DRC Half 2014

DRC Half 2014

January 21, 2015 by · 1 Comment
Not only was DRC Half our first half marathon since having Lane and Miles, but it was also our first time to be separated from our babies and/or breastbumps for an extended period of time – you know what we are saying?? (sorry if you’re a dude reading this)  Because we planned to get there at the last possible minute we both rode down there separately.  On top of getting down to the race site at the last minute we also planned to leave as soon as we were finished with the half. Not time for dilly dallying for LiAR!

 

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We should mention too, thankfully we both got to run this race together! Teal ended up having to register for the race the morning of.  When she got to the registration tent it was 7:14 a.m. (one minute until registration closed) the volunteers were already closing up their computers.  This is where we get to insert the babies make getting things done harder excuse, riiight?! Ok, fine, we know we aren’t the first in this world to have babies, but it is interesting to get things done.  So don’t be surprised if we periodically use that excuse. 🙂  Anyway, Teal got registered and we met up at the port-a-potties.  Do people meet up at other places on race mornings?

 

When we got to the start line we ran into the lovely Lauren of The Unlikely Runners. So good to briefly catch up with you lady!  Our main goals for the day where and stop us if you’ve heard this before – don’t die and finish. 🙂
Oh how goals sure change when you have major things happen to your body! But of course, Lane and Miles are more than worth temporary setbacks in running!

Thanks, Robert, we stole this picture from you! :)

Thanks, Robert, we stole this picture from you! 🙂

We stuck together, chatted each other’s ears off, occasionally listened to the conversations of other runners and appreciated having the other with us!

 

The weather was nice for our first half back and to that we are thankful to the race day weather gods! 😉 We complete our half running the whole way!  We were pretty darn proud of ourselves. If we could run DRC Half then surely we would be able to make it through the half at Dallas Marathon with continued training right?

 

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Well, it would be kind of sad if that was it for the day.  Rode by ourselves to the race, complete our first post partum half and then rode home by ourselves, that’s it? No way! Naturally we forced our husbands and our babies to come celebrate with us at brunch afterwards! And we love celebrate with a tasty mimosa. 🙂

 

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With all of that said….that is a wrap on half marathon no. 22!
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We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, we love the medal series the Dallas Running Club is doing with this race!

Fun fact: DRC 2013 was our first half as pregnant ladies. Doesn’t it make it fun that 2014 was our first half as moms??
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DRC Half 2013

DRC Half 2013

November 14, 2013 by · 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!

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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!

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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.”

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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

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 8th!!

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!

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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

The LiARs and Michelle from #TeamK

 

Erik 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. 🙂

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January babies!

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

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The Louisiana Marathon

February 6, 2013 by · 14 Comments

We know you have all been eagerly anticipating our recap of the Louisiana Marathon. 🙂  Not!  But without further ado we give our Louisiana Marathon experience…

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the logo on the Capitol Building

the logo on the Capitol Building

Mile 1-3:

Teal: I was really not nervous about this race at all. I knew exactly what I was going to run and how to do it. Beth and I had talked a little bit about White Rock and how much adrenaline we had at the beginning and we definitely went out too fast. I figured since I was there and generally run around a 9:30ish pace that I would focus on that and Beth would stay with me to not go out too fast. That is pretty much exactly what we did. We hung within 10 seconds of this for the majority of our miles together. I just kept a constant watch on my Garmin, which really helps pass time, in case you are looking for ways to do that.  I did get a little nervous because at about half a mile in the women next to us took a huge spill and actually slid down the road. It was nuts, she got up fast and kept running but it was huge. I know I am a huge weenie because I might have cried and stopped. Props to her!  I looked down at the road at this point and saw just how bad it was. Large holes and rivets everywhere. I made sure to keep an eye out from here on.

Beth: The main thing I remember  in these first few miles was starting my runkeeper and no music starting.  Then when I did get music started it was SO LOUD.  So lots of messing with that then putting my phone in my flipbelt and then thinking about all the energy I just wasted doing all of that.  Then there was the lady who fell and all I could do was cringe inside as I saw her body kind of slide on the concrete.  From there on out I understood why occasionally other runners were pointing at the ground when there were rough areas of the road.

Mile 4-6:

Teal: This part takes you closer to the LSU campus which was probably the nicest part of the race. We kept a steady pace here and really not much else could be said for me.  I really thought that we would see these trees in the pictures for the race that look like that have legs, but we didn’t. Boooo on that!

Beth: At some point early on I thought that a good game plan would be take this one 5k at a time.  Then I turned my thoughts to when will we see our husbands? I hope Teal likes the sign! Just gotta make it another 5K to 6.2. You got this!

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Mile 7-9:

Teal: We saw the boys right around here, I believe at Mile 7 and I got to see the sign Beth made me. She threw in my love of Mark Salling and it gave me a good burst of energy in this part. Mile 7 is a really good place for me to need people because it is about here that I get a little bored and the feeling of being tired usually sets in for me around here.  Example – at Dallas Marathon this year I actually stopped and stood. Something over an hour for me is a mental block. Also my feet are burning here. The stupid roads were harder or something. Yep, harder roads is totally possible in my runner mind!  

Beth: Husband! YAH! I’m sure he appreciated me throwing my GU trash at him. 🙂 It was in these miles that we were running a curvy path which kind of annoyed me because I was having a hard time seeing ahead to attempt to run the tangents. As mile 9 was approaching I was starting to get sad that my time with Teal was almost over.  I think it was also somewhere at the end of this section we saw a man near a water stop telling everyone, “the finish is just up ahead over the hill!” He was holding a sign that said “Course Liar,” I think we both got a good laugh out of that. Plus I saw the “liar” part and read it as LiAR since we are LiAR!! Haha

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Mile 10-13.1:

Teal: At nine I knew I only had about a mile and a half left with Beth and I actually started to get kind of anxious for her.  Right about 10 she said, “ok, if I am going to pretend like I started my race now, I can do 16.” In my mind I was like OH Lord, that is still a lot of miles. I was super excited about my 3 left. No worries! At 10.5 we saw our mark to split. I just grabbed Beth’s hand and just said “you got this” and we split. I stopped here to take a picture of her leaving and to tweet about the split. I figured that would have been the first update anyone got from us about where we were and there really wasn’t any tracking so I went with that! I am glad I stopped because that pain that was in my feet stopped with just that minute or so stop and the rest was pretty much a breeze. Well except for the fact that the last 2ish miles of this race are probably the hardest. There is a huge hill up the bridge and then the road in to finish is definitely rolling. I kept thinking, this will suck big time for the marathon people.  You remember that lady I told you about at .5 into the race? I actually crossed the finish line with her. I stopped her and told her how crazy I thought her fall was, and yep she was COVERED in blood. It had dripped down her leg and was a mixture of wet and dry. It was gross (aren’t you glad I told you that). I was impressed and love runners for that!

Beth: With the half and marathon split just .5 into this section I was sad, but I had made it through 15k and on my way to a 20k! When Teal grabbed my hand I just wanted to yell “Noooooooooo!!!”  I got a little choked up, but managed to start breathing normally again and not hyperventilate and cry all at the same time.  That would have been some uuuuugly crying fo sure.  I could see the 4:10 pacer ahead of me and I pressed on!  Made it through the 20k…keep on truckin’! Wonder if Teal’s done now?  Did she see my other sign? Hope she liked it! Wonder when I’ll see them again?

Teal: The guys meet me at the finish line and we literally b-lined it out of there. We had planned to get over to about 16-17 to see Beth. When we got there I knew she was still doing fine because we had come up on the 4:20 pacer and she was still a head of it. I hoped that she saw my sign at 17 since we missed her and we just hung around and cheered. I think I would have been so bored.

LOVE these mile markers!

LOVE these mile markers!

Mile 13.2-16

Beth:  Here, I didn’t let myself think halfway done because let’s be honest the hard stuff hasn’t even started yet!  And in this stretch of the race I was able to do a better job of running the tangents which is also a fun game of keep your mind occupied.  A dude passed me with a Dallas Marathon shirt on under his marathon maniac tank.  I made some comment to him about the weather being nicer for this marathon, talked to him for a minute and eventually wished him well and told him I didn’t want to slow him down any longer.  But that was fun to see as well as all of the Dallas Running Club shirts on the course.  Coming into this race I had a rough game plan of taking fuel every 5 miles, which is not actually something I’ve ever done in training or any other race.  Normally I just go by feel, but I definitely get bursts of energy throughout races and was hoping that plan would just keep me on the burst the majority of the time.  Well, pretty early on I knew this plan wasn’t going to work, but what sucked was I was HONGRY before I even hit 10 miles.  I burped at some point around then and realized I could not feed myself much more GU or I might vomit.

Miles 17-20

Beth: This was where I saw my sign!  I had still been wondering when I would see Teal and the guys again and she had mentioned where the boys were to put a sign she had made, so I was on the lookout for all those things.  Then I saw it –

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and I proceeded to tear up and have to not hyperventilate again. Just what I needed! I loved it!  Right after the sign was a spectator heavy area and I heard lots of “still smiling! Great job!”  And I just thought yep, because I just saw my sign from Teal!  Just up ahead was the 20 mile marker for coming back and I was excited to see a little girl with a container on one side of the road and who I assumed to be her dad on the other side of the road with a container full of sliced oranges. Food! I took one and was so excited that there would be another one waiting for me at mile 20.  The majority of this stretch was lonely.  There were times I’d look ahead and I was pretty much alone on a random street in a neighborhood.  I’d also at this point lost sight of the 4:10 pacer.  But I did find another person passing out orange slices, took one and I got a five from this like two year old boy who was out cheering with his mom and siblings.  As I grabbed my orange slice at mile 20 I started to think, I really need to see my peeps.  I don’t want to see my peeps!  I wanted to see them for the motivation and energy, but I didn’t want to see them because I’d started to get hot, my hips were starting to ache and I just wanted to be done.  I saw them! Loved the cheers! Threw my arm sleeves at Brent and kept going.  Then I stopped. Ahhh!  I was wearing my I Run This Body shirt from Mile Posts so I kept saying to myself, your shirt doesn’t say I Walk This Body! Let’s goooo! I let my mind get to me.

Teal: That last part of the race is out and back and there are not many cheerers. We hung around and as soon as we saw Beth at 20, I knew it would be a good idea to see her one more time at finish. We booked it to 24 and got one more chance to see her. She was still kicking ass and still a head of the 4:20 pacer!  The boys and I booked it again back to the finish. I was so nervous for her and kept watching the clock. 4:11 was the time on the clock at that point and I am pretty sure at this point I texted her one more cheer because I figured there was no way she didn’t have it!

Miles 21-26.2:

Beth: Struggle city.  I don’t walk in races! I can’t do the run/walk thing! I’ve run a complete marathon without walking why am I walking? I text messaged Teal and told her I’d been walking.  I saw them again at 24, ugh, and I was walking!  After the last seeing of my peeps I told myself, just run this!  It doesn’t have to be fast just get it done.  I was dreading the end with still an overpass incline and the rolling hills.  When I was at the rolling hills part a man behind me said “THIS is the worst hill of the race!”  True story, mister! But I ran it then all of a sudden bam! Done! And somehow I managed to look like this in my finisher photo –

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In all honesty, I am disappointed in my performance somewhat at this race, but then I think, my training really did have quite a few hiccups in it so maybe I should be really impressed considering?  It is a PR which was probably my C goal for this race.  I just don’t walk in races (and every time I say that I feel the need to reaffirm that I’m not dissing you if you do, I just personally don’t do well with the run/walk combo).  Ultimately though I did run a marathon and completed it.  It got hard, but I didn’t just all out give up.  This also just reaffirmed to me that I’m not done with the marathon distance – we shall meet again!  🙂

Final thoughts: 

Teal: I am pretty impressed by this race. And I am sorry if this offends anyone but Baton Rouge is not a pretty city. The race literally took you through the best parts of the city and showcased the good. Thank you for that! The organization was awesome and everyone was so friendly. The art design was amazing and Beth and I used every chance we had to snag pictures of what they had done. I seriously think of all the races we have done this has my favorite design!  I do not regret for one second not running the full. I know I enjoyed cheering on Beth more than I would have enjoyed running it and even the accomplishment of running it, cheering her on was my purpose for that last part and I think that made it all fitting. I ran a pretty decent race for myself and was proud of that.  Also, I am so in love with this race’s design, if you have seen my foot you know I have a think for feet with trees on them!

Beth: My running partner is better than your running partner!!  Haha, ok, not entirely, but so much YES at the same time.  Or maybe what I really mean by that is I am 100% lucky to have a friend first and running partner second in Teal.  I know she’s proud of me for completing this race even when I’m not 100% proud of it, but at the same time I’m proud of her for being brave, for being vunerable with y’all about not running the marathon, for putting out there the why for everyone to read when I don’t think a lot of people would and for that being a strong runner who takes care of herself!  It’s moments like these where I see why our local frunners wondered if we were not just running partners but partners in real life. HAHA Yes, to everything Teal said above. The Louisiana Marathon is a great example of a local race doing things right!

If you are still reading this then thank you! Thanks for sticking through this long post with us and we promise the next post will be WAY LESS wordy! 🙂

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DRC Bloomin’ 4 Mile Race

June 5, 2012 by · 6 Comments

 

Yep, you see that right, 4 miles. This was definitely a first for me in terms of race distance. I was slightly nervous because the last 5k we ran, we both wanted/did vomit so I had no real idea about how hard or fast to run 4 miles.  I didn’t set any goals, no need. It’s a free race if you are a DRC member and I figured it would be super low key and fun.

Beth ended up getting some kind of stomach bug and was out of work for two days so she decided Saturday morning to sit this one out too. I don’t blame her at all. She texted me early to make sure I knew and was fine. I was nervous because I have never been to a race completely alone before. Eeek! Had to be a big girl and go alone.

Luckily as soon as I got there I saw a familiar face! Jesus, who runs a lot of the hill work with us and is a fellow NTX Runner was in the parking lot getting his stuff ready for a warm-up! While Jesus went out for a warm-up I just hung out in my car. I was way too early. I was there at 7 for an 8 o’clock race because I was worried about my bib. No need, DRC had everything out, organized, and easy to get to!

Eight o’clock sharp the race started. I had decided that I would figure out my pace after I saw how I felt. Mile one was great! Mile 2 felt the same, 3 was ehhh, and 4 was awesome. Here are my splits!

The course was super flat, except for one small area in the middle, but that was nothing compared to our hill work. The weather was awesome in Texas. The sun was fortunately still hiding behind the clouds and there was a slight breeze!

Overall results:

8th in age group

169/497 overall

Gun: Chip: Name City
0:34:29 0:33:55 Teal Perez Carrollton

Jesus snapped these pics at the end! Thanks Jesus!!  I actually felt really good, surprisingly good. I haven’t really felt that way in a long time, running lately has been hard for me, I haven’t felt like doing it, and it hasn’t seemed to be coming easy at all, so I was very happy with this race! Hope that feeling continues!

 

 

Have you ever run a 4 mile race? What is the craziest distance you have ever run before for a race?

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May not have totally Rocked it, but at least I didn’t Roll!!

May 7, 2012 by · 15 Comments

After spending a few hours Friday helping with packet pickup for White Rock ‘n’ Roll I was getting pretty excited to participate in the race.  If you aren’t already excited all on your own for a race there’s no better way to get pumped than volunteering for a race.  Or at least maybe that’s just my opinion?!

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I slept in until 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning and was thrilled that I got to do that.  I was out the door by about 6:30 a.m. and immediately thought “man, it’s gonna be hot…wish this race was starting in 30-40 minutes from now Buuuuuttt I still liked sleeping in!”  Then I realize that my plan of bringing both my camelbak and my armband for my iPhone to choose between running with or without water was no longer an option as my armband was still sitting on the counter in my kitchen.  Pretty sure I was a big mess that morning as I also didn’t know where my headphones were but they magically appeared in my car. 🙂  Guess I should just be glad I made it to White Rock Lake period. Ha 😉

Before the race got started I got to see some familiar faces out there!  Fellow NTX Runner, Jesse, and two tweeps I’d made friends before knowing we all had running in common, Tom & Matt.  Great to see all of you out there!

The race got started and I’m pretty sure the whole time I was out there could be equated to me having hot flashes.  One minute I’m thinking this isn’t so bad there’s a breeze here in the shade! The next minute the shade goes away and holy cow I’m HOT!  This basically sums up how I felt the whole time.  The course was an out and back so I kept thinking just get to 5 miles and you got this!  A little bit before mile 5 I saw Jesse and was able to give him a little cheer since he was really one of the only people I knew running the 10 mile distance he was the only one I was looking for to see out there.

I know I started out fast which was not on purpose at all and I tried to keep it steady the rest of the way so I would survive in the heat.  Plus if I was going to have a chance of kickin’ it up a notch at the end I knew I needed to keep it at a steady pace.  My  main goal out there on the course was to finish it without walking. Accomplished. Very early on I thought that I should try for finishing under 1:30, but then I realized I was forgetting it was 10 miles not 9 and altered that goal to finishing under 1:35.

Another nice surprise out on the course was a familiar face at a water stop along the course, Paul!  He was giving out lots of encouraging and happy words to all the runners!  His pep was just what I needed when I saw him again on the way back! Thank you for that, Paul!

Pretty sure I’ve mentioned before I usually run with music, but there’s a majority of the time that I’m actually lost in my own thoughts than the actual music.  My ears did perk up though in the last mile as Beastie Boys – Fight for Your Right. Which helped push me to the end.  I didn’t have enough in the tank to kick it up a notch in the last mile, but I did have enough to sprint it out at the very end.

sprintin’ it in!

(Thanks to Jose Vega posting this picture on Facebook – hope it’s ok I stole it :))

My official results were 10 miles in 1:32:16 and I finished 6th in my age group.  Not too shabby!  Which also means my goal of running under 1:35 was accomplished!

Overall it was a good race!  Thank you DRC for putting on a great race and everything that y’all do!  Once the race was over I parked it on the grass to catch my breath and was able to finally meet a twitter running friend slash fellow NTX Runner, Alicia!  Just love getting to connect with people you spend time chatting with on the twitterverse!

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Ready for the Weekend from This Weekend

May 4, 2012 by · 2 Comments

Does that make sense? It does in our minds! Ha, this weekend is full of busy, so we are ready for the weekend break from our busy weekend. Now does it make sense? 🙂  But keep in mind most of the busy is all stuff we will have a lot of fun doing!

You might know that we are kind of taking a break or maybe more accurately a step back from doing SO many races right now.  Summer will be here in no time and everyone knows that summer is always busy, right?  Teal is about to be graduating from grad school then wrapping up another school year with her students and this summer brings about a wedding for one of her best friends.  Which means there are wedding events to attend!

Bride-to-be, Sommer & Teal dressed up as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a couple Halloween’s ago

Beth is still trucking along at work, basically has a side job doing social media for a small local business and is trying to plan her wedding!  There are so many things to be doing!

What does that mean for us this weekend?

Teal will be Bachelorette Partyin’ it up!  See how that warrants a recovery weekend from the weekend?

Beth will be participating in the Dallas Running Club‘s White Rock ‘n’ Roll 10 mile race on Saturday!  Need to burn those calories before she and Brent are off to do a cake tasting!  Neither one of us have ever done a 10 mile race and honestly it’s starting to get HOT in Texas!  Hopefully White Rock Lake can provide some sort of a breeze!

So there is no pre-existing goal for this race, but maybe one will be set out on the course! Otherwise hopefully there will be fun and happy running going on! 🙂  Oh, and should you be running White Rock ‘n’ Roll tomorrow and are still needing to pick up your race packet – Beth is working the 4-7pm packet pickup shift at Luke’s Locker Plano today! So be sure and say hi!  Or you know if you need some new running gear stop by that time and say hi!

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May’s Race

May 8, 2011 by · 2 Comments

before the race started

Well, we now have half marathon number two under our belts! And we are about 17 weeks away from our next one!  This past Saturday we ran in the White Rock Centennial Half and as we mentioned before did not really get a lot of training in before doing it.  For this post we thought we’d let you into our minds as we ran so enjoy…

Teal: This race was seriously a mental game for me. I knew going in that I could finish the race even though I really hadn’t trained consistently, but I was very nervous about what that would do to my head. One mile in I was completely off, I had accidentally turned my runkeeper app off and my music kept repeating the same song and I couldn’t get it to stop repeating. In my head I was like, this is going to be a long 13 miles if I can’t even get this stuff under control and was annoyed that my mileage and time was now off for the way that I track my running. I finally just decided to stop and fix it all after mile 1. After getting everything set I was now officially in the race. I started with my normal counting, but felt very tired, my knees were tight and I just felt like I was running heavy. The first 3 miles seemed to take forever. At the beginning I had decided that I would try to make sure I stayed between the 2 hour and the 2:10 pacers. I lost track of the 2 hour pacer by mile 3 which was slightly frustrating.  I decided that the only way to get through was literally go one mile at a time. I started to get really nervous that I had overdone the week. I had run 9 on Sunday and 10 on Tuesday, and thought maybe my body was just worn out.  Starting at mile 4 I just started saying to myself, less than 10 minutes to mile 5 and kept that up. Mile 4 was a huge tease, because they ran us through the finish line, so I felt like the race was super long knowing that I still had to make it all the way around the lake. After each mile I just said to say to myself less than 10 minutes until the next one. It worked and by 10 I felt ok, I ran a next to a trainer from my gym for about 5 miles and it was motivating, we kind of went back and forth in pace with each other, but it kept my mind off of being tired. It was at mile 10 that the 2:10 pacer passed me. I stayed with them for a while but then lost sight; I literally didn’t have much left to keep up with them. The hills were crazy and I hated every last one of them. We had run the Tour des Fleurs last year and they ran us up the same hill for this race that I had to walk in the 10k, so I was very proud of myself for making it and actually making all of the hills. The bridges scared the crap out of me too. Every time I ran on one they moved. The first one I ran across literally made me think I was passing out. It was that weird feeling you get when you miss a double bounce on a trampoline. It scared me to death and literally my heart dropped to my stomach. At 11, I seriously didn’t know if I would finish. I really wanted to walk but kept saying to myself you will be mad if you do. I had a goal to beat my last ½ by 5 minutes. I, however, decided to stop at the drink stop for the first time, I had been drinking the water from the bottle I was holding.  I walked the entire water stop; it probably took me about a minute and a half. At the end of the 11, I ran the rest and was determined to not stop even if I was running 11+ minute miles. I finally made it to 13 and I swear on everything it seemed like a ½ mile from 13 to 13.1.   I just kept thinking, you made it this far keep going, start counting and just freaking finish. I crossed the finish line and was kind of dizzy and seriously worn out, way more worn out then White Rock in December.  I looked for Beth who was just outside the fence and I looked at her and said “that has to be the longest .1 miles I have ever run!”

Overall the race was rough there were lots of hills, lots of wind, and not too many cheering spectators. The spectators are my favorite part. They literally make it easier to keep going. I kind of felt alone in this race and was sometimes bored, which makes it much harder to run.   I should be incredibly happy that my legs can carry me that far!!

Beth: We started the race right around the 2 hour pacer.  When we got started I saw the pacer and said to myself “I will not see you again during this race!”  I had my runkeeper app on during the run and it was updating me every half mile how I was doing.  This isn’t an app I want to run with regularly while the coaching feature is on.  I prefer to be my own motivator and pusher, but nonetheless I had it on.  I was talking myself through the hills and was proud of myself for keeping my miles under 9 minutes for the first 7.  It was when I got to the mile 8 marker that the 2:00 pacer passed me.  And I wanted to just break down and cry right then and there as I watched my goal pass me.  I let it get to me and I took a minute then to walk, but started again as this guy who introduced himself to me as Ryan later said, “Come on runner! Let’s go”  I started up again and ran on and off with him some – he was a great motivator for a couple of miles for me.  I’m a bit of a perfectionist, so for me when I tell you on this blog that my goal is this if I don’t achieve it that makes me feel like complete crap.  So that first time of walking I was just like “great! You know you are now going to have to blog about this!  And now you didn’t even complete the half without walking!”  And honestly, I had to do a couple more brief walking periods in the last 5 miles.  When I was approaching the 13 mile marker I heard my runkeeper app say “..distance: 13.1 miles..”  All in all when I crossed the finished line I think I had done a distance of 13.3 miles.  Thinking about my time it’s very bittersweet – I am kind of impressed I finished it just over 2 hours considering how my last 5 miles went, but I am disappointed with myself for not keeping it together and staying under 2 hours and running the whole time.  But on a positive side my favorite part of the race was high five-ing some of the kids out there cheering on their parents and the baby I passed that was at least old enough to be waving his arms around in excitement as people ran by!  That big grin on his face put a smile on my face!

Us with Bitner

 Our Results:

Teal: Hit a new PR at this race! Finished in 2:14:52, was 53rd out of 140 in her age group and finished 831st overall!

Beth: Finished in 2:06:35, was 39th out of 140 in her age group and finished 617th overall.

We mentioned in our pre-race post that Bitner was supposed to run with the half with us in December at the White Rock Marathon, but was sick and unable to run.  This was his very first half marathon race ever and we just had to acknowledge how awesome he is!  He finished in 1:44:39, was 21st out of 94 in his age group and finished 106th overall!

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