So What's Next??

On Monday last week Brant and I went to go for a run - we ended up just chatting and walking the whole time. For those of you that don't know - Brant and I got engaged over Christmas, so we kind of have a lot of stuff going on. The rest of the week got busy and we didn't go at all.

This Monday we decided to go again. We actually ran - Brant did two loops (a little over 4 miles) and I ran closer to 3 miles - I ran for 30 minutes. By the end my knees were both stiff and I was in a fair amount of pain. The next day I still couldn't bend or straighten it (Once bent or straight it was okay - it was the motion of getting it to the other position that hurt) - and did I mention this was my LEFT knee not my right?? So yesterday at the chiropractor they did some therapy on it - and today it feels fine. Apparently next time I have to take it a little easier.

Brant and I have decided to sign up as mentors for the summer season of Team in Training. We will be mentoring people going to Alaska - and to San Diego. This will also be an excuse to make us go for longer runs on Saturdays. So - look for more posts! I'm also merging my company with another company - so I should have more time. I'm actually going to keep this thing updated. For real this time.

Goofy Day 2

So Sunday dawned - well, actually dawn didn't happen until an hour or so after we'd already started running - but we got up early. Not quite as early this time though. We got to the race area about 5 - and headed throught the bag check tents with a plan of where to meet! Thankfully - in Debbie and Kathryn's tent there was a guy with a box of trashbags - Debbie managed to get us each one - and I can't tell you how much that helped. It was 34 degrees again - and 100% humidity - the trash bags helped block the cold while we waited at the starting line.

I had taken Tylenol 8 hour before the race this time, so my knee didn't hurt as much. But let me tell you - running 26.2 miles the day after running 13.1 is really not a lot of fun. Especially when you're cold and wet for the first couple hours. It finally warmed up - and the sun actually stayed out - I even took off my long sleeve shirt and ran in my tank top after a few hours.

Our course took us through Magic Kingdom, Epcot, the Wild Animal Kingdom and MGM. It was pretty fun - and there were plenty of characters out - always with someone standing by to take pictures with your camera if you wanted. We took a few pictures along the way. We also took it easy again. We stopped at all the water stops - and definitely any time they were giving out oranges or other food. We ran the first 13 miles (intervals of course) and then walked a mile. Intervaled a mile - walked two and then alternated intervals and walking for the next miles.

In Alaska - at about mile 17 or so - it hit me. I was really going to finish. I was going to run a marathon. In Disney World - I wasn't sure I was going to finish pretty much until we could see the finish line.

Despite walking about 8 miles of the second 13 - we actually did the second 13 in almost the same time we did the first 13. Our total time was 6:13:39. Here are our splits:
1. 12:29:78
13:49:492.
3. 13:02:06
4. 12:53:42
5. 12:54:98
6. 13:06:13
7. 13:25:08
8. 13:03:42
9. 13:25:15
10. 13:35:38
11. 15:58:62
12. 13:11:19
13. 13:59:07
14. 15:22:55
15. 12:42:32
16. 16:33:91
17. 16:41:27
18. 13:06:28
19. 16:11:36
20. 13:27:52
21. 17:22:31
22. 12:49:69
23. 16:37:00
24. 13:01:09
25. 18:49:97
26. 13:23:59
.2. 2:37:12

As you can see, even though the walking got slower - we actually maintained around the same pace for all the running sections! We finished hand in hand arms raised again. I got a little weepy - and then again every time someone said congratulations and as they hung the two medals on us. (We had gotten our Donald Duck medal on Saturday - Sunday we got both the Mickey Medal and the Goofy medal.) I really felt like we had done something!!

Even though after the first race I told Brant I didn't think I could make it the next day - we did it anyway. Even though pretty much the whole time I wanted to stop during the full - we finished anyway. I was pretty happy. And those medals are darn cool.

We went out to lunch and then hung out - we didn't crash - a combination of excitement and knowing that we didn't have to run the next day! We went out to dinner - but still went to bed pretty early.

On Monday, Debbie left in the morning. Kathryn Brant and I headed to Magic Kingdom for the day. We dropped Kathryn off at the airport and then headed back for the fireworks. On Tuesday we came home. Walking around the park all day Monday was a bit tiring - but I think it was good to stretch out our legs. I was walking normally by the end of the week!

Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge - Day 1

Okay - so the actual races. We got in to Florida on Thursday night and got to our hotel around midnight. Kathryn was on our flight from Houston, so that was fun. Debbie was already in Florida, and we didn't call her until Friday morning - figuring maybe she was asleep at midnight.

On Friday we went over to the Disney Wide World of Sports Complex to sign in for the races. We got our numbers, our timing chips and our T-shirts. We even tasted some wine that was specially made for the weekend - but Brant was the only one who liked it.

Brant was put in Corral B for both races. I was in C. Kathryn was in D for the half and D for the full. Debbie was in E for the half, and G for the full. We realized that was going to make it pretty difficult to run together - but just decided we'd sneak into one of the corrals and run together. We took the rest of the day pretty easy and went to bed early after setting out all of our running stuff.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early - because they said we needed to be there at the race by 4:30...for a 6am start. Now, my cousin who has run this race before told us that we didn't need to be there that early - but we freaked out and trusted everything that was written. That was our first mistake.

It was really cold that morning - seriously, not being a wimp here - it was 34 degrees. We all went through the bag drop tents - and somehow lost Debbie. We all had to go through different tents (they were organized by your race number - which was related to what corral you were in). Brant, Kathryn and I looked around - then decided she must have headed off to the start.

We looked for her the whole way - and looked in her corral for her - but there was no Debbie. So the three of us headed up to D - ends up you could go backwards in corrals - but you couldn't go forward. As soon as we walked in - Debbie walked up on the side! So we all headed back to E. I was really happy we found her - otherwise I don't think there's any way we could have raced together.

We all did 5/1 intervals - though Brant actually was usually walking while we were running. We were definitely taking it easy. The race was crazy - there were 16,000 people who started (don't know how many finished). Keep in mind that the first marathon Brant and I did had 4000 people....the entire race was packed with people. It spread out enough that you could run comfortably - but there were always people around and passing you and being passed.

My knee started to hurt around mile 2 or so - but we kept going. It was also really cold for over an hour - finally the sun came out and warmed things up a bit - but then the wind picked up and I was cold again - even though I was running! The course was pretty flat and we ran through Magic Kingdom, which was fun. Towards the end there were a few inclines that I walked. But we all pretty much stayed together. We ran in the last mile or so (ignoring the intervals) and all crossed the finish line holding hands with arms raised. It was pretty fun.

We did the half in just under three hours. 2:50:27
Here are our splits:

1. 13:12
2. 12:48:43
3. 12:29:87
4. 12:41:42
5. 12:26:84
6. 12:43:91
7. 12:50:96
8. 12:41:42
9. 12:08:14
10. 12:48:50
11. 13:21:96
12. 15:55:22
13. 13:05:60
.1 1:13:47

After the race I was having knee pain - and so were Kathryn and Debbie. We took some Tylenol 8 hour that they had (they were one of the sponsors) - and that stuff was great! I could actually walk without pain.

We had lunch with my cousin, his wife and their kids. They had both run the half - much faster than we had. The we went back to the Sports Complex to get Debbie into Corral C. For the marathon there were two different starts - and we knew that we would never find each other if we weren't in the same Corral. Thankfully, Debbie had run a marathon in Tucson and we used Kathryn's phone to take a picture of the website showing her time - and we got her moved up. Then we headed back to the hotel and crashed - ate dinner and then went to bed early again.

Los Alamos

Okay - so in December, Brant and I headed home from the 16th to the 3rd. That meant we were to have a 20 mile run in Los Alamos followed by our taper. How did that go? Let's see - I think we went on a total of 3 or 4 runs the whole time we were there. The longest I ran was an hour of 5/1 intervals. It was crazily hard. The whole elevation thing combined with the cold thing really wasn't working for us. For some reason - we couldn't make ourselves go running - even knowing that we were facing a marathon and a half in a few short weeks.

Looking back: here is my advice to anyone ever thinking about running a race - TRAIN FIRST.