Half and Full Marathons

In 2017 I wrote a post about my growing love of the half-marathon. In my post I listed all the half and full marathons I've run. I think it's fun to keep a running total. That's something I never did with shorter distances and I have run fewer of these longer races so it was easier to go back and figure out how many I've actually done. It's fun to add to the lists and I really like seeing how my time compares on my overall list when I don't run a PR. It's fun to see that although I didn't run the time I had hoped for, it was my 4th fastest time or whatever it may have been. So I'd like to update my list every now and then. I've had this typed up and ready for a while and I think now is the perfect time to post it since I just got my acceptance email for the Boston Marathon on Wednesday! I'm so excited to prepare my training plan for Boston and to get into the training. Until then, I'm plugging away toward the Tulsa Run 15k and Route 66 Half-Marathon! 

Half Marathons:
1:30:41, Golden Driller Half Marathon, 2019
1:31:06, Aquarium Run, 2018
1:31:35, Mighty Mo Half Marathon, 2007
1:31:49, Route 66 Half Marathon, 2016

1:32:39, Route 66 Half Marathon, 2007

1:32:55, Prairie Fire Half Marathon, 2018

1:34:11, Run for the Ranch Half Marathon, 2007 

1:34:13, Aquarium Run Half Marathon, 2017

1:34:40, Aquarium Run Half Marathon, 2019

1:35:25, Little Rock Half Marathon, 2009
1:35:43, Route 66 Half Marathon, 2015 (8 months after Elise was born)
1:36:59, Jenks Half Marathon, 2013 (10 months after Carter was born)
1:38:05, Prairie Fire Half Marathon, 2013 (9 months after Carter was born)
1:41:08, Prairie Fire Half Marathon, 2015 (7 months after Elise was born)
1:51:40, Route 66 Half Marathon, 2011 (ran the race sick)
1:56:44, Prairie Fire Half Marathon, 2014 (14 weeks pregnant with Elise)
2:01:50, Hospital Hill Half Marathon, 2008 (I ran this one after being sick for over a month and learned to respect the distance!)
2:18:12, Route 66 Half Marathon, 2012 (32 weeks pregnant with Carter)

Totals:
18 half-marathons
2 run while pregnant
4 run less than a year after giving birth

Marathons:

3:25:27, Route 66 Marathon, 2018

3:38:58, Route 66 Marathon, 2017

3:40:05, Route 66 Marathon, 2008
3:43:04, Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, 2009 (The wind was out of control.)

3:58:04, Route 66 Marathon, 2009 (Ran with a sinus infection and bronchitis.)

Totals: 
5 marathons
2 BQs (Interestingly enough, not my 2 fastest times. Since Boston Qualifying times keep getting faster, I qualified with a 3:40 when I was in my 20's and then didn't qualify with a 3:38 when I was in my 30's!)

Wordless Wednesday

Elise painting at school, picture thanks to her teachers.

Ready for the 80's themed Donut Dash.

Ty won a dozen doughnuts in the costume contest.

Spiky hair for school.

Always snuggled up together.

Start of the Donut Dash.

I just love seeing age 4 on this. She's so amazing!

When you get hot and take your dress off at naptime, I guess you got to pick your brother up at school in your undies when you sleep through being carried to the car.

Elise took a picture of Carter reading to me.

 

Elise at school, picture thanks to her teachers.

Elise at school, picture thanks to her teachers.

Rainbow!

Carter in his new boy scout uniform!

Playing with the new toy kitchen at the library.

She asked me to take her picture here.

Carter made a car out of paper and foam.

Made it to school and realized one of the kids set a baby out for me, cracked me up!

Elise trying out some toys in my room before school.

Boston, here I come! Woo hoo!

Carter at boy scouts.

Corndog Classic 5k

This was Ty and my 4th year running the Corndog Challenge/Classic 5k race and the rest of my family's 5th year. The first year Jeremy won first male in the challenge and used one of his megaride passes he won for Carter at the fair. The next year I won megaride passes and used them for Carter and me (to ride with him at the fair). The race became about winning megaride passes to the fair for me. I was super unlucky the last 2 years (2017 and 2018) and got edged out in the challenge (where you eat a caramel apple and corn dog and drink lemonade or beer) but beat all the women in the regular 5k so I didn't get megaride passes for the kids. My mom thought since I kept getting 2nd in the challenge but beating all the women in the classic, I should switch to the classic this year. I agreed that it was a solid choice. I was a little nervous that this would be the year the results would be flopped, especially because they were offering $250 to the fastest person to beat the course record. For women the course record was 19:51. After my spring season with 3 sub-19:30 races I was super excited to get after speedwork and really race the Corndog Classic, maybe even taking home some cash! But my training saw some bumps and I ended up skipping 3 of my 7 planned speedworks leading up to the race due to calf tightness which I was worried would turn into an injury and then leg fatigue. I didn't feel confident I could run under 20 minutes and was hopeful 20:30 would be possible. Last year I ran 20:15 so I really wanted to be around that time, but I wasn't sure that was realistic. The speedworks I had gotten in were all comparable to my speedwork outs last year so I held onto that.

All pictures but this one were screenshots of a video posted on the event's website so none look as good as this one.

Race morning was windy and cloudy with a chance of rain in the forecast. Thomas ran a 2 mile warm up with me and then I did a couple strides before the race. I ran my strides at what felt sustainable for a 5k and they were both at 6:30. I was hopeful I'd be able to run that in the race. As we were getting ready to walk to the start I noticed my bib showed I was in the challenge and we quickly got it fixed. Part of me wondered if I should just keep it. When we lined up at the start I saw a girl (maybe high school aged) up front with a coach. I was kicking myself when I saw she was in the classic. Right off the bat, I was convinced I would get 2nd in my race again but beat everyone else in the other race. I was already feeling a little bummed before the race even started but I told myself it was possible she just looked fast. Although I knew all the girls on that team I've raced against in the past run sub-20 so I wasn't optimistic over my chances of taking the win.

The race takes off immediately downhill so it goes out fast. I wanted to stay at least semi-close to the girl who was out in front so I could have a chance at the win. About a half mile into the race it started pouring down buckets of rain. I went through the first mile in 6:08 and it didn't feel that fast. I told myself it was possible I could run a fast time. But by the mile and a half mark, I was already wanting to be done. I told myself there was no way that girl was going to maintain pace so if I could hold it together I could start chipping away at her lead. I didn't though and she kept pulling further away from me. It rained so hard and so fast it was hard to see and puddles were created immediately to where I was running through big puddles, making my shoes heavy! I really wanted to give up when it was obvious the girl in front of me wasn't slowing down, but I kept telling myself to shoot for my time from last year. I felt like I was pushing the pace but went through the 2nd mile in 6:41. I really didn't even care how slow that mile was. The first mile has a decent amount of downhill and then the 2nd and 3rd miles are all uphill with lots of twists and turns. I knew I went out too fast in an attempt to maintain contact with the girl out in front. Since my goal was to win megaride passes, I wasn't going to get down on myself for going out too fast.

The race was spread out really early on and other than running beside Jeremy for a short section of the first mile I ran the race mostly alone. My 3rd mile was even slower at 6:46 which actually surprised me because I felt like I was picking up pace, not slowing down. I outkicked a guy in the last half-mile and was so darn happy to see the finish line coming up. I was really hurting. Goodness, going out too fast is so not worth it and makes the second half of the race no fun! I finished in 20:17 which was 2 seconds slower than last year. I was okay with that because although I didn't eat food during the race this year, the conditions were considerably worse with strong winds and driving rain. Plus last year I was actually close enough to the first female to feel like I had a chance, this year it was obvious early on that it wouldn't be happening. The first female ended up running 19:35 which I'm not sure I could have done even in the shape I was this spring when I ran a 19:18 because there are so many darn turns in the race! I was totally okay with not winning because I knew even in top shape, I likely couldn't have pulled out the win. I was disappointed when I walked to cheer for everyone after finishing and saw the first female in the challenge was 3 minutes behind me. I could have walked through all the food stops and still won the race! I just can't ever sign up for the right race to win, darn it! The past few years I always thought I got progressively slower throughout the course because eating and drinking weighed me down. Now that I've run the regular 5k, I think it's actually the course. There are so many turns and there are more hills as the race goes on.

Friday evening before this Saturday morning race everyone else did a 5k while I sat out with the kids. Mom and Ty decided they'd do the 5k with the kids at the Corndog Challenge. My mom signed them up for the challenge so they could eat the food during the race. It would be both of their first full 5ks (not counting the trail 5k where they both ended up getting carried a little bit at the Dark and Dirty Miles). Jeremy was first out of 184 in the Challenge with a time of 19:53 and Thomas was 3rd overall in 21:41 and 1st in his age group. Dad finished in 25:03, winning his division. I was 11th out of 162 overall, 2nd out of 92 females, and 1st out of 14 in my age group in my race. Mom ran with the kids but still placed 2nd in her age group. This year for the age group awards they gave out 2 tickets to the fair. So we ended up with 18 tickets between our race packets and the awards!

I watched dad and Thomas finish and then I ran my cool down out to the kids. I was surprised when I got to them that Elise was ahead of Carter. Ty was running with her and my mom was with Carter. My mom started with Elise assuming she'd run slower and had to trade with Ty because she was worn out from running the night before and Elise was running so fast! She said she ran the first mile and a half all around 10 minute pace before she ever walked. She expected to be doing more walking. The highlight of the race for me was running back with Elise. She was having a blast and ran out of her way to stomp through every puddle out on the course. It really brought the joy back to the morning for me! To top it all off, she was wearing her black lacy skirt so it was even more adorable! Carter came up behind us at one point while we were walking so Elise took off running again to stay ahead of him, it was so cute. I watched Elise and Ty finish and then headed back out on the course for Carter and mom. Everyone was really cheering for Elise because she was so small and was passing so many people at the finish. She got a little overwhelmed and the moment she finished she turned around and raised her arms for Ty to pick her up. It was absolutely adorable! She finished in 44:16. She was 112th out of 184th overall and 4th in the 8th and under age group. I really wished it was 5 and under because I didn't see anyone else even close to her age in the race. Carter finished in 45:05. He was 119th overall and 10th in his age group.

Wordless Wednesday

I don't have many pictures this week. Now that we are all back in school and busy I feel like Wordless Wednesday is just becoming pictures of the kids sleeping with the dog, haha!

Elise helping me check books in while volunteering at Carter's school library.

Pictures Elise drew on my phone.

Funny Stuff the Kids Say

Carter: There's one named David and one named Liz. The one named Liz actually looks like you, mommy. While playing "Guess Who".

Both the kids call cream cheese "cheese butter".

Carter: Guess what my favorite Mother Goose song is.

Me: Tom Thumb?

Carter: The Muffin Man!

"Elise, did you know the Muffin Man gives away muffins for free? And he lives on Journey Lane." -Carter

Elise: I don't like any of my veggies. They are gross.
Carter: Oooh, I love them! Can I have yours?
Elise: No. Then starts eating them herself and loving them.

My mom gave Carter her Game Boy. He calls it his Kid or his Game Kid.

Carter: Can I have a dummy?
Me: What?
Carter: Can I have a dumb dumb?
Me: A sucker?
Carter: No those cake things.
I realized he meant Ding Dongs. We had some seasonal 4th of July ones.

While playing Guess Who...
Elise: Does your person have blue hair?
Me: Which person do you think has blue hair?
Elise points person out.
Me: Carter what color hair do you think this person has?
Carter: Green

Andy has very color ambiguous hair, lol!

"I'm wearing my crock pot shoes!" Elise when she had her crocks on.

"Sometimes I get frumpy." Elise meaning grumpy.

"If you give Tesla human food, she's going to get feisty!" -Elise

At church our pastor was talking about self talk and said, "Like right now you may be thinking, 'When is this sermon going to be over,' or 'What am I having for lunch?' or 'I hope I don't fall asleep.'" Elise turned to me and said, "How does he know what I'm saying in my head?!

We were explaining what a brother-in-law is to Carter.
Me: Someday when Elise gets married you will have a brother or sister-in-law.
Elise: No, I'm never getting married! I want to live with mommy and daddy forever!

"I really wanted to sleep in but I was wondering if dad saw a mouse again." -Elise

"I love you more than a hotel, mac and cheese, and fruit snacks!" -Elise

Me: You guys haven't played danger hike in a while.
Carter: Yeah, we had to quit because everyone died.
Me: Wow, that really is a dangerous hike!
Danger hike was a game they played with their Legos.

Carter: I'm starving!
Elise: No, you're not because that means you are dying!

Elise: I'm so proud of myself!
Carter: Why?
Elise: Because I might have a wiggly tooth!

At gymnastics the teacher said, "Smell your feet and tell me what they smell like (while they were stretching)." Elise said, "Mine smell like trash cans!"

"I gotta look like Gpa." -Elise with tape on her nose like a Breathe Right Strip.

"Mommy, you're a magnet and I'm a nail!" -Carter while he snuggled up to me.

We were driving Carter to school and there had been a fatality crash up ahead. There was a ton of traffic and we were trying to exit the highway and go a different way to get Carter to school. During the duration of our drive Elise asked me a million questions. It was a bit stressful for me. Here's a sampling of all the questions she asked...

"Why does that lady want to be a cat?"

Elise: Mommy, what is that little thing?
Me: I don't know, what little thing?
Elise: THAT LITTLE THING!!!!!!
Me: I have no way of knowing if you don't tell me more.
Elise: That little thing with a hat that used not to be outside and is now.

"Can Kyra and Charlee come over after school so we can all play with each agether?"

"Here Mommy, take my plate!"

"I'm still hungry. Can I have a waffle?"

"Why did that lady ding at you and think you didn't have your seatbelt on?"

"Why is there so much traffic?"

"Where is everyone trying to go?"

"Why did those bullies freeze everyone?"

"Is this the long way? Why are we going the long way?"

"Where are all those school buses going? Why are there school buses?"

While we were attempting to exit the highway a truck drove across the grass separating the exit from the access road, Elise said, "Why did he do that? Why is it illegal? Why didn't the police stop him? Should he go to jail?"

By the time we got Carter dropped off at school I told Elise I needed some quiet time because I was so frazzled from the stress of trying to get Carter to school on time and all her questions! Luckily Ty called me to tell me traffic was backed up so we left early but Carter had slept in so it was a bit of a crazy rush!