If you had asked me a yr ago, heck 8 months ago if I would ever consider doing a half marathon I might have laughed at you. There has never been any interest on my part of doing anything over a 10k and to be honest I was not 100% sure I would ever want to do a 10k. Why on earth would anyone want to run for more then an hr straight? Sure I was in awe of those did choose to run these longer distances but I also thought they were a bit crazy. Which is why what I am about to say is so damn insane. Since my last post in here in Nov. I have built my mileage up and done not one 10k but two! That's not all though, I just finished my first half marathon last weekend! GASP! The race took me 2hrs and 48 min. and I will not lie my thoughts from a yr ago still stand true because I am in awe of what I was able to get this body to do and yet I find myself thinking about how crazy I was to even think I wanted to try.
I would have been fine living in my little bubble of short distances for a long time if it was not for the fact that my online facebook group had decided Myrtle Beach Diva Half Marathon would be great place to have a RMM meet up. A huge girls weekend at the beach, who would be stupid enough to pass that up? Apparently not me! I sat at my dinning room table with Candice and we hesitantly registered. I remember being so nervous, 13.1 miles is no small feet and I honestly was not sure I could do it. With the winter months already upon me I knew I was going to have to train for this thing all on the dreadmill. There was no way in hell I was going to run outside in the cold, ice and snow. I stuck to my two days a week 5:30am stride classes where I worked on speed. On Sunday's after church I would get in the long runs, each week just hoping that I could get in a half mile to a mile farther then the week before. I was real bad at doing any cross training but when I did get some in I usually spent my time in the pool. Each week I was progressing and I was just fine in my little bubble in the gym until I found out a good portion of my friends were doing the Shamrock 10k. St. Patricks day is just not my thing. I was never the wake up at the ass crack to drink green beer sort of girl. I just grew up not celebrating it much. Which is why when all my local running moms wanted to do it I was hesitant. I was not sure I wanted my first 10k to be on a holiday that I was just not that into. Not only that we are in MI... hello girls you do realize in MI it could snow on St. Patricks day right? I gave in and registered for the damn thing with the thought in the back of my mind that if the weather sucks I am bailing. (turns out the weather was awesome... thank goodness). The week before the race I was sicker then a dog. 103 fever, chills, body aches... it was awful. My fever broke just 3 days before the race but I had not run in a week and I felt real weak. I was fortunate enough to have my friend Kaci step up and tell me she would race with me. I was lucky she was there because she is the ONLY reason that race was tolerable. The medication I was on from being sick messed with my stomach and I thought from mile three on that I was going to puke my way to the finish line. Fortunately I was able to finish the race without any vomit. I will say this though even though I did push myself as hard as I could have pushed that day so I was very proud of myself. Once I had finished the Shamrock 10k I knew it was time to sign up for the race I had been longing to do with my son since the previous yr. The Martian Marathon. Cooper did the kids marathon where he had to run 25 miles before race day and finish his marathon by running the last 1.2 on race day and I did the 10k. Cooper hauled ass to the finish line, I can not believe how fast my kid is. He lined up in the second wave with all the 4th graders. The 4th graders started 2 min after the 5th graders and would you believe he beat the majority of the 5th graders to the finish line. Ryan and I were so in awe of how fast he is that we seriously spend an hr one night looking at all the race photos and we counted the kids who crossed the finish line before him. Cooper was the 24th kid to cross the line. 24 out of 1,500 children. WOWZA. I had a pretty strong showing myself, I felt much stronger then the last 10k and I was bound and determined to get a PR which I did... easily. At the end I still had a ton of energy and felt like I could have kept going. A huge improvement from the previous race. I stuck with my Diva Half training the best that I could but sometimes life got in the way. The closer to the race date I got, the harder and more challenging training got for me. A late may race is tricky to train for when you have a husband and two out of three kids who play baseball, never mind all the end of the yr school projects, presentations, field trips etc. Life was getting in the way for sure. The week before the half I did not even run once, talk about a taper week! I also found the long runs hard, I know, I know (insert cranky voice) "they are supposed to be hard, if it was not hard then everyone would do it." but my word they were harder then I expected and to be honest I just did not enjoy them. Training was beginning to feel like a job to me. I missed just getting out of the house for a run simply because I felt like it. About a month or so ago I confessed to my husband that I did not think long distance running was for me. I assured him that I was not going to quit but doubted that I would sign up for another one. Now that the race is over... I don't know where I stand on that, I could see myself doing more but I could also see myself not doing any more and just running because I love running. Only time will tell but I have a feeling it is similar to having a baby, in time you forget how awful the pain was and you get preg. again.
Even though the race is over I still think to myself "13.1 miles... girl do you understand just how far that is? Do you realize how long you just ran? You are one crazy bitch." My thoughts are then followed by something like "how on earth did I just pull that off without so much as a blister. Gosh I feel like a bad ass, I am all over this thing we call 13.1" I kinda had a moment after the race where I patted myself on the back (not literally I would have looked stupid) but in my mind I recalled that in less then a yr ago I broke my toe and took over two months off running. Many people would have given up, used that as an excuse to stop running but not me, I pushed on and on until I surpassed anything I had ever accomplished before I broke my toe. I am pretty proud of myself and am learning to never say never.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Another crazy day at the gym
So I show up to the gym this morning to get in that stride class again (something I think will become part of my regular routine because I love it so much) when the girl behind the counter says "KELLY!!?" I must admit she looked very familiar but it was not until she said "I am Bryanna" that I realized I had just run into an online friend. Bryanna and I grew up in the same city but went to different schools so we never met. Then one day on Facebook she posted on a mutual friends page that she was moving to the town I live in. So I sent her a message asking where and come to find out she is just a few blocks from me. We became FB friends and even talked on the phone trying to set up a time to go for a walk together but our schedules just never matched up. LOL it was a great way to start my morning and she informed me that she was starting the Couch to 5k so I am super excited about having a running buddy.
So on to the class, as I mentioned in the last post the instructor mentioned some hill work. I do not do well with hills, I try to avoid them and when I just happen to come upon them I usually walk. I gave up on hills long ago when my shins were so bad and I felt like the hill running was only making things worse if not the cause of the pain. The gym was not as busy today so I am thinking that I am not the only person who is afraid of hills. Today we spent more time on our set speed. (the speed in which we feel most comfortable with) We started at a 0 incline and then she had us bump it up to a 2. This is when the oh shit thoughts came into my mind. What the hell happen to 1? About 3 min later... "take it up to 4" then we went back down to 0. Okay I got through that, not to bad. We did some short sprints and when those were done I was feeling good until she mentioned it was time to run some steeper hills. I do not know how long we were doing the hills but it seemed like FOREVER. I did have to drop my speed down a little bit from my set speed but I never stopped running and I got that treadmill up to a 7 incline and held it there until we were instructed to drop it back down to 0. It was at that time when the guy next to me looked over and said your doing awesome! We did some more running at our set speed and some sprints before I had to start my cool down. Sadly I get only a very short amount of time to work out in the morning since I work 10 hr days each day so I have to end my workout about 5 min before the rest of the class. Thats ok though because I still get in 40 min of cardio and still save time for a cool down and streatching. Shortly after I arrived in the locker room a woman came in and said to me "nice work out there today you did great and were even brave enough to be in the front row. you did good!!" It made me feel good and reminded me of how it was at the Y, everyone supporting one another ya know. It is hard being the newbie at anything but makes it easier when the people around you are kind and supportive. So to the nice man and nice woman who gave me props today THANK YOU, I appreciated it!!
I ended up with 3.25 total but the .25 was just my cool down. I ran those 3 miles in 39:50. Still a whole lost slower then I was before my broken toe but the fact that most of this run was done with the treadmill with some sort of incline makes that time feel pretty good. Happy with my accomplishments for the day :)
So on to the class, as I mentioned in the last post the instructor mentioned some hill work. I do not do well with hills, I try to avoid them and when I just happen to come upon them I usually walk. I gave up on hills long ago when my shins were so bad and I felt like the hill running was only making things worse if not the cause of the pain. The gym was not as busy today so I am thinking that I am not the only person who is afraid of hills. Today we spent more time on our set speed. (the speed in which we feel most comfortable with) We started at a 0 incline and then she had us bump it up to a 2. This is when the oh shit thoughts came into my mind. What the hell happen to 1? About 3 min later... "take it up to 4" then we went back down to 0. Okay I got through that, not to bad. We did some short sprints and when those were done I was feeling good until she mentioned it was time to run some steeper hills. I do not know how long we were doing the hills but it seemed like FOREVER. I did have to drop my speed down a little bit from my set speed but I never stopped running and I got that treadmill up to a 7 incline and held it there until we were instructed to drop it back down to 0. It was at that time when the guy next to me looked over and said your doing awesome! We did some more running at our set speed and some sprints before I had to start my cool down. Sadly I get only a very short amount of time to work out in the morning since I work 10 hr days each day so I have to end my workout about 5 min before the rest of the class. Thats ok though because I still get in 40 min of cardio and still save time for a cool down and streatching. Shortly after I arrived in the locker room a woman came in and said to me "nice work out there today you did great and were even brave enough to be in the front row. you did good!!" It made me feel good and reminded me of how it was at the Y, everyone supporting one another ya know. It is hard being the newbie at anything but makes it easier when the people around you are kind and supportive. So to the nice man and nice woman who gave me props today THANK YOU, I appreciated it!!
I ended up with 3.25 total but the .25 was just my cool down. I ran those 3 miles in 39:50. Still a whole lost slower then I was before my broken toe but the fact that most of this run was done with the treadmill with some sort of incline makes that time feel pretty good. Happy with my accomplishments for the day :)
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Whats with the gym being packed at 5:30am?
About 4 months ago I was a 5:30 regular at my local gym. I loved hitting the gym in the morning right when they opened their doors and knowing that no matter what machine I wanted to get on or what lane I wanted to run on for the track I was hooked because there were never very many people there. There were at least 20 treadmills to choose from and the track always had less then 5 people on it, bikes, got my pick there too and always had a lane to myself if I decided to go for a swim.
Just before I broke my toe I canceled my YMCA membership and chose to join a different gym. My new gym membership was not even active yet when I broke the toe. So I have only been using the place to work out the last month. The gym transfer was a financial motivation and nothing else. My husband indicated that between working and going to school and just being a dad he did not feel that he was getting the most of the membership and said that we should drop him off it to save some money. When I talked to the Y they said it would be the same price whether he was on the membership or not so I decided to inquire about the price of this other place. Turns out I could have a membership myself and leave Ryan off it saving me around 20 bucks a month. This place is the bomb! I feel like I have hit the jack pot with this gym. The kids beg me to go workout because the childcare is so good. They have a cafe, Physical therapy place, salon, sauna, two pools... enough to keep even people who do not want to workout coming back. The place is seriously off the hook, and I am saving money! The only downfall I have found thus far is the bike that I LOVED at the Y is not at this gym and my bike workouts since switching have been less then desirable. Something I will just have to figure out on my own I guess.
Fast forward to today ~until this morning when I have gone to the gym I have tried to plan it for when the kids could come with me because they love it there so much. Great idea in theory but the children have so many extra curricular activities that finding the time was stressing me out this take the kids with me attitude had to change. I started the morning workouts again today! I pulled into the parking lot at 5:25am and the parking lot was full, I am talking like more cars then at 6pm. I was totally thrown off by this (but apparently they open at 5 not 5:30) I went to the locker room to change and by the time I got out I was afraid I was not going to find a treadmill. The music was loud and the energy in the building was awesome. I fortunately found an open treadmill and got on. That's when I heard "okay lets kick it up to a 4.2 to continue the warm up" OH SHIT!! LOL apparently at 5:30am there is a treadmill class. Taking so much time off and only working out here and there I figured there was no way in hell I could keep up with a treadmill class but the open treadmill I found was in the front row. I felt stuck, I did not want to do a walk of shame workout style in front of so many people. 32 to be exact, The wall I was facing was a big ass mirror so I counted all the people on the treadmills. 32 people on just the treadmills at 5:30 in the morning... at the Y there was probably a total of 32 people in the whole building including staff at 5:30 in the morning. I was shocked to see so many people. I tried to take is easy because I did not know what to expect. She laid it out in a way for walkers or runners and when she said "walkers bump it up one and runners bump it up 2" I had a decision to face, I do the whole run/walk thing, does this make me a runner or a walker. I was freaking out a bit but I bumped the treadmill up 2 ~I should not have let this class put doubt or fear into me even if it was just for a split second... I AM a runner! The great part was that there is a pace in which most runners and walkers feel good at each person was told to pick that pace for them and bump up or down from there depending on what she told us to do. So the walkers, the fast ass runners, and then the people who fall between them all could do the same workout. It was awesome! I felt like I kinda held back a little bit today in fear of not knowing what was going to come next. For example at the end she for fun decided to add on sprints, well I did not know how many she planned on us doing (after all I had no idea how long this class would last and we had only been on your treadmills for about 35 min) so I kicked it up a bit but I know I could have run faster. I did not slack off totally though, trust me I got my sweat on.
After class I spoke to the instructor and she said if I wanted to come back that when I walk in to stop at the desk to get a pass to reserve a treadmill, she said as it gets colder the treadmills get completely filled. The class was awesome but I am still shocked that there are so many people there that you have to reserve a treadmill. Just blows my mind! I am looking forward to doing it again on Thur. although I did hear her say something about hills and hills scare me!
Just before I broke my toe I canceled my YMCA membership and chose to join a different gym. My new gym membership was not even active yet when I broke the toe. So I have only been using the place to work out the last month. The gym transfer was a financial motivation and nothing else. My husband indicated that between working and going to school and just being a dad he did not feel that he was getting the most of the membership and said that we should drop him off it to save some money. When I talked to the Y they said it would be the same price whether he was on the membership or not so I decided to inquire about the price of this other place. Turns out I could have a membership myself and leave Ryan off it saving me around 20 bucks a month. This place is the bomb! I feel like I have hit the jack pot with this gym. The kids beg me to go workout because the childcare is so good. They have a cafe, Physical therapy place, salon, sauna, two pools... enough to keep even people who do not want to workout coming back. The place is seriously off the hook, and I am saving money! The only downfall I have found thus far is the bike that I LOVED at the Y is not at this gym and my bike workouts since switching have been less then desirable. Something I will just have to figure out on my own I guess.
Fast forward to today ~until this morning when I have gone to the gym I have tried to plan it for when the kids could come with me because they love it there so much. Great idea in theory but the children have so many extra curricular activities that finding the time was stressing me out this take the kids with me attitude had to change. I started the morning workouts again today! I pulled into the parking lot at 5:25am and the parking lot was full, I am talking like more cars then at 6pm. I was totally thrown off by this (but apparently they open at 5 not 5:30) I went to the locker room to change and by the time I got out I was afraid I was not going to find a treadmill. The music was loud and the energy in the building was awesome. I fortunately found an open treadmill and got on. That's when I heard "okay lets kick it up to a 4.2 to continue the warm up" OH SHIT!! LOL apparently at 5:30am there is a treadmill class. Taking so much time off and only working out here and there I figured there was no way in hell I could keep up with a treadmill class but the open treadmill I found was in the front row. I felt stuck, I did not want to do a walk of shame workout style in front of so many people. 32 to be exact, The wall I was facing was a big ass mirror so I counted all the people on the treadmills. 32 people on just the treadmills at 5:30 in the morning... at the Y there was probably a total of 32 people in the whole building including staff at 5:30 in the morning. I was shocked to see so many people. I tried to take is easy because I did not know what to expect. She laid it out in a way for walkers or runners and when she said "walkers bump it up one and runners bump it up 2" I had a decision to face, I do the whole run/walk thing, does this make me a runner or a walker. I was freaking out a bit but I bumped the treadmill up 2 ~I should not have let this class put doubt or fear into me even if it was just for a split second... I AM a runner! The great part was that there is a pace in which most runners and walkers feel good at each person was told to pick that pace for them and bump up or down from there depending on what she told us to do. So the walkers, the fast ass runners, and then the people who fall between them all could do the same workout. It was awesome! I felt like I kinda held back a little bit today in fear of not knowing what was going to come next. For example at the end she for fun decided to add on sprints, well I did not know how many she planned on us doing (after all I had no idea how long this class would last and we had only been on your treadmills for about 35 min) so I kicked it up a bit but I know I could have run faster. I did not slack off totally though, trust me I got my sweat on.
After class I spoke to the instructor and she said if I wanted to come back that when I walk in to stop at the desk to get a pass to reserve a treadmill, she said as it gets colder the treadmills get completely filled. The class was awesome but I am still shocked that there are so many people there that you have to reserve a treadmill. Just blows my mind! I am looking forward to doing it again on Thur. although I did hear her say something about hills and hills scare me!
Friday, October 28, 2011
My first time crewing
As I just posted in my other blog there is not a day that goes by that I do not think to myself "oh I should add that to the baby book or write it in the blog" but the baby books and blogs are not high on the priority list these days. Back about a month ago I got to do something super cool and I have been wanting to share my experience here ever since. I should be cleaning the boys rooms before they get to bed but I have put this on the back burner for to long already so the room cleaning is going to have to wait.
September 17th and 18th a friend of mine from my running moms group participated in the North Coast 24 hr endurance run in Cleavland Ohio. Tara aka Ultara is one hell of a runner and not only did I get to see her run in a 24 hr endurance race I got to crew for her. It had been a rough week for me trying to get into the swing of things with the children having just gone back to school, playing catch up from not doing much for 6 weeks because of my broken big toe, dealing with the new puppy we had and worst of all my cousin passed away at just 24 years old. I felt overwhelmed and when I heard Denise one of Ultara's crew members was in the hospital leaving Kaci as her only crew member I canceled my plans for the night and drove down with Candice to help. (as it turns out fortunately Denise was released from the hospital and able to help crew a bit after all) The race started at 9am on the 17th but Candice and I did not leave until 6pm to drive down. We were unable to leave MI until 6pm which put us in Cleavland about 9:30pm. We figured this would be a good time because we could then give Kaci a break and Denise could go home and sleep since the girl should have been home resting anyways. lol you could not have kept that running mama away from that race, even with the migraine she had.
The drive there seemed to take forever, probably because we were anxious to get there. We were so excited to meet Denise, Kaci, and Tara. (did I mention that even though we are all friends we had never actually met?) We found Tara's tent and met Denise and Kaci, the excitement of finally meeting them quickly wore off as they explained to us that there was a discrepancy between what Kaci had written down, the race volunteers had and what Tara thought she had lap wise. Candice and I were showing up at the worst possible time of the race and she and I both thought "OH SHIT what did we get ourselves into"? This was both mine and Candice's first time crewing and we had no idea what it was all about. The OH SHIT thoughts only increased when Denise asked us if we knew what to do if Tara got a blister. LOL I am sure I had the same deer in headlights look on my face that Candice had on hers. Denise agreed to giving us a crash course on blister care before her departure. Just an FYI I am very thankful that Ultara does not typically get blisters because quite frankly the thought of draining another persons blister and applying moleskin makes me nervous. Just as Denise finished first aid 101,Tara came around again and I got to get a glimpse of what each lap would be like. Denise said her good byes and left for the night, while Kaci started putting Candice and I on information overload. The ultimate crash course in ultra crewing. There is a serious science to being able to run for 24 hrs. It was our job to make sure Tara's body could keep going. Which meant making sure she had the right amount of calories, fluid, and electrolytes in her system. Thankfully someone was smart enough to make a spread sheet where we could log what she ate, drank and when she took the electrolyte pill. The spread sheet was exactly what I needed. Another smart move was to put snacks into little baggies. Each baggie was 100 calories each so there was no need to guess at how much she ate. We were told that as Tara ran past she would shout to us what she needed/wanted and all we had to do was have it ready for her on her next lap. Sounds easy enough but I was so nervous and glad that Kaci did not want to go to bed for a little while.
Tara's next lap around I went with her. This race called for no pacers but since Tara at this point in time walking due to her broken toe and what was suspected to be a fracture in her foot. (yes I typed this correctly this woman chose to run for 24 hrs on a broken toe and an injured foot which was suspected to be a fracture. Making me seem like the biggest wimp of all time for taking 8 weeks off of running for my toe... sigh) I at this point got to formally introduce my self to Tara. It was so cool to finally meet her in person and I was in aw of what she was accomplishing that day. She filled me in on what the medics at the race recommended for her foot and we chatted about her daughter and my boys. That lap ended and every hr or so I would walk with her again. Knowing what to talk to Tara about was challenging for me. I just talked about stuff trying to keep her mind off of the pain that she was in but I did not know if that was what she needed or what she wanted. I was not sure if I should be pushing her to go faster or talk her into calling it quits on the race so she would not make her possible fracture a solid break. I did get to hear the story of the gun man on the lose at her last race, which made both of us laugh so I hope that my keep her mind off the pain approach helped.
When we were not walking with Tara, marking down what she ate, or getting her what she needed we were all chatting and desperately trying to keep warm. For those of us who were not running it was a very cold night, in fact my face hurt for several days after due to the wind burn that the cold wind gusts gave me. We laughed about how we were dressed with layers upon layers of clothing (I had on a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, another sweatshirt on top of that a winter hat and gloves and a blanket wrapped around me and I was freezing) and yet there was a man running who we all called naked guy. He had on shorts (kinda flesh colored) socks and shoes, nothing else. Naked guy kicked ass though and although I do not know his name to find out how he did I know he rocked it!!! At one point in time Tara joined us cold asses so she could put ice on her foot. She must have been in some serious pain to not only sit down but to put ice on her foot when it was that cold out. As time went on it became clear to us that the goal Tara set for herself was in reach. She wanted to do 100 miles. Can you even fathom this? 100 miles is like traveling from my home in MI to where the race was in Cleveland. (no joke I drove just over 100 miles to get there) Even after witnessing it I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it. Anyways I think Tara realized how close she was to her goal because she started running again. The look on her face when she passed our tent when she had something like 2 hrs left and under 10 miles to go (exact numbers I have forgotten since I waited a month to write this) was a cross between sheer determination, serious pain. I could not help but wonder what was going though her head in that moment as we all stood and cheered for her. We knew it was going to be close and as her crew member I did not know what to do. I was not sure if we should push her despite the fact that she is in serious pain and the medic told her not to run or just let her do her thing. Tara gave a great push to get to that 100 but the pain in her foot was so intense that she had to slow to a walk once more.
With just minuets to go in the 24 hr race Denise was already back and the 4 of us girls set out to walk Tara around her last lap. Such an amazing feeling to be walking with a woman who just accomplished such an extreme task. In the end Tara ended up with over 97 miles. 97 + miles in one day, one day! She came in 45th place over all out of 185 runners. AMAZING! I had such a mix of feelings running though me at that time. I was so proud of her and amazed by her but I felt guilty that as one of her crew members I did not get her to her goal. That guilt faded away fast because 97+ miles on a broken toe and possible fractured foot is fucking insane. Excuse the language but come on you know I am right! This girl is incredible!
On the drive home both Candice and I were exhausted, the lack of sleep and cold had gotten to us. I was out of it and Candice being the sweetheart that she is was desperately trying to not fall asleep, despite the fact I told her she could. Then we saw a cop in the road, out of his car, flagging me over. LOL I did not even know how fast I was going. According to my ticket 78mph which in MI is acceptable but in Ohio where the speed limit was 60... yeah not so much. The cop was not happy with me and sadly was kinda a dick. That woke me up and gave me the energy to go for another hr or so before having to pull off at a rest stop. I was not hungry but needed something to munch on just to keep me awake. It was at this point in time that I received an ab workout like no other. Candice bought a pop and between the two of us it took us a good 10 min to open it. To tired to open pop? I am seriously laughing out loud as I type this. We were so damn slap happy that we both laughed until we had tears. Looking back I realize that we should have taken a nap before driving home. Will do that next time!
Over all it was an amazing experience and I feel like I learned so much that day. I got to witness some amazing athletes do something I could never fathom myself doing. I got to watch my friend just keep going despite her pain even when people around her were dropping out. I felt good about what I was doing and being where I was and for a short time my mind was taken off the loss of my cousin and all the other crap going on. Best of all though I got to officially meet 3 of the most awesome women, women I am proud to know and call my friends.
September 17th and 18th a friend of mine from my running moms group participated in the North Coast 24 hr endurance run in Cleavland Ohio. Tara aka Ultara is one hell of a runner and not only did I get to see her run in a 24 hr endurance race I got to crew for her. It had been a rough week for me trying to get into the swing of things with the children having just gone back to school, playing catch up from not doing much for 6 weeks because of my broken big toe, dealing with the new puppy we had and worst of all my cousin passed away at just 24 years old. I felt overwhelmed and when I heard Denise one of Ultara's crew members was in the hospital leaving Kaci as her only crew member I canceled my plans for the night and drove down with Candice to help. (as it turns out fortunately Denise was released from the hospital and able to help crew a bit after all) The race started at 9am on the 17th but Candice and I did not leave until 6pm to drive down. We were unable to leave MI until 6pm which put us in Cleavland about 9:30pm. We figured this would be a good time because we could then give Kaci a break and Denise could go home and sleep since the girl should have been home resting anyways. lol you could not have kept that running mama away from that race, even with the migraine she had.
The drive there seemed to take forever, probably because we were anxious to get there. We were so excited to meet Denise, Kaci, and Tara. (did I mention that even though we are all friends we had never actually met?) We found Tara's tent and met Denise and Kaci, the excitement of finally meeting them quickly wore off as they explained to us that there was a discrepancy between what Kaci had written down, the race volunteers had and what Tara thought she had lap wise. Candice and I were showing up at the worst possible time of the race and she and I both thought "OH SHIT what did we get ourselves into"? This was both mine and Candice's first time crewing and we had no idea what it was all about. The OH SHIT thoughts only increased when Denise asked us if we knew what to do if Tara got a blister. LOL I am sure I had the same deer in headlights look on my face that Candice had on hers. Denise agreed to giving us a crash course on blister care before her departure. Just an FYI I am very thankful that Ultara does not typically get blisters because quite frankly the thought of draining another persons blister and applying moleskin makes me nervous. Just as Denise finished first aid 101,Tara came around again and I got to get a glimpse of what each lap would be like. Denise said her good byes and left for the night, while Kaci started putting Candice and I on information overload. The ultimate crash course in ultra crewing. There is a serious science to being able to run for 24 hrs. It was our job to make sure Tara's body could keep going. Which meant making sure she had the right amount of calories, fluid, and electrolytes in her system. Thankfully someone was smart enough to make a spread sheet where we could log what she ate, drank and when she took the electrolyte pill. The spread sheet was exactly what I needed. Another smart move was to put snacks into little baggies. Each baggie was 100 calories each so there was no need to guess at how much she ate. We were told that as Tara ran past she would shout to us what she needed/wanted and all we had to do was have it ready for her on her next lap. Sounds easy enough but I was so nervous and glad that Kaci did not want to go to bed for a little while.
Tara's next lap around I went with her. This race called for no pacers but since Tara at this point in time walking due to her broken toe and what was suspected to be a fracture in her foot. (yes I typed this correctly this woman chose to run for 24 hrs on a broken toe and an injured foot which was suspected to be a fracture. Making me seem like the biggest wimp of all time for taking 8 weeks off of running for my toe... sigh) I at this point got to formally introduce my self to Tara. It was so cool to finally meet her in person and I was in aw of what she was accomplishing that day. She filled me in on what the medics at the race recommended for her foot and we chatted about her daughter and my boys. That lap ended and every hr or so I would walk with her again. Knowing what to talk to Tara about was challenging for me. I just talked about stuff trying to keep her mind off of the pain that she was in but I did not know if that was what she needed or what she wanted. I was not sure if I should be pushing her to go faster or talk her into calling it quits on the race so she would not make her possible fracture a solid break. I did get to hear the story of the gun man on the lose at her last race, which made both of us laugh so I hope that my keep her mind off the pain approach helped.
When we were not walking with Tara, marking down what she ate, or getting her what she needed we were all chatting and desperately trying to keep warm. For those of us who were not running it was a very cold night, in fact my face hurt for several days after due to the wind burn that the cold wind gusts gave me. We laughed about how we were dressed with layers upon layers of clothing (I had on a t-shirt, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece sweatshirt, another sweatshirt on top of that a winter hat and gloves and a blanket wrapped around me and I was freezing) and yet there was a man running who we all called naked guy. He had on shorts (kinda flesh colored) socks and shoes, nothing else. Naked guy kicked ass though and although I do not know his name to find out how he did I know he rocked it!!! At one point in time Tara joined us cold asses so she could put ice on her foot. She must have been in some serious pain to not only sit down but to put ice on her foot when it was that cold out. As time went on it became clear to us that the goal Tara set for herself was in reach. She wanted to do 100 miles. Can you even fathom this? 100 miles is like traveling from my home in MI to where the race was in Cleveland. (no joke I drove just over 100 miles to get there) Even after witnessing it I still have trouble wrapping my brain around it. Anyways I think Tara realized how close she was to her goal because she started running again. The look on her face when she passed our tent when she had something like 2 hrs left and under 10 miles to go (exact numbers I have forgotten since I waited a month to write this) was a cross between sheer determination, serious pain. I could not help but wonder what was going though her head in that moment as we all stood and cheered for her. We knew it was going to be close and as her crew member I did not know what to do. I was not sure if we should push her despite the fact that she is in serious pain and the medic told her not to run or just let her do her thing. Tara gave a great push to get to that 100 but the pain in her foot was so intense that she had to slow to a walk once more.
With just minuets to go in the 24 hr race Denise was already back and the 4 of us girls set out to walk Tara around her last lap. Such an amazing feeling to be walking with a woman who just accomplished such an extreme task. In the end Tara ended up with over 97 miles. 97 + miles in one day, one day! She came in 45th place over all out of 185 runners. AMAZING! I had such a mix of feelings running though me at that time. I was so proud of her and amazed by her but I felt guilty that as one of her crew members I did not get her to her goal. That guilt faded away fast because 97+ miles on a broken toe and possible fractured foot is fucking insane. Excuse the language but come on you know I am right! This girl is incredible!
On the drive home both Candice and I were exhausted, the lack of sleep and cold had gotten to us. I was out of it and Candice being the sweetheart that she is was desperately trying to not fall asleep, despite the fact I told her she could. Then we saw a cop in the road, out of his car, flagging me over. LOL I did not even know how fast I was going. According to my ticket 78mph which in MI is acceptable but in Ohio where the speed limit was 60... yeah not so much. The cop was not happy with me and sadly was kinda a dick. That woke me up and gave me the energy to go for another hr or so before having to pull off at a rest stop. I was not hungry but needed something to munch on just to keep me awake. It was at this point in time that I received an ab workout like no other. Candice bought a pop and between the two of us it took us a good 10 min to open it. To tired to open pop? I am seriously laughing out loud as I type this. We were so damn slap happy that we both laughed until we had tears. Looking back I realize that we should have taken a nap before driving home. Will do that next time!
Over all it was an amazing experience and I feel like I learned so much that day. I got to witness some amazing athletes do something I could never fathom myself doing. I got to watch my friend just keep going despite her pain even when people around her were dropping out. I felt good about what I was doing and being where I was and for a short time my mind was taken off the loss of my cousin and all the other crap going on. Best of all though I got to officially meet 3 of the most awesome women, women I am proud to know and call my friends.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
First run since broken toe
I finally got the ok from the Dr. to go ahead and resume normal activity after my tumble down the stairs in which I broke my big toe 6 weeks ago. Although I have to go ahead to start running again it was advised that I take it slow because the toe is not 100% healed yet. In fact they can still see the fracture on the ex ray. The Dr. said another 3 weeks or so I should be back to normal. This news came almost a week ago and due to the children going back to school, PTO meetings, curriculum nights, baseball etc I have not had an opportunity to really get out there and see what I am made of. Cooper last night spent a night at a friends house and I had to pick him up this morning. His friends house is only 1.35 miles away so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to see how much of a set back I endured taking 6 weeks off. We dropped our car at their house last night so that way I could run to pick him up this morning and drive him home. (although if had not had tickets to the big house today I would have made him run or at least walk home with me.) I walked the first quarter of a mile to warm up but then got going. I knew it was going to be hard but wowza it was really hard. I actually for a split second thought "Kelly you do not need to do this you do not need to be a runner" I do not know what happen to that split second thought but I did not entertain it and just kept running. I had to take three walk breaks which is two more then I normally would have taken two months ago. I apparently have my work cut out for me but I am excited to get back into it.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Toe woes
Went to the Dr. Friday night after I fell down the stairs and sure enough my toe is broken. When I think about a toe being broken I think get some tape, wrap it to another toe, take some Motrin and move on with your life. Apparently when you break your big toe that is not the case. I am not aloud to put any weight on the toe, I have to wear a splint that goes all the way to the calf, take pain killers and anti inflammatory, walk using crutches and take a trip to a specialist who may decide to actually cast me. Who would have thought one broken toe could be such a hassle. I asked the Dr. how long it would take before I could get out and hit the pavement again and I was told that was going to be up to the specialist. hhhmmm
You know last week on Wed. I went in to the Dr. for a physical at which time the Dr. gave me a prescription for PT on my arm/shoulder. So with a bum shoulder and a bum leg how in the world am I supposed to get any exercise in? I know push ups to not hurt my arm and it would not hurt my toe if I did the modified ones and of course sit ups/crunches would not hurt the arm or toe... but what else can I do? I wonder if I could ride a bike? Between my arm, toe, and the fact that this week I had pink eye.... I have more issues then National Geographic :(
You know last week on Wed. I went in to the Dr. for a physical at which time the Dr. gave me a prescription for PT on my arm/shoulder. So with a bum shoulder and a bum leg how in the world am I supposed to get any exercise in? I know push ups to not hurt my arm and it would not hurt my toe if I did the modified ones and of course sit ups/crunches would not hurt the arm or toe... but what else can I do? I wonder if I could ride a bike? Between my arm, toe, and the fact that this week I had pink eye.... I have more issues then National Geographic :(
Friday, July 29, 2011
Warrior Dash
This is the week the week I have been waiting for, for the last 5 months. MI Warrior Dash week is finally here! The excitement is supposed to be brewing and plans for what crazy outfit to wear is supposed to be in place. Only this is not the case for me. This long anticipated race has brought me nothing but doubt and disappointment this week.
A month or so ago my son Cooper asked us if he could apply for a scholarship to go to church camp. I said yes, he did his project, won the scholarship and then we find out that the first day of camp is the same day as the Warrior Dash. Struggling to figure out how on earth we could do both I got lucky when a friend offered to go to the race and watch Cooper there so that way we could just leave from the race to go to camp. Excitement grew as I think to myself that I have this all figured out. Sure Ryan and I would be dropping Coop off looking like mud monkeys but as long as Coop was ok with it then we were too.
I spent the last few months with some nasty shoulder/arm pain. The Dr. said it was a bicep tendon issue, gave me some anti inflammatory and sent me on my way. I laid off of any weight lifting for well over a month and the arm started to feel much better. Feeling positive I started using the arm more and more but I started getting pain back. This past 4th of July is when I think I finally realized something a whole lot more serious was going on. The family was getting ready to go up north on vacation for the holiday and so I decided to wash the floor and the windows. Less then 24 hrs later my arm was in a lot of pain again. This pain was so intense that it lasted days even with Motrin. It was so bad that I had trouble sleeping. As soon as I got home I called the Dr. and made another apt. That apt was this past Wed. Concerned about the shoulder the Dr gave me a prescription for PT and told me there was no way that I should be doing the Warrior Dash on Sunday. Feeling torn I called my physical therapist and asked her what she thought and she made it very clear that it would not be in my best interest to participate in the race. Still torn I asked my running moms group... same response. Do not do it! Stay home, go to PT, get better and then do it next yr.
Sounds like a no brainer right? Not so much. For some reason I am having a very hard time backing out of this race. The thought of just not showing up to a race... "sigh" makes me feel like a failure. Plus I have been dying to get down and dirty for so many months now. Of course there is the 90 bucks I spent for both Ryan and I to register that I would have to eat too and come on I worked it all out so that we could get Coop to camp on time.
Since Wed. I have gone back and forth with my decision to go or to just stay home and hang out with my little buddy before he heads to camp. My mind kept changing from one min. to the next. I even had some trouble sleeping because I could not stop thinking about it. Totally stupid I know. The last 24 hrs I was leaning toward not going but still wanted to hold out on saying it out loud... just in case I changed my mind again. Then this morning as I was about to walk down the stairs my right big toe some how got caught on my pant leg sending me tumbling down the stairs. It has been a couple of hrs since my fall and I think my big toe is broken. I can not put any pressure on it, not even to walk. I am taking this as a sign that going to the Warrior Dash is not supposed to happen for me this yr. So hear I am saying it out loud, I am sadly backing out of the Warrior Dash this yr. I am disappointed sure but a little relieved that Sunday morning when my son wakes up I will have every second, until we leave him at camp, to spend with him.
As far as my stupid toe goes... tonight Ryan and I are supposed to have date night to celebrate 13 yrs of being married... nothing says romance better then the ER!
A month or so ago my son Cooper asked us if he could apply for a scholarship to go to church camp. I said yes, he did his project, won the scholarship and then we find out that the first day of camp is the same day as the Warrior Dash. Struggling to figure out how on earth we could do both I got lucky when a friend offered to go to the race and watch Cooper there so that way we could just leave from the race to go to camp. Excitement grew as I think to myself that I have this all figured out. Sure Ryan and I would be dropping Coop off looking like mud monkeys but as long as Coop was ok with it then we were too.
I spent the last few months with some nasty shoulder/arm pain. The Dr. said it was a bicep tendon issue, gave me some anti inflammatory and sent me on my way. I laid off of any weight lifting for well over a month and the arm started to feel much better. Feeling positive I started using the arm more and more but I started getting pain back. This past 4th of July is when I think I finally realized something a whole lot more serious was going on. The family was getting ready to go up north on vacation for the holiday and so I decided to wash the floor and the windows. Less then 24 hrs later my arm was in a lot of pain again. This pain was so intense that it lasted days even with Motrin. It was so bad that I had trouble sleeping. As soon as I got home I called the Dr. and made another apt. That apt was this past Wed. Concerned about the shoulder the Dr gave me a prescription for PT and told me there was no way that I should be doing the Warrior Dash on Sunday. Feeling torn I called my physical therapist and asked her what she thought and she made it very clear that it would not be in my best interest to participate in the race. Still torn I asked my running moms group... same response. Do not do it! Stay home, go to PT, get better and then do it next yr.
Sounds like a no brainer right? Not so much. For some reason I am having a very hard time backing out of this race. The thought of just not showing up to a race... "sigh" makes me feel like a failure. Plus I have been dying to get down and dirty for so many months now. Of course there is the 90 bucks I spent for both Ryan and I to register that I would have to eat too and come on I worked it all out so that we could get Coop to camp on time.
Since Wed. I have gone back and forth with my decision to go or to just stay home and hang out with my little buddy before he heads to camp. My mind kept changing from one min. to the next. I even had some trouble sleeping because I could not stop thinking about it. Totally stupid I know. The last 24 hrs I was leaning toward not going but still wanted to hold out on saying it out loud... just in case I changed my mind again. Then this morning as I was about to walk down the stairs my right big toe some how got caught on my pant leg sending me tumbling down the stairs. It has been a couple of hrs since my fall and I think my big toe is broken. I can not put any pressure on it, not even to walk. I am taking this as a sign that going to the Warrior Dash is not supposed to happen for me this yr. So hear I am saying it out loud, I am sadly backing out of the Warrior Dash this yr. I am disappointed sure but a little relieved that Sunday morning when my son wakes up I will have every second, until we leave him at camp, to spend with him.
As far as my stupid toe goes... tonight Ryan and I are supposed to have date night to celebrate 13 yrs of being married... nothing says romance better then the ER!
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