2011 Akron Half Marathon

I really can't remember the day the conversation started, I think it was back in July when I was training for the Rev3 Half in july. I think it went like this... Hey I am gonna run the Akron Half Marathon this year, you think you might want to run it with me? Did you know that there is a vegetarian restaurant in Akron? Hey If you run it with me I'll buy you lunch there. So you want to run Akron with me? Half Marathon?, lunch? you in? Little did Kirsten know she had me from, 'you want to run a half marathon with me?' I played if off for a little bit and told her I was in. Why wouldn't I want to run a half marathon and get free lunch from a really cool vegetarian restaurant. Duh, I am crazy but not stupid. As my Triathlon year went by I decided that the Rev3 just wasn't going to happen this year. I did decide to keep training for it, then pickup on Kirsten's schedule for the half. I think that most of my sunday long runs I ran with Kirsten, she's a great pacer and the conversation is killer. Two weeks before Akron I had a 10k trail race that I PRed and gave me a good feeling about a sub 2 hour half marathon. (that was our goal for Akron). The week before Akron we ran a 5 mile race and both PRed! You can read about it here. So I knew we both could run our first sub 2 hour half.

Nice face dude!

The day before we met up and headed to Akron for the race expo to grab our race bibs and hopefully some new gear. The expo was ahhh... so so. The thing I learned the most is when looking for gear/clothes bring a shopping girl! After ten minutes of searching threw a huge pile of last years gear for a medium jacket, someone pointed out the one on display! SCORE it was a medium. Thanks shopper girl! After the expo we got some quick pictures out side the expo and headed out for some food.

The next morning came really quick, like 3:45am quick. I was picking up Kirsten at 4:20am then we were driving to Kelly's house. Kelly offered to drive us and be the official photographer and cheer person. I think she just really want to hang out with two really cool people, or was it that we were going to a kick ass vegetarian restaurant? We got there about an hour before the 7:00 start so we had plenty of time to hang out and take some photos... Well they took photos, I am not a big photo person. Around 6:40 we started to line up in front of the 3:50 pace group. I figured we could hang out in front of them we would be sure to get that sub 2 hour half.
The first mile is always a crowded slow mile, we ran it in 9:08. Mile two and three it started to clear out a little bit and we feel into our running Mojo grove, 8:54 and 8:48. The thing I remember the most in the first three miles was a lady in a wheel chair, she was doing the first leg of the relay race! I think it was 3.5 miles! Its so crazy to see people like that, it makes you so proud of them. Just remember that when your doing a 3.5 miler and you feel like you can't finish. This strong lady did it in a wheelchair!

Miles 4,5 and 6 we ran 8:37, 8:44 and 8:37. I was wearing the Garmin and was giving Kirsten time updates. I think I lied about a 100 times, telling her that we were just doing ok but we were going to have to hit it hard in the last 3-4 miles. Miles 7 8:55 and 8 9:01were the tuff ones for two miles we ran up hill. It felt like it would never end. As soon as we hit the peek it would let up for a couple hundred yards then turn a corner and go right back up. I love my hills, but man it was killer
towards the end. I was once again amazed with
Kirsten that she was right beside me pushing it

Last Mile

Mile 9 was a great gift almost all down hill! We ran it in 8:36. Mile 10 was once more a short up hill battle! I think we were both done with these damn hills 8:47.

From 10 to about 11.25 it was a huge down hill! one of those were you want to go crazy fast down it. we ran it in 8:16. Then the last killer up hill it was so crazy hard to be strong and keep running, if i was alone I might of walked it some. 9:36. When we got to the top of the hill I looked a the Garmin and new we had it in the bag. The last mile we got back on pace and hit it hard one last time, running it in 8:47. Finishing in 1:56:00.
It has been a really big goal of mine for awhile to finish under 2 hours. I am just so happy I got to do it with my friend in need from the Cleveland Marathon.

The Best Part

Its Better In Mentor Race!

Today was a great day for running! When we stepped up to the starting line this morning, I had one thing on my mind. To help a friend realize her awesome potential. There is know way I could of wrote it better.

Days go by and I grow stronger.

Believe and Achieve 10k trail race report

This was my first 10k trail race this year. My real love of running comes from running trails. So I was really pumped up for this race. The day before my race Kirsten and I ran some of the course just to check it out and get in some Akron half marathon training milage. We ran a lot of the normal loop and some of the buckeye trail. Nothing to crazy but enough to get ya a little muddy.

The morning of the race it started to rain about 3:00 am, when I woke up I knew it was going to be a fun run. When I got to the race everyone was hanging out under the pavilion talking about the course and how the small water crossing were now small raging rivers. Even talk of a muddiest runner contest. Before the race started I decided to ditch the rain gear and just embrace the wet mud fest that was about to begin.

I am a mid pack runner, I know I will never run up front with the sicko crazy fast guys and gals. Today tho I lined up front, I think I was 5-6 in line. I wanted to see what it was like, even for the first .1 mile. When the horn went off two of the guys just laid down the hammer, I mean they were gone as gone could get. The start was on crushed gravel trails and was a slight down hill, so its was a easy fast start. Only a few runners passed me by. When we hit around .5 miles in we turned left and headed into the woods for some single person trails. This is my favorite part of trial running! Even thou the trails were a muddy slippery mess I was still holding good ground and even past some of the guys that took me in the start. When we cam up to the first water crossing some guys were a little hesitant about charging in, some were even standing in the water that was now over knee height. I was following a faster guy that manned up and jumped right into it and continued to run it hard. I could not just walk thou it after that so I hit it to, that was a great feeling to hammer threw that. I continued threw some really nice trails and climbed up a nice muddy rocky hill and headed back on the crushed rock trails. On the open paths you can tell who was the road runners, thats were they took off, but when we hit the hills they fell back. Half way was a killer up hill with a water stop at the top. Grabbed a quick drink and hit it again. The trail took us back the was we came from for a little then headed of to some nice single person trails again. The only complaint about the race was towards the end it wasn't marked out that well. I was running solo for a while and wasn't sure I was even going the right way. 400 yards from the finish I saw a runner walking back into the corse and I yelled out to him to make sure I was going the right direction. When I popped out to the woods I hit it hard again when I saw the timing lights. I am not sure on the official time yet, my Garmin was at 53:27. That would be a 9:14 pace. I am fine with that for a trail race!

Finally iOS app for blogger!

Yesterday was a strength/core workout in the morning and then in the evening my weekly tempo run.
I don't have any special program for my strength train, which as a runner drives me nuts! I need a plan to tell me what to do and for how long. Basically my current program is starting at the upper body row of machines and working down the line. There are about 12 different ones working just about every muscle I don't use. I do 3 sets of 13 on each. The weight varies depending on what I am working. Then I do some stretching and work a little with the ball. It feels weird that each exercise takes a short time. I am use to running, biking and swimming for hours on end. Almost like I am not doing enough, but I sure feel it the next day.
Tempo run was warmup 5 minute walk, 10 minute easy run. The main is 25 minutes at tempo. Cool down 5 easy then 5 walk. My pace times have been changing, not even sure my new paces are. Warmup is around 9:30. For tempo I try to hit 7:45. This week I hit a 8:06 avg pace for 25 minutes.

Been way to long

So much is going on lately, I feel that I never have time to blog. 

I am the first person in the first row.

First of all the MSbike point to point was so crazy awesome. My main goal of the ride was to have fun and ride my first century. Little did I know I had it in me to kill it! I finish day ones 100 mile ride in 4:51:00. That is a insane 20.89 pace. I would like to thank my group of riders that I road with, with out them I would of never made that kind of time. I learned a lot about riding in larger groups. Day two was a 80 mile ride home. I started out a little earlier than the 7:00am starting time because of the storms mother nature had planned for the day. When I headed out I was solo for the first 15 or so miles. I was still killin it time wise but was feeling the pain of riding solo. Then I was past by a group that was just hallin, two of the guys yelled out to me, they were in the group from yesterday. I didn't want to race it all the way home so I just waved. Two minutes later the racer in me put the hammer down again and caught up the the group and joined in mid-pack. The two guys looked over at me and said... ya thats what I thought, welcome back. When we hit mile 45 for the lunch stop it was only 9:00am so we decided to only take a 5 minute break and continue on. When we started back the rain finally caught up to us. I was a little worried at first riding this fast in the rain, the last time I road while it was raining I felt like i was going to eat pavement every 20 seconds. I finally felt at ease about 20 minutes into it. The only thing that bugged me was when your in a group, your front tire is about 4-6 inches away from the riders rear tire thats in front of you. When its raining there rear tire is shooting of a constant stream of water. so of course you got a stream of dirty road water in your face. I ended up finishing the second day 80 mile ride in 4:21:00 with a avg speed of 18.5. Our group was the second group to finish that day. I think they said in the top 25 riders. Not bad for rainy ride!