Competitive Walker Division at Columbus Marathon

For the first time this year, the Columbus Marathon is having a competitive walking division!  YAY!!  This mean we are eligible for prizes if we sign up as a competitive walker, wear a special bib on our backs during the race and a sticker!  Pretty cool.  You can hit the website for the race at http://www.columbusmarathon.com/race-information/walkers or read the details below:

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Competitive Walker Division Rules

 

All participants in the Competitive Walker Division must wear a special sticker on the front of their shirt and a special bib on the back of their shirt on Race Day. Judges will be located on the course. Any participant in the Competitive Walker Division seen running will be ineligible for Competitive Walking Division Awards.

 

The Competitive Walking Division stickers & bibs can be picked up at the Competiive Walking Division table at the Expo. This table will be located next to Number Pick-up. ONLY those walkers interested in competing for awards must wear the sticker & bib; walkers taking part in the marathon and 1/2 marathon who are not competing in the Competitive Walking Division do NOT need a sticker or bib.

 

Following the Race, all participants in the Competitive Walker Division will be required to write their name and race number on their back bib, and turn it in to the information table in Celebration Village for verification. Those participants who fail to turn in their bib will be ineligible for awards.

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I can't believe I missed this big walker news!  Now I just have to remember to sign up for it when I go to the Expo!  If you're up for it - sign up at the Expo and remember to turn in your bibs at the end of the race!  I am doing it!!!  This race keeps getting better and better!!  :)

New blog address

I had a genius thought last night that my blog address should be lauriewalksfast.blogspot.com instead of lcbilovesky.blogspot.com so I changed it this morning.

Will I lose readers?  Let's hope not!!  Please update your bookmarks for me to lauriewalksfast.blogspot.com and check back for some good reading!

Comparison

Last night while I was out walking with a very nice friend, we were discussing how I had gotten faster.  I mentioned to her that one of the people I know who walks had told me that the reason I've gotten faster is the weight I've lost.  I think he might be right as I am not pushing as much weight and asking it to move forward as I was before.  She was so nice to say to me that she didn't think I looked like I had that kind of weight to lose last year.  I decided to pull out another comparison and put together this headshot:

Left: December 2010.  Right: September 2011

For me, watching the weight come off has been gradual.  I don't see my face any differently now then I did last December.  It's just my face and I have to live with it.  But when I put pictures of myself side by side, I see what people are seeing when they say "How much have you lost?" or "You look like you are thinner through the face."  I usually wave these comments off because I am still struggling with the last 10 pounds and I don't see myself that way yet.  I have to say the face in the second picture is way happier than the first.  I look like I am forcing myself to smile in the first one.  I do now genuinely feel happy more times then not.  I can handle my work stress better than ever and I feel more at peace with myself then before.  It's interesting how this last year has changed me.  Now if I could just figure out how to get this adult acne under control, I'd be dangerous!  And I sure do need to go for some teeth whitening if I am going to smile all big and goofy!

On another note, I was thrilled to hear that the FTC is fining Reebok over their toning shoes and the claims they made.  Read more about it here:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44702829.  I've always thought it was a bit of a farce and over hyped.  I know Kim Kardashian advertises a different brand but she is who comes to mind when I think about these toning sneakers.  There is no way she got her behind to look like that wearing toning sneakers to workout.  She gets her shape by discipline, working out with a trainer and eating right!  These shoes, to me, were a whole way to show to the rest of the world that we want to be lazy about our exercise.  I hope this just leads to more fines with the other companies out there and the product finally getting pulled from the shelves.  They are just not good for your feet.

I will now disassemble my soapbox and return to the regular scheduled blogging.

I've updated my about me section and my past race information.  I find it interesting how much I've improved over the last 2 years since I've begun walking.  I need to start planning my 2012 race/training schedule. Any suggestions?

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Is there any product out there whose ads just make you angry?  Have you ever said to someone "I didn't think you had the weight to lose" but really thought the opposite?

Free race pictures from the Walking Classic

I am totally avoiding starting work today.  Not a fan lately so I decided I needed to post a wicked cool blog with pictures from the New Albany Walking Classic on the 11th.

The wicked cool surprise of the race came afterwards when they sent us an email saying there would be pictures for free for us to download!  I know, right??  Who doesn't want free pictures taken by a wicked good camera??  Yes, please!

I am not sure of the order of my pictures so I'll have to post them in no particular order:

Not a professional photo but worth reshowing!

Okay, my form here is bad but both feet ARE on the ground!

Again bad racewalking arm form - feet on ground again!

Here we go! My arms are close to right here.

I think I may break out into a dance here.

Pretty sure this was around the turn to the finish - heard my friends cheering.

Left arm too high but I am almost done here!

And it's a wrap!  PRs all around!

Officially I will say this was my favorite race because of the free pictures and the PR!  How often do you get a chance to download quality shots and check out your form so you know what you need to work on?  Not often at all!  Now get my my Age Category prize!!

My 7th Half Marathon - New Albany Walking Classic Half

Ever since I started wearing the Marathon Woman medallion, I have been having PRs.......a coincidence?  To date, the New Albany Walking Classic Half was my best race!

Deb, Me & Dina PreRace. Yup, I am really that short!

We were up and in New Albany bright and early for the race!  We were lucky & the weather was AMAZING!  Dina and I were able to find Deb @ the beginning and start with her which was awesome as this was her first official race as a walker! The start was a bit of a pain - a mix of walker speeds, no corrals, kicking each other's feet to get moving faster, smacking elbows and this went on for the first mile or more. I was close to killing people! They really need to consider corrals based on pace or separate the half walkers from the 10K walkers. Something should be changed as there were way more walkers doing the 10K then the half!   Either way, with a little cursing, the first mile went okay. I have to admit, by mile 2, with still a ton of people, I was like "do I really have to go 11 more?" I pushed the thought out of my head and kept going. I was finally getting into a groove and I saw myself finishing. That pushed me through.

Fast forward to the turn for mile 4 and we saw a 70 year old and his wife walking the race.  He was doing great and I had to push to catch him.  As we were passing him, I told Dina what our last mile pace was and he started jogging.  Why do people do that?  I kept seeing people jogging a little or running. I was annoyed because this was a walkers-only event. I expected everyone to walk no matter what. I totally expected people to be pulled off the course for jogging or running but that was not happening either. They even said that in the race information but alas, it did not happen.  We were pulling some of our fastest miles ever heading to the 6 mile turn to the half.  As we were approaching the turn for the half, I came across a walker who was wearing a shirt that said "Why run slowly when you can walk fast?"  He was also grunting with each step!  I was worried that he was in some kind of pain!  P.S. I need to look into buying these shirts or having someone like One More Mile Running Apparel make some.

For the half, you wind back to the start and head to the right.  We went up along a long stretch of 161 where cars were driving down the road and we had a very small lane.  I was a bit nervous about the cars but they seemed to be pretty respectful.  This portion of the race had to be the worst - from the time on 161 to the turn on the really long Kitzmiller, we thought we were hours from finishing!  There was not a lot of race support on Kitzmiller other than a water stop and I think one band.  Otherwise, it was a very, very long road.  We turned to the swanky area of New Albany and walked past million dollar homes like we have many times on Sundays.  I still can't figure out why ANYONE needs a home that large!  I knew we were doing great with our pace and I was mentally tagging backs of other walkers to pass them.  Heading towards the finish, there was a couple I kept seeing that looked like they were on a Sunday stroll.  I knew I had to pass them and with about a tenth of a mile left I did!  I felt so satisfied!  They even cheered me on as I went by!  The best part about this race was some wonderful friends I walk with through MIT were waiting for me as I rounded the corner for the final stretch!  I heard them scream my name and I almost jumped but their voices propelled me to finish in my best time yet! I do have to mention just as I was coming around the corner, a volunteer yelled "Go Laura!" I had enough in me to go, "It's Laurie dude!"  2 hours, 41 minutes and 8 seconds for an average pace of 12:18!  I was thrilled!!!

During one of the MIT seasons, they reached out to New Albany Walking Club for a real walking coach and they sent us @Larrywalksfast.  I consider Larry a mentor & I have learned a lot from him.  Here we are pre-race:

Me with @Larrywalksfast

Okay, I will admit I stole my twitter name from him but he was cool with it!  :)

Final race results were posted late Sunday.  I was 31 of 359 walkers and I finished 2nd in my age category!  There were people younger than me in the 20-29 category who didn't walk as fast!  Funny, I think we must get faster with age!  I am excited as I have won an age category award and this is my first one.  Not sure what it is but we shall see!  I am to expect it in the mail within the next 30 days or so.  I am NOT that patient!  Larry's wife took a picture of Dina & I post-race with PRs under our belts:

Yup, I didn't grow during the race!

Color me orange!

Today was one of the most interesting days I have had this week. I have to say, working from home lets you see all kinds of things that you'd normally miss.

Started out the day with a 3 mile walk at a 12:32 pace. I wasn't trying hard but the miles were coming easier and easier. I think Sunday will go well. I forgot how beautiful our neighborhood can be when it is just waking up. There was a nice fog over the main stretch and the day was cool. Great day for a walk! I saw a neighbor that lives far enough down the street that I don't see her often and she said "If you keep losing weight, I won't recognize you!"

Work beckeoned as soon as I returned from my walk. Thankfully we don't have smell-a-phone or smell-a-messaging or everyone would have known how stinky I was! Shortly after I started working, the noisy trucks from a local tree service rolled in AGAIN. Week 2 in front of our house! They brought this truck:

and parked it right outside the window that happens to be my office. I wasn't miffed until the grinding started and I could hear it like they were in my room! So of course, I took the dogs out who immediately friended them. Conversations ensued and I talked them into chipping up some branches Steve was too lazy to chop. Not sure if it was my boobs or the cute dogs but heck, work got done. Do you see that thing on the back? Well, it is a chipper and very dangerous! Riley didn't care! He jumped up on it and begged for attention from one of the workers. It was totally a camera/blog moment but no......I left the camera in the house! UGH! Riley was up in the chipper near the dude and our other dog Annie was sitting in between his legs. They'd totally leave us for food and a head scratch. I know it.

In other news, I went to the New Albany Walking Classic and was underwhelmed. You'd think being billed as the number 1 walking event in the country, the expo would be better. Definitely very different than the other expos I have been to. I hope Sunday is better! So the swag bag was definitely full with coupons for free Chipotle (score!), free Noodles, a free Panera pastry and a couple other things but you go for the shirt, right? Well, no shirt but this jacket:


The material is a little weird and they told us that you have to soap & wash the logo so it won't stick. We also got socks:

Doesn't Annie wear them well? I will never wear them! Too ugly for me so Steve tried them on:

Yeah, never wearing them. Ever. U-G-L-Y! I would have rather had a tech shirt but they were an additional $20 each.

I know we have all gotten the swag bag at a race expo and been disappointed. Or maybe happy. What race did you get the best bag ever or what race was the worst? Any pictures you can share?

Labor Day Weekend

Winding down the last few hours of my long weekend and feeling thankful for all the good that happened. Smartly took today off to recover from all the adventures of the weekend. A breakdown by days:

Friday
Fleet Feet posted a nice surprise on their FB page that Kathrine Switzer would be in their store until 7. I took full advantage of this and was so happy I did. There were less people there and I got some great time with her. Since I already blogged about it here, I won't say more. So glad I met her.

Saturday
Got up bright and early for the weekly session of MIT. Kathrine spoke to us briefly before we went out. She is amazing and has a lot of good insight. I loved how impressed she was that our group was mighty! She said she thought we had about 50 people and to hear 450 warmed her heart! She could not resist running with us so out she went with people who move much faster than I walk. Speaking of walking, I was only going to go 3 or 4 miles since I had two races coming up over the weekend but I ended up going 5. Everyone else was there for 9! I missed doing the long distance but enjoyed walking with Deb. The picture is me with my 2 pace coaches and one of our walkers. The angle is because a giant took the picture and he makes us all look short!! After finishing up at MIT, I headed to the Farmer's Market to get some goodies for the week! All in a goal to get to Joe's Original in time for the noon kickoff of the new Buckeye season. They do half price appetizers during football Saturdays which makes for bad for you food but a cheap date! Since I had a race the next day, we rested most of the afternoon and just hung out with the dogs after the Buckeyes won! It was funny - the race on Sunday was the Emerald City Quarter & Half Marathon. I was scheduled just to pace the race and you'd think I was racing! I could NOT sleep the night before. I think I slept about 2 hours. A race on no sleep is no fun but everyone was in the same boat as a terrible storm was rolling through all night long. Steve was surprised I couldn't sleep since I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere, any time. I guess I was due for a night watching the clock.

Sunday
Race day! Up and out of the house by 6AM to head over to Dublin for the race. The weather wasn't looking good and I have to say - we were there way too early considering we were "just" pacing! It was touch and go with the weather. A storm was tracking its way through Dayton but thankfully took a turn and missed us giving us just long enough to have the race. We headed out for the Quarter Marathon and were happy to have people who actually wanted to keep pace with us! I had to say it was awesome! I made up a little chart for my wrist so I'd know we were right on pace with 16:02:
Yes, I did notice before I left that I gave us 6 minutes to go from Mile 2 to Mile 3 so I fixed it before I left! I'll do this again at the Oktoberfest race so there is no questioning our pace! Doing math while you're exercising is just a no no! I can never do it and this will make my life much much easier! We finished pacing the race in a near perfect finish - 1:44:25. We were to be done at 1:45 so that works! The women who finished with us were quite happy! We met some interesting people along the way. There was a woman who comes to every M3S Sports event from WV. She had driven in the night before and slept in her car! Crazy! The course had dead frogs and snakes, but at least I didn't step on them!

The best part? A woman won the Quarter Marathon race! She was speedy and did a great job! Picked up some bling to add to my collection:



I was surprised at how heavy this medal was! It has a pretty green ribbon on it too. I spent Sunday afternoon relaxing with Steve and finally getting to the theater to see Crazy Stupid Love. Good movie & nice way to relax.

Monday

I had signed up for the Run 4 the Health of It as one of my Race Club races. It was a cheap race - $5.65 after the race club discount AND it was competitively timing walkers! Bonus! Being a 4 miler, I had mentally set my goal to be 48 minutes or less. My previous PR had been a 12:12 minute mile at the Westerville Rotary 5K so I thought I'd try to best it. When I got to the race, I looked for some of my MIT friends who run in the 13 minute pace group. Found them and started seeing some New Albany Walking Club folks I knew I'd have to look out for! Two of the women always walk the fastest on Sundays which are supposedly long slow days, and I let them psych me out! I saw them and knew I wouldn't beat them. They had advertised that the race would begin at 9 for the runners and 9:02 for the walkers. It didn't seem like they were paying all that much attention to it, so I took off when the Lucky 13's did. Good thinking! I was able to stay with them the entire race and we finished together (well, I was a few seconds behind). I ended up finish in 46:43 seconds for a 11:42 minute pace according to the race results. The race was not 4 miles as my Garmin clocked it at 3.85 but I'll take it! As I crossed the finish line, I was handed a medal that said 3rd in competitive walking! Woohoo! No one else was getting medals but the finishers. Yay! There was some confusion about first but I think that's because some of the walkers didn't register properly. Either way, the race paid me for being there - for placing 3rd, I have to take the medal to Fleet Feet to get a $25 gift card. They also gave us a water bottle so all in all good! Next race up is the New Albany Walking Classic Half Marathon on Sunday, September 11th! Wish me luck!

A bonus was winning a signed by the new coach OSU football.

Winning the football makes me have to take back my "I never win anything" statement. Officially rescinded. My guess is that this football has about a $35 (cost of said ball) value right now. If Luke Fickell coaches well, it'll go up in value, I suppose! Go Bucks!!

Marathon Woman!

What a great start to my weekend already! Last night, Fleet Feet Sports Columbus surprised all of us by having Kathrine Switzer at the store until 7. For those of you who don't know who she is (and I will admit, I didn't either until recently), she is the first woman to run the Boston Marathon in 1967! Amazing woman and an amazing story! She has a book out called Marathon Woman that I've begun reading and it is interesting! I can hardly put it down. We got to spend like 20 minutes just talking to her and she gave me some great feedback on race walking! She is amazed by the sport and told me about a walker who passed her one race when she was doing a 8 minute mile! Now I am not sure I'll ever get that fast but how awesome to think walkers can do it! She has really paved the way for women in this sport! I am impressed. I'll review her book on my blog when I am finished! This has been a great year for me to learn more about the sport I have fallen in love with. In the spring, MIT brought in Bart Yasso and his speech was inspiring. I read his book and another he recommended, Iron Heart, after his speech. Both books have changed my life and I am psyched to see how this book does the same. I officially have decided that 2012 is the year I'll do a full marathon walking: The Columbus Marathon! I am so excited and can't wait to begin the training!