Chase The Sun 12 Hour Ultra

{Note, this has been saved as a draft in  my posts for 5 months now….guess i forgot to publish it}

September 23, 2013

33.64 Miles in 12 hours

It’s been a good week and a half since doing my first Ultra. I figured i would let it “set” in before running out and writing about my experience….which for me is usually a good thing, as i will probably forget most of the details because i have now waited too long. This is good news for readers tho, makes for less reading on your part.

I in no way, shape or form trained for this race the way one SHOULD~~~~with that being said:  I got up at 4AM to get prepared for this race. I had to meet up with a friend to drop my daughter off at 5:45 AM. I made it out the parking lot right around 6:15 and met some lovely ladies from MRTT and we walked to our setup. One of our MRTT mamas came out the night before and set up a tent so we had a place to put our stuff and hang out. We all gathered around, talked for  a bit kinda got the feel for this whole new ULTRA feel of a race. It was my first, i had no clue what to expect. I didn’t even get to volunteer at one before attempting my first! All the runners made their way to the start and we listened to the National Anthem, sung by another very talented MRTT mama. Before you knew it, the horn blew and we were off!! Was NOT expecting it!! i didn’t even have my Garmin on and locating a satellite yet. Either way, my watch didn’t start till about a quarter mile into the race. No big deal, i knew it wouldn’t last the entire race anyways…Which is a whole other story in itself!!!

I ran the first 2 laps with a few girls i know, (each lap was 1.87 miles) I think in less than 4 miles i pushed myself too hard already and i had a headache coming on. GREAT. I still have 11.5 hours to go, and i already have a headache. Anyways, after my first 2 laps i stopped at the water station and rehydrated. I started doing a run out of the start about a quarter mile, then walk, then run back into the finish about a quarter mile. It took me nearly exactly 30 minutes to complete every lap. Some i ran more than others. If i felt up to it, i ran, if not i walked. My goal was to make it to 31 miles, and survive on my feet for 12 hours. I wasn’t going for speed, or longer distance than that by any means.

The support system out there was like nothing i have ever seen before!! Between all my friends running, and all my friends volunteering for the race, and my running buddy from afar who woke up at 6am to text me good luck and send me pump up music…it was seriously such a great experience that made me love my running community even more than i already did before!! Even though i walked, every time someone passed me, they said “good job”. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I even had a friend come out at 3pm and stick with me until 7pm just to keep me company and make sure i finish without being too bored!! Who does that!!?? Lindsey does.  She has since signed up for her first 12 hour, guess what i will be doing 🙂

To make this a little more entertaining for any readers, i will go ahead and tell you about my Garmin experience….My first marathon only recorded on my Garmin as 26.1 miles, in turn wouldn’t record on my Garmin dashboard online as a marathon. BUMMER….SO for this race i wanted that marathon distance on my dashboard!!! Since i was going so slow, it took me almost 9 hours to get to the 26 miles mark, at which point my watch started beeping at me that it had a low battery!! I wanted to get to the distance before it shut off so i ran and ran until i made it to the 26.2. I was SO excited, i had done it! 2nd marathon distance complete!! Literally at 26.24 miles, my watch shut off. At that point i was like OMG did it even save!!! luckily it did save.  I think this was way more exciting while i was out there….writing it out doesn’t sound quite as interesting to me as it initially did. OH WELL.

I managed to pump out 18 laps around the Whitemarsh Preserve in 12 hours. Doing 33.66 miles. Completely ok and happy with that!! I felt ok the next few days even. Only 5 blisters…all good. Actually i think my legs are still burning from that run…..i’m kidding. But seriously……

I am signing up for the next….it’s a 50k, with an 8 hour time limit. MAD MARSH!!! WOOT, i’m really excited to see how fast i can do that distance without taking my time doing it.

Attached are some pics throughout the day.

Chase The Sun ULTRA

I just signed up for the Chase The Sun ULTRA next month…..T- MINUS 29 days to train for a 12 hour Ultra race….OMG….

The END. 

 

#Run4AReason

The Color Run Promo Code!!

With only two rules, the idea is easy to follow: Wear white at the starting line and finish plastered in color!

Who is ready for the Color Run!! Coming to Savannah this year, and its through downtown and Forsyth Park. You are GUARANTEED to have awesome views!! I should know, I run this route all the time!

Promo code is valid in ANY city that is not sold out

Find a city near you and enter the coupon code. OR come to Savannah, GA and run it WITH me!!

Use code COLOR5OFF HERE

Never seen a color run or heard of it?? Check out this YouTube video and see what it’s all about!

Or if you would rather read up on it go HERE

**When people register in a team of 4 or more it is automatically $5 cheaper, they can then also use their promo code on top of that and save $10.00.   Details are online: How does a “Color Team” work compared with a solo runner? Pretty simple, you register as a (4 minimum/infinity max) unit rather than as an individual.  You get to pick a groovy custom team name, anything from The Roy G Biv All-stars to We Sweat Rainbows.  You then get to run/walk together and “help” each other get really colored up over the 5 color kilometers.  There is no “relay” component and team members can finish together as a unit or separately.

Course

My 1st Full Marathon Experience

The Date: Saturday, April 20, 2013

My Very 1st Marathon!!!

If you have read any of my previous blog posts, you know that running the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY just a couple weeks before my first full marathon kinda scared the piss out of me. I managed to spit out 3 awesome half marathons in the month of March. I was in somewhat training mode i guess you can say. Nat and i started training a little early for this race, but we were dedicated. By the time February rolled around, wouldn’t you know it, LIFE got a little in the way. Vacations, schedules not lining up….anything. My mileage slacked and my last long run of 18 miles was literally the beginning of February. We did meet up and run lots after that, but not a good long run once a week like you are supposed to do….heck our long runs consisted of like 7 miles at a time for the most part, besides any half marathons i did.

Running in KY got the best of me, i am super sad to say it too….i LOVED that course, wish i would have taken it all in a little bit more, but it made me so incredibly nervous for the BlueRidge marathon. Every training run we did, i complained to Nat that it was impossible, we couldn’t do it, there is no way my legs will carry me that far…EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING.

Now I LOVE planning for a race…my new fave thing to do. Get matching shirts for everyone, make sure we have a meet up spot before and after. This race was completely different. I didn’t want to even think about what i was going to wear for a 26 mile run, i didn’t care. I kept my mind SO far from this race, and i am now completely regretting it!!

On to the week OF

I completely made my whole family join me for this trip. Nat and her family have a place up in the mountains in the Roanoke area. They were all kind enough to let us set up camp in one of the bedrooms. It was a full house!! 7 adults, and 4 children. I think everyone had a great time tho, gotta love good company. My husband, London and I left thursday afternoon and started our 7 hour journey to the hills. Friday we did our little touristy stuff and took London to the Museum of Transportation, and we went to the mall. It of course rained all day, so we had to find stuff to do inside. I made my way to the Expo right when it opened at 3pm. That place was PACKED….i somehow only signed up for the half marathon, and never noticed until Thursday, so i contacted Pete (the blueridge run organizer) and he told me to come to the expo and find him and he would fix it. When i got there, the line was wrapping around the building so i just started wandering around. I somehow managed to make my way in ahead of all those people up the exit stairs and got my bib, transfered it out for a full and left before anyone moved downstairs..(oops) The expo was simple, Foot Levelers had a pretty good set up with noise makers and bags, but other than that, there were no vendors. I kinda liked it that way, but i have read a lot of reviews stating that was the only downfall.  After the expo we had plans to meet up with Jacy, Joel, and Shelli for dinner at the Olive Garden to carb up. Luckily there was actually no wait, we were able to get in and out in a decent amount of time. Once we got back to the house, Nat and I organized what little i did bring to wear, pinned our bibs on our shirts, re-laced some shoes, packed our belts with GU’s and went to bed.

Race Morning

We woke up at 5AM to start getting ready. I just really wanted to make sure we got down there without hitting too much traffic. Well, we definitely had enough time, there was a free little parking lot with plenty of spots for us to choose right down the road from the start! We went to the City Market building which they had open for us, since it was a bit chilly outside!! SO GLAD that place was open!! We did our group shot with Jacy, Kelli, Nat, Shelli, and myself. (too bad we didn’t have matching shirts 😦 Once it got time we headed to the start. Me and Nat stayed right at the end of the pack. Once we were able to go, we just paced ourselves. I am actually kind of amazed at just how quickly the time did go by for us.

Mile 1: was ok, just kinda made our way through the city, then found us a little (hehe) hill to climb up, still weeding out people. Mile 3: Our break off point.

Break off for the Full marathon at mile 3

Most races have you break off a bit down like mile 10, so if you know you CAN”T do the full marathon, you can go the half route. NO OPTION HERE. Which was good. Mile 5-9: The first BIG BIG BIG mountain!! This mountain had us climb about 800 feet up then 800 feet down. This portion was actually the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is actually the spot where we saw the very first full marathoner coming back down. While we were barely at 5 miles yet, this man was flying back by us at his mile 10.5 (he ended up coming in second just over 2 hours and 30 minutes) It was here that we made some running friends. One man was on his second marathon for the day, he did the double, 52.4 miles in one day….on that course. Another we were talking with had just ran Boston the weekend before, he crossed the finish line 3 minutes before the bomb went off.  Mile 11-15: This mountain had something in store for us that i didn’t even know about!!! Mill Mountain has a huge star that you can see from Roanoke at night all lit up. Well WE just ran up to it!!! That was such a memorable moment for me during this whole race!! What was even better was thinking about how much London loved seeing that while we were driving the night before, now i was standing under it! We took some awesome pictures here, view of the city from the start and a view of the star from the city….so cool.

The Star on top of Mill Mountain

Top of Mill Mountain

Mile 17-20: THESE HILLS ARE INSANE!!!! So, if you ever hear anyone by chance say “oh i ran up Peakwood” go ahead and tell them that you are sorry!! In a short little 1.5 miles we climbed almost 500 feet. You think, “oh but its only 1.5 miles” HA it is the 1.5 miles AT miles 17, 18 & 19 that you have to CLIMB up. There was absolutely NO running this part. If you were running, whatever…you probably won that damn race. I think the worst part was the volunteers/spectators saying “last hill just up the road!!” we heard that SO MANY times!! Once we did get up to the top, we had cornhole, bloody mary’s, mimosas, all offered up, but i just couldn’t do it. Except the cornhole, Nat played cornhole a few rounds!!

Nat playing cornhole at the top of Peakwood

The top was mile 19 and we finally got to start going back downhill, but my darn ankle/shin was hurting to run down. I was so scared that it would turn into a stress fracture or something, i just walked most of it!! I couldn’t chance it.

Mile 20!!

Mile 21-24: Once we made it down that mountain, it was all neighborhood twists and turns to go. We ran through some of the most beautiful houses i have ever seen on this route!! They were huge, well landscaped, just beautiful. With some really awesome Cherry Blossoms, which looked like big clouds of awesomeness, i just wanted to make a bed out of them on the sidewalk. I have never seen a prettier tree in my entire life. Sound delusional yet??? Mile 23 was THE LONGEST MILE EVER. Looking back at my garmin, it was one of my faster miles. I don’t know HOW. I swear that mile went on for hours. That must have been my wall. At this point it was actually pretty warm, the sun was beating down on us. We were passing lots of runners we have pretty much been keeping up with this whole time. Well not passing, but the route was so curvy, we could run past the same people over and over, while they were ahead of us. Mile 25-26.1: Once we hit that, we knew we were in the home stretch. Here we were running literally on the highway in town, over some bridges, (the bridge i knew we had to get to by the 6 hour mark, MADE IT) We came up to that last 100 yards and could see the finish, i started to cry…yep…i definitely held that back as hard as i could. As soon as i saw my husband there with my baby girl GOSH…teary eyed just thinking about it again. Nat’s little girl started running with us and ran with us into the finish. Super emotional. I am just so glad, even tho i know my husband supports me with running, his idea of a good time is NOT standing at a finish line for an hour waiting for us to cross over the finish. But i am glad that for any of them to be seen by them, it was this one. Mile 26.2: “Coming into the finish Katie Futch and Natalie all the way from GEORGIA!!!!!”

Coming over the finish line

It was so cool to hear that coming over the finish line. I put my hand over my heart for Boston when i crossed, I finished that one for Boston, for those that didn’t get to. We got our bling,

My medal, my beautiful medal

which to be honest, i LOVE, but i am also glad they didn’t have some kind of “big reveal” of it…I had to WAIT to finish to see what this medal looked like. It was almost like having a baby, and not know what you are having. Seriously…Oh and the fitbit reading for 26.2 miles is about 55,000 steps.

I just finished Americas TOUGHEST road MARATHON!!!

#8 in the WORLD

We all did pictures

FINISHED!!

Me and my medal 🙂

then did a celebration lunch at Cheddars, with a beer, then went home to RELAX. I got down on the floor to plug my phone in and the next thing i remember was waking up to London taking my (well her) blankie off me. Sunday morning we got up and headed out the door to make the most out of our trip. We stopped off near Charlotte SC at the Discovery Kids Zone, so fun for London!! Then met up whit a friend from there and played at Plaza Fiesta, a HUGE indoor jungle gym thing that my poor legs got to climb.

So altogether, it was an amazing trip, one that i wish i wasn’t so scared of in the first place. BUT it’s too late for that, at least now i know, do not let your fear of the unknown rule you. Give it all you have, & prove yourself wrong.

Museum of transportation

Some back to the future for ya!!

Staring at the little train land

Dinner at Olive Garden

Morning of the run

Photo Op with MRTT

Start line

Getting set to go

Mile 1

Break off for the Full marathon at mile 3

It was a really really far drop

Roanoke Mountains

Super pretty!!

Top of Mill Mountain

The Star on top of Mill Mountain

KCCO!!

We were totally rocking at this point!!

Nat playing cornhole at the top of Peakwood

THAT was peakwood

Mile 20!!

Had to stop for beast mode!

The star on Mill Mountain from Roanoke.

Photo Bomb!!

Coming over the finish line

Morning before the start

Me and my medal 🙂

Still in the first few miles here.

Coming back down from Mill Mountain

Bracelets we got at the expo

My bib and shirt!!

My medal, my beautiful medal

This was us coming Up mill mountain

Run The Bluegrass Half Marathon

The Date: Saturday, March 30, 2013

The third and final of my 3 half marathons in one month

This race was…well AMAZING. It was a huge eye opener….you will understand why shortly. I was lucky enough to get a discount coupon code to this race. Missy won the $50 off code and knew she wouldn’t be able to travel to KY, so she asked the only person she knew crazy enough to drive 650 miles to run for 13…ME. Of course i accepted…a half marathon for only $25, plus hotel, plus gas, plus food, plus…..well you get it, i pretty much spend more than i would if i would have just paid for a local half marathon. But who cares, its all in the experience right!?!?  Doesn’t matter, i had 2 girls to carpool with from MRTT, plus a hotel split 3 ways, comes out to be practically nothing.

Kim, Megan and I headed out on Thursday evening to start our 9 hour voyage up to Lexington, KY!! I have been to A LOT of states in my life, but KY is not one of them…I don’t think i have ever even driven through it before. We were in for a treat though.  I had another MRTT chapter leader willing to take her entire day out to show us around Lexington for the day on Friday. We drove around and saw horses, went to the Keenland Race course, tried local food, took a tour of a brewery and  learned about the history. She did a fabulous job for us!! And i didn’t have to drive, so i took TONS of pictures. We also got to drive the course we were going to be running the next day. I think that scared the crap out of me more than anything. Haha, yeah, i did the GA half, and there were hills, but NOT like these hills.  These hills were more on the “rolling” hills side of the hill spectrum. Rolling right on up to the sky and back down again. over and over and over and over again. I totally psyched myself out and thought they were no big deal…no big deal at all.

Race DAY. We all dressed in our awesome matching shirts. We took the “Run the bluegrass” logo and made it our own. With everyone together in the same shirt, we looked awesome, people were jealous, i could see it in their faces. lol, not really, but i loved it. Thats all that matters. We got pictures at the start line and then made our way to the corrals. Once we started the first thing we saw was a hill. So we get up that hill, and im all like “cool, i can handle that” then we get to go down the hill, and i think “cool, i like that too” then about 25 humungus hills later, i am all like “IS THIS ROAD EVER GOING TO EVEN OUT!!!!!!!” It never did. Hill after hill after hill of on going hills. (we didn’t drive the ENTIRE course the day before, just part of it, so i didn’t really know how the whole thing looked) They had plenty of water and energy along the route, which like i have said before, is a must!! The course was beautiful, we ran by fields of horses, old barns, chickens…i wish i would have stopped and enjoyed it a little better. That darn race got the best of me and when i started to run, i just took off!! Thing is the pictures did the hills and scenery no justice!! i got just a few.

Man, i tell ya, that run took something outta me….pretty much my soul was left out there on those hills. i got to the finish, in good enough time mind you, 2:27. i must have been pushing myself pretty darn hard over those hills to get done faster than i did the Rock n Roll Savannah, on FLAT land. I got done, found my little spot on the ground and waited for the other ladies to finish up. Took my pictures of my medal and my Garmin, and looked to see how many steps i took with my new Fitbit, and noticed i lost it. came off during the run at some point…darn it, i only had that sucker for a little over a week. As i sat there waiting, i notice my headache coming on that i noticed starting at mile 10…that was when i realized i didn’t pop an Excedrin first thing to keep it from coming on at all….and i didn’t have any with me to kill it before it got worse. We shot a nice after pic of the 3 of us, and it was time to head out!! we had a checkout time we needed to meet at the hotel!

By the time we dodged traffic out of the race arena and got back to the hotel, i had a full force migrane and was laid out on the bed. We literally had 23 minutes for 3 of us to shower, get dressed and get out of the hotel by 2:00. AND we did it. YES, 3 women took showers, dressed and packed in 23 minutes. It can be done folks!! At that point i was handing over the keys because i couldn’t even see or think straight because of my head. By the time we got to the next gas station, about 10 minutes down the road, i new immediately i needed to puke, that was the only thing that would ease this pounding head. So i did, and i napped for a good hour, and when i woke up, i was good as new!! I drove the last 6 hours home through the crazy carolina mountains. Those roads are much creepier at night, very pretty during the day though!! I was glad to be home. And glad my 3rd half marathon was done this month. I did it!! and my wall of medals at home is looking pretty darn sweet!!

Just for comparison, see the elevation gain of the last 3 halves i did.

Elevation Gain

Now notice, the 30’s, the 400’s, even close to the 700’s….Well the next ones i am doing on April 20th, that is in the 3500’s!!!! OMG, what have i done!!! i keep really really getting nervous about that race now that i have actually ran some REAL hills…Blue Ridge Parkway, here we come,,,reluctantly.

And enjoy ALL the pictures from our trip!!

Publix GA Half Marathon, ATL

The Date: Sunday, March 17, 2013

The second of my 3 half marathons in one month, this one was VERY last minute.

I found out i was doing this race about 8 days before the actual race. Now mind you, Atlanta is 4 hours away, and i needed a place to stay, on the cheap…I do this for fun, not to go broke. So good ole’ MRTT to the rescue!! I posted in the group of a bazillion ladies asking if anyone had an extra spot for a crasher (me). Only took about 30 minutes and i was all set up in a hotel with my fellow MRTT mama, Kim and her sister Brooke. I offered to drive and pay for gas, it was the lease i could do.

We left for ATL on Saturday morning so we could get to the expo and kind of relax and check out ATL for the short time we were there. Of course we hit traffic about 30 min out, and it held us back about an hour. At which point my knee started to ache. I have no clue why or how, but my knee became swollen!! Out of no where, i had this huge knee, and it didn’t hurt, but i was nervous because i needed to run 13 miles on it the next day, with HILLS.  Every chance i had, i iced it while we were at the hotel, and just tried to not over do it. We walked about 6 blocks from the hotel to the expo, where they were giving out Biscoff by the case! THE CASE. Never even heard of this stuff before the hot chocolate run just 2 months before…now i have 16 bottles of it in my pantry….I figured if all else fails me, and my knee doesn’t work for this race tomorrow, i have enough Biscoff to keep the tears back.

Race morning was FUN. We had a meetup spot for pictures with all the MRTT members that were doing the race…we had a lot, maybe about 40 that were able to make it to the picture set up at the start. Then we were off to find our corrals. Kim was doing her VERY FIRST FULL Marathon today!! She was a nervous wreck all the way up to the second i saw her off when i jumped into my corral. I wished her well and i was on my way.

All the MRTT group!!

The race started without me even knowing it!! it was just a steady stream of people moving forward, then all of a sudden i was going over the timing strip!! RUN, lol, i wasn’t ready, i thought i still had a ways to go. But i started my Garmin, got my music going and took off. The hills didn’t bother me, my knee didn’t bother me. I started off super slow, just taking my time and taking it all in, then realized i didn’t need to take my time. My knee was ok, i just needed to go and see how well i could do on these “massive” hills….i say massive…Just wait until my next blog entry about the Lexington, KY Run the Bluegrass….OMG. Anyways, i was fine, the hills were a piece of cake and i was on fire!! The course was really pretty at some parts. The perfect time of year where the trees were blooming, beautiful white flowers..they were like a tunnel going over the road, and the sun was rising at that point…..of course i didn’t get a picture of that. Drinks and energy every 2 miles. I love that. I consider those spots to be  my walk breaks, The Palmetto Bluff was the same way. Every single  2 miles, i got a little walk in to lower my heart rate and gear back up for the next 2 miles. They even had M&M’s at mile 8 i think….YUM. That was a first for me.

I crossed that finish line at 2:20:26. I say that for the hills included, (which didn’t bother me) my knee issue (which didn’t bother me) and the fact that i started out pretty slow, thinking i needed to…i got a great time!! I am not at all disappointed in that number. Hell, i’m never disappointed in any number i put out there!! i just enjoy doing it!!

My new Bling!!

Once we finished MRTT had a tent set up with food and masseuse!!! Brooke and I decided we were going to go back to the hotel and get a shower in while we waited for Kim to finish up her full marathon. We knew we had time to get there and back in time to see her finish. While Brooke was in the shower, the phone rang, when i answered it was the EMT on the other line saying that they had Kim in the back of the ambulance and they were taking her to the hospital. Freak out time…..at this point we now had to pack up everything and get out of the hotel by a certain hour, which meant we needed to get all of our stuff out and my car out of vallet. It took me a good hour or so to find this stupid hospital. Apparently there is a school with the name Emory, a children’s hospital with the name Emory, lots of little shops and food joints with the name Emory, and THEN there is a regular person hospital with the name Emory…OMG….i literally was crying because when i get annoyed and stressed that is what i do. 3 parking garages later, i FINALLY find the hospital that she was staying in….Then i get there and wait. lol, she had to have fluids and stuff. Apparently she got to mile 15 and felt her knee crack, then started to feel faint, and sat down. She passed out and that was when the ambulance came and escorted her right off that course and into the hospital that i couldn’t find. She got discharged and we were on our way home around 4:30pm. Good thing i offered to drive. Kim was passed out the entire 4 hour trip back home. After other doctor appointments, turns out she had a torn MCL and a Tibial Fracture. She is on the road to recovery!! I hope she gets to finish up a full one day, but for now, she needs to just rest.

And that was my Super exciting last minute trip up to the ATL to run in the Publix GA half marathon. The race was actually one i REALLY wanted to do, but didn’t want to spend the money on, it just managed to fall into my hands, on my 30th birthday. Great birthday present indeed!! Thank you Olivia!!

Enjoy the pictures!!

Elevation Gain and time

All the MRTT group!!

Brooke and I after

well my knee, you can kinda see the swollen right leg.

Centennial Park after party

My Biscoff!!

Icing the knee

Flat mama, i didn’t end up wearing that shirt….

View from the Hilton

Crammed race morning

A view of the course

Picture with the sign

Corrals

Getting ready for race day

Palmetto Bluff Inaugural Half Marathon

The Date: Sunday, March 10, 2013

The first of my 3 half marathons in one month, some were very last minute.

I was really excited for this race!! Although i have been feeling really guilty with how often i have been racing lately, and the money that needed to be spent, i looked for a kind soul to help pay my way into this race. I honestly wasn’t REALLY expecting anyone to jump up and down to help out, but to my surprise, many people offered up the entry fee to this race!! One of the sweet ladies that i work out with at bootcamp offered to pay, and i immediately felt bad for asking and denied her payment. But it was too late, she just signed me up and i was all registered and everything. It was really so awesome to have someone do that for me. I just love all the people in my life.

Anyways ON to the recap!!!

I stayed at my sisters house the night before this race because, well she lives super close, and that would allow me to sleep in, and i had an automatic awesome sitter for London while i ran. Worked out. (thanks) I got up drove to the bluff, and waited in my CAR…it was freezing out!!!  There were lots of MRTT members running this race and we all were pretty much there sitting in our car with the heaters on, talking over FB. Luckily, being the first race ever here, it was nice and small…so our cars were literally parked at the start and finish, no need to stand out in the cold for hours on end. Once it got to be time i got out and found all my ladies…Jacy and I made up matching shirts a few nights before, so we would match like we did at he race for Donna. Had to rep MRTT again!!

Our sparkle shirts.

the back of the shirt.

We did pictures and tried to find everyone and then we were at the start and ready to go!

They started the race, i started my Garmin, and i just kinda stuck with Jacy. She is faster than i am, but i thought, hey i at least will try to keep up with her as long as i can, that way i have a running buddy for most of the time. Well darnit, i did pretty good, i stayed with her all the way up until mile 10, then i was like ummmmm….im right behind you, just keep going. It didn’t take her long to be WAY ahead of me. In just 3 short miles she finished like 4 minutes before i did.

Back to the course. It was just beautiful!! I really enjoyed the race support out there as well. Palmetto Bluff is this little gated town. It has a little convenience store, a restaurant, and some little shops, a HUGE tree house, and then just acres and acres of beautiful houses and huge trees. The course was FLAT. It was one of those courses that you run, and come up to this itty bitty incline and it feels like you are climbing a mountain because you are just used to flat.

Every single person i was out there with PR’d. Of course my Garmin only read out 12.8 miles….so technically it was a bit short. BUT even if it was a full 13.1 course, everyone would have PR’d. I was tracking my run and keeping track of how fast i needed to go that last mile to make sure i get in under 2 hours and 10 minutes. I came in at 2:07:08 for 12.8 miles. That was a MASSIVE PR for me. my last half i did was in 2:35. i took nearly 30 minutes off my time!! AND the medal was amazing!! So far, it is my favorite medal that i have gotten, and the biggest!! love me some bling!

My beautiful new medal!!

Enjoy the pictures!!

My race bib says “i love you”

Jacy and I

Girls with our medals

Cheer squad!! Tina and Missy were out there cheering us on at mile 10

My time

My beautiful new medal!!

Found Dawn in the parking lot too!!

Caught up with Kelli in the parking lot

MRTT strong!!

getting ready to start

Looking “sexy” haha

at the start

just tried getting the water view here….

mile 5. The signs were all nice.

After the race with our medals

3 of us at the finish line

Jacy and her husband Joel

Our sparkle shirts.

this was my time and elevation gain.

26.2 With Donna Marathon Relay

So Jacy was ever so kind in sharing her race entry that she won with a few of us from MRTT!!! She could have chosen to run the entire 13 or 26 miles all by herself, but instead she wanted to have company!! And i am so glad she wanted our company! The marathon relay was split up into 5 different legs to cover the full 26.2 miles. We had 5 different people to do all the legs, but one leg kept having stability issues, one girl was injured so she had to give up her spot, then the girl who took her place ended up getting into an accident just days before the race so she couldn’t race either. Guess who got to fill that spot?! ME 🙂 Jacy knew i needed to get my training miles in, so she offered up 2 of the legs to me, which totalled 10.5 miles legs 3 & 4.

Jacy and I left for Jacksonville and went to the expo. We got to finally meet up with a few MRTT mamas that are from the FL area chapters, that was FUN. We all went out to dinner together at Carabbas. Jacy and I went back to the hotel and caught up over a glass of wine in the lounge, then waited for Ashton to come in. We laid out our flat mama’s. Jacy made up matching designs for all of us to wear. we looked like Dunkin Donuts sponsored us, totally unintentional.

Come race day and OMG COLD. so we are in Florida….it is just NOT supposed to be this cold. I swear i got frostbite….It’s hard doing the relay in the cold because you have hours before you even need to run and get to warm up, so you just freeze, and we did. Ashton was first leg, and they had to delay the start because traffic getting to the race venue, well, it was just dead stop traffic. Miles and miles of cars not moving an inch. I was able to talk with a few other girls who were still waiting in the traffic while i was waiting in the freezing cold for them to get there. finally at the start Ashton took off doing her 6 mile leg. We had to take shuttels to the stop where we hand off the baton, so Pat took shuttle 2 to her stop, Jacy and i waited in the car with the heater on, for a little while. I had it timed out so i knew when i needed to leave to get to my position to get the baton from pat when she finished up her 3.75 mile leg. I was there waiting for her at my stop and she came rolling up and handed off the baton and i was OFF. Leg 3 was 6.75 miles, and when i came up to the baton hand off spot, i got to just keep going since i was doing 2 legs. The next leg was 3.5 miles. The scenery of the 2 legs were so pretty!! all the houses we passed reminded me of the beach housees in Rhode Island groing up. Of course i was bundled too from the freezing weather in the morning, so around mile 4 i was warmed up and i had to strip. I was completely loaded down with STUFF….anyways, once i got done with my 2 legs it was finally Jacy’s turn!! i mean she has been waiting for hours to get to run, im sure she is frozen solid by now…Her family was there and was able to get a cool shot of us handing off the baton and her taking off to finish up her 6.2 mile leg. i took the shuttle to the finish line and met up with Ashton. I had to get my medal since i didn’t get it on the run when i finished my leg. I got my beer and free food and we waited for Jacy. She came in super fierce at the end!!

And that about sums it up. Add another medal to my wall, cross off – do a marathon relay, from the list, add something new to the list. What should i set out for next?? Maybe i should get through my first FULL marathon before i add anything else.

A LOT of Damn Miles

So this post is gonna be a 2 in 1, that way its one less post, and i don’t really have to flood the inboxes of the poor souls that follow me!!

For the year of 2012 i ran 545 miles

For the month of January 2013 i ran a total of 107 miles.

For the first week of February, i ran the furthest i have ever ran at 18 miles in 3:57:09

So here is how it went. At the beginning of the year i signed up for a challenge on FB to run either 500 or 1000 miles for the year, since last year i made it to 545, i figured, heck why not double it, i can do that. So i took off running at the beginning of the year, pushing out 30+ miles a week for the first few weeks. Then wouldn’t you know it, life got in the way, week 3 i managed to squeeze out only 12 miles. What a bummer. And  it is funny to say that, there were some months last year that i didn’t even get 12 miles in for the entire month…i was doing 10x that now. So i ended my first month with 107 miles and only 893 left to go for the year. I also managed to push out 2 PDR’s during that month, first 14 miles, then the following week i did 15. And if you didn’t notice, it was the very first time i reached and passed 100 miles in one month. 

 

Skip to February 3rd and i had an 18 mile training run i need to do. I run best with a partner, and that partner is none other than my BRF(best running friend) Natalie. She was leaving to go on vacation after our scheduled 18, and i am scheduled to leave and go on my own vacation 3 days later, along with other stuff going on, we wouldn’t see each other for 2 weeks!! If we didn’t do this run TODAY, it wasn’t getting done, so 5AM came, i drove into Savannah and we started our journey to 18 miles. At this point of our training i can run 10 miles without any issues…its pretty “easy” compared to how it used to make me feel. Today was just a off day i guess because by mile 7 my body was aching in ways it only feels when i get to mile 14+. This started early and i had no Excedrine or anything for help. Our loop was 9 miles, so i had to keep on going if i wanted to make it back to my car. once we ran our lap around Forsyth we were at mile 12 and i was like lets just get to 13 and call it quits…at mile 12.5 i got my second wind and looked back at Nat and said “i have this, i just need to keep on going” she chimed in with “go im right behind you” so we took off once again so that we would HAVE to run BACK to the car, you know how tempting that car can be passing it over and over again. We ran our little hearts out for that last 5 miles, well, im sure if anyone was walking they would have passed us, but we didn’t freaking stop, until the last half mile, we walked that, with the shoes OFF. My car was exactly at mile 18, we measured that out pretty darn good!! Done, done and done….until the next one….

 

Hot Chocolate 5K

I dressed up for my very first race EVER!! Another girls weekend away, this time in ATL with my sister and Natalie. Pam was kind enough to let us stay at her house for the night so we wouldn’t have to spend money on a hotel. We got to Atlanta on Saturday to get to the Expo to get our awesome sweatshirts!! .

Pam was at the expo with our MRTT table all set up like the Willy Wonka factory!!! They were all dressed up and looked awesome. 

We traveled around Atlanta after we finished up with the expo. Then we met up with all the MRTT ladies who came up from Savannah for dinner at The California Pizza Kitchen in Atlantic Station (we so need one of these here!!) we had 15 meet up with us for dinner, and 5 more that were a little bit later. 

Race morning we all got dressed, my sister was the Golden Ticket, i dressed as a Oompa Loompa, along with a BUNCH of the girls from the ATL area who were racing as well. One of Pam’s friends picked us up and took us to the race. It was still pitch black out, at 5:30 in the morning! but we managed to get as many girls as we could find to take a picture of the group that dressed up.  This wasn’t even everyone, everywhere you turned there were more oompa’s. The race was good, a bit hilly, which i liked, well idk about “liked” but it is good for my full marathon training. I finished the race in 30:22. Ok considering how many people you had to weave in and out of.

 

I thought that the 16,000+ people that signed up for our Savannah Rock N Roll marathon was a lot….guess again. This was not even a huge event like that one and it had 19,000 people sign up. OMG, but they definitely know how to handle that many people coming into town. I guess they are used to it with the football and baseball games. The parking lot was huge and held everyone comfortably. The chocolate was great, i mean i love chocolate, so how could it not be great…we got a cute little cup filled with goodies.   That is pretty much it. Enjoy the photo’s from the day.