A sometimes blogger, addicted to the mountains,cupcakes and beer. The half Mary is my favorite distance. Marathoner. Ultramarathoner. Triathlete, kinda?
Guess what I signed up for?? On August 31st, I will be running my 6th half marathon in St. Paul, MN!!
I signed up for the Women Rock Half marathon. I am from MN so I love somewhat local races. I love the Twin Cities, especially downtown St. Paul, so what better way to see the big city!! AND….it might be my birthday weekend, so I must celebrate! And since we are up there, we are going to the Great MN Get Together (aka..the MN State Fair!) after I run the half. A little crazy. I know. Who wants to run a half marathon and then walk around fairgrounds with 200,000 other people? At least I won’t feel guilty about eating the fair food and rehydrating with Blue Moon and Miller Lite. Just a little fun fact…I’m only allowed to drink 2 Blue Moon beers and then I get cut off. Miller Lite or Premium Light are safe afterwards, but apparently if I have more Blue Moon I get a little sassy.
Anyhow…I’m not sure if I want to make this a PR race, or just for fun. I have no idea what the elevation chart looks like (because it is not on the website!!), but I do know there are a few hills in St. Paul. Either way, I will have fun and I might even run with my phone for once. I’m not sure yet.
And because I think you need a little humor…
The underwear create the muffintop?
If I would’ve known it was the underwear this whole time, I would’ve bought these a LONG time ago.
Who else is running the Women Rock series in MN??!!!!
I am now officially a triathlete. Ok ok. I really don’t consider myself an athlete, much less a triathlete just because I finished one triathlon. I did it. It’s in the books. And I will probably do the same one next year (but only if they keep the swim part in the pool). I say that only because the lake here is NASTY. I don’t mind swimming in open water. I grew up swimming in MN lakes. Green lakes scare me.I don’t even have any cool pictures yet! The race photographers I believe are working on putting the photos in an album online. The race was the inaugural race and things went very smoothly from the participants point of view.
I got there a little later than I wanted too, but that’s my fault. I guess I thought living 1.5 miles from the start would give me a little advantage. Not so. I should’ve gotten there a little earlier. I wasn’t late by any means, but I like to be ready and set well before the start of things. We got there, put our bikes on the rack, got numbered,went to the biff, and stood in line for the swim to start.
Tri transition area
The swim started and they had 5 lanes open, one person per lane. They started a new person as one completed the swim. The pool water was warm, and it took awhile for my time to come. However you don’t cross the timing mat until you start the swim. It was a short distance, I think 175 yards. 3.5 laps. Done.
My swim to bike transition took a little longer than I wanted. I had a hard time getting my socks on. I also took my time, but now I know what to do differently next time. The bike was 12.7 miles roughly. And windy. I am really glad we rode the same route a few days before. We had even stronger winds that day so race day it didn’t seem as challenging. I was really impressed by how encouraging all of the participants were!! Everyone kept saying “good job!” “Looking strong” and “Keep it up”. It really created a positive, fun race.
I finished the bike, changed my shoes and off to run the 5k. YIKES. My legs felt.like.jello. I started out way too fast, but I couldn’t help it! The legs just kept going. I saw a couple of my friends that were volunteering (THANK YOU!!) and they snapped a couple of photos for me. One of them I twirled for them 🙂
A little tri twirl
I finished the whole thing in 1:16:25 (give or take a few seconds). I wasn’t in it for time, I just wanted to finish! I wasn’t going to do this race, but I am so glad I did. Right after the finish I felt like I never wanted to do another triathlon. Now, I would like to do a few more 🙂
And, since I am usually the most unlucky person when it comes to raffles and random prize drawings, I almost fell over when I heard my name announced in the random prize drawing that I won!!! Check this out!
Look what I won!
Another Trek bike!!! I was super excited because I never win anything!
As far as the race goes, like I said earlier I think the whole thing went really well. The volunteers were very good, the bike portion was directed by volunteers, and there was plenty to eat and drink afterwards. The guys did a great job and I sure hope they host it again next year!
She’s a tricky little bugger. Wanna know why?? Cuz she turned back on today. However, she won’t charge. Hmmmm…After I broke down and made the big purchase of a new Garmy. Which cannot be named Garmy. So Garmy 2 needs a new name. Any suggestions??
I broke down and purchased the Garmin 210. This new one also has a heart rate monitor. Which I used today!! and loved it! I have only used the new one twice, but I will do a review on it next week, after I’ve used it more. My goal is to actually utilize more of the features. I didn’t use many features with the old Garmy.
Now, for the Freeze Your Caboose Off…This is part of the Chillabration that went on this weekend in our little town in BFE MN. A few of us from work dressed up in our Vikings garb
SKOL Vikings!
The Freeze Your Caboose Off is a very small, local race. Maybe 75 people? There was a combination of runners and walkers. Our group started together and then we eventually split up. I caught up to the hubs, passed him, and finished in 31:43. We both were making this race part of our long run for the day. He only needed 5 miles and I had 9 on the schedule. So we ran to the start of the race, which was 2.16 miles. He got an extra mile in 🙂 I then ran home after the race winners and age group winners were announced. I took 2nd in my AG, but there were probably only 2 of us in the AG 😉 I then ran home and finished out the day with 9.04 miles!
My hamstrings and legs have been unusually sore this last week. I’m not quite sure why either. I don’t know if its because I’m going from tread to outside and alternating. Maybe it’s because I’ve been trying to speed up and all of my runs are a little faster than I’m used to? I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I have been trying to keep my “easy” days easy. I also included a different workout on Tuesday after an “easy” run. I did Jillian’s Killer Buns and Thighs dvd level 1. I’ve done this dvd and all levels on it. It’s hard. It sucks. But I love it. I also think this MAY be the culprit. Let’s take a look at the week…
Monday was a scheduled rest day, but I did Bob’s Yoga for an hour. I NEEDED that stretch. Felt great afterwards.
I ran 3 slower miles on Tuesday (26 minutes total…that’s about 8:20/mile), took a phone call (before stretching because I was going to do the dvd right away so I didn’t cool down on the tread or stretch), then I started the dvd. I stretched pretty good after the dvd, so I thought.
Wednesday I had a great tempo run. I really wanted to step outside my comfort zone and speed up a little bit. I wasn’t supposed to work this day, but I ended up picking up a day shift and we were busy and it felt like I had already ran 6 miles by the time I even hopped on the tread to actually log 6 miles. With my tempo runs I’ve been trying to do progression runs. My first mile was a warm up at 8:32. Miles 2,3,4 were at 8 min/mile. Mile 5 was at 7:47, and mile 6 started at 7:40/mile and ended at 6:58 mile. My average pace for the entire 6 miles was 7:58/mile. This is slow for some of you, but speedy for me! I had my new Mizunos on and yes, I am still in love with them!
Average pace starting with a 7…whoa!
Thursday was an “easy” run. Outside, Garmin-less and did 4.05 miles in 34 minutes. I’m not sure what the hell happened on Wednesday but holy smokes it was HARD to roll out of bed today. I managed to eat breakfast, make my java, and land in the chair for a few hours before I finally convinced myself to brush my teeth, put in my contacts and go for a run. Yikes.
Friday and Saturday were rest days. Friday my.legs.hurt.and I have NO idea why. Saturday I had my long run scheduled, but I had to work at one job all day, and then I picked up at the hospital that night, and ended up getting called in early. So, I went and ran my butt off there. And officially took a rest day.
Sunday Funday was the Freeze Your Caboose Off!! I’m not sure what my official time is for the entire 9 miles. Just because I haven’t figured out new Garmis yet. Garmis?? Hmmm…The first 2.16 lap was 8:15/mile. The 4 mile race was in 31:43. and my final 3 miles lap said 8:30/mile. So…if I had to guess..I’d say avg for the 9.04 miles is 8:15/mile.
All these miles make me want more and more and more of this goodness…
And someone else wanted to say hello…Say Hello to Joseph 🙂 He has completely taken over the MN Twins blanket.
Next time I think we should talk protein.
Peeps, Garmy 2 needs a new name….suggestions!!!!???
Miles With Missy 