Sunday, September 16, 2012

Newton Ready to Run 20 Miler

So.. let me first say, I am NOT training for a marathon. I was trying to get out of this training run as soon as my boyfriend thought of the smart idea to sign us up. But I don't regret it. It was a fun experience, and now I have some sort of idea as to what people have to go through, in order to train for a marathon. Let me just say, I look up to everyone who has ever finished 26.2 miles. I was complaining every second after passing the 15 mile mark (sorry babe! lol) . I don't know how they do it. I don't know if I'll ever be ready, but one day I'll eventually sign up and attempt to finish one myself.

So anyways. Here as some pictures I took throughout the whole entire thing (I had to keep my mind off the miles that we still needed to cover) and tried to keep my boyfriend entertained... except the only thing he could think of, was food.. ha.

Night Before:
-Note to self: do not eat burgers the night before (for the sake of eating, and carbing up.. i wasn't hungry blahhh never again)
-the lazy bug was biting me, I thinking twice whether it was worth doing it.. haha Cold Feet :D

Parking: relatively easy, except there was only one meter in the middle of the entire parking lot for a hell of alot of cars. and it was cheap, $0.25 per hour :)

thanks to me for bringing a dollar, we were able to pay for parking.
stupid machine wasn't accepting credit cards. hello, its 2012. apparently people don't carry cash anymore

Traffic to the start line: none

Starting line: waves were being sent off every 30 seconds. this made the route alot less congested. these people know what they were doing. :) I decided, no music through out the 20 miles.

Mile 1-3: Eeek. My hip had been bothering me for the past few days. and I was def feelin' today. -YEAH! only 18 miles to go. -__-
-Woop. First aid station. Gatorade tasted soo good. Oh! potty break lmao
Mile 1

Mile 3
Mile 3.5














Mile 4-6: Me and McSpeedy had the most random conversations while on this run. hahahah
Me: "So this is what it feels like running with no music? It's kinda boring"
McSpeedy: "Well sorta, it's kinda dead right now"
-without music, I was paying more attention to my form, for some reason my hips and thighs felt tight? Like I was running a certain way that didn't let me extend my legs further apart? Wierd.


Mile 4
Mile 5
Mile 6














Mile 7-9:
"Lalalala... still no double digits?" Ah. It was starting to get hot.
Mile 7
Mile 8
Mile 9



 Mile 10-13: This is where it starts getting interesting. I haven't ran more than 13.1 miles in a VERY long time. Maybe since the winter... Water break!
HALF WAY!!!
Mile 11
Mile 12

Mile 13.
...hey this looks familiar
Most depressing 13mile mark ever,
we're not done just yet.. :(



Mile 14-15: WOOOH!!!! Finally broke my distance record of 15 miles!!! :D I don't know what I was thinking of when I went on that 15mi journey during the winter. alone.


Mile 14..
:)
Mile 14
This is false advertisement. I don't know
how someone can be so happy at mile 14.
BROKE MY DISTANCE RECORD! Bam!





















  




Mile 16-17: Okay... my knee is starting to feel a little funny.

why hello there mile 17 ;P















Mile 18: I really hated my boyfriend at this point.
Me: "If I had the energy to punch you, I would" :P
its a love/hate relationship sometimes
...Now he's not LOL
Mile 18








Mile 19: You can tell where the 19mile mark was. As soon as we passed it, all the group leaders would yell out "Last Mile!!!" and raise their arms. haha. relief!
Mile 19.. like a boss :P

And then we saw where the finish was!

I didn't know whether I wanted to stop running.. or keep going. I was scared of how bad I was going to feel. But it wasn't that bad. 6 hours later.. I can tell my knee is going to be in alot of pain for the next few days.

Me and McSpeedy crossed the finish together :) Which I never thought we would...
we definitely had a long time to bond. even though I think we've bonded enough during the past 4 years. but he made it alot easier then I thought it would be.

Overall, great experience. I don't know when or if I'll be crazy enough to run this much again...
to those running the marathon in a few days, GOOD LUCK!

Now I can proudly say I ran 20 miles, for the hell of it :)



Finisher shirts were really pretty
____________________________________________

 Newton Ready to Run 20 Miler by JV

Before the start:

We arrived at approximately 6 15 AM at the Wilson lot.  The lot was getting filled up real quick by a more cars and runners being dropped off.   Luckily, we got an awesome deal for parking( 25 cents per hour). The downside was that we had to wait in line for about 20 minutes because there was only one meter.  During this time we didn't feel as much excitement as we normally felt for other events.  Maybe because it was training run and it wasn't timed ? Whatever the reason was , we were just trying to get to the start line.  After we payed , we rushed to the starting line and positioned ourselves with wave #26. Luz and I weren't planning to go for a PR or anything.  We just wanted to have a good time and prove ourselves that we can finish the distance.  Luz told me she was going to be tweeting live updates of the race at every mile, which made the distance seem more fun and enjoyable :D


The start of the 20 miler went smooth.  The pace groups started about 2 minutes after one another.  Mile 1 -2 -3 were great until I had to use the washroom around mile 3.5 . Luz kept making fun of me for having to make a quick pit-stop , but I felt much better and relieved ;) After my bathroom break,  we kept on running.  There were no more bathroom breaks.  We stopped at every aid station, which were about 2 miles apart from each other .  We drank gatorade so we can make sure we were well hydrated.

Mile 4-10 we felt extremely comfortable, we were running at a good pace and didn't feel tired at all.  What made everything better was my running partner  :) , who kept making me laugh with her funny twitter updates.  As we went on , my legs started to get a bit tense and heavy around mile 11-15 .  I knew the following miles were only going to get tougher and i had to suck it up.   We would both stop at the aids stations to stretch out for a bit and then we would keep on running.  I was worried because i didn't  want  Luz or I to end up cramping up with several miles remaining.  Miles 15-19 were the worst  and most dreadful miles that I experienced throughout the whole run.  I knew i could finish the run, but my legs were getting the best of me.  Since we were both pacing ourselves throughout most of the run, we weren't  physically tired.  But our legs were in pain !! >_<  We kept pushing through mile after mile , stopping at every aid station, motivating each other , and we finally saw the finish line in sight.  We were both relieved that it was about to be over .  We finally crossed the finish line at about the 3 hour mark.
This training run has proven to me that I am ready for the Chicago Marathon.

at mile 14.5 hahah
i love him :)






Friday, September 14, 2012

Chicago Half Marathon

This was kind of a special race for me.  I was not a "runner" a year ago. At least not the type that had the guts to sign up for a race and compete against other people. Nope, not me. I had never spectated a race before this one either.  I knew I had been missing out on alot of cool stuff as soon as I got to spectate this race last year.

I would run up to 5 miles, maybe even the occasional 7 miles, but never more. I was exposed to all this adrenaline. I wanted to feel the rush! To race against time and myself. I would only run in an attempt to start being active. I didn't know what I was missing out on. After that day, I had my mind set on one thing, Chicago Half Marathon 2012. Little did I know, I would finish my first half 9 months later.

Race Day

I had 1:49 set in my head after finishing at 1:56 a few weeks ago at the RN'R. I wanted that sub 1:50 so bad. Did I have it in me? I wasn't so sure. I was 90% sure I could hit 1:52. Two or 3 weeks before the race, I had ran 13.1 and completed it at 1:52, with water breaks here and there. I wasn't going to let it go.

When we got to the race site, it looked almost exactly the same as last year. We got there about 30 minutes earlier. Hung out by the corrals.. took pictures. We were joined by my boyfriends entire family! I'm not kidding. His brothers and sister-in-law were also running the race. One of our friends from highschool was also doing it, so it felt awesome with everyone pumped up.


The start came by too fast. 1 year, two HM, one 15k and two 10k's later..

Miles 1-3: I had too much enerrrrgyyyy. I felt all wierd. My head/body or something was off. I felt like I wasn't in synch with my legs. They had a mind of their own at this point. I felt I could fly and run faster but I had to keep my pace above 8min miles. Didn't want to screw up this early in the race.

8:05, 8:16, 7:58

Miles 4-6: woahhh. Average pace of 8:07? Waahh.? I feel awesome!! (in past HM's my avg would always stay around 8:40ish.. 8:50ish.. idk what was wrong with me). At mile 5, I finally saw Mr. Pacer 1:45. I had been ahead of him the whole time, and I didn't even know it. I had to stick with him. I had to.

8:13, 8:08, 8:11

Mile 7-8: I stayed a few feet behind the pacer. I was feeling good. I hadn't stopped at any water breaks just yet. I didn't want to lose him. I took a Clif Blok shot just in case.

8:03, 8:08

Mile 9: So this is where the legs started to lose it... I was around the 15k mark, when I finally started slowing down and losing the pacer dude. Gah. It pissed me off how close I was .. I needed 3.5 miles before finishing... but I couldnt keep up. My legs couldn't keep up with the rest of the 1:45 group. For a second I though it wasn't worth trying anymore. That's how tired I felt at this point. I felt I was running a 12 minute mile by the time I reached the 10mile mark. I looked down in time to see my 9mile split, 8:41. That was actually my slowest mile throughout the whole race. Looking at that split, I realized I wasn't going as slow as I felt. :)

8:41

Mile 10-13: Pain... more pain and sweat and gatorade and water.  I needed as much energy I could get just to finish under 1:50. Although I had lost the chance to finish at 1:45, I wasn't going to finish after 1:52. No way. I had fought too hard during those 10 miles for a 1:50-something.

8:31, 8:37, 8:38, 8:24

The last 0.1: I couldn't sprint. No way. I wanted it to end already. I did what I could. I saw the clock from where I was, and it had finally hit 1:49.


Finish time: 1:49:27

Can you see relief in my face? I can! lol
Did I accomplish what I set my mind to? Yep, I sure did. This was my goal race. I had definitely hit my goal. Back in June for the Chicago Women's HM, finishing under 2 hours was my overall goal. My 1:57 had me in a happy-go-lucky mood for weeks. so why not a 1:49 today? I guess I got carried away during the race, that maybe I could surpass my goal by 4 minutes. Which lead to disappointment but whatever. That's in the past. I did what I could. I had trained for a sub 1:50 and I got it :) I'm happy with my 1:49. Now I know how close I was to that 1:45, I will keep trying until I get it.

So what did I think of the race? Meh. Wasn't too special in my opinion.
Medal: Nice, decent lookin'
T-shirt: way too big for girls. I always complain about the shirts.
Course: Awesome. :) on lake shore drive? really? it felt like runners were taking over. haha sweet
Hydration: Really good. Felt like there was enough and there was big signs to tell where the water and gatorade was. big plus.
Snacks: The usual pretzels, ritz bits, bananas. boring. (RNR went overboard and got us Jamba Juice! :)
Pizza: line wayyy too long.
Beer: im still not 21. haha boo
Massage: decent :)

Overall: I'm doing this again! Registered a few days ago for 30% off.. missed the 50% by a few minutes. Still good price. I'm getting my 1:45 for sure.

See ya then ChiHalf 2013!

thinking of actually buying this picture. i look so angry haha


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NEWTON Ready to Run 20 MILER IN 2 DAYS!! blahhhhh. why would my boyfriend do this to me?! I've never ran over 15 miles, so this will be a new distance record..

Here goes nothing..