Little Rock Marathon 2013

This year's theme for the Little Rock Marathon was a western-type one. At the Health and Fitness Expo (where I had to pick up my race packet) there were several really cute displays. Personally, I like the gigantic beer!

 Sunday was race day for the 10k, Half-Marathon, and Marathon. The race was supposed to start at 8, and I woke up around 2 am! No, it doesn't take me that long to get ready! I assume it was because of nerves. UGH! Around 3 am, I gave up and decided to go ahead and get out of bed. It was 26 degrees when I left my house. YIKES! I got to the race around 6:30, because I wanted to make sure I had a decent parking spot. Even then, it was about 31 degrees.

Fortunately, I got there early enough that I made my way to bag check with NO wait. I ended up talking to a lady from Ontario. She was 63 years old, and was doing a marathon in each state! How cool is that - on SO many levels!?

I met up with co-workers at one point for a pre-race picture. Yes, my picture says Jen. That's because I got a transfer bib. :) Lucky for me, my parents always confused our names as kids (my sister is a Jennifer, too). So, I'm quite used to be called the wrong name. :)

I haven't done LR before, but I did assume it would be much bigger than Soaring Wings. Well, the race began at 8 am. I crossed the start line at 8:17. Yes, it was a big race. Unfortunately, when the race started at 8, I started my Nike+ app on my phone. That TOTALLY messed with my pace through out the race - Problem #1.

For the most part, I was worried about injury. I literally prayed each mile that I just finish without injury. I wasn't concerned about time, given I was not prepared at all. I noticed that the mile marker on the course didn't match what my Nike+ app was saying. That's when I decided I wasn't able to accurately judge my pace. I thought my pace was faster (by what my app said) than by my official time. So, I think my tool wasn't measuring correctly. Finally, at the end of the race my phone (running my app) died. I had less than a mile left. (Problem #2) ::::sigh::::: Since I had no music, I got to listen to a girl near me answer her phone and yell at whoever was calling her. Yikes... angry runner!

I felt pretty good after the race. I was pretty sore and my leg was cramping when I was driving home (yeah... not cool!) But we went to eat at Local Lime (AMAZING mexican food) and I'm pretty sure I consumed what I burned off during the race. :)

Today, I am pretty stiff. So I've been stretch at my desk. I hope no one walks by and wonders why I'm sitting on the floor!

• TurboFire - Stretch 10 

Nothing strenuous, of course! My legs were very tight, which was to be expected!

Breakfast

• Steel cut oats

Topped with:

• Natural Peanut Butter
• Reduced Sugar Craisins
• Brown Rice Syrup, drizzled, just for sweetness

• Trop50 Orange Juice mixed with Arbonne Digestion Plus 

Digestion Plus is AMAZING to relieve bloating, especially when I have been "glutened." I love probiotics. :)

Lunch

• Arbonne Protein Chocolate Shake 

Mixed with:

• Natural Peanut Butter

• Arbonne's Pomegranate Fizz Stick

Again, I'm trying to kick the soda habit...ugh!

Dinner

• Arbonne Protein Vanilla Shake

 Mixed with:

• Banana

• Natural Peanut Butter

• Arbonne's Pomegranate Fizz Stick

Peanut Butter is the recurring theme of the day. :)

Snacks
Snack 1:

• Garbonzo beans (or Chickpeas, if you prefer)

 Mixed with:

• Red wine vinegar, drizzled
• Olive oil, drizzled
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. 

A childhood favorite of mine!

Snack 2:

• Banana

Impromptu Half-Marathon

I was talking a client of mine the other night. She is running her first marathon at the Little Rock Marathon on Sunday. Through her influence and direction, I checked with the Little Rock Marathon, and there was a slew of people who were selling their bib numbers and these would be available for transfer. Long story short, I registered to run the Little Rock Marathon - 1/2 marathon THIS WEEKEND! Am I excited? YES! Am I nervous? Yes! Do I feel crazy because I haven't been training at all to race?! YES, YES, YES! But, I'm so happy and excited that I get to run. I don't care about my time. I run for the medals, peanut butter, and cupcakes (of course!). Oh, I run because I enjoy it, too. :) But, there is certainly NOTHING wrong with cupcakes and peanut butter!

I'm such the procrastinator, I didn't get signed up for the Half before it filled up. Little Rock is a Boston Marathon qualifier, so it is pretty big! This will be MUCH bigger than Soaring Wings, so I'm a bit nervous. But, it should be fun! I need to get new running ear buds and make sure the Running playlist on my iPod is filled to the MAX!

LITTLE ROCK, here I come! 

 Running - 2 miles. I wanted to do around 4, but I was SO tired after such a long week/day!

Breakfast
Steel Cut Oats w/ apple butter, craisins, almond butter, and almond milk
Orange juice mixed with Arbonne's Digestion Plus (LOVE that stuff!)

Lunch
Arbonne's Chocolate Protein Shake, mixed with PB2, Arbonne's Daily Fiber Boost, and Almond Milk

Dinner
GIGANTIC baked potato topped w/ Smart Balance butter, cheddar cheese, and salsa for kicks!

Snack
I may or MAY NOT have shared a Dove bar with the kiddo. Ok, I did. And it as GREAT!



Daily Encouragement

Best 2013 Half Marathons per Self Magazine

I was reading this Self Magazine article and it really struck me! Running a half marathon is such a growing experience in its own right, but can you imagine running a half marathon on the Great Wall of China?! I'm still trying to wrap my head around even the notion of that experience. There were multiple locations mentioned in the article, Indianapolis, Great Wall, China, Miami Beach, Los Angeles, New York City, Montreal, Oslo, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

Indianapolis
OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon

Great Wall, China
Great Wall Half Marathon

Miami Beach
Allstate Life Insurance Miami Beach 13.1 Marathon

Los Angeles
The LA Marathon

New York City
Allstate Life Insurance New York City 13.1 Marathon

Montreal, Canada
Oasis Rock 'n' Roll Montreal Marathon & Half-Marathon

Oslo, Norway
Rock 'n' Roll Oslo Half-Marathon

San Diego
Rock 'n' Roll San Diego Marathon & Half-Marathon
to Benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

Las Vegas
Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon & Half-Marathon

I've never seen the Great Wall, but that would be BEYOND fascinating. I have visited Norway before and it is beautiful! I've never seen more vivid and beautiful colors. 

What would be your favorite half marathon destination?

• P90X - Shoulders and Back session at 4:30 am! :::yikes:::
• Running - 3 miles 1% incline, 30 min (to be done tonight!)
• P90X - Ab RipperX (to be done tonight!)

Breakfast

• Cranberry Almond Oatmeal aka my new (again) favorite :) I couldn't wait to go to sleep last night so I could have it for breakfast. Sad, but true.

• Tropicana Trop-50 (not a favorite of mine, I think I'll stick to a cleaner juice from now on) mixed with Arbonne Digestion Plus (LOVE!)

Lunch

• Arbonne Protein Chocolate Shake, mixed w/ PB2

Dinner

• Arbonne Protein Chocolate Shake, mixed with PB2 

Snack

• Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt with blueberries

A Case of the Mondays

Okay, anytime someone references the fact that it's a monday, I can't help but have that line from Office Space run through my head.

Red stapler, anyone?

I've been toying with different ideas for the blog, but I think I'm going to start documenting my food. Sometimes I'll have recipes, but not always. I don't always cook, sometimes I'm just too darn tired. Anyhow, here's the breakdown of my day!

Breakfast

Chunky Monkey Almond Oatmeal, minus the cocoa. Sadly, I'm out. 

Snack

Yoplait Vanilla Greek yogurt

Apple

Lunch

Seasoned, baked chicken breast

Banana

Enjoy Life Apple Pie bar

So, for lunch I planned on having rice with my lunch. And then I forgot. So, I ended up having my 2nd snack with my chicken, because I was a starvin' marvin. And now it's past my snack time and... I'm hungry.

Dinner

Hash browns - with ketchup, of course. You CANNOT have hash browns with out ketchup.

2 Turkey Sausage patties

3 egg whites, scrambled

And a handful of gummy bears for dessert. Because, I can.

The kid and I love breakfast for dinner. My mom always called it an, "upside down day." I don't know why, but breakfast foods at dinner time is fun and an easy way to change of the routine!

I don't think I'll work out, tonight. I'm still pretty stiff and sore from Soaring Wings. I think some good stretching and muscle rolling is in order for tonight!

My first half marathon

Saturday, October 27th was my first half marathon. It was my second one to train for, but I got a stress fracture during training in January. So, I decided to take another stab at it. My ortho told me he didn't think I was built to be a distance runner (which I still don't understand... my bones I guess??) But, obviously I didn't listen to him! :) My leg where my stress fracture was still got sore regularly during training over the past few months, so I decided to aim at just running 60% of the race. My only goal was to finish. My longest run during training this time was 6 miles, which was fine since I didn't intend to run the full 13.1. After the Komen race last week, my leg was pretty sore. I was only able to get a 3 and 1 mile run in during this past week.

Running socks crack me up - Left and Right! Pre-race pics! Honestly, the full one of me was so my boyfriend knew what I was wearing and what to look for amongst the zillion other runners!

That brings me to yesterday morning. I was flat out terrified. It was pretty darn cold (38 degrees), so I knew that would hamper my breathing (asthma). I basically had two factors working against me, my leg and my asthma. I just reassured myself I needed to just finish and not worry about time. Before the race, my boyfriend was texting me. He's a basketball coach, so he understands my nervousness, but he's not a runner. He just reminded me not to worry about time, just do what I can. I needed to hear that from someone else! Whether I walked, ran or crawled - I was going to finish! I'd rather not crawl, though!

Even putting on my bib, I was shaking. After my b-line to the bag check and porta-potty, I went straight to my corral. My plan was to run for 4 minutes and walk for 1, through out the race. I kept an eye on my pace, so I didn't get too tired early on. I realised during the race, that I seem to run a lot faster outside. At one point I checked my pace and I was sub 9:00 - I wanted to keep it around a 10:00 pace.  My leg was doing good and my breathing was fine, despite the cold. I decided I didn't need to run 4, walk 1, like I had originally planned. The course was riddled with hills, and I soon realised that trying to run uphill, taxed my breathing. Around mile 5, I noticed I began to wheeze, so I used my inhaler that I kept on hand. I decided to walk up hill, and run the rest. I kept that plan through out the race and used my inhaler about ever 1.5-2 miles.


Around mile 10, I saw my boyfriend - standing there in his cozy jacket, sipping on Starbucks. Ahh- spectators! HA! Not long after this, I started getting that pain in my side from dehydration. Aid stations were set up every 1.5 miles, and I took advantage of those about every 3 miles, but I apparently I needed some more. The pain was pretty strong, so I walked about a mile to the next aid station and got gatorade and water. After a couple minutes, I was back to running. I hydrated at each station through the remainder of the course.

My favorites:
High 5's from kids along the race course
The beautiful homes with halloween decor and signs to cheer us on
The sorority girls handing out gummy bears
The lady holding a sign, "You thought this was a 5k??"
My boyfriend at mile 10
My bootcamp and Beach Body instructor around mile 6
Seeing folks I knew at the race - I love being in good company

At the last mile, I booked it! I wanted to finish strong, besides the faster I ran, the faster I'd be done! Once across the finish, I thought I was going to throw up! But, I grabbed a snickers and banana. My calves were cramping, so I stretched it out. My boyfriend finally caught up with me, and we just walked around a bit.

I spent the rest of the day laying on the couch, rolling my muscles, and eating. My GOODNESS, I was starving. We rounded out the day with  hot wings, fries and spinach-artichoke dip. Gluten free? No, but I was so hungry and frankly didn't care. I felt sick right after, but darn it, I got some hot wings!

A Busy October: Race Style

It is October 8th. "What's the point," you say? Well T-12 days until the Race for the Cure. I signed up for the chip-timed run, which I have never done before. It will be a very emotional race, but I am SO excited to do it! I just have to pick out some nifty running wear. I am more excited about that than I am about Soaring Wings. But, the Komen race has a special significance to me, so it makes sense. It is T-19 days until Soaring Wings. Umm... holy moley. Am I prepared, of course not! Between babying my leg and everything with mom, I haven't been training like I should. I just want to complete a half marathon ONE-1-UNO time and I'll be satisfied. I'm a stubborn woman, so the fact I was benched last time has fueled my fire. After this, I will just stick to 5 and 10k's. It's hard to get my proper training in when I've got the little one. Let's rock and roll!

Ready to run and run and run... or not

So, I have already signed up for a half in October, "Soaring Wings." I am really excited that I'll actually be able to compete. I think I figured out what contributed to my stress fracture in January. Probably 80% (that's being stingy, I think!) of my training was on the treadmill. The gym has childcare and such, and honestly I didn't think much of it. I had originally just trained for a 5k, so I just decided to push myself further. It wasn't until I got in to my longer runs (6 miles +) that I started to take it outdoors. I LOVE LOVE LOVE running outdoors, but do to time constraints, I reserved this for my long runs. My body was just so accustomed to treadmill running, that it couldn't take the significantly longer runs on pavement. My recovery is trucking along. I am SO excited, I actually can barely contain myself, knowing that I'll be running in less than a month! I think I might buy myself a new running outfit to celebrate the occasion. Anyhow, here's a pic of the race shirt that I didn't get to wear!

This is the race shirt for the 2012 LR Marathon.