OBX Marathon

Doug and I ran the OBX Marathon a couple of weeks ago. I LURVE the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I am a water baby and there is water everywhere.

The marathon was a well oiled event where everything went off without a hitch. It started with great 'booty bags' along with our race tshirts that on the back read...Get Your Arrrrrrgh On!

The first half of the marathon, by far, was the best. It ran on some hard packed sand dunes and then through some dirt trails. It was beautiful, but my legs let me know I haven't run trails in a very long time. Anyone who has run trails knows that trails will kick your tail! And that it did.

As most of you know, we usually don't travel unless there is a marathon involved. However, we always seem to have some fun before and after the 'real' fun.

Some Sightseeing

Some Seafood Eating
Some Wave Action
Some Splashin' Around
Some Sun Setting
Somebody's Hubba Hubba

Marathon Morning
Trail Running on Packed Sand
Two Happy Finishers After Warming My Belly with Crab Bisque at the Finish Line
More Sightseeing
Searching for Sea Glass...a Favorite of Mine
Marking Our Territory

What a fun marathon and a great destination. You should put this one on your to do list!

Athens Marathon

The 2500 anniversary of the Marathon

From Marathon to Athens

Greece

10.31.10

Below are some pictures of marathon day

The course...hilly

The temperatures...warm

My legs...shot from walking the city for days

Running the modern Olympic marathon course...amazing

Spectators...young and old...they were the best

Hearing 'BRAVO...BRAVO...' a million times...

I could hear it a million times over again

The Olympic Flame (to the left) with the Greek flags

The Olympic Flame

At the starting line of the 2500 anniversary of the Marathon


Ready to Run




I've almost caught him

Burial site for the Spartan Soldiers

I was handed an olive branch by these two boys. We had never seen so many young people and so many old people out on the course cheering everyone on.

Cheering from their homes

Doug and the blue line.

They had the entire course marked with a blue line that showed the shortest route from Marathon to Athens via the marathon course. The blue line showed us the way to the Olympic Stadium.

Another young one out cheering everyone on.

Olympic Rings at the Stadium

Doug and his great photography

Receiving our medals

Finishing at the Olympic Stadium

Side Note:

Doug and I wore our Jared Coones Pumpkin Run shirts because the marathon was run on Halloween. They do not observe Halloween in Greece. However, there were some on the course that knew of Halloween. We had our picture taken more times by spectators (and runners alike) wanting to get a photo of our shirts. It was so fun listening to people yell, "Happy Holloween" as we ran by. I felt like a rock star!

Taper Time

It's taper time...already. Already?! I knew with me deciding way late in the game to train for Iron would go fast. But...for real?! This is craziness.

Last weekend was my big training weekend. I traveled to Table Rock Lake and swam 2 miles in the open water Saturday morning then beat feet back home to wake up Sunday morning to ride 100 miles. The 100 miles ended up being 97, but hey...who is counting? I was supposed to run 15 after, but ran that on Monday night after work. Everything went really well. For my swim, I was dead last out of the water, but I knew that would be the case. All I want to do on the swim is survive. And that, I'm pretty confident I may be able to do. The bike was hot and hilly and crazy windy, but had a GREAT ride. I felt very strong. And the run Monday night...got 12 miles covered.

Yesterday consisted of a 1 mile swim/50 mile bike/10 mile run of which I got in a swim/47 mile bike/9 mile run. The bike was awesome! I seem to be totally rocking the bike...that is...for me. The endless flat tires I've been having lately has GOTTA GO though. I have NO IDEA what the heck I did to the rubber tube God, but he does not like me one iota. He's gotta get over it sometime. Hopefully within the next three weeks. However, for almost completing a HIM yesterday, I felt awesome. And still do today. It makes me laugh to think what I did was a training day, let alone a TAPER.

So...last night I sat down with my schedule and got a tinge nervous. These past two weekends were 'it'. Like the big training weekends. The pinnacle before the big event. Now it's just taper from here. I say taper. Ha. If a marathon next weekend is considered tapering. But really, it's all downhill from here. The rest of my training, I feel I can do in my sleep. I certainly hope what I've done this far will transfer well to the big day.

Here's to taper time and hoping to keep the nerves somewhat at bay for a while!
Wow...in three weeks, at this time 4:54 pm...I'm going to hopefully be starting the run portion! Wee!!

Two Firsts

This weekend was an accomplishment.
I covered two new firsts in my training.
First, on Saturday, I swam 1.5 miles.
The furthest before that was 1.2 (at my HIM 4 years ago).
No not much further, but still...further.

Then on Sunday I rode the Lizard Under the Skillet bike ride.
The second of my firsts.
I rode 60 miles on the bike.
The furthest before that was 56 (at my HIM 4 years ago).
Not much further, but still...further.

The Lizard Under the Skillet was a lot of fun.
Two words to describe it. Hot and Hilly.
They even had spicy food at the sag stops.
I really only made one 'official' stop halfway through where I had some spicy pickles and a popsicle.

I do have to say the fun began *after* mile 14 where I had a breakdown. I think I just hadn't 'warmed up' yet, we had been through some big hills. I was riding by myself. My chain had just fallen off. And I needed to fuel. I called Doug. Crying. Upset that I hadn't even made it to mile 15 and I wanted to quit. He talked me down off the ledge, got me back on my bike and away I went. From that point, I was good to go and had a very enjoyable ride. It's so nice to have someone support you and give you what you need to keep truckin' on. Even if the fart was still in bed when I called crying.

At the last sag stop where I stopped long enough to grab some water, I noticed the jalapeno ice cream. I love me some jalapenos and adore ice cream. But I just couldn't do jalapeno ice cream. Maybe if it wasn't so hot and I still had several miles to travel.

The best part of the whole ride was the kick ass hill. And I mean hillll. Doug had mentioned it before when he rode the Lizard. He stated he got going so fast, the wind actually lifted him up off his seat. I didn't get going that fast, but it was scary and a blast all at the same time. I heard others talking how they got up to 45 mph down the hill. Now that was Good Times! And I didn't brake at all. Whoo Hoo!!

So, I've been looking at my schedule and I may actually may head to Iowa to do the Pigman Half Ironman in August. It is the home of my first (and only) HIM. It fits almost perfectly into my training for that week and think it would be great training. I still haven't signed up, but am seriously pondering the idea.

My nerves have settle from when I first signed up for Redman. My training is going pretty well. I'm not nearly as fast as I would like. And sometimes training is a real struggle and I wonder, yet again, why I'm doing this. But I always make it though and am so glad I've decided to give this a tri. I feel proud and a sense of accomplishment every time I go a little further and hit new firsts.

So the Training Goes

Training is going well.
I'm very pleased with the strides I've made thus far in my IM training.

Swimming:

It's been a LONG time since I'd been in the pool.
My first time in, I felt like a fish out of water. Never could get comfortable and I thought I was in big time trouble. I figured I just might as well drown. It would have been so easy to do.

My second time in, I felt like I belonged. Much more smooth.
Still doing pretty small swim increments, but working my way up one lap at a time.

Biking:

Has been a good.
The last two weekends I rode 40 miles at the Fountain Tour and this past weekend rode 30 miles followed by an 8 mile run...well...walk after at the Tour de Lakes.
This weekend calls for a long bike again and there is no organized ride planned so I'm going to need to find somewhere that will hold my interest.

All in all...for being out on the bike for a total of 5 rides thus far, I'm very very pleased with how I'm progressing.
Obviously, the bike the the 'main attraction' at IM so I need to focus on the bike.

David, Craig and me at the Fountain Tour

Running:

I've noticed my legs being very tired from the bike.

I've have a couple of good training buddies that I hope to continue training with. It's always nice if someone else is feeling your pain alongside you. Misery loves company!

One of my lovely training buddies stated after Saturday's 30 mile bike and 8 mile run..."you know...after all we've done today, we still have over 100 miles to go to complete the IM". Wow! That really put it in perspective because at that time I was thinking we had put in some pretty good training. Maybe for the HIM, but there's a long way to go for IM training.

I'm honestly not as anxious as I was before I signed up. I feel like I'm getting a grip on training. Mind you, there are times, and it's usually when I'm on the bike that I think, "what in the HELL did I do and WHY am I doing this???" But after I'm done training, I'm so glad I've signed up for this adventure. I see a lot of blood, sweat and tears coming my way but it's going to be so worth it.

Hungry Like a Wolf

All the time!
It could only be one of two things.
Either I'm pregnant...
Or training for a new endurance event my body is not used to. Yet.
Just to clear up any ill confusion.
I'm *not* pregnant.

Even at 2 am my stomach wakes me, yelling, "get in my belly!"
I've been trying to be very aware of my calories and making sure I get enough to eat.
I've been eating the right types of foods and attempting to stagger them out at the right time.
It seems as though I'm eating everything I can get my hands on.
And I've even lost a couple pounds in the process (not intended).

I've noticed a change in what I want to eat. I've been craving good for you stuff (most of the time). So, that's what I've been eating. A lot of!

I'm thinking it will subside once my body gets used to the new activities I'm throwing at it.
Otherwise I'm going to have to get a part time job to feed myself.

Happy training and for those of you racing...good luck and have fun!

A New Adventure Called...Ironman

Yes...Ironman.
IM
140.6
2.4 mile swim
112 mile bike
26.2 mile run
THAT Ironman

I'm so nervous and excited at the same time, I could pee my pants.

I'd been pondering a new challenge lately and my BFF's husband is doing the MS150 this year. So I thought I would join along. I was thinking if I could bike 150 miles in two days, I might be able to THINK about that little thing called IM for next year.

So I tracked all my bike rides out, doing a lot of organized rides on the weekends.
I planned on keeping up with marathon training as well. Cuz...well...that's just what I do.
Then got to asking people I know that have done an IM before to take a peek at their schedule just to see what I might be getting myself into for next year.

Sooo...after I got several schedules back and looked them over, my brain started churning 100mph...
I am already doing the running.
I already have these bikes planned out.
I feel like I could be halfway on schedule already.
So why not? Why not just jump in and do an IM this year.
This year? Yes...how about SEPTEMBER!

Right now my main focus is the bike. I need to get up to speed. I'm a slow poke.
My second focus...not drowning.
Other than that, I should be good.
HA!

I have a LONG way to go in a SHORT amount of time.
But I always seem to be up for a challenge.
We'll see what the next 94 days bring.
I'm not focused on a time. Just crossing the finish line.

So Redman...HERE I COME!