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January 28, 2007

3M again

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the first time I ran this half marathon. I think I've missed it only once since then: last year it was the day before MG was born. The next morning's newspaper had a banner across the top with a picture of legs at the starting line. On our copy from that January 30 are two little black footprints, placed just near the banner's caption "Fast Feet." How perfect is that?

Yesterday I was nearly 5 minutes off my p.r. for that race, and I don't *love* my time, but I don't think I could have done any better. I was about as tuckered out as you can get at the end without having died. I was able to push the last three miles, after not sandbagging the first ten, which in my book is an excellent way to run a half marathon.

7:38, 7:28, 7:13, 7:02, 6:49, 7:12, 14:14, 7:08, 7:17, 7:02, 6:55, 6:55, 41

1:33:40 watch time, 1:33:36 official chip time.

My dad came out to spectate and completely surprised me at miles 9 and 13. He should have been out there running, but had just run the half marathon in Phoenix a few weeks ago. More importantly, he and mom had company and I think she might not have appreciated his abandoning them for the whole morning. He said I looked cold and unhappy. I thought I was smiling like a princess!

I did order a geekometer. It should be here ... when it gets here. It's not even supposed to ship for a week. Surely I'll be able to figure it out before the marathon, right?

Posted by jenandmats at 2:07 PM | Comments (3)

January 21, 2007

Geekometer

So I got a little nervous about pacing without Andy and Pierre and decided I needed the help of a Garmin. Andy thought it best if I try one out before I commit to something so expensive that I've done fine without for years, so I borrowed a friend's this morning and I loved it. And I loved it for a simple reason. I knew we were running between 21 and 22 miles, and I wasn't in charge of the route, and typically I get frustrated when I'm tired in the middle of a run and I know I've got a long way to go but I don't know how far. With the Garmin I knew exactly how far I'd gone and didn't have to whine and ask other people. It was liberating. And I had a very strong 21-miler (I didn't have the Garmin for the first loop, so I don't know exactly how long the total mileage was, but it was > 21.) I gave the Garmin back to my friend at breakfast, at the time just happy to know how far I'd run and that I'd run the last 15 faster than 8:28 pace (I wasn't stopping it the first few water stops, so it bumped up our average), but MAN ... once I got home I was wondering how fast my last four miles were when we picked it up, what our elevation changes were compared to the marathon ... all kinds of things that I could have spent lots of time analyzing. Now that I think of it, with session here and work ruling my life again, perhaps having lots and lots of running numbers to analyze may not be the best thing for me right now.

Oh well. I NEED it for the marathon. I haven't purchased one yet but it's definitely in my plan.

Speaking of plans ... there are plans for a big birthday in the works. And today she took her first series of steps across the living room. I wouldn't call it "walking" but it was more than just a few steps. It made me tear up!

Posted by jenandmats at 10:03 PM | Comments (3)

January 7, 2007

Toot toot!

That's the sound of my own horn you're hearing. Here are my online results for the 20miler this morning, for which my job was to run 3:45 marathon pace (or 8:34/mile):

overall pace: 8:32
pace at:
5K: 8:33
10K: 8:34
15K: 8:32
20K: 8:33
30K: 8:34

I think that the splits must be calculated on gun time and the overall calculated on chip time, 'cuz those splits don't average to an 8:32 pace unless I hauled ass in the last 1.6 and I didn't. In fact, that was uphill into the wind.

Because the online splits are based on gun time they make it look like I did better than I actually did, but in the end I was "only" 2 seconds per mile off AND I was nice and steady through the whole thing. All I can say is ... SHWEW! I really started to fret about it yesterday afternoon. Andy has been injured and our friend Pierre has been sick, so I was the lone 3:45 pacer, which may not seem that scary, except that I've been committed to this all along thinking that I'd be running with guys who have run this pace group for multiple years AND the first year they did it they were the most accurate of all the pacers.

I actually felt more *helpful* during the Rogue practice run that we did a few weeks ago than I did this morning. Today I had a group at about mile 5, but we had a few sloppy get-your-own water stops that broke everyone up. Most of them ended up ahead of me, and I just stuck to my guns and figured we'd all eventually hook back up again, but we didn't. I had one woman and one guy with me through a large portion of the race, but I couldn't pull them in on that stretch uphill into the wind.

I wore my Distance Challenge Series yellow jersey in this the one and only race that I'll be able to wear it. I'll likely slip more than a few places when the results are tallied (which I will obsessively calculate after I write this, even though I know that I planned all along to pace this race and the marathon - how vain is that?)

After the race I noticed that I still have a hack. What's up with that? I guess antibiotics weren't the solution. I generally get a hack after races, but I certainly wasn't racing today, and never got winded.

Next up, the 3M half marathon. Think I can get into racing shape in two weeks? Bah.

Posted by jenandmats at 4:01 PM | Comments (3)

January 1, 2007

Happy '07!

Gotta say ... '06 was pretty damn good for us here in the ATX.

Anne - I borrowed the belt from a friend, and don't remember the brand. But I just searched maternity support belt and the results looked exactly like what I used. Two pieces, one big one underneath and a thinner one on top. I highly recommend it! Good luck to you with running through the pregnancy. I hope you can enjoy it as much as I did. I would just show up on the trail in the mornings and run or walk or stretch or stand around and watch the birds. Some days I had great runs and other days I had enjoyable walks and other days I was just happy to be outside!

Well ... I finally went to the MD for my cough and have taken a round of antibiotics. The cough is mostly gone, which is really nice, but the great summer running has not returned. I still don't have as much zip as I did back in September. So ... keep ears open for stories of women who came back from pregnancy running great for a while and then going through a slump afterward. It really does make sense, with everything from hormones changing, to blood volume changing (returning to normal - I wonder how long that takes?) to just returning to the normal pace of life. I really just had more energy in general after MG was than I have had since ... since I can remember! In "regular" life I find that I have days or portions of days when I just feel foggy and sluggish. After MG was born I'd experience fatigue, but never the fogginess. It was great. It was nice to feel so *alive*.

Gratuitous MG story: if you ask her how big she is she spreads her arms wide. And if that's not cute enough, usually her little chubby fingers are spread wide and she cocks her head to one side so that it's resting on one arm. Oh-muh-gawd. And she'll show you where her nose is, too, if you ask her.

I ran our regular New Years Day run this morning. About 13.5 miles. It's a social but competitive-if-you-want-it-to-be kind of thing. I started out slow and in front, so got to see quite a few friends as they ran by and I ran with them for a while, and then ultimately fell in with a nice social group. With about 4 miles to go I decided I wanted to push in on the stretch of road that I *love* to push in on. At about 3.5 miles I started regretting that decision, and when I saw a group of friends walking on the trail I took it as a sign to stop and socialize a while before finishing up. That's the beauty of not really training for anything. If you want to stop you get to stop! I just have to learn to break the habit when I *am* training for something!

That is, if I can get fired up to train for something again ...

Posted by jenandmats at 8:17 PM | Comments (4)