12/9/12: Holiday Half Marathon

I wasn't planning on running this half due to my Grandpa's declining condition but I kind of got talked into it and it's not really that hard to talk me into anything that involves running! My friend Maura sent me a text in the beginning of the week and asked me if I wanted to pace our friend Tami to run a sub two half. How could I say no to that even though I wasn't feeling two confident about running at that pace? I decided to run it for fun and I threw on my Christmas colors and my new Pro Compression socks.

I stayed up until 2:30 am watching over my Grandpa and woke up at 6:30 am and had mixed feelings about running. I felt kind of selfish leaving to go run knowing that my Grandpa could die at any moment. My other half told me to go and run and that he would watch over Grandpa for me. I told him to call me if anything changed so I could head home if need be. This is a local race for me and is about 15 minutes away from my Grandma's house which was a good thing in case I need to leave. I was going to ride in with the girls that I was running with but told them to head on without me since I needed to drive my own car in case I needed to leave. The traffic was kind of crazy getting into the Pomona Fair Grounds but I arrived about 20 minutes early and found my friends within a few minutes.

I also ran into this wonderful lady who runs all of the local races and just happened to be running race number 16 of 2012! We talked for a little bit since the race started about ten minutes later than scheduled due to some kind of issue with the directions that were posted on their website. I think one of the streets that the participants were told to use, was closed. 

I told Caroline to have a great race and we were off. The plan was to take the first half easy and then pick it up in the second half. I told the girls that I would probably have to drop back in the second half since I was not !00% and didn't want to push myself too much. We stayed together for the first 7 miles of the race and then they went ahead of me. I could see them in front of me the entire time but just stayed back and ran a pressure free race. I kept checking my phone every few minutes to make sure that I did not miss any phone calls about my Grandpa. 

Tami finished in 1:55:03 and got her sub two half marathon! I am so happy for her! My other friend finished in 1:55:58 and I finished right behind her in 1:56:24.  

As soon as I finished, I congratulated Tami, took a few pictures, and then headed back to be with my Grandpa. He hung in there for me and waited for me to get back.

I really needed this run. I released a lot of stress and it also gave me some time away to think. The course is full of hills so it is not an easy one. The last two miles are flat and I was pretty darn happy to be done with the rolling hills.

I love the cute snow flake medal from this race. This will also be my very last race of 2012 which kind of makes me sad. I am pretty sure I will run this race again next year and continue to run it as my fun race of the year.

Update on Grandpa and maybe a Holiday Run...

I mentioned in my last post that my grandpa was pretty sick. Thank you to everyone who sent me well wishes and kept us in your prayers. I really appreciate it since life has been pretty difficult for the past week since most of my time has been dedicated to helping my Grandma take care of him. My son, who is 10, is a mess. He is worried that Grandpa is going to die and doesn't really want to let go.

Just a little update on Grandpa: Grandpa entered hospice care last week and told my Grandma said that he wanted to be at home when his time came so she is honoring those wishes. He is not expected to live much longer but is slowly declining. I think he is holding on for Grandma but I have already told him not to worry about her and that I will take good care of her for him. For the past week, my schedule had been to get off of work and head over to her house and stay as last as I possibly can. After work, I head back over there again. Grandma calls me numerous times during the middle of the night to ask me questions or to fill me in on something new that may be going on with him and sometimes I have to head back over to her house. Thank God she lives 10 minutes away from me. It has been hard for me to get up at my normal time and I am pretty used to getting up at 4:30 a.m for work.

I wasn't planning on running a holiday race once my grandpa became so ill but my Ragnar buddies convinced me to run the Holiday Half Marathon with them so get my mind off of things.

I ran this same race for fun last year with my friend Shawna and considered it my fun run for the year. If my Grandpa is not in a bad state in the morning, I will be there. If I think that he may pass or needs me, I will not. I think it will be good for me mentally but physically not so much. I am very tired and the longest distance I have ran to lately is 11 miles. 

This will be a fun race and I don't care about the time to be 110% honest. One of the girls that I will be running with is shooting for a sub-two half marathon. My friend Maura and I will attempt to pace her to that PR. I am not sure if I have that in me, so I will drop behind if I cannot keep up. I honestly don't need another ounce of stress in my life right now and any kind of goal just stresses me out.

Anybody else running a holiday race tomorrow? If you are, good luck!

So I will be out there tomorrow if it Grandpa lets me, if not I will be by his side.

Holiday Half Marathon Race Photos

I am so incredibly happy in all of my race photos from Brightroom and I wish I knew why.  I think the lack of stress and running this half mary strictly for fun would be the only explanation. Shawna on the other hand is not looking as happy as me.  She had a great race so her photos are very misleading yet very entertaining!

Is part of my tutu missing?

What was I thinking about..a BQ?

This is my favorite pic of Shawna!

Riverdance move?

Is that a black wing on my back?

Holiday Half Marathon: 12/11/11

There are a few good reasons why I chose to run the Holiday Half Marathon: it was close to home, I wanted the cute Snowflake medal, and I wanted to dress up in a cute Christmas outfit and have fun...and that's exactly what I did!!

Weather Report: 43 degrees at the start..brrrrrrr!!

The Elevation Chart of the Course not only looked like an EKG Chart but was a little intimidating at first.  I usually get excited when I see that the course is somewhat flat but if you look closely the inclines are really small and there is a lot of downhill action going on too. The course what not as bad as I thought it was going to be so that was a bit of a relief.

Shawna and I received so many nice compliments on our outfits.  Neither one of us had ever ran in a tutu before and they didn't bother us at all just in case you were wondering.  I didn't even notice that I had it on but then again I am used to carrying a million things with me when I run. I have no idea where the tank tops are from because they were Christmas gifts so I felt bad having to tell people who asked that I honestly didn't know where they could buy one.

We started in the back of the crowd so we spend the first two to three miles weaving and that was not fun. There were a ton of walkers and they were in the middle of the course walking like it was no big deal. After mile three, the crowd started to break up and that's when the up and down hilly pattern began. So many runners were dressed up in Christmas attire so it was a really, really fun race. Everyone was super friendly and I think we even got called Candy Canes a couple of times! I spotted other runners dressed up as Gumby and the Grinch. I also noticed lots of colorful tutus and Santa outfits.

Miles 4 through 6 went pretty smoothly and we were both feeling pretty good.  Right before Mile 7, Shawna's driver's license, which she made a special call to her Mom to bring to her so she could have her beer at the finish, fell out of her belt and she had to stop and wait for tons of people to pass so she could sneak in and pick it up.  We lost a little bit of time there.  We picked up the pace to recover some time in Mile 8 and then we hit a major issue at Mile 9... I won't provide the gory details of this issue because Shawna will kill me.  Let's just say that Shawna now knows that kettle corn, Wahoo's, pasta and a giant cookie is not the proper way to fuel before a race!!

Miles 10-13 were pretty strong and our last mile was our best mile at 8:09. We grabbed our post race goodies, took some pictures together and then headed over to get our free beer.  I am not a drinker so Shawna really wanted to watch me drink a beer. Yes, I gave into the peer pressure and drank the beer with her. I actually finished mine before she did.

We headed over to IHOP to have some breakfast and looked at the race photos that my husband took of the two of us and laughed at the crazy expressions on our faces.  My son kept Shawna entertained with his iPad and his newly acquired dance moves.  I think I even  caught a glimpse of Shawna doing the "Dougie" with him at the table.

Here are the official race results in case you are interested.  Congratulations to Shawna on earning a PR!!  She beat her time by two minutes which is great! I am so happy for her!! She actually snuck up on me in the end and beat me too! This was my last race for 2011 but 2012 is going to be a busy year with lots of races on the schedule!  I can hardly wait!!

Tu Tu Much!!

The Holiday Half Marathon was my fun run for the year and indeed it was! The official results are not out yet but I think we finished in right under two hours.  I wasn't looking for a PR and I felt great the entire time. Sometimes it just feels good to get out there and run with no pressure for time and it went a little something like this....

Full race recap of the Holiday Half Marathon to come....

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things with Hills and My Favorite Holiday Goodies!

It's feels good to be getting back on track in terms of training. The previous week was pretty unproductive so I had to get myself back on track this past week.  I managed to get all of my workouts in but being sick caused me to cut one of my runs short.  I was finding it a bit difficult to run and cough like crazy at the same time.  I was also out of energy and pushed myself to do as much as I possibly could before calling it quits.  Here is what last week looked like: 

Monday: XT Day#1: Spin Class 

Tuesday: 5.25 miles (Should have been 8 but too sick to finish) 

Wednesday: REST DAY

Thursday: 6 Mile Speed Workout on Treadmill (Seemed much easier on the treadmill) 

Friday: REST DAY (Went to the movies to see Jack and Jill..pretty funny!)

Saturday: 13 Mile Run @8:42 (We finished the last three miles strong!) 

Sunday: XT Day#2: 45 minutes on Life Cycle  

Total Miles for the Week: 24.25 

Holiday Half Marathon:

Shawna and I will be running the Holiday Half Marathon this Sunday so we did a mock run on part of the course this past Saturday.  We were not able to cover the entire course since we did not have access to all of it but we ran a good portion of it.  It is a pretty hilly course so I am not expecting to PR on this course by no means. My quads were feeling it after the mock run on Saturday! I guess they warned us by using the word "HILLS" on the Elevation Chart.

Shawna and I have decided to dress up and look very festive for this race so I don't know how comfortable we will be. I am in it strictly for fun this time but I am not so sure about Shawna! This is the last race of 2011 for me so I will spend the remainder of the year enjoying the holidays but will continue to stick to my training plan.

My Favorite Holiday Goodies:
All of the Christmas decorating is done at home and it is already starting to feel like Christmas at work.  I added some lights on my monitor and all the goodies are starting to show up at work too.  

I can resist most of the junk food at work but there is one thing that I wait for every year and it showed up today!

Linda's Homemade Toffee!!

A co-workers wife sends us a huge can of homemade toffee every year that just melts in your mouth.  I absolutely love it!!!  Is it rude that I took half of the can for myself?

While I am on the subject of my favorite holiday foods, have you heard about the 12 Days of Yuletide Yumminess at Yogurtland?  Don't miss out on these flavors!!  I haven't been!!

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What are some of your favorite goodies that only come around during Christmas time? How do you resist all of the goodies at work?  Or do you not??