What a difference a year makes

One year ago today, I got on an airplane that would take me on a journey that I never would have imagine.  This time last year, I walked on the flight to Orlando where I would run my very first half marathon at the Disney Princess Half Marathon.  I had trained and I was pretty sure knew  hoped I could actually do it.  I figured it would be one and done.  Boy, was I wrong!

As I am watching my friends board their flights and pick up their bibs for the half or the brand new Glass Slipper Challenge (a 10K one day and the half the next), I am a little jealous that I am not there again.  But, I don't need to go there again (anytime soon).  The Princess Half was my first 13.1 mile race.  It was hot and it was hard.  I stopped and took a TON of pictures.  You can read all about the race right here.  It was awesome.  Disney is a great place for a first race.  I've come a long way since then.

I never thought that I would be sitting here, a year later, with 10 half marathons behind me.  I've raced almost 200 miles since I signed on for this adventure last year...with countless more in training.  I've had a couple of amazing races (OBX is my favorite, with Nike a close second.)  I've had some HORRIBLE races (Diva, Crawling Crab, Myrtle Beach.)  I have never quit.  I have crossed every finish line.  Sometimes it was fast-ish (OBX!) and sometimes it was slower than usual (Myrtle Beach). Sometimes it was easy and fun.  Sometimes it was hard...really hard. I've learned how to enjoy running.  I've made great running friends.  I've met random people at races who inspire me.  I've gone to visit places I wouldn't have gone to otherwise.  I am a Half Fanatic (#4455), mooned up to Uranus for finished 8 races in a calendar year.  I am a runner.

So, what's next?  

I think it's time.  It's going to be hard.  It's going to be really hard.  I'm going to be slow.  But, I'm going to do it.  And, I am going to do it in Disney.  I can't think of a better place to run my first full marathon.  So, come January 2015, I will be a marathoner.  It will probably be one and done.  (Where have you heard that before???)

I have some work to do before that.  I need to lose some weight.  Training itself and the distance will be easier on my body if there is less of me.  (Not fishing for anything here...it's a truth.  Plus my brother is getting married the week after the race.  Two birds with one stone.)  I also need to get over the 13.1 hump.  Some people get scared of 20 miles....I'm afraid of 14.  But, I never thought I would be able to do 13.1 either.  I'll get there.

I'll also keep up with my half marathon a month schedule.  March has Charlotte and Shamrock, April is Atlantic City, May is Frederick, MD, June is back to Williamsburg, July - TBD, August will be Rock and Roll (the race I swore I would never run), September is Bird in Hand, PA, October is Crab again (redemption!) and Hershey, PA, November is OBX again (loved it!) and maybe Richmond, and December is TBD.   And, all the while...building up to 26.2.

Why Disney, you ask?  Where else can you ride a roller coaster in the middle of a marathon??

It's only the wind....

This weekend was another destination race in Myrtle Beach, SC.  It started with the Neon Night 5K, followed by the Dasani Half Marathon.  It had been years (like since I was in high school) since I went to Myrtle Beach, so I was excited to see what this race had to offer.

The morning dawned (well....the alarm went off...dawn was still a couple of hours away) with POURING rain.  I hate rain.  My hubby drove me from the hotel to the start, and thankfully, I remembered to borrow a trash bag from the room before we left.  (This is a decision that I would be very glad that I made.)   We got to the starting line and I begrudgingly got out of the car and donned my stylish trash bag.  I made my way to the porta potty line for my first stop of the morning.  (No lines in the rain!)  Amazingly, I met up with my BRF in all of the wet and crowded madness. We hadn't made any plan on when and where to meet.  It was running karma.  We are meant to be BRFs.  We stood and chatted for a bit and then went back to the porta potties for another stop before we moved to the corrals.  (So, it wasn't really a corral...it was pacing signs.  Everyone started at once.  I don't even think the race was chip timed.) 

Let's talk about that for a minute.  The race website said that there would be pace groups for super fast through a 2:30 finish.  The rest of us were out of luck.  I didn't think that the start corrals would END with a 2:30 finish.  Ummm....slow people paid for this race too.  How about a little recognition at the start????

Just before the gun went off, the rain stopped.  (Too bad everyone around me was SOAKED...but not me...my trash bag kept me pretty dry.)  I threw my trash bag near a trash can (I missed and didn't want to get trampled trying to pick it up.)  The first bit of the course was crowded, but not terribly so.  It was dark and wet.  After about a mile, we made our way to the main drag in Myrtle Beach.

As soon as we made the right hand turn onto the road, the wind started.  We just kept running into the wind.  It was SO hard.  I was SO tired.  

I was just looking forward to the turnaround because I knew that we would have a tailwind once we got back to the beach.  We ran through this shopping center/town center/condo place and headed back to the beach.  Because this section was so boring, the race directors put a pretty good band on the course.  Once we headed onto Ocean Drive, we finally got the tailwind that I was looking forward to, but by then I was beat up.  I didn't want to keep going...but the only way to move is forward.  Quitting is not an option.

After 4 miles or so, we turned off the beach road to head to the finish line.  As soon as we made the turn, just past mile 11, we were going back into the wind.  It was a long 2 miles to the finish.  I have never been so happy to see a finish line.  (This race ranked right up there with Divas DC and the Crawling Crab.)  Once I got to the chute, I just started scanning the crowd for my husband.  He wasn't there....he missed me finish.  It's probably best because it was the kind of race that I may have just started bawling as soon as I saw him.  The best thing I can say about this race is that I finished and checked off South Carolina.

I crossed the finish line just before the 2nd place female MARATHON finisher.  I wasn't last in the half and not too many full marathoners finished before me.

So, the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Myrtle Beach Dasani Half - 

Good:

• Pretty cool swag - awesome bag...and socks!
• Frequent water stops
• Cool flip flop medal
• Great people running with me!  I met some fellow Half Fanatics and a man going for the 50 states.  I watched a girl pick up someone's (unintentionally) dropped glove and speed up to return it.  People were chatty at this race!

Bad:

• The course was BORING!!  I saw a lot of putt-putt courses and about a million hotels.  Myrtle Beach is a lot like Virginia Beach, but without the boardwalk.  The race course was pretty much like running on Pacific and then Atlantic in Virginia Beach.  I like to see the ocean and it's hard to do that through the hotels.
• The wind.  It was brutal.  
• The shirts.  Please give shirts that fit adults.  An XL shirt should not fit one arm.  I went a size up because it was a women's cut and it still doesn't fit.
• The 5K shirt should be at least a different color than the half shirts. I don't need 2 pink shirts that don't fit.

Ugly:

• There was no course support....like none.  It was long, and windy, and lonely.  We are VERY spoiled in Virginia Beach.  Our people come out support the runners, rain or shine!
• Did I mention the wind???
• I never saw the elephant.

Official time - 3:07.  Not happy with it.   Charlotte is up next...on the speedway.  It will be better. But, in the spirit of the 2014 Winter Olympics, I just have to remember: 

.....and I didn't stop.

Family Fun - 5K Style

Our entire family came down to Myrtle Beach, SC for Marathon Weekend.  As part of their Final Mile Training, my big boys decided that they wanted to run the Neon Night 5K.   My mom saw the flip flop medal and decided that she was coming down with us.

After a 5 1/2 hour drive (make sure you stop at Fuller's BBQ in Lumberton, NC), we pulled into the expo.  Word on the street was that there were monkeys at the Expo!  We walked right up to the windows and picked up our bibs.  In typical expo fashion, there is a separate line for each race, so I went and got my half bib and then went over and picked up the 5K bibs for myself and the boys.  Then we went to get our shirts. 

Here is one major complaint that I had with the Myrtle Beach Marathon shirts - the women's shirts for the 5K and the half are exactly the same.  (One says 5K an one says 13.1, but it's the same shirt.)  I asked the shirt lady for a gray men's shirt for the 5K, but she wouldn't give it to me....so now I have 2 pink shirts.  I got some pretty cool pink zebra print socks as part of the swag, so that was pretty cool.

Back to the expo - after we picked up t-shirt, my hubby took the boys over to see the cute monkeys while my mom and I walked through the Expo.  It wasn't much to write home about...same vendors, same races, but there were monkeys.  :)

From the Expo, we ran to the hotel to check in before our 4:00 dinner reservations.  We ate a Capriz at Broadway at the Beach.  It's like a Brazilian steakhouse, but with pasta.  You sit at your table and they bring you pasta...as much as you want....whatever kind they are serving that day.  I had some penne alla vodka, spaghetti and meatballs, and some marinated pork tenderloin.  There was also DELICIOUS bread and a salad and antipasta bar.  We ended dinner with a cannoli.

At about 6:15, we made our way over to the starting area to get ready for the 7:00 race.  It was getting a little chilly, so we found a Myrtle Beach Tourism office that was kind enough to let us hang out inside until it was a little closer to the start.  We headed outside at 6:45 and lined up at the back of the pack.  (But not the very back because Jacob wanted to start with people behind him.)  I should probably mention that we, along with all of the other runners were decked out in neon and glow sticks.  

It was dark at the start and I was worried about losing a child, so my mom had one by the hand and I had the other and we moved together once the gun went off.  Our training runs have been close to 20 minute miles, so I was hoping that we would finish in the hour time limit.  

They came to race.  :)  With very little whining, they ran when I told them to run (even Gaga).  We made a friend at about mile 2.  He was 9 and running the race with his twin, who had left him.  The parents were waiting at the finish.  I would have wanted a family to adopt mine if they were out there alone, so we invited him to run with us.  Jeffrey does better with a friend.  He was laughing and running and playing and walking and just having a great time.  Jacob didn't talk to the kid very much, but he turned on the gas for his running times.  He would take off and go to the stop marker and the just wait.  It was a game for him to get there first.  He was having so much fun.  

We crossed the finish line in 52:41.  It was an 8 minute PR for the boys!  We averaged 17 minute miles.  I was SO proud of them for going out there and doing their best.

After the race, we rushed home to get everyone in bed.  My 4:30 wake up call for the half would be coming way too soon!

The THRILL of victory and the agony of defeat

Today was race day.  Not for me....but for my 6 year olds.  Today was their very first Pinewood Derby for Cub Scouts.  They worked with their daddy for weeks to make the perfect cars.  The cut and sanded and primed and painted.  They polished axles and wheels and then they waited...and waited...and waited.  Jeffrey made a red and blue Spiderman car and Jacob made a police car.

When today finally came, all of the boys were up and ready for the day at 6:30.  (Even the biggest boy...they were all excited to race their cars.)   They headed off for a pre-race breakfast at McDonald's and then to get their cars weighed and registered. Little man and I chose to skip all of that excitement and we headed over right at start time.  The plan was to have the Tigers race first.

How plans change.  We got there and got settled, expecting the heats to start at 9:30.  A half an hour later, they (you know..."THEY") let us know that the races would start with the oldest cub scouts and then go through the dens to the youngest....the Tigers would go last.  So, we waited again.  After about an hour, everyone was getting tired and cranky and was ready to go home.  So, of course, it was time to start the races.

The whole process is too long and confusing to even understand, yet explain.  Basically, every car races on every track and there is some super secret formula that comes up with a winner.

Jeffrey's car ended up first or second in just about every heat he was in.  (I say just about because I was trying to watch the race, keep Joshua occupied, and make sure that Jacob was handling the whole process.)  He was SO excited!!

Jacob's car never came in last....but it never came in first either.  He got his car from this finish line every time with a big smile.

And, then...it all started to go downhill.....

They announced the kids from each den who would be going on to the finals.  Jeffrey's name was called and Jacob's wasn't.  That's when the tears started.  Jacob couldn't understand why Jeffrey was called and he wasn't.  He sat in my lap and cuddled up close and the tears were just running down his little face.  All he could say, over and over, was that Jeffrey's name was called and his wasn't.

(In the meantime, Jeffrey's car was racing in the Pack finals.  There were some FAST cars from some of the other dens.  His was making a good showing, but wasn't ever coming in first.)

After the tears, then Jacob started to get angry.  He balled up his fists and started stalking the Pinewood Derby emcee.  (This poor guy had NO idea that we were trying everything we could to keep Jacob from going off on him.   He wasn't even part of the pack...he's from the Boy Scout troop and comes back to help with the Derby every year.)  While there was no screaming or yelling or growling, I was VERY afraid that Jacob was going to take a swing at the man. I was also very afraid of the look on his face.  It was like a child who had become possessed.  His whole body was tense, his heart was beating SO fast, and he was glaring through slits in his eyes.  When talking (and prompting and reminders) didn't work, I had to carry him out of the room to give him a chance to cool off.

Once that happened, he was able to come back in and watch the rest of the races.  He almost cracked a smile a few times.  And then it was time for the awards ceremony.  I offered to take a walk with him so he didn't have to see the trophies being given out, but he refused.  He watched the big kids get their trophies and then he watched as the Tiger winners were announced.

I figured that Jeffrey would get second place.  He car was fast, but another boy had a car that seemed faster.  I knew that Jeffrey would just be happy to get a trophy, so we were just ready to clap and cheer when his name was called.  The Cub Master called the 3rd place winner and the 2nd place winner...and neither one was Jeffrey.  He won 1st Place for the den!  He was so excited and we were so excited for him!!

And then the tears started again.  The reaction this time was just sadness.  My heart broke for my baby. It was a terribly feeling.  I was so happy for one and so devastated for the other.

I am, however, proud of Jacob for his reaction.  There was a point where he would have had a meltdown in the middle of the floor and he would not have been able to recover.  While there was a moment when I wasn't sure what was going to happen, I think he did a great job calming himself down.  I am also proud of Jeffrey.  He was SO excited, but he could tell that Jacob was sad and he didn't make a huge deal about his trophy or show it off to his brother.

Today was a hard day to be a twin mom.  There are other families where one brother won and one brother lost....but this is a little different.   We have always let one win and one lose, but they have always done things together.  Their names have always been called together.  I'm not even sure if Jacob's problem was less that he lost and more that Jeffrey's name was called and his wasn't.

Either way, today was a good day for life lessons.  Jeffrey learned how to win gracefully and Jacob learned that you don't always win and it's okay.  Hopefully, they both had a little bit of fun.

...and next time, the outcome will probably be completely opposite!

Because it's not all about running

I had a parenting win this week.  (Stop laughing....for all of the times that I lose my Mother of the Year crown....I deserve a win every now and then.)

Sometimes the best conversations happen in the car.  The big boys sit in the WAAAAY back of the van, so in order to actually talk to them, the radio has to be off and I have to really listen.  Today, I'm really glad that I did!  

I had this cutie in the car all by himself.  We were heading to his Vision Therapy appointment and he just started talking.  The conversation went like this...the editorial thoughts are in red:

Him:  Mommy, me, Anthony, and Mason are the leaders of the boys.

Poor baby...you are not really the leader type.

Me:  Oh really?  What does that mean?
Him:  That the boys do what we say.

Me:  What do you tell the boys to do?

Him:  We are taking over the girls' table.

Me:  In the lunch room?

Why do you have to sit at a boy table and a girl table in the cafeteria?

Him:  Yep.  

Me:  What do the girls think of that?

Him:  They tell us to go away.

I bet they do.

Me:  Do the girls have leaders?

Him:  Yep.  Teagan, Cameron, and Cristelle.  They are the hottest girls.

WHAT???  You are 6 years old.....what do you know about the hottest girls??  Where did you hear that?  What happened to my sweet, innocent baby.

Me:  What?  Where did you hear that?

Him:  From my friend at school.

I hate that kid...I don't want you to ever talk to that kid again.

Me:  What does it mean to be the hottest girl?

Him:  That they tell people what to do.  They are bossy.

Me:  Oh, okay.

Oh, thank goodness....you are still my baby.  Please stay this young and innocent for ever!

Sometimes you just need to listen.  :)

Final Mile

My 6 year olds are running the Shamrock Final Mile in March.  It's basically a marathon, one mile at a time.  Of course, my poor children have a mom who is a distance runner, so we don't roll one mile at a time.  We also don't cheat the miles....you don't get 25 miles before race day, you don't race.  We also have to get all 25 miles done two weeks early because one of the boys has to have surgery at the end of the month.  We are getting there...but weekday runs are hard.

The gym teacher at the boys' school has offered a Final Mile Club to help the kiddos get their miles in.  Of course, the first two meetings got snowed out, so today was the first time the boys could stay after school to get some miles in.  The best part is that parents are welcome to join the kids for the runs.  

It was COLD and windy and misty today.  The gym teacher made the great call to hold the club in the gym.  There were about 40 kids in the gym.  They had the option to run or walk around the track in the gym or they could jump rope in the middle.  She would put on music to get them to run faster and then turn it off to slow them down.

This afternoon was the tale of two children.

Child 1 would run a lap and then get the jump rope and then got get some water and then go out the open door to the cooler outside (because he was "hot"...but really, because everyone else was doing it.)  And then he would get the jump rope, and then some water....you get the idea.

Child 2 walked around the track.  For 45 minutes.  He refused to run, but he refused to stop.  

I ran when Child 1 ran, but mostly I walked with Child 2.  We talked.  He held my hand.  We had a great afternoon together.  Their time at Final Mile Club counted for 2 miles.  

Child 1 is up to 10 miles....15 to go.

Child 2 has 13 miles....12 to go...and I hope he runs just a little bit at the Final Mile.

(In case you were wondering....Child 1 refused to go on a 3 mile walk with us).

Go Long

There was a lot going on this weekend.  There was a short notice Saturday morning choir rehearsal, a basketball game, church on Sunday, school work to do, some cleaning that needed to happen, it was Superbowl Sunday, and I needed to go for a run...a LONG run.

I mentioned in the previous post that Snowmageddon hit the South this past week.  We had 8 inches of snow, were out of school for 3 days, and still had ice on the roads through Saturday.  The roads were better, but the ice was still there.   I had to make some choices.

I decided to skip the church choir rehearsal in favor of the run.  It had to get done and that was the best time to do it.  The day was warming up, the ice was getting slushy, and I was going to get it done.  I wanted to wait until the ice melted a little, so I started out at 9 in the morning.

It was a bit treacherous along my 10 mile route.  I wasn't able to run my 2:1 intervals....I was running ice:pavement intervals.  There was a LOT of walking so I didn't fall and break something.  A lot of my run looked like this...except instead of a nice running path through the snow, there was a sheet of ice.

It was great to go out there.  It was a beautiful day.  I rolled up my sleeves about 2 miles in and enjoyed the solitude.  Maybe it was all of the walking, but when I had pavement, I just ran.  If the watch beeped to walk, I kept running because I knew that there would be ice just around the corner and I would miss the next running interval (or two....or three sometimes).  It was my longest run since West Virginia. 

I had more in me.  I could have gone 2 or 3 more miles.  But, as is typical with my life, I was out of time.  Lunch had to be made and my little Larry Byrd needed to get to his basketball game.  I got back to my house with the Garmin showing 9.8 miles.  I'm sure you know what happened next.  

Sure did!

10 miles in 2:20 (ish).  It's still 10 miles.  Myrtle Beach, here I come!