Category Archives: running

I Figured Out the Secret

Half Marathon #1.

I was dead last.

Half Marathon #2

I was dead last.

Half Marathon #3

There were over 1,000 people behind me.

The secret?

Run in really big races!!!!

I have the signup date for the next one on my calendar.  It is a smallish race, so I might be last, but in all honesty, I like to do interesting races.  If that makes sense.

I have done a race across the Mackinac Bridge, I did one on Woodward Avenue, a Turkey Trot, one where you got a cinnamon roll at the end, the Detroit half you run over the bridge into Canada and through the tunnel back to the USA.

My hubby is always interested in what the Charity organizations are that benefit from the races.  One of the few repeats I do is one that raises money for suicide prevention (http://www.momrace.org/).  When I ran the Detroit Half I raised money for Samaritas (https://www.samaritas.org/).

This next half I am hoping to get a spot in is back in the area I grew up.  I am hoping to be there so my family can see me finish–though I am also slow so I hate to have them waiting for three hours, but we’ll see what happens.

Well, it is time for me to stop telling you about running and get out there to, well, run!!

Ups and Downs

So less than a month ago I had probably my best run ever when I completed the Detroit International Half Marathon.  It was emotionally,  mentally, and physically the most rewarding running experience I have had.

And yet, Today, on November 11, I have run exactly 3 times since.  The first week was to rest and let my body recover, but since then, I can find a billion other things to do and even when I have a nice chunk of time to run–I don’t wanna.

I don’t wanna deal with those first minutes of running in the cold.  I don’t wanna pull out the layers to get dressed to run.  I don’t wanna have to take a shower afterward because I am all sweaty.  I don’t wanna.

This is not a new phenomenon.  It has happened before, but I thought this time I had learned my lesson, I would not slack off…but here I am blogging instead of getting my butt out there.  So soon, my daylight will be gone and I will have to run inside, so then I will whine about how much I hate running on the treadmill.

Yes, I have a headache, I might very well have one all week thanks to this grey, sinus aggravating weather, but the thing is, I know after a few minutes out there, the extra blood flow will give me a break from my headache.

I even have an audiobook I would love to listen to and lots of Arabic words to practice.

I really need to just get out there.

Waa.

Waa.

Waa.

 

What a Marvelous Feeling

Today, I became a collector of half marathon finisher medals!!  I read that once you have three of something, you have a collection.  Today, I added my third half finisher medal!!

Three months of squeezing in runs, building miles, letting other tasks and hobbies slide, culminating in 13.1 miles from the USA over to Canada and back again.

I dragged my family out of bed at 4 am–yelled and fussed until I was in my corral at 6:30–over an hour before sunrise.

Patrice was the holder of the cowbell.  She walked around all morning saying, “I have a cowbell!”

Sue was none too impressed with this early morning start.

As I waited in the corral, I met three people with whom I struck up a bit of a conversation with–in Arabic.  This was their first race and they were planning to walk the vast majority of it. We wished each other well and were off.

My average running pace puts me in with a lot of walkers, but I am not one of them.  It was quite the task to weave in and out of the people in order to keep running, but I did it.

This is the bridge from the Canadian side.  We ran over on the bridge and ran back through the tunnel.  You are actually running under water for one mile of the race.

I had the privilege of running this race because of a lovely friend who was born Canadian but is now an American.  This spot marks where you go from one country to the other.  There were lots of pictures being taken.  Again, I didn’t stop to take any…I clicked and ran.  I did end up walking my one and only step at this point when a person was dead in the way taking a picture and an old lady shoved me to get through.  I paid her back by passing her and never seeing her again 😉

At mile 9 I ended up catching up with one of my friends from the start.  She was really struggling so I slowed my pace to run with her a bit.  We chatted and kept moving.  I ended up moving on, but I found it a great privilege to run with her.

Then mile 11 came.  And this running gig started getting harder.  By mile 12 I was hurting pretty badly.  And all the sudden a lady came alongside me and said, “I have been following you the whole way and you have been inspiring me to keep running.”  I was really not able to talk anymore at this point, but she stayed with me, chatted just enough to keep me moving, and helped me find that last bit of oomph to dig deep and speed up for the finish line.

I owe her a great deal.

She and I crossed together, she gave me a hug and thanked ME for inspiring her.  And then another lady came up to me, gave me a hug and thanked me for inspiring her.

Me.  They thanked me.

I had gotten my medal and my warming foil but was still at the finish line when my friend from the beginning finished.  I was so excited to get over there and tell her “Mabruuk (congratulations)!”  She thanked me and gave me a hug.

And that for me, is the perfect race recap.

I never dreamed I would ever get confident enough in my running to help others, I never dreamed I would inspire someone who didn’t know my story.  I never imagined I would run 3 half marathons in 13 months.

Perfection got a little better when I got home and found my race results on-line.  I finished in 3 hours, 2 minutes and 32 seconds.  That is 22 minutes faster than my first half and 25 minutes faster than my second.  My overall pace this time was 13:56.  I was hoping for a pace in the 14-minute range.  I never dreamed in a million years I would get under 14!!!

I am tired and hungry and thirsty.  But I am happy on so many levels!!!

I am looking forward to very gentle activity this week and finding my next race…

Fall is Settling In

This last week we took advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling and went camping…we packed up Frazier, our Arabic lessons, reading, and Bible and hit the road.  We became mosquito fodder for a few days as we enjoyed the quiet of Lake Michigan.

We came home in time to start our homeschool co-op classes.  Patrice is taking gym, kite making, and games.  Sue is checking out gym, kite making, and sports info.  Caitlyn is learning about immigration and refugees, games, and photography.  I am teaching the class on immigration and refugees and helping in the games class.

Friday we headed to the library after our studies at home (they were not so thrilled with the double portion of math…but that’s the price you pay for going to the beach!)

I am enjoying the cooler temperatures as my runs get longer–my next half marathon is less than a month away.  Saturday I ran 8.5 miles.  I am happy to report I didn’t run out of stamina, I just ran out of time as we were headed to visit with friends for the evening.

Daddy got super brave and asked Caitlyn to trim his hair.  She said later, “I’ve been teasing him for so long that I would do it, but once he asked me to, I was scared!!”  She did a great job!!

Heart On My Sleeve

I remember when Caitlyn was born discovering how painful it was to love someone other than yourself.  I mean, I love my husband, no doubt about it, but there is just something about that baby.

Digital StillCamera

I went back to work when she was 10 weeks old, but before that, I stood in Target one night crying because she was growing so fast and was going to grow up and leave me.

Here we are 12 years later–I want to throw up each time I think of her growing up so quickly.

Then came Sue…

And finally Patrice.

I love them so much.   How in heavens name could I love anything else?

But then…

I’ve had dogs most of my life and I really loved my Stuie…but this guy?  We got him for the girls…and I got a dog.  He doesn’t snub the girls like my mom’s dog did me when I was growing up, but he’s my dog.

He runs the vast majority of my miles with me (11.5 this last week), he is incredibly grounding and comforting for me when the Bipolar gets overwhelming…I love this little guy.

Then over the last week he started coughing here and there…until yesterday when he would cough so much he was throwing up some.  I have been panicking.  My mind of course going to every worse case scenario possible.  I even asked my Sunday School, you know, a room full of adults, to pray for my dog…

He seems much better this afternoon.  I even think we have narrowed down the issue (kennel cough?) which is easily treated.  I am so relieved.  And so hopeful that my little running buddy will be back at it soon.

(It drives hubby crazy how much the dog is up on furniture, but he is so gosh darn cute and I think he is a huge part of how well I am doing with the bipolar…having him curl up next to me is better than any of the medications they have given me)

Protecting Me

How do you do it?  How do you homeschool your kids?

Some days, I don’t know.  I love homeschooling my kids and having them with me.  That closeness is a lot of why I first considered homeschooling.  But I am, at my core, an introvert who requires time to recharge on my own–alone–away from people–quietly–and there is not a lot of that when you are a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of three girls, ages 8, 10, and 12.

And there is the husband who likes to talk.  And going to church with people.  And I have an amazing tribe of women in my life that I love spending time with.

All of these things are fantastic, and I wouldn’t change them, but I can end up tapped out before the day even begins.

That’s where distance running comes in.  Today, I logged 7 miles with Frazier.  It was incredible.  I waved at a few people and they waved at me, I  listened to a book on Intercessory Prayer, told the dog to heel, and ran for over an hour and a half…that’s it.  For once, I didn’t wish I were a faster runner, though I am a little embarrassed to say how long my runs take, I just felt the power of being able to put one foot in front of the other for that long.  And when I finished, I knew I could have gone farther, likely, much farther.

I am home now, needing to take a shower, but I wanted to process some of this first.  The gift that is the time it takes me to run the distances I want to go.

The school year will start the week after next.  There will be more in my day and the time to run my distances I love so much will be harder to find, but find them I will, no matter what it takes.

I am blessed to have the time with my girls.  I am blessed to have my time to run…one makes the other possible.

Running Partner

I follow a lot of runners on Instagram and they all mention how great a running partner is.  Thing is, I am too slow to run with anybody.  I once tried to join the local running group and they told me they didn’t have anyone that did slower than a 10-minute mile but they would give me a map I could follow–gee thanks.  I can make my own route…I was interested in running with somebody.

Then, for a short time I could run with Caitlyn, but she is faster than me and trying to get her to run is very difficult.

I gave up on running with anybody and just ran for myself, but I was kind of bummed out.

Then this little dude came along.

His legs are long enough to run with me but not so long that he’s dragging me.  I have started taking him with me more often.  The other day I tried to sneak out without him and he was having nothing of it.  He now gets excited just seeing me in my running clothes.  He does 4 miles easily, though by the end he is slowing down.  I don’t know how much further he can go–I might have to sneak out for my longer runs, but for now, I am really excited to have a running buddy.

Hubby still sometimes makes the silly mistake of thinking he is the girls’ dog.  Nope, he is mine, all mine.

 

The Long Run

Let’s just start with I did it.  I didn’t know if I would be able to, but I did.  Eight days ago I started and completed my second half marathon.

And this weekend I began reading a book about optimal nutrition to lose weight while running long distances and for pre- and post-race.  It makes hubby just chuckle.  I said I would never run another half after the one in September…and I just finished my second and am now studying nutrition for continuing this type of long distance running longer and am already prepping mentally for my third one.

This second half started off really hard.  I accidentally found out most of this half was off-road, which I have only run once ever.

It started off in grass.  With the final pacer asking me in the first half mile if I could run faster because I was not running the required minimum pace.  I bawled like a baby for the next mile until another pacer started running with me and slowly I calmed down.  From there on out the volunteers and people along the way were amazing.

They had water almost every mile.  They even offered beer, mimosas, and bacon at the halfway party point.  I only needed to use the water I brought once toward the end.  They had funny signs, people cheering, and at one of the biggest hills they had people dressed up as superheroes to run up with you–Wonder Woman and the oldest runner guy I have ever seen were on either side of me as I went up the huge, dirt hill at mile 8.  The pacer running with me told me, “this is called the 8-mile holler because you will be hollerin’ by the time you get done!!”

My running companion would go just a bit ahead as we got to the groups of people cheering and tell them my name to people were cheering specifically for me.

Marilyn disappeared for a bit and I was joined by one of the medic guys on a bike.  I don’t know how he went that slowly and kept the bike upright, but he did.  He complimented me on how incredibly consistent my pace was.

I was rejoined by my pacer and the sweeper who swore I was going faster than he at mile 9 so he didn’t force me off the course–and this guy.

I thought he was just a piece of wood as I ran up to him–when I realized he was a turtle of that size–the sweeper took a picture of him for me as I kept moving along.  And slowly mile 11 was done.

I came in dead last, but I did it.  All 13.1 miles of dirt roads, two tracks, and hills, with just a few paved miles in there.  And I did it in just 2 minutes more than my all paved maiden half marathon last September!!!

The sweeper could not believe that I was undertaking this race as my second half marathon.  Turns out it is considered one of the most beautiful and one of the most difficult halfs in the country!!

 

Running with the Girls

Saturday I modified my half marathon training to run a 5k with Caitlyn and Sue.  We ran the Mind Over Matter 5k to raise money and awareness to fight suicide.

It is a lovely course and incredibly important cause.

I was so proud to run with my girls.

We worked hard and all made it to the finish.  This race is one we will always have on the schedule.

Most of the time I run just for me.  Saturday we ran for others.

Training Again

Today I ran twice.   I am training for a half marathon (13.1 miles) on May 20.  Caitlyn and Sue are logging miles for a Martian Marathon April 14.  We all needed to get some running in today.

The Martian Marathon is specifically for kids.  Each logs 25 miles before race day and then runs 1.2 miles with their group to each complete 26.2 miles or the distance of a full marathon.

Caitlyn and Sue did it last year for the first time.

I ran with each of them today (I don’t want them out there alone just yet–crossing roads and such–even if they are just side roads).

Both of my runs together only equaled 5 miles–but I got faster with each run.  I have always found after mile two I get faster and hit my groove.  Every mile I ran was faster than the one before.

This week has had some good mileage in it.  I ran to the library and back on Tuesday–6 miles in the rain, around in circles on Wednesday–3 miles, no rain, and 5 miles today with my girls–no rain.  The schedule calls for 10 miles tomorrow, but 8 or 9 is more likely…

Here are some recent pictures.

A treadmill run

Glad to be running outside again

Truth