3M Half Marathon Day!

Today's workout:
Run-3M Half Marathon (13.1)
Weights-2 x 15

4:45am. alarm goes off. Make smoothie, toast bagel, feed pups.

5:15am. get dressed-drop some friends off at the pool

5:45am-leave house, drop-off chauffeur service courtesy of Christopher Beer

6:00am-arrive at Embassy Suites where Kristi and Wayne slept last night. The hotel is right at the start line.

6:15am-meet Bonnie in the lobby and take a light jog to her hotel so she could get her watch

6:30am-pit stop in the woods by start line.

6:40am-line up with the 1:45 pace group and make plan of attack. Kristi and Bonnie plan to run with
the 1:45 pace group. I plan to run with them for about 50 yards and then drop back. Wayne plans
on going for a PR-sets the cyber running buddy on his watch for a 9:30 pace. I don't have a time goal yet.

6:44am-They announce that it's 73.3 degrees. It's 6:45 in the morning on January 30th. Gotta love Austin.  That wasn't quite the accurate temp though. News reports the following, "Start time weather conditions for the race were cloudy with a temperature of 64 degrees with south winds of about three miles per hour; humidity was 87%" 


8:02 minutes into the race-I hit mile one. Ooops, went out way to fast. I usually run 9:30s or so while I warm up. I paid the price for the next couple miles. I was able to stay in front of the 1:50 finish time pace group for a while, so I set a little goal to finish in under 1:50. They caught up to me around mile six and passed me around mile seven. I pulled off to the side, walked, had a little pout, filled up my water bottle, and then told myself to keep running. So I did. Chris had told me on the way to the race start that if I didn't walk, I would probably get my best time. So I thought of him and kept running the whole time. 


Just before mile eleven, the race goes right past Jenni's house, and that's so awesome-every year I get some high fives from them and a little fresh energy for the last two miles.


With two miles left, I'm on pace for a PR, but because of my 1:50 disappointment, I didn't even really care, I didn't speed up, I just told myself to stay at the comfortable pace I was at, and whatever happened happened. I ended up with a PR of 1:53:36. I was pretty happy with that, considering I didn't really push myself except from mile six-seven when the 1:50 group was closing the gap. I think I went out too fast. I should have started with the 1:55 group and then worked my up a little faster. Oh well. There's always next year. It's one of my favorite races. Even after all this Ironman craziness if over, I hope to keep doing half marathons. 


Here are the results from today:
Kristi-1:48:15-totally rocked it out for a major PR! Her last few miles were at a 7:30 pace! So awesome! Way to represent the Jiggly Middles!


Wayne-2:11:28-not the PR he was hoping for, but he still had an awesome run and a lot of fun. He said that running races is one of his favorite things to do. 


Todd-1:27:23-finished in 142nd place overall and there were over 5500 runners!


Bonnie-1:51-ran as a bandit-and even got a medal! 


The race was fun overall-a little rain, a little mist, lots of clouds, lots of spectators, well organized, not much to complain about! Considering we biked a hilly 55 miles and ran two miles after the bike yesterday, and we had no taper, I think we all rocked!


As soon as B and T finished they took the shuttle back to the hotel to start their drive back to Chicago. 


Wayne, Kristi, and I walked back to their place where we met our celebrity guest for the day! Christopher Strong Man Beer! Chris decided to do the weight workout with us today. It was so fun to have him at Club Macca with us! Well, did Chris ever show us up! We've all been doing anywhere from 5-25 pounds of free weights and up to about 40-50 on the machines. Chris comes in there and cranks out huge numbers! 100-plus on the machines and he bench pressed 35-pound free weights in each hand! 

I have to brag on my main squeeze here-we were all pretty impressed! In fact, we were so impressed, we voted unanimously to give him a spot in the gun show!

Such a hunk!

I hope he keeps coming to Club Macca with us! 

I am now pretty comfortable with the "heavier" weights. I'm up to eight whole pounds on the freeweights. Chris said I should go heavier on the leg press. I'm at ten pounds now, and the next lightest weight is 25. That's a big jump. Maybe I'll try it on Thursday. 

After our weight workout we went to Austin Java to celebrate the race. Brad and Mayling joined us too so that was extra fun! 

On the way back to the car we had to stop for some photos because it was such a beautiful day. 78-80  degrees and mostly sunny!

I love Austin!

Once at home it was time to chill on the back deck with some magazines, lots of water to drink, and the sunshine. Nice afternoon. Then.....on to the ice bath! So Kritsi and Wayne are perfecting the fine art of ice bathing, and are sharing their icy wisdom with me. Kristi said the other day that she added 15-lbs of ice to her bath. I thought she was being facetious, because I thought that 15-lbs of ice was a huge amount, like an amount that would fill completely fill an empty bath tub. I didn't realize that one little bag of ice is ten pounds, I thought one bag of ice was about two pounds. Kristi says I thought that because of my big guns-10-lbs is just too easy for me to pick up, so I thought it was lighter! Hahahahahaha! 

Today I added a ten pound bag of ice to the water. It wasn't bad at all. In fact, the ice completely melted within 10 minutes. Chris came in to check on me, and I was leaning on my arm, with my eyes closed. He asked if I was ok, and I said I was just taking a little nap. He said that's the first stage of hypothermia and that he was going to have to keep an eye on me! Then I told him I was just nice and relaxed. He told me I had a strange idea of "relaxing"...sitting in an ice bath!

The end of a fun day is winding down. Just a few things to do before an early bedtime. 

Later gators!

M :)