St Louis Rock n Roll Half Marathon

TBW. Throw back Wednesday, y'all. Because I was reading one of my race recaps and I LOVED it! So I'm throwing it back and recapping the Rock n Roll St Louis Half Marathon.
At the beginning of 2015 I put on my bucket list "Run a rock n roll half marathon". You can imagine my surprise when I went on to look at their locations and saw St. Louis was hosting one. On the weekend of Taneal's wedding nonetheless. My goodness, can you say FATE?
Well, you may think that with all those stars aligning I signed up right then and there. But that's not how I roll. I love standing in my own way. I love making things harder than they need to be. And I hate commitment. So there all that is... 
Fast forward to October 1ish. I'd received Taneal's wedding invitation at least weeks earlier but was dragging my feet on RSVPing. Until I basically got uninvited by the T herself. Apparently that was all I needed- someone telling me I couldn't go- to put me into motion. I bought my plane ticket. I would be in STL that weekend. And while I debated back and forth whether or not I would race, I realized what an idiot I am. So I signed up even though I felt very undertrained. I signed up because I remembered running is supposed to be fun! And although I tell myself all the time that I'm a professional athlete, that I'm not! And holy hell, you put that dumb race on your bucket list and the opportunity is being handed to you with a bow nicely tied around it, and are you really dumb enough not to take it!
!!!
Idiot.
So that's how I signed up.
Fast forward to game day. I hadn't been eating tons that week and was feeling kind of undernourished (sounds so weird, but I really felt like I couldn't eat tons and that I couldn't keep down everything I ate.) I also hadn't slept tons because, hello, I was out of town without kids. Ain't nobody got time for sleep. Saturday night I rolled in about 1 am and set my alarm clock for 5:45 am for the 7:00 start time.
Sunday morning I drank a bit of water, had some dry bagel. That's all I remember. Right before the gun went off I popped 2 Ibuprofen.
Now my game plan going into the race was to be SMART. Like super smart. Don't get myself in a pickle because I was underfed and under slept and undertrained and if I screwed up early, it would be a miserable race.  I thought that I'd probably run at 8:35-9 min average.
The first 3 miles I used as warm up and ran without music.  I then put on my headphones (first to Rachel Platten's Fight Song and then put on Pandora's Martin Garrixx Animals station). The next 5 miles I let myself pick up the pace but paid attention to my breathing as a gage of what pace I should be going. I didn't want my breathing to sound like interval training! Miles 9 and 10 I let quicker turn over. Last 3 miles I let myself go for it.

I ended finishing in 1:49:33 chip time. I was thrilled with that- 8:22 average. I'm learning that I have no idea how training transfers to racing. My expectations are always way off.
I definitely deem this my smartest race yet.  I paced both my energy and adrenaline casi perfectly. I was never miserable. I felt like I reached my optimal time for the training I'd done which I usually don't tap into.
Ahh it was good times! Down side was I ran alone which I'd rather have my people with me before and after the race. But I was glad I didn't let that stop me from doing it. 3 hours later I was on an airplane home. In my dirty running clothes. Hidden nicely under clean warm ups.
Garmin splits: 

Mile              Time           Cumulative        Moving         Distance                                                Time               Time

1

8:53.2

8:53.2

8:50

1.00

2

8:58.0

17:51

8:57

1.00

3

8:47.1

26:38

8:45

1.00

4

8:07.3

34:46

8:02

1.00

5

8:15.8

43:01

8:13

1.00

6

8:14.4

51:16

8:08

1.00

7

8:16.8

59:33

8:14

1.00

8

8:23.7

1:07:56

8:22

1.00

9

8:13.4

1:16:10

8:07

1.00

10

7:54.4

1:24:04

7:50

1.00

11

8:01.7

1:32:06

8:00

1.00

12

7:59.8

1:40:06

8:00

1.00

13

7:52.4

1:47:58

7:47

1.00

14

1:32.8

1:49:31 view walking to starting line still in sweaty race clothes underneath it all. i, of course, find my dirty little secret hilarious.

Dang I have a lot to get down in writing. Guess random, bullet-point style is going to be the format.
Last week's running log: (yes, still obsessed with running) Monday- ran The Lake, 5 in 43:03; lifted full body Tuesday- ran outside with the girls, 5.5 in 52:30; lifted legs Wednesday- lifted shoulders Thursday- 7 in 58:30 speed workout 2 m WU, 7x.5 (@8ish min), .25 recovery Saturday- 10 mile trail run (don't know time. Do know I fell. And my ankle is sore. Not from falling, just from trailing. Ankle? Really?)
*I am still loving running. Something that has kept my love afloat is that I'm also reading about running. Between blogs, Born to Run, and Ultra Marathon Man, I'm getting a steady dose of daily influence that has taken me from a recreational/off and on runner to un poco obsessed runner. It made me realize that with similar habits, other areas of my life can improve. I want to put more daily focus on my spirituality and reap the same results. I think I've been skating by and feeling it.
*I saw the movie The Theory of Everything on Friday with my friend Stacey. The movie definitely isn't your happy ending, everything works out kind of American movie. It's the story of Stephen Hawking, inclusive of how his wife took on the impossible of caring for him in spite of knowing his disease. While watching the movie, I was enjoying my treat of popcorn and sour patch kids and relishing in the combination and how it allowed me to eat both more popcorn and more candy. Now granted, that example is definitely a "for better or worse" scenario. But I'm not kidding when I all of a sudden got the concept of needing an opposite in all things. The screen illustrated so vividly the sweet and salty of life. My treats I was eating helped me understand why we need the sweet and salty. Or better yet, how they work together as a team. Life can't be sustained on never-ending lows. Nor can it be sustained with continual highs. We need them both to cause balance and allow for longevity. Light bulb moment where words I'd heard all my life took on a new level of meaning. 
*Saturday night I asked Dallin if he wanted to fast. We haven't fasted with him since he got baptized as I've totally fallen off the fasting wagon and therefore never remember to mention it to him. Dallin was thrilled to do it. I asked him if he had ideas as to what he wanted to fast for. He said he wanted to fast to have more desire to read the scriptures more. I told him that was great, but out of curiosity, asked him if he felt like what we were doing as a family wasn't enough or didn't count. (Like I said, I just wanted to understand more where he was coming from.) He was all, "Well look, mom, one night we do, the next night we dint and you just never know!" Ouch! And here I was feeling all proud for how much I had improved as far leading that! Ha! He's a good kid. And once again, personal daily spirituality was something I had been wanting to improve on, but hadn't taken the initiative to shift into gear. But now? I'm on Team Dallin and have a reason to get going on something I've been wanting to do for awhile! He's a great kid. And….Porter excitedly jumped on the fasting band wagon. He declared he's going to start fasting every time. They both did great on Sunday and shockingly (especially for Porter…sorry but true!) didn't complain at all! (Yosh and I followed suit and it really was so inspiring to do together, being led by the kids!)
*Dallin and Porter have been propoganding HEAAAAAVVVY and hard to play tackle football. I took the boys to school one morning and the topic raised again. Dallin's parting, emotional words were, "So I just get to be the wimp of all f=my friends, the only one who still has to do flag?" …And he was out the door. After school we were back in the car and obviously Dallin had spent at least a portion of the day editing and solidifying his football argument. "Mom, you say I can't start tackle football until 7th grade. That only gives me 3 years of practice before I'm in high school. And in high school, that's when the scouters start coming. Mom, I'll never get a scholarship if I wait til 7th grade to start tackle football!" Said with much emotion and conviction. Only commentary I can give is that homeboy is definitely sharpening his negotiating skills. Well done, child. Still not going to give in and be forced to be back in Austin by August 1st, but your arguing skills are going to be money by the time things are all said and done.
*Going to put my pride in my back pocket and admit something. We had been playing a lot of spades with the boys- they're obsessed. Last night was their first time teaming up and taking on Yosh and I. Yosh and I got set last night in Spades by Dallin and Porter. Yes, you read that correctly. Unbelievable.

lucky Dad got a precious letter from the Ports

mama sleeping in calls for McDonalds for breakfast for the littles. Too bad the big boys are now responsible for taking care of themselves when I don't pull through for them!

my first trail run in Austin. It was amazing!

Santa Barbara Veterans Half Marathon

So you know how there's Chinatown. Little Haiti. Korea town. Little Italy. We've heard of these nooks wedged in big cities, right? Well, I think of Santa Barbara as Little Kauai. There's a flavor of the islands there that reminds me of my favorite vacation spot.  And since I've yet to race in Kauai, Little Kauai is a great runner up.
First off, last week's running sched went a little something like this: Monday: 5.5 miles  Tuesday: 4 miles Thursday: 2.3 miles Saturday: GAME DAY!
Last Sunday night, I started coming down with something. I wasn't sure if it was a cough or a cold or if I was paranoid and hallucinating. Unfortunately, the latter wasn't the case. I guess it was just a cold/congestion of some strain because I never felt absolutely horribly, I've just yet to feel 100%. I was very short on energy and pretty congested the whole week.
Monday's run was fine. Tuesday I couldn't breathe very well but my run went ok. I thought that was weird (that I couldn't breathe well but still ran ok) but for surely wasn't complaining about it. Thursday I would have liked to run longer but I waited til 4:00 to run and that always causes issues. First thing in the morning running is my jam-- no excuses, interruptions, or emergencies happen at 5:30 am. So, anyway, leading up to the race I was in a pretty good place mentally. I had just read this article where everything went wrong to make everything go right. My take away from the article was I wasn't about to throw in the towel and chalk this race up as a bad one because of a cold. I didn't make any predictions to what effect my congestion would have on game day. I was bound and determined to let life run it's course and not close any avenues before I needed to.
GAME DAY
Kady picked me up at 5:30 for the 45 minute drive to SB. I ate a mini bagel and banana at some point before the race. At 7:15 the gun went off. Thankfully, they did the start in waves. My bib number was 4593 and I saw some in the 5000's. It was very nice not starting all at once. Kady and I started about 8 minutes after the gun. Mile 1 was effortless and fast, 7:52. I don't know any splits after that. I do know that Mile 3 disappeared. I literally thought there was no way another mile had passed, but sure enough we were onto the next. I evened out pace wise after mile 3 or so and was a little surprised that I was only keeping an 8:25-8:30 pace. I'm still not sure how to approach game day strategy but my approach was more of an effort level. I wanted to be comfortably uncomfortable and be mindful of the fact that I still had x more miles to go. I turned music on at mile 5 but I think I only listened for 2 miles. I {think. I can barely remember all the details now} felt pretty good going into mile 10. That's where the big hill was. Thankfully, it was shorter than I anticipated- only .5 or .6 compared to the .85  was expecting. But it kicked my butt. That's when my cold/congestion/breathing issue was very apparent. I couldn't get the deep breaths that I needed and it was just hard. I did 2 minute run/30 second walk cycles until I reached the top. At the mile 11 aid station I took a minute and gathered myself. I did a teeny stretch and wanted to regroup so that I could start from 0 and find a decent pace. At some point pretty soon after that, I looked down at my Garmin and it read 1:34. That freaked me out because I knew I only had 16 minutes left to meet my goal and in that moment it felt absolutely impossible and pressure is always a detonator rather than a motivator for me. I told myself not to worry about the time and to just run hard for a minute. That was when I went back to my training tactics and told myself to stay focused in the moment instead of getting ahead of myself and feeling overwhelmed because of it. Because of that mini panic, I didn't look at my Garmin much more and have no idea what my pace was those last miles. Although I am very curious to know what they were. I will say I was LOUD the last miles. My breathing never recovered from the hill and I was breathing outwardly and loudly. Aaaaaaaaannnnnndddd my pep talks may have been out loud as well. Lo siento.

At mile 13 I saw Anneli and Chelsi and may have gotten just a bit emotional. It's weird, but through out this training cycle there have been a couple of times where the tears come. Little moments ignite a sense of accomplishment and remind me how far I've come as a runner and I guess tears are the natural reaction.
And then I crossed the finish line! Official time 1:49:11. About 1:30 ahead of my goal! I got it done and it felt pretty amazing!
I used Gu chomp for fuel and started fueling at mile 4. Then I think 6, 9, and 11. I walked through almost every water station. It was hot- sunny and mid 70's- and I wanted to make sure I stayed hydrated.
For someone who has always considered herself a 10 minute/mile runner, it's un poco surreal to see my pace creeping down in the 8's. I love it! It makes me question what I'm capable of. I appreciate where I am and am excited to keep moving forward.
I love the half marathon distance. It is a perfect balance of training hard without completely monopolizing my life. I'm ready to sign up for a couple more.
Oh and another PS… I'm not feeling at all burned out on running. Usually after a half, I'm over the running sitch. Granted I'm saying that without having run a single time since the race so…… vamos a ver.
And last PS… I have great friends. Running is fun. Life is fun. But I really don't like doing either of those alone. It was great to have Kady to drive up to the race with and so awesome to have Chels and Anneli waiting at the finish line and then go enjoy an amazing brunch together. These girls are the best and I just feel lucky to have my people. And now the pics. Consider yourself warned…some are straight up ugly of me. Apparently I cry ugly, exhaust ugly, and candid ugly. Except for one. Which I'll make sure I blow up extra big. Insert wink emoji.

went with the BELIEVE sports bra and tank top

mile 13. Chelsi behind the camera on these shots.
And yes, I stuff my bra.

SoCal Ragnar 2014

The invite to run with Team Ragnizzle Fo Shizzle was extended, and then politely declined, in October.

But come March, either FOMO (fear of missing out) or spontaneity was kicking in full gear and there was no way I was not going to be filling one of the two remaining open spots. 

I like to think that provided just enough friendly peer pressure for Laura to jump on board.

And with that our van was filled:

Captain Kady (she demanded we called her that at all times)

Laura

Katie Peterson (not to be confused with Kady Peterson)

Bart

Dan

me

My only regret about this van is that it took a bit longer than I would have liked for Team Hooper to open up and let their true light shine. I don't know what's in the water up there, but they are some funny folk!

I enjoyed many a good chuckles because of them!

Now, would you like to know the biggest difference between this Ragnar and last one?

(Besides Kady not cussing anyone out.)

(And besides the fact that was actually a SoCal route instead on Inland Empire, as Laura so kindly pointed out.)

The big difference between the two was I actually enjoyed the running portion of this whole thing called Ragnar also!

Or maybe I'm just writing this far enough out that I've forgotten my misery.

But I really think I enjoyed it.

I was runner 5 and my legs were:

6.5

6.3

3.7

Highlight (i.e.: what I still remember) from each leg:

1) dancing and singing to Calvin Harris's You Used to Hold Me at a street corner

2) trying to walk up a hill and a runner coming and saying, "Let's do this." Needless to say, I got my booty in gear.

3) I chose not to be scared of running too fast and just let her go! I got a personal best of a 7:48 pace. 

And dang that felt good!

Lowlights of trip:

Kady not cussing at anyone.

Kady not refusing anyone a good d-u-m-p.

Kady not refusing anyone specific food in the car.

And finally…Kady not cussing at anyone.

We met up with our other comrades to cross the finish line as a team before partaking in a blurred night of dinner and karaoke. So blurry that I don't even remember the karaoke. Although something about Jono and a risqué rendition of Whatta Man is slowly coming to mind…

Van 2:

Chelsi

Derek

Anneli

Jono

Anne

Tanner

Still anxiously awaiting for Kady to put together another run or us! (so that I can tell her no until the week before…)