Makin' Waves 5K

RACE DATE: MAY 8, 2011 (Mother's Day)

I have planned to run this 5K for a couple of months because Holly and Sueann have planned and directed this entire race to benefit Leukemia through Team in Training.  All of the profits will go directly to their pledge.  Not only that, but the entire run is on the hard packed sand of New Smyrna Beach and I get to see my NSB running peeps! <3

Snag......my sciatic nerve has been giving me fits lately and I've been told not to run at all until my back is straightened out.  I find out later not only do I have degeneration, but also a herniated disc, a bulging disc, stenosis and arthritis.  I decided that I would walk it; it's a great cause and....

As an added bonus, I have guilted M, B, and H to run with me as a Mother's Day gift.  I must be the HAPPIEST MOMMY on the earth this day because I cannot imagine being more proud of my family! We woke up early, drove to NSB and got signed up.   These girls were doing a jam up job running the registration and packet pickup early this morning! The only negative is that the city never came to open the bathrooms that were there, so we had to cross the road and borrow the one at 7-eleven, which wasn't so bad.   The awesome things that Holly and Sueann had at this race (besides the perfect location!) was a great photographer,  a water stop at 1/3 and 2/3 the way, and lots and lots of door prizes at the end of the race - H won a poster of the race logo and I won a free year of Road ID!

The race itself was great!   There was an official race clock, but no chip timing, which was completely fine because it was a small manageable (and laid back!) race!  The first mile was pretty slow, but then M & B started to jog a little....and I was raring to go as well.  But H...not so much!  She did good for almost a mile and then she sat in the sand and said she was quitting.   B offered to stay with her and M & I jogged on.  We actually jogged for the rest of the race, even though I wasn't suppose to! It just felt so good to me :)   It was so much fun!!!!

So, after we crossed the finish line, we were headed to the pavilion to get...something...next thing I know, people are yelling at me that B&H are crossing the finish line.   I missed it! But the photographer got a fantastic pic of them!  I am so proud of both of them.  I am proud of my boy for being patient with his sister and coaching her to the finish line. I am so proud of my girl for running her first 5K :)   I dont remember our exact times, I think that M & I had a time of about 36 minutes and B & H was around 38ish, I think.

It was such a wonderful day for me.  The fact that they woke up before the crack of dawn, and spent the morning doing something that wouldn't be listed on their top 10 things to do this morning, just warms my heart more than I can explain.

After the race, we hung out for a while while they were drawing the prizes and chatted with a few friends that I know from sparkpeople.com.   This is what the end of the race looked like.  

Iron Girl Half Marathon - Clearwater

RACE DATE: SUNDAY APRIL 10, 2011

This race is something that I signed up for on New Year's Day because it was only $35. Who can pass that up!!?! I thought at the very least I could drive over the morning of, to save me the cost of a room... Or Matt and I could make a weekend of it... Or I could find someone to split the cost of the room with me.

As luck would have it, Holly and Sueann split the room with me and Holly was kind enough to make all of the arrangements. On the day of the expo/packet pickup, I met them in downtown Clearwater where traffic sucked! The expo kind of lacked, in my opinion -- Holly and Sueann were able to get their Rock Tape applied, but other than that, there was limited amount of clothing (that i needed) which was surprising since the main sponsor was Athletica. It was hot and there was a small tent for juice samples on the far end of the park that we didnt know about... But if you were looking for a headband you were in luck. I wasnt. After getting a little sun and being a lot thirsty we left for the hotel.

We had our choice of 1st floor with a 'pool view' or 9th floor with no view. We chose the pool view. First, she told us the wrong room - our key didnt fit - then when we did get in our room, our 'pool view' ended up being a 'shrub view' with a pool behind the shrubs, then someone else was trying to break into out room because they gave them the wrong room number too... and then, there was an awesome wedding and party that lasted all night - on the first floor - right around the corner from our room :(

During the evening we went to have dinner with friends that I met of Holly and Sueann's. We had Italian and I had a very large calzone.  I only ate half of it and a salad.  Then Melissa and her daughter Katie came to hour hotel to hang out after dinner.  I was sooo sleepy, kind of a party pooper. 

Race Start

 We decided to walk to the race start when we found out that, even though this was a host hotel for the race, there was no tram/trolley providing transportation to and from the race.   The biggest issue was the large bridge between the hotel and the start/finish line.   It was a lovely walk over.  The morning temp/humidity was very nice.   We were all pretty pumped I think.   Here are a few picture of the race start and us hanging out pre-race.

 

Holly, Suezette, Me (CC) and Sueann

Everybody.

Our matching tattoos

  

Holly, Sueann, Suezette and me started together, and when Holly and Sueann walked for their first 4:1, Suezette and I pulled away. We ran the first 4-5 miles together. Suezette just got out of her air cast, so she needed to stop for an interval at that point, where I trudged on feeling fantastic. The bridges, neighborhoods, etc was beautiful. I haven't really been running like I should (but I have been working out) and I was just feeling spry and ready to GO! I did really well until around mile 7.5-8 where my toes started really screaming at me after the decline on the second bridge. It felt like I was slamming a car door on my foot with each step and by mile 9 I had shed my new Mizunos and was running the course barefoot. Somewhere between mile 12-13 my toes started bleeding and were hurting like hell but I knew there was only 1 mile left! I wasn't so bad off that I didn't pause at the top of the last bridge and take in the beautiful experience. That I am fit enough to run a half marathon, without training, and didn't quit even after I lost my shoes. I got a lil choked up but not too bad since people were looking at me and offering me their shoes. On the last mile I kept thinking the pain is temporary but the pride of finishing would last forever. And I did finish, in about the same time that I finished Disney in January. Honestly, it was harder to finish in January.

I felt very strong finishing the Iron Girl today!
I stood outside the shoot and waited on my girls to finish. 

I'm DONE!  With no shoes :)

Bib: 499 Age Group:

(

F35-39) Placement:

777/1635   Time:

2:25:49   Pace:

11:03

Our Journey to Donald - Disney Half Marathon 2011

I'm trying to figure out where to start. Last year, when Boyce said that he would like to do the Disney Half Marathon with me, I knew that it would touch my heart. I was so excited that we would be spending all of this time training together, I never really thought much about the race itself! And so now the time has come for the race.

I picked him up from school so that we could head over before Grandma, Grandpa, Matt and Hannah came so we could go to the Expo. It was packed but well organized. It took no time at all to get our registration completed and head over to pick up the tshirt & goodies from the expo. Wow, it was very busy in there! We ran right into Holly while buying new pouch with new drink containers to fit on it and a couple of cliff bars, and I made a sign to hold up for the marathoners on Sunday. I was hurried out by the impatient one though...in the most affectionate way :) Afterwards, we went to downtown Disney to meet up with my friend Bekka and her family, Sueann, Holly, and some other sparkies that I have never met before! I instantly made friends with Bekka's baby boy - He is SOOO SWEET!

After that we ate at Kona, at the hotel, it was DELICIOUS, I had a spicy tuna roll, 1/2 glass of wine, and asian noodles for dinner. I stuffed myself. Boyce had a steak and chicken wings.

I was so tired that we left before dessert was over to return to the rooms and get ready for bed. We were all tucked in and Boy was snoozing by 9:30. I never slept. I laid in bed until 2:50 without ever going to sleep. I could feel my heart racing - and thought - WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?!? Did I set my phone alarm right? Did I set the wake up call right? Should I set a third alarm? Why does the A/C sound like that? I wish the people [upstairs, downstairs, beside of us] would be quiet. OMG, the bathroom door squeaks so loud, does anybody else have to go, do it now so I can sleep! Matthew, are you awake? UGH... Time to get up. Boy is a goofball! Nerves? Excited? Tired and Delusional? Not sure...but he looked pretty ready to go!
So we get to the race, and my mind is in a good place - I'm ready to have FUN! I decided to skip anything for breakfast because those overnight jitters were still with me and I felt a little woosie. We caught the monorail at 3:30 and landed at Epcot around 3:40am. Bag check was quick and we ended up just standing around for ...a really long time! I went to the portapotty while we waited, twice. You know how important these pre-race stops are :) I was determined to NOT get stickers in my breeches!

Finally they opened the gate to let the wheelchair bikes pass, and then we headed toward the start line and our corrals. I was placed in corral B, but hung back with Boy in Corral H. While we waited my sciatic nerve problem started up (it hurts most when I stand still - which I did - for what seemed like forever!) I ended up taking an Ibuprofen. 10 minutes later I was throwing up (as inconspicuously as possible) on the side of the road! My boy felt so bad for me that he didn't want me to start the race. But I knew I would be fine as soon as I got started! In-between stomach spasms, my mind was still wanting to have fun because I really was pumped and wanted to have a good time! the DJ was awesome and the energy out there was unbelievable. I took a little video, but Boy was being a punk so I didn't get much!


Next thing you know, they are counting down and fireworks are going off... But we were so far back, that we got to watch fireworks go off 4 times (Corrals A-D) and wait for nearly an hour before our corral actually made it to the start line! In the meantime, Boy and I discussed our strategy. I told him to run his own pace or run with me. It didn't matter. He was concerned about running out of steam, so we decided to walk through the water stops and run between. I knew there was a water stop around every mile. He said it, but it was actually ME worried about running out of steam as he had already left me before mile 1!

He had already weaved his way threw people and out of my site. I looked for him for the whole race. Before I knew it, we were crossing the first 5K mark. Pretty sure I was shedding my jacket around this time. I didn't realize where I was at and missed the family cheering section around mile 4. They missed me and boy too.

I had a great time coming threw magic kingdom, mostly thought back to last year and wished Jeanine was there to take pictures with. This time, I had to depend on the photographer and hope he did a good job because I was NOT waiting in the long line at the bottom of the bridge. I was feeling pretty darn fantastic at this point! Only later would I realize I felt so good because I was jogging a 12 minute mile ;) Boy is in this crowd, can you find him?

Around miles 8-10, I saw the peeps (I had to scream at them to see me again! haha), there was an awesome singer belting out Sweet Caroline which got everybody on the course singing! LOL, and Chip N Dale came out (*my favs*) right as I was passing with NO LINE! Yippie!

There were some cool bands and DJs playing. Popular songs for the race seemed to be Boom Boom Pow (Black Eyed Peas), Firework (Katy Perry), and from Disney the Winnie the Pooh song and Its a Small World. There was cool stuff all along the race course like people riding high wheel bicycles, the epcot hot air balloons, stilt walkers, of course many characters, and so much more.

Somewhere in here our support staff snapped a couple pictures of Boy in action. Apparently he was still zigzagging his way down the road! Mile 11 was the toughest for me, I just wanted to be done. I was somewhere between the last big resort passing and coming back into Epcot. Mile 12 was leading us back into Epcot so the crowd picked back up, one last water stop, then I saw Boy on his way back from the bridge to the World Showcase so I knew he was only minutes ahead of me! I cranked it up, hoping to slim the distance between us (I didn't realize I was this close to him!!) but it was too late to close the distance - I got to the finish as soon as I could but there was still a huge crowd of runners that I couldn't get past! I grabbed my mylar, medal, banana, mini cliff and water as I headed toward bag claim, trying to find him! Did I mention how many people were there?!? I couldn't find him! I laid down on my blanket, ate my first food of the day, stretched, text'd the fam. Finally found him and we agree to leave immediately, we were whipped! On the bus ride I started feeling sick. I contemplated running to the front and making them let me off but I managed to make it all the way to the front steps of our hotel before throwing up all over myself and the beautiful landscaping :-( I was so thankful that nobody acted like the saw me sitting on the ground while Boy ran in to get paper towels to clean me off!
We had a breakfast reservation shortly after I thought we would return (I did good with the estimation!!) so I showered and we headed out to that, not caring what I looked like. However, we were all dressed in our Half Shirts, so I wanted to share it with you. Aren't we CUTE!?!

Just so I don't end this on a negative note, because I really did have an awesome time on the course and felt the best WHILE I was running! And after my non-breakfast, we took a 3.5 hr nap and I woke up feeling FANTASTIC! We had a wonderful rest-of-the-weekend enjoying Epcot and Magic Kingdom. Boy teetered between "I'm never doing that again!" to "Next time...." hahaha ;) He's already planning to start training again!


Final Results

47420 BOY- 14M MEN 14 THOUGH 17 /45.2% 2:25:05

26377 CC- 36F WOMEN 35 THROUGH 39 /45.2% 2:28:11