Dallas Turkey Trot

November 23, 2011 by · 6 Comments

source

Happy pre-Thanksgiving! To all of our readers who are traveling we wish you safe travel, and to those who get to stay put where you are – yay, so do we!!

And it’s for that very reason we get to participate in tomorrow’s 44th Dallas Turkey Trot. Not only are we going to participate as runners in the 8 mile race, but we will also be participating in setting a new Guinness World Record of the largest gathering of people dressed as turkeys! 🙂

Our turkey costumes are not completely finished (that’ll happen tonight), but with these pictures you can get the idea of just how we’ll look!

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If you want to know exactly what we look like IN the costumes, well then, check back here on the blog with us tomorrow! 🙂

We ran the 8 mile at the Turkey Trot last year – Oh boy! What. a. mess. that was! We waited until the last minute to use the bathrooms and just quickly lined up. Then we dodged like we had never dodged before around groups of walkers and people with their dogs. Now there’s nothing wrong with walking or doing a race with your dog, but when you’re at a race and there’s no protocol for making it so people who are running it seriously can do just that….Well, I believe the great people who put on this race heard everyone’s cries last year because this year the timed runners get to start 5 minutes earlier!

Last year our results were –

Teal: 1:25:07
Beth: 1:14:23

Hopefully we can beat our old times tomorrow! Then we’ll be rushing home to get ready for our Thanksgiving celebration with each of our families!

The only downside to running the Turkey Trot is missing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, but the mimosa’s afterwards should more than make up for that. 🙂

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Tour des Fleurs

September 16, 2011 by · 1 Comment

Wheee! Another race weekend is in front of us. Tomorrow we will be running the Tour des Fleurs (TDF) benefiting the Dallas Arboretum.  This race is either a 10k or 20k distance – pick your poison.  We have run this race before and only as a 10k.  If you look at our PR page you’ll notice this is our very FIRST time running a 20k race, so yah!! No matter what we’ll both PR this weekend. 🙂

If you checked out our marathon training schedule you’ll notice we put 20k race + 4 miles…well, we decided we are going to attempt a total of 16 miles tomorrow.  Our plan is to run the 20k and keep in mind we have a little bit more than a 5k to do afterwards.  So if you see two crazy girls grab their TDF hats at the finish line and keeping going that’s why!  We’ll actually be out there with our friend Bitner (whom we’ve run with before) and I believe he plans on doing the same thing as he is also in marathon training for White Rock.

Here is what our course looks like:

We have run around White Rock Lake a handful of times so the only surprise for us will be the NOT around the lake part.  We are confident we will do fine tomorrow.  Maybe we still have a Disneyland Half high mixed with oh my gosh the weather is starting to be awesome again in Dallas high!

Weather:

Precip: 10%

Wind: 7mph

High: 89*

Low: 70*

Goals:

We share the same goals this week – do our best with the 20k and have our minds mentally prepared for the additional mileage we’ll put in after the race!  Which will also mean that this is the first time we’ve EVER run more than 13.1 miles! We got this!

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Disneyland Half Marathon

September 2, 2011 by · 1 Comment

It’s finally time for our second biggest race of the year!  Of course our first marathon at the end of this year is the biggest for us, but since we are traveling to California TODAY and running in the Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday this is definitely the runner up!

We could not be more excited for this race, what we’ll see on the course and just the course itself!  From the event website – “The course for this magical event will take runners from the Disney California Adventure™ Park, celebrating California’s storied past and exciting future, to theDisneyland® Park where you will explore the fantastic “lands” of nostalgia, color and delight. Then it is on to the scenic streets of Anaheim, past the Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, along the Santa Ana Trail overlooking the Santa Ana River, through Angel Stadium, home of the MLB’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and then past Disney’s Paradise Pier® Hotel and the Disneyland® Hotel for an exciting finish of the Happiest Race on Earth!”

 

 

 

We’ll be those girls out on the course wearing matching outfits! Woohoo go Life is a Run! 🙂  Have I mentioned we are excited?  This week we’ve chatted with some fellow runners who will be out there doing the same race and even with all the info they’ve given us I am confident this race will be way more than we can even expect.  What if this race runs us for others?  Guess we’ll just have to make yearly trips to the Disney theme parks for races! 🙂

 

 

 

Weather:

Precip.: 0%

Wind: 1mph

High: 86*

Low: 63*

Kind of sad that we are all excited about the cooler weather in California and Texas is actually getting a bit of a break from the heat while we are gone.  See –

Oh well!  It will still be awesome!

Goals:

The goal for this race is to beat our White Rock 2010 half marathon times although we won’t be disappointed if we get caught up with our surroundings, take some pictures and therefore add a couple of minutes to our time.  Then we can always come back next year and do it again right? 🙂

 

Kind of a short blog post from us – we reserve the right to overshare about our trip when we get back! 🙂

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July’s Race

July 12, 2011 by · 6 Comments


We made it!! We survived Run On’s Too Hot to Handle!!  Apparently we CAN handle the heat although it isn’t necessarily our favorite thing to do. 🙂  This post we are going to break it up again and let you get a recap from both of us and our different perspectives –

Teal:

Ok so that was definitely rough. The race started out fine, had to weave my way in and out of people until the 5k/15k split, but not as bad as some other races we have been through.  Beth and I ran together for the first part, but I really never saw her again. I was seriously fine until about the 6th mile when I could feel a full blister forming on the bottom of my big toe, I knew it was happening the entire time but it was starting to become fairly unbearable. Then to make matters worse at about mile 7.5 the damn thing burst after stepping very weird on a large crack in the ground while I was running! I was like, awesome, I am dying from the heat, and my foot feels like a tiny needle is poking it. Oh and I decided that another piece of important running etiquette is to seriously watch were you SPIT! This dude in front of me kept spitting, twice he spit backwards and his gross wad of a spit landed close to me. I decided to get the heck away from him! I managed to finish the race about 5 or so minutes longer than I ran the course in January but I was relatively fine with my results. I had to walk through a couple of water stations and definitely took advantage of the sprinklers at the last few stations. I knew I was getting almost too hot because I started to get the chills, which is never a good think when it is crazy hot outside.  We were greeted at the finish line with ice cold towels which was amazing. I immediately sat down and took off my shoes to see how bad my feet were. GROSS for sure! I felt a little dizzy and seriously hot and just laid down for a while, my favorite thing to do after running! I don’t care how bad that actually is to do. I had last seen Beth at right about the 6th mile marker, but I started to get a little nervous waiting for her at the finish line as time kept passing. At one point the announcer came on and asked everyone to stop talking because someone needed to go to an ambulance. Right about that time I decided I would get up and start to look for Beth. She crossed the finish line just as I was getting too nervous to sit and wait any longer! I was very impressed with her and our ability to push through even though we hate the heat.

And just in case you wanted to see just how bad my blisters were, here you go:


Beth:
Once we got to Norbuck Park, Teal and I immediately get in the bathroom line and then by the time we get to the starting line there are only 5 minutes to spare!  Race starts, we are separated, then I find Teal again and when she darts off to pass someone I think, “nah, I don’t want to tire myself out in the beginning, I’ll stay here.”  So we are running and I get to a turn around and don’t see Teal who should be in front of me.  It’s not until I see a 3 mile marker that it dawns on me – I took the wrong split!  So I asked one of the volunteers on a bike where I went wrong and she graciously rode next to me as I jogged and showed me where I should have gone!  She also commented, “so you’re going to come very close to running a half today.”  Awesome! In my mind I just went that’s it – I WILL run this!  I’d started the 15k thinking I’d walk a couple times, but now it was game on!  It wasn’t until I was almost at the 4 mile mark for the 15k race that  I finally caught up to the back of the pack of walkers.  It was a very humbling experience seeing the faces of other runs as I was the last runner for a majority of the 15k course.   Some runners even cheered me on.  The whole time I was running I was thinking “if Teal ever worries about being last in a race again, I will remind her that I pretty much was at this race.”  There really was a lot of shade in the Too Hot to Handle 15k and it wasn’t as bad as I made it out to be in my head.  By the time I had been running for an 1:50 I decided I’d run over a 15k I could walk for 2 minutes, so I did. And eventually I made it across the finish line.  When all was said and done my runkeeper app said I ran 12.4 miles.  Oh, and thankfully I’d seen Teal at one point and was able to tell her I ran the 5k first before doing the 15k so she at least knew what was up with me a little bit even if she had no clue if I would go ahead and do the whole 15k course too, which I did.
The temperature not that long after I was done running:

And then we brunched at Campisi’s. Buffet…nom nom nom! 🙂

Results
Teal: 1:36:14, finished 33rd in age group and 524 overall
Beth: 2:08:46, finished 75th in age group and 884th out of 936 (I think) people, but can’t we just say I won my division of 5k & 15k race combined? haha
Thanks for a great race Run On!  And thank you to all the wonderful volunteers out there!  Hopefully in the next month or two we will be out at a race volunteering!
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Halfway Mark

July 1, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

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

White Rock Half - December 2010

 

Beth:

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

 

Teal:

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

 

What we have done together:

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Where we are going:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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May’s Race

May 8, 2011 by · 2 Comments

before the race started

Well, we now have half marathon number two under our belts! And we are about 17 weeks away from our next one!  This past Saturday we ran in the White Rock Centennial Half and as we mentioned before did not really get a lot of training in before doing it.  For this post we thought we’d let you into our minds as we ran so enjoy…

Teal: This race was seriously a mental game for me. I knew going in that I could finish the race even though I really hadn’t trained consistently, but I was very nervous about what that would do to my head. One mile in I was completely off, I had accidentally turned my runkeeper app off and my music kept repeating the same song and I couldn’t get it to stop repeating. In my head I was like, this is going to be a long 13 miles if I can’t even get this stuff under control and was annoyed that my mileage and time was now off for the way that I track my running. I finally just decided to stop and fix it all after mile 1. After getting everything set I was now officially in the race. I started with my normal counting, but felt very tired, my knees were tight and I just felt like I was running heavy. The first 3 miles seemed to take forever. At the beginning I had decided that I would try to make sure I stayed between the 2 hour and the 2:10 pacers. I lost track of the 2 hour pacer by mile 3 which was slightly frustrating.  I decided that the only way to get through was literally go one mile at a time. I started to get really nervous that I had overdone the week. I had run 9 on Sunday and 10 on Tuesday, and thought maybe my body was just worn out.  Starting at mile 4 I just started saying to myself, less than 10 minutes to mile 5 and kept that up. Mile 4 was a huge tease, because they ran us through the finish line, so I felt like the race was super long knowing that I still had to make it all the way around the lake. After each mile I just said to say to myself less than 10 minutes until the next one. It worked and by 10 I felt ok, I ran a next to a trainer from my gym for about 5 miles and it was motivating, we kind of went back and forth in pace with each other, but it kept my mind off of being tired. It was at mile 10 that the 2:10 pacer passed me. I stayed with them for a while but then lost sight; I literally didn’t have much left to keep up with them. The hills were crazy and I hated every last one of them. We had run the Tour des Fleurs last year and they ran us up the same hill for this race that I had to walk in the 10k, so I was very proud of myself for making it and actually making all of the hills. The bridges scared the crap out of me too. Every time I ran on one they moved. The first one I ran across literally made me think I was passing out. It was that weird feeling you get when you miss a double bounce on a trampoline. It scared me to death and literally my heart dropped to my stomach. At 11, I seriously didn’t know if I would finish. I really wanted to walk but kept saying to myself you will be mad if you do. I had a goal to beat my last ½ by 5 minutes. I, however, decided to stop at the drink stop for the first time, I had been drinking the water from the bottle I was holding.  I walked the entire water stop; it probably took me about a minute and a half. At the end of the 11, I ran the rest and was determined to not stop even if I was running 11+ minute miles. I finally made it to 13 and I swear on everything it seemed like a ½ mile from 13 to 13.1.   I just kept thinking, you made it this far keep going, start counting and just freaking finish. I crossed the finish line and was kind of dizzy and seriously worn out, way more worn out then White Rock in December.  I looked for Beth who was just outside the fence and I looked at her and said “that has to be the longest .1 miles I have ever run!”

Overall the race was rough there were lots of hills, lots of wind, and not too many cheering spectators. The spectators are my favorite part. They literally make it easier to keep going. I kind of felt alone in this race and was sometimes bored, which makes it much harder to run.   I should be incredibly happy that my legs can carry me that far!!

Beth: We started the race right around the 2 hour pacer.  When we got started I saw the pacer and said to myself “I will not see you again during this race!”  I had my runkeeper app on during the run and it was updating me every half mile how I was doing.  This isn’t an app I want to run with regularly while the coaching feature is on.  I prefer to be my own motivator and pusher, but nonetheless I had it on.  I was talking myself through the hills and was proud of myself for keeping my miles under 9 minutes for the first 7.  It was when I got to the mile 8 marker that the 2:00 pacer passed me.  And I wanted to just break down and cry right then and there as I watched my goal pass me.  I let it get to me and I took a minute then to walk, but started again as this guy who introduced himself to me as Ryan later said, “Come on runner! Let’s go”  I started up again and ran on and off with him some – he was a great motivator for a couple of miles for me.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so for me when I tell you on this blog that my goal is this if I don’t achieve it that makes me feel like complete crap.  So that first time of walking I was just like “great! You know you are now going to have to blog about this!  And now you didn’t even complete the half without walking!”  And honestly, I had to do a couple more brief walking periods in the last 5 miles.  When I was approaching the 13 mile marker I heard my runkeeper app say “..distance: 13.1 miles..”  All in all when I crossed the finished line I think I had done a distance of 13.3 miles.  Thinking about my time it’s very bittersweet – I am kind of impressed I finished it just over 2 hours considering how my last 5 miles went, but I am disappointed with myself for not keeping it together and staying under 2 hours and running the whole time.  But on a positive side my favorite part of the race was high five-ing some of the kids out there cheering on their parents and the baby I passed that was at least old enough to be waving his arms around in excitement as people ran by!  That big grin on his face put a smile on my face!

Us with Bitner

 Our Results:

Teal: Hit a new PR at this race! Finished in 2:14:52, was 53rd out of 140 in her age group and finished 831st overall!

Beth: Finished in 2:06:35, was 39th out of 140 in her age group and finished 617th overall.

We mentioned in our pre-race post that Bitner was supposed to run with the half with us in December at the White Rock Marathon, but was sick and unable to run.  This was his very first half marathon race ever and we just had to acknowledge how awesome he is!  He finished in 1:44:39, was 21st out of 94 in his age group and finished 106th overall!

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What Motivates You?

May 4, 2011 by · 3 Comments

We have been asked by a few people what motivates us to run – we want to know what motivates YOU to run!

For both of us it is a means to staying active, healthy and in shape!  We set goals through signing up for races and maintaining our running ability.

Do you have differing reasons or an additional reasons why you run?  We want to know! Leave us a comment w/motivates YOU!

– Beth & Teal

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April’s Race

April 18, 2011 by · 4 Comments

We are now a third of the way through our 2011 running goal!!  Yet again we had a VERY busy race weekend – are you starting to see a theme with the two of us?  Busy, busy, busy! Beth and Joe picked up Teal and made the roughly hour long drive to Ft. Worth to meet up with Mouyyad!  Since the race was in Ft. Worth one of Mouyyad’s friends picked up all of our race packets and it was very out of the ordinary for us to be standing around at the start line without our bibes 15 minutes prior race, but we got our bibes and were ready to go with time to spare!

We thought the majority of the race would be throughout the zoo, only part of it was and as it turns out that was perfect since the zoo part was pretty smelly!  For the first half mile of the 5k I think we both regretted reading this blog on clock blocking and all the people we were having to dodge (not because the blog is bad – it is SO true was just at the forefront of our minds).  I think we both were pretty tired early on due to that and we have both been a little spoiled with our last couple of 5k’s being pretty small there was no need to dodge other runners.  There were also a few hills throughout the course.  Both of us never really felt like we were running in a race where we would do well.

But then you look at our results and see that we were completely wrong:

Teal: 25:55, finished 6th in her age group and set a new PR!

Beth: 26:11 and finished 7th in her age group

 

Also, both Joe & Mouyyad got new PR’s out of the 5k Zoo Run!

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Dash for Diabetes

April 8, 2011 by · 1 Comment

April was almost looking to be as crazy as February, and as you know I (Teal) was unable to run an official race. Beth, luckily, was able to squeeze in the Cupid Run in Corpus and kept our goal alive. So, in fear that it would happen again I signed up to run the Dash for Diabetes, because Beth and I have a crazy month again. She has a trip with her sister, Kate, to visit relatives and tour Texas, as well as a few other events this month. and I have a wedding to attend. I am super jealous of this trip, but just in case you were worried, we did actually plan a race together. We will be running the Ft. Worth Zoo Run next weekend! The Diabetes race stuck out to me because it is a huge problem in my family. My step-dad is so bad he can’t keep a doctor, and my grandmother has struggled with it for most of her life. So it’s none the less fitting. Here is the link to read more about it if you want.

With that said, I woke up this morning truly ready to run. I set the alarm, had all of my stuff ready, and when I woke up I did my daily morning check of twitter and thanks to @druidDUDE (yes the dude from Glee) I read: Hello Friday, Hello Tumblr. FRIDAY? What? I woke up my husband who was like “What is wrong with you, it’s Friday.” So I quickly got up and got dressed for work. The race is Saturday. Booo.

Apparently I need to actually get prepared for a Saturday Race. Usually Beth and I would have pre-planned a meeting place and time and I would know what day of the week it is, clearly I don’t do well alone. Here is my goal and the weather for this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes! Hopefully I won’t wake up tomorrow thinking it’s Sunday.

My Goal: Hoping to do better than Kacie’s run which was 26:26.

Weather forecast:
Wind: S at 21 mph (oh lord!)
Low: 71*
High: 91*
Prec: 10%

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What Do YOU Do with Your Race Bibs?

April 6, 2011 by · 36 Comments

No, really we want to know!

Do you discard them?  Do you keep them in a box? Do you make an album with them?

So far this year we have 3 and 4 race bibs.  As you know 2011 is a different year for us and honestly, a special one, as we are tackling a goal we’ve never attempted before.

Leave us a comment and let us know!

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