Minneapolis-Star-Tribune-runningkellometers

The day of the F^3 half marathon started out like any other race. I met up with Nicole, Amanda, and Maggie to carpool to the city. We got to the city much earlier than I expected and we were able to find a nice parking spot right by the start with no problem. We stayed in the car to keep warm for as long as possible before meeting up with some bloggers and some FN Runners. Nothing felt particularly out of the ordinary.

Carpool crew (L to R): me, Maggie, Nicole, and Amanda

FNRC, plus 1 blogger

I started the race with Erin and I know we run well together from our Zooma experience. We started off at a conversations pace of about 9:30. This is usually easy for me but it just seemed like a struggle. We kept it going until about mile 4 when I had to dial it back. I knew I had some mental blocks that I had to try and break through if I wanted to finish this thing. I wished Erin good luck and I slowed to about a 10 min pace. Soon afterwards, I ran past some of the Chicago Running Bloggers and their signs made me smile! Thanks so much for coming out to cheer us on!


As I kept going, I felt more and more sluggish and the nausea started. I was moving at about an 11 min pace at this point. After getting sick, I stopped to walk and one of the course marshals asked me if I was okay. I knew what I wanted the answer to be, yet that was different than the truth. I wasn't okay and this just wasn't my race. Instead of trying to struggle through the next 7.5 miles, I decided to throw in the towel and DNF. I had to listen to my body and my body was telling me to stop. There are a bunch of different factors that could be reasons why, but I don't want to over analyze the possibilities. It just wasn't my day.

On the plus side, I got to head to the finish line early and see the elites finish. I was most excited about seeing Tera Moody finish! I also got the chance to talk to her after the race, and congratulate her on her Houston finish earlier this month. As we were chatting, some random guy came up behind Tera and gave her a big hug, lifting her up. Apparently he thought she was someone else... Awkward... But Tera just laughed it off an we kept on talking. She lives and trains in Colorado so we talked about the difference in sea level and different running terrains. She was really friendly and I'm super bummed I didn't get a pic of us together! What kind of blogger am I?

I then headed back to my car for a little bit and waited for my other friends to finish. It seems like everyone had a really great race despite the temps an conditions (some of the terrain was quite snowy).

Post-race, posing with medals (which also doubled as cowbells)

After the race, we headed to the Cubby Bear for the post-race party and some beers. With my nausea, I decided it was best to not have any beers so I enjoyed an ice cold glass of water.

The FNRC at the Cubby Bear

Overall, I thought this was a fantastic race. It was well organized and well staffed. Even when I was off on the sidelines, waiting for a ride to the finish, I overheard some of the walkie-talkie conversations and they had each other covered. I wish there would have been more warming tents at the start as they got pretty crowded before the race. All of the post-race eats were great (except, a bottle of water would have been nice versus cups) and I especially enjoyed the donuts. :)

Packet pickup was offered in the city and a few different suburbs and that was definitely helpful. The shirt we got is a nice short sleeved tech tee. I thought it was strange to have a short-sleeved shirt for a winter race, but given my long arms problem, I'm not going to complain.

I hope to run this event next year and cross that finish line smiling. :)

As I've mentioned a few times so far, I've been a bit under the weather this week. I decided to take a break from speedwork and have a rest day yesterday in hopes of feeling better. I want to still do my long run on Saturday (12 miles is the plan) and also would like to squeeze in a small run tomorrow (if I can leave the office early, as hopefully planned). This morning I woke up feeling better than yesterday, although still physically tired. I don't think I've had a restful night's sleep all week hence the exhaustion. Either way, I think I'm finally over the hump of this cold and am happy to be feeling better!

My office building has these in the vending machines. I was very thankful for them this past week when I've been sick, but something just seems unnatural about orange juice in a can as opposed to a carton. Very strange, but I'll take it at only $0.25 per can.

I'm bummed that I'm going to miss my traditional Thursday night crew this week because I have a business meeting. Although, snaps for free dinner! It should be fun/interesting to eat a meal at a fancy restaurant that is vegetarian. Hopefully we won't end up at a steakhouse, but you never know! I'll be happy to be back to my "new/old" routine next week!

Have you signed up for my Chicago Spring Half Marathon/10k raffle yet? You have until Sunday, March 4 to enter!

The last few days I have felt awful and very under the weather. I keep going to bed early and drinking lots of orange juice, but nothing seems to be working. I rested on Monday in hopes of feeling better but that hasn't worked yet. Hopefully more going to bed early, Theraflu, and orange juice will help the rest of this week!

Last night I had standing plans with my friend Sharon who is visiting from Omaha, Nebraska (she used to live in Pensacola, FL). The last few times she has come to town, we've gone on a run together. I thought it might be helpful to "sweat it out" so we decided to go for a fun/easy 3 mile run.

I felt really good during the run and we had a pretty quick conversation pace for the last 2 miles. It is always great to catch up with Sharon and talk about running, life, work, all the fun stuff! Our mile splits reflect how good we were feeling (9:24, 8:55, 8:52)!

After Sharon left, I had to stop at the grocery store and pick up a few necessities. While cutting through the ice cream aisle to get to the checkout, a few things caught my eye that I had to stop and purchase.
I'm a sucker for anything with little caramel pieces or little peanut butter cups. I went with the Caramel Caribou flavor and it did not disappoint! ALSO, Edy's has some Girl Scout Cookie flavors out now and Toph is a huge fan of Samoas so I bought this flavor for him. I tried a little and it did taste a lot like the cookie. I also saw Thin Mint flavored ice cream too, for those of you that wish Dairy Queen still had a Thin Mint blizzard (or was that only me?). Sorry for all this ice cream talk; I'm slightly delirious and hopped up on DayQuil.

Have you entered my Chicago Spring Half Marathon/10k raffle yet? You still have time! The winner receives entry into the Chicago Spring Half Marathon OR 10k on Saturday, May 12, 2012. The raffle ends on Sunday, March 4!

Friday afternoon I was able to sneak away to the gym on my lunch break so I biked for 20 minutes and ran a mile on the treadmill. I got so bored on the bike, I just couldn't handle more than 20 min. It was weird to run just one mile but it felt good. I decided to take it easy since I knew I had a long run on Saturday.

Saturday morning I got up on time and met my running group for 9 or 10 miles. I ran 9 last week and felt good so I wanted to repeat the mileage. We ran through the hills and on a local trail. There was tons of uneven terrain from the soft ground that had frozen footprints and horse marks throughout the trail. Our pace leader, Jeanne, tripped on a rock and fell. It was pretty scary to see a friend down and not moving, uncertain if there was a possible injury. After waiting for a few minutes and assessing the situation, she checked her knee saw a scrape and got up. We were all really worried but she finished her miles and walked away with only a scrape and some aches. Thankfully she was okay! That is something to be careful for! I had an idea of what she was feeling, having slipped on the trail a few months back. It is never a good feeling to be on the ground after a fall. Have you ever fallen while out on a run? Did you have any injuries as a result? I was lucky to only have a sore ankle for a day or two but that was it.

 In the end, I finished 10.71 miles (so much for "9 or 10") and was pretty proud of it. It was a beautiful day for a run and I was happy to get out there and enjoy it! I put on my compression sleeves afterwards and didn't have any calf pain. Speaking of compression, I haven't mentioned yet that I won a pair of CEP Compression shorts from Steph at Run for Fun! I am so excited to be hopping on the CEP train and I cannot wait to use them for my next long hard run. I will be sure to take some photos and such once they arrive and I have given them a try! :)

Saturday night Toph and I attended my Grandma's 80th birthday party at the local pizza place.
For her gift, we all gave her gift cards to her favorite places. I thought that was a creative idea and perfect for my grandma and grandpa's budget!

Sunday I took a rest day and watched 6 episodes of Glee and am now officially addicted. I had never seen the show and I knew once I did I would love it. So now I'm watching season 1 and I love it, just as I knew I would. Now I have to get caught up to the current season.

Also, I woke up this morning with a runny nose. I'm worried I'm getting sick! I didn't get much sleep the past few weeks so that probably didn't help. Time to drink lots of vitamin c and get extra sleep! Hopefully this cold blows over in a couple days and doesn't hold me back. Are any of you guys feeling sick? I know with the weather changing, there has to be something going around!