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Running for Two: Trimester Two

February 6, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

They say the second trimester is the “honeymoon” phase and I have to say I am really not sure what they mean by that. I was not as tired which was awesome, and I didn’t have to just sit around and rest like I was in the first trimester, but that was about it. Everything else was still the same in terms of working out and running feeling more and more like extra work.

I had previously complained about breathing but it did not really become harder, which was nice. I just had some moments of feeling breathless and much of that started in the last couple of weeks of the second trimester instead of the beginning. Our last White Rock 9 mile run was tough and I had spots where I had to stand more to catch my breath even at a slow pace.

My pace has dropped again. I was normally around a 9:30 mile runner on average and am now closer to 10:30-11 average, which is hard to swallow sometimes. It’s slow (slow for me, not the world of running.) I didn’t think it would get that slow, but it has, and mixed in with that slowness is also many breaks.

Towards the middle of the second Trimester I had a pulling feeling in my lower stomach. Some I really can’t explain what they were, but it more or less felt like tightness or soreness at the bottom. I hesitate to call it round ligament pain (I only know about that because I read other people’s horror stories) and what I was experiencing was not horrible, it was just uncomfortable. It mostly would happen if I did runs closer together and would just stay tight for a couple of days. Also with that I had a few runs where I just felt the baby in weird places and stopped running. My belly button has felt bruised and sometimes when running it would feel like he was pushing there so I would stop running. I have also had a few times where I had to walk until he moved or a random pain would go away. It’s just weird to have a human in there doing its own thing while you are running. Most of the time it is fine, but sometimes it is weird and I would just stop and walk until it went away! Not sure what else to do but really my advice, if you wanted it, is just stop! I think if this was a second baby I would feel differently but having nothing to really compare feelings to it makes me nervous so I just stay cautious, even though I am sure it is fine!

My back HURTS. The last half we ran in California, the back pain started about the 8^th mile and continued for a week… haha

I don’t brave the elements like I would have before. It’s not worth freezing or burning up for any length of time to run a half while growing a human! As a matter of fact we both wussed out of our last half, and what would have been my last half with this baby due to poor weather.

In none running related news I got my trainer back!! I went 13 weeks without my trainer due to him opening a new gym, FIT, but am glad to be back with him and have consistent monitored cross training and weight lifting! It also just mentally makes me feel better. Packing on pounds is required and happens, but it’s not fun to see on the scale and being active really helps with this mental game. I struggle with it a lot and I am sure/wonder/hope I’m not alone in thinking lots of pregnant people do too.

I am ready for the 3^rd trimester and interested to see how much I will be able to keep moving. Many say it’s the most uncomfortable time, which I totally believe; I am not comfortable now but it is important to me to keep moving and do what I can. My plan is to keep running with a goal of 15 miles a week and will most likely not run any longer than 6-9 miles at a time. No more half marathons until after the baby gets here!

We really would love to hear from anyone who is or has run while pregnant! It’s nice to hear the stories, different experiences and advice! Let us know.

Filed Under: Pregnancy Tagged With: FIT, FIT at Stonebridge Ranch, Half Marathon, pregnant, running, running for two, second trimester, trainer, White Rock Lake

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!

1496172_10201259338227217_78182120_o (2)

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

Oops, We Did it Again

January 30, 2014 by Life is a Run · 2 Comments

Looks like the LiARs are liars again! We better watch out or this might become a habit! 🙂

This time around since you all already knew Teal was pregnant we couldn’t just post a bunch of pictures of us out having a glass of wine or what not because, hello, Teal can’t drink! So a lot of the pretending was done on Beth’s end.

Beth found out in late November that she was pregnant and went ahead and tried to avoid as many circumstances as possible where drinking was involved. 🙂 Except then in December we had a happy hour planned that included a friend that had recently had a baby, so thanks to Teal and Beth’s sister, Kate, the waitress only served Beth virgin mojitos that night.

December 12th

It was hard at the holidays hiding the fact that I wasn’t having a glass of wine with the rest of my cousins. I tried to be sneaky and drink sparkling apple cider, but I had to hide the bottle so no one saw it and I ended up leaving the bottle over night hidden in my mom’s laundry room next to her laundry detergent. Naturally, she needed to do a load of laundry Christmas morning and found it. . . it was hard not going ahead and getting to tell her that she was getting another grandbaby!

But I did appreciate one of my cousins going ahead and assuming my not drinking at a family get together was because I’m such a dedicated runner and give up any alcohol at a certain point before a race! 🙂 Yet another perk to being a runner!

Of course my first sonogram was scheduled for January 2nd so telling anyone over the holidays was pretty much out, but I would like to give a big shoutout to my brother, Scott, and SIL, Lindsay for letting us steal some of each of your thunder as we used their family Birthday celebration days to spill the beans. 🙂

All fake drinking pictures! And thanks to one of my client’s for giving me a bottle of vodka! Maybe it’ll still be around when I’m allowed the occasional adult bev again later this year!

Because I work for my dad he knew early, early on that I was pregnant. He brings me coffee every morning, we occasionally go have a sushi lunch together (and we always get the same things) and sometimes go grab a glass of wine after a long, busy day at the office. Since a lot of things would be changing I went ahead and filled him in that come August he’d be a Granddad for the 3rd time!

Congrats to Beth & Brent on their baby who is due August 6th!!

Filed Under: Pregnancy, Uncategorized Tagged With: pregnancy, running

The Great Santa Run

January 28, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

We signed up for this 5K because, well, ALL of our frunners seemed to be doing it. 🙂 There was also a groupon for it. Everybody needs a small race to get you back into running after a marathon weekend…..oh, wait, Dallas Marathon didn’t happen……

Plus, when you register you get a Santa suit to run in as your swag for this race. We realized the week of this race that it wasn’t actually chipped time, so it makes it that much more of a good lowkey race post Dallas Marathon, if only Dallas Marathon had actually happened. Dang you, #Snowpocalypse!

FRUNNERS!

As you can see in the pic above we found our people quickly when we got there. We heart them!

Beth’s SIL, Tiffany, actually turned their pants into cute skirts for the race.

There were ALL kinds of interesting outfits out there! Although most people just threw on the ol’ Santa suit and called it a day, but perhaps a couple of the runners maybe should have double checked in the mirror that what they wearing was not see through. 🙂 Sometimes your eyes can’t unsee things is all we’ll say!

we have never felt more attractive!

Thanks to Mark for providing us with Christmas music while we all ran together and entertainment as he yelled at every Santa that passed him, “SANTA!!! I know him!!” 🙂

Really it was a fun race as we ran with our friends and got to catch up with them. We got to hear all about Drum braving the weather elements and still getting her marathon in the weekend Dallas Marathon cancelled and not only that but BQ-ing her race! Talk about speedy! This race you might have also already learned that Teal knew she was having a baby boy. 🙂 (sorry we forgot to tell you for so long here!) So many things to catch up on while running. A nice stress free 5K! Mark even took a video of the race….if you watch long enough you might see a snowman take a tumble.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Maz3_6l085Q]

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: 5k, Dallas Marathon, frunners, groupon, Plano, running, Santa, snowpocalypse, the great santa run

Remember That Time We Ran the Turkey Trot in 2013?!

January 21, 2014 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

Happy 2014!! We are playing catch up over here….we enjoyed our holidays a little too much that we neglected the ol’ blog. Maybe next holiday season we should just plan on that and let you know we are taking a vaca. Things to think about for this new year, huh? Well, let’s get to the ol’ catch up……

pre race car pic

All we really want to say about this race is we are SO glad that the Turkey Trot people got it together and let the timed runners start in a separate corral from the non-timed runners. They also banned the strollers and dogs in that corral making it much safer for the actual runners. We were very worried about this race last year with falling and obviously a little more worried about it this year (you know since Teal is with child) before we knew about the change. It seemed to work so much better and we didn’t see anyone fall which was reeeeeally not the case in the past!

Miles 1-4

Teal: So with all that said about the new system we got there and had to pee really fast and get in that corral because it’s shut off! I think we made it by like 3 minutes! Please note that I actually went to the bathroom before the race. By mile 1 I was dying and needed to pee again and there was not a stop there. The stop was just before mile 2 and apparently everyone and their dog had to go as well. I was seriously contemplating stopping but in my head I was like, you are running slower, Chase is doing the 5k and Beth is speedy so you stopping here it is going to take like 10 minutes just suck it up. Worst mistake. I figured at the next water station they would have at least a port-o-potty. NOPE, nothing! I would also like to add here that this was really the first time I ever noticed the X in the road to mark where JFK was killed. They had made a big deal about that this year due to the 50^th anniversary and they repaved the road. So any concerned can now rest easy because it’s there! Anyway, I kept thinking, get to the bridge they always have one up there, but little had I paid attention, they changed the entire course. I saw a bathroom on the way other side of the road at about mile 3 and that was going to take too much effort again. Then my saving grace at about mile 4ish this women was passing out tissues. I ran over, grabbed a handful and peed behind the dumpster basically in front of a cop. I was super worried that he might get mad or ticket me, because he kept looking over like, what is that lady doing. You totally aren’t allowed to pee in public so the entire time I was coming up with my very true pregnant lady excuse. Either way it saved me! Thank you to whomever you are for our tissues!

Beth: Per usual there was still a lot of weaving to be done in this race in the beginning. It just brings so many people out that it happens. I was confused though since we had the timed corral with NO DOGS and NO STROLLERS allowed to see some dogs and strollers. I guess some people did not start at the actual start line and just jumped in!? There’s always a side of crazy at this race. Or maybe that’s every race and we just don’t always know it? No real complaints on the first few miles I was just trying to find my groove and stick with. I was annoyed towards the 5K cutoff because that comes up and there’s a sign that says turn left here for the 5k then down the road there is a sign that says you missed the 5K turn so turn around. A pair of walkers on my right decided to turn left as I was running by them. I hope they enjoyed my “WATCH WHERE YOU’RE GOING!” 🙂

Miles 4-8

Teal: Really went by without me even noticing, the course while flat is pretty boring. Not much happening and there really is like no crowd support or anything. By 6 I had to pee again. This is the worst I have ever had this pee issue before. I stopped at the one that was like at 6.5ish (the one that was too much of a pain earlier) and then went on about my way. The last mile is up hill and kind of a pain in the arse but really still not bad. I was just super glad they changed the course because last year’s course was waaaaaay hillier! Thanks again Turkey Trot people. We appreciate it. They really have restored my love for this race and I have way less bitchy issues about it this year than I have in the past!

Beth: Here I was excited for the change of scenery a little bit, ok, well it isn’t really a beautiful area of town per se but having a change in the course was a nice change. This portion provided a bit of an out an back part and as I was running the out part I overheard a teenager walking down the median of the street saying “I guess I missed the turn off somewhere??” Haha! I laugh but I’ve missed a turn off myself too. I wasn’t really trying for a PR this day, but I was happy to find out my time that day was only 7 seconds away from my 8 mile PR! Not only that but this race has been pretty consistent over the past few years – 2013: 1:11:43; 2012: 1:11:36 and 2011: 1:11:46. Now to try and break that 1:11 time! 🙂 This year was a fun year because I actually got to see my SIL, Lindsay out there and Uncle Rob!

Lindsay, Uncle Rob and Beth

See you in 2014, Turkey Trot!

Filed Under: Races, Uncategorized Tagged With: 5k, 8 miles, races, running, Turkey Trot

How the Ice Ate Dallas Marathon

December 10, 2013 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

Just in case you didn’t know or somehow missed, we were supposed to run the Dallas Marathon this past Sunday (Beth the full and Teal the half), but Mother Nature had a completely different plan for us and the rest of the Dallas Marathon hopefuls. Thursday afternoon Dallas weather turned from what was a warm, high in the 70’s during the week to what we Dallasites refer to as the #Icepocalypse2013.

Our favorite weatherman, Pete Delkus, basically told us on Thursday night that we were all about to be “entombed” by ice. We of course spent our evenings in denial and really just seemed worried about what the heck we would wear to run in this weather. Beth tweeted our Colorado friend Courtney for advice on what to wear since she is used to this sort of thing. We were not thinking at all that we actually not run this race at all, or at least if the thought was there we were trying to ignore it!

Turns out Pete was right (and he’s apparently now a weather god) and when we woke up Friday Texas looked much like this…

Roads were ridiculous and not drivable. We southerners are not prepared for this type of thing, it’s not just that people can’t drive or don’t know how to drive on it, we simply don’t have the road clearing equipment like they do in the north, and the little we have is not enough to clear the metroplex with any type of speed! We are always just stuck when this happens, entombed, if you will! Ugh! We still were pretty much in denial and thought the weather would get above freezing before Sunday and we could run. Surely it would, right?? We thought maybe they would just delay it. Dallas Marathon folks let us know what they could and instead of canceling the expo they delayed the opening until 2pm on Friday. That has to be a good sign right?

Well, then Friday lunch time came around. Nothing was improving, and we were all trapped. Then it came. An email from Dallas Marathon at 12:50ish Friday afternoon, cancelling not only the expo but cancelling the race altogether. 🙁

The worst email we’ve gotten in awhile! 🙁

There it was. Months of training seemingly wasted, especially for those who battled months of marathon training. Devastating really, without trying to be hugely dramatic, we get there are worse things in life, but for this, at this time, it is devastating. It was hard not to have a pity party. We did and started to Google. There has to be another marathon close that is open? We can drive (wait, can we??) Either way. We looked. The BCS marathon in College Station was the best bet but just still wasn’t feasible for us. :-/ We were out from running.

Commence eating all the carbs…

We ate, slept, did puzzles, and talked with Catherine (we are positive all of our husband’s rolled their eyes on this one) all weekend, and continued to live in denial that this had actually happened.

Come Sunday, we really hadn’t heard much about the details about the cancellation. We knew, having run a ton of races that we were not going to get a refund and we knew that and were not mad. We didn’t know about anything else. Dallas Marathon again sent us another email…

They are giving us our participant shirts!!

We think this was an awesome response and we took to Facebook to thank them for handling it so well. We were pretty shocked to see some of the responses given to the race. Like “where is our refund”, or “ how could you do this”, or whatever other idiotic response you can think of. We knew, everyone knew, you had to click an agreement before you could complete your registration that there would be no refunds for the race. This is pretty much a standard in racing and SUPER rare that you would actually get money back due to weather or cancellation. We get it. Apparently many others do not.

This race is put on by RUNNERS for RUNNERS. It is not one of those races that travels all over the country making tons of money putting on races. We can point you in the direction of some of those if you would like. This is different and this should be a learning experience for all. We do not claim to know what all goes in to race directing but we do know that this race gives a medal, a participant shirt, a finisher’s shirt, fancy bibs, food for runners, water stations, Gatorade, safety, police, port-o-potties, and anything else you can think of that we left off! We know money comes from different places and there are donations, but we also know that Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children benefits directly from money raised by Dallas Marathon. Hopefully others know this now because to call them thieves we think is a little ridiculous!

Needless to say we vented and then thanked Dallas Marathon for making the decision. They did what was best for the safety of runners and also for the city already strapped for resources. They knew it is not a good idea to take resources from the city to clear a race course when thousands didn’t have power, the roads needed to be scraped and sand poured, and officers needed to help those in need. Thank you for that!

Also, if you haven’t met our friend Erik. You are about to. He, and his friends, have been a part of an unofficial, which should be official (wink, wink Dallas Marathon) cheering section at the Dolly Parton hills (more frequently referred to as “The Dollies”), one of the most challenging areas of the course. Erik dresses as a Dolly, and helps runners up and down those hills in style. He sent us these pictures to cheer us, and everyone else up.

Pretty Sexy isn’t he? (sorry, he’s taken!) Who would want to miss this cheer section? Not us, and we didn’t have to this year either! He made our day and made the blow of the cancellation a little more bearable! Thank you for that, Erik!

Thanks again Dallas Marathon!! Mother Nature we are still pretty irritated at you, but we will be back in 2014!

Filed Under: Life Tagged With: BCS Marathon, Dallas Marathon, dolly parton, finisher's shirt, Half Marathon, Icepocalypse, Marathon, participant shirt, Pete Delkus, race medal, runners, running, Texas Scottish Rite Hospital, the dollies, training

December Goals

December 5, 2013 by Life is a Run · 2 Comments

The post where we tell you what we hope to accomplish throughout this month. 🙂

Teal –

1. Run the Dallas Half Marathon and be happy about it! It will make me tired, it will not be super fast, the weather gods are clearly against us at the current moment, and I probably would rather sleep and stay warm in my bed that day ( I still get chills thinking about 2011, and the news said worst weather ever) NO MORE WATCHING THE NEWS! I want to run this and be happy about it at the end, enjoy each mile and the scenery, not annoy myself, and be super ready to cheer on Beth and Catherine for their last 13 when I am done!

2. House-wise I would like to finish the kitchen windows which I didn’t do last month. This involves finding fabric and making the window cornices Beth has made and Kate featured on her blog!

3. UHHH Christmas shop? When did it become December and why is Christmas 3 weeks away already? I am such a slacker at this every year and if you have been reading a while I am pretty certain I had to make decorate a goal last year because I have been known to skip it, so I’ll go ahead and add that in there.

4. I want to continue one long run a week regardless of when the next race is. For me long is now about 9 miles and one mid-week run of at least 4-5. Everything else (cross training, spin, Stairmaster) I will call icing on the cake!

5. BLEACHERS! 1 day a week. This involves walking them unlike before! Get there one day. This makes your booty hurt more than anything I do in life. Must get there.

Beth –

1. Ok, I’m copying Teal on this….run the Dallas Marathon and be happy that you have the ability to run 26.2 miles!

2. Hang shelf in our dining room so the clock has some company on the wall!

3. Make my own Christmas wreath for our front door.

4. Keep up with running after Dallas Marathon (you know after a couple of rest days).

5. Attempt to complete my goodreads goal of 26 books in 2013. What should I read this month?! I’m currently reading How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue.

6. I think I should also tag-a-long and do some bleachers with Teal. Don’t you think so?

It is crazy that 2013 is about to come to a close on us! What are trying to accomplish this month?

Filed Under: Goals, Uncategorized Tagged With: bleachers, Christmas, christmas wreath, Dallas Marathon, diy, goodreads, Half Marathon, how to eat a cupcake, meg donohue, reading, running, window cornices

DRC Half 2013

November 14, 2013 by Life is a Run · Leave a Comment

So we ran our first half in 7 months! 7 months?!?! Can’t believe we went that long, but we did. But this is a great race put on by the Dallas Running Club hence the DRC and we weren’t able to run it last year as it was the day Beth & Brent got back from their honeymoon. So 2011 was our last and first encounter with the DRC Half!

This year we got a long sleeve shirt and upon completion of the race a finisher tech shirt! Behold the long sleeve shirt.

The way in which we handle race mornings kind of goes back and forth a lot and depends on how big the race is, the location of the race and what experience we’ve had with this race in the past. We had a 7:30 start time for the DRC Half, so Beth was going to aim to be at Teal’s house at 6 a.m. which meant she’d be there a few minutes after 6:00 a.m. at the earliest until she realized she left her Garmin at home and turned around to go get it which would have put her at Teal’s house past 6:15 a.m. Ha! But then Teal texted about how she meant to get peanut butter because they were accepting donations of peanut butter to be given to the North Texas Food Bank and Beth went ohhhh, yah, I wanted to do that too. So plans were quickly altered and we met in the parking lot of Walmart, Teal’s favorite store (sarcasm font), to get us some peanut butter!

We basically made it in time to stand in the line for the port-a-potties, Teal to spot her trainer friend, drop off the peanut butter and run into our friend Elaine before we made our way to the “corrals.”

Miles 1-3

Teal: I was pretty nervous going into this race even though I have been running. Pretty much between 9 and 10 miles each weekend and shorter runs or cross training during the week but the first ½ marathon while pregnant made me nervous. I knew I would not run under 10 minutes a mile so I started out at just that. Beth and I had both decided to not run without music because really we haven’t been running with it at all lately. It actually proved to be very entertaining. During the first 3 miles I stayed with a pack of men between the ages of 68 and 70. Yes I felt slow, and I only know their ages because they made fun of each other the entire time. One man was like, “only those in the 60-69 age group wear knee braces,” needless to say they both had them on the exact same leg. Another said “I can’t wait to get to that 70 age group next year and smoke them all.” I was pretty much dying laughing for this stretch and it made it go by pretty fast! So impressed they are still running at 70!

Beth: I didn’t really have expectations for this race, so I more just wanted to run, not die and be happy with myself by the end of it. Ok, well, actually I did ideally want to run it in under 2 hours since I know I am capable of that. It was chilly race morning so I was just more anxious to get warmed up in these first few miles. It was in these miles that a lady dropped something I went back and grabbed it for her and thought wonder if I’ll regret doing this later because of the big maybe 3 seconds I just lost. 🙂

Miles 3-6

Teal: HILLY.. FREAKING HILLY!! Beth lied to me! She told me it wasn’t hilly and I am pretty sure at this point I knew why she lied to me. It sucked. It is one of those that literally every other turn is up hill. I made a decision to run them. I wanted to walk them but I RAN them! I figured if nothing else, if I didn’t make it or died at the end, I could at least say I ran the hard part. I kept going back and forth with a trainer I knew from 24 hour fitness, Mark, and he kept walking the hills. I actually felt pretty strong up them but once I hit about 6.5 my legs felt like lead.

Beth: Hehe, I wasn’t tryyyyying to lie to Teal. Maybe I’m just really bad at reading race course elevations, OK?! I thought there would be two main bad hill areas and so I’d apparently not even made myself aware of how hilly this race was. Neither one of us really remembers the course for DRC 2011, but we know we didn’t run the exact same one. Pretty much anytime you run a race that’s around White Rock and takes you off into the neighborhoods surrounding the lake there will be hills. I normally slow pace down to run up a hill and don’t go for the as fast as you can so it’s over faster method because I fear I won’t recover my breathing and what not soon enough should there be another hill. So that meant this area I had a lot of back and forth with some other runners that would pass me on the hills and I would catch back up to them once they were over. At the mile 4 marker I was presently surprised to see one of my tweeps that I know not because of running! 🙂 Laura was volunteering at that mile marker calling out times as everyone passed it was a pleasant surprise to see her and helped get me up the hill at that moment!

the elevation chart found online for this race

Miles 6-9

Teal: Legs are pretty much dead at this point. I always wonder if people get the same feeling I do after running tons of hills in a row, my legs feel fine on the hills but when I get to the flat part if feels like soooo much more work. At 6.5 is the first time I actually walked during the race. I had walked all the water stations but didn’t walk during the actual race. I ate all my gummy bears between mile 6.5 and 7 because I was starving!

Beth: More back and forth with the people plowing up the hills and then me catching back up to them. At this point in the race I was around this dude and maybe it was because I was getting tired that I kept thinking you really aren’t funny! 🙂 He asked a volunteer where a turn was that you know was abundantly clear WHERE the turn was. At the mile 7 marker he asked that volunteer calling out times what mile we were at. I don’t think that volunteer found it funny as he was taking his job seriously and having to be on top of calling out times. Oh, well I eventually lost him at some point and wasn’t too sad about it.

Miles 9-12

Teal: After mile 9 you have pretty much made it up the last hill over by the spillway bridge. THANK GOD. If there had been more I might have died. I am super familiar with this part of the lake and just did my normal mental talks. “make it to the arboretum”, “make it to the forest” “make it to the boats.” It worked and I just continued to walk water stations. I knew at around 11.5-12ish I would see Catherine because she was going to hang out in the “forest area” because there is a playground. I kept running knowing I would get some motivation and I knew after that I wouldn’t stop again. That area was the last water station! I saw Catherine and she made an awesome sign that said “ baby Catherine Elizabeth wants her first bling” (Please note: Catherine and Beth have named my child after them, they are flexible in the order, Catherine Elizabeth, Elizabeth Catherine, either will due for them…. She really has no name at this point so I’ll let them claim this for now 🙂 )

Beth: It was in this part of the race I hated myself. I knew after we got just far enough from the car before the race started that I hadn’t put body glide on my shoulders for where my sports bra tends to chaff and oohhhh I could feel the pain of that chaffing. I knew Catherine was going to be at one of the park areas along the lake with her kids, but I didn’t know for sure which one she’d pick and then I saw her and was so excited to see a familiar face! She had a sign for me that said “Hurry up, Beeper, only 3 more miles to the port-a-potties!” Haha, because every long run we’ve done I make her stop at some point during the run for me to go the bathroom. 🙂

Miles 12-13.1

Teal: Pretty much felt like the death march. I was super-hot and very much wanted to be done running. I took off my jacket around 12.5 just in time for Jesse to snap a ridiculously ugly pictures of me walking and taking off my top, HOT I tell ya, HAWTTT!!! @@. I was secretly hoping I would see someone I knew here and maybe Beth had been done so long she wanted to come drag me in. I saw Mark and he cheered me on to the last stretch and saw Beth immediately after finishing!!

Beth: I was just ready to be done during this part. The chaffing part of my shoulder sucked. It was nice to see Jesse out there and see yet another familiar face! At this point I knew I would be coming into the finish line under 2 hours and I was happy! My official time ended up being 1:57:42 – a success!

Teal: This was not my fastest, duh, who is surprised, but not my slowest, which kind of surprised me. Overall I was pretty proud of my effort and lack of walking. Bring on half number 2 slash 20 on December 8^th!!

Side note: We are super excited about the race bling serious they have started. Each year will represent a different part of the lake on the metal. This year was the pump house, next year, Winfrey Point, which many of you know has a special place in our heart now. We have tons of motivation to keep running this over the next few years to collect them all! God help us that we can keep staying in this kind of shape!

We also stayed at this race for. ev. er. 🙂 We found #TeamK in the beer garden and had to hangout with them. They’d actually acquired a new friend in the beer garden, Glen, which we all might run into again at Dallas Marathon. Fingers crossed!

The LiARs and Michelle from #TeamK

Erik from #TeamK

We all enjoyed chatting with Glen and hearing about all the running he’s done over the years. We also all admired his legs! Ha Hence while the below picture captured them. 🙂

January babies!

Over all it was a fun day and such an exciting day for Teal & baby to complete their first half marathon!!

Filed Under: Races Tagged With: baby, Dallas Running Club, DRC Half, garmin, Half Marathon, pregnant running, running, White Rock, Winfrey Point

Running for Two: Trimester One

November 5, 2013 by Life is a Run · 2 Comments

Beth and I ran our first half marathon in 7 months yesterday and this was obviously the first while simultaneously growing a human. I am currently at 15 weeks just so you have a reference of time and how long I have actually been running pregnant.

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Running has been interesting and I have been asked tons of questions about how it is going, so we figured I could update you guys on how that is going and if anyone else is in the same boat or maybe will be in the same boat it might be helpful. Also even though I have been a runner for a while now and run tons of races, I still had/have a lot of fear about running even though the doctor has cleared me to run, even at longer distances, and that I see women do it all the time. It’s almost like a switch changes when it’s your kid in your body. I went to Google and that just scared the crap out of me, so here is what I have experienced, and have done, and so far this baby is doing perfectly well and I have had no issues *now finds every piece of wood around to knock on*

Here is how the first trimester has gone:

I was scared to dehydrate so I only now run with water or where I know I can get water every other mile or so. I was NOT good at this before but also never had problems. We have pretty much taken all of our runs to White Rock where there is tons of water available.

I have avoided the heat as much as possible and am glad the majority of this pregnancy will be in the winter. I did not run when it was too hot and actually stopped all my hot yoga as well.

I eat during the run way more than I did before. Typically every 3-4 miles.

I wear out much faster, it’s harder to breathe in even though this baby is small there is a lot more blood to move around and it really does feel like it when you are running. At first it just felt like I was out of shape, which I knew was not possible and now I know why it’s like that and am pretty prepared for that to get worse.

I take more breaks and I don’t beat myself up for them. I have to stop and walk or stand even for just a minute or so or I won’t make it. During my ½ this weekend I walked every single water station and took water at all of them, which I never did before at all. I also walked about .5 of a mile to eat.

I was never one to be blessed in the boob area and never really thought twice about that ever being an issue. I thought that “those” came later in pregnancy and quickly learned that that is not the case AT all. This change happened around 8 weeks and that long run left me in so much pain. Invest in good bras!! I have not really had a problem since, but no one really told me about that so early and I never expected the pain that comes with not being prepared for that. I could barely roll over and I called my mom convinced I might be having a heart attack! Ha. So far I have not had to wear anything around my stomach. That might change soon!

Exhaustion in the first couple of months is just stupid. It’s an exhaustion I have never really experienced before, and you can’t shake at all. I had to cut myself A LOT of slack when it came to running. I couldn’t stay awake passed like 7:30 at night, was napping all the time, and didn’t want to do ANYTHING. My husband jokes that I haven’t lifted a finger… I didn’t want to move let alone but on shoes and run alone outside. I cut running during the week for a while until that total exhaustion phase went away and now I rest when I need to.

I cannot do this without Beth. I wouldn’t run at all. She has been there for all my long runs and if she wasn’t I wouldn’t do it. You need a running buddy for sure, and one that won’t want to kill you when you have to do all the aforementioned things during your runs. She is training for a marathon and has stuck with me! I catch her on the last half of her run so hopefully she is worn out a little and it seems to be working! I also do not run alone anymore unless it is like 3 or less miles in the daylight by my house.

My motivation level has changed more toward just being careful then getting a PR or running fast. I have not and will not push my stride speed at all passed what I have done this entire pregnancy. I have lowered my pace somewhere between thirty seconds to a minute and a half a mile, and am fully prepared to either not start a race based on how I feel or DNF if I need to.

I am running still because I love it and my pregnancy is healthy. I have been cleared from my doctor to run all the way up until I give birth. I am a super worry wart so this might seem like madness to some of you but I do have fear, so I am super careful and have more or less decided I will do this as long as it feels good. I want to stay healthy and in shape to prepare for delivery and carrying a baby all the way through. Running can help this and working out does as well.

I’ll keep you posted about how the second trimester goes with running. We do have Dallas Scheduled for December 8^th and that race will hit at start of week 20, and also a race about 6 weeks after that. Happy Running!

Filed Under: Pregnancy Tagged With: Half Marathon, long runs, Marathon, running, running for two, running while pregnant, training, White Rock Lake

October Goals

October 3, 2013 by Life is a Run · 1 Comment

Don’t worry we’ll let you know how we did on those September goals soon, but in an effort to not delay putting out there what we want to accomplish in October we are getting these goals out there to the world. Time to get busy!

Teal –

1. Log food in myfitnesspal EVERYDAY. You should follow me! I will follow you, we can keep each other accountable! I am teal0906 on there. 🙂

2. Wake up 4 mornings per weekday and workout, even if it is just 30 minutes. Choose 1 day to take off.

3. Prep meals. I use to do this religiously and haven’t… hence the Mexican food twice in one day!

4. Minimum of 64oz of water daily. I need more because I am so active but I am not even getting 64… must fix.

5. If I am going to eat a cookie it can only be 1 and when I say cookie I also mean any other sugary treat that I feel like I can’t live without. Just 1, not 4, not 7, not the entire box, just 1. I say this because if I say absolutely no to these treats I really will eat them all.

Beth –

1. Pretty much since I’m in that book club now and I have a reading goal for this year on goodreads.com I’m just going to make y’all read every month about my goals. I’m super pumped because the third book in the Divergent series comes out this month and I canNOT wait to read it! 🙂 So this will at least be one of my two books to read this month.

2. I’m still working towards an organized home… 🙂 Will I ever accomplish this? I have a collection of boxes in three different places right now and my goal is to go through them, throw things away and either put the leftovers in the attic or some other place they can live.

3. This goal basically let’s you know I did not meet a goal last month, so again this month I shall make a window treatment for at least one of the three windows in my house I have fabric to do said project! I’m going to do it!

4. Yoga! Is it annoying that I keep just repeating goals?! I really want to make sure I’m getting in yoga during my marathon training because I know it’ll be soooo beneficial come December 8th when I’m taking on those 26.2 miles at Dallas Marathon!

What are you trying to accomplish this month??

Filed Under: Goals Tagged With: 26.2, Allegiant, books, Dallas Marathon, Divergent series, goodreads, marathon training, myfitnesspal, running, Veronica Roth, yoga