Thankful Thursday

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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December’s Race

December 6, 2011 by · 39 Comments

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

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

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

hanging out in Corral C

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beth around Mile 19

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

Mandy holding Meranda

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

Teal around Mile 19

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

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

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

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

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

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

.2 miles left

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

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

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

Lessons Learned from this race:

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

 Results:

Teal: 4:40:12

Beth: 4:29:31

WE ARE MARATHONERS!!

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White Rock Marathon

December 2, 2011 by · 6 Comments

Well, after a year of running and training the big weekend is fiiinally here. CRAZY! Its is pretty clear that we have been a full range of emotions this week and are pretty sure that will continue through the weekend. I think we’ll save the details of that for the recap! I’m sure you can’t wait for whatever stream of writing comes from that! 🙂 As many of you know we will be running in the Dallas White Rock Marathon on Sunday!

 

So we figured we would give you a few details about the race- especially for those not from here! Based on the news yesterday it is cool that this race is designed by over 40 runners for runners and has awesome features to accommodate the actual runners! (did we say runners enough in that last sentence??) It is pretty interesting also to note that this is also the oldest and largest marathon in Texas and the race benefits the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children.  The course has been improved this year and we recently read an awesome article that details the top 10 things that runners and spectators should know about the race. You can find the link here but we figured we would tell you we are excited about the improved starting times. Last year as we ran the half marathon it actually took us almost 45 minutes to start—eeek. And they said that this year all runners should have crossed the start line within 35minutes! Also the route is wider in areas which is super helpful because there was some strange bottlenecking spots in the ½ last year!

 

We are so ready for this to start! SO READY! We have been a little nuts this week. Teal went home on Wednesday and was such a mess. She ended up baking cookies, making a wreath, uploading pictures and then tossing and turning all night. These may seem relatively normal but are actually things that never happen at all. She even left the stupid hot glue gun on all day and while driving to grad school she missed the exit. She has gone to that school for nearly 7 years – Can it be race day yet?? Beth has been staying occupied by…well, anytime she thinks about the marathon she immediately stops thinking about the marathon. 🙂  And as actually taken a HUGE step back from normal activities and read A LOT and caught up on the DVR this past week!

 

So in getting with the details of the race the course is described as mostly flat with rolling hills. We have heard different stories about those “rolling hills” and many have even called them the “Dolly Parton” hills. We hope they are more like the 12 year old Dolly and not the current Dolly.  We can’t wait to see Michelle‘s (@rnrgrltx) husband out there at the Dolly hills!  Here is a picture of the course with the elevation! We are excited that the last part is basically down hill!

 

Another aspect of the race that is making us a tad bit nervous is the weather.  And by a tad bit nervous we mean constantly freaking out! 🙂 We are not shy or worried about running in the cold. We have done that plenty of times before but we are worried about RAIN. We have been checking the weather since Monday and it is pretty safe to say that that was not the best idea! As of today the weather is as follows:

 

We have both purchased rain gear.  We hope it’s enough!  Beth actually purchased this awesome jacket for the race –

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgaeFQE0sc0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgaeFQEosco]

Thanks to Mary Alice for telling Beth about it and not killing her for running off and buying one for herself!

And Teal for the FIRST time ever has actually purchased something with a little color (you’re welcome, Beth!) –

We are still worry about whether or not we will be warm enough out there should it really rain and if it should rain reeeeally hard!  We’ll both be wearing our Brooks Arm Sleeves again. Green for Teal and yellow for Beth –

We’ll both be wearing the same shirt and Teal will be wearing the Nike pants on the left and Beth will be wearing the CW-X pants on the right.  So should you see one of these combos of clothing with one of our jackets on us – you found us! HA

We have tons of friends & family coming to watch us and we could not be more grateful!! We appreciate your support SO MUCH!! We have been working on strategically placing them along the course to help us out!  We have also set up RunKeeper Elite because the race does not have official tracking this year. 🙁  So if anyone wants to track us you can find us both by following these links:

Beth is at –  http://runkeeper.com/user/ealynch12/races

Teal is at –  http://runkeeper.com/user/tealperez/races

Although we think that we should both show up on the same map, but just in case you have the link for each of us.  Fingers crossed!

Our goal is rather different for this race – first and foremost we want to finish!  And not only do we want to finish we want to do it without stopping – no walking!  It is not in either one of us to stop and start it again.  We cannot tell you how HARD it is for us to get going after we stop to walk. We want to run the entire thing.  So with that ultimate goal accomplished we are going to run at a pace that would hopefully put us finishing the marathon between 4:15 and 4:20.  We will ultimately be happy with either of these things occurring and we are SO excited about actually achieving this goal!

 If you have any tips for and or suggestions for running in the rain we will gladly take them!

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Playing Catch Up: Running & Wedding

November 30, 2011 by · 4 Comments

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

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

Way too blurry but here we come running

And out pops Brent with the surprise!!

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can you guess which one of us is older?

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

Rebekah's Wedding in 2007

Mandy's Wedding in 2011

 

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

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

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November Race No. 3

November 28, 2011 by · 4 Comments

Our last race in November is in the books!  How have 11 months of our goal year already passed??

Thanksgiving morning we woke up and did not necessarily have to be up super early since the Turkey Trot didn’t start until 9:00 a.m. SO late!  Teal and Beth’s cousin, Chase met over at Beth’s house to carpool together downtown for our Thanksgiving run.  We really had no issues with traffic or parking down there just had to fret over whether or not we might get a ticket when our metered parking spot expired.  We have no fear we were ticketless! Hooray!

Chase opted not to dress up as a turkey with us, but we quickly made our way over to the table to get our costumes approved and into the Turkey Coop we went!  The Dallas Turkey Trot this year was attempting to set a new Guinness World Record  for the largest gathering of humans dressed as turkeys!  All of us turkeys 🙂 had to wait around in the Coop until 8:35 when the clock started and we were all in the coop for 10 minutes with our costumes on.  We never actually heard it declared that a new record was set, but we did see the person with Guinness World Record there counting each of the turkeys as the passed through the entrance of the Coop.  We will hopefully receive a certificate in our email for participating in setting a New Guiness World Record!

The Pilgrims who came to shoot the Turkeys 🙂

One of the guys with the YMCA in his freaking awesome Turkey costume!

Once it hit 8:45 a.m. all of us turkeys were then walked over to the start line.  We were all excited this year to not have to dodge as many people since timed runners started 5 minutes before everyone else, buuut dressing like a turkey didn’t really allow us to make that earlier start.  This race we might have stayed together for maaybe a whole minute then Teal darted off and Beth stayed behind doing her own dodging.

This year was much like last year – lots of dodging around until the 5k turn off.  It was also around this part of the race where our distance got off.  All three of us discussed after the race how our Runkeeper app had us almost a half mile ahead of where we were and Chase mentioned it happened around the time we were all passing through a part of downtown with lots of buildings that must have messed up our GPS.  Here are our splits and we wish we were as awesome in mile 3 as our Runkeeper app tries to make us out to be:

Teal's Splits

Beth's Splits

Beth had actually stayed up late trying to sew the feathers onto the back of our shirts, so was literally running on only about 4 hours of sleep and was SO glad we had run that same race last year to know what kind of hills were coming a long the course.  Teal had forgotten about the hills throughout the race, but you would never think that based on her time!  Teal completely crushed her time from last year by almost 14 minutes exactly!  Here are our results –

Teal: 1:11:06, finished 82nd in her age group, 424th female to finish and 1,724th to finish overall

Beth: 1:11:46, finished 87th in her age group,  455th female to finish and  1,799th to finish overall

Turkey Trot 8 mile Elevation

Once we were all finished and found each other we went immediately back to the car and to head back to Beth’s house.  Beth’s sister, Kate, is awesome and had some mimosas and champagne punch waiting for us when we arrived back from the race!

Checkout that Go Sport ID shirt Chase is wearing! =)

We will leave you with this little tidbit of information – I think we both have been asked before ‘How did they come up with an 8 mile distance to this race too??‘ Well here is your answer straight from the Dallas Turkey Trot website –

The unique eight mile distance was created when the one hundred and seven participants were instructed to run along the shores of White Rock Lake “to the big oak tree and back”.  By 1979, the race had become so popular that it was moved to the downtown area to accommodate more runners and to showcase “Big D”.

We hope you all had a safe and happy Thanksgiving with your families! 🙂

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Happy Thanksgiving!!

November 24, 2011 by · 6 Comments

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Dallas Turkey Trot

November 23, 2011 by · 6 Comments

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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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November Race No. 2

November 15, 2011 by · 7 Comments

Well, we completed our 4th half of 2011 and 5th half overall this past weekend at Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio!  So many of our running friends were out there too, but we’ll touch on everything we did when not racing in another post!

We were both REALLY excited for this race!  We signed up for this half back in June and began our fundraising efforts for Team Cindy then.  We spent 5 months talking about Cindy Marshall-Death in blog posts and tweets, and so many of  you out there read her story and donated to us!  Because so many people stood with us by donating and because Cindy’s story touches both of our lives this race meant A LOT to us!

We started the race day by waking up at 4:30 a.m. to drive to the shuttle bus pick up, but that ended up being a cluster and we ultimately parked for $18 (ahhh) by the start line. We ended up standing around basically for an hour and a half, but with friends so it was all good!  We both ate peanut butter sandwiches around 6:30 a.m. and were already hungry by the time our corral started the race at 8:00 a.m.

Mary Alice, Teal, Chase, Beth & Bitner

Overall the beginning of the race was great. We seriously felt awesome! For Teal nothing was hurting, well besides her knee that does not like to stay in socket, but other than that all good. We kept a good pace to get across the finish in under 2 hours and that stayed until about mile 9.  It was in those first 9 miles that we ran by a woman wearing a shirt that said “I kicked cancer’s butt twice” and both of us were on the verge of tears. It was shortly after that we began to hear spectators saying “Go Team Cindy,” and the first time we heard that the tears wanted to come again! Neither of us talked about this during the race, but did afterwards and discussed how we both had to get it together to keep going.  Also, Rock ‘n’ Roll – why do you not put names on people’s bibs?? It would make it SO much easier for the spectators to cheer us ALL on!

Us waiting patiently in our corral - notice the straws?? And our ribbons with all of our donators names written on them?

During those first 9 miles we basically moved in and out from people pretty easily but it was annoying and slightly exhausting. We did fairly well for the water stops. Teal had decided to carry a straw this race because she wanted to run sans camelbak and Beth thought she’d try it out with her.  It seriously was awesome.  We both just tucked the straw in our sports bras. Teal just took it out when she needed water – wish we could have somehow gotten a picture of her running and drinking out of her straw at the same time.  People probably thought she was nuts, but it’s better than choking! Beth never actually used the straw and just crunched up the cup to get the water and keep up with the running.

Teal – At about mile 9, I lost my patience and let the annoyance get to me. I ended up stuck behind people at the water stop, the roads had narrowed a bunch, the crowd at points was in the run path and I was like, GET AWAY, I slowed down, I had felt at this point that Beth was running faster than me and I didn’t feel like I could keep up so I slowed down a little.

Beth – It was at a water stop in mile 9 that Teal and I got really separated for the first time.  We were doing some serious dodging at that specific water stop more than any other.  It was around this time that I knew I was teetering a fine line of making it less than 2 hours and just barely missing the goal, so I knew I had to step it up a little bit just to be on the safe side.  I kept thinking about how people would yell for Team Cindy and I’d responded with “Thank you” and send them a smile – did I have more in me and I wasn’t pushing hard enough?

Teal – I ran mile 10 about 30 seconds slower than the previous 10 miles. The last 3 basically sucked in my opinion. I thought I would still make it under 2 hours even with the 30 second slower pace because my Runkeeper kept saying a pace that I knew would make it under 2 and at mile 12.05 (yes I remember it because I was like under a mile) it said I had like 10 minutes and something seconds to make it to the finish under 2 hours and that my current pace would get me there in time. I picked it up a little but was sure I would make it.

Beth – I was keeping my pace pretty consist around 9:00 minute miles and I would say the last 3 miles were hard!  I don’t remember there being much shade and it had gotten HOT and HUMID!  Somewhere in mile 10, I believe, I saw our friend, Heidi, and she asked me if I was on target for finishing sub 2:00.  I told her I thought I was and she told me to go get it!  Appreciated that encouragement right then! Thanks, Heidi!  🙂 When I got to the 11 mile marker I knew I had roughly 20 minutes left before two hours.  I just kept telling myself you are running 9 minute miles, you got this, keep it up!  Don’t give up now when you are so close.  And honestly I never felt like I wanted to stop or give up.  Was it hard? Yes, but I was determined and hungry for the sub 2:00.

The last part of the race before you turn and haul to cross that finish line was freaking uphill!  Pretty sure we both saw that and just thought you have got to be kidding me!  Don’t worry we made sure to take a picture at the end of the race so those of you who weren’t there could see just what this hill looked like.

This one is kind of dark, but hopefully you can get the idea!

Teal – I picked it up a little but was sure I would make it. As I was running up the last hill the stupid 2 hour time sounded in my ear from Runkeeper and I was literally in sight of the finish. Slightly pissed I crossed the line and turned off my timer. 2:01:15. I thought well maybe just maybe my timer was off and I didn’t know the official time. I found out a few minutes later because our dear twitter friend Betsy (@WarriorBetsy), was tracking Beth and I and she tweeted our finish times- 2:00.56.  Initially bummed, but a PR is a PR. I ran that race the fastest I have ever run a half-marathon. It was hot, humid, crowded, and slightly stinky and I still ran it the fastest ever. Oh and I learned something knew about my runkeeper  that I feel dumb for not getting before, but it doesn’t tell the current pace- or at least I am not set on that, so my final 3 miles were actually too slow to make it, but my updates confused me and I still thought I was fin. Live and learn! When I got over it I was super proud of both of us- I am impressed by Beth who was able to get it under 2 hours and super close to her PR, we are definitely stronger than we were when we started all this! Oh and plus, I will have another ½ this year to get in under 2 hours—New Years Double – ekkkk I said it, but first, 3 weeks to the marathon!

Beth – When I crossed the finish line I knew I had to have made it! It might have been barely, but I knew it! I couldn’t get my Runkeeper turned off because 1. I’d needed to go the bathroom (no. 1 only people) since right before the race started and was so focused on getting to a port-a-potty [Sorry mom if you are reading this :)] and 2. I’d turned down the brightness on my iPhone so low to save battery power I couldn’t even see the screen with how bright the sun was.  It was a good 15 minutes later I found out from Betsy what my time was! 1:58:46! But then looking at the official results yesterday they had me clocked at 1:58:47 – oh my, a whole second longer! Haha 🙂

That was a hard race!  We are both VERY proud of what we accomplished out there.  We ran smart races! We drank water, we fueled up a little after the one hour mark of running, and we only pushed ourselves to what our limits where for that day given the temperature and the humidity!  We are proud of our friends who were out there with us!  It was a hard race and no matter what crossing that finish line was a big feat!  So congrats to each and every one of you!

Thank you to Betsy for tracking us and keeping others updated on where we were! It was so cool to see your tweets after the race! Thank you!

White Rock Marathon or BUST!!

Results:

Teal – 2:00:56, a new PR!!  Finished 3,074th overall, 1,055th out of all the females and 209th in age group

Beth – 1:58:47, finished 2,710th overall, 890th out of all the females and 177 in age group

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Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio

November 11, 2011 by · 3 Comments

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It’s here!! The race we signed up for and started fundraising for in June is FINALLY HERE!!

After work today we are headed out to Austin to spend the night with our friend, Mary Alice, who is also running the half with us on Sunday!  We’ll get up early Saturday morning and hit a yoga class before making our way down to San Antonio!  If you didn’t see our blog yesterday – we’ve thrown together a last minute lunch at noon at The Cove.  If you are going to be down in San Antonio for the race or just down there please come join us and RSVP here so we’ll know how many are coming!  We’ll be wearing our Go Sport ID shirts, so if you don’t feel like you’ll recognize us then here we are in them from our Disneyland Half earlier this year –

Maybe we’ll take a new picture in our Go Sport ID shirts that has less of the wind blown hair look!

Y’all!! We can’t tell you how excited we are for this weekend!! As of November 9th we hit our $1,200 fundraising for Team Cindy and breast cancer goal!! Thanks so much to every single one of you that have donated even those of you who have continued to donate past hitting our goal! We’ll just go ahead and say it again – it is SUCH an honor to be running in memory of Cindy Marshall-Death and each and everyone of you who have donated will be running in spirit with us if you are not actually running the race! We are so grateful to the generosity of real life friends, friends we’ve made on twitter, friends we’ve made on twitter and then met in real life! 🙂  With that said – we do still have our Pink Donation Raffle going for a chance to win wonderful products from the fabulous Tommie Copper and Go Sport ID companies! We will be announcing our winners on Monday! So don’t miss our Monday morning post!

This weekend while we are in San Antonio, Cindy’s youngest daughter, Cynthia who is pregnant with Baby Cindy is having a baby shower!  Beth is sad to missing out on that event, but if she has to miss it what better reason is there than to be running for Baby Cindy’s Mammy!

As far as the race goes here is what we are looking in elevation-

We are SO elevation spoiled in Texas!

Goals:

We are both very scared to even put down the true goals in our head for this weekend!  What if we can’t do it??  We both are looking for a sub 2 hour half this weekend!  There we said it!  Beth got on with her very first half and hasn’t seen one since.  Teal’s half PR sits SO close at a 2:01:36.  If all goes right with the start and our corrals hopefully we can achieve this goal.  I’m pretty sure you will all still be our friends even if we don’t go sub 2 hours, but we WANT IT!  This race means so much to us that it would just be the icing on the cake!

Weather:

Low:  61*

High: 76*

Wind:  6MPH

Precip.: 0%

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Wordless Wednesday No. 11

November 9, 2011 by · 2 Comments


 

 

 

 

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