Three Things Thursday

I don't do these posts often but since I had 3 things I wanted to post about, I thought I'd go ahead.

ONE
Yesterday, I got up and let the dogs out around 6:45AM.  I saw four paws walking the sidewalk and next thing I knew there was another lab in our yard - this one yellow.  Our labs were friendly to him, although Riley was very protective of his girl, Annie.  It was a bit adorable.

The lab hung out for a while - no collar and I knew he wasn't local.  Our poop clean-up dude showed up (yes, I pay someone to do this) and we debated about what I should do.  He thought it was a girl dog but clearly he was wrong!  I decided to wake up Biv (I am sure he was thrilled) and see what he thought.  After checking him out - I swear we're dog whisperers - we deemed him friendly and I called the shelter.  They offered to pick him up but I said no, we'll hang onto him.  He was definitely old and I was scared that the owner would take too long to get there.  I took to Facebook and I had awesome friends repost a picture of him and before I knew it, I had loaded him into the car to see if he had a chip that we could scan.  He did but it wasn't registered.  They suggested we call other vets and the very first one we called had a woman looking for him!  Yay!  She got my name from the shelter and was calling me at the same time as we were calling her.  Thankfully the vet was willing to hold onto him until the woman got there.  All in all, Max was only away from his home for about 4 and a half hours but I can't imagine how scary that was for his owner!  We live about 2 miles apart so he had an adventure!

Lesson learned:  make sure your dog's chips are actually registered!  It'll lead them back to you faster than you can believe!  This woman had forgotten Max even had one!

TWO
I've been struggling with getting up in the morning and actually going to work out.  I think I just haven't  been sleeping well during the night and I tend to wake up naturally between 4 & 5.  Today, I was awake, ready to go at 5AM for a BodyPump class when I got a text that the class was cancelled.  Come to find out, the the studio I was heading to had a fire at the business next door so they were closed.  I really should have figured out whether or not PAI had space for me in the Spin/TRX class but my tired brain thought that sounded difficult.  Back to bed I went and I don't regret it.  Maybe my core does, but I don't.

 

I think I need to find a workout buddy in the early mornings until I can get this "roll back over" bug out of my system!  Any takers??

THREE
We've been living on the same street for almost 8 years this summer.  When we first moved in, none of the neighbors really spoke to us because we were about 20 years younger than them.  Most of those neighbors have left and now younger people, closer to our age have moved in.  Although we still don't really talk.  I saw a neighbor at the CapCity Half Marathon Expo a few weeks back while I was volunteering & it took us a minute to place each other as neighbors.  We got a good laugh out of it and he gets made fun of by his friends!  Now there is a commonality so maybe we'll talk more!  I did try to recruit him for MIT but he'd be in a much faster pace group!  Just to prove no one really talks to each other - we got an invite today for an "annual"  street BBQ a neighbor holds that we've never been invited to before.  Should we go?

I am excited to start looking at projects around the house we can do this summer!  Biv and I need to get our list synced up because we both have different priorities!

 Have you ever found a dog and gotten him or her back to his owner?

Am I the only one who can't get up in the morning lately??

My 7 mile marathon

I thought I had spectated the Cap City Half Marathon by running a water stop but until I went to Cleveland last weekend to really spectate, I realized I hadn't.

I had grandiose plans for most of the season that I'd head to Cleveland for the marathon to cheer on one of my runners for his first full but execution was something I just couldn't get my brain around.  I got desperate looking among runners in my training group until last week I mentioned I wanted to go to one of the members and she suggested I join them.  A few email exchanges with the master organizer, Celeste, and I was in.  FYI, if you ever plan to spectate a race, you need to have Celeste with you.  Or a Celeste-trained spectator coordinator.  She is a rockstar.

We woke up very early Sunday morning to head up to Cleveland and Celeste had spent time figuring out where we'd spectate.  My plan had been to get there and jump in with Mark somewhere around mile 22 and I was trying to figure out how to do that.  Celeste had us organized to stop at miles 5, 11, and 19 then head to the finish.  So my 4 mile plan with Mark became my 7 mile plan.  Oops.

At mile 5, we caught every runner we were tracking but Mark but then quickly figured out as the text alerts came in that he was doing just fine and had crossed the 10K point.  Onto the mile 11 stop where we surprised him.  Not only did he get to see this:

Another must: a pink haired man.

But I handed him a dripping, ice cold bottle of water on what was increasingly becoming a hot day.  He looked great and I said "I'll see you at 19."  Celeste had our next stop completely planned out and we rushed there so we could be there waiting only to find the only parking roped off.  That didn't stop her! She sweet talked a cop into moving the police tape so we could slide our car in and park.  No one else was let in.  Further proof you need a Celeste if you are going to spectate.

Right before I jumped in w/ Mark.

Mile 19 was at University Circle and spectating there was interesting.  We literally watched one participant cut the circle off completely.  The runners were definitely hot and a few asked us to toss bottles of water to participants behind them.  This is why I love runners.

All of the sudden, Mark appeared and as I brought him a bottle of water, I told him my grand plan was to jump in and accompany him through the end.  He was excited I was offering so off we went.  The next 7 miles were filled with nonsensical chit chat as Mark took me on a tour of Cleveland.  It was hot and another runner even warned us that we were both getting sunburned.  This was the part of the race that would have broken me if I was Mark.  It was hot, a bit boring, little spectators and down right desolate.  The entire stretch on St. Clair was building after building shuttered.  Hardly anyone was out there spectating the race - except his wife & 3 boys!

Around mile 25, all 3 of Mark's boys jumped in and accompanied us to the end.  For some reason, there was a group of kids jumping in the race at that point to in honor of Boston since the runners in Boston got stopped at 25.  It was a great gesture but they were not respectful of the marathoners in the event and weren't paying much attention to where we were.  It was a tad disheartening to see fresh legs weaving in and out in front of us!

My plan had been to gracefully exit at 26 but Mark was needing someone to pump him through the end despite his kids being there.  Suddenly, I was in the excitement of the last .2 with cheering spectators and that awesome finish.  I sent Mark ahead told him to look up and smile.

Best finish line photo ever

I swear I was smiling!

We crossed, they handed Mark his medal and I got to put it on for him!  That was pretty awesome!  He did a great job on a very hot, tough day and I am so proud to have coached him this season!

So all in all, a true day spectating and racing for me.  I suggest one thing - if you are going to spectate work with someone as awesome as Celeste and you'll be all set.  Not only did she know where we should spectate, she was prepared with things like body wipes which helped clean up a soda that exploded all over my legs.

Not only was Celeste awesome but the entire group of spectators from MIT was awesome.  We had more laughs then I've had in a while.  And I still can't get the runner wearing nothing but a t-shirt and hot pink speedo out of my mind.  Yes, really.

Thanks for a fun time all!  Source

Are you a master planner when it comes to spectating?  

Have you ever jumped in during a marathon?

Flying Pig Marathon

Is it just me or is this year flying by?  Back in January when I did the Goofy, I kept questioning my sanity for signing up for another marathon before I had even finished that event.  I even considered dropping to the half, not going to DC for the Nike, and just backing it off a little.  I was in a dark place after that race and I wasn't sure my spring training would go as I wanted.  But it did.

I started working on speed doing the mid-week workouts with our training group and I focused on the shorter distance (the half) because I had a half goal first - the Xenia Half.  It paid off in spades for me at that race but I never really switched to doing marathon speed workouts because I decided I was in a good place.  And I wasn't wrong.

True to form, I didn't spend a lot of time analyzing the race course or coming up with plans to follow during the race.  I planned an outfit.  I planned who I was staying with and who I was traveling with.  I decided I'd be happy to finish in under my last PR - 5:10:44.  I honestly didn't give the race too much thought.  I did make sure there were hill workouts in my routine while training for the race but I didn't stress over it.  I avoided conversations with people about the race - especially when people would say "I will be surprised if you had a PR on a course like that."  

We decided to stay outside of Cincinnati at Biv's uncle's house which turned out to be a great choice given it was Cinco De Mayo weekend but it meant a 4AM wake up call then drive into the city.  Thankfully I had my clothes laid out the night before.

Getting up wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined and with the morning ritual complete, we were on the road and in the parking lot at Paul Brown Stadium way faster than anticipated!  Thankfully they had bathrooms in the stadium we could use and the lines weren't too long.  We headed over to the start line looking for our friends from home and were able to find a few to jump in for a photo with.

Mandy, Amy, me & Lynne

They were lined up in front of the 4:15 pacers which was a bit loftier than my goal so we snuck back a bit, waited in line for the bathroom and ran into my fellow Relay Around Columbus teammate before the race:

Me & Steph W

We had just enough time to snap that picture and then start shuffling to the start.  I'll admit - I was totally impressed with how fast we went across the start - we were about 8 minutes behind the clock.  Amy & I stayed together for about the first 2 miles but then it got hard to stay together with the crowds, etc.  We went across a few bridges into Kentucky and I could feel them moving.  My legs felt springy after we finished up with those bridges.  I am beginning to wonder if I am just extra sensitive.  I'll admit - I was in my head a LOT with almost every part of this race and I am still not really sure why.

When we crossed back over to Cincinnati, we headed through downtown where I saw Steph's husband and found a friend for a few miles.  My legs were still feeling a little springy and I let him go after the first hill even though we were at about a 10/mile pace.  I wish I hadn't - he was doing an easy race for him and planned to come in around 4:45.  Had I known that was his goal, I would have stayed with him longer.  The race was hilly and pretty well crowded until about the 9ish mile mark when the halves divided off from us and turned back.  This is where I got in my head the worst - my first marathon when the halves left us, they were finishing 13.1.  My brain decided I had finished 13.1.  I looked at my watch and realized we hadn't but thankfully I saw a familiar face spectating around the corner who I high-fived and got back in the game.

This part felt like to me a gradual climb but it wasn't too bad.  I was doing well, enjoying the scenery and I started to high-five everyone I saw.  The connection with the spectators was helping me keep my mind off what I was doing and made the miles click by.  The course support wasn't quite what I expected considering how the Flying Pig was hyped up by previous participants but I was grateful I had my headphones with me to keep me occupied.  The water stops were frequent and a lot of the spectators had oranges, bananas and other goodies for us.  I didn't partake in anything but the water bottles that they were handing out.  Around mile 20, I rewarded myself with my Nutter Butter bites but they were hard to chew and walk.  I remembered we had stopped during training to eat them so I tucked them back in my SparkleSkirt and ate them after I crossed.

The last few miles of the race felt tough.  I had spent most of the race in front of the 4:45 pacers without knowing it and they caught up to me but I had to let them go.  That was tough because 4:45 was a real stretch goal for me.  The rain had started and it got a little chillier.  There were suddenly more spectators which definitely helped.  I saw a few people from MIT standing on the sidelines and I cheered at them instead of the other way around!  I think I caught them off guard because despite how my brain said I was doing, I was rocking this race! My goal had been to finish in under 5:10:44 and I did!  My final time was 4:57:30!!!

Original results from the race showed me as the first place walker overall but when I went back to check tonight for this post, it turns out there was another awesome walker who placed ahead of me so I am now the 2nd place walker overall.  I'll take it!  His time was 4:17 which is just amazing!  Totally impressed!!  Other than the awesome medal, there aren't awards for the walkers but I am just happy knowing I placed in the event!  Maybe they'll heed my words on the evaluation form and create walker awards instead of just having a category.

By far the heaviest medal I own

Have you ever thought you ever gone back to look at race results and noticed your position changed? Was it for the better?

Did you race last weekend or for that matter, this weekend?