I made it through the 20 miler.

Friday night was rough. Both my hips were hurting. :( The advil wasn't even helping the left side. I had to sleep on my back because laying on my side hurt to much. So, I didn't get a very good nights sleep prior to the big run. I wasn't even sure I could run in the morning, but when I woke up, I was able to walk with out much pain, so figured I would try the run.
Got up at 4 am so that I could get an early start and run a good chunk before the sun came up. Took me a while to get moving though, so I didn't get started until almost 5:30 am. Temps were mid 40s, so I wore my long sleeved tech shirt and running pants. I am glad I did because just before sunrise the temps were close to 40 degrees and I was cold! Once the sun came up I warmed up quite a bit.
This was the slowest run ever! Even in the early miles I was moving slower than I normally do. Oh well, just happy to have finished! I had to take some walking breaks every mile once I hit 12 miles. 20 miles in 4:11.
I think my fueling plan worked well. I had 4 bottles of half water/half G2 and 3 packs of sport beans. Beans every 5 miles. I refilled the 2 bottles with water at the bathroom at mile 14.
The rest of the day was rough. Everytime I got up from the chair was painful.I had to shuffle not being able to lift up my legs much. Today is much better, but still stiff. The massage I have scheduled for Tuesday should feel good.
I am wondering if I am in shape for this run, but now that I have passed the 20 mile run, it's down hill until the race. So, I'll get some time to heal and hope to be ready for the race in 3 weeks!

Photos from Clearwater Halfathon

Clearwater Halfathon race report

I am so happy that I was able to run this half marathon!

I got up at 4 am this morning. Had a little coffee and a banana. Got out the door just before 5 am. It takes a little over an hour to get to Clearwater. Needed to be early for packet pickup.

I managed to find the place without getting lost! :) Got my bib and t-shirt (no goodie bags here) and headed back to the car to keep warm. Took 3 advils with water, with hopes it would keep the pain away. Temps were in the mid 40s. I wore my running pants, long sleeved wicking shirt and a vest that I got at the thrift store as a toss away if I needed to. I brought a short sleeved top to change into if I needed it, but it was still so cold at the start, I left on the long sleeved.

About 25 min. before the start I made a portapotty break. The race start was on the waterfront, so thought I would go take a photo with my little camera I planned on running with. That's when I discovered the battery was not charged! :( So I pulled out my cell phone that has a camera, took a photo of the big bridge we will run over twice, then went back to the car to drop off the camera. Got back to the starting line about 10 min before the race started. Tried to turn on my Garmin, but it wouldn't turn on! I had charged it all night, and had this problem before where it gets locked up. You use two buttons at once then turn it on. But of course I couldn't remember which two. As I walked back to my car again (good thing it was close) I tried a bunch of combos, but couldn't get it on. :( So, no camera and no watch to check my pace.

The race start was at 7:05, but I think it got going a little late. Anyway, no gun went off, the crowd just started moving. I placed myself in the middle, thinking I would keep a slower pace that way. Had a small hill right away as we ran away from the waterfront. Ran through the downtown area, then turned toward the bridge. That was a tall bridge! It was just about mile one when we got there and that's where they had the first photographer. Right in the middle of the huge crowd! Bad planning there. She must have missed 75% of the people.

At the bottom of the bridge I ran next to this guy who had a garmin. I asked him his pace, 10:15, so decided to stay with him for a while. It must have been around mile two (missed the sign) that I tossed the vest to the side of the road. I was warm already and wishing I had changed shirts.

At about mile 3, we got to the beach, ran next to that for a while. The perfect spot for a race photographer to snap our photos, but none there.

Hit the top of the second large bridge at mile 4. For some reason I thought it was mile 5, so when I got to the bottom and looked at the race clock that had 45:30, I couldn't believe it! I had my first full pack of sport beans as we turned into the waterfront park. We did a big loop through here. Soon enough I saw the 5 mile sign and knew I wasn't going to fast.

Just before leaving the park we ran past the 6 mile sign. The clock here had 1:01:43. Got a water here and walked through while drinking. I was feeling ok, but did start having some pain in the backside and leg. I got worried, because I didn't have any advil with me and I was only half through the race! But I put it out of my mind and the pain went away.

We had the turn around after mile 7, maybe 7.5? And started heading back. Hit the bridge again around mile 9 I guess. No sign. When I got to mile 10 I opened my second bag of sport beans. This is when I noticed that I had lemon lime! I don't like that flavor of Gatorade, so was worried, but they were good. Got water at the next waterstop and walked through it again. Still no clocks. I don't like not knowing my pace and time! Feeling much better than in previous half marathons, I guess because I was taking it easy and not "racing."

Hit the last water stop just before mile 12 and again walked through that. No clock. The tough part of the race was just ahead. The last big bridge starts around mile 12. I made it most of the way up, before taking a walk break. There were two other women walking near me, so I kept pace with them. Near the top I notice the race photographer ahead snapping photos. What! Taking photos of us as we struggle up the bridge! I started running. I wanted a nice photo! :) So I pulled ahead of the two women, so the photographer just had me to take photos of for quite a while as I ran towards her. :)

The best part of the race was this last half mile or so. Down hill! Down the bridge, then a ramp down to the waterfront, then a bit of flat, straight to the finish line. Since I didn't have my garmin to turn off as I ran across the finish line, I looked right at the photographer and raised up my arms and smiled. :) The clock time was 2:18:??. I was kinda surprised It wasn't a little faster, but happy with it. That is about my time on an average long run. Maybe my chip time will show about 30 seconds less.

After the race I got a banana and two bottles of water, then found a place to stretch.

Overall this was a good race. Nice course, but tough with the "hills." I'd run it again.

Results:
Chip time: 2:18:22; age: 38; Pace:10:34; age group: 25 out of 39; over all place: 363 out of 495

Still dealing with the pain

My running has come to an end the past few days. I had a massage on Wednesday that I hoped would help with the pinched nerve in my left leg. But it didn't seem to help much. Thursday evening I was in a lot of pain. Friday I got up and it felt much better. Went to the gym and did upper body weights and a lot of stretching. Came home and used the Wii Fit and did some yoga moves. By the afternoon it hurt alot again. I actually think I know what is making it worse. Yesterday while sitting in the car, waiting for my son to get out of school, I was sitting with the bad leg bent and up on the dash board for about half an hour. When I got out of the car it hurt like crazy. Sometimes I sit in my chair at home with my leg bent like that and the same thing happens when I get up. So I'll try not to do that with my leg today and see how it goes. I really don't want to miss the Half Marathon tomorrow, but I know it's more important to get better and be able to run the Marathon next month.

18 miler

The run today was hard! The weather was great. Sunny and mid 50s when I started. Low 70s when I finished. I didn't get started until almost 9 am. I don't normally run so late. I went to run in this area that is usually pretty shady, but the city had gone through and clipped back alot of the trees over the sidewalk. bummer! I used some of the chi running principles today. It felt really good and the first few miles were easy. I had to slow myself down! stopped to get water at the CVS just before mile 11. Filled up all my bottles then poured some on top of my head. yowza! by mile 12 I decided to take a short walking break while eating sport beans. by mile 14 I needed to take a .25 mile break every mile. but even with that my miles where around 13 mins. so not to bad. If I can keep that up in the marathon I should be able to finish just under 5 hours. The other issue I was having was that the water wasn't giving me enough to help the thirst. I need to look into taking in salt maybe?

Training update

My marathon training is going along great. I ran 16 miles last Saturday. The first time I have run more than 14 miles in many years. The only issue I had was not having enough water. Need to take all 4 water bottles with me on my waist pack and carry money just in case I need to run into a store to buy more. I think I have the fuel figured out. Half a bag of sport beans every 4 miles.
I did wake up Sunday morning with a pain in my sciatic nerve. It was pretty painful for a few days, but I used the roller on it last night and that seemed to ease the pressure in that area.
I've got an 18 miler planned for Friday morning. Will not get started until after I drop my son off at school, so it will be lunch time before I am done! But by running on Friday, I can go home after the run, shower, eat and then take a nice long nap. :)