Siblings.

I can't believe I forgot about the drama that occurred over the Boston trip! It's so ridiculous, but what can you expect from my narcissistic, immature, 25 year old sister.

So, it started out with my dad, sister, and brother arriving late (10:00ish) Saturday night to our hotel in Westborough. I knew, KNEW, my brother and sister would NOT be going with us to the Olympic Trials the next morning, as it would be about 8:00 am, or so, when we would leave. I thought to myself, "Well, that's fine. They should be ready to go by 1:00 pm when we get back to the hotel. Surely."

Nooooot so much.

My sister was not ready when we returned, at 1:00 pm. She wasn't even out of bed, from what my brother says...ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.

So, we get to the hotel, ready to go to lunch and hang out in Boston for a while. I'm guessing my dad went into their hotel room, saw that she wasn't ready, and got mad at her. She, in turn, yelled at he and my brother, who, for some reason went OUT of the room, which she then took as an opportunity to lock them out. Of the hotel room.

Well, after about 30 minutes I realized that my dad wasn't calling me to go anywhere. I called him, dreading knowing what he would say about leaving--like that it would be another 30 minutes or so. Yeah. He said he was in the lobby, waiting on her to reopen the door so they could go back in.

WHAT THE FUCK!

He ended up having to ask the front desk what they could do about it, and they said nothing, honestly. Turns out they had to get someone from another hotel to bring over a tool that they use to get into hotel rooms in case they are jammed or something. 20 minutes later they show up, but, right before that time guess who decides to come out?

That's right. Little fucking brat.

Phillip and I had decided to leave and get lunch. We weren't going to wait on her ass. And my dad and brother just sat there, waiting in the lobby. When we got back to the hotel, they were still waiting. She kept them waiting down there for 2 hours!!!!!!!

So Phillip and I say we're going up to our room, to just relax and hang out for the rest of the day. It was already after 3:00 pm, and I wanted to relax before the next morning. I did NOT want to deal with her.

We went to get on the elevator, and lo and behold who gets off when it reaches the first floor? That's right, little miss immature herself. So I just ignore her, trying to get onto the elevator. Keep in mind I had not seen her yet at this point, not since Christmas, actually. She steps off the elevator, reaches out her arms and says, "Gimme a hug."

Hahaha.

Not likely. I said, "I'm not giving you a hug," and got on the elevator. Bitch thinks I'm going to let her ruin my weekend. She made the weekend all about her, even though they were there for a marathon that I was running in.

And of course my dad took her side.

Apparently, they went out and paraded through the city and had a grand old time. When they got back, my dad had the AUDACITY to come into our room and ask me to apologize to her. I told him no, that I would not apologize for something she did. He said that she wouldn't go to the marathon if I didn't apologize. You think I care?

She didn't go to the marathon, and she spent the next day, all day, in the hotel room.

New England is where I wanna be...

In my excitement over Boston, I forgot to mention in my last blog posting about the trip Phillip and I made the day AFTER the marathon. Our flight left Rhode Island at 5:30 pm, so we decided to make the most of the day. We left the hotel around noon, drove to Foxborough (maybe a 30 minute drive, maximum?), picked up some Subway, and made our way down the street to the one and only place I thought I would never see:

The NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS stadium!!!





Too bad Wayne couldn't be there. ;)

Marathon #2 - Boston

There’s no short version of this. Too bad.

On September 23rd, 2007, I ran my first marathon, the Omaha Marathon, and qualified for the Boston Marathon with a time of 3:22:40. I only needed a 3:40:00 for my age group, so that was completely taken care of.

Well here we are, just shy of 7 months later, and I can now consider myself part of the official finishers of the Boston Marathon. Medal and all.



Phillip and I flew into Providence, Rhode Island on Saturday, April 19th. We checked out our rental car and drove to the hotel. Once we got all checked in there and unloaded our bags, we decided to go for one last run. Phillip changed his clothes, got his garmin, and headed out the door for his 4 miles. I opted for the treadmill to run my last 5 miles before the marathon. Later that afternoon, after we had showered and eaten, Phillip and I drove over to Hopkinton to view the race course. It was a beautiful day!! We got to see the entire set up for the marathon, and even got to walk right over the start line. Phillip got pictures of me, both at the start line and standing by the flame.









That night, I did not sleep at all. I woke up every couple of hours, and one of the times I woke up I could not get my bearings. I didn’t know where I was, or where the bathroom was, and I had to really concentrate on what was going on. I finally figured out where I was, went to the bathroom and got back into bed, only to wake up again a couple of hours later thinking I would be running the marathon that morning! Arggh!

The next day Phillip, my dad, and I drove down to Boston to watch the Olympic Trials. We didn’t get there until 8:30 am, so they had already begun. No problem, though, we just wanted to get a glimpse of them and eventually see who won. Almost immediately, I received a text message from Roots, to whom I had sent my phone number prior to the trip. He told me where they (he, Flounder, and SisterGoldenHair) were standing, watching the trials, and Phillip, my dad, and I made our way over to find them. It was awesome finally meeting up with them! We got pictures, all of us, and luckily, my dad was there so we could all get in the picture.



Everyone asked me what my strategy was for the next day—uhh…I don’t know? Yeah, I had no idea. I just knew I wanted to be at the halfway point by no sooner than 1:32. Yep, so that’s it. That’s my strategy. And I wouldn’t be wearing the garmin. So, I was going to rely only on feel. And my Timex for my splits.

After the trials my dad, Phillip, and I went to the expo for my bib # and other goodies. I picked up my shirt and bib #, a poster, and bought a Boston Marathon Adidas jacket, Adidas wind pants, and Adidas shorts. Haha, I really overdid it on the merchandise apparel. But dammit, I earned it! BUT—then I thought about how unhappy I would feel if, after I bought all those products, I didn’t finish…I was extremely worried about the race, at that point.

We left the expo around mid-evening, just in time to go pick up some food, head back to the hotel, shower and eat before we finally settled into bed.

The weirdest thing about this marathon, compared to my other marathon, is that the night before this one I actually slept more than 3 hours. Phillip and I went to bed around 10:00 pm, and I think I immediately fell asleep. Hard to imagine, considering how freaking nervous I have been for months and months…our alarms (one on the phone, one on the actual alarm clock, and a wake-up call) were set for 5:00 am. I planned to get up, brush my teeth, drink my normal 32 oz. of water that I drink every morning, and wait until 6:30 am to roll around. At 6:15 am, Phillip went downstairs and started the rental car. I could hardly muster a word I was such a complete bundle of nerves. I was literally shaking.

Because we stayed in Westborough, just 30 minutes from the starting line, we had an easy time driving over that morning. We took a back road, and there were no cars anywhere in sight. We had to get to Hopkinton by 7:30 am because at that time all roads into Hopkinton would be closed. The time was only 7:00 am when we arrived in Hopkinton, and we had to drive around to look for parking. We had planned to park close to the corrals and as soon as my corral was released, I would just go and jump right in. Around 7:30 am, we finally found a place to park in the parking lot of a church just a few hundred feet from the corrals. There were port-a-johns in the parking lot, so that would be completely convenient. My bib number was 9170, so my corral was 9. Where we had parked was right on the other side of a building from it!

And it’s a good thing they were that close because we sat there for 2 hours, and I think I visited those port-a-johns at least 3 or 4 times.



Had I been in the “Athlete Village” I would have been released at 9:20 am, so around 9:15 am me, Phillip, my dad, and my brother walked over to the corrals. I got into the corral and stood there, waiting on it to fill up. It was full within a minute.





John Kerry was there—I think he was involved with the race somehow, I forget—and I actually saw him walk by! He walked right by me, as though it was Phillip walking by me. That’s how close he was. It was pretty interesting because I think that is the closest I have ever been to someone famous. Anyway, back to the story. There were all these athletes around me that had qualified in the same time I had, and they were all older than me, it seemed like. There was a woman and a man directly behind me to my left, and they were talking about how much fun the race was going to be. I asked them what their goal was. “To finish, and to have fun.” I said, “Hmm, maybe I should hang with you guys…” The woman said, “Yes! You should. You earned it.” I asked them how many times they had run the Boston Marathon and they both said this would be their first time. They asked me, I told them it was my second marathon and first Boston, and they said I was lucky, that it usually takes at least a couple of attempts for someone to qualify.

And then it was announced that the race was about to start. The gun was fired and we started moving forward…S L O W L Y…I kept talking to those two people, and after some time we got to the clock. It had been 10 minutes exactly. So, the gun time would be 10 minutes slower than my actual race time. No big deal, easy enough to figure out. I started my watch for the first lap and I was off.

I had been telling myself repeatedly that I needed to start off on a slow foot, not push through the first mile. It was supposedly all down hill, and from looking at the racecourse the day before, I knew it. So, I decided to take it E A S Y.

I took it easy, all right. It’s not like it was hard, though. There were so many people. Ridiculous amounts of people. I have never raced under those kinds of conditions, and it is definitely a lot harder to make your way through when there are people EVERYWHERE. When I looked up at the mile marker, which came very fast, actually, I hit my lap button. Whoa!!

Mile 1 – 7:53 (sound familiar?)

Interesting. I actually paced myself correctly down the hill. I knew I needed to speed it up a little, though, or I wouldn’t be able to make it up later. I just kept running through the mass of people, trying not to bob and weave and lose too much energy. I ended up doing pretty well because, once the second mile came up and I pushed the lap button again, I noticed I was getting just a little faster. Good. No problem making up the time from then on.

Mile 2 – 7:22

From that point on, it got really hot. At race start it was foggy and overcast, probably right around 50 degrees. But once the gun went off, the sun came out, and during the entire flat(ter) portion of the race (mile 3 through probably mile 15) it was HOT. I actually have pretty bad sunburn on the entire right side of my body. I saw so many people drinking water at mile 3, some already taking Gu and Powergel. Not a good sign. I just kept running, wondering if the race would end up turning into a Chicago Marathon type situation. I hoped not.

Mile 3 – 7:13

Okay, time to step it up and get busy, I decided. People weren’t clearing out, that’s for sure, but I needed to get around some of them or I would never get anywhere. For the next 10 miles, all I did was concentrate on maneuvering around the slow people, dodging water stations and people throwing cups, and feeling my way through the race, making sure to keep a steady, easy pace, one that wasn’t going to kill me in the end. I made it my goal to keep track of my splits, too, because I knew that would get me through the race. It did in the Omaha Marathon. I also thought about all of my family and friends watching the 5k splits, and I wondered what everyone was thinking as I crossed each of those mats.

Mile 4 – 6:53
Mile 5 – 7:09

About this time, I started noticing the difference in my quads. They were like, “what the F was all that down hill about?”

Mile 6 – 7:05
Mile 7 – 6:55
Mile 8 – 6:57
Mile 9 – 6:58
Mile 10 – 7:05

Around the 10th mile, I started feeling like I was losing energy? Maybe? So I decided it might be time to take the Gu I had in my shorts. I took it out, ripped it open, and swallowed it down, just in time to see a water station. I grabbed a cup, drank a few drops down, and kept on going. Maybe it made a difference, maybe it didn’t. I don’t know.

Mile 11 – 7:01
Mile 12 – 6:57
Mile 13 – 7:00

At some point during those miles, I noticed a girl running around the same pace as I was, trying to just get out of everyone’s way and keep running. She had “English” on her back. Phillip told me later that he saw her in my corral before the race. I asked her what she was trying for. She said between a 3:15 and a 3:20. I told her I was trying for around the same, and she said, “Do you want to see my splits?” They were written on her arm in marker. I told her no, that I was doing ok. We came upon a water station at that point, and we got split up. I never saw her again.

All along the way, and I know this is probably repetitive for you people reading who have already run Boston, there were so many people playing music, playing the drums and the guitar, handing out water, icees, orange slices, bananas, soda?, candy, anything with sugar. It was so bizarre. I never even thought about that kind of thing happening. I didn’t get anything, just kept running.

Mile 14 – 7:10
Mile 15 – 7:06
Mile 16 – 7:04

I slapped as many kid’s hands as I could—it kept me going. Really. It was such a nice feeling to know that these kids were spending their morning out there cheering runners on, and for no reason other than that, they were just excited to be there. I also heard, “Go team Nebraska!!!” more times than I can count. Speaking of which, it was about the time the hills started, mile 17, that I noticed people walking, all kinds of runners. Guys who looked like they were in GREAT shape. They just couldn’t do it. I ran past them, and at this point, the passing began. I passed literally THOUSANDS of people in the next 9.2 miles. Between mile 16 and 17 people were also handing out Powergel in all flavors, and at this point, I picked up a couple, making a mental note to take the next one at mile 20. I don’t know why; it just seemed like a good idea. I put one in my shorts and carried one in my hand.

Mile 17 – 7:23
Mile 18 – 7:17
Mile 19 – 7:08
Mile 20 – 7:12

At Mile 20, I took the Powergel I had in my hand. Again, don’t know if it helped, but whatever. I don’t train with those things so I don’t know what it feels like to know if they boost your energy or not. It was also at this point when I really started looking around. There were literally 2 women near. It remained that way for the rest of the race. There were just women sprinkled (if you could even call it that) through the remaining few runners I was passing. I passed so many people. I passed people walking, passing out, laying on the ground, stopping to stretch, everything. I just kept on running.

Mile 21 – 7:24
Mile 22 – 6:59
Mile 23 – 7:12
Mile 24 – 7:02
Mile 25 – 7:13 (I know that Heartbreak Hill is supposed to be the hardest, but the hill at this mile is CLEARLY difficult after you’ve been running first down hill and then back up. I thought this hill was the hardest; the other ones were like running in Omaha)

I turned the corner onto Boylston Street, the last stretch before the finish. I saw the finish line, the balloons and big sign saying, “FINISH,” and it was like hearing music. I could feel the energy building. I ran as fast as I could, which probably wasn’t very fast, and tried to reach that finish line. I knew I could make it. I heard my name—looked to the right—it was Phillip, my dad, and my brother!!! Another boost of energy. I felt like I was high. I could see all these people on both sides of the street in stands, thousands of them, yelling, screaming, forcing us to the finish. It was AWESOME.

In the end, I only noticed two people pass by me. They must have been holding out for the fast finish. I was doing just fine. I felt wonderful just to be there! It was everything they said it would be.

Mile 26 and .2 – 8:38

I made my way through the finish line, held my hands up, and after crossing the line, slowed down to a stop. I was finished. My legs were crying, especially my quads. I walked, slowly, to the water station ahead and grabbed a water bottle from the nearest person. Walked some more and let them place a heat sheet around me. I’ve never had that before, and I remembered what someone told me way before going to this race—“let them treat you like you deserve to be treated. Let them do all they can for you. That’s why they’re there.” Walked some more and noticed the chips were being taken off. I bent over as much as I could and untied my shoe. Then I had to stand there!! (it hurt so bad) and let the woman take my chip off my shoe and retie it. Then she placed my medal around my head…



Eventually I found the “J” and there were Phillip, my dad, and my brother!! I just fell into Phillip’s arms I was so exhausted. My legs were going nowhere, so we sat on the sidewalk. That felt soooo good. (I should have done that right after I finished. I think it would have been a better idea.)

After I got my bearings and could stand up, we started walking the two blocks to the car. Along the way I told Phillip I should probably call Will, my team president. He was in Boston for the trials, and I knew he was at the marathon, but I didn’t know if he knew anything about times or anything.

We were about halfway to the car when—aaaaccckkk! Who do we run into? Will! He gave me a huge hug and said he was so proud of me, saying that he wanted a picture. We got one, talked a while longer, and then kept going.



So, I’m sure that by this time you all want this thing to end. Soon, I promise.

That night I just showered and sat around the hotel room and relaxed, wearing my Boston Marathon Adidas pants (guess they were worth it after all).

Skip forward to the plane ride home—we sat next to a guy on the plane who, long story short, works for a company called Elite Racing. Apparently, the company is based out of the UK and recruits elite athletes for the Rock N’ Roll Marathons, and they are right now working on getting their own standards made. The guy asked how I did in the marathon, and Phillip told him all about my race and my racing past, and the guy asked him for my email address. He gave us his email address and asked us to keep in touch, saying that he wanted us to keep him informed on my future races so that if their standards equal mine, we could get something going. I’ll let Phillip explain further on that, if anyone cares. But holy crap!! Phillip said he feels like my manager, haha.

Official time:
3:07:24
101st AG (18 – 34)
2017/21963 OA
124/8935 OA Woman

This is also a 15:16 PR, and based on my half time of 1:33:18, while it is a positive split, it is only by 44 seconds. I can’t even believe it. At Boston. The entire second half is hills?!


As for now, I feel very sore, but not as bad as yesterday. I’m sure it will be a few days before I start running again, and even then it will be really easy paces. Who knows what is in the future—according to Will, it’s going to be Twin Cities, and that’s great. All I know is, I could use a flat race.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot—I guess all of my treadmill training, training sans hills, and training wearing Nikes is doing me absolutely NO good.

Under the gun...and counting.

Two days...that's all.

I have two days to force my mind to come up with some sort of plan of action, some reasonable quality effort to put towards this race.

THE BOSTON MARATHON

What could be better, right?

Haha, should be grand, but yet, I have these reservations.

It's because of my legs and feet. The legs are not 100%, they just aren't, let's face it. And my feet--don't get me started there. I feel like my feet are punishing me for trying to do too much over the past 6 months.

But listen, I needed to run all those months after my mom died. I could NOT have made it through without doing so. And I received tons of PR's from those months of running...but now when I want to run the biggest race of my life, my legs and feet are suffering.

I have received so much in the way of luck in the past couple of days. I have had two people at work tell me that I'll go under 3:00, and that's without them even knowing what I've done thus far! They have no idea what I run every day, they have no idea what I've done in races, and they are still that confident I will run sub-3:00 in this marathon?

If they can be so positive, why can't I?

Too long...

I can't believe it's been nearly 3 years since I last posted here. I think what I may do is move all my race reports over to this blog, start blogging here, and forget freaking MySpace, Facebook, everything. That crap is overrated anyway.

Eisenhower Half Marathon

Ok, so let’s just go ahead and say I’m better at long distance than short distance.

I ran the Eisenhower Half Marathon in Abilene, KS, at 7:00 am this morning. The temperature was around 40 at the start, but the high today was to be 68, so I wasn’t worried about a warm up. It was dark when we started, and I was nervous as hell (as usual).

There were other races going on concurrently with the Half—a marathon, a 10k, and a 5k. Wasn’t concerned with any of those people.

One goal in mind as I started this Half Marathon this morning:
average a 7:00 pace (in preparation for Boston), making my goal time 1:31:42. Wasn’t sure I could do it, wasn’t sure I wanted to try. But, we made a 5-hour trip for me to run the race, the race was paid for by Team Nebraska, and we had a free hotel stay. So it was worth an attempt.

Bonus: If I won 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, Overall Woman, I would receive $150, $125, or $75, respectively. Not a big concern, though, really. I wasn’t trying to win, only train.

So, I started out, trying to just get a feel for a comfortable pace. I decided not to wear my garmin because I wanted to do it on my own. The course was an out and back, heading south, then east circling through a park, heading south from the park, eventually reaching a turnaround, going north and back through the park, then heading back to the start. What I didn’t know was how beautiful the run would actually be!! I had a great time during the run—the scenery was absolutely breathtaking.

Mile 1 – I just ran along, trying to feel things out. At the mile marker a guy was ticking off times. I ran by and he said 6:45. Well, that was probably too fast, but I wasn’t feeling too overwhelmed. I decided to just keep on going.

Mile 2 - We crossed a highway bridge that passed over a river—beautiful!!! I realized at this time that there were a couple of guys directly in front of me. I decided to hang onto their pace for a little bit, as they were going pretty fast and smooth. I also knew that there were 3 women in front of me. No matter. Not my goal.

Mile 3 – As we headed through the magnificent park, I finally asked these guys what kind of pace they were trying to hold. One guy said 6:45. I said what is our pace now? He said 6:45. I stuck with them until the turnaround, the 6.55 mile point.

Mile 4 – We crossed over another little wooden bridge. Awesome!

Mile 5 – Pretty standard. OH, except for the massive hill we climbed to the turnaround. And that I got to see my sweetheart waiting for me on the horizon!

Turnaround, or 6.55 miles – Again they were ticking off times. I ran by—44:59. PERFECT! Now all I had to do was keep going at a pretty solid pace and I might actually be able to take it easy at the end.

Mile 6.55 and on – Passed those two fellows I was hanging with and just kept on going at a comfortable pace. I ran by Phillip, he said I was looking good, and I kept on going.

Mile 8 or so, back through the park – I caught the 3rd woman. I thought she was slowing down so as just to tail me for a little while, and then towards the end just ramrod me. I stayed slow with her for a bit…nope, she was done for. Kept going…

Miles 9 to 13 – Just ran what I thought was comfortable. No real news, except that just ahead about 30 seconds or so I could see the 2nd woman. Not to worry. Not my goal.

Last .10 – I kicked it up a notch, as I had some left to give. Ran in, looked at the clock, heard Phillip say, "Freaking awesome baby, I’m so proud of you!" and I was done.

The one and only time I ever ran a Half Marathon, September 9, 2006: 1:33:21.

Eisenhower Half Marathon, April 5, 2008: 1:27:44.

Difference: priceless. Not really, haha! Actually it was a 5:06 difference!!!

And, what’s more, if you look at the difference between the first half and the second half of the race you will notice a difference in the split time. That’s right, a negative split!

The first 6.55 miles I ran in 44:59 (6:53 average pace)
The second 6.55 miles I ran in 42:45 (6:32 average pace)
=2:14 negative split!!!

SO, although I didn’t try, I made 5 achievements today instead of the 1 goal that I set out for—

1. Kept at least a 7:00 pace
2. PR’ed
3. Scored a negative split, bigtime
4. Scored 3rd overall woman, so I got the $75 prize winnings after all.
5. And I found out later that I got 6th place overall! There were only 3 other men and 2 other women in front of me.

Official –
1:27:44, 6:42 average pace, 6th Overall, 3rd Overall Female

Official Photos from the Shamrock Shuffle 8k