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

April 17, 2012 by · 17 Comments

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

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

Miles 1-3

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

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

Miles 4-6

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

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

Miles 7-10

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

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

Miles 11-13.1

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

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

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

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

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

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Tagged: Beth Edition

February 8, 2012 by · 8 Comments

1. Which of your race medals is your favorite? Why?

It’s hard to say a medal other than the New Year’s Double medal.  I mean seriously, the weight of it! The way it’s put together and how we got it! It’s just awesome plus it does represent the first time ever doing back to back half marathons, BUT I will say that the White Rock Marathon medal comes in verry close to the NYD medal!

2. It’s a leap year! What are you going to do with your extra day on February 29th?

Probably just be thankful because it being a leap year enables Brent & I to get married on the day that he proposed to me – October 27th!

3. What food can you not live without?

I definitely go in stages of the food I LOVE! Goldfish for a long time have been the food I love but I rarely buy them because I’ll eat the whole bag. Ha, but for awhile now it’s been egg rolls. Ha I looooove egg rolls! I eat a lot of Lean Cuisine’s version of them to not be eating high calorie egg rolls.

4. What race is your dream race? Why?

I would say that my dream race is The Kauai Marathon!  Absolutely love Hawaii and then Kauai is just beautiful! I’d love a chance to go back there and run!  Plus the view on that course? Has to be amazing!  Because of the time difference, travel time and money I’d need to save up for that race it seems like a dream!

5. What cartoon character are you most like? Why?

Uhhh, well cartoon character automatically makes me think about Disney and if I had to pick a Disney Princess I think I’m most like I’d say Belle and conveniently that’s who I am dressing up as for the Princess Half at the end of the month!

(source)

6. Does each pair of sock have a “left” sock and a “right” sock?

Uhh, they are socks. Ha, if I manage to have two that are the same or even have two at times it’s a miracle! 🙂

7. What is your favorite way to cross train?

SPIN!!  I’ve been regularly going to spin class for about 5 years now! I own a pair of spin shoes because I love it so much!  You know how runners (myself included) get a runner’s high? I also get a spinning high!

8. What is your favorite race shirt?

Ummm, I don’t totally have one. Just love races that give me long sleeve regular shirts! The design of the Dallas Turkey Trot shirts are always great!

9. Do you have a bucket list?

Nope!  My friend Rebekah and I once had a list of things we wanted to do locally, domestically and internationally but I think I lost it.  Bucket lists are great and I’m interested in what I’d come up with to put on it….

10. Do you have a certain song that you always put at the beginning of your playlists?

Not really, but I kind of get addicted to certain songs.  For example – Sean Kingston’s Fire Burnin’ LOVE singing that song. Ha, I memorized all the words to it. 🙂

That body is a masterpiece the order is one in every hundred years but ain’t no doubt I’m takin’ it home, home

Little mama game about to change, She’ll be on covers all over the world 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkyhvCdJ_vM&ob=av2n]

11. Do you think I am crazy for signing up for the Tough Mudder?

Yes, haha, but a good kind of crazy!  Betsy you are awesome and will do GREAT! I feel like I’d hurt myself in that type of a race!

11 Random Things:

1.  I am a fourth Swedish

2.  I went to the same private school here in Dallas as Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl…know who I’m talking about? He was two grades below me and I remember seeing him when I was in 10th grade when I’d go over and take pictures of the middle schoolers for yearbook. Kind of gave you two things there – yes, I worked on the yearbook at my school.  Also, if you’re a dude and don’t know who I am talking about – his sister married Tony Romo.

(source)

3. I hate talking on the phone. Ha.  When I was little I was SOOO shy that my mom would make me call the pizza guy and anyone else like that so that I could get over my dislike for talking on the phone and especially to people I didn’t know.

4.  As a little kid I just didn’t talk much and was reeeeeeally shy up until I was in high school.  My poor youth pastor & his wife took me to lunch when I was 12 years old and I maaybe said 20 words the whole time. Haha, oh how times have changed!

5.  It really isn’t represented enough in our blog, but I’m an Aggie!  WHOOP!! =)

6.  I’ve been to the ER twice in my life and both trips were within 48 hours of each other. *knocks on wood*

7. I LOVE movies!  I have been going to the movie every week with one of my friends for a little over 3 years now.

8.  With that last one said my all time favorite movie is Empire Records!

AJ: What’s with you today?

Lucas: What’s with today, today?  

So many great quotes and songs in that movie!

9. The Laughing Toilet – that’s what my older bro, older sister and two older boy cousins started calling me for a brief period of time when I was little.  Apparently at the time I was sick and if I started laughing I’d start coughing and it was a deep cough so you know that sounds like a laughing toilet?  Toilets laugh? Older siblings & relatives can be so mean! 😉

(source)

10. As a child I LOVED Barbies! I played with them until I was like 10 years old….uh, all my friends had stopped at that point. But not all of my friends had cool Barbie clothes their Grandmom sewed for them like I did!

11.  I got the chicken pox when I was 5 & 6…I say 5 & 6 because I had them on my birthday. 🙂  Neither one of my granddads had ever had the chicken pox so I remember sitting in the front entry way of our house with the door open waving at them and them standing by their cars telling me happy Birthday from there because they weren’t going to get any closer to me.

As an added bonus for the few Colorado peeps that read our blog and because 12 is my favorite number –

12. If I had to tell you one thing my family repeats about something I did as a kid it would be when we were on a family trip to Colorado and I said “Hey, dad, does Ouray have a telephone?”

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New Year’s Double

December 30, 2011 by · 3 Comments

We are beyond excited for this weekend because it is officially time for the New Year’s Double! This race is seriously unique and amazing and comes to us via Libby Jones, who we absolutely love! For those of you who don’t know her she is also the director of North Texas Runners, a full time race director and mommy! She runs like a wild women and is truly amazing! We admire her for her work, organization and passion about running.  You can read all about the growth of this race since last year at here. It’s really incredible to see how this has taken shape.

This race is so amazing because it is a true double race. Runners could choose from a range of distances to run over a two day time from, either a 5K, ½ relay, ½ marathon or a full marathon and you could mix and match any way you choose to run one on New Year’s Eve Day and one on New Year’s Day. Brilliant huh?? What better way to start and end a year RIGHT! We decided that we would run two half marathons. So starting tomorrow morning we will head out and run our NYE half, marking the official end to what has been an awesome year. We felt that this was just so fitting to do and can not be more excited to end the Year of Running like this. After the race we will then go home, rest up, and get to watch a free screening for The Spirit of the Marathon courtesy of Cinemark Allen! Our boys will even go with us to this! 🙂

Then NYE we will spend with our significant others, eat and wake up NYD and do it all again! Seems nuts but this really is the best way to start out the year being active!

The race is located in Allen, Texas not far from us and is a a looped course.  We will complete 2 6.55 mile loops. It’s a very nice course and will all be on paved sidewalk!

We will update you on the cool perks and loot from this race in our recap, we don’t want to give that away now 😉  Let’s just say if we really have ever been excited about race bling its for this race!

We usually set goals for our races as you have seen from the past, but we are not going to set time goals for this race. Coming off of the White Rock Marathon and the training for that we have definitely needed some recuperation. As many of you know Teal has had a nagging foot problem since the race and has been working hard to heal that foot (read about her foot problems here). She is still having some pain and has literally only run 8 mile total since White Rock. Beth has been keeping busy with yoga, Johnny’s, spin and has run very little as well and just healing her body.

Our goals are to run smart, safe, and to not be stubborn. We have never run a double before and while we know we can make 26.2 WAHOO! We do not know how our bodies will feel this weekend given the amount of running compared to the lack of running this month. The goal is to come out of this race enjoying the experience of a small, local, well put together race! It really is, as cheesy as this might be, a good time to reflect on the past year and to think about the year to come! Wish us luck! We’ll tell you all about it next week 🙂

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Lazy Solo Running Weekend

October 24, 2011 by · 7 Comments

Beth here with my running recap for the weekend! 🙂  My weekend turned out to be NOT what I was expecting, but exactly what I needed! After my long run Saturday morning I was suppose to be hitting the road to Austin with my sister for a wedding, but life happened and sister felt she needed to stay in town to be with a friend.  I took full advantage of this and slept in on Saturday morning!  And by slept in I mean until 7:30 a.m. Woohoo!  My favorite spin instructor at my L.A. Fitness had been out of town last Monday on my usual spin day, so I skipped it.  I decided spin class on Saturday morning [since favorite instructor would be back] made more sense than Sunday morning and then back to spin class Monday after work.  So I did spin, I did a 30 minute yoga class and then I spent hours with my littlest nephew!  It was a fabulous Saturday! Here’s what my sister and I did to our nephew on Saturday –

This was inspired by what Jack’s Mom did to him last week.  Jack being the first grandbaby of Cindy[#TeamCindy] who we are running Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half in memory of and raising money for breast cancer.  And here’s me getting some good cuddle time in with Easton!

Sunday I slept in until 8 a.m.  That was some glorious sleep! I wrote that ‘What’s the Deal?‘ post a few weeks ago and to be honest I still hadn’t fully snapped out of it! I’m pretty positive I was wearing myself out during the week and then just going, going and going on the weekends.  Pretty much since the weekend of August 20th I had been going on long runs then drinking tons of coffee in an effort to stay up and go out to celebrate things like: my sister’s birthday, my boyfriend’s birthday, being in California and running a half, celebrating one of my best friend’s birthdays, celebrating a 1 year old’s birthday, celebrating a 2 year old’s birthday, hosting a baby shower, celebrating my oldest nephew’s birthday and my sister in law’s birthday – see what I was doing to myself??

Anyways, I laid in bed Sunday morning catching up on my DVR until I had to get up and meet a friend at yoga at 1:00 p.m.  I ate a late lunch and decided to lay in bed longer while my food digested before I could go out for my long run.  And something happened that NEVER happens – I took  nap!  I am in no way a napper!  I just lack the ability to take a nap and wake up refreshed, so the only times I do it are if I’m sick or I’m apparently wearing myself out THAT much.

Shortly before 5:00 p.m. I was off on my long run for the weekend!  This run I decided to take with me a Clif gel I’d received while I was out on the Tour des Fleurs 20k race course in September.  Like I do every long run I stuck it in the hidden pocket inside my Nike shorts only problem was that the Clif gel packaging is wider than the GU gel packaging I usually take on my run.  I ran through the gel pack poking me for 4 miles then I had it, took it out and ran holding it for 4 more miles until I opened it.  Now I am a HUGE chocolate lover, but I am now not a fan of chocolate flavored gels which is what I had!   But don’t worry Clif! I have not given up on you just your chocolate flavored gel. 🙂

And there is my cut/chaffed area/what have you on the right in the picture above.  I’m not going to tell you where that is exactly, but if I put the pack in an inside pocket of my shorts I think you can use your imagination. 😉 [Sorry Mom if you are reading this and are shaking your head at me! Love you!]  Ok, back to long run – I didn’t know how this would go since I have never run more than 8 miles by myself and Teal had left me to go on an awesome trip to San Francisco!  SO jealous! But it went great! I was so proud of myself for keeping my pace under 10 minutes the WHOLE entire time!  I had a couple times where I wanted to stop more because I needed to use the facilities than being tired. 🙂  I guess that’s the downfall of running not at my usual time.   I explored a little bit and ran a slightly different area than Teal and I have ever run before and overall I felt great during this long running!

I ended my Sunday night with some #runchat, Chipotle, Rangers, wine and my Tommie Copper calf sleeves [if you don’t own any – what are you waiting for?? Seriously!]

Check back with us tomorrow for Teal’s San Francisco Running Weekend recap!

Are you a fan of Clif gels? What is YOUR favorite flavor?

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What Do YOU Do for Cross Training?

June 3, 2011 by · 5 Comments

What is your go to cross training workout? We just want to see what other people do on their cross training days and see how many people do similar activities or if they vary far more than we even thought!!

Do you spin?

Do you kickbox?

Do you do crossfit?

What is it that we’ve mentioned or even left out that you do for cross training? Let us know in the comments section! Look forward to what you all have to say!

– Teal & Beth

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