Tour des Fleurs

September 16, 2011 by · 1 Comment

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

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

Here is what our course looks like:

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

Weather:

Precip: 10%

Wind: 7mph

High: 89*

Low: 70*

Goals:

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

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Happy Birthday to Teal!!

September 6, 2011 by · 3 Comments

That’s right it’s Teal’s Birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  Feel free to give her a nice Birthday shout out today! 🙂

Cheers to you on your Birthday!

Since Teal is a teacher and all, I’ve decided to give her an appropriate shout out on here  in true teacher/school style:

T – totally awesome athlete

E – especially awesome friend

A – amazing teacher

L – leader

All of the above statements about Teal are just a glimpse of what I mean by them.  I swear she’s probably played every sport and really is an awesome athlete overall.  I’ve known Teal for….let’s see….almost 6 years and she’s been an uh-mazing friend to me! I am so grateful for you!  And all the stories of what she does for her students, her heart for them (despite how crazy they can be at times) and even her love for the AVID program are proof she’s an amazing teacher.  Despite not knowing Teal her whole life I am pretty sure she’s been a leader since day one!  She truly works at everything she does with a heart to see it succeed and be the best it can be!  Teal you are awesomesauce!

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Disneyland Half Marathon

September 2, 2011 by · 1 Comment

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

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

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Weather:

Precip.: 0%

Wind: 1mph

High: 86*

Low: 63*

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

Oh well!  It will still be awesome!

Goals:

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

 

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

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Goals??

September 1, 2011 by · 2 Comments

We are suppose to have monthly goals?  Are the two of us slackers because we have only set goals for the year of 2011?  As we have made the switch from August to September I have seen quite a few of our fellow runners posting about how they did with their August goals and what their new goals for September will be.  Do the two of us have blatant goals set forth for this brand new month? – No, not exactly….

Our goals for this year in my eyes are as follows:

1. Run a race every month

2. Run a marathon

3. Raise money in honor of Cindy Marshall-Death (Team Cindy)

So far we have succeeded in completing 8 out of 12 months of races and after this weekend 9 months!  September we actually have 3 different race weekends. We’ll be posting our pre-race blog for tthis weekend so let’s just go ahead and skip over the Disneyland Half for now.  Next up this month we will be running one of our favorite races – Tour des Fluers and the weekend after that for the first time we will be participating in the Heroes for Children 5k at the Shops at Legacy.  This race is for such a GREAT cause!  The HFC 5k committee is just barely behind their goals for the 7th annual run – we are still short a few teams and behind a little with our fundraising goal – if you can help please visit the site here.

The new and, to steal a word from Courtney (@CisforCourtney), nerve-citing thing for this month for us is going further than we ever have mileage-wise!  Essentially the last few weeks of our half marathon training has also been the start over our marathon training.  This month we’ll find ourselves running 15 and 17 miles.  So yah, a nerve-citing time for us!

Our last goal is the one we are falling behind in – we are not even quite half way to our fundraising goal and we have LESS than 2 months to get the rest of our $1,200 (a $100 for each month) raised.  We’ll be running the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Antonio half proudly wearing Team Cindy shirts in honor of a great women who passed away in March of 2010.  Please read her story and if you feel compelled to donate we would be forever grateful to you for the support of Team Cindy and the two of us as Life is a Run!  Donations can be made here.

And to completely change subjects we’ll leave you with a music video of one of the songs currently on one of our running playlists! 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEdvXM45nIY&ob=av2e]

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The Big A

August 29, 2011 by · 4 Comments

That’s right we are talking about – alcohol!

When it comes to training for races do you normally give up drinking for a certain amount of time? Or just stick to your routine and maybe just have one drink the night before a race?

I’m sure you’ve noticed on our joint twitter account that we both enjoy a good happy hour, wine night or a drink with our significant other. You might especially notice this if you follow our personal twitter accounts. 🙂

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Right now we are 7 days away from running our next half marathon and both will refrain from alcohol this week leading up to the big race! But we’d love to hear everyone’s own take on alcohol versus training!

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First Trail Run

August 11, 2011 by · 5 Comments

Ok so we have thought about how to actually  start this post so everyone could see the fear we had about this, and we couldn’t think of anything so we think it would work the best to just let you see our text messages to each other which show how clueless and scared we actually were! We were basically trying to decide where we were going to do our long run last weekend and really hadn’t thought much about it except we knew we wanted to run in the morning- duh, its’ 9 million degrees here!  We have both recently joined the North Texas Runners and really wanted to see what they were doing. Beth had been active on twitter during the day and saw that they were going to do a trail run at Erwin Park… here are our initial thoughts –
 
Teal: It says trail? Does that mean grass and stuff?
Beth: Hahaha uh maybe?
Teal:  haha its says, plenty of climbing and alternatives to easy routes, 8.1 mile loop, There is a you tube video.
 LOL it looks CRAZY might be fun might die.
Beth: If you’re up for it. I’m up for it. Ill do whatever.
Teal: ok- I’ll meet you at your house.
It’s a true trail I’m scared
Beth: We don’t have to, Ill do whatever
Teal: Its fine I just haven’t done that since High school
Beth: I have no idea what to expect! Will we die?
Can we stay together I’m scared?
Teal: YES!!
Beth: Oh god
Teal: I know oh god for sure
 
So really this was a little taste of our anxiety- I would highly recommend NOT watching the youtube video. It’s crazy- well maybe not for veterans but for us newbies I was like, great. We are going to die! 
 
We actually never saw the North Texas Runners which was totally our fault, we were running late and we didn’t really know where we were going.  We decided to start where we parked, just the two of us- but don’t worry we seriously questioned staying on the street. We decided to buck it up and actually do it. We started out well. We ran the first 2.5ish miles fairly quickly with a lot of checking on each other and laughing.  Tree branches everywhere, roots- you know… grass and stuff! I am not sure that either one of us anticipated all the weaving and ducking and after about 30 minutes we were exhausted. We decided to walk and take some pics and run again. We started switching off run 10, walk 5.  This is hard for us to admit- we don’t like walking when we run, and I think get a little frustrated about it but this was nuts! We powered through and finished the 4.5ish mile loop in a little over an hour. We were tired, dirty and proud. This was something we had never done, never knew what to expect, and really could have chickened out at any time.
 
Trail running is seriously awesome and challenging. I think we both felt really good after the run and really felt like it was a great work out despite the walking we had to do. This is something we look forward to again as it is great training and just an all over humbling experience.
 
Here are some scenes from our run!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got a little dirty out there which I think is something we didn’t really think about, but it’s a good kind of dirty right?  And Beth went out on her first run using a camelpak which she was VERY glad to have!  In this Texas heat all the water you can comfortably carry is awesome in our opinion!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, we know 4.5 miles isn’t THAT far, but considering it was our very first trail run and it’s a different run than we were use to we were still proud.  We’d anticipated that run being our long run for last week and opted to wake up early Wednesday and put in some good miles together.  So yesterday we met at Beth’s house at 5:30 a.m. and got in just under 7.5 miles!  This coming weekend we are hoping to get in a run and finally meet some other members in North Texas Runners!

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Melon Dash

August 4, 2011 by · 5 Comments

Another race weekend is upon us! And it’s going to be another HOT one, but it is our shortest run in the summer heat which is probably good since it’s only gotten worse!

This Saturday we’ll be running the Melon Dash 5k put on by Run On! in downtown McKinney.  This race benefits the North Texas Cat Rescue, who are committed to the humane and compassionate treatment of cats.

 

Goals:

We both share the same goal of running this race and adding miles to weekly count.  I know this is a VERY exciting goal for the two of us. Ha.  But Sunday we’ll be doing a long run to keep up with our half marathon training which we are less than a month away from running!

 

Weather:

Wind: 6mph

High: 106*

Low: 79*

Precip: 10%

 

 

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Wordless Wednesday

August 3, 2011 by · 1 Comment

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Too Hot to Handle

July 7, 2011 by · 1 Comment

 

This Sunday we’ll be doing our July race with the Too Hot to Handle 15k put on by Run On!  We actually ran the same race just on the opposite end of the spectrum in January – Too Cold to Hold.  This 15k matches up right with where we are in our training for our half marathon in September, but we’d be lying if we didn’t say this is yet another race we are scared to run.  Are you beginning to see a theme in our summer/hot month races?

 

The great thing about all the races we’ve run or been apart of have sponsored some sort of organization.  Certain races are promoted by their cause, and some are popular in and of themselves without an organization to donate money to yet there’s still a cause behind it.  Too Hot to Handle would be a race I’ve heard about because of its reputation yet every racers entry fee benefits PAL (Protective Animal League – Altering the world, one pet at a time) as well as the Richardson Rotary Central.  Giving back to the community in some form has always been a very big part of our lives and we can really appreciate that in some way it’s a part of every race that we run.

Goals:

This is another race where we have very high expectations – finish it. 🙂

Weather Forecast:

Wind: 14mph

High: 100*

Low:  78*

Precip: 0%

Love that one of the weather websites said that on Sunday there would be “abundant sunshine.”

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Halfway Mark

July 1, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

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

White Rock Half - December 2010

 

Beth:

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

 

Teal:

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

 

What we have done together:

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Where we are going:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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