This was the first time I was to run since last weekend's Lighthouse Run. Tried taking the week off to heel my butt muscle.

Got going and could tell I vacationed this week and didn't run. Then as I went along I could feel a twinge in the cheek. Therefore I thought I'd just run about 2 miles or so, then walk back.

Ran 2.27 miles in 21:17 (9:23/mile pace), then walked back for 2.75 miles in 41:23 (a 15:01/mile pace). Got the full 5 miles in and it felt good to just be out and doing something.

With the Lighthouse Run next weekend, I didn't want to do alot this week. Thought I'd do the normal 5-6 or so, so I didn't go early and just wanted to meet the group at 7am. It's the Relay for Life, so we met at Panera and ran to Case HS for the relay. Did 4 laps there for 1 mile. I thought I'd then run another route to get extra miles in. As we left Case, I heard that everyone was just running back to Panera as they had all run before 7am and had miles in already. I ran with Kristin, so we kept a good pace, but I ended with only about 4 miles. Not great, should have done more, but at least it was something.

Ran 4.01 in 35:59 (8:58/mile pace).

Tonight's another workout for both of us with Anna. Since it was supposed to also rain tonight, I woke Bill up and we went for a mile run in the morning so it was out of the way. Ran 1.01 in 8:47 (8:43/mile pace)

With Anna, we started with a few minutes of jumping jacks, then did hamstrings, quads, pushups, lunges with the big bar on our neck, standing rows, and some core. Bill's still struggling with a few things, but this workout wasn't too bad for me. I may have to increase my weights or reps on a few things so I feel it more.

Today was Bill's last day going to Chicago early and once he got going I was awake. Since I didn't really do anything yesterday, and it was beautiful this morning, I thought I should get out for a run and maybe even do 2 miles.

I ended up doing the 2 mile loop. Did 2.05 in 18:04 (8:47/mile pace). Pretty good pace!

Really wanted to get in one more long run this Saturday as the Lighthouse is in two weeks. Went at 6am to meet some of the early runners. It's in the 60s and really humid today, so it's going to be a new experience to run in these conditions afte rmonths of running in winter/spring conditions. Got started with Kim, Yemi, and a new guy Jim. Ran the first 3 miles with all three, but then hit the Hwy 38 hill was a struggle. Jim and I dropped back from the other two a bit, but kept a pretty good pace, not losing much more ground on the other two for the whole rest of the 5.8 miles or so. We kept a really good pace, sub 9-minute miles.

Met the group and got some water and G2--needed that as that heat and humidity were draining me. Took off with the group and decided I wanted to run to get myself to at least 8 miles, then I could walk a bit if I wanted to. I ran to just past 8, then walked a bit and noticed Bill walking not too far behind me. Turned around and met up with him. Hit the lap button on my watch so I could see the pace for this last few miles. We walked/ran the last 2+ miles back to the cars.

The first 6.2 miles were 56:15 (the first 5.8 were with Jim, then the brief break at the car), so that was a great sub-9 pace. The next 1.84 was in 17:04 (a 9:16/mile pace). Therefore the first 8 miles were in 1:13:19. If I could do this, plus 10 minute miles for the final 2 miles on Lighthouse day, I'd be at just over 1:33 which I'd be happy with. For the final 2.2 with Bill today we walked quite a bit and ran probably half or less than half of it, therefore it took 27:45 (12:35/mile pace). Today ended up being 10.24 miles in 1:40:05 total. Good to get one more long run in as I'll probably just do 6-8 in next week to ease up a bit before the race.

Got up and decided to get a run in this morning as I had such a big dinner and dessert yesterday at the fundraiser. Did the neighborhood mile--1.02 in 8:49 (8:38/mile pace).

Then also went to do a 20/20/20 class tonight. Since my leftover sessions expired on 5/31/08, I was stretching it a bit and hoped they would let me workout tonight and not say anything. I changed at work and didn't get there till right at 6pm so I could workout as this will probably be my last.

We have Evan's school's golf fundraiser later today, with dinner after, so we knew we had to get our run in early. Got up and did our neighborhood mile right away this morning.

Legs were a bit stiff, but it felt good to get out. Ran 1.01 in 9:15 (9:11/mile pace)--pretty good for being a bit sore.

Parkside run today so that course is going to be a bit rough. Went at 6am with Bill to get some miles in before as Lighthouse is in just 3 weeks and I want to do some longer runs to prepare. There were actually alot of us at 6am this week as it was a great day and people are training for Lighthouse. Ran the roads for the first hour and got in 5.8 miles.

Then joined the group and ran the course. It rained yesterday so the grass was pretty wet and there were puddles in the low parts of the trails. Ran with Andy and Lorma (a new girl) for the first 3 or so, until you end up back in the open field again. I really didn't want to do that bill hill again, so I deviated off onto the roads and ran the outer loop towards Wood Rd. Started to get really tired and had to walk a bit at about 9 miles. Then walked/ran for the last mile or so just to get the 10 miles in.

Did the 10 miles in 1:43:21, not a great time at all. 3.1 mile splits were 32:34 (10:30 pace)[had a potty break at the first 0.5 mile and didn't stop the watch so that affected this time a bit]; 31:36 (10:11 pace); 32:09 (10:22 pace); and the last 0.70 mile was 7 minutes (10:02 pace). Overall probably pretty consistent in the 10:10-10:25 pace for each mile. Not great, but still working on the endurance.

Saturday morning with the group doing the southside bike path. Started out with Kristin and Vova and doing a good pace. Had to walk a bit at one point as Tucker needed to relieve herself. Ran with them for about 2.5, then caught up with Bill and Amy. Bill then backed off and I was left with the speedy Amy. Ran with her for the rest of the run, but she's fast. Had to walk twice, but she stuck with me and just kept me going.

Ran 5.5 miles in 49:58, a 9:05 pace overall. The first 3.1 were in 27.18, a 8:48/mile pace. Considering we walked for a minute or two while Tucker relieved herself, that's really fast. No matter it was harder to finish strong. The last 2.4 were at a 9:26 pace, which had two little walk spots in there.

I'm having dinner/drinks with the PHR/SPHR group tonight so I knew I wouldn't run later. Got up and did the mile around the neighborhood.

Ran 1.01 in 8:46 (8:41/mile pace).

So, today’s the day of my first half-marathon. Surprisingly I’m not really nervous. I don’t quite understand that….I should be. Especially since I’ve been nursing this hamstring/tendon pull and it’s still not quite 100%. I get ready, eat a granola bar and a few sips of G2, and set off with Bill and the girls (Jodie and Kristin) for the race. They are all doing the full marathon, which luckily has the same start time as the ½. I was hoping to try to run with Kristin and Jodie for the first several miles, but they took off into the crowd and I couldn’t stick with them. I ran with Bill for the first 1.5-1.75 miles, but then he needed to walk. Therefore I was alone in a crowd now. I didn’t bring my MP3, and wish I would have just to have some background noise.

I was going along at a really good pace, maybe too fast. I had gotten way ahead of my virtual running partner by mile 4 or 5and was starting to feel it. By about 6 or so (I really don’t know as I lost track of some of the mile markers and wasn’t sure where I was at times on the race) I had to walk a bit. I just walked through the water stop and a little after and that helped. Set off again, but had to walk again about a mile later. This isn’t good, I’m only ½ done. Then at about 7.5 there was a problem. I started getting this cramping in my right side gut area. Not a breathing cramp, much lower, kind of level parallel with my belly button. I had to walk a bit and thought I could walk through it. It kept getting worse and I kept walking slower. I started to really get discouraged as it wasn’t going away. After walking probably .3-.4, I realized we were about to come up on an aid station and this one had water, Powerade, and GU. I didn’t really feel thirsty as I drank water a bit before, but maybe I needed something more. Although I’ve never had GU for running, I was desperate to try anything. I grabbed the first one I saw, luckily it was a good flavor—Strawberry Banana. I opened it and took a bit. It actually tasted really good—thank God. I wanted to just gulp it down, but was scared that it would hit me heavy. So I walked a bit, then took some more, walked a bit, then took a bit more and threw out the wrapper. Overall I probably ate close to ¾ of it. I kept walking as I still had the pain. Over the next .2 or so the pain started to subside. I guess I really needed the electrolytes. Finally I was able to start running again.

Was able to get running, but mentally I was really struggling. I couldn’t distract myself and just “get into it.” Therefore about every ½ mile or so, I wanted to stop. I started bargaining….run to the next mile marker, and then you can walk a bit. I was trying to keep to that but it wasn’t working that well. Over the last 4 miles or so, I walked a bit nearly every ½ to full mile. Not too long, probably 20-50 steps. Finally when I hit mile 12 I said no more walking….but at about 12.5 I did again. I jogged all the way into the finish and ended up finishing at 2:09:03.

I’m a bit disappointed as I wanted closer to 2:00, but everyone tells me it’s a great time. Looking back, I lost a good 5 minutes at least around 8 miles with all the walking I had to do there. As I went through the finish line, I realized how gritty my face was—all the salt. I really was sweating much more than I think I realized. It was a bit windy (which also didn’t help with the run) and it was very sunny. I think my sweat was evaporating/drying off me quickly and I wasn’t realizing how much I was sweating. The bag pickup was a disaster as they weren’t sorted. As I stood there in a crowd of people I was getting dizzy with the heat and crowd. I just jumped in and started looking for my own bag. They kicked me out once; I waited, and then noticed others doing the same again. Bill had tied our bags in a particular way, so I thought I could quickly glance and try to find it. On this second attempt I was successful. I got it, got a banana and ice cream sandwich and moved on. Had a woman take a picture of me with my medal in the Fargodome, then tried to call Jerrod to catch up with him. Jodie was having a phenomenal race and was already nearly at 21 miles already. Therefore he couldn’t pick me up and I was on my own. I started walking the 1+ miles to try to see Kristin and Bill. I waited there for some time, stretching and relaxing. Then Kristin called to say she had dropped at 14 due to her foot and was back at the finish. Shortly later Jerrod called saying Jodie finished in record time. Turns out it was in 3:50…..over 33 minutes faster than her previous PR! Wow! Bill still hadn’t arrived and I waited and waited. Unfortunately he was way behind and finally showed up walking. I walked with him a bit and he told me he had been ill for a few days and never told me as he didn’t want to put a drag on my first big race. He had mild cold and also was just tired from the marathon 2 weeks ago. He knew he was pretty much going to walk til the end. I met him again at 24 or so and walked to the finish with him. He finished in 5:58 or so.

My first ½ marathon is done and I realized during it that it was much harder than I expected. It was even a lot harder than the 12-miler I had done a few weeks ago. Obviously with only doing 1 12-miler as training and only one 9-miler before that, it wasn’t going to be easy! That was definitely the hardest mental and physical thing I’ve ever done. Although I did look around and see the sights and crowd, having it be so long and in such a foreign place, and all by myself, really taxed me mentally. I just can't do the same thing for 2 hours....that's just too repetitive. I wish I would have had someone to run with and/or my music as that might have given me a little familiarity. Good to realize what I need to do for long runs. Now on to train for the 10-mile Lighthouse Run next month!

Had plans to go to Sara's tonight for chinese and to watch a movie (PS I Love You), therefore I knew I should get out early and do a little running.

Ran 1.02 miles around the neighborhood in 8:32 (8:25/mile pace).

Hamstring's a bit better today, but still sore. Luckily it isn't quite as tight so it's healing already and that's a good thing.

Mom has her Aurora awards dinner tonight so I knew I wouldn't run later. Got up early and did the neighborhood mile. Tried to keep it easy just to stretch the legs and not do any damage.

Ran 1.01 in 8:55 (8:48/mile pace). It's a shame that sub-9 is now an "easy" run. ;)

Since I didn't run yesterday, I thought I should get up and try to run in the morning and maybe do the 20/20/20 class at night.

Ran the neighborhood mile in the morning--1.02 mile in 8:36 (8:25/mile pace). Wow, that was quick, but it felt good.

Then, I figured I'd work till about 5:30pm, then do 20/20/20 before rushing to the GOP meeting. Work was very quiet and I was basically done with it by 4:50pm. I wasn't going to just hang for 40 minutes so I left, did some grocery shopping and met Bill at home. Never made it to 20/20/20 as we just ate dinner and went to the meeting together. Glad I at least did the run in the morning.

So, today is 10k race day. As expected, woke up to rain and wind. Got ready and Bill was going to take me to the other girls' hotel to meet them there. We get outside at it's raining pretty steady and there are gusty, cold winds. As we get in the car, I say to Bill--would you think I was a complete wimp if I just didn't do the race? I really hate the wind and then coupled with cold and rain I was really dreading this. He just said, 'it's your money'---so he didn't really give me permission or denial. We drove to the hotel, grabbed the trash bags that we brought for jackets and headed in. Met the group, got our bags on and started heading down to the start line. About 1/2way down, Bill said goodbye and I knew I was going to at least try.

At the starting line, I was chatting with Melissa and her friend Jennifer (that works with them and came down to do this 10k) and learned this was Jen's first race. I asked her what she hoped to run and she said 9-9:15/mile pace. I told her that's what I wanted so I suggested we run together. Then she mentioned that that's much faster than her typical pace and that was her goal. OK, well I'll run with her for a bit and see how it goes.

The race starts and by mile 2 the winds had died down and it stopped raining. Jen and I were still running together and keeping about a 9:20 or so pace. We throughout our trash bags and kept going. At about mile 3 we crossed a bridge over to Kentucky. That was a rough bridge as it was a long incline to get to the top of the curve of the bridge. I stuggled a bit and Jen really struggled. I had said to her earlier that if either of us wants to run ahead of the other, they should just go and she agreed. Yet as we got over this bridge, I was really liking running with someone. I slowed a bit to catch my breath and allow Jen to catch hers and back up with me. As we got to around 4 miles she said she was really struggling. I could see it but she was still doing OK, just slowed up a bit. Right then, I realized that I felt good but it didn't really matter. I saw myself in Jen....the way she was breathing, the struggle she had on that hill, it was all me and my running just a few months ago. I decided I didn't care about my time at this point...what difference does it make if I run a 58 min 10k or a 56 min 10k, I'm not winning so who cares? I thought about how many people, particularly Bill and Ken, have slowed themselves during runs to just stay with me and keep me going. It was now my turn to take that baton and give that to someone else. I think Jen may have wanted me to go on, but I just stayed with her and slowed when she needed it, then gradually picked the pace back up again on flatter portions or downhills. We saw Bill at about 4.5 and that was fun to have that to look forward to and have that nice distraction. After mile 5 there was a short little hill that was a struggle and I just plowed through and then slowed at the top for Jen to catch up. Then at about 5.5 we were crossing another bridge back to Ohio. It wasn't as steep as the first bridge, but still a stuggle. Jen was really waning at this point and I noticed I got a good block or so ahead of her. I saw Gary on the bridge and said Hi, then turned around and ran back to Jen. Let her know she could do it and we were going to finish together.

As we passed the 6 mile sign, we could start to hear the crowd and announcer. At 6.1, I yelled to push it and we sprinted to the finish. She stuck right with me through that sprint. This was her first race and I felt good about how I ran mine.

My GPS says we ran about 6.4 miles in about 59 minutes. After the race, I got 2 text messages with my time, one said 58:25 and one said 59:25. That was odd and I figured the 58.25 was probably right based on my watch. Well, the official time was 59:25, about a 9:34 pace. We still finished in under the hour and it was OK as the start was windy and rainy and Jen got her first 10k done in under an hour--about 7 minutes faster than my first one!

So I didn't get to run long yesterday and was really bummed as I wanted/needed to get a long run in this weekend. Therefore I thought I should try to do one today. Thought about running the Lighthouse Run route and set off about 8am to do so. Thought this might be a little difficult--to try to run a 10 mile run, for the first time, by myself. Got a little nervous and scared, but thought I'd try.

Got to the parking garage by the towers (after hiding a water bottle on Michigan Blvd), got my MP3 ready and set off. Ran the first 2 miles or so, got some water, then kept going. At about 4 miles I was stuggling a bit and thought this was going to be a problem. Somehow I got distracted for a bit, thinking about work things I think, and the next thing I knew I had run another half mile and was feeling pretty good again. Ran around the lighthouse loop and Bill came and found me at about 6.2. He was just checking up on me, brought G2 and water to make sure I was OK. It was nice to have a 30 second break, and I had been secretly hoping he would come find me somewhere along the way (just to give me something to look forward to). Continued on.....

As I got back towards the Main Street bridge, I hit the 10 mile mark. I was getting tired, but still felt pretty OK. Thought I'd try for a little farther. Thought about heading towards the reverse Colonial route, but changed and just ran east along the backside of M&I and the condos, rounded by Chancery and came back towards Main. Continued south on Main and kept going. As I got to about 10.7, I was starting to get tired and my knee was starting to yell at me. Decided to turn around at GTC and head back on Lake. As I approached the parking garage, I was only at about 11.7 or so, and I thought I better try for a nice even 12. Had to run past the garage to State and back again, but got the full 12 miles in.

This was a big jump from 9.1, my longest run yet. But overall I felt pretty good. I know I slowed quite a bit the last few miles, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Ran 12 miles flat in 1:55:51 (with 2 really short water stops and a G2 stop with Bill, plus a tying shoe stop) equating to an overall pace of 9:39/mile. My 3.1 mile splits were: 28:56 (9:20), 29:26 (9:29), 30:12 (9:44), and the last 2.7 was 27:15 (10:06). Not too bad for my first time and for being alone--so nobody to push me.

Oooooh boy is it windy today. 20-30 mph winds and it's only about 40 degrees or so. Not really feeling like running in this. It's a little frustrating as I needed to get a long run in this weekend. I decided to at least do a little, so I went to All Saints.

Ran 2 miles on the treadmill, did a bit of walking, then 2 minutes walking backwards and a bit more walking. Not a lot, but at least something.

It's Bill's birthday today--he's old--turning 35! We'll be going out for dinner after work, so I thought it best to get up and run this morning. As I was getting ready, I told Bill my rationale and he reluctantly joined me.

Ran 1.03 around the neighborhood in 9:09 (8:52/mile pace).

Since it's been so nice, I thought I'd get out early this morning to do my run in nicer weather.

Ran 1.03 miles in 8:21 (8:08/mile pace).

Thought I may go to 20/20/20 also tonight, and planned to, but ended up staying at work late so luckily I did do the run this morning.

After running longer yesterday, I thought maybe we'd still run about 4 or so today. As we drove back towards the park that we ran to yesterday, Bill made a comment about doing only 1 mile. It had rained most of the day before and there were puddles all over, plus it was just chillier than yesterday and still quite humid.

Ran the loop around Fenton Park and it ended up being 1.55 miles. Ran that in 13:59 (9:01/mile pace).