Bev Coleman 5K

Yesterday went well...

Got up at 4:30 am and went to work; left promptly at noon. I got to Columbus and registered for the race. It was a sunny but cool beautiful fall afternoon. As I had predicted, the #1 and #3 runners in my age group were there. Time wise, they are both faster than me. I decided to try to stay right behind them and not look at my watch too much.

The course was several loops around a neighborhood so there was never any point where you could count who was ahead of you and who was behind you. I pretty much stayed behind the #3 runner the whole way and there was one other female between us that looked like a high school runner. I never saw the #1 runner after the race started and I figured she was running behind me with one of her kids. She is so far ahead in the points standings now that she can afford to do that.

Here are my splits...

Mile 1 - 7:30
Mile 2 - 7:44
Mile 3 - 7:38
last 0.1? - 1:21 (my Garmin said 0.18 and I think the course was long!)

Official time - 24:12. Average mile pace 7:47

I grabbed some water after the race and walked back to my car. I picked up my phone and the time read 2:35 pm. 1 hour and 25 minutes to get to Carmel. Then I noticed I had a message. It was from my husband. He was back from Wisconsin already and the people at Gregory Hancock wanted to know if G could stay at "Nutcracker" rehearsal for another hour. He could go pick her up.

Hallelujah!

I went back and watched everyone else finish and stayed for the awards. I figured I got second in my age group but I thought there might have been another female runner between the winner and the #3 runner that beat me. Nope. The #3 runner finished second overall. The 14 year old in front of me was third, and I finished fourth overall. I got second in my age group. The #1 runner ran with her son and got third in our age group.

I had time to go home, shower, eat dinner and actually sit for an hour before driving back to Bloomington to work for another 3 hours. I got home just before midnight last night and just dropped!

All in all, the day's craziness was definitely worth it. It was my 10th race in the Crossroads of Indiana  race series so I am now eligible for an overall award. I am currently in second in my age group. The #3 runner is now only 3 points behind me and I suspect she will end up second. Even if I do not run another race, the worst I can finish is third since the three of us that are leading our age group are so far ahead of everyone else in our age group.

More importantly, I felt really good during the race. I felt really evenly paced. If you go by my Garmin, I ran 3.18 miles which translates to a 7:37 pace. Plug that into a race calculator and that comes to a 23:40 5K. If I put that number in the race predictor  I get marathon times of 3:44:29 to 3:50:59.

I am going to believe that I can run under 3:55:00 on Saturday.

I saw my chiropractor this morning and got my left hamstring and butt cheek stretched and rubbed out in a hurts-so-good kind of way. Then I ran an easy 3 mile loosen-up-the-legs kind of run this afternoon. I am still trying to decide what to wear on Saturday. It was 38 degrees at 8 am this morning but 60 degrees at noon. I think I'll hit up Goodwill tomorrow for some throw away clothes.

How was your Monday?

Week 17 Wrap Up

One more week...

I feel like this training cycle has lasted forever but now is coming to a screaming fast finish. I went back today and looked at my post for Week 1. I keep thinking one of these days I'll tally up all the miles I've run this year. I track them daily but I don't keep a running total. I've definitely run more this year than in any year since high school!

So much has changed with my running since I started this blog in February. My main goal then had been to get back under 2:00 for a half-marathon. I discovered along the way that the more I race, the faster I get. I'm not sure if that is a sustainable schedule though as most races are on Saturday mornings and both my kids have crazy busy schedules. I guess we'll see what happens after the marathon. Most weeks, I just feel like "if I can just make it through this week" it will be OK. Problem is, it's like that week after week...

So, here's how my week went...

Sunday - 3 miles (5K run, no warm down as I had stuff to do!)
Monday - 30 minutes exercise bike
Tuesday - 6 miles
Wednesday - 40 minutes running in the pool
Thursday - 8 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - 4 miles

21 miles total + pool running

I was suppose to run 4 miles on Wednesday. I got up at 6 am but it was dark and rainy. I thought about going to the fitness center but went back to sleep. I then got up and drove to Chicago with G. We spent the day at the Art Institute of Chicago. I planned to run on the treadmill back at the hotel but G didn't want to sit by herself while I ran so we went to the pool instead. I ran in the pool while she played, then sat in the hot tub.

Thursday, we drove back and I felt really tired. It sleeted little balls of ice on my windshield as we drove back. I just wanted to hibernate when I got home but went to the fitness center. I then had one of those magical runs where your legs feel fresh and you feel like you are flying. I felt like I could run forever. It was my last run of any distance before my marathon so I'm glad it went that way!

I've gotten up at 4:30 am the last two days to go to work. Tomorrow I'll do the same. I am working a crazy split shift so that I can squeeze in one more 5K and pick my daughter up from Nutcracker rehearsal. Basically, I am working in Bloomington from 6:30 am to noon. Then, I'm going to drive over to Columbus and try to run a 5K that starts at 2 pm. I'll give myself 30 minutes to run and get back to my car. That gives me 1.5 hours to drive to Carmel so I can pick up my daughter from her rehearsal at 4 pm. After that, I'll drive an hour home, shower, change and leave by 7 pm so I can be back in Bloomington by 8 pm to work another 3 or so hours.

Yes, another one of those "if I can just make it through this day" days. I am off on Monday though so I can recover then!

My 900 Year Old Daughter

Do you believe in reincarnation?

There are days that I'm positive my younger daughter G has been around the wheel (of life) multiple times. It started years ago before she even went to school. She would make comments that you'd never expect out of a 4 or 5 year old. She made her older sister really upset once when her sister, then in the 3rd grade, was talking about how she and her best friends were planning to live in a house by the beach together. G (then 5) tells her, "You know J, you think that the friends you have now are the ones you'll have forever but they're not. People change." Ummm... how does a 5 year old know that?

We once went somewhere, I think it was in Southern Indiana, that we had never been to before. We turn a corner and G says, "Oh, we've been here before. There's a barn over there..." Yes, there was a barn. It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Plus, this kid...
- will sit down with you at breakfast with a cup of black coffee
- LOVES broccoli, spinach, and asparagus
- prefers to dress in grays and blacks
- thinks pizza and Oreos are disgusting
- likes her steaks "bloody like a crime scene" (her words exactly)
- is always a think ahead planner
- for her 5th birthday she wanted to go to a theater show and get a pedicure (didn't happen)
- on our vacation last week, she bought local art (a signed painting) as her souvenir

Her biological age is 10 but I think she is really 900.

Does she look 900 to you?

 

So we are still on Fall Break but I am working some days this week. She looked at my work schedule earlier this month and noted I had Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off. She tells me, "We are busy the weekend after we get home from the Bahamas and then you have to work on Monday. I will let you rest on Tuesday. On Wednesday I need you to take me to the art museum in Chicago because I want to see some of Picasso's works there."

 

Whoa. When I was 10 I don't think I knew who Picasso was. I'm almost 45 and I'd much rather spend the day going down water slides than pondering art at a museum (maybe I'm just childish?)

 

She then goes to the Art Institute of Chicago's website and types in "Pablo Picasso Blue Period" in the search box to see what they will have on display. Blue Period? What's that?

 

Well, I am obliging my 900 year old daughter and getting some sophistication by taking her to Chicago tomorrow. I asked her older sister if she wanted to go - got the eye roll "are you kidding me?" look - so it is just the two of us.

 

We decided to spend the night there. I think I'm more excited about the deal I got on our hotel room. I wanted to stay within walking distance to the museum so I wouldn't have to worry about parking. I knew all the hotels on Michigan Avenue would cost a freakin' fortune. I went to Expedia and decided to gamble on a mystery hotel. It's just like Priceline or Hotwire - it gives you a price, general location, star rating, etc. but won't tell you the name of the hotel until you buy it. I picked a 4 star hotel in the Michigan Avenue - Millennium Park - Grant Park area. The Art Institute of Chicago is between Millennium Park and Grant Park so I figured it was safe. Plus the price was right, $114.

 



We got the Hilton!!! I couldn't believe it. It is right on Michigan Avenue. This is the hotel I paid $350 a night to stay in all the times I've run the Chicago Marathon.

G has now informed me that we will be eating at Kitty O'Sheas (it's the Irish Pub inside the hotel) because she would like some potato leek soup of dinner.

Again, I think I was in college before I knew what a leek was...

Fort Vallonia Days 5K

My older daughter and I ran this race 2 years ago and I swore I'd never do it again. Worst 5K EVER! At the time, my daughter was running for her middle school cross country team and doing quite well. She wanted to try some 5K's but the challenge was finding one when were available to do one. Saturday mornings were out due to the bazillion other commitments we all had. We found this race and thought it was ideal - run on a Sunday afternoon at 1 pm.  NOT!!

It is part of the Fort Vallonia Days Festival. So where is Vallonia, IN? It's in the middle of no where Southern Indiana - take I-65 South to Seymour, hang a right there onto 50 West, drive to Brownstown, turn onto 135 and drive a couple more miles to Vallonia. MapQuest says it's 70 miles and about an hour and a half from my house.

So, 2 years ago, my daughter J and I set off to run this race. It was a beautiful fall afternoon - sunny and warm. Like 70+ degrees warm... and windy. I was one week out from running the Chicago Marathon and still pretty sore. J had finished her cross country season about 1-2 weeks before and hadn't run since then. In other words, neither one of us were in any racing shape! We had a T-shirt on the line. If she beat me, I'd have to buy her the shirt.

We registered and looked at the course map. It was a straight shot out and back. Then the race started. It was a straight shot uphill, no shade anywhere, with a crosswind that hit you from every direction as you ran across open fields. I would have dropped out at the one mile mark had J not been running right in front of me. It was awful. I felt awful. J wasn't doing much better cause I could see her slowing in front of me. FINALLY, we got to the homestretch. I kicked with about a 100 yards to go and passed her; she kicked and passed me back with 50 to go and beat me. We both ran over 27 minutes. It was bad!

I couldn't outkick that stride!

 

 

So this weekend the competitor in me got the best of me. I've been doing 5K's for the speedwork. Then I found that I was actually doing quite well in the Crossroads of Indiana Race Series. I am in second place in the points standings for the female 40-44 age group. However, you have to run a minimum of 10 races in the series to be eligible for an award. I had run 8 so far. After today's race, there are only 5 races remaining and I can only run in one of them. That meant that I had to run today's race if I was going to get 10 races in.

 

Time wise, I am the fourth fastest woman in my age group. The fastest woman is currently in third place but she has bigger fish to fry and won't be completing 10 races. The next fastest is in first place and will most likely take the series. She and I have run the same number of races. I am in second. The third fastest woman is in fourth place. She will have to run every race til the end of the year to get 10 races in but she very well might do that.

 

#2 and #3 were at the race just as I had guessed they'd be. All I wanted was to get credit for a race. I figured I'd get third in my age group. I was prepared for HOT, WINDY, and UPHILL.

 

Well, they changed the course. Still out and back but not so uphill. Still hot but about 15 degrees cooler than the last time I ran this. Still VERY windy. I ended up 7th female overall and 3rd in my age group, just as I'd figured. This is how it shook out...

 

Mile 1 - 7:28

Mile 2 - 8:03

Mile 3 - 8:12

last 0.1 - 0:41.8

 

Official time - 24:24.8. Average pace - 7:51

 

I told myself before the race that I would be happy with anything under 25:00. I was dead the last mile and vowed that no one would pass me on that last 0.1 since I got passed from behind last week.

 

All in all, I accomplished what I wanted. Was it worth it? I don't know. Somedays I wish I could just shut off that competitive streak. It took me two hours to get to Vallonia because I got a bit lost. After the race I ran straight to the car and drove another 2.5 hours up to Carmel to pick my younger daughter up from "Nutcracker" practice then drove another hour back home. So 5.5 hours in the car. I am sore today. Gee, I wonder why? Got credit for one more race and earned 1 point for my third place finish.

 

I am working all early morning shifts at work until the marathon so hopefully my sleep schedule will be somewhat normal. I got up at 4:30 am today to go to work. I got 30 minutes in on the exercise bike after work for my cross-training day workout. I also made appointments to see my chiropractor and my massage therapist next week.

 

12 more days!

 

 



Bites of Nassau Food Tour

I'll have to give my husband credit, he found this food tour online. He told me that all the reviews said it was the best thing to do in Nassau. It didn't take much convincing to decide it was the thing to do on one of our vacation days. The kids even decided they would rather do it than go snorkeling Their comment - "You can snorkel anywhere. We'll try Bahamian food!"

So here's how it turned out. The tour was hosted by TRU Bahamian Food Tours.

First stop was Bahamian Cookin'. It is a hole in the wall restaurant that served wonderful Bahamian food. We learned that conch is the only reliable local source of protein. 90% of the conch from the Bahamas is exported. The Bahamian people are not food self-sufficient yet. The population would starve in about 2 weeks if something happened to their ports.

We tried conch fritters and baked macaroni and cheese. These conch fritters actually had conch ground up in the batter (with a food processor) along with chunks of conch for an extra "conchy" taste. Bahamian macaroni and cheese is typically firm enough to cut into squares and uses eggs to hold it together.

Baked macaroni and cheese and conch fritters

 

Next stop was the Pepper Pot Grill and Juice Bar. Again, a little hole in the wall restaurant with great food. Great Jamaican food. We learned that the original aboriginal population in the Bahamas were all wiped out by disease 25 years after Europeans arrived so there are no real "Bahamians" left. All the people of the Bahamas are descendants of primarily Southern US colonies and Bristish colonists and their slaves. The Bahamas were populated by other islanders too like the Jamaicans so "Bahamian" food is actually a mix of cultures.

 

We had a great "fruit punch" that was a mix of fresh squeezed tropical fruits. It was my older daughter's favorite tasting on the tour.

 

Fruit Punch

 

We also had Jamaican jerk chicken, plantains, and rice and peas. What they call "rice and peas" is what I call red beans and rice. I really learned to like plantains on this trip.

 

 

 

Next stop, Graycliff Chocolatier. Graycliff is actually a famous hotel that has a restaurant, cigar factory and, most recently, a chocolatier. Their chocolates were pieces of art. We got to try the White Chocolate Key Lime chocolates and the Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel chocolates.

 







One of the men in our tour group was admiring his artfully painted dark chocolate when it jumped out of his hand and onto the floor. The group let out a collective gasp. Then my older daughter cried out, "I'll eat it!" Our tour host graciously purchased another piece of chocolate for the poor man.

Isabelle, this photo's for you!

 

Next stop, Van Breugel's Bistro and Bar. This is a restaurant run by a Dutch chef who was trained as a saucier and has Thai influences. We tried coconut curry conch chowder.

 



We the went to Pure Caribbean which is a store that sells spices, tea as well as local art. We tried the very berry lemon tea which got drank before I got a photo op! We also sampled various Caribbean spice rubs and sauces. My younger daughter bought a small painting and my husband bought some tea.

Next we went to Athena Café and Bar. This is a Greek restaurant. The Greeks settled the Bahamas to harvest the sponge beds. They traded the boats they came to the island on for land as they came at a time when many of the original settlers wanted to go back to Europe. The sponges eventually died from a terrible blight but many of the families stayed to form the Greek Bahamian population.

We had a Greek salad and pita bread that was also wonderful.

Our final stop was the  Tortuga Rum Cake Company. This too is a Jamaican company that has spread it's stores to many islands of the Caribbean. We went to the only on-site cakery in the Bahamas. The rum cakes also got snapped up before a photo op. They were delicious.

Tour now over, we browsed the store and bought some coconut rum fudge, made by the same company. I think this was the only disappointment of the day. We opened it up back at our hotel room and it was simply inedible!. I know, inedible chocolate. Hard to believe. It was rock hard and bitter with blooms everywhere. We threw it away!

OK, looks like another beautiful fall Sunday. I'm off to run a 5K that I swore I'd never run again. I'll recap tomorrow. Enjoy your day!

Perspective

Funny how your perspective can change...

Monday I did my last double digit run before my marathon, a 12 miler. In the Spring, 12 would have been a "long run." Monday I realized it was "long" but not "that long." I chugged through it and wondered if I had done enough long runs to get me through this marathon.

Tuesday was a rest day. We got up at 3:30 am to catch a 6 am flight. On the flip side, we were in Nassau by noon.

This is the bridge that connects Paradise Island (where our resort was located) to the city of Nassau. I decided I was going to run it while we were here.

View from our hotel room

Wednesday I set my alarm for 6 am so I could get a run in before swimming with the dolphins at 9 am. 6 am dawned pitch black and I decided I didn't want to run around a foreign country in the dark, plus, I was still tired from the day before. We barely made it to the dolphins by 9. I decided I got enough "cross-training" in by climbing the steps up the fake Mayan pyramid to the water slides the rest of the day.

Thursday I set the alarm for 7 am. It was dawn. Everyone else was asleep but I decided "I'm going to do this," and hopped out of bed. We were scheduled to do a 3 hour walking food tour of Nassau at 11:30 am so I knew that if I didn't run in the morning I wouldn't feel like it in the evening. I turned on the Garmin and headed for the Paradise Island Bridge.

This is what the bridge looks like from another perspective - ground level vs. 5 floors up in a hotel room. I also thought it was further away but found it was less than a mile from where I started and I had only gone a little over a mile by the time I crossed it. I had 5 miles planned so I ran back over and started going up the road past the entrance to our hotel. I then found myself at the entrance to one of the wings to our hotel. The sun was up and it was HOT! I could feel the cool breezes coming from the entry. I was really tempted to just duck inside and be done but I still had over a mile to go. I ended up running through the resort to the beach side and running the length of the resort on the walkway by the beach. That completed 5 miles.

So proud of myself that I got my butt out of bed!

Later, after our food tour, we were in downtown Nassau and I asked our guide how far we were from the Paradise Island bridge. I had my whole family with me and we had been walking for over 3 hours so I had no intention of making them walk back, but I was just curious. Well, he hemmed and hawed that it was "far" and that we could get a taxi or a water taxi, etc. I finally got across to him that we really weren't going to walk back but I just wanted to know the distance. Then he says "really far... it will take you at least 30 minutes... maybe 2 miles away..."

More tomorrow about our food tour. That's a post in itself!

Friday was our travel day home. I had originally planned to run on Wednesday and Thursday but since I blew off Wednesday I set my alarm again for 7 am on Friday. Surprisingly, I got up before my alarm. I ran across the bridge and back and ran by the beach again. Got 4 miles in. Then it was a quick shower, change into a swimsuit , hit the pools and water slides again until checkout at 11 am. Took a taxi to town and had lunch at Bahamian Cookin' - it had been our first stop on the food tour the day before and the food was fabulous.

You really can get a whole lot more done if you can pry your butt out of bed in the morning. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people! Try as I might, I really like to sleep in the mornings.

Our plane landed in Indy at midnight and we got home at 1 am. I set the alarm for 7:30 am as I had an 8 miler planned for today. 7:30 am - it's dark, pouring rain, and freezing inside our house. No way this chickadee's getting out of bed to run outside. I considered going to the fitness center but the bed won out. I stayed in bed until I had to take my daughter to cheer. After that, the usual kid's Saturday took over - football game til 1 pm then off to Carmel for "Nutcracker" rehearsal. Got back after 4 pm.

Finally got my run in after that. On the plus side, the rain had cleared and it was a beautiful fall day. I pretty much ran on auto-pilot. Again, an 8 miler would have been one of my longer runs in the Spring. Today I just jogged along and thought about everything else - things to do when I got back home, groceries to get, what my heels might feel like when I get home... Like I said, pretty much on auto-pilot. I got to a stop sign to stop for cars and realized I only had a mile and a half to go.

So, here's how my run week ended up...

Sunday - 5 miles
Monday - 12 miles
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 5 miles
Friday - 4 miles
Saturday - 8 miles

34 miles total. Exactly what the training plan prescribed except that I didn't do any speedwork. I figured running over the bridge counts for something though!

Cheerfund Challenge 15K

Before talking about my run, I'd like to congratulate my friend John who ran his first 50 mile ultra yesterday. He smashed his goal of 10 hours by running 9:02. He was also drawn for one of the holy grails of Ultra running, the Western States 100, and ran under the 50 mile qualifying of 11 hours. He's running a 100-miler next June!

My day yesterday was not quite so smashing. My run was OK. Not fabulous but not disappointingly bad either. I was tired (I know, what else is new?), I couldn't sleep the night before and woke up at 4:30 am - not due to race anxiety or anything, I just woke up and couldn't go back to sleep.

Oh, I did have one major panic moment the night before though... I was charging my Garmin. I went back to check to see if it was done charging and the whole watch screen was blank, still attached to the charger. I couldn't get the watch to turn on. I messed with the charger, checked all the connections, still NOTHING. I thought it was dead. How was I going to pace myself without my Garmin? It was 11 pm on Friday and the Garmin website told me customer support left at 5 pm. In desperation I switched chargers and plugged the Garmin in with my husband's cell phone charger. The watch screen immediately lit up, fully charged. I have no idea what happened but I was just thankful it was working again.

So the race is called the "Challenge" because the 15K runners and the 15K relay teams start at the same time and see if one runner can beat a relay team, or vice versa. My personal goal was to try and run an 8:20 pace. So...

Mile 1 - 8:19
Mile 2 - 8:20
Mile 3 - 8:10, yup, gonna pay for that later
Mile 4 - 8:18
Mile 5 - 8:15
Mile 6 - 8:38, stopped for water and couldn't get restarted
Mile 7 - 8:34
Mile 8 - 8:48
Mile 9 - 9:19
last 0.3 - 2:53

Official time - 1:19:33
Average pace - 8:32

I came totally unglued at the 8 mile mark. I actually had third place overall within my sights. I was less than 50 yards behind third place when I stopped for water at about 5.5 miles. I was still trying to catch her through mile 7. Then I got passed by 2 more runners at the 8 mile mark. One was a relay runner but the other was a 15K runner in my age group. I ran out of steam after that and just couldn't get my legs to move any faster. I ended up 5th overall in the women's race, 2nd in the 40-49 age group; 44 seconds behind 1st in my age group and 1:26 behind 3rd overall. The woman that won third overall averaged an 8:22 pace. I did manage to run faster than 2 of the 8 relay teams.

I think I ran as hard as I could have on that day. My legs were still tired from running 20 three days before. I think I was still physically tired from staying up 36 hours plus the day before. I've come to the conclusion that I might not be fast enough on marathon day to run 3:55. I'm worried about my endurance. All I can hope for is that I will run better when I am well rested.

This is how the week ended up looking...

Sunday - rest
Monday - 5 miles
Tuesday - 10 miles
Wednesday - 20 miles
Thursday - 5 miles
Friday - rest
Saturday - 10 miles

So 50 miles for the week.

I ran 5 today. I was going to try a pace run and ran the first mile in 8:33 but my legs felt like wood after that. I ended up slowing down and will do my pace run later this week.

It's Like Childbirth

WARNING: Long reminiscent post...

Me and distance races. I swear it's like childbirth. I spend months with some discomfort. Then there is some type of pain involved in the race and I say that I don't want to do this again. Then, at some point, I feel good about the accomplishment and I want to do it again. Sometimes it's right after I finish. Sometimes it takes a couple days or weeks or months... but I always decide to do it again. I forget about the pain and discomfort and decide to do it again.

So... yesterday I signed up for the 2014 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. I want to break 1:50. I realized that my 1:53:00 at the Mill Race Half is technically an official time PR for me. I still think I probably ran a faster half in 1987 but there was no such thing as timing chips back then so your "official" time was whatever gun time you ran.

FLASHING BACK: I ran 1:56:43 in 1987. I was a senior in high school. I ran my first Mini-Marathon in 1984. That is the only race where I have ever "hit the wall." I had never run further than a 10K but thought that breaking 2:00 would be no big deal. The race used to start at Monument Circle downtown and end on the track at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Race started at 9 am so by the time you hit the shade less 2.5 mile oval of asphalt, it was 11 am with nothing but sun over your head. I remember having way over 10 minutes to run that last mile and I could barely stand up. The sun was bright, the track seemed to be tilting sideways, and if it hadn't been for all the people around me, I didn't even know which way to run. In retrospect, I probably had heat exhaustion in addition to hitting the wall. Anyways, after that experience, I was always fearful of "the wall" and always ran with some reserve.

So back to 1987. The Mini used to be on the last Friday of May before the Indy 500 (unlike the first Saturday in May like it is now). I qualified for the high school track sectionals in the 3200 m. Sectionals was on Tuesday. I had an English term paper due that day too. I was (OK I still am) the queen of cram. I didn't get around to starting that paper until Monday night and pulled an all-nighter to turn it in. By race time Tuesday afternoon I was trashed. Each school gets to put 2 runners in the Sectional race and the 3200 is started off an arc with the highest seeded runners on the inside. I was not a fast runner but my friend who was running was the #2 seed overall. Well, Coach pulled her out of the race, moving me into her #2 seed spot. Not good. I got boxed in with the really fast people at the start and went through 800 m in 2:50 - way too fast for me. I was a 13:30-ish 3200 m runner, NOT a 12:00-ish runner. So, I crashed and ended up running the slowest time of my life, finishing dead last, sobbing through the last half mile, knowing this was the last high school race of my career.

Friday, I missed school to run the Mini. There were no corrals back then and I started way up on the steps of Monument Circle. I think it took me several minutes to get to the starting line. I was wearing a regular digital watch so I could keep some idea of my time. The course used to go 30 blocks straight up Meridian Street. All the office workers would be out on the sidewalk cheering and all the TV and radio stations along Meridian would be blasting "Gonna Fly Now." You turned west on 30th to Martin Luther King Blvd and went up a gradual uphill slope up to 38th Street. The 5 mile mark was at 38th Street. The father of one of my friends used to be the timer calling out times at the 5 mile mark for years. I remember running over walkers up to this point and also realizing I was running a 7:30 pace at 5 miles and my brain screaming at me to slow down because I was going to hit the wall. You then went west on 38th Street to White River Parkway, went down the ramp there and past the Veledrome. At some point you ended up on a mulch path next to the canal. I remember running on the path with people (spectators) screaming at me that there was "a Cathedral girl" in front of me. (I think the Indianapolis running community was MUCH smaller then and we all knew each other.) I went to Chatard. Cathedral HS is one of my high school's major rivals. Finally, I ended up at the track. Then, on the backstretch of the track with only a mile, mile and a half to go, I saw the Cathedral girl. Not any Cathedral girl either. She was the City champion and record holder in the mile at the time. She was dying. I still had some reserve. I passed her. Redemption.

Several weeks later, the Mini people mailed  you a results booklet and finisher's certificate. I got that plus this...

I placed 3rd in the 16-19 age group. Back then, the only medals the race gave out were to the overall winners and the top 3 in each age group. I was hooked. I hadn't even trained for the Mini that year, having just ended my track season. I really felt I had run closer to 1:50 or less. I had visions of smashing that time in years to come. I just had to train for a longer distance. That would be easy. I was going to college. Gone were the pressures of high school. I could run whenever I wanted.

Yeah right (sarcasm)...

What followed were years of entering and not training. Sometimes not running at all for a year between races. Then I'd feel crappy, swear I was done, then do it all over again.

NOW TO INTERJECT ANOTHER STORY...  Apparently I'm not the only one. One of my best friends from college decided in 1994 that he wanted to run a half-marathon. Sure, run with me... we got some runs in together and it was fun. I actually got more than 3 weeks of training in... then came race day. I believe his exact words after the race were, "F*** this sh**! I'm not doing this again!" Well, then he did it again the next year. But then life happens and he stopped running for awhile.

Several years ago I got invited out to his house for his 40th birthday for the most surreal week of my life. His wife had several of his best friends come out and spend the week with him. By then he was an orthopedic surgeon living in a mansion-like house in Napa. We had private winery tours by limo, we had private dinners with famous chefs, we drank $1000 bottles of wine signed by Robert Mondavi (who I think is dead). Surreal is the only way I can describe it. So, what do you get for the man who has everything for his 40th birthday? I got him a Chicago Marathon entry. He's my bud. I'll admit, it was a throw down of sorts. We're both competitive. I knew he couldn't pass it up. So, we ran Chicago together the next year just to finish. Then he decided to do it again and got me an entry for my birthday. We met to do it again the next year. By then, he was serious. He was putting in heavy mileage. He was already signed up for 2 more marathons. He was going for 4:00. I told him to go for it while I did a sightseeing run through Chicago.

Things didn't go as planned for him. He got a stress fracture in his hip and barely finished the race. Couldn't walk at all after the race. He had to pull out of his other marathons. I thought he was done with running. Then he texts me last December - "just did a 50K." He had hit the trails. Then he signed up for a 50 miler this spring. Got another stress fracture. Had to pull out. Healed and started running again. Tomorrow he is running the Dick Collins Firetrails 50. His first attempt at a 50 miler. So after cursing at the finish line in 1994, he is now an Ultra runner. I hope his wife doesn't hate me for re-introducing running into his life as I know what a time suck it can be, but then again, he's the type of guy that gets up at 4 am to get his run in... unlike moi, who actually overslept and missed a 1 pm lunch date once!

NOW BACK TO CHILDBIRTH... So do I have a screw loose or what? My left leg is killing me and I can't put any weight on my heels but I've signed myself up for yet another Mini Marathon. But my brain is telling me, "You just ran 1:53 in the middle of a crappy training week with no taper. Think of what you can do if you make the Mini a goal race!" I want to run 1:50 to run my fastest time ever - period. No ghost of what I think my real time was in 1987. Your vO2 max and muscle mass start declining at age 40. I'll be 45 next month. If I'm going to compete against time and my 18 year old self, I figure I'd better get it done soon! I promise to let my legs heal after the Monumental but a 1:50 half is my "next thing."

If you made it through this post, excuse my ramblings. I've been up for 36 hours straight. Hoping to sleep well tonight for my 15K in the morning!

Dutch Apple Pie

I have an overabundance of apples in my house right now. I was in the fall mood the other day and bought some Granny Smiths to make a pie. Then my in-laws gave me some of their apples... then my neighbor gave me some of his apples... and now my kitchen is over-run with apples! Plus, since I am working tonight and my husband is out of town, I figured I should have supper ready for them before I leave. Supper is my younger daughter's favorite venison stew. Dessert will be Dutch Apple Pie. This is the same pie that took second place at the State Fair. This is a super easy pie. So here it is...

DUTCH APPLE PIE

 

crust

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup milk

 

filling

7 cups sliced apples

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons flour

 

topping

1/2 stick butter

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

 

First, move your oven rack down to it's lowest setting and preheat to 425 degrees.

 

Prep your pie pan. I always use a foil pan because that's what I compete with. Poke holes in the bottom of the pan with a fork. This keeps the bottom crust from getting soggy.

 

 

Next, mix all your crust ingredients in a bowl, then dump it into the pie pan.

 

 

Use your hands and pat the dough into the pie pan. Put it in the freezer to firm up a bit after that.

 

Next, mix all your filling ingredients in a large bowl. I usually use Granny Smith apples but you can use a variety if you like.

 

 

 Use your hands. Make sure all your apple slices get coated, then layer the slices into your pie crust.

 

 

Now mix all your crust ingredients in a bowl. It will be crumbly.

 

 

Use your hands again and crumble it evenly over the top of your pie. Make sure you have plenty of topping at the edges of the pie as this will keep it from bubbling over.

 

 

Now put the whole thing in a paper bag and staple it shut. The bag will help set the top crust and keep it from burning.

 

 

Then, look at the oven and curse really loud if you've accidentally preheated the wrong oven like I did!

 

 

I have a double oven. The top oven is too short to bake this pie in. So.... preheat the bottom oven and spend that time cleaning up all the crap that you didn't realize was spattered all over your oven controls until you took a photo of it.

 

 

Now that the correct oven is heated, place the paper bag in your oven. Make sure the bag does not touch any of the sides of heating element. This is important. You bag will catch on fire if it does. Trust me. It happened to a girl I work with. She took pictures...

 

Bag properly placed in oven

 

Now shut the door, set your timer for an hour, and go run 5 miles.

 

Just kidding! Do something for an hour. I went and got my 5 mile run in while this was baking. I got back with time left on the timer and my house was not in flames. Yeah!

 

Take your bag out of the oven and cut it open. Remove your pie and put it on a rack to cool.

 



 

So, supper's all ready and now I'm going to try and relax a bit before I go into work tonight.

 

What's your favorite kind of pie?

 

Ever set anything on fire inside your oven? I set a "to-go" container on fire once. It was an aluminum container with a cardboard top and the top caught on fire.



Just Did It

Well, I peeled myself off the couch yesterday and ran 10 miles. Then I "slept" for 12 hours. "Slept" meaning I kept waking up because my left leg hurt but I was too sleepy to do anything about it, then I got up at 7 am to take kid #1 to the end of the driveway for the bus, then again at 8 am to take kid #2 to school. Then I went back to bed and stayed there til 10:30 am.

I then decided I was going to do my 20-miler today. You are suppose to practice your fueling and pre-race prep, etc. before your long runs. Today, I was fueled on a banana, multiple cups of coffee, chicken noodle soup, Sudafed (the real behind the pharmacy counter legal speed), Motrin, Robitussin DM, and Afrin nasal spray. Pretty much took the medicine cabinet before I headed out. My husband always freaks out when I take multiple meds all at once but, trust me, they all have different active ingredients. I would have definitely failed an athletic drug test today though.

So... I cruised through 12 miles - probably high on meds and caffeine. I could feel my quads getting tired at 14. I got REALLY tired at 16. 18 and 19 were hard because I got to stop for water and Powerade at the end of my driveway after 17 and had a real hard time getting going again. I just powered through mile 20 knowing I DID IT!

I kept telling myself that this was the last "hard" thing I had to do this week. I ran 35 miles in 3 days. I'm hoping to get an easy 5 miler in tomorrow. I have to work the night shift tomorrow night. I've pretty much given up on trying to "pre-sleep" for a night shift so I'll be pulling an all-nighter on Thursday. Friday is my running "rest" day. I bought new bedroom furniture for my older daughter and that is supposed to be delivered sometime Friday so I don't know how much "rest" I'll get. Basically, I am hoping to be home by 7:30 am, then I have to move the existing queen matress/boxspring and bed frame plus a desk out of the room so the delivery people can set up the new furniture when they arrive. I'm hoping the delivery people come in the afternoon so I can sleep for a couple hours.

I am doing my last long tempo run on Saturday - running a 15K (9.3 miles) that's part of the Indiana Crossroads series in Columbus. I am really going to try and focus on my pace. The race actually has a 5K and 15K relay going on at the same time. The 5K runners do one loop of the course. The 15K relay runners will trade off runners every loop while the 15K runners do 3 loops of the course. Obviously the 5K and relay runners are going to be running a much faster pace so I'm working on not getting wrapped up in everyone else's pace and just trying to run my own race.

What's everyone else up to this week?

Indecision

Ughh... I can't stand it! I'm sick. It started out as a little tickle in my throat and some tiredness last week. I went from working the 6:30 am shift to the overnight shift for a couple nights so I thought my sleep was all screwed up again. However.... now I'm coughing and my head alternates from being totally stopped up to running like a faucet and all I want to do is curl up in bed but I can't relax because I have a million things to do.

It's absolutely freaking gorgeous outside. Perfect fall weather. I am suppose to run 10 miles today, then 20 tomorrow. I don't have a fever. I ran 5 yesterday and felt better after I ran but it was an effort to get out of the house.

Everyday it seems like more and more of an effort to get my run in. I think I'm getting pretty burned out on it. I like to run but the longer runs have really turned into a big time suck. I keep thinking this is my last "big" week of running before my taper. This time next week, I'll be sitting by a pool in the Bahamas on Fall Break with my family.

I know that how I run on November 2nd depends on the training I put in NOW. No such thing as cramming or pulling an all-nighter for this run. I honestly don't know if I've put in enough training for this. I also don't know if I want to put in this much training again if I don't make my goal time. Some days I really believe I can pull it off but some days I just want to give up and lay on the couch all day.

I need some motivation!