Don't Worry, I'm ALIVE!

You all probably think that I ran 13.1 miles and died a few days later, but lucky for you that isn't the case. Let me update you via pictures because that is way more fun and because I know how much you miss my beautiful face!



Went to North Carolina for our friend Mary's wedding!



The next day I ended up in the ER with a stress fracture in my foot :(



So I've been spending no time running and a lot of time getting to know the bike.



Thanksgiving in West Virginia with John's family. Pretty scenery!



Went to John's work Christmas party. It was a good way to force me to remove
all the calluses on my feet and actually paint my toenails.



I managed to visit Santa before Christmas. He gave me a candy cane.
Why are we not supposed to take candy from strangers again?

So that's pretty much it! I promise another update before my next birthday, don't worry.

Richmond McDonald's Half Marathon!

The difference between the Patrick Henry Half and the Richmond Half was like night and day. I could probably write a novel about Saturday and will come close with this post.

John and I spent hours in stop and go traffic on the way to Virginia. We hit up the expo first. After we picked up my bib, shirt, and goodie bag; we attempted to browse all the running stuff they had. Unfortunately there were a lot of people and a lot of stuff which meant looking at anything was difficult. Kind of a shame because there was a lot of cool stuff. We left and drove by the starting line on the way to the hotel. Once at the hotel, John was awesome and walked across the street to get Subway for dinner so that I could do nothing conserve my energy for the next morning. We ate and watched TV until we eventually fell asleep.

My alarm went off at 5:35 the next morning. Once we got outside to head to the race, we saw that it was 35 degrees. Ugh. I was wearing capris, tank top, and long sleeve to run in but had a jacket and sweats over that to stay warm before the start of the race. I was still freezing of course. They were giving out bandanas so I tied one around my neck to keep it warm, plus I thought it would make it easier for John to spot me in the crowds.

We hung out, drank water, I ate a fruit rope, and used the port-o-potties twice before I shed my extra clothes and headed to my wave (F). They let the waves go one at a time with some elapsed time in between. I thought this was great because it really prevented us from getting too bunched up. For some reason they did not start the full marathon and 8k like this.



After removing layers :(



Starting line. Fall is pretty.

Anyway, I crossed the start line and of course the first mile flew by. In fact, miles 1 through 5 were easy and fast. I warmed up after the first mile and tried to pick out different people to set my pace to (another good thing about starting in waves-I knew the people around me were around my pace). I was having some weird pain in the back of my leg kind of in between my ankle and calf muscle. At some points it was really bad and made me worry about the latter half of the race but it ended up not being an issue. Luckily my quad injury from the week before didn’t hurt at all until I was stretching at the end of the race.



Who has two thumbs and is having the best time ever
even though her legs feel like lead?



Somewhere between mile 5 and 6 I ate half of my fruit rope and we headed into a park. This was probably my least favorite part of the course. There were no spectators so it was pretty boring. The park was basically a series of hills on a narrow path which made passing people (especially on the downhill) very difficult. John and Kathy were supposed to be at the park and honestly, I was really looking forward to seeing them, but with all the roads blocked off and the traffic, they ended up not making it.

We exited the park between miles 7 and 8. It was here that my legs started feeling tired. A little before mile 9, I think I hit the wall. It really was no joke-I was going along, tired but moving, and all of a sudden it felt like I couldn’t run anymore and would never finish. I decided to use the whole ‘mind over matter’ trick and pretended I hadn’t hit anything. It’s actually kind of funny because around this point in the race I kept seeing cheesy motivational signs, only they don’t seem cheesy when you’ve ran 8 miles and have 5.1 to go. One that stands out said “All walls have doors-break through!” And so I kept focusing on the ‘door.’

I ate the rest of my fruit rope a little before mile 10 and focused on the finish. My Garmin was off from the race course. I think it was around .2 miles fast, so I wasn’t entirely sure what my time was going to be. At some points I thought I was going to do worse than my previous time but thankfully I didn’t start worrying too much. By mile 11 I realized I was going to make it in under 2:20. I was predicting 2:17. I knew the race finished on a downhill and was counting on that to help me but I kind of forgot about the uphill that preceded the downhill. By that point, however, I was too ready to finish to care about hills. I started seeing people who had already finished walking away with their medals and realized that was going to be me in 10 minutes.

As I headed down the home stretch I started hearing people screaming my name and I realized John and Kathy were somewhere up ahead. It made me SO happy and I am beyond grateful that they were there. I also truly cannot express how awesome it was to end on a huge downhill. I had it in me to finish strong even without the downhill but because of it, I finished fast. I tried to get some stretching in after I got my medal and space blanket but the shoot was super crowed. I grabbed a water and two bananas and then found John and Kathy. My clock time was around 2:29 and my Garmin said I ran 13.25mi so I had no idea what my official time would be until John got the text with my finish time of 2:16:37 which is a 10:25m/mi pace.



This is how I smile when my face is numb!



The medal weighs 1lb...yes I actually weighed it.



We watched the first and second guys finish the marathon and then headed back to the hotel for a quick shower before the drive home. I cannot say enough good things about this marathon. It was fun, well organized, good crowd support, and good course. Also, if I remember right, there were five bands along the way, including some Taiko drummers that were really awesome.

My knees were incredibly sore afterwards and the rest of me was sore in the days following, but I’m healing up nicely. Ready for the Galveston Mardi Gras Half in February!

PS-Here is my present from John for making him wake up early and stand out in the cold for almost 4 hours.....I mean...for running well.



His name is Winston.

PPS-Here is your present for getting through this very long post-fast Kenyan man who was 2nd place in the half marathon.


He's lucky I let him win.

 

Half Marathon Plan

I’ve been putting off writing this because I really couldn’t figure out what my plan would be for the longest time. Now I think I’ve got it. At least, I’ve got the ‘for now’ plan when my head will inevitably come up with something else while I’m trying to will myself to sleep tomorrow night.

So, the plan is, there is no plan. Just some things I want to remember when the gun goes off Saturday morning.

·         Run my race (Don’t go out too fast).
I have a very bad habit of freaking out when people pass me. I don’t know why, I have no pipe dreams of winning the race or even placing in my age group. I know I’m not even fast for a “normal person.” But still, I feel like I’m back in high school soccer running the mile and the need to be first kicks in. Not this time. I’m going to do my best to pretend I’m all alone on one of my long runs, and just do the damn thing.

·         Hydrate.
During my first half, I made the silly mistake of not really drinking anything until mile six. I guess I thought that the hurricane rain that was all around me would hydrate me via osmosis. That didn’t work out, which resulted in me realizing I was dying of thirst that couldn’t be quenched until I chugged a bottle of water-something that cannot happen during a race. I LIVED for the water stations for seven miles. Seriously, all I could think about after throwing that empty paper cup on the ground was the moment when I could grab another full one. Not a good way to spend more than half the race.

·         Have fun.
Not that my fist half wasn’t fun but…okay it really wasn’t that fun. Being around other runners=fun. Crossing the finish line=fun. But the actual running-not so fun. I think the key to this one is the first bullet. On my training long runs I turn into a motivational speaker and tell myself how freaking awesome I am every other step. Then come race time all I see are people passing me and I become mentally unstable and panic. That makes for not a lot of fun.

I’ve had issues with shin splits and a last minute soccer injury that’s kind of prevented me from finishing my training. But I know I’m ready. My runs this time around have been easier, I’ve felt stronger, and ran faster. My only time goal is 2:20. I know I have it in me to get a 2:15. But who knows what will happen on Saturday? If all else fails, I'll just focus on the junk food station at mile 9...

Well at Least the Good Outnumbers the Bad...

…Although I think that’s usually the way it goes when you’re unemployed and have a sugar daddy.

In all seriousness, there have been a lot of good happenings lately.

John and I carved pumpkins! Mine’s Jack Skellington and his is the Gears of War symbol. Unfortunately they rotted a week before Halloween, which is what happened last year. You’d think we’d learn.

We also dressed up for Halloween as the Black Widow and Wolverine. It was pretty fun.

We had not one, but two cute balls of fur in our house for a week.

I can do this:



I ran a fantastic 9 miles at a sub-10 minute pace. Look how awesome I look at the END of the run!

These came into my life...



I ran five miles on the treadmill which is double my previous longest distance run on the treadmill-or the dreadmill, which is more fitting. I actually kind of enjoyed it.

So yes, good things. I think I'm stocking up on them before winter hits and I start wondering what the point is of getting out of bed in the morning.





twofoursixEIGHT!

A few weeks ago I signed up to run the McDonald's Half Marathon on November 12th. I started my training on week 6 of Hal Higdon's novice training program.

Yesterday I ran the farthest I have ever gone by myself-eight miles. I wasn't expecting anything great. I felt beat up and worn out from Saturday's soccer game and have been battling shin splints literally since the day after I signed up for the marathon.

I decided to aim for a pace between 10:30 and 11 minutes per mile, but didn't look at my garmin very often for pace-I just ran what felt good. I finished the first mile in 10 flat. Too fast, so I slowed down. The next two miles were 10:34 and 10:26-right on target.

I finished mile four in 10:11. I was surprised but was feeling pretty good so I didn't worry too much about it. I took a walk break just after mile 4 to drink some water and eat a fruit rope which resulted in a 10:40 for mile 5. Not terrible considering the walk break.

When I finished mile six in 10:11, I realized I was close to finishing this run in around the same time it took me for my first eight mile run when John and I were training for our first half marathon.

Our time was 1:22:52 which is a 10:21 pace. I started running faster but was blown away when I finished mile 7 in 9:57. At this point I thought that I might be able to finish even better than John and I had. I finished mile 8 in 9:39 with an overall time of 1:21:41 and pace of 10:12 per mile.

Not only did I finish this eight mile run faster than my previous, I was in so much better shape. I remember leaning on John to keep myself up and having to immediately sit down once we finished. This time I finished strong and even had gas in the tank afterward.

So that's that. Runs like this make all the bad ones worth it. I still have two more long runs to get through before the half, but if I keep going like this then I'm feeling pretty confident that, if nothing else, this half won't be as painful as the first one.

It’s a Vent

I was really looking forward to today. Today is the start of a really good weekend. Unfortunately today turned out to be “Let’s See How Many Times Christina Can Be Offended in the Course of an Hour Day.” The answer is two, which doesn’t seem like much but I’d like to think it takes a lot to offend me.

I’m not really going to go into the first one because it involves people who are close to some of my friends. Basically I don’t understand how some women can be so malicious, rude, and two-faced. It honestly makes me incredibly sad.

The second issue came about when a friend of mine posted this on her facebook along with this letter:

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

The story goes, a woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way:

"Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness. They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia. They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist.

But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish?
They would have no sex life and could not bear children.
Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad.
And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side?

Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale.

At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies.

We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated.

Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?! "

(The girl on the picture is French model Tara Lynn) Feel free to tag yourselves :)

Last comment: I'm not putting down thin people, being a thin woman myself (BMI of 22 maybe?) just saying that being large doesn't equate to being unattractive.

First, there are so many things wrong with that ‘letter.’ The person definitely took the whale/mermaid analogy too literally. Whales are not actually overweight. And I watched the Little Mermaid-Ariel had tons of friends.

The letter was offensive but it was the comments that really got to me. One person said, “it's sad how people think skinny=beautiful. this girl is definitely hot. you know all those runway models? if you saw them without makeup and their hair done you'd think they were ugly girls that needed to eat a cheeseburger!”

This was followed up by “I think that way makeup or not.” This kind of thinking is unbelievably close-minded and I think its how a lot of people think. Somehow people have shifted from skinny just being the norm (watch movies set in the 60s and 70s-there are very few overweight people) to skinny being abnormal and fat is something to be proud because you “love your curves” or whatever. Fine, but when you’ve got diabetes and a BMI of 30….how are those “curves” something to love?

As a thin person, I’ve heard everything. I’ve been accused of being bulimic, been told to eat a cheeseburger, even been told that I look like I haven’t eaten in a year. How is that okay??? I’ve seen the looks people give when I order a salad with dressing on the side, when I don’t finish everything on my plate or when I pass up a cookie (this doesn’t happen often, I love cookies). People have told me, “Oh I wish I had your metabolism.” Metabolism?? I work out five days a week and eat mostly healthy.

Something is wrong when I feel pressure to eat a lot in front of other people. When I feel like I can’t talk about working out because people respond by telling me I don’t need to work out. When my friends can talk about things they don’t like about themselves but I can’t say anything because I’m ‘skinny’ and therefore I should be completely happy with myself.

Basically, this comment sums everything up perfectly:
“Where is the connection between a whale and an overweight woman? I do not think I have ever seen an overweight whale. And while the lady has some nice features she is over weight and it is not healthy physically or mentally. I am not saying she is not likeable, or loveable, and I am not saying she should hide herself. Too much fat on a body is not good for you. (Being too skinny is not good for you either.)I myself can gain very easily so I practice self control and stay active. There is a difference between accepting ourselves and being lazy, gluttonous and stubborn. I have quite few things about myself that makes me VERY unattractive to myself and others (Im sure someone will say that what I am saying here is one of them) Tho I do not say "O well, I cant do anything about it"? No, I take steps every day to change it. Yes the process is awkward, embarrassing and difficult and some things I might not be able to get beyond. Staying static within it is not the good choice. Curves are great! Yes we have breasts and larger hips then men. That does not mean that overweight is feminine. Being spiteful, self righteouse and having a bad attitude toward part of a society that says that it is better to be fit dose no one any good. The comment toward the mermaid is representative of the hatred toward women who are, or manage to be, fit. What did they ever do to you? Some of them made fun of you? Well it is not becuse they are thin that they did. It is because they have their own unhealthy issues to deal with as well.”

I feel much better now that all this is out. I’m going to go have that really good weekend now.

"I'm Freaking Advanced!"

The other day, I made dinner. Around two o’clock, after numbing my brain via youtube videos, I decided to start that night’s dinner (minus the oven part). On the menu was Cheesy Chicken and Spinach Lasagna Rolls. I’d never made or had it before but it basically sounded awesome because I love cheese, chicken, spinach, AND lasagna.

So, I’m in the kitchen doing my thing when I realize…this is the most cooking for one meal that I’ve ever done. Usually dinner consists of chicken, steamed veggies, and maybe rice or something. Pretty simple and basic. I was stuffing my lasagna rolls when I looked around and thought who the heck AM I? I hadn’t had any sugar that day but I felt some kind of surge of excitement that turned me into the cockiest person ever. I started complimenting myself (not out loud, don’t worry) for preparing such an awesome dinner. I imagined having important people over-like Bob Harper or the President-and serving them this delicious meal. I reached for my phone to text John, “I’m freakin advanced!!”

After completing the meal up to the oven step, I put it in the refrigerator and impatiently waited for John to get home. Occasionally I checked on it just to make sure I actually made something so amazing.

Finally John was home and the lasagna was almost ready to come out of the oven. I took it out and it pretty much smelt like angels. I cut off a piece with my fork and blew on it to cool it off. I put it in my mouth and…..disaster. In the moments that followed I have no recollection of swallowing or not. The lasagna had betrayed me. John took a bite and I thought he was going to vomit. Don’t worry, he didn’t.

We think the culprit was too much oregano. Disclaimer: I doubled checked the recipe to make sure I got all the measurements correct and I DID. So be fully aware that this is NOT my fault. It was completely awful and inedible and we had no choice but to throw that nasty out. What’s that saying about getting back on a horse that already proved how much he hated you by bucking you off? Yeah, I re-made this meal with WAY less oregano and as well as all other spices because now I’m paranoid. Hopefully we eat tonight.

In other news, I FINALLY (with no thanks to Ft. Meade and a HUGE thanks to Andrews Air Force Base) got my military ID today!

I made John retake this picture because I thought his smile was weird but I look better in this one than in the retake. Sorry John! J