about 2 weeks ago i went to instep in downtown delafield for a PT appointment with bob. he manually manipulated my hip and lower left leg muscles to the point of pain as well as administered electrical stimulation to my calf and the surrounding tissues. i'm not gonna lie... it was extremely painful and i thought i might die. seriously... die.
when it was all said and done he sent me on my way with a leg that was still twitching and flexing, hope in my heart, some directions to do calf raises, and a wallet that was lighter.
after a few ups and downs in pain during the first week my leg has consistently been getting better. there is less and less pain with each run and as it stands today (i see him again tomorrow) there is a section on the inside of my lower leg just above my ankle bone and ending just below where the calf muscle starts where there is still pain. i'd say it's about a 4 inch section of my leg. there is no longer any limping, it only hurts when i run, and it usually dissipates as the run continues on. it doesn't ever completely go away but it's so minimal that i am no longer even considering any sort of pain relief.
i'd count that as a huge win!
today is the last day of june and after logging my last run of the month i've clocked 140.91 miles for this month! that is absolutely amazing! last month i ran 99.88 which was HUGE after what my year had been shaping up to look like.
january - 111.44
february - 68.51
march - 8.57
april - 30.95
may - 99.88
june 140.91
i'm so excited! i've been running with so much pain all year and the prospect of running pain free is truly attainable. cross your fingers! i may be back to race pace soon enough.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Walk, Run, Wag for MADACC - 5K
Walk, Run, Wag for MADACC 5K - June 21, 2014
time = 23:48:94
pace = 7:40
placed 1 in my age group (40-49) out of 14
placed 4 in women out of 85
placed 15 overall out of 128
there is conflicting information regarding this finishing information. the preliminary results put me at 3rd in my age group and i was totally happy with that! after all that i've been going through with my leg i was just so pleased to be running pain free and FAST!
let's go back to the beginning for a moment tho'... the weather pretty much was sucking. it was 60 degrees which was awesome but you wouldn't know it considering it was overcast, windy, and threatening to rain at any moment. it was so humid that the chill in the air made it seem at least 10 degrees colder. i sat in my car talking to my sister until the absolute last second. actually, that's a total lie... i sat in my car until about 9am and then went to the bathroom, got back in my car for a bit, got back out and asked where the start was, and then got back in my car until about 5 min until the start. once at the start i was feeling pretty good but no one was starting at the front. it was so weird! everyone was about 3 or 5 feet away from the start. i really didn't want to start in the front because i tend to take off too fast and then putter out at the end. always with the positive split which is a no no in my book. so we all line up and when the announcer says to get closer to the start line people moved up but not really so there i was... right in the front. *sigh*
we took off and after about 3 tenths of a mile i notice i'm going sub-7... i dial it back and let a bunch of people pass me because i know that i cannot maintain that speed for the duration especially with how my leg has been. we ran out on the parkway and it was pretty beautiful. after that we did a weird little turn around and headed back the way we came. we turned off into a neighborhood and looped around back onto the parkway. it started drizzling in the last mile but it was ok because i was hot at that point. in the last mile i was running right next to a guy who spit in front of us both. i admonished him because he got me with it and we chatted for a moment about kids because as i was admonishing him i also said it was ok because i have kids. he told me about his 4 week old and i said to get used to the spit and vomit. he told me about getting peed on and we then talked about how hard it was to run that fast. he complimented me on my speed which was nice because i felt like i was dying but not as bad as really dying because i was still able to hold a conversation with him. i pulled away from him and decided to stay ahead of him the rest of the way.
on the parkway it was really cool because we were heading back as the people with dogs were heading out so we got to run past all the dogs and runners. i was just so glad to be holding a sub-8 pace and it felt hard and effortless at the same time if that makes sense. hard in the sense that my body was working and effortless in the sense that it was pain free and my body was absolutely capable of holding that pace for the duration. i kicked it into high gear when i saw the finish line. i did (as is evident by my splits from my garmin) run the last 2 miles slower than the first but i think that might have been because i was speedy gonzales and running sub-7 at first.
afterwards i was chatting up some little boys (read: probably in their 20's) and one of them said that they were pacing me at the start because he looked at me and said "she's a runner so i'm going to stick with her". that felt good. i know that i'm a "runner" but i don't really always feel like a REAL runner. i don't know what i mean by real runner but different than what i am i guess. it was nice. the funny thing is that all those boys passed me right away because that was right about the time i realized i was going too fast and dialed it back. i often wonder what the outside perception of me is when i'm running races. i always feel like i need to be faster or like i'm not doing good enough. i always strive to be better than i was the last time and it is really hard sometimes. maybe i'm too hard on myself, but i'm very competitive and my desire to win is strong and goes deep.
as i said before, the results were very confusing in that the preliminaries put me at 3rd and then there was a bunch of running around by the officials and they got a new print out and came back and handed me a pretty little medal with 1st place on it. i'm not exactly complaining, but i didn't want to have a medal i didn't earn so i e-mailed the officials when i got home and asked to make sure. i was assured that it is mine.
if you look at the print outs tho' it is easy to see why it is confusing. it seems what they did was count the top 3 overall separate from the age groups so while i came in 3rd in my age group if you counted the top 3 overall together with everyone else i would be in 3rd... by counting them separate i was 1st instead. is that how it's normally done? i don't even know. i've never seen it done like that i guess. i always thought that the top 3 finishers got their medals and that they counted in their age groups as well. maybe i'm wrong. i have no idea really.
i guess i'm just glad that i finished in the time i finished and did so well. makes me feel good that my leg is doing better and i believe we're on the right track with treatment. this race was really fun and for such a great cause. i really like what MADACC does and i'm so glad i got to support them with this run. i had fun and i wish my husband would have been able to be here with our dogs for all the afterward fun. maybe next year. instead i came home and ran an additional 8 miles to make the 11 i had on my schedule for today. while my leg didn't hurt during the 5K it did begin to feel not so good during the 8. i'm happy with my performance on this run too tho' because i managed to maintain a pretty steady pace for most of it and it felt pretty good the whole time even tho' my leg was hurting some. all in all today was a total success!
time = 23:48:94
pace = 7:40
placed 1 in my age group (40-49) out of 14
placed 4 in women out of 85
placed 15 overall out of 128
there is conflicting information regarding this finishing information. the preliminary results put me at 3rd in my age group and i was totally happy with that! after all that i've been going through with my leg i was just so pleased to be running pain free and FAST!
 |
| the story my garmin is telling - look at those splits! |
let's go back to the beginning for a moment tho'... the weather pretty much was sucking. it was 60 degrees which was awesome but you wouldn't know it considering it was overcast, windy, and threatening to rain at any moment. it was so humid that the chill in the air made it seem at least 10 degrees colder. i sat in my car talking to my sister until the absolute last second. actually, that's a total lie... i sat in my car until about 9am and then went to the bathroom, got back in my car for a bit, got back out and asked where the start was, and then got back in my car until about 5 min until the start. once at the start i was feeling pretty good but no one was starting at the front. it was so weird! everyone was about 3 or 5 feet away from the start. i really didn't want to start in the front because i tend to take off too fast and then putter out at the end. always with the positive split which is a no no in my book. so we all line up and when the announcer says to get closer to the start line people moved up but not really so there i was... right in the front. *sigh*
we took off and after about 3 tenths of a mile i notice i'm going sub-7... i dial it back and let a bunch of people pass me because i know that i cannot maintain that speed for the duration especially with how my leg has been. we ran out on the parkway and it was pretty beautiful. after that we did a weird little turn around and headed back the way we came. we turned off into a neighborhood and looped around back onto the parkway. it started drizzling in the last mile but it was ok because i was hot at that point. in the last mile i was running right next to a guy who spit in front of us both. i admonished him because he got me with it and we chatted for a moment about kids because as i was admonishing him i also said it was ok because i have kids. he told me about his 4 week old and i said to get used to the spit and vomit. he told me about getting peed on and we then talked about how hard it was to run that fast. he complimented me on my speed which was nice because i felt like i was dying but not as bad as really dying because i was still able to hold a conversation with him. i pulled away from him and decided to stay ahead of him the rest of the way.
on the parkway it was really cool because we were heading back as the people with dogs were heading out so we got to run past all the dogs and runners. i was just so glad to be holding a sub-8 pace and it felt hard and effortless at the same time if that makes sense. hard in the sense that my body was working and effortless in the sense that it was pain free and my body was absolutely capable of holding that pace for the duration. i kicked it into high gear when i saw the finish line. i did (as is evident by my splits from my garmin) run the last 2 miles slower than the first but i think that might have been because i was speedy gonzales and running sub-7 at first.
 |
| my garmin tells a different story than the "official" results |
as i said before, the results were very confusing in that the preliminaries put me at 3rd and then there was a bunch of running around by the officials and they got a new print out and came back and handed me a pretty little medal with 1st place on it. i'm not exactly complaining, but i didn't want to have a medal i didn't earn so i e-mailed the officials when i got home and asked to make sure. i was assured that it is mine.
 |
| in this printout i'm listed as 1st in my age group but this is the one that excludes top 3 overall |
 |
| in this printout i'm listed as 3rd in my age group but this one is inclusive of the top 3 overall. see? confusing! |
i guess i'm just glad that i finished in the time i finished and did so well. makes me feel good that my leg is doing better and i believe we're on the right track with treatment. this race was really fun and for such a great cause. i really like what MADACC does and i'm so glad i got to support them with this run. i had fun and i wish my husband would have been able to be here with our dogs for all the afterward fun. maybe next year. instead i came home and ran an additional 8 miles to make the 11 i had on my schedule for today. while my leg didn't hurt during the 5K it did begin to feel not so good during the 8. i'm happy with my performance on this run too tho' because i managed to maintain a pretty steady pace for most of it and it felt pretty good the whole time even tho' my leg was hurting some. all in all today was a total success!
 |
that dude (1304) won in his age group - 60-99. he is 72 years old.
he finished this race in 23:52 which was only 3 seconds slower than me! he was fast!
|
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
sports medicine physical therapy > ortho physical therapy
today i had the opportunity to visit bob at instep for a physical therapy session. my insurance doesn't cover any sports medicine physical therapy so seeing bob is coming straight outta of compton... er... i mean my pocket.
initially, i was seeing a sweet little girl named megan over at froedtert, but she wasn't helping. quite frankly... i don't think she knew what the hell she was talking about. she tested my range of motion the entire first visit, and i left there with handfuls of handouts with exercises to strengthen my "weak ankles and glute muscles". i suppose it is needless to say (although i will say it anyway) that i left there less than thrilled, and not feeling very confident in megan's ability to help me. after all, if i wanted a personal trainer i would have gone to the gym. *sigh* so i did the exercises she prescribed and then i went back in two weeks expecting her to follow through with the treatment that my doctor prescribed when sending me to her in the first place. which was deep tissue massage and electro-therapy. neither of which she addressed in the first visit. during the second visit she asked about my running and how i was feeling and then put me on a bosu ball. she wanted me to do several sets of single leg squats. i obliged and basically got an insurance paid for work out. i inquired about the actual therapy that my doctor prescribed and megan informed me that she didn't think that was the route to take as based on my symptoms she believed i just had weak ankles and glutes so no need for that pesky therapy.
um, what?!?
it was at this point that i decided that she knew nothing jon snow! jesus! so i cancelled all the remaining appointments and the receptionist actually asked me if megan had released me from care. as if i have to have her permission to be in charge of my own care! wtf?!? i said no and that i was going to find a sports medicine therapist.
fast forward to today.
i go in to see bob and tell him what has been going on. he does a few simple tests and then i tell him what megan said and he laughed. he laughed out loud. i told him what my doctor said and he agreed completely with him. i liked him right from the start. bob put his hands on me right away. felt how my muscles were moving (or not moving as it were) and seemed to know what he was talking about. he manipulated the muscles in my left glute and hip manually and with tools. it was pretty painful at times, but i am hopeful that i will see results. he seemed to think things will be fine in a few months or sooner. he explained to me that what is going on in my calf has to do with constricted blood flow and that's why the muscle is knotted up and hard in a bunch of spots. he gave me some exercises to help remedy that as well as did the torturous electro-therapy for 15 minutes. he manipulated my calf for a long time before the torture which hurt like hell but now (several hours later) it feels pretty damn good. apparently the hip/glute/calf are all related which i figured but it was nice to have it confirmed. he isn't worried about the numbness and doesn't think i have sciatica which is also super relieving. i just have some fucked up muscles that got all tightened up for some reason over the winter and need to be softened up and stretched out and back to normal.
mostly it's just nice to know that i know my body as well as i do and that someone else listened to me. that damn girl didn't listen to me at all and it was so frustrating. i assume that it is because she's young and maybe with time and experience she will learn to listen. either way... i'm glad i'm not in her care anymore because man that was frustrating!
life is good people! be inspired!
initially, i was seeing a sweet little girl named megan over at froedtert, but she wasn't helping. quite frankly... i don't think she knew what the hell she was talking about. she tested my range of motion the entire first visit, and i left there with handfuls of handouts with exercises to strengthen my "weak ankles and glute muscles". i suppose it is needless to say (although i will say it anyway) that i left there less than thrilled, and not feeling very confident in megan's ability to help me. after all, if i wanted a personal trainer i would have gone to the gym. *sigh* so i did the exercises she prescribed and then i went back in two weeks expecting her to follow through with the treatment that my doctor prescribed when sending me to her in the first place. which was deep tissue massage and electro-therapy. neither of which she addressed in the first visit. during the second visit she asked about my running and how i was feeling and then put me on a bosu ball. she wanted me to do several sets of single leg squats. i obliged and basically got an insurance paid for work out. i inquired about the actual therapy that my doctor prescribed and megan informed me that she didn't think that was the route to take as based on my symptoms she believed i just had weak ankles and glutes so no need for that pesky therapy.
um, what?!?
it was at this point that i decided that she knew nothing jon snow! jesus! so i cancelled all the remaining appointments and the receptionist actually asked me if megan had released me from care. as if i have to have her permission to be in charge of my own care! wtf?!? i said no and that i was going to find a sports medicine therapist.
fast forward to today.
i go in to see bob and tell him what has been going on. he does a few simple tests and then i tell him what megan said and he laughed. he laughed out loud. i told him what my doctor said and he agreed completely with him. i liked him right from the start. bob put his hands on me right away. felt how my muscles were moving (or not moving as it were) and seemed to know what he was talking about. he manipulated the muscles in my left glute and hip manually and with tools. it was pretty painful at times, but i am hopeful that i will see results. he seemed to think things will be fine in a few months or sooner. he explained to me that what is going on in my calf has to do with constricted blood flow and that's why the muscle is knotted up and hard in a bunch of spots. he gave me some exercises to help remedy that as well as did the torturous electro-therapy for 15 minutes. he manipulated my calf for a long time before the torture which hurt like hell but now (several hours later) it feels pretty damn good. apparently the hip/glute/calf are all related which i figured but it was nice to have it confirmed. he isn't worried about the numbness and doesn't think i have sciatica which is also super relieving. i just have some fucked up muscles that got all tightened up for some reason over the winter and need to be softened up and stretched out and back to normal.
mostly it's just nice to know that i know my body as well as i do and that someone else listened to me. that damn girl didn't listen to me at all and it was so frustrating. i assume that it is because she's young and maybe with time and experience she will learn to listen. either way... i'm glad i'm not in her care anymore because man that was frustrating!
life is good people! be inspired!
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Summerfest Rock 'n Sole 1/2 Marathon
Summerfest Rock 'n Sole 1/2 Marathon - June 14, 2014
time = 2:24:53
pace = 11:03
placed 170 in my age group (40-44) out of 230
placed 1572 in women out of 2102
placed 2904 overall out of 3581
this time around was very different than my first time running this race. last year this was my very first 1/2 marathon and i was terrified! this year, i decided to use this as a training run and pace my very good friend kellie. as we all know i've been battling some stupid issue with my left leg, and haven't really been able to get in all the long runs i've been needing to for training. so to run this at full speed and try to race it maybe wouldn't have been in my best interest physically after having just done the ragnar relay.
my friend krista is home from colorado for the summer visiting her parents and she decided to run the 10K so we drove together. i slept pretty poorly and was up at 4am. even so i felt pretty good. the weather was perfect. low 50's and almost full sun. couldn't ask for better weather actually. quite chilly to start but once the body gets moving it is all good in the proverbial hood. this year the race was beginning in a new location because there is construction being done on the hoan bridge.
last year the race began in front of the art museum, went south over the hoan bridge, turned around at the end and came back north over the bridge again. it is truly the best part of the race and the whole reason i ran it in the first place. this bridge is iconic to milwaukee, and in fact, my father and grandfather had a hand in building this great structure so i feel some emotional attachment to it. it feels like home to me. getting the privilege of running over it was meaningful in a way i cannot accurately describe, and emotional in a way that almost feels silly upon first thought. i feel bonded to my city. it is a part of me and the joy of running over it as the city expands and contracts before my eyes is a journey i plan to take every year as long as the bridge is involved. it truly is the best part of the run. this course over all is really spectacular. the race directors did a fantastic job changing the course this year. it was really seamless and smooth. i love everything about this race. kellie and i started out really strong and stayed that way for the majority of the race. i think she started to lose some steam near mile 7 and in hindsight i think it may have been fueling. i'm going to have to ask her about that. i feel like she was really really strong up until then and then it started to fall apart. we did some walking so she could catch her breath but ultimately i think fatigue was just taking over.
at mile 8.8 we were cresting lincoln memorial drive and hitting that beautiful downhill which couldn't have come at a better time! it was a spirit lifter when a spirit lifter was necessary. the most amazing part of being a pacer is helping someone through the most difficult and challenging parts of their run. there were a few for kel. i know that when i'm running a race and i get to the point of tears it would have been really great to have someone i love and trust tell me to keep going. hell, just having someone there by my side might have been enough a few times to get me through the thick of it on occasion. i'm not sure i did that for her but i like to think that i did. i try to be encouraging and maybe i'm too chatty most of the time. i also try to be quiet when i think she needs me to be quiet. it's hard to know what exactly someone needs when their in the thick of their pain. hard to know what they need to triumph over their challenges and defeat the voice in their head that is telling them that they can't possibly take another step. so we walked a bit here and there to give that voice a rest and quell it into submission.
there was a point at about 11.8 (right outside the art museum) where i decided i was going to sing "eye of the tiger" for her so i was searching siri and once i found it kellie turned up her headphones. apparently i think i'm funnier than she does. i started making the hand gestures to the beat of the music and in that moment kel said something along the lines of i was ruining her life and that she hated me for it... well... not really anything at all like that but whatever she said i knew that the kidding must end because she was deep in her pain and i wasn't helping. so i stopped screwing around and let her feel all the feels... there may have been some tears. sometimes these things happen when the physical pain of exertion becomes too much. happens to the best of us. so we took a walk break to get the emotions and heart rate in check. once those were in order we took off strong again to bring it home.
the volunteers for this race are second to none. really great! always cheering and smiling. i always thank the volunteers. if it weren't for them these races couldn't happen. so make sure you thank your volunteers at the next race you run. krista was a trooper and was waiting for us at the finish since she had run the 10K and (obviously) that wasn't going to take as long as the 1/2. we went to check out the after party and use a REAL bathroom. all in all i have to say this was such a fun time. i think kellie had fun but maybe the jury is still out on that... i enjoy running with her and i'm really glad i got to experience this race with her. running it with her was a totally different experience than when i ran it last year at my fastest race pace. i'm not sure which i enjoyed more... i think i liked them both equally but for very different reasons. i will always recommend this race to everyone as it is well put together, organized, fun, and has such great support all around. you really get to see a beautiful portion of milwaukee when you run it. until next year...
time = 2:24:53
pace = 11:03
placed 170 in my age group (40-44) out of 230
placed 1572 in women out of 2102
placed 2904 overall out of 3581
 |
| ready to run! |
this time around was very different than my first time running this race. last year this was my very first 1/2 marathon and i was terrified! this year, i decided to use this as a training run and pace my very good friend kellie. as we all know i've been battling some stupid issue with my left leg, and haven't really been able to get in all the long runs i've been needing to for training. so to run this at full speed and try to race it maybe wouldn't have been in my best interest physically after having just done the ragnar relay.
my friend krista is home from colorado for the summer visiting her parents and she decided to run the 10K so we drove together. i slept pretty poorly and was up at 4am. even so i felt pretty good. the weather was perfect. low 50's and almost full sun. couldn't ask for better weather actually. quite chilly to start but once the body gets moving it is all good in the proverbial hood. this year the race was beginning in a new location because there is construction being done on the hoan bridge.
 |
| hoan bridge - milwaukee, wi |
last year the race began in front of the art museum, went south over the hoan bridge, turned around at the end and came back north over the bridge again. it is truly the best part of the race and the whole reason i ran it in the first place. this bridge is iconic to milwaukee, and in fact, my father and grandfather had a hand in building this great structure so i feel some emotional attachment to it. it feels like home to me. getting the privilege of running over it was meaningful in a way i cannot accurately describe, and emotional in a way that almost feels silly upon first thought. i feel bonded to my city. it is a part of me and the joy of running over it as the city expands and contracts before my eyes is a journey i plan to take every year as long as the bridge is involved. it truly is the best part of the run. this course over all is really spectacular. the race directors did a fantastic job changing the course this year. it was really seamless and smooth. i love everything about this race. kellie and i started out really strong and stayed that way for the majority of the race. i think she started to lose some steam near mile 7 and in hindsight i think it may have been fueling. i'm going to have to ask her about that. i feel like she was really really strong up until then and then it started to fall apart. we did some walking so she could catch her breath but ultimately i think fatigue was just taking over.
 |
| splits |
 |
| splits |
the volunteers for this race are second to none. really great! always cheering and smiling. i always thank the volunteers. if it weren't for them these races couldn't happen. so make sure you thank your volunteers at the next race you run. krista was a trooper and was waiting for us at the finish since she had run the 10K and (obviously) that wasn't going to take as long as the 1/2. we went to check out the after party and use a REAL bathroom. all in all i have to say this was such a fun time. i think kellie had fun but maybe the jury is still out on that... i enjoy running with her and i'm really glad i got to experience this race with her. running it with her was a totally different experience than when i ran it last year at my fastest race pace. i'm not sure which i enjoyed more... i think i liked them both equally but for very different reasons. i will always recommend this race to everyone as it is well put together, organized, fun, and has such great support all around. you really get to see a beautiful portion of milwaukee when you run it. until next year...
 |
| right before this picture was taken i asked krista if the photographer was taking pictures of people waiting in line for the port-o-potties. he was. |
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| me & krista - pre-race chill & banana |
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| me & kellie @ mile 6ish still all smiles |
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| F my face! |
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| krista, me, kellie - happy finishers! |
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| krista, me, kellie - happy finishers! |
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| krista |
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| kellie |
Sunday, June 8, 2014
Ragnar Relay 2014 - Madison to Chicago
Ragnar Relay 2014 - Madison to Chicago - June 6-7, 2014
time = 28:52:39
58 out of 308 in our division (mixed open)
placed 117 overall out of 502 teams
what to say about this? wow... this was an amazing experience! 196.1 miles (give or take), 2 days, 2 vans, and 12 runners. IT.WAS.AMAZING! it was also so so fun!
i was in van 2 so we didn't get rolling until late afternoon which gave me ample time to go to yoga, do some light grocery shopping, and mow the lawn before anyone even got to my house. i have to say that i am not a fan of the late start. in hindsight, if we had a morning start i would have been much more inclined to stay at the end because we would have finished much earlier. live and learn i suppose and we'll get to that part of the recap later.
we arrived in lake mills, wisconsin about an hour and a half before our legs were to begin. exchange 6 was set up at a lutheran church. they had your average spread of goodies... pb&j, chicken sandwiches, chips, sponsored items, and the like. once we were done perusing those items... we wandered over to the safety briefing, received our goodie bag, and then waited for runner 6 from van 1 to arrive for the first exchange to our first runner.
we saw a lot of costumed runners. i can't believe people run in some of this stuff! i would die! more power to them tho'...
van 1 consisted of: jon, michelle, wendy, sara, colleen, and michael. van 2 consisted of: gretchen, eric (aka feedar), shannon, me, matt, and megan. we barely saw van 1 so really i think if you put together a team you could combine 2 smaller teams of 6 people because you really only see the other 1/2 of your team at the big exchanges and at the very end. what i mean by that is... what if you can't find 12 people you know who want to run this race? then you can combine with someone else's team of 6 and now you've got your 12! 6 of your friends and 6 of someone else's friends... that sort of thing. when you do this you really want to be with people you jive with because you're going to be stuck in a vehicle with them for a good 24 hours non-stop doing disgusting things around them and smelling gross and being gross on no sleep and with little food... some people don't handle those conditions well and i for one don't want to be with you if you're one of those people.
once our first runner, gretchen, took off... it was really go go go from then on. we tracked her down and waited on the side of the road cheering on all the runners who passed us while we waited for her. her first leg was pretty long (7.3 miles) so we had the luxury of lallygagging around to see her before we trucked on over to the next exchange. after that it seemed like we were moving pretty fast. the legs varied in length but once you take into consideration everyone's variation in pace, as well as parking, and the possibility of wrong turns... well, we didn't waste much time between exchanges.
we pretty much just hauled ass from one to the next. in fact, when my first leg came up i was a few seconds late to the exchange so (shannon) the runner before me was waiting for me instead of me just being there waiting for her.
leg 10 (my first leg) - 5.6 miles in sullivan on the glacial drumlin trail. it was rated as "hard" in the ragnar bible but really... we couldn't figure out how they were rating the legs. after awhile we figured maybe it was by distance and nothing else. this leg was pretty flat and easy. all on the trail which is crushed limestone. the worst part about this leg were the bugs. i started this leg at 8:10pm and the sun was just beginning to go down. the bugs were out in full force and at one moment i even ran through a huge black cloud at about my knees. i panicked and was looking all over my lower legs to make sure that none were stuck to me since i was so sticky with sweat. i digress... as i took off for this leg i was alone. no one in front of me and no one behind me. i was alone for probably half a mile and then i got passed by a guy who had to be running around a 6 min mile... at this point i was running at way too fast a clip and finished out my first mile in 8:15 after slowing myself down from a 7:55. i got passed again by another guy quite close to the first guy and then i was alone again for probably the next 4 miles. nearing the end of my run i started passing people and while i can't remember exactly... i think i got 3 or 4 kills on this leg. i failed to write it down for this one but not to worry... i tracked it for the next two legs. "kills" represent how many people you pass before you finish. there was even one guy about 1/2 a mile from the finish and he was walking. i don't understand why you'd be walking it in on your first leg of a run when you're so close to the finish? i will never understand that i don't think.
i'm really pleased with my performance as i genuinely thought my run would be a lot slower. i did take 2 aleve earlier in the day and i'm sure that had a lot to do with it. my leg really wasn't a problem at all. i'm wondering if it's getting better slowly but surely or if it was all the doing of the aleve... i guess only time will tell. after my leg there were 2 more runners and we handed off the baton to van 1. we decided to just head to the exchange where we would wait for van 1 and try to get some sleep. we only had about 3 hours and turns out that's not as much time as it sounds like. especially in the middle of the night.
we napped/ate/showered/bathroomed at martin luther high school in greendale, wisconsin at exchange 18 where we would wait for van 1 to finish their second legs. i didn't get any sleep at all. the gym of the school was open for sleeping with dim lights and everything but people were talking and walking around and really i'm not sure why i couldn't nap but i just couldn't. around 1:30am my stomach took a turn for the worst and i spent the rest of the race hitting every port-o-pottie at every exchange sometimes more than once. it was brutal!
leg 22 (my second leg) - 4.0 miles in racine on country roads. this actually was a smidge longer than 4 miles. my mapmyrun.com app tracked it at 4.16 so there's that. why was i using mapmyrun.com instead of my garmin you ask? funny you should ask... well, turns out that after my first run when i so meticulously put my garmin in bag 2 for this leg it wasn't turned off and at 9:10pm got turned back on and tracked about 35 driving miles before the battery died. good to know that i could run 35 miles before it poops out tho' so that's the silver lining in that. i didn't bring my charger because my garmin lasts for 5 hours of continuous running time before i need to charge it and i wasn't running that long so... why bring the charger?!? welp... looks like i learned my lesson there. i started this leg at 4:36am on zero sleep and a stomach that was so very unhappy. all the poops! all of them. it was about 56 degrees but when it's dark out that feels a bit colder. i was shivering so much but i knew that as soon as i started moving i'd be fine. i had some homemade arm warmers on (cut off knee-high socks) so i was feeling pretty good. one might say snazzy even. as soon as i took off from the exchange my headlamp slid off my forehead and onto my nose. lesson #2: make sure you tighten your headlamp each time you put it on and don't assume it will stay tight after each use. sheesh... got that taken care of and got in my groove just as the woman in front of me lost her rear blink light all over the road in front of me. well, to be honest... FIRST she passed me and THEN she dropped her light which exploded in an array of batteries and plastic that she had to stop and pick up all the pieces of. she caught back up to me in no time and then i tailed her for the next mile or so watching her pull her tight running shorts down over and over again (which she was wearing underneath regular running shorts). i thought for sure this would slow her down enough for me to pass her but no such luck. my speed got slower in the second mile because there was a bit of a hill and i just lost her. it wasn't even much of a hill but with no sleep, poor nutrition, and diarrhea... it must make a difference. this was my best performance of the 3. i had 6 kills on this one which was fun. i liked counting them and focusing on the next person in front of me and trying to catch them.
the next two runners to go after me were matt and megan. after they finished and we again handed off to van 1 for their 3rd and final legs we found ourselves at a perkin's for some breakfast. i was finding it incredibly difficult to get any food down but i managed to stomach a couple of eggs and some juice before we left. we made it to the next exchange to wait for van 1 to finish and try to sleep there.
we camped out on the lawn of north chicago high school. i look like a corpse but i guess that's basically what i felt like. i'm pretty sure i didn't really sleep more than maybe 1/2 an hour but i can't be positive about that. we were all so tired but having a blast! this is the exchange where we saw a lot of the teams with costumes and getting rowdy. probably because it was daytime and everyone was delirious with lack of sleep. it was glorious!
ragnar 2014 in the books! this was one of the best experiences i've ever had. i loved every minute of it... even the awful ones. i had so much fun and i will absolutely do it again. i feel so fortunate to have been a part of it with the people i ran with. we had a really good time together.
one last thing: as i mentioned at the beginning regarding the late start... megan and i didn't end up staying for the after party because by the time we finished it was after 5pm and we were pooped. we were looking at an almost 2 hour drive back to delafield from chicago and well... it just didn't sound like a fun thing to do in the middle of the night after having been up all night and running already. if we had started earlier then we would have finished earlier and gotten to the party earlier and subsequently gotten home earlier. better all around in my opinion. next year i might just book a hotel room in chicago and make it a whole weekend affair. problem solved!
time = 28:52:39
58 out of 308 in our division (mixed open)
placed 117 overall out of 502 teams
i was in van 2 so we didn't get rolling until late afternoon which gave me ample time to go to yoga, do some light grocery shopping, and mow the lawn before anyone even got to my house. i have to say that i am not a fan of the late start. in hindsight, if we had a morning start i would have been much more inclined to stay at the end because we would have finished much earlier. live and learn i suppose and we'll get to that part of the recap later.
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| we're here! |
we saw a lot of costumed runners. i can't believe people run in some of this stuff! i would die! more power to them tho'...
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| THIS guy! |
because we didn't know what to expect or really what was going on yet... the start was sort of anti-climatic. we did get some pretty sick tattoos tho' so there's that.
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| megan & me rockin' some ragnar love |
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| speaking of ass... here's feedar's |
leg 10 (my first leg) - 5.6 miles in sullivan on the glacial drumlin trail. it was rated as "hard" in the ragnar bible but really... we couldn't figure out how they were rating the legs. after awhile we figured maybe it was by distance and nothing else. this leg was pretty flat and easy. all on the trail which is crushed limestone. the worst part about this leg were the bugs. i started this leg at 8:10pm and the sun was just beginning to go down. the bugs were out in full force and at one moment i even ran through a huge black cloud at about my knees. i panicked and was looking all over my lower legs to make sure that none were stuck to me since i was so sticky with sweat. i digress... as i took off for this leg i was alone. no one in front of me and no one behind me. i was alone for probably half a mile and then i got passed by a guy who had to be running around a 6 min mile... at this point i was running at way too fast a clip and finished out my first mile in 8:15 after slowing myself down from a 7:55. i got passed again by another guy quite close to the first guy and then i was alone again for probably the next 4 miles. nearing the end of my run i started passing people and while i can't remember exactly... i think i got 3 or 4 kills on this leg. i failed to write it down for this one but not to worry... i tracked it for the next two legs. "kills" represent how many people you pass before you finish. there was even one guy about 1/2 a mile from the finish and he was walking. i don't understand why you'd be walking it in on your first leg of a run when you're so close to the finish? i will never understand that i don't think.
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| leg 10 - 5.6 miles - sullivan, wisconsin |
i'm really pleased with my performance as i genuinely thought my run would be a lot slower. i did take 2 aleve earlier in the day and i'm sure that had a lot to do with it. my leg really wasn't a problem at all. i'm wondering if it's getting better slowly but surely or if it was all the doing of the aleve... i guess only time will tell. after my leg there were 2 more runners and we handed off the baton to van 1. we decided to just head to the exchange where we would wait for van 1 and try to get some sleep. we only had about 3 hours and turns out that's not as much time as it sounds like. especially in the middle of the night.
we napped/ate/showered/bathroomed at martin luther high school in greendale, wisconsin at exchange 18 where we would wait for van 1 to finish their second legs. i didn't get any sleep at all. the gym of the school was open for sleeping with dim lights and everything but people were talking and walking around and really i'm not sure why i couldn't nap but i just couldn't. around 1:30am my stomach took a turn for the worst and i spent the rest of the race hitting every port-o-pottie at every exchange sometimes more than once. it was brutal!
leg 22 (my second leg) - 4.0 miles in racine on country roads. this actually was a smidge longer than 4 miles. my mapmyrun.com app tracked it at 4.16 so there's that. why was i using mapmyrun.com instead of my garmin you ask? funny you should ask... well, turns out that after my first run when i so meticulously put my garmin in bag 2 for this leg it wasn't turned off and at 9:10pm got turned back on and tracked about 35 driving miles before the battery died. good to know that i could run 35 miles before it poops out tho' so that's the silver lining in that. i didn't bring my charger because my garmin lasts for 5 hours of continuous running time before i need to charge it and i wasn't running that long so... why bring the charger?!? welp... looks like i learned my lesson there. i started this leg at 4:36am on zero sleep and a stomach that was so very unhappy. all the poops! all of them. it was about 56 degrees but when it's dark out that feels a bit colder. i was shivering so much but i knew that as soon as i started moving i'd be fine. i had some homemade arm warmers on (cut off knee-high socks) so i was feeling pretty good. one might say snazzy even. as soon as i took off from the exchange my headlamp slid off my forehead and onto my nose. lesson #2: make sure you tighten your headlamp each time you put it on and don't assume it will stay tight after each use. sheesh... got that taken care of and got in my groove just as the woman in front of me lost her rear blink light all over the road in front of me. well, to be honest... FIRST she passed me and THEN she dropped her light which exploded in an array of batteries and plastic that she had to stop and pick up all the pieces of. she caught back up to me in no time and then i tailed her for the next mile or so watching her pull her tight running shorts down over and over again (which she was wearing underneath regular running shorts). i thought for sure this would slow her down enough for me to pass her but no such luck. my speed got slower in the second mile because there was a bit of a hill and i just lost her. it wasn't even much of a hill but with no sleep, poor nutrition, and diarrhea... it must make a difference. this was my best performance of the 3. i had 6 kills on this one which was fun. i liked counting them and focusing on the next person in front of me and trying to catch them.
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| leg 22 - 4.0 miles - racine, wisconsin |
the next two runners to go after me were matt and megan. after they finished and we again handed off to van 1 for their 3rd and final legs we found ourselves at a perkin's for some breakfast. i was finding it incredibly difficult to get any food down but i managed to stomach a couple of eggs and some juice before we left. we made it to the next exchange to wait for van 1 to finish and try to sleep there.
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| urban high school camping... ragnar style |
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| megan & shannon "resting" |
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| matt "resting" or maybe studying... who knows |
leg 34 (my 3rd and final leg) - 3.7 miles in illinois mostly on a trail that paralleled what looked like train tracks. the trail started out in a park, went through a neighborhood, and then angled down into between trees on the left and train tracks on the right. pretty secluded and someplace i wouldn't run at night but maybe it's safe. i don't know the area but from the looks of it i wouldn't run there at night. anyway... this was the shortest leg of them all for me and also the most challenging. i ran this at 2:17pm and it was hot. i was as naked as i could legally be (shorts and a sports bra) and i was still really warm. i think because the trail was dropped down between trees so there wasn't any movable air. i was passing people left and right... lots of walkers. ended up with TEN kills on this leg! TEN! about 2 miles in and i heard all sorts of clomping directly behind me. i expected the runner to pass me and when the person didn't i looked behind me. it was a man. he didn't pass me and i started to feel nervous. i've been sexually assaulted before as well as groped on a very busy street in broad daylight on a different occasion so this guy's proximity as well as my near nakedness was making me very uncomfortable. i began to panic inside a little bit so i looked back at him again and slowed my pace (unintentionally) a little bit. he must have noticed me looking at him this time because he moved across the trail to the other side. i was so relieved. unfortunately, once i slowed my pace i never got it back. my leg was really bothering me at this point and i was noticing the discomfort. i just kept focusing on the person ahead of me, on catching them, and passing them. one after the other i did this over and over and finally the trail portion of this leg was over and i was coming out onto beautiful tree lined streets. beautiful houses, and most importantly a BREEZE! i was now going east towards the lake and i could feel the cool air. it was lovely.
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| leg 37 - 3.7 miles - winnetka, illinois |
the finish to this run was wonderful in that i knew i was done running now but awful in that my leg really hurt. i had to stretch immediately which is something i didn't have to do the last 2 times and i was limping which was a minor issue after run #2 but not like this. it went away and felt fine after some stretching but i still find it worrisome. matt is the runner after me and he's really fast so we had to hurry to the next exchange pretty quick as he was only running 5 miles and would be there pretty fast. poor megan had the last leg of the race and it was 9.4 miles. i think if i were ragnar i would make the last leg a little shorter but maybe it doesn't really matter since someone has to run the long ones and all the 3rd legs are someone's last leg.
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| shannon, gretchen, matt, feedar, me, megan van 2 represent! |
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| finishers! |
one last thing: as i mentioned at the beginning regarding the late start... megan and i didn't end up staying for the after party because by the time we finished it was after 5pm and we were pooped. we were looking at an almost 2 hour drive back to delafield from chicago and well... it just didn't sound like a fun thing to do in the middle of the night after having been up all night and running already. if we had started earlier then we would have finished earlier and gotten to the party earlier and subsequently gotten home earlier. better all around in my opinion. next year i might just book a hotel room in chicago and make it a whole weekend affair. problem solved!
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| and done! in the bag. |
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
how i spent national running day
i got up the same as every other day... woke up my little and sent him off to school. it was overcast, cold, and dreary so i promptly crawled back into bed. i slept for another hour and a half and then decided to get up and peruse the internets, take care of a few lame things, and do some facebooking. its amazing how easy it is to kill time and braincells once fb sucks ya in.
just after noon 'o clock i took off for my local technical college because for the past few weeks i've been in the process of getting into a grant program and getting back into school. now that i've done that i can tell you guys about it. today i had to go take some entrance exams akin to high school ACTs. i'm really truly very bad at any and all math. i aced the reading and writing portion of the testing. scoring well above what was needed to be allowed into the fine college but the math... oh, the math. the score i needed to get to get in was a 42. i scored exactly a 42. thank god! i guessed on probably 1/2 of the questions. so embarrassing but whateves... i passed and i'm in!
i will begin classes in january for the medical assistant program. i'm pretty excited because i feel pretty passionately about helping people and i feel like this will give me an outlet to do just that.
then after that harrowing and stressful experience i came home (still raining) with every intention of throwing my run out the window, sitting on my ass, and watching all the programs... all of them.
i did this until about 5pm when the sun finally showed itself, birds were chirping, and my soul was thick with guilt. i put my running gear on and got my body moving.
since i only had 2 miles on the schedule and as soon as i began my leg wasn't really in all that much pain (surprise surprise)... i decided to run as fast as i could and make it a speedwork run. i am happy to report that i ran this 2 miles in 16:21! this is the fastest i've been able to run in quite some time.
i've been averaging a 9:30 minute mile lately which is really disappointing. unfortunately, my leg simply isn't capable of handling speed. i was seeing that PT but she really wasn't doing anything but making me do squats on a bosu ball which i can do at home. i stopped seeing her.
i did, however, start going back to yoga in the hopes that loosening up, stretching out, and strengthening up all all my insides might make a much bigger difference than anything that PT was trying to do. time will tell and i'll keep you posted. so that's how i spent national running day.
what did you do?
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