Blah-blog

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A much needed blog. I've taken awhile to blog for a couple of reasons, okay maybe only two. Work has been totally blah lately and I've felt blah too. I haven't even blogged about the half marathon. That's cause I've felt blah about the results of it and embarrassed about it a little too. The work drama isn't really even worth blogging about. I'll just say I'm glad that I'm done in about six weeks. I'll miss the kids but not the drama from working around all women. Work is so much better when you really like the people that you are working with. I was just telling a friend the other day how my sophomore year of college I woke up at 4am to wash toilets in the gym bathrooms on campus and that was even bearable because I worked with another girl who was so much fun. So really any kind of work can be fun if you are working with the right people. Before I get a teaching job I for sure want to look into the people who I will be working alongside i.e. principal and other teachers.

So the half… (sigh) The trip up to Wenatchee was way fun. There were four of us girls going. Danna, Kasey, Haley, and I. We rode up in Haley's car and our husbands all came up later that night after work. We all agreed that it helped a lot to get our minds off the race by chatting gossiping . We dropped Haley off at Eastmont track where Ike had a meet that she was helping coach. Then we went and checked into the hotel and to packet pick up. It was crazy how many people we saw that we knew. All mainly from church, there were at least five couples up there running that weekend. I actually first heard about the Wenatchee Marathon from a lady from church at one of our BUNKO game nights. We picked Haley up after the meet was over and headed to Olive Garden for some carb loading. After that we went to the grocery store where I made me first mistake, I got a Diet Coke! GASP! I know! How could I?! Well I read in Women's Health Magazine that people who drank caffeine before a workout had like 20% more muscle endurance than those who didn't. So I was like "That's great I'll just drink some diet coke before the race." Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Anyways… that night got a good night's sleep as I had the night before that which I hear is really the night that counts. Before we all headed to bed we were gathered in our hotel room and Alex, Haley's husband, zapped Kasey and Danna's husbands with these electric currents that they use at his work and it would make their muscles contract involuntarily. That was our entertainment for the night. I wish I had a video of it. I'm pretty sure at one point John's middle finger involuntarily went up while he was writhing in pain. Ha-ha. That night I didn't even have running nightmares! I had had them the two nights previous. They usually consist of me getting frustrated because the course is not marked properly and I'm losing time because I'm lost. Or, that I am trying my hardest to run but can't move at all. Well none of that the night before race day.

The morning of the race woke up about 6:30, met Kasey and Haley down in the lobby at about 7:15 and we jogged to the start line which was about a mile down the road (possibly mistake number two, maybe shouldn't have jogged that far). Race started promptly at 8am. My parents were both there at the start cheering us on and they even brought the family dog. (I guess the hotel was pet friendly. Abby (the dog) kept them up all night cause every time somebody passed by in the hall she ran to the door and growled). I felt so good at the beginning of the race and actually that worried me a little bit because normally at the beginning of a run I'm dying. But I was like "what the heck if I feel this good, might as well take advantage of it." Mistake number three. First three miles were 8:28, 8:20, 8:21.

The Start

 I think between the second and third mile I got a stabbing side ache. I NEVER get side aches!!! Luckily Haley taught me a great little trick to get rid of them be breathing really deep when you step down with the foot that the side ache is on. And after a few minutes it went away. But I struggled with them pretty consistently throughout the run (thank you Diet coke). At about mile nine I could just feel that I had zero energy. I have never used GU before so I didn't want to get some at the turn around point, but at mile nine I was wishing that I had. I hadn't ever really felt like I had "hit a wall" until then. It's the weirdest feeling. It's like you can just feel your body searching for any kind of energy it can, but coming up with nothing. And at that point it's totally mental and you just have to push yourself through it. Unfortunately I was mentally weak and just ended up walking a few times and breaking. Inside my head I seriously had like a split personality one was saying "I don't care about getting my goal time, it hurts, I'm walking" and the other was arguing back "Yes you do care! You know you care!" But the first won that argument. GRRRR! It's so frustrating because I know that physically I was able to go under two hours. But mentally I guess I wasn't. The race was a little hillier than I expected. The hills came at us at about mile 4.5 I believe and went till mile 6.5 and then you turn around and experience the ups and downs again. So my time ended up being 2:03:50. My last year's time was 2:03:40 at the Seattle Rock and Roll ½ marathon. So ten seconds slower but hey at least I'm consistent right?! I'm pretty ticked that in the last two miles the guys caring the freaking keg passed me! Lol If that isn't humiliating I don't know what is! Seriously these two guys carried a keg the whole 13.1 miles switching off between them like every 5 minutes. Oh and can you believe that an 11 year old boy ran the half in 1:48! Who runs that much and that fast at 11 years old! Kind of cool but kind of strange as well.

The Finish comming off of the bridge

Okay positive things that came from the race: Well, I know now some things not to do! 1. Drink carbonated beverages 2. Go out fast 3. Avoid the GU station. And next time I'm just going to choose somebody, anybody to stick with for parts of the race so that I've got that motivation. There were a couple times I was thinking "I'll keep up with him/her" but then just gave up. I should have stuck with the kegger boys; they might have had some interesting stories to tell to keep my mind off the pain. And another positive, since I didn't get my goal time I'm running another half marathon at the end of June. I promised myself that I'd get under two hours by the end of the year. I've got a 10K coming up in about a week but I'm not going for a specific time just for a training run and a t-shirtJ