Boston

I'm not sure if I have anything to add to this conversation but I feel compelled to write. 

I am angry and sad. 

First and foremost I am thinking of those who lost their lives.  I am so sorry for their loved ones.   It makes no sense and I have no words.  Why.

I am thinking of those who were injured in the blast today.  I can't imagine what they are going through. 

I am sorry for the runners in the Boston Marathon who trained for months only to not be able to finish the marathon because an explosion occurred before they could reach their goal. 

I am sorry for those who did finish the marathon, but tonight, instead of celebrating the glory of their finish, they mourn like the rest of us.

I am thinking of the people of Boston, who had their city attacked and one of their most cherished and happy traditions targeted. 

I am also thinking of those who won the marathon.  This moment is one of the greatest happiest moments one can have in the sport of running, and it was stolen from them. 

I am sad for the running community.  An attack at the finish line of Boston feels so personal to so many of us.  Whether you've run Boston before, are an avid runner, or are just a part of the community, it's hard to explain how this feels, or what it means. 

I am thinking of anyone reading this, who feels like normal everyday activities like going to the movies, going to school, or attending a sporting event are not safe anymore.   To anyone who feels like they are losing faith in humanity, don't lose hope.

I know that many stories of heroism will come out of this tragedy.   And I know that the running community will slowly heal.  Thinking of all of you. 

F Yeah Friday, Boston Edition!

Holla and happy Friday!  I haven't done an F yeah Friday in a while, but I'm bringing it back!  It's a collection of all things awesome in the week.   Here are mine.

1) Feeling like your feet move ok. 
After a couple weeks of a very odd workout schedule and little effort, I have decided I'd ease back into working out.  My running confidence has been super low lately, and I've been feeling...at the lack of more elegant words: "chubs and slow", so I figured I'd go to the track and see what a 1:35 half marathon pace even feels like.

Turn out, half marathon goal pace doesn't feel bad, if you run it for 5 miles.  It's probably a lot harder if you...you know...run longer...
3.5 miles in warmup and cooldown.  5 miles on track at 7:12, 7:13, 7:13, 7:12, 7:06 (oopsy...little quick on that last one...I think my brain decided to want to run under 36) = 35:56.  This was a little bit of a confidence booster simply because I know this would have felt hard in the past but it doesn't anymore.

2)  Poorly Written Popular Literature
I'm off to San Francisco this weekend!  I can no longer call it "San Fran" as Roserunner informed me that it's "way not cool" to call it that.   I'm pretty excited.  And I'm actually excited to get on a plane too.  Mostly because I want to continue reading the Hunger Games on my Kindle.  
I know someone's not going to appreciate this, but The Hunger Games remind me of Twilight only with less "omg Edward":  Poorly written but I can't stop turning the page.

Team Jacob, yo.  Taylor Lautner's got it goin' on. 

3)  Boston Registration
It looks like the registration is going smoothly and lots of my blogger friends are gettin' in.  Honestly, I was expecting much more of a drama show of the registration.  I'm really excited for everyone who is going to run it.
I gotta admit, as someone who thought I would only run Boston once, making Boston harder to get into...makes me want to do it...mostly because I probably won't be allowed!

You cannn't always gettt whatcha wannnttt. 

My "BQ" is the 3:35:16 I ran in Boston this last year.  So I'm in the general pool.  And it'll probably be full before I could register.  But that's cool.

Groucho Marx said it best (and I'm paraphrasing):  "I would never want to be a member of a club that would accept me as a member".  

hehe.

But anyways, congrats to all that were accepted into Boston, and I hope that some in the "BQ but not by more than 5 minutes" are able to register.  It was an amazing experience, and I would recommend it to anyone crazy enough to want to run a marathon and qualify.

What was awesome about your week?  

Did you register for Boston (or are you planning to)??

Boston Marathon Race Report

Here GOES!! 

Pre Race

The night before Boston, I had dinner with my mom, brother, sis in law, and BF  (how awesome is it that they traveled all the way to Boston for this?? --  perhaps they heard my BQ time was 2:37 not 3:37??).  

For dinner, went to tasty Afgan place called "The Helmand".  Before my last marathon (Chicago 2009), I went out for Indian food.  I think I'm playing Russian Roulette with my pre-marathon dinner choices  (tmi?).

I couldn't sleep the night before at all due to nerves and excitement.  I couldn't believe that Boston (dream come true) was finally here! 

Here's my pre-race pile of gear.    

The next morning I woke up, and went downstairs to find that our B&B had gotten up early to make us coffee and bags of snacks!  How awesome is that...

Morning Pre Marathon Terror

We (the Charlotte Running club and I) took a couple cabs to catch a bus and finally found ourselves at the start of the race!  

Race Start:

The first few miles were pretty uneventful.  I knew I was going out a bit ambitiously (7:58 pace or so), but I kind of didn't care.  The marathon was different in that it almost felt like I was on a run with a ton of people rather than racing them.  This is probably because we were all seeded similarly and going about the same pace.  I went through the 10k around 49 minutes and the 10 mile mark at a similar pace.  I ate some sport beans right around then too.  There were tons of residents out supporting the runners with water, orange slices, etc.  The giant bunny ears I was wearing definitely helped get some cheers!  

I realized that I wasn't being very original wearing the ears though - I passed two girls who were wearing bunny ears as well!  

After about mile 10 or so, the race started to get a little more interesting.  We passed the Wellesley girls who were holding all sorts of "kiss me" signs and were cheering up a storm.  I high fived 90% of them and was having the time of my life.  

Mid Race

I passed the half right at 1:44 and some change and took a gel right around then.  This pace was still a bit ambitious for me, and by mile fifteen (I was trying to fool myself and was saying to myself that it was mile 5), my quads were starting to hurt.

Mile 16 was when things got a little tougher but I knew my family was going to be at mile 17 cheering for me, so I was still pretty excited.  I saw the Fam at 17....

    Freaking Awesome Sister In Law

This is what they saw:

Ridiculous rabbit running for glory

I had to bend down my ears because the wind was blowing them too much.  

Around mile 18, I started feeling tired.  I knew that I was slowing down as well, which wasn't helping my morale.  I wish I could say that I had some wonderful mantra to power through these miles, but really, I just focused, drank a lot of water, and ran. 

Last Leg

I told myself that the real race didn't start until mile 19.  By this time, my energy to slap fives with the kiddies and interact with anyone yelling "Bunny Ears"  was leaving me.  However, the crowd and volunteers continued to be amazing.  There was Gatorade at every stop, spectators with other food, and the Boston College students there to cheer us on.  It really was amazing.  

I also kept telling myself that no matter how uncomfortable I was, this was an experience of a lifetime and I gosh darned well better enjoy it!   It kind of worked :).  

At mile 22, I looked at my watch and realized I had to run the final 4.2 in around 40 minutes to PR.   I figured I could do this, and set a new goal - to "requalify" for Boston using the more difficult standards.  I mistakingly thought the new standards were 3:35:59 (I later realized I was wrong about this, it's 3:35:00!).  

The last miles were a bit of a blur.  Wonderful, Painful, Exhilaration.  

Is this woman text messaging??

The last miles clicked by and soon I saw the finish sign.  

I crossed at 3:35:16.  A PR of 2:07.  

Here's the online data:

14683	Faster Bunny	28	F		CA	USA
5k 10k 15k 20k Half 25k 30k 35k 40k 0:24:47 0:49:32 1:13:54 1:38:54 1:44:22 2:04:02 2:30:04 2:57:23 3:23:58 Finish: Pace Proj. Time Offl. Time Overall Gender Division 0:08:13 3:35:16 9209 2046 1524

All in all, a good race and a good effort.   I wish I had legit "new qualified" for Boston, but there are always goals for next races.  It was probably the most fun I've had in 26 miles ever, and that's pretty freaking wonderful.  I also think I finally feel like a "real" marathoner (that was #3) and that's pretty cool too.  :).  

Now time for the shout out to 

SkinnyRunner 

and 

BlueEyedRunner

and ALL the other bloggers who ran Monday (or raced at all this weekend for that matter)!  (I'm still new in blog-town, sorry if I didn't remember to shout out for ya!).   

Well that's all I've got - hope you enjoyed !

Boston Weekend! -Pre-Race Tour Edition

I know you guys want the goods (the RACE REPORT) but the pre-race was too fun not to give a short shout out to first.  

The flight into Boston was just fine and the amount of people who were running the marathon on the plane was HUGE.    On the flight, I was pretty tired so I took 2 Tylenol PMs (my airplane sleep attempt) and tried to sleep as best I could.  

I met the BF in Logan airport Saturday morning and as you can imagine, I was well rested, not grumpy at all, and smelled wonderful.  Luckily, BF did not break with me on the spot and we took a cab to our cute B&B. 

Mary Prentiss Inn in Cambridge

We met up with my high school friend Boriana and her ridiculously fast members of the Charlotte NC running club (seriously fast.  one was in the elite women division....whoaaaa) and went to the expo.  

I think my expectations for the race expo were a little high - it was a little crowded and unexceptional in my opinion.  I'm not sure what I was expecting, but because my expectations for all things Boston were sky high, I'm pretty sure anything short of my running into Joan Samuelson, her shaking my hand, and then offering me a free Lemon Luna Bar would have disappointed.  

HOWEVER - here is my real thrill of the expo - race goodie bag in hand!!

The Boston race shirts are also pretty sweet - yellow long-sleeve tech tees.

After fighting the expo crowds we went on the Boston Duck Tour.  It was great, but I was so tired at this point, I was falling asleep on the bus.  The only thing that kept me up was knowing that I'd dropped $34 on my tour ticket.   That, and lovely hilarious BF doing Sesame Street impressions to make me laugh (I have a very refined sense of humor).

The next day we toured around Cambridge and pretended to be Harvard students.  I loved Cambridge.  It was adorable with tons of unique shops and restaurants.

We didn't get to see some of the sights I would have loved to have seen in Boston (the inside of each Baskin Robbins, for example) BUT it was charming, easy to get around in (by public transit), and full of history.   I'd definitely recommend a trip to Boston to anyone.

I've heard the one must-see that we missed is walking Freedom Trail.  Next time...next time... =)

Beantown Costume Showdown

I've run the last couple days, so here if my promise to the blogosphere that I will take tomorrow off!

 I think I feel more pressure to do well at Boston than at any race I've run post high school and here's why:

1- It's a dream come true for me to have this opportunity.  I've wanted to run Boston ever since I knew about marathons. 

 2- I've got MAD FAMILY coming (3 + BF) !  My mom (who only gets on planes for weddings and graduations) is closing our family restaurant in Virginia to come up and watch me!  

 

Hilariously my mom told me to call her when I arrive in Boston Saturday so she'll know for sure I'm running and can put up a "We'll Be Closed Monday" sign in our family restaurant's window.  So for example, if my leg breaks off between now and Saturday, she won't have to close unnecessarily.  

3) I want to perform well for YOU, my 3.5 readers!  I hope to make you proud :).  But if I can't be sure to make you proud, I can at least attempt to make you laugh, which leads me to what I did tonight.....

STEP 1 (acquire bunny ears from craft store) 

STEP 2 (get ears off super uncomfortable-to-wear headband)

GLORIOUS STEP 3  (sew ears onto running headband)

Oh YES I DID!  

I can't lie, I'm nervous to pull off wearing this headband for 26.2.  

But I'm really hoping some little kid on the course yells "Look mom!  It's the Easter Bunny!".  I'll run over and high-five Junior, and that will make it all worth it!  

Ok - Have a great night!  And... if you get a chance, please go give HungryRunnerGirl a hug!  She is injured and needs hugs!  

"Yasso 800s"

So this morning I decided I'd go to the good ol' track.

I have to be honest, I don't really know how much to push myself there. The only track workouts that feel real to me were the track workouts of death from high school. They were probably so hard because I generally did them with girls who had 5k times a good 2 mins faster than me.

That said, the ones listed in Runners World, etc seem too easy and not good enough for race prep. Hard to decide friends, hard to decide :).

Today I decided to attempt the Yasso 800 workout ! I did 90 sec rest bc I am inpatient and 3 minutes rest seems ridiculous. Here are the splits!

3:23, 3:23, 3:24, 3:24, 6:49 (Got bored and just did a mile....), 3:26, 3:24.

I was pleased with this workout. I'm not going to fool myself and say that this is an indication I'll be running anywhere in the 320s (I would die a happy woman), at Boston but it was good times!

I was also pleased that the extremely huge man that walks around the track every day was there still. One time I heard him say "you got it, good job!" over my ipod shuffle.

Then I realized that he talks to himself the whole time and he had no kind words for me! That said, mad props to him. Walking around a track at 400 lbs must be hell. I'd be yelling encouragement to myself too!

And because Christina said that if I don't post pics, no one will read my blog, here's a great one post workout (above bc I don't know the pic format yet). Modeling agencies please call one at a time....

I will post our biz plan for this blog and the "other one" tonight! Get readddyyyyy

I'm not a business man...I'm a Business....Man....