Mom to Marathon

Fitfluential Friday—A Father’s Influence

2012-01-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

I am excited to introduce Pavement Runner, one of the few male Fitfluential Ambassadors. I talk a lot on this blog about motherhood, moms etc., but rarely explore a dad’s perspective. I really enjoyed his post and I hope you do too.

You can follow him at Pavement Runner or @pavementrunner on Twitter. Send him some love!

In all the landmark moments that have happened in my life — from kissing a girl, to graduating college, to buying my first home — becoming a father makes those seem like small stepping stones whose sole purpose was to bring me to this single moment. This one opportunity to take everything that I have learned in my (insert number here) years of life and positively influence this beautiful little girl that my wife and I have been blessed with.

I have always been in shape. Sometimes that shape is a little more round than I would like, but I have typically always been at or within 10-15 pounds of a healthy weight, given my age and height. But something strange triggered when our daughter was born, I felt the need to improve my health and fitness. I guess at the root of this inclination was that I need to be healthier not just for me, but for her. That daddy needs to be around to see his daughter grow and to set a good example of what a healthy lifestyle is like.

My influence is being put to the test and it will help shape the life of a little girl. At who she will see as a male figure in her life growing up. How she will or will not depend on a man as she gets older. As a father, making my daughter feel safe and confident seems like one of the most important things I can do.

In the early months, finding time to squeeze in a few miles was difficult. If I wanted to learn how much of my personal time has to be sacrificed to fill the needs of starting a family, it was made clear early on. Although a mother's role typically demands more, being a part of the day-to-day routine was important to me. Making sure that mom and baby rested when possible required odd hours of maintaining the household: laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, etc.

But remember that strange feeling I mentioned two paragraphs ago? It was remembering that I ~~needed to~~ wanted to lead a healthier lifestyle that helped me make the decisions to put on my running shoes and head out the door when possible. It's also the reason that even with the reduced hours of sleep and fewer miles I was able to become a faster runner after she was born.

I wanted to be a better person for her. I wanted to be a stronger person for her. I wanted to show her through example, what it is like to lead a healthy lifestyle and to place value in fitness. I don't think I'm one of those parents that will force their children to partake in the activities that I enjoy. I won't force her to get up at 5 a.m. and run 10 miles before work or school. But at the same time, I don't want that to be considered strange if that is what she wants to do. I don't want it to be weird for her to have vegetables at dinner instead of french fries.

Becoming a father changed almost everything about my life. Things that I placed so much emphasis on before, were reevaluated and adjusted to fit the needs of the little one. But the thing is, it's good. It's changes that I wanted to make. People have commented that because I have a blog or run lots of miles that I influence others or motivate them to give running another try... but in all honesty, this tiny little beautiful girl has influenced me more, without saying a word, tweet or status update.

Sincerely, an influenced father.

Also, don’t forget to check out last week’s Fitfluential Ambassador. Please send Ashleigh some love at her blog, Waking Up in Vegas or on Twitter, @ashlovebash.

Have a great weekend and Happy Running…

Giveaway Winners!!

2012-01-24T11:35:00.001-08:00

The four winners of the “Favorite Things” giveaway are:

Entry #87 Michelle B.—iFitness Double Neoprene Belt

Entry #30 Toni C.—Nuun—bottle and tube

Entry #91 Aubrey L.—Jamba Juice gift card

Entry #19 Jen N.—Arbonne Lip Saver

Congratulations to the winners! Stay tuned for another giveaway soon.

First real “runner’s high” in a while—Los Angeles 13.1 Race Report

2012-01-22T23:00:00.001-08:00

Have you ever had a race/run where out of nowhere it gave you an incredible runner’s high? The run you weren’t really looking forward to, but did it anyway because you made the commitment?

That was what happened to me last Sunday. I won an entry to the Los Angeles 13.1 Half Marathon from RoadBunner. This race is about an hour from my house and as it approached I wasn’t too excited about doing it by myself. My friends didn’t want to do it and I didn’t push the issue since it was a $100 race. I was further un-excited when I had to drive an hour to pick up my packet.*

So without any taper [10 hard, hilly miles the week before; normal runs during the week; 8.5 miles the day before; 44-day run streak leading up to it] I decided to run without a solid plan.

Last year, I ran that race in 1:49:08. It would be nice to run it faster than that. A 1:45 would be spectacular. So even though I didn’t think I could keep the pace, I started out hoping to run between 8 and 8:15 minutes/mile. Normally, I don’t like going out too fast; I hate hitting the wall at the end of a race. But in this race, I didn’t really have anything to lose.

Miles 1-4—7:48, 7:48; 7:57, 7:54 Was a 1:45 possible?? Sub-8’s were feeling easier than they ever had. I had only run that fast during a 5K and during the Fontana Half Marathon last June, which has a major downhill loss in the first half.

The course this year was SO much better than last year. We ran along the boardwalk in Venice beach and then around the bay of Marina del Rey. I have never been in Marina del Rey and it is beautiful. There is something very peaceful about a marina.

Miles 5-7—8:04, 8:04, 8:08 My legs were starting to feel heavy. I am not sure if my fatigue was helped along by the concrete beach path. I really felt like my feet were pounding. This part of the race reminded me of the beach path during the Long Beach Marathon. There were a lot of winding turns. Even though I tried to run the tangents, I kept losing mileage; the the halfway point of the race, I was about .1 off on the mile markers**

Miles 8-11—8:18, 8:18, 8:18, 8:19 Right before the mile 8 marker, there was a mean hill. This was a race along the ocean,so I didn’t expect hills. It is advertised as a flat course, so I didn’t expect hills. I don’t usually mind hills, but my tired legs were NOT loving hills at this point. Then there was another at mile 9. This one kicked my booty pretty hard. For the first part of that mile, I was running in the 9’s. Luckily, it flattened out and we hit the turnaround. You know what that means…we got to run back down that hill. Yeah! Unfortunately, I was so wiped out by that time, I couldn’t take full advantage of that downhill.

The worst part of the entire course was during this section. Around mile 8.5 I smelled a horrid smell. At first there was a strong chemical smell. Then a pungent smell of sewage. I tried to breath out of my mouth as best I could, but it was really nasty. Unfortunately, this was an out-an-back course and the way back was even worse.At around mile 10.5, the smell was nearly intolerable. I definitely had to breathe exclusively through my mouth. This smell ruined the race for one runner. G(r)eek Melie felt nauseous from it and didn’t recover the rest of the race.

Miles 12-13.25—8:21, 8:06, 6:45 pace Around mile 11, I hit a serious wall. I didn’t stop, but I wanted to. I knew if I stopped to walk just once, I would not be able to finish strong or finish at all. For the first time in a long time, I was hating running right then. I just wanted it to be done. I was putting one foot in front of the other. I knew if I kept doing that, I would get done with the race. This part of the course was straight and slightly downhill. The downhill was the only thing that kept that mile respectable.

When my Garmin hit mile 12, I knew I just had a couple more songs on my iPod and I would be done. I thought of my encouraging words to my friend, Jen in Santa Barbara, “it will stop hurting when we cross that finish line and stop.” I kept telling myself that the agony would be over when I stopped. So I picked it up and basically gave it everything I had to the end. I was shocked that I could still pull out an almost 8-minute-mile being that tired.

Toward the very end, I picked it up. Then I saw a woman ahead of me who I had seen throughout the race. I guessed she was close to my age.*** I decided that I didn’t want to be beat in my age group by a couple of seconds. I started to sprint. I ran faster than I can remember running in a race. All I wanted to do was to beat that random woman. The crowd helped me by cheering me on. I ended up beating her by three seconds. I thanked her at the end and told her good job. That last bit of the race was some of my fastest running ever. In fact, when I kicked it into that final sprint, I felt so strong! 6:45 pace? Wow…that is FAST. Go me!

My official time was 1:46:59, which was in the top 10 of my age group. That is nine seconds faster than Fontana of 2010, making it my second fastest half marathon. My PR is 1:42:30, but that is an incredibly fast downhill course. I don’t even really count it as a PR. Sunday’s race was a more true PR.

I am super proud of myself and very happy with my performance. I thought I had lost some speed. Tempo runs have been few and far between and a struggle to run under 8-minute miles. I found a new gear and overcame very tired legs. It makes me wonder how I would do if I actually trained for a half marathon with speed work and a decent taper.

I was on an incredible high for days. I was there by myself, but found plenty of friendly runners to chat with. I shared a beer with one runner (darn, I forgot her name!), some food with others and a shuttle seat with a lovely lady named Magaly.

Oh…and the bling wasn’t either.

Next race…Tinkerbell. I am really looking forward to dressing like a fairy and running with some great women. I will be meeting at least one online friend for the first time.

Don't forget to enter my Favorite Things giveaway!! Tomorrow is the last day!

Happy Running…

*There was no expo, just people passing out bibs. Really? What a waste of gas and time! This fact became more annoying when I saw them passing out bibs the morning of the race. I kicked myself, because I should have emailed the race personnel to see if this was an option that wasn’t listed on the website. Grrrr….
**I enjoyed the fact that there were mile markers with clocks at every mile.
***When checking the results, it looks like she was actually in the age group above me.

Fitfluential Friday

2012-01-20T06:50:00.000-08:00

I am starting a feature every Friday called "Fitfluential Friday." I will be featuring guest bloggers to talk about various aspects of what "fitfluential" means to them. I am hoping to provide some different perspectives while highlighting some pretty incredible people. I hope you enjoy!

Hey Everyone!
I'm Ashleigh from Waking Up In Vegas, and I'm sure as you guessed I am from Las Vegas, and I write a fitness, healthy living, and everything in between kind of blog! Feel free to pop over and say hello! I am so excited to be apart of this new Fitfluential Friday series, it is ironic i also happen to write a Fitfluential post every Friday too. =] Great minds think alike ;)

Today I decided I should share some background on myself of how I became a fitness lover!

I have been athletic for as long as I can remember, I did dance/gymnastics before i could even spell my last name! [its a true story, my last name is pretty difficult] I soon quit dance to become a full-time competitive gymnast. This meant going to the gym [as in gymnastics gym] 4-5 days a week for 4 hours a day! no joke..it was intense. I was told I was too small and needed to gain muscles but I couldn't because I wasnt intaking enough calories. I worked off way more than I ate so my muscles were thriving for more fuel! I was put on a strict diet of protein, protein, and more protein! I had to drink protein shakes before gymnastics and had to stop and have a snack halfway through practice because doctors were scared I was losing to much weight.

Insert first time I was concerned about my weight...As a gymnast you are very aware of your weight and you need to make sure that you eat healthy and stay in shape; coaches would warn you if they thought you were gaining too much. I never had this problem thankfully but you would think I did. One day I went to the doctors at the age of 11 and weighted 72 pounds. I saw the 72 and freaked out..the last time I went to the doctors I had weighted 70. I didnt take in account that it had been a year, I didnt take in account that I was growing up..I just saw weight gain and got scared that my coaches would be mad.

Fast Forward about 5 years..age 16 hits. I am in high school weighing in about 120..I was about 5'5-5'6 at the time so this was definitely a healthy weight. I had quit gymnastics and started dancing again. I was on my high school swim team (captain to be exact ;)) and I was starting my senior year. I didnt really pay to much attention to my weight at this time, I was dancing an hour a day and then had practice for 2 hours for swim team. Insert friends my friends were soooo insecure..and they rubbed off on me. I became very insecure. I started watching what I ate, exercising even more and looked up every single calorie i consumed. I was secretly developing a disorder.

um yah..I hated this picture because I thought I was HUGE.

Fast Forward 1 year to my first year of college. I was 17 about to turn 18, and was extremely insecure. Thinking I looked fat in everything. I was size 3..not fat at all. I was dating someone long distance and was enjoying getting to buy my own groceries, make my own food and being in total control of EVERYTHING. No one was there to monitor me. I soon developed some really bad habits, I would eat around 700 calories a day and work out twice a day. I would walk the long way to all my classes trying to lose some extra calories. I would do this for the 3 weeks I wasnt with my ex, then when he came up we would enjoy everything and I would act as if I was eating normally. Then once he left I would have a binge day..eating everything I saw....then go back on my crazy diet. Those freshman 15 myths never happened for me because of this. I once went on saltine diet..6 saltine crackers a day. no joke. chugging water whenever hungry. I also had a slight case of bulimia. Right before I moved back to Vegas I ate a mini box of thin wheats with salsa...and I cried. I called my mom crying..I called my dad crying..I was slowly losing control.

see how skinny i look in these two pictures.. the one on the left..my pants are so baggy...and the one on the right..well i just look pale..my hair was so brittle. I remember this was right when i moved back from Reno.

[although i do love the definition in my legs].

My grandparents came up to help me move home, my grandma commented on how horrible I looked and that I should not lose anymore weight. I just nudged it off. When I arrived home it was late in the evening, I ate "dinner" and went to bed. What did I do the next morning? Went to the gym...at six a.m. nothing was unpacked, nothing was done; but my first priority was the gym. What didnt help is that my ex LOVED the way I looked. but everyone else hated it.

My mom threatened to send me to a therapist if i didn't stop this business. I slowly started to eat better and work out an appropriate amount of time. I started to look better and to tell you the truth, I started to feel better. I gained back some much needed weight. After a couple of months of living at home I decided to move out with the dreaded EX, and that did not help any situations. We enjoyed "acting married" and we would make elaborate dinners and have movie nights on the couch gorging on popcorn and candy.

I gained some "love" pounds but quickly got rid of it the moment I realized my pants were much tighter than I wanted. I made the decision to end the relationship due to ~~cheating~~ unrecognizable differences, and some of the pounds creeped back on. I tried crazy fad diets like HCG, and almost going anorexic [but I couldnt do it, I just love food too much.] After each failure with each diet I would binge and the weight never went anywhere, I just kept gaining.

me at my heaviest;

embarrassing!

About a year and a half ago I met the love of my life, my boyfriend, he met me at my highest weight and fell in love with me. I realized I didn't have to be stick skinny to be loved, if he loved me at my highest he will love me even more when I lose it. But that didnt mean I felt "sexy" or happy with my own self, and I wanted to change that.

Speed forward to present time. I have lost about 15 pounds and gained about 2 lbs in muscle. I have started running, eating right and tracking everything to make sure I am giving my body what it needs. How did I start this? Fitfluential. I read a ton of fitness/healthy living blogs and it inspired me to become healthy not only for me but for my future..my unborn babies, and my boyfriend/husband. Healthy living isn't about a diet, it isn't about working out two times a day trying to drop LBs really fast. It's about setting your life up for success, knowing that small changes in diet and exercise routine can help you in the long run. It's about giving my body the things it needs to function properly.

this is me now.

Do I still get discouraged when the scale doesnt move?..sure..in fact just the other night I wanted to cry because the numbers went up by one and not down. But the definition I am seeing in my arms, legs and those little itty bitty abs are what make it count. The fact that I am able to run further than ever before, the fact that I can do more push-ups than before..this is what keeps me going. Without Fitfluential i dont know if my new healthy-living lifestyle would be going this strong. The support from fellow bloggers, the support from YOU, is what keeps me going!

starting to see definition.

work in progress.

With that I thank you for reading this ridiculously long post, and hopefully it shows you how far I have come in my life and why Fitfluential is so important to me.

Thanks, Ashleigh!! Are you "fitfluential?" Why are you "fitfluential" in your own way??

Enjoy your weekend. Get out there and MOVE. Happy Running (or whatever your movement is...)!

Tough Chik Tuesday

2012-01-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

As I posted last week, I am going to start featuring other athletes each week to get a new perspective. We all are different and all have our stories, but are connected in one way or another. I am connected to most of you and to my guest posters by running and fitness. Tuesdays I will feature someone from Team Tough Chik, a great group of women that I have been so excited to get to know.

Today’s guest post is from Michelle. She writes a blog at Carpenter’s Corner.

What Makes Me A Tough Chik

Let’s be honest. I don’t think I’m the poster child for “Tough Chik”.

I consider myself on the training roster. Oh sure. I’ve battled trials and tribulations in life—the loss of my dear friend to cancer, alcoholism, unemployment and depression. But that’s all in the past. I feel fortunate that I’m not fighting for my life, that I have a loving husband, healthy children and a good job; a warm bed, a roof over my head, good friends and a full belly. And through all the bad and good, I’ve got this wonderful body that has carried me many miles through life.

I’m learning to push my body to places I’ve never been. My goal is that at the end of this life, people reflect on me and think “That was one TOUGH CHIK”. I don’t think that I’ve pushed my body to the depths of tough. I keep pushing the envelope and keep watching my potential grow. That’s a pretty cool feeling.
I signed up for Tough Chik because it is what I want to aspire to be. It’s a good reminder of why I work hard. I had no idea when I signed up that I would be welcomed into a community of other women. Really! I thought I was buying cute clothes and supporting a great cause. Instead, I have gained MORE running friends. And what once were taboo words in my vocabulary….swimming and cycling, are becoming a little warmer thanks to many of YOU. Do I hear a TRI in my future? Hmmmm. But first up, is Boston baby!

Training for any marathon, especially Boston reminds me of what makes me need to strive to be a Tough Chik. Balancing a full time job, a husband and two kids, a household and other “big girl” commitments takes up a large part of my day. I’m not an early morning runner because my husband works nights and is just going to bed at 3 a.m. I treasure those few hours we have together. I fit my run in at night, when I can. It is what it is. On the weekends, my family commits to Sunday mornings without me so I can get my long run in. We all make it work…for my sanity and theirs!

In the past, I’ve trained alone or with my dad who bikes with me. As I’ve become more comfortable in my running skin, I’m learning to embrace running with other people. Joining Tough Chik was a good way to help me find enjoyment in running with a group. I’ve learned a lot, been pushed a lot and have encouraged others a lot, too. This is a new place for me and I love it. I recently wrote a post about “Where It All Began” and I can’t believe where I am now!

So thanks for allowing me this opportunity. You ladies continually inspire me with your enthusiasm, honesty and athleticism. I can hardly wait to meet you on the road ahead. Push on, Tough Chiks

Thank you, Tough Chik, Michelle! Happy Running!

Don't forget to enter to win some fabulous prizes on my favorite things post! If you already entered, you can get more entries by tweeting every day!

Favorite Things AND a couple of giveaways!

2012-01-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

2011 was a good year. Here is a list of some of the things that got me through the last year in running. I originally planned to post this as a Christmas list, but my December hiatus postponed this post.
Some of my favorite things are the same as last year, but I have a few new ones as well.

1. Nuun.—I am a new Nuun convert (a “Nuunie”). I had tried it in the past, but didn’t become loyal until this year. They have lots of yummy flavors, so I will never get bored. I am so spoiled now that I don’t even use water. My kids are hooked as well. They drink it during hockey and soccer practices. It seems to really keep me hydrated—no more calf cramps. Keep reading for giveaway below!

2. iFitness Double Neoprene Pouch—I have already written about this one, but it remains my favorite accessory. I use it for nearly every run. I honestly don’t know what I would do without this accessory. It fits my phone (an HTC Incredible 2, which is not a small phone), camera, cash, lip balm…whatever. Keep reading for giveaway below!

3. Knee Socks. Fellow Hood to Coast Nuun Plattuuner Tonia (from Racing with Babes) got me hooked on knee socks. They make a fashion statement AND when they are compression socks, they help my muscles feel better after a run. In fact, I have enjoyed running in compression socks so much that I ran St. George in my hot pink Recovery Socks. I also have compression socks from Zensah and Bauer (they came free with my husband’s hockey gear).

4. Arbonne Lip Saver lip balm. This little lip balm is awesome. It has SPF 30 and stays on for a long time. It smells nice, but isn't overpowering. It is smoother than chapstick and other lip balms, but stays on longer than most smooth or creamy lip stuff. You can buy it HERE.

5. Sugoi Versa jacket—I received this for Christmas last year and I love it. The sleeves come off to leave a vest. The bolero style sleeves stash neatly in the back pocket. I t is great to wear on a chilly morning, especially one that is a little breezy.

6. Arm Warmers—I love my arm warmers. I have four pair and enjoy all of them. They are different brands. The weather around here can get pretty crazy. We have had runs where it is 40 degrees when we start and 70 when we end. This is when arm warmers really come in handy. When it warms up, I just pull them off and tie them around my iFitness belt.

7. Garmin—This little gadget continues to be a staple in my running. Pacing and split management was key in my success in St. George. I still need to find ways to use it to its fullest potential. I rarely use the heart rate monitor and haven’t learned how to use the virtual partner.

8. Rockmyrun.com—My new source for running music can’t be beat. Have you discovered this site yet? Do yourself a favor while it is still in Beta. Their running mixes are FREE right now! And they are awesome. They have worked with runners to find some great mixes with the perfect beats per minute.

9. Jamba Juice—I still love my Jamba. I love the smoothies, I love the oatmeal, I love just about everything. I am trying to add more greens to my diet and have recently started having a wheat grass shot every time I go in. My kids beg me for the frozen yogurt. Did you know they had frozen yogurt? disclosure: http://cmp.ly/2/lHtGGa

OK…now the part you were looking for! The GIVEAWAY! I am giving away FOUR of my favorite things! I am giving away one iFitness Double Neoprene Pouch, one tube of Nuun (and a bpa-free plastic bottle to drink it from), a $5 Jamba Juice gift card, and a tube of Arbonne Lip Saver!!!!! I will have a total of four winners--one for each prize.

You must be a follower to win, but other than that, all the entries are optional. You get an entry for leaving a comment saying which prize you want to win, if you have a preference. It is optional, but if you don’t leave a comment, I won't know what you want, so you get what you get. ;-) If you tweet, please use @momtomarathon so I know you tweeted. Also, if you like a Facebook page (mine, iFitness or Nuun), can you stop by and leave a comment so I know? Thanks!

Please make sure you enter using the Rafflecopter entry form below. I will use Rafflecopter to pick a winner on January 23.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tough Chik Tuesday

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-08:00

I recently joined a team of women called Team Tough Chik. At first, I did because I liked the singlet and thought it would be cool to say I was on “Team Tough Chik” while I was running my first 50K.

But then I was added to the Team Tough Chik Facebook group and discovered 100+ other athletes that were a lot like me. There are newbies as well as experienced athletes. It is an extremely active group with great advice and encouragement. I knew several of the women already from the blogging world. Two of them are Nuun Platuun teammates.

There are so many outstanding women sharing the moniker of “tough chik.” I have decided to dedicate Tuesdays on my blog to featuring women on this team. I am excited to see what these great women have to say about being tough chiks!

My first Tough Chik post is from the owner/founder of Team Tough Chik, Shannon. Thanks for putting together such a great group of women, Shannon!

Hi, my name is Shannon and I am the owner of Tough Chik women’s performance apparel. I am an amateur athlete who just happened to start a clothing company. I have never podiumed, I’m not sponsored, and I buy all my equipment just like everyone else. I am a gal just like you, who started cycling which led to running which led to triathlons. I am not particularly good or fast, but I love it and I like to look cute when I do it.

I say on the site that Tough Chik is not just a clothing company, it is a way of life and that is very important to me. Tough Chik, the name, came from my mom and grandmother, who always referred to themselves as “Tough ‘Ol Birds”, referring to their inner strength and courage.

Our tag line is “this is what tough looks like”, because I believe we are all tough in our own ways. That is why I love to ask, “What makes you a Tough Chik?” The answers are as varied as we are. Some women are cancer survivors, some run in the snow, some have lost over 100 lbs, some women, like me, have just gone through a lot tragedy in life and have come out the other side with increased experience and resolve.

Tough Chiks are proud of who we are, where we came from and, more importantly, where we are going.

I started Team Tough Chik with Angela Meyers with hopes of creating a team that accepts all women from elites to beginners, Ironman triathletes to fun-runners and everyone in between! We are very proud to announce that Team Tough Chik is 171 chiks strong with women from 5 countries and 36 states.

I will be featuring one Tough Chik each week to learn a bit more about what makes tough chicks tick.

Happy Running…

How I do a bowl game

2012-01-06T11:06:00.001-08:00

It all started in the year 2000 when the Oregon Ducks played the Texas Longhorns in the Holiday Bowl. My husband, a die-hard Ducks fan (who I didn’t know at the time), made an elaborate wager with his best friend, a die-hard Texas fan. The bet involved pushups, arm slaps (they all revert to 12 year old boys) and beer.

This year at the Holiday Bowl, Texas played Cal, but my hubby tried to resurrect the wager- this time cheering for the Pac 12 team. However, my dear husband couldn’t back up his trash-talking. He had injured his shoulder a few weeks ago and was unable to do pushups. So his wonderful wife stepped in. It was actually pretty fun. I did the pushups on the stadium steps in Qualcomm Stadium. I was challenged to do them with my feet up the stairs. By the end of the game, as Texas came close to scoring, all the fans around us would look at me in anticipation. I think if I wasn’t wearing a Duck jersey, I might have made it up on the jumbotron.

I did 42 pushups for Texas’ 21 points (7 + 14+ 21). It actually made the game more exciting. This year’s Holiday Bowl was a bit boring—it broke the record for the most number of punts. Thank goodness the Texas coach doesn’t like running up the score. At the end of the game, they could have scored another touchdown, but they chose to take a knee and end the game.

So when I found myself doing a little trash talking on Facebook with Erika, from MCM Mama, about the Rose Bowl on Monday, I decided to take my dear husband’s lead. Erika is a big Badgers fan and, as you know, I love my Ducks. I challenged her to a wager. Here is what I challenged her to:

Every time the other team scores, we do pushups for every point (when Oregon scores a touchdown, you do seven pushups; when Wisconsin gets a field goal, I'll do three). To make it more interesting, we will do all the points (when Oregon scores the second touchdown, you'll do fourteen pushups).
Every time our team loses yardage (sack, penalty etc.) we will do a sit up for each lost yard (fifteen situps for facemask etc.).
The loser will run the difference in the score in the other team's colors and write about it. Let's hope it isn't a blow out!

She accepted the challenge. It was ON.

If you watched the game, you can probably guess how things went. Well, to clue you in, this game was the highest scoring Rose Bowl EVER. You can read her account of the challenge HERE.

I just have to say that Erika is SO cool. She was such a great sport. I was worried that she was going to dislike me and think I was some sort of sadist. Our text conversation reassured me that she was taking it all in stride.

I ended up doing 139 pushups. I’m not going to lie, the last 38 pushups were pretty tough. I also did 30 situps. I think I would have rather done 139 situps and 30 pushups! Erika ended up doing 200 pushups! She really only had to do 192, but she rounded up to 200. That is one tough chick!

To add insult to injury, she had to run seven miles in green and yellow.

And THAT is how tough chicks do bowl games. How did you celebrate bowl season for college football? Did you cheer for your favorite team?

Happy Running….

A Break and a New Year

2012-01-01T14:01:00.001-08:00

I have taken a break from this blog for a few weeks. It wasn’t a planned break. I have several posts in my drafts, but I couldn’t muster the creativity and motivation to finish and post them. I suppose it was a case of writer’s block. I just couldn’t find it in me to complete a blog post. It was a busy, busy December and something had to give. It was this blog (as well as reading blogs of others—for that I apologize). I will do my best to make up for it over the next weeks and months.

Here is a little recap of my running life since Thanksgiving.

I was chosen recently as a Fitfluential Ambassador! While my blogging this past month hasn’t been much help to them, I am hoping to be an active member of the Fitfluential community! Check out my bio: http://fitfluential.com/family/lisa-roehm-gensel/

My husband and I had our perfect kind of date. The kids were at our friends’ house and we went on a wonderful mountain bike ride. It was a perfect Southern California December morning and we had fun riding a nice mix of technical trails and fire road.

I volunteered for the XTerra Crystal Cove Trail Run for the third year in a row. I enjoy the people organizing the race, I enjoy the trail runners. This year I was able to talk a friend into coming with me. Shannon and I braved the cold dark, early morning to check in runners and then help the timing crew record everyone as they crossed the finish line.

It is trail running season in Southern California. The weather is perfect, the snakes are long gone and it has been relatively dry. My big race in the spring is a trail race, so I am eager to get out there in the wild. I love our area and hope to explore even more trails in the coming months.

I finished up a couple of sessions of Body Back. These sessions were small, but they were GREAT. My clients had amazing results. I am learning more and able to provide a lot to these women. In turn, they inspire me to keep on track with my goals. I am particularly proud of one client’s twenty pound weight loss. She lost six inches from her waist in eight weeks. That is a noticeable difference.

I joined a challenge on Daily Mile initiated by Mel-Tall Mom. She challenged her DM friends to run at least a mile every day in December. I have had trouble with motivation lately and I figured that I needed some extra help. A public challenge is just what I needed. I ended up December with 133 miles! That is my second highest mileage month of the year. I don’t own a treadmill, so 100% of the runs were outside. Several of them were with one or both of my kids. At least twice, I had to change out of pajamas to get a late night mile in (having almost forgotten to run with all the Christmas chaos). Toward the end of the month, my kids would check with me, “Mom, did you run your mile?” or “Mom, did you do the streak today?” I love it! Are we friends on Daily Mile yet? http://www.dailymile.com/people/Lisarg#ref=tophd

It is a new year and I am excited to face new challenges. But more on that later. I hope you are enjoying a happy new year’s weekend.

In the next few days and weeks, I will be finishing up some posts. Posts I have waiting to be finished: Santa Barbara Race Report, Favorite Things (including a giveaway!), Winter Hydration and a “Tell Me About Yourself” Blog Award, Brief Overview of 2011 and my 2012 race schedule. Stay tuned!!

p.s. Go Ducks!!

Another great Turkey Trot

2011-12-02T08:09:00.001-08:00

I have a Turkey Trot streak going. Since the year I first started running (2008), I have run a Turkey Trot every Thanksgiving. My first was rainy. My second helped a friend reach a 10K goal. I saw a PR in my third. And this year was all about my kids.

I have been suffering from a lack of motivation lately. Since St. George, I haven’t done a lot of running (or blogging for that matter). I did run a half marathon with my friends (race report will be posted soon), but I haven’t done much running beyond my weekend long runs.

So when plans for the local Turkey Trot were being made, I wasn’t super excited to race. I am not in racing shape. It is funny, I am happy to run a half marathon not in “racing shape” but not a 10K. So when my eight-year-old asked about running, I was happy to commit to run with him.During my normal motivation mode, I would have run to the race, raced it, and then run home. This was a bit different for me. I ran with him on 4th of July when I was injured and enjoyed myself immensely. I knew we would have fun again. The difference this year is that his younger sister begged to run as well. Luckily, they were hosting a kids’ run right after the 5K.

We got to the park around 6:45 to register for the event. I saw my friends who were running the 10K. Oddly enough, I didn’t feel the slightest twinge of jealousy at them running it. I was really looking forward to running the 5K with my son.* He was pretty excited!

We lined up at the starting line and were ready to go!

I forgot to bring my Garmin. It was a good thing. I think if I would have slowed him down. He was running pretty strong and fast.

He was getting very tired in the last mile. I tried to give him encouragement the entire time. I told him how proud I was of him and encouraged him to keep it up. I also let him know that it was ok to take walk breaks. I was pretty sure he was running at a faster pace than he ran in July. I saw something in him I hadn’t seen. Around the second mile he started looking at his watch. He wanted to beat his previous time! In the last mile, I actually told him to stop looking at his watch. LOL. Like mother like son.

We merged with the 10K race and ran on the river trail path, one I know very well. He was great. Whenever he wanted a walk break, he would move over to the dirt so he didn’t get in anyone’s way. He is learning race etiquette early!

When we saw the finish banner, I encouraged him to finish strong. And he did! He turned it on and kept it going until the end. I was so, so, so proud of him.

And, yes…he did get a PR. In July, he ran a 36:51. On Thanksgiving, he ran 5K in 33:05!!!!! What an awesome PR! It is hard to describe how proud I feel.

Early in the race, he told me that he wanted to run the 1K Kids’ Run with his little sister. After pushing himself that hard, he asked if it was ok if he didn’t run with his sister. I think he deserved to take a break.

My husband showed up with my five-year-old She was so excited to run her “very first race.” She wanted to run it with her brother, but when we explained that he was pretty tired, she quickly became excited to run with Mommy.

All the kids lined up. They yelled “go” and we were off. She looked at me and said “this is so fun!” Man, how many times can a mom’s heart melt in one day?

In one kilometer, she went through all the emotions runners experience during a race. I wish I would have videotaped the entire thing for her to watch someday. In the beginning, everything was fun and easy and she was carried by adrenaline. The route went up a slight hill and she said “I can’t do it!” “Of course you can,” was my reply. And she pushed her way up that hill. She laughed as we ran down that small incline. There was a water station near the halfway point. She stopped briefly, sipped some water and had a look of renewed determination as she started running again, her body language saying “I can do it!” On the home stretch she was having fun again (second wind?). As we sprinted toward the finish line, she said, “this is easy!” Isn’t that the feeling we all get at the end of a race? LOL.

It was a great morning! We went home and hosted a fabulous dinner** My daughter was overheard saying several times, “this is the best Thanksgiving EVER.” I would have to agree, my love…I definitely agree.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed your own tradition, whether it be a Turkey Trot or something else.

Happy Running…

*In July, he asked me if he could run the 10K on Thanksgiving. I told him if he trained for it, he could. Since he hadn’t done any real training, he could only run the 5K.

**I had eleven people for dinner and cooked the BEST Thanksgiving turkey I have ever done. I used a fantastic brine from Alton Brown. I did most of my cooking on Wednesday and had a schedule for Thursday that kept my time in the kitchen to a minimum.

My latest workout: Pure Barre

2011-11-14T13:27:00.001-08:00

Recently, I went to my very first Pure Barre class (and then again last Tuesday). I was pretty nervous. This was a class different from what I usually do. I expected it to be a little like Power Yoga, but then I heard the Britney Spears music coming from inside the studio. I had heard that it was inspired by ballet. I am not a dancer and am actually a bit of a spaz. I didn’t want to embarrass myself. I am a running and fitness coach, for crying out loud…how bad would it be if I couldn’t hang?

*photo courtesy of purebarre.com

Pure Barre doesn’t use cardio or any impact whatsoever. It uses isometric holds and very small movements. It turned out to be awesome. It was definitely a challenge, but I was able to keep up and do all the exercises. At one point my leg was shaking quite a bit. Apparently, this is a good thing. A woman next to me was shaking so much, the bar was shaking. She must have been doing really well.

When I went on Tuesday, I had the bright idea to run to class. The studio is a little less than two miles from my house. I had blown off running with my friends in the morning and wanted to get a few miles in before last weekend’s race. It wasn’t a particularly difficult run (it is mostly downhill), but I ran it pretty quickly in order to get to the class early enough to cool down, change my socks etc. So I started that class with warmed up, but somewhat tired, muscles. My leg shook a lot more. Let's just say that the run back home, uphill, wasn't nearly as easy.

The website said that they limit the class size so that they are small enough for individual attention.

“we keep our classes small to ensure each clients receives personal attention and hands-on corrections.”

The first class didn’t seem very limited to me. As soon as the preceding class let out, women streamed into the studio. I got into the room and it was nearly full. I am sure there were at least 20 women. By the time everyone was in, I doubt there was much room left at all. However, we all seemed to have enough room—we weren’t kicking each other. Tuesday’s class was much smaller, which I preferred. The instructor was able to come around and correct form, posture etc. At first, I was self-conscious. The first instructor came over to me once to gently position my body to the proper place. However, during the second class, it seemed like Kelsey adjusted my form nearly every exercise. I thought maybe I was doing it completely wrong. However, I looked around and noticed that she went to just about everyone and tweaked and adjusted their positions. To get the most out of Pure Barre, your hips need to be tucked in just right to engage the muscles properly.

The class starts with a warm up, but it didn’t take long for the exercises to feel pretty difficult. For example, we did a plank. As I started to fatigue, we were instructed to go from forearms to our hands in pushup position and begin pushups. Thank goodness she told us to do them on our knees; full pushups would have probably wiped me out right there. After regular pushups, we also did pushups targeting different parts of the arm (such as triceps and shoulders). That was all in the first few minutes.

The class was well organized. We went from upper body to thighs to seat to abs and back. The class kept moving and the music was upbeat. This is a consistent format, no matter where you take the class. When I went to my second class, it was nice knowing what to expect.

Pure Barre is a nice contrast to the heavy impact exercising that I do on a regular basis. I truly believe that the strength I will build with this class will enhance my running. I have been struggling for a couple of years with recurring IT Band issues. I have been told that these issues stem from my hips. Specifically, I have been overusing my TFL (tensor fasciae latae). Pure Barre strengthens the muscles of the hip and seat. I can feel my glute muscles getting stronger, which will help balance the TFL, putting less pressure on my IT Band.

Pure Barre costs a bit more than I like to pay. I tried it out due to a Living Social deal which made it more affordable for me. At our local studio, a single class is $25. An unlimited one month membership is $225 and a ten-class pass is $210. It is on the high end of fitness classes for this area. I will take advantage of various specials that they offer from time to time. In fact, they have a great special going on now for $165 for one month unlimited or ten classes.

Thinking about trying out Pure Barre? The only thing you need is a pair of socks. They recommend the yoga/Pilates socks with traction on the bottom. I really like the ones that leave my toes open. All the other equipment (weights, bands, balls and mats) is provided. I bring water or Nuun because I like to stay hydrated, but not everyone brings a drink. You should also wear pants or capris. It is important to keep your legs and muscles warm. In addition, you often hold a rubber ball between your legs, which might not be so comfy on your skin.

Overall, I give Pure Barre a thumbs up. I will continue to take the classes as long as I can afford it. I probably won’t take it four or five times a week, like they recommend. I still need room in my schedule for teaching my own classes, running and taking care of my kids. I am hoping I can get results by going once or twice a week.

I hope you out there moving your body and loving it.

Coming soon… Santa Barbara Half Marathon race report.

Inspiring Woman Inspiring Women #1

2011-10-31T10:10:00.001-07:00

Amanda, from Runninghood, did a post about some inspiring women that she has discovered in the blogosphere. I am stealing her idea and taking her lead. So here is my first list of women who inspire me. Of course, this is not an all inclusive list. I decided to start with some of the first women that I met on the internet through this blog.

Terri-

Terri was the first person to comment on my blog (other than my family and friends). I remember how excited I was to receive support from a total stranger. Terri and I connected through our blogs and I discovered what a great social network blogging really is. I had no idea. Terri doesn’t blog much any more. She has had a lot going on in her life lately. But the great thing about Terri is that she tries all the time to focus on the positive—even when things are crumbling around her. She has always been so supportive of me—3000 miles away.

Oh and Terri is my idol when it comes to ab strength. She is a machine when it comes to planks!

Jill--

Jill’s blog is interesting and informative. She is a fellow RRCA coach and leads a Team Challenge group in Las Vegas. She is a go-to gal for product reviews and all the latest trends in running. Jill was a finalist in Shape Magazine’s Best Bloggers. Her story was also featured in Shape and can be read HERE.

Jill has overcome an eating disorder and is a strong advocate for healthy body image. In addition, she is a strong advocate for breast cancer awareness. Her mother fought cancer and she was chosen to run the Global Race For the Cure event in Washington DC with her mother. You can read about it HERE.

Alissa--

Alissa doesn’t blog much anymore either, but she does run a pretty cool t-shirt company called Balancing Act Clothing*. She has some beautiful designs and inspirational messages. Alissa struggles to fight her own personal demons. Yet she still finds a way to be supportive and encouraging to those around her.

Alissa is a talented designer. In fact, she designed the logo for my business that I LOVE.

Alice--

Alice lives very near where I lived in the San Diego area. In fact, my son went to the elementary school (for a couple months) that he kids went to. I think I found her blog due to the fact that she was “local.” I became a fan of the blog because it was so much fun to read.

She and her best friends, the Heffers, run together (and sometimes bike) and often celebrate a good run with some mimosas afterwards. My kind of gals! They travel all over to run races together and then Alice writes about their adventures. I was able to be part of one adventure at a race a couple of years ago. Fun times!

Alice inspires me not to take myself too seriously. Running is an opportunity to be outside, be active and be with friends.

Thus far, I have focused on bloggers I met while my blog was still very young. I will do another post featuring some of the wonderful women I have discovered recently. However, I had to mention one truly inspiring woman today. I am incredibly inspired by Dorothy at Mile Posts. I have followed her blog for a while, but I was able to meet her at Hood to Coast this summer. I developed a bit of a girl crush on her. She is beautiful inside and out and is an unbelievable runner. She has three children and her youngest isn’t even a year old yet.
But she still runs faster than just about anyone I know; Dorothy recently ran a 3:13 marathon!! Eleven months after the birth of a baby, she ran faster than I could ever dream of running. But she is a regular person, just like me. She has found the strength to unleash her God-given talent. She balances her running with motherhood, something so many of us struggle to do. Yesterday, she ran another marathon (two weeks after her fabulous 3:13) and finished in 3:21! I was so inspired by her feat that I decided to start this post.

I will do other posts with this theme because I am inspired every day by various women I have discovered out here in the blogosphere. Grab the picture above and join Amanda and me in recognizing women who touch our souls.

Who inspires you? Who do you inspire?

Add your own "Inspiring Woman Inspiring Women" post here so we can all see some of those great women out there:

*Balancing Act Clothing is currently offline while Alissa deals with some personal issues. Check out her store in late November to find some great shirts just in time for Christmas!

Final Thoughts and Lessons Learned from the St. George Marathon

2011-10-27T20:46:00.001-07:00

My full race recap is HERE. I just have to repeat that it was an AWESOME day. I thoroughly enjoyed the course and was excited beyond belief to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

The St. George Marathon is long over and I am still thrilled with the result. My friends had mixed results, but overall everyone had a great time. Kim hit a wall due to becoming dehydrated and missed her goal. She still finished her first marathon, blowing me out of the water with an impressive time of 3:41. Heidi and Whitney finished their first marathons with smiles on their faces. Heidi met her goal of a sub five-hour marathon (4:50) and Whitney was grinning ear to ear at 5:29.

But the story of the day was Kelly. Kelly finished in 3:39!!!!! Not only did she qualify for Boston (by 21 seconds), she got 5th in her division, earning herself a very cool plaque!* I was filled with so much emotion at this news. I was SO proud. I was SO excited and happy for Kelly. I was a little surprised (she never talked about such an aggressive goal). Unfortunately, I also felt a little jealous**. I felt a little frustrated (that I had not had more faith in her and been more supportive of her “balls out” race plan).*** I was mad at myself for feeling anything but pure joy for Kelly. Now all I feel is happy for her. Unfortunately, Kelly couldn’t truly enjoy her accomplishment. Kelly is so sweet and such a supportive friend that she didn’t feel comfortable celebrating when she beat her “coach” by over ten minutes and her friend Kim by two. Kim was pretty disappointed in her race and no one wanted to make her feel any worse.

All of us are talking about our next marathon together, but that is a post for another day.
Kelly told me after the race that she thought I left too much out there on the course. I have pondered this over and over. I know now that I probably could have run that race faster had I run the first miles faster. I know that I couldn’t have run the last half of the race any faster than I did. But the first seven? Maybe.

In looking back, however, I have NO regrets. I ran my race plan and did what I wanted to do. I felt fantastic afterward and recovered quickly. I have a reasonable shot at getting a PR next time I run a marathon. I think that is a great place to be. I know the pain and disappointment of going out too fast and struggling at the end. Feeling strong and having enough energy to push through that wall at the end feels WAY better than shuffling those last few miles, completely spent.

Kelly admitted that she went with her “balls out” plan because she had nothing to lose. I did have something to lose. The last thing I wanted to do was to go through that disappointment that I went through in Long Beach. Running smart was a better plan for me. Who knows…maybe next year I’ll try the “balls out” race plan.

What worked in St. George?

Downhill course. While the hills were nothing to scoff at, the net downhill of the race helped me keep my speed up in the tough miles toward the end.
Solid pacing plan. I had plenty of energy to get through those tough, painful miles in the middle of the race. At the end, I was able to keep my pace right where it was supposed to be.
Good hydration plan. I decided to carry my own hydration. The weather was hot; the hottest start in race history. The start was at 5200 feet and altitude can contribute to dehydration. While there were water stations every two miles, I wanted to be able to drink more often than that. I get side stitches when I drink too much water at once. In addition, the sports drink (available every four miles) was Gatorade. I had been training with Nuun and wanted to stick with that. The great thing was that when I ran out of Nuun, I refilled my bottles with water and added a Nuun tablet that I was carrying. I felt no signs of dehydration despite the excessive heat combined with the altitude.
Great pre-race carb loading. I used an old school approach to carb loading. I ate a relatively low carb diet on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning. Then I switched mid-week to a high carb diet. I ate things like waffles and popcorn in addition to meals of pasta etc. and drank plenty of juice and water. We snacked constantly on the day before the race on the long car ride to St. George. Then I had a sensibly sized pasta dinner at a reasonable hour.
Imodium. One of the things that derailed me in Long Beach was bad tummy issues resulting in a porta potty stop. I never got my rhythm back after that. The same thing has happened in several other races. I experimented with taking Imodium before a couple half marathons this year and it worked well.
A positive attitude. While I was focused on my goal, I was also determined to enjoy myself. I enjoyed the fantastic view and fabulous company. It was the most friends I had ever run a marathon with****.

Happy Running…

*She ran in the “under 40 heavyweight division.” It is great that they have this division. I do believe, however, that the guidelines for the division are WAY off. To qualify for “heavyweight” as a woman you only have to be over 145 pounds. Since when is 145 pounds heavyweight?? 145 pounds is average. In fact, it is below average for women. I would venture to guess that it is well below average. Kelly is a strong, fit athlete and I would never think of her as a “heavyweight.”
**I ran all the speedwork faster than she did. Our training was the same. Could I have run that fast??
***I never thought she would run that quickly. All the charts (RRCA, McMillan, Attackpoint etc.) predicted a slightly lower than four hour pace. Kelly is one of the best downhill runners I have ever met. I can’t keep up with her on a downhill slope. Most of the guys can’t keep up with her on a downhill. She goes for it and it does not wear her out at all. This course was tailor made for her. While there are plenty of uphill sections, they are outweighed by downhill (a net 2600 foot drop). But she pushed through and didn’t lose speed up the hills or at the end. She is awesome!
****There were seven of us that travelled from California to Utah

Motherhood IS a workout!

2011-10-14T12:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a marathon. There was a little bit of running involved, but that was the easy part. Here is a synopsis of my not-so-typical day.

5:30 a.m.—meet Stacey for two mile warm up and three 800 meter repeats at the track.* We ran about six miles total.

7:00 a.m.—wake up kids, get them breakfast, get clothes (didn’t lay them out the night before –fail), bag up 60 bags of edamame for kindergarten “E” snack for both classes.

7:45 a.m.—leash up dog, make sure kindergarten share item is in backpack, put lunches in backpacks, help put shoes on.

7:48 a.m.—leave for school. It is a beautiful day and instead of enjoying the walk, we rushed to the school.

8:15 a.m.—walk home after touching base with some of the moms regarding PTA business.

8:30 a.m.—prepare for Body Back. Bring equipment, including spray bottle filled with water and a few drops of peppermint oil as well as a cooler full of washcloths in ice water and lavender oil for end of class.

8:55 a.m.—teach plyometric workout to my Body Back clients in 80+ degree heat.

10:15 a.m.—back home to do laundry, help pack for husband’s work trip, empty the dishwasher, put away clothes/jammies that are scattered all over the kids’ room etc.etc.

1:25 p.m.—head to the school to pick up kindergartner.

1:35 p.m.—pick up kindergartner. Let her play on the grass by the school while we wait for big brother.

2:15 p.m.—big brother gets out of school. He earned “super star” status so he gets to play on the grass with his friends and then go to a friend’s house for a play date.

3:15 p.m.—take daughter to dance class. Drop her off there so I can run a couple errands before end of class and having to pick up son at friend’s house.

3:55 p.m.—get into car after running errand for husband for his trip and it DOES. NOT. START.

4:00 p.m.—sit in HOT** car making phone calls trying to make sure daughter is not stranded at dance class. I call for a ride, call the mechanic, call the dealership…

4:20 p.m.—picked up by friend, Kelly, and drive to dance class to pick up daughter.

4:40 p.m.—pick up Kelly’s car*** from the shop so I can borrow it until I get my car fixed.

5:10 p.m.—pick up son at friend’s house.

5:15 p.m.—get kids in Kelly’s car and turn key to find out that IT. WON’T. START. Wth? Am I CURSED??

5:20 p.m.—call Kelly and tell her about her car. She calls her family to help pick up her kids (she has four of them, so every day is a marathon for her). She calls me back and tells me she is on her way to me to call AAA and deal with her car. As she is talking to me (on speaker phone) I hear a crunch as she says, “OMG…a woman just ran into me!! I’ll call you back!!” Ack!!

5:25 p.m.—Kelly calls me back. No damage from fender bender. Crazy lady backed into her at a stop light. Wth??

5:35 p.m.—Kelly comes to friend’s house, we all push the car out of friend’s driveway so he can get out and take his kids to soccer. Her car sat in the middle of the cul de sac, waiting for the tow truck.

6:10 p.m.—Auto Club shows up. He tries to start car and then hooks it up to the truck to tow it.

7:00 p.m.—Tow truck drops Kelly’s car at mechanic (which is closed). He is not allowed to go get my car. I call Auto Club to get a tow truck for my car. We drive back to where my car is parked.

7:30 p.m.—second tow truck comes to my car. He hooks it up and we go back to mechanic. By this time, Kelly and I were laughing about it all. We were calling it our adventure. The kids were troupers. Seriously, the whining was really kept to a minimum. There was a McDonald’s next to the store where my car was parked so they got a very rare Happy Meal, which made them very happy.****

8:05 p.m.—second tow truck leaves garage. Kelly and I are starving. We fed the kids, but not us. I had actually not had lunch, just a snack after Body Back.

8:15 p.m.—as a fortunate twist of fate, we had noticed that there were six or seven food trucks in a parking lot near the spot where my car had broken down. Kelly and I grabbed some yummy food. These are the actual food trucks from the Food Network show The Great Food Truck Race. I found out after the fact that the winner was there. Apparently, they go to this parking lot every Thursday night so I might go try them next week!

8:55 p.m--. Kelly drops me off at home. FINALLY. I get kids in jammies and tuck them into bed.

9:15 p.m.—help husband finish up packing for his trip. He is camping in Moab, Utah as a company retreat (did I mention that I am jealous?)

10:00 p.m.—I can’t stay awake any longer and I fall into bed. I am so exhausted that I actually fell asleep in my clothes.

I had planned on running early this morning, but like any marathon, I needed some recovery time. I slept in until 6:45 only to start another marathon all over again today. I have four days of being a single mom. So right now, instead of getting chores done or running errands, I am sitting on the computer, catching up with DVR episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Project Runway.

I hope you are doing well with your marathons of your lives. Have a fantastic weekend!!

*Stacey did GREAT. This was her first speed work in her training for a sub-two half marathon. She did her 800 repeats in 3:43, 3:49 and 3:52. We originally planned on doing four, but cut it short to run home in time to start our busy days.
**It was in the 90’s yesterday! I didn’t want to make phone calls in the air conditioned store, but maybe I should have since I had a headache for the rest of the afternoon.
***Kelly was driving her sister’s car since her car had been in the shop to fix her radiator. She was called that afternoon telling her that her car was ready.
****Did you know that McDonald’s now provides french fries and apples with Happy Meals? Now kids don’t have to choose one or the other. The fries are a tiny portion…just enough. SO much better.

St. George Marathon Race Report—Marathon Redemption v2

2011-10-11T22:16:00.001-07:00

My marathon journey has not been an easy one. My first sub-four attempt (marathon #2) was a crash and burn in San Diego. The marathon after that (marathon #3) was my “marathon redemption” in Huntington Beach. My first Boston attempt (marathon #4) was a crash and burn in Long Beach. On Saturday I had my second “marathon redemption” in St. George (marathon #6).

We drove to the race, which is about six hours away. While traveling like that right before a race isn’t ideal, it worked out well for me. I think my carbo loading was much better than it has been in the past. Normally, I am running around like a crazy woman the day before a race. That is my normal routine, which sometimes doesn’t give me time for lunch, let alone constant snacking. Sitting in a car allowed me to snack and drink the entire time. We drank so much that we had to stop three times during the drive!

We hit the expo and then headed to our friends’ family’s home for a fun pasta dinner. Since I had been eating all day, I didn’t feel tempted to eat a huge plate full of pasta. I had a normal portion of pasta, piece of garlic bread and dessert. It was Heidi’s birthday and Rod’s in a few weeks, so we had several types of birthday cake. The coolest thing was that Heidi was turning 26 and then running 26.2 the next day. It was her first marathon.
We went back to Whitney’s family condo to sleep. Did I mention how great it is running with people who seem to know everyone in Utah? No restaurant or hotel the night before a marathon? Such a relaxing way to prepare for a race!!

I had one moment of panic while setting my stuff out for the next morning. I had my list at home that included my Garmin. I brought my Garmin, BUT I failed to bring the wrist band that it snaps onto. I was contemplating keeping my Garmin in my hydration belt and lamenting at this unfortunate twist added to my race plan. Whitney brought several spools of hair ribbon and had a great idea. We tied the Garmin to my wrist! It slid around my wrist a bit, but it was better than having to get it out of my belt to see my pace. Crisis averted! Thanks, Whitney!

We went to bed and I was super tired, convinced I would sleep like a rock. But, alas, I laid awake for a couple of hours. I wasn’t thinking about the race and I didn’t think I was that nervous, but my brain would not turn off! I probably ended up getting a couple of hours, but when the alarm went off at 3:30 I was excited!

We caught the bus to the start line just before 5 a.m.. The only part of the course we could preview was the rise and fall of the road. It was pitch black. You could definitely tell there were a lot of hills in this race.

Runners who have run this race before had told us to bring gloves, throwaway sweatshirts, garbage sacks etc. because the start line, at 5200 feet in elevation, is very chilly. They even had many fires built at the start line to keep runners warm. They also gave everyone mylar blankets to wrap around ourselves. But we didn’t need any of that. It was plenty warm. I think it was already in the 60’s when we started the race. Rumor has it that it was the warmest starting temperature in St. George’s 35 year history. Yikes.

We were ready to go! (pictured are: Adam, Rod, Kelly, Kay, Kirsten, Heidi, Whitney, Me and Kim)

We used the porta potties several times. My plan in a big race is to spend the entire time in potty lines. Once I get done, I get right back in line. This has been a key to my best races. Once I “emptied” everything, I took my Imodium. I took one and a half pills (after playing around with the dosage at various half marathons). This was a bit of a risk considering the fact that it can dehydrate you. However, I was carrying water and planned on drinking throughout the race. I had no dehydration issues. Phew!

Before we new it, it was time to start!

I had a plan. My plan involved pacing myself. We found a GREAT pacing tool online that weighted each mile based upon the elevation changes and terrain of that race. The author has recorded splits from many runners from many years. This pace band was the KEY to my successful race. I kept my splits at or under these times. It took all my anxiety over the Veyo hill away. I knew that I could slow down quite a bit up that hill without hurting my overall time. Throughout the race, I could check and see where I was and what kind of cushion I had. It was awesome.

Miles 1-7—8:38, 8:43, 8:29, 8:15, 8:32, 8:18, 8:20 My friend, Sharron, texted me a good luck wish on Friday that said, “Have a great race tomorrow! Don’t forget to enjoy the view.” That text stuck with me. It was dark when the race started but dawn came on around mile two. The sky was a beautiful color and while the sun was hidden by the mountains for quite a while, its affects could be seen on the red rocks in the distance. It was beautiful. I made sure that I ran with my head up rather than watching the pavement in front of me. I was enjoying myself so much. The only thing I was missing was company. I would make a comment about the scenery and not get much interaction. But that was ok. It was the prettiest race I have ever run. Had I not had a specific time goal, I would have taken a ton of gorgeous pictures. Instead, I ~~stole~~ borrowed a couple from another runner who was kind enough to post them on his blog. The pictures don’t do the scenery justice.

photos courtesy of fastcory.com

I ran and clicked off the miles…one at a time. It was amazing how fast they clicked by. Before I knew it, I was running through the little town of Veyo. The spectators were pretty sparse on the course, but when there were spectators, they were super supportive and enthusiastic. Veyo was the greatest. I high fived about twenty kids and read a bunch of great signs. There were signs that made me laugh like “Mommy, did you pee your pants?” and “Running a Marathon is all mental and you are all INSANE.”

I felt surprisingly relaxed. I felt good and I was really enjoying myself. At one point I looked down and saw my name. Someone had painted “Relax, Lisa, Relax! You can DO it” I knew it was for another Lisa, but I chose to believe that they were writing it for me. There was another message with the same sentiment later on in the race. Thank you, random stranger!

photo courtesy of MarathonFoto

Miles 7-13 —9:31, 9:13, 8:50, 9:06, 8:37, 8:33 Then we hit the infamous hill. But it was more than just the steep hill out of Veyo. Once you get to the top of the hill, you get a deceptive flat section and then it continues uphill for another three miles. The good news was that the worst of the hills were over.

I was still clicking off the miles, one by one. I was shocked how fast things were going. As I reached for my Gu at mile 12, I realized that one of them had fallen out of its elastic strap. Oh crap! There goes my nutrition plan. I knew I should have stashed an extra one. I was feeling good, so I decided not to take a Gu yet and to wait until mile 13. I figured that I could find another gel somewhere to get me by later on, but I needed to be smart about it. At one point I was looking for full, unused gels on the ground. I saw a couple, but not until I passed them and it would have looked pretty silly to turn around to pick up a discarded gel. But I knew that I would need more nutrition. I took a chance and grabbed a banana at an aid station at mile 13. It tasted delicious and did great in my tummy!

Miles 14-18—8:55, 8:15, 8:53, 8:18, 8:48 It was starting to get pretty hot. It had been warm for most of the race, but the sun was behind the mountains or clouds for much of the first half of the race. By mile 14 the sun was out in full force.

The heat didn’t affect me as badly as I thought it would. One thing that helped a lot was a cute little trick that Whitney shared with me. I took some knee socks and tied them around my neck. At one of the early water stops (probably around mile 7) I soaked it in cold water. At every water stop I poured water on the socks. They kept my neck nice and cool and I never felt overheated. It was a risk running with something I hadn’t tried before. I figured that I could toss the $2 socks if they bugged me.

Unfortunately, it was during these long hot middle miles that my IT Band started bothering me. A LOT. I had a long way to go and I didn’t know how much worse it was going to get. I stopped at a medical tent (which were very plentiful—at nearly every water station, which were every two miles). They rubbed my knee with Icy Hot. I think I did this at mile 17.

Miles 19-22—9:46, 9:11, 8:30, 9:49 These were the toughest miles of the race. I was in serious pain. I had to stop to stretch or walk in order to get the pain on the side of my leg to ease up.

Going into mile 19, I had close to a two minute cushion on my A+ goal. I was averaging an 8:41 pace. But mile 19 was one of my slowest miles. I hurt, it was hot. I knew my cushion was dwindling away every time I stopped. During mile 19 there was an overpass with a traffic barrier off to the side under it. It was something to lean on and it was in the shade. I didn’t check, but I may have used up a good chunk of a minute there.

My IT Band hurt as much that day as it did during the Long Beach Marathon a year earlier. Last year, it was the nail in my coffin that I couldn’t push through. This year, I was SO close to my goal. Somehow, I was able to push through. I learned, maybe for the first time, just how much of a mental challenge a marathon is. I have always wondered if I could have pushed through that pain last year, but since my goals were completely gone, I never really tried. This year, with my goal still within reach, I found the strength. This is the strongest I have ever felt in a race.

Miles 23-26.2--8:35, 8:18, 8:35, 8:37 (pace for .2 was 8:17)
Miraculously, somewhere around mile 23, my IT Band stopped hurting so acutely. In fact, my knee went numb. I felt nothing. Well…I can’t say nothing. It was the last miles of a marathon in 80-degree weather. I felt all sorts of things.

These miles had some great spectator support. The course wound through residential streets where crowds cheered me on. There were cold washcloths at mile 25 that felt fantastic. There was finally some shade and I was smiling. I knew I was going to finish within my goal. My Boston qualifying time of 3:55 was in the bag. I knew my A++ (3:48 or faster) goal was out of reach, but my A+ goal (sub 3:50) was still possible. I pushed as hard as I could.

photo proof courtesy of MarathonFoto.com

I ran through the chute with a grin on my face. After crossing the finish line, I looked down and saw that I didn’t quite make that A+ goal (3:50:17). However, I was not disappointed. I was overcome with emotion and as I covered my face as the tears came, a volunteer asked if I was ok. I was more than ok. Then he asked if it was my first marathon. “No, but my first time qualifying for Boston.” I got a few congratulations from those around me. I have never felt so proud after a race.

Official Time--
3:50:13
overall- 1578/5735
gender- 439/2554
women 40-44- 71/367

Thanks everyone for the positive thoughts and well wishes.

Coming soon…after the race, thoughts, and lessons learned.

BQ, baby!!!!

2011-10-03T09:11:00.001-07:00

I went to Utah and kicked some serious booty! I ran a smart race, battled the weather, pushed through some major pain and owned that marathon.

My goal was to clear my Boston qualifying time by five minutes. I missed doing that by 13 seconds. But four minutes and 47 seconds is pretty awesome. Oh, and it was a PR by over seven minutes!!!

3:50:13!!

The full race report will be coming soon.

Happy Running… (I won’t be running today, but I am walking around pretty darn happy)

Loosening my grip…

2011-09-29T21:12:00.001-07:00

As most people do, I have been refreshing Weather.com about a million times a day for the past week obsessing about St. George, Utah on Saturday. Unfortunately, the weather outlook has steadily become worse and worse. Five days ago, the forecast was for high temperatures around 89 degrees. As of five minutes ago, the high is predicted to be 93. YIKES.

Yesterday, I posted on Facebook and Twitter asking for advice for running a marathon in extreme heat. I had some good advice. Some of it even made me laugh. Alyssa and XLMIC both suggested I run naked! Interesting thought…

Two tweets came through that really made me think:

When I talked to my husband about it, he encouraged me not to change my goal. I have been training toward this goal for six months. If you count my failed attempt last year, I have been running toward this goal for over a year.

But running in temperatures that high? In Googling “running in heat” I saw articles saying that running in temperatures over 85 can lower your pace as much as 20%.

I am not going to give up my goal. However, I am going to loosen my grip on it a bit. Last year, I was holding on to my goal so tightly that when it finally slipped away, I was crushed. It still stings. I actually have a bad taste in my mouth for the Long Beach Marathon because of it. I have looked forward for so long to running St. George, I don’t want it ruined. I am determined to enjoy this!

I will do exactly as Mason suggests: accept what the day gives me, adjust my goal as needed and, most importantly, HAVE FUN.

I don’t think there is live tracking for the race, however they are broadcasting the finish line. I will be wearing a day-glo tank top, pink visor, pink compression socks and black shorts. My bib number is 5974. Look for me! http://www.voddov.com/marathon/

I’m off to finish packing. We leave in the morning.

Happy Running…

Hood to Coast Race Report Part 6—party on the beach AND a thanks to our sponsors

2011-09-29T10:57:00.001-07:00

Ah yes… you thought you were done with Hood to Coast recaps. Well, almost. I would be remiss if I didn’t finish the story.

Once I was done running, we hopped into the van and headed toward the beach. We all had thought we would shower, nap etc., but we were too excited. This was the “biggest beach party on the West Coast.”

The beach was slightly cool and breezy. It was nice.

We stalked famous people. The above picture is the Heart –n- Sole team from the Hood to Coast Movie. Below is Bob Foote, the founder of Hood to Coast. I really enjoyed talking with him! He is a runner’s runner.

Then it was time for a little revelry! I think we earned those beers!

After a few beers, it was time to head to the finish line to cheer on our teams. Unfortunately, the rest of Nuun Platuun hadn’t made it to the beach due to crazy traffic. It was up to us to give XLMIC a huge welcome.

As usual, she was giving it all she had. You can read her own version HERE. She ran that last leg as fast as she possibly could. She anchored our team beautifully.

Nuun Platuun did better than anyone expected. While we did great on the first two legs, each one of us dug deeper for that last leg. Our team finished 200 grueling miles in 27:59:17!!! We finished 7th in the Women’s Open Division! That was an hour faster than our 10K PRs predicted. We were all more than thrilled at our stellar finish.

Thirteen minutes later, Megan finished. She was injured and hurting, but she finished strong with a huge smile on her face (pictured above). You can read about her runs HERE.

There were a lot of emotions. Hood to Coast was over and both teams had highs and lows and did GREAT.

Van 2 finally made it to the beach. We received our medals, took some pictures, then there was more partying. The entire team had a fun time. It was everything I had hoped it would be. It was more than a race, more than a blogger meetup. It was something hard to put into words (yet I used thousands of words to try). I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Here is a video that briefly portrays the Hood to Coast experience:

And now a word about our incredibly generous sponsors…

Of course, the number one sponsor to thank goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway). Nuun was FANTASTIC in putting this entire thing together. I still pinch myself when I think about how lucky I was to have been involved.

Running Skirts generously donated some awesome camo running skirts to the team. How great do we look?

Road ID gave us some killer dog tags. I love mine and wore it the entire time during HTC.

Moving Comfort was kind enough to give us some bras. I LOVE my Juno bra.
Looking back, I should have run in just my bra during HTC. Jess did that and looked awesome.

Tommie Copper sent us a bunch of compression gear. I have worn the ankle sleeves several times (to help with some tendonitis I get on the top of my foot), the knee sleeve (after my first leg when my IT band got a bit angry) and the calf sleeves. They are all super comfortable!

Buildasign.com provided signs for our vans. They did a great job! Not only did the magnets look good, but they stayed on the vans. Four vans, multiple signs and no sign loss.

2Toms provided some great Sport Shield to keep us from chafing. I am taking this stuff with me to St. George! It goes on like roll-on deodorant and dries so you don’t even know it is there.

Jack Black cosmetics supplied us with a great sample pack of lotions, sunscreens and lip balms. This is another product I will be taking with me to St. George. They have an SPF 45 sunscreen that I really like and the lip balm saved me!

We spent a day and a half in a van and snack foods were important. Jamba Juice provided the team with some coconut water juice. They were a hit!

Jenny Craig also sent us some Oatmeal Breakfast Squares. They really hit the spot at odd times during the day. They were perfect as a breakfast snack even when breakfast was at 2 in the morning.

And we also were given some Gu, a key ingredient of any race. While the flavors weren’t my personal favorite, Gu is my gel of choice. It will be fueling me on Saturday during the marathon.

It was wonderful for all these companies to support our adventure in such a big way. It just shows how admired all the women are and how they conduct themselves out in the blogosphere. Everyone represented these sponsors well and appreciated all the products more than the sponsors will know. It was just the added touch that made the entire experience a bit surreal.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support.

Happy Running…

Don’t forget to enter my giveaways for free Gymboss Interval Timers. Today is the last day. You can find the blog giveaway HERE. And my Facebook giveaway HERE.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Gymboss and a giveaway!!

2011-09-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this blog, you are probably interested in fitness. If you are interested in fitness, you have probably heard of HIIT—high intensity interval training. HIIT is a format of exercise

“which you alternate short, very high intensity intervals with longer, slower intervals to recover. This type of training has been used by athletes to improve performance, but it's also been shown to benefit the average exerciser. HIIT training not only helps performance, it also improves the ability of the muscles to burn fat.”

According to Beachbody.com, HIIT gets the body’s motor going for a longer period than traditional steady-state cardio, creating an “after-burn effect.” This means that you can work out for shorter periods of time to burn the same amounts of calories.

My Body Back classes use an interval format. Not only does it help clients get great results, but it breaks exercise sets into bite sized pieces. It is easier to ask a woman, who hasn’t exercised for years, to do an exercise for 30 seconds or a minute than it is to get them to jog for 30 minutes. My workouts involve a warmup (about 7-10 minutes) HIIT workout (40-45 minutes), ending with abs, stretching and meditation (about 10 minutes).

One of my favorite HIIT workouts uses Tabata sets. Tabatas have you doing 20 seconds of very high intensity exercise followed by 10 seconds of rest. You repeat this for eight sets. The entire Tabata set takes four minutes. I can tell you that by the last minute, you are feeling those reps, no matter what you are doing. I have used Tabatas with squats, curls, pushups, and various high intensity cardio moves. You can use them for almost anything.

A key element of the workouts I teach is timing. If you tell someone that they will do a plank for a minute, have them do a plank for a minute. A 20 second interval for Tabata needs to be precise to be the most effective. Using a watch is sometimes unreliable. If you just watch your second hand (or numbers), then it is easy to lose track of the interval. It is difficult to help clients with form and to encourage/motivate them if you are staring at your watch. Countdown timers are good, but my watch beep isn’t loud enough to hear well over high tempo music that I like to play. Lastly, it is difficult to keep track of how many intervals have been completed, especially if you are participating in the workout. You lose some credibility if you tell them that you are going to do eight rounds and then only do seven or hit them with nine.

Enter the Gymboss. It is one of my favorite (and most necessary) tools for my workouts. I can set one or two intervals up to 99 times. It keeps track of the how many you have left so you can look at it and know exactly where you are. My clients love when I let them know where they are. “Half way there!” or “only 15 seconds left!” The beep can be long or short, soft or loud and can also vibrate (so if you really have the music up, you know the interval is over).

Not only does this little timer work for HIIT workouts, but for run/walk running plans as well. The Gymboss is super lightweight. It clips onto just about anything. You could clip it onto a waistband and forget about it (until it beeps, of course). In fact, one of the timers is marketed specifically for Jeff Galloway’s Run/Walk/Run program.

It can also be used as a stopwatch. I used it the other day for fitness assessments for my Body Back clients. I used it for timing one mile time trials and planks. One improvement I would suggest would be the ability to save the data somehow, since I am timing more than one person at a time.

I bought a Gymboss for myself and another one for my Body Back instructor as a thank you. I love it. It is lightweight and once you figure out the instructions, it is relatively simple to use. However, I wish there was room for a “cheat sheet” because I often forget how to change it and have to do a bit of trial and error to remind myself. There are instructions printed on it to change it to a stopwatch.

You may have noticed the Gymboss ad on my sidebar. If you want to purchase a Gymboss, please click through that since I am part of their affiliate program. But don’t buy yet! I have a couple Gymboss timers to giveaway to readers. The first timer I will give away here and the second one on my Facebook page.

To enter, the only requirement is that you are a follower. Click on the first option below in the Rafflecopter entry form and you are in. You can earn additional entries by tweeting, posting to Facebook or your blog (1 entry for each). Please click the options below in order to get your entry counted. I will draw a winner on Thursday, September 29 after 9 p.m.

Please click "Read More" to get to the entry form! Thanks!!

Hood to Coast Race Report Part 5—running faster than cars

2011-09-19T10:30:00.001-07:00

After an hour of the best sleep I have ever had, I was in a GREAT mood. Some of the negativity that haunted me the previous day was completely gone. I knew it was going to be a fantastic day. My expectations would be exceeded.

We started the Hood to Coast adventure with the express goal of having fun. I loved that we had no time goal and that we were all just running our best without any expectation. But, we are all competitors at heart and find motivation by pushing ourselves against ourselves and others.

On the first day, there was never talk of how we were doing or where other teams were. On Saturday, things changed a little. The friendly banter and trash talking began. I’m not sure where it came from, but I love it. We had trash talked about various college rivalries* but that morning, things changed a bit. If you read Tricia’s recap HERE, you will see that her competitive juices started flowing during her last leg that morning. She pushed herself and ran that leg fast!

Lauren, who had been using me as motivation (aka…’catch and pass Lisa’) smiled at me and said (in a fun, sweet tone) “I’m coming for you.” I quickly replied, “bring it…you probably will catch me, but you will have to work hard to do it.” Somehow, we all turned it on that morning and ran awesome legs.

The other team, AfterNuun Delight, was predicted to finish quite a bit ahead of us. We were ok with that, since it never really was a competition. But by those last legs, we realized that our little underdog team was neck and neck with the speedy Sparkle Skirt gals. Our goal became clear…hit the beach the same time as the other Nuun team. We needed to make sure that we ran our fastest in order to finish strong.

I was so excited about this leg, but I knew from the previous two legs that I had a long time to wait. I bought a breakfast sandwich from a local entrepreneur. After Friday’s under-fueling, I wanted to make sure I ate some real food. It was the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had.

After Tricia was done, she passed off to Alyssa. Alyssa kicked some booty as well.

Alyssa did an awesome job of keeping the sparkly AfterNuun Delight team in our sights. She and Dorothy ran the same leg. Dorothy had some incredible runs that weekend. Alyssa was able to run run fast enough to hold Dorothy off for most of her run, so when Caitlin took over, they were only a couple minutes ahead. Caitlin ran super strong, passed her sparkle counterpart and never looked back.*

Kerrie was next and was all smiles. Her last leg is described HERE. She ran her leg strong and fast. We were on a roll.

And then it was Margot’s turn again. Her leg was one of the most difficult of the entire relay. She basically had to run up and down a mountain. She kept telling us how slow she would be and if we saw her walking to forgive her. Yeah…that never happened.

Margot made that hill look easy. It was KILLER. I was tired just driving up it. She just kept running and then became a blur on the way down. HERE are her words.

Then it was time for me to finally run! It was a beautiful day and I was excited to run. At this point I wanted to run as fast as I could. My goal was to make Lauren run really fast if she was going to pass me this time.

Traffic had been getting increasingly difficult. As I started my leg, the rest of my team immediately hopped in the van and headed toward the next exchange. They passed me and cheered for me, always a boost, especially up the first hill.

But then, I passed them.

I started seeing runners carrying clipboards to give to the other vans for their team (since it was clear that the runners would beat the vans by a lot). There was absolutely no cell phone coverage, so none of us knew if the other van would even be there. But I wasn’t concerned with any of that. I was just running.

As I was approaching the top of my biggest ascent, I saw someone running towards me. It was Margot! She had come to run with me. Wow, after a killer leg, she was going to run a ways with me—how sweet! Honestly, I was a little nervous. Margot is faster than I am. She told me to run at my pace, but I felt my ego sneak in and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t too slow for the Faster Bunny. We crested that hill and then went sailing down the other side. I glanced at my Garmin briefly (I did not want to trip) and saw we were in the low 7’s. After a mile or two, Margot headed back to the van (the van was actually quite a ways behind us). She was just the push I needed to run out of my comfort zone and speedy!

It was a glorious run. It was along a windy highway in the woods. The trees would open up to beautiful vistas of the foothills of the coastal range. It was sunny, but there was plenty of shade. It was the perfect leg to end on, capping off my Hood to Coast experience with an amazing run. I was actually a little sad when I approached the end.

As I came into the transition, I didn’t see Jess waiting for me. Uh oh…maybe they didn’t expect us so soon. Our van had run out of our minds and all of us ran faster than we ever thought we could. I ran 5.42 miles at a 7:47 pace***!! That is quite a bit faster than my 10K pace on one hour of sleep!!

Suddenly, I saw Jess pop out of the crowd, looking a little surprised, but very happy. Apparently, she heard our team number and jumped into the transition area. For the previous two legs, she had seen Lauren handing off to Jen, which was her cue to get ready. This time, the Nuun Platuun arrived first. Our little engine-that-could was 30 minutes ahead of our projection!!

I was done, hoping to chat with some of the Van 2 gals, but they had already taken off, worried about the traffic and getting to the next exchange before Jess. I wandered around a bit. After so much time with so many teammates, it was strange to be by myself. Suddenly, there was Alex. But how? I passed the van miles back.

Apparently, Alex was worried that Van 2 wouldn’t know we were coming and wanted to touch base with them. He had Kerrie drive and he ran about two miles down to the exchange, only to miss the other van. I think he just wanted to run. Sitting for that long driving a van has to get old. He probably wanted a break from the van chatter as well.

When the van arrived, I hopped in and we headed toward the beach. WE WERE DONE!!! We had each run three times within a 24 hour period. We were amped and ready to celebrate in Seaside.

Stay tuned for the final installment (maybe) of this series of race reports.

The winner of the iFitness Hydration Belt has been announced HERE.

Happy Running….

*But since my alma mater was well represented among, well…everyone in Oregon, and the Ducks dominate in the Pac 12 North, college trash talking got old for those from Washington schools.

**I’m so bummed that I didn’t get another picture of Caitlin before her last leg. Caitlin was such a huge part of our team and I don’t want to slight her in any way.

***I was predicted, based on my 10K PR, to run that leg at an 8:15 pace. I am happy to have blown that away. I am actually looking forward to my next opportunity to run a 10K to see if I can better that PR.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-09-19T08:44:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to entry #23 Kerrie for winning my giveaway! She nabbed this particular entry by “liking” iFitness on Facebook. Kerrie will receive an iFitness Hydration Belt. Kerrie, I will send you an e-mail based on the address you entered, but if you see this first, please send me your shipping information and size/color preference to mom2marathon (at) gmail (dot) com.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I wanted to let everyone know that Kerrie was the second name drawn. The first person that came up, unfortunately did not leave a blog comment with a favorite item from the iFitness website. This was required in order to be eligible to win. I will be having other giveaways in the near future so keep playing!!

Happy Running….

Hood to Coast Race Report Part 4—there are zombies in Mist, Oregon

2011-09-15T07:21:00.001-07:00

After I finished my night leg, our team was done for several hours. It was 3ish in the morning and everyone was pretty tired.

Since I had just run a hard leg, I was still pretty amped. So when the AfterNuun Delight’s Van 1 lost their keys, I was happy to help them look. It gave me a chance to walk around a bit. Luckily, Kerrie and a random stranger were able to find the keys. Kerrie’s version of the night legs can be found HERE. Can you imagine how much THAT would have sucked? 3 a.m. and no keys to the van? I would imagine that finding a locksmith or contacting the rental company at 3 a.m. from St. Helens, Oregon would not be an easy task.

While there were places to sleep there in St. Helens, Alex decided that we needed to get to the next exchange before trying to sleep. He felt that waking up and driving to the exchange would be more stressful in the morning. BEST. DECISION. EVER. As we were getting into the van, we realized that Margot was missing. Forget a set of keys…losing a teammate? Now THAT would suck. It so happened that Alex is an expert in search and rescue. Margot was soon found trying to catch some zzzz’s on one of the sleeping fields. Poor Margot was really out of it and very tired. Thank goodness she was safe! Her story in her words are HERE.

We then headed to the last major van exchange. I think it was supposed to take 20-30 minutes. We drove along a dark two-lane highway and we all very ready to be somewhere to stretch out and sleep. A few of the gals stretched out on the back seats and fell asleep for a bit. Kerrie and I tried to share the front bench, but neither of us could get comfortable. Plus, poor Alex and Caitlin were trying to navigate. So Kerrie and I basically stayed up.

Our navigators were awesome. The directions given by the race were wrong, telling us to take a left instead of a right on a highway. By looking at the map and knowing that we needed to head toward Mist, Alex and Caitlin ignored the written directions and turned right. It helped that 90% of the vans were doing to same thing.

And that is when time slowed down. We entered the twilight zone of Hood to Coast. Traffic was moving at a couple of miles an hour. It was bumper to bumper. Traffic was the biggest subject of post-race discussions. Traffic was horrendous. There were more teams this year than ever before and apparently those extra vans made a big difference. We crawled along the two-lane highway toward Mist. Ironically, as we neared the little town of Mist, the fog rolled in, giving everything a very surreal feel. The vans weren’t moving, there were random runners walking around as well as running along the route.

One guy crossed into our stream of headlights and his sunken cheeks and glazed look could only mean he was a zombie! Then we realized that he was just another runner who has had no sleep and was just trying to find a place to sleep. At that point I felt like a zombie.

About then, Margot suddenly exclaimed that she had to go. “Can you wait?” we ask. “We should be there any minute.” But we had no idea how long it would be. We could be only a mile away, but it might take an hour. There is a rule that runners cannot relieve themselves along the course, it is grounds for disqualification. We started making suggestions—pee in a zip lock bag? Umm…no. She finally just said, “I can’t wait, I’m going. I’m not wearing a race number, so they won’t know who I am.” And suddenly, she opened the door to the van and was gone.

We watched her run into the fog. To the left of her was a dark farmhouse, in my mind abandoned and a haven for zombies. Ahead of her were trees and mist that seemed to envelope her. I wish I could have caught a picture of it. It was truly out of a horror film. It was almost artistic, even gothic. I worried that it might be the last we saw of Margot, but she soon jogged back to the van and hopped in.

We FNALLY made it to the final exchange (AKA: Post-apocalyptic zombie encampment). At this point I didn’t care where I slept, I just needed to sleep. It was 5:45 a.m. and we had been driving for 2.5 hours.* Alex spread a tarp out on the ground and he, Kerrie, Margot and I threw our sleeping bags on it and grabbed some quick shut-eye. The others slept in the van. There was no cell phone coverage here and we had no idea what time XLMIC would be coming in, so Tricia had to be ready to go around 7-in a little over an hour.

You would think that an hour of sleep would not be enough. I honestly think that hour of sleep was one of the most solid hours of sleep ever. I think I felt better after that hour than I would have had I had four hours. It was a cool, crisp morning and I was excited for the day and our third legs. I was actually a little sad to have it almost over.We all woke up ready to start the day. And it would turn out to be a very good day.

Stay tuned for the next installment of this saga**—running faster than cars.

Don’t forget to enter to win an iFitness Hydration Belt HERE.

Happy Running…

*For the record, you can almost drive from Mt. Hood to Seaside in 2.5 hours via a non-traffic four-lane highway.
** I know that most of you are sick of hearing about this race that occurred weeks ago.I also know there are at least a couple people who still enjoy following on our adventure (I know I still enjoying reading my teammates’ recaps). I thought I would be done by now, but there is just so much I want to document for my own memory. It just seems kinder to the reader to break it up into multiple parts. Thanks for sticking with me.

Jamba Juice anyone?

2011-09-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Check out these great coupons! Just in time for the new fall flavors like Pumpkin Smash! Click on the picture for a printable coupon!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for an iFitness Hydration Belt!!! http://lisasepiphany.blogspot.com/2011/09/review-and-giveawayifitness-hydration.html

Review and Giveaway!—iFitness Hydration Belt

2011-09-12T08:25:00.001-07:00

My iFitness Neoprene Double Pouch belt is one of my favorite things. In fact, it made it on my "favorite things” list last year. I also have purchased it for two of my friends and told a friend’s husband to purchase one for a third. I wear it on nearly every run and wear it whenever I don’t want to carry a purse (which is most of the time these days).

When I found out that they were coming out with a hydration belt, I was thrilled. I have recently started disliking my belt,* but for long runs, it is a necessity. I have been using my handheld a lot this summer, but I really want to carry both water and Nuun on my long runs. I was eager to try a better belt. Enter the iFitness Hydration Belt (16 oz size).

The iFitness Hydration Belt features:

Water resistant pouch, stretchy and sturdy, made of neoprene will keep your cell phone or iPod (any size) dry.
Two 8oz bottles (BPA free)
2 elastic slots will hold your gels on your belt, for easy access.
A special inner pocket will keep your ID/credit cards or room key securely.
Comes with two reflector strips in the front and one in the back, for night time safety.
Also featured are two toggles to hold your race number, under the pouch.

In addition to getting the belt, I purchased two add-ons. These are holders and bottles that slide onto any iFitness belt. Currently, iFitness only offers a two-bottle option and I need more liquid than that on a very long run. The add-ons are a great option! I can run with two, three or four bottles. In fact, I have put a single add-on onto my double neoprene belt for a short run in the heat.

Here is a picture of my double pouch with an add-on.

I received both items quickly. In the past, other belts I have ordered have arrived in a timely fashion as well. There is no set up and while I did rinse them, the bottles did not appear to need to be washed before use.

I have now worn this belt on two long runs (20 miles and 22 miles) as well as during two legs of Hood to Coast
.
Here are my thoughts.

Pros:

The belt fits just like my pouch belt, nice and snug. If I have it adjusted correctly, it doesn’t bounce at all. I prefer it to sit down on my hips where I just forget about it.
The bottles fit tightly into the pouches. In the past, I have had bottles fall out of the belt. A couple times, this happened in a race! Once, during a half marathon, one of my bottles was knocked out by my arm during my sprint to the finish. I just left it. I have actually used rubber bands to secure the bottles during a key race—pretty junk-show. The iFitness belt also has some elastic loops to secure the bottles, ensuring that they never pop out. They are easy enough to get out to drink, however.
The pouch is nice and roomy without being too bulky. It is big enough for my phone, cash, a packet of flushable wipes and a Gu. Saturday, during my twenty-two miler, I also stashed a Honey Stinger Waffle in the pouch.
There are two elastic loops that fit a Gu packet.
The pouch seemed to keep everything dry. On my long run Saturday, it rained pretty hard. My phone stayed dry and protected.
They have reflective stripes for safety. I don’t always run in the dark, but it was pitch black Saturday when we started. I also used it during my night leg of Hood to Coast.

Cons:

I like having ten ounce bottles. The eight ounce bottles aren’t quite big enough and I think I might have to refill during the marathon. When I ran marathons with the other belt, 40 ounces lasted me 26.2 miles. I am not sure if 32 ounces will last. We’ll see.
While I didn’t notice it during my long run, the belt gave me a little bruise on the front of my hip. It was a little tender Saturday night, but don’t even notice it today. To be fair, this happens with any hydration belt I have tried.
The bottles are a little too far apart to fit exactly between my hips. If I wear it straight on, the bottles lay directly on my hip bones. Ouch. I have to turn it a little catty-wompus (is that even a word?) so it lays flat. One of the bottles sits directly in front of my hip bone and the other one sits right behind my other hip bone. This puts the rear bottles in a strange place. It is ok because I drink from the front bottles, switching them with the rear bottles as I empty them.

Pricing**:
The iFitness Hydration Belt is priced competitively with the other belts out there. It retails for $39.95 for the 16 ounce belt. The 12 ounce belt (using two six ounce bottles) sells for $36.95. There are belts out there with ten ounce bottles that sell for the same price as iFitness.

Where the iFitness is not as competitive is when you jump to four bottles. The two bottle add-on is $19.95. That makes a four bottle set-up a $60 investment. There are cheaper options out there. The thing each person has to decide is—is comfort and convenience worth the extra $$. For me, I think it is. The add-ons offer me a lot of options, so they are worth it.

Final Word:
Overall, I really like this belt. I don’t think I will ever LOVE a hydration belt. However, when I want plenty of options for my hydration and fuel, this is a good option for me. I will most likely be wearing this for St. George. I originally was planning on running with my handheld bottle, but I like the idea of having both water and Nuun with me (I prefer to wash down my Gu’s with water over Nuun) as well as the ability to carry 32 ounces instead of the 20 ounces that my handheld holds.

The Best News:
I have the opportunity to give away a hydration belt to a lucky reader! Please find all the ways to enter below. In order to be eligible to win, you must be a follower and must go to iFitness and check out their products, leaving a comment about your favorite. There are a bunch of other ways to earn entries. See below for how to enter. The giveaway will end on Sunday, September 18 at 9 p.m. PDT.

Happy Running…

*I have used the Roadrunner/Nathan four-bottle hydration belt. The one I have is three years old and might be a bit different than what they sell today. It has a velcro closure and after losing some weight, it doesn’t fit well. It bounces and I have to jerry-rig it with rubber bands to fit me at all. It ends up looking pretty gaudy.

**I was given the iFitness Hydration Belt (16 oz.) free to try, but purchased the add-ons myself. My opinions are all my own.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

2011-09-11T13:48:00.001-07:00

I have been considering a change for some time now. I started this blog as a way for me to journal my thoughts about training for my first marathon. I wanted to figure out my place in life as a new stay-at-home mom. At the time, I didn’t really even know what blogs were all about or how powerful they could be. Well, over three years later, I have a good sense of who I am and where I fit into my world. I may not have found the “meaning of Stonehenge,” but I am not giving up on the search for the meaning of life.

I am, however, going to try to “market” myself better. I had this blog to chronicle my personal running exploits and my Mom to Marathon blog for my emerging business. I have found that my personal running and my coaching endeavors tend to overlap a lot. I barely have time to keep up with one blog, let alone two. So that is why I am merging the two blogs and changing the name of this blog to Mom to Marathon.

If you have read this blog recently, you know that I experienced a once-in-a-lifetime experience with Nuun at the Hood to Coast relay. I was able to be exposed with some very accomplished bloggers. Many of these women have established themselves as a “brand.” Their blog names are catchy and express what their blogs are about.

When people ask what my blog is, I usually get a raised eyebrow. Nobody can remember it. It is something about Stonehenge, right? I have known for a while, that if I want people to remember my blog, I need something catchy. My personal coaching business has a catchy name, why not use that?? “Mom to Marathon” describes my journey as well as the journey of my readers and clients. It is not necessarily about the marathon, but the journey to overcome fitness challenges, setting goals and celebrating accomplishments. I wrote a post about this idea HERE.

So there it is. I am officially Mom to Marathon (and everything in between). I hope that it doesn’t really change much. In the near future, I will probably change the look of the blog and add some features and link to my personal website. I really want to grow this blog that has afforded me so many great opportunities as well as grow my business, now that my kids are in school.

Thank you all for your support. Some of you have been with me for three years and some of you are new followers. I am grateful for everyone that comes and shares my experiences with me.

Happy Running…

Hood to Coast Race Report Part 3—Night Warriors

2011-09-09T11:58:00.001-07:00

When I left off, I had just completed my first leg of Hood to Coast. That completed the first round for Van 1.
I wasn’t feeling super hungry yet, but I knew that I needed to eat. I was actually feeling really hungry just before running my leg. I am sure that contributed to how crappy I felt at the end of it. Luckily, everyone else was ready for some real food. Our choices were to try to sleep (but it was still light and only around 6 p.m.), so we all decided to eat.

We went to a local brewpub in Gresham called 4th Street Brewing Company. That was perfect. They had burgers and sandwiches and really good french fries. I am bummed that nobody thought to get a group shot at dinner. I think we were all more interested in devouring french fries and burgers. Kerrie exclaimed that it was “the best burger she had ever had.” I ordered a beer. I was the only one, so I figured I was the “lush” of the group (I found out at the beach that it was not the case). I knew I didn’t run until after 2 a.m. and I really wanted to sleep, so I thought that a beer (a yummy local craft brew) would help me be able to nap in the van. I was so tired that I only drank about 1/3 of the beer. I was afraid that it would go straight to my head. It was a good call to waste that beer as my tummy did NOT like me after that.

After a nice, relaxing dinner we headed to downtown Portland to the next major van exchange. I have no idea where the time went, to be honest. I think we had five hours to kill before Tricia had to take the bracelet from XLMIC but it seemed like it was no time at all. My nap? Nope. Not happening. Too much going on and I’m the kind of person who hates to miss anything.

I tried to locate my good friend, Angel* but the exchange area was pure chaos. She was running the same leg as Tricia. Instead I gave out a bunch of glow sticks and enjoyed the night. I knew that I would see Angel sometime during the weekend. We were, however, able to see some of our Nuun Platuun teammates from Van 2. Pictured below are Jess, Tonia and Susan.

Tricia met up with Julie, a blogger/fan who had cheered for some of the Van 2 ladies and now was going to run part of Leg 13 with Tricia. How cool is she to run with a virtual stranger in the middle of the night?
Tricia took the handoff from XLMIC and took off. Her leg took her over the Hawthorne Bridge which must have been amazing at night. We couldn’t really follow her on this leg as it took us a while to find a way onto the bridge and then runners ran along the waterfront while vans took city streets. A few minutes into the drive, traffic came to a stop due to a train. A LONG train. You can read about Tricia’s opinion of this train HERE.

While we were waiting for the train, I heard my name called. There was my friend Angel yelling at the van. “I was hoping this was the Nuun van you were in!” she said to me as she gave me a big hug. She was also caught behind the train (at this point we didn’t know where Tricia was). Angel and I chatted a bit and she continued on her run when the train passed.

Alyssa was ready for her night leg. She nailed it. She ran it strong and fast. In fact, she ran it almost 30 seconds a mile faster than the HTC prediction sheet.

Alyssa handed off to Caitlin. She read that her leg was a series of rolling hills. She wasn’t prepared for the actual hills.We all chuckled when Kerrie leaned out the window to ask Caitlin if she wanted some knuckle lights (the Tinkerbell headlamp I gave her wasn’t very bright). Instead of answering the question, Caitlin yelled, “what are these f#$%ing hills??!!” It was so unexpected to hear mild-mannered Caitlin reacting like that. Our lack of sleep made that extremely funny.

Along the way we saw members of AfterNuun Delight. They were easy to spot in their Sparkle Skirts. Their driver was Mason, the president of Nuun. He even got into the sparkle spirit! How cool is a company where the top guy dons a sparkly skirt to support his team? Very cool indeed.
Kerrie was next. Once again, she put in a strong performance, outrunning her prediction pace. Her leg was supposed to be flat but was slightly uphill the entire way.

Then Margot proved again that she is a Faster Bunny. She took off like a rocket and we didn’t see her again. Believe me, we tried. She had asked Alex to bring her water on the course. Although it was well after midnight, it was still hot.

Margot is not only a faster bunny, but a stealth bunny. We had a tough time finding her in the dark. We drove up and down the highway and couldn’t find her. At one point we parked to wait for her to run by. We thought for sure we saw her, but when we got out to hand her the water, she didn’t respond. Not her. It turned out it was her and she was so focused on running that she didn’t realize that there was someone calling her name with water.

I was starting to get antsy about getting to the exchange. Since my last leg, I had been hitting the Honey Buckets regularly and needed to go again. After such a tight exchange last time, I wanted to get there before Margot showed up. I was swigging Pepto Bismol and wasn’t even sure my tummy would hold up for this leg even if I made it to the Honey Bucket. Without the porta potty stop, it would have been a guaranteed bad situation. Alex was determined to keep his word to Margot. I think he was committed to offering support to us wherever he could. But at this point I was getting myself pretty worked up. Margot was fast and had the potential to run faster than her prediction. Remember, it was around 2 a.m. I had very little sleep and my tummy was not in a good place. As the clocked ticked, I was getting more frustrated.

They dropped me off at the Honey Bucket while they parked the van. Physically, I was feeling better, but mentally I was not in a very good place. As I got done, I heard them yell for me, “she’s coming!” I needed to run quickly to the van to grab my Garmin**. Once again, no time to get my thoughts together. It was rush, rush, rush. I sprinted to the exchange where Margot was waiting. I didn’t even know what direction to run. Volunteers showed me the way and I ran as fast as I could.

I was in a negative place again. I was frustrated that we didn’t get to the exchange on time. Then I got frustrated because my Hood to Coast experience wasn’t turning out to be the wondrous experience I had hoped for. Just then Lauren and Mason ran up. When they asked how I was, I started venting. Afterwards I realized that I had whined about my frustration to the president of Nuun!! Ooops. He was so supportive and understanding. He encouraged me to “shake it off.” I told him I would “run it off.” They both left me in the dust, but I felt like a weight had been lifted. I was RUNNING HOOD TO COAST with AWESOME people. The experience would be what I made it to be.

After that epiphany, the course turned off the main highway onto a pitch black road that rose steeply (how steeply, I am not sure because I couldn’t see it). Suddenly, I was overcome with peace. I am actually a bit teary remembering it. It was dark and quiet and all I was aware of was my breathing and the light on the road from my headlamp. I was in love with this run!!

One guy ran up behind me and suddenly exclaimed, “cool! I just saw a falling star!!” “I’ll have to take your word for it,” I replied, “if I look up, I might trip and fall.” We wished each other a great run as he ran past me. I had a huge smile on my face.

There were several turns on this leg. I was nervous about that, but there were volunteers in bright orange vests at every turn giving clear directions. The leg was mostly uphill, but all I could see were flashing red lights in the distance. I kept pushing up, up, up those hills. Toward the end of that leg, I started passing runners. I felt strong as I ran up the hills, especially at the end.

This leg was everything I had hoped it would be. I know I ran it faster than predicted, but I don’t know exactly how much faster. My Garmin shows that I rant the last 3.64 miles at an 8:20 pace. I am pretty sure that I ran the first couple miles faster than that (darn satellites!). My prediction was to run at an 8:50 pace.

More than my pace, this leg was awesome because I finally realized that it is in my power to have a positive experience. How I react to situations out of my control makes the difference between a good run and a bad run. More than that, how I react to situations out of my control make the difference in my attitude for life in general. I made a decision during that run to be more positive in my daily life.

Who knew a little run in the middle of the night could be life changing?

Stay tuned for Part 4—There are zombies in Mist, Oregon

Also, coming up—a great giveaway!! I will review one of the products I used for Hood to Coast (as well as my recent long runs) and give one away to a lucky reader!

Happy Running…

*Angel and I were close friends in high school and lost touch after the first year of college. We reconnected through Facebook and have rekindled that friendship, not only through a shared history but both of our new-found love of running.
**I should have left the Garmin. I turned it on and it wouldn’t find a satellite! It took well over a mile to find a satellite, which added to my frustration. I couldn’t see it during the run anyway because it was so dark.

Hood to Coast Race Report Part 2—the highs and lows of the first legs

2011-09-05T17:35:00.001-07:00

For the events leading up to the race check out Part 1. This recap ended up being really long. I hope the others are more concise (although I doubt it). The details are for me, but I hope you enjoy them.

Tricia started off the Nuun Platuun on a crazy downhill leg. That first leg was enough to scare me out of running in the first position. She lost 2000 feet of elevation in 5.64 miles—rated “very hard.” Honestly, other than the knee-jarring, toenail-smashing downhill grade, her legs were some of the most scenic of the entire 200 miles.

And she rocked it. Her form looked great and she had a big smile on her face. You can read about her experience here.

While we were waiting for her at the first transition, we spread the Nuun love with single serve samples and some temporary tattoos.

And then Tricia was there handing off to Alyssa!

Alyssa ran another “severe downhill” leg. Hers lost 1500 feet in elevation over 5.67 miles. There is a lot of talk about Leg 1’s brutal downhill, but Leg 2 is no walk in the park. Of course, she rocked it. You can read her HTC account HERE.

After Alyssa, it was Caitlin’s turn. Caitlin is a Nuun staffer with a ton of energy. Did I mention that every Nuun employee was AMAZING? She kept telling us she wasn’t a runner, but then kept killing her legs (not the ones attached to her body). She was our “secret weapon!” In addition to rocking her runs, Caitlin helped out our driver, Alex, with timing and navigating. She is awesome.

And look how CUTE she is!

Up next was Kerrie. You can read her perspective HERE. By this time, the heat was beginning to be noticeable. We were hot just waiting around for our runners. I was getting nervous about running in it. But I still had a long time to wait.

Kerrie is with Jocelyn from Van 1 of AfterNuun Delight. We actually saw these ladies more than we saw our own team in Van 2.

It was now officially HOT. We stopped along the route a couple of times to give Kerrie more water and pour some on her head.

Up next was Margot. She was the speedy one of our van. She ran without a Garmin, without a watch, without water. She just ran. When you watch her run you see focus and speed. You can read about her experience HERE. We stopped a couple of times to give her water as well.

I was starting to get nervous. I had been waiting ALL day and my time was finally coming. I was practically giddy (and scared at the same time).

When we got to the exchange, we realized the logistics were tricky. Thus far, there has been ample parking at each exchange. Here, we had to park along the highway and the exchange was where a country road met up with the highway. I knew that Margot would be coming soon, so I hopped out of the van while everyone else got situated. I jogged toward the transition area.

I immediately saw Margot coming up the hill. “Nine-Eight-One,” the volunteer called. Crap! No time to mentally prepare. Oops…my shoes are not double tied. I bent down, tied my shoes and heard my name. I turned around to see my Dad!!! OMG…that was AWESOME to see. I gave him a quick hug and turned around to see Margot running into the chute. And then…I was off!

I definitely had an adrenaline spike. That minute was definitely an emotional high—finally running Hood to Coast, my dad there to cheer me on. I was SO happy. I took off like a bat out of hell. At one point I looked at my Garmin and saw a 6 as the first number. Ummm…that is a bit too fast, I think. The first two miles were 7:31 and 7:43. That probably wasn’t the smartest way to start a 6.75 mile run in 85-90 degree heat. And after those first two miles, when my excitement wore off a little, I started to feel the heat. Oh…the unrelenting heat.

It was getting toward 90 degrees. I was ready for my team to dump water on my head. I knew that I would go through everything I was carrying to drink as well (I had two 8 ounce bottles of Nuun on my iFitness Hydration Belt). I saw one of the teams we had met at a previous exchange. They offered me water. “No,” I foolishly said, “my team will be right up ahead.” Then I saw the AfterNuun Delight team. They high-fived me as I ran by. I didn’t ask them for water because I assumed my team would be just around the next bend. Never assume.

It was somewhere in those later miles, when I realized that my team wasn’t going to be there. The negative talk in my head became loud and difficult to ignore. I started feeling sorry for myself. I started doubting myself. I was hurt. Logically, I knew they had a very good reason for not stopping. I found out later that they read that vans weren’t allowed to stop. But at the time, I didn’t know that. I had studied that first leg and never saw that in the description.* I started to spiral into a very low place. I was so disappointed that after months of anticipation for HTC, my first leg wasn’t “magical.” Would the weekend be a let down? I was dizzy and felt like I was going to throw up. I was unsteady on my feet and I actually thought that I made a mistake by not running with my phone—how long before they came back to get me if I couldn’t finish? I wanted to walk, but I didn’t want to be the weak link of the team who walked during her first leg. I knew that my team would have been more than understanding, but I couldn’t face that in my negative state. But more than that, I wanted it to end. I kept pushing.

When Lauren, from AfterNuun Delight, passed me and asked me how I was, I said something (probably in a not-so-friendly tone) to the effect that I wanted to throw up. I wish, in retrospect, that I would have been more positive and chatty. I wish she would have passed me in the first two miles. I wish I could have seen the bright side that I WAS RUNNING HOOD TO COAST. Instead, I was a ball of negativity.**

To add insult to injury, somehow when I turned on my Garmin, there was a half mile on it from some other random run and I failed to reset it or realize it. As my Garmin mileage approached the 6.75 length of the leg, I saw no exchange. That last half mile was pure torture. Where was the exchange?? Am I lost?? Why have I run over 7 miles already?? Why is it so freaking HOT in Oregon??***

When I finally saw the exchange, I was filled with pure relief. The best thing I saw all afternoon was Jess, looking so fresh and pretty in her blue sports bra and camo running skirt. I handed her the snap bracelet (I have no idea how I got it to her) and she said something nice and was off.

Kerrie was there with cold water for me to drink as well as to dump on my head. I can honestly say that I have never been so out of it after a run. I know I gave it everything I had.

Those moments after my run are a bit fuzzy. I remember being unsteady on my feet and nauseous. I specifically remember Harmony (one of my teammates in Van 2) being there telling me to lean on her as I walked away from the exchange. She was so sweet and helpful. I mean, really…it is a very good person to put her arm around a sweaty runner she barely knows.

My dad was there (darn…we never posed for a proper picture) The above picture is of our team captain Kim with my dad and I when I was starting to feel a bit more human. My dad was so supportive. He reassured me that I did great. It really helped to have him there. He left so I could get to my van and head off to dinner. My negativity was starting to evaporate (I think the chocolate milk helped with that as well).

Looking back, I see that I ran a very strong leg. I ran relatively close to my predicted time in higher than predicted temperatures. I did my job as a teammate and I am proud of myself. I learned a lot about negative self-talk and how negative situations are really only temporary and that negativity doesn’t help anything (more on that in Part 3). I think when faced with a difficult run in the future, I will be able to be more effective at talking myself out of that negative place. The more time has passed the more I believe that the Hood to Coast experience wouldn’t have been quite as memorable without the ups and the downs, especially since there were more ups than downs.

Don’t worry…it gets better. I promise.

Leg 6—6.75 miles rated “HARD”— time-56:39 (about a minute slower than my prediction) pace-8:22

Stay tuned for Part 3—Night Warriors****

*I re-read the leg description when I was putting my thoughts together, I saw that it said, “no stopping on left side of highway to water runners (don’t stop at Porter’s Nursery).” After 12 hours in a van, who can blame anyone for missing that one word-left.

**Upon reflection with a clear head, I think my negativity was compounded by lack of sleep (I had been up since 5 a.m. after very little sleep after a week of very little sleep), lack of nutrition (I had not eaten anything other than a Luna Bar since a Starbucks breakfast sandwich around 6:30 a.m.) and the heat.

***Having grown up in Oregon, I know that it can get hot in August. I also know that it usually stays in the low 80’s.

****Blog post title stolen from Jess. It had such a good ring to it, I had to use it. Sorry, Jess. Hopefully my Night Warrior post will be as good as yours.

Hood to Coast Race Report Part 1—before the race

2011-09-03T14:12:00.001-07:00

What a whirlwind week it was leading up to Hood to Coast. Thursday, before flying to Seattle to meet up with Nuun and my Nuun Platuun teammates, I had a little thing called first day of school. My youngest was starting kindergarten, a huge milestone. Instead of arriving in Seattle early Thursday to hang out with the team and decorate the vans, I gave hugs and kisses and took pictures of two excited kiddos. As much as I am trying to enjoy my running opportunities while trying to build a business based on fitness, first and foremost I am a MOM. I am so glad I was able to do both.

After that, I headed to the airport to start my adventure. I was giddy with excitement. I went crazy with the camo theme and even had a camouflage carry-on bag. I was ready to go.
At the airport, I was in the security line with a soldier. I even snapped a picture with him. I told him all about the race and thanked him for his service. Another passenger had run HTC a few years earlier and told me how much he enjoyed it. My excitement was building.

I arrived in Seattle and got a cab and headed to the Nuun offices. When I arrived, I expected the party to be in full swing, but I was the first to get there. Yeah! I didn’t miss out on as much fun as I had thought! The Nuun staffers were super welcoming and made me feel very comfortable. So much so, that a couple of the bloggers thought I worked there when they first saw me.

When everyone walked in, it was surreal. I have followed many of these awesome women’s blogs for a couple years. To be honest, I felt a little bit star-struck. Many of these women had blogs with 10-20 times more followers than me, others were Boston alumni and accomplished ironwomen. I was feeling a little self conscious.

But soon I was chatting away with everyone and felt more comfortable. We all went back to the hotel as Van 1 had an early departure and were meeting in the lobby at 5:45 a.m. We snapped a couple of pictures with Nuun Platunners that we wouldn’t see until the next day. How cute are we in our camo skirts from Running Skirts.com?

Pictured here are me, TMB, Jess, Tricia and Kerrie

My hotel roommates were Kerrie and Emily. Emily was still on East Coast time and hit the sack right away. Kerrie and I tried, but ended up chatting for at least an hour—whispering in our bed. It was great. Honestly, I wish there had been a bit more of that kind of “girl talk” during the race, but believe it or not, it seemed like we were always focused on some task or another and didn’t do as much of that as I would have thought. Once we stopped chatting, neither of us got much sleep. 5 a.m. came way too quickly, but the day had come and we were heading to Mt. Hood!!

On our way down to Oregon, we were interviewed for an article in a magazine! Wow…we were famous! We passed the phone around and answered the reporter’s questions.

You can read the article HERE.

As we headed east from I-205, I started getting really excited. I was in my old stomping grounds of East Portland/Troutdale! We drove mere miles from my childhood home and into Gresham where I spent a lot of time in my teenage years.

When we saw Mt. Hood getting closer, the excitement in the van was palpable. We were SO close to the start. We had all been looking forward to this for so long. The noise level started increasing in the van. Except for Tricia…she was getting noticeably quiet. I wasn’t sure if it was her “game face” or if she was getting more and more nervous. I know now from her report on leg 1 that she was terrified. When we saw our first runner, a cheer went up. That was going to be us soon. Specifically…the first runner we saw was running Leg 6- my leg. I was officially excited.

We all got our game faces on...

And then we were there!! The teams, the vans…it was all real.

We found the Nuun tent and donned our Nuun tattoos and spread the Nuun love!

A familiar face from the Hood to Coast movie stopped by and said, “Nuun Platuum??” It was Bob from Dead Jocks in a Box*! He reached out to a few of us via Facebook to find out our start time, as well as tweeted with Tricia. He was super nice. We didn't see them again. They were faster than us and finished first in their division!

Tricia was ready to go to lead off our van. This thing was really happening!!

She joined Alanna from the AfterNuun Delight team and headed toward the start line.

And then…they were off!!!!

Stay tuned for Part 2- the highs and lows of the first legs.

*It was the first time a “celebrity” had messaged me on Facebook. I was pretty excited. Bob was one of my favorites in the movie because he looks a lot like my brother-in-law. Like Dead Jocks on Facebook so they can get 100 likes!

10 things learned at Hood to Coast….

2011-08-29T11:18:00.001-07:00

I will have a very long race report (most likely posted in three parts). But for everyone wondering how it went—it is difficult to describe such an incredible weekend (but, of course, I’ll do my best). I am so grateful to have been given this opportunity and honored to be included with some amazing women. As I am crafting my race report, I wanted to post some things I learned this weekend.

#10—Running 7 miles in 90 degree weather is not so much fun (but it was HOOD TO COAST and my dad saw me run it, so it was worth it in the end).

#9—Running in the middle of the night is a great way to clear your head.

#8—Six women in a van for 36 hours don’t stink as much as you would think (even after running their brains out).

#7—One hour of sleep outside on a tarp can be better than four hours of sleep in a hotel and can even be “magical.”

#6—You can “race” three times in a 24 hour period, running pretty much as fast as you can, and live to tell about it.

#5—There are zombies in Mist, Oregon.

#4—In a race situation like this, you are always looking for something…clothing, cell phone service, keys, teammates…

#3—These bloggers are as cool in real life as they seem online (some even moreso).

#2—Nuun is more than a fantastic product, it is a great company with some of the best employees around.

and the #1 thing learned this weekend—Hood to Coast is everything I thought it would be and would do it again in a heartbeat. (*hint, hint )

I am tired and sore, but super happy. I am now back to the real world. Happy Running...

Last minute preparations…

2011-08-25T07:03:00.001-07:00

I think I am all packed for Hood to Coast. I leave ~~in the~~ this morning*. In the meantime I am trying to get stuff ready for the kids to go to school (it starts ~~tomorrow~~ today), take my daughter to dance class and soccer practice and clean the house (sorry, Honey…it might be a bit of a disaster for your weekend alone with the kids). But, of course I have to take a break to blog about my clothes for this weekend’s epic run.

I am running three legs. The first is in the heat of the day, the second in the middle of the night and the third in late morning near the coast. I have three outfits planned. As you know (unless you have been under a rock), I am running on team Nuun Platuun. and we have a military theme. We are “hard corps.” LOL. Our tag line was inspired by a line from the movie Platoon, “free your mind and your feet will follow.” Costumes came naturally…we went with camouflage.

Leg 1—pink tank, camouflage running skirt. It will be hot during this leg (probably around 80-85 degrees), so I am also going to wear my iFitness Hydration Belt.**

Leg 2—olive green tank, Lucy capris, arm warmers. If it is really cold (I don’t think it will be—it is supposed to be in the 60’s) I will wear my Sugoi Versa Jacket. I’ll also be wearing a camouflage hat. My husband (who is a military buff and loves camouflage) teased me because it isn’t a “real” camo hat. According to him, it is “redneck” camo (hunting camouflage). Oh well…I’m wearing it at night.

Leg 3—short sleeve camo top, black booty shorts. I bought this shirt online specifically for this race from Bravada with no intentions of wearing it again. However, it is one of the most comfortable and flattering shirts I have worn. I’ll let you know how it does during a run, but I am pretty sure I’ll be wearing it again.

I also have an assortment of bandanas, ribbons etc. matching the Nuun Platuun theme. As I mentioned earlier, my husband loves camouflage. So we already had some things here. We even have a diaper bag that I am going to use as my personal bag!

Other than my personal items, Nuun is providing just about everything we need (food, first aid, and hydration of course!!). Other things I am bringing:

Garmin
iPod and speaker for the van (not to run with—headphones are a no-no due to safety)
open toed sandals so I can wear recovery socks.
Recovery Socks
a big sweatshirt (I get cold after a run, even if it is super hot)
sweatpants
my husband’s Fuzzy Duds soft fleecy shorts (in camo of course)
A travel pillow
Zip Fizz and Luna Bars (my essential running food)
A small gift for a gift exchange among the team. How fun is that??

I hope I am ready. I have a feeling I have forgotten some things. But I think I’ll be that girl on the van who borrows everyone else’s stuff. I hope they know that they are my new best friends!***

Remember to follow along on Twitter: @ministryofnuun, @nuunplatuun and @afternuundelite using hashtag #htcrelay. Also, the Nuun Facebook page will be posting updates all weekend.

I hope you all have fantastic weekends!

Happy Running…

*I wrote this post yesterday and am finishing up and posting this morning before I wake my kids up for the first day of school.

**I’ll be doing a review on this belt after the race. Stay tuned, there might be something in it for you!

***Tricia has already told me I could use her dry shampoo. I am sure there will be more…she is WAY more prepared than I am.

Taper for Hood to Coast? NOT!

2011-08-21T17:21:00.001-07:00

I know that some of my teammates might be taking it easy this weekend in preparation for some tough runs later this week. No easy run for me--I had a twenty mile run on my schedule.

I am training for my sixth marathon. One thing that doesn’t change is that twenty miles is still a very long way. It may sound crazy, but it is those super long runs that ~~fill me with dread and terror~~ I like the best. I get pretty impressed with myself. In fact, last night at a family get-together, I heard myself say, “more pasta? why yes…because I am running twenty miles tomorrow” and “oh, no salad for me, I am running twenty miles so I don’t need the extra roughage.” TMI? Probably, but runners get it.* By the end of the night, everyone knew I had twenty miles on the schedule. It is not like it is the first time, but damn it…it is impressive and I wanted my loved ones to know. Does anyone else feel like telling everyone when you run a significant amount of miles?

I was concerned this week when our schedule was turning out that I couldn’t run with the group for the long run. I have done plenty of long runs by myself. In fact, I have trained for two marathons pretty much on my own. But I have been spoiled this year and rarely run by myself. I put a plea out to my facebook friends for someone to run at least part of my run with me. The thought of running 3+ hours on my own was a bit overwhelming. One of my friends, Angela, made a comment that if I didn’t live so far away, she would join me for 10 miles. Ummm…I am totally willing to drive a half hour to run with a friend. Ironically, Angela and I have never run together. She and I are colleagues through Body Back. She told me she was nervous that she would slow me down. When I heard about her 3:51 marathon and 1:41 half marathon I thought I would slow her down. It didn’t take long before we were running, talking and going at a perfect pace for both of us!**

Before I knew it, we had chatted away the entire ten mile loop. Isn’t that the best thing about good running friends? A long run doesn’t seem so long anymore. And had she been ready for it, I think we could have run the second loop without having much of a lull in conversation. It was a great start to my long run.

After saying goodbye, I headed off to run the same loop again. We were at Newport’s Back Bay, which I always love. I didn’t notice the scenery much the first time since we were chatting so I turned my music on and really enjoyed the route. It wasn't as fun as the first half, but I was feeling great!

Around mile 14, my IT band started bugging me. I stopped at miles 15 and 18 to stretch. It helped, but the pain was a good reminder that I need to roll my IT band every day.

The last few miles were getting painful. Between IT/knee discomfort and the regular hip-to-toe pain that comes with a really long run, I was ready to be done. I wanted to see if I could kick up my pace again. I sped up for the last mile. It felt like sprinting, but I was able to run mile 20 at a 8:32 pace!! That is 10 seconds or so faster than my marathon goal pace. I am not sure if I could keep that up for a long time, but at least I knew I had it in me.

I finished. I was done. My legs hurt all over, but I was pretty happy with myself. Once again, I had that familiar desire to stop a random stranger and tell them I just ran twenty miles. I didn’t, but I wanted to. Oh…and I ran it about 30 seconds faster than marathon pace. I’m a happy girl.

So now that my first twenty miler is in the can for this training cycle, I will be back to my regularly scheduled obsessing about Hood to Coast. Did I mention that it is in five days??

Happy Running...

*And even without the extra “roughage” I still had to stop at a bathroom! Ugh…more TMI.
**We ran just over 9 minute miles, which is a bit faster than I had planned, but it did wonders for my confidence.

8 more days….

2011-08-17T10:45:00.001-07:00

There are eight more days until my daughter starts kindergarten. She is so excited she can hardly stand it. Big brother is happy to have his sister at school with him. That is a big milestone in our lives as I will have both my kids in school full time. Then the pressure starts to get this business really off the ground!

Oh yeah…something else is happening in 10 days. I AM FLYING TO SEATTLE TO START MY HOOD TO COAST ADVENTURE!!!

Here is a little more about the race (and my leg in particular), for those of you who aren’t familiar with HTC or long distance relays in general.

What is Hood to Coast? It is a 200-mile relay that is run by teams of 12. It starts at Mt. Hood, the tallest mountain in Oregon, to Seaside on the Pacific Ocean.

Known as "The Mother of All Relays", HTC is the largest relay in the world, hosting a capped team limit for the past 20 years, and has filled on "Opening Day" of registration for the past 13 years!HTC is also the longest running relay event in Oregon, and hosts the largest beach party on the west coast!

Here is the timeline for the weekend:

Thursday, August 25—After dropping my baby off at kindergarten, I head to the airport and fly to Seattle (Nuun headquarters) to meet the teams (Nuun Platuun and AfterNuun Delight). There will be van decorating, pizza eating and general revelry.

Friday, August 26—Four vans of excited and nervous women will take off first thing to drive down to Mt. Hood (just east of Portland). Our vans will be festooned with quotes and decorations supporting our respective themes. I am guessing that there might be some interesting looks along the freeway on the way to Portland and maybe a few honks.

The teams are all given start times ranging from early in the morning to early evening. to keep the course and exchange points free of too much congestion.

“The race start times begin at 3:30am Friday at the Timberline Day Lodge and continue in waves every 15 minutes throughout the day until 6:15pm. Each wave has 20-25 teams.”

Our start time is 12:30 p.m. I am excited that both teams are starting together!

I am in Van 1. Starting us off is Major Miles. She has the honor of running the leg with the steepest downhill grade. It is notorious for being incredibly difficult. I wanted this leg at first, but then when I thought about my marathon five weeks later, I decided that a quad-busting, toenail destroying, knee-shredding 2000 foot drop over five miles would not be the smartest choice. Yeah for Tricia taking one for our team!

*Leg 2 belongs to Captain Cupcake. Then Captain Phoenix, our team captain. She is followed by Captain Obvious and Captain Underpants. I am the final runner in van 1.

My first chance to run will happen around 4:25 p.m. ** Leg 6 is rated as “Hard” by the Hood to Coast folks. It is my longest leg, 6.75 miles.

It is described as “challenging uphills and gradual downhills along Highway 26 on paved shoulder.” Actually, running along highway 26 gives me more anxiety than any other part of the race. I grew up in this area and drove to Sandy and Mt. Hood often along Highway 26. It is not a lonely highway. It is a major thoroughfare—the only road from Portland to the mountain and the small towns in between. I know that giant trucks will speed by, scaring the crap out of me and blowing all sorts of road dust my way. On the bright side, it will bring back some great memories of driving up to the mountain to go skiing as a kid. I will be running by several well-know local landmarks.

After my leg, our van is done for a while. I am hoping that we will stop somewhere for some real food. The van will be fully stocked with all sorts of snacks, but at some point in a 24 hour period, hot food will be a welcome treat.

Our van will be back at it around 10 p.m.. Now we are on to some of the toughest legs for the mere fact that they are done in the middle of the night. I am thrilled, however, that our van’s dark legs are late night rather than early morning. Our best chance to catch some z’s will be after these overnight legs.

My next leg will be leg 18, which is 5.23 miles long. It is described as “flat and gradual uphill terrain on hwy and paved back country roads.” It is also rated “hard.” Hmmm…”back country roads” at 2 a.m.?? Yikes! Maybe I should add my pepper spray to the list of things to pack. I will be wearing a light on the front, a light on the back, as well as a reflective vest. What will the coyotes be wearing??

Saturday, August 27-- Our van will be “off duty” again from around 3 a.m. (when I finish running) until about 7:45 a.m. This might be our only chance for some shut-eye.

Our final legs get us closer to the beach. My last leg is my easiest leg (woo hoo!). Leg 30 is rated “moderate” and is 5.35 miles long. It is described as “gradual uphill and steep downhill on winding narrow back road with minimum shoulder.” This time, I am really looking forward to being on a country road. It will be around 11:40 a.m. so darkness won’t be a factor. In fact, it should be a lovely time of day!

Then van 1 is DONE. We get to head to Seaside to wait for our team!! I am excited for that part of the day. I have two friends from high school who are running HTC and they are both in van 1 for their teams. We are planning on toasting our success with a well-deserved beer.

The final runner for Nuun Platuun, Commando, should be approaching the beach around 5 p.m. Tradition says that all twelve runners join her and cross the finish line together. I am sure that will be quite a moment. I can’t wait. Then HTC hosts a huge beach party with food and music….and probably more beer.

Sunday, August 27-- We will make our way back to Seattle in our vans. Some of the team is staying over Sunday night. I need to get home. I fly out of Seattle Sunday evening. I will have missed pickup for the first two days of school and I want to be there to start my kids' first full week of the school year.

This adventure will be documented by twenty fabulous bloggers who are very social media savvy. We will all be tweeting and posting to facebook along the way. If you would like to follow along on our adventure, check out our Facebook Page as well as our Twitter accounts: @nuunplatuun and @afternuundelite.

Thanks for reading and supporting me on this adventure! This is a pretty long preview of my race. I can’t imagine how long the actual race report is going to be! It will all start a week from tomorrow. EXCITING!!

What part of a race like this would you look forward to the most? What would you be dreading?

Happy Running…

*I am not going to go through each leg in detail in this post. I might, at some point, describe each leg, but that would make this post very, very long.
**There is a spreadsheet that takes difficulty of legs and runner 10K times and predicts the length of each leg. They have been perfecting it for years and apparently, it is pretty accurate.

Over-scheduled??

2011-08-10T17:02:00.001-07:00

I don’t know, but I’m excited for everything on the horizon. It feels good to be already registered for five events in the upcoming months. I have never been pre-registered for so many things. I usually procrastinate, making my entry fees more expensive. This time, I took advantage of early-bird specials, coupon codes etc.

In just over two weeks I am running Hood to Coast with a GREAT team of women. I am so excited, I can hardly stand it. Preparations are in full force. Get ready for some fun blog posts afterwards and there are sure to be LOTS of pictures. Go Nuun Platuun!

Shortly after that, I head off to St. George, Utah. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about this marathon. I have seen it listed several times as a favorite race among runners who have run a lot of them. Runners run this race over and over again. It is fast and beautiful and I can’t wait.

In November, I am running the Santa Barbara Half Marathon. There are at least five of us going and we’re making it a girls’ weekend. The race is on Saturday, so we’ll stay Saturday night and really enjoy ourselves. My friend Jen is running her first half. She recently lost 40 pounds, so the half marathon is a great way to celebrate her new body!

In January I am running the inaugural Tinkerbell Half Marathon. This is a women’s race (although I know at least one man who is running it—woo hoo, Matthew!) I am going to don my fairy wings and have a wonderful time. My friend, Janet, is coming down and staying with me and it should be a fun weekend.

Finally, I am registered for the inaugural Hollywood Half Marathon in April. It is a week before my 45th birthday, so I want to live it up in Hollywood. They advertise limos taking runners from finish line to the expo/celebration as well as a red carpet.

So with all that, my running budget is maxed out! However…that does not preclude me from running a race that is FREE (and only minutes from my house). That leads me to the point of this post. iFitness (one of my favorite products*) is giving away a free entry to the Disneyland Half Marathon next month. I need your help to win it. I get entries for every five people who “like” them on Facebook or “follow” them on Twitter. I need your help and here’s how:

Go to the iFitness Facebook Page and like them. Tell them that Lisa Roehm-Gensel sent you.

Follow @iFitnessRunning on Twitter and tweet “@momtomarathon sent me to @iFitnessRunning #runDisney #Free entry”

Thank you so much for your help!

Happy Running…

*I will be reviewing one or more of their products in the next several weeks. There may even be something in it for you. hint, hint..

Q & A—part 3

2011-08-09T14:44:00.001-07:00

Margot asked: What is one running goal you most want to achieve? I REALLY want to qualify for Boston. Because of my advanced age, my qualifying time is much more achievable than for younger women. I tried for my “perfect storm” in October of 2010, but had a bad race. I am trying again this October. My goal for last year is the same—sub 3:50. I will be moving up in age groups soon and even with the new Boston qualifying times, a 3:50 would give me a five minute buffer.

In addition, I will run a 50K one of these days. I had planned to run one last summer, but I had budget and scheduling issues.

Jess asked: What do you look forward to most following a hard training run? It is usually something cold and sweet. I LOVE Otter Pops right after a run (I have packed them in a cooler for the group before) or an ice cold Pepsi.

Favorite running outfit? I don’t really have one favorite outfit. I am pretty cheap when it comes to running clothes and my outfits are a collection of clearance items, gifts and C9 from Target. Half the time I wear race shirts and whatever shorts are clean. After participating and teaching Body Back, I am in probably the best shape of my life. I am getting more and more comfortable showing my shape. I just started rockin’ the booty shorts and love how comfy they are. My current favorite has been my Roadrunner Velocity Compression Shorts and my Roadrunner Every Day Tank in neon yellow/green. However, I am beginning to think that my cammo Running Skirt with pink Roadrunner tank might become my favorite.
Favorite mileage? The half marathon is my favorite. I am even a Half Fanatic(#1205)! It is long enough to be an accomplishment, but not so long that it overtakes your training. My running fitness goal has been to be in half marathon shape no matter what I am training for, which means running at least 8-10 miles on the weekend. This has come in handy as I have been able to do several last minute half marathons over the past year or so. For random runs, I still like the longer distances. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like I get into much of a groove until mile 7 or 8. It seems like most of my bad runs are under six miles.

Tricia asked the all-important question: What's your favorite kind of beer? Maybe I should have included this with the Hood to Coast-related questions. I have already told Tricia that I would buy her a beer for sending me my running skirt. Hopefully, this question means that I have a teammate who likes beer. Having my roots in Oregon, I am a fan of micro brewery craft beers. Everywhere you look in Oregon, there is a small brewery with yummy beer. My taste in beer depends on my mood. I usually like Irish red ale, since they rarely have a distinct hops flavor (I’m not a big fan of “hoppy” beer). Sometimes, especially in the summer, I like the fruit or wheat or Belgian White beer. I have never been a fan of strong porters, IPA’s or stouts (although there is an oatmeal stout that I had once that was pretty good.) hee hee….more info on my beer tastes than you expected, eh?

Lindsay asked: what is your ideal number of blog posts per week? (for you to write, or what you think others should post max) I have no idea what ideal is, but I sometimes struggle to do one per week, which is far from ideal. I would love to post 3-4 times a week. I take a long time to compose blog posts, so I just don’t have time to do that. I feel that posting every day is a bit of overkill and I have a hard time following anyone that posts that often.

How many now-real-life friends have you met through blogging? (real life as in met up with). I am a big fan of meeting people on the internet. I have met five people I got to know from blogs. I have met Alice, Penny, Alissa, Jill, Aron, Irene and LB. LB and I met accidentally at the beach one day. I have also met Danica a couple of times. Does talking on the phone count as real life friend? Terri and I have spoken to on the phone, texted etc and interact on Facebook regularly. Before I ever knew what blogging was, I was involved in a couple online message board communities. I have friends who I consider very close that I met while trying to get pregnant nine years ago with my first child as well as a couple I met while pregnant with my second. I no longer participate in message boards, but we all stay well connected through Facebook. I am sure after Hood to Coast, I will be able to update that list. I am already becoming friends with a few of my teammates.

Ideal place to go on vacation? I love the Caribbean. The water is warm and crystal clear and the weather is balmy. I want to repeat the best vacation I ever had, which was chartering a sailboat called Cat Maudy. The captain and his wife spoiled my husband and I to a fantastic week of sailing around the Virgin Islands. It was incredibly relaxing, and we could snorkel, swim, explore as much as we wanted. We met with them at the beginning of our voyage and decided on the itinerary and they knew our likes and dislikes in terms of food, drink etc. We didn’t have to make another decision for the rest of the week. It was incredible.

What activity would you do (money is not an issue). I would have to say travel. Almost everything on my “bucket list” have to do with things in other parts of the world. I want to hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu. I want to do a trek in the Himalayas. I want to cycle through Europe. I want to go to the Olympics and the World Cup (wherever they might be). I would also like to run along the Great Wall of China (that marathon/half marathon looks awesome!)

Did you enjoy high school? I did. I participated in a lot of things in high school (student government, speech team, drama club, newspaper), yet had plenty of time to hang out with friends. However, I am not a “glory days” kind of gal. I don’t look back at high school with melancholy thinking about the “best days of my life.” I grew a lot in high school and enjoyed it, but would not want to go back. Ever.

Thanks for playing! I hope you were able to learn a little bit about me.

Happy Running…

Q & A—part 2

2011-08-05T08:07:00.001-07:00

This is the continuation of my answers to the Q & A post. Thanks for some great questions!
XLMIC asked: How would you describe your sense of humor? I am not particularly funny, but I can definitely laugh at myself. I suppose I have a bit of a dry sense of humor, enjoying mild sarcasm and humor you have to think about. I don’t usually enjoy laughing at someone else’s expense, which is why laughing at myself makes it all more fun.

Are you reluctant to speak up when something is bothering you? I really don’t like confrontation, so I guess I am reluctant in speaking up. I often let things roll off my back, rather than make an issue about it. Luckily, I get over things very quickly. “Grudge” is not in my repertoire.

What is your best "mom" quality" Your best "wife" quality? My best “mom” quality is probably the fact that I don’t hover. I let my kids discover the world for themselves. For example, I let them (ages 5 and 7) walk the dog down the street by themselves or climb trees. Some parents might look at me at the park and say that I am not “parenting” enough. I disagree. I know exactly where my kids are, I am there to kiss their owies (without babying them), and I stop them before they do something imminently dangerous (running with a sharp stick etc.). The result of this parenting style? Two very independent and confident children.
As a wife, I also do not “hover.” I give my husband the freedom to do the things he wants and try to be as supportive as possible. For example—guy’s weekend in Vegas? sure. Hockey on the weekends? sure. In return, he is happy when I go out for my runs. My version of Vegas? St. George with my running group in October and then Santa Barbara with friends to run the half marathon in November. We love hanging out with each other, but don’t smother. We definitely support each other. We agreed when we first got married that our marriage would not be 50-50, but rather 100-100—with both of us giving 100%.

Do you like pantyhose? No, no, no. I wore panty hose for close to twenty years in my professional life. My work environment was relatively formal and suits were required. I even wore panty hose while I was nine months pregnant in Palm Springs in the summer.PURE.TORTURE. Never again, if I can help it.

Christy asked: What is your favorite cuss word? I know this is boring, but I don’t have much of a potty mouth. I have tried, but it just doesn’t fit me. While I have been known to let out an occasional “shit”, you are more likely to hear me say, “oh dear” or something equally as mundane.

What is the best thing to put on ice cream? I really like ice cream on its own. My favorite flavor is chocolate chip cookie dough, which doesn’t need anything added.When we do frozen yogurt, I prefer fruit and granola.

What is your favorite song to sing in the shower? I usually just sing whatever is going through my head, which is probably something off Kidz Bop*, the music of choice of my children.

Flying or invisibility? Definitely flying. No question.
Fair Weather Runner asked: What's your guilty pleasure? I am embarrassed to admit that I am a sucker for reality television. But I only really like competition shows, none of those Housewife things. I would love to say that we don’t own a television and read every night after dinner. However, that is not the case. I love everything from Top Chef to the Bachelorette to Amazing Race. Watching things like American Idol and Survivor is our down time, and we often watch it as a couple or even as a family. My kids’ favorite show is Wipeout. So, yup…definitely a guilty pleasure. Did I mention that we love our DVR?

I have a few more questions to answer, so stay tuned!! Thanks again for playing along!

Happy Running…

*Kidz Bop takes popular music and makes it kid-friendly. Most of the songs are sung by teens and they often change the lyrics to by more appropriate for the younger set.

Some Nuun news…

2011-08-03T13:35:00.001-07:00

First, Captain Obvious (aka Kerrie) from Nuun Platuun came up with an awesome logo for our team. I am getting SO excited!

Second, our team captain along with a member of After Nuun Delight (Jocelyn) are going to be in New York for the Today Show tomorrow morning. They will be handing out Nuun bottles and single servings. They are hoping to get on the show to promote our teams! How cool is that? Tune in to see if you see a glimpse of one of our logos.*

Third, another “Delighter”, Mel Tall Mom has put together an awesome post that includes the bios of all twenty-four members of the two Nuun Hood to Coast teams. Check it out Here.

Last, but not least, Nuun Platuun member XLMIC is approaching 400 followers. When she reaches 404, she will be giving away a copy of the Hood to Coast movie! If you haven't seen it, you should. It is an inspiring documentary about the race that I will be doing in twenty-three days. Go on over and check out her blog!

Don’t forget the wonderfully awesome discount that Nuun is giving to team readers. You can get 25% off Nuun by using code NUUNPLATUUN at checkout. Try some of the new flavors!

Part 2 of my Q & A will be up later today or tomorrow.

Happy Running…

*Did I mention how cool the After-Nuun Delight logo is? Check it out!

Q & A-- part 1 (regarding Hood to Coast)

2011-08-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

Thank you for your questions. I have a lot to work with! Many of you were kind enough to ask multiple questions, so I will break it up into more than one post. If you want to join the party and ask a question, it is not too late to post here.

Since a lot of the questions were from my Hood to Coast teammates, I’ll start with the ones relating to Hood to Coast.

XLMIC asked, “What do you think will present the biggest challenge for YOU at HTC? For the group?”

I think the biggest challenge for me as well as the group is dealing with lack of sleep. Several of us are mothers, so we are used to strange sleep patterns, but my kids started sleeping through the night a few years ago, so I am not as used to it as some people are. I will bring plenty of Zip Fizz to keep me caffeinated. I know it will be interesting, to say the least.

I also worry a bit about the food thing [see next question]. I can go longer without sleep than I can without food, but I have a feeling food will be easier to come by.

Margot wrote, “What are you going to eat at HTC?”
I’ll eat whatever is available. I will be sure to bring a stash of Luna Bars. I really can’t live without those. Other than that, I am open.to whatever is available. I like snacking on things like nuts and chips. I love cheese, but I’m not sure how much cheese I’ll want.

I wonder how my tummy will hold up. Normally, I can eat just about anything, but not necessarily before running. I do tend to get tummy issues while running. I hope there are plenty of porta potties, because when I have to go, I have to GO. And using the bushes is grounds for disqualification. So I will pass on the veggies etc.

Tricia asked,“When you get tired do you get grumpy or silly?” (I know this question isn’t specifically related to HTC, but since Tricia is in my van, I am sure she wants to know what she is in store for). I get a little of both. I notice that my fuse gets a bit shorter when I am tired. I am more likely to snap at my kids (no…I am not the mother of the year). Sibling squabbles tend to set me off when I am tired, as well as the dumb driver who cuts me off in traffic. I have also been known to go into giggle fits when I am tired. I am actually looking forward to a giggle fit or two during the Hood to Coast weekend.
She also wanted to know, “How are you flying with a sleeping bag?” She knows that this is a question I have been wondering since being notified of my spot on the team. I still don’t know how I am going to fly with a sleeping bag. Mine is pretty bulky and I didn’t want to bring a huge duffel bag or suitcase (our space on the van is limited). Any suggestions on how to fly with a sleeping bag? Do I check the sleeping bag as luggage and put my clothes in a carry-on?

I will continue with the questions soon.

Happy Running…

What is Nuun, you ask?

2011-08-01T11:17:00.001-07:00

I found out recently that not everyone knows what Nuun is. I keep talking about Nuun and Team Nuun, assuming that everyone is familiar with the product. Even as a runner, I had heard of it and even tried it once or twice, but never really looked into what it is. I am now hooked, especially after trying all the new flavors. Thanks to fellow Nuun Hood to Coast teammate (from AfterNuun Delight) Dorothy for this post on her blog Mile Posts.

What Is Nuun? Hydration On The Go

Drop a Nuun tab into 16 ounces of water and in less than two minutes you have a complex electrolyte blend designed to keep you optimally hydrated with no sugars and no mess.

Nuun is formulated to contain no sugars or carbohydrates so you can solve your electrolyte requirements independent of energy needs. Simply, Nuun believes you are best to manage your energy. eat what you want: gels, bars, fruit, brownies....let Nuun take care of the electrolytes and hydration.

Nuun contains sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium to maximize hydration and prevent cramping. It has been chosen for years by top athletes and tested at the toughest events and in the harshest conditions on earth.

Nuun is purposefully developed with a light refreshing taste that's not overwhelming when you're on-the-go. With so many flavors to choose from, there is a Nuun for every taste. My current favorite is strawberry lemonade.

Nuun is truly portable and ready when you are. There is no need to search out a premixed sports drink. just drop one Nuun tab in 16 ounces of water and you are good to go. The tough water resistant tube is perfect for your hand, pocket or hydration pack.

Nuun, cares about the environment and encourage everyone to (re)use their own bottle. Each tube of Nuun makes twelve 16-ounce drinks. That's millions of disposable bottles kept out of landfills every year.

Have you tried Nuun? What is your favorite flavor? What flavors would you like to see Nuun come out with?

Get yourself some Nuun for 25% off! Use coupon code "nuunplatuun" at checkout!!

Training update…

2011-07-29T09:09:00.001-07:00

I have two big items on my race calendar in the next couple of months—St. George Marathon and Hood to Coast Relay. My key race coming up is the St. George Marathon on October 1. I was so focused on this race and felt really good about training for it.

Now, with eight weeks to go, I am not feeling quite as confident. I officially launched my business this spring and taught my first Body Back class (an 8-week boot camp program). That took two days a week away from my running, so my mileage totals didn’t increase like I would normally want them to. Then a few weeks ago, my hip really started to bother me. It was so bad that I could barely walk. I took about two weeks off to rest it and let it heal. After rest and a great deep massage, I feel better. My hip still feels tight, but I am stretching more and stopping when I need to. I was pretty conservative coming back—I would rather come back slowly than risk a major injury.

Add a vacation into the mix and I am behind the eight-ball on this one. My running group has already run eighteen miles. The longest I have run during this training cycle is a half marathon in June.

But today, things started looking up. I joined Kelly and Kim on their speed work session. They have been doing sets of Yasso 800’s for several weeks now. I didn’t go at first, because I like to keep speedwork in the second half of a training cycle, focusing on building endurance during the first half. I decided to join them today, because I felt like I needed to keep something on schedule for this plan. and I wanted to see how I felt.
The group is up to 9 X 800m. I didn’t really think I could do nine. When I did them before Long Beach, I don’t think I worked my way up to nine—maybe six or seven. I figured I would do what I could and listen to my body. We warmed up for a couple of miles and then started on the 800’s. I felt surprisingly good! With my goal of 3:50ish for the marathon, my 800’s should be at 3:45 or less. The first one was 3:24*. Not too shabby. I skipped the fifth interval, opting to stretch my hip while the others continued. I rejoined them, completing four more. My last interval was my fastest! We started and Kim, who is always faster than I am, seemed a bit slow on this last repeat. I kept right with her. With about 200m to go, I passed her, thinking she was slowing down. When I looked down at my watch and saw 3:19, I knew that she hadn’t slowed as much as I had pushed that last one. While I still have a ways to go to get where I want to be, those eight 800m intervals gave me a lot of confidence. I definitely felt better than I did last year while training for Long Beach. They were hard, but they didn’t kick my butt!! Awesome!

I have a long run this weekend. I am hoping to get 16-18 miles. Normally, I wouldn’t suggest making such a jump, but I feel good. I ran eleven altitude-affected miles on vacation in Mammoth, which was probably the equivalent of 14 or so in terms of time on my feet. We’ll see how I feel. I may keep it closer to 14 miles.

I am SO happy that Hood to Coast is going to break up the rest of my St. George training. I think it will help keep me from stressing too much. I am part of Nuun’s Team 2, which has been named Nuun Platuun. I have been getting to know my teammates on Facebook (and through their blogs) and am really excited. My van is going to be so much fun!!

I have not been really “training” for HTC. Some of my teammates have done two-a-days and three-a-days, but I can’t really do that with my husband’s work schedule. I am hoping to get one or two night runs in over the next month, but I am pretty confident that my strong running foundation will get me through my three legs (Leg 6, 18 and 30). My mileage total is just over 17 miles.

What advice do you have for “catching up” to marathon training after an injury lay-off?

What advice do you have for a 12-person relay? Do you train for it? Any secret packing advice?**

Coming soon…answers to my Q&A. It is not too late to post questions.

Happy Running…

*The 800m intervals were: 3:24, 3:27, 3:37, 3:38, 3:32, 3:34, 3:34, 3:19 (!!)
**my packing obsession has begun and my “list” is sitting on my desktop.

Tagged…the Q & A game!

2011-07-26T22:26:00.001-07:00

I was recently* tagged by one of my Hood to Coast teammates, XLMIC (aka Commando), in a question and answer game. It is a great way to get to know our “friends” in the blogosphere. I am eager to learn more about my HTC teammates, so I am happy to play.

Lisa!

Here is how it works: you ask me random questions and I will answer them in a blog post. They can be questions about just about anything. Pretty simple. So don’t leave me hanging…ask away!
Coming soon…vacation recap. Running where runners run—Mammoth Lakes, California.

Happy Running….

*Well...not so recently. I have been a bad blogger. Between vacation preparation and vacation, I haven't been keeping up with my blogging or blog reading. Sorry bloggie friends!

Introducing NUUN PLATUUN!

2011-07-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

image source

The information on this very select group of highly-trained individuals has been held classified ... until now. Running in the Hood to Coast Relay will be two hand-picked Nuun teams of female bloggers. One many people already know about... they are After-NUUN Delight.

Introducing their badass flipside...

N*U*U*N PLATUUN

free your mind and your feet will follow...

Major Miles... aka Tricia...firmly believes "Endurance Isn't Only Physical". She applies that doctrine by doing the majority of her training mentally. Sure, she plans on putting in some "major miles" as part of training, but just as importantly she is preparing for Hood to Coast by dreaming about running down that mountain, talking about the upcoming relay to anyone that will listen, and focusing her energy on tracking down the perfect camo print in wicking material.

"Draft beer, not people

Captain Cupcake ...Average A who keeps the Diary of an Average Runner, has this to say: My life has become amazing once I started believing in myself and putting my mind and spirit into my dreams. This runs the gamut in every aspect of life: from overcoming addictions; moving across the country on my own; and becoming better, stronger, and faster in my own body every single day.

I am really excited to not only have the chance to run this historic race, but I am excited to team up with so many wonderful, talented, and inspiring female bloggers -- some of whom I've admired for years!

Our third runner is the quiet brains behind 'Operation Hydration', Corporal Kim ...our Nuun Staffer

Captain Obvious of Seattle has a superpower-esque way of making completely useless observations to her running buddies: “Look, there’s a
slug. Don’t want to step on that.” She has been distance running, racing and blogging about it for two years, and recently completed her first full marathon. Captain Obvious, who blogs at Mom vs. Marathon, would like to point out that she is a mother, as well.

Running the "Bataan" leg... Captain Underpants ... aka the faster bunny whose notable accomplishments include but are not limited to having run three marathons, BQ-ed and NYC qualified. She is incredibly good at never getting injured! Hasn't been injured since age 16. Additionally, she's got a couple tech-y sounding degrees that she is proud of (Engineering and MBA). (The lack of any English classes probably explains the awful grammar in her blog). She can make some mean pancakes for breakfast and a great key lime pie. She is learning to bike so that one day she can do a triathlon.

A lover of all things crazy and that push you to the limit, she is excited to be a member of this squad because Hood to Coast is just that. She feels that to be on a team with a ton of extremely nice and inspiring women is priceless.

General Confusion.Lisa is a married mother of two wonderful children who blogs at Discovering the Meaning of Stonehenge. She took up running 3 1/2 years ago, at age forty. While training for her first marathon, she discovered her love of running and fitness. Since 2008, she has run five marathons, 16+ half marathons, six mud runs and oodles of other races. She is a RRCA certified running coach as well as trained in pre- and post-natal fitness, teaching Stroller Strides and Body Back bootcamp classes. Running is her escape, her fun and her “me” time. She builds friendships around running, but also finds her “happy place” during solo runs.

She loves spending time with her family, especially outdoors. Hiking and biking are key activities that everyone in the family loves. Her son is following in her footsteps and recently ran his first 5K.

In a previous life, Lisa was a casino executive (for 18 years!). She worked long hours in a tough, people-focused industry which really gave her a thick skin. There isn’t much Lisa hasn’t seen or heard, and a bunch of women in a van during Hood to Coast will be tame compared to some of the high rollers in the casinos.

Hood to Coast has been a dream of Lisa’s for many years. Her father ran it a few times in the 80’s and even before Lisa was a runner, she thought that HTC would be very cool. The course goes through her old stomping grounds of Mt. Hood, Sandy, Gresham, downtown Portland and the Oregon Coast. She is thrilled and honored to have been chosen by NUUN to run on their team.

Private Chafe ... aka Jess Allen aka "THE" Blonde Ponytail ;) Jess ran her first race ever, the Portland Marathon, last October 2010 and began her blog, Blonde Ponytail shortly thereafter. Jess is a recognized ninja. When she isn't silently assassinating wrong-doers, she advises students at Washington State University where her husband coaches baseball. Jess is a NSCA-CSCS and former Stanford University softball player. She is mom to one fur-child, Cooper, a 3.5 yr old golden retriever.

Cap'n Crunch introduces herself: Hi everyone! I’m Caitlin and unlike most of the lovely ladies on my team, I am not (currently J ) a blogger! I am a part of the Nuun Event Marketing team and I volunteered myself for a spot on the team! I graduated from Washington State University in 2010 where I played soccer for the Cougs, in addition to earning my degree in Comm. I grew up in a running family and have run two half marathons in the past year. My Hood to Coast legs will be the most I’ve ever run in 24 hours and I’m quite looking forward to the challenge.

image source

Code name: Nightingale. This super secret agent is rumored to blog at Nurse on the Run. Her identity is closely guarded and all info is classified. When
sighted, she is usually in the vicinity of someone needing medical
assistance... or running really fast!

Major Pain ...aka H Love... whose motto and blog are Keep On Keeping On. She tells us: I spent my time growing up between Florida and Washington State,
enjoying the beauty of both places! I am a small town girl who loves to compete (with myself) and try new things. I have always loved sports, but running was never one of them. I played basketball at the community college level and then finished my schooling at Washington State University! Go Cougs! In 2009 another mom asked me tobe on a 100K relay team to run the last leg....4.3 miles! What? It was a huge challenge. After running those 4.3 miles I was HOOKED! Those 4.3 miles , led to 13.1 and recently 26.2! Being part of NUUN Platuun is a huge gift and I still can't believe I am going to be part of HOOD to COAST! I am a mom of three amazng kids (10, 8 & 5) who inspire me daily! I am blessed with a hard working hubby that makes me laugh and supports me in all I do.

I "stay at home" (ha, ha, that's a joke) with the kiddos and work part time as a Early Childhood Education consultant and trainer. I love to bust a move (no alcohol necessary) and enjoy hanging with my fam and friends. Love, love, love, white sand beaches,the
gulf of mexico and warm sunshine! I try to enjoy the moments I am given and always looks for ways to inspire and connect with others! Can't wait to "bring it" with this amazing group of women! Go NUUN Platuun! Hoo- Rah!!

Sergeant Style ...aka Tonia. Here's the short version: Mom. Runner. Wife. Triathlete. Friend. Pescatarian. Coach. Not necessarily in that order.

And the not so short version: As a former Division I Track and Field
athlete, I have always had an athletic side, but it wasn't until my
second child was born that running became my passion. I began running
in 2007 after I vowed to run a 10K by the end of the year. I finished
that 10K and have never looked back. Since then, I've run 4 marathons,
10 half marathons and a slew of shorter races. Right now, I am training
for the NYC Marathon with Team Grassroot Soccer.

Although, I am primarily a stay-at-home mom, I have been active in
the fitness industry for five years and is am a certified running coach
with the Road Runners Club of America. In 2010, I established, TMB
Endurance Training,a coaching endeavor focused primarily on distance runners. I am also certified as a fitness instructor with the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, where much of my focus has been spent in the areas of Prenatal and Postnatal Fitness.

On a personal level, I am mother to three beautiful daughters, Dizzle, Doodle, and Dilly, wife of 7 years to J and author of the blog, Racing With Babes.

Notable accomplishments: 3 kids. 4 marathons. An Ivy League degree. An a appearance in the August 2011 Runner's World magazine.

Why I am so excited to be on Team Nuun for Hood to Coast: Well, isn't it obvious? Hood to Coast is "the Mother of All Relays" and running it with Team Nuun is a once in a lifetime experience. Who wouldn't be excited? Seriously, though, I am so honored to be included in this group of amazing blogging women from all over the country. I am looking forward to being challenged and forming new friendships and bonds. I know this is bound to be an experience I will never forget.

Commando ...aka XLMIC, blogger at Taking It On ... lurks in the shadows until the perfect moment to jump out and bust someone's cojones. She is relentless in everything she does. If she cannot out-and-out beat you running on the road, she will annoy you into the ground or make you laugh until you are immobilized... or you wet your pants. She appears unphased by almost any situation. She began running as a way of cross-training for her favorite sport, rowing. She rowed for Cornell University, at Vesper Boat Club, and was on the 1991 US PanAm team. After running two sub-4 hour marathons, she had four kids and took an injury-forced, 8-year hiatus from athletics. (She also has 6 grown stepkids). She resumed running less than a year ago and prefers to run at night... stealth-style... after everyone is asleep. Don't look for her because you won't find her that way. Just listen... she has a hard time keeping quiet for very long.

These formidable and fun athletes will present a force to be reckoned with at the 2011 Hood to Coast!

A 5K that certainly didn’t suck!

2011-07-06T14:22:00.001-07:00

As I have said on more than one occasion: I don’t like 5K’s. I have come to the realization that I don’t like racing a 5k (it hurts). But I enjoy running a 5K when I am running with someone else and there is no pressure to go fast. I ran a 5K on Monday that may go down as my favorite race EVER.

I ran a race with my seven-year-old son. I don’t write a ton about my kids here on this blog, but I am so proud, I have to write about him. Above everything else, I started this blog to document my running journey. Having my kids inspired to run is such a big part of that journey.

Last week, when I picked up my shirt and bib for my 5K and 10k, they offered me a second shirt since I paid for two races. At first I declined and then my son asked if he could have it. It was a tech shirt (a nice score for a local 5K) and he told me he wanted to run in it. “Can I run a race?” It was the first time he had mentioned wanting to run. I told him that we would pick a 5K and train for it.

I knew that the following weekend was the annual Firecracker 5K and 10K. I thought, what the heck, I could sign him up for the 5K and he could run as much as he could and then walk the rest. There would be plenty of walkers during the event. When I told him, he was SO excited! That is all he could talk about for days. Since I was injured* and couldn’t run the 10K as I had planned, it made me excited to run the 5K with him.

We live super close to the start of the race, so we warmed up by jogging to the start. We were both SO excited!

He took off after the gun went off. One thing he needs to learn is pacing. He either sprinted or walked. He had a tough time finding a middle ground.

It was a hot, hot morning. When the race started at 7:30, it was already well into the 70’s. I carried a bottle of Nuun with me. I am so glad I did. I read somewhere that kids’ bodies have a harder time regulating temperature than adults. They also don’t recognize their bodies’ feedback, so it was my job to make sure he was safely finishing the race.

He took a lot more walk breaks in the last mile, but he did not complain once!! He just walked a bit and then started running again. When we got closer to the end, I encouraged him to run to the finish. I knew he would want to look back at the last few hundred yards on the high school track** with pride.

And pride was all that I felt at the end. He really pushed himself toward that finish line. We held hands crossing the finish line and I was so happy! We finished in 36:51, which isn’t bad for a first timer who has never run any measured distance!

He was so proud. He told people it was LONG. But it wasn’t long before he started telling people that he wanted to run a 10K. Oh…that boy is definitely his mother’s son!***

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend. Did you race on the biggest race day of the year?

Question for coaches, health professionals and parents: how far is too far for a child? My son really wants to run a 10K on Thanksgiving. He’ll be 8. We would train gradually, but there isn’t a lot of definitive answers or age guidelines out there. I want to make sure he stays healthy and becomes a runner for life. What do you think?

Happy Running…

*Somehow while pushing myself in the Villa Park races, I did something to my hip. I could barely walk for about three days last week. After resting for five days, I went for a run on Saturday and had to walk after five miles. I can’t get into the doctor for another week, so I am taking it very easy. Luckily, the slow pace we did during the 4th of July run didn’t aggravate the injury.
**Daddy took some great video of the end of the race! Once it is edited, I may post it.
***He might actually take after his father more. I didn’t start running until I was 40 years old. My husband ran when he was a kid and all the way through high school and college. In fact, he still holds the record at his high school for the mile. Unfortunately, he doesn’t like to run anymore, so I am on my own. Maybe once the kids both start, he’ll make it a family affair.

A summer dilemma: shirt or no shirt?

2011-06-28T09:54:00.001-07:00

It is officially summer! Of course, that means the heat is on. I like that I don’t have to check the weather in the morning before running. Shorts and a tank are called for every day.

The other day, I didn’t get out for a run until after 8 a.m. It was already pretty warm. I was going out by myself and thought, “hey, why do I have to put a shirt on over my sports bra?” I did my run, was self-conscious for a while, but felt good as it heated up and I wasn’t soaking in a sweaty shirt.

This seems like a simple thing. I see women running in sports bras all the time. But not me. I am a pretty modest gal. Much to my husband’s dismay, if my neckline falls too far into the “cleavage zone” I wear another layer underneath. I am not showy or ostentatious that way. I think it is the fact that I am not sure I want to get out there and say, “LOOK AT ME!” That must seem silly coming from a girl who blogs about details of her life telling the world to “read all about me!” It is not that I am ashamed of my shirtless body. No…I am actually pretty proud of my torso right now. For the first time (maybe ever), I have significant abdominal definition. My “mommy pooch” is at a minimum and I look and feel strong.

So why do I feel self-conscious? I doubt if most people would even notice as I run by. Those that do, wouldn’t think, “geez…put a shirt on.” I worry (probably unnecessarily) that they might think, “who does she think she is?” And what do I care what complete strangers think anyway? Funny enough…I think I am less likely to go shirtless while running with my friends (a pretty conservative group) than I would anonymously.

Of course, in some cases shirtless running makes the world a better place!

What is your stand on shirtless running? Do you go out there baring your torso? Or do you put on a tank top? Should runners stay clothed? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Happy Running….

Villa Park 5K/10K Race Report

2011-06-27T08:28:00.001-07:00

I ran two races on Saturday. This is a local race that supports the Villa Park library and I love to support the local running community. I signed up for both the 5K and 10K, knowing I needed to get mileage in.

My first race was the 5K. It is official: I HATE 5K’s!! They hurt. They are hard. I don’t know about you, but I think I underestimate 5Ks because they are a measly three miles. Heck…running three miles is a piece of cake, right? It is just a warm up. Well, that is the problem. It takes me three miles to get into a groove, so by the time I am feeling comfortable, the race is over. Plus, it is so short that I feel like I have to run all out the entire time. I feel like if I am not at puke threshold, I am not going hard enough.

My original plan was to run to the race like I did last year. The race is four miles from my house, so I could add eight miles to the race distance. I registered for both the 5K and 10K, so my total mileage would be around seventeen miles. Perfect. Unfortunately, life got to me last week. Due to my running schedule and teaching Body Back classes, I get up very early each day. I am horrible about going to bed early. By Friday night after a particularly brutal week of emotional highs and lows, I was DONE. I was so tired that setting my alarm made me cry. I couldn’t bring myself to get up early enough to run to the race. I did need to be there somewhat early to help out with a booth where I was displaying brochures for my Body Back classes and coaching, but I left the house after 6 a.m. instead of 5 a.m..

As we were waiting for the 5K to start, I told my friends that I didn’t want to “race” it. I would treat it like a tempo run. I was too tired to think about my twenty-four minute goal that I have for a 5K.* Once we started, however, all that was tossed out the window when I saw my friends start to run ahead of me. I am too competitive not to keep them close. As I realized I was running in the sevens, that twenty-four minutes was in play again. It was on and I was suddenly running at puke threshold.

Kelly and I were running close to each other. At the half-way point, I was slightly ahead of her. As the race turned back toward the finish with a nice gradual downhill, Kelly passed me. I couldn’t catch her. With pride, and even a bit of jealousy (I can admit it), I realized that Kelly is officially faster than me. Or we were at least pretty darn evenly matched. It totally makes sense. It was two years into my running when my speed caught up with my training. Kelly is there and seeing the fruits of her labor. She trains hard and, whether she admits it or not, she is competitive enough to push herself enough to break through those speed barriers. We ran into the finish line hard. She finished in 23:23 and I was right behind her with 23:34!!! My twenty-four minute demon is behind me! Not bad for being so tired, I almost skipped the race entirely.

We had time to get some water, eat a Gu and stretch a little bit. Then it was time for the 10K. I wasn’t looking forward to it. I had not eaten a meal the day before—just a bar here or there and maybe even a pop-tart *blush*. I was worried that I wouldn’t have any energy. Even still, my sub-fifty minute goal was in the back of my mind.

I was hoping to keep my splits under 8:00, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. I settled into a nice groove though on the gradual incline of the first loop. My competitive juices started flowing. I decided that Kelly could beat me on the 5K, but that I would beat her on this race. I knew that she could smoke me on the downhill, so I had to put some distance between us on the uphill**. I was right. By the end of the third mile (which is mostly downhill), she had nearly caught up with me—I could hear her breathing down my neck. LOL. This was a double loop race and I pushed up that incline again during the fourth mile, putting more and more distance between us. By the time I hit the fourth mile, my legs were feeling very fatigued. Miles four and five were my slowest of the race. When I had one mile to go, I knew I had to finish strong. I had no idea how far back Kelly (or the rest of the group) was, but I knew that she was really fast on downhills, so I kept pushing. I gave it all I had at the finish. My sixth mile was 7:42 and the last .3*** was at a 7:10 pace!

I didn’t run a PR, but I clocked a respectable 50:50! Kelly came in a few seconds later in 51:27, a new PR for her by two mintues!

We found out after the race that Kelly had come in FIRST in her age group in the 5K and I had come in SECOND in mine!! Woo hoo!! We found out a bit later that I placed FIRST in my 10K and Kelly placed THIRD!!! Double Woo hoo!

Kelly and I showing off our “bling”. The race gave AG medals as well as finishers’ medals

My friend and Body Back client Nicole found out she placed FIFTH**** in her age group!! This was her first 5K and she was thrilled.

Nicole shows off her AG medal!

Sandra ran two strong races as well. She ran the 5K in 28:51. She finished SIXTH in her age group for the 10K, a minute off a medal with a 58:32 –her first 10K!

The Body Back gals after the race!

This was a nice little race. The race director is a local runner who wanted to put on a race that was very “runner friendly.” He definitely succeeded. In addition to that, it was family friendly. They had booths for kids, such as face painting and caricature artists. The weather stayed nice and overcast (but it was a bit humid) and it was a good time.

Happy Running…

*I do 5Ks so infrequently that my PR goals are much more conservative than for longer distances.

**Sorry, Kel…I love you!

***I had to do some weaving at the start of the race.

****This race gives medals to the top five in each age group. How great is that??

Banner Day!!

2011-06-22T15:35:00.001-07:00

Big things. Big. BIG Things!

First…I MADE IT!! I am a member of the Nuun Hood to Coast Relay Team. I sent in an application last week and they made the announcement this morning. There were so many awesome applicants that they are having not one, but TWO teams of fabulous women! I have connected with several of these women already and am so excited to meet them all in person.

Second…there are 100 days left before the St. George Marathon. Eek. I am glad to have this HTC thing to break up the training. I am really excited about St. George and am trying to train smart this time around. However, I want to make sure I have fun this summer. What a great balance! I will do a full post on my training goals for St. George soon.
Third…I finally have over 100 followers! I feel like I have “arrived.” I still am a pretty small blog compared to some of the incredible women I will be running with, but 100 is a nice number, don’t you think?
Fourth…I signed up two clients for my next Body Back session. I am thrilled to be able to make money helping women meet their fitness goals. Look for the launch of my business website soon. I am officially a professional Fitness Coach and it feels great!
Finally…I decided to splurge and have my house cleaned today. I used to have a regular cleaning service once upon a time. That was in another life, when I worked and when things were financially a little more stable. Let me tell you…cleaning is NOT one of my strengths. The house feels FABULOUS today. I don’t feel quite so guilty obsessing on the computer meeting my new teammates through Facebook and Twitter.
Happy Running…

Suspense

2011-06-21T12:20:00.001-07:00

Nuun announces their Hood to Coast team tomorrow and I am anxiously waiting. This anxiety has been stoked by other bloggers on Facebook. If I had just turned in an application and forgotten about it, it would be one thing. But I check the Nuun Facebook Page and there are awesome bloggers on their waging an all-out PR campaign. So, of course, I have to join in. We would all make such a great team!*

It has been really cool seeing al the great women who have applied for this.** I know one thing…whoever they pick,*** it will be a fun, enthusiastic and diverse team. There are moms, tall moms, non-moms, diabetics, popular bloggers, obscure bloggers, fasties, middle-of-the packers, and women of various ages.
I might be the oldest applicant. Does that give me an edge or will they think I won’t be able to keep up with those young gals? One of the applicants is 22. 22! Do you know what I was doing 22 years ago when she was entering the world? Graduating from college. Note to Nuun: I can keep up with any young whippersnappers. Just try me!

Hey, I know they have probably already made their decision. They have probably looked at my blog and realized that I am not one of those women with 500 followers. I don’t get offers for cool giveaways. But I do ok. Could you do me a favor? If you haven’t already, could you follow me? I would love to get to 100 followers through this whole process.

I’m going to sign off now so I can go stalk the Nuun Facebook Page and see what the other bloggers are up to. One more day and my obsession will end. Well, if I make the team, my HTC obsession is just beginning! Be warned.

Happy Running…

*Hint, hint
**cool, yet humbling and, at times, depressing…
*** PICK ME, PICK ME, PICK ME!