Friday Five

1. With the crazy high pollen levels I've had chronic post nasal drip. Fun! Not. This has caused what feels like the beginning of a sinus infection. My throat hurts. My eyes are marshmallows. My ears hurt. No fever so maybe it's just all pollen. Maybe I'm dying. Who knows.

What I do know is this

2. I offered to run with a friend on Sunday. She's running the Frederick Half Marathon and she's injured so I offered to tag along and keep her company for about 6 or so miles. Of course her injured pace is darn near my race pace which makes me nervous because of #1.

3. I'm hoping the nose thing clears up because the Harpers Ferry Half is next week. I may have mentioned a thousand times that it's hilly so being able to breathe will be important. I've doubled up on my Vitamin D. I hope it helps.

4 and 5 since it's so long - I won a race entry to the North Face Endurance Challenge - DC in a giveaway hosted by Tonia at RacingWithBabes. The race is actually in northern VA and not too far from where I live. This is all very cool.

The distances that are still available are the marathon (never ran one before), the 50k (never ran one of these either) and the 50 miles (nope, have never run this far). Oh, and the race weekend is June 2-3. That's about a month from now.

You may be wondering why the heck I entered the giveaway if I can't cover the distance. Well, when I entered, the 5k, 10k and half marathon were all open and I was banking on running whichever of those was available.

The good thing is it looks like they'll let me run the half. I'm waiting to hear back from the 'special entries' person who is currently working at the Bear Mountain, NY race.

I wasn't even aware of this race series, but I am super excited for the opportunity. It looks really fun and exciting, and I can't wait!

Making Lemonade

Being a grown up sometimes means making choices I'd rather not make, sacrificing for someone else's benefit or just sucking it up and dealing. Making lemonade out of life's lemons.

My goal last year was the Frederick Half Marathon - it's local, flat and was relatively inexpensive. My IT band had other ideas so I was a spectator instead of a runner.

This year I again set the Frederick Half as one of my goals. Late last week Bill and I were talking about the races I'd like to do when it became clear that financially I need to make some adjustments to my plans.

Goodbye to the Frederick Half Marathon.
Hello to the Harpers Ferry Half a week later.

Goodbye to flat, fast and running with a dozen or so friends.
Hello to 1000 ft elevation gain, trails and running with none of my friends.

It stinks. I'm disappointed. I'm very tired of this 'season of life' we're in. We have specific financial goals that we're working towards and are making progess which is good. I'm just feeling impatient for the day we have a little more wiggle room in our budget.

I am renewing my running club membership. I was on the fence because I wasn't sure I'd reap any benefit from it, but I've made some connections on a couple of the group runs I've been on and realize that I miss the sense of community a club offers.

I'm also beginning to see the Harpers Ferry race as a challenge to met and conquered. Their website warns  that you shouldn't expect a PR
BUT
I'm 10-12 pounds lighter, stronger and running with better form.
SO
I've decided that yes, I'd like a PR please.

My half PR is 2:27:29, Freedoms Run, in Oct 2010. I have until May 12th to train, and it's time to get busy.

Frederick Half Marathon

Today was the Frederick Half Marathon, and you couldn't have asked for better weather. Gorgeous!!

I belong to a local running club, the Frederick Steeplechasers, and we had a booth at the expo. Since I don't have a 'real' job (according to some family members, homeschoolers just watch tv all day), I volunteered to help out. The boys wanted to stay home and play outside (we're installing a flat screen on the side of the house so they can keep up with their shows) so Ella and I headed to town. [whoops. sorry, is my sarcasm showing??]

We got there a little after 2 and got everything set up. The doors opened at 3 and I was surprised at how many people were waiting outside before then. Our booth was right after the onsite registration table so folks kept coming to us to pick up their packets. Not a lot of signage to direct them, but that's ok...everyone was very happy and excited...they were going to be racing the next day!  I was also surprised that quite a few people traveled from out of state to race. You came to Frederick, MD just to run?? Really??

I saw quite a few people sporting Vibrams and a guy in hurraches. One lady asked my about my Neos and I  sang the praises of TR Treads  telling her they would hook her up.

Ella took this one

Got home in time to go to small group (for church). Home from that and off to bed! Up at 5 because I wanted to get a little run in before my course marshalling duties began.

Passed this happy family of geese.

I ran just under 3 miles. At around mile 2.5 I felt a sharp pain in the top of my right foot. Too bad I couldn't prop it up and ice until several hours later. I can barely walk now so I'm trying not to freak out.

I made it back to my car, wiped down with baby wipes and changed into my super hero costume and walked to the corner of Bentz and Carroll Pkwy. It was cold just standing there so I was really glad I grabbed a long sleeve shirt before I left that morning.

The first runner appeared really quickly. I was surprised to see him so soon. I think a course record was set...1:06 and change. Crazy!

It was really hard seeing so many people run by; I'm such a baby...I teared up a few times watching everyone. This was my goal race for this year and I was so excited to kill it. Flat and fast is how they describe it.

Next year.

After the last runner went by I walked back to my car so I could drive and park closer to the finish line. I'm awful at estimating distance on a map. The garage I chose looked really close to the fairgrounds...I guess a mile isn't that far, well unless your foot hurts. So I walked to the finish area picking up a handheld and 2 very nice tech shirts to turn into lost and found (I know I'm a dork!).

I"m also a bad estimator of time (no wonder I'm late everywhere I go) and had lots of time to kill while waiting for my friends. My guy friends would finish almost before I left my spot on the course, but I expected my friends K and L anywhere in the 2 to 2:30 timeframe.

I totally started getting teary thinking about them running. Our kids are on the same track and cross country team and we started running together late last year. I talked them into running this race, and was going to run with them....

Anyway, I was so excited to see them both cross the finish line. Speedy L finished around 2:10 and K came in around 2:20. Excellent times!! And it was their first Half so that makes it even better!

After standing for about 45 minutes, my foot was really sore so I didn't hang around afterwards. Made the mile trek back to the car and headed home for a nap. Course marshalling and spectating is hard work! :D

Great job to all the runners who ran today!!

Deflated, Defeated, Poop

I just signed up to volunteer at my goal race, the Frederick Half Marathon.

This is what I feel like

Actually I feel like poop, but I didn't want to Google images of poop for fear of what I would see.

So if you're running it, look for me at the corner of Bentz St and Carroll Parkway in an obnoxiously bright shirt that says 'Obey Me'

Dumb IT band.