Running a Half Marathon

As you could undoubtedly surmise from my previous post, we completed our first half marathon!  The day was full of excitement, exhaustion, and a little delirious humor towards the final stretch.

our bibs and medals

We started the day early, awaking to warm up, eat a healthy breakfast, and don our newly acquired running apparel (sidebar:  The one thing you learn while training is to train like you will run, meaning run in clothes you will wear, eat foods you will eat, and drink as you will drink on race day.  The week before our race, temperatures dropped nearly 40 degrees.  So...on our way to Columbus we stopped to purchase some new Nike cold-training gear for the race.  As it turns out this had no negative effects on our performance and made us much, much warmer.  It was barely 30 degrees when the race started.)

We ate responsibly the night before at Brio (a healthy dose of carbs from delicious pasta) and Sunday morning's fuel consisted of Clif bars, water, and jelly beans.  Six months ago when we signed up for the race, we were smart and booked a hotel two minutes from the start line.  Ingenious, idea.  A little after 7am, we made our way downstairs, walked around the Ohio State Capital Building, crammed into the starting area, and began our race.

a fuzzy before-race photo

I'm not sure if it was the brisk temperatures, the culmination of a long training cycle, the live band playing Born to Run, the exhilaration of race day, or the combination of all these things (the most likely option), but we started our race well.  Miles 1 - 6 seemed to just zip by.  Jen ran her fastest 10k time here and I ran my second fastest - not bad when we still had more than another 10k to go!

Miles 7 - 10 seemed a little spacier.  These weren't terribly more challenging in any way, it just seemed to take longer between mile markers.  Fortunately, we had prepared some great iPod playlists and were still conscious enough to have intelligent and humorous conversation.  This is where having a running buddy really helps you out!

Although, we didn't have to rely entirely on each other for entertainment and motivation.  The course was filled with live bands playing around every mile, active volunteers swarming the water/goo stops, and of course, some eclectic fellow runners.

Miles 11 - to the end were pretty exciting.  By this time, we had left German Village and made our way to the Brewery District.  Downtown and the Arena District were all that was left.  The crowds were thicker and even more motivating through here and that made the endorphins skyrocket.  We had to consciously hold ourselves back for fear we might burn out before we actually reached the finish!

The last 1/2 mile was probably the most challenging hill-wise, but once we crested High Street and rounded the corner onto Nationwide Blvd., there was nothing standing in our way.  Thousands of cheering spectators, arches of multi-colored balloons, and an announcer bellowing out the names of racers crossing the finish line.  This is where we really cut loose.  We opened up with all we had left and booked it to the end.  It felt amazing to hear the course announcer call out our names as we flew through the last arch of balloons and were wrapped in space blankets.  Utter, unbelievable pride.  That's what I felt after running a half marathon.  That and a strong hunger for bagels.

Here's a shout out to everyone who helped us train, gave us tips, wished us luck, or saw us finish - THANK YOU!

WE DID IT!!!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Jen and I are pumped.

I just came off one of those energizing days of work.  The kind where you are busy every minute of the entire day but yet you're not tired, angry, or anxious when you get home.  The kind where you are energized because you have a sense that you accomplished at least one important thing that day.  If you don't have these kinds of days, you need to read John Kotter's A Sense of Urgency.  Go to Amazon.com.  Right now.

Jen made it to our old school spinning class (I had to bail due to work but did go to the gym) with "Jillian" and she always feels super excited about life after that.  Jillian is by far the most motivating and hard-hitting instructors at our gym.  I don't think it's possible to not feel great after riding with her.

So, as I said before, Jen and I are pumped.  And our Half Marathon is only a few short days away.  It's been a great experience training (or sometimes trying to train...) for this race.  I know we will both do well and, hey, even if our times are outlandish we will have accomplished something that we've never attempted before.  And that rocks.

What's been playing in my mind...

Let the Countdown Begin

We both want to run the race.  I'll admit it, we're a little tired of the training.  The schedule was appropriate given that this will be our first long race but it has taken forever to get to this point...THE FINAL WEEK!

We both gave ourselves ample recovery time following last weekend's Reggae Run.  We made it back to a spinning class for the first time in a few weeks and did a short run.  On Saturday, we hopped in the 'bru with Wally and field tripped to Oxford.  After a "we really miss college" lunch Uptown, we spent the entire afternoon walking around campus.  I think Wally marked the entire place.

This week's schedule:
S: 4 miles
M:  x-train @ gym
T:  4 miles
W:  rest
R:  x-train @ gym (light)
F:  2 miles
S:  rest, head to C-Bus
S:  run our hearts out

Jammin' at the Reggae Run

Alright! Here's the run down:

Saturday, 10/3

6:50am - woke up for last session of running club

7:20am - started running with running club - 8 miles

9:00am - enjoyed a delicious Bruegger's egg white/cheddar/pumpernickel bagel and low-fat chocolate milk

9:20am - arrived back home

10:30am - Jen wakes me up as she returns from the gym - a nap with the windows open was superb

Mid-day - ate lunch, went shopping for some fall casual attire, took another nap

5:00pm - left for the Reggae Run

5:45pm - stretched and lined up at the starting line

6:00pm - Ave Maria completed and the start gun fired - off we went

6:05pm - realized my legs were super sore from running 8 miles a few hours before

6:30pm - crossed the finish line with Jen (both finishing much better than our last Reggae Run)

6:35pm - stuffed our hungry bodies with corn on the cob, popcorn, fruit, wine, jambalaya, pulled chicken, pulled pork, beer, LaRosa's pizza, grilled cheese...

7:00pm - ran [walked] back to the car to get some warmer clothes and a closer parking spot

8:30pm - enjoyed the beautiful view and the amazing party:

Spinning Opt Out

Jen and I met at the gym tonight with the intention of hitting up a spinning class. We were expecting to ride with Jillian (her name is Sonia but she is a close double of Jillian from NBC's The Biggest Loser - which is an awesome show, by the way). As it turns out, the schedule changed and another instructor was leading the class...so, we just cross-trained with the elliptical, bike, and weights instead.

Tomorrow is Friday! I like short work weeks. Tomorrow night will be another round of cross-training with some hills in preparation for Saturday's 5k. Now I need to go have some homemade pizza and Sam Adams Octoberfest brew.