no words

I was going to finish up the post about the blog award that I received from Kirsten over at The Concrete Runner today (coming soon, I promise). But given the past 48 hours in the Midwest, I'm going to keep it short and sweet instead.

In case you didn't know already, I live near Wichita, KS. We're about 3 hours from Oklahoma City (in the flat lands, we measure things in hours, not miles). Here in Kansas we are no stranger to tornadoes and the devestation they bring. I drive through Greensburg at least once a year, a town with an amazing story of rebirth after the devestation of an EF5 tornado. 

I feel very lucky that the tornado that touched down in Wichita a mere two days ago paled in comparison to what happened yesterday afternoon in Moore, Oklahoma. Send thoughts, prayers, good ju-u, whatever you believe in to the people of Oklahoma.

And donate. Please.

Heartbreaking.

Bloodied teachers that kept children safe at school.

Prayers are great. Money is also needed.

prairie fire spring half marathon recap

on sunday i ran in my second prairie fire marathon series race. and i LOVED IT!

insert typical finish photo here

last fall, i had some serious IT band issues going on and while i finished in a decent time, i knew it wasn't my best performance. since that was my first half, i knew that this time around i was going to do much better.

and i did! i PRed!

going into the race, i had three goals:

my "a" goal was to beat 1:55. i had been training the last month or so at about a 9-9:30 minute/mile pace and was thinking that 1:55 was a good "reach for the stars" goal.

my "b" goal was to break the 2 hour threshold. i knew this was a distinct possibility since i ran a 10 miles long run about a month ago at 9 minute miles.

but, since i had doubts, i had a "c" goal of just PRing. my time last year was 2:07 and some change.

the day started off rainy and cold. we left the house in plenty of time to get there an hour before the race. i wanted to have time to walk to the start, hit the restrooms up and check my gear before i was supposed to meet my training group for a photo.

the husband dropped me off, i walked a block to the start...

and pretty much no one was there.

weird.

after i hit up the bathrooms, more people started parking and walking up and pretty soon it was 7 and time for our group photo.

firefly training groups (both east and west)

in order to meet my "b" goal, i decided to run with the 2 hour pace group. the two guys that paced us (one was the city manager and the other was a fireman for the city of wichita) were so great to run with! they made jokes, talked to us and cheered us on the entire time. i LOVED having a pace group to run with. i didn't know anyone else running the same pace as me, but running with that group made me feel like i was running with my training group or a group of friends.

miles 1-5 felt awesome. 9:30, 8:59, 9:03, 8:55, 8:55. i stuck with or slightly ahead of the pace group the entire time. the only reason i got ahead of the pace group was because they slowed way down at each aid station and i felt like running through.

i saw the husband at about mile 2. he was in the car (since it was still raining) and he somehow got parked INSIDE the course. poor guy had to wait until the last runner went through before they would let him pull out of the spot. whoops.

6-7 i kept up with pace group as we ran around a golf course and towards the botanical gardens. 8:46, 9:01. holy crap, mile 6 felt fast. i could hear the two pacers talking about slowing down, since we were going a bit fast but after they consulted some of the runners around us they decided to just keep at the faster pace. in the words of carlos, "well, it's a 2 hour pace group so you KNOW you're gonna run at LEAST a 2 hour half marathon!" see? they were awesome.

this is one of my better photos, unfortunately.

halfway point i was starting to get a bit winded, mile 6 really took it out of me and i knew we were headed towards the "hilly" portion of the race. yes, hills in kansas. we do have those here, you know. we hit the point at 59:27. the funny thing was bob, one of the pacers was a bit behind after waiting for some water at an aid station and when he caught up, he asked carlos, the other pacer if he knew what the half time was. he didn't. no one else piped up, so i said, "my phone said 59:27!" and carlos said, "what she said!"

i stayed with pace group until mile 9. mile 8 was my fastest at 8:42 and i felt myself start to slow down after the biggest hill and mile 9 was a 9:05.

i somehow managed a smile between the 11 and 12 mile markers

gave up completely mentally for mile 10 and it was my slowest of the entire race. 9:33

husband sat at the exploration place parking lot waiting for me to run by again and snapped a few photos while he waited:

see? those are kansas hills.

see that awesome building with the curved roof that hangs over the river? that's where we got married.

the only photo he grabbed of me. pink socks FTW!

mile 11 felt bad, but i heard my split and for the first time thought i might actually be able to beat 2 hours. it ended up a pretty nice 8:48.

i thought i picked it up for mile 12, but it was along the river path and it was basically a bunch of rolling hils. however, i really picked it up for the last mile. i kept worrying i wasn't going to hit the 2 hour mark so i just put it all out on the line and full out sprinted the last quarter of a mile or so. 8:53 was my last mile and BOOM!

a 1:58:24 half marathon.

whew.

then i went and inhaled all this:

worth. every. mile.

and now...marathon training. :)

another weekly wrap up

i sound like a broken record, but this week was another rough one at work.

sunday:

11 mile long run

i tried to run the prairie fire course again on my own...and got lost again! i really can only hope that i'm near a group when i hit that corner.

outdoor yoga!

there was a "food trucks in the park" event for the kansas food bank and you got a free yoga class with food donation. i LOOOOOOOVED it! and another yoga teacher is talking about making outdoor classes a regular occurrence. LOVE!

monday:

4.7 miles with training group

another group run, another 5k PR! followed it up with a hot yoga express class after.

tuesday:

hot yoga

i thought i might die that night. super hard class. but it was so needed to distract myself from work crap.

wednesday:

3.5 mile tempo run at Great Plains Nature Center

i had the day off work and accidentally slept in and missed training group and yoga this morning. whoops. ran mid morning at a park and it was HOT and HUMID. WHEW!

since it was firefly's second birthday, they had free classes all day! i hit up my normal instructor's class at the east side location and got good and sweaty. yoga love.

thursday:

rest day

friday:

umm.....accidental rest day

saturday:

3.21 mile shake out run

last training group run before the half tomorrow! man, we were flying! another 5k PR (26:48) and apparently the fastest mile i've ran since i started using Nike+ (8:00)

followed it up with a full session of hot yoga.

so ready for my race!

weekly wrap up

i swear i'm really going to try to be better about posting. i'm going to have more time off work here pretty soon, so hopefully that will help!

this is only about, oh...five days late. :/

sunday (actually saturday, but counted as my long run):

ran 11.2 miles

prairie fire half marathon preview run! i am in love with the new course! i did get lost and cut off about two miles, but almost everyone did so i don't feel that bad. i know on race day i'll have people to follow. :)

this was also in conjunction with a run for boston. we had a moment of silence before the run, had a great bike lead with an american flag and had gaterade donated for afterwards. great event!

monday:

ran 4.8 miles with firefly training group

legs felt really fresh and awesome even after a long run on sunday. my nike+ even says that i PRed my 5k ceremony.

tuesday:

hot yoga

lots of hip openers and strengtheners. excellent after a few hard runs.

wednesday:

rest day - lots of foam rolling ensued

thursday:


2.5 interval run in the AM

training group was cancelled and i tried my damnedest to do an interval run in the morning at the Y. it was rough.

2.1 interval run in the PM

got home and had my new Pro Compression socks in the mail! had to hit the road and try again. it was FABULOUS! i love how getting new gear completely changes your outlook on life!


friday:

3.22 mile run through KC

i had a couple of meetings for work in KC and ran with my brother and coworker between them. love a change of pace and scenery every once in a while. :)

saturday:

rest day - if you call driving home from KC hungover and then working on the rental house ALL DAY a rest day.

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i'll probably be back tomorrow with this week's wrap up! i have a race sunday morning and want to try to come home right away and do a race recap. 

wish me luck!

weekly wrap up

stupid crazy busy week. and the week before! guess that means you get to skip a week. ;)

sunday:

hot yoga express class (45 minutes) at firefly east.

there was a kathryn budig workshop going on, so classes at my west location were cancelled. hit up a class on the east side for the first time. completely different vibe! still excellent!

monday:

traveled to the dallas area for work and walked all over a building we designed down there. about 12 miles of walking total + the boston bombings meant i was emotionally and physically drained. no run for me.

tuesday:

traveled all day, but hit up hot yoga (75 minute class). bruised my triceps something FIERCE attempting flying pigeon. still loved every second of it.

wednesday:

firefly training group and it was SO. COLD.

it was raining and we started late, so we cut the normal loop short and ended up at about 4.28 miles.

followed it up with some hot yoga express.

thursday:

easy 3 miles on the elliptical at home.

friday:

30 minute tempo run:

5 min. @ 11 min./mi. 
10 min. @ 10 min./mi. 
5 min. @ 9 min./mi. 
5 min. @ 8 min./mi. 
5 min. @ 10 min./mi.

saturday:

prairie fire half marathon spring course preview! 11.25 miles

loved the new course! unfortunately, i got a little lost (most of us did...) and i missed an entire two mile portion of the course. WHOOPS!

can't wait for the race in two weeks!

yet another boston post

well. i don't really have much to say that hasn't been said. it was a cruel, heartless and horrific thing that happened on monday. i can't even put it into words what went though my mind when i saw those first few tweets come across my twitter feed (i was traveling for work and we saw the news via my twitter feed late in the afternoon).

via firefly yoga studio's facebook

i wore a race shirt on tuesday on my trip back home from dallas (because i apparently always have race shirts with me...even when 5 hours from home). and yet another race shirt to yoga that night. i ran a few quiet, introspective couple of runs this week. i wanted to spring into action, but didn't know how. donate blood? money?

i went about planning my long run this weekend, a preview group run of the half marathon course that i'll be running in two and a half weeks, and i saw this come across my facebook newsfeed:

technically, it wasn't this post, it was another one, but the 1 mile run/walk was announced this morning.

if you are a wichita or surrounding area resident, the preview run starts tomorrow in front of the hyatt downtown at 7 am and follows the prairie fire spring half course. the 1 mile run/walk will start at 8 am. wear your blue and yellow in honor of boston and, if you can, donate to the one fund.  

i think president obama said it best yesterday at a memorial service in boston:

“that’s why a bomb can’t beat us. that’s why we don’t hunker down. that’s why we don’t cower in fear,” he said at the peak of his speech, during an interfaith service at the cathedral of the holy cross. “we carry on. we race. we strive. we build, and we work, and we love.”

eleven questions...

i saw this over at healthy tipping point and thought it looked like fun!

1. In baseball each player gets a “walk up song” that plays on his way up to the plate. What song would you pick?

imagine dragons - radioactive. (ps - this video is a little...odd.)

2. What’s the best thing that happened to you last weekend?

last weekend was my first race with the firefly training group. and i had a BLAST! it's so nice knowing people that are your pace and run in races near you. please note that i have about 50 pounds on every person in this photo, including dale. i'm working on that.

3. If you could have a starring role in any film already made, which movie would you pick?

hmmm...if it has to be already made, i would say katniss in the hunger games. she's bad ass and can shoot a bow and arrow.

if it was a movie that was coming up, i would ABSOLUTELY say tris in divergent! have you read divergent? it is a FABULOUS series and i love it.

4. What actor/actress would you have play you in a movie of your life?

i did the same thing that caitlin did and went over to Celebrity Look-a-Like Generator.  here’s what the program came up with…

umm...what? robert duvall? i cracked up about the john cena one! but, hey, i'll take ashley judd any day over the rest of them. i adore her!

5. What is your favorite quote?

i love quotes so this constantly changing for me, but this is my favorite at the moment: "I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all." - Coco Chanel

6. What was your first concert?

the cherry poppin' daddies. oh, boy, does that age me or what?!? don't worry, my taste in music has much improved since high school.

7. What Internet website do you visit the most?

facebook, twitter, feedly.

8. Which of Snow White’s 7 dwarfs describes you the best and why?

grumpy! but only when i'm hungry. the husband says i get "hangry." (hungry + angry)

9. If you were on death row, what would your last meal be?

sushi

10. What is the background of your computer?

from our honeymoon. which i promise was not in 2006.

and i guess the 11th question is up to you! answer one of these above!