Zooma 1/2 Marathon Race Report

Here I am. Finally, back to blogging! If you're still checking back here, thank you for your patience!

I thought I'd start with a race report. It's been over 3 weeks since the race, but since I like to have a race report from every race (mainly for my records), I figured this would be the best way to ease back into the blogging world.

First, let me tell you that I was really looking forward to this mini-girl's weekend at the Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop. The best part of this race for me last year was relaxing at the resort afterwards - imagine this...relaxing on an inner tube on the "lazy river" sipping on a margarita....see? Sounds nice, right? But, before that part of the trip started, there was this one little thing we had to do. Yeah, that pesky 1/2 marathon. For some reason, I was just not wanting to run those 13.1 miles.

Here's the entrance to the resort. On the long winding road from the highway to the actual resort, there are tons of steep hills. At one point, my friend Erica and I were raising our hands as if we were riding on a roller coaster. Yeah, it's THAT frickin hilly!

We arrived at the resort a little after lunchtime. Fortunately, our room was ready and we settled in. We laughed about how each of us brought enough stuff for a week-long trip...clothes, running gear, food (the most important stuff), gatorade, plus make-up, hair dryers and all that stuff.

Here's a pic of our room...

The resort grounds are beautiful...I'm sure they're even prettier when everything is blooming!

The temps were in the high 60's/low 70's, so we had lunch on the patio. It was a gorgeous, sunny day! Then, we headed to the Expo, which was small, but had some great vendors...and free wine (free wine is good, right?). Zooma is an all-women's race, so there were tons of groups of women everywhere. It made for a fun vibe around the resort. Later, that night we had smores by the campfire...do smores qualify as carb loading???

After some gossiping and giggling, we finally decided to get to sleep. Of course, before we knew it, it was time get wake up and get a move on. Here we are ready to race. Well, sort of...I was still feeling that "I don't wanna run" mojo...

Much to our surprise, it was overcast and humid...that would actually be a blessing. We sang the anthem and were off. I knew from experience that the first 3 - 3 1/2 miles were REALLY hilly, so I was prepared for that. And last year, the route was an out and back, so there were some less scary hills in the middle and then you had to face the REALLY hilly area again before the finish. Mentally I was prepared for that, but the negative mojo was still with me for the first few miles. I really, really wanted to stop and return to the resort to relax in the spa all morning. Really! But luckily, I caught up with Katie and I knew that I would keep going. We left the resort grounds and instead of turning right like we did last year, we turned right....oh crap, I knew where we were heading...remember that hilly entrance? Yep, we were running that shiat.

On the upside, we did get to see some Texas Bluebonnets along the route. Well, that and cows...lots and lots of cows!

A couple of the hills were so ridiculously steep that Katie and I actually laughed about them. Unlike last year, we didn't walk up...we charged up them, determined to kick their butt and take names! We actually walked to eat our bee stingers during a downhill!

I wish I could say the miles just flew by, and for the most part they did...until we made it to mile 10. Mile 10 was back where we started the race. This was mile 13 last year, so we wondered where in the world we were headed. Turns out, the race directors decided to have us run the sidewalks of the golf course. To me, this was the toughest part of the race mentally. The sidewalks would wind their way back and forth, back and forth, over and over...you could see people heading toward the finish, but the distance was deceiving because of all the winding around. We felt like ants in an ant farm and it sucked. Finally, after all that winding, we could see that we really were finally near the finish line. We kicked it up a notch or two and headed it. It felt great to be done!

Finished...

Here we are after the race...yes, my face is as red as my shirt!

After the race, we picked up our finisher's necklaces, grabbed our "light breakfast" and cupcake, and headed back to our room to freshen up. We were concerned that we wouldn't be able to enjoy the pool and lazy river, because it was still overcast and windy. However, by the time we made it back outside, the skies were clearing, hooray! We headed over to the spa, where we relaxed in the hot tub and had a few snack. Next, it was lazy river time!

Overall, I am so glad I didn't go back to the resort at mile 3 and relax in the spa. I felt like I earned that lazy river time (and the burger I had for lunch)! It was a great experience. I wasn't looking for a PR at Zooma - no way, no how on THAT course, but I did manage to PR the race on a course that IMO was more difficult than last year. My final time - 2:26...a 12 minute PR over last year. Like I said, not a PR, but not too shabby either!

Zooma Austin (Bastrop) 1/2 Marathon

FRIDAY, 4/3
Most of the 15 people staying in the B&B headed to Bastrop on Friday morning and arrived just in time for lunch. After unloading the cars and checking out the B&B, we headed out for the 2-block walk to Main St for some lunch. Maxine’s was pretty good, but the service left much to be desired. I won’t go into details, but lets just say they weren’t ready for a party of our size and made it quite known that we should have called ahead.

Once our tummies were full, we headed over to the Lost Pines Resort. We decided to make it a lazy day and just hung out around the pool, trying to get in some relaxation before the race. We also decided to drive the route just to see how hilly it really was. We accidentally took a wrong turn that lead us down a gravel road with some interesting trailers all around us. I could hear the theme to deliverance playing in my head and we all thought, “Surely we’re not running this way!!”. Once we figured out where we made our wrong turn, we headed back to the house. We had an early dinner and turned in early. Well, sort of…our room turned into the giggly, slumber party room and several of us stayed up much too late telling ghost stories…not such a good idea when you’re staying in a creaky house that was built in 1903!

SATURDAY, 4/4 - RACE DAY!
The alarm clocks started going off at 5 am and we were off. We ate our favorite energy food (PB&J for me) and headed to the parking lot where we would take the shuttle to the resort. The whole race is a “girls weekend” theme, so it made complete sense that there would be pink porta-potties and hand washing stations!

The race was pretty small, so lining up at the start was a non-issue and before we knew it the anthem had been sung and we were off. It seemed like the hills began the minute we made it across the start line….and they never stopped. Some were bigger, steeper hills and a lot were just those llllllooooooonnnnnnggggg, ssslllloooowwww innnncccclines that never seemed to end.
I started out extremely slow. There were 4 things I was thinking about going into this race:

1. I had not been running as much as before…kinda hard to do when you have to split your time between biking and swimming. I run 2x a week, swim 2x a week and bike/spin 2x each week – gotta have one day for rest, right?

2. No amount of training at Flintridge could prepare us for these hills! It was an out and back course and the out hills were a doozy, so I wanted to conserve a little for the return trip!

3. I wanted to baby the Achilles. No point in pushing hard in the 1st ½ only to aggrevate the Achilles and not be able to finish.

4. And finally, “Damn, it’s HOT!” and “What happened to temps in the 50s???”

Luckily, the miles did tick by pretty quickly - even at my slow pace. The only drawbacks were that everyone was restricted to one lane of a two lane country road…and that one lane had cones in the middle. Those heading out were supposed to stay on one side of the cones and those on the way back were supposed to stay on the other. This made it almost impossible to pass anyone for a majority of the race. The other drawback was that only a couple of the aid stations had Powerade and even then it was really watered down…yuck!

This was the 1st race where I was behind most of the peeps in my group. Fortunately, after the turn around I ended up running with some of them….thank God because the hills were brutal. It was nice to have others to not only commiserate with, but to also keep each other moving forward. Before we knew it we were back at the hills that we had run at the beginning at the race. This, of course, was when the sun started coming out from behind the clouds and making it even hotter. I was losing my steam and walked a lot of the uphill sections. At one point Katie said I cracked her up when I saw the next hill and said in my best ghetto girl voice, “HELL no, I ain’t runnin’ up that SHIT!”. LOL, I am pretty sure those were my exact words but I hardly remember it at all – darn runner’s brain.

All I know is that I was very happy to reach the resort again. I could see the 13 mile marker in the distance and was sooo ready to be done. Normally when I make it to the finish line, I am picking up the speed and getting ready for my photo crossing the finish line. This time, I don’t think I did either. I was pooped.

As we crossed the finish line, we received our “finisher’s necklaces”. I didn’t take it out until later, and was surprised to find my little pouch empty! I managed to get another pouch that actually had a necklace in it. In all honestly, this was the worst part of the race…the after party and finishers necklace. The necklace looked like something that you could get out of a gumball machine. The “catered brunch” was a soggy, cold egg and cheese breakfast burrito (could ya slap some bacon on there please???) and coffee (juice maybe?). The upside was that we enjoyed a band and each other’s company at an awesome resort with awesome weather! Plus, the champagne and wine didn’t hurt either.

After we had a chance to recover, we headed back to the B&B on the shuttle, changed clothes and then went back to the resort to enjoy the pool a little more. We hung out by the pool, enjoyed a few frosty adult beverages, floated on the lazy river and even went down the waterslide a few times…yeah, I could get used to that life!

We ended the day with dinner at a different Bastrop eatery and had another slumber party in our room until midnight. Overall, it was a great girls weekend! I told the hubby that it was very relaxing and he cracked up saying, “You ran a freaking ½ marathon! How relaxing could it be?” Just more proof that running is my therapy. And when you combine that with a girl’s weekend, life's good!

Race Report...

I'm working on the Zooma Race report...all I'll say for now is that hills suck! :-)

In the meantime, here's a random thought for you:

Why is it that no matter what time or day I go to the grocery store, the parking lot is full and I have to park wwwwaaaaayyyyy in the very back???? Then, when I leave, the parking lot is empty and I look like one of those goof balls who parks waaaaayyyy in the back so her car doesn't get dinged? As if I'd be worried about anyone dinging my mommy-mobile, lol!

Ugh!

No workout yesterday.

Wednesday would normally be my running day, but that's out due to the achilles issue. To make matters worse, I felt like I was coming down with the stomach flu that has been visiting our house. I left work a little early and went home for a nap before taking the kiddo to dance class. Between that and getting into bed as soon as LOST was over, I think I kicked the bug! Thank God, because I saw what the hubby went through with it and trust me when I say that if I caught what he had, I would NOT be running on Saturday!

I am feeling good today. Focusing on eating the right stuff, getting plenty of rest and still babying the achilles - I think I will actually be good to go on Saturday. I still might be walking a lot of the uphill (and there is a LOT of uphill!), but I will be okay. And I cannot wait for the celebratory margarita's afterward! Wooohooo!

For the 1st time, I am not overly obsessing about the weather. I did check this morning and it looks like it will be not too bad - lows in the upper 50's, highs in the 80s with low humidity. As long as those 80s are after the race, I'm all good! :-)

Shiat!

Well, apparently Dr. P no longer treats achilles issues. That was okay, because he was booked for the week anyway. His associate, the other Dr. P, is available...

On THURSDAY!!!

Don't these people know I have a race on Saturday? What the frick? LOL! Okay, so I guess I get to ice and continue my rx until then, and of course not run all week. I just hope the PT Man will be available to work some of his magic on Thursday! Although I know it will take more than one day to really do something magical. We're leaving on Friday, so Thursday is it.

@#$%&*#?~$%!!!!

Okay, that's enough ranting. All I have left to say is that I will get this 1/2 done, even if I'm walking it! BTW, this is the 2nd time I've had this injury. I had it back in 2005, when I was training for Houston (my 1st post-baby marathon). It was a week and a half before the 25k. I went in on a Thursday, got a rx for a corticosteriod and did my 1st ultrasound treatment. I did 3 more ultrasound treatments the following week and ran the 25k that weekend with no problems. Doesn't lool like I'll be getting in the same about of treatments this time. Sigh.

Not sure what I'm doing for my workout today. I was planning to ride the stationary bike at the gym during lunch, but once again, I have a working lunch. Oh the joy! So, maybe I'll do some P90X arms. I hate my bike trainer, so I doubt I'll be doing that...plus there's spin class tomorrow, so I'll save the biking for then.

Gotta Run!

The weather was awesome on Saturday, so I was really looking forward to my afternoon long run. The kiddos and I got to begin enjoying the day early, by going to the neighborhood Easter celebration. I pushed the baby in the stroller to the park and the kiddo rode her bike. During our walk, I felt a weird feeling - my achilles felt, well, weird. Not pain, just weird. It didn't hurt, so I just pushed the thought out of my head. We had a great time and made it home in time for some grocery shopping and lunch.

When the hubby arrived home from work, I headed out for my run around the 'hood. I wanted to get in between 7 & 8 miles as my last run before the 1/2 marathon. I decided to get a bit adventurous and jog the extra mile around the currently-being-developed section of the neighborhood - that would make my loop a little more than 4-miles. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but as I was jogging around the deserted streets, I realized that anyone could just zoom around the corner, throw me in a van and I could never be seen again. About that time a Hummer came zooming around the corner. Talk about picking up the pace, lol! I decided that on my 2nd loop around the neighborhood, I would not go this way...maybe 7 miles would be okay.

As I got closer to our house (a/k/a "home base"), I noticed the achilles acting up again. Again, not pain...just uncomfortable this time. I didn't like it. I refilled my hand-held bottle with the gatorade I left on the front porch and kept going. In hindsight, I probably should have stopped here. But no, I did another loop - 3+ miles this time. By the time I made it back home, there was pain. I immediately iced and took an Aleve. The pain was still there that evening, so I grabbed the 800mg of Ibuprofen that the Dr had prescribed after I had the baby. That seemed to help! I iced again later that night.

Oh, and when I came home it seemed that the hubby had contracted whatever stomach flu the kiddo had on Thursday. He even had fever, aches and chills! Yuck!

Tomorrow - bike ride after the hubby gets home from work...if he gets to go to work.

It's been a busy few days...between work (including a recruiting trip to A&M), 2 funerals, 2 kids, a sick kid, and a sick me (the back issues and now a friggin' cold!), etc. blogging has taken a bit of a backseat. And to be honest, there weren't a heck of a lot of workouts to blog about. I am planning to take today off and get to bed early again in an effort to fight off whatever it is I have. Tomorrow, I'm off to A&M again and won't be home until late, late, late. By Wednesday, I am hoping to get on the treadmill for a test run to see how I do. The back was feeling better until I lifted the kiddo, but it's still better than it was.

Sunday, 2/6 - Rest
The cold started coming on late Saturday...I noticed the scratchy throat on Thursday and the sneezing and headaches on Friday, but I refused to acknowledge they were there. I just kept telling myself, "I am not getting sick! I am not getting sick!" It didn't work, because by Sunday I felt like total and complete crap! After church on Sunday, the kids and I just hung out around the house doing as little as possible. I did manage to take my bike in to be re-fitted...turns out my seat needed to be moved forward. Jeeze, all that back pain caused by something so simple!

Saturday, 2/5 - Running, 8 miles w/hills
In an effort to prepare for the upcoming hilly Zooma Austin 1/2, I met up with the girls for a run on Flintridge. For those who aren't familiar with The Woodlands, Flintridge is the hilliest street in these parts. On our Saturday Woodlands Fit runs, you'd hear lots of groans from the group if the route card showed Flintridge as part of the run. It's that bad. So, we started at a nearby park, so we'd at least have a little warm-up first. Then we hit Flintridge. To make things even more challenging, we turned into one of the neighborhoods so we could run on even more hilly streets. Overall, it wasn't too bad and to my surprise, I didn't feel any of the usual fatigue later in the day (although I felt it in my hammies the next morning). I think if we keep using this route between now and Zooma, we'll be ready for the hills! And, it was fantastic to finally get to run with the girls again...I miss all the fun conversation and the trips to Starbucks afterwards!

Friday, 2/4 - Swimming, 45 minutes
With the back still feeling a little iffy, I thought a swim might be the only form of exercise that wouldn't aggravate it. For the most part, I was right. When I was relaxing and doing what I was supposed to, the back felt great. When I was getting tense and spazzing out, the back hurt like heck. I have no idea how many laps I swam, but I think I am getting better...I paid careful attention to the amount of rest I was taking between lengths.

"Long" Hilly Run Mishap

Workout Stats: Saturday, 1/31 – Long Run, 8 miles

The plan was 8 miles, but I didn’t quite make it. I parked at a shopping center in The Woodlands, so I could run to what’s known as the hilliest street in The Woodlands and get in some good hills to help prepare for the upcoming Zooma ½ in Bastrop. I was looking for a large intersection to get to this hilly street…what I didn’t know is that from where I was at, the hilly street didn’t have a large intersection. So, I ran and ran on the greenbelt until I was in between people’s backyards! Hmmmm, this didn’t look right…but since I still don’t know The Woodlands very well, I just kept going. I had to really be aware of the different landmarks, so I could be sure I’d find my way back. After awhile, I realized that I had made a loop…so I did the loop one more time before heading back to my car.

I debated about what to do…I had only run about 4 ½ miles and no hills! I certainly wasn't ready to head home. So, I decided I would find the hilly street, dammit! I hopped in my car and headed in the direction that I had run….imagine my surprise (and embarrassment) when I realized that I had actually crossed said hilly street, not once but twice. That’s a “DOH!” moment if I ever heard of one. So, I found a place to park and hit the hills. I was running out of time, so I just did 1 ½ miles out and back for a total of 3 miles of hills…or a total of 7 ½ miles.

At least now I know where the hills are and I know where to park! What I did find odd was when I ran the non-hilly section, my pace was 11:38. On the hills, my pace was 11:07! How'd that happen???