to fork to the right, go up a small but long incline then keeeeeep going even though you already started your last minute sprint to the end and then BAM! you’re done. According to my runkeeper I had an overall pace of 8:35 for the race. Also according to my runkeeper I ran 8.36 miles which makes me wonder how much of that is extra mileage from my dodging at the beginning, and then there is always one area in downtown where the GPS gets off. Don’t start telling me how GPS systems are not always 100% accurate because I know! And please don’t start talking to me about running tangents because, again, I know. And I”m also admitting that the dodging of people in the beginning was me probably adding on some extra mileage. Pretty much like Teal said this is a race where you get frustrated in the beginning, but ultimately the annoyances get overpowered by the last two thirds of the race roughly. It is a great race and great that it brings so many people out together to get some activity in before a full day of eating far too much!

So, Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot (that is a mouthful), we will see you again next year!

Results:

Teal: 1:15:33, finished 73rd in age group and 1,850 overall

Beth: 1:11:36, finished 66th in my age group and 1,396 over all

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 5k, 8 mile, Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot, GPS, Oreos, race, runkeeper, running, tangents, Thanksgiving, Turkey, Turkey Trot

Our Turkey Day Tradition

November 16, 2012 by Life is a Run · 15 Comments

It’s time for the Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot AGAIN! Hard to believe that Thanksgiving is literally right around the corner. We actually got the email Tuesday that said Packet Pick-Up was starting Wednesday. WHOA!

We love this race because 1.) it’s super fun 2.) the atmosphere around this race is hard to match 3.) it’s pretty much a tradition for us at this point oh and 4.) who doesn’t find it great to burn 800+ calories and enjoying everything you eat that day! That’s right because each we like to participate in the 8 mile portion of the this race.

Apparently we aren’t the only ones that like this race. Time Magazine actually just listed it as one of the Top 5 Fun Runs to Try Now! Fun Run is exactly the correct terminology, while you could definitely hit a PR in this type of race (both of us did last year 🙂 ) it is definitely not its true purpose. Even though it is actually one of the largest fun runs in the country, the race is well organized and put together, but some cramping occurs at the beginning making it more fun to take in the atmosphere and enjoy the run through some of the best parts of Dallas! Many families come out for the 5k distance and you are even allowed to bring your pet! Teal is not sure Wilson could handle it though, he is too chicken. 🙁

The Turkey Trot always comes up with something fun and after 40+ years they haven’t run out of new ideas. Last year you might remember that we dressed up as Turkeys and participated in the Guinness Book of World Record challenge to gather the most people dressed as Turkeys in one location! Oh and we did actually break the record! Does this make us famous??

Check out our awesome costumes and Beth’s sewing handy work.

This year they have decided to start the Mascot Trot. They have invited all of the Dallas area schools to come cheer on the North Texas professional mascots as they race each other around Dallas. There will be “Champ” from the Dallas Mavericks, “Ranger Captain” from the Texas Rangers, and “Rowdy” from the Dallas Cowboys’ mascots and they will all compete in a race with the official Turkey Trot mascot, “Tommy the Turkey.” We didn’t even know they had one! This happens the day before the race so anyone can come out and watch, even the runners! Maybe you could even be spotted on Good Morning Texas!!

This will be our 3^rd year in a row to run together as Life is a Run, but this is something that has been around us for a long time dating back even into our high school running days and hopefully we can keep it up!

Turkey Trot 2010 with Bitner and Chase

There is ONE more thing that makes this day special in addition to it being a day of family (Thanksgiving) and the Turkey Trot, but it is also Teal & Michael’s 4th wedding anniversary!

Who is running the Turkey Trot this year?? We as usual would LOVE to see you.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 5k, 8 mile run, Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot, costumes, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks, fun run, Guinness Book of World Record, Mascot Trot, packet pickup, PR, race, Texas Rangers, Thanksgiving, Time Magazine, Tommy the Turkey, turkey costumes, Turkey Trot

Texas Doesn’t Really Have Four Seasons Anyway!

October 8, 2012 by Life is a Run · 6 Comments

Happy Monday, friends! Thank you to everyone who is bearing with us as we are in the last couple of weeks before THE wedding and trying to get everything accomplished! Speaking of the wedding…this weekend we kicked off our Saturday with a wedding shower for Beth thrown by her mom’s close friends.

photo courtesy of Kate O. Lynch

We don’t actually have a picture of us there together. Sad day! But there were mimosas there – yum!

In our Taco Run recap Teal mentioned that she’d strained her groin muscle and the reality of that strain was the potential need to take an entire week off from running. BUT race 3 out of 4 in our four season challenge was scheduled for this Sunday!? We discussed how this was possibly sign #2 that we weren’t meant to do this challenge right now. The day before the Hottest Half in August Teal had a calf injury due to some fun tubing on the lake. We both said that no matter what training for our marathon was more important than running Tyler Rose and to worsen the muscle strain on Teal was not an option for us. Turns out she was getting back to normal by the end of the week, so we could run Tyler Rose!

BUT that didn’t mean we ready to spend the four hours in the car for the round trip out to Tyler. We might have been a little ambitious back in March when we thought doing a race 21 days before Beth’s wedding would be a good idea. Well, not just a race, but a race where we would be getting up at 4:00 a.m., driving two hours to the race, running two-ish hours and then driving back to Dallas for two hours.

Beth’s sister, Kate, made the executive decision for us (because neither one of us wanted to actually make it) that we would stay put in Dallas. Thank you,Kate! So Sunday morning we met up for our first long run of marathon training – 13.1 miles. We’re coming for you Louisiana Marathon!

We had a cold front come through Friday night so the chilly weather was still there Sunday morning. For the first time in a long time we went outside to 48 degree weather! Of course you know it’s always hard to remember what exactly you want to wear in that type of weather, but we were both content with our choices and neither one of us got overly hot out on the run. Details you really wanted to know about, right??

Teal’s fancy new garmin!

Of course at this stage in the game a half is something we have done a lot of, so we both felt good out there. This weekend does mark a first for us – DNS. We’ve run a lot of races and had yet to DNS, but we did and we don’t regret it. We needed to for our own sanity. We will still race the 4th half in our four seasons challenge come February, but we won’t actually receive that four seasons medal. 🙁

A couple of the other benefits of us staying tight in Dallas instead of going to Tyler was Beth got to be on time to Birthday brunch for her dad, and we both had the opportunity to grocery shop and prepare for our 10 day cleanse. That’s right – we are advocare cleansing again! 🙂 When we’ve done this in the past we have had quite a few questions about it which also includes Beth asking Teal eleventy billion questions each time, so we’ve decided to share more details of our cleanse throughout this week and maybe a little of next week with you too. 🙂 Hope at least one or two of you out there are interested in knowing more.

What was your first race DNS? Do you regret?

Filed Under: Life, Training Tagged With: advocare, cleanse, Dallas, did not start, DNS, four seasons challenge, Half Marathon, healthy-living, Hottest Half, Marathon, medal, race, running, The Great Taco Run, training, Tyler, Tyler Rose, wedding

PR’ing All Over September

October 2, 2012 by Life is a Run · 7 Comments

Talk about a dreary weekend in Dallas! Lots of raining on Saturday and it just continued Sunday morning. The race started at 7 a.m. which had this been a hot day like it very well could have been considering it is Texas the early start time would have been awesome! We arrived at 6 a.m. since registering late made us need to do race day packet pickup. We got our bibs and our shirts and headed back to the car for a few minutes so Beth could finish her breakfast, put her shoes on and we could drop our race shirts off. Then we found a covered building entrance riiight next to the start line to hangout under so we wouldn’t get wet from the mist while we waited for the race to start.

Teal: We had waited around the start line forever so we actually ended up starting with the “fast group” and this seriously made a difference in the way this race went. I was very surprised at the pace after mile one and it actually didn’t feel bad at all. I have really been deciding lately how my race will go after mile 1 or 2. I just can’t tell anymore before I start running. By mile 3 we were right around 27 minutes which is fast for me, really fast for me. My only complaint about miles 1-3 is that I don’t think they could have taken us through an uglier part of Dallas. We were basically running alley ways of only buildings in the crappier part of the design district.

Waiting for the race to start

Beth: We had seen the Luebs right after getting our bibs then found Brian at the start line, and 3 of us chatted about our running lately and what our paces might be for today’s race. Brian mentioned wanted to run 9 minute miles and I thought Ohh, that sounds good I want to do that! I can do that right?! I just had in my mind the last time I ran a 10 mile race I held about a 9:30 pace, but that was in May meaning hotter weather. So the race starts and all 3 of us take off. Brian kind of really took off and at the 5 minute mark my Runkeeper tells me we were already over halfway through the first mile and I swear it said we were running at about a 7:50 something pace. That freaked me out. Then I just thought 9 minute pace my ass Brian! 🙂 [Sorry Mom, I said ass, oops did it again]

Miles 3-6

Teal: My goal here was to make sure I stayed under an hour and to make sure I maintained a pace I was happier with. The first 3 were very fast and I was slightly scared I would die. I kept running how tired I was at the end of Tour des Fleurs in my head and worried about what 6-10 would be like. I slowed a little but not much and just kept counting in my head. I lost Beth around 4 but really kept her in my sight for the next mile-ish. I crossed the 10K mark just a tad faster than the 10K PR the week before and was super excited/scared. How long could I maintain this? I kept thinking, you have never run under a 2 hour half and you are on a pace that would let that happen. It was very a weird mix of emotions in terms of “you are going to die” to “just see what you can do and go.”

Beth: The middle of this race I don’t remember all that well. Probably because I was mainly wondering if I was actually going to end up having a horrible race and slow completely down towards the end or be fine? So I just kept going.

Miles 6-10

Teal: It was around the 6.5-7ish mark that I moved to running closer to the middle of the road. The race did an out and back and I knew I would start to see Brian or Beth or whoever else and they would give me motivation. This part of the race seemed so long. The stretch between 5.5 and like 7.5 is up hill, it’s a mild incline, but you can feel it, and it just became annoying. I knew as soon as I saw them that the turnaround would be close and the downhill could begin. I saw Brian pass and then saw Beth not too far behind. I was very confused as to the time and how much was left and I yelled at Beth to pick it up. I for some reason thought we were pretty far off of her 10 mile PR. (PS.. we completely were not at all, but in my head it was bad, which then confused me because my miles were so close to 9min) I have no clue why I couldn’t sort that out. It was around 7 that my butt muscles were super tight! Like I really just wanted to stop and stretch but I wasn’t about to stop. I just started pushing on my butt hoping it would loosen up. I am sure people around me were like “What the hell is she doing?” I knew that this was not as bad as the women I had passed at mile 7 with her entire butt hanging out. I mean EVERYTHING! It was nasty!

After hitting mile 9 I said to myself, just go. It’s just a mile, just go. I had kind of figured out at this point that I would finish between 1:30 and 1:32 and got really excited! I crossed the finish line and just wanted to die. I kicked it in the last .25 and it was painful. I crossed the finish line, saw Beth and Brian and really just wanted to die. My tail bone was killing me. It really kind of freaked me out. Every step I took around the Runner’s Village, to the car, and in and out of the car where so painful. My leg was shooting pain and I wasn’t so much convinced my butt wasn’t about to split in half.

Beth: These last miles I do remember. Ha, I remember seeing the turn around for the 10K races and the guy at that turn around saying “10 milers your turn around is just a bit further” LIES! In my world more than 2 miles away is not “a bit further.” Feel free to call me an idiot, but I actually didn’t realize we were running up a slow incline. Ha. And I just kept wanting to be at the turnaround! I kept watching for Brian because I knew that would mean I was close and when I finally saw him I was excited! Then past the turn around for the rest of the race this guy was annoying the crap out of me! OK, I used more not nice words than that, but I don’t want to have to apologize to my mom again. 🙂 He was 100% messing with my mind. I think he caught up to me then he’d slow down and I’d get a little ahead of him, he’d speed up to catch me again and then slow down again and so on and so forth. FOR TWO MILES. When we finally got off the Katy Trail to finish out the last mile of the race I got ahead of him for a little while then he caught back up and I was just like whatever dude, and let him stay ahead of me. I knew I would be crossing the finish line with a new PR! Turns out I took 5:14 off of my only other 10 mile race. I also told that guy he was messing with my mind afterwards (again, not the words I used) 🙂 and he said no, no, you were pacing me. I wanted to make it in under 1:30. I told him good job and patted him on the back. OK, fine I guess that’s ok that you messed with my mind so much then??

Pretty much when we finished the misting rain turned into, well, rain. We headed over to the Runner’s Village and grabbed ourselves a small beer. We both wanted to try a taco from Velvet Taco, so we went straight there to wait in the long line for one of their tacos. DEE-LISH! Then it started raining harder, we may or may not have had flashbacks to White Rock Marathon and promptly decided to get out of there. A bummer for the whole try all the tacos and vote on them part of the day.

Just a little soaked from the rain 🙂

Teal: I went home and had the same pain, tried to just shake it off, stretch it to go away and nothing. I ended up not really even sleeping Sunday night and was in and out of tears thinking there was no way I could run a marathon and then proceeded to freak out about what I could say to Beth.

I made a dr’s appointment for first thing Monday when I got to work and had it looked at. It turns out I strained my groin muscle, not a full pull, but she said a deep strain. Apparently when you run faster (which I really haven’t done for that far EVER) your body uses that inner thigh so much more. Whoops??

So needless to say, I knew I was in pain and I wasn’t crazy, and I had just run an awesome race so I am still pumped. I am basically out for a week and have some PT, but I should be fine! Hopefully a week is all it will take! Fingers SUPER crossed!

Results:

Teal: 1:31:11, finished 14th in her age group

Beth: 1:27:02, finished 18th in her age group

Overall, we are pleased with how this race went, well, really we are pleased with the month of September it brought us some great PR’s. It also just goes to show how hard work in those hot summer months really can pay off if you just keep on going and don’t give up on your training even if the hot weather has slowed it down. These HOT Texas summers are making us tough runners!

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 10 miler, 10k, Dallas, Half Marathon, health, Katy Trail, pace, PR, race, runkeeper, running, start line, tacos, The Great Taco Run, Tour des Fleurs, training, White Rock Marathon

When You’re Too Busy to Run Just Run for the Tacos

September 28, 2012 by Life is a Run · 7 Comments

Ummmm how is it September 28^th? We know it has flown by and it is officially less than a month until Beth’s wedding! And yes we know we say that every month…maybe when the wedding is over we’ll stop saying it. 🙂 Maybe. Crunch time for everything and we are having a super hard time getting all of our running in soooooo we have therefore signed up for a last minute race just to make sure we get it in! On Wednesday we both signed up to run The Great Taco Run 10 miler! This ends up being perfect because right after we signed up a few things came up to get done over the weekend and now we at least have a paid excuse as to why we have to run first! You do what you gotta do, right?? This is a perfect distance for us this weekend given its only 1 week until the Tyler Rose half marathon, the 3^rd of our four seasons challenge! Neither one of us have gotten in a good long run in a while (raise your hand if you are not shocked by this trend!)

(source)

Apparently tacos are becoming the new post race eating trend and this Dallas race has decided to jump on that bandwagon. We totally don’t mind, and in fact we are pretty sure this will make Beth’s fiancé jealous! 13 different taco shops in Dallas will be at the after race portion to hand out tacos to the runners! The runners will get to try each taco and vote on the best! HELLO, we aren’t sure why we didn’t think of this first. The winner is apparently announced on October 4^th, which just so happens to be National Taco Day, in case you didn’t know!

Bonus- this race supports Friends of the Katy Trail, one of the most popular running trails in North Texas, as well as the Trinity Strand Trail who is working super hard to organize a new 7.8 mile trail along the Trinity River waterway! So we totally don’t feel bad for “last minute signing up” for this race just to get in a long run.

Beth has actually run a 10 miler sans Teal at the White Rock ‘n’ Roll race in May. She finished with a time of 1:32:16 and Teal has never actually run a 10 miler before! Either way we should both be in for a good long run!

Will we see anyone there? If so let us know because we, as usual, would totally love to meet/see/hang out with you!

How do you guys balance life’s madness with running? We like tips for sure. We are literally about to start training for our second marathon! This race will actually kick it off! Let us know how you keep on track!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 10 miler, Dallas, four seasons challenge, Friends of Katy Trail, Half Marathon, Katy Trail, Marathon, marathon training, National Taco Day, race, running, tacos, The Great Taco Run, Trinity River, Trinity Strand Trail, Tyler Rose, wedding, White Rock n Roll