One of C’s New Year’s Resolutions this year was to beat his 5k PR:

#1. Do a 5k in under 28:15.

Well, it’s only June and he SMASHED that PR. KILLED IT.

C’s never run a race for “time” so I wasn’t really sure how this was gonna go.

But we had a plan – start slow and increase our pace every mile. I was worried he’d gun it out of the gate – especially since he’s been running pretty speedy miles lately with the Run Streak.

The course is flat and AWESOME. We ran right through the park! Past the new Gatekeeper, through Snoopy Land, past the Maverick (my favorite!), through Frontier Land, and finished right next to the carousel in the front of the park. It did NOT feel like we ran a 5k – it went by so fast with so much to look at!

C did great until mile 3 when he started to fade (and whine). But I wasn’t going to let him give up – I knew he was on track to PR and I also know what he’s capable of.

And I totally called it because he definitely had some gas left in the tank at the end:

He left me in his dust! That last .1 or so he just took off and I couldn’t keep up! Poor Mom.

Sure, the course was short. But even at that pace he still would have smoked his PR!

This kid continues to amaze me every day. I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to be able to keep up with him! But, for now, I’ll take it. I love running together. Love, love, love. I just hope he’ll still want to run with me years from now……..

And a big Happy Father’s Day my dad and the love of my life – love you both!!

What did you do for Father’s Day? Anyone else run a race?

Disclaimer: I was provided a free race entry to promote the Cedar Point 5k Challenge, but I paid for C’s entry. All opinions, as always, are my own.

Today was a good day. It was Cleveland Marathon day!

It all started on Friday at the VIP Reception (for sponsors and bloggers). I got to hang out with some of my favorite Cleveland runners, and feel special (hollerrrrrr, VIP treatment!).

And then this morning started out nice and early. J and I had a plan: drive to West 25th and then bike the rest of the way. We did this for two reasons:

1. We didn’t have to deal with parking situation.
2. We could sleep in longer since we didn’t have to deal with the parking situation!

We timed it perfectly because we got there just as the half and full marathons were starting. I love watching the start – and for some reason today I was real emotional – I couldn’t stop getting teary eyed watching everyone run!

After J finally wiped my tears and pulled me away from the start, we found our friend, Jen, and lined up to start the 10k.

3-2-1, GO!

The plan was for J and I to run this race together, but I should have known better. We never run good together. Never. And I know this (which is why we do Crossfit together now instead!). So once we started to get on each other’s nerves we finally just decided to run our own races (after about three and a half miles). Which is what we should have done from the beginning. Oh well, lesson finally learned.

(post-race)

It was a great morning to run, and I LOVED the new 10k course! Please, please, please keep this course, Cleveland!

And to everyone else who ran today, CONGRATULATIONS!! Whether you met your goal or not, no matter which race you ran, you are all ROCK STARS in my book. *hugs*

Do you like to run with your spouse/significant other?

As an official blogger for the Cleveland Marathon, I received a free entry to the race and VIP reception/brunch tickets. All thoughts are my own, as I support the Cleveland Marathon 100% and always, always will!

I was so excited to post about my second amazing Marathon Monday, but that was immediately thrown to the wayside when explosions occurred about 4 hours into today’s race.

(source)

I’m happy to say that my friends who were at the race are safe and ok, but it saddens me to no extent that there are people in our world who deliberately plan to ruin other’s happiness.

Live coverage from the Boston Marathon finish line.

Thank you for all the nice comments on my last post. My feet are definitely back to normal, and I have a pedi scheduled with my BFF on Sunday. Thank goodness. These puppies need it.

Right before I left for Disney, I was contacted by Bibstickers to see if I wanted to try out their product. I figured it was the perfect time since I’d have a brand new Goofy Challenge bib!

Badass bib, right? I love it!

So, I don’t know about you, but I always keep my bibs and write the results on the back.

Bibstickers are genius.

You write all your race result information on the sticker and then stick it to the back of your bib.

Easy peasy.

And then you have the information forever!

I actually really love this product. I think it’s genius – why the heck didn’t I think of it?? Seriously.

Anyways, I have a sticker for one of you, AND two $3.00 off coupons!

Just leave me a comment letting me know how you keep track of your race results. That’s it!

I’ll pick a winner on Sunday, January 27th. Good luck!

Like I mentioned yesterday, when I’m coaching I’m not running for myself. I’m there for the people on my Team who need me. We get a lot of new runners because it is a charity program, and some of them have never done a 5k, let alone a half or full marathon!

So the race isn’t about me. However I feel doesn’t matter. If I’m hurting, cramping, chaffing, blistering, you name it, it doesn’t matter. I just suck it up and deal with it. And I’m happy to do it!

But sometimes it hurts.

During the half marathon on Saturday I got some of the worst blisters I’ve had in my life. Both my pinky toes were gross. The humidity had me sweating like a crazy person early in the race so I’m guessing my wet socks caused the blisters. But you’d never know it in these pictures:

Plus, my feet felt chaffed. I can’t explain it any better than that. The bottoms of them were KILLING me.

And I still had a full marathon to run on Sunday!

So I tried to spend the rest of Saturday vertical. Which was easy considering the weather was beautiful and our pool was 2 steps away from our room.

Despite my aching feet, it was a perfect way to spend the afternoon!

And Sunday morning I bandaged my toes the best I knew how and sucked it up. It was my first time coaching a full marathon and I knew it was going to be a long day!

But with the excitement of running Disney and being distracted by helping the runners, I never even thought about my feet.

Until afterwards. When I wanted to chop them off.

And then I saw this:

In addition to the blisters and chaffing, I got some sort of heat rash on my feet and up to my knees (at least I’m guessing that it was heat rash? It went away by Wednesday.)!

Yuck. So not pretty.

But, you know what, I survived. And, God willing, I’ll do it again.

Glutton for punishment? Maybe. Love my job? Definitely.

Have you ever had to “fake it til you make it”?

What a weekend it was, guys!

It’s taken me this long to find the words to express my feelings about the races last weekend.

It was amazing, inspiring, HOT, fun, and EXHAUSTING.

half marathoners

full marathoners

But TOTALLY WORTH IT.

As a coach, I take a lot of responsibility in the outcome of everyone’s race. I don’t really care how fast everyone runs, I just want them to be have a good time and be happy with their race.

But, guys, these people BLEW ME AWAY.

If you didn’t hear, it was 82 degrees, humid, and sunny on both race days! Not ideal. And it definitely kicked some of the runner’s asses. But they never let that stop them.

They ran, they walked, some may have cried, but they kept moving until they reached the finish line.

It was AWESOME.

I’ve never been so proud while coaching.

During training I sometimes asked myself why I always make these huge commitments.

But then race weekend reminds me why.

The friends I’ve made and then watching them achieve their goals makes every hour, every mile, every blister, and every heat rash, worth it. (more on the blisters and heat rash tomorrow)

If you ever get a chance to run with a team, DO IT. I promise you, you won’t regret it.

Have you ever run with a Team?

Guys, I have a new favorite race.

It’s silly, it’s awesome, and it’s full of running Santa’s!

I think 99% of the people at this race were wearing their santa shirts and/or a costume. There were elves, presents, reindeer, you name it. This is the perfect race to get silly with your friends and run in costume for fun!

The race started at Castaway Bay in Sandusky. About an hour away. But the race didn’t start until 9:00 for the half marathoners and 9:30 for the 5k’ers, so there was plenty of time to get there (and plenty of parking!) and hang out before it started.

Me and the newlywed, Christie!

I only ran the 5k since I had run 17 miles the day before with my team, and if I had to give one criticism it would be that the 5k route sucked. It’s an out and back and you don’t really see anything. Totally boring. But just people watching kept me pretty entertained and I think if they put some Christmas music along the course that would be just enough!

I didn’t plan on racing, I just wanted to run as comfortable as I could without wanting to die (how I usually feel during a 5k). So my time was more than 2 minutes slower than my 5k PR earlier this year. Funny how training for time (like I was the first half of this year) actually works!

I ran a 26:36 (8:35 pace) – good enough for 5/130 in my age group. I’ll take it!

Even though the 5k course sucked, I heard the half marathon course was pretty amazing since you get to run through Cedar Point. And, even with a sucky course, I would totally run this race again. Except next time I’ll put more effort into my costume and convince my friends to dress up with me!

Do you like to dress up for races, or no? Would you?

Every year I’m so late at posting about the Greensburg Turkey Trot. I get so caught up in the holidays that I completely abandon my computer and blogging.

It was our 4th year running the 5k in J’s hometown and those hills never get any easier. They actually get harder because C gets faster every year!

But it’s been getting more fun every year because more and more of J’s friends come out for it now.

I can’t wait until their kids are old enough to join us!

This race was the best one yet. C went into this race with determination. He really wanted to beat last year’s time, but he especially wanted to break the dreaded 30 minute mark. His PR is around 28 minutes, but that’s on a flat Ohio course – the hills in Pennsylvania are no joke.

• 2009 = 37:42
• 2010 = 33:44
• 2011 = 31:40

All I wanted was for C not to cry. He has a bad habit in mile 2 of wanting to quit (especially up the long hill!).

And not only were there no tears, but he charged the last, worst hill of them all (deemed “Cardiac Hill” because it’s right next to the hospital).

He’s even smiling!

I’m such a sappy, proud mom. He wanted this so bad. This was the first year I didn’t have to drag him up the hill or give him any pep talks – he did it all on his own. All I did was follow him.

I’m not gonna lie and say he was happy with this time. He wasn’t. BUT I told him that he was my hero that morning. Everything that I’ve ever taught him came out during this race. He was cheering others on, talking to us, having a good time, and running hard – never quitting even when he knew breaking 30 wasn’t going to happen. And then, instead of sulking, he turned his mood around and went to cheer everyone else on.

God, I love that kid.

What did you do this Thanksgiving? Did you host at your house, go to your parents, visit friends out of town??

Oh, and the winner of the entry to the Santa Hustle is #22: Anna!!! Guess all those tweets made the difference, girl! Email me your info and I’ll get it over to the race director. Congrats!

You guys.

I did something totally crazy on Sunday.

I ran a marathon.

Yeah. Totally not kidding.

And it probably wasn’t the best decision I ever made.

But after how good I felt in Chicago I thought this was a great decision! Ha. So.totally.wrong.

I woke up Sunday morning ready to tackle the race. Sure, I was nervous, but I knew it was a distance I could run. And I was totally DUE for a good marathon.

But, instead, this is what went down:

• My iPod didn’t work as soon as I crossed the start line (no exaggeration).
• I called J twice to tell him I was done. I wanted to quit. I wanted to be done running. Come pick me up.
• I threw up at mile 20.
• I was plain out BORED.

The first half was great. I felt fine, my legs were great, and I was keeping a pretty decent pace. I was right where I wanted to be.

But all of a sudden at mile 15 I wanted to be done. I was over it. I called J and told him I was done. I couldn’t get my breathing under control and I didn’t want to run anymore. My heart wasn’t in it. He told me “Too bad. You’re not quitting. Keep going.”

So I kept going.

Until mile 17. And this time I turned my watch off, stepped onto the sidewalk, and stopped running all together. I called J to come pick me up. And he sighed. Ugh. The dreaded sigh. It was that sigh that made me suck it up and start running again. I didn’t want to disappoint him, or C, and I quickly remembered a sign that said:

• Pain is temporary, but quitting is forever

And I knew I had to finish. As much as I dreaded it, I turned my watch back on and off I went. From then on I ran a mile and walked a minute. Until I reached the finish line.

I couldn’t figure out why my watch was so different than the race website. And then I remembered how I stopped it when I stopped running at mile 17. Duh.

No big deal. Here are my splits, though:

I stopped to talk to J at Mile 12, Mile 15 is where I first stopped to walk and call J, and Mile 20 is where I tossed my cookies (or should I say my Gatorade?). But you can definitely see where I mentally checked out.

Luckily J found me at mile 22 and ran me home. He pushed me to that finish line.

This medal is just as much his as it is mine.

But I still decided to get him his own medal:

Dinner and a growler from his most favorite brewery ever. Beer = medal in his world.

This was by far the hardest marathon yet. And not because my legs gave out on me, but because my mind did. I’d like to say I’m proud that I didn’t quit, but I kinda feel like I did. I gave up on myself – something I never do. I’m more proud of J for pushing me – he didn’t let me stop, which is exactly what I would have done for him if the roles were reversed.

What helps you push through when you’ve mentally “checked out”??

Guys!

I’m having such trouble deciding which photo to buy from this weekend. I always buy one pic from each marathon and make a little collage with a map of the route, my medal, bib, etc. I can’t decide!

What do you think?

Picture A:

or………….

Picture B:

I like one and my sis likes the other (and I’m not telling!).

And I’m throwing this one in just because I think it’s fun:

We look so happy!

So, let me have it. Which one would you buy: A or B????