three things thursday...

my first marathon is in 10 days... 10 days!!!!!!! i'm nervous, excited, scared, and counting down the minutes all at the same time. starting tomorrow i'll be able to start stalking the weather conditions so i can start deciding on what to wear hopefully. i don't know why but that detail is stressing me out! i can't even decide which socks to wear [i have never raced in compression socks, and my longest run in them has been 12 miles so i'm thinking i shouldn't actually wear them for the race... but a part of me thinks they'd make my legs feel so much better!].

do you all ever get the racing bug? i've been so consumed with the upcoming marathon that i haven't signed up for many races at all. at strawberry plains when dawn was showing me her race calendar, it started to creep back up on me! i'm hoping to be a little more selective this year [last year my decision making process was, 'do i work on the day of the race? no? okay i'm doing it']. this year i'm going to mostly try to stick near home and maybe pick one or two races that require a little travel [ps the flying pig doesn't count as one of these races because brad's family is in cincinnati and we'd be going there anyways ;) ].


heads up to you all... as a thank you for putting up with my rants and tangents i'll be hosting several giveaways next week. i honestly can't thank you all enough for your support and encouragement during this training cycle [and always!]. i'll be sharing some of 'my favorite things' with you all, so be sure to check back next week. and check back often... i'm hoping to do 4 or 5 giveaways and most of them won't last much longer than 24 hours!

Flying Pig Half Marathon:::: #4 of 12 in 2012

flying pig half marathon, cincinnati ohio

half mary # 5

race# 4 of 12 in 2012

time:  2:16:25 (PR)

division:  408/1116

gender: 2125/6772

expo:

The race expo was Friday and Saturday and it was the largest expo I've ever attended. If you want to read more specifics you can check out this post. There were tons of volunteers which was really nice. There were really long lines for all the booths that had free samples. We got tech shirts, posters, and duffel bags (all really nice).

race morning:

Traffic was pretty crazy on the Ohio side of the river. Luckily Brad's parents live in Cinci and are pretty used to it. We decided to park on the Kentucky side of the river (AKA the better side!) and walk over. That worked pretty well. I had my standard Clif bar and some G2. We arrived around 6am (race time at 630am). You'd think that would be plenty of time but it totally wasn't. I was hoping to see Jill and my friend Becca before the race (it was Becca's first half!!), but that didn't happen.  I got to my corral (pigpen) and the bathroom line was RIDIC.

Not happening. I could have stayed and went (chip timing) but I didn't want to have to bob and weave more than I was already going to have to.

the race:

I felt prepared for this race. Ready for the hills. Hoping for a PR.

Prepared but not super confident. I had an A goal. One that I shared with NO ONE. Super secret.

And my B goal was 2:20.

This was the first half that I've done that I ran with someone I knew (my friend from home, Jill).  Oddly enough, we had never ran together before. It worked out a lot better than I'd hoped. She is a little faster than me but she wanted me to pace her, she usually goes out too fast.

Here were are within the first half mile of the race. I was a little stressed trying to maintain a good, steady pace. I REALLY wanted to catch up to the 2:15 pace group, but that never happened. They started from the E corral and I never saw them again. [Side note:  I registered WAY early for this race and plugged in the only finish time I had-- 2:32. I could have/should have/wished I'd been in the E corral].

I felt really good throughout the race and Jill and I did well staying together until about mile 6 or so. We were going up a hill and she found a new gear! I walked for a minute, got my legs back then started back up.

The other races I've done have been more rolling hills. You get a little up, you get a little down. My strategy to this point has been to walk uphill if I need to, then run down. This course was different because the uphill wasn't steep, but it was pretty consistent over about 3 miles. I ran most of it but took a few walking breaks when I needed. Maybe one day I'll actually run an entire half! ;)



Anyways, I was really pumped up at the halfway point. My legs were getting a little tired and I was worried I'd emptied my tank by running some of those hills, BUT I was right on pace for a sub 2:15. Anytime I felt like slowing down I just repeated my mantra, "HUSTLE HARDER." I also used 'dig deeper' a couple times.

 

 

The crowd support at this race was amazing. This was my favorite sign and I thought it was pretty funny that Brad picked it out and got a picture of it too! I love me some Luke Bryan and I thought this was the sweetest sign ever. HINT HINT Brad! Some others:

My mother in law made this hot pink "C" for me and it says 'Go Courtney Go!' It was super sweet of her to make (this is my father in law carrying it) and it was also great because they held it up while they were in the crowd. I could always pick them out when I was running up to them throughout the course!

 

There were so many people out cheering us on, so many great signs and well staffed water stations. There was no GU supplied on the half course which I thought was odd for a race this size. Best moment of the race? A group of girls had taken those tube popsicles and cut them in half and were handing them out. BEST POPSICLE EVER!!! I grabbed one and Jill and I killed it!

 

As I came to the end of the race I was getting super excited. I totally had my sub 2:15!!! The weird thing was, as my watch hit 13.1 I STILL COULDN'T SEE THE FINISH LINE?!?! WTH?  So of course I started getting super frustrated, but I kept running.

 

So what happened? The course was long. My watch said 13.46 when it was all said and done. Everyone else I talked to said the same thing. I was PISSED.  I met up with Jill, she finished a minute or so in front of me. There was a lot of different food out for racers, but they didn't have any bags for us so it was kind of dumb. There was no way to carry stuff, I ended up dropping half of what I picked up. They had cold Gogurt, which was a good idea. No chocolate milk (bummer) and believe it or not I made it thru the whole chute without getting a water. Not cool.

 

I found my family and we loaded up to go to brunch. Brad, his parents, and his cousin and her husband all came out to support me which was really nice! We had an amazing brunch in KY after the race... I had french toast with fresh berries, chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar! YUM!

 

 

When I saw my final time for this race my initial reaction was disappointment. Then I had a come to Jesus with myself and decided I needed to get over it. I was being a turd. I reminded myself of all the things I should be thankful for, and I got over it.

 

Besides, I'm totally going to get that sub 2:15 eventually!

 

After brunch we went home to shower and Brad took a long nap. He'd had a tough day ;)

 

(This was in the AM before the race). While he was napping I met up with Jill, who organized 12 in 2012! We had been trying to meet up all weekend but we kept missing each other. We met at Starbucks and chatted for a while. It was so great to meet her and her beautiful family!

I stole this picture from Jill!

 

All in all it was a great weekend and I would definitely run the Pig again.

 

I wanted to give a big shoutout to my friend Becca who rocked her first half at the pig!!! She's already got the bug and I'm hoping we can do a race together later this year!

An Amazing Weekend!

Brad and I drove up to Cincinnati this weekend to visit with his family and so I could run the Flying Pig half marathon (#4 of 12 in 2012). We left Asheville on Thursday and drove straight through to Cinci, arriving around 130am.

Friday morning we got up and went to Kings Island. It's a big amusement park that we both went to a lot growing up. It was really fun, but we both decided that apparently our bodies are starting to get too old for that stuff!! Those roller coasters beat the crap out of us!

This is us on the Diamond Back coaster. The sun was obviously a little bright!

After Kings Island Brad thought it would be a good idea go ahead and get my packet picked up. I went to the expo while he went and had a refreshing beverage!

This was definitely the biggest expo I've ever been to. SO MANY VENDORS! I loved all the pig statues that were everywhere:

I got my packet then weaved my way through the booths. I noticed the Norwood Chiropractic booth and stopped by. They specialize in ART (Active Release Technique) and Dr. Lydia Ogden spent a lot of time with me and working on my right knee. I've got what we all seem to think is a piece of bone that has chipped off and right where it is I've got some pain that seems to come and go. It's worst when I do squats, but it's not there everytime I do them. When it does hurt it feels like my knee cap is about to pop through my skin, all through that one little spot.

I don't remember all the lingo exactly but Dr. Ogden said it was something along the lines of my right knee not moving in the line it should. Of course there was a medical name for it, but despite my being in the medical profession, I don't don't remember it. She did some ART on my quad and it hurt so good. I have bruises now, but I really think it helped a lot.

After stopping at the Norwood Chiropractic group the expo was starting to close up. I got my shirt, duffle bag, and poster and headed out.

Saturday we headed to the mall (they opened a new Lululemon store there!!), Costco, and the outlet malls. I got some tanks and Lulu, a bunch of stuff at Under Armour outlet and these at Costco:

Oh my gosh. YUM. I'm going to have to separate them into baggies and lock them up. If not I'm going to kill both bags in about 2 days. I also got a big old twist yogurt. Brad bet me that I couldn't finish it. I laughed. Me, not finish fro yo?!?!

He was right, I couldn't do it. Dangit. How wasteful.

Oh and at the mall I got Riley a present:

It's a stuffed pig and it has a rubber band that lets you shoot it across the room. He loves it!!

We had LaRosa's pizza for dinner then I headed home to get to bed for our early wake up call. I laid out all my stuff (and I can't get this pic to rotate):

 That thing in the middle is a pace tattoo that I picked up at the expo. What was the goal time?

My secret A goal that isn't so secret now. Did I get it? Unless you follow me on twitter you'll have to wait to find out!