Baltimore Half Marathon

Yeah, so..... you know it's a bad sign when you pre-arrange a bail out from the race, which is exactly what I did when I called Jeremy and asked for a pick-up around Lake Montebello, around the 7.5 mile marker.  I was signed up for this race, but with school and everything, really hadn't done much running since the summer run challenge.  Paula was in a similar situation, being so busy with wedding planning, and we mutually agreed that we'd do what we can and then grab a ride back to the race festival.

Ingrid and I spent the previous evening and night with my dad, and got to the race start pretty early to see Dad off on the marathon.  We stopped at Subway to keep warm and use the bathroom, and then headed over to our race start where we met up with Paula and Tommy.  Paula and I sent the faster two off as we hung back and settled into a nice walk pace with sporadic runs.  Truthfully, I could have been picked up a little sooner than we were, but Jeremy wasn't keen on the idea of us veering off the course in earlier neighborhoods.

As we entered the lake, we knew we just had a little more to go, and the timing worked out perfectly as Jeremy was just pulling up as we approached the meeting spot.  We went to Jeremy's house to pick up Jessi and Jayce and then started on what turned into the worst commute ever to the Light Rail and then to Ravens stadium (really, it would have been faster to just have continued the race).  We met up with Ingrid and Tommy and then hung around to see Dad finish -- under the time limit, mind you, except they had already started tearing down the festival and they didn't call out his name, the one thing he was looking forward to.  It made us all really mad, and we probably will skip this race next year.... but Dad finished a great race and got a ride home to his chocolate cake, saved from the previous night's dinner, as Ingrid and I set back to Virginia.

All in all, not a terrible day.... 7 miles is still better than sitting on the couch, which is exactly what would have happened had we not gone though with the event.  A shower and a nap were nice before enjoying several pitchers of sangria that evening with Joann and James, followed by an inadvertent late night on the town (at Town) with Dan, Cori and Amanda (oops!).

100 *Miles* in 100 Days

My summer of running!

I've never been a good runner.  I'm a solid back-of-the-packer and I'm comfortable in that spot.  That said, I know I can become a *better* runner.  How do I do that?  Run more!  And that's what I set out to do, along with several members of ARRC and the Mamma's Fools.  100 runs in 100 days.  The rules are simple:

• A run must be 1 mile and 15 minutes long
• Multiple runs per day are allowed as long as they are 1 hour apart

Got it, Ok, let's roll.

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit." 

-- Aristotle

Well, 100 runs didn't actually happen.  I was on a good track until about July when my back really started hurting.  But.. I got back on track and realized at some point that while 100 runs was out of reach, I was on track to hit 100 *miles* for the summer..... with the new goal now in reach, I really set out and had a great experience with running towards the end of the summer.  I had a trip to Montana planned with Mom and Heidi T, and so I knew I had a few less days than in the plan, and picked up my runs toward the end...

5/21	94 days
Jen
53 runs	100.1 miles

And I DID IT!!!! Reached 100.1 miles after my 53rd run of 2.3 miles on August 23!!!! Sure, most of my runs were only about a mile, but 1 miles > 0 miles, right?? Anyway, I'm psyched... WOO HOO!!!!

Jim McDonnell Lake Swim

OK, so the official lake swim event was DNS, I did participate in the 1-mile practice clinic on the day prior and thus am doing a write up of the event.

The day actually started with a 7AM run with ARRC... 5 miles on a 1/2 interval schedule... yeah, that is super slow but I created a schedule for myself to become a runner this schedule, and as slow as that seems, it is one of the steps... and so there you have it.  Shari actually agreed to do these intervals with me as she had done 2/1's with Nelda the week before and wanted to slow down a bit.. worked out perfectly!  Having Shari with me made me do the walk intervals faster than I would have, and so even with the slow intervals, we managed about a 15 min/mi, which is faster than most of my shorter runs.. huh.  Anyway, but I digress.

I went straight from Arlington out to Reston for the swim clinic.. the clinic actually started much earlier so I only got there for the tail end question and answer session.  I sat down at the Team Z tent and hung out until it was time to get ready for the swim.  I saw a couple buoys out in the water, but wasn't sure I was seeing the entire mile, so there must be another one further out that I couldn't yet see.  Lined up in the waves for the start... the water was WARM and nice.. and off I was..

Got to that first buoy that I had seen from shore and was all set to make my way to that 2nd buoy, which was still the furthest out I had seen... and then we made a right turn.. THERE were the rest of the buoys... UGH.  I felt like I was going soooo slow.. wasn't wearing a wetsuit (by choice b/c that's where I need the work).  Sun was up on my right so I was forced to breathe mainly on the left.. this swim seemed long.. we kept rounding corners, and I was thinking that eventually the current would be going in my direction... nope.  Finally I turned and started swimming back to shore.. this was really a painful swim.  I finished in 47:25, which I think is on par with what I did in Florida, but geez..

Got out, handed in my number (which they had us store under our swim cap), and was met with some Team Z cheerers.. everyone was so nice even though I barely know anyone from the team yet.  Definitely glad I decided to join.. nice to have people to talk to after an event, even ones I don't take my own cheer squad to!

The rest of Saturday was exhausting as Mom came over to help me put in plants in my front yard... all those hours in the hot sun, I went to bed at 9:30.. woke up at 5:00 AM and decided I just didn't have it in me.  Turned off my alarm clock and rolled over until 10:30... went for a short run and to the Nationals Game.. no regrets for skipping the actual swim event.