Does an umbrella slow you down?

Well, nothing like waiting until the absolute last minute to blog. Oh well. At least I’m doing it, which is something I haven’t been doing lately. Another thing I haven’t been doing much lately? Running. As in I’ve run a total of three times since Fox Cities.  I haven’t had a lot of motivation, even with a final half marathon staring me in the face less than a month from now.

Yeah, good thing I’m doing that one solely for fun.

But I’ll be running this weekend. Or  maybe I should call it swimming since it’s supposed to be pouring. Some storm system is supposed to be moving into the area in a few hours and it’s going to be bringing rain with it. A lot of rain. As in the weatherman said 2 to 3 inches. And it’s supposed to be getting under way right in time for me to head out the door tomorrow morning.

See I’ve got this 5K on the calendar. The St. Joe’s 5K. It’s a race I’ve run in the past with my Dad. And even though he hasn’t been doing a lot of walking and it’s supposed to be pouring out, Dad’s a trooper and is still intending to do it.

Really? Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure my bed is going to be pretty comfy when it’s raining cats and dogs. Oh well. I’ll still get my butt out of bed. After all, at least I’ll be able to notch one more run in my log in the last, oh, three weeks, bumping my average to just over one run per week.

 Anyone else find it ironic that the theme is involves waddling ducks? More like swimming ducks.

Assuming I don’t drown, I still have to get a long run this weekend. So right now the plan is to head out for 13 with Peggy on Sunday. We thought we dodged a bullet since early forecasts were saying the rain would be gone by Sunday. Not sure why we were excited. Seriously. When was the last time a weatherman was right? Because of course now the rain is supposed to stick around a good chunk of the day Sunday as well.

Looks like I’m in for a soggy 13 miles on Sunday too. Good thing I have an older pair of shoes. I just hope they can dry out enough between runs.

Add in a baby shower and the annual Halloween party for The Rugrats and it should be a pretty fun, if waterlogged, weekend.

Fox Cities Half Marathon Race Report

 Or what will also be known as, "This is going to hurt. Deal with it."

I went into race weekend feeling pretty calm. I'm not sure when it started happening, but somewhere along the way, I've realized I don't really get nervous for half marathons anymore. Maybe it's because I've run the race distance so many times. Or I'm not putting a ton of pressure on myself for results. I don't know. But for like the last year, I haven't been getting super nervous. I'll take it.

So Saturday I watched the Badger game and then headed over to Fox Valley Tech to the race expo. I met up with Peggy, my running partner in crime who opted not to run the race this year, and we browsed for a bit. I picked up some BioFreeze, she picked up some socks and we were done. We headed over to Starbucks for some caffeine, where we proceeded to hatch a plan for next year and beyond, chat and talk race strategy, because even though she wasn't running, she gave me good advice. And she wanted to let me in on her spectating plan for the next day.

Race day dawned bright dark and early. I got up, put on my race day outfit and headed out the door at 5:45. While my mom was driving over to my brother's house to pick up my sister-in-law, I did a quick race morning social media check - Twitter and Facebook, very important pre-race tasks. While I was at it, I posted this:

See even though I had taped my IT band that morning, I knew it was still going to hurt. But I didn't want to let the pain win the mental battle. I wanted to gut it out. The day before Peggy gave me advice: Run the first part with your head, the middle with your personality and the final third with your heart. And then there was Jeff's advice from last year still rolling around my head: Run your own race and then throw the hammer down in the final miles.

This was my race. Not my IT band's race. I wasn't going to let  it decide what kind of race I was going to have.

We got to the race site, I made a quick stop in the port-a-potty while the lines were still short and tried to find my Fleet Feet team, but was unsuccessful. Soon it was go time.

Right before the gun went off, one of the assistant coaches from the Fleet Feet group, Sue, found me. She asked me if she could run with me. I said I didn't care, but I wasn't going to be talking. See here's the thing. I like running with other people.

During training runs.

When it comes to racing, I actually prefer to be on my own. I like to zone out to my iPod and run my own race. I'm actually pretty good at pacing  myself to hit the goals I set for myself.

But she said she understood I wasn't going to be chatty, so I shrugged my shoulders and said OK.

Years of practice is paying off. I like this one my Mom snapped at the start.

The gun sounded and we were off. I saw my Mom just after the starting line and I settled in at a nice easy pace. Sue tried to chat a bit, but I kept my answers short and then plugged myself back into  my iPod. Remember, I was running my own race.

Shortly before Mile 1 I started to scan the crowds lining the street, looking for Peggy and her daughter. All of a sudden I saw a bright neon pink sign with my name! I cut across the road and gave them high fives and I was off.

Coach Eddie was out on the course snapping pictures. Never saw him here.

The first four miles went really well. I was feeling good, keeping a decent pace and carrying out my plan of walking the water stations. Right before Mile 4.5 I saw my aunt and I handed her my gloves and kept running, through the roundabout and past my non-family cheering section of Peggy, her daughter and Rita, another runner I know.

I was feeling good. Strong. The IT band wasn't cranky. I turned the corner onto Plank Road and kept running. Even with the light winds that I was running into, I still felt good.

Miles 5-7 were uneventful. Pretty much a 2-mile straight away. I saw my cheering crew around Mile 7 again. It was great seeing someone so often. It gave me a little bit of a boost of energy and I could feel myself picking up the speed right after I spotted them and for a bit of time afterwards.


Right around Mile 7.5 I had a bit of a problem. Seems the wonderful Menasha Police Officer thought it was completely acceptable to see a pack of 6 runners approaching and still wave the car through the intersection even though said runners are like 5 feet from the car. That's what he did though. Which meant we either had to stop suddenly or alter or path really quickly. I yelled at the cop. Would have said something much worse and given him a one-fingered salute, but then decided against it. After all, he was a police officer.

I saw my Mom and my niece and nephews at Mile 8 and kept on running. I didn't hear him, but apparently the youngest rugrat (he's 6), yelled, "Go Aunt Jenny! You stink!" His reasoning was that if he yelled something mean, I would get mad and run faster. OK.

Swiped from the official race photographer. Note: It's hard to run, smile and make a W with your fingers.

I made it to the aid station at Jefferson Park, which is right around Mile 9. I walked a little bit further through the aid station than I had been at previous ones. This was really the only time I walked much longer than 10 seconds or so. The legs were starting to get a bit tired at this point, but that makes sense. I had a quick conversation with my IT band, reminded it to deal with anything that would be coming over the next four miles. I exited the park and started to run again.

My cheering crew right at Mile 10!

The next mile was a long straight away until you turned the corner before the second bridge on the course. At the corner I spotted my bright pink sign and Peggy. Up until this point, I hadn't really been looking at my Garmin. But as I approached that corner I glanced down. 10 miles. 1:45.

Say what?

I did some quick math in my head and also realized that I was running the same pace as I did at Fox Cities last year. Whoa. Could a PR be in my sights?

As I passed Peggy I told her this. Well as much as I could in 2.5 seconds. She told me I looked great and was kicking ass and to keep running.

So I did. Up and over the Racine Street bridge, through the next aid station - which was decked out in a Badger theme complete with "Jump Around" blasting from the boom box - and on my way towards Mile 11 where I saw my crew again.

Another one from Coach Eddie. Just under 1.5 miles to go.

Even knowing a PR was in my sights, I didn't constantly check the Garmin. I just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Because I knew with every step that got me closer to the finish line. It worked. Pretty soon I was making the turn on to the last big straight away before I made a final turn for the loop around the park past the lighthouse and to the finish line

When I could see the finish line arch in the distance, with about 0.2 miles to go, I let myself look down at my Garmin. It would be so close to a PR. But perhaps more importantly, so much faster than I was anticipating I would be able to finish in. I admit, I teared up a little bit. I kicked into my finish line sprint and crossed the line.

2:20:13

Finish line swiped from the official photographer

Holy cow! Totally not expecting that kind of result! But I guess that just goes to show you what can be accomplished when you put your mind to it. Although I'm not going to lie, there's a tiny piece of me that wonders what I could have done had I not had some setbacks in training this summer due to that pesky IT band.

I went through the finish chute, got my Mylar blanket (which felt oh so good on this chilly day!) and medal. The first people I see? Peggy and her daughter. My cheering crew that kept me going through this 13.1 mile journey. Seriously. I can't even start to form words that express how grateful I am for their support.

Post race runners high. See the bridge in the background? That's right around Mile 11.5.

I looked for my Mom, didn't see her. While I went to the med tent to get some ice for my IT band, Peggy called my Mom. Turns out I ran too fast for her and the Rugrats to get to the finish line in time to see me cross.

For those keeping track at home, that's 10 minutes faster than my fastest half this year (which was at the Oshkosh Half way back in April) and just 46 seconds slower than my PR. And that's after a summer long struggle with an IT band injury.

I'd say the IT band is a pretty good listener though. It hurt. But it just shut up and dealt with it. At least until after the race was run. :)

Because it's nice to have numbers, here's my splits. I'm pretty happy with what I see. For one thing, my slowest mile isn't my last mile!
Mile 1 - 10:29
Mile 2 - 10:32
Mile 3 - 10:10
Mile 4 - 10:18
Mile 5 - 10:19
Mile 6 - 10:20
Mile 7 - 9:59 (where the heck did I pull a sub-10 minute mile from?!?)
Mile 8 - 10:34
Mile 9 -  11:00
Mile 10 - 11:39 (slowest mile, also had that extended walk through an aide station)
Mile 11 - 11:05
Mile 12 - 11:18
Mile 13 - 11:17
Mile 13.1 - 1:07
Total: 2:20:13

September reading recap

After a pretty decent month in August, I kind of lost my reading mojo. I'm  not sure if it was because I was struggling to find something that I wanted to read and would hold my attention or if I just needed a short break. But that's what I ended up doing. Taking a break from books. And it shows in the totals.

I ended up finishing two books in September for a total of 621 pages. That brings the yearly total to 32 books and 11,198 pages. Compare that to last year at the end of September when I had finished 21 books and 8,317. I'd say I'm pretty happy with this year's progress. I've got eight more books to read by the end of the year, just over 2.5 books per month. I think I can do that.

So what I'd read in September? Take a look:

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strand
Stunning by Sara Shepard

I really liked Wild.

Stunning? Not so much. Honestly I just need to stop with the Pretty Little Liars series. This is number, what, 11 in the series (12 if you count that collection of short stories) and they've really gotten almost painful to read. I mean seriously. They're on version 3 o r 4 of A, the anonymous text messager. What is this latest version of A going to turn out to be the long lost triplet? I know I say I'm giving up on the series, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised if the next book comes out and I find myself reading it. That's what I do.

Three Things Thursday: Fox Cities Edition

1. The next time I lace up my running shoes I'll be getting ready to tackle the Fox Cities Half Marathon. Tonight was my final run of the training plan. I was told somewhere between one and three miles. I headed out planning on just doing an easy two miles, but somewhere around Mile 1.5 I decided to just tack on an extra mile and finish with 3. I took the first mile easy, pushed it a little bit in Mile 2 and finished with a final easier mile. It felt good. Now just to spend some quality time with my foam roller and I'll be ready for Sunday.

2. After a spring and summer of running in unseasonably hot weather, I had to do a double take when I first saw the weather forecast for race day. Ten days out, I figured there was a good chance the weatherman was wrong, that it would change and we'd be running in 80s and humid. Guys. It didn't change. A high of 57? Instead I'm left rethinking my race day outfit. I have a feeling shorts and tank will be a bit chilly at the starting line when the temperature is maybe going to be 40. Can't tell you how excited I am to run in this kind of weather!

3. So goals. Of course I've got them. If I hadn't eased up on the mileage and the number of runs per week this summer due that pesky IT band injury I've been dealing with, I might have more aggressive goals. But the IT band happened. Some runs were missed. Some miles were cut. But I think I still had a decent training cycle and there might be a season-PR in these legs. Especially given the conditions.

A Goal: Sub-2:19. This would be a new overall PR for me. Everything. And I mean everything, including a fully cooperating IT band, would have to be perfect on race day for this to happen.

B Goal: Sub-2:25. This is what I was aiming for a the Madison Mini last month with Katie. And through 7  miles it was possible. Then the IT band got cranky. But I think part of that was due to the hills. Fox Cities? Unless you count two bridges, it's pretty flat. I think this is doable.

C Goal: Sub-2:30. This would give me my fastest half marathon of the year. I'd be happy with that.

D Goal: Have fun. Don't die.

Ironman Wisconsin Spectating Report

It's quickly becoming a September tradition.

Head down to Madison and spend all day running around cheering on a friend as they travel 140.6 miles. In the process? Get inspired and have an amazing day.

I went back down to Madison last weekend for Ironman Wisconsin spectating. Last year it was to cheer on my good friend Jeff as he completed his 10th Ironman (a number he's since increased to 11). This year I was there to cheer with my friend Myriah as her husband Josh tackled his first Ironman.

I headed down to Madison on Saturday after I finished my 13 miles run. I met up with Myriah and her family at their hotel and then we proceeded to hatch a plan on for spectating. Myriah and her Ironman-to-be would be leaving the hotel super early, I was responsible for making sure their families - I bet there was close to 20 of them - made it down to the Monona Terrace in the morning for the swim start.

I'm happy to report I did it. And no family members were lost!

We staked out a spot on the helix by my friend Jeff - who had come up to Wisconsin that weekend to do a triathlon and watch Josh at Ironman. It was hard to see the actual swim since we were in an area with a bunch of people. But if I stood on my tiptoes, I could catch a few glimpses of the swimmers. Of course, the swim start was just as cool as I remember it. About an hour after the pros started swimming, we could hear a roar coming up the helix and all of a sudden the first swimmer out of the water was running past us into transition.

Let me say, what I couldn't see of the swim was more than made up for by the spectating spot I had to watch athletes run into transition. For those going to spectate at IM Wisconsin in the future, I definitely recommend staking a spot out on the helix. So cool.

We gathered our group up and headed to the bus to go back to the Alliant Energy Center. Then it was time to hop in the car and head out to the bike course. Josh was flying on the bike, as in we weren't going to make it to the first planned bike spot in Verona at Mile 15. We decided to head out to Timber Lane instead. I thought we were going to the big hill on Timber Lane where I was spectating last year, but I was a poor navigator and took a wrong turn. So we were on Timber Lane, just AFTER the crest of the hill. Oops. It's OK though, we still saw Josh and then headed out to a location just west of Verona (around Mile 62) where we saw him again. Back to Timber Lane - the right spot on Timber Lane - for one final chance to see Josh on the bike.

Like last year, the energy on Timber Lane was amazing. Tour de France-like. Crowds lining the road. People in costumes. Drummers running alongside the athletes as they biked up the hill. So cool.

Once we saw Josh, we piled back in our cars (to give you an idea of the size of our group, we filled three cars) and headed back to downtown for the run. They jumped back on the bus. I jumped in my car to find parking near the Capitol Square so I could jump on my bike. My plan was to meet back up with Jeff and chase Josh around the run course.

First I waited right around the run out point for Josh to come through. While waiting, I caught a glimpse of the lead male, who had a huge lead on second place. And you know what? He kept increasing that lead throughout the rest of the afternoon on his way to a new course record. Amazing. He never looked tired. So fluid. So fast. Looked fresh.

Anyway, soon Josh came through and I was off. I made a pit stop by Myriah and told her my plan and that I'd be sending her updates throughout the afternoon. I met up with Jeff and we were off. With Jeff having done this race multiple times and both of being UW grads, it's not a surprise that we had a good idea of where to go and the shortcuts to get there. I think we ended up seeing Josh 5 or 6 times per 13 mile loop. And by the time he got to the second loop, we needed to know where those shortcuts were! I swear Josh was getting faster because we would barely beat him to the viewing points! He went through his cycles of good and bad, but overall, Josh looked strong on his way to a 3:35 marathon. Seriously. Guy is fast. Josh ended up finishing Ironman in 10:42ish. Not bad for a first Ironman, huh?

The Ironman-to-be that I was chasing all day, on the right.

Once again, it was a long day. It was a hard day of spectating. But it was so worth it. Watching the athletes, many of them just like you and me, put out the effort to travel that 140.6 miles. Some of them hurting, but all of them moving forward. And once again, when I'm at Mile 11 of my next half marathon and I'm hurting and just want to quit, I'll think back to those Ironmen. Chances are, they were hurting a lot more. And they kept going.

So congrats to all the finishers at Ironman Wisconsin! I'll be back in 2013 to cheer again. And next year? I'm pretty sure I'll think ahead and take Monday off so I can experience that final hour at the finish line. See you then!

Three Things Thursday

1. Packers! So I know it's technically Week 2 of the NFL season, but since I was out spectating and cheering on the Ironman Wisconsin course on Sunday during the Packers loss to the 49ers, this is my first chance to see the Green and Gold play in the regular season. I'm a happy Packers fan.

2. Before the game, I did make sure I got a run in. Let's just say I was loving every minute of that 4 mile run. I'm pretty sure the fact that it was 60 degrees and overcast had a little bit to do with it. And I ran without my Garmin. Well, technically I had it on, but since it died a half-mile into my run, it was pretty useless. And I haven't run without the Garmin in a long time. It was nice to run by feel rather than a number on the screen. Overall a great run.

3. It's hard to come up with a No. 3 tonight. Probably because I'm distracted by the football that's on my TV screen. So there is no No. 3.

11 years ago

It doesn't seem like it's been that long.

Eleven years.

Memories should be fuzzy. But the moments are still vividly etched in my mind. Where I was. What I was doing. The emotions I felt.

I thought about writing something today. Something to commemorate this 11th anniversary, but in the end I decided not to. Because honestly I can't think of what to say that I didn't say in a 2007 post.

Go here. Read what I wrote about what that day was like for me.

They say time heals all wounds. We've had time. And yes, there has been healing. Will there ever come a day when our country is completely healed from the pain we experienced on that bright, sunny, September day? I don't know.

What I do know?

I will never forget.

Three Things Thursday

1. I opted to skip my run tonight. I just wasn't feeling it. What I was feeling was a delayed onset of muscle soreness that I can only attribute to the brutally hot speed work session I tackled on Tuesday. As in, I woke up this morning - 36 hours later - and holy stiff, achy, sore muscles. Calves, hips, the toosh. I had intentions to get a short, easy 3-4 miles in tonight, but like I said, I opted not to.

2. Part of my reasoning? I've got 14 miles staring me in the face Saturday. The last long training run before taper starts for Fox Cities Half, which is 2.5 weeks away. Gulp. 14 miles, huh? It's been a long time since I ran that far.

3. But if I can get those 14 miles pounded out, it'll be a fun rest of the weekend. After I run, shower, eat and quite possibly get a short nap, I'm heading south to Madison. It's Ironman Wisconsin weekend and I'm pumped to watch a good friend's husband tackle his first IM. The maps have been printed out, the cowbells rounded up and I'm ready to go. I remember how fun and inspiring it was last year and I have no doubt it will be very similar this year. I can't wait.