Boulder 13.1 Preview

My first half marathon is almost here....tomorrow!!! I was not that nervous this week, but sitting here - the night before the race, I am definitely more nervous than I thought....but not as nervous as I was for my first tri. I think the 10 mile race helped to ease my nerves a bit over Labor Day and the runs to work. It seems so long ago since my last long run so that makes me doubt myself! I am scared of the new and unknown and the fact my running hasn’t felt great the last two weeks. I am hoping all the training shows on Sunday! 

I have had an itch in my throat all week. I traveled to Nebraska this past weekend, so I was worried about catching something on the plane, plus everyone seems to be sick! It only hurts a little in the morning mostly so I think it will be OK :-)

Running last week went well – I ran 80% of my normal amount. I ran Mon/Tues/Thurs/Sat. I ran 2 miles on the treadmill Monday and then two 4 mile runs outside on Tuesday/Thursday. Saturday I ran a 10K in Nebraska at a vineyard!

This week:
Monday – 2.5 miles on treadmill felt awful. Lungs really hurt
Wednesday – 3.5 miles on treadmill (small incline) – felt better still tired
Friday – 2 slow miles on treadmill - felt pretty good
Saturday – went to Boulder to pick up the race packet
Sunday (Race morning): Race starts at 8 AM and they advise you to get there at 7 AM and allow for parking traffic. Boulder is about 45ish minutes from the house so the plan is to leave around 6:15 AM. AA is driving us up and my friend Katie is riding with us (running ½ as well), should be fun!

The race swag is pretty sweet. Check out the race shirt! The logo and hat are cool too. I really want a race medal (never gotten one before) –but it doesn’t look like we get one :-) Maybe next time! 

Race hat, long sleeve tech tee, pint glass and howling moon bib (not shown: poster)

Expectations: Best case I am hoping to get a 10:45 pace = 2 hrs, 21 min.
More reasonable expectation is an 11 min pace so that would be 2 hrs, 24ish min. With the upper limit hoping that I at least get under 2 hrs, 30 min!

AA, being great as usual, is making my carbo-load pre-race meal of spaghetti with chicken and PBC bread...YUM! It smells delicious right now :-)

AA cooking tonight :-)

Weather: arrival time of 7 AM weather is 48 degrees, 49 at race start (8 AM) and 56 by 10 AM. I am thinking shorts and a tech tee should be good - assuming it will feel about 10 degrees warmer running. I am going to wear my sunglasses, hat, brace and probably my new hydration belt. I am going to stick with my last test mode of gu at 4 miles and 8 miles.

OK dinner time! Wish me luck :-)

Grapes for Grace - Omaha, NE

Grapes for Grace 5K/10K at Soaring Wings Winery in Springfield, NEThe race wasn’t slated to start till 3 PM and in the morning the weather called for 95% of T-storms at 2 PM and beyond – BOO! As the day progressed we decided we at least wanted to get our race packets (t-shirt included) and free wine! We (my mom, dad, sister, boyfriend and myself) arrived quite early but the weather looked to be on the up and up. My aunt and uncle decided not to chance the weather so my mom was going to run the 5k under my aunts name and my sister took over my uncles registration since she did not register (although she claims she did) :-)

The winery was on a beautiful hill overlooking the vineyards and farm country with great fall colors.

Pre-race stretches

Beautiful scenery - minus the look on AA's face :-)

Not used to this terrain!

 It was windy so we sought shelter inside and in the car. 

Passing time in the car

After a long wait – we were called to the start lane and given instructions and the run-down of the course. It looked to be only about 50 of us or so lined up (guessing the weather scared some away). The beginning was a sharp downhill through the vineyard and cornfields to get to the MoPac North trail where both the 5K and 10K turnaround points were. AA and I were running the 10K and my sister and mom were doing the 5K. We high fived – and we were off! The first mile of the course was hard. I forgot my ankle brace and had to be super careful about my footing since you were running through high grass, cornfields, mud and everything in between. My goal for the race was 10:45 pace and to take it easy. I started off about 10:30 and was happy. Once we got to the trail it was much nicer. A firm packed gravel was much nicer to run on. Before I knew it the 5K runners turned around and I found myself completely alone. 

Mom and Molly 5K finishing together :-)

I often wondered if I was running the right way, but there was no where I could have gone wrong. As it turns out there were only 15 people running the 10K so that explained it. I had my watch on so once I hit the 3.1 I was going to run around anyways. At about 2.6 miles I started to see a group of people heading back towards me. AA and I exchanged another high-five and I was feeling OK. I grabbed a quick sip at the turnaround and was off. For only being at 3 miles I wasn’t feeling great at that point but knew I still had 3 left in me. At about 4 miles another runner came up beside me. It turned out he was just out for a jog and came across the race. We ended up running about a mile together and he picked up my pace to 9:45 and he ended up finishing the race and then entering to get some wine! The last mile was hard on the terrain again and I slowed down to 10:45. You had to finish UP a hill which was hard, but I ended finishing at 1:04:14. This is a pace of 10:22 which is better than I expected - but I think that has to do with the lower elevation compared to Denver :-)

Running up the hill, I swear its bigger than it looks!

That ended up being 2nd in my age group out of 5! Even though I finished 12th of 15 overall :-) All in all a tough race with the beginning and end, but fun to race in another state! 

Pace and only at 1000' elevation

Afterwards we collected our wine glass and started the free samples. There was live music, but the musician wasn’t playing, rather she was sharing the Lord’s words – which was fine, but I was not expecting this and really just wanted some music (played before hand was pretty good!) The vineyard had both beer and wine. The overall consensus was the beer was decent but the wine was not. If I lived in the area, I would run it again. It’d be neat if they made a trail from winery to the actual trail – and they stuck to just music.

Post race sweat (Molly, Mom, me, AA)

Jazz hands....is AA confused?

Stay tuned for my pre-Boulder half marathon analysis :-)

Running to Work

Yet again I find myself starting out with the phrase, “It has been too long since I last updated this blog”. Nonetheless, I will update piecemeal as I can!
Just over 2 weeks until the ½ marathon! Training has been going really well. I don’t think my overall weekly mileage is as high as it should be, but this is what I had planned and was really trying to only run three times per week. When I was running four times per week is when I got my overuse/tendonitis injury and I am trying to baby it. Mission accomplished. Although I do feel pain on the outside of both legs after longer runs, the pain has usually subsided after a day of rest. 

So as I mentioned in the last post – the weekends have been piling up and long runs did not look good! I was able to get my long runs in with some creativity though! So since the 10 mile race, I have gotten in long runs 4 out of the 5 weekends. The first week I did a 10 mile run on the highline. I had a great 12.7 mile run at sea-level back in Massachusetts – what a difference! The wine tasting went better than expected in Napa and there was no run across the Golden Gate bridge. I was really worried about the last 2 weekends, but I decided to try running to work the past 2 Fridays! It is just over 11 miles and ½ of it is on the Highline Canal trail which I like going to anyways. I take public transportation to work (takes about 45 minutes), so this seemed like a great solution and was able to get in the run as the weekends are so busy.
Before I get in to the long runs – my schedule over the last couple weeks has basically been 3 runs per week with 4 or 5 miles each during the week and a long run on the weekend (10+). The past 3 weeks have been 20+ miles.

Friday September 28th
After not sleeping great because I was really nervous, I got up at 5 AM because I wanted to have a quick cup of coffee and yogurt before I left for the run. It was still dark out, and hard to get motivated to go run for over 2 hours all uphill! Not to mention, I was pretty scared running in the dark! I finally got out the door at 5:45 with a little bit of encouragement from AA, but not before snapping this awesome pre-run picture!

The first ½ of the route is a little over 5 miles going to the canal trail. Within the first mile I had to try and tighten my hydration belt. I had to do this 2 more times before I finally fixed it at about mile 5. While it may seem tight you have to put it on super tight so it doesn’t bounce around. So that was annoying. I was feeling and was taking it slow. I needed water early and often, which I wasn’t used to. At about 3 ½ miles I saw 2 coyotes! I was pretty scared as one kept staring at me (still dark) so I took a detour uphill to avoid their route. By the time I got to the canal trail at 5.5 miles I need a rest. I took my gu and water and walked a little bit. The canal trail portion is about 3.5 – 4miles and luckily it is flat. I could tell I was getting super tired though as this should have been fairly easy. Around mile 9 I was trying to find my turn off and had to turn around. I walked again. After finding the right route the last 2 miles were variations of walking and running and trying to keep going. I couldn’t believe how tired I was! The last mile is a nice uphill section in to the sun (without sunglasses), so this was tough. I made it work, finally, with a watch time of 2 hours, 5 minutes (11:10 pace), but that didn’t include the walking and stopping – so it was more like 2.5 hours. Ouch!

We headed to the Sand Dunes that night, which is probably my new favorite spot in Colorado. I felt pretty bad Friday night and just wanted to go to bed! Here are some pics though, we had an amazing time.

AA and the pups

Kung Fu Panda much?

View of the Dunes from Zapata Falls

Sunset

Friday October 5th 

Thursday night was pretty busy getting ready for company, baking, trip to work, etc – and heading to bed I wasn’t really too sure what I was going to do when I woke up. I was deciding hopefully between either lots of laps at Wash Park or attempt the run to work again, and hopefully not option three of doing nothing.
Woke up at 5 AM again and had the coffee and yogurt. I slept really well, a little shorter than my preferred 8 hours, but pretty much straight through. I had decided I should go for the run to work as it is a better training option for the ½ (HM). I had layed out my clothes the night before. It went from 80 on Thursday to about 30 overnight on Friday. I had my running tights, a dry fit long sleeve, a zip down running jacket and then my fleece vest plus gloves and my ear band. As I was changing I happened to look outside (still dark) and noticed it had snowed! The weather forecasters said it most likely would not, and only a dusting if anything. Liars! 

Snow!

Here I go!

AA got me out the door at about 5:45 again and I was running the first 2 miles with snow on the sidewalks. I was nervous my feet were going to be freezing! My hydration belt felt great though and I did not have to fidget with it once. I had decided I should try and get more nutrients and was planning on taking 1 gu at mile 4 and a 2nd gu at mile 8. As I started off, I was really just thinking about the snow and sort of got lost in my thoughts. Next thing I knew the first turn at mile 2 was done and I had some water at mile 3. Luckily there was no coyote sightings at 3 ½ and I stopped at mile 4 quickly for my gu and water. I continued on and hit the trail just after 5 miles (no detour this week so mileage a little different). As I continued along the trail I noticed how much better I was feeling and remembering how at certain points I was struggling the prior week. I took another sip of water at mile 6 and my layering felt perfect. I couldn’t help but stop and take a few quick pictures – the combination of the fall colors, first snowfall and the sunrise was just incredible! 

Fall colors + first snow fall = gorgeous

Amazing morning on the Highline

At mile 8 I even continued running while I had the gu and water, which was a first. A quick fox sighting, but no detour needed. I got off the trail just before 9 miles and couldn’t believe there were only 2 miles left. I made it up the final hills without problems (just slow). I finished in barely less time than last week, 2 hours and 3 minutes (11:08 pace), but I know I ran more and didn’t need to stop for breaks and was not dying. I liked having the 2 energy gels and I think I will try and do that for the HM in 2 weeks as well!
Looking Forward
For the next two weeks I want to keep running 3 times per week, just drop the mileage a little. We are headed to Nebraska for a family wedding next weekend and we are doing a 10k on Saturday so that will serve as my long run and then maybe 2 four mile runs during the week. The following week I will take it easy as well for the race on Sunday! Unfortunately my Aunt and Uncle cannot make it out for the race in Boulder, but luckily we are doing the 10K together next weekend so it works out!