Taper Madness

If there are some that don't already know, the OKC Memorial Marathon is less than a week away. What usually ensues about this time is taper madness. It truly is a symptom of tapering or reducing your mileage before a big race. Runners are used to running 20+ miles a week or much more depending on the length of race you are training for, but that number is cut considerably during the last couple of weeks in order to let their legs rest. While the legs are resting, the mind is going crazy...literally.

Joe has been checking the weather 10 times a day. He is checking quite a few sites including some local OKC news weather stations. I won't go into detail about the extent that he is obsessing, but it's boderline OCD.

I, on the other hand, came up with an injury just before taper time. Posterior tibial tendonitis. It really was hurting and messing with my walking gait. I was limping around everywhere a week ago. I started some anti-inflammatories, ice, rest, K-tape, and arch supports. It's getting better. But, I still limp around sometimes, which is how I know I'm going mad. It's not hurt anymore, so why am I limping around? I just can't help it. Subconciously I'm trying to protect that foot. Now, that I realize how mad I am, I'm starting to wonder if it ever was a real injury.

Here is a funny article that a friend sent me about Taper Madness. It's old, but definitely hilarious. And, I apologize to all of my friends, who are so tired of me talking about this race. It will stop at some point. I have great friends because none of you have complained yet.

http://blog.runnerslounge.com/2008/09/symptoms-and-tr.html

Books and Movies

Water for Elephants, the movie, comes out this week! I'm really excited to see it. I know that the movies are usually not as good as the books, but I still love to see my favorite books on the screen. The Kite Runner turned into a fantastic movie. I couldn't find one spot where they veered from the story, and it wasn't corny either. It's been awhile, but I remember enjoying the movie Lovely Bones as well.

They are also making Hunger Games into a motion picture as well. Now, this is VERY exciting. I never thought I would enjoy the Hunger Games series, but it was one of the best stories I've read in awhile. It's target audience is for a younger crowd, and I don't think that means 31-year-old moms, but I thoroughly enjoyed all three of them. As a matter of fact, I was pretty sad when I had finished the series. You know it's a good book when you miss the characters.

Everyone knows the Alice in Wonderland story, which is also obviously a movie. Right now, my book club is reading Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin. I'm only about 50pages in, but I like what I've read so far.

Here's a little blurb from the author's site http://melaniebenjamin.com/alice-i-have-been.php
"A love story and a literary mystery, Alice I Have Been brilliantly blends fact and fiction to capture the passionate spirit of a woman who was truly worthy of her fictional alter ego, in a world as captivating as the Wonderland only she could inspire"

I may just have to reread Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland next. Especially since Elle's dance studio is performing it on stage next month. Let's hope Elle hangs in there long enough to make it to the performance. She is really protesting dance class lately, but always has a blast once she's in there. I'm actually to the point of pushing her in the door and running out before she can catch me.

Long time, no blog

It's been awhile... Let's see...Joe and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. We marked the midweek occassion with a trip to Perini's. I love their chocolate cake! Elle wanted us to get married again, so mommy could be a queen again. She waited for March 16th since the beginning of the month when she saw it marked on the calendar. It came and went, and she did not ask me to be a queen...thank goodness! That weekend we went to Longview. Joe and I ran in the Longview Half Marathon. It was hot with rolling hills, but we survived. It marked my 5th half! And, all five were done within one calendar year, which is pretty exciting to me. Not much else to report. We've been busy on the weekends with birthday parties. There have been a lot lately, and we're booked up through the middle of the month.

Keira's 3!

Keira's 3rd birthday was February 7. I'm a little late. My sweet little Keira was such a surprise when we found out we were expecting her. She's only 18mos younger than her big sister, and we certainly didn't plan it that way. I won't lie and say I wasn't nervous. I was terrified of having two little ones so close together. I think anyone that had Elle as their first child would be at least a little nervous. We never doubted that Keira was a blessing, but she eased my mind so quickly. She was a very laid back and easy baby. She would sit in her carseat carrier during an entire playdate for her sister. At home, she would sit in her bouncy seat and just be content. Let's just say that her sister was nothing like that.

Then, Keira got older...

She is still very sweet, but this little one is demanding, and she's not afraid to let you know. Sassy! She loves dress-up. Just this morning she woke me up dressed up as Cinderella with her dress, crown, purse, heels and necklace on. She often sleeps in her dress-up clothes, too.

Keira is also a little piggy. Tonight she ate two servings of lasagna, then got a treat for finishing her dinner. Not even 20 min later, she was asking daddy for a granola bar. Yesterday, we took the girls to Pizza Inn and she had 2 pieces of pizza, 2 servings of spaghetti, 2 breadsticks, a piece of dessert pizza, and cucumbers. Mommy, Daddy, and Elle had been done for 15 min before we finally said take the breadsticks to the car with you. Out we went with Keira double fisting her food out the door.

The little thing talks so much that I often find myself asking if she can just be quiet for 10 seconds. She is starting to recognize a ton of sight words. I would say she probably knows 30-50 words. She knows all the sounds of the letters and can do simple (very simple) counting. Smart...just like her big sister. They both amaze me in this. They take after their Daddy.

All Keira ever wants to do is play games with daddy. She makes him play 'dollies' (magnetic dress-up dolls) at least once a day and usually a memory game or two. Hungry, Hungry Hippos is another favorite. She never leaves Daddy alone though.

Gymnastics started a few weeks ago. Keira loves it. When she 'flies', she shouts, "...look at me!" 'Flying' is using the swing thing-a-ma-jig that goes around your waist. She's a fan of 'rolls', too.

I am told that she took a little longer to warm up at school, but we've gotten some stories lately about her. Recently, she ordered the teachers to 'Wait!' before the prayer because wasn't done rubbing her hands together with the hand sanitzier. Her favorite part of school is music class, which she calls dance class, and chapel. And, she loves Mrs. Clark. This is great because Mrs. Clark is one of our super, awesome babysitters.

Little miss KeKay, our KeiraBoo, is such a doll. She can pout and cry Crocodile tears with the best of them, fart on demand, and has the most delightful belly laugh. We can't help but love her to pieces.

And, they're off...Aramco Houston Half and Chevron Houston Marathon

From Danielle: 13.1 miles 2:18. Finished in top 33% of women ages 30-34. I was happy with my performance. Usually I start breaking down around mile 10 or 11, but I was able to hold my pace the entire time. While it wasn't a PR, it really was the smartest race that I've run. And, it was just 3 min off from my PR. I felt much better in this race, too. I'm sure you've all already heard about the humidity and rain. The spectators were fabulous though as was the organization of the race. You definitely missed something if you wore headphones for this one. I'm looking forward to maybe running Houston again next year. They really did a fabulous job of making all of the runners feel like superstars. I don't know how all of the volunteers were able to keep up their enthusiasm for hours like that. Even through the post-race breakfast line, they were congratulating and cheering for us.

The only thing that was frustrating was the start. Even with the two starting times, it was congested in the beginning, enough to slow me down for more than I would have wanted. Actually, even the end was pretty bad for me. I was trying to sprint in to the finish and was having to dodge people to the finish line. But, I don't know really what they could do about that. I guess I just need to run faster, so I can be where it's more thinned out. Ha!

I made some friends along the way, too. Joe likes to make fun of me, but I tend to chat with my fellow runners along the course. I tried to run while drinking the water and gatorade, and I think it was the right decision. I did walk through the stops where I took my Gu though, which was twice.

It was so great to meet April, one of super fast Joe's running friends. Aside from finishing the race without much of an annoyance from the hip, my favorite part was watching April & Joe finish the marathon. April got 3:16 for the 26.2 miles, which is insanely fast to me.

Next year, I'm not letting Joe pick up our packets at the Expo though. I apparently missed a lot of fun and free stuff.

To give you an idea of the spectator support, here's a fun article about a runner whose friends surprised him and every runner with a message at each mile. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/run/7420702.html
My favorites were:
Mile 6 - You're not slow. You're enjoying the course.
Mile 7 - Relax. You're not going to win.
Mile 9 - 26.2, because 26.3 would be crazy.

From Joe: I'm posting Joe's race report because it is so thorough and there's no way I could ever beat his report.

Weather predictions were all doom and gloom the night before, but the thunder and lightning stayed away on race day. It rained off and on the entire race, soaking us to the bone, but at least we had a race. The bad part was the unseasonable warmth. The temps were in the mid-60s the whole time, with about 90% humidity. I decided I better start slower; I even told Mark last night I would run 7:40s and 7:50s in the first half because of the heat. I guess I lied. Miraculously, we bumped into April before the race among the 20,000 participants and made our way to the starting line. The mile splits below are from Garmin.

Miles 1-5: 8:02, 7:34, 7:36, 7:42, 7:42. The gun went off and April and I started together. I ran with her for about 3 steps and she was gone, picking her way through the crowd. The first mile was really clogged up. I noticed about an 8:30 pace about halfway into that first mile, but didn’t panic, and used it as a nice warmup. Obviously it opened up a bit after that because I was in the 7:30s pretty quick. 5K was 24:04. I focused on shortening my stride to keep the pace slower but I felt really great.

Miles 6-10: 7:33, 7:30, 7:39, 7:37, 7:36. Whoops. I started running by feel. It felt so very easy, so I threw the conservative plan out the window and listened to my body. That probably would’ve worked if it was 20 degrees cooler, but not today. 10K was 47:55. I saw my dad around mile 8, which was awesome. The crowd support was unreal – people lining the streets in the rain all 26 miles.

Miles 11-15: 7:28, 7:35, 7:35, 7:38, 7:40. Still feeling ridiculously great. My plan was to hang around 3:20 pace just in case, and I was still right on it. In mile 13, I ran right by my childhood best friend’s house and saw his mom out there – pretty cool. I went through the half in 1:40:22 (nearly a PR) but was still breathing really easy and didn’t feel a big toll on my legs yet.

Miles 16-20: 7:37, 7:36, 7:50, 7:35, 7:49. Ok, doubts started to creep in mile 18. 30K was still a great split, 2:22:51 (7:40 average so far). I slowed down as the legs were starting to burn a bit in 18. Then I inexplicably sped up in mile 19, feeling strong again – maybe I shouldn’t have done that. By mile 20, I was giving more effort but the pace was starting to bleed out for good.

Miles 21-26.2: 7:55, 8:04, 8:19, 8:39, 8:58, 8:43, 2:27 (0.33 miles on garmin). Cue death march. Looking at the splits now, I thought it would be worse (wasn’t looking at my watch much at this point, but every time I did I thought I saw 9-something). I saw my dad, brother and his fiancée at mile 23 (brother lives in an apartment right on the course). I faked a smile for them, and then went back to pathetically staring at the cement 3 feet in front of me. My lovely wife had finished her half marathon and was there cheering for me with about a tenth of a mile to go! I saw the clock, and put on a furious sprint (8:00 pace was a sprint) and officially beat 3:26 by a second to get a 3:25:59! I think the bonk should be mostly attributed to going too fast in the early miles on a hot, muggy day. Still, it wasn’t an aerobic wall – I actually caught my breath a little but just could not will myself to pick up the pace. So, I gotta think part of it was also mental, but maybe part fueling? I had a total of 5 gu and took Gatorade pretty much every stop. Weird to think that wasn’t enough, but my stomach felt fine and I could probably tolerate more; I really think I was burning fats at the end, but I’m not experienced enough to know for sure. A real learning experience, but I’m still really, really happy with the time given the conditions.

Some stats from runpix – I finished top 6% overall, top 8% of men and top 12% of my age group. That also feels pretty good, because it lets me know everyone struggled as well. First half was 1:40:22 (7:39 pace), second half was 1:45:37 (8:03 pace). My first 20 miles was 2:32:54 (7:39 pace). Last 10K was 53:05 (8:32 pace). So there it is.

Off to the races...

We headed out the Wednesday before the races and went through Austin, so Joe could check out Baby Carter. Baby Carter and Joe were instant friends. Seriously, he was laughing for him and everything. I admit I was jealous, but I did get to hold him a ton. He loved sleeping on me. And, I'm pretty sure I helped spoil him because I hear Baby Carter cried unless the daycare provider was holding him on his first day in daycare. Whoops!

On Thursday, after a stop to see Joe's grandparents, we headed out to Houston. We even stopped in Giddings along the way because Joe's aunt owns Loebau Candle Co, and I was ready to do some sniffing. Cinnamon Vanilla is my absolute favorite, but she makes plenty of creative scents with very fun names, like Homewrecker. There are so many funny ones, but I can't remember the exact names and don't want to mess it up.

We did the Houston Zoo with the girls on Friday. They enjoyed the lake in front of the zoo. I, on the other hand, was terribly freaked out that they could fall in. You laugh, but I have gotten a call while at Hobby Lobby that Elle had fallen in a lake in Abilene. I won't mention who was with her.

Saturday came and it was time to leave the girls with Baba and Grandpa Tom. Neither of them even shed a tear! Woohoo! We checked into our hotel, which was so close to the starting line. Then, we got ready for dinner with April. April is a running friend of Joe's, and she's super fast. I think I got a second faster just from eating dinner between the two of them. We ate at Carrabba's - the original one in Houston. Carrabba's is our absolute favorite place to eat, and the one on Kirby in Houston is the best one ever. They don't have one in Abilene, so we try and go every chance we get.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and went to bed at 8:30p to rest up before the race.

To be continued...

He's Home!

After 6 months (plus a couple of weeks-sorry, I have to mention that over and over), we welcomed our guy home. He's a lucky guy to be welcomed home by 3 girls. A few of my friends came out to help with the picture taking, so we have these to share with you.

Keira is so funny. All she wanted to do was eat with Daddy at the airport. Thankfully, we got out of there without having to fulfill that request.

He came home on Tuesday afternoon and we just lay low the rest of the day. On Wednesday morning, the girls went to school. Yes, I still headed to my PumpIt class on base. Homecoming is no excuse to get fat - especially when I knew I was going to Brick Oven Pizza afterwards for my lunch date. It felt so great to have lunch with Joe - just the two of us. I didn't put both girls in school until after Joe left, so this is new for us to have alone time like this. It was wonderful.

After we picked up the girls, we got Elle all suited up for a run with Daddy. Joe tried to take her the short way, but she insisted on the long route. It ended up only being about .6 mi, but she ran the whole thing. She has been waiting for that run for awhile now. Elle wanted to go "rocket fast" with Daddy in her new running shoes.