My First Half-Marathon!!!

One morning in training I planned to do a 10-mile run.  I cook hamburger patties and freeze them to eat after my runs for protein.  This particular morning I remembered to take it out of the freezer but left it on the counter.  I went off without water and without my post run chocolate protein drink.  All I had in the car was the hot tea I’d made as part of breakfast. 
Seriously?  God, what are you trying to teach me?  No hamburger patty is one thing, and no protein drink is one thing, but You let me walk out of the house without WATER?  For a 10-mile run???!!! 
Guess what.  My times were faster that day than normal.  I did stop at a store about half way and get some coconut water and a banana, but God was teaching me that I need a lot less than I think I do.

So early in 2015 I made not exactly a resolution, at least I didn't call it that.  I just said and wrote down that this year I would run a half-marathon.  This paper has been on my fridge all year. 

 

A few days before my half-marathon, I saw an item I was interested in on a Facebook sale site but I’d have to drive 12 miles to get it so I decided not to.  Then it hit me that I thought *driving* 12 miles was too far but I’ll be *running* 13.1!

The morning of the race I woke up to nice breezy weather; a little warmer than ideal, but I’ll take it. 
I felt ready.  Prepared.  This sure beats not preparing well and wondering if I’ll make it.  I was more excited than nervous.  At the start I ran about a tenth of a mile before realizing my music wasn’t on!  Then I had to find the beginning song.  I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of getting that ready before the start.  Okay, all set now!  Running well.  I recognize this area I’ve been running for months.  I belong here.  I wonder if I should move from the blocked-off street to the sidewalk I’m familiar with.  Nah, I’ll stay here.  It’ll be some novelty mixed with familiarity. 

My time is great!  A little faster than usual, but not excessively.  It must be adrenaline and the excitement of the race finally happening. 

 

I’m coming to the first refueling point, 45 minutes in.  I didn’t wear my fuel belt because it’s ugly and bulky.  I see Brianne and Nico!  I’m glad she wore an orange T-shirt; that makes it very easy to spot her from far away!  I swallowed some mashed sweet potato.  It provides vitamins and good carbs.  I drank some watermelon juice/coconut water/salt concoction I came up with on my own.  No energy gels or Gatorade for this runner; I’m going as natural as possible!  I walked while it digested and talked with my daughter and son-in-law, but the total walk time was no more than 2 minutes.  See you at the next refueling place! 

I ran across the blocked-off south span of the Park Blvd. bridge, not the north span with a pedestrian lane like I practiced, but I knew that was a possibility.  No problem; I can handle a little bit of unfamiliarity.  Still going strong.  I started 30 minutes early with the walkers and other slow runners, but the fast runners had already caught up with us.  Many as they passed me said, “Good job!”, “Looking good!”, “Keep it up!”, etc.  Ahhhh, positive encouragement!  And from the fast runners!
I met my support crew again at about mile 6.  Yay!  I’m thankful to them for providing me fuel so I didn’t have to carry it myself or rely on what the race provided.

About the halfway point there were lots of people at Seminole City Park to cheer us!  One of them was my running friend Lisa who took the pictures you see here.  Thanks, Lisa, for the encouragement and picture-taking!  I was feeling strong, smiling, and really enjoying the race!

A thought, one of thousands, occurred to me while I was running.  Everyone knows that it’s not wise to cram for a test and that you really should manage your time well and be prepared, but hardly anyone follows that advice.  Let me tell you, FOLLOW IT!  I’m so glad I put in the necessary time training.  It was still work, and I still didn’t end up with a record pace, but I enjoyed it and felt confident.  That was worth all those 4 a.m. alarms to run before the rest of my day started and all the sweat and sore feet I endured for the last 6 months specifically and the last 4+ years generally. 

 

My phone died at mile 10.3.  Grrrr!  I made sure I didn’t unplug it from the charger until right before I left the house and that I had no apps open in the background and it still died on me.  I’ll have to find out why. 
In addition to feeling prepared with the distance, I’m glad I was prepared with this particular course.  The Pinellas Trail is beautiful!

I entered Taylor Park in a different place than I had trained for.  I’m rolling with the flow so it was fine.  I made it to the 1/2-mile-long crushed shell path and my legs didn’t collapse under me.  Back on concrete now and only about half a mile to go!  I can hear the music at the finish line.  I’m coming, I’m coming!  I finished!  I ran my first half-marathon!  I ran 13.1 miles!

 

My time was 3:13:19, which is a 14:45 pace per mile.  That’s slow, but about what I run in training, so it wasn’t a letdown.  I’m happy that I ran and that I finished!  I’m happy that my fitness club friends and others encouraged me to go ahead and do this race and not wait.  I’m happy that God changed my heart and then my mind and my body so that I would even want to run much less actually be able to do it!

My mom and dad were in the park but couldn’t get to the finish line, so  I saw them soon after.  I walked around for a little while drinking water, got some of both kinds of pasta and an orange and a banana.  It’s amazing how good food tastes when you earn it!  I burned about 2600 calories so I needed to replenish some of them.  Wow, recovery is hard.  There was no time to nap in the afternoon because we drove over an hour to meet some family for supper.  I took a pillow and tried to sleep in the car but sleep didn’t come.  I had a post-race massage 3 days after.  Ahhhhh!!!  My body is just TIRED.  I took the whole week after the race off from running and I’m fine with that.

The overlying feeling for this race and much of the training was joy!  I loved the whole race experience and most of the training, especially when the weather cooled down (well, cool for Florida).  I felt joy each time I ran a new distance in the weeks leading up to the race, starting with 10 miles.  The joy of the Lord is my strength!

Two-A-Day Runs

Thursday

The Ragnar Relay Race is just over a month away and I'm feeling the self-imposed pressure to get faster and to run more.  I've run 7-8 miles a few times now but I'm not getting faster.  At one point I was telling my running team my whole weight loss/running story and I said that I used to not want to even walk one mile because the weather was too ho-o-o-o-o-t.  Then I started walking and running and now I eat 5Ks (3.1 miles) for breakfast!  Well now I'm starting to eat 10Ks for breakfast! 

According to the suggested training schedule Ragnar puts out, I should've started doing two-a-day runs in November to get used to running on tired legs.  I did walk in the evening about one mile after I had run in the morning but only once or twice.  This morning I ran 7.8 miles and my goal was to walk four miles this evening.  I forgot to start my timer when I started walking so I don't know how fast I did the first mile.  I started the timer at the 1-mile mark and was going to see how fast I could do the second mile and then see if I could beat that time on the third and fourth miles.  However, before I'd reached 1-1/2 miles it started to rain.  I love running or walking in the rain but I had to put my phone in my pocket so it wouldn't get wet and that caused the timer to stop.  It kept raining harder, which I loved, but I didn't want to ruin my phone so I cut it short and walked just over two miles.  Sigh.   

I'm going to run in the morning but only 4 miles.  I don't want to overdo it by trying to run another 7 or 8.  My Ragnar legs are 7-1/2 miles, 4 miles, and 2 miles.  I just want my body to be used to running on tired legs. 

Sunday

I didn't run on Friday like I said I was going to.  Ugh!  Sometimes it's just hard to make myself get out there and do it.  I ran with a friend this morning for 40 minutes, about 3 miles.  I've tried to do two-a-day runs for more than a month but all I can manage the second time out is to walk.  Better than nothing but…disappointing.  Maybe it was hard because the days I'd tried to run a second time I had run 8 miles the first time!  Since I did only 3 this morning I figured it was realistic to do a few more this evening.  I'm getting bored with my usual routes, though, and wanted something different so I went to the beach.  I love that I live in a place where I can go to the beach in January and run!  I determined to do 50 minutes, which would be about 4 miles.  I actually did 4-1/2 miles at a pace of 11:06!  I don't know how I got that pace since lately I've been running between 13 and 14 minutes per mile, but I'll take it!  I'm running again in the morning (in 9 hours) with a friend but I don't know how far.  We'll see what this body can handle after running twice today.  It's tired. 

 

Strawberry Race 2013!

I ran the Strawberry Distance Challenge yesterday morning!  It was just a 5K, a distance I do twice a week and I do even more on my longer days.  So why did I pay money and travel about 50 miles one way to do this race?  Because it was a STRAWBERRY race and I’m the Strawberry Queen, that’s why! 

 

I started by having my daughter paint my nails for the occasion.

 

Then I put on my chocolate-dipped strawberry earrings.

 

After I got to the race and picked up my registration packet, I put on the Dri-Fit shirt and had my picture taken with the strawberry guy. 

 

The start and finish lines were not at the same location, so I got my mom situated at the finish line and then I walked a good ½ mile to the start line.  On that walk I stepped down off a curb and felt pain in my right knee.  God, please heal and strengthen both knees and my ankles so that I don’t get hurt.  (I realized on the way home that I never had another pain in any part of my body after that!  Thank You, God!)  At the start line I felt happy and energized to be running in another race.  I love my runs with Melisa twice a week and my runs where it’s just God and me, but there’s excitement when I’m running a real race!  They had someone pray before the race began.  Cool!  And we’re off!  I’m running.  With the sun in my eyes.  This is why I like my very early morning runs, before the sun comes up. It didn’t last long, though, and we turned a corner.  People started passing me, as usual, which was okay except that I had a goal in mind for this race.  I wanted to pass at least five people.  At some point I passed two walkers.  Okay, technically I passed people, but they were walkers so do they really count?  Actually, I didn’t even keep count of the people I passed, I just tried to find people and pass them.  I saw a father and his young son and passed them but then they passed me and then I passed them, etc.  I imagine that father’s ego didn’t want a woman to pass him and his son so they sped up.  Oh well. 

Let me back up to the 1-mile mark.  I was at 11:44 at that point.  What?!  I usually do a mile in about 13 minutes.  Sadly, my first thought wasn’t that I was running faster but that the measurement of my distance at home must be off.  L  Then I did the calculation of when I should be at mile 2.  Just before 23:30.  At mile 2 I was at 24:09, 40 seconds slower than I wanted to be.  Sigh.  Keep running, Michele.  At least you’re still running. 

I recovered from that little letdown and just enjoyed running.  We were running through a very nice subdivision in Plant City called Walden Lake.  We passed a little pond and I looked at it wondering if I would see an alligator.  If I did, would I say something and freak out the other runners?  Should I say something even if there isn’t an alligator and see what people do?  (hee hee!)  Run, Michele. 

I saw a woman who was bigger than I am now but not as big as I was before I started losing weight.  And she was ahead of me.  Ooohh!  Now she’s walking!  I can overtake her!  Closing in…getting closer…almost there…What?!  She started running again.  Aarrgghh!!  That happened a few times but I finally caught up to her.  I said, “Every time I try to pass you, you start running again!”  She said, “I’ve never run this far before!”  I told her good for her and that she was doing great.  Run, Michele. 

At some point the scripture “My lungs expand with His praise” entered my mind.  (Psalms 34:1 – MSG).  I remembered that and breathed deeper, letting my lungs fill up with more fresh air and my mind fill up with more praise to the God who made the air and my lungs. 

The whole time I was running I felt strong.  Not strong like

But strong like alive

I crossed the finish line in 38:19!  That’s 6 seconds faster than I texted some people this morning.  There’s always a difference between gun time and chip time, and 38:25 was what my watch said.  I’ll take 38:19! 

My info is a little past the middle, at #675, my bib number.  I came in 10th out of 17 women in my age group.

They always have water, bananas, and sometimes other food for the runners after a race.  This is what they had for us today!

 

This was as good as any medal to me!

I high-fived the strawberry guy!

 

I got a ribbon!  I’ve never gotten a medal, ribbon, certificate, or anything like that from any of the 7 or so races I’ve done.  And I got strawberries! 

This was one of the most fun races I’ve ever run, and I'll definitely be making it an annual event! 

Now I train for the Gasparilla 8K in two weeks.

 

 

 

 

Music Helps Me Run Faster!

Last night Brianne got all the songs I wanted put onto my MP3 player that she got me for Christmas.  Thank you, my dear!  Mwha! 

My pattern had gotten to the point of running 23 minutes, walking 2, then running the rest of the way for a total of 42-43 minutes.  This morning I ran the entire time, hit 1 mile at 12:42 (at least a minute, maybe more, faster than I’d been doing) and got to 2 miles at 26:18 (a little slow.  I would’ve liked to be less than 25:30.).  I must’ve picked up speed on the last mile because I finished the whole 3.1 miles in 41:25, about 2 minutes faster than I’d been doing lately!  Thank You, God! 

I even extended my cool-down walk because my absolute favorite song came on and I couldn’t stop in the middle of that! 

My mile times were 12:42 for the first mile, 13:36 for the second mile, and 15:07 for the last 1.1 miles.  

I want to do some song tweaking because I didn’t even get to hear some of the songs.  The Veggie Tales song “Keep Walking” that I personalized is on there but it’s hard to sing my version in my head when their version is going into my ears. 

Regardless, I’m grateful to God, my daughter, NeedtoBreathe, Mandisa, TobyMac, Tenth Avenue North, Newsboys, DC Talk, Me in Motion, The Afters, etc. for fueling my solo runs.  J

5K Times

Wednesday
Mile 1=10 minutes
Mile 2=14 minutes
Mile 3=16 minutes
Total 40 minutes
Actual course and without 3-pound weights

Thursday
Mile 1=13:10
Mile 2=13:18
Mile 3=13:08
Total 39:36
Course near my house with 3-pound weights

So I did better WITH weights and feeling slow, like I was moving through water.  I don't get it!  I'll take it, but I don't get it. 

Friday
Mile 1=12:?
Mile 2=about 14
Total 26:16
Came home because of lightning
Course near my house without weights

Also, this evening I went to supper with my mom and my daughter.  My Philly cheese steak wrap came with soup and fries. I asked if I could have a salad instead and got it. When the food came, though, there were fries on my plate.  The wrap was VERY hot, so I started munching on the fries while it cooled.  After a few I realized I should stop, so I put the fries on a napkin and the pickle slices on top of them (pickles=yuck). I poured sugar on top of that and slid the napkin away from me so I wouldn't be tempted to eat any more. I thank God that I can start over any time, even after eating a little bit of something. I didn't need to just go ahead and eat them all.

Progress

I was at a potluck for lunch yesterday. I prayed the day before and yesterday morning and even in line that God would help me make good choices and that I'd enjoy the food without feeling either stuffed or deprived. Like I've said in some of my http://swshonline.com/ (Strong Women Surrendered Hearts) posts, the Publix fried chicken that I could have any day of the week, I passed up. Brianne got some but didn't eat all of it so I finished her piece. That was just enough to give me a little of the taste but not enough to bloat me or make me feel like I'd deliberately sinned. I chose about 3 or 4 strawberries (that was MAJOR self-control!), a brownie (the smallest one), some raw veggies and fruit, a few small helpings of casserole-type stuff, etc. I didn't heap one food on top of another, but my plate was full. And I had only one plate, not one for regular food and one for dessert. I ate and was satisfied. Then I started to feel the desire to go back for more. Are you kidding me???!!! I recognized it as a lie straight from hell so I didn't go back, but I also saw how easily I did in years past, for no reason other than the satisfaction of my taste buds. I felt the old pull, but I almost laughed in its face! (And I didn't go back.) I even had sweet tea, but only one cup.

The root of my problem (indulging my flesh) still tries to throw its weight around (interesting choice of words!), but I don't have to obey it. I see how strong it was before, how weak it is now, even if still present, and how much weaker it will become in the future. The more I give my struggle to God and am honest about it, the more He empowers me to say no to what doesn't honor Him.

Today I upped my jogging 10 steps, to +70.  Walk 2 sections and jog 1 section plus 70 steps for 3 miles.  Brandice Lardner of http://www.fitnessinfusiononline.com/ ran with me.  Thanks Brandice!  She said I had good form and a good pace.  Yay me!  We figured that we ran about 1-1/2 miles.  I came home and did the math (should've had Brianne do it ; )) and found out that's pretty much right.  A mile is about 2000 steps so 1/2 a mile is about 1000 steps and 70 extra steps x 12 sections = 840 steps.  Almost 1/2 a mile.  I'm jogging almost half of a 5K!  I'm getting there!