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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For Good Luck

December 3, 2011 by · 2 Comments

Yesterday we hit up the White Rock Marathon Expo!  It was fun – we stopped by the New Years Double booth and saw Libby.  We ran into Lesley as we waited to trying on some shirts.  Then we saw Heidi & Brian as we were on our search for The Rock!

We had to rub the White Rock for good luck –

 

Oh and don’t worry before we left we made sure Teal was registered as a girl! Haha  We got our bibs and Teal’s said MALE.  The gentleman getting our bibs for us kindly asked her, “have you had an operation recently?” HAHA  You better believe she’s going to add that “FE” to the beginning of that and made sure the race people know that she is a FEMALE in the 25-29 category not a MALE.

Happy Saturday! 🙂

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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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November Race No. 1

November 8, 2011 by · 7 Comments

Ok so we admit, we might have had ulterior motives for Sunday’s race, at least a little bit, and it seems more justified after our brief conversation with Racing it Off, but really, who doesn’t want a little race bling for completing long runs? As you know we both decided it would be an awesome idea to sign up for the DRC ½ on Sunday after a little convincing from Heidi. Beth’s convo to Teal was like –

“So, how do you feel about running the DRC Sunday?”

“Lets do it!”

“Great ok I’ll sign us up at lunch!”

Bling & a long run- not a bad deal not to mention good practice with running around the lake.!

So anyways, we’re sure you want some of the race recap! We set out Sunday at around 6:30- feeling well rested given the extra hour of sleep and headed to White Rock Lake. Neither of us had nerves for the race but rather nerves for the fact that we wanted to run 22 miles Sunday and make that our last official super long run for our training. Neither of us wanted to die and we had just come off a rather good 20 miler the week before! We got to the race and waited in the bathroom line forever – Caught up on race stuff, life and even tried to convince a lady and her hubby to sign up for the New Year’s Double!

Right before the race we met up with some fellow Twitter friends and wished our friend Heidi good luck – she wanted to PR! We got to meet a new twitter friend April! We lined up and we were off. The race started out almost exactly like Too Hot to Handle was and Teal had to remind Beth to not go the wrong way… see this post if you’re not sure what we are talking about.  😉  The beginning of the race was very tight, there were tons of us jumbled into to a fairly narrow space and it was like that for a good 3 miles. At one point you basically had to walk to get through parts, which is slightly a pain. We managed to stay at a good pace considering and stayed pretty much under 10 minutes a mile given we were going to run for 22. The rest of the race wasn’t bad. The hills were there a little bit between mile 4 and 7ish but it’s not THAT bad. The stations were awesome as usual and one guy was even handing out Oreos! We saw him too late and were both slightly bummed. Cookies sound really good during a race for some reason. We also had to keep a watch out for the dude in front of us who kept blowing snot rockets! Seriously??  It’s gross! We wondered if that just gets worse with the weather.

Teal, Heidi & Beth

We both kept counting down to each other with every mile we passed. Only 13 more, 12 more, 11 more..you get the point.  Both of us felt pretty good overall, Teal mentioned slight pain in her booty – stupid hills, but other than that not bad at all. We got down to about 1.5 miles left and separated a little bit. Teal wasn’t quite sure what was happening but Beth knew we were close and could finish the race under 2:10 so she picked it up a little. Teal was just in her own little world and was like —we’ve got 10 left – I am not moving any faster than I am now. We both finished and really did not want to keep running. We got our race bling and hung around to chat with Heidi and her hubby, Brian. Ran into Michelle again – love how many races we see you at!! We ate, sat for a while and decided we would pick up our extra 9 miles at home. We figured that we would be ok if we ran the rest on tired legs the same day given that we did already complete the longest run on our schedule.

 

New bling ....and checkout that Go Sport ID on the wrist!

After leaving we went home, charged our phones, ate a little more and then headed back out for 9 more miles. Sure enough it felt as if we hadn’t actually stopped. It got hotter outside which was annoying, we were both still in pants, tired and really our minds were kind of done with racing for the day. We had looked at wedding stuff and talked with Beth’s sister, Kate for a while and really we weren’t in the best run moods, but we knew we wanted to get this in! We set out at about the same pace and ran 4.5 out and then back around our normal training route. We managed to get in the full 22 and really after we started it wasn’t that bad. Our legs felt the extra miles but overall not too bad. Teal went home and soaked in the tub and had to switch off legs with her Tommie Cooper calf sleeves- it appears as if her dog, Wilson, has run off with one of them and Beth of course did the same but with both sleeves!  We feel prepared for White Rock and have a little more confidence that 26.2 is doable! It’s just 4 more? Right!!??

 

We set out this coming weekend for Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio and are super excited about that trip. More to come about that race this week!! We seriously are super excited!!

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Let’s Move our 4th Half Up a Week!

November 3, 2011 by · 3 Comments

So we gave into twitter pressure – ahem, Heidi! 🙂  And instead of JUST running 22 miles this weekend we are going to run DRC Half plus 8.9 more miles! Whee!

source

So come Sunday we will be out at White Rock Lake getting in a good training run for White Rock Marathon in December!  Which is as of today THIRTY DAYS away! We might have just freaked out, then gotten all excited and then gone back to freaked out again typing that. 🙂   Both of us need to run this like it is one of our training runs so we can put in the extra mileage afterwards unless something changes between the typing of this post and the start of the half on Sunday morning.

Weather

Low:  56*

High: 70*

Wind:  9MPH

Precip.: 10%

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The Month of Pink

October 3, 2011 by · 2 Comments

A new month! And a month that finds us even closer to our two ultimate goals for 2011 – run a race every month and complete White Rock Marathon.

While October is a month that the majority of people associate with Halloween , I am sure more and more people are remembering that October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  This year I am confident in saying that this month is more near and dear to our hearts than ever before.  If you’ve been reading our blog then you know we are fundraising for Team Cindy through our Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half we will be running, which means we are raising money for breast cancer.  We have pledged to raise $1,200 – that boils down to $100 per month of our 2011 race year.  We are currently at 56% of our goal –

Donate you can find our fundraising page here

Yes, Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio is NOT officially until November so yes, we will be running the Komen 5k in Dallas on October 15th and proudly wearing Team Cindy on our shirts!

So if you follow us on twitter don’t be surprised if the #TeamCindy hashtag is more a part of our timeline than ever before.

One of the exciting parts of the month of October is that it will bring the arrival of Cindy’s first grandchild!  So get ready for some cute pics of a sweet little Jack!

Cancer in general is a hard thing to deal with and there are so many people affected by it and in so many different ways!  This year we have chosen to mainly raise awareness and money for breast cancer, and also childhood cancer with our volunteering and running for the Heroes for Children 5k.

Are you doing anything this month for Breast Cancer Awareness?

We’ll leave you with a picture of Julie and Mr. Death with their Team Cindy sign waiting for Cynthia to finish the 3-Day walk in 2010

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The Story of Teal & Beth

September 30, 2011 by · 1 Comment

So we officially became bloggers 7 months ago and we started off with race talk immediately, the goals we had for ourselves, why we were blogging and all that fun stuff.  We both realized that really you guys probably don’t know much about us besides that fact that we run, run some more, brunch, and well you know indulge in the occasional adult beverage, but what you may not know is how we met and how we have actually gotten to where we are now—Friends!

We met each other really randomly the first time through a party one our mutual friends had at the time. I had always heard about the infamous Beth Lynch and was really kind of nervous to meet her. She came to the party and we didn’t talk much, but rather I just sort of stayed close to our mutual friend.  In 2006, Beth and I, and our friend were all graduating from college and decided to take a beach trip! Basically to celebrate that accomplishment and it turned out later to be an annual thing… more about that later! I would definitely say we were “friends” at this point but really didn’t do much together or talk or really hang out on our own. I don’t even think we even had each other’s phone number at that point. Our beach trip was awesome, but we really never “bonded” about much. Just talked and stuck with the people we knew most at that point.

After returning to Texas we hung out a while, went to birthday’s, random get togethers and had even starting a “craft night” to which my husband refers to as, “drink and gossip” night. One of Beth’s best friends, Rebekah, around this time had gotten engaged and was planning her wedding. We all gathered basically once a week and helped her prepare for her wedding- glue stuff together, address and lick envelopes- you know crazy wedding stuff!

Rebekah's wedding in Pampa, TX

As I mentioned earlier the beach trip turned into somewhat of a tradition and that next summer of 2007 we made it to Cancun again. Definitely by this time we both had grown much closer in terms of friendship—we had each other’s numbers for sure 😉

Rebekah, Beth, Teal & Vanessa - 2nd Annual Beach Trip!

In 2007 Teal got engaged to her long time boyfriend and really this is when things really changed.  I really wanted to have Beth be a part of my life on a more of a “ yea she is my friend” level and I asked her to be a bridesmaid in my wedding. She of course said yes and then everything just sort of went from there. Beth and I bonded big time about my wedding and the happenings involved with that. I really felt like she cared- You can tell, she makes a great deal of time and effort into her friends and really did anything and everything she could to help and support me with the wedding.  I was slightly crazy (don’t judge- most brides are) – but she never batted an eye- including nights where we would glue, unwrap, wrap, and make crap for hours. (Notice a pattern?) She was there! Not to mention I got to use her amazing handwriting – yes you should be jealous!

So you know how we mentioned that annual beach trip—in 2008 we decided to change things up and went to the Dominican Republic! Of course as you have probably guessed by now- more bonding and hanging out and all that fun friend type stuff.  My wedding was in November of 2008 and basically everything went off without a hitch- minus of course a short temporary moment of panic about my bracelet, but beyond that nothing. Below you can see Beth in her running around madness at the wedding!

Dominican Republic Beach Trip

We flew to Hawai’i that next year to visit Rebekah and tour Hawai’i – Beth who has now flown with me a million times had gotten used to my routine, holds my hand, lets me cry like a 2 year old, and lets me sit by her! A task I am sure not many want! Hawai’i was probably the best trip of my life!

On our way to Pearl Harbor and our hair got stuck together

Things kind of got a little crazy after this year. I had started graduate school, had started working for my dad at MowerMedic and was also teaching. Life was insane. So insane in fact that I had no time off, ended up exhausted and ran around like a crazy person trying to get everything done. Beth always managed to stay around and was always encouraging to me. No real trip took place that year, but I did meet a girl through grad school who would but a bug in my system about running a half marathon. I had talked to this girl in my program about running a 1/2 and neither one of us really thought we could do it. We had talked about it with each other and really realized this was a goal and something we both wanted to do! By September Beth and I really started training and kind of kicked things off with the Tour de Fleurs race and basically went from there- both completing our first half marathon at White Rock.

Mary Alice (who happens to be Rebekah's sister), Teal and Beth after finishing White Rock Half

Upon finishing you could tell that neither one of us was really that satisfied. I honestly think it went something like “that’s it?”  I know for me I looked around at all the people finishing the marathon and was like—we have to do that! Beth of course said “if you’re in, I’m in” and that is how we got to where we are now.

Since finishing the first half we have spent super amounts of time together, the four of us Mandy, Rebekah, Beth and I have spent New Year’s together, traveled to Mandy’s wedding in Cancun and hang out all the time! It is safe to say that this is a friendship I cherish with all my heart- as cheesy as it might sound. She’s not just my running buddy- I think you can see!

New Year's Eve 2010

We are only two short months away from this year’s goal and I know I would never have been here without her support and out support of each other. Beth has a six sense really about the social media world and mentioned a blog- I really have no idea how to do anything technological- She is the brains behind this posting business!! I really kind of thought this blog would not be what is now! This has not only helped us running wise in terms of motivation and accountability but also to learn so much more about each other and become better friends in the process and not to mention has opened both of our eyes to the huge running community.

And a couple of goofy pictures of us to end it all:

– Teal

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September Race No. 3

September 27, 2011 by · 2 Comments

Since we both did different things on this race day here is a race post that’s a little back and forth from both of us! Enjoy! 🙂

Beth – Going into race morning I had NO idea what I was going to be doing exactly, but nonetheless I was excited to be behind the scenes of a race!  I got to the Shops at Legacy at 5:00 a.m. and shortly thereafter I was given a golf cart.  I’d actually never driven a golf cart before, so it was exciting for me.  At this point the majority of our vendors were setting everything up.  Only problem we had was the barricades hadn’t exactly been put up so off I went (on the golf cart) with my boss lady for the morning to keep people out of our 5k course.  I am not even sure how the time passed so quickly from 5:00 a.m. to 7:25 a.m. when opening ceremony began, and I can’t even remember everything I did but I basically was a gopher.  I’d already determined I was not going to run the 5k as I’d have no clue what I’d be doing the moment it started not to mention where I’d keep my bib, armband for my iphone, headphones and anything else I might want to run with while we were getting ready for the race.

Teal – I was excited about the race this weekend because I knew how much Beth had been involved in the process and also because I was going to get to run with a few friends from teaching. My friend Chris from work joined the team- he is also training to run the White Rock Marathon in December and we talk basically every day about our running. The last time we actually got to run together was back in March for Kacie’s Run for our school district. My fellow work-out buddy, morning motivator, and friend Cynthia also joined the team and ran with us this morning. She has recently come off a long, nagging foot injury and is currently building and training to run the Rock n Roll Dallas half in March, so they are awesome fellow runners! Cynthia and I also ran into our personal trainer friend, Nemo from 24 hour fitness and one we both see at least twice a week when we are training with Will. While he’s super in shape he is not a distance runner so it was fun to pick on him at the end!

Beth- As the runners began to arrive I was pretty much just hanging out in the golf cart after eating my Chickfila chicken biscuit and waiting for my next job.  Thanks, Chickfila for providing the 5k Committee and volunteers with breakfast! Haha  But I got to see my mom and sister who I’d signed up for the race. 🙂 As well as a bunch of other friends that had started to arrive to support this great cause!

Teal – I met Chris early and we were able to catch Beth in full volunteer mode and chat with her a while. Somebody at Heroes for Children gave her a golf-cart to drive around—she seriously looked official. I was sad she wasn’t running with me but just overall impressed by her volunteer spirit! The race did a very cool balloon release thing at the beginning. The yellow balloons were released to represent each child battling cancer & their family that had been helped in the past year by Heroes for Children.  Then they also released 2 red heart balloons to represent the two little girls of the mothers who started Heroes for Children in their honor!

 

Beth- I do not think I’ve mentioned much about the co-founders of HFC, so let me take this opportunity to do so.  I met Jenny Scott (co-founder) through yoga at the end of January this year, and learned her story and her daughter, Allie.  She was Jenny’s first born child and at 8 months and 27 days passed away from Acute Myeloid Leukemia in September of 2004.  Larissa Linton’s (co-founder) 4 year old daughter, Taylor passed away in Novemeber 2001 of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  It was after the death of Taylor that Larissa formed Taylor’s Angels, a non-profit that provided financial assistance to families who had a child battling cancer.  Larissa and Jenny meet in October of 2004 and realized the need for Heroes for Children.  On race day I actually saw a runner wearing a Taylor’s Angels race shirt which was very neat. If you’d like to see a picture of Taylor and Allie or read a little bit more about them then please visit the HFC website here.

Teal – Chris and I had discussed prior in the week how fast we wanted to run. He mentioned 24 mins and in my head I was like- no way. I’ll try but I highly doubt I can do that, my goal was 25:19. We both lined up together at the start line and we were not paying attention and had to wait a while to start after the gun went off, because none of my technology was ready… Runkeeper wasn’t up and my music hadn’t start- priorities!!! One day I may learn to do with out but for now this is a requirement! We took off and dodged and ran on the outside until about the end of the first mile, we passed the clock at about 7:14—what?? Really? I knew we were a little behind the clock but not more than like 30 secs. In my head I was like 1 down 2 to go, which mentally at this point is NOTHING, we are used to saying 1 down- 13 to go or whatever the crazy distance is for that week. I was able to maintain this pace fairly well; I lost Chris at about the 2 mile mark, but only by a few seconds. I managed to run the rest of the race right on the tail of what looked to be a 7 year old, this kid was hauling! Keep in mind I am 5’10” and I could not pass this kid who was like 4 feet tall! My goal at that point was to beat him, or at least attempt to keep up with him since he was the closest person around. I crossed the finish line at what I thought was about 25 minutes. Slightly wondering what my official time was. Chris was able to stay for the entire awards ceremony which was awesome because I can never stay. I managed to set a new PR by over a minute! I was seriously surprised and super excited because Chris even stayed long enough to pick up my medal! I was second in my age group! I have not won an individual medal for running before!!  Overall the race was awesome! Flat, spread out, not a lot of issues with walkers, dogs, strollers, all those random things you get at a lot of races! Cynthia and I also discussed at the end how awesome it was to see the pictures of the kids along the way that HFC has helped and how it was hard to not get choked up by the pictures. Very inspiring race and atmosphere!

Beth – Just as the 1 mile race began I got to drive Hannah & Hannah to the pace car a.k.a. a Ferrari provided by Boardwalk.  Hannah & Hannah were selected to ride in the pace car by the nurses at Medical City Children’s Hospital.  I loved it – they were getting driven over along with one of their little brother’s and a HFC staff member and I heard one of them say “I wanna ride on the one with the girl!”  So I happily drove them over on the golf cart and told them to have fun! Then I quickly took off to get some trash cans out to the awesome volunteers at the water stations and made it back to the start line just as the 5k was beginning.  Here’s a picture right after the gun went off – 

I kept looking for Teal and Chris and never saw them.  Maybe it was because of their technology mishap – I just figured since they are both so tall there would be no way I missed them, but I was wrong!  Then I met up with my mom and sister at the finish line a few minutes before Hannah & Hannah were on their way in on the pace car bringing in the first runner who finished in 17:38.  Then I got to see Teal coming up on the finish –

And just a minute or so behind Teal there was Chris (on the right) coming up on the finish line-

All three of us got to watch Cynthia cross the finish line! [So sorry Cynthia I didn’t snap a picture! :(]

Chris & Teal

Teal & Cynthia

Nemo & Teal

Since we did not take any pictures with Disney characters while we were in California for Disneyland Half we took advantage of all of the Disney characters that came out Saturday for the 5k.  Here we are with Tiana from The Princess and the Frog –


This is such a great race to bring your little kids to since there were the Disney characters and there were also firemen out there with their fire truck – SO many fun kid things!  It was such an honor to be a part of this race.  If you live in the Dallas area we’d definitely encourage you to put it on your calendar/racing schedule for 2012.

Results:

Teal: 23:58; 2nd in age group, 13th female to finish and 39th finisher overall

And one last picture for the road…we ended up having the same workout shorts on that day AND the same yellow band to go with our Go Sport IDs

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Marathon Training

September 9, 2011 by · 2 Comments

Technically our marathon training started a month before the Disneyland Half, but we just kept on track with the half training plan we’d been using.  But now here is what we are looking at for the months leading up to White Rock Marathon December 4, 2011:

With our half training we actually looked to Beth’s trainer Johnny (@JohnnyHFitness) for his suggestions and with the above plan we thought about what Johnny had previously laid out for us, Teal found a program online and we may or may not have looked at an organized running club’s current marathon training to come up with our plan.  Plus we had to move some long runs around and/or add mileage on certain race days to make up the miles we wouldn’t get in our race. What do you think?  Do you have any suggestions?

We are complete marathon training newbies so feel free to leave your friendly advice in our comments section!

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