Thursday, May 9, 2013

Eight years later, we're still kicking asphalt!


This week I've had time to reflect on how far I've come since training for my first marathon back in 2005. I was reminded of this as I ran my fastest half marathon on Sunday at the Heels and Hills half marathon with one of my very first training buddies, Jessica Andrews. (We missed you, Cara Shiver!)

Cheering on Cara at OKC Marathon the week before Vancouver in 2005


When I signed up to race my first marathon for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team In Training (TNT) program back in November of 2004, I had just learned it consisted of 26.2 miles. Having never run more than two miles in my life before, I was a bit nervous but also excited as I would be doing so in memory of my grandfather who had passed away the prior year from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Training for this event didn't seem nearly as tough as what cancer caused him to go through.

Little did I know just how much it would change my life. Training for the 2005 Vancouver Marathon with a group who started out as strangers was so much fun as we became friends. It was amazing how people from so many different backgrounds were seen as equals once we laced up our shoes and took that first step out on the Trinity Trails. It didn't matter what you did for a living or what your age was, all that mattered was that we were there for the same cause. We definitely learned more about each other than we might have wanted to at times but that's what happens when you run so many miles together through cold or hot weather and sweat or snot rockets!
Jessica and I at the start of the Vancouver Marathon, May 2005


A lot has happened and changed since that first season. I worked for TNT up until 2011, participated in multiple running, cycling and triathlon events, but most importantly met my wonderful husband, Anthony. He too, signed up for his first TNT event in memory of his grandmother who lost her battle to one of the Lymphoma's. 

I could go on forever about other memories and what has happened since then but back to Sunday's race. I had planned out my race schedule early on in the year and planned to do the Heels and Hills half marathon on May 5th. I would be missing out on the fun Cinco de Mayo 5 miler race but I wanted an opportunity to redeem myself from the hot race of Rock N' Roll San Antonio last November. I was so much more diligent about my training the last few months and was excited to see through Facebook (you learn everything about everyone on the FB) that my buddy Jessica would be doing the race as well. Jessica has become such a faster runner since our first marathon together and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity for me to get a better time if I was chasing her on the course.

We exchanged messages leading up to the race about how I would try and keep up with her and all I wanted to do was beat my prior PR of 1:59. I then said I would be ecstatic with 1:52...then I said I wanted to break 1:50. Race morning came around and I went back to saying, any PR is a PR as I didn't want us to feel pressured into not having some fun on the course. 

We had a blast!!! Mind you, this race sounds tough because of the name but it's pancake flat and to be honest, it's pretty uneventful outside of the "Men in Skirts" pacers. It's a perfect first half marathon, 10k or 5k though for a woman wanting to feel some girl power at a smaller race with a cool shirt two sizes too big thanks to the vendor's vanity sizing. Sorry, but it's true! 

We couldn't have asked for better weather that morning as it was a still a sunny 60 degrees by the time we were done! It was so much fun to catch up on life with each other and reminisce about the old days. We couldn't help but talk about how we thought running a 9:15 pace at the beginning of Vancouver was too fast for us and we needed to slow down or we were going to fade quickly. I ended up finishing Vancouver with a 11:19 min per mile pace and here we were eight years later, kicking asphalt together ending with an 8:03 pace. We both PR'ed that morning after passing the "Men in Skirts" 1:50 pace group at mile 9. I ended up with a final time of 1:45:24 and felt amazingly well after. I wasn't searching for the massage tents (they didn't have them anyway) or taking off my shoes because my feet hurt. It just showed me how important sticking to my training plan, monitoring my heart rate and having fun really does make a difference in how you race. 
Jessica and I at the start of the Heels and Hills Half, May 2013

My heart and soul are happy to know how far we've all come from that first season. I've met a tremendous amount of incredible people through the endurance sports community and I was reminded how awesome everyone really is.

I'll be doing lots of swimming, biking and running over the next few months, so let me know when you want to get together for workout. Yes, I'm talking to YOU! It will be fun to catch up!

Saturday, May 4, 2013

A Night in Old San Antonio

San Antonio aka Alamo City
Last week I went to San Antonio to visit friends and family but most importantly, to celebrate Fiesta! Fiesta started in 1891 as a one parade event to honor the heroes of The Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, but it has evolved into a 10 day celebration of San Antonio’s culture and tradition. There are 100 different events taking place across San Antonio and I went with the intention of participating in two.

I arrived in SA on Thursday evening and had some mani/pedi time with my Mom.  Shellac seems to do the trick when training for an Ironman. We went to bed fairly early due to the big shebang on Friday of going to Night In Old San Antonio (NIOSA), with my dear friends. We planned to get to the downtown party by 5:30pm so I needed to make sure I got my bike ride in earlier that day.

A big thanks to “Scrub” aka my buddy Chris, for giving me a route to explore during my visit. I wanted to try and get about 40 miles in and I knew whichever route I took around my parents house would be challenging considering it’s known as the Texas Hill Country. He gave me a route to follow that was 38 miles round trip and turns out I would be able to do the route starting from my parents house by only adding a few miles. It had been drizzling all morning but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from my solo riding adventure. It was a bit precarious during the first few miles as I had to go through quite a few traffic lights and I was uncertain of how the traffic would react to a girl on a bike next to them in the rain. You never know who might be texting behind you!

I finally reached a point about seven miles in where I made a right off the main road and could start to feel the elevation gain. It was nice to see so many “Share the Road” signs along this route. For a two lane hilly scenic route, I didn’t expect to see so many. This made me feel a bit more safe.  Chris had also told me about the Chili’s or Home Depot I could stop at to use the bathroom. I stopped at Chili’s and realized I was in Boerne, Texas next to my grandpa’s old house! That drive growing up felt like it was 100 miles away from our house but instead I looked at my Garmin and I was at 22 miles. If I turned around, I would have completed 44 miles total. 



Here’s where the dilemma comes in…Chris had also told me about a gnarly hill a few minutes past this rest stop I just made. He said it would make me question cycling! Should I turn around and do the 44 miles or continue on and find this hill? Ummm, Challenge accepted! I decided to trek on thinking a few more miles wouldn’t hurt and neither would conquering this legendary hill. Unfortunately, my bud Chris miscalculated a bit (I forgive you, Scrub!) and it was still further away. At this point, I was getting hangry (combination of hungry and angry) and knew I didn’t have enough nutrition to continue on and make the full ride home as I intended to stop at a convenience store that I never found. So…, I didn’t see the dang hill after turning around 28 miles in!

I turned around and thought I could cut off some mileage by taking the access road of a major highway I-10 back home. That was fun! But again, with little nutrition and lots of time passing through my disorientation of street names, I was continuing to get "hangrier". About 42 miles in, I realized I needed to call a sag wagon as I continued to get soaked and was getting closer to my deadline of showering for the big night out with the girls! Mom came to the rescue and picked me up at 46 miles. Moral of the story, make sure you don’t rely on stopping at a convenient store in the Texas Hill Country that you think you might come across and also, always stick to the original plan. No sense in riding extra miles when you don't have too! With just enough time, I showered quickly and was off to spend the evening with some of my San Antonio favorites and had a blast at NIOSA. 
Tickets for food and beverages at NIOSA!
Sisters from another Mister at NIOSA!
We’ll just say the next day was rough and my biggest goal of the day was to make it to the Night Parade with my family. Last year, Anthony and I participated in the run that kicked off the parade. The parade route is about 2.5 miles long but my parents seats are at the very beginning of the route every year so it ends up being about 6 miles trying to get back with street closures. I opted against that this year and saved my energy for a six mile run on Sunday before heading back to Arlington. Next year I will do some better planning as I saw there is the Fiesta WildFlower ride on Sunday morning which has distances up to 100 miles.

If you have never checked out Fiesta before, I encourage you to be one of the 3.5 million visitors next year and if you’re training, you’re bound to get some workouts in, even if it is just “bicep curls”.
One of the floats in the 3 hour night parade