Funfest Run By The Bay 2011 Race Recap

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I'll be honest, I was really nervous about this race. And not just because of my week of bad runs, but because on Friday night while Sean and I were heatedly playing Words With Friends, I was also googling race reviews for Funfest in years past. And they were not good.

Mostly they talked about how unorganized everything was, how the miles were not clearly marked, and how the split from the 5k/10k was not clear. At least I wasn't already nervous. Sean was nice enough to text me Friday at work the following:

Me: I've had sucky runs all week

Sean: Saving the good run for when it counts, good strategy babe!

This is what was getting me through Friday night. The knowledge that for every bad run, there is a good one waiting somewhere. Have I mentioned that I really like him??

Needless to say, at 10pm Friday night I was neurotically laying out all my running clothes (and yes, even my socks matched my shorts, thanks Jenn!!) and setting out my Clif Shotblocks just in case I needed them (I am not a fan of gels), my iPod, my Garmin, and any other miscellaneous items I thought I may need.

At 4:15am I was sliding out of bed and into my running clothes, and at 4:45am I was running an easy "warm up" mile on the treadmill. By 5:00am I was shaking Sean awake (who seriously gets an award for best husband ever for letting me wake him up earlier than he gets up for work on a Saturday and then subsequently forcing him to drive me an hour an a half to the race. he ROCKS) and loading him up with coffee while I simultaneously made PB + banana toast and got everything ready for us to go to Galveston after the race. By 5:30ish we were on the road.

We got to Funfest about 6:45am and I picked up all of my race stuff and then Sean and I hung around watching all the other runners get everything together. At this point I was feeling pretty good - it was a beautiful day and it looked like it was going to be a beautiful run. We watched the kiddos dominate a 1k and then it was time to line up. Sean fulfilled his husbandly (word?) duties and took the necessary pre-race photos.

Then we found this gem:

I don't even know.

And then we were off.

I suppose now is good time to tell you that I had mapped out certain goals:

1. To finish (I know this sounds dumb, but I was seriously contemplating if I would be able to given the crap runs I had going for me. Ok that's not true, I knew I'd finish, but it seemed like a good goal to have).

2. To finish under an hour. When I did my self-imposed 10k a couple weeks ago, I finished right under an hour.

3. To finish under 53 minutes. I figured that was a good goal to be reaching for, and had pretty much figured out I'd be ok if I ran 8 1/2 min/miles... I just wasn't sure if I could sustain 8 1/2 min/miles the entire time. I wanted to run hard, but sustainable.

When the gun went off there was a little delay in me crossing the start line, so I made sure to start my Garmin right when I stepped foot over it.

That picture has nothing to do with the race, we had just figured out how to work the panoramic settings and I thought it turned out cool and wanted to somehow include it...

Mile 1 went by quickly, I was running about an 8:38 pace and felt good. I figured I'd keep it around there and I should be golden. I picked out a couple people to catch up to and was off without a hitch. We looped around the street and went off onto a small trail. It.was.gorgeous.out. Seriously, one of the prettiest races I've ran to date. I wish I had taken my camera with me, but I left it with Sean because he is notorious for getting finish-line photos. Good husband.

We ran up a wooden bridge (random) to a street that gave you a full view of the bay. This is where it split for the 5k and 10k. And it was very clearly marked. I headed off with the rest of the 10k folks, still feeling good, still maintaining a good pace (little under 8:30).

Around mile 3.5 I started wondering where the turnaround was. There were no runners coming back at that point. But the view of the bay kept me calm and collected, and it was really neat watching the sun come up over the water. Eventually people started coming back and there were water stations every 1/2 mile or so. For the first time ever I grabbed water during the race, because let's be honest, I live in Houston and it's the summer. It's hot. I hit the turnaround and picked a person in front of me to pace me up to them. At this point I checked my Garmin and saw that I was running about an 8:17 pace. Pretty happy and feeling pretty good.

I do want to say though, that one thing that bugged me was that by the time we hit a water station that the 5kers had already ran past, they were out of cups. This seemed like poor planning in my opinion, but I also didn't need water so it didn't really affect me.

I picked water up at random intervals and took small sips before tossing the cups. I also managed to choke on one of the gulps of water I took and got water up my nose. Clearly I have not mastered drinking out of a cup and running. I should point out that while I felt great, I also was very aware of what mile I was on and how much longer I had to run. I just kept telling myself that even though I was running hard, I could maintain it. Right before mile 5 I ate one shot block, but before eating the rest told myself I didn't need them (I didn't) and that I'd be fine without them. So I put them up. Found a guy in a red shirt and ran to him. Passed him on the downhill wooden bridge. Then he passed me. Then I passed him again. There was no way I was going to let him finish ahead of me.

I saw the finish line coming up and my BIGGEST complaint is that there was a couple doing the 5k and they were walking and we hit a turn at the same time and I had to make a huge arch around them because they didn't move. Some of us are here to race, not just to participate. Just sayin'.

I picked up the pace and was running around a 7 min/mile for the last 1/2 mile or so. Crossed the finish line and immediately looked down/stopped my Garmin.

51:13

I am pretty sure I yelled "yes!" pretty loudly. I was so stoked. And out of breath. I had to walk around a bit chugging water before I regained my composure and found Sean. I didn't even say anything, I just showed him my Garmin. I was so proud of myself at that point. I told Sean we could leave, I didn't care about seeing the results because I figured it was a big race (definitely not huge or even the biggest I've been to, but there were quite a few people there) and I wasn't really concerned with my ranking, I was just so happy to have exceeded all of my goals. Sean convinced me we needed to stay because "the last time you wanted to leave early you placed first". Touche.

So we hung around waiting for results. When they finally went up and I finally located my name I lost my breath all over again.

1st in my age group. 5th woman to finish overall. And the girl who placed 2nd in my age group was 7 minutes behind me.

I was beaming. (And yes, I realize that no one pointed out to me that my medal fell behind my number.) Sean noticed though, which is how we ended up with this awkward picture of me:

Overall: I thought it was a great race. It seems like they listened to past complaints and fixed things that had been wrong. Would I run it again? Definitely. It was beautiful. They did seem a little unorganized, but nothing that was unbearable.

Best.Husband.Ever.

Anyone run any races this weekend??

Ever gone into a race thinking it would be horrible and it turned out great? I'm notorious for this.

Weekly Workout Recap, Week 3

We're gonna keep this short and sweet today because 1. I want to work on my race recap and 2. I have to recover from not being home all day yesterday. Weekends are way too short.

What I was supposed  to be doing:

Monday: Rest/Cross-training day

Tuesday: 3 miles @ 10:01 min/pace
Wednesday: Rest/Cross-training day
Thursday: 5 mile tempo run with 3 miles @ 8:27 min/pace
Friday: Rest/Cross-training day
Saturday: Rest/Cross-training day
Sunday: 10 miles @ 10:01 min/pace


What really happened:

Monday: Jillian Michaels 6 Week 6 Pack Workout 1

Tuesday: 3 miles @ 8:57 min/pace
Wednesday: Jillian Michaels 6 Week 6 Pack Workout 1
Thursday: 5 mile tempo run with 3 miles @ 8:27 min/pace
Friday: 10 min. core basics pilates, 10 min. long and limber pilates
Saturday: 1 mile easy warm up, 10k race @ 8:24 min/pace (more on that to come)
Sunday: 2 miles easy, 10 min/pace; 40 min Core Yoga Flow


Overall planned miles: 18

Overall actual miles: 17

You already know that both my 3 mile easy run and 5 mile tempo run sucked. Majorly.

The Jillian Michaels 6 week 6 pack is good, but man my legs were sore, which I think factored into the crappy runs. Because of the sore legs, I opted to not go three times with that this week. There was no way I could handle sore legs for yesterday's 10k.

In all honesty, all of my workouts were sub-par, but I'm ok with that because I had a great race yesterday. But I'll recap all of that later. For now, I'm going to go drink my coffee and enjoy the morning now that I'm awake (because the cats would not leave us alone at 6:30 this morning, jerks).

And I'll leave you with this:

Jillian Michaels - RIPPED IN THIRTY Week 4 Review

First of all, thanks for all your supportive comments and advice. :)

My solution to a crappy week of runs? Mexican food with Sean, one of my besties and her fiance! (Oh wait, that wasn't an option y'all gave...?)

Love her!

And I took it easy today too and just did a little abs/stretching. :)

I don't know why it's taken me so long to finish up the RIT review. These are the other reviews:

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4


What I Liked:


- I really liked the whole warm-up, honestly


- The second exercise in the warm-up you are in a side lunge and you move over to the other side without standing up. This sounds easy, but made me really sore. But the good kind of sore.

- The third exercise in the warm-up you do a side crunch/knee lift. Don't know if that makes any sense, but I feel like my obliques get left out way too much normally, so I was happy to be doing this

- All of the ab moves were hard, but good. I've been trying to focus on strengthening my core more, so I really appreciated the hard workout there


What I Didn't Like:


- Uhh how perfect all three of them look while working out. I am a sweaty mess and they look like they're coming out of the salon. Rude.

- Static squats with overhead presses. OW.

- There was a move where you walked into a downward dog (that was a horrible way to describe this) and then you held one knee and up towards your chest and then switched to the other. The switch wasn't very clear so I had to try to balance and watch the tv while still holding good form.... Eh, not impressed.


Overall: I really liked the whole DVD. I loved that every week you changed, but I think one thing I might do differently if/when I do the whole challenge again is to do each week for 2 weeks, increasing my weights the second week. I definitely recommend it for a good, quick, overall strengthening workout (which is perfect for me since I normally work out before I go to work). It's a little hard on the legs, especially when you're trying to add in distance each week, so be mindful of that. Am I ripped now? Nah, I don't think so. But I do think I'm stronger, and I think it's important to note that I only did it 2-3 times a week and I didn't follow her nutrition plan, I ate what I wanted. Oh, and if you're interested, you can buy it here (thanks, Amazon):

A week of not-so-great runs

We all have them. Those runs that just don't hit the spot. The ones that are a true struggle to get through. The ones where if it can go wrong, it does go wrong. (And if you don't have those runs, we need to talk. Because I am clearly doing something wrong.)

This entire week has been like that for me. On Tuesday I set out to do an easy 3 miles. It was 3 miles of torture. I hated every.single.second. It felt like I was running for hours, when in reality I finished it in 26ish minutes. I was having weird stomach issues. I could only think of one thing: making it home. At the same time, you had better believe I was bound and determined to finish all 3 without stopping.

In the end, I made it. And then I spent the next 20 minutes laying on the tile in our living room with the fan on full blast hoping Sean didn't wake up and walk into the living room and find me in my semi-dead state trying not to puke.

It was only 3 miles.

I can run 3 miles in my sleep.

So what made it so bad? I really have no idea.

This morning I had a 5 mile tempo run. The last 5 mile tempo run I had was glorious. I came out of it wanting to just keep running it over and over again.

Today... Not so much.

My head wasn't in it. My legs were tired. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night. I could give you a million reasons as to why I think it didn't go well, but the truth is, sometimes my runs just suck.

So where am I going with all this complaining? I'm terrified now. I have a 10k on Saturday that I've been looking forward to for weeks, and suddenly I've moved into a state of unease. What was supposed to be easy and fun is now looming over me.

I'm hoping and praying for a miracle run that is all rainbows and sunshine, but preparing for the worst.

What do you do to get out of a "bad run" funk?? Any advice? I'm trying to keep my head in the right place, but I'm pretty discouraged right now.


Oh and sorry for the overkill of cat pictures, but they make me happy, and editing them in Picknik makes me happy too. I really enjoy that when it's loading my pictures it says things like "buttering bread" and "fluffing clouds". Just me?

Rivers and Motorcycles

If you missed the first installment of "what I did on my weekend that you are all waiting anxiously to hear about", fret not, you can find it here.

Because Sean and I are such party animals, as soon as we finished our dinner at Mark's, we went home and fell asleep watching Criminal Minds. Try not to be too jealous of how exciting our lives are. 

Saturday I woke up and rolled out of bed at 6:30 and into running clothes to do the awful 9 mile treadmill run. And just in case you forgot how exclusive-looking our home gym is, here you go:

Like I said, try not to be jealous of us.

After complaining to Sean for forever about how tired my legs were, how boring the last 3 miles of my run were, how hot I was, etc., I finally cleaned up enough to go to one of my best friend's river house for her family's annual crawfish boil. 

Please ignore my headband. I'll just go on ahead and admit now that I did not wash my hair before going. In fact, I did nothing post-run with my hair before going. My bad.

This makes me miss my college years. San Marcos, you and your plentiful rivers spoiled me. The San Bernard is a good substitute, but seriously, SM, you set the standards pretty high. 

That is the hubs about to do a back flip into the river. He is a HUGE show-off. And I mean that very lovingly. 

Yep. There we are again. 

These are some of my favorite people.

When we got home from the river, I had to immediately go plug my phone in because it was dying from me surfing the internet, stalking twitter, and online shopping the entire way home. When I walked into the living room, I found Sean spooning Leo. Proof:

Someone may have had a few too many adult beverages. That someone was not me. I'll let you guess who it was. (It wasn't Leo either). 

Sunday morning I forced Sean up and out of bed to do this:

And this:

And this:

(This picture translates to us spending an hour in the coffee shop sitting next to each other playing each other in Words with Friends. I won.) 

When we got home I kicked Sean out of the house, did an hour of Pilates, shopped a ridiculous amount, and then we met both our parents for dinner. 

Birthday? Successful.

Do you play Words with Friends? We play each other all the time. So far, Sean hasn't won once.

Expensive wine, expensive meals

This post has NOTHING to do with running...

...because I want to remember my weekend in full :) Forewarning: this is long. I'll break it up into a post about Friday and then later on a post about Saturday/Sunday.

First let me be clear about one thing. We don't do nice dinners. Ever. And by "we don't do nice dinners", I mean we never, ever get dressed up and go out. The last time we went to Carabba's, I was in work out clothes (classy, I know). I complained to Sean about never going on dates anymore and so Friday he texted me to tell me we had reservations at 7:30 "somewhere". 

I left work early, came home, had a glass of wine with the hubs, and then we got ready... This told me very clearly how long it's been since I've worn heels because I came wobbling unsteadily out into the living room wearing the heels I bought for my bachelorette party (actually, the whole outfit, thanks, White House Black Market for making me feel rich). I'm very lucky because I don't have to wear heels every day to work. In fact, the majority of the time I'm wearing these bad boys:

Like I said, classy. 

Anyhow, we ended up at Mark's. (Let me pause to just tell you my hubs = awesome.)

Never been? It's ridiculously out of our league. Anyone who gets their initial stamped into the butter they give out must be rich. (Oh and sorry for the crappy picture quality but I turned the flash off so people wouldn't realize I was taking pictures of everything) I'm pretty sure we were the youngest people there and if it had been possible I would've taken the tablecloth home with me just to get my money's worth. 

Mark's is set in an old church, and they really played into all of the details that the church offered - everything was beautiful.

While looking at the wine menu, the wine director cornered us (ok, we were sitting down, she just stopped by our table) and started asking us a million questions about what kind of wine we like, what country/region we like our wine to be from, how dry or fruity we like our wine (is now appropriate to say that we buy 1. wine on clearance at Target and 2. boxed wine from HEB?).

We ended up with a $100+ bottle of wine. You had better believe that when you normally buy wine "because that label is SO cool" or "it's on clearance, let's try it...", $100 for a bottle means that we are drinking every.last.drop.

It was really good, though. She was right on when she described the flavors and it had a nice, smooth, slightly peppery taste afterwards that set well. However Sean's comment was "I can't tell the difference between this stuff and what we had on the way over here..." (Should we have told her that we are SO classy that we drank wine in plastic cups on the way to dinner?)

One of the cool thing's about Mark's is that the menu changes every day. We started out by splitting a salmon sampler that had different types of sashimi salmon with some sort of salad that was to die for. Seriously, one of the best appetizers I've ever had. For the main course, I had seared ahi tuna with risotto and Asian slaw. It was easily one of the best meals I've ever tasted. I tried to eat every bite on my plate but I was so full that I had to leave some of the tuna. 

The whole reason that we went to Mark's in the first place was based on a recommendation from one of Sean's friends. So when we were finishing up our meal and about to grab our check, the GM came out to talk to us and ask us what we wanted for dessert. We both said we were way too full for dessert and he (very politely) told us to pick something, otherwise he would pick for us, and that it was on the house because Sean's friend had called in ahead of time to say we were coming. :) THAT made me feel special. (And let's be honest, you don't really have to twist my arm about having dessert...)

Oh and just to try and redeem myself for re-posting the picture of Sean pointing out the double chin:

We ended up with a raspberry tart with pistachio ice cream that was divine.

Oh yeah, and a candle and a piece of white chocolate that said "Happy Birthday" (I guess now is a good time to mention we were out for my birthday).

If anyone is ever in Houston looking for a really nice (and expensive) place to go to dinner, this is the place, seriously. Actually, the pricing wasn't even that bad, we spent the same amount on a bottle of wine that we did on our appetizer and two dinner plates. 

Oh and if you're wondering, my hubs is seriously the best ever.

Gone on any fancy dates lately? Like I said, we never go on fancy dates. It was fun to get dressed up :) 


Anyone else have the wine problem? I guess we're just really cheap...

Vegas and Workouts

Sean's going to kill me for this but I just can't resist.

Back here I posted a picture of Sean and I. His response was "thanks for posting the picture of me with my double chin". So, in case you had any doubt that guys can be self-conscious about things, here you go:

You're welcome.

I've never been to Vegas. I'm not even sure that I ever really cared about going to Vegas. BUT two of our good friends are getting hitched in Vegas this July! When Sean and I celebrated our first anniversary, we did so with the thought of having a small vacation over our actual anniversary and a big vacation later on in the summer. However, with a Vegas trip in there, we just couldn't justify spending a ton of money and taking a week off work in June and then spending a ton of money and taking off several days in July.

Solution? We're going to Vegas early! And I'm SO excited! I don't know when my feelings about Vegas changed (still not a big gambler), but I'm stoked about going!

Onto week 3 of marathon training :) 

I suddenly can't remember where I saved my cool PDF of my workouts, so this is going to have to do:

Planned miles for the week: 18

Monday: Rest/Cross-training day

Tuesday: 3 miles @ 10:01 min/pace

Wednesday: Rest/Cross-training day

Thursday: 5 mile tempo run with 3 miles @ 8:27 min/pace

Friday: Rest/Cross-training day

Saturday: Rest/Cross-training day

Sunday: 10 miles @ 10:01 min/pace

Yesterday on my weekly trip to Target I picked up this:

I think I'll do reviews of it like with her Ripped in Thirty (you can find week 1 here, week 2 here, week 3 here, and week 4 will be coming this week). But since this has you doing 3 weeks at level 1 and then 3 weeks at level 2, I'll just recap them at the end of each 3 week period. Maybe I'll have a 6 pack after.

The 10 miles this weekend will be interesting considering I'm running a 10k on Saturday. I'm thinking that I'll do the 10k and then do the remaining 3+ sometime Saturday versus trying to do the 10k Saturday and then the full 10 Sunday. Decisions, decisions...

Hope you all have a good Monday! 

Do you try and stick to training plans when you have them? I try and stick to them just because I like having things pre-planned out. But I definitely can be flexible if I need to!

What do you do when you have a long run scheduled that coincides with a shorter race run?