A "Pace" Report: Cleveland Half Marathon, 2013

On Sunday, I paced the sub-2 hour group for the half marathon in Cleveland!  It was as much fun as you can possibly have with 20,000 or so of your closest friends while being a sweaty, hot mess.  I loved every second of it, and hope to do it again sometime!

The short version: I made it in right on time at 1:59.49, and so did a lot of my crew!

The long version:  here you go!

I wanted to pace Cleveland for a few reasons.  A while back, I paced the 4:45 marathon group and LOVED it.  It was a lot of first-time 'thoners, and even though I only did the first half I really enjoyed helping them reach their goal.  In my quest to not be so stupid set realistic goals in the spring when life is really really crazy, I knew I wanted to have a race-day and that atmosphere minus the injury that has plagued me the past two Mays.  My good buddy Sarah wanted to break 2 hours in the half marathon while raising money for our friend Stacy's charity to fight pediatric cancer, and I thought it was a perfect fit for me!  I emailed Coach Kara (who is in charge of the pace teams every year) and she thought it was a great idea since so many people have that goal and the "4 Hour" Marathon pace team is so huge and full of half marathoners.  She even had a special sign made for me to carry, which I did the entire race:  "1:59.59."

The thing about carrying said sign?  Um, you'd better do it.  Because LOTS of people are counting on you.  And nothing is worse than putting your faith in a pacer who blows it, right?

This is why I was a little nervous on Saturday morning.  My allergies were HORRID last week, but I still thought everything was "just allergies."  I had no voice when I woke up Thursday or Friday, but Saturday was exceptionally bad.  My energy level was fine and I felt fine otherwise, so I knew it had something to do with these massive amounts of green pollen-filled nastiness that are falling from our trees and literally need to be shoveled/leaf-blown away daily.  I diligently took my Claritin and hoped for the best.

Race morning: still no voice.  WHAT?!  Who paces a Pace Team with no voice?!  I drank a ton of water and a bit of coffee and hit the car at 4:55am, hoping for the best.  I figured in an hour or two, I'd have my nice loud obnoxious voice (you know, kinda my trademark) back, just in time for the Pace Team.

Me and super awesome buddy, LJ!

Me with Debra, in from Chicago and trying a sub-2! Former BHS Rockets :)  

The 2013 Pace Team

I met all the Pacers and Coach Kara (who no longer is in town--sniff, sniff) and made some new friends, too, including 4 hour pacers Michele and Angel and another half-pacer Denine.  I sported my ridiculous sparkly skirt and carried my sign to the start line!

Carrying my sign

Heading to the start with Angel, who smiled the whole race!

And then we were off!

Go-time!

Right away, I knew it was HOT.  It was hot at 5am when I first got in my car, and all I could think about was, "Man, am I really glad I'm not running this full--or pushing this half too hard."  Of course, I didn't say that to my pace team, because they WERE pushing hard.  So I did focus on reminding them to DRINK LOTS.  I sort of yelled at them to drink like every 5-10 minutes.  They probably got a little annoyed at me, but it was HOT and I know what heat and humidity can do!  I also told them to keep those arms low and "don't run like a T-Rex!"  I figured the more reminders I could give them to stay hydrated and relaxed, the better.

Around mile 6 or so, it started getting pretty tough.  My group was getting smaller; the sun was shining, and it was hot hot HOT.  I kept telling them that it was going to start getting hard now, and to remember to trust their training and stay in the moment.  That they could do this.  The crowd support was great this year, and the crew in Tremont was nice and loud.  I did my best efforts to keep the crowds yelling for our "Sub-2 Crew!"

Me and the sub-2 crew, hamming it up

At mile 10, I told them there was "just a 5K left!" and that if they felt good, to take off and leave me.  No one took me up on it yet, even though there were a few who I thought looked really strong and wanted them to go ahead.  I said if you're NOT feeling good, just hang on, count your steps, and zone out--I'd get them there.  At this point, I could feel the crunchy nastiness of my sweat all over my face and even my arms.  The humidity was what was really killer; it was arguably our hottest day to date in Cleveland.  Even though I was running one of my slowest half-marathons to date, it felt really tough.  I knew for my pace team who was attempting a PR, this was a very difficult day to do it.  I tried to keep them as positive as I could and remind them that at this point, it was all up to their mind.  Around mile 11-12 I said, "Okay, who's gonna win today: the body or the mind?" One guy who had looked strong all day finally took me up on my suggestion to take off and leave me, and he looked great!  That was good to see.  We ran on, and finally it was time to head to E. 9th street.  We passed Jacobs Field okay fine whatever Progressive Field, home of my first-place Cleveland Indians (#RollTribe) and the crowds here were fantastic!  I knew on my watch we were cutting it close, but that was my job: to get as close to 1:59.59 as I could.

And as we turned the corner to the finish, I picked it up just to be extra safe:  1:59.49!

FINISHED! And hot.

I turned around and gave a BIG holla to all the crew that was still with me!  They looked exhausted but had that happy look in their eyes--the one where you're too tired to say anything and are panting like a dog, but KNOW you just did it.  And you're so happy.

Sarah had finished about 30 seconds ahead of the pace team, so I was super happy for her!  She went on to fulfill the Cross-Fit part of her fundraising: for every $5 she raised over her asking donation of $13.10, she did a burpee.  She went and finished 168 burpees, and Stacy and I cheered her on!  Overall, she raised over $1,400 for Roc4NB which goes directly to families in the area who have children fighting neuroblastoma.  I am so proud of Sarah--she worked so hard!

Sarah and her hubby, Rob, who both had great days!

True to her word: doing her burpees

Afterwards, I headed home to attempt to recover--as well as you can with a 3 and 5 year old.  So I turned on the sprinkler and headed to the park and got some ice-cream, and called it "recovery."

Spiderman Sprinkler

Super proud of Sarah, my neighbor Krystal who finished her very first half in 2:30 and is HOOKED (yay!), my other buddy Joanne who ran a 1:38 in that heat and set a massive PR, and my new running friend Katie who ran a 3:38 in her VERY FIRST marathon EVER.  How anyone can do that in that heat is beyond me.  Every single finisher earned that finish big time!

All in all, I got that finish line magic feeling without getting myself injured, which is a win-win in my book.

I do, however, have bronchitis.  Oops.  I guess my allergies morphed into bronchitis, and I finally did something about it yesterday.  So I guess I ran a half marathon with bronchitis...?  Who does that?  Oopsies.  Oh well!

Can't wait to shift into tri-gear for summer and continue to build upon my running fitness to hit Columbus ready for a 3:39!  Happy running, everyone!

Almost Pacing Time!

I am so so SO excited to be a Pace Team Leader for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon this Sunday!

I figured I keep getting myself injured with early season races (I'm looking at you, past two years) so I needed to mix it up. Pacing is not only a super awesome way to give back to the running community, but it allows me to enjoy the race without setting a ridiculous goal that gets me injured while attempting to get my students to the AP test and raise my kids and actually see Matt and not lose my marbles.  When it comes down to it, April and May are just not the times for me to attempt A races.

(this only took me 11 years to really accept)

Plus, my buddy Sarah is attempting a sub-2 hour half and I get to be her Pace Bunny!  I am so excited for her.  She has raised lots of money for my other buddy Stacy's charity that she started in honor of her daughter who is a strong, healthy survivor of pediatric cancer.  You can learn more about it here.  It's a fabulous cause and Sarah even threw in a CrossFit twist--for every $5 she gets over her $13.10 asking donation, she will do a burpee at the finish line!  She's up to, like, 100 burpees!

And I will cheer her on! And NOT do burpees!

Because CrossFit scares me.

But seriously, she is awesome.  So I'm excited to help her out and get her there in 1:59.59.

I'll bring my phone with me to tweet updates and crazy pictures!  Oh, I think I'm somewhat figuring out twitter, so if you are a twitter person, feel free to follow along @trisaratops2198 or follow me for realz this Sunday if you want to break 2 hours!  I'll be wearing my pacer shirt, a ridiculous yellow sparkly skirt, and holding a sign that says "1:59" for the entire race.  Yippeeeeeeeeeee!

Best of luck to all the racers in Cleveland this weekend and at IM TX, too!

On the Playlist

Awesome 5 miles tonight.  I headed out cranky, tired, and generally unpleasant.  I came home still tired, but not cranky.  Very smiley and ready to tackle the laundry/dishwasher/papergrading/chasegigglingkidsaroundintheirbigplastictruck/bathtime/bedtime/march to when I finally get to rest.  Which is, like now.  But before I go, here's a Cleveland boy who has definitely gotten a lot of rotation on my playlist lately.  Definitely diggin' this song.

Machine Gun Kelly (MGK) Ft. Ester Dean // "Invincible" (Dir. Isaac Rentz) from More Media on Vimeo.

A New Spark

Oh, hey!

It's been (almost) two months.  My lack of posting has never gotten quite this bad, but I am really hoping to update here more frequently if at all possible.  For that, I'm going to have to make some new rules:

1.  Quick posts are better than no posts
2.  Lack of proper formatting is now okay
3.  Keep it real, yo

I have been occasionally throwing up stuff on twitter and facebook, but I think this ol' blog is still good for something.

I have some exciting new goals and news and I think it will be more important to just get stuff down and worry about the "pretty" stuff later.  So here goes unfiltered TST!  Hold onto your hats, kids!

First off: Mother's Day is pretty much awesome.  Woke up to breakfast in bed with my two kiddies and their awesome daddy that involved many different combinations of chocolate chip pancakes and lots of coffee.  I'm off to a Mother's Day spin class at Psycle (my fave indoor studio) soon.

What have I been doing lately?  In no particular order:

1. Being Mommy and Wife as best as I can
2. Being friend as much as possible
3.  Teaching my butt off

The APUSH test is Wednesday.  I will be very, very happy when it's over.  Possibly even happier than them.  They don't believe me, but I swear I worry about it more than they do!

What else have I been doing?  Here is a sample:

Mr. "Doc" Unger, a WWII-Veteran and former P.O.W., speaks to my students about his experiences

We heart play-doh

Bug and his little buddy Norah race for the ball

Hambone

Mom's Day

Easter Morning

Bean on her balance bike

Sunny girl

My homies in the 'Noog

Lots of fun training at CAMP this year!

 We are also in two weddings coming up soon:  my brother and my brother-in-law in June and July and Ohio and Mexico, respectably.  It will be ridiculously fun!

So things have been busy, but mostly good busy.  A few challenges thrown in for good measure, of course.  I've made a few decisions on racing that are still of course subject to change based on the way the wind blows, but right now, here's what I'm looking at.

Next weekend, I'll be leading the Pace Team for the sub-2 Half-Marathon group at the Cleveland Marathon!  I am super excited about this.  I love pacing and it's been a few years since I've done it.

I also am in the process of getting my Evotri Mommy Tris Too group going again.  I'm in the recruitment process right now so stay tuned on that!

Finally, I know I mentioned I lost a pretty big chunk of weight.  With that has come faster running times with the same effort.  I've been looking back through my log and its pretty remarkable and exciting, too.  Who knew, right?  This old dog might have a few new tricks up her sleeve.  So aside from racing a few local tris and attempting not to embarrass myself at Nationals this summer, I have officially changed my mind on Rev3.  I just, quite simply, do not have the money to race a 70.3 this year.  It is absolutely not possible.  So what's cheaper than a 70.3 but still a challenge within reach?

Here is is: you heard it here first, folks:  I will be racing the Columbus Marathon in October.  And I bet you can guess what my goal is.

I'm feeling really confident on my run lately and have been shocking the heck out of myself.  For example, last Tuesday, after Bug's soccer practice, I did a tempo run and beat a 5-mile PR I set at Malachi probably 7 years ago.  On a Tuesday night.  After dinner.  And soccer practice.

My long runs shock me almost weekly.  Yesterday I ran 12 miles with 4 of them at sub-8.

So the fire has been lit again for one more go at it.  The time is the same for me now that I'm in the 35-year range--back at 3:40--kind of wishing it was 3:45 like it used to be, but whatever.  Bring it.

It's good to be back, and I hope some of you want to come along for the ride.  Giddyup!

Green Beer Day, 35 Year Old Style

Ack--it's been a LONG time!  Sorry about that!

Coming up for air now--it's APUSH season, people, and that means every second I have that is not spent with my kids and Matt is usually grading or planning or copying or teaching my APUSH kids.  And the World ones, too--no disrespect to my World kids....they just don't have a massive test this year to worry about.

The OGT (Ohio Graduation Tests) are next week, and T-2 months until the APUSH test.  I need to take them from about 1940-2001 in 2 months.  Hang on for the ride, kids, cuz it's about to get all crazy Cold War-ish up in herrrreeeee! Mind you my sophomores were born 4 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, which is both hilarious and quite scary to me all at the same time.

So my alma mater, Miami University, has this tradition called Green Beer Day.  It's the Thursday before Spring Break.  Basically, the bars open really early--like, 5:30am--and the beers go up by 10 cents an hour.  I was only 21 for ONE Green Beer Day at Miami (the downfall of being so youthful, says old me now) and I was NOT GOING TO MISS IT THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Except that I had not one, but two exams that day.  One at 8, and one at 9:30.  And that's just mean.

So here's what I did: met my friends out at 5:30, celebrated until approximately 7:20, stopped at Bagel and Deli for a bagel (might as well follow up liquid carbs with more carbs, says chubby college me!) grabbed a coffee, studied for 15 minutes, took Political Science Exam #1 (something on the EU, methinks) and then Political Science Exam #2 (I think this was comparative systems or some other such nonsense) at 9:30.  Came home, slept until noon, and then woke up to my best friend Sammy jumping on my bed telling me it was time to go out again.

College.  Sigh.

And I got an A on the first one and a B on the second!

So today, I did the 35 year old version of that.  Taught all week, which means Friday I'm usually a zombie.  Went to dinner with Matt and the kids, which is a three-ring circus in and of itself.  Drank a delicious Hoegarden.  One Hoegarden now equals about 5 green beers in plastic cups from 14 years ago, or something like that.  Got home, layed down and watched 5 minutes of Backyardigans (gag) and then realized if I didn't run now it wasn't going to happen.  Changed.  Sleptwalked to treadmill.

Started at an 8:49 pace and dropped it down every 5 minutes so the last two miles were at tempo (just about 7:41).

NAILED IT.

Then did bedtime, and now am in mismatched pajamas and drinking some tea.  Blogging.  On a Friday night.

BECAUSE I'M THAT KIND OF ROCKSTAR.

Somewhere, 21 year old me is staring, jaw to the floor, plastic cup of green Natty Light in hand going, "Seriously? That's what growing up is?"

And as I kissed both kiddies in bed tonight, still smelly from my workout and burping up a little Hoegarden, I smiled and answered (Phineas-and-Ferb-Style), "Yes.  Yes it is."

Run for Regis Trail Half Marathon Race Report

ACK!

Hi, I'm the worst blogger ever!  Almost a month went by?!  How did I let that happen?

Oh yeah--it's called LIFE.

Anyway, sorry for the delay here.  How about a race report that's been sitting in my post list for 2 1/2 weeks?  Because I couldn't find the time to add the pictures?  But I just did?

Cuz that's what you're going to get!  Happy Groundhog Day to YOU!  It's a present.

Anyway, life is awesome but busy as usual so I'll keep the rest of this short and post more later.  After all, it's a BIG year--I just registered today for the Age Group National Championship, so it's ON!  Yahoo!  And today was a snow day, which was amazing.

Anyway, here's the report!

__________________________________

Oh, hey!

I ran a trail half marathon this weekend.  That I found out I got into about 2 1/2 weeks ago.  Without running on a single trail since, maybe early November.  And not running more than 8.2 miles at once.

And somehow? I had an awesome day!

I definitely have some little weirdness in my left foot which I'm ON IT LIKE WHITE ON RICE that I am 110% sure is related to running on trails in trail shoes for 13.1 miles straight.  But other than that? I felt pretty freaking amazingly awesome the entire time, and even ended up kind of negative-splitting it.  I also set a course PR for me--the first time I ran this the snow was so bad I bailed at mile 8, and then last year was super cold and I finished somewhere in the 2:47 range.  This year, my run time was 2:28.50 and my total time was 2:35 with my potty stops. 

I am extremely happy with this, especially given my completely comical utter lack of preparation!

A little background: this is one of my favorite races as the time of year always ensures it will be challenging, both to stay motivated and to finish the run.  The trails are in the beautiful Cuyahoga Valley National Park which guarantees lots of hills, rocks, roots, and steep grades.  But the trail race scene is pretty sweet--SO much more laid back than any road race, as all you trail peeps know.  The RD, Tanya, gives a hilarious pre-race speech where she reiterates that ALL distances count.  There are two loops of the course: one is a little over 8 mile and one is a bit over 4 miles.  So, you can do any combination of the loops.  On the finisher's list there were people who only did the 4.8 all the way up to the 50K'ers like my girl DaisyDuc who is a complete and total trail badass and my hero. 

This year, we had a warm spell the week before so not only were the trails a TOTAL mud and muck-fest pretty much the entire way, but we all were running in shorts and tank tops!  Yay for global warming!  Not really...I keed. But I'm not going to lie...it was nice to wear short sleeves and tights.

TIGHTS?  Why did I wear tights when it's 62 degrees?

See, people, I have a bad track record of trail races and falling.  As in, I DO EVERY TIME.  And with the mud being as bad as it was, I really didn't want to be a bloody mess like I was at Dances With Dirt.  I knew if I wore tights, I wouldn't fall, but if I didn't, I would fall instantly.

For the first few miles, I ran nice and easy. I chatted it up with a girl named Hannah who was home from college doing her first trail race.  Then I caught up to TriEric's wife Aimee and ran with her for a bit.

I saw ESpeed, Allenjel, Super Trail Girl Mel, and a few other cool people there, too!  The volunteers were awesome.  I spent a good 3 minutes or so in the potty (too much coffee! ha) and grabbed some HEED, an endurolyte (hilarious that I wanted this in January, but I'm quite the sweaty hot mess) and a handful of M&M's because YES.

Then we were off again!

Aimee told me she was only feeling one loop and urged me to take off, so I did.  I felt really strong and picked up the pace a bit.  I came in to get my tag marked at the end of the first loop and took off for the 2nd.  It was pretty solitary out there but I loved every second of it!  Mile 10 was my quickest mile at a sub-10, which given the mud conditions I was way happy with.  I loved seeing signs that said "Steep Grade Ahead" as I knew I was in for some fun.  I splashed through the muck and mud quagmires throughout most of the 2nd loop and totally gave up any hope of not getting my shoes completely covered and filled with mud.  In fact, Sunday evening I was still trying to get mud out of my toenails despite socks, shoes, TWO showers, and an afternoon taking my kids to the pool.  Yeah, it was that muddy.

Not resembling anything remotely close to a trail runner

SERIOUSLY.  Look at that picture, and how NOT a trail runner I am.  Do you see the dainty fingers?  WTF is that all about?  I was so afraid of falling that I think that is probably how I ran most of the race.  HA!

Why do I look like I smell something funny here?  Oh yeah, it might be ME.

Anyway, I smiled as much as I could, said hi to everyone I ran by, thanked all the volunteers, and in general just had a blast.  My finishing time had me just about in the top 1/3 of all half marathon finishers (male and female) which is HILARIOUS.  But I am way happy with that!  I think I have some great fitness on the run right now and it's nice to see it pay off.  Now I just need to keep it and NOT get injured like I have the past two springs. 

It was SO fun to see all my trail buds and some of my tri buds, too.  Everyone seemed to have a ton of fun and great days.  And of course, the weather helped! 

I definitely felt like I could keep going and going and just had a great day.  I think some of this may have to do with the fact that I'm down almost 14 pounds now since September.  I feel like that is something that definitely helps me on hills and hopefully that will help me on the bike, too. 

But the trails sho' are fun

All in all, two enthusiastic thumbs up and a great day!  Can't wait to do it again next year.  Now, if only I can actually train on trails...sigh.  :)

Happy 2013!

Well, here we are...2013!

Otherwise known as the year in which I will have been writing on this blog for 8 years.  EIGHT YEARS.  Yeah, I can't believe it, either.  Is anyone still out there that's been with me since the beginning?  Can I hear it from my O.G.s in da HIZZOUSE?

Anyway, a lot's happened in 8 years.

But one thing remains the same: on New Year's Day, I shall taketh the ridiculous Polar Plunge into Lake Erie.

I mean, it's seriously less than a mile from my house.  How can I pass this up?

Although I have to admit that this year, I thought about it.  The air temp was 25F with a wind chill of 11, and the water temp was 38.  Not to mention the copious amounts of snow we had on the ground.

But man up, I did!  And although this was probably the coldest/most miserable Polar Plunge I've done (I think it ties the other really cold one) it was still fun.

Me and some of my other equally bat-$@#t crazy friends

I'm pretty excited about what 2013 will bring.  First off, remember that whole thing where I was trying to drop a few pounds?

I'm down 12.  TWELVE POUNDS!  Yippee!  I feel great and my clothes feel much better.  I am almost to the point where I may need some new pants.  Mostly it's just good to be a little leaner.  I am at a weight that I don't think I've been at since maybe 10th grade or so.  Hopefully now I can work on adding a little muscle.

Someone needs to PUMP ME UP

Mostly I'm just so darn happy NOT to have a huge running race on the horizon.  After two rough injury-laden springs where I've pretended I'm a runner, I decided to stick with what I do best.  Training has been fun and I've really been looking forward to workouts.  I am definitely a triathlete at heart.  I hope to hit June raring to go this year instead of hobbling around and swearing a lot and saying "has anyone seen a pool lately? cuz I haven't" and just in general kicking lots of triathlon ass this year.

Happy 2013, everyone!