So many things

1- I SURVIVED (barely) Illinois' toughest 15k. I have the medal to prove it:

The medal is hanging around my nec.k... don't know how I have enough energy to smile

2- It was h-e-double-hockey-sticks! I don't run when its above 70 outside by choice. It was 70 at the starting line, before I had to go up this evil hill twice! I killed that hill the first time, was doing well despite an absent water stop pre-hill, even when I got lapped by...well... a lot of people! But... somewhere around that first loop near the zoo, even after going past one of my best friends who was doing a lock-in (Zoo Znooze) , the leg that pressed on the gas pedal for 13 hours a couple days before cramped up, the heat exhausted me, and the impending meet up with my dad started to suck the happy go-go-GO right outta me. I got down the happy little hill, had a spectator tell me my braid looked cute and whimpered at the sight of the hill again with no water break until I was up it and started to walk like a pro. My chest exploded and hamstring cramped up like never before as the heat and panic rushed over me to have me bawling right before mile 7. I thought about this picture:

And kept going. I knew that right after mile 7, it was down one hill, 2 miles of straight and flat at the end with my momma and sister waiting to cheer me in after they'd done the 4 mile race.

Oof.

3- I didn't run much after that. Serious amounts of pain. I even put this Biofreeze gel on my leg to try to numb it, and omg it got numbed and I smelled like mint and couldn't feel my leg the rest of the day.

4- The next time I ran? I was in Savannah, GA at a $42/night hotel with one of my best friends from high school, on the treadmill in the gym. I turned on tv, enjoyed The Mentalist, checked out my form while I ran, and tried to get in some speed work. I'd only waited about 20 minutes after eating this AMAZING $7.50 low country boil so when I was upping the speed (to 7.0 mph!! and BEYOND) I slowed down when I started tasting the shrimp, crab, sausage, corn and 'taters again. Had a GREAT time doing the HIIT though!

5- I've decided my goal for the month of July while it decides to stay in the triple digits outside in the BLAZING humidity is to do at least 1 unassisted pullup by the time August comes around. Huck has a pullup bar in the hall of his kitchen/living room, so I have a plan... if I can't run outside, I shall become a beast!

6- For the awesome new job (yes yes, official job offer paperwork came in a couple weeks ago! WOOO), I had to get a physical. The doctor told me that people like me keep him from being busy. I compared the results of my cholesterol from 3 years ago, when I would go to work, sit down, come home, sit down, go to sleep, repeat. My total cholesterol has gone down by 1 point, but the triglycerides, HDL and LDL all tell the story of a much healthier and active person :) As a scientist, its nice to see proof in fancy numbers like that.

7- Other proof that I'm doing something right? When I went home, my mom had tons of my high school stuff for me to go through, since she would be putting the house up for sale a couple days after I left (it sold in 40 hours, no joke). Out of curiosity, I tried on my junior year prom dress. At 25, the dress that 17 year old me wore doesn't fit... because its too loose! My senior year prom dress?! Even worse! At least the junior year one has just an inch or 2 of fabric that you can grab here and there. Because of the cut of the senior year one, it just doesn't fit at all! It doesn't help that I don't gain fat in the most...um.. desirable?! places for a girl, but even the back is loose enough to hold a 6 pack :)

Ok... I promise more updates! Life should settle down here shortly and you'll get to hear about pullup progress :)

Here's to the Next TV timeout!

-Syd

How to run your first 10k

I know, I'm going in a weird trajectory this year. First there was an 8k, then a half-marathon, and then the 10 miler, and the (utterly failed) 10k on Mother's Day weekend, but today, I successfully completed my first 10k!

I'd roped the roomie into this a few months ago when she stopped running and I figured a carrot at the end of the stick would get her back on track. She's eating amazingly well, so keeping up with exercise that she kicks butt at just means she looks even HOTTER while she's on the prowl for Mr. Right!

Her longest run (before today) was 6 miles, and I might have freaked her out by explaining that the hill we were running down at the beginning was the exact same one we'd be climbing up a the very bitter end...oops! But let's not worry about that! We took our pretty picture at the beginning (race day braids, ftw!) and watched the half-marathon'ers take off.

15 minutes later, we lined up and jostled around for prime starting spot. We should've jostled more, because we definitely got stuck behind first time 5k'ers who didn't realize people would be breezing past them instantly. Oh yeah, did I mention there was a 10 AND 5k component to this race? Anyway, once we got into our own happy pack, down the hill and onto the greenway, it was amazingly smooth sailing. There were mile markers, happy cheering volunteers, and lots of water stops and port-a-potties! <<deep sigh of happiness>>

The route went from "and now, we RACE!" to "lovely Sunday run on a greenway" after the 5k turnaround. All 3 distances were on the same path, they just turned you back at different points. So many of the distracting people- super bouncy, insane pronators, stiff legged- turned back at the 5k mark, thank heaven! You can only run behind them for so long, darnit!

After our very own turnaround, and by the world's most unenthusiastic spectators, I lost the roomie for a bit. I knew I had the fuel in me (or on me!) and that 6.2 was nada after 13.1, so I opened up a little, saving enough for the hill on the way back. Roomie and I ended up entertaining the bored spectators and she caught up to me about a mile after the turnaround. Seeing the mile markers for the half kept us motivated, we walked through the 2 water stops, and life was GRAND...until we got back to the hill.

I'm still not sure if she was there when I told her "slow and steady" or if I was just talking to myself, but I definitely cut wayyy back on pace, focused on keeping my steps tiny but still coming, and just stared at the asphalt in front of me. Hooray for roads with minimal cantor , so I could find a groove in the road and just stay in that to keep me on the most efficient path up the hill.

The heavy breathing woman that came up the hill beyond me knew the fine Raleigh police officers that were keeping cars from running over us, and we exchanged as many words as our out of breath bodies would let us- "great job!" "almost there!"- and I just. kept. moving. My goal was to NOT let any of the half marathoners pass me, which was a definite probability, given their 15 minute head start and my 10+ min pace. I heard the guy on the microphone that the end of all good races have, and was actually sad that the finish line was so hidden, because as soon as I saw it, sprinting to it was the easiest thing in the world! We estimate our finish time was around 1:07, since the clock started with the half marathoners and our "gun" was 15 min later-esque.

I was able to get my water and in position behind the finish gates in time to get out my phone and snap a picture of the roomie coming across the finish line. She was super excited, also sad the finish line was so hidden, but started spewing some nonsense about doing a half next :) Oh, and we totally were cooled down by the time the first half finisher came across the line, phew!

We asked some random person to take our "after" picture, walked back to the car, and generally reveled in our awesome Sunday morning. I can totally tell my right hamstring is going to be problematic if I don't baby it the next few days, based on how much its tightening.

Overall, GREAT race! Super excited to have my first 10k under my belt, and now its time to keep making hills my B**** before a very special race in 2 weekends :)

Here's to the next tv timeout!
-Syd

Incredibly cute and maddeningly frustrating

Alright, let's start this off where I thought I would be gushing. This is my in my positively neon outfit for this morning's 10k. Huck and I signed up for the Run for Your Momma 5k/10k in the 10k division, obviously. If you can tell behind me, the ground is a bit sandy, the joys of running in Wilmington, NC. We came to his parents' place for Mother's Day and they live close by, so we figured we'd support a great cause (domestic abuse shelters), get a good run in, PR on a stupidly flat course, and originally, I thought my recent UNC-W alum cousin could run with us. She smartly declined, given the state of her liver last night and I'm thinking tonight, too!

 

Instead, what happened was the most frustrating thing to ever happen during a race. Huck and I realized the field was small enough, we could legitimately place in our age groups, so I told him to go run his race, I'd run mine. After about the first half mile, thanks to all the turns  on neighborhood streets, I'd lost Huck and most of the field.  There was one woman hanging out around me, so we chatted for about 2 miles, and got through a water and Gatorade stop. 

The numerous turns were easy to get through for the most part thanks to volunteers explaining just where we went since their little spray painted wooden stakes didn't match up with where the people were directing us. No big, right?

Until we got to a turn where the volunteer had his top half in a van, explaining where they needed to go to avoid road closures. We kept going on the road we turned down since we could see another white shirted person and runners on the street beyond that guy. Except... that white shirted man was watering his lawn and hadn't seen any runners pass by him, and the people running in front of us were 5k-ers. Cursed baby jogger people that only do 5ks actually came in handy! 

Our little trio turned around, ran up the main street we'd gone past and knew went to the finish/start line. People were cheering us on because we were the first 10kers to come through!...yeah, we crossed over the other set of timing stuff, yelled at the race director "WE GOT LOST!" He told us "its those headphones! You can't hear the directions!"

Yeah... I run with one earbud in when I'm on the sidewalks, so a race that forces me onto 2 lane roads through neighborhoods? You bed I'm keeping an ear out (literally) for cars and I guess "directions", but, as the Roomie said "audio cues?! What is this, Hunger Games?! No booming voice from above!"

It took me so much self control to not just tell the race director where he could shove my earbuds, so our lost trio turned around and just headed out the way we'd come. We decided we'd just add enough mileage to get to 6.2 and say "to hell with the course." 

This strategy meant there were no more water breaks, volunteers looked at us like we were crazy, and my favorite? When, after seeing Huck at the top of my mini-hill (like up 20 feet when my big hill is up 100), I knew something was seriously up. I told the volunteer that wanted me to run down a street to a FLIPPING CONE to shut the crap up, I'd gotten lost and didn't give a crap any more, so for the first (and last?!) time ever, I beat Huck across the finish line.

When every 10k runner got to talking, we realized nobody did the "right" course. What the race director had told us about running on trails? Never happened. Huck's GPS said he ran 6.5, I did 5.95 on my hacked course, volunteers were far away from injured parties, etc. One runner even said when this same group put on a half marathon, there were 3 water stops. After I survived my half, I was thankful for practically all 8 water stops! My 10 miler had 4 water stops... Huck and I were spitting mad, so we left to go meet my cousin for breakfast and said screw the awards. We didn't run the course, so why the crap does it matter if we got awards for our hacking? 

Worst. Race. EVER....and I've run some inaugural races and evil courses before!

What made my day better? When we went back to Huck's house, there was Cerra with her 7 puppies: 

We're pretttty sure Huck's male dog is the father. He's black, just like 5 of the pups!

See those precious little pups?! They were born on Wednesday, so these Friday night pictures are of literally 2 day old babies. They're squirmy and whiny and soooo adorable! Momma dog just lays there and accepts her duty as a milkmaid. 

But the best part?

Those are my two favorite men!

Wiley Mew is about 4 weeks old and his teenage mom had two of her kittens die and sort of gave up on this one, so he was placed in my arms by Huck's parents and it was instant love. Given that Huck has two big dogs that aren't used to cats, much less kittens, and my roomie is allergic to cats, I figured I'd just be surrogate mom for the weekend.

Until... we got back from the race today and for the 2nd straight hour, Wiley wasn't more than 5 feet away from me, a streak that's mostly been kept up all night, even when I was eating sushi for lunch, and Huck said "so... this can happen ONLY if you take care of it, clean the litter box, get it food, take it to the vet...but...because I trust you, we can take him home if you want." I had this tiny thing in my lap, so I couldn't do the same dance I did after a company said "yeah, we'll be making you an offer for a full time position in the Raleigh area this week, or maybe early next week" aka SUUUUUUUUPPPPPER EXCITED! 

 Sooo I'm a kitty mom! Wiley Mew (I named him, Huck and I went back and forth, his middle name was almost "Inigo" ) shall be called "Mew-Mew" until he stops making that sound, but we refer to him as "Wiley" in conversation :) The shirt I was wearing Friday night has become his baby Bjorn. I folded it in half hot-dog style, put him in the crease, and tuck the neck and hem under my arms so I can walk around while still snuggling. I made PB and Nutella sandwiches for breakfast like that today, so it works pretty well :)

Yeah, I think I'm going to like this...

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd (and Wiley)

TarHILL 10 Miler

First off, someone else coined the title of the post, but its more PG than what I wanted to call Saturday. Namely, its one vowel too far, but a lot of that has to do with how much I just doooon't like Chapel Hill.

Annnyway. Easiest race recap ever. Ya ready?

The more detailed version goes like this:

Lined up in the endzone of the field at Kenan Stadium, UNC-Chapel Hill (better known to everyone outside of NC as just plain "Carolina"), behind the 10:30 pace group sign. My goal was 11 min miles. Ran into a few people I knew and had last seen at the NC Half in Charlotte, which made me feel slightly less alone! I tried to ignore the people lined up behind me talking about hos compression gear was all a placebo effect, as I had my fancy hot pink compression sleeves on my shins :( Listened to Meb give some inspirational advice, and then, we were off!...sort of. I had to travel the from my endzone to the other one, around, and halfway back down the field before I hit the start line. It was quite an antsy while, which you'll see in my chip vs. gun times.

The course was pretty, well laid out, tons of volunteers making sure you were going the right place, and many chances to see other runners. For one part of it, the 2nd loop around was 2 lanes of the street and the slower first loop around was the other half of the street. I had to keep reminding myself to run MY race and also not get distracted looking at the form of the faster runners.

Water breaks were at the 2, 6 and 8 mile marks, with Gu at the last one. I made the mistake of taking the Gu last, so the last taste I had in my mouth was the vanilla bean Gu, which is a good taste, but I had to climb an evil hill- no really, they do a split time of just that 1 mile stretch because the hill is *that* evil- and finding water after the finish line was like hunting it in the Sahara sooo I should've rethought that strategy. Or they should've had the Gu lady first, not last at the station.

Anyway, I almost stopped at 3 miles in. Not because I hurt, but because a family member I haven't talked to in nearly 3 years called. Other people had been keeping me in the loop, but still, to get the call directly from them was enough to make me break down in tears on the side of the course. I read the Google Voice transcript of their voicemail and had this moment of "what the crap do I do?!" I could've walked back to the stadium, but the more I breathed and thought logically, the less good I figured that would do. I had trained for 10 miles, knew I had it in me, and I'm pretty sure that the way I will deal with this news is running, so might as well get used to it now. Besides, there was nothing I could do, so I might as well just keep running. Yes, the irony of getting a phone call 3 miles into a race that raises money for a cancer research center from someone calling to tell you they're dying of cancer.

I cried, a lot, and pretty sure between my already red-hot face, sunglasses, and my location solidly in the 2nd half of runners, people just thought I was tired and injured. What hurt first, however, were my hips. Just like in my half, I was super excited that what came to my "um...ow?!" senses first wasn't my shins or my knees. My shins felt fine and my knees weren't painfree, but whatever. There were hills, if I haven't mentioned that yet, and some of them were steep mofos, so I don't blame the hip flexors for hurting first. Later that day, my glutes would also scream their "hey, remember us?!?!" message :/

Where am I in this seemingly meandering race recap? Uh, how about if I just get to the end. I was running 10:30 miles until I hit the hill, and I just didn't have the mental focus to keep running, no matter how slow. Only a few short walk breaks, but dang, that killed my pace. My clock time had me doing 11:41 miles, but chip time was better than that :) You can see just how flipping long it took to actually start!

1:56 is my gun time, 1:47 is my chip time, 10:47 is my pace. First 2 numbers are start and end of the eeeevil hill!

I wasn't the happiest camper at the finish line. There was a pause in handing out the medals, so I had to wait on the field surrounded by other recent finishers, no water, no liquid refreshment, and seeing medals finally getting handed out halfway up the stairs with people completely oblivious to the horde waiting for them to MOOOOOOVE below. When I finally got my medal, I was still ready to strangle every volunteer who HADN'T run up Laurel Hill since the last time they had water and told me "oh its not very far"... If I can pass 2 tents of volunteers between you and the water, don't lie to me!

Good race, don't know if I'll do it again, just because its a weird distance, I detest Chapel Hill and UNC especially (hazards of being a State alum) and that hill is nothing but evil.

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Pictures, PICTURES

I promised you pictures so, feast your eyes on THIS! Between this one and my "sooo, I'm back!" life should even out. Totally in pain in ways that rival the worst post-workout ever, minus my arms. Had I been doing crazy upper body lifting, it would be awful, but going down stairs? Yeah, the first two are entertaining, but after that I get into a rhythm!

Anyway... the pictures!

I did a lot of hiking in the summer. Gotta love state parks!

Dressed up like a Pilgrim for the Thanksgiving Day 8k. See that leg ripple?!?!

Yeah, I was sort of zoned out for this one...

Totally "doesn't count" Jingle Bell 5k, but I was festive, and the socks got mad love!

Festivities post- Run Green 8k! I swear this was BEFORE my free beer!

Repping the mad crazy St. Patty's spirit with the Roomie!

There's... a reallly funny story I'll tell at parties behind this, but just know I ran across the bridge in the background, and that's my sailor uncle pretending like he ran it with me at 6:30 on a Saturday morning and yes, that's TWO Gatorade bottles in my hand!

Me, post Half :) Quite proud of this one :D

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

Mic check....

So… I’m back. And when I say I’m back, it should also be noted that I’m about to take it easy. Whiplash yet?!

Let me backtrack… when last we met, I believe I was still slaving away at the thesis, dating Fred, looking for a job and chilling on the running because North Carolina in the summer isn’t the best for avoiding heat. Now, the thesis is done, degree in hand, Fred… is still Fred but not mine, details on the latest version eventually, back to looking for a job, and yes, almost about to take a break from running because its already 60* at 7am nowadays.

I got back into running in September. Yeah, no clue why I got back into it when it was SEPTEMBER and still suuuper warm, but I knew I needed to get back into some sort of routine. Maybe there were even a few cooler days that gave me hope?! I stopped writing stuff down, so who knows. What I did discover was that I was faster! I hadn’t lost the “speed”, but I could go faster! I started back on KR’s 10k plan, and then got boy whiplash and thought that maybe I’d ratchet it up to a half marathon in…January?!

But FIRST! The roomie, the mom and I dressed up like fools for a Turkey Trot 8k on Thanksgiving Day. What better way to make sure you won’t gain as MUCH weight from the turkey and stuffing and pies than to rev up the metabolism before all the goodies?! I tried to rev up quickly for a couple of halfs in January, but shin splints, traveling for Christmas and the realization that apparently yes, at 25 is when your body decides it wants to break down led to 0 half marathons for January.

Except… you see… I’d done something crazy on Thanksgiving Day, darn post-race endorphins! But let’s keep this chronological! Having conquered my own 8k, I volunteered to mentor for Fleet Feet’s 8k Training group. Making it even more fun?! I knew I’d have someone to drag, I mean, keep my company twice a week. The roomie had gotten into running, starting with the couch to 5k plan and was ready to go be faster, stronger and generally more bad-ass!

So, with our first run a chilling 2 miles on a Tuesday evening in January, the roomie and I were off! We were both in the 11-13 minute/mile pace group. I started off being comfortable at the back, but as the weeks progressed, I sometimes had to be the mentor at the beginning of the pack. Those 11 minute miles got trimmed to 10:30s and shorter, while talking, and before I knew it, it was the last week of January which meant…

MY half marathon training started! On Thanksgiving Day, I’d signed up for the first NC Half Marathon at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. There were a few other races in that general time frame that I was considering. I figured late March would mean it would still be cool, maybe rainy, but warm enough to run without 50 million layers. The one I’d originally had my heart was soon ruled out. Never underestimate the power of bad word of mouth!

The roomie’s friends had heard that my “target race” was on a great course, but the people running it didn’t know what they were doing. Messed up logistics? Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for disaster at my first half. Plus, that was the race where KB got injured and was a hobbling fool for weeks afterwards. I started looking around and, having family near Charlotte, figured that driving 2 hours to go race was totally sane, so why not?!

I did the 8k with the training group, rocked it, but dear heavens, the HILLS around here! I realized I’d pushed myself more than I planned to or remembered when I went to go run the next day. It totally did not happen. I think I did 2 miles, and cried like a baby for the last mile. Always great walking into the house and explaining to your boyfriend that, despite being out for 25 minutes, you only went 2 miles and yes, your face is caked in snot and tears, Cosmo’s surefire way to attract men!

At this point, I had to juggle the Runner’s World half training plan I’d been following with what my body would physically allow me to do. I did most of my long runs, but my mid-week runs weren’t as long or as fast or inclusive of the speed work as I would hope or plan for. The two “perfect” examples were the 8 mile run that didn’t happen and the 10 miles of pure suck. The 8 mile was supposed to happen on a Thursday evening, about 2 weeks after the 8k. I’d run 2 miles on my shin splints the Sunday before and knew that if I could just get 5 minutes in, the pain would just be numbed and dull and I could power through.

Except… I couldn’t get out of my own head. This is a seeeerious problem for me, but that night, I just panicked, didn’t want to keep pushing through the pain, yelled at my training partner (aka dear sweet willing to mess up his workout schedule for me boyfriend) for always staying 2 steps ahead of me, not by my side, and other random thoughts just took over and I was DOA. I maybe did 2 miles? And that was it. Buried the thought of that run, shook it off, moved forward.

A trip to the beach that weekend threw a huge wrench in my 10 mile plans for that weekend, so I decided I was still on shin splint recovery rest, and had a much better and motivating 2 mile run with the bf and a dog that can actually run! (Yes, I still love Lucy, but the gremlin rebels at walks up hills, she can’t pace you for 2 miles!) There was still another weekend to do a 10 miler, so I marked on the calendar in Sharpie, planned out a challenging but scenic route, made sure the phone with music was charged and headed out! At 10 am... when it was really sunny…with plans to just get water/Gatorade at random gas stations and fountains along the way…and some darn evil hills…and a part with just the side of the road, no sidewalk…and one of the most stressing things that could happen to a girl less than 48 hours old … I did 10 miles.

Did. I didn’t run the whole way. Might not have run even half of it, but Huck (so bf has a nickname, its “Huck”…continue on) refused to let me turn around unless it was on the route. He let me walk some, took pictures of the snakes on the sidewalk near the arboretum, downed the world’s best Gatorade at mile 8, looked at me like a CRAZY person when someone that I knew (but didn’t explain to him that I knew) stopped to give us water, but most of all kept me moving and reminded me WHY I was doing this and that I was doing this for ME and HE was doing this for me, darnit! That’s love, ladies and gentleman.

They say awful training runs set you up for some pretty awesome races. You know, sort of like how awful dress rehearsals in band or for a play get out all the suck, so that all you have left when it counts is the awesomeness you have inside of you?! Well… today was awesome. There were signs that said “embrace the suck” but I didn’t, because there wasn’t any left. I’ve had some pretty awful days since the shin splints reared their ugly head, and not just because of running, but the kind of days where you have to consciously and deliberately remind yourself that its just a bad day in a good life, or an awful day in a flipping AMAZING life, focusing on the positive, working on the parts of your life that you CAN control. Today, I blocked it all out.

The butterflies grew noticeable as I was standing in line waiting to pee when it was 7:26 and the race was scheduled to start at 7:30 and I didn’t know exactly where to line up. Thank heavens for lightning delaying the start! Oh yeah, by the way, tooootally saw lightning driving into the speedway. Not scary at all! But, I peed like a champion speed demon, found Huck, and found my way to the start line, my pacing group and started the music, after taking a picture or 2, of course, and posting it to Facebook. Priorities!

There was a lot of “ok, run YOUR race, know YOUR goals, forget about the people around you, they didn’t train like you, their shins don’t hurt like yours, they might just be faster than you, this tank needs to last you longer than anything you’ve prepped for so its okay to be conservative now” running through my head for, oh, 2 miles?! I ran into people I knew at the first mile marker, had someone else talk to me shortly after that, and my mood was just ON!

The music was great, I ran into more spectators and runners that I knew, and at mile 6, picked up a running buddy. BJ was walking, but I told him to get back to running, he was almost through the worst parts! We ran into mile 10 together, when he peeled off for the bathrooms. He and I had the same goal pace, and were both super excited to not be crawling (yet…or do I?! keep reading!) and setting personal distance records with every step we took. Reason #918 I love running- you can make new friends mid-race and make 5 miles feel like a walk in the park.

Other highlights include:

    kid with the sign that said “slap sign for extra power boost”- I hit it twice!

    Running over US 29 on a pedestrian bridge that had some bounce to it. Later found out that a few years ago, one of those bridges collapsed! Seriously excited I didn’t know that before the race!

     I was on the 4^th mile when I saw the eventual winner, and he was in mile 9. Yeah…he did it in half my pace, but he didn’t look as happy as I did across the finish line and he probably didn’t get as many hugs as I did!

    I never. Stopped. Running. No walk breaks. NONE! I told myself to get to 10 miles, and once I got there, I pulled a mental switcheroo and said “enh, you only have a 5k left, no walking, suck it up!” and it worked! Personal pride, determination, not just to say “I didn’t walk” but also to just get this thing DONE with were amaaazing motivators!

     The course went around the NASCAR oval, then out around that track, around the dirt track and down and back over the drag strip, around the outside of the NASCAR track then, and this is the cool part, you ran through the tunnels to get onto the asphalt again. Something SUPER chilling about running through a tunnel, and then emerging to the light and lots more spectators and a finish line that, yes, is 2 miles away, but that you can at least SEE!

   

And last…but oh.my.goodness…not least. I smiled I ran across the line, and I cried for a second because I was done, I did it, in 2 hours and 27 minutes, without walking, and hey, here comes a super awesome medal. Seriously, this medal has cars that move and LED drag strip lights that do the countdown. I got my picture taken, grabbed food, found Huck, and just reveled in the glory that was my first completed half. Yeah, I said first. This might be a regular thing!

Every muscle in my legs is on fire, my upper abs even took a turn at being in pain, but the pride of what I did makes it all worth it. The medal is hanging on my door right now, but I need to find a place of honor to hang it in my room. Yeah, I’ve got my master’s, but right now, the accomplishment I’m the most proud of culminated with two and a half hours on a Sunday morning in Charlotte. Maybe it’s the post race endorphins, but dang they’re good and strong, and I wouldn’t trade my hobbling body for the world right now!

…pictures to come!

Here’s to the next TV timeout,

Syd

The good, the bad, the muddy!

Sooo I have another 3 run stories for you today!

1- THE GOOD

Wednesday night's No-Bo run. It was a 2.5 mile loop that was a slight down hill for the first 1.5 miles...so of course that means an evil straight uphill for the last 1 mile, but I was super proud of my people and myself that we didn't quit! I even had enough to sprint it in :) I forget how long it took, but for as hilly as the course was, I remember being happy with the timing!

2- THE BAD

After Saturday's run (that's next!) I mapped out a 3 mile course, making sure I parked on the low ground. I thought it would just meander up the hill, then speed down it.

Except I was probably dehydrated.

And wearing black.

As it was rreeeally sunny.

And no shade on the uphill.

And the hill was the eeennntiiiirrreee 1.5 miles.

I started bargaining with myself- "run to the fire hydrant!...okay, see it flattens a bit, run to the next fire hydrant!...run until you get to 1 mile... run til you get to the next street! run to the shade!" and once I got up the hill, I took a song to walk, and meandered down the hill through campus back to my car.

Lesson learned? Run the first half of the course again... but halfway up the hill, throw a water bottle into the woods. Turn around at the top of the hill and grab water bottle when I need it on the way back down. Oh, and not running at 11am when the sun is beating down on you would be good. And not running on a dehydrated body after a race which leads me to...

3- THE MUDDY!

With a group I've been training with for a few months, we did a "5k" on Saturday morning. While I'll save the criticism I had for the race to the post I put on active.com , I did have a good time, thanks to the people I was with! (The race organizer did send out a "this was our first time, bear with us" e-mail this morning, but my main gripe was, and continues to be, no water on a 2.5 mile obstacle course on a sunny day in May.) I shall now tell the rest of the story in pictures :)

Our team (and one coach)

Mean faces!

8 ft wall

Getting hoisted over- I am not that white, I had underarmor, I swear!!!

I can tell you, my exact thought was"uh okay...how do I get down?!"

Out of the woods, more than half-way there!

The "mud"

"Valley of Tires"...uh sure...if you say so!

FINISH LINE!

After!

How I felt...Braiding by KR :)

Towards the beginning...when I still had tons of energy!

With Fred at the end :)

Here's to the next TV Timeout!

-Syd

Mystery Run

I went for a run today. I got a little bit lost, but thankfully, this man pointed me in the right direction.

There were lots of pretty gardens...

More statues...

A HUGE library...

And a nice gravel path. Oh, did I just give away the locale?!

I started (and ended) the run at THIS building, though!

That's right, Fred and I are on a random jaunt up to DC to see his family, and later, the Air and Space museum! Its not that far of a walk, and I've never been! I always come up here during major tourist times, so hopefully a random Saturday afternoon will be chill.

I also accidentally crashed a small 5k so that I could run ON to the mall and its gravel path. There were some random stages set up, so I ran to them, just to see, and behold! It was the set up for George Washington University's Commencement. 

Once I'd seen that, the rest of the area was pretty familiar (and ripe for running tomorrow!!!) so I headed back...and UP Capitol Hill. Yes, I finished my 3 mile and change run in under 30 minutes, including the times I stopped at crosswalks, took pictures, admired the view and ran up the evil hill. I read something yesterday that talked about how to attack hills, and they basically said DON'T attack. Keep your rate of turnover (how many steps you take in a certain time) the same, shorten the length of your steps, focus on getting up, look up and sort of tell the top "hey, I'm going to get to you and DO THIS!" It worked, oddly enough! I was huffing, puffing, sweating but darn proud of myself. 

Stretched out TONNNNs when I got back to keep the muscles in my legs happy and even and thus, keep the KNEES happy and even :)

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd

running hangover

 Races, and runs in general, should not give you hangovers, especially when there's zero alcohol involved. They should also not make the random cough/body aches you have a million times worse. And yet...

I was up at 6:15, out the door an hour later. Despite knowing what was ahead, I dared to eat breakfast. Sort of. Cinnamon toast and a scoop of pb. The toast was to make my stomach be temporarily happy. PB was to give me protein that would stick, literally!

Its also worth mentioning that it was 35 degrees outside and raining cats and dogs. Gotta love the fact that I was reading a news story about how Raleigh was in drought conditions, down 2 inches. We got it, EVERY LAST FLIPPIN' DROP, today. I'm confident in it. Okay, so maybe I drove away with a lot of it in my hair and clothes, but w/e.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, I signed up for the Krispy Kreme Challenge. Basic premise? Run 2.4 miles, mostly downhill, eat a dozen glazed Kripy Kremes at, conveniently, a Krispy Kreme shop, show off your empty box, then run back up the 2.4 mile hill. You're supposed to do it in under an hour. Oh, and DON'T PUKE!!!

Waiting for the starting line. This was about an hour into my time of standing in the cold rain?

NCSU's Bell Tower. Number of bells in it? 0

At the Krispy Kreme shop. First, and last, time there!

Smushing #s 6-9

Made it seem like I was only eating 1 at a time. Not 3. Maybe. Not really.

 Since we've already talked about how flippin' cold it was, since it was also rainy, my two survival strategies were conflicting. Generally, I like to layer to keep myself warm, but in rain like today's, the more you wear, the more that gets soaking wet and weighs you down and keeps you cold. 

With this in mind, I didn't wear gloves. The race started at 8:30, I finished at 9:47, and it wasn't until about 11- post hot shower, hot tea, and lots of blankets to snuggle under- that I regained total control of my hands. Well, sort of. They're still "creaky."

This is why all the picture of my hands seem a bit "awkward." Plus, the glaze was making the disgusting taste that it does after about donut #2 in my mouth. BLEGh.

There was a lot of biting, chewing, looking up, hoping the bites weren't going to get stuck in the esophagus, etc. It was quite hilarious watching people crying and struggling over the last few bites. One girl was pacing in between bites. Oh, how I sympathized with her!

Oh, and maybe I just grabbed a good box, or they really can crank the suckers out quickly, but the box I grabbed had nice, fresh donuts. I was actually very disappointed when I bit into them and they were light, fluffy, fresh! 

Curses...

I can honestly say, though, that I will never- NEVER- crave another glazed donut, so long as I live. 

I have been sitting here in the world's worst hangover all day. The only time I felt this bad was the morning of my 21st birthday- and yes, you can imagine the zaniness that happened before, especially since I can't remember! But at least after that night, I could drink water, take pain killers, eat the random food my stomach craved (ceaser salad and roast beef sandwich, both from Panera) and feel better. Today? Buh. Food and water were the ENEMY!!!

It took me 75 minutes, which usually is an awful pace for 4.8 miles, but I ATE A DOZEN DONUTS. I think those took me about 20 minutes? I wayyyy underestimated that! 

KB did it too, and she successfully finished in under an hour- 55 minutes, to be precise! Overall, she got 59th in the female "challenger" division. There were lots of "casual runners"- aka "I'll eat a few, then take the rest with me" crowd. I had a moment of smug satisfaction every time I passed those people on the way back. 

Can not! wait to be healthy and de-donut-ified and go for a run in nice weather, or indoor, and just enjoy it. For now?

Here's to the next TV timeout!

-Syd