Continued: Back to Back Marathon Challenge-Race 2

Race: First Light Marathon
Date: Fanuary 10th, 2016
Finish Time: 5 hours, 15 minutes
Distance: 26.2 miles
Gain/Loss: 1328 ft

We arrived at the Expo in Alabama for the First Light Marathon. There were Alabama Bells everywhere supporting runners. Really made me feel like I was "in the south"! The expo was small, but still really exciting. Justin got a 26.2 sticker and we took some pictures in front of the marathon signs... Justin was finally starting to get nervous! haha.

We stayed in the downtown Holiday Inn. This hotel was beautiful, and pretty cool because it was round! We were on the 15th floor and had amazing floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city. This was the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in. The 17th floor was a Sky Lounge which had floor to ceiling windows all the way around. They also had live music and a really cool atmosphere.
For dinner we went to Buck's Pizza and got take out. It was about a block up from our hotel. We got a 1/2 veggie 1/2 chicken alfredo pizza and a small side of fett alfredo. We also split a draft beer while we waited. This place was packed and after getting our food we knew why, it was delicious. We watched a movie in our hotel and were asleep by 9:30 pm or so.


The next morning I woke up an hour before my alarm, 5:15 am. We slowly got ready, stretched a little and ate our breakfast. We walked down to the lobby (which was packed with runners) and saw the start line outside our hotel door... how amazing is that? It was cold, somewhere around 48 out but not raining so that was amazing.

The race started and the first few miles were very flat, and not real congested. I think everyone was running pretty slow after running Mississippi the day before, lol. We ran through several different historic neighborhoods. It was awesome. The houses were beautiful. People in Mobile weren't as supportive as they were in Jackson, but the race course was beautiful, and pretty flat! My foot was killing me, from the beginning of the race I had a pretty good limp going. Sharp pains from my Achilles through my foot and calve. It was awful. I powered through, but was grateful I had Justin pacing me nice and easy.

Justin did great, at the 13 mile mark he was still looking strong. I was starving and my foot was killing me, but I was feeling really good besides that. There was this dreaded hill called "fireman's hill" we knew was coming up somewhere around mile 19 and it was supposed to be so huge and so steep. Before we hit that hill there was a great aid station that had everything you could want from cookies/candy, to chicken broth, drinks, everything. We started up the hill and were to the top before we knew it. My guess is it was maybe 1/2 mile? not too bad at all, especially after running the Mississippi hills the day before!

I was struggling to stay with Justin after about mile 15. I had to pick up the speed, and started skipping water stations because my ankle hurt too much to start and stop on. I would run a few miles ahead and hang out at an aid station waiting for Justin, then would run with him for a few and would wait again. Watching my husband power through his first marathon was so amazing, and so emotional. I had so much pride in him, and knew mentally how hard it is to get through that first marathon. He is incredible. Over the course of the last 8 miles or so I had several people try to pull me from the course to see a medic, apparently I had a pretty good limp going. I was determined and refused to be pulled. I said I would crawl before I allowed myself to quit.

This race had the coolest final mile of any marathon I have ever run. You basically came down a series of hills (because the last 6 miles is all downhill, no joke, ALL DOWNHILL). Then there is a long, close to a mile section of down town that is completely blocked off. It is like running through a ghost town. It was so cool. We came up to the finish line which was surrounded by the Alabama Bells and crossed together. It was amazing. I felt so emotional, a combination of completing my first back2back and pushing through the pain of my foot for so many miles, and seeing my husband complete his first marathon.

Now, about that 50 miler I have been considering... I think I might be about ready to commit!

Back2Back Challenge 1 - 2 Marathons, 2 States, 2 Days!

Back2Back Challenge. 
2 marathons, 2 states in 2 days!

Race: Mississippi Blues Marathon
Date: January 9th, 2016
Finish Time: 4 hours, 11 minutes
Distance: 26.2 miles
Gain: 1283 ft

Bear with me here, this is a recap of 2 races so it is a long blog! I considered splitting it into 2 separate entries, but felt like it should be all 1 since it was all one big race weekend.

After 7 months of preparing for this race, it's finally here! Justin and I trained together, but each had our own goals for this weekend. I hoped to finish with a comfortable pace on Saturday, with enough energy to encourage Justin as he competed his first marathon on Sunday! His goal was to finish the race, and hopefully not walk. I planned to find a 4:20/4:30 pacer for Mississippi and hang with them so I wouldn't start off too fast.

We left early Friday morning for Mississippi. It took us about 12 hours to get there, we stopped several times to stretch and eat over the course of the drive. It helped a little but we were definitely still pretty stiff. We drove straight to the Mississippi Blues Marathon Expo. It was a great expo with quite a few vendors. Live music playing which was a cool touch for that rock n roll vibe the race has. We went out to a great little Mexican restaurant for dinner, La Cazuela. After dinner we went back and got settled into our Hotel. We stayed in the Old Capital Inn. Such a beautiful, historic hotel. They had complimentary beer and wine out for hotel guests in the evening, and in the morning they set out bagels, coffee and juice pre-race for us. I highly recommend this hotel to anyone traveling to the area, especially for the marathon. They also had a cool rood top bar, and a beautiful garden area to sit and drink coffee outside. We stayed on the 3rd floor, our room was small, but quaint. It had a nice walkout balcony

I woke up to the sound of wind and rain. Oh boy this doesn't look good! After going round and round on what I wanted to wear, I decided on shorts with a lightweight running jacket. The temperature was 55 with 10 mph winds and rain. I didn't feel real great, I figured it was just nerves but I couldn't handle the idea of eating. I drank a little OJ, and some water and visited in the lobby with other runners while we killed time before heading to the race start. We walked .6 miles to the start line, in the rain. The race started and it took me 2 minutes to cross the start line (so quick!). First several miles were cold, wet and congested. The rain stopped around mile 4 and I saw Justin at mile 5, he had my sunglasses for me. I lost the 4:20 pacer somewhere in the distance, but wasn't worried. I was running this race by feel and if it was a slower pace I would be ok with that because I know I have to save enough energy to wake up and do it again tomorrow.

It was a very hilly course, much more than I had anticipated! I met a woman named Jen, Jen from New Hampshire around mile 8 and ran several miles with her. She just turned 50, and had completed 14 marathons in 10 states. I lost miles 9-11 completely in conversation. Around mile 12 I cracked my ankle in a pothole going down one of the hills. It hurt but I carried on with my run. The roads in Jackson Mississippi were pretty rough, unlike the nicely paved roads I have trained on. This race had the most amazing volunteers. Even in the rain they were all out there rooting for us and cheering us on. They would joke "Don't mistake this rain for our southern hospitality, we are happy you're here!!" Most volunteers and police officers were also thanking us for running this event.

Around mile 15 I stopped to pee, when I came out of the bathroom I was right behind Jen from New Hampshire! I ran again with her a few more miles and carried on. Mile 20 the rain started again, mile 22 was a HUGE hill, it lasted about a mile, maybe more. Running this huge hill, with a sore foot, in the rain after running 22 miles made me feel pretty BA if you know what I mean! I thought to myself "that's right, you're one tough momma!" The rain turned into a downpour around mile 24, then thunder and lightening began. I was running hard at this point trying to get to the finish line. When I finally crossed 4:11:52. I couldn't believe I had somehow finished in the low 4's? How did that happen I took it easy! I couldn't believe how hard it was raining when I finished. My husband looked shocked when I crossed, one of my favorite parts of running a marathon is seeing his face at the finish line.

We didn't hangout long due to the rain, but the Race Director did a good job providing enough shelters for those who wanted to hangout to take cover in. We walked the .6 miles back to our hotel and took a long warm shower. Then had 45 minutes to pack up and hit the road. We stopped at a gas station about half way between Jackson Mississippi and Mobile Alabama to stretch and pickup more water. We walked in and there were several other people in there, we all had the same "walk". You know the one, kind've limping and scrunching our faces ect. We all looked around at each other (7-8 of us) and just started laughing. Everyone in the gas station had just ran Mississippi Blues and were on their way to Mobile. It was a pretty funny coincidence. We ate lunch at Chilis. I only could stomach about 1/2 my bean burger with a side salad. Altogether the drive was about 3 1/2 hours from Jackson to Mobile.

To be Continued...

Working the Color Run Event 5k

Over this past weekend I had the opportunity to work at The Color Run 5k in Ft Lauderdale. What an experience! I have a whole new understanding and respect for races and what goes into putting them on. I carpooled down Thursday morning, and immediately went to work at Packet Pick up. Everyone else had arrived Wednesday and set up packet pick up, we arrived Thursday in time to work at it.

The event had over 5000 people registered so they had 2 days of packet pickup (Thursday and Friday). It was exciting getting people excited and checked in for the upcoming race. We finished up around 6 and had a short meeting. Friday morning a group of us met for an early run before heading out to packet pickup and the venue for setup. We worked hard all day setting up all the barricades, banners, flags, stage area, tents and tables. We finished up the day around 9 pm (had a short meeting at the hotel over dinner around 8).

Staking everything in the ground

Saturday (race day) was crazy, we got up around 2:30 am and were at the venue at 3:30 am to begin setting up all the race day festivities. We had to unload the truck full of the packet pickup stuff so we could do race day packet pickup at the race, let me just take a moment to say please pick up your packet prior to race day whenever possible, there were over 2000 people trying to register or pick up their packets race day morning and most showed up half hour to 45 minutes prior to the race start. This causes everyone to have to wait in long lines, and start the race late.

yellow zone volunteers

We set up all the color zones which included getting the roads closed off, setting up all the signs, flags, color barrels, arch ways etc. Our volunteers began showing up and they were trained on how to properly work their area they were assigned.  After leaving color zone 1 (yellow) I was brought back to the SHINE zone at the finish-line. I made it back just as the first wave of the race was taking off. I quickly got all my glitter/shine ready and waited for my volunteers to show up and help... they never made it. My teammate at the finish line gave me one of his volunteers and she was so excited to be helping me out in the SHINE zone. Eventually my yellow zone squad made it over and helped me also... what teamwork! It was stressful having people say they would be there to help and never show up but everyone else stepped up and we had a very successful event.

Once the last runners came through we started cleaning up and tearing down the color zones and finish area while everyone partied with DJ Matt in the finisher zone. It was fun hearing everyone having so much fun, there was color everywhere, loud music, balloons flying... Such a fun event! It took us a few hours to clean all the garbage, and pack up all the tents, barricade, banners ect. We washed everything before packing it all up because it is being shipped off to another event. Everything was cleaned, inventoried, counted and packed.

We got back to the hotel around 2 and most went to take quick naps, I opted for a quick shower (I looked like the Tin Man) and swam a few laps before some hot tub time. What an awesome experience. I will be sure to thank volunteers more often, get my garbage into a trash whenever possible, and really take a moment to look around and appreciate all the hard work that was put into the events I am at. Every sign, banner, tent, table, mile marker, water station... they were all put up and tore down by people. A lot of work!

Our "local" Color Run team

Tomoka Marathon Race Recap 2015

The second annual Tomoka Marathon

I decided after running Miami and qualified for the Marathon Maniacs I was going to take a break from marathons and work on strength and speed with hopes of running a sub 4 and getting closer to a BQ. After running Jax Bank (Dec 28) a bunch of my running friends from FCR decided they were all running Tomoka, so I thought I better too! Unfortunately, unlike most of my friends in FCR I didn't continue training after running Miami. My longest run in the past 8 weeks was 14.5 miles... My best friend flew in for spring break and we were so busy every single day leading up to the marathon including; 5 hour snorkeling tour in the Keys, kayaking the Springs, the day before the race we were up in Savannah GA site seeing all day! I didn't get more than 5-6 hours of sleep the entire time.

Race: Tomoka Marathon
Date: March 29th, 2015
Finish Time: 4 hours, 08 minutes
Distance: 26.2 miles
Gain: 639 ft

The marathon got underway around 6:30 a.m. Sunday, the half started at 7am and the 5k started at 7:30am. The staggered start was awesome. It cleared so much of the congestion at the beginning of the race.

The temperatures hovered in the lower to mid-40s, and most of us locals were freezing. Most of us were still wearing our shorts an tank tops praying we would warm up once we started running. The course was gorgeous. We ran what we call "the Tomoka loop" which has some of the most diverse, natural "Old Florida" scenery.

You get to see a little bit of everything including unobstructed vistas of the rivers, inland creeks and marshes, barrier island dunes and beach. We ran over high bridge (a small draw bridge) where in my opinion had some of the most beautiful views on the course. We ran under the huge trees that were covered in spanish moss, down John Anderson road which has a lot of big beautiful houses and finishing down Beach Street. At mile 25.5 we had to cross over the huge bridge to reach the finish line. The start line (an finish line) were at "The Casements" which is a historic former winter home of John D Rockefeller. The post race party was also held there in the beautiful Rockefeller Gardens on the Halifax river. FCR had a tent area setup with food and drinks for a post race celebration.


I started the race with the 4:15 pacer which I felt was a little ambitious with my lack of training the past 2 months, but thought it was achievable as long as I didn't walk. I stayed ahead of her the entire race. My FCR friend met up with me around mile 10 (ish) and ran with me pacing me to the end. She was amazing. Without her I wouldn't have been able to finish as quickly as I did. Miles 18-21 were on packed dirt which I have a really hard time running on, and it wiped me out. I tanked at mile 23 and without her there pushing me, I don't know that I could have gotten myself running again. My lack of training hit me hard there. The support of a friend who knows how you feel and what your goals are was so amazing. With her push, I got a new PR of 4:08:08.

The best part was coming around the corner to the finish line and seeing (heading) a crowd of FCR friends cheering me on to the finish. The support of this group (FCR) is beyond amazing. People were riding their bikes back and forth on the course offering us water/Gatorade/cliff bars/ibuprofin and just all a round giving us their support. They were hopping on the course running with others (race directors encouraged people to join in to support other runners, FCR group is awesome at not clogging the water stations by bringing their own hydration and they did not cross the finish line or take anything from the race) Then when I crossed the finish line I saw my husband (unexpectedly) standing there cheering for me. He got to see me PR at this race and I couldn't wait to tell him about the whole course! We went over to cheer on the a last few people from FCR that were finishing, than met up at the FCR tent to hear how everyone's race went. Several from FCR got BQ's and most of the others met or exceeded their goals they had for the race. It was an amazing day.

The course was so gorgeous, it was flat and shaded. They had enough water stations but if it had been warmer out they would have needed more. I loved the oranges and fruit they had as well, that is always such a pick-me-up the last 10 miles of the marathon. I am excited it run it again next year. 

Gate River 15k race recap

Gate River 15k

Along with almost 15,000 other runners beat the green monster today. If you haven't run the Gate River 15k you might not know what that means, but I am here to tell you all about it. 

For being such a large race Gate River was extremely organized. Probably one of the most organized races I have participated in.  On race day, the police did a great job of funneling cars to several different parking lots which kept the lines moving and got everyone parked pretty quick.  There were tons of port a potties all around for your last minute restroom needs. Bathroom lines  (when there were lines) took about 2 minutes. So short! The starting line was clearly marked with the different wave starts.  With a submitted time I was able to qualify for the seeded corals. Wave 1 - Yay! I have never been so close to the start line before, it was crazy.


We took off right on time and hit our first bridge at mile 1. I was very surprised by the amount of elevation change there was on this race... I mean, this is FLORIDA!

The course wound through several "higher end" neighborhoods and the community involvement was spectacular. People lined the roads through the entire course of the race. People had their BBQ's out and were offering sausage and pancakes, donuts and pastries, several areas had sliced fruit, popsicles, even whiskey shots and ice cold beer! People had music playing in front of their houses and made signs cheering as we all ran by. It was really fun. At mile 8 we came up to the Green Monster. The 1 mile incline of a bridge (Hart Bridge), and it was very unwelcome when it arrived! Haha. I knew about the bridge and thought I was prepared but I don't think you can prepare for that until you have experienced it first hand. It was SO LONG! All of mile 8 was uphill, but then all of mile 9 was down! Yep, they had a 1 mile-timed downhill section of the course. That mile for me timed in at 7:27. Not bad considering I had just ran uphill first! The final .30 seemed to take forever, finally came across the finish-line at 1:21:16. Not what I had originally hoped for, but considering I have an abscess tooth (diagnosed Friday afternoon) and we were running "bumper to bumper" with other runners from start to finish, and it was SO WARM and humid out... I'll take it :)

I finished in the top 10% of all female runners and earned myself a "top 10% finishers hat" in addition to my metal. That was pretty cool! I feel like the finishers area was very spread out, I actually missed all of it. I walked forever and finally found some water, walked quite a bit more before finding my metal and the photo-op area... Then that was it. No muffins or bananas or Gatorade or anything. I walked through the parking lot to find the my running group to see how everyone else did. I guess there were other items in the finishers area, but I somehow missed them. I was so in need of more water and some Gatorade because it was so warm out. 

FCR (Flagler County Runners) throws an amazing "after-party" with mimosas, bloody mary's, beer or all different kinds, breakfast casseroles, bacon, sausage, eggs, breads, fruit - it was awesome! We had a lot of fun just hanging out with everyone. Can't wait to run it again next year!!

Race of the Runways 5k ~Race Recap

5K Race of the Runways - Flagler Beach Rotary Club

I had a chance to "race the runway" at Flagler County Airport. It was a fast flat course along the actual Flagler Beach Airport runway and taxiway. We were entertained by helicopters and planes flying above us during the race. it was an open space, with extra wide turns and was well staffed. They had 1 water station at the half way point (which I never use during a 5k, but it is nice to know it's there if I had needed it).

I worked late Friday night, after a very long work week and was beat. I arrived at the airport around 8am on the very frigid Saturday morning. I didn't "feel" like running, but since I paid for it, and an FCR friend went out of their way to pick up my packet and drop it off at my work for me on Friday night, I figured I better be there and run.

They were very well organized with tons of pre/post race food items (bagels with PB or cream cheese, fresh sliced fruit, nutri-grain bars, water and juice). We started right on time (1 minute late, but that's on time for a race event! haha). We took off and ran almost 3 miles of the 3.1 on the runway. They had a bunch of the planes out lined up and down the runway. It was also cool being able to see how many people were ahead of you (because it was basically 1 large loop). I ran most of the race next to the older guy again (I ran Waterfront with him and got my sub-24 PR). I found out after the race he is an FCR friends dad! So funny!

I came in at 23:44 (the exact same time I had for my last 5k). I didn't give it my all which bums me out a little because I think I would've come in a few seconds faster and got a new PR. Oh well, next time ;)  I got 2nd in my age division, the metal was a little airplane with a spinning propeller. Pretty sweet! My son loves the tech-shirt and metal, he tried to steal them... haha.

Overall it was a great race, I look forward to it next year, hopefully it won't be so darn cold though!