4 Years

Apparently Jeff and I have been married 4 years… I only remembered because I received the following text from my father-in-law this morning:

I don’t think my father-in-law was impressed. 

I just have trouble remembering things like that.  Birthdays are the same way.  In fact, I have trouble with knowing what day of the week it is.  I went all day on Tuesday thinking it was Wednesday. 

Whoops. 

Maybe I should have a calendar reminder for birthdays, anniversaries, etc.  Although, even if I do remember I never say anything.  I just think “Oh its So-and-So’s birthday, I hope they are having a nice day.”  That’s as far as I get, so people probably think I am a big jerk. 

Well anyway…without further ado, in honor of Jeff and I being married for 4 years, here are photos from the best celebration I have ever attended (in my opinion):

Our wedding party was very small (HA!).  My mom MADE all the bridesmaid dresses and we gifted them to the girls (total cost per dress, $10).

Best. Party. Bus. EVER.

  We had a photo op at Busch Stadium.  We took several serious photos.  We have a boring group of friends and family.

Our reception was at the Mad Art Gallery in STL; it used to be a police station so photos in the jail cells were a must (and were very entertaining to us).

We drank, we danced, we laughed.  The reception was a HUGE party!

Can’t forget the cake and gelato!

The night was a blur, but so much FUN!

Happy Anniversary Jeff!  It started as a wild party and still is :)  Can’t wait for all the future adventures with you!

Relaxing is so…BORING

Since the Las Vegas Half Marathon, I have had a nice week off of running, or doing anything that would make me sweat.  It has been a very relaxing week. 

But…BORING!  After work, I have NOTHING to do if I don’t work out?!? 

To top it off, I was planning on filling every free moment with skiing.  But it is hard to ski if there is no snow in the mountains!  It did snow a bit this weekend but it will need to dump another foot or two to really be worth it.

To keep from getting insanely bored during the week, Jeff and I have been heading to the nearest bar or restaurant.  All this eating out and drinking beer will start to add up financially (and on our midsections) if we don’t start working out again.  But at least our taste buds are happy.

Jeff and I also woke up Saturday morning and were bored (again).  So what does one do during the weekend when you don’t have training runs or races?!? 

You learn to Home Brew!  (We really like beer, if you hadn’t noticed…)

Or you dress your dog up in a Christmas sweater!

Or you see all your friends that you had been neglecting while running all those training miles and races! 

Or you sign up for Spring running races!  Whoops…

Well, that whole relaxing thing was short lived.  Now it is time to start training for the next few races!!!!  WOOO HOOO!

And start skiing as much as I possibly can when the snow starts to fall…um, this could be a very tiring and busy winter…which is not a bad thing since I hate being bored :)

Las Vegas for the RnR Half Marathon

This is the third year that Steffanie, Jessica, and I have met in Las Vegas to run the half marathon and to enjoy a boy-free weekend.  Girls weekends are always the BEST, especially with fellow organized Type A personalities!

Back in March, we decided we would do this trip and had the foresight (thanks Jessica!) to book a hotel right away at the new finish line (they changed the course from the previous years).  We ended up getting a KILLER deal on a premium suite at Treasure Island (TI) for booking so early; it was approx 1,000 SF, had two rooms, and an amazing view of the strip (see below).  We DEFINITELY had many cheers to planning way in advance and getting such an awesome room!  And TI is in a great location for the half marathon and is in close proximity to where the post-race parties were located. 

We all arrived Saturday and took the day to catch up, hit up the expo, and RELAXED.  Originally we wanted to go out on the town Saturday night, but we all were tired from the day and ended up agreeing that staying in, ordering room service, and watching a movie was the way to go.  It was so nice to relax with the girls, even if we all felt old and lame.  Oh well :)

Sunday morning we all slept 10+ hours and leisurely got up and ate breakfast.  We then did some more relaxing in our awesome hotel suite and watched another movie.  The afternoon rolled around and it was RACE time.  After I French-braided the girls hair (yes, it is a cliché but we totally had a slumber party and hair braided) we headed to the start line.

The race started at 4:30 PM right as the sun started to go down.  I was in corral 1 and decided to run as fast as I could until my legs gave out (totally going against my race plan as stated in the previous post, whoops).  Steffanie and Jessica started in a different corral and decided to really enjoy the race, stopping to take pictures, talking the entire time, and ended up having an absolute blast.  I was extremely jealous that I did not stay with them.  Sad.Instead I stupidly started running fast down the strip, getting carried away with the wind at my back and on a slight downhill.  Weeee!  I never looked at my watch and couldn’t see the numbers either way because it was dark out.

Soon my legs started to feel heavy at mile 8 and at this time we made a turn and the wind was no longer at my back.  Instead the wind was right in my face.  In fact, there was a wind advisory that day and there were gusts up to 40 mph (so I hear).  I could definitely tell as I felt like the wind was stopping me in my tracks.  I began to slow and the last 3 miles felt like a death march.  My legs felt like crap and I was ready to be DONE.  I also had some GI issues and was happy I didn’t crap myself.

I didn’t know there was a wall to hit during a half marathon, but apparently I found it and ran smack into it.  Another horribly paced race by yours truly.  Damn.

This year they had photographers every 3 feet (well not really that many, but it felt like it) and got a TON of photos of me.  I didn’t look as tragic as I felt, I guess I hide it well when I see the flash of a camera.

I finished in 1:37:41, about 6 minutes slower than last year (and about 7 minutes slower than my half split during my marathon 2 weeks prior, RACE FAIL).  But everyone else must have totally sucked as well because I finished higher in my age group and overall as compared to last year. 

After I finished, I headed straight to TI where I ordered room service and food arrived right before Jessica and Steffanie made it back as well.  We ate and got ready for a night out.

See, we clean up well!

We hit up LAVO night club where we tricked the bouncer into thinking we were a big deal and they let us sit at a VIP table.  We did NOT order a bottle, because they mark those up ridiculously; a $30 bottle of vodka costs $300 (shame on you if you are stupid enough to pay for a bottle at a Vegas club).  Instead I reached into my purse (personal bar) where I had stashed mini bottles and I drank for free all night.  Yep, that’s how I roll.  Eventually some females with larger boobs and who were stupid enough to buy a bottle came around and the bouncers kicked us out of the VIP area.  We were left to standing around with the rest of the masses the remainder of the night.

We had a fun night and got very little sleep Sunday night, but it was worth it!

I love my girls!!  Miss you already!!

Headed to Las Vegas to run a Half Marathon

Tomorrow I head to Las Vegas for my annual girls weekend to run the half marathon.  This will be the 3rd year for me and I think the 5th year for my friends.  It is always a blast, both the running part and the going out in Vegas part.

I went to look for photos from the previous trips, but then I remembered the Vegas code and left them alone.  Plus, I didn’t even get any photos from last year and the photos from 2 years ago I was making disgusting faces.

But I did look up photos from the actual race and found I only made a disgusting face in 2011.  In 2010 I don’t know what I was trying to do, raise the roof? Double wave?  Either way, I was telling you to “Relax.”

The Las Vegas half has treated me right the last few years as I got a PR both times.  Its a pancake flat course, has very few turns, and a great atmosphere.  When I signed up for this 10 months ago, I was planning on trying to break 1:30 this year. 

Then NYC was canceled and I had to push back my marathon 2 weeks and the replacement marathon shredded my leg muscles.  Two weeks later and I am still not fully recovered.  In fact, I have only ran 3 times in the last 2 weeks and felt like by legs were giant worthless turds.

Needless to say, I don’t think I will be able to break 1:30, or even run a PR, or even run at a 8:00 pace.  In fact, I’ll be happy to finish.  So Sunday’s race is most likely going to be a fun run to take in the sights…

But I know when I toe the start line my competitive side is going to want to push my legs to that sub-7:00 pace.  And this is where I need to be smart…I should not run this race fast and risk injuring myself.  So to make sure I feel extra terrible Sunday, I plan on not holding back Saturday night and will drink most everything in sight.  This will ensure I am extra hungover and will be unable to push my legs even if I wanted to. 

Best. Race. Plan. Ever.

Thanksgiving Road Trip to KC and STL

One of the BIGGEST benefits of moving to Denver is being within driving distance to family (my family is in Kansas City, Jeff’s family is in St Louis).  This means that instead of battling the airport crowds around Thanksgiving and Christmas, we can leisurely drive across Colorado, Kansas and Missouri with the dogs.
Not only is driving less stressful (flying around the holidays is the absolute WORST), but it saves us a lot of money.

We spent just over $200 in gas to made the drive to see both my family in Kansas City and Jeff’s family in St Louis.  If we would have flown we would have paid at least $200 per plane ticket ($400), airport parking ($50), transportation between KC and STL ($100), and having someone watch the dogs ($250).  By driving we saved us over $600!  Score.

PLUS we love road trips!

Kansas has a bad reputation for being extremely boring to drive through.  I beg to differ, just look at the proof (although I am partial because I am a Kansas native):

Plus Jeff and I had an Audio Book about CIA and terrorism; it was like listening to an episode of Homeland.  It made the road trip fly by!

It was great to see both of our families and friends and to do some much needed relaxing and eating of home cooked meals by our awesome moms.  We ate so much wonderful food….

We did get to go on 1 run with Jeff’s brother in STL; we did some trail running at Castlewood Park.  It was an awesome trail and even though my legs were STILL dead from the marathon, we got in 7 miles and ran off some of that wonderful food.  It was so much fun to run with Chris and we can’t wait to run a marathon with him in the spring!  Mark my words, all three of us will be breaking some personal running records in 2013…maybe even running a sub-3 hour marathon…

Mesquite Tri State Marathon Recap

The Mesquite Tri State Marathon was on Saturday morning November 17th.  Bulleted summary with results:

• Last minute decision to run this race (signed up Nov 2 when I found out NYC was canceled).
• It is a very small marathon, only 133 marathoners.
• It is not a very organized race (no emails, not a lot of info on the blog-website).
• It is located in the middle of the desert. It is a point to point course and goes through 3 states (Utah, Arizona, Nevada). No crowd support and the roads are not closed to traffic.
• It is a mostly downhill course. Neither Jeff nor I had trained to run downhills (or uphills for that matter).
• The weather was almost perfect for a marathon; in the 50s, partly cloudy, and only a slight headwind for approx. 6 of the middle miles.
• Jeff and I started pretty fast, each coming in at the half point around 1:30.
• There was a noticeable headwind from mile 10-16, hills started at mile 13. There were 3 major hills that were 1/2 mile to a mile in length, long and annoying.  Plus our muscles were not ready for the uphills after all the downhill action. 
• Aid stations were every 2-3 miles, they had water and orange Gatorade in plastic cups.  We have not trained with Gatorade, it was gross and didn’t settle well for either of us.  They only had GU available at mile 18 (I was glad I had my own and took a GU at miles 7, 14, and 20).
• We both died in the second half and hated every step from mile 16 to the finish. Jeff knew he wasn’t going to BQ by mile 16 and just took it “easy” the last 10.  Mentally and physically, this race was tough.
• Results:

 

• Neither of us were happy with our performances.
• Our legs, specifically our quads, are completely trashed from the 13 miles of downhill.  In fact, our whole bodies hurt worse then they ever have after a marathon. 
• Jeff puked his brains out for several hours after the race.  It looked just like the orange Gatorade.  Fun fact, Jeff is the loudest most dramatic puker.  When he pukes it sounds like the world is ending for him.
• They didn’t have cash awards for the top 3 men/women like they did last year (last year 1st- $800, 2nd- $400, 3rd- $200). This year they gave cow bells for awards?!  I was robbed.  I did not accept the cow bell in protest.

Ok, here is a more detailed account of the race:

Jeff and I got up before 5:00 AM, ate some food (bagel, Greek yogurt, Clif Bar), drank some coffee, and got dressed. 

We both had to wear shorts with lots of pockets to stash all of our GU (4 each) and brought bottles to carry electrolytes because we didn’t know what support would be like on the course.  I also brought a roll of toilet paper because I was unsure if they would have porta potties at the start.

The course was point to point so we took a bus to the start.  The buses were nice and we left the host casino at 5:30 AM to get to the start. We ate some more food during the ride (Honey Stinger waffle and chews).  The bus ride took about 45 minutes and we were at the start line at 6:15 AM. 

There were only 3 porta potties, it was cold (they made us get off the bus), and the race didn’t start until 7:00 AM; it was not an ideal start area.  We waited in line for the porta potty for 30 minutes before I decided to go find myself a nice desert toilet and took a glorious pre-marathon dump behind a bush (good thing I brought my toilet paper!).  Jeff jogged around to keep warm.  Last minute we decided not to carry our electrolytes and “checked” a bag in the back of the race director’s car (WRONG decision, should have bought our own electrolytes to drink).

Soon it was time to start, the “announcer” said “Ready, set, go!” and everyone started running.  Small races are so strangely uneventful.  Here are my splits and in red next to the associated split is how I felt:

(And THAT, my friends, is how NOT to run a marathon.  But I will take my PR and all the lessons that I learned.)

The last 4 miles I was all alone, no other runners in sight ahead of me, no fans cheering me on, and was running on the side of a road that was not closed to traffic (it was like a very bad end to a horrible training run).  It was VERY hard mentally to push through to the finish.  Plus I was second guessing whether I was still on the course.  I finally saw the finish line, crossed it in a very pissed off mood, grabbed my metal and collapsed on the ground in a ridiculously dramatic fashion.  And nobody said “Great Job!” or even went up to me to see if I was ok; it was such a weird race, atmosphere and experience. 

Jeff finished a little later, was also very pissed off, and went to the car where he started his dramatic pukefest.  We returned to the hotel where the pukefest continued for Jeff and I had to nurse him back to health.  My legs hurt but I sucked it up and catered to Jeff, even going as far as walking to the cafe across the street to get him crackers and 7UP to ease his tummy.  Poor Jeff.

Finally I was able to prepare myself an ice bath where I sat in the amazingly cold water which numbed my trashed legs. Oh and when I finally took off my socks, I saw my bloody disgusting feet covered in blisters. Owwwwwww! Those downhills KILLED me.  And just for reference, here is the elevation grade profile again.

(All that green = OUCH, especially if you don’t train for it.  HERE is an article that describes how we SHOULD have trained for this downhill marathon and why things went so wrong for us.)

Not every marathon is ideal, and really no marathon ever feels good.  I made the best of a canceled marathon and a last minute decision to run this one adding another 2 weeks of taper.  I still got a PR, but was still frustrated because I KNOW I could have ran 5-10 minutes faster in NYC and probably would have felt better as well.

It was hard to pass Jeff at mile 18 knowing he wouldn’t make his goal, but everyone has to run their own race.  I probably would have stayed with him (and done a lot more walking) if I wouldn’t have had that 3rd place woman just in sight of me (I really wanted to pass her and get in the top 3) and being so close to getting a PR.  I am very proud of myself for pushing myself at the end and am glad I have learned how to tough things out mentally when situations are not ideal.   

I learned a lot from this marathon and will do another post on the lessons I learned.

Until next time…..

Road Trip to Nevada for a Marathon

Oh how I love me some ROAD TRIP action!  And this Road Trip did not disappoint!

Jeff and I left Thursday night after work making it to Grand Junction, CO where we stayed the night. We stayed at the same hotel and ate dinner at Enzo’s Italian restaurant, just as we had done in June on our way to the Utah Valley Marathon. We had a good night’s rest 2 nights before the marathon, which is what I hear is most important.

Friday morning we got up early and continued on our Road Trip, deciding to take 70 west to I-89 South for a more scenic route through Utah.  We stopped often to stretch, soak in the views (or a geology lesson), walk the dogs and move (or jump) around.
We have been wanting to check out Zion National Park and were able to drive through this time of year (during the summer and early fall they don’t allow personal vehicles to drive through). I cannot wait to get to go back and spend more time at Zion NP!
    And of course we got in some more fun jump photos……
And some really ridiculous jump photos…. do not ask what the heck we were doing, but at the time it was hysterical.


And if you were ever wondering what a close up of our facial expressions look like….

Gross. And disturbingly scary.

Our drive on Friday ended with driving the marathon course that we would be running on Saturday morning.  We tried to stay positive that it was PR/BQ friendly, but it looked tough.

After picking up our race numbers (highly disorganized), we ate dinner and went to bed. 

Marathon #10 for both of us on Saturday November 17, race recap to follow….