Half Marathon Recap

As I mentioned in my last post with the photo recap on my Flying Pig half marathon, it was a totally awesome experience. I trained for 4 straight months with the Running Spot training group for the half marathon. Twice a week, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, I would lace up my shoes and follow the running routes that were planned out by our coaches. All of the gals in the picture below have become some great friends of mine and I'm really thankful my path in life introduced me to them through this experience. From left to right below is Julie, Amy, Coach Carolyn, Beth and myself gathered together right before we lined up for the start of the race:We all stayed together for the first mile or so and it was quite a rush to be among the thousands of runners all lined up in downtown Cincinnati. In the sea of all those people, I got separated from my group of girls, but ended up hooking up with another training group member named Adam. He and I ran together for miles 2-6 and that was great. Having someone new to talk with along the race was a really great way to get those first few miles under my belt without freaking out too much about those miles that were still to come. At mile 6.5 the course headed into a beautiful park in Cincy called Eden Park and that was were the relay switch occurred. So, I follow the path to switch out with JJ so he could start his portion of the 4-person relay run and then I continued on the half marathon course. Being able to share about 1/2 mile running with him was a really cool part of the day. Having him support me in so many ways and seeing him along this journey really helped me push on through the middle miles along the route.

After JJ and I split off on different routes, I did have a bit of mental stuff start to happen. From about mile 7 on, I ran by myself along the route, which was not something I planned on doing. From my first training run, I had my running buddies right there beside me. But on this day, we all got separated and so there I was for 6.2 more miles alone with my thoughts. By Mile 10, I had pushed through some of the rough physical moments with my body, but there were some mental thoughts that started to creep in like "oh lord, I still have 3.2 mile to go", but like I had done on several training runs I dug deep and put my thoughts to good use. Remembering that I could in fact finish this and that I had made it to mile 10 already and the rest of the course was mostly down hill, so just keep putting one foot in front of the other to get to the finish line. These pictures of me below are around mile 11 & 12, so I'm almost about to hit the final straight stretch of the course towards the finish line.
One of the Running Spot coaches spotted me with about .2 miles to go and I did my best to hold together the emotions I was feeling. I gave him a huge "high 5" and smiled from ear to ear - I had done it! With Coach Micheal's encouragement, he told me to pick out someone in front of me and beat that person across the finish line - so that's what I did - set my eyes on a gal in a gray t-shirt and pounded my legs so hard that I blew past her as I crossed the finish line.

The numbers broke down like this:

13.1 miles took me 3 hours and 6 minutes at a pace of 14:13 per mile

The feeling of pride & accomplishment when I crossed the finish line...

ABSOLUTELY...100%...PRICELESS

Flying Pig through Pictures

I had a totally awesome experience with my first (and maybe only) half marathon this past Sunday when I was one of about 20,000 people participating in Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon. Here's a quick re-cap through some photos I took along the 13.1 mile course.

Me and JJ at Mile 7

My awesome friends who came out to cheer me on at Mile 11Finish Line with my running buddy Julie and Coach Carolyn
After party at the Running Spot tent with our 4 person Relay Team - Team Swine Flew!

Once life settles down a little I plan on posting about how everything went and some more indepth details about the day. Like I said, it was really great - eventhough it rained the first 5 miles or so, I really embraced the morning and took in all the excitement and emotions that came along with completing this goal I'd set out to finish. I can not thank everyone enough for all the support these last few months and especially the days leading up to the big run. I received tons of shout outs on Facebook and also got many text messages from loved ones cheering me on and all of those mean so much to me. Looking forward to recaping things and getting another blog post up soon with the details and hopefully some of the office race day photos!

It's time for pigs to fly!

After months and months of training runs and prep work, tomorrow morning is the Cincinnati Flying Pig Half Marathon. Tonight we went out for an awesome pre-race dinner with my running buddies to Buca di Beppo and loaded up on some yummy carbs like pasta and italian bread. Here's a quick pick of us before we all went home to get our gear ready for the morning. I'm feeling pretty good about things - I've gotten tons of shout outs and good luck wishes through Facebook and text messages, so it's so helpful to have lots of people cheering for me as I embark on this adventure. A few of my peeps are supposed to be out spectating along the course, so that will be fun to look for them along the run. Got all my clothes ready for the early wake up call, so now it's time for bed for some good solid sleep.Thanks again to all my blog readers for your support over these last few months during my training run posts. I'll be thinking of all those who are behind me while I'm out on the course in the morning!

I'm "flying"...

In response to the recent question I asked myself last week - click here for more details - I've decided to participate in the Flying Pig half marathon on May 1st. Just need to actually sign up and pay for the half marathon now, but I'm full speed ahead with my training and now working on making sure I get all my training runs and cross training workouts in during the week. I'm also going to start experimenting with energy products like gu gels and sport beans on my long runs.

So, the countdown is on: 52 days until my first half marathon

Up next: Thursday's shorter run (3-4 miles) and Saturday's long run (8.2 miles)

Today's question to those runners out there: what has been your experience with energy products? Do you like a particular kind or find that a gel works better than an energy bar? Let me know your thoughts and experiences!

To "fly" or not to "fly"...

13.1 miles

That is the question I'm posing to myself after this past weekend's training group run. I accomplished my longest run ever, like ever in my life, 7.5 miles. It's been a tough two weekends with the groups runs - 6.8 miles of Cincy hills and 7.5 miles of bridges and downtown streets. Despite my nerves, I made it through both runs and felt pretty strong after Saturday's 7.5 miler. So strong that while enjoying breakfast with my friends, my ears perked up when one of them told me that you can participate in both the Cincinnati Flying Pig 4-person Relay Run and the Half Marathon. So, after some research that's where I am today - seriously considering runing 13.1 miles through downtown Cincy and some of my favorite neighborhoods the first weekend of May.

When I started this running journey less than a year ago, I never thought I'd be thinking of taking on such a chalellenge. Once I finsihed the Thanksgiving Day 10k run, I did feel that one day I want to tackle a half marathon, I just never thought it would be this soon - less than a year after I started running. But my energy is up, the excitement is all around me, and I feel like there's no time like the present. I'm already half way through the training with the group, so if I want to continue running with them on the weekends, then I'll be uping my miles b/c they're all training for the half - so why not just go ahead and do it - check it off my life's to do list. If I do it, the race falls 11 days before my 32nd birthday and what better gift to give myself - pride and accomplishment on completing my first half marathon, sounds like a pretty great b-day gift to me!

Thoughts - advice - words of wisdom - I'm ready to hear it all. Have you done a half marathon? If so, what's something you wish you'd known before your race? Let me hear it blogger friends!

Just Do It

Today I conquered one of my fears and ran 3 miles in the snow. So, given this accomplishment, I declare myself a true runner. Winter running can be extremely intimidating and with this being my first cold weather running season, I was totally freaked out about running in the cold, snow and ice. I did end up joining up with the running group to get ready for the Flying Pig Relay and that got me out for a run earlier this week. They also met on Saturday mornings, and tomorrow is supposed to be something ridiculous like 5 degrees. While I'm excited to be getting back out there with the girls, I'm not all about lacing up my shoes for that type of cold weather run. So, when I left work today and saw the sun shinning, I got a big burst of ambition and challenged myself to get out there today and do my 3 mile run when the temps were around 15 degrees and it was a bit warmer than it will be in the morning.

It may not have been my fastest 3 miles and I may not have had the best form, but today I got out there in about 5 inches of snow and just did it. I layered up in some cold weather running gear and like Nike says, I said to myself - "Just Do It" - so I laced up my shoes, headed out the door and before I knew it I was half way through the run. Overall, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. With the snow packed down, it was almost like running on sand just much colder and instead of hearing the ocean waves all you can hear is your shoes squeaking down as they pack down on the piles of snow, which is pretty freaking cool!

I took some video to document my run. That may sounds silly to some people, that I taped myself running, but it's honestly something that I never thought I would be doing, especially in the snow with the temperature around 15 degrees. So if you want a good laugh, watch this quick clip from my first snow running experience:



So here is today's message from CincySpin (courtesy of Nike):
"Just Do It"
No matter what it is, no matter how many time you've talked yourself out of it, no matter how much you don't want to, no matter what the out come - at least you will have tried and most likely succeeded at accomplishing your goal - just like I did today with completing my first run in the snow!