Surf City Recap

I waited a bit to do my recap because I've had many different thoughts on this race.  Overall I have to say it was terrific!  The entire weekend was a lot of fun and the race was flawless.  We stayed at the Huntington Hyatt so that we'd be able to walk to the start without worrying about parking.  We went down on Friday and had dinner with friends at Captain Jack's in Sunset Beach.  It's one of our favorite places to eat when we're down there.

Saturday, we hit the expo early so that we could avoid the crowds.  It was a beautiful day and I think if we'd gone much later it could've gotten hot in the tents.  It was organized and had lots of great vendors.  That evening we had a large group for dinner and carbo loading at Mamma D's in Newport Beach.  Another fabulous meal with outstanding service.

Woke up at 5:50 on Sunday, ready to run!  We walked over to our friends trailer and toasted my bagel and enjoyed a cup of coffee.  Around 7:00, my twitter friend @CarrieSinCa stopped by to introduce herself.  My friends (that don't do The Twitter) thought I was insane to invite someone I've never met over.  One friend (who shall remain nameless) even wanted to know what her half PR was because she didn't want to feel intimidated by someone super fast coming by!  Runners are funny!  Anyway, it was great to meet her and my friends all thought she was awesome for stopping by to say hi!

Finally it was time to line up.  It was an amazing day and the race started on time.  I felt great most of the race.  The inclines didn't bother me at all.  I didn't like the downhill more than the uphill.  That was the only time my knee gave me any trouble.  But as soon as we flattened out, I was feeling good again.

I keep my playlist on shuffle so that I'm always surprised on my runs.  This was the first time I've ever encountered ALL of my old songs coming up.  I didn't have one new song and it was bumming me out. So I started double clicking my headphones to fast forward songs I didn't like around mile 5.  At mile 8 I realized I wasn't hearing my splits.  I pulled out my phone to find out my runmeter had turned off just past mile 6!  I was so bummed that I wouldn't have an accurate time.  But I just turned it on and kept going.

When I past the finish line the clock read 2:07.  I was bummed because I thought we'd started about 4 minutes in.  All of my splits seemed to be on track for a sub 2 run so I walked through the finish a little dejected.  I didn't see anyone I knew, so I decided to head back to the trailer, where we'd agreed to meet.  I ran into my hubby and our buddy who'd been taking pictures of us along the route.  They told me our wave didn't start until nearly 8 minutes and that I'd definitely finished sub 2.  That brought my spirits up! Soon after Sarah showed up and a few minutes behind her was Lisa.  They both had great runs as well!

Lisa said that this race always posts results same day.  So around noon I checked out the results page. It had my 3 mile split and my 8 mile split but didn't show a finish time.  Lisa and Sarah both had times posted and were very happy with their results!  I finally went by the tent and asked about my results.  I was told that meant I didn't finish.  I assured him that I did finish and had a good time (for me!).  He said that once my splits were confirmed that the back up system was in place and my time would be posted.  He said it would be up by 3PM that day.  It wasn't.  So I waited until Tuesday and then I filed a form with them requesting that they look into my results.  By Thursday I had an official race time!  I was so happy to have an official time.  But it seemed a little generous.  My official time was 1:55:02.  That seems a little fast.  After using what I had from runmeter and looking at my start and finish time, I'd estimated I was somewhere between 1:57-1:59.  Now most people don't complain about a faster time than they'd figured, but since it now is a new PR I want it to be accurate.  At this point I'm sticking with the time and knowing that if I want another PR, then I'll just have to run faster!

So overall, I really  have no complaints about this race.  Everything about it ran smoothly and we had a fabulous weekend with friends to boot.  I will definitely do it again!  Oh and my hubby did a great job taking pictures for us!!

RnRLV-The infamous Las Vegas Half Marathon

This was to be my second half marathon and the first one I was to run with Nikki my 14 year old daughter.  She had run a 10k with me a few weeks before and struggled a little so I was just a bit concerned about her making the whole 13.1 miles.  I told her we'd just incorporate a few set walking breaks into our run. (I HATE to walk in my runs, but knew that it would probably help her get through it.)

So we went up Saturday and headed straight to the Expo.  It was too crazy to even find parking, so my husband dropped my daughter and I off and took off to find somewhere to wait.  We made our way through the expo and had a good experience.  No complaints there, we even easily changed our coral.  He didn't feel safe in the car though and wasn't happy to be left waiting for so long.

That night we had  a good pasta dinner with a group of friends that were running as well.  No drinking, and early to bed.  Next morning we headed out for pancakes and eggs.  Being a later race, we figured a good, big breakfast would be the right thing to do.  One pancake (big) and two scrambled eggs and a cup of coffee.  For my last meal, I just grabbed a wrap at Starbucks at the Mandalay Bay.  It was nice and light.

We said goodbye to Sarah when she headed out for the full!  Waited around until it was time for us to head out and find our coral.  We lined up, excited and ready to run.

Me, Lisa and Nikki!

The energy at the starting line was great!  It was cold, but not unbearable.  We were ready to get started though.

Finally we moved along and were released to start!  It was so exciting.  But that was the end of the excitement.  I felt just like cattle.  It was 4-5 miles before we were moving at even close to a 10 minute mile. (Generally I run about 8:45, but with my daughter was aiming for 9:30.)  So we were way behind target pace.  But the problem was trying to get around people.  It was dangerous.  We were weaving, running on the back side of water tables (thankfully not drinking from them!) and kept losing each other. Around mile 8 we saw a lady fall.  It was my biggest fear.  She got tripped up from another runner and landed on her hands and knees.  Luckily she was running with a guy who scooped her up and got her to the side.  I felt so bad for her, it had to have hurt!  But we kept running.  

Since we were so far behind our pace, we decided to skip the walking breaks I'd planned.  Between mile 8 and 9 I told my daughter I wanted her to eat some fuel and get some water.  So we each had a Stinger Waffle and grabbed a water at the water station.  It had finally thinned a little bit, but we were still having to jump into the full marathoners lane to pass people.  I couldn't believe it wasn't going to ever break free!  Around mile 12 was when my daughter spotted the naked runner!  

No that's just Nikki at the Expo!

We even found out later that my husband had given the naked guy a high five!  He said he was looking for us and giving people high fives and didn't realize he was naked until the last minute!  Only in Vegas!

I'm not sure where she found it, but the last three miles Nikki found a burst of energy.  I was surprised at how fast she was going, but wasn't going to be one to slow her down.  We crossed the finish line and came to a complete grid lock.  It was a mass of people that wasn't moving.  I knew we were going to start cooling off fast and I wanted to get her inside as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately there wasn't a quick way to move.  We had to just shuffle along with everyone else.  After about 20 minutes, we finally made it to get a "blanket".  It was definitely a matter of luck to grab the ones being thrown through the air.  But thankfully we each got one and were able to keep moving.  We took a short cut through the gates and headed into the hotel.  At this point, both of our stomachs started to hurt.  Nikki tried to go into a bathroom but the line was long.  The lady in front of her told her, "The line isn't moving because everyone is pooping."  She decided she couldn't stay there.   We decided to try to make it back to New York New York, where we were staying.  We walked to Luxor and tried to catch the tram there thinking it'd be faster.  It was outside though, so it was FREEZING.  When the tram pulled up, it was jam packed.  Bill told Nikki and I to just squeeze in and he'd walk back.  We did. And then two others tried to as well.  That pushed a lot of people over the edge since the doors wouldn't close.  People were freezing and wanting to move.  

We made it back to the hotel. Nikki went to the bathroom.  We found our other two kids and headed to the car.  As soon as I got to the car, I knew something was wrong with my stomach.  I've run plenty of runs at that length, so I knew it wasn't that.  I had been a little queasy all day and figured maybe I'd picked something up.  But Nikki was feeling really sick too.  I still just figured it was a bug or something.  Of course later after reading all of the posts, I realized it may have been something else.  I find it hard to believe that we would've gotten sick from drinking water at only one station.  But after seeing that volunteers weren't using gloves, I think it would've been very easy.  We were sick until Wednesday.  I couldn't eat anything until Tuesday.  (No recovery meal after the run at all) To me, it doesn't matter. That wasn't a run I'd enjoy doing again.  It was too expensive and WAY too crowded for me.  It was fun to run the strip at night, but not enough so that I'd ever do it again.

Our final time was 2:18.  I was very pleased with the time considering the crowds.  Beyond that, I was so proud of Nikki for getting out there and running it with me.  At fourteen years old, she can say she's run a half marathon and no one can ever take that from her!  I don't know if she'll ever run another one, but at least now she knows it's possible.

I decided to wait awhile before posting my recap of this race because I wanted to have some time to let the bad feelings subside.  It was a race I ran with friends and my daughter, and for that I will always have fond memories.  

Have you ever ran a race that you loved and hated at the same time?

10k Completed!

Today my fourteen year old daughter and I completed our first 10k!  We'd done a 5k before, but it was a difficult course and didn't leave us feeling very accomplished.  We're signed up for the RNRLV half in December so I wanted to run something prior to that race just to be sure she'd be able to complete the half.  The Beach Derby 10k seemed like a great idea.  They also had a 10 miler, but I was afraid if it was too hard, she wouldn't want to do the half in December.  So I decided to give this a shot.

We headed out at 6AM, arriving in Huntington Beach at 7AM.  We parked about a half mile from the starting line and walked over.  It was perfect timing.

We took a couple of pictures, then jumped in the starting chutes.  A boy from the local high school sang the National Anthem and off we went.  Unfortunately my Runkeeper didn't start when we did.  It turned out to be a good thing, because I was able to let my daughter pace us without worrying about going faster.  She did great!  She had to "pull over" twice to tie her shoes and needed a walk break twice.  But both were brief and we finished in 56:40.  The experience was positive, despite the weather.  I loved that it was a cool 50 degrees, but I DON'T run in the rain...ever.  Luckily it was just cool but beautiful when we began.  Then about mile 3 the drizzle started.  Ok I'm not that big of a wimp, I can run in drizzle.  But by mile 4, it was RAINING!  Hello, I don't run in rain!  At that point, if I'd been alone I would've sprinted just to get it over with.  But my daughter didn't have any sprint in her at that point and was just wanting to keep it at a slow jog.  So we continued along, trying to joke around as we went.  Finally we were close to the finish and were able to give a push to get there.  We were going to wait at the finish to cheer on a friend, but it was freezing.  We grabbed an apple and water and headed the half mile back to the car.  That half mile seemed like another 3 miles!  It was pouring, we were freezing and just wanted to get warm.  We stopped briefly to take a photo and then got to the car and stripped off our wet clothes! 

All in all it was a fun race and I think my daughter was happy she did it.  Now it's the wait for Vegas!  I hope that turns out to be just as great of an experience for her too.  Let's just hope for good weather!!

What did you do this weekend?  Have you run any longer races with your children or parents?  What was your experience?

Frustrated over a 5k?

I have a few races coming up.  I've found that any race gives me motivation to keep running.  So I registered my 10 year old daughter, my husband and myself for a 5k in October.  I have a half marathon in December with my 14 year old daughter.  I was also planning to run a 5k this past Sunday with my son, but found out my daughter had a showcase soccer tournament that day that I didn't want to miss.  So when a friend called and said they needed one more person for their team for a 5k on Saturday, I told him I'd do it if my hubby could join us.  He's only done one other 5k, but he ran with our younger daughter and didn't feel like he got to run his fastest.  So I was looking forward to running this event with him.  I told him I'd stay with him the entire race and that it didn't matter if I didn't PR.

Well I was wrong!  It did matter!


Let's jump back to Friday evening.  We'd gone to our children's high school football game.  And we tailgated as usual.  Only this time, we never made it into the game.  There were at least 100 parents that stayed in the parking lot and ate and drank A LOT!  I only had one martini.  My hubby on the other hand enjoyed the evening immensely.  I still thought he'd be fine.  You know the old adage, sweat it out.

So the next morning we head out.  The race was less than a mile from our house but we drove over there. That should've been my first clue that something was up.   The race started and everything seemed fine.  The first mile was uphill, so I expected to go slow.  I was just really surprised at how slow.  I kept losing hubby and having to run back to find him.  Only to go a few more steps and lose him again.  When we crested the hill, I told him it was all easy from that point on.  But for some reason he just couldn't get into it.  By the final stretch I tried to get him to go a little faster and he said he was on the verge of puking.  At that point, I was getting angry.  I felt like he had let me down by drinking the night before and while I'd told him I didn't care about my time, it turns out I did!   Our official time was 31:16, but to me it felt like a total embarrassment.  I know it's completely lame, but we know most of the people that ran this race and I knew they'd log on the site and see my time.

Now here comes the bad part.  Wait for it...


Hubby said he felt sick the rest of the day.  Turns out the cold he'd had the previous week came back with vengeance.  He's been sick in bed both yesterday and today.  Now I feel really guilty.  Is it better to not run with spouse's, children or friend's?  Or is it better to enjoy the race and let go of the need to PR every time?  I'd love to hear about your experiences...

How many races?

In my last post I said I need races to keep me motivated.  I guess it's karma...I now am registered for:

9/24/11-Megan Savage Memorial 5k
9/25/11-Susan Komen 5k
10/23/11-Race For The Rescues 5k
12/4/11-Rock N Roll Half Marathon

Plus I have two more halfs scheduled in 2012.  I'm not sure about doing two 5k's in one weekend? I think it'll be fine, but wanted some feedback.  How many races have you run in a month and is doing back to back short races a good idea?

Upcoming Races

I did my first and only half marathon on June 5, 2011.  It was the Ojai to Ocean (O2O) and I couldn't have asked for a better first half.  The only other race I'd participated in was a 5k with my husband and two daughters.  The next race I had scheduled wasn't until December.  It is the Rock N Roll Vegas Half Marathon.  So I had several months of running without any scheduled races.  And guess what?  I completely lost my mojo!  I've had no desire to run any long distances.  I blamed it on the heat, but I think it really came down to the fact that I wasn't training for anything specific.  So I had to find some races!

I found a 5k in Pasadena benefitting animal rescues.  My 10 year old daughter wants to be a vet and would do anything for animals.  She ran the first 5k with us and swore she'd never run one again.  She really struggled to get through it and hated it.  But when I told her this was a flat course, benefitting animals, she agreed to do it.  So now we've got a 5k scheduled for October!  Woo hoo!

Then the next day my 14 year old brought home a flyer from school for a 5k in Newport Beach for Susan B. Komen.  A huge group from her and my son's school run it together.  So I told her we were all in and just like that, I have another 5k on my calendar for September!

Why is it just knowing I have some races coming up motivates me to get running?  Is it because I'm still a newbie to running?  I've only been running since January of this year.  Or do veteran runners feel this way too?