Race #2

So after weeks of training and complaining about training I have completed my goal. Not only did I run all five miles of this course, but I also ran it in 55.34 (which is 3.02 minutes faster than Sunday), and it was 50 degrees and Sunny this morning? Yeah all things I never thought I would say, the last one of course being that it's November 26 in Buffalo, NY and past weather history would show that 50 degrees and sunny is not a normal occurance on this date in this place.

To the race...
I woke up early so that I could get a little run in and a stretch... I also made sure to drink water prior to the race so we wouldn't have the same debacle as last time.

I meet my friends at the race, and HOLY this is a little different than Sunday. So the race Sunday was like 4-500 people... this race had to stop registration because over 12,000 people registered. Only 10,935 people actually participated - I hope you caught the sarcasm of only - and it was a complete mad house when the race started. There were so many people at the event (and if you know my friends and I you know we are notorious for being late) and we were all the way in the back, and by the time we crossed the start line, the race had already been going for over eight minutes. To put this in perspective, the winner of the trot was nearing mile three and I hadn't even started.

We start the race and right away I knew the pace Catherine was setting was WAY too fast for this girl. I keep up for a bit, but then realize I will never, ever finish if I try and continue, so I drop back from my friends. It is there where I see this girl dressed very similarly to myself who seems to be running at the same pace as where I want to be. I start to follow her and we end up running four miles together before getting lost in the chaos of the last mile. I don't know who she was, and we didn't speak, but for that race she was my best friend ha.

This next section is going to be very confusing if you aren't familiar with Delaware Avenue, but just pretend like you know the landmarks I am speaking of anyway.

The race starts near Mighty Taco, but as mentioned above we were at the back of the line, a la Frank's Sunny Italy. We start heading toward downtown (I'm not good with compass directions, south maybe?) where we pass by a few relatives who are cheering us on outside Tim Hortons. Around the Marshall's plaza I drop back from my friends and continue on my own until I meet my new friend at the S curves. After completing the S curves I see a few girls I know who have already started walking, and Carly yells that this mile and a half is the furthest she's ever gone before walking (and when she says ever she means she's been doing this for multiple years now). Upon seeing them walking, I begin to feel tired, but I didn't want them to see me stop after I laughed at them for walking. I tell myself that if I could just make it to Caniusius High School then I would be allowed to take a walking break. After what feels like an eternity, I make it to Canisius and just as I decide it's time to walk, I see the flag for mile three a few streets ahead. I think to myself, how could you stop so close to mile three, you have to keep going. So I do. And when I get to the mile three flag there were people cheering like crazy the Saturn Club chefs were all outside, and I didn't want to let anybody down, so I said I would just keep going until the sidewalks cleared out a bit and people wouldn't notice (read: less people would notice) me stopping. By this time I can see the next mile flag and as I did for the last one, I told myself Rachel you can't stop until you get to the flag. I didn't. At this point were at about W. Tupper so there is a great view of that tall pointy thing in Niagra Square that looks like this:

Seeing that makes me so happy because I know I am almost downtown. I also know that at this point we are multiple blocks past Arby's and that on plenty of St. Patrick's Days we have made the walk from Allen to Chippewa with no problems, and so my next "stopping point" (obviously in quotes because I didn't actually stop, as I ruined the surprise for you in the second sentence of this email) was Chippewa... but of course I told myself Quote nightclub so that I could get a quick chuckle in. Once crossing Chippewa there are only two more streets before reaching Niagara Square so the crowd is getting real intense and my second wind kicks in and I start to pick up my pace. This is where I lose my dear friend, whose name I will never know.

If you've run this race, then you know they love to make you detour around Niagara Square and take the long way to the finish line at the convention center... however I did enjoy it because it gave a nice straight-away finish. I complete the race and my legs feel like jello, and I realize that I lost my friends at mile one and I did not have any way of contacting them. Luckily I hear my name shouted from the crowd and it was Jamie and Lauren who had just finished as well. We looked around but didn't see anyone we knew so we decided to see if they were in the after party. At this time it is just after 10am and there is a live band and draft beer and I was so proud of myself because all I wanted was a banana and some water. The thought of drinking a beer after running five miles was nauseating. Kudos to those who could. It took some time, but we finally found our friends and then got a ride home, where I could nap away my jello legs before thanksgiving dinner.

Oh yeah - not only did I run this race three minutes faster than my first, but it was also 0.2 miles longer, so it was even faster than that. Go me!

XOXO

55.34 minutes
Miles Ran 5.2

I did it!

I might die and may never walk again, but I did it!

So this morning was my first actual race, and overall I am very pleased. My friend Kat ran it with me and THANK GOODNESS she did because I don't know what I would have done without her. We had big plans on walking the course the day before so we would be able to pick out some landmarks and such for the next day, but of course that didn't work out so we entered this race blindly.

As a non-professional runner, I thought the course was full of hills, but Kat swears it wasn't that bad - except that hill just before Mile-3 you can't deny that one. Anyway, Kat and I get there early so we could warm up and stretch. I felt great doing that, we ran around a bit, got our tshirts - which were men's sizes and they had no smalls left and we both got nightgowns - and then it was time to line up.

Dear YMCA,

In the future, I think it would be best that you close off the streets that the race takes place on, because we almost got run over multiple times.

Love,

Kat, Rachel and the other 400 runners that almost died

So the first mile went well, I felt pretty good... the second mile I desperately wanted water... the third mile I was kicking myself for drinking water because I now had a cramp... the fourth mile I drank more water because I thought I was going to die... and the fifth mile was the last mile and I just wanted to finish. I will admit I stopped to walk twice (three?) times, but my walking pace was just as fast as my running pace at that point so it was okay - not really because I wanted to run the whole thing, but in terms of time, it was okay.

Afterward, the Y was nice enough to offer some amazing food (especially that lentil soup mmm) and free massages to race participants. You better believe Kat and I waited in line for those and that we made the massagers (I don't know what they're really called?) stay extra late to take us because we refused to get out of line. And then we lied to them and said we were going to come to their actual place of employment for massages and they gave us coupons for it, but we knew we were never going.

I then went back to my house where I passed out on the couch for a few hours, still dressed from the race and now I am finally ready to shower.

XOXO

58.36 minutes
Miles Ran: 5

Fruits and Veggies

This post is not running related, but I wanted to talk about it anyway... and since my races will both be completed in 9 days (what?!?), I figure I better think of other things to talk about so this blog doesn't just end.

As mentioned in previous posts (maybe? if not, I'm mentioning it now) I have been keeping track of everything I eat on a website called sparkpeople and even though it only tracks calories, fat, protein and carbohydrates for you on your tracker... there is a spot for you to count your fruits & veggies intake as well as water. I know I definitely have mentioned that I need to increase my water intake, which I have been working on, still not hitting eight glasses everyday though, and now I think it's time to concentrate on the fruits & veggies tracker.

As a child - when I saw child I mean until last year - I was the pickiest eater in the world. I have since improved immensly and can actually say that I, Rachel, LOVE fruits and vegetables. There are very few that I won't eat, which says a lot considering I went through a phase where I didn't eat anything that was the color green. Funny, because my favorite vegetable is broccoli now? Also, my mother is probably reading this in disbelief since I put her through a lot of hell when it came to meals.

Though I love fruits and veggies, I have noticed that I am not eating as much as I should. When I was in grad school and the only thing I had to do all day was go to class at 6pm, I snacked on fruit all day long. However, at work, my snacks include the girl scout cookies I bought because the lady selling them came over just before lunch - pretty sure she did that on purpose.

I do really well when it comes to incorporating vegetables into my dinners, but there's no way I can eat the recommended 5 cups in one sitting. So, in order to combat this issue, I have decided that I need to drink at least 1 cup of fruits/veggies a day. That's when I remembered the V8 commercials where they announce that one serving of V8 has one cup's worth of vegetables. Then I remembered that I drank V8 at my friend's house recently and it was so delicious. I asked her what flavor we had and then looked it up on the V8 website so I could pick out the bottle in the store without staring like a lost child forever. Of course, the one she drinks, and I like, is the V8 Splash, which doesn't have the same nutrional value. Therefore, that idea was out. However, the V8 Fusion and the basic V8 drinks both count as 1 serving. There are a whole bunch of choices when it comes to the V8 Fusion, and I am TERRIBLE at making decisions, so I sucked it up and bought the basic V8. It came in six little cans called the "weekly pack" or something else that a sucker impulse buyer like me would enjoy. The cans are only 5.5oz, so I figured I could suck it up and choke it down.

I had my first this morning, and it really wasn't bad. It was basically cold tomato soup (because I put the cans in the fridge, not sure if you're supposed to? couldn't find anything that said refrigerate... or not refrigerate? looking on website now to make sure I don't die). If you talked to me a few months ago, I wouldn't recognize this flavor because I didn't have my first bowl of tomato soup until this past summer. Like I said, serious picky eater. But ever since I had my first bowl at Magnolia's on Park Ave, I have been hooked. Thank you Mandi for forcing me to eat it that day. Though I am much less of a picky eater, I still don't like tomato sauce - I know, worst Italian, sorry Gram - and I feared that this juice would be straight tomato sauce, so I was pleased to find it was more soupy than saucy.

In conclusion, try it, you'll love it... well, only if cold tomato soup is your thing.

So now that I'm such a fan of V8, I have been browsing their website, and they make soups that look absolutly delicious. Here's the link: V8 Soups. Also, there's a whole bunch of recipes that look the bomb and each one includes a V8 Soup, which also contains 1 serving of veggies. I already tried the Southwestern Turkey, Corn and Chile... so easy and delicious.

I bet V8 is loving this free advertising right now!

XOXO

3 Miles - The Story

Prior to yesterday's run, the longest amount of time spent running was 8-minutes. So the fact that the next run on the training schedule was 3-miles completely blew my mind. I thought for sure that (1) I would not make it and (2) I would die trying. Then I remembered that when I played softball, we started each practice with a 10-minute run. I would not do physical activity between seasons, but I could still do that run. A year and half is a little longer than a few months, but for my insanity I counted it as the same. Therefore, I knew that I could run 10 straight minutes without stopping once to walk/breathe/drink water.

I went into yesterday's run excited, because I obviously wasn't thinking clearly since everyone knows you can't run 3-miles in 10-minutes (well maybe someone can, but that someone is definitely not me). I also skipped Monday's workout, which was also 3-miles, because I had walked almost 6 on Sunday and was wiped out, so I knew I had to complete this yesterday because I had already slacked.

I got out of work at 6pm, but if you had told me it was midnight I would have believed you. It seriously is so dark I can't handle it! Prior to leaving work, I used my handy friend mapmyrun.com to help me find a good 3-mile route near my house. There wasn't one, unless I wanted to run on some sketchy streets, but if you remember last time I think it's best I avoid that option. My other choice was to run up and down the same streets, in which case, I will look like a crazy lost person, and would hate risking my reputation (since so many people know me (I hope you caught that sarcasm)). I have ADD and figured running in the same circle until I got to 3-miles would drive me crazy so I decided to drive to the park near my house.

I forgot that you can only drive in the park while it's light out, so of course the gate was closed, however there are parking spots on the street right next to it, crisis averted. I called a friend of mine who lives in the same neighborhood and had her convince me that even though cars weren't allowed in the park, people still were. She agreed and I went on my way. I noticed many people walking up and down the hill that is normally the car entrance, so I felt safe, even though it was dark. I climbed to the top of the hill where you can see the entire Rochester skyline all lit up. So beautiful. It was then that I noticed that all the people I saw were only on the hill and not at the top. I pretend this doesn't bother me and start to jog along the resevoir at the top. At 0.69 miles it's about 4.5 times around to reach 3-miles. I make it about 0.01-miles before freaking myself out, turning around, sprinting to the start, running down the hill and back into my car. I start yelling at myself, since I mentioned above I had already skipped this run once before, and start driving. I figured that worst case scenario I would drive to good old RIT because the loop around campus is equvalent to a 5K - just over 3-miles (3.1 to be exact), and because I really didn't want to drive twenty minutes out of my way to run I would check out the local schools on the way. I drive past Brighton High School - track is pitch black. Drive past McQuaid High School - track is pitch black. Drive past MCC - no idea if they have a track/if they do where it is. RIT it is.

I get to RIT and remember how I spent the last year of my life in grad school, getting out of classes at 10pm, and swerving to avoid runners -even when they were on sidewalks and I was in the street. I get scared easily, I'm sorry. So of course I freak myself out, and decide to run on the track there instead. I contemplated running on a treadmill, but then realized that even though I still have an ID card, I am not a student, and I can no longer use the gym for free - unless I know who's working, and unfortunately I didn't know the girl.

Since I had done a little run at the park before driving there, I felt no need for a warm-up lap. I stretched myself out and got at it. The track is 4x around per mile and I didn't have anyone with me to count my laps so I decided I would change directions after each mile so that I only had to pay attention until I got to 4 instead of 12 - turns out, best idea. Also - remember earlier in this post when I said that I had ADD and didn't want to run in the same circles, I obviously wasn't thinking clearly again.

The first mile was a piece of cake. I was feeling my music, I was going at a good pace, everything was great. The second mile starts and I get a little tired, feel a cramp coming, wanted to vomit. The third mile, I feel great again. I know I'm almost finished and get excited. That was the first lap, before I realized I still had three left. Laps two and three I was getting angry at myself. Yelling. Asking what was I thinking. And then it was the last lap. I would have loved to have sprinted it with all my excess energy, but I had none, so snail's pace had to do. My favorite song (of the week) came on (Iyaz - Replay, in case you were wondering), I got so excited, even caught myself singing outloud - good thing I was alone.

I finish, but my legs feel like jell-o so I can't stop moving. I just started walking around and shaking them out. It reminded me of when I used to swim, we used to always shake out our limbs after races... pretty weird if you think about it? Anyway, as soon as sensation came back into my legs, I felt my muscles start to tighten. I stretched out really well, but I still felt shaky. My legs were still tight so I started doing high knees, then some butt kicks to try and help... I don't know what got into me, but once I started I had to continue the entire routine from softball practice. I did some defensive slides, a couple grapevines, some frankensteins (no idea what they're really called but that's what we called them), high skips, my favorite groin stretches and even a couple sprints. This probably made things worse, but I couldn't stop myself.

I then got into my car and called my mother immediately to tell her what I had just done. She said that talking about it had made her tired, so I must be exhausted - I was. I got home and looked up to see how fast I had run this in (I pressed stop in the middle of the song as soon as I crossed the "finish" line and had been repeating 1:57 over and over to myself the whole ride home). I added it all up and realized that it took me 33 minutes to complete this. I am pretty sure I could have walked faster. I take it back, I am positive I could walk that faster.

Dear Friends who are running the Turkry Trot with me: I will not be offended when you leave me in your dust.

For my first 3-mile run, I feel accomplished. However, this time is going to need to decrease drastically because the actual race involves 2 ADDTIONAL miles and I just can't picture myself running for an hour straight!

XOXO

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STATS

33 Minutes

Miles Ran: 3
Cumulative Miles: 21.32

Days until Race: 10

3 miles!

Just ran three miles. I'm about to collapse. I will post in more detail tomorrow.

XOXO

Walking Weekend

So this past weekend I did not have any scheduled runs - though I admit I have not been up to par on the last several runs, so I should probably add some more "practice" runs to my workout if I am going to make it through my race in 2 weeks, yes TWO WEEKS (I'm kind of freaking out if you couldn't tell).

Anyway, the weather in Rochester has been unseasonably nice (not complaining, but definitely confused by it), and I decided to take advantage. Saturday my friend and I opted to cancel our movie plans and take a walk around High Falls, aka downtown Rochester. Since we stopped to look at THE waterfall - there is only one waterfall in Rochester, which is very strange to see coming from Buffalo where Niagara Falls is just a mere ten minutes away - so I didn't count this in terms of my fitness numbers because I was unsure of how to calculate it.

Sunday, was even nicer than Saturday. Besides my walk downtown the day before, I had been pretty unproductive, so I made myself go for a "run." I quoted run because it was supposed to be a run, but I ended up walking almost all of it. If you are unfamiliar with Rochester, this route is going to mean nothing to you, but if you are familiar with the area, you are going to realize what an idiot I was to think it wasn't that far.

I started at my house close to the Park/Culver intersection and continued up Culver to Monroe. I crossed the street to Cobbs Hill Park and climbed the freaking hill, which always leaves me out of breath (~1 mile). From there I did two loops around the resevoir (0.69 miles x 2), but was totally disapointed to find it had been drained and there was no water inside. I was however exstatic that the leaves have fallen from the trees that the downtown skyline is completely visible. It is so beautiful up there, I do love it, minus the hill to get to the top. I then avoided the hill by climbing down the road and exited onto Highland. I turned left on Highland and continued until Winton Rd (~1 mile). On Winton Rd I turned Right and continued until Monroe Ave (~1 mile). I stopped at my friends house - who lives a few houses in from the Winton/Monroe intersection - for a glass of water and to use the facilities, and then continued back to my house (~2 miles).

Including the break for water/bathroom/part of a football game, it took me two hours. Therefore, I calculated just the walking at 90 minutes. The good news, even if I walk the entire race, I will finish in less than that (especially since it's 0.67 miles shorter). The bad news, my body is TIRED. I can see it now, upon completion of the first race, me laying in bed until race #2.

The numbers in parenthesis have all been rounded up, so the total milage was actually 5.67 miles. I was exhausted when I got back to my house. So much so, that my sister came to visit me and I was in such a dead sleep on my couch that I did not hear my phone ring 8 times, the 3 times the voicemail indicator chimed, or my doorbell. Sorry again about that.

Today I am supposed to run 3-miles. My legs are pretty sore, but I want to at least attempt it. I hope I have a success story for tomorrow.

XOXO

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STATS

90 minutes walk

Miles Ran: 5.67
Cumulative Miles: 18.32

Days until Race: NOT ENOUGH - or 13, your choice

Some Advice

Last week I posed the question, How do I make myself run when it's dark and cold? Well I think I found an answer. Thank you to Nicole for her great advice, let's see if it works out?!?

Another lesson...

So every Tuesday, my friend and I make dinner together and catch up on all the Thursday night shows that we always seem to miss. This week was his turn to host, so I decided that I would get my run in on my way to his house. I mapped it out ahead of time and it was almost 2 miles, so that sounded good to me. I got home from work and changed into some gym clothes and then began to leave for my run. It then occurred to me that I would get to his house sweating and disgusting and have nothing to change into. It also occurred to me, that I would need somewhere to store my house keys (normally I just leave them in the mailbox) and I would probably want my cell phone since I had to run down some busy streets to get there.

I decided that I would bring a backpack along for this run so that I could store a towel to shower with when I got there, some non-sweaty clothes to put on and of course my keys and cell phone.

I have a smaller-sized backpack that came with one of those enormous backpacking ones for when you're in Europe and I figured it would be a good fit for what I needed. I filled it up. Strapped it on as tight as it would go. And off I went.

I started with a warm-up walk because I like to do that anyway, and because I had to cross the 490-overpass and it freaks me out, and when I made it across I started my run. I made it about 5-feet when I realized that running with a backpack was by far the stupidest thing I've done - when running. It was so annoying bouncing around even though I pulled the straps and even buckled the buckle around my waist. It didn't matter. It was terrible.

However, I made the best playlist for this "run" - I put quotes around that because it was a little half-assed since the backpack was causing so many issues - so I was able to at least sing along and bob my head to the beat. I also put really upbeat songs on it, so even when I was walking I was doing it at the pace of the music and really booking it.

Not my most successful run, but I did make it to his house, where I was able to shower and smell good before dinner. Also, even though it was pitch black out, running down a busy street where there were multiple other runners out and about - probably wondering why I was running with a backpack on - was not as scary as my last night time experience.

XOXO

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STATS

19 Minutes: 90-second run, 1-minute walk, 4-minute run, 3-minute walk REPEAT

Miles Ran: 1.8
Cumulative Miles: 12.65

Days until Race: 17