psychic prediction & irish road rover

despite my deep hatred for 5k races, i managed to somehow sign myself up for two of them in the same weekend. smart. lucky for me it was one of the warmest weekends we've had so far, and i didnt really have to go all out in either of the races, both of which are positives in my eyes.

sometime last year my friend sarah told me about a "prediction race" she heard of where there are no time clocks, no mile markers, and you predict what your time is and whoever comes closest wins. we both thought that seemed like a pretty sweet race, but had never seen one around here. well, thursday morning i got an email from Maine Track Club (which i joined back in december) announcing their 6th annual psychic prediction 5k run. at first i wasnt going to do it but on friday i figured why the heck not, and signed myself up (and there was no race fee, woo hoo! so broke right now). i couldnt really decide what i wanted to do for my time, so i just went with tylers age and my age (clearly not my fastest 5k, but not my slowest either).

a guy that takes pics at all the races around the area was there and took this lovely one of me before the start of the race...
despite the prediction of 50 degree weather later on that afternoon, the start of this race (7am) was still a bit chilly. and when i found out how the race started, i went back and sat in my car with the heat on.... (whoever picks the slowest time they start the race clock at their time, then as the clock ticks down you leave the start at the time you picked for your prediction. then the person to cross the finish line closest to when the clock reads 00:00 wins). the slowest predicted time was 43 minutes i think, and i predicted 26:29. had quite a bit of time to warm up in my car (and call sarah of course).

here i go!

i found this on the guys website... was he being artistic? or did he like my tattoo? :)

aaaaand here i come, turning my head as i pass the "finish line" (cone) to see what the clock read.

so how did i do? i was 9 seconds off! and that won me 3rd place :) 1st place went to a woman who was off by 3 seconds, and 2nd place went to a guy who was 6 seconds off. this race was really interesting because you truly were running your own race. you didnt have to worry who was coming up behind you or passing the people in front of you. for those of you that run a lot you know when your body is working too hard or not enough which is key in a race like this. i look forward to doing this race (and/or another one like it) again!

then on sunday was the irish road rover 5k, the 3rd race in my 12 in 2010 series. an absolutely beautiful day for running, and it was a race i had never run before so i was excited. i also somehow convinced the boy to run it with me (he was not so excited as you will see below). i decided before even leaving the house that i was going to run with tyler the entire way... i felt if he was caring enough to come out and run it with me, i wouldnt leave him in the dust (haha... plus he was running as a bandit and was a bit nervous about it).

melissa and me in our signature pre race pose outside the bar that put this race on, brian boru.

dont let his semi smile fool you....

...he clearly wasnt as excited to be there as the girls were. and although im no where near irish, i figured i would rock the shamrock socks :)

nothing all too special to report on this race except a HUGE CONGRATS to melissa on her PR, 22:38 i think it was. you rock!! tyler and i ran/jogged/walked it in 30:38 (cut the kid some slack, he's missing 1/5th of his lung!) but we had a great time. after the race we all headed to bull feeney's pub for a guinness or two.

another race down. cant believe its march already... ten weeks til sugarloaf!!

a getaway to the midwest

so i decided i needed to take off for a week and, although the somewhere on a beach with the hot sun sounded lovely, i instead chose to head to the midwest to hang out with my maid of honor and my family. my visits out there always seem to go by so fast but we had a great time (as always) and i even got a run in (once the rain stopped!). my cousin jay picked me up from the airport and we walked by this "panera".... for whatever reason they have both saint louis bread co and panera down there. they are the exact.same.thing. im slightly confused.

they also have this lovely place that i just so happened to visit twice while i was there...
these looked sooooo good, but i had a "tuxedo" cupcake and a "coffee cake" one. diet fail.

saturday night we went out for sushi.... this is me and my best friend/maid of honor at the drunken fish.

i took this as we were driving back home... busch stadium with the arch in the background. love love love this city.
and finally, the epic run i went on with serena. i had wanted to try for a long run through the streets of st louis and down by the arch, but the weather and other plans just didnt allow for that. for those of you that have never been to the midwest, here are a few pics. its flat. there are miles and miles of corn fields. the most unfortunate part of the flat land is the wind. 3 miles out on the road wasnt bad, but turning around and coming the 3 miles back was just brutal.
this is the stretch of road (pretty much one of the only roads) in the small town of prairietown (population 150, haha). we headed down this road for about half a mile....
...before turning onto this road and going the next 2.5.

those 2.5 looked just like this.... awesome.

lots and lots of corn.
the 6 miles felt great because i hadnt run in a really long time (marathon training is not going as well as i had planned) but it really made me feel lucky to live in maine along the ocean and near a big city. i can run at or near the beach and through the city streets, which are much more exciting and interesting than the corn fields, haha.
im going to try for 13 miles friday, then saturday morning i might run a prediction run and sunday is my 3rd of 12 in 2010 run! im hoping this weekend will catapult me back into full force marathon training mode cuz ive only got ten weeks left til sugarloaf!!
happy running everyone :)

one second

everyone knows that one second is not a very long time. there are not many things that we can do in one second, even if we tried. blink maybe. type the word "FAIL" (one of my new favorite words). a quick kiss perhaps. miller high life even had a great superbowl commercial last year showing one second-
 

but over the course of 10 miles, there are quite a few one second opportunities... did you slow down for a second to re-tie your hair elastic? (nope, wore a winter hat). did you see a cute puppy and slowed down to admire? (nope, too cold for spectators to be out cheering... actually there were a few, but no puppies). were the hills so tough you took your time? HECK NO, you power up hills regardless of how tough they appear.

why all this talk of one measly little second you may ask?

the second race of my 12 in 2010 series was yesterday... a 10 mile mid winter classic in cape elizabeth. it was about 11 degrees to start, warmed up about mile 4 to the point where i took my gloves off, but got kinda cold and windy again towards mile 7. sunny with no snow or rain, which was a bonus. i had been sick for about a week so my last long run of 9 miles was almost two weeks prior. i ran 2 miles on saturday morning and didnt feel great. needless to say i didnt have high expectations for this race. i couldnt sleep at all saturday night and ended up on the couch at 2am watching reruns of the Kardashian show (someone again remind me why they are on tv?!). after getting just a few hours of sleep, i got up, had some almonds and a cup of coffee before the race. i really felt like not even going, but i knew i wouldnt have another chance to run a race this month, thus my resolution would not happen. so off i went.

i met up with my friends melissa and rebecca at the start... they took off to the track to warm up, i stayed inside and just watched people (i tend to not run any more than the race distance for the day). one person that was missing from the race today was my friend (and wedding planner!) sarah. this race would have marked pretty much her one year of getting into racing (it was the first race she went to when she was at the finish line last year to see me, with a bud light for me!) and from there she decided she wanted to start running races. although im excited for her to have a little one coming soon, i cant wait for her to run this race with me next year :) (read all about her little adventures http://sarahsrunningadventures.blogspot.com/ )

there were maybe about 900 people running, and although we had timing chips/ankle bracelet things (HATE these type, especially if wearing shorts... very uncomfortable), i dont remember going over any sort of timing mat so im still not sure if they start when the gun goes off or what, and it took me at least 5 seconds to get to where the "start" flag was... (this could prove to be where the epic race fail occurred... if so, really wish i had started right on the starting line!)

literally minutes before the race started i saw terri ann, the woman from the race back in january that i met who also has a 12 in 2010 resolution. she had called me saturday night for a pep talk which i desperately needed. she was going for 8:15s and asked what my goal was. i told her i didnt have one, just wanted to finish (actually i first told her i didnt want to run at all, that didnt settle well with her). as i gave her a high five before the race, i decided i was going to try to PR at this race. because why not, right? i had (*stupidly) looked up my PR for this race before i left the house... 1:26:08. so i told terri ann i was going for 1:26:07 or under. realistically i could do this... thats about an 8:37 pace, which i have blown out of the water for many races since last february. i knew i was faster than i was last year. no problem.

i felt really good this entire race. the wind and cold didnt effect me much. ive learned since thanksgiving to blow my nose if i feel stuffed up because it better allows me to breathe and not feel like im going to die. my legs felt strong. im really focusing on using my arms and core a lot more now in my longer distances which has greatly helped. and my shirt was quite the conversation starter... three runners came up beside me to ask me about it and ended up chatting for a few minutes.

at about mile 6 i figured i wasnt going to PR. i dont know if my math was wrong or i just didnt think i could keep up at the pace i was going, but i convinced myself i was just going to run for fun the rest of the race. i think i actually ended up continuing on an 8:25 or 8:30 pace but didnt push extra hard. at mile 8 i checked my nike+ again and it seemed like i had almost exactly 17 minutes or so to get to the finish which meant i could potentially beat last years time. the beginning of mile 8 is downhill but right at mile 9 is a slow half mile incline and i knew if i wanted to do this i had to push it. i needed a song to pump me up so i pressed next on my (new) ipod shuffle (thanks to ty!!) and britney spears "3" came on! that'll do it! (*not so fun fact: kinda love this little thing (duh, its pink!)... but you cant change out the head phones because the volume and controls are attached to them. these things hurt my ears. mmmm, apple fail).
so i took off and tried and tried as hard as i could. coming into the high school (near the finish) i thought for sure i had done it, but i still had a little ways to go (all downhill though, thank God!). as i rounded the corner to the finish i could see the official race clock and as i was crossing the finishing mat i saw it read.... 1:26:07....

did i just PR by one second?

when i decided to do the 12 races as my resolution i didnt say i had to PR at every race, because lets be honest, i knew that was pretty unrealistic... but if it happens, clearly ill be happy about it. after seeing the clock at the finish line i knew i couldnt wait until the results came out later online so i decided to wait around for the print offs. while i was waiting, i decided to take a drive back down the course to take a pic of the moose... every year at this race, right after mile 9, there is a moose that holds a sign saying things like "giddy up" or "free pizza, one mile".... just a little added pump you up thing. as i ran by it this year i couldnt quite believe what it said.....
for all you non-mainers out there, thats moose for "HARDCORE!" (we talk kinda funny up here, dont use all our "r's".... come visit sometime, youll understand).

after what seemed like forever, the results were finally posted. i think i looked 3 or 4 times just to make sure i was following my name all the way over to the correct results. 1:26:08. the.exact.time.i.got.last.year. TO THE VERY SECOND. how in the world is this even possible?! over ten miles, how did i not push harder for one freaking second more. unbelievable.

i was pretty upset about it for a little while. even sat in my car at my moms house and cried for a few minutes before going in. but after talking to her and taking a shower, i realized something... i run all the time (24/7, as ty pointed out... my race number for this race was 247. kinda fitting). i absolutely take being able to run for granted, and i know that running a 10 mile race (at any pace) or even just being able to stand on my own two feet is something that not everyone can do. me not getting a PR is insignificant and i am happy for my accomplishment regardless of that stupid one second.

stay "HAAHD CAH". and dont ever take one second for granted.

tri bound?

let me start out by saying that i am a runner. i am not a swimmer. or a bicyclist. sure i went to pool parties back in my middle school years, even attended a swim meet in high school, but i dont swim. my friend sarah and i went and swam laps the other day and it was more or less attempting to stay afloat, lots of complaining about how cold the water was, attempting to swim (aka not drown) to the other end, stopping at the wall and to try and breathe without inhaling a gallon of water, and repeating x21. biking is the rather similar... i get on the bike with big dreams and end up with sore legs and completely hating life after about 3 miles.

i had the day off today and i had to run 3 miles for sugarloaf training, so i thought i would be a bit more hardcore than usual and see what i was really made of. there is a pool/fitness center in my hometown, so i packed up my bag and headed over there.
the air in the pool was very warm/humid. the water was not warm. at all. it would be lovely if pool water was like bath water, it would make me want to swim more i think (and ps- NEVER will i do a triathlon in the ocean. NEVER EVER. no way.)
so i started my watch and took off.... i wanted to try to do that fun flip move at the wall but that was a huge fail. and i dont have goggles yet so my form is less than desireable (i will need to work on that). i only stopped the watch once and that was after i realized i was in the "fast" swim lap lane and moved myself into the "slow as death, might die trying" lane. when i got to lap 15 my top came undone, im sure that was fun for some people but it delayed me a few seconds to get that all put back together, and my watch was at the other end of the pool. oh well, i guess if this really happens in a race the time wont stop for something like that (direct quote from my friend andrea: "you need a one piece". yeah.)
so i didnt die swimming, and 21 laps happened in 12 minutes and 54 seconds. not great but not terrible for my first time really trying without stopping.

next up, the bike. ugh. i cant tell you how much i hate biking. i even bought a bike like 4 years ago thinking i would get into it. no. that thing has been taken out of my parents garage maybe 3 times. oh and the transition from pool to bike, not good. forgot my towel in the car so i dried off with my tank top. we'll just say that i will need to work on transitions before i even attempt to do something like this in public.

the biking actually wasnt so bad, although i did take a mini break at 6 miles to go to the bathroom. i know it would be different if i was out on the road and had others around me pushing me to do better, but i was pretty lazy... level 8. had some good tunes though. total biking time- 41:10.

the transition to the treadmill was much better than pool to bike, especially since i just had to walk two feet. i stretched a little and took off (on what is bound to be the slowest starting treadmill in the world... glad i had my nike+ for time/distance tracking).

after about a half mile i started getting really light headed and my legs felt like jello. probably not the best idea to have done this after eating only 10 or so almonds for breakfast, but live and learn i guess. i stopped a few times to drink water but ultimately finished. 3.1 run- 25:16. actually not as slow as i thought i would have been after what i had already been through. win!

im not entirely sure i have convinced myself to do a real sprint tri quite yet, but at least i know i didnt die so there is hope. and i can tell you one thing, you will never see my name on a list of iron man results. you people are certifiably insane.

frozen 5k & new PR

so yesterday kicked off my 12 races in 12 months quest with the scarborough frozen 5k. i loved that this race started at 1:30pm (pretty much despise races that start when im still sleeping, aka all of them), but that meant i would miss much of the patriots game (ill later find out i was glad i missed it. go cardinals?). i was pretty pumped to put on my shirt i made and head out to the race, and tyler took this lovely pic before i left.

i had pre registered for this race, so when i went inside to the registration i just picked up my number and walked off to a table to put it on my shirt. little did i know that my registration number, along with everyone else that pre registered, was going to cause quite a problem about an hour later...

anyway, as i was putting my number on my shirt (#6 if you care to know), a woman standing next to me asked me what my shirt was all about. as i began telling her, her face started to light up. "THATS MY RESOLUTION TOO!!" she said. NO. Freaking. Way. how weird is that? (fun fact: it will get weirder). her name is terri anne and she is from montreal... and she is awesome!! this chick has run many races, including ICELAND! unreal. so we talked for quite a while and found out we were a lot alike. i am excited to have a new running friend who i hope ill see at many more races throughout the year.

the race was very small (maybe 60 people max), and the starting line was "between two plowing poles" with a guy on a megaphone with a whistle. awesome. i wanted to try to place in my age group if i could (although 19-30 is a very large group), so i stood right on the imaginary starting line and took off really fast. there were only two girls in front of me, and i passed one right before mile one. i got to mile one at 7:05, and began to slow down after that (sprinting in 20 degrees was definitely taking a toll on my lungs). by mile two (15:11) four more girls had passed me, one of which i knew for sure was in my age group so i kept her in sight. i passed her on one of the icy back roads around mile 2.5, but she passed me by once more and i just had no energy at the end to speed up like i usually do. terri anne also passed me and tried to motivate me to keep pushing, but my nose was running so i couldnt breathe through it and i just couldnt keep up.

the race was really fast, and i actually remembered to shut off my nike + when i crossed the finish line this time! 23:54!! NEW PR! i really thought i had slowed down so much during the last mile so i was very happy to see this time. right by the finish line terri anne and i met up with two girls that had just finished, one of which saw my shirt and told us she too was running 12 races in 12 months for her new years resolution. WHAT!? now lets be realistic here, i figured i was not the only person in the world that was going to come up with this resolution. but, to meet TWO other people with the very same resolution at the very first race of the year (and at probably the worlds most smallest race ever)!?! ridiculous! here we are inside waiting for the awards :)

i told them both about nike.com where i made my shirt; terri anne said that she is going to take all the race shirts we get and make them into a quilt! very cool idea.

so about the pre registered race numbers.... during the awards ceremony some talk was stirred up about who was winning age groups and personal times, so people started going up to the print offs and seeing what was going on. when i found my number, the name was wrong (they had me as number 31 with a time of 29 minutes and something). that was not right. the person that gave out all the pre registered numbers was just handing out numbers from the pile instead of the number that we were assigned. fail. people that stuck around were able to get their times and numbers adjusted, and the race director called everyone last night to get accurate results. so we will know tomorrow exactly where we placed. terri anne figured out that she got 2nd in her age group but will probably never receive her medal since they gave it to the wrong person! bogus.

speaking of medals, she told me about an organization where you can donate your race medals to kids that are battling illnesses in hospitals. how cool is that? i looked it up and found one (not sure if this is the exact one she was speaking of) http://medals4mettle.org/. im so selfish i always thought it was cool to hang them on the wall, but now that i heard about this, i believe i should get rid of them all. my accomplishment to get the medal seems insignificant when i know it could mean everything to a child.

overall the first race of the year was a success. im excited for the next race, superbowl sunday mid winter classic 10 miler in cape elizabeth. im also planning on doing the half at the hamptons next month if i dont have to work. today also marks the first day of sugarloaf marathon training, and its a cross training day! i have a meeting at 1pm and then will probably head to the gym after that. p90x killed my back on friday so im giving that a rest for a few more days.

on a side note, wedding planning is coming along quite nicely. my wedding planner (my friends sarah :) is on board, engagement pics (although a huge fail with 9 degree weather) yielded a few good pics, the date is set, the guest list is developing, and i have a dress!! never thought it would happen so fast but im loving it.
happy racing in 2010 everyone!

a slight change in plans

it is with great sadness that i report a change in the "12 in 2010" plans. melissa and i will no longer be going to chicago on 10/10/10 to run the marathon... i will either be running the maine marathon again or perhaps the mount desert island marathon (*fun fact- MDI marathon was recently voted 2nd in best overall marathons in runners world). why the change? IM PLANNING MY WEDDING!!!! yes, its true. the boy who i never thought would commit popped the question after snowshoeing at hunting camp on christmas eve morning. although the wedding will not fall in 2010 (right now its planned for 1/1/11), the money will be spent this year, thus chicago will need to happen at another time.

i wanted to start 2010 out in a hardcore way with a 'resolution run' yesterday morning, but i woke up with a sore throat, no voice, and a runny nose so i thought running 6.2 miles in a snowstorm wasnt the best idea. so my first official race of the year is still planned for next sunday, then sugarloaf marathon training starts the next day!! so pumped for that. tyler and i also are taking 90 days off from drinking any alcohol as well as doing p90x and just overall trying to get back into shape. we definitely need it!

so i will now say goodbye to 2009. what a year..... if only i could explain. for now, ill let the pictures do the talking.