My Review of Seirus Thermax Headliner Balaclava

Originally submitted at REI

This ultra-thin balaclava fits easily under a helmet and is easy to pack along as a lightweight insulating layer.

Seirus Thermax Headliner Balaclava

good for cold weather running

By bostonmarathonwannabe from Tulsa, OK on 12/5/2009

 

5out of 5

Gift: No

Sizing: Feels true to size

Pros: Lightweight, Breathable, Warm

Best Uses: Extreme Conditions

Describe Yourself: Casual Adventurer

I'm a distance runner and purchased this for cold weather running. It's perfect for my objectives-lightweight, multi-use meaning it can either go around my neck, over my head or over my mouth, and it provides just the right amount of warmth. It wasn't too tight around my face and it didn't squeeze my earbuds. I have a small face so it may be too tight if you have a large frame, it is a one size fits all.

(legalese)

Hello Winter!

Today I got to try out a balaclava by Seirus that I got during Black Friday last week for a sweet price. I like it because it can either go around my neck, over my head or over my mouth. It is lightweight and I really like it. http://www.rei.com/product/725709 I got mine at Sun N Ski.

Today was an easy run, 7 miles in the cold. I wasn't sure what time RW was supposed to be at Veteren's Park and no one was there at 7:00 so I went on to 41st and ran north from there. I saw Stefanie and ended up running with her and Simone, Bronda and her hubby. I was really overdressed, before I left, the weather showed that it "felt like" 16 so I thought I better layer up a bunch on top. I was sweating by the second mile and took my jacket off. There were plenty of runners out there braving the cold, good to see people being consistent with their running. Next Saturday we start officially training for OKC!

Out to do Christmas shopping today, can't wait to see my relatives in Charlotte at Christmas.

Not a PR but a good race at Route 66

After my awful Mock Marathon 2 weeks ago, I rested and did slow runs before R66. By Friday before the race, I was feeling excited and energtic again. My only challenge is I have been having trouble sleeping. Between hot flashes (men wouldn't understand) and praying in the middle of the night for a local pastor who has cancer, I wasn't totally rested.
Sunday morning I went outside and thought I could tolerate standing at the start line in a short sleeved shirt. I wish I had the nerve to put my singlet on underneath it but I figured it wouldn't get warm enough. Hmmm, my loss. So I got to our meeting place for Runners World and checked around to see if anyone was going my pace. Stefanie and Tracy said they would be going between 11 and 12 min pace so I decided to pace with them.
We took off and it took about 3 min to get over the start line. We paced ourselves pretty evenly, staying between 10.03 and 10.48. Tracy and others had a sign party to make signs for Simone and Bronda since this was thier first marathon. So, in the beginning, we were watching for the signs and making sure that Simone and Bronda saw them. I thought that was so thoughtful of their team to make those signs, that's what I love about the Runners World groups. At mile 9, I saw Carmi, Teresa and Cindy in their silver wigs and black & white glasses handing out goodies and cheers. They showed up again somewhere around Denver, isn't it something how seeing someone you know gives you a boost? Once we got onto Riverside, Stefanie and Tracy were running faster than I was and they got ahead of me. I don't run well by myself in marathons. I get bored and unmotivated. Tatur Dave's article that he shared earlier this week about pain challenged me to run through my pain since I have walked after mile 17 of the other 4 marathons I have run. Today, I didn't walk until mile 24, except for the water stations. The main reason I didn't have a PR was because I took a potty break at a single station porta potty and a guy went in before me. I figured he would be quick but I kept hearing the toilet paper roll being rolled so I knew he was having stomach trouble. I didn't know where the next porta potty was so I waited...and waited. While I waited, the 4:45 pace group passed by, darn! Finally he came out and I hoped the porta potty wouldn't be a mess, it wasn't. I wasn't mad at him, I had the same problem at the first R66 I ran. Anyway, back on the road, I tried to catch up to the 4:45 pace group but I couldn't accelerate that much. I told myself that I could still catch up in the next few miles but I didn't. As I made the turnaround at 76th street, I still hadn't walked and I thought I could get through the whole marathon, this was at mile 21. Well, I did well until mile 24 and I let myself walk a little, just a little. Somewhere along Riverside, I saw Mary _____, someone I run with occasionally and learned that this was her 3rd marathon in FIVE weeks!!! She had just passed her darling family, kids, hubby, parents, so sweet. When I got to mile 25 I told myself,"come on, just a little over a mile." I walked for a block and then headed for the finish line. I love hearing people's name being called and where they are from and I love to hear my name, but you know what I love more than anything? Hearing that darling voice, "Mom, hey, good job!" I can't wait for my daughter to run a race with me again.
I did something unique for me during this race. Some of you know that my 23 yr old son drowned in the Columbia River in Portland, OR this past August 1. So for this race, since his birthday was Nov. 21, as I ran each mile, I thought about what he was doing during that year of his life. So, for my own therapy, I'll recount what I thought about, I didn't do this for each year.
Mile 1-as a baby, we loved to take pictures of Chris on the bed, he was soo cute, my unbiased opinion
Mile 2-my sister-in-law started telling me that we weren't being strict enough, this was during the onset of the "terrible twos"
Mile 4-Jessica was born during this year and I thought about how Chris was dethroned and all the time we spent playing in the sandbox
Mile 7-I thought about second grade and a wonderful teacher that Chris had, Mrs. Neece
Mile 12-I thought about middle school, 6th grade, and how Chris probably started getting teased about his stuttering, this is also when he started playing the trumpet in band
Mile 13-Chris built the web page for Byrd middle school and got 1st chair for trumpet
Mile 15-Chris did not like where he went to high school as a freshman and had a poor math teacher, Chris was brilliant in math
Mile 16-Chris transferred to Tulsa School of Arts and Science and had a great experience there, he also started to drive
Mile 18-Chris took extra math classes at TCC and graduated from TSAS
Mile 19-Chris started at University of Tulsa and lived on campus
Mile 22-Chris graduated from Univ. of Tulsa and began working for vidoop and the company relocated to Portland
Mile 23-Chris had the absolute best year of his life, found a church that he loved being a part of, survived a company going under, got 3 job offers in a city where unemplyment was 10% and loved his new job.
Mile 24-this is when I started walking and maybe that's why....
I am so grateful for his life, and for the assurance that he is in the most glorious place in the universe, with the very best friend of all, Jesus.
Once I got across the finish line, I met up with Carmi, Teresa and Cindy without their silver hair wigs and we had pics taken with Mary and her sister. I connected with most everyone else that I run with and learned that the majority of the people had good runs, some had PRs. Simone and Bronda had an excellent run and finished ahead of me, way to go girls!
When I got home, I tried to do the right recovery things, I started out eating a Cliff protein bar when I got in the car, then I drank some chocolate milk. I tried to take a cold bath but I couldn't find the plug for our bathtub so I stood in a cold shower. I drank some more chocolate milk and took a little nap. Then I finished my chocolate milk and checked the web for more finish times. On to planning my next race and training schedule. Maybe I'll see some of you at the Von Franken Family Run this Thursday.

Thank You Runners World Tulsa

Today was our Mock Marathon to prepare us for Route 66 on Nov. 22. Our "mock" is 22 miles. Since I had done the KC Marathon three weeks ago and ran the Tulsa Run 15K last Saturday, I decided to take this long run easy. I thought I would try for a 10:30 pace, it always sounds so doable until you get past 15 miles and then all I want to do is walk! I ran with Teresa for the first 14 or so miles and we had a great time chatting. Our friend Cindy was resting her injuries and we enjoyed seeing her at the waterstops. Jason, Lisa and Wade were taking some time off as well and they were great cheerleaders as well at the waterstops. After Teresa was gone, I really struggled to keep running. I saw Joe and Cindy at the waterstop at 41st and they were like a breath of fresh air. Joe told me about a good anti-chaffing item called SportShield. I put some on my back where my waist usually gets raw. He said it currently isn't available locally but it looks like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CJX1UY.
Then I headed back south on Riverside and ran for about 1/4 mile and decided to walk, what a wimp! I walked a lot until I made the turn around at 56th St and then I decided that I would run 4 lightposts and walk 4 lightposts. I don't know why I choose 4 lightposts, nothing scientific about it, just sounded good. I did this until I got to the 41st St water stop again and saw Greg. We headed back towards 21st St and I told him that I was alternating running and walking with every 4th lightpole. He talked me into extending it to 5 lightpoles, which we did until 31st St. Then I said, that was it, I was walking and we walked and talked for about a half mile. Then he talked me into running some more, what a pushover I am! Finally we made it to Veteren's Park, I was so glad that run was over! Now, taper time until Nov. 22!

Hooray for Janet!

Kansas City was an ok marathon for me, I did have a PR, 4:49:13 but the best part of the event was Janet qualifying for Boston and she qualified handily with a 4:12. Congrats Janet, great effort and a tough course.

This was the first time to go out of town for a marathon and room with others. I wanted my husband to go with me but OU/Texas was too much competition. This was fun to hang out with Becky and Janet, we headed over to the convention center, took a long detour and after asking for directions a couple of times, we found the expo. We saw Carmi, Teresa, Donna, Katy, cindy and Chris at the Expo. The expo was pretty small and we went to the pasta dinner, very disappointing in my opinion, but Don Karong was a good speaker. Fortunately we saw Chris and the rest of the group after eating and he gave us a ride back to our hotel, thanks Chris!
We hung out in the room and watched HGTV. In the morning, we took a cab to the start line, we were only 5 blocks from the start but didn't want to walk that far in case it was too cold. This was a good choice. We stayed inside a building until about 6:35 and found our pace groups.

My goal was a 4:30 and I have a tendancy to set my goals too high. Since the end of July, I've been running only 3 times/week and I hadn't even thought about the effect that could have on my endurance. I had an excellent long run on the 3rd and the River Rush 5K was another PR for me so I felt really ready for this marathon. I lined up with the 4:30 pace group and hung with them for the first 11 miles. They had lowered their per lap time between mile 4 and mile 12 to make up for the beginning hill at mile 2-4. By mile 12 I could tell that I was tiring too much and I was having difficulty staying with them. I began to slow down and hit a major hill during this mile on a street called Sunset. I began to alternate walking and running and continued that thru the end. My legs felt heavy and my mind began to wander and I lost motivation. I got really bored between miles 13 and 19 and began to question why I even do these races. I even began to regret that I had already registered for the R66 and wished I was doing only the 1/2. Your mind does begin to have terrible thoughts during these long races and I hadn't put my music in to distract me. Once I got to 22 and saw the 4:50 pace group pass me, I got in gear because I didn't want to have a slower time than OKC. So I did get in under 4:50. Then I met Becky and Janet in the food tent and at that point Janet didn't say anything about qualifying for Boston. On our walk back to the hotel she said she thought she qualified but she wasn't certain. When we got back she had a phone message that she had qualified then I got on my laptop and got her official time and we oohed and awed that she had done it. All 3 of us had PRs so we were satisfied but obviously not as excited as Janet. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory and gorged ourselves, Janet's Luau Salad looked yummy and my Fiesta Burrito was delicious as well. Of course, we couldn't eat it all and had to save room for cheesecake. We rolled out of there and headed for home. Now I have 3 states down.

Next race: Tulsa Run, then R66.

Overall summary of the KC Marathon. Get with the pacers, mine were excellent, knew the course well and kept us posted of what was ahead and what we were going to do. Janet had an excellent experience, her pacer really wanted her to qualify and he kept encouraging her. The aid stations were excellent, always told you what beverages were first, which was almost always Gatorade and each aid station had a different flavor of Gatorade. They had Gu at least 2 times and vaseline as well. There were plenty of port-a-potties and lots of crowd support. The food tent at the end was well stocked too. The music was ok throughout the race but I wish they had at least one Christian band because I find that music so inspiring.

Kansas City Countdown

This coming Saturday is the KC marathon. This will be my 4th and I am almost as excited as my 1st back when I did R66 in 2007. I feel very ready for this and I believe I can do a 4:30. I did the River Rush 5K on Saturday and had another PR, 26:43, that is an 8:38 pace and I was very satisfied with that and even left some in the tank, shame on me but I'm learning more about what I can do and how hard to push myself. I'm not even wiped out and the last 5K I raced in May, I had another PR and felt like I had run a marathon. The weather forecast for KC looks ideal, no rain the day before or after or day of and temps will be in the 50s during the day, I will love that. The weather for the River Rush was in the low 50s and it felt fabulous to me.
I'll run only 2 more times this week and take it easy, I must remind myself to take it easy, this cooler weather makes me want to run fast. I'm going to run KC with the pace group for 4:30, they take you over the hills slow and pick up speed on the flat areas. They are very familiar with the route and I think they'll take good care of me. Janet is trying for a 4:15, that is her BQ and Becky is going for 4:10. This may be the first time that I'll run the marathon in capris instead of shorts, we'll see how cold it is in the morning. I still haven't decided about my shirt. In my previous post I said I had received my singlet with my race number on it but I don't want to wear it over a shirt in case I get too warm. So I will probably wear it and wear a long sleeved shirt with my paper number on it and if I get hot, tie my shirt around my waist. I'm also going to make sure I get plenty of sleep at night this week, something I'm usually not very disciplined about so I need to be getting to bed in about 15 minutes.

24 miles and ready for Kansas City

Today was a very good running day. The temperature was 43 when I got up and I wore a lightweight jacket for the first time since Spring. I had a bad long run two weeks ago and decided to run 22 today instead of having a 3 week taper. I was considering running 24 but wanted to wait and see how I felt after 11. I was also going to try a different fueling technique, start the Gu at 5 miles and every 5 miles after that. That worked really well because I got the Gu in before I was tired. Also, I tried out my running shirt for the KC marathon, you could order your number on your shirt: http://www.wearyournumber.com/ I did chafe a little bit under my arms, but other than that, the shirt worked really well and I love the way it looks. It cost 27.95 and I'll get a lot of wear out of it. It was fun to wear the shirt before the event occurred and I saw runners staring at it, trying to figure out what race it was from. I ended up running 24 and I ran the whole 24, stopping only for water or potty breaks. I felt good the whole time and averaged 10:33/mile. My goal is 4:30 for this marathon but that will be a stretch. Today the conditions were perfect and I don't know what KC will be like and with my sensitive stomach, I never know what to expect. We'll see, I'm really looking forward to the marathon, I know we'll have fun regardless and eating at the Cheesecake Factory after we shower will be something to look forward to.

As I finished my run, I met up with Bobby and Sandra and she had just completed her longest run ever, 20 miles. Yea for Sandra, those milestones are to be celebrated! And yea for Bobby for being such a good running partner.

I want to give a shout out to Jason and Lisa. They will be doing an ultra this coming weekend in El Dorado, Kansas. Jason will be doing 100 miles, omg, yes 100 mile and Lisa will be doing the 50 mile. Jason is actually excited, said it is going to be fun. Well, people look at me like I'm crazy too when I say that marathons are fun. I feel like those people do, but, have fun, Jason and Lisa, I'll be praying for you.

After I finshed my run, I showered and went over to a friends house with my hubby, Gary, and we put primer on their window and door frames. My friend has her 3rd reoccurence of cancer and had chemo on Thursday so I know this made her feel better, to see progress being made on her house and we really enjoyed helping her. Plus, it's good to move around a lot after a long run so you don't tighten up, I was up and down the ladder, so I shouldn't be too sore on the following days.

This coming Saturday I'm going to do the River Rush, other than that, I'm into my taper.