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.