NYC Marathon--Race Report

My ING NYC Marathon arm warmers purchased at the expo and worn for the race



Where do I even begin?!?!  So much happened.  It was overwhelming, fun, not fun, great, not great....My head is still spinning!!

If you remember back when the lottery sign-up opened, our sister-in-law Jenna begged us to sign up with herself and Dino (Emir's brother).  Obviously we didn't get in however then someone we know contacted us to say he could possibly get us in on Team ING since he works for them.  And he was able to so here we were Friday night driving up to NYC after dropping the kids off at my parents house.  Despite our hesitation to spend $260 each on a race and it not being our typical type of race that we like to run (50,000 runners, millions of spectators), we did have the luxury of being able to stay with Dino and Jenna at their place in NYC so that balanced things out a bit ;-)  We also weren't too keen on having to sit outside in the elements on Staten Island for many hours but running through team ING meant a special bus ride over to Staten Island and a heated tent so in the end we were able to eliminate that part.  And let's face it everyone proclaims that NYC marathon is the greatest in the world and people would give anything to run it.  We needed to find out for ourselves what makes this race so special to so many people and of course doesn't it just sound cool to say you ran the NYC marathon?!

The main reason we drove up Friday was because it would have been super hectic to drop the kids off Saturday morning, drive up there and hit up the expo and the Team ING hotel to get our stuff.  This turned out to be an even better decision since then we got to sleep in until 9!  Been a really, really long time since that happened!!  Eventually we made our way to the Team ING hotel.  They gave us an orange ING bag full of orange ING goodies and a Team ING tech shirt.  We also received our 3 wristbands to get us into various areas on marathon day.

 Then it was off to the expo.  It was definitely big and there was security however they kept everything moving.  We never ended up waiting in line really for anything.  We got our bibs and our shirts, took some pics, Emir and I bought NYC Marathon arm warmers and we browsed a bit.  Oh and Emir won entry to the Puerto Rico Marathon and I won $25 off.  hmmmm......Do I see a trip to Puerto Rico in our future????  Most likely not but it's always nice to be a winner.  The rest of the day we spent eating and resting.  I was the most nervous I have been for a race in a LONG time.  I was just about this nervous for my first marathon just because the normal "can I run 26.2 miles?  Will I finish? etc" plus my first marathon was in Croatia with over 7000 feet of elevations so that was freaking me out.  I didn't run another marathon until about 6 months after having Una so I wasn't too stressed out about time or anything.  I just wanted to complete it.  The rest of my marathons after that up until now were either smack in the middle of 50K training or took place on mountains so I wasn't stressed about my time for those either.  But now my goal for this training season was to beat my PR of 3:59 and it was really starting to stress me out on Saturday.  It wasn't just the simple stress of trying to beat my time but also that I just raced (and I mean raced) the hat trick at Runner's World Festival two weeks ago.  I did a PR by a lot in both the 10K and the half marathon on hilly courses.  While I was super pumped about that, now I was thinking "was that a mistake?  Would my legs suffer tomorrow during the marathon because I raced so hard so recently?"  I was really kind of freaking out on Saturday, not good. 

At the expo

Somehow I fell asleep and actually slept pretty good until around 4:30 when I had to go to the bathroom.  I couldn't really fall back asleep but we were getting up at 5 anyway.  Another stroke of luck for this weekend was that it was daylight savings so an extra hour of sleep Saturday night, we were definitely grateful for that.  We got dressed, made coffee and bagels and hit the road to the Hilton Hotel where we were catching our team ING bus. 

Early morning, heading to catch our bus

The bus ride was pretty fun actually.  We had police escorts and drove through red lights, pretty exciting!  When we arrived to the starting village on Staten Island, it looked like a huge line for security to get in, but all in all, the line moved pretty quickly.  Eventually we found our team ING tent.  That starting village really is a village!  I've never seen anything like it just for a race (I mean I don't have the most experience but still). I also need to mention how while we were walking all through the village I couldn't help but thank God that we had the ING tent to go to!  People were everywhere sitting on the ground, wandering around aimlessly, waiting in endless lines for toilets all while freezing their asses off.  It was a good temperature for running a marathon but definitely too cold and a bit windy on Staten Island to have to just sit around outside for hours. The ING tent really was great.  It was warm, had food, drinks, coffee and it's own porta pottys.  We enjoyed all it's amenities and eventually it was time to make our way to the corrals around 9:15.  The Corral was packed!!  There were also porta pottys here too which we used but I really should have gone one more time.  They had started moving us from the corral to the start line probably around 9:45 even though our start was 10:05 so standing there waiting I totally needed to pee again but never did.  It was very exciting standing there at the start line.  People were watching us from the tops of city tour buses, there was all kinds of police, military, etc.  Ms. New York sang "God Bless America"  Then next thing we knew they said "On your mark" and "BANG" off the cannon went!  I'm not going to lie, that scared the crap out of me!  But it got me going.

All of us in the starting corral

 

The first mile is up the Verrazano Bridge.  I thought it was going to feel much harder and steeper but I guess since it's the very first mile and we were so fresh with tons of adrenaline, it really didn't feel very hard at all.  Emir, Dino and I ran this first mile together.  Emir said his foot was "ok"  Then the 2nd mile was downhill.  If you read my blog, you know how I LOVE DOWNHILLS!  I didn't gun it as much as I could have but I know I was going fairly fast.  By the time I reached the bottom of the bridge I knew Dino and Emir weren't really with me anymore.  We had all agreed that we would start together but then we would just go however we felt and no one would be upset.  So while I was a little disappointed to separate already, I just kept going.  I felt pretty good and was just cruising through the halfway point.  At 13.1,  I was at 1:54 and still feeling pretty good.  I just hoped it would stay that way.  The crowds really were pretty cool.  It was wall to wall people the whole length.  People screaming, playing music, very energetic.  I was also very inspired by all the people I saw running for charities and by all the people with disabilities I saw with aides helping to accomplish this huge feat.  Despite how many people were running, I did feel like I had my own space for the most part.  However, there were times that I felt like I got boxed in and had to change speeds or swerve really far to the outside to get around people.  However it was not as often as I had envisioned.

I love racing in my Saucony Virratas!!!

 Since hydration packs were not allowed (although I did see a few on the course) I was wearing my belt that held four bottles.  I had all four filled with Tailwind and I had a couple gels in my belt as well.  Since I had less liquid with me, I made my Tailwind a bit more concentrated to ensure I had enough calories.  Emir had mixed my berry flavor with his plain flavor.  It really was not bad at all, pretty good actually.  My only problem was that since I felt like I had to pee since before the start, I was afraid of drinking too much.  I also was getting very thirsty and Tailwind makes me feel more thirsty so I was forced to stop at some water stations to get plain water.  That was another area where I felt that I got blocked a few times.  I tried to go to the end of water stations where it was less crowded but inevitably I ended up getting bumped or blocked in so I had to stop a few times.  Anyway since I was drinking some plain water and I had to pee, I ended up drinking less Tailwind than I had hoped. 

Tailwind, shaken not stirred ;-)

Luckily I had decided to bring those two gels so I did one at the halfway point and the second one around mile 20.  One last thing that really annoyed me during this race was non-runners crossing the street in the middle of the race!  It seemed to happen a lot during the second half for some reason.  I wasn't like a random person here or there, it was packs of people.  Several times either myself or someone near me totally crashed into someone trying to cross.  Even if you weren't the one who crashed into the person, other runners close to you had to pull up short or crash into other runners.  I understand this marathon totally consumes the city and sometimes you just really need to get where you need to get, but I felt like it happened a lot during my second half and it was very disruptive and could have injured a runner.  END RANT ;-) 

Anyway back to my actual running.  After the halfway point, I did start feeling my legs getting a big sore in places.  I was getting a bit worried.  I knew after how fast my first half was that I would definitely not negative split and now I was thinking I probably wouldn't even split either which really was fine since my goal was to go under 3:59, therefore I should have plenty of cushion.  During mile 14 we entered this bridge where we were on the bottom.  Due to the wind it turned into a wind tunnel.  So not only were we on this mile long uphill but fighting a descent headwind as well.  I think this is where I really lost a lot of steam and became really sore.  I was able to kick it up a notch on the downhill of this bridge.  On the exit ramp down I was scanning the crowd below and I saw Jenna's huge sign of Dino's face.  At first I thought the sign was a bit ridiculous when she had showed it to us but as I ran I saw ALOT of even bigger faces, I had no idea such signs existed!  Not to mention I was able to spot it so far in advance of reaching her that I was able to swing over to where she was and run right by her.  It was SO NICE to have someone I actually knew cheering for me!!!  This never happens for us since my family is usually watching the kids.  She was screaming like crazy for me and she was able to snap some awesome pics of me, it really pumped me up again for a while. 

Mile 16!

Eventually that adrenaline wore off and even the huge crowds of spectators screaming couldn't make me feel better.  Miles 20-26 were pretty hard for me.  There were some gradual ups and downs that felt so hard at this point even though I know they weren't really that bad.  I kept thinking ok the description said that there was uphill during mile 20 and then it's all downhill.  LIE.  Why do people like to lie so much about hills in races?!?!  I think I'm better off just not reading course descriptions anymore ;-)  hehe  Anyway I'm pretty sure it was mile 23, there was definitely a descent uphill section that felt almost impossible for me at this point.  My legs were just done!  I eventually made it through and we went downhill for a while again.  As we were nearing the finish, it went uphill again "what the hell?!?!"  Anyway I ran what was as hard as I could at that point and finished at 3:55.37!  Yes!  I did it!  I accomplished my  goal and a PR!  I was pretty happy although I felt like I wanted to die.  We had to walk a minute or two before we received our medals.  Then we got our pics taken in front of the backdrop and I was interviewed on camera by someone.  I was so out of it, I totally didn't ask who he was, where it would air.  Oh well! 

All my happiness started to fade pretty quickly when I pulled out my phone.  I opened my tracker app and saw that Dino had finished in 3:58.  It was his first marathon ever and sub 4.  I was really happy for him but then I pulled up Emir.  He hadn't even crossed the last checkpoint yet before the finish.  My heart just dropped to the ground.  I just knew his foot had to be bothering him and how upset he would be.  I was jolted back to reality by some volunteers telling me I had to keep moving.  Ok fine, I'll go find a spot to wait for Emir after I get some water.  At this point, I literally felt like I was dying for water not to mention I really had to pee!!!  I kept walking and walking, well let's be honest, I was limping like a 90 year old but so was everyone else.  It was at least 5-10 minutes before finally we reached a point where they were handing out bags that had a couple drinks and snacks in it.  FINALLY!!!  I chugged that water like nobody's business but then I wasn't allowed to get anymore.  Fine whatever.  I walked a few more minutes til I felt I was out of the way and just really needed to sit down.  I also wanted to wait for Emir.  Not 2 seconds after I sat down, another volunteer came over.  He asked me if I was ok and I said I was that I just wanted to sit for a couple minutes.  He said "oh no! you need to get up right now!  If you sit down then other people will think it's ok and we can't have that!"  Fine ok so I got up and started trudging along again.  Every so often there were signs for "Early Exit" which was for those of us who didn't check a bag.  Volunteers kept saying "you are almost there!"  LIARS!  I literally walked for a good mile and a half if not more until I got to the point where they gave us the ponchos for those who didn't check bags.  And thank God I reached it when I did!  I was freezing my ass off at this point and I could tell everyone else was too.  At least the poncho was fleece lined and fairly heavy, it felt good. 

Wandering NYC in my orange poncho

There was still no exiting this exit corral thingy.  I was supposed to meet up with Emir, Dino and Jenna at the ING family reunion place which I was wearing a bracelet for.  I had no idea where this place was so I kept asking the people at the info desk, volunteers and police officers.  No one had any clue.  They told me just keep walking until you see the letter for your last name.  I knew that wasn't right and I really wanted to wait for Emir.  So I tried just lingering (not sitting, heaven forbid!) around especially since I saw on my app that he had finished.  4:26 not his best but still better than his first ever marathon.  I was so proud of him for finishing despite who knows what he was going through with his foot but I also knew he would be disappointed and upset which why I REALLY wanted to wait for him.  Every time I would stop walking for a few seconds I would get approached by a volunteer or a police officer and told to move along.  FINE ALREADY!  So I gave up on the idea of waiting for Emir.  By the time Jenna was able to get back to me on the address of the ING meeting spot I was at 61st street.  The meeting place was at 77th!!! AHHHHHH!!!  I had just walked for a solid hour in pain, I really did not want to have to back track.  Then Jenna and Dino remembered that the Hilton Hotel was 54th and 6th ave so that was actually closer than meeting up with them.  We needed to go there to get our medals engraved for free by ING (another nice perk :-) ).  So I headed off in what I thought was the right direction.  I ended up being re-routed several times due to barricades preventing any pedestrians so then I had to wait 10 minutes to cross a street and 2 other times because I went the wrong way :-(   I had finished my marathon a little after 2 and I finally arrived at the hotel a little after 4.  I hit up the bathroom and chugged some more water as soon as I walked in the door! The only positive to this was after walking for 2 hours, my legs had finally stopped hurting as bad and I was able to eliminate all the negative thoughts in my head when I had first finished about having to run the Philly marathon in 2 weeks.  Shortly after, I was reunited with Emir, Jenna and Dino.  We had our medals engraved, took some pictures and got food and beer. 

reunited finally!!

All in all, I am very happy I ran the NYC marathon.  However, I do have to say I will never run it again unless somehow I was given free entry and had a heated tent again at the start village.  The actual race itself was great!  The crowds were nothing short of fantastic.  There were thousands of signs, constant cheering, screaming and music.  It was indeed very uplifting.  Even having water stops at every mile due to no hydration packs, really were no big deal.  It was interesting to see so many different neighborhoods throughout the 5 boroughs.  It was definitely an experience I will never forget especially running it with both Emir and Dino.  Despite some of the negatives, there were a lot of things that I felt were handled well considering how many runners and spectators there were to manage.  The expo was no problem at all for us.  Security into the start village was good but efficient.  We felt completely safe the whole course.  However, there are some glaring negatives that are why we wouldn't want to do it again.  This race despite it taking me 3:55 to run it, was an ALL day event.  As a runner, this really isn't ideal to have to wake up at 5am for a 10am start when you are staying so close to the race.  It also wasn't ideal for us as my parents were expecting us home Sunday evening to get the kids however we didn't even get back to Jenna and Dino's until 7pm.  I know there are SO many people and there are reasons they have to do things the way they do, however it's not something I want to experience on a regular basis.  It was fine for a "one time" thing but it's not really something I want to do again.  And of course the crazy long walk at the end of the race was just ridiculous.  Spreading things out a bit to keep the crowding to a minimum at the finish is one thing but expecting people who just ran a marathon to walk 1-2 miles afterwards and call it "early exit", I have serious issue with that. 

my never ending battle with chafage continues

Now to how I'm feeling about how I did.  I was excited obviously to PR but I was feeling a little bit of "could I have done better?"  Based on how I felt the last 6 miles, I definitely went out too fast the first half.  If I had run more conservative the first half, would have I done better?  Then again maybe my legs would have been just as sore from the mileage and then I wouldn't have had all that extra time cushion from my first half and I wouldn't have PR'd.  I guess you never really know the answers to these types of questions.  Now that I am a couple days out, I have had time to think and talk things out with Emir.  Don't get me wrong, I am SUPER HAPPY about my PR.  I just always have to analyze and see if I could have done even better, can't help it.  Anyway I've come to the conclusion that my legs definitely were tired the second half due to having raced so recently, I mean there's a reason they tell you not to do that right?  And honestly I did know that going in to this race.  But you know what, I don't regret any of my fall races for a second.  I had a ton of fun at the Blues Cruise 50K and Runner's World Festival.  And guess what? Despite having done a race every other weekend since the beginning of October, I ran a PR in the 50K, huge PR's in the 10K and Half marathon and now a PR at the NYC marathon.  What's there to be upset about???  NOTHING!!!  I'm so proud of myself (patting self on back)!!!  I started 2013 with a marathon PR of 4:19 from last year's Philly Marathon, now I'm ending it with a PR of 3:55, a 25 minute improvement.  That's huge!!! 

So proud!!!!!!

Now of course next weekend November 17th is the Philly Marathon.  You would think I would be tired of running this fall by now but for some reason I'm not.  I'm really excited for Philly.  This year is the 20th anniversary so there will be some special things for this year.  Also now Gore-Tex is the main sponsor so I'm excited to see what changes that brings.  And even though I've never lived "in Philly" I've always lived just outside in the Philly suburbs which unlike some big cities, it really is considered living in Philly.  I love everything Philly from sports to food to the people to the buildings themselves.  I really can't wait to run next weekend!  Even better is that we can stay with my sister at her house downtown, walk 5 minutes to the start line, get our medal, food and water immediately after finishing and be back at her place in like 20 minutes from finishing.  My kind of race!!!  ;-)

 

 

Runner's World Half and Festival

Steel Stacks in Bethlehem



It was a no brainer for Emir and I to decide to run at the Runner's World Half and Festival again this year.  We went last year which was the first year ever for this event.  We had hotel points and Bethlehem is only about an hour from us so it was a perfect chance to have a weekend away alone and do LOTs of running.  We had such a blast, even more than we even thought we would so when registration opened for this year, we said "hell yeah!"  Last year we had decided to go all out and run the Hat Trick which is 5K and 10 K on Saturday and the Half Marathon on Sunday.  Obviously we were doing that again this year! ;-)  The nice thing about the Festival is that you can choose whatever combination of things you want to run whether it's just one distance, two or three.  Each race comes with it's own swag and finisher medal.  This year if you ran the 5K and 10K (five and dime) you got a tech shirt and gloves.  If you ran the hat trick, you got a hat and two tech shirts.  The hat this year is very nice and what I thought a big improvement from last year's.  My only complaint is I wanted the gloves too!!! ;-)  hehe



Bar at the expo

 

I'm pretty sure despite how close it is to where we live, that I had never gone to Bethlehem prior to last year's Runner's World Festival.  It could not be a better location for this event.  The artsquest center, steel stacks, casino and historical sites all just create an awesome backdrop and space for the festival.  My personal favorite is the steel stacks lit up at night and the firey arch, awesome! This year they opted to move the expo inside the artsquest center rather than in the giant tent as they did last year.  Not only did this make for a much nicer environment but we could tell it was a bigger expo as well.  There were more vendors, free food, swag and a BAR to buy BEER!  Unlike last year Emir and I both made purchases at the expo due to the great discounts that were being offered on some items.  I also found out from one of the Altra guys (Altra is the main sponsor of the festival) that my Torins come with two insoles unfortunately since mine were a sample given to me, I only have the completely flat insoles.  I knew that the completely flat insole was what was causing me pain in my instep which disappointed me because I am a big Altra fan so even though he didn't have any extra insoles to give me, I am glad to know that most likely I would be able to successfully run in Altras.  Of course Emir has been dying to buy a pair of The One so when they said they were 20% off at the expo, SOLD! 

Aside from the location of the expo, there were some other changes this year.  I have to say that I felt that the majority of the changes were for the better.  On Friday when we went to the expo to pick up our bibs and gear, there was a kids band playing on stage outside by the finish line.  There were tons of kids in racing bibs jumping up and down, singing along.  Being a mom, I just thought it was fantastic.  We also watched part of the kids race.  The kids had a blast and they all received finishers medals.  Niko will be 5 next year so we are seriously considering bringing the kids up on Friday afternoon for the kids race and expo since it's only about an hour away.  There were also a couple running movies playing Friday night in the movie theatre that's inside the Artsquest building.  I just think it's so awesome that they have a real movie theatre right there to show the movies with popcorn and everything!  We didn't stay for any movies Friday night since we were crashing for the weekend at my co-worker's parents' house.  Got that?  Her parents are away for the month in California and she was running the hat trick with us as well so she invited us to stay there since the house is in Bethlehem barely 10 minutes from the steel stacks. 



Saturday morning was a bit chilly but a perfect temperature for running a couple of races.  We hit up dunkin donuts on the way and parked very easily in the free lot within walking distance of the start line.  Another benefit to the festival centering in the steel stacks area is that there is a large visitor's center with nice, big bathrooms with many stalls.  Did I mention it's heated?!  We were easily able to use these bathrooms several times before the start of the 5K and in between the two races.  We also hung out in there to keep warm between the 5K and 10K.  Oh and these amazing bathrooms is also where I found our friend Rebecca Shaefer!  We have become friends with Rebecca over #ultrachat which takes place on Sundays at 9pm on Twitter only to find out we ran a fatass style run with her last year on the trail near us.  As we are getting more and more into running we are definitely feeling like part of a community.  It's just great to now go to races and see people you know or to go on twitter and other runners you follow are at the same event and you can discuss it with them.  I just can't say enough about how much I love the running family!



warming up

This year was no different that last year in that Emir and I swore we wouldn't race the 5K and 10K to save ourselves for the Half.  HA!  Apparently that is really hard for us to do.  While we didn't PR in the 5K, we definitely would have if we had placed ourselves better in the starting corral.  We just weren't even thinking about it or that it really would matter where we stood.  It was definitely more crowded than last year which probably also played a factor.  We were in the middle back somewhere and for the first mile, we were almost trapped.  We just couldn't really go anywhere.  We weaved in and out a bit, took sidewalks but it was really hard to get to our pace.  Our second two miles we ran pretty fast.  We ended up with 26 minutes which is fine but it was a bit frustrating about the first mile however we really only had ourselves to blame.  Luckily sometimes we use our brains so for the 10K we moved up way towards the front.  I don't like to be in the way of people faster than me however the front is so thin with people that it's much easier for people to pass.  Both Emir and I were glad to see that the 5K and 10K courses were different this year.  Last year they were essentially the same course just with 3 more miles added to the 10K.  It was nice to have two completely different courses.  Also I should note that if you are not familiar with Bethlehem it's a hilly area so if you want flat races, these are not the ones for you.  The 10K went really well for Emir and I.  We felt strong and steady the whole time even up the hills.  At one point during mile 3 or 4 a fellow runner approached us.  We had chosen to wear our "you run hills, I run mountain" shirts from the Blue Ridge Marathon.  Pretty appropriate for a hilly course plus we like to advertise for the race since we love it so much.  Anyway this fellow runner started asking us questions about the Blue Ridge marathon and training during the winter.  Turns out this gentleman's name is Gary Richter and he works for Icebug. Icebug is a company that makes shoes for running in slippery conditions such as ice and snow.  We had such a great conversation with Gary and agreed to meet up after the race.  Due to conversing and just not really feeling overly strained, I really did not think we were running anywhere near the pace we were.  The 5th and 6th miles I did start to feel a bit like I was losing it and the last .75-.5 miles into the finish I slowed.  Emir stayed strong to the finish.  When I crossed, I checked my watch and couldn't believe that it said 51 minutes!  That was a good 6 minutes faster than last year's time and definitely a big PR for me.  Later when I checked my splits I couldn't believe 3 of my miles were 7:45, 7:53 and 7:55!  The only reason a couple miles were in the 8:30s were because of hills.  I was definitely VERY HAPPY!  I was just hoping I hadn't killed my legs too much for Sunday's Half.  The other reason I wasn't the happiest I could be was because Emir had hurt his foot.  He had some minor aching on the top of his foot earlier in the week however after running the 5K and 10K, it was throbbing.  We both had serious concerns about it and what he would do for the half. 

After we gathered our two medals we met up with Gary and he introduced us to his son Kai.  Kai is only 13 and is FAST!  He was talking about his splits very maturely with his dad, discussing future strategies and not going out too fast.  We were definitely impressed by both of them.  Gary gave us a few Icebug goodies, we took a picture but then we had to part ways since Emir and I had a few seminars we wanted to attend.  I'm hoping to connect with Gary and learn more about their shoes and maybe try some out, Gary??? ;-)  I did find out later as I was walking to my one seminar that Kai had taken first place in his division for the 5K which comes with $100 prize.  When I was walking by, he was up on stage donating his prize money so that he can keep running for his middle school.  Wow!

Gary and Kai

 Emir and I spent Saturday afternoon attending a few of the different seminars offered for free.  I attended a nutrition talk, speed and distance and one about women.  There was also a fun dog race going on Saturday afternoon. Even ahead of time, I knew that I had a solid 45 minutes alone between my first two seminars since Emir was going to different ones.  After my first one I just so happened to be strolling through the downstairs of the Artsquest center and who do I run into but Rebecca and her friend.  They were in line for something.  I asked them what they were doing and they said they were in line to meet Summer Sanders.  "WHAT?!  Oh I'm definitely joining you guys!!"  My sister had texted me the instant she heard that Summer Sanders was going to be at the Runner's World Festival.  Despite what you may think due to my intense love for running, I actually used to be a swimmer and a very dedicated, intense swimmer.  Summer was one of our swimming idols, we love her!  Unfortunately my sister couldn't make it to the festival.  One of the main reasons I signed up for the seminar about women and running was to see Summer.  But then here she was ready to meet people, take pictures and sign autographs!  I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sure talking to Summer, wearing her gold medal and getting a picture together was more exciting than my PR :-D  Emir and I finished up Saturday watching the movie "In the High Country."  It was definitely an interesting film.  I really enjoyed the Q & A with the director afterwards.  It really intrigued me how someone would discover they are a really good technical runner and good at filmmaking.  It's an interesting combination.  Even more interesting/impressive is how steady the shots of Anton flying down incredibly technical descents in the mountains considering the director was also flying down the same terrain at the same time!

Summer Sanders!!!

Sunday rolled around and it was time to head to the race.  Emir kept saying he didn't know what he was going to do.  We ended up in the same parking lot as the day before since it's close to the finish.  We were expecting there to be shuttles around that would take us to the start but this year, none to be found.  We ended up walking about a mile to the start area which actually is a really good warm up however Emir's foot was hurting.  I know it was an incredibly hard decision for him not to run.  I'm pretty sure it's way harder to make that decision than to try and run injured.  I know he was devastated and actually so was I.  In all honesty, I'd rather have that happen to me than him.  I just hate to see him so disappointed and upset.  But I didn't have time to sit around and dwell on it, I had a half marathon to run.  In my head the last week or more, I have been planning on trying to really run well in this race.  I haven't run a half marathon since last year's Runner's world half and my time was just ok to me, 2:01.  I was not even 6 months out from baby and C-section #2 so it wasn't expected I would be able to do amazing but still I wanted to prove that my rock and roll half marathon time 1:53 from 2011 wasn't a fluke.  Now I didn't have my running/pacing buddy not to mention my depressed feelings in general for him about his pain.  Emir encouraged me to start near the 1:50 pacer which is 8:25/mile.  He said why not just run with him and if you can't keep up, just drop back.  I thought about it and decided he was right.  I've never run with a pace group before and in the past I kind of felt like maybe it's not right.  By that I mean that pacing is a huge part of running.  I feel like it's a skill that needs to be developed just as much as speedwork, hill work, etc.  No one else can do your hills or sprints for you, so why should someone else be able to do your pacing?  Nonetheless, I decided to give it a shot and use this as my opportunity to really form an informed opinion on the use of pacers.  Since I had kind of just snuck into the group, I hadn't talk to Doug our pacer or anyone else in the group to find out what the strategy for the race was.  For the first few miles I just kept right up with Doug.  It didn't feel too bad and actually a couple times I felt like I could go faster than what he was doing.  Despite my urges to push forward I remembered in the one seminar from Saturday a quote. I think it was something like "money in the bank is gas in the tank"  I think, I'm really bad at remembering stuff like that.  They were talking about going out too fast and then having no control over how you finish.  Whereas if you control your start and keep it in check, you can control how you finish.  So that's what I did and boy was I glad for that later!  All of the emails and info on twitter and facebook kept claiming this year was a flatter, easier course.  I suppose to a certain extent that may have been true due to one hill being taken out at mile 10.  However all the other hills WERE THERE including a descent one that occurs just before that other one at mile 10, sneaky Runner's World ;-)  Anyway I'm not as great at climbing hills as I am at descents.  When Emir and I run I usually let him go a bit on ups and then I catch up on downs.  Turns out that same strategy worked out for me and pacer Doug.  He was pretty quick up the hills but would slow it down on descents.  After one or two times of freaking out that I was losing him on the uphills, I realized just to let him go a bit and then catch up.  I was going to tire myself out way too much trying to keep up on the uphills.  Mile 8 and 9 were my slowest.  I remember a couple of times during those miles feeling a bit sluggish and felt that I was losing Doug a bit.  All of the sudden around mile 10, energy kicked in again plus there was a couple downhills and I caught up.  At the mile 12 marker, I was right with Doug and another runner.  We chatted for a minute about me doing the hat trick and how I was feeling after doing two races yesterday.  Next thing I knew I was flying ahead of Doug.  My legs felt almost detached from my body.  It literally felt like seconds later I was crossing the finish line, checking my watch and realizing I had just PR'd big time with a 1:49.14!!!!!!  Later when I checked my splits, mile 13 was my fastest at 7:53!  It's one thing to PR but to PR on a course as hilly as this knowing it's a much harder course than my previous PR, well that's icing on the cake!  My co-worker who we were staying with called out to me and we hugged and congratulated each other.  She told me she couldn't wait to do the hat trick again next year and that she was so happy we had asked her to do this with us.  Then I found Emir.  I know he was so happy for me but at the same time disappointed because he knew if his foot was better, he would have run that PR as well.  It's so hard to feel happy with an accomplishment when your partner is so down and wasn't able to compete with you.  Also I know Emir was disappointed that he didn't get a picture of me finishing.  Honestly, I was kind of proud of that because the reason he didn't get a pic was because I came in faster than my predicted time at the halfway point.  I was projected to come in at 1:51.  So don't worry!

Me and my co-worker Becky

Despite Emir's disappointment and our first experience for either of us with a DNS, it was an outstanding weekend once again.  Everyone was super nice, friendly and helpful.  We got to hang out with friends and meet new friends.  The expo was good, the seminars and movies were great.  The races awesome!  The aide stations in all three races were well staffed with people, water and sports drink.  My one regret of the weekend is not grabbing a running skirt at an aide station in the middle of the half marathon!  There were ladies helping people put them on quick as they ran through.  I was so paranoid about losing pacer Doug or messing up my rhythm by having to completely stop to put a skirt on.  It's one thing to grab a water or GU on the way by but another to completely stop.  UGH, oh well.  Do I REALLY need a running skirt???  While I'm mentioning it, I did not use Tailwind this weekend.  Sorry Jenny!  However I did use my awesome Tailwind bottle as a handheld for all 3 races.  I don't know really what I was thinking.  For some reason I didn't think I needed Tailwind for just a half which apparently is incorrect since I ended up doing 4 gels during the half.  Emir said that's ridiculous and also that I should have stopped for the skirt. I however said in the words of Lenny Dykstra "Whatever it takes Dude!"  If that means not stopping for a skirt, eating 4 gels and chasing a pacer, so be it! ;-)

Next up for us is New York City Marathon!  Only 2 weeks away!!  After seeing how fast I could run this weekend, I'm definitely getting excited.  I want to beat my 3:59 so bad.  I wasn't sure where my speed was at due to just running a 50K two weeks ago and never really going faster than 8:50s in training.  This weekend really showed me how much I've improved over the last year or so.  Now I just need to stay healthy for the next couple weeks and work some healing magic to Emir's foot!!!!!

Blues Cruise 50K

Happy before the race

tech hat in swag bag

Finisher Sweatshirt

 This past Sunday Emir and I ran the Blues Cruise 50K which took place around the Blue Marsh Lake in Reading, PA.  Emir found this race online.  We decided to sign up since we had been longing for another 50k ever since we ran our first at Bear Mountain.  Also this race was only an hour drive from our house, inexpensive and according to the description on the website, much more runnable than Bear Mountain.  After our experience at Bear Mountain I really just wanted to try a 50k where I got to run the majority of it.  There's nothing wrong with the super technical, super elevated course but I feel like that's not my cup of tea.  I like trails but I like the kind that I can run not have to hike most of it.  I know that there are people that can run the majority of a tough, technical course, but I'm not one of them!  Anyway the description of the Blues Cruise course was some rolling hills with one longer, steep hill with the terrain being very runnable.  It was true about the terrain.  It was a little technical here and there but overall could be run by most.  Elevations however well I think they were describing what the course is like if you are a good ultra runner not for us average mortals.  While there was no 8000 feet of elevation as in Bear Mountain there was over 3000 feet which in my mind is worth mentioning on the course description ;-) so while I'm sure the runners in the front of the field had no trouble running the whole course, Emir and I struggled with certain sections that seemed extra hilly to us.  Could this have been due to the fact that a few of these sections were after we were out there for 3, 4, 5 hours and our legs were tired?  maybe.  Could it have been that our last few weekend long runs leading up to this race were 18, 20, 20 &10 (yes last weekend we ran 30 miles)? umm most likely.  And could it have been that it was a high of 80 something and it was "we-were-soaking-wet-after-1-mile-humid"? definitely!  It's not that Emir and I don't enjoy lots of tough hills and a challenging course, obviously see Blue Ridge Marathon, Bear Mountain and Plitvice.  But maybe we would have trained on more hills in preparation and maybe mentally we would have been more ready for a physical beat down. 

So Sunday morning rolled around and we got up around 5:30-5:45.  My parents had taken the kids the day before after we finished watching my dad bat at Citizen's Bank Park which by the way, was AWESOME!!! 

With the Phillies World Series Trophies at Citizen's Bank Park

Anyway we had made the decision to not make breakfast and coffee at home but grab it on the road.  So we suited up (Emir sort of literally),

 donned our tats courtesy of Tailwind and Trail Runner Nation and were out the door by 6:15. 

We arrived at the start area just before 7:30.  Everything was well organized and we were able to get our bibs and goodie bags very quickly despite everyone (350 runners) having to pick up their stuff morning of race.  Our swag included a t-shirt, water bottle and tech hat all bearing the cool new Blues Cruise logo, not bad for a $60 race!  We glided up, saddled up our hydration packs (full of Tailwind, what else?!?!), toileted and before we knew it, it was 8:30 and race time. 

The beginning had lots of tiny ups and downs and some people were already walking those ups.  A lot of the race takes part on single track so at times especially in the beginning when people are clumped together passing could be a bit tricky.  It also can be more tricky when it's two of you that you want to get past someone or what you can tell is a group running together.  Emir was in front of me and he was taking it easy and not really passing.  I kept thinking in my head "go! go!"  It was driving me nuts walking so many tiny inclines.  But I knew he didn't want to go out too fast and based on how we felt by the end, maybe he was right (I said MAYBE ;-) ).  After the first aide station I ended up in front of Emir.  Immediately as soon as I got stuck behind someone I gunned it past them.  After a while I realized Emir wasn't right behind me any more and actually I couldn't see him.  I kept going at what I felt was a good clip despite thinking "I ditched him already, he's going to be upset!" And "This is going to be a long, lonely race"  The second aide station was on the side of the road so we came out of the trail and had to run a minute or two down the road to it and as I was approaching I saw Emir emerge from the woods.  Phew!  He wasn't that far behind. 

We regrouped at the station, got what we needed and set off.  The next section felt almost easy.  I felt like we were flying and according to my watch apparently we were compared to the rest of our splits.  I felt good though so I kept with it. 

I think it was in this section at some point that Emir tripped and fell.  I made sure he was ok and did NOT laugh as I figured karma would bite me in the ass later.  Of course Emir had to say, "Well I guess this race was my turn to fall."  Referencing my fall in the Bear Mountain 50K and I knew as soon as he said it I would not finish without a fall.  And yes I was right.  I don't remember exactly when it happened but I must have caught my foot on a tree root and totally wiped out!  Luckily I landed in a huge, soft pile of dirt.  I was filthy but nothing hurt not even pride.  I wore that trail dirt like a champ the rest of the way, receiving many compliments and "way to go's!"  I wouldn't fall on purpose but getting down and dirty can be pretty fun. 

We hit the 3rd aide station together.  The next section included the long, steep climb that was referenced on the website around mile 10-11.  This was the first time we were really reduced to walking.  I felt like this was definitely a turning point in our race especially for Emir.  It took us at least several minutes to surmount this steep hill and it felt like an abrupt stop to our cruising along.  He kept saying he felt fine after this point until later on when he finally started admitting he was not good. But I could just tell the way he reacted to that hill and the way he would lag behind me, it was not characteristic of "good feeling Emir."  I however still felt pretty good after this hill and actually until about mile 20 or so I remember thinking "ok legs still feel good, this is good"  I also know that I felt way better than I did at Bear Mountain. 

The sections leading up to and after the last two aide stations, I could tell Emir really started struggling.  He would walk every incline.  For a while I would do this with him too until I realized that my legs actually felt worse every time I stopped running.  I came in several minutes before him at each of the last two aide stations.  I could have grabbed what I needed and taken off without him but we are in this together and obviously it's not like I was going to win!  After the final aide station I started pulling away again but I was lagging a bit because I really wanted to finish together.  Emir told me to just go ahead as he knows sometimes it's more work to lag behind than to just go.  So that's what I did.  The last two miles were what I call Bastards!!  There were plenty of other parts that were hilly but these last two miles really had several steep, tough hills especially when your legs are jelly. In the end I only finished about 4 minutes before Emir. 

Even though my legs were completely dead, I have to say that once again Tailwind did an excellent job keeping me fueled the whole race.  I definitely felt I had all the nutrients and nutrition needed the whole time to keep my energy going.  Now if they could just enhance it so there was no pain or fatigue in my legs that would be awesome! ;-)

If I were to analyze how we did reasonably, then I would say we did really well.  We finished over an hour and a half faster than our first 50K, we ran way more of this course and we WERE finishers.

I even was able to place 36 out of the 100 women that ran so still better than more than half.  There were no injuries aside from my normal chafage on various parts of my body and a rockin' toe blister on my right foot (I forgot that my mizuno waveriders did the same thing at Philly but not painful either time)

All this in the midst of the hardest section of our marathon training program and on an unseasonably hot, humid day.  However as we know I am not always reasonable in my analysis and felt a bit disappointed.  It also doesn't help that Emir and I went into this race thinking like we are some kind of elite runners that can just breeze through a 50K no problem.  When we read the description of the race, we got it in our heads that it was a more flat course and thought that even though we were not tapering at all we would be able to run this somewhat easily especially compared to Bear Mountain. For some reason we expected to be able to finish in 5:30 instead of the 6:28 I ended up with.  But alas we are mere mortals whose legs were probably exhausted from the last 4 weeks of 40-50 miles each and we did not train as much on hills as would have been needed to be more successful.  But then again I purposely have not been doing too much intense hill work this training cycle as my main goal is to PR in one of my two upcoming marathons.  I don't want to kill my legs especially when these races are mainly flat.  So even though I have some mixed feelings, like maybe I should have done better, overall at the end of the day I am happy.  I have to realize what my main goal is for this training cycle.  It wasn't setting some kind of amazing record in this race.  The objective was to finish respectfully and now turn focus towards the upcoming marathons. Most importantly it's another ultra completed with more experience and knowledge gained.  And I had a great time doing it!

I really enjoyed the Blues Cruise 50K.  Everything was well organized with super friendly organizers and volunteers.  I thought it was a great course.  It winded all around the Blue Marsh Lake, a nice giant loop.  It was an interesting mix of forest, open fields, corns fields and of course lake scenery. The aide stations were beyond PHENOMENAL!

 Not only did they have anything you could want/need during an ultra but they were in costume and super energetic.  There also was a perfect number of them and perfect spacing.  My personal favorite was the Oktoberfest station ;-)  For the most part, I only required regular water at the aide stations due to my Tailwind in my hydration pack.  I did need to refill my pack at one point.  The volunteers were so great, they tore that pack off my back, opened it up, filled it with water, helped me pour my extra baggie of Tailwind in that I brought and slapped my pack back on.  It was so awesome.  I did partake in a piece of PB&J and a piece of grilled cheese at two of the stations.  All the stations were offering towels soaked with cold water.  I even saw one station had sliders!  At the end of the race not only was there amazing food such as bratwurst, potato pancakes and grilled cheese but every finisher got an awesome Blues Cruise sweatshirt, way better than another medal to hang on the candle holder in our bedroom for no one to see.  Another thing that I thought was super cool was that all the pictures taken of the runners on the course were posted online for us all to download and share for free, how great is that?!  Now I really can't wait until next year so I can train specifically for this race including TAPER! and see what I can do!

Next on our agenda is Runner's World Half and Festival Oct 19th-20th.  We ran the hat trick last year (the first year ever for this event) and had a great time.  Once again we are running the hat trick so stay tuned for that in a couple weeks!