Yup. They waited.

Remember that 7-miler I skipped out on Tuesday morning due to a headache?

It was patiently waiting for me after work tonight. And I got it done.

It was fairly decent outside after work, a little warm, but no chance of rain. I should have just headed out to the Wiouwash Trail and gotten the run done outside. But I headed indoors. To the treadmill.

See, Andy Roddick was playing his first round match at the U.S. Open. Right when I would be starting my run. And me? I have a little thing for Roddick. So it was off to the YMCA and the treadmill so I could kill two birds with one stone: Get the run in while watching Roddick.

Source

Of course his match started late. But I did get to see a pretty incredible second set that was decided in a tiebreaker in the John Isner (another player who's quickly earning a spot on my must see list) and Marcos Baghdatis. I swear, the tiebreaker alone was long enough for me to pound out 2 miles! By the time the Roddick match started, I had three miles left to run, just enough time to watch the first set.

Overall a pretty good run and even though it was done on the treadmill, it went pretty quickly. Granted treadmill runs do seem to go faster when I've got some good TV to watch. Tomorrow it's back outside. Just in time for the mid-80s and humidity to return. Great.

They're still waiting

 Source 

Remember I said the runs have been non-existent this week?

I missed Monday's 3-miler because it was necessary to go out and have 2-for-1 margaritas and Mexican food with my friend Jess to celebrate her taking the first step on a new journey. And I had good plans to get up early and do the 7 miles on the schedule before I went in for a night shift at work Tuesday. Woke up with a headache and just couldn't do it.

So I've got a big fat zero on my training log for the week right now.

That's changing tonight. After I get done with work those 7 miles I was supposed to run Tuesday are getting done. Because in 18 days I'll be lining up at the starting line for the Fox Cities Half Marathon. And there better be a new PR at the end of that 13.1 mile journey.

August reading recap

There hasn't been much running this week - OK, there hasn't been any running this week - so instead of letting the sound of crickets take over the blog, I thought I'd give you the August reading recap since no additional books will be finished by Wednesday night.

After a slow start to the year, I think I got back on track in August. I finished five books for a total of 1,815 pages. That puts me at 16 books for a total of 6,745 pages for the year. For comparison's sake I was at 21 books and 7,991 pages by the end of August 2010. I'm still behind book wise, but I've got some light, fast, no thought required reading lined up, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up a bit. I still think 40 books for the year might be a stretch though.

Anyway. So five books for the month. What'd I read?

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Loved The Help. Dead Reckoning gets an eh. It definitely wasn't the best installment of Sookie Stackhouse's adventures. I had to pick up the Brashares book since I've read the other four Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. Pretty Little Liars was classic young adult, mindless reading and yes, I'm looking forward to more of the series. And The Art of Racing in the Rain was a great read - life told through the perspective of a dog. Loved it.

So what have you guys been reading? Any good suggestions?

Three Things Thursday

1. I admit. I quit. I was having one of those runs Wednesday. It was hard. My legs were not cooperating. It was hot. And windy. Even though I was suffering through the run with Jess by my side, I just couldn't do it. I was supposed to do an easy 3 miles. But even "easy" was painfully awful. I just couldn't.

So at mile 2? I quit.

I don't do this often. I can't remember the last time I bagged a run for a reason other than a nagging pain. My Garmin dinged at the 2 mile mark, I looked to my left and asked Jess if it was OK if we stopped. We did and walked the last mile back to her place.

I know we all have bad days. And a day later I'm pretty sure that's what Wednesday was, a bad day. A day that I'll be able to learn something from.  But still. Pulling up and just quitting mid run? That was hard to do.


2. On the plus side, tonight's 5-miler went so much better. It was cooler. Not humid. I ran along the river. The only bad thing was the nasty flies and mosquitoes that kept trying to drain me of my blood whenever I even slowed down remotely.

3. Just a heads up. There's a possibility there might be a few more non-running related posts appearing in the next week. Because next Thursday night? As in seven days from now? Badger football returns! Wisconsin opens the college football season by hosting UNLV at Camp Randall. And yes. I'm just a tiny bit excited.

Madison Mini Marathon Race Report

I've run in just about every weather condition we get in Wisconsin this year: snow, sleet, rain, ice, bone-chilling sub-zero cold, wind, hot and humid.

Thankfully the race directors at the Madison Mini Marathon didn't want me to add lightning to the list.That could be scary.

I kid you not, 5 minutes before the starting gun was set to go off, all of the runners who had lined up on Langdon Street for the start of the Madison Mini Marathon Saturday morning were walking back towards me. Apparently there was a nasty storm cell heading our way with heavy rain and lots of lightning. So they wanted us to seek shelter.

So along with 5,000 other runners I sought shelter. I ended up in a small theater on the second floor of the Memorial Union. The key to this location? Air conditioning (thank you UW cop with the bullhorn who tipped us off to this under utilized location).

And that's where I sat. For the next 90 minutes.

I'm not going to lie. All the while I was thinking, if I hadn't come down here today, I'd be almost done with the 15 miles my schedule calls for. Instead I'm waiting out a storm, my bagel I had for breakfast at 5:30 a.m. is gone and who knows when, or if, I'm going to get to run today. But I waited. And hoped that we'd get to run soon.

At 8:15 the cop wielding the bullhorn came into the theater.


"As long as there's no more lighting, we're set to start in 10 minutes."

It was go time.

I met up with Running Diva Mom before the race to get my Refuel With Chocolate Milk gear. I won the entry to the race on her blog to run with the Refuel team and this is the shirt I needed to wear.

It was still raining pretty hard when I lined up in Corral I near the 2:30 pace group. And actually, it was kind of chilly. But I wasn't going to complain.The DJ had the tunes going and the next thing I knew we were counting down and the starting gun was going off.

The first four miles took us through the east side of campus, around the Capitol square and back into campus passed the Kohl Center and Camp Randall before heading down to the Henry Vilas Zoo area. And I'd say the first 3 miles was run in the rain. It was actually kind of relaxing. I was feeling good. My pace was good. As I entered the zoo area, I passed the 4 mile marker and the sun came out.

We ran around the north side of Lake Wingra and then went into the UW Arboretum.

This is where things started getting interesting.

I run hills. I know I can handle them. But even with the hill intervals I do and all the hills Coach Jim throws into our Saturday long runs, I was expecting what I came across in Miles 5-10. It seemed like constant hills. They weren't all huge, but there were a couple of significant ones. But the worst part? It never seemed like you went downhill. It was always uphill. If it wasn't a steep uphill it was one of long, gradual inclines that never seemed to stop.

Now I felt strong on those hills. I passed runners. I passed people who slowed down to walk. And honestly none of them compared to the monsters I run on a weekly basis. But it was just the constantness. I could feel it in my legs. Somewhere around Mile 8.5 I knew I had to start incorporating a few extra short walk breaks. Up until this point I was just walking through the aid stations.

I exited the Arboretum and when I got to the aid station near Mile 9 I decided it was time to grab a salt tab. It helped a bit. My legs didn't hate me as much. I kept going, but kept sprinkling in a short walk break (about 30 seconds) in every half mile or so.

 Not the official shirt, a training shirt I picked up at the expo for $10, but I like how it's got the route on the back.

I still kept an eye on my time. And I was still happy with the total time I was seeing. I hit Mile 10 at 1:55, giving me 35 minutes to turn in a 2:30 half, which is my current PR. I knew it would be close, but I thought I could do it.

By this point we're back on campus and about to turn onto the Lakeshore Path - one of my favorite areas of campus - and thankfully flat and shaded. I liked the path. I still felt pretty decent and was passing a few runners every so often.

Before making the last turn onto Langdon Street and the finish chute, there's a little uphill, but I killed it and had a nice strong finish chute kick - passing a few runners - before hitting the finish mat.

2:32

Two minutes off my PR. But you know what? I'm totally OK with it. It was a training run. I had to wait around an extra 1.5 hours during a delay. My weekly long run actually started 2.5 hours later than normal. Oh, and those hills. I killed them.

The race bling. Which doubles as a bottle opener. Appropriate for Madison.

So I'm pretty happy. Makes me wonder what a flat course and another month of training will lead to at Fox Cities in September.

Three Things Thursday: The Madison Mini Marathon edition

1. It's Thursday! That means the weekend - and the Madison Mini Marathon - is almost here! It's been odd though this week. I've gone through the typical race week lack of concentration but it still seems a little surreal that I'll be packing my bags and heading down to Madison for a half marathon tomorrow.

2. Not only will I get to run a half marathon in one of my favorite cities - and hang out at the Memorial Union Terrace for the post-race party - but I also get to spend some time with Krista, a good friend of mine that I haven't seen in a few months. She's running on Saturday as well. In fact my running can be traced to her since she was part of the reason I signed up for my first half marathon in 2007.

3. Had my last run before the Madison Mini Marathon tonight. I met up with my running partner in crime Peggy and we logged 4 miles along the Fox River trail. We started about an hour before sunset, so it was kind of a dusky run, and a little buggy since it was along the river, but it was such a great run. Yes, the running was good. But it was getting the chance to catch up with Peggy and just talk about all the random stuff we hit on during the weekend long runs - but on a Thursday. Perfect last run before the Mini.

Those rules on the sign? You're supposed to obey them. Really.

I'll be short tonight and get straight to the point.

I like dogs. I don't actually have one myself due to my somewhat unpredictable work schedule and the fact that I live alone. But I like dogs and someday hope to get one. That being said, I'm a little leery around big dogs that I don't know since I was chased by a big, mean dog when I was little.

So tonight when I'm running on the Wiouwash Trail, zoning out to my tunes and come across a big dog on the trail around somewhere around Mile 3.75? I was startled. And what made it worse?

He wasn't on a leash.

His owner was walking about 100 yards behind him with another little terrier - who was on the leash - and she didn't seem to care that a random runner just stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the dog. Didn't call the dog over. Didn't try to put the leash on it. Nothing. I would try to keep running but then he'd move towards me and bark. So I stopped dead again.

She finally gets up to the dog and grabs his collar and I take off running by him. I'm just out her ear shot when I look behind me and mutter, "It's called a leash lady."

The ironic thing? This all happened right near the trail head. And right by the sign that says dogs MUST be on leashes.

Other than that incident the 6 miles went fine.

Nothing like a last minute race to get excited for

While the thought was always in the back of my head, I never really expected to get to the point where I could just sign up for a half marathon on a whim.

Today I did.

Thanks to winning a free entry from Running Diva Mom to run with the Team Refuel with Chocolate Milk, I'll be running the Madison Mini Marathon on Saturday. Yup. That's in five days. But it fits in with my training schedule (which has me logging between 13 and 15 miles) and I really can't pass up the opportunity to run a half marathon in one of my favorite cities - Madison, Wis. Plus it starts and finishes at the Memorial Union and winds through a good chunk of the University of Wisconsin campus.

And for this Badgergirl? That's like heaven.

Anyone else planning on running in Madison Saturday?