Rank for Us 10K Classic

I was number 32 out of 190 people in my division (which is 20-29 year-old timed females). Not bad! :)

Putting the "labor" in Labor Day

This morning I ran the US 10K Classic which starts at Cumberland Mall and then goes down 41 and finishes at White Water. The U.S. 10K Classic is known for its hilly course and being one of the toughest 10k races in Georgia. I had been looking forward to this race for months. I grew up right down the street from where this race is held and remember seeing all the posters and signs along the road. The main thing I remember is the hills. Everyone from Marietta knows that 41 is hilly! It's just one rolling hill after another. The course is definitely intimidating. When I started running again I knew that I wanted to run this race. I'd been waiting for Labor Day to get here just so that I could run it.

A few days before Labor Day weekend I started feeling sick. With all the hoopla about Swine Flu I figured I was done for. The thing about me and sickness is that whenever there is some new infection spreading around I almost always get it. I have no idea why this is. You'd think I'd have a relatively good immune system, but no. And when I get this "cold" or "flu" or whatever is being passed around it usually lasts for way too long and frequently turns worse than most people have to deal with. All that being said, I just knew when the news talked about swine flu that I'd get it. I also work at the most public place ever...the Courthouse. Yeah, so you see how I started to freak out when I felt the least bit of post-nasal drip. Anyway, I was feeling run down on Thursday morning at work. That afternoon my boss told me his son had swine flu and attorneys kept coming into the office talking about how their children were also infected. AHH!! I tried to ignore the fact that I wasn't feeling good as best I could, but by Friday I felt worse and decided to stay home from work.

The first thing I thought about was the race. I was going to have to start feeling a ton better if I wanted to run on Monday. Water and Rest. Water and Rest. Saturday morning I woke up still feeling bad. By this point I'd loaded up on lots of vitamins and had started taking sinus medication. Turns out my allergies get bad every time the seasons change, not just in the spring.

Saturday I couldn't stand it. I had to run. I hadn't run since Thursday. Bad idea. I went out for a run and at about 4 miles I started feeling awful. No energy. Dehydrated. Blah. Shouldn't have pushed myself. I came home almost in tears as I told David that I didn't think I'd be able to run on Monday. "Just take it easy" he told me. He wasn't happy that I tried to run. "If you'd told me beforehand I would have said that was a bad idea and talked you out of it." He said. Yeah, I knew that. That's why I hadn't told him. I spent the rest of the day resting and hydrating. I stayed off my feet.

Sunday I woke up feeling better, but still not a 100%. At least I actually made it out of the house and returned to life as normal person though. I ran errands and went to the grocery store. I was feeling much better. I did some more resting on Sunday night. At that point I knew I'd feel even better on Monday morning and that I could run this race. I'd been wanting to run it for so long!!

So I woke up this morning feel tons better! I was excited for the race. David and my mom were going to watch the start and then drive near the finish line to meet my step-dad, (also a David) and watch the finish. I knew exactly where they were going to be. Let me just say that I loved this race. Seriously. I thought it was so much better than the Peachtree. No time group starts with world class runners. No people stepping all over you. No obnoxiously loud "bands" every quarter mile. (I mean, I think bands are fun, but not every step along the way). No walkers on the left side. Plus, this race only had 13,000 people compared to the Peachtree at 55,000. The race also consisted of road bikers, skaters, and wheelchair racers (that all start before the runners). And like I already mentioned- this course is insane with all the hills.

Before the race started parachuters came soaring down out of the sky. As the national anthem was being sung, a parachuter with a giant American flag attached to his pack landed at the start line. Cool way to begin things. The start was all downhill which was fun. Only thing was that everyone was trying to do a mad-dash sprint for the first 400 meters which was just a waste of energy with that first huge hill staring right at us.

The first hill wasn't awful. It made the first mile go by pretty quickly. The next mile was almost all uphill - to Windy Hill. It's comprised of two hills actually. The first one wasn't so bad. It was the second hill that gets you to the top (where Windy Hill road crosses 41) that was the worst. It felt like a 90 degree angle. Relief came with another down hill. I watched as others ran past me on the downhills, but then slowed down on the up hills as I passed them. I figured I had a pretty decent pace going. I didn't know my time though since I'd forgotten to get a new battery for my watch.

I have no idea what I was doing during mile 2-3. I swear I don't remember seeing that memorial cemetery on the left or the target on the right. At one point around mile 4 I looked up and thought, "where am I? have I passed that target?" I'm pretty sure around that time I was focused on not peeing. I had to go so bad I thought at any moment I was going to have to stop and run behind a building or something. I told myself that if I saw a port-a-potty that I'd run in. I never saw one.

At the mile 4 marker they had a timer - it said, "33:20." UHH?? What? About an 8:20 mile. How was that possible with these hills? I didn't know how I was going that fast, but seeing that gave me the motivation to keep with my pace. At about 4.5 miles I saw one of the sheriff's deputies from the Courthouse who was working the race. "heyyyyy!!" i yelled and waved. "Hey - looking good-almost there" he said. That's when I realized I was at South Marietta Parkway (my exit when I go to work). I knew I was close now. There was the 5 mile marker. I was getting tired, but with only 1 mile left my adrenaline started pumping again. I knew I'd be seeing my family soon. One little hill left near the big chicken. Please. After all those ridiculous hills I'd just run I knew I could do it. After the last hill I could see the finish line in the distance. It seemed closer than it really was. I knew David and my parents would be close by. I started scanning the crowd and found them. I laughed because I waved to them for awhile before they saw me. I waved and gave a thumbs up- its my favorite part of the race when I see them. Makes me so happy.

I had about 400 meters left. Although it was down hill I felt like I was running so slow. I was pushing as hard as I could, but I just couldn't go any faster. I was getting passed. Then I could see the timer - 53:00 minutes. WHAT? I couldn't believe it - I was two minutes faster than my Peachtree time. I thought, "I've got to get in under 53:30. I pushed a little more and got that chill. Do you know what I'm talking about it? It's that feeling you get when you are pushing your body so hard that you think you might be sick to your stomach. eek. And this wave kinda comes over you...Hard to explain. Anyways, I pushed and before I knew it I was there in 53:28. I did it!

As I crossed the finish line this lady handed me some blue thing wrapped up in a plastic bag. What was this? This isn't water. As I made it through to the food and water stations I examined my bag. It was a medal! A medal!? I was so excited that I ripped it open and put it on. I knew it was dorky and probably kinda lame, but I couldn't help it. I was pumped. I'd read about these on the website and knew that it meant I'd finished in the top 1,000. Made my day.

Publix was a sponsor of the race and hooked us up at the finish with bananas, all kinds of muffins and bagels, pretzels, yogurt, apples, two-bite brownies, cookies, etc. It was amazing! Never seen a spread like that after a race! Thank you Publix!! I asked for a bag and loaded up on some goodies. The beverage stations also had gatorade, water and propel. Oh yeah, and also muscle milk - gross! I think the guys were loving that though.

After I got all my treats I headed to the get my shirt and to my surprise,a hat. All of these extras about the race (as well as the massive organization by all the volunteers) just made it such a great experience. It was definitely my favorite race thus far. Great Labor Day.

a monumental 8 miler

Last week was a huge accomplishment for me - 8 miles. And it was solid. That was the best part. I did 7 miles a few weeks before that, but it was not good. The morning of the 7 miler I woke up late and ended running at about 11:30 am. Too hot. I was also completely dehydrated. The one thing that saved me life was that West Stride had set up a water station with water and gatorade available for people in training and also for anyone else who wanted some. I thought I was dreaming when I saw it. Refueling at that water station was the only way I got through that run. The course I ran was ridiculous too. Hills everywhere I turned. Part of the run was on a road with no sidewalk with cars rushing past me. It was bad. After that run I thought I was doomed for.

So needless to say I was scared about my 8 mile run last week. I decided that I would start that week off on better foot though. I committed to staying hydrated and drinking lots of water all week long. Also, I planned to have lots of carbs for dinner on Friday night before the run. I set my alarm, so that I'd be out the door by 8:30 am for my run (hey, this is early for me). I also planned a better course - something with much less hills. I don't mind running hills actually. I am pretty comfortable with them during my 3-4 mile runs. It changes things up a bit and just keeps the run interesting, but during a 7+ mile run you don't need a lot of hills. So, I searched for a better route. I use USATF to calculate my miles when I am running roads (which is what I almost always run). I found that if I parked my car near Memorial Park off Peachtree Battle (and close to my house) that I could run down Peachtree Street to Lenox Mall and back -totaling eight miles. It seemed like a long way, but I was excited about running Peachtree. I just really enjoy that road. I don't like driving on it so much, but the thought of running on it was fun for me.

So that morning I woke up early and the weather was perfect for a long run - overcast, low 70s. I was pumped. I had some new music for my ipod and I was ready to go. I remember that first mile feeling so much better than when I ran the 7 miles. I was hydrated. I'd had a carb-friendly dinner the night before. I found a course that had a few slight hills, but nothing too major. I also had a plan to stay hydrated during the run....about that:

After my awful 7 miler I read some more training tips for half-marathons and saw that I should be drinking water or gatorade at some point (re-fueling) if I'm going to be running over 45 minutes. The advice was "once you are thirsty and feel dehyrdated- its too late." So my new idea was to have some money in my shoe and buy a bottle of gatorade in the middle of my run. On peachtree there is a CVS and a Walgreens which I figured might even have machines outside where I could just buy a bottle, drink a few sips and then either run with it in my hand or toss it. Now granted, I knew this wasn't the best possible scenario. The best thing would be if West Stride could always just be there to have water and gatorade available on the side of the road like last time, but I knew that was just a chance encounter. A girlfriend of mine that ran a half had one of the these water-bottle-belt things, but I thought they were kinda crazy looking. I couldn't imagine myself running with one of those things on. I couldn't imagine that they'd be any kind of comfortable. Plus, come on. It's me. I'm not a REAL runner. Can't only real runners who are training for marathons and such wear these sorts of things? I didn't want to be a poser. Anyhow, this was my next best idea, so I went with it.

The first mile or so is through the neighborhood on Peachtree Battle. The next part of the course runs up towards Lenox Mall on Peachtree. So like I said, I was feeling good. When I took the turn onto Peachtree it was so exciting. There were a lot of people running on Peachtree. I like when I see other people out running. They were also people sitting outside of restaurants having coffee and reading the paper. Others were enjoying their coffee while shopping at the farmer's market at St. Phillps. I thought to myself, "huh, so this is what Saturday mornings are like?" I'm never usually awake for these kind of things. I was loving it. Plus, everyone is so friendly in the mornings. When I run after work everyone just kind of nods their head as they pass you. Most people don't even look up. I'll admit sometimes I hide under my hat. Hey, it's been a long day at work and all I want to do at that point is get the freakin run over with. But Saturday mornings are not like that. People are actually enjoying their runs and smiling when you pass by. Some even give you a slight wave. It was a different world.

Anyhow, I was halfway through the run (had already run to Lenox and then was headed back) when I remembered I should probably run into get some water. There was a CVS coming right up on my path. I figured I'd run in hand the guy my two dollars, run out, take a couple sips, and keep on running. I felt like an idiot pulling my sweaty two dollars out of my shoe and handing it to the guy at the checkout. "Sorry" I told him as I tried to catch my breath. He smiled back - "no problem". I assume he's probably seen a lot worse considering he works at a 24 hour CVS on Peachtree Street. Outside of CVS I took a couple sips and then headed back out with the water bottle in hand. Whenever I would get stuck at stop lights I would take a few sips. The best part was being able to pour it over my head and down my back. It was getting hot! It's amazing how pouring water like that seems to give me energy instantly.

The rest of the run was pretty good. I always underestimate how much time I have left when turning onto Peachtree Battle. It feels like I am so close at that point, but I really have about 1.25 miles to go. At the 7 mile mark I could feel the tightening in my quads and knees. I was just tired at this point. A couple of small hills later I could see my car in the distance. I got so excited. I had never run this far in my life. I just wanted to scream! And the cool thing was that I felt good. I didn't feel like I was going to die as I'd expected. I was amazed.

I knew I needed to stretch once I was finished, but I couldn't stand it - I had to get in the car and drive as fast as I could to the house (only a couple miles away) and tell David all about it! It was a great feeling and something I won't forget for awhile. When I saw David at the house I threw my hands up in the air in a victory pose and yelled "I did it!" He was so happy for me. I knew at that moment that I'd accomplished something big and that there was actually hope of me finishing this 13.1 in one piece.

Keeping up with a blog is hard!

Okay, so I have decided that doing the whole blog thing is kinda hard! It's tough enough to be committed to running, but then to come home and blog about it is a whole different thing...

Anyhow, I am going to see this thing through and try to get better at blogging. I know that this half-marathon is a big deal to me, so it would be nice to be able to look back on this blog and see how much I have accomplished once the race is over.

The last couple of weeks have been tough. Our family has had personal issues that have slowed my training down. For about 5 days I just stopped running because of all of the craziness that had been going on. The good news is that the past two weeks I have been back at it! I have to admit, that I am impressed with my progress.

It was hard around the 5-6 week mark. That's when all the personal struggles started that prevented me from running, but also I was in rut with my training. I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. I had run a 7 mile long run and it was miserable. I was exhausted after only 4 miles. I began thinking to myself, "How I am going to make it 13 miles at this rate?" I was on the verge of giving up after running pretty consistently for months. With all the personal drama coming to head at about that same time I was feeling defeated. I knew that it would just be easy to drop out at that point.

My husband came to the rescue, as usual. He told me that he knew I could do it. He encouraged me to get back out there and start running again. It was really the last thing that I wanted to do at the time because of everything else going on, but I took his advice and hit the streets. He was right. I felt pretty good. I was surprised that my running hadn't suffered from taking almost a week off.

That entire first week back went pretty well actually. With every run I was surprised that I was feeling so strong. And then August 20th came. A day that I had not looked forward to for so long. I had put this off until the deadline. It was the last day to sign up for the half-marathon before the price would jump up twenty more dollars. I knew I had to do it, but all along I had given myself an out. I told myself that if I didn't feel ready then I could always just run the Zooma Half in November. That would give me another whole month of training...

So there I was on August 20th - the deadline I had made for myself, the $55.00 cut off for the half. I thought about signing up several times throughout the day, but always managed to find something else to do. I figured I'd wait till I got home to ask David what he thought about me just post-poning and signing up for the later race. Inside though I knew that I didn't want to do the Zooma. Number one, I didn't want to run in November - its too damn cold to be running 13 miles. And number two, I was annoyed that at the end of the race they gave you a "finisher's necklace" and not an actual metal like other halfs. Even a girl who ran the zooma and later blogged about it felt like the necklace wasn't what she'd expected:


The blog also mentioned that the "perks" at the zooma were not very good. The only thing I did like about that race was the course - which starts at Atlantic Station and runs through downtown Atlanta. The route passes World of Coke, Centennial Olympic Park, Phillips Arena, the Georgia Dome, the Olympic Torch and runs under the Olympic Rings. That sounded cooler to me than the race course for the 13.1 in October -which was in Brookhaven - boring! (sorry, my Brookhaven buddies!). I liked the idea of running through the city with all tall buildings surrounding me and running under the Olympic rings. Well, that's what I told myself. I made it all seem so logical. I wasn't feeling ready for October and this race would give another month of training and a better course to run.

When I got home that night I told David about my new plans. He was not having it. He told me I would be ready by October to run the 13.1 and that I needed to just sign up for it. He said that this was the race I'd wanted to do the entire time and questioned me about wanting to change races all the sudden. "The zooma is so much better because of the great course through town." I explained. "What's the big deal about running through the city?" he asked. He reminded me that I'd already run races in the city twice over the summer. "Not through downtown though!" I told him.

He wasn't convinced. "What is really going on?" he asked. I finally told him that I didn't think that I was ready -that after that week off I thought I was behind in my training. He told me that I WAS ready and that I could definitely do it. Besides, I still had 7 weeks of training left. I showed him the details about the Zooma race and then he saw the finisher's necklace. "You don't want that when you finish your first half marathon Ashley - you want a MEDAL!"

"Yeah...." I knew that I did want that medal, not a cheesy necklace that I'd never wear. "Stick to your original plan" he said. "You got this!"

He'd convinced me. Not just because of the metal - (although I can't wait to have that around my neck), but because this is what I'd planned to do all along. He was right. With a little hesitation still left I told him I'd do it after dinner. So after dinner we sat at the computer together and I watched as he filled out my entry form. I have to admit that I was excited and a little nervous. After all the forms were filled out I saw the mouse hovering over the submit button..."here we go!" he said. My stomach started to hurt. And then he did it - "submit" - the confirmation page came up. I was officially entered. He hugged me and told me he was proud of me. Then I knew I had to it. Not just for me, but for him too. I knew right then how happy I was feeling and how even happier I'm going to feel when he'll hug me and tell me that very same thing when I cross the finish line in October.

So there it is. It's official. October 4, 2009 I will run my first half-marathon. 13.1 miles of running. Walking is not an option. Holy crap!

Night Runs

I really like running at dusk. It's so much cooler and the sun isn't beating down on you. Todays run was nice. Felt good. Breathing was steady and I never felt out of breath. I love EZ runs. I look forward to having these relaxing runs. I've realized that 3 miles is definitely not a big deal anymore. I have been doing my EZ runs up West Wesley and then down Moore's Mill. It has been a nice change because it is not such a hilly run. The hills on West Wesley and Peachtree Battle start to get old after awhile.

Overall, good solid EZ run.

Things I learned today: Running after the sun goes down is much easier on the bod, but the mosquitos! Yuck! They are everywhere here! Does anyone else have this problem? Next time I've gotta wear OFF if I'm running after 8:00 p.m. on a summer night.

Training Schedule for Week 4

My schedule this week
Monday: 3.0 Miles EZ
Tuesday: Rest or 3.0 Miles
Wednesday: 3.5 Miles
Thursday: 4 Miles
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 7 Miles
Sunday: 3 Miles EZ

This week I am trying to make up some mileage that I missed last week. Going out with the girls last Saturday night made it way to hard to attempt to run on Sunday, even if it was supposed to be an easy run. We will see if I can add the 3 miles on Tuesday as a make-up day. Thursday I have a girls dinner, so I will have to try and run in the morning. I hate running in the morning, but sometimes it's the best thing to do when I have plans at night. I don't know why people say that working out in the morning gives you more energy. I don't agree. I feel more tired...at least initially. My runs in the morning are never as good as they are at night. I feel like I am still asleep for the first mile.

Anyhow, this is my schedule for the week. Need to get in some good runs this week. I've got the big 7 miles as my long run on Saturday!