I did it!!

I made it to the race start at 8am for a 9:45 start because my race pack didn't arrive due to the postal strike.

Pre-race fuel was a disaster. My stomach was so nervous that I couldn't keep anything down. I was snacking on dry cereal while I got ready and managed a banana and peanut butter before the start but I wasn't nearly fueled up enough for my expected 2 hour and 45 minute run!

I got an email about a month ago with my race number, which was based on your estimated finish time so I thought 8,240 seemed fast given that there were 15,000 runners signed up.

Imagine my surprise when they gave me another race number at the help desk and it was in the 1000 range! Umm...that's pretty damn fast!!

Wandering around pre-race I kept imagining people were checking me out and thinking 'damn, she doesn't look like she'd be able to run that fast!'

They even tried to put me up in one of the top pens at the start but I didn't fancy being passed by EVERY runner for the first few miles so I begged and pleaded and they let me go in my original pen (even though it meant I didn't cross the start line until 20 minutes past the gun).

I was still passed a lot for the first mile, but I was watching my garmin and I was running a 10min/mile...I definitely didn't want to go any faster!

The first three miles were awesome, I felt so good. Then the first water station came and they were out of cups. They were handing out 2 liter bottles instead....umm those things are heavy! I took two sips and put it back down again. Now I was starting to worry - what if ALL the water stations were going to be like this??

Luckily, at mile 5 was a gatorade station and they had 500ml bottles so I snagged one of those and carried it the rest of the way. I felt brilliant running all the way to mile 9, the second gatorade station where I switched my bottle for a new (slightly cooler one).

The sun was HOT today, there was NO shade, and the course had more uphill than I was expecting but I actually liked the hills because I was determined not to stop and it's fun to just put your head down and power up those hills past the people who have stopped to walk!

Mile 10 came and I was entering PDR territory - my fastest 10 miles previously was 1:55 and today was 1:57.

My stomach was hurting from all the gatorade and lack of food.

Mile 11 was killer - my legs were feeling heavy and my stomach was killing me. I was starting to feel some rubbing on one of my feet and I contemplated stopping to put a blister pack on but wasn't sure I could start again!

Mile 12 hurt...I was told 3 times that there was just a mile to go and each time wanted to kill someone...I wanted to see the damn sign!!

I never walk during a run - even my long runs but I contemplated it today. It was purely mental to keep that pace up. I was running alongside a guy in the army who was wearing a MASSIVE back pack...I was keeping up with him when he was walking but then he'd start running and I'd lose him and then catch up to him when he was walking again...I tried to pretend it was a game to get me through that last mile.

I hurt so bad!

Once I saw the finish line I picked up the pace, and saw it drop to a 9:30 min pace...I felt awesome!!

I had given myself the arbitrary goal of 2:45 and finished in 2:37 (even though my garmin says that was how long it took me to go 13.26 miles not 13.1!!)


I refueled with a protein power smoothie of raspberries, strawberries, soy milk and tofu and then ate a ton of whole food's brown rice sushi before taking a couple hours nap.

I am WORN out but feeling pretty pleased with myself!

Race Day!!

It's finally here - I'm about to run 13.1 miles

I'm not shooting for any particular time...it will be a PR regardless and a PDR once I pass that 10 mile mark.

This morning I'm sick with nerves and I desperately want to skip it, but I'm lacing up my sneakers as we type and my bag is packed.

Wish me luck!!

- CJ

Motivation needed

A month ago I was all excited about running 10 miles at almost race pace. I even said that I was secretly hoping to run the half-marathon in 2:30 instead of the 2:45 that had been my previous goal.

Then I had a bad run, and life got busier, and I've started to sabotage myself. I've been overweight my entire life and the fact that I was training for a half-marathon never truly sunk in. I still don't feel like a real runner. I started skipping long runs, occassionally even skipping short runs. For the past 4 weeks I've done no long runs on the weekends.

Now, 4 days before I'm due to run the half-marathon I'm really kicking myself for letting it go this far. I don't want to quit!

This is what my training schedule looks like
(The schedule required three runs a week, plus I like my Saturday balance class. Those in green I did, the pinky colour is for when I didn't do them on the day but I did them the day after or day before, and the red is the ones I skipped entirely.)


As you can see, I've done about 68% of the scheduled mileage. I'm 99% sure I won't be able to do the entire course at race pace, since my runs home lately have been slower than they were 4 weeks ago. But I think I'm going to try and finish anyways.

Trust me, I've thought about skipping it and forfeiting the entry fee. I've thought about it alot! The streets are opened up to traffic after 3.5 hours so hopefully I finish before then!!

- CJ

I think I've finally figured it out

Knock on wood - I may have found a healthy eating strategy that works for during the work day.

During the week I'm awake from 5:30am to 10:30pm and in my sedentary office job I get hungry/bored way quicker than I do on the weekends when I'm out and about doing things. This week my eating schedule has been VERY precise and it's looked like this:

6:00am boiled egg and 1 slice of ww bread (2 points)
10:00am bran flakes and skimmed milk (3 points)
1:00pm salad leaves with roasted vegetables and chicken (4 points)
3:30pm cup of soup (1.5 points)
5:30pm 2 apples (1 point)
7:30pm dinner

My strategy still leaves a decent portion of my points for dinner and maybe a little dessert but also ensures that I'm never more than a few hours from eating my next mini-meal during the day. This worked on Tuesday pre-fueling my 5 mile run home and it worked yesterday, where I skipped an apple and the soup but had pizza, wine and doughballs for dinner!

Hopefully it'll get me through today too, I brought all my running gear with me to do mission: run home part 2!

- CJ

Genius

That's me by the way - genius!

I ran home tonight. Usually, my 5.5 mile commute (on two buses) takes about an hour door to door. Today, I packed up my shoes, running clothes, garmin, ipod, hrm and all the rest of my junk (who says running is low-equipment!?) and headed to work.

6:30 rolled around and I was out the door...home in about the same time as the bus would have taken me and now I can lie on the couch ALL evening without feeling guilty about my lack of motivation to make it to the gym.

Genius!

- CJ