Country Music Marathon

Part of the reason for the trip to TN was to run the Nashville Country Music Half Marathon. It's fun to make a vacation out of a race and have the experience to run in different cities. We got into Murfreesboro, TN late Thursday night, well, it was actually Friday morning. We sleep in on Friday, got lunch at Blue Coast Burrito, then headed into Nashville. On the way in we got stuck in traffic and could see people walking around with their race bags.

The drive in

We decided to first check into our hotel, which was the Doubletree Downtown. It was very nice and was only a few blocks from the expo and also from the finish line at LP field.

Outside of the expo

With our race numbers

Big Red checking out the fitting rooms

The night before the race we went to dinner at TGI Friday's. I was in bed by 10pm but didn't sleep very well. I was having a dream that I missed the start of the race. We were up early and decided to jog to the start of the race instead of taking a shuttle. The start was 2 miles away but it was a nice, easy warm up. Tennessee was due for bad weather that day so the ended up starting the race 15 mins early. I felt great the first two miles, then the hills & humidity got to me. I was miserable. I ended up finishing in 2:00:37, 10 minutes slower than what I was hoping for. I guess you can't always have a good race. Besides the weather and not doing as well as I liked, I think it was a great race. The Rock N Roll series always do a good job and have well organized races. There were plenty of friend volunteers along the course. I'd recommend it, but I'd also recommend doing lots of hill work beforehand.

Tennessee!!!

Tonight I'm driving 8 hours to Murfreesboro with this gal:To see this guy:

And this guy:

Then on Saturday I'm running the 1/2 of this:

Dooby Du

The Dooby Du duathlon is the first duathlon of the season around the Metro Detroit area. It's an hour drive away from me in Berkey, OH. The race directors refer to it as a formula 1 race. I'm not really sure what that means. Most duathlons are run-bike-run. This one has two extra legs in it so its a 2 mile run - 6.5 mile bike - 2 mile run - 6.5 mile bike - 2 mile run. Each of the runs & the two bikes are the same course, so that might be why they call it formula 1 style. It's really good for working on transitions which I need all the practice that I can get. It's one of my favorite races because it's a smaller race with less than 100 competitors and it has some of the most friendly volunteers. The race goes by so quick since it's shorter distances and your legs are screaming from going from one discipline to the other. After the race they sever up lunch...hot dogs (they even had veggie dogs for us vegetarians!), chips, cookies, & pop. Not necessarily the most nutritious post race food, but it sure does taste good. This was my third year doing it and my second fastest time. I finished in 1:44:18. One of the downfalls of the race is that they don't do chip timing so you have no idea what your split times are unless you keep track of them yourself. It would have been helpful this year to compare since I just switched to using cycling shoes and clip-in pedals. I hope to be back again to that race next year.

Up next on my calendar is the Country Music 1/2 Marathon. I'm driving down to Nashville on Thursday and I can't wait!

In the meantime, I was up early yesterday for the 5:30 am cycling class at the gym. I took last night off so I could have dinner with my parents and skype with my nephew. This morning was a 45 minute swim. I'm hoping for a short run at lunch or after work.

Weekend Re-cap

I've been on a good role with my workouts. On Friday, I started out the day with a half hour swim before work. In the evening, Big Red and I took the dog on a short 2 mile run. We dropped him off with my parents and we continued on another mile to a casual Mediterranean restaurant with the best garlic sauce ever. The vampires definitely stayed away from me all weekend. We've made a habit of this Friday routine. I was home by 8pm, I got my running clothes out, put new music on my ipod, and went to bed early.

Saturday was the Martian Marathon. I ran the half along with 3 other friends, while my friend Dan ran the full. It was a little chilly to start but it was great weather for running. I finished around 1:53. Dan ended up qualifying for Boston so we were all so excited for him. I headed to FB's for the evening and we went to his brother's house for a bbq.

On Sunday I met up with my friend Chris to go biking. We ended up going 35 miles. I was thinking that I was going to be so sore this morning but I actually feel great. I got to meet Big Red & our friend Burrito for Sushi before heading home to relax for the night with FB.

It was a good weekend!!!!

Here the last few workouts:
Thurs: am: 50/50 class at Lifetime, pm: 8.2 mile run
Fri: am: 1/2 hr swim, pm: 3 mile run
Sat: 13.1 mile run
Sun: 35 mile bike

Next up for races is the Dooby Du Duathlon next Sunday near Toledo, OH. The weekend after that is the Country Music 1/2 Marathon.

Greetings Earthlings

Tomorrow I'm running the Martian 1/2 Marathon. I'm getting excited!

39.3 - Done!

I gotta say, I loved the Disney Marathon weekend! Well, other than the record lows in Florida part. I took both races relatively easy and felt great post race. I'm ready for another one!

Disney Half Marathon - 2:08:51

Disney Marathon - 4:42:48

Lack of Training

I think it was last February when I actually had signed up for the Disney Goofy Challenge. For those of you who don't know what that is, it consists of running the Disney half marathon on Saturday, followed by running the Disney Full marathon on Sunday. You get a medal and shirt for each of the two races, plus an additional medal & shirt for doing the two together. I love a challenge and when two of my friends signed up to do it, I just couldn't resist. Out of curiosity I googled "39.3 training" and found this site: http://www.runvie.com/Articles/Disney%20Goofy%20Training%202010.pdf. According to the schedule, I should have ran 11 miles last night. Instead I made myself some dinner and spent the evening on the couch snuggling with Brady and watching the Vampire Diaries. After having just ran 2 marathons, I'm finding it hard to muster up the motivation to start getting more long runs in again. However, I know that if I can get them in, I will be much happier at mile 20 of the marathon.

Crazy Runner

It's been almost 2 years since my last marathon (http://www.usafmarathon.com/) and now I'm looking at 3.5 in 3 months. I think I've officially lost my mind! This is what I have lined up:

Oct 18 - Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Marathon http://www.freepmarathon.com/
Nov 7 - Rockhead Marathon http://www.rockheadrace.com/
Jan 9 - Disney 1/2 Marathon
Jan 10 - Disney Marathon http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/events/eventDetail/detail?name=WdwMarathonDetailPage&bhcp=1

Trail Weekend

Last weekend was Trail weekend (http://www.trailmarathon.com/). Saturday was the 5 Miles Road Ends Trail run and Sunday was my first 1/2 marathon of the year. I couldn't have picked a more challenging course! I loved every minute of it, except for the bugs! I managed 45:46.6 for the 5 miles and 2:23:52.2 for the half.