My Most REAL Race #REALwomenmove @skirtsports

It's no secret that I am a Skirt Sports Ambassador Captain. Once a month, we all post about a similar topic and this month we are talking about our most REAL race.
What does that mean to me? It's not necessarily the best race you ever ran. You don't have to win your age group. Heck. You could finish dead freakin last.
I think of this is as an epiphany race. That one race that you had your "a ha!" moment.
For me, that race was the final leg of the Inaugural Dopey Challenge. Have you heard of it? It's 48.6 miles in 4 days. Yeah, you read that correctly. A 5k, a 10k, a half marathon, and a full marathon.
I went with my Disney race bestie Colleen. We had a great time with the first two races. Lots of photos, costumes, park visits, and sheer stupidity. The half marathon was mostly fun, but getting up early was catching up with us at this point and we got our first glimpse of the balloon ladies.

When we woke up at the butt crack of the butt crack of dawn my feet already hurt.

I was nauseous.

I was tired.

The first 9 miles were not terrible but they were not good. I started texting the hubs. 

I can't do this.

I'm so stupid.

Who does this to themselves?

I can't do this.

He texted me back.

He posted on Facebook to get me some shout outs.

He told me I could.

He was right.

The final 17 miles were ugly, I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't even at mile 18 yet when the balloon ladies came into sight.

 I was at around mile 20. When.they.passed.me.

holy heck.

I fought against those lovely ladies for 4 miles at least. And they were lovely ladies. Very motivating. Very nice. Very dangerous.

They passed me for good at about mile 24, as you leave Hollywood Studios and approach the Boardwalk. 

You see, you can't be swept at that point. I did it! I could crawl now and no one could make me stop. I won. I cried. Everyone around me cried. We all walked those last 2 miles, and when I finished and found Colleen we hugged so hard! She fought the volunteers who tried to move her on. She wasn't getting her medal without me.

I did it. I did what people told me I couldn't do. 48.6 miles in 4 days. After that race I have never doubted a finish again. I will always know I can do it. It may not be pretty, it may not end well, but I will finish. DOPEY taught me that. 

What was your most REAL race and why?

Marathon Training Recap, the last two weeks

Marathon training has been kind of a bust over the last two weeks. I have been having some tightness and am now realizing that it is my IT Band giving me trouble. I truly need to be strengthening and stretching and my poor body keeps trying to tell me!
The last two weeks I have run exactly twice. A 5k and today's 3 miler. On my other training days I have used my bike and doubled the mileage. I am going to be slowly adding runs back in, and slowly increasing the mileage, while filling in the gaps with my bicycle. NYC will happen, I just might have to lower my expectations. I am totally fine with this!
I went back to WW as well. I know that losing the 20+ extra pounds I am carrying will go a long way towards reducing the chance of future injuries!
Here are some of my workouts over the last two weeks....

Flat Mama Friday

This weekend is the Father's Day 5k, the race I have probably run the most often and one that I have been watching for years. It runs right past my house! The last 4 or 5 years it has been run in memory of Kevin Brue, an amazing man lost too soon to Melanoma.

Wordless Wednesday George Sheehan Classic Edition

Saturday was the George Sheehan Classic 5k in Redbank NJ, a very hot and hilly 5k. My only complaint: they gave out cloth bags at the finish. You were allowed to trade them for a medal but they only told a select few. I was not one of the few.

Marathon Training Tuesday

Sunday.... 4 mile run at a 12'04" pace in my neighborhood

Monday..... HITT workout, some yoga,and a 2 mile walk 

Tuesday..... 3 Mile run, starting to have some hamstring tightness, so I'm going to break out the KT tape and add some PiYo, which I never should have stopped in the first place!

Wednesday..... rest day, did some walking to get in my steps.

Thursday..... 5 mile run, 1.5 mile walk. I had intended to run the whole thing but the hest was insane and I still ended up sick the rest of the day. 13'02" pace for the run.

Saturday..... George Sheehan Classic 5k, super hot, humid, and hilly but I finished. Recap coming... 12'02" pace.

Sunday..... I woke up feeling thick headed and tired and basically stayed on the couch all day.

I also made a decision to lighten up my training. I think I added too many miles too fast so I have found a Hal Higdon program for beginners and will be using that. I don't have any concrete time goals anymore, I just want to finish! If my aches and pains subside and I start making decent progress I will revisit time goals. 

My new schedule runs from Monday to Sunday, with Saturday's being my usual long run day, although that may have to change from time to time.

Have you ever had to change a goal during training? 

Father's Day is Coming! @ToiletTreeProducts #ad #STORMp3

 

Father's Day is this Sunday, and if you are anything like me, you have NO clue what to buy for the hubs this year! My hubs never seems to want anything! I was so glad when Toilet Tree Products contacted me and asked if I wanted to try out one of their products! I chose the STORMp3, a Water Resistant MP3 Player. The hubs loves doing yard work and he dirt bikes A LOT and I thought this would be perfect for him to bring along no matter what the weather.

 

 

 

 

The batteries were included, which I always love, and it comes with a wall mount if you want to use it in your shower. The boy and I plugged it into the laptop and easily transferred the music over with drag and drop. It took less than 5 minutes! The sound quality is amazing, the volume is LOUD when you want it to be, and it is easy to use. The boy, who is a total electronics nerd, tried to steal it!

 

 

From the Amazon description, in case I missed anything important:

STORMp3 Water Resistant mp3 Speaker. The STORMp3 Water Resistant Speaker is a battery operated music speaker boasting easy-to-use button controls for simple music control in the shower. The speaker is water-resistant and designed for shower wall-mounting so you don't blast your music for the entire household. The speaker controls are built on the face of the speaker so you can control musical selections (manually or random shuffle control) without having to reach outside the shower and risk water-damaging your smart devices. The STORMp3 contains an internal 2 GB memory that holds roughly 500 songs. This speaker has approximately 73 hours of battery life and requires no special downloadable software or applications since music is added to the speaker via the "Click and Drag" method similar to transferring music to an iPod. Since the speaker is powered by four AA batteries, you can take it and mount it almost anywhere whether it is the beach, pool, bedroom, spa, and more. Mirror and razor sold separately Compatible with PC and Mac Materials: Plastic Dimensions: 6.5"L x 3"W x 2"H Weight: 0.72lbs  

 

I love that you can order this through Amazon. If you have Prime, it arrives in two days! It is also currently marked down  from $80 to $30! What a bargain! I provided a quick link below (an affiliate link) so you don't have to search for it!

I have to say, I have never had a Toilet Tree Product that I didn't like. They are always good quality at a great price!

 

 

What are you waiting for? Go buy your STORMp3 now! And hide it from the teenagers!

I'm Officially Registered....

For the Walt Disney World Half Marathon, and so is the teenie.
We are so excited to run her first half marathon together. Luckily, she will be on her winter break from college, so she won't miss any school.
Now, what to wear?

Wordless Wednesday, Musical Edition

My daughter sang her final song as a high school student last night, so we are going to try a you tube link up here
Next stop.... COLLEGE!

Marathon Monday, week 6

What a rough week. The shine is definitely off and now it feels a little like work. I don't have any big races until Fall, which is probably a good thing! Helping the hubs with his paver project has been hell on my legs, especially my thighs, which has made some of my runs very ugly this week!

Sunday..... Ocean Road School 5K, hot and ugly, but not my worst. It was a nice flat course with plenty of water. I rode my bike there and back, about 2.5 miles

Monday.... P90X3 total synergistics, some challenge workouts, and 2.62 miles in my new NYC Sparkle Skirt. 11'27" pace. 

 

Tuesday..... P90X Agility and challenge exercises

Wednesday..... National Running Day! 60 minute run, 5.25 miles at 11'27" pace. A friend ran the first 3 with me. Capsulitis really started bothering me after this, and I ordered a rubber pad for my shoe. I also had a sore leg and a sad tummy.

 

Thursday..... total rest day. I had about 3000 steps. I rested, I iced, I played Facebook games. Oh, but it was National Donut Day.

Friday..... another paver day. Lots of walking around carrying bricks. Lots of squatting. And date night. More walking. And some baseball.

Saturday..... I ended the week with the Girl's on the Run 5k. I loved watching the girls run this race! They were all so cute! I struggled with sore thighs and achy feet but I finished. 3.2 Miles in roughly 39 minutes at a 12'17 pace.

Not a bad week when I look back. I'm so hard on myself all week, and the minor injuries can be disheartening. I have to remind myself of my pace goal for this race.

First and foremost, my goal is to finish. 8 hours, 6 hours, i don't care.

If the run gods are smiling, I would love a 6 hour marathon. That's a 13'44" average. My training supports this so far. Even my longish runs are under 13 minutes so far.

if the gods are grinning, I would love a 5:30 marathon. That was my goal pre-injury though, so I'm not really counting on it. That would a 12'35 average pace. My training supports this now, but I wonder about the longer runs to come.

in any case, week 6 is complete and I am.on to week 7!

Girls on the Run 5K, Redbank

This morning was the moment we trained all Spring for. Our Girls were running their 5k. So much excitement and fun, and they all finished. Of course, I can't post pics of the girls, but here are a few shots I got with no little faces in them...

Flat Mama Friday #GOTR edition

Tomorrow is our final race for the Girls on the Run program, in Redbank  NJ. I am so excited to see the girls run their 5k and get their bling.
Sorry this is so late, we were working all day on our paver project!

Wordless Wednesday National Running Day edition

Happy National Running Day! I started my day registering for a race and then ran 5.25 miles. Did you celebrate?

June Workout Challenges

I love calendar challenges. Sometimes I even complete them! Here are the ones i chose for June.