Monster Dash Half Marathon Race Recap

I made it through my first half marathon! It turned out to be a great way to celebrate my birthday! It feels amazing to have conquered this distance and gives me a boost of confidence as I start the last 3 weeks of training for the Las Vegas Half Marathon.

I woke up at 6 a.m. (though my nerves definitely got the better of me because I didn’t sleep great the night before). I wanted to get to downtown St. Paul fairly early so I could park in the ramp near the finish line. I was in the ramp by 7:10 a.m. and easily found a spot. I hung out in my car for about 20 minutes to stay warm. Then I ventured out so I could have time to walk to the start line which I knew was about a 15 minute walk.

I made it to the start area with plenty of time. It was a chilly morning and the wind made it a little worse. I found a spot to stand on the steps of the Cathedral that blocked some of the wind. Made for a nice view of the sunrise over downtown St. Paul too.

A little after 8, I made my way to the 10 min mile starting corral. I did some dynamic stretching while I waited for things to get going (which was also necessary to stay warm!).  A bit after 8:30 the crowd finally started to shift forward and we made our way to the start. I took off and settled in to a comfy pace for a nice long run.

Miles 1-4

The first couple miles were all about getting warmed up — like literally getting blood pumping to my fingers and toes. I sometimes have a habit of going out a bit fast in a race because I’m weaving around people and the adrenaline is pumping. Knowing I had a long way to go, I reminded myself to take my time and try to stick close to my 10:20/mile goal pace. I had my dad’s pre-race advice in my head too. He said you’ve done all the work, now go out and ENJOY it. (Yea, my dad is pretty cool :)) I took those words to heart and let myself enjoy the scenery of running down Summit Ave. There were gorgeous homes, cheering spectators, and beautiful fall colors to admire. I think this helped me not get caught up in the crowd of runners and stick to my pace. By the time I hit mile 3 my body was warm and my legs felt good. Before I knew it, we were rounding the corner to East River Parkway.

Miles 5-9

I was still feeling good when I hit mile 5. I wanted to keep my energy level up, so I took my first GU to fuel this next part of the race. I was excited because I knew that a couple friends were going to be around mile 6 cheering. I spotted them and a bright yellow sign.

I gave them high fives and a hug. Before I continued on, Hyedi snapped a quick photo to commemorate the halfway point of my first half.

Seriously love this picture and the smile on my face. Thanks Hyedi!

The rest of this part of the race was pretty uneventful. I felt good and kept my pace.

Miles 10-13.1

I could feel my energy level dropping a bit, but my sister and a couple friends were going to be cheering close to mile 10, so I distracted myself a little by scanning the spectators for them. I spotted them and their cheers gave me another boost of energy to push on. I took another GU to get me through the last few miles. These last few miles were a bit tougher. I could feel my legs getting more and more tired. Then we hit a pretty sizable hill at mile 11 that didn’t help the tired legs. Even through that, I stayed right around my goal pace of 10:20. Before long I saw the 12.5 mile marker up ahead. Right then, the 2:15 (10:18/mile) pacer appeared next to me. I didn’t have a whole lot left in the tank, but I felt like I had the right amount of energy to keep up with him and that would mean I’d meet my goal time. I kept up and soon the finish line was in sight. I got a smile on my face and picked up my pace just a bit to head down the straight away and cross the finish line!

Here’s how my half marathon goals stacked up:

• A: Cross the finish line in 2 hours and 16 minutes or less (avg. pace ~ 10:20). Check! My official time was 2:14:45!
• B: Run the whole way. Check! With the exception of slowing down a little at water stops and to say hello to friends, I ran the whole way!
• C: Finish. Check! See below 😉

Mission accomplished!

There were unfortunately a few logistical issues with the race. Some runners’ times didn’t get recorded properly and there was a lack of food and water at the finish. I was given a little bag of pretzels and a few pieces of candy, but bananas were all gone when I got to the other food tables. (How do you run out of bananas after a half?!) They had little glasses of water at the finish, but a bottle of water or at least a larger plastic cup would’ve been better (oh, and maybe some Gatorade or something). I had heard that Team Ortho commonly has logistical issues like that with races. I’m glad I did it, but it will probably be awhile before I do another Team Ortho race.

But, back to more positive stuff. I felt like I had a great race. It makes me really excited to take on the Las Vegas half marathon in a few weeks!

Birthday Weekend

My birthday was this past weekend and I kicked it off by running my first half marathon! I’ll have a race recap in the next day or so, but spoiler alert: I finished! 🙂

After the race I made my way out of the parking garage and headed home. I made a pit stop at Caribou Coffee to get my free birthday coffee.

Free birthday coffee!

I showered, changed, and headed out one more time to pick up some lunch. I really wanted Subway for my post-race meal. The rest of the afternoon was filled with a lot of lying around and watching old episodes of The Office.

My sister and I met up with some friends that night to have a drink and celebrate our birthday. Yes, I said ‘our.’ I have a twin sister, so it was her birthday too. 🙂

When you finish the Monster Dash half, you get a free Finnegan’s beer. You can either get it at the post-race party or use the coupon later in the weekend at one of the participating bars. I knew I wouldn’t want my beer right after the race, so we planned to meet friends at one of the bars so I could get my free beer.

Second free beverage of the day!

We had a great time hanging out with friends for the evening.

On Sunday morning I got up and ventured out to do some much-needed shopping. I had a lot of luck too! I got some great fall/winter clothes and found some great sales. In the afternoon, I met up with Hyedi to go get some birthday fro-yo at Forever Yogurt. We found Forever Yogurt when we were in Chicago for the Big Ten 10K this summer and they just opened a location near us, so we had to check it out. It was super yummy and a great birthday treat.

Fro-yo = birthday cake

Overall, it was a fabulous birthday weekend!

What do you like to do to celebrate your birthday?

Running My First Half Marathon Tomorrow!

The Monster Dash Half Marathon is tomorrow! This will be my first half marathon, and it happens to fall on my birthday. I was hesitant to sign up for this race because I didn’t know if I wanted to tackle my first half on my birthday, but I really wanted to do a half marathon this fall and Monster Dash was the best option.

Now that I’ve had time to train and think about it more, I’m really glad I signed up for it. I think completing my first half marathon on my birthday will be a great way to kick off what I hope will be another awesome year–not only for running, but for new adventures, and fun with friends and family.

I made my way to packet pick up this afternoon. I wasn’t able to get there as early as I had hoped. I was preparing myself for long lines, but it actually wasn’t too crowded and I got in and out in less than 30 min. Score #1 of the day!

Can’t say I’m scared. Mostly excited, only a little nervous 🙂

I got my bib and headed to the table to get my race gear. This year’s gear was a hooded sweatshirt. I wasn’t psyched about a hooded sweatshirt. They had performance jackets for the half marathoners last year and I really wanted something like that. I got to the table and they warned us that the sweatshirts were running really big, but we could swap out the size. I got an XS instead of a small and made my way over to chip check.

After that, I saw a table where people were swapping gear and noticed that they had performance jackets over there that people were trying on and taking from the table. I read the sign on the table and saw that you could actually trade your sweatshirt for a performance jacket! I did just that. Score #2 of the day!

Finally have a jacket for running!

Tonight, I plan to make a big bowl of pasta for dinner (carbo-load!) and relax. I’ll also finalize my race-day outfit and gear. Here’s my plan so far, but I’ll check the temperature when I wake up in the morning and make adjustments as needed.

Outfit: Black tights, long sleeve shirt. Hoping it’s warm enough to not need another layer, but I’ll see in the morning.

Gear: Garmin watch, phone, music, GU, spibelt, headband. Maybe sunglasses and/or gloves.

Accessories: ‘Birthday girl’ sash, race bib.

Race-day outfit

Can’t believe the day is almost here!

Are you running any races this weekend? Have you ever run a race on your birthday?

Half Marathon Goals

In just three short days I’ll be running my first half marathon (eeek!). Hard to believe the day is almost here after months of training.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want my goals for my first half marathon to be. I wanted to keep them realistic, but also challenge myself. I’ll be running my second half marathon in three weeks, so I also want to make sure my goals will allow me to adequately recover.

I’ve seen several other running bloggers talk about setting A, B, and C goals for a race. So, that’s what I’ve done.

• A: Cross the finish line in 2 hours and 16 minutes or less (avg. pace ~ 10:20). I averaged 10:20 miles on my last 10.6 mile run and felt great, so I’d really like to repeat a similar pace on race day.
• B: Run the whole way. With the exception of slowing down at water stops, I’d like to not have to stop and walk. I haven’t had to walk during any of my long runs in training, so I think this is very realistic as long as I don’t let my adrenaline get the better of me and start out too hard, too fast or something like that.
• C: Finish. Period. Simple and straight forward, but also a really important goal for me since this is my first half.

Still keeping a close eye on the weather forecast so I can plan what I’m going to wear. Right now, Saturday is looking like a low of 29, high of 42 and partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain. I can handle that. I’m okay with cold, just really hoping for no rain!

Do you set A, B, and C goals for races?

Braving the Elements

Mother Nature decided to bring in some cold, wet days this past weekend. Fall has definitely arrived in Minnesota!

Friday was chilly, but dry. Friday evening I went to see Wicked with my family. I’ve always wanted to see this musical, and it totally lived up to my expectations! If you get a chance to go see it, do it. Loved the sets, the costumes, the story, the comedy, and of course the music. Might be downloading the soundtrack very soon. 🙂

Defying Gravity

On Saturday, I did some shopping with my family in the morning and then planned to meet Hyedi for a short run in the afternoon. It was cloudy and I knew there was a slight chance of rain that afternoon, but I thought it was going to hold off. Literally as I was pulling in to the parking lot it started to sleet and rain. I met Hyedi and we waited a few minutes to see if it would let up, but no luck. We decided to postpone and I got in my 3 miles on the treadmill.

Rain and cold temps were in the forecast again for Sunday morning’s Team Challenge group run. I woke up about 6:30 a.m. and started to have a mental debate with myself about whether or not it was worth it to go.  It was 35 degrees with light rain. I kept checking the weather every five minutes (hoping it would magically change to 50 degrees and sunny — no such luck) and kept checking my email to see if the run would get canceled. The weather didn’t look great, but it also didn’t look like it was going to get any better during the day. I really didn’t want to do 7 miles on the treadmill if I could help it. So, I dragged myself out of bed, layered up, and headed out. I was impressed to see so many other Team Challengers there too!

I intended to just do a few miles outside and then sort of gave myself permission to cut out early and finish my miles inside if needed. The rain was lightly coming down, but it actually let up a lot for most of the run. That was a big help. I even took off one of my layers halfway through the run. The rain started coming down a bit harder for the last mile, so I was really happy to be done!

All smiles even though I felt like a cold, wet dog.

I missed the first 1/2 mile of my run, so the watch says 6.5 miles, but it was actually 7. I was proud of myself for braving the elements and getting the whole run done outside. Truthfully, I felt pretty bad a$$ running around the lake in the rain. I actually do like to get outside for a run even when it’s less-than-desirable conditions. If you dress appropriately, a run in the cold, or rain, or heat can actually be really rewarding. And good practice for races since I have yet to figure out how to control the weather. 😉

I came home and jumped in a hot shower and then made a fabulous cup of coffee to warm up. Warm comfort food was the theme of the day. Lunch was tomato soup and grilled cheese, and it seemed like the perfect night to make my first batch of turkey chili this season.

Do you like running in the cold, rain, or heat? What’s your favorite cold weather comfort food?

Fun(draising) Friday 10/18/13 – Dine Out for a Good Cause!

In just under a month, I’ll be heading out to Las Vegas with the rest of the Minnesota/Dakotas Team Challenge group and joining other Team Challenge chapters from across the country to rock the Las Vegas strip and run a half marathon! I’m so excited for the weekend and to raise awareness for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

I’m continuing my fundraising efforts and getting closer and closer to my $3,700 goal! Every little bit helps and I’m so grateful to those who have donated to support CCFA!

On Monday, Oct. 21, O’Gara’s Bar and Grill has agreed to donate 10% of people’s bill to CCFA if you show them this flier between 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Food, fun, and raising funds for a good cause!

Who wants to cook on a Monday night anyway? Grab your family, friends, coworkers and head out to O’Gara’s for a fun evening that supports the awesome work being done by CCFA!

Running Milestones

There are lots of milestones that a runner can go through. The first time you run a race, getting a new PR, running a new distance, and so many more.

I’ve had some great running milestones in the time that I’ve been running. A few that stick out are the first time I ran a 5K (Building Strength 5K in 2012), my second PR (Run@Work 5K), getting faster and running more and more miles at a pace that starts with a 9 instead of a 10.

I hit a pretty big running milestone this past weekend: I ran further than I have ever run before! Last Sunday I ran 10.6 miles!

The long run for my half marathon training this week was 10 miles. That distance would tie the longest distance I had run up to that point. I set that 10 mile distance record for myself last April when I did the Goldy’s 10 mile run.

The weather on Sunday morning was perfect for a long run–sunny and cool (about 50 degrees). Gave me a chance to test out my new running tights. (They worked out great on a long run, so I’ll probably be wearing them on race day.) I met up with some of the other Team Challenge folks for our weekly group run. We met at one of the amazing Minneapolis lakes, and our 10 mile route would actually take us around two of the lakes.

Ready to head out for 10 miles

I took off and started my first loop of lake #1 (about 3 miles around). I was feeling good and let myself just settle in to a comfortable pace. I averaged 10:20 miles for these first few miles and liked that pace because I knew I still had a long way to go.

Such a beautiful morning for a 10 mile run 🙂

After getting around the lake, I took the path over to lake #2 for the next 4 miles. I pretty much kept my 10:20 pace for the middle part of the run too. A little after mile 5 I took some GU to fuel the second half of the run.

The lakes are just as pretty in the fall as they are in the summer!

I made my way back to lake #1 for my last 3 miles and was still feeling good. I think the GU had kicked in — along with some adrenaline in knowing that I was approaching that 10 mile milestone — because my pace picked up a little around mile 8 to just under 10 minute miles. RunKeeper chimed in to say I had been running for 1 hr and 40 minutes, so I knew that 10 miles was just around the corning. A couple minutes later, I looked at my phone and it read 10.09 miles. I’m pretty sure I got a big grin on my face. Felt so good to get past that milestone!

Not only had I run 10 miles, but I still felt really good. I kept going for .6 more miles, but if I had to run around the lake one more time, I felt pretty confident that I could. That gave me a boost of confidence because this was my last longer run before my first half marathon on Oct. 26 (I’ll do one more 7-8 mile run this weekend).

On Oct. 26, I’ll hopefully be setting a couple more running milestones: running further than I ever have (again), and finishing my first half marathon. 🙂

What are some of your running milestones?

Fundraising Update (A Few Days Late)

An Acoustic Brunch Fundraiser for CCFA last Saturday was a great success! The event featured brunch, live music, a wine grab, and silent auction. The event raised just over $2,000 for CCFA! One of our team mentors, Jenny, did an amazing job organizing the group fundraising event.

I was able to contribute several items for the silent auction. The sale of those items goes toward my personal fundraising for Team Challenge. I brought in over $100. So grateful to everyone who came to support CCFA and help all of us get one step closer to rocking the strip in the Las Vegas 1/2 marathon!

Here are some pictures from the event:

Silent Auction

More silent auction items, and view of the stage

CCFA/Team Challenge info displayed

Wine grab

On Sunday I did another fundraising push with $13 on 13 that brought in even more donations. Fundraising is still in full swing with only a few weeks left! Check out my page if you’d like to donate to CCFA!

Have you ever gone to a cool fundraising event? What made it fun and successful?

Living with Ulcerative Colitis

It’s taken me awhile to write this post. I’ve been wanting to write it since I started this blog because I think it will shed some light on why I wanted to join Team Challenge to train for the Las Vegas ½ Marathon and fundraise for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to finding cures for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis and improving the quality of life of children and adults affected by these diseases.

I debated on what details to share. I landed on sharing enough for you to understand my experience and know more about these diseases. I say this because I have to warn you that Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis aren’t sexy – they’re digestive diseases so symptoms deal with digestive issues. Not always pleasant.

A Little About Ulcerative Colitis

So, if it’s not obvious from the title of this post, I have ulcerative colitis (UC). I talked about this some in my first blog post, but to recap UC is an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that affects the large intestine (a.k.a. the colon) where the lining of the intestine becomes inflamed and develops tiny open sores, or ulcers. UC is an auto-immune disease, so the immune system is basically attacking itself. It’s also a chronic disease, meaning there is no cure. Medications can treat the symptoms and reduce inflammation, but once you’re diagnosed you’re in it for life, but hopefully one day that will change.

Symptoms of UC can include more urgent bowel movements, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and rectal bleeding (see, I warned you).

Really quick, Crohn’s disease is also a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, but it can affect the whole gastrointestinal (GI) tract, not just the colon.

My Story

I first started experiencing symptoms in high school. I went to a few doctor appointments where they speculated different things that could be causing them and suggesting treatments. Symptoms would go away for a while, but they kept coming back. Then, in my sophomore year of college, my symptoms had returned and I went to the doctor for a test where I was finally diagnosed with colitis.

So, I actually went a few years without a proper diagnosis. It’s tough to have pain or other digestive issues (like seeing blood when you go to the bathroom) and not know what’s wrong. It can make your head jump all over the place as you speculate what’s wrong with you.

After I was finally diagnosed in December 2005, I had some relief in knowing what it was, but then there was the process of finding a treatment that would keep the symptoms at bay. I tried several different medications until we finally found one that worked.

Like I said, UC doesn’t have a cure, so symptoms just have to be managed. When symptoms pop up, it’s called a flare. When symptoms are gone, it’s called remission. Some patients can stay in remission for years. I’ve been lucky enough to be one of those people. Finding the right treatment was the key.

I knew that what I had could be treated, but I have to admit that I really didn’t know anything about my disease. For some reason, it didn’t occur to me at the time to learn more—maybe because I wasn’t experiencing symptoms. While I always felt like I had good doctors and nurses, I realize looking back that they never really explained to me what UC was. I even asked my mom recently if she remembers them educating us on the disease and she said no.

I felt a lot of embarrassment about having UC. I didn’t tell anyone about my symptoms or the disease because I thought I had something that was unusual for people my age. I thought these digestive issues were something that “older people” have to deal with, not a college student.

It wasn’t until about a year ago that I really started to learn more about UC. One of the first things I learned is that while Crohn’s disease and UC can affect people of any age, it is actually most commonly diagnosed in children and young adults. Turns out I wasn’t a freak of nature! Learning this and learning more about the disease helped me feel more open to talking about it with friends and family.

Then, I learned about Team Challenge. It was actually from my nurse practitioner at my annual GI check up. I told her I had started running and she asked if I had ever heard of the program. As soon as I read about it, I knew I wanted to participate. I was excited for the opportunity to not only train for a half marathon, but also connect with others who are living with the same disease I am. I knew joining Team Challenge and fundraising for CCFA meant I would have to start talking about my UC. This was a bit scary at first, but as I started to talk about it, I found that I have lots of family or friends who have or know someone who has Crohn’s or colitis. Being more open about my disease has really helped me build a bigger support network. I’m very blessed to have such understanding and caring family, friends, and co-workers.

My experiences are why I’m participating in Team Challenge and working to raise funds and awareness for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America. I’ve been able to manage my disease pretty well so far, but who knows how long that will be the case. Unless a cure is discovered, I’ll be taking medication for the rest of my life and possibly continuing to go through periods of flares and remission.

The funds and awareness raised through Team Challenge help CCFA provide vital services and fund research that will hopefully make IBD an acute disease rather than a chronic disease.

Need for Speed

The training plan I’m following for my upcoming half marathons (yes, that’s plural :)) incorporates some speed work and tempo runs. I haven’t done these while training for other races. Most of the other training plans I’ve done were at a beginner/novice level and focused more on straight mileage.

I started realizing over the last several weeks that I really look forward to the day when I get to do speed work. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I do! Early in the training, the speed work was 400m intervals, then progressed to 800m intervals, and then 1 mile intervals. The total mileage of these runs can be up to 6 miles. Doing 6 miles on a Tuesday night can feel a bit daunting, but I think the reason I like the speed work is the intervals break up the run.

Another thing I started realizing over the past several weeks is that it’s working. I’m getting faster! For a long time my comfortable pace was about 10 minute miles, but recently I’ve found myself running more and more miles under that pace.

Exhibit A – 5K PR

I not only beat my 5K time this fall, I crushed it! I was aiming for a PR, but had no idea I’d be able to shave minutes off my time, not just seconds.

Exhibit B – Ran another 5K averaging just over 9 min miles.

I was impressed that I not only maintained the pace, but was able to carry on a conversation with a friend while running. Pretty sure I would’ve been sucking wind running at that pace a year ago!

Exhibit C – My longer runs are getting faster

The last couple weeks that I’ve done my tempo runs have felt really good. I’ve been able to keep a pace under 10 min miles even after 4 or 5 miles.

Splits for recent tempo run – several miles under 10 min miles!

It’s exciting to actually see some progress in my running that goes beyond just being able to run a certain distance.

Do you do speed work in your training? Do you find that it helps?