Tuckered Out

Bryson is transitioning to one nap right now. I try to put him down right after lunch since he sleeps longer if his tummy is full. One afternoon last week, he just couldn't make it. Thankfully he transferred to his crib without waking up!

Marathon No. 2

My friend, Jen, wanted to train for her first marathon and convinced me to train with her, something I swore I'd never do again after my first experience. My first marathon was on New Year's Day in 2011. I ended up joining a group in my area for this first one in order to have people to train with. My goals for the first marathon were to finish and to jog/run the whole thing. Both goals I accomplished and finished in 4 hours and 28 minutes. I was so proud of myself at that point knowing I was never going to put myself through that torture again and knowing that I was in the best shape I'd ever been in!

I've come a long way in 3 years (despite having a baby in there), and my pace is much faster. So my goal for this second marathon was to finish in under 4 hours. At the same time, I knew that this goal would be difficult to accomplish and might be just out of reach. Regardless, I was confident that I would beat my first time.

We ran into difficulties parking and ended up having to park further away than we wanted because we didn't have time to wait in the line of cars for the closer parking lots. We were nervous about being there for the start of the race! So after parking, we jogged at a good clip to the race starting corral. That's the last thing I wanted to do before the race was to jog about a half mile before I'm about to run 26.2! We did some stretching and snapped a picture in the few minutes we had to spare. I'm bummed that I didn't have time to do some thorough stretching prior to the race (it's my own fault for cutting it too close) as it affected me later in the race.

Me and Jen, my running partner

I started out at a comfortable pace (knowing I needed to save some energy for endurance) running between 8:40 and 8:45 miles. I kept it up till mile 13 before I started to get some side cramps. After eating a Gu, I slowed down my pace a little to 9-minute-miles and that helped with the side cramps.

I knew Matt would be at mile 16, so I was so excited to see him and my sweet boys holding signs for me and cheering me on.

(Matt snapped a few pictures of me running on the course, and every picture has me running next to a different half-naked man!)

At about mile 20, some serious cramping began. I started to think to myself, "This is miserable. Why am I doing this to myself? Why did I voluntarily put myself through this and pay money to do this?"

From there on out, I talked myself through it mile by mile. I stopped worrying about my time so much and just concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Prior to this point, I was on track to not only make my goal but to beat it significantly with a 3:52 finish. So I knew I had a little wiggle room to accomplish my goal still but also listen to my body.

A few days before the race, the weather was in the 30s. The day of the race the weather was in the 60s with 100% humidty. I wasn't sure how the humidity affected runners at the time and have since done some research to find that it typically slows runners down due to an increase of body temperature since the sweat doesn't evaporate. Most runners that participated discussed how they experienced a lot of cramping. That was the case for me as well. Around mile 21, I was feeling it the most in my right quad, which I've never experienced before as a runner (usually my hamstrings get sore and/or cramp). I stopped to stretch it out for a moment, but it was ineffective and caused more cramping in my calf. Sheer misery. But what do you do at that point but continue to push on and finish the race?

I saw Matt again at mile 23. As I ran by him I said, "Never again. For real this time. Don't let me ever do another one of these." I had some other snacks and energy supplements with me, but I didn't feel like any of it, so I just stuck to water and gatorade through the duration of the race.

My fastest miles were mile 1 and mile 4 at 8:31 and 8:30 respectively. My slowest miles were mile 21 (when I stopped to "try" to stretch) and mile 25 (stopped to drink some gatorade) at 9:47 and 9:49.

My official chip time was 3:58:08. I finished 6th in my age group, Female 30-34, out of 100 women. And I finished 55th out of all 515 women that ran the marathon. Most importantly, I accomplished my goal!!!! It was so nice to see my parents at the finish line, and it was nice to hear that they were proud of me for accomplishing a goal I set out to do.

I have to put this out there in case it may help any other runner. The bane of my existence as a runner is that running gives me digestive issues. I've tried a few different ideas, but nothing has worked. I have just accepted that I will have to stop to use the restroom during every race, and therefore my official chip time was never going to be accurate. As anyone with this problem knows, it's not fun and can be painful. Through a friend of a friend, I came across Modere and tried their probiotic pills (natural ingredients). It took some experimenting every weekend, but I finally figured out the best times to take the pills in order for me to have successful long runs. It seriously is like a miracle to me that I was able to run over 26 miles without stopping for a potty stop. Yeah!!!

I was in so much pain for the rest of the day...and the next, and the next. Anything that involved my quads or hamstrings was so difficult--bending down, going up and down stairs, sitting down. Even sleeping was uncomfortable/painful that first night. By Thursday I was finally feeling back to normal, except my poor toe. I got a blood blister on my second toe of my left foot under the nail. The nail is still attached, but it's the only thing that still hurts, and the nail will fall off at some point.

Saturday afternoon after the race.

This was the cutest picture of all my boys even though not my best. These are the cute signs that my boys made me!

Is another marathon in my future? I'd like to say definitely no, but I guess I better say, we'll see. I love the half marathon distance so we'll stick with that for awhile. It feels great to be in the best shape of my life (again). :o)

Feeding the Ducks

Bryson has a fascination with any animal, so we enjoyed an afternoon at the park when the weather was warming up in order to feed the ducks.

Bryson has a love/hate relationship with dogs, which is the animal that makes him most excitable. He loves them from afar and hates them too close!

Caleb

One game that Caleb loves is playing dodge ball on the trampoline with his dad. While trying to dodge a ball, he accidentally ran right into a trampoline pole!

Caleb is so competitive! Here he's showing off the feet he has earned in PE. You earn a foot per 25 laps that you run; he's earned 3 and almost his 4th. He keeps comparing it to my training right now for a marathon saying that he runs just as much as I do. Ha! Not quite!

And he is doing so awesome at piano! Here is Hedwig's Theme as a six-year-old.

Caleb competed in a Destination Imagination competition. DI is a group overseen by an adult or two, but the kids come up with a skit and props with certain parameters and a specific theme. This year the theme was "Circus." Caleb was a clown in his group's skit.

And Caleb has now earned his 4th foot--the first one in the whole school! I found out from his PE coach that each lap is between 1/4 and 1/5 of a mile. So at 100 laps, he's run over 20 miles since the start of school. Pretty impressive as a first grader. That's my competitive boy!

Book Signing

I really enjoyed the first two books of the Lunar Chronicle series and am excited to read the third. I love modern-day retellings of fairy tales! Marissa Meyer, the author, visited my home town. Once I got a feel for the crowd level, I decided to attend and get some books signed! It was a fun experience, but honestly I was underwhelmed by her speech.

(She just chopped her hair for Locks of Love in honor of her third book in the series based off of Rapunzel.)

Inclement Weather

One of the first things the boys ran out to do on Friday once we learned that school was closed as well as several overpasses that Matt takes to get to work due to ice. What a fun, unexpected holiday! This is as close to snow as we get!

Sea World

We went to Sea World a few days after Christmas to take advantage of our season passes. Matt was busy at work with the Russian Olympic Committee and wasn't able to join us this time. I was grateful that my parents came along!

Waiting for the dolphin/beluga whale show to start. It's my favorite show.

We made sure to visit the snow exhibit where they could throw snow balls and tube down a hill.

Bryson being a good sport. Oddly enough both times we went to Sea World this year, he had diarrhea. Poor kid. This time I packed a change of clothes though.

Stopping for dinner on the way home