Gobbler Grind 1/2 Marathon

Gobbler Grind 1/2 today!

Couldn't have asked for better weather today, 60 degrees! I instantly regretted my clothing choice - I was hot by mile 1.

Ran w/ Russ, Scott & Jaime from Thunder Road Racing today & that was fun. :)

We all ran together for the first few miles, Jaime went on her own to finish up her 5K & the guys & I pressed on. We had a pace plan & a 2:20 goal...but apparently none of us can add b/c @ mile 8 we thought we were 10 minutes behind our goal. I think we should all buy each other Garmins for Christmas or go back to gradeschool for math.

I think my words were "Well, f-ing A, we gotta GO!" LoL So we did. :) We split at this point & Scott went some place outside of body & blew the 2:20 goal away w/ a 2:07!

I was feeling really good at mile 9 & decided to take advantage of the long downhill to catch up on the mystery minutes we were behind - mile 9 for me was an 8:30 pace! Yeah, I've never done that before. Awesome.

But...I would regret that around mile 11 when I felt like I could walk it in. I was tired, & needed to GU at mile 9 - I didn't - so I guess I got what I deserved there. Finished up with a 2:23 w/ Russ right on my tail.

I ran this race last year in 2:14 - so I'm no where near where I was last year. But I'm super proud of today, I gave it all I had. 7 minutes faster than the 1/2 I ran a few weeks ago, so I'll take it!

A sad site today - Around mile 10-11 I came around the corner to see an ambulance & a crowd of people - I looked to see a man on the ground. They were doing chest compressions & he was looking really bad. Really scary. I don't think I will ever forget seeing this happening. I have no idea what happened to that runner, but I'm thinking of him & hoping he went home today. Sure puts the pace I didn't make into perspective huh?

California Run

I went to La Jolla last week for work and lucky me this was my Saturday running route. Sunrise on the beach :) Beautiful! It was quite a trek getting to the beach, but only about 3 miles from our hotel. Getting back was another story....this hill was just one of many.... DANG! This was at about mile 9. Not what you want to see on mile 9!

But I kicked out a 12 miler before most people even had their breakfast muffin. Yeah, I think that's cool.

Oh and we ate some of this.... and some of this.... Race day THIS WEEKEND! 13.1 here I come!

Giveaway Winner!

Sometimes I have no idea where the days go, time just slips away from me! My giveaway ended LAST Friday....I know....BAD BLOGGER! No excuses....except I was in sunny California this past week for work with no time to do much of anything except work....well and some beach....and some good times with old & new friends. So yeah, no time to blog but I guess I had plenty of time to do lots of other things :)

So without further adieu.....the winner was selected by random.org, out of 156 entries.
#21 is the winner and that is Jen!

Jen's 5 favorite things about running are below. I don't know which I like best, they are all awesome. But I think I have to go with #2. Run on my friend!

5. I am starting to see the slightest hint of a waist! I haven't had a waist for 10 years! :)
4. My shoes. I love my shoes.
3. The extra energy I have now that I have started running.
2. The sense of personal accomplishment!

And the number one thing about running:
1. The look in my husband's eyes - I can tell he is super proud of me. :)

Giveaway Friday

I think Friday calls for a giveaway! :) Weeeeeee!

I want to do a full review on everything on the list, and will do that later....but for now, you can win a grab bag of a few things I think are awesome!

First, my favorite socks, Injinji toe socks. I started wearing Injinji because I was developing blisters in between my toes. Never, ever another blister after switching to Injinji. Yeah, they come in white but you'll win these:Just because they are way more fun!

Second, RockTape. I have lots to say about RockTape, and it truly deserves it's very own review. This stuff is amazing and made it possible for me to run again after knee surgery. Seriously! To this day if I run without the tape it hurts and I'm swollen after. With the tape = ZERO pain during or after and no swelling. Really! I have no idea how it works and I really don't care ;) It just does! You will win a sample of tape cause I'm not giving you my full roll! I love, love, love it. And it comes in pink. BONUS!
Third, a jar of PB2. Yeah, this stuff is good. My friend sent me my first jar and I love it in a smoothie :) 85% less fat calories than regular peanut butter. A little scary at first because it's, well, powdered peanut butter, but trust me, it's good! The website has lots of recipes too.
Fourth, a Somnio Tshirt. It's white and says "I have issues" on the front. Yeah, don't we all!? This shirt is a size L but it's mini size, so unless you're truly a small you may have to give it to your tiny little friend. But it's still cool.

Last but surely not least, I will throw in a "Will Run for Cupcakes" magnet for your fridge from Race Day Memories. These are super cute and I should know cause I make them :)
Ok that's it for today!

Do any/all below, leave a separate comments for each letting me know you did it! Random pick on Friday Nov 5. You'll have at least 7 chances to win!

1. Like Race Day Memories on FB here
2. Follow this blog
3. Shout it out on your blog, FB, etc. Separate comment for each :)
4. Follow Race Day Memories blog here
5. Give me a list of 5 of your very favorite running related things
6. Follow my friend's blog Thunder Road Racing just because they are awesome.
7. Like them on FB too here

Easy peasy right? Happy Friday!

K-State Homecoming 5K

A few weeks ago my friend Jen said she was going to run the K-State Homecoming 5K last Sunday. It was a week after the KC 1/2, so I decided to tag along with her. Any chance to run a race with friends, I'm in!

Jen is just getting into running and has run one 5K about a month ago. I really wanted to try to help get her into the finish with a time she would be super proud of. But ugh, I got sick and was home from work for a few days....so I didn't really know if I'd even be up to it.

I made it on Sunday morning, Penny joined in, Jen had her friend Shannon with us, and our other running friend Kathy joined us as well! Here we are pre-race:We were quite the team!
I still wasn't 100% - had a cough like I smoke 3 packs a day and knew there would be some heinous spitting involved.

Penny was starting to get sick too with some congestion coming on, so she wasn't quite her normal self.

Kathy was having some back issues, so she wasn't feeling her best.

Jen felt as though she could hurl at any second from being nervous.

Shannon's the only one who didn't have anything going on .... or at least she didn't say so. But you know, I just met her so she probably didn't want to come right on out with it (as if she could get a word in between all of us chit,chit, chittering) I'm a talker anyway - but throw in excitement and nerves - good luck shutting me up.

But it turned into a whole group of us excited to run on a beautiful Sunday morning, and none of our 'issues' carried over after the gun went off.

I love race day. I mean really, really alot. All the excitement & nervousness - ahhhhh .... you can just smell it in the air. I was nervous. It's a 5K - done that many of times. But I *kinda* promised we could get Jen into the finish at 35 minutes and I wanted her to do it without walking. At all. I had no doubt that we could do the 35 minutes. But I'm pretty famous for going out way too fast. We were sticking together and I really didn't want to do that the group.

Yeah, I did that to the group. Well not just me, but we all started out a bit too fast. Got to mile 1 and we were at 10 minutes. Ooops. I was suppose to go 11 minute miles. Dang it. Slooooooow down. Geez. Sorry girls!

The upside to that is Jen has never run a 10 minute mile before and I'm not sure she thought she could run that fast. But yep, she did :)

Mile 2 we could take it nice and easy, calm down some since we had some extra time in the bank. After about 2.5 .... gravy. Downhill all the way to the finish, coming into the stadium for the finish chute. Kicked it in at the end and came in at 34:27ish. Coolio.

Here we are bringin' it on homeIn the end it all worked out, Jen did a fantastic job as did the rest of our ladies! Had a great morning with only a small exception - this race didn't have age group placings darn it! It was mostly college students so our group having several of us that are *uh hum* a tiny bit older than that - we thought we might actually take home some age group awards. Eh, oh well. We had a great time and that's what really counts. :)No races for me on the schedule until Gobbler Grind 1/2 in November. Time to kick up the training this week, then taper town again!

My Legs Say GO!

But my cough says NO. Darn it. After a pretty tough race last weekend, I was actually really surprised that by Monday most of the soreness was gone and by Tuesday I felt like I could run again. The only thing that was still sore was my right quad - which is the knee surgery leg - hmmm that's interesting. That quad must just be super weak still, but the knee held up great!

Anyway, I recovered from the race much better than I expected :) *except* I started to have some nasty congestion on Monday, and by Tuesday it was worse....by Wednesday...full on nastiness. Here it is Friday night and I haven't run since the race, and I'm itchin'!

I have a 5K planned for Sunday, so I'm hoping to run a mile or two tomorrow and get ready to run my friend Jeni G. into the finish of her 2nd 5K. She's shooting for a 35 minute finish time, and we're gonna get her there! :) See you Sunday Jen!

Just a little title...

So I have to say, I'm surprised that a blog title really means much. It's just my little running blog that I started to log my runs back when I couldn't even run a mile....so I could look back and see how I felt, what I did right, what I did wrong, etc.

My blog used to be called Countdown to 13.1, because at the time I started this blog the 1/2 marathon was my ultimate goal. I never in a gazillion years thought I would ever want to go farther than that.

Two 1/2 marathons later, I started wondering .... hmmm .... what now? Do I dare even *think* about a full? It's twice as far. Come on, it's twice as far! Reading the training schedule itself is enough to send me to bed exhausted. In the middle of the KC 1/2 last weekend a full was going through my mind....I believe it was followed with a HELL NO. NEVER.

But a friend and I decided that we would do it together, Chicago 2011. Seemed like a great 'do it before I'm 40' goal. So at that time I changed my blog name to Countdown to 26.2. I saw that as my new ultimate goal - even though I knew it would be a whole year until I reached it. But now Chicago 2011 is no longer in my plans.

I honestly never thought another person would ever even read this blog when I started it. But I have gotten a few comments about the title - because I have never taken on the 26.2. It's not like I was trying to fool anyone by naming my blog Countdown to 26.2. At this point I don't know if I ever will run a full marathon. That doesn't make my 13.1 any less awesome.

So, I decided to change the title, because for now, I'm 'Happy with 13.1'.