Another killer run

For Saturday's long run, we decided to go from Olive St out to NSU on the Creek TP and back, which ended up being 15 miles. It's a good, hilly route and totally wiped us out. The temperature was toasty, about 85 and very humid. When we got to NSU, they were getting ready to start a 5K race, probably about 25 people there, what an awful morning for a race. The 15 miles took about 3 1/2 hrs., we walked a lot toward the end, it was so stinking hot. I know runs like these will pay off in the Fall though. The really cool thing was that as I was finishing, I pulled out my phone to call my husband because we were supposed to meet our daughter at the airport since she was returning home from a 5 week missions trip to India. As I flipped open my phone, there she was calling me! Her flight had been cancelled and most likely she wouldn't be in until that night. Shucks, but that was harder on her that me because I wasn't stuck in an airport like she was. She ended up getting in at 11:30 last night, just in time for Father's Day.

Hot and Humid

Running the past couple of weeks has been draining with the heat and humidity. Last week, we ran out on the Katy trail and one of the water fountains was turned off. After that experience, I finally broke down and bought a water belt this week. I’ve been so spoiled because RW always has water for us but I couldn’t risk going without water again with all of this heat. Wearing this belt is going to take some getting used to. It’s an Amphipod and it is adjustable. Some of the other brands are already sized. I didn't have the belt adjusted to be tight enough and I didn’t want to take the time to shorten it once we started running so I couldn’t get it tight enough. The belt keep sliding around my hips but once I get it tighter I think it will be ok, it drove me crazy this morning though.
Last week I ran 11 miles, about 4 of them were without water. Today we ran 8 miles on the river then hustled over to Youth Services of Tulsa and ran their Runaway 5K because a friend of mine is on their board. All of us had slow times for a 5K and still managed to sweep the medals for our age groups.
We ate breakfast at IHOP after that and their blueberry nut pancakes, topped with bananas and egg substitute really tasted great!

Spring Marathons - OKC and Ft Collins CO

I have been enjoying my training runs this Spring but I've been having more fun and not running hard and that showed up in my marathon results. The fun has been a refreshing respite from the craziness in the rest of my life but I am very frustrated with my finish times.

I was a little concerned about OKC because I felt really tired going into marathon week. I hadn't been sleeping well, a combination of worries at work and hormone dificiency. So when I felt really tired after Lake Hefner, I didn't have much mental stamina to push through it. It was really good weather, all the winds were crosswinds, nothing like last year. Our group had a lot of fun, we did walk more than we probably should have on Sat., walked from the Sheraton to the Memorial Museum and back and the museum tour was difficult to bounce back from but if you haven't seen it, you should go through. It made all the banners much more significant when I came to that part of the course. My finish was 5:19, my slowest up to that point but we did enjoy ourselves. We ate dinner at RedPin, a bowling/pub place http://www.bowlredpin.com/over by Starbucks in Bricktown, the food was really good. Then after the race, we went to the stockyards area and ate at Cattlemen's Steakhouse http://www.cattlemensrestaurant.com/. The waiter gave an elaborate description of their succulent steaks and much to his disappointment, I didn't order a steak. All I wanted was a club sandwich, I wasn't that hungry. I noticed that the others at my table that ran the marathon didn't eat all their steaks, although they were really good, it was just a lot to eat.

Two weeks later we headed out to Fort Collins, CO to run with Marv Winters for one of his 50 states. We had a good size group going and Fort Collins is a quaint college town, home of Colorado State Univ. We needed to get some Gu and were excited to see an REI store. Some of us, me included, had never been inside an actual REI, had only shopped there online. We headed back to our rooms early and we were all dreading standing around the cold in the a.m. and the early start, 6:00 a.m. Buses would shuttle us to the start, it was a point to point race. We got up at 3 and left the hotel at 3:45 to meet the shuttles. The buses were comfy and warm, it was about 1/2 hour to the drop off point. No one wanted to get out of the bus but it wasn't too bad. We were down in the canyon and it felt warmer than the parking lot where the buses picked us up. There were lots of porta-potties and we huddled and stayed warm. Soon it was time to start. There were only 975 of us and it was nice to have a casual start instead of being packed in like sardines. This was the smallest marathon I had run in and once it was time to go, the race director pulled the trigger and we were off. The surroundings were beautiful, the temperature was in the low 40's, no wind, it was perfect. We were in the canyon for the first 18 miles and ran along the Poudre River. I had rafted this river with my family in the summer of 2007, that was part of the reason I wanted to run this marathon. When you're in the canyon, you descend about 1000 ft in those 18 miles. The road slopes really bad and my ankles got very sore. Then you are on a highway for about 3 miles, then you run through a city park and when you come out of there, you can see the finish line on down the street. I alternated between walking and running for the last six miles, the altitude had really gotten to me. I wasn't sure if some of my group had passed me while I took a potty break. I finished in 5:25, my slowest finish, this was my 7th marathon. I cried when I got back with my group, I was so mad but I had given it everything I had. I wasn't the last one to finish from the group but I was surprised how difficult it was to run in the altitude. I went back with some others to run Marv in to the finish. I am really glad we went up to support him as he gets close to completing his 50 states. He was even interviewed by a local station. http://www.google.com/url?sa=D&q=http://www.noco5.com/article/colorado-marathon&usg=AFQjCNFJZjU1lp2QgiCtKlVKlVIqiJEyQw

Some of the group stayed over another day and it snowed that night! I went back to Tulsa that night because my daughter was going on a mission trip to India the next day. Riding the shuttle back to the Denver airport, I had some good conversations with others who had run the marathon and everyone who was not from Colorado agreed that the altitude had affected them. Altitude aside, this was a great marathon to run and I recommend it to anyone who needs Colorado as one of their states. It does fill up early, it was full by Feb. 8. Next marathons will be Outer Banks, NC on November 14, which will be Marv's final state and St. Jude's in Memphis on Dec. 4. I'm going to do the R66 Quarter on Aug. 7 and the R66 Half on Nov. 21.

Imperfect Run

First day of Spring and we have snow. I don't think I've been in Oklahoma this winter, surely I've been somewhere on the east coast, Oklahoma is not supposed to have this much snow. We set out to go 20 miles this morning. I couldn't seem to get moving, I think I was subconsciously trying to avoid this run. I finally got to Veterens's Park shortly after 8 and of course, the faithful were already on their way. I parked over at 21st and hurried south on the trail. Sure enough, Carmie was waiting for me at 31st. My big blue rain hat is easy to spot. Going south was pleasant and 71st came up very quickly. When we turned to go across the 71st St bridge, it was torture, the sleet pelted our cheeks and we pulled our hoods and hats to cover the left side of our faces. It seemed to take forever to get across the bridge and finally we were on our way up to Turkey Mountain. We headed over on the west side and hit the north wind with full force. I wanted to quit so badly but I wanted to get back to my car more! I thought about the many times we had run on this side of the river and it was stinking hot. Today it was freezing cold and reminded me of the wind when I ran White Rock marathon in 2008. I was not good company today but we struggled through and decided to cut the run short when we got to the other side of the river. We ended up doing 14 but it felt like 20. We were so tense on the west side with our heads hunched down, trying to shelter our faces from the wind. We were the only RW group to show up for our run this morning but a lot of people may have opted for the Snake Run. I was so glad to be done and go to Panera. We talked about future marathons and how work gets in the way of our fun. Its great to have these marathons to look forward to. We are probably going to do the Memphis marathon in December. I hadn't seen this group of runners for awhile and it was fun to see this group again. Simone and Bronda are awesome run leaders and I'm glad we got to run together today. This was one of the worst training runs due to the weather but I feel good that we made it through without injury and most likely we increased our mental endurance. I don't know about next weekend, I am running the Wish Lemons run and I would like a PR which means I won't be able to run long. OKC will be three weeks after that and I've done 20 miles only once since R66. I could run long on Sunday but if I PR on Saturday, I won't have anything in the tank on Sunday.

Saturday in the Parks

We had a really fun route through several of Tulsa parks today. I really liked this route, took us all over downtown and varied elevations. It was an 11 mile route then I went south on Riverside to do another 9 to make my 20. While Iwas out on Riverside I met 2 runners, Tanya and Jana, who will be doing OKC as their first marathon. I ran out to 56th with them and enjoyed hearing how their training was going and how excited they are about OKC. That first marathon is so magic, it is so new, you have to trust all your training. I miss that a little. Subsequent marathons have had their own mysteries and uniqueness but their is nothing like the first one, kind of like having your first child...really I even cried when I finished my first and felt as happy as I did after having our first child.
I felt really good for this run, I walked a teeny bit, just between 2 lightpoles in my 16th mile. I'm working on the mental game, I usually check out around the 18th mile and I did much better at R66. And this was my second 20m this year and both times I have run the whole time, almost. Next week will be a drop back along with running the St. Pat run, then another 22 the next week.
When I pulled in the driveway, my daughter was on the cell, wanting to go out to eat. We went to Genghis Grill, yummm, great way to end a Saturday morning run.

Giving Back

This week didn't start out very good. At work, 8 people in my department were laid off, part of a company-wide layoff. I had survivor's guilt and felt overwelmed with the burden of missing them and more work than I could even comprehend.

Tuesday morning my neighbor didn't get up to run and the other guy we run with had just had a funeral for the unexpected death of his father and he was headed out to California. Since I fell a couple of weeks ago, I don't feel safe running by myself. I finally got to run on Thursday and had a good run although my neighbor frets everytime she hears my feet shuffle because she is worried I am going to fall.

Yesterday, I did not do a long Saturday run, actually, I didn't run at all. I volunteered at the Post Oak Trail Marathon by working the aid station at the Pole Barn, directing weary runners to the aid station and then directing them back out to the trail, cheering them on. This was a whole lot of fun, observing the different running attire, looking at the various running bodies, young & forever young, some lean, some mean and meeting other people in the running community. This is an inagural event and Tulsa Running Club went overboard to get this event off the ground. The weather was perfect, almost 50, clear skies, light wind. About 200 people signed up for the trail marathon and there were 300 signed for the 10, 25 and 50K on Sunday. These trails are new, they had to be marked, and then there's the aid stations to be set up and manned. Then they have to do it all again on Sunday for the 10, 25 and 50K races.

Trail running is a different running event, very slow. They didn't even take off fast from the starting line, one of my friends, just stood there fiddling with his Garmin, since the satelite hadn't kicked in, he didn't seem one bit concerned that he was the last person to start. As many of the runners came out of the trail to go to the aid station, they took their time. This was not a race, it was an event to finish, without regard for time. The trails are rigorous and to complete these events, without injury, takes focus and endurance. The main reason I volunteered was to support some friends of mine and I was totally impressed as I saw them come out of the trails, looking like they were having a very good time, at least at that point in the event which was 12.5 miles. Look at them, don't you agree? By the time I needed to leave (12:20), I had seen almost everyone-Jason, Lisa, Carmie, Chris, Donna, Mary, Teresa, Carolyn, Ken and Charlie. The only one I missed was Greg, the Garmin guy.

I was a little torn with not running, but this was not the weekend for me to tackle this. I needed to be available for phone calls on a database conversion at work and I think I would have ended up getting injured but I was a little envious as I watched my friends making their way on the trail. Well, missing this one and next week's Little Rock will make the next marathon, Oklahoma City, all the sweeter. There will be many more marathons for me, for now, I will pray for my friends as they recover from this race of endurance, actually, 2 races, they were daring enough to do the 10K on Sunday too.

Black Eye

Last week we had one of those treasured running days. We ran 20 miles and had a really good training run, felt great when we were done. We started at the Jenks bridge, ran north to about 56th street. This was my first time on this part of the redone Riverparks and it looks so nice. Then we went back out and up to Turkey Mountain, the parking lot up there is so pretty now with all the rock work.

On my Tuesday run, I fell and got a black eye. I was running with my neighbor and when I went down, she said a prayer for me. My only injury was the black eye and it didn't hurt. I'm very grateful that I didn't break anything. On my Thursday run, I fell again and received just a couple of scrapes, thank God. I don't know why I fell 2 days in a row, I was probably too tenative in my Thursday run, fearing that I was going to fall.

Yesterday's run was Poker Run day. I always look forward to this, an easy, untimed run, get cards at different pick up points, end up with 7 and see what kind of hand you have. Runners World brings a bounty of free merchandise, with the best going to those who have a Royal Flush.

We started out an hour early to get extra miles in. It was much colder and windier than we expected, the air was very damp and this put a dismal shadow on our running. We saw Simone and her group ( a big turnout) as well. Carolyn, who completed her first 50 mile ultra last week, joined us. We went thru downtown Tulsa and were thrilled to take a water break at the Adams Mark where it was nice and warm. We were so cold and it seemed to take forever to get back to Veteren's Park. We registered for the Poker Run and headed out for another 5. I met up with Janet Burgess, who I haven't seen in months. She will be running Boston in April 2011, I wish I could run with her but I don't think I'll be that fast this year. I managed to get thru this run with no falls, yay!

When we finished, we looked at our cards and decided to turn them in since they weren't very high and we didn't want to stand around forever for our prize. I am getting tired of the cold, this is so untypical of Oklahoma but I know shouldn't complain. The east coast has much worse weather than us.

Coffee at Starbucks, can't go wrong there, we discussed our future marathons and how I am going to get fast enough for Boston. My running buddies encouraged me, as they always do, together we'll make it happen. Their next race is the Post Oak Trail Marathon. I'm pretty sure that I am not going to do this. I think my recent falls are a warning that I should heed. I'll have a fun time volunteering.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone, I hope you either get a hug or give one and tell those dear to you how much you love them.