Buddy's sad eyes and a new race photo

This is pretty much how I start every morning.

He just sits there while I make coffee and practices his sad eyes until I fill his food dish.

My mom pretty much only gets her hair cut when she's visiting me. We are both pretty laid back/lazy about our hair (I haven't gotten mine cut since about March...of 2013).

So this morning we walked to our little downtown area for her appointment. I sat and looked properly disheveled - with hair that really needed washing - in their fancy lobby area while she got her hair cut.

I tried a little side braid action to try to make my hair a little more presentable.

I kept waiting for someone to suggest that I should also make an appointment, but they were much too polite for that :)

We had  to re-inflate Mom's air mattress last night (we had put it away for realtor pictures) - Buddy was his usual helpful self.

And did I mention we had shrimp tacos for dinner? I would eat them every day. For real.

And I got my official race photo from the finish line - I took a picture of it because I'm too lazy to scan it.

Fall Foliage Half Marathon Recap

I had such a fun race on Sunday! We had perfect weather, too!

Tom helped make sure my number was on straight

And mom got a shot of my awkward walk/jog at the start when we were all bunched together.

I started out too fast. It felt so easy and I latched on to a woman in hot pink calf sleeves who started out at a nice pace but was going too fast for my plan. I managed to pull back and let her go, reminding myself that I had 13 miles to run and needed to save some energy for later.

I kept my Garmin on the screen that only shows me my current pace and distance. I didn't want to know the time. I checked my pace when the mile splits came up and figured that as long as most of my splits were below my pace goal that I would finish in under 2 hours. There were only 4 miles that were slower than my goal - all hilly miles.

There were 6 aid stations on the course, about every two miles or so. I accidentally ended up with Gatorade at the first aid station (yellow, the worst of all Gatorades) but I drank it anyway. I deliberately took Gatorade at the final aid station for a little extra boost. The rest were water stops for me.

I took my first GU a little after mile 4. I was trying to take them before I felt like I needed to, hoping to avoid that drop in energy.

The course was hillier than my research had led me to believe. It wasn't terrible, but the hill between miles 8 and 9 felt like it would never end. That might also be because I was waiting to take my second GU until after I got to the top. Uphill running and GU are not a good combination.

I passed hot pink calf sleeve lady on a hill around mile 10, and never saw her again.

At the mile 13 marker I switched screens on my watch. I was tired and felt like I was dragging, so I thought seeing the running time would give me the motivation to speed up and finish strong. When I saw 1:55:xx I knew I was going to break 2 hours. I picked up the pace and closed the gap between me and the woman who had passed me half a mile before.

I pushed to a sprint, passed her and finished in 1:58:05!

Checking for my time.

This is my "ok Mom, that's enough pictures now" face.

I don't think there was a start line time trigger, so we only got clock time. It kind of bums me out because I know my time would have been 1:57:something if they did a chip time too. (My Garmin came up a little short distance-wise, but was 1:57:57, and I stopped it a little after the finish line)

It was fun having Tom and my mom there. I haven't ever gone to a race with anyone there to cheer me on and take pictures, it was a nice change. Plus, now I have fun finish line pictures.

I'm definitely a little sore today, my hip flexors are especially not happy, but considering I just beat my best time by almost 10 minutes - I could feel a lot worse!

PB or PR?

Do you say PB or PR? I say PR, mostly because PB makes me think of peanut butter.

I broke 2 hours and got a new PR by almost 10 minutes!

Official time was 1:58:05!

I even have actual pictures from the race that I will post later - I need to get them from my mom's camera and Tom's phone.

Hooray!

I'm going to go eat some more now.

Packet Pickup

Tomorrow is race day!

This morning I drove up to the packet pickup, even though it is a 1 1/2 hour drive...each way.

In my defense, I've never been there before, so I wanted to have a better idea of where it was at. I also get super anxious right before races, and the idea of doing packet pickup the morning of the race kind of freaks me out.

The race starts at the Duchess County Fairgrounds. They're pretty big, and I had to walk a ways from where I parked to find the packet pickup.

It's a pretty small race (the 5K and half combined are capped at 1200 runners), so pickup was a breeze. I didn't even have to wait in line!

Tom keeps calling this my "Canadian race" because the only used red on the shirt.

Now I just have to neurotically check the weather, re-read old recaps of the race, and decide what I'm going to wear.

My mom is finally on her last flight and we are heading to pick her up from the airport shortly! Her arrival will be a nice distraction from the pre-race jitters. :)

Nerves and cleaning house

It's weird not going to work. Don't get me wrong, I love not waking up at 5:30 every morning and working 10+ hours, but it still feels weird.

It gives me more time to play with filters on my phone, which is obviously really important.

Tom and I (mostly Tom) cleaned pretty much the whole house today. It really freaked Buddy out. He was especially not a fan of the vacuum.

There were many variations of his concerned face throughout the afternoon.

It was pretty cute.

Today was the last run on my training plan before my race on Sunday (3 days!). I did a couple of mile repeats and then felt a little lost when I finished my cool down.

There's something about the last run before a race that makes me start getting nervous. I know I've put the work in and should relax and trust my training, but I can't help but think about things I could have done differently, and things that could happen on race day.

I know I'll be fine once I'm running on Sunday, I just have to deal with my nerves until then.

Side note: my new shirt definitely shows sweat. Also, why is the left side of my chest so sweaty?

In house hunting news: The cute blue house is out. The owners accepted another offer, so we are back to looking.

My mom was supposed to get here tomorrow night, but, true to form, Kodiak Island will not let her leave (there's a reason people call it "The Rock"). The weather was too bad and her flight was cancelled. In theory, she will be here Saturday night now. Keep your fingers crossed!

Oh! The grocery store would like you to get ready for Christmas already. I just thought you should know.

 It's not even Halloween yet!

I'm all for Christmas, but not until after Thanksgiving. At this rate, Christmas decorations will be in the stores before back to school stuff soon.

Headphones, Yoga Toes and Buddy

Four days until race day - how did that happen?

We are making progress on the house cleaning process. This morning, Tom tackled the basement. As much as we hate cleaning, we love when things are clean!

Buddy supervised the basement organization while I ran on the treadmill.

I had another easy 3 miler on the schedule for today. It's funny how short that feels now.

I have been trying to figure out the best combination of ear buds/cushions for my headphones. It was weird to wear them on the treadmill, but I think I have them sorted out now. Hopefully.

After my run I spent a little quality time with my Yoga Toes. I love how they stretch and relax my feet after a run - the trick is remembering to use them! I remember them just about as often as I remember to stretch - oops!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the funny ways Buddy sleeps.

Hope you're having a good Wednesday! :)

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