Year In Review

This year has been a great one! Very different than what it started out to be or planned to be. I wanted to start doing races different from the typical 5k's and 10k's or do them differently than before. So, my sights were changed from PRs to "other" types of races. First and foremost I accomplished something I never thought I would ever do EVER...I ran my first marathon!! I loved every minute of it! My left knee went out in the 23rd mile but even then all I kept saying was "when was the next one?" It was probably the most exciting thing I've ever done physically. I challenged myself, trained well, and did it. And, most of all, I was 55 years old!! My first marathon and I'm doing this thing at 55 years of age. Who does that?? This will always be something I will be proud of...always! Of course, I couldn't have done it without ALL the encouragement of my marathon friends and my running partners, Frank and Deleica.

Surprisingly and with my new IT strap, I was able to continue my running just not as hard as before. My pace had slowed down for the marathon and I wasn't up to par for shorter, harder run races for a while. This took the stress off of performance. My knee kept getting better and had very little pain any more using the band but when I didn't, like the Gulf Coast Half Marathon in April, I really paid for it. Lesson learned: wear the band in hard runs or distance races!!

Goals are interesting. Not all them were accomplished in 2011 but maybe I had not defined them well enough OR made them too difficult to reach. Goals that are meant to be maintained are the hardest and may need to be reworded or deleted altogether. For instance, my goal of "healthier eating habits" was poorly written. Just too vague and too difficult to do on a day-in, day-out basis. Too much daily pressure = failure.

Facing the facts of 2011:
1. 1 Full and 2 Half Marathons...good goals and achieved! On top of that, I received awards in both half's. Yay!! Well done...
2. 18-20 Miles Weekly...not bad and will probably bump this one up though there were weeks throughout the year that I did not reach that goal due to weather, allergies or pain. Still a good, well-written goal and measurable.
3. 8:30 Race Pace...on the surface this seems to be a good goal. But things I didn't take into account of is: weather, allergies (which were bad this year), knee pain (which came from the marathon at the first of the year) and most of all the course terrain of a race, like hills. This goal will be deleted in 2012.
4. Cross training once a week...good goal and achievable. It may take creativity when we are camping and the weather is bad but plan to keep this one.
5. Weekly weight workout...this should be achievable no matter where I am, the weather or allergy attacks.
6. Healthier eating habits...not measurable and will not be on the list next year.

Annual stats:
Running...1035 miles
Walking...83 miles
Biking...100 miles

19 Races:
1...2 Miler
11...5k's
1...8k
3...10k's
2...Half Marathons
1...Full Marathon

Placed in 16 races of 19:
4...GrandMasters
5...1st Place (age group)
2...2nd Place (age group)
4...3rd Place (age group)
1...5th Place (age group 10 deep)
(Placed in both half marathons = whoop, whoop)

Firsts:
1. I entered my first 2 mile race (PR) and received a state record, one which I still hold at the end of 2011 = Whoop, whoop!!
2. First 8k (PR) over the Ocean Springs Bridge. Not only is this thing a monster challenge but I placed in it, too.
3. I ran my first trail run (preparing for the MS50 20k race) AND got my first black toenail.

Things I've learned over the year:
1. Performance can kill enjoyment.
2. Run the best I can for the moment. Some days are better than others.
3. Success can be measured in simple things like running when you didn't want to.
4. Trust my inner decision to run harder in long runs and not go by my watch unless I'm training for a marathon.
5. Wear my IT strap on long races!
6. Running with my husband is worth more than any time EVER! I am grateful to be in great health and able to run unlike some of my great running friends.

This is my first complete year to keep a log through an online program and there were some runs/walks that were counted weird. I'm still not sure how to record w/u and c/d when the program records them as runs and I think they are walks. It's a little confusing. But next year I will decide on how I want to list them and start out fresh.

This year, I found I'm enjoying the "run" itself more, whether it's a race or a daily run. So to sum up, this year has been a VERY successful year and I look forward to a great 2012!

2011 has been an exciting year. Remember victory and success equals many small steps, not just trophies sitting on a shelf or medals dangling on a hook! It's your life, now...

Run 4 It

Trail Running

What a run! I never thought trail running would be so different. But it's another world altogether. I'd say you'd have to have a little adventureness in you in order to do one cause you never know what you will come up on. Well, no, my run did not involve that kind of venture but being my first there were a lot of things going on all around.

Frank B. and I decided to do a short run so I would see what the MS50 race would be like in March. I've never run a trail before and I wanted to get a taste of what I had gotten myself into. Having dressed in hunter's "protective" colors, excited anxiousness surrounded me. I wanted to run but knew I needed to make one sure step in front of another in order to make this a safe, fun run. With eyes on the ground, off we went.

It wasn't long before we came up on these really pretty mushrooms, some of the largest I've seen. They were very bright coral colored. So I had to take a picture. The color looks a little washed out but they were really pretty and vibrant.



It wasn't too long into the run that we came up on a puddle that could not be gone around. I plowed right through it but let out a squeal like a little girl. You need to know that I do NOT like to get dirty and never stomped in a mud puddle when I was small. So this was a new experience for me.

Not long running in my newly squishy shoes, filled with who knows what, we ran up on a huge spider web. Frank reached out to grab my arm to stop me but it was too late. I, obviously, didn't see it. AND there was this huge spider right in the center of it. Needless to say, I was engulfed in this new "natural" sweater fighting as hard as I could to get out of it. Then I felt something crawling up my leg and just about went crazy!! I knew it...it was on ME!! After a little dancing around, swatting at the air and scaring me and that thing slap to death, it finally fell off. I sure was hoping it didn't bite me. If it had any sense, it would throw itself out of that web next time he sees a human coming his way.

Now, I have friends that frequent these kind of trails and love them. But this is the first for me and I needed to know if I was willing to hang tough throughout...mentally and physically.

We did fine going from one tree to another following the signs UNTIL we reached a "T" and not a tree around held a single sign. The directions just stopped. Well, the little ole map that we had was totally useless as we come to find out at this point. We turned around and headed in a different direction where we did see a sign down the way. We ran it for a while and came up to a road. It was 4 miles there. We had talked about doing 4-6 miles. He seemed to think that instead of turning around and back tracking that we could go down the trail on the other side of the road and it would get us back to the start. Just making a loop of sort. So off we go across a road on another trail. Eventually we came up on a road. Looking both ways they looked the same...endless. We decided to take a left, confident that we had made the right decision...


...only to find that the road didn't seem to end or intersect. Sooooo, we turn around and head back to where the trail came to the road and go the opposite way from where we'd been. After a while, Frank remembers the Navigation program on our Garmins. We got it up and going (and it seemed to know what it was doing) only to find out that neither of us were good at looking at this small map on this watch face. Ahem...I DID tell him that I could see enough without my glasses to read the map that turned out to be a "not so good" map; therefore discounting what vision I could muster to read this tiny little map on a wrist. After following the arrow for a while, we noticed that the arrow changed and was pointing across a field, then the opposite direction as if we'd passed the "start". Not being able to cut across that area, we continued on down the road and there it was...a beautiful red Stop sign!! Yay...we were at least at a trafficked road.

What can I say?? It truly was an adventure and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. It was so much fun. And, we learned a new feature on our Garmins! When we got back to the truck, the watch had recorded a distance of exactly 13.1 miles! We did a half marathon!! I don't know how the trail will go on race day, but I'm confident we won't have to use any survival skills on it, ha! I hope you enjoyed reading my new escapade cause I've enjoyed sharing it with my readers.

It's That Time of the Year

Okay...in the south about all you can say for the first of the winter months is nothing less than it's soggy and windy accompanied with days of 75 degrees followed by days of 40 degrees all within 48 hours! Wind is usually an element to deal with on a consistent basis for now. It can just be miserable at times. And it's not until the cooler weather decides it wants to hang around for a couple of months that it becomes decent and stable; that is, to me. On top of that, there's all the travel and hecticness that kicks you out of getting in a decent run here and there with increased goodies of all kinds that you do NOT indulge in any other time of the year that adds to your misery. Yeah, all in all, it's kind of a miserable time of year. I admire all my running friends that brave the weather...REGARDLESS...of what it is. Let me tell you right now, you're an inspiration to me and PLEEEEASE keeping posting on FB or letting me know how and what you are doing. Treadmills become a closer friend during these not-so-friendly days but even those tend to be sparingly available some times.

So with all of that said...and maybe they're more excuses than anything or maybe I don't have the drive at this time or maybe I'm a sissy. Okay, everyone deserves a pity party once in a while especially when it comes around your birthday. But whatever it is, I've NOT stopped running yet. It has been interrupted some but not stopped.

I'm still so put out with my last half marathon I can hardly stand it!! To me, it's one of those "why me?" runs. And I have no idea why it happened and there's no way to prevent it from happening again. Being the last half before my birthday and for the year I really wanted it to be good. And, I had been running pretty good to have a strong outcome. But it just wasn't meant to be.

During the last couple of weeks, I've only gotten in one long run, 11 miles and at a good pace. But this week I hit the treadmill 3 times and had very good, but shorter, runs on it. I've had the incline set to 2 and 2.5 which gives me a harder workout and I'm trying to maintain my usual pace and/or speed intervals.

For now, whatever you do, do it the best you can. This is a tough part of the year to maintain a schedule of any kind but DON'T stop. It's only a short time to work through. Soon look back over the year and if you keep a log (and hopefully you do) look through it and see how far you've come from 2010, where you need to improve, and how much fun you've had. Think of all the new people you've met and now have as running buddies in some form or fashion. And, finally, start getting your thoughts together to make 2012 running goals. This IS really a good time of the year. I'll be writing a final post summarizing the great year I've had. So for now...just Run 4 It...there's not a better feeling!