Houston Marathon Pre-race Dinner Pics

Race Report!

What an awesome day! I was so nervous at the beginning of the week and then I decided to let it go, it was either going to happen or not. I had pretty much convinced myself that a 3:15 was impossible and actually changed my goal to a 3:17, writing out the race plan and marking it as my "A Race" on Wednesday. Finally, I sat down on Saturday morning and started running some more numbers and decided to just give it a whirl, the only difference between the 3:15 and 3:17 was the last 9 miles.

David called around 7 on Saturday night and told me that he would be running Sunday morning. This totally had me pumped until I heard that he had run 18 in trails on Saturday morning on top of eating an entire bucket of chicken on Saturday night (He likes to eat.). He agreed to start out with me and be my running bitch for as long as he was able to stick it out. I started off slow like I planned and then picked up the pace a little on South First. David and Panther both stuck with me through the easy miles in the hills. We showed some great restraint because we all three were feeling pretty good, but we stuck to the plan through Exposition and up 35th. This paid off later.

We got to the 13.1 and then started dropping the hammer. It started with some MGP miles through 13-17 and then the plan was to pick it up to 7:10 with a 7:20 on Avenue H. We all three felt pretty great. Finally, as we kept getting more and more ahead of pace, David just said, "Let's just run how you feel." So, we did. We even passed the 3:15 pacers at the top of Dean Keaton and then dropped two minutes on them in the last 1.5 miles. I felt great on the hills! Even Dean Keaton! I kept telling Panther he did a great job because of how great I felt and then he told me to stop touching him or talking to him. I left him alone after that, he seemed pretty serious. I think he was a little worn out, seeing how this was his 4th marathon in 3 months!

We finished the second half in 4.5 minutes faster than the 1st half.
We did a 44 minute last 10K.
I PR'd by 18 minutes.
David ran a 3:12:59 the day after eating a bucket of chicken AND running 18 trail miles!
Panther qualified for Boston, yet again, on his fourth crazy marathon in 3 months.

I would say the day was a success!!!

Great job Panther. We all got our money's worth out of this training! I loved seeing Nick's family with Amy out there, plus all the CRAZY signs that were everywhere. What a great day, I think I've earned my day off tomorrow. That's right, I already called in sick!

Third Time's a Charm!! AKA Nick Driver's Race Report

For anyone who has ever tried to conquer the monumental task of running a marathon with some sort of time goal, we all know there are certain overall times we consider milestones. Whether it is breaking the 4-hour barrier, qualifying for Boston, or any other major time goal, we all have milestones that are important to us. For me, the milestone I’ve been preparing to conquer since September 1, 2007, is the 3:45 marathon.

Last year, when I first joined Rogue, this goal seemed a bit far fetched as it would have been more than a 25 minute PR for me. However, throughout my training, with the help of Panther and Blue Thunder, I became more and more confident that I could actually hit that goal. Last February, at the AT&T Austin Marathon, I gave it my best shot, only to fall apart between miles 22-23 (i.e., Avenue H ring a bell for anyone??), and I finished in 3:53. Not bad, as it was an 18-minute PR, but I didn’t conquer my 3:45 milestone.

After building plenty of speed during the spring by running 5Ks and 10Ks, I was ready to jump back into the marathon training in June. Only this time, I was much more confident in my ability to run faster at the long distance. This newfound level of confidence put me in a position where I wanted to train for a new milestone (3:30), without actually conquering my first one? Anyways, I spent the entire summer training really hard in preparation for the San Antonio marathon in November. The time goal I was aiming for in SA was a 3:30 marathon, and honestly, the pace felt pretty comfortable for the first half of the marathon. However, something happened to me at about mile 18 that I will never forget. My entire lower body went into major shock and all of my muscles just locked up. It was all I could do to jog/walk the last 8 miles to just finish that damn marathon in a whopping 3:59. I was happy to have even finished the way my legs were feeling, but once again, I didn’t conquer my 3:45 milestone.

After San Antonio, my goal was to transition into training for the Austin Marathon. This proved to be one of the most difficult things I have ever done, as I was really beat up both physically and mentally after what happened in San Antonio. But, after about 6 weeks, I got back into the swing of things and started having some of the best training runs that I have ever had. During this period, I made the decision that for the Austin Marathon my goal would be to A) PR, B) conquer the 3:45 milestone and C) run at least a 2 minute negative split. I was confident that I could accomplish all three of these goals, but as we all know, anything can happen on race day.

Well, folks, I am very happy to report that I accomplished all three of these goals yesterday on a very tough Austin Marathon course. My race plan consisted of starting out with the 3:45 pace group and the idea was to hold that pace until the late miles where I would pick it up and cut off some time to hit that negative split. I can say, without hesitation, that I have never felt that great during a marathon. I never cramped and I sure as hell never walked, which have both become staples of my previous marathons. I just felt absolutely fantastic the whole way. I remember telling my awesome pace leader, one of Riff Raff’s own, Bob Wynn, how great I felt at about mile 22 and he said I should go get them.

I stayed with the pace group for another mile or so before running into my brother jumping up and down ready to run up Dean Keeton with me. I said “you really want to run that hill with me? It’s a big one” to which he responded “Hell yeah, let’s do this”. I laughed and said, “Okay, I’m ready to do this.” I absolutely DESTROYED that hill. It didn’t phase me one bit and I proceeded to pick up the pace the rest of the way before sprinting across the finish line in an overall marathon time of 3:42:55.

That, my friends, is a 3:45 milestone conquering, 2 minute + negative split, and 10 minute PR marathon for you. It felt great and I can’t wait until this summer when I start working towards my next milestone PR!!

I owe a special thanks to my coach Panther, my Riff Raff teammates and all my friends and family for their support. I could not do this without all of you!

Red Dress Madness

Not the best shots as I had some camera shake issues, but there's some fun ones fo show. Enjoy. 'cause I've been enjoying all the headache posts. . .you'll have to copy and paste the link as blogger is having problems

http://picasaweb.google.com/ajohnson48/RedDressMadness?authkey=rpeXOO9kuHA&feat=directlink

White Rock Marathon

I arrived in Dallas in time to meet up with my running group at the Expo, plus a friend I met at Cancun 70.3 who was also running. After making the rounds & buying some stuff, we headed off for a quick tour of the 1st 8 miles of the course since it was mostly uphill. From the car, it didn't look too bad, but we noticed the narrow streets. This would turn out to be interesting with the fulls and the halfers on the same course at the beginning. Then, we headed to the hotel & met up for dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Dallas, Patrizio's.

Then we headed back to the hotel & prepped for the morning. In the anticipation of running my first marathon & replacing all my memories of my life in Dallas, I did not sleep a wink on Saturday. Not. A. Second. I got into bed, exhausted, and closed my eyes, but all the thoughts swirling in my head, periodic looks to the clock, etc. didn't allow me to even doze off even once. Definitely not good.

Got up early to go walk around outside & get a feel for the weather: warm & windy. Then back up to the room to get ready for the run, stretch my calves & IT bands & load up the car. I saw Gareth running around in the parking lot. Then my parents took me, Panther & Gareth over to Victory Park. After hitting the johns, we then met up with Fitty & David for some nervous banter. A few hugs, handshakes & well-wishes, then it was time to line up in our corrals and/or with pace groups.

I got a nasty side stitch early in the race, which never happens to me, and by the time that finally went away we turned to go around the lake. The headwinds, gusting horribly around 36mph around the lake, were tough. At top gusts, I decided to walk, since trying to run through those was futile, with one hand on the head keeping the hat from blowing off (which it did about 5 times). One of my contact lenses blew completely out of my eye and landed on my cheek. A nice fellow runner with some eye drops stopped & helped me by blocking the wind so I could clean my lens & put it back in my eye. The wind was making my eyes water and it was so full of salt that my lenses were all fogged up. It was also warm, near 72 degrees, so sweat almost immediately turned to salt on the skin.

At mile 14, my legs started cramping pretty badly, and I was almost out of salt tabs, which I had been taking regularly with my eGels. Decided to just grin & bear it & keep shuffling forward. I walked part of mile 17 with my parents, and had to cry a little bit. I was really in pain, and emotional about a lot of things, and I am so thankful they were there. I saw them 5 times along the course, and they cheered me on.

With less than a mile to go, I saw Panther, David, Gareth, and my friend Rodrigo, and they all ran me in. I cried and laughed, and pulled out everything I had (which wasn't much) to push through to the end. I am so thankful they were there, cheering for me, allowing me to feel good about myself & encouraging me, recognizing my hobbling and unsteadiness in the finish corral and clearly seeing I endured a lot of pain on that course. And I'm not even sure how, but it seems I passed 156 runners in the last 10K. And all of my teammates did well with 4 PRs, and 2 BQs. Gareth even managed to PR/BQ after being hit by a truck on the course!

Today, I can barely walk. And I can feel in every muscle how lopsided I probably looked toward the end of the race. I think my triceps are probably the only muscles that do not hurt. But all that said, I absolutely loved this marathon experience, and will carry with me the memory and significance of this race with me forever.

Thanks to everyone who supported me in various ways over the last few months, and sending me well-wishes in my final days & even the morning of. Thanks to Panther for being my friend and leading such an amazing group of thoughtful athletes. I'm glad you encouraged me to not have a time goal for my first marathon & told me to just take in the whole experience. I can save time goals for any other run, and this one didn't need that to make it a memory of a lifetime. Thanks to my fellow athletes who waited FOREVER for me to finish & ran with me in the end. You are a great group and I'm so lucky to know each one of you. I feel a very cool bond with the Dallas runners.

And now I'm officially a member of the club.

Decker

A water stop photo & a video of Ben (who apparently PR'd his marathon by 17 mins on a tough-as-nails course!):

Congrats to all our runners!

Running in a Winter Wonderland

When I was getting ready to run today, I looked out the window. It was snowing! I actually like to run in the snow, but it does have its challenges. The road looked reasonably clear as I started out. However, what you can't see here is all the slushy snow that appeared as I turned the corner onto the bike path. The slush packed into the tread on my shoes, particularly in the heel, and then built up. It was like running on high heels, a broken ankle waiting to happen...and I got a little tired of stopping every quarter mile to knock the slush out of my shoes. I did run a good part of my miles out there, but finished up somewhere a touch safer. After all, I can't afford to get hurt, I start training for the Green Bay marathon this week!

San Francisco

view from the top of twin peaks and the peak of my short 10 mile run today. 1100 feet elevation gain! not too bad

Your clues to avoid getting sick?

I am scrambling today to get ready for my third (or fourth, depending on how you count it) plane trip this month. This, along with the end of semester blues which cause me to work outrageous hours...right now on the order of 80-90 a week. I've been wedging in eating and running. I'm exhausted.

I got a nasty cold when I was headed on a work-related trip last week and I am just getting over it. Since I am coming to Austin tomorrow for Turkey Day arriving very late Tuesday leaving very early on Saturday(but maybe I will see some of you at the Turkey Trot?) , I would very much like to avoid more illness.

I know some of you travel a lot for your jobs and stuff...any clues how to stay healthy in the face of days that are too long and lots of travel?

Biophysical 250

I have signed up to do a study as I train and run the Austin Marathon. The study is being run by Biophysical Corp and is funded by the US Military. The study is looking into biological changes that occur under acute physical stress and how long the recovery process at the biological level takes. The results will be used by the military and other occupations to predict the readiness for deployment, combat, physical work (such as firemen, police, professional and collegiate athletes, etc) and to monitor the recovery from these occupations. At the end of the event, I won't get paid like many other research programs. However, I will get a copy of my health assessment report, so i'll know all about myself regarding over 250 different conditions and diseases including:

• Cardiovascular disease (such as risk for heart attack and stroke)
• Cancer (including breast, colon, liver, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic)
• Metabolic disorders (such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome)
• Autoimmune disease (including rheumatoid arthritis and lupus)
• Viral and bacterial diseases (such as mononucleosis and pneumonia)
• Hormonal imbalance (including menopause, testosterone deficiency, thyroid deficiency)
• Nutritional status (such as vitamin deficiencies, protein deficiencies)
• And the list goes on & on - see it here.

HERE'S THE THING: getting this type of report from your doctor costs around $4000 and is not covered by insurance. But with this study, it's completely FREE.

Doing this test requires periodic bloodwork, and I did my first one today. It took less than 5 minutes from the time I walked in to the time I walked out. They need about 20 more participants - they already have about 100 or so, and some are in Rogue.

If you're interested, you can visit their website at http://www.biophysicalcorp.com/ or you can contact:

Erin S. Falcone, BSN, RN
Biophysical Corporation
10801-2 N. MoPac Expressway, Suite 140
Austin, TX 78759
Direct: (512) 751-8024
Office: (512) 623-4900
efalcone@biophysicalcorp.com

San Antonio Pre-Marathon Dinner 2008

Race Reports???

Why hasn't anyone posted photos or reports about SA???

Hey there!

Sometime last week I got lost running and ended up in...Austin! I was at the Thursday and Saturday morning runs, so I got to see some of you, Panther, Gareth, Missychel, Krissy and Fitty (Fitty your reaction was priceless, thanks!!) There is an off chance that I will see a few of you before I leave today. Otherwise, a shout out to everyone! I'll be back to Austin again November 25-29 and I'll be back between semesters of course.

Local Hick Gets Ready for Prom

An Historic Night

We have a new president-elect and I have my plate. Here's a picture of the people who helped me to #200 the most.

Thanks, guys!!

Now, the DRIVE FOR THE YELLOW!

I know.....I know.......

you technically are not suppose to run a race with music, WHATEVER. So I have started my quest for the perfect play list.....please play along and post 3 of your favorite go to work out song. I will be changing the song titles to your name so you will run a bit of the race with me!!!

Halloween Run Workout

Bizarro Duathlon

The Wurst

if you kids dont like 10Ks, then a 5miler after Halloween might not be a good idea, but any takers? I'm not sayin' but I'm thinkin' a warm up, followed by the sprint followed by beer? Then Wurstfest? I need to be studying, but. . .

http://www.nbrunclub.com/events/wurstfest.asp

http://www.wurstfest.com/

But this one goes up to 11

IBM 10K race report:

11 runners + 11 PRs = 100% success rate.

Way to go, Riff Raff!

I do it all for love

Because why the heck else would I stay up until past 2 a.m. two nights in a row putting the final touches on some necessary work. And then stay up well past midnight the next night packing and getting some things in order,only to get up at 5:30 and fly non-stop 6 hours across the country (after being the VERY LAST PASSENGER on a Southwest flight)! All of this to see Glenda compete in a half iron man tri, which I may or may not be able to see much of. It must be love or sheer lunancy...but then I am not entirely sure of the difference. :-)

Pics from aj

AD Austin IronMan

Only one question. Are those jellybeans down Fitty's pants?

Congratulations!

For the second year in a row, the Austin Duathletes and Rogue's Panther group has won the award for Best Water Stop at the Longhorn Triathlon. This means $1,500 for charity, including the Children's Cancer Association, Fight HD!, and Girls On The Run. Thanks to everyone from Riff Raff who came out to help! Can't wait for the volunteer party!

--Panther

There goes my hero..........

It was a long yet fantastic time yesterday. Thanks to Riff Raff, Austin Duathletes and all the others out there for a day of hard work but great times!!!

Is someone trying to tell me something?

I nearly walked right into this sign on the way to my car at UNH on Saturday.

Puddle stomping

Sometimes I have a run that absolutely reminds me why I have made running a part of my life. Yesterday was the best. It was raining a little when I left my house to run on the bike path that runs through the woods between villages.

Of course, as soon as I was half a mile or so down the path it began to pour...but no thunder or lightning..so I kept on running. There were some fairly deep puddles on the path and I accidentally ran through one. The first thought that came to my mind was that my mother would be horrified, because I was that kid that had to stomp in EVERY puddle all the way home from school. She used to get so annoyed with me! Then it dawned on me...I'm 52 now, but that doesn't mean I have to grow up...so I went out of my way to run through the puddles, letting the responsibilities that weigh me down so much of the time evaporate, just plain having fun!

If that weren't enough, I got the bonus of being outdoors and seeing 4 beautiful deer bound across the path less that 50 yards from me (and to think for years I was the world's greatest indoors-woman).

It's official.

Today, my husband accepted a sales position in the DC area. We are here until the end of the year, then we are moving to Northern Virginia. It was a hard decision since we love Austin so much, but the lure of all our family, who live in NoVa, pulled us in. I'm not sure if I'll be able to find a group like Rogue in Virginia, so I will still live vicariously through you all.

I'm doing the Va. Beach Marathon in March, though, if anybody would like to join me!

Cancun Ironman 70.3 Race Report

Not sure why I'm being asked to write yet another race report...Panther also had me write him a separate, shorter, one.

The full race report can be found HERE

The challenges I faced just getting there in the first place can be found HERE

As of Wednesday my feet are STILL swollen, especially my right foot/leg, although they are getting better. I officially have a cankle.


Dr. Z says I do not have a stress fracture (thankfully) but I can't take more than 20 steps without having severe pain in my right leg. We are on an aggressive treatment schedule with e-stim, ultrasound, ice, elevation, and Anodyne (infrared) therapy. Most likely, it was caused by running 13.1 miles on a false flat with tired legs. And my bottom lip is now peeling from the sunburn.

Thanks for all the well-wishes. I really appreciated that! I hope to join the group again soon.

Shorey's Slide Show from Cancun

Hood to Coast?

Panther let me know if this isn't the right place to post, but. . .  Anyone up for an all night West Coast Relay next year?  I'm trying to pull together a team for the 2009 Hood to Coast relay.  The team is made up of 10-12 runners, where I have 5 confirmed and a few dangling  maybes.  I'd like to get 5 more confirmed, or as confirmed as one can be a year in the making.  The rules allow for team substitutions to accommodate life events, like having babies, or nagging injuries and such.  Below are two links have a look and let me know if you're in.

www.hoodtocoast.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hood_to_Coast

Local Coon Ass Makes Good

September 22, 2008 (Austin, TX): Randy "Fitty Cent" Callais, of Austin, TX, drank almost 3 beers outside of his house on 5th Street on Saturday, September 20th, a feat that he says was "one of the greatest achievements of my life."

Fitty is well-known in the Austin community for his alcoholism, mostly by one Ruth England, of Rogue Training Systems.

"We tried to get out of sight of most of the Rogue people when we got drunk at 9AM on Saturday, especially Ruth," said Callais, as he opened his 3rd beer of the morning, "I don't think we want to drunk in front of Ruth and the whole world."

Callais is very proud of his achievements, citing his drinking as a major leap in his development as a human being, "I'm really happy with it. Panther seems to enjoy drinking at odd times."

Party animals

Suellen and I before doing a little fun run 5K at the Madison Zoo in Wisconsin.

Thanks

Thanks for loaning me Slingshot for the weekend. We're meeting up in the land of "cheddar and granddaughters" to celebrate that I am getting another year older next Thursday (beats the hell out of the alternative!) I promise to return her relatively unscathed.

What's wrong with this picture

As you view this, I want you to bear in mind that Rhode Islanders don't believe in air conditioning, so I have none in my apartment nor my office. This is NOT an unusual temperature since I came back...though it is unusual for this time of year here.

I was possessed by Scout

Maybe I have just been missing Scout. So in her honor yesterday I got lost......twice. I mapped my route once I got to work and my run ended up being just shy of 21. I felt great but need a massage now!!!

Sting

Kipp's scary little brother.

He lives on Dick.

Dash's Cubicle

Like all good parents, we're teaching Dash to be a good worker in a cubicle and be a slave for THE MAN. Instead of a computer, phone, and rolladex, though, he has a little 4-page "book" made out of plastic, a green hand puppet, a spinning thing that makes noise, and a variety of other things.

We're trying to take all of the entrepreneurial spirit away from him as early as possible.