Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Like Riding a Bike

This afternoon, K-Dog (the girl, not to be confused with K-Dog the boy) called me to see if I wanted to go for a bike ride after work.

I literally haven't ridden my bike in over a year. No, really. Last year it spent most of the season languishing in the basement. A few weeks ago I finally took it to Dixon's for a tune-up, so it was road-ready, but I hadn't taken it out yet. I didn't have any meetings, and could leave work at a reasonable hour, so figured, what the heck?

It was awesome! All those cycling classes I took this spring at The Gym with triathlete and cycling coach extraordinaire Dianna really paid off. The marathon training probably doesn't hurt, either. We rode 4 loops of Prospect Park, for a total of 13.6 miles. Even the hill didn't suck as much as I remember.

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting a guy from work to run a loop of the park.

This weekend, I'll be in Wisconsin visiting my godson Griffin. Their neighbourhood is very hilly, so I'm looking forward to a good simulation of the San Francisco course!

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

The Half

Finally, a recap of Sunday's race.

Saturday night, I stayed at Leslie & John's place on the Upper West Side. Team in Training was meeting on 90th & 5th at 6am, so had I traveled from Brooklyn I'd have had a ridiculously early start.

As it was, I woke up at 5am, ate a Clif bar (Peanut Butter Crunch) and had a cup of coffee, then made my way (in the dark!) across the park. The purple singlets were amassing in full force! It was exciting to see people I'd trained with two years ago when I did the triathlon, as well as my fellow marathon trainees.

We coralled by pace time - I optimistically lined up just behind the 10:00 mile marker, and chatted with a woman from Vancouver while waiting for the race to start. The speakers weren't great that far back, and we couldn't hear most of the pre-race announcements. I don't think we missed much!

It seemed to be getting darker instead of lighter as the race start (7am) approached. The sky looked quite ominous. We slowly made our way to the starting line, and I officially started my time at about 7:07am.

It was really exciting running with over 10,000 people! I usually get excited at the start of a race and run way too fast for the first mile, but this time my pacing was successful, and my time at the first mile marker was 11:04. I was a little worried that I was running too slowly, but remembered that I still had 12 miles to go and could make up a bit of time.

The first 7 miles were in Central Park. About halfway through mile 6, just as I was running down Cat Hill on the East Side of the park, the rain started. Not gradually, either. It *poured.* Some runners cheered, and some groaned. A guy running near me commented that he guessed this was a triathlon and we should start swimming now. Hee.

It was still raining when I exited the park on 7th Ave. I looked for my cheering squad, Agent DLang, at the park exit (he said that's the first place he'd be). I finally spotted him about a block down 7th Ave., holding a big sparkly G^2 sign! Yay! My shoelace came undone just as I ran past him so I ran over to the side and snuck in a kiss after I retied.

I continued down 7th Ave. and through Times Square, which was pretty cool - tourists were shoulder-to-shoulder under the hotel awnings watching the race! I passed the Naked Cowboy standing atop a double-decker tourist bus, and followed the runners right onto 42nd St.

The race continued to the West Side Highway, where there was a band on stilts! There were a few spectators along the course at this point, and despite the drizzly weather people were cheering enthusiastically.

DLang showed up again around 23rd St., but I barely saw him because I am SO FAST. Hee hee. Seriously though, I got there faster than he thought I would.

Just before the finish line, there was a band of merry TNTers cheering madly as I ran by. What a great feeling. Coach Lisa was at the 400m marker, and her words of encouragement ("Only a quarter mile to go! Finish strong!") carried me over the finish line. Thanks Lisa!

I finished the race in 2h13m. My splits were as follows:

Mile 1: 11:04
Mile 2: 10:47
Mile 3: 10:26
Mile 4: 10:30
Mile 5: 10:28
Mile 6: 10:22
Mile 7: 9:33
Mile 8: 9:57
Mile 9: 11:28
Mile 10: 8:09 (Mile 10 was obviously mismarked!)
Mile 11: 10:09
Mile 12: 10:10
Mile 13: 9:36
The last .1: 1:00

I'm very happy with the race; especially my pacing.

Nutrition notes: I stopped at most of the fluid stations and drank either water or Gatorade. I had Gu (Chocolate Outrage - yum!) one hour into the race.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

13.1!

Today I ran my first half-marathon!

I finished in 2:13:46, which is a 10:12 minute mile pace. Yay!

I'm super happy with the race - will post details soon.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

7 Miles

In an effort to increase my weekly mileage, I'm hitting the park more frequently. Tonight after work I ran 7 miles (2 loops of Prospect Park, plus a little) in 72 minutes. Not bad!

2 Months!

The marathon is in 2 months. Yikes!

Another note about Sunday's run - I wore my new Fuel Belt for the first time.

It worked out well, but yesterday I noticed the tops of my hips are a bit tender, maybe even a little bruised. I might have to affix marshmallows to the bottom of the bottles for protection (and the added bonus of extra nutrition on a long run!).

Let's Get Physical

This morning I went for a physical for my Green Card application. That is, if by "physical" you mean "getting injected with live viruses and having blood taken for HIV and syphillis tests." Seriously - not even a listen to the ol' ticker (which I'd guess is in pretty good condition from all the running).

I'm just hoping the doctor (er, civil surgeon) doesn't check the box that reads, "Previous occurrence of one or more attacks of insanity."

Monday, August 21, 2006

Training Updates


Yesterday after hitting the snooze button a few times, I laced up my sweet new orange sneaks and went for a long training run. I felt awesome for the first 7 miles, then medium for the next 4. By the time I crossed back into Brooklyn, I was beat and it was about 900 degrees outside, so I walked the last 3 miles home.

Not horrible, considering that I was a little sick recently and missed about a week of training.

When I got home I had a giant blister on the side of my left foot. I did some research on the intarweb and found that it's perfectly acceptable to drain a blister with an adequately sterilized sharp instrument. Last night I performed minor bathroom surgery and was quite pleased with the results. Yay!

T-minus 9 weeks and counting!

The Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco is 9 short weeks away. I'll be there, running, supported by my husband, West-coast friends, and a Champion seamless sports bra (heh).

I've already raised over $4000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - but you can still donate!

I've started this blog to keep you abreast of my training efforts and all the awesome-cool stuff I'm doing in Brooklyn & NYC. And also, apparently, to make as many allusions to boobies as possible.

Welcome to Ultra Fine Flair.