This may be a little late, but J and I are still talking about the men’s Olympic marathon. I’m sure everyone has their opinion about what happened, but seeing 2 out of the 3 Americans drop out because they weren’t at 100% really disappointed me.

And, it got me thinking……………what motivates me?

Which took me back to last year’s NYC marathon:

• I knew I was coming off an injury that had to be nursed.
• I knew I was slower than ever before because of that injury and because I hadn’t trained like I normally would.
• I knew people were expecting me to be faster than I was.

But I also knew it was going to be the experience of a lifetime.

• I’m not a quitter.
• I finish what I start.
• I’m a good role model.

That’s what motivates me.

It doesn’t mean I’m happy with the time I put up in NYC, but I finished. I did it.

Worst marathon = best experience ever.

And I feel bad that Ryan Hall and Abdi Abdirahman didn’t get that. Maybe they regret it, maybe they don’t. But I bet they’ll never tell.

I don’t regret NYC at all.

Because I finished.

What motivates you to keep going when things get tough??

p.s. GO MEB!!!!

I was recently sent a pack of workout fuel (pre, post, and during) from Vega Sport, the sports nutrition company formulated by Brendan Brazier (who is totally badass, btw).

I still remember getting the email asking if I’d be interested in trying the product – we were in New York City and it was the day after the NYC Marathon. The timing couldn’t have been any more perfect since my fueling had been a disaster during the marathon. And knowing that I had a comeback marathon in mind (yes, I totally knew this as soon as I crossed the finish line in NYC), I didn’t waste any time responding that I’d be happy to try it!

Well, before I even had a chance to try any of the products, J had dug in and grabbed the Chocolate Coconut Protein Bar.

He ate it on his way home from the gym one night and called me saying “I couldn’t wait to get home to tell you this, but this chocolate coconut bar is SOOOO GOOD. Seriously, it’s the best protein bar I have ever had. The texture is amazing! I love it! Wooooo!” Ok, maybe he didn’t wooooo, but I like to remember it that way. Hehe.

He is still raving about this protein bar a month later. I’m not kidding. It’s getting kind of annoying. Maybe I should get him a pack of these for Valentines Day. Protein bars and beer. Perfect gift.

Anyways, I went a different route and tried the pre-workout fuel. If you don’t know, I have a pretty awesome work schedule. I work 7am to 2pm, except for the months of February, March, and April when I work full-time (today I worked 7 to 6). I love getting off work at 2:00 – it gives me time to get my workout in before dinner and family time. But it’s also the time my body crashes and I don’t have much energy.

And, no joke, the Vega Sport Pre-Workout Energizer is amazing. I mix it with water and that’s it. Easy peasy.

It honestly gives me the energy boost I need for my afternoon run. It’s my most favorite product in the whole box!

To be fair, though, I haven’t tried any of the during, or “sustain”, products yet. But training is starting to amp up and now is the perfect time to try something new. I’ll definitely let you know how they are!

And, lucky for you, the people at Vega Sport offered to send one of YOU a tub of the Pre-Workout Energizer (no fair, I want to win)!! There are 2 ways to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post telling me your pre-workout fuel of choice.
2. Tweet “I want to win the super awesome @VegaSport giveaway from @heatha262. You should, too!” and link to this post (leave me a comment telling me you tweeted). You can tweet once day until 5pm on Sunday, February 12th (make sure you leave a comment for each tweet!).

GOOD LUCK!

And don’t forget the Run for Sherry this Saturday in the Rocky River Metroparks at 9am! We’re planning a coffee/bagels date at Einstein’s for after. So leave a little time to hang out after!

Disclaimer: I was sent these products free of charge from Vega Sports. But opinions are 100% my own (and J’s).

Now that the marathon is over……

(oh, hey, another marathon photo – how’d that get in there? )

…….my focus is on two things:

1. Getting faster
2. Weight training

So in order to get faster I need to make friends with this:

Ugh, not my favorite friend.

I had a speed date with the track this past Sunday. And when I say “speed date” I mean it was a quick visit, not that I was speedy (though this is not from my lack of trying). The track always likes to remind me how slow I really am. And the track always makes me sore no matter how much time we spend together. I hate the track. And love it at the same time.

Sidenote: I love that I can meet friends at the track while C plays soccer on the field.

Win win!

I’ve also been back to teaching Group Power twice a week for a few months now. But I wasn’t really doing any of the leg work. I was too worried I would hurt my IT Band or ankle before the marathon so even when I did the squats or lunges I never used the bar with weights.

Well, yesterday I changed this. No more excuses. I always push and motivate the participants in my class, so now I’m doing the same thing for myself during class. And holy crap, my inner thighs and butt are mad sore today. I love it!

I’m starting to feel like my old self again. I’m back at it and pushing myself like I used to. I still have big plans for another marathon in the works, but until then this is my focus.

Do you have a focus right now?

I wanted to share some of my favorite photos/places from NYC. It’s such an amazing place that the pictures don’t do it justice.

Grand Central Terminal:

NYC Bagels!!

Ess-a-Bagel = the most delicious (and filling) bagel of my life. No question.

Rockefeller Center:

Our brief careers as a models:

Hehe.

Gorgeous new Apple store:

Hello Soho:

Mark Isreal, who created the Doughnut Plant, is a genius:

So ridiculously delicious. I can’t even tell you. J may or may not have eaten FIVE donuts that day………I’ll never tell.

Central Park:

Times Square:

And my favorite place of all:

THE FINISH LINE!

Hell to the YES.

Have you been to NYC? Where’s your favorite place to go or what’s your favorite thing to do?? There’s still so much we didn’t have time for. I can’t wait to go back!

One week ago today I was celebrating finishing the NYC Marathon AND my birthday. I even saw two other ladies running the race wearing shirts saying “It’s my birthday!” – I guess November 6th isn’t just about me? Weird.

The first gift to myself after we got back to the hotel (and after my much needed ice bath) was a huge Diet Coke.

Diet Pepsi can suck it. Diet Coke is where it’s at.

Then the celebration continued at a restaurant literally ten feet from our apartment (thanks for not making me walk anymore that night, guys!). Celebratory (and complimentary!) shots were in order:

And the food was phenomenal. I could be wrong since I was mad hungry at this point, but I quite possibly could have had the best burger of my life. It was that good. Best post marathon meal yet.

And the food didn’t stop there – it was my birthday, remember??

I think those are my “I just ran a marathon and am happy but have been awake since 4am” eyes.

There wasn’t any cake, but there was pumpkin and caramel cheesecake, a red velvet cupcake, and key lime pie. My stomach couldn’t really handle too much that night, but I may or may not have dominated that key lime pie Monday night. Maybe.

And it didn’t stop there!! What’s a birthday without presents?

Some of you may have seen this on Facebook and/or Twitter:

Did anyone figure out what was inside?

Sigh…………so pretty…….

I put it on the necklace with the 26.2 charm from my parents and I haven’t taken it off since. I love it. I’m pretty sure this is the best present my husband has ever gotten me. I love it, love it, love it.

It was a damn good birthday. Not sure how this one is ever going to be topped…..luckily that’s up to J and not me!

What’s the best birthday gift you have ever gotten?

WOW, thanks for all the super awesome, kick-ass, ego-strokin comments you left on my last post (I plan on responding to every one this weekend!). You sure know how to make a girl feel good!

And for those of you who didn’t hear yet…………I ran a little race called the ING NYC Marathon this past Sunday.

I may even be saving marathon pictures just so I have one to put in every post from now on. Hehe. (I have no shame)

Anyways, Hal Higdon deems the week after a marathon “zero week“. I must say that this man knows what he’s talking about.

Monday I felt like someone had beaten my quads with a baseball bat. They were SO SORE. And I’m not quite sure if walking all around Soho, Central Park, and Times Square helped or hurt their recovery.

(stretching my hips in the Subway while waiting for our train)

Tuesday my quads still hurt. Going down stairs was still killer (better, but not good). I’m so appreciative now of the railings in the stairway leading up to our bedroom and down to the basement (though, I have to admit that I put a load of laundry in Tuesday night when we got home and didn’t touch it until today!). I told J he needs to install an escalator like the NYC subways had.

Wednesday my quads were a LITTLE sore, but I could finally walk down stairs without looking like my mom who just had her knee replaced (sorry, Mom, but you know what I mean!).

Yesterday I felt good. Even back to normal maybe? But then I taught Group Power and my left IT band hollered at me. Just enough to remind me to slow the hell down. No need to push it.

Today I was going to run a few miles but decided not to make my IT band any more angry than it already is. I think it was a good decision.

Tomorrow I have a deep tissue massage scheduled. I’m actually glad I scheduled it for tomorrow instead of earlier in the week. It’s already going to be painful – no need in adding fuel to the fire by going while my legs were still mad sore.

Sunday I have plans to RUN. No more than 5 miles, but I’m going to get back out there and see how I feel. Hopefully I feel better than this:

It was unusual having the week “off”. I am completely grateful, though, because I was exhausted this week. My under-eye, bag covering, concealer has never gotten so much use!

I want to be smart about my recovery. My goal is to be back to 100% by the end of the year. I may or may not have another race to start training for come January.

Do you follow the “zero week” rule after a big race? Or do you like to just get right back out there? I made the mistake of running too soon after the Cleveland marathon and that’s how this nagging IT Band injury started…….

Race re-cap it is!!

I have been debating in my head since Sunday how I wanted to write this post. I’ve been struggling with this for almost 4 days now. So instead of trying to come up with something clever and witty (which, who am I kidding, these things I am not!), I decided to just lay it all out there. I want you to experience the emotion I felt on race day – not so much what I DID, but how I FELT.

I’ll get more into it later, but Saturday was a day of bad decisions. I struggled with this all day, but I couldn’t justify traveling to NYC and not exploring the city. So I chose to enjoy my family and experience NYC instead of taking care of myself for Sunday’s race. Do I regret it? NOT IN THE LEAST.

I took an Advil PM around 9:00 Saturday night and slept pretty well until 3:00 Sunday morning. I was already awake and ready to get up when my alarm went off bright and early. I also got an extra little boost of energy when I saw that Team Heatha had decorated the apartment for my birthday and the marathon.

Love them.

Luckily my husband loves me, too, and got up to walk me to the buses that would take me to the start villages. I was pretty quiet as we walked the 12 blocks or so to the buses. I kept thinking about how my ankle was going to hold up after walking so much the past 2 days (which would end up being my biggest crutch).

I was early enough that there wasn’t too big of a crowd yet, so I was able to hop right on a bus. It was a quick ride and I found Molly in the blue village relatively easy!

I ate a banana and peanut butter at 6:00 and then some trail mix around 8:30. I was drinking my huge bottle of Smart Water, but I could tell I was still hungry. I just didn’t know what to do about it. I had never had to fuel for a race where I was up 6 1/2 hours prior to the start. So about an hour before my start time I had 2 bites of a Power Bar they were graciously handing out to runners. In my head I was praying it was enough.

The start came quicker than I thought it would and I kind of walked through the corral in a fog. I shed my throw away clothes, and then it was TIME. New York, New York started playing and we were running across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge! I felt great, the weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing. I had heard of men peeing over the edge of the bridge and witnessed this first hand on the downhill. It was gross. And smelly.

It was around mile 3 that I knew I had to pee myself. I was hoping the feeling would go away (I had peed 4 times before I started!), but I had no such luck. But besides having to pee I was feeling pretty great. The crowds were AMAZING and I was averaging roughly 10:30 miles.

And finally at mile 8 I saw these beautiful faces (right where they said they’d be!):

J jumped in and ran a couple miles with me. Poor guy. I was getting so crabby from having to pee so bad and seeing a line a mile deep at every porta potty! So I finally saw an alley and told him I was going to duck in and relieve myself. Unfortunately, the person living in the apartment that exited out into the alley decided to leave his place of residence mid-stream (literally). He looked me in the eye, I said “Oh no!”, he shut the door, and I continued my business. I’m sure it was quite the sight. Or not.

J took the above picture while I was having my nice alley encounter.

I remember telling J after that how much better I felt. And then we hit mile 13. The Pulaski Bridge.

Two things happened on that bridge:

1. My stomach felt empty. Like, dehydrated empty. Where you can drink and drink and drink, but nothing absorbs. I had been drinking every mile from my Nathan handheld, but I guess it wasn’t enough? Or maybe it was a combination of being thirsty and hungry? Because by now it was around 1:00 and I hadn’t eaten since 8:30. I had no idea (still don’t).
2. My ankle was swelling and not liking the hills. I still don’t have the full range of motion in my ankle so instead of being stupid and powering through the hills, I decided to walk them. I’m not sure if this was a smart decision or not. It hurt my time A LOT (I mean, A LOT), but I’m able to walk today so I’m going to say it was a good decision.

Miles 15 to 16 were the Queensboro bridge. HOLY MOTHER. This bridge was killer. Long and monotonous and boring. My least favorite part of the race. It was also my slowest mile of the race (16:44 – eeeek!). But I knew we were headed towards First Avenue, which was supposed to be the mecca of crowd supporters.

I took my headphones out at this point because there was supposed to be this “wall of sound” when you reach the bottom of the bridge of the crowd cheering. I didn’t really think the cheering was anything superior to what had been in Brooklyn, but the people were at least 10 deep. It was ridiculous. Like one big frat party!

I also found my family again here! My sister jumped in to run a few miles with me and I was mad crabby. I was upset with my stomach, and couldn’t even think about eating my Honey Stingers (even though my sis forced me to eat some – we compromised on 2 – ha). I had started drinking water at every water stop (they were every mile) and drinking my nuun sparingly. The water was just so refreshing at this point!

It was also at this point I started to get down on myself. Miles 18 through 20 were all 12 minute miles and I was feeling like crap. I knew my goal of a 5 hour finish was out of reach and I couldn’t get that out of my head.

That is, until we hit the Bronx and Harlem. KICK ASS. It was like one big party that everyone was invited to! There were rappers free styling and high fiving the runners, break dancers, people doing the Cupid Shuffle (which I totally dig!), and mad love all around. It was hands down my favorite part of the race. Right up my alley! I was dancing and loving every minute of it. I’m so thankful for these areas because it was then that things changed for me. I knew I was going to finish. I didn’t care about my time anymore, and I was PROUD for what I was accomplishing. And if things couldn’t get better it was right then that a message from J popped up on the jumbotron! Unbelievable. I actually screamed out loud and pointed at the screen – it was the best pick me up (thank, Babe!). Things just came together during this section – and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.

My bff, Nikki, jumped in around mile 22 1/2 to run with me for a bit and I remember being happy. I told her I wasn’t going to be able to talk much but it wasn’t because I was crabby, I was just tired. My legs were hurting and there were lots of rolling hills as we entered Central Park. Kids were handing out candy and I remember taking a piece, handing it to Nikki, and telling her to “save it for after – I’m going to kill that candy bar later”. Hehe.

My stomach was still revolting so I just continued to drink water at every mile and tried not to think about it.

Next thing I knew she was gone and I was coming up to the 25 mile marker. SO CLOSE. I just kept my legs moving forward and ran with this stupid grin on my face. Since I work with ING on a daily basis, the company generously offered my family VIP passes to the finish line area so I was pumped to see them again. This was it. I looked at my watch and didn’t even care anymore. I only cared about crossing that finish line.

And as I approached mile 26 I could hear the announcer say “This is your finish! What do you want it to be?” and I immediately got choked up. I had never cried during a race before but I was so emotional! The tears came as soon as I saw my sister, J, and C.

You can pretty much see the happiness on my face here:

And here:

And I’m pretty sure I’m still smiling here, too:

I accomplished something I thought was nearly impossible when I started training 10 weeks ago. I have been so down on myself the past few weeks that I’m happy to finally say that I’m PROUD of myself. I deserve this medal:

This was my worst marathon finish by far, but it was the BEST experience. No other marathon will ever compare to this one. It was truly an experience of a lifetime. And something I will never, ever forget.

I still have so much to say, but I think I’ll save it for another time. I think this post is long enough.

Thanks again for all the support. You guys are all kick ass.
**hugs**
Heather

Hey everyone!

We’re finally home from the Big Apple! We’re getting settled in and I still need time to organize my thoughts – it was a long and exciting weekend.

So I just wanted to drop in real quick to say THANK YOU for all the amazing support and birthday wishes on Sunday. I may not have responded to them all (there was a lot going on!), but I read every single one.

Can’t wait to catch up on what everyone else has been up to, too. I’ve been out of the loop!

What do you think: Race re-cap first and then weekend highlights? Or just a weekend progression?

This is it. Our bags are packed (well, mostly), checklists double checked, playlists are made, electronics are charged, and the car is gassed up. All I have left to do is paint my nails. No backing out now.

I’m still in the 90% nervous, 10% excited range, but I’m sure that will change as the weekend goes on. I’ve been reading all the updates on ING Runner’s Nation Facebook page and, as cheesy as it sounds, the energy is almost contagious!

Tomorrow is the last day to vote for me to be THE featured runner, so please humor me one more day and vote. I find out on Saturday who the winner is (nothing like waiting til the last minute, right?).

But no matter if I win or lose the contest, I’m still grateful to even be chosen as one of the six finalist. It’s been quite the experience already and it’s not even race day yet!

If you’re interested, J (@jamursch) and my sister (@byamanda1) will be tweeting during the race. I’m pretty sure Facebook will be sending updates, too. My wave starts at 10:40am so I’ll be running most of the day on Sunday. Happy birthday to me, right?

Thank you SO MUCH for all the support these last 10 weeks. It’s been so helpful having an outlet to vent my frustrations and celebrate my victories.

And if you’re in New York this weekend, be on the lookout for these:

NYC, HERE WE COME……….!!!!

It’s already late (I was out late dining and being silly with my girls, Kimi and Christie), but I wanted to pop in and ask you guys for a little help. I know, like I haven’t asked for enough help with voting for me every day for the past 3 weeks, right? What can I say…….I’m needy.

I’m trying to revise and update my tried and true “marathon playlist”. My most favorite type of music is fast paced, hip hop or techno style. Justin Timberlake is by far #1, then we have Flo Rida, Dave Guetta, Eminem, LMFAO, Usher, 50 Cent, Michael Jackson, Ne-Yo, P-Diddy, etc, etc, etc.

(source)

Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

So what I’m asking from you are song suggestions.

Tell me, what’s your #1 most favorite, can’t live without, fist pumpin, foot tappin workout song?

THANK YOU!!