I started training Monday morning. I woke up early and went to the gym (because the temps were in the negatives- again). Since I moved back from Plattsburgh, I go to the new fitness center at my former high school. It’s really quite nice and has all the machines anyone could need to stay fit. I just nicely hopped on my favorite treadmill when an older gentleman came up to the treadmill next to me and said “I’m going to try to keep up with this pretty red head- how fast are you goin’ today?” I responded with a smile and “5.5mph” (thinking there’s no way this old guy would keep up with me for long).

We started our treadmills and he settled in at 4.3mph- though he was jogging the whole time. He kept at it at that pace for about 15 minutes. I had slowed down to 5.3mph because I was getting tired and told him he was catching up to me. He sped right up to 5.3 and finished his 20 minute work out at that pace!

I later found out he is in his 70′s and used to teach at the school (way before my time there). He also goes to church with my parents. He was such a nice guy, chatting with me about races, and quite an inspiration too! I can only hope to be that healthy and still running in my 70′s!

Well, that’s all about to change. I’ve spent an embarrassingly huge amount of time trying to decide what races to run in 2010. I have the Utica Boilermaker on my calendar (though I still have to register), and I’m contemplating the pros and cons of the Cincinnati Half Marathon May 2nd, the Pittsburgh Half Marathon May 2nd, the Cleveland Half Marathon May 16th, and my friend Cody in Plattsburgh just notified me of the brand new Plattsburgh Half Marathon on April 18th.

Clearly I can’t run two half marathons in two different cities on the same day. Also, there’s this training group in Buffalo that trains together to run the Cleveland Half Marathon. It sure would be great to have the pressure of group runs again- without the pressure of fund raising. And it could be a great way to meet people and make new friends!

My worst fear is to finish last…dead last, but I finished the Adirondack Half Marathon 301 out of 431 participants. The Plattsburgh Half Marathon will have a max of 500 participants- plus I know the town and people who live there (and who will hopefully let me crash on their couch for the weekend)! I’m leaning toward the Cleveland Half Marathon over Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, but I’ll wait a day or so to register for anything.

Either way, I’m headed off to the gym tonight before playing some serious Mario with my BFF. I’ve been running again- just a couple times a week, but it feels great to get back into it with a goal in mind.

I felt great at the start of the race. I love the thrill of starting with hundreds of people running in the same direction toward the same goal. I started out listening to my music for the first half mile, running on my own and happy to be a part of the race. Then a friend from work met up with me and ran with me for a mile or so until she decided to move it along more quickly than I was. (She finished 30 minutes before me). Then came Darth Vader. I was running along enjoying the morning when I heard Darth Vader slowly coming up behind me. Unfortunately, Darth and I were running at approxaimately the same pace. The breathing was so heavy and loud that I feared I wasn’t getting enough oxygen even though I was several feet away from her. Thankfully, Darth and I parted ways after a mile or so too.

I was glad I wrote my name on my jersey because random people would call it out and encourage me along the course. At one water station, an old lady had some kind of brochure of all the runners and she said as I passed by “That’s Mary Hills. She’s from Plattsburgh, NY.” It was great!

I didn’t feel great for the whole race. My glutes were sore and painful throughout the majority of the race making me walk periodically to switch up the motion of my body. Now I know the areas I need to focus on in cross training (which I won’t neglect again!) when preparing for my next race. It was a hilly course – but no where near as hilly as the whole marathon course- thank goodness!

The race finished in the town of Schroon Lake with drummers welcoming runners into town and ushering them down to the finish line. I might have been in shock when I finished because I told the girl taking my timing chip off “I just ran a half marathon!” I was very proud to have finished and I was pleased with my time. I finished 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 36 minutes. I crossed the finish line and didn’t die!

The post race festivities were fantastic! We finished the race at a gorgeous location with a beautiful view of the lake. We got free 10-15 minute massages and there was a great spread of food- bagels, fruit, brownies, cookies, and ice cream! It was a great day!

While I was running (around mile 10 or so), I was really re-thinking this whole half marathon thing. But, now that it’s been several days (days that I’ve been insanely sore still), I think I’ll run another half marathon maybe in the spring of 2010. Right now, I can’t fathom running a whole marathon, but maybe someday if a half marathon is no longer a challenge for me, then maybe I’ll consider running a full marathon.

Beyond finishing the half marathon, the best part is that our Team in Training group of Upstate New York and Vermont raised $60,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I’d like to thank all of the fantastic people in my life that donated money in honor of my race. I would not have been able to complete it without your support!

The next race on my plate will be the 114th Annual 8K Turkey Trott in Buffalo, NY on Thanksgiving morning. Maybe I’ll race in a costume this year…

I’m pretty excited. I’m mostly all packed at 8:30am Saturday morning. I couldn’t find my Body Glide and think it might have fallen out of my bag in the rental car I had last week for work. But, beyond that, I feel pretty prepared. I’ve decided to wear my running pants because they’re the most comfortable and they’ll keep me warm in the early morning 46 degree temps. I have to put my name on my TNT jersey so that people can cheer me on by name when I go flying past them! (Yeah right- more like so they can call me out by name to get out of their way!) Last night, I put some more music on my mp3 player so I should be all set to rock out during the 13.1 mile run Sunday morning.

I ran 9.3 miles two weeks ago in 1:43 and hope to complete the half in about 2:30. I know I’m not going to win the race, so even if I have to walk here and there, I should be able to finish it in that amount of time. I’m actually excited about the race because I haven’t run in a while and am looking forward to getting back into it. Even if I take a couple of weeks off after the half, I can get back into running slowly during the winter with the thoughts of finishing another half during the spring season.

There’s a pasta party tonight at 5:30pm for our Team in Training group and the best part is that all TNT events are casual (read “fat pants”)! We walk down to the busses at 8am tomorrow morning to take us to the half marathon start line. The race begins at 10am on Sunday. Apparently we get a free 10 minute massage after the race, too! So, wish me luck and see you on the other side!

I ran my first 15K (9.3 mile) race on Labor Day in Buffalo. My sister ran the whole race with me- and I think it’s always nice on race day to have someone to run with. We ran it in 1:43 and I felt pretty good about that time. But, my right hip hurt me 9 of the 9.3 miles of the race. It felt like my bones were grinding together with every step. So, I went to the chiropractor on Tuesday and that didn’t seem to help as much as I had hoped, so I got a massage on Wednesday and discovered my glutes were the problem. I haven’t run since Labor Day. My half marathon is Sunday morning…starting to get nervous…

I actually ran for the first time this week (since my long run on Sunday) and did about 2 miles…and my hip hurt like it did at mile 10 of my long run.  I’m thinking heat and ice tonight (between packing and laundry).

Saturday, I had the great idea to run on the race course down in Schroon Lake. I wanted to test out these hills I’ve been hearing so much about before the actual race. I checked the weather and it said Plattsburgh had a 50% chance of rain and Schroon Lake had a 5% chance of rain. Things were looking good, so I got my running gear on and drove down to Schroon Lake. Half way there it started raining and didn’t stop for the rest of the day. It was POURING in Schroon Lake when I got there so I decided to drive the whole marathon course just to get a feel for it. I did pass four runners on the way who were out there in the pouring rain kickin’ butt and takin’ names- clearly way more hard core than I am! I took some cool pictures of the race course too!

Near the Half Marathon start

Word of Life Inn - where we'll be staying during race weekend!

I chose not to run 11 miles in the rain and drove home hoping to run 2 miles before it started raining in Plattsburgh, but it was raining when I got there- and rained the whole rest of the day.

On the way home from Schroon Lake I noticed I had apparently bumped my heart rate moniter and started it without knowing. My resting heartrate was 46 and averaged 48 over 5 minutes. I was concerned at first, but then looked it up online and the American Heart Association said on their website that “The heart beats about 60 to 80 times when we’re at rest. Resting heart rate generally rises with age and is lower in physically fit people.”  THAT’S ME! “Physically fit people”- that’s me! Needless to say, you can be sure I was thinking of that when I was running 11 miles the next day!

But now, the weather is more like fall (suddenly) and I’m very excited about it. I took the dogs for a walk after happy hour(s) with friends last night and was able to wear my fat pants and a sweatshirt. We went for a nice long walk too because I didn’t feel like we needed to rush home before the dogs passed out on the hot pavement. It was great!

Yesterday morning, the temps were about 71 degrees already around 7am. Today, it was only 50 degrees for my morning run- and I loved it! Although, my fingers were pretty cold for the first 10 minutes of the run!

I’m strongly considering running the Fleet Feet 15K Run Into Buffalo on Labor Day. I’ve asked my sister and another friend who will be in town that weekend to run with me. Again, just the idea of running with people (strangers in a race, or friends) makes me nervous and gives me motivation to keep up with my training. 9.3  miles is still a very long run for me, so I’m hoping I finish before they kick me off the course! They have a 2 hour and 30 minute time limit for this race. I feel very comfortable running 4 miles on a regular basis (although my knee was bothering me this morning- post run).

I’m also thinking about driving down to Schroon Lake this weekend to run on the course where the half marathon will be on September 20th. I’m told there are a lot of hills (surprise, surprise- it IS the Adirondacks!)- but I want to experience them once before actually running the half- just to ease my mind that I can actually do it. I’m totally unfamiliar with the course though and I know it’s not an out and back run so I’ll have to improvise- or crawl back to my car. I need to run 11 miles (I think) this weekend, so it’ll be a good time to check out the course. Maybe I can take my camera with me too so I can take pictures of where I’ll be running the race in less than a month. I sure as heck won’t be carrying my camera with me on race day!

Oh- I also got my race “jersey” in the mail yesterday- which is a great motivator to keep up with the training. It’s been a long haul, but I’m getting more excited as the race gets closer!

So, this post is my confession that I didn’t run any where near as much as I should have this past week (nor did I update my blog enough!) and I will do my best to make up for it this week! We have an 11 mile run planned this weekend and I’m hoping we will run it on the course in Schroon Lake so I can experience the hills I’ve been told about. I took today off from running, because I got back from WNY at 1:30am and was at work at 8:30am. It’s been a busy day and I’m excited to get home and chill with the pups tonight- to prepare for a great run tomorrow morning!

I took the pups for a ride on Saturday after we went for a nice long walk. My hope was to tire them out so they would put up with whatever new circumstance came at them. Yoko was all about just laying and enjoying the cool breeze in her face, but Gus was not having it- at least not at the beginning. I would also like to add, that they are small cute dogs and all- but they’re heavy when you’re pulling them behind a bike!! The two of them together are 60 pounds and I’m sure the buggy itself isn’t light as a feather- so my quads got quite the workout!

As you can see, Gus was hooked into the left side, but clearly wanted to be sitting on the right side. And Yoko was just happy to be laying down- but she took up most of the space inside the buggy!

We went for two rides that day, once in the morning and once in the evening (after ensuring the tires were filled with air). I think they’ll get more used to it in time. I love that we can all share in bike rides now!

A funny story: Coming down the hill near my house, some of my neighbors were outside. (This is the couple that have a weird outdoor caged environment for their cats). I heard the husband say to his wife “Did you see that?! Did you see that?! She had her dogs in that thing!” You can bet I had a big smile on my face after hearing that- as if I’M the crazy one!

So, now there’s no excuse for me to not cross train- except for the one I’ve come up with recently: It’s too damn hot to do anything!! It’s been in the 90s the past couple of days and the dogs know it! They run outside quickly to go potty and then right back in the house- and we don’t even have air-conditioning! I did put the window unit in last night so we could sleep in some cool air and it was great. Loud, but great! I think after this week, the temps should get a little closer to normal temperatures, so then we can continue our bike rides with the doggy buggy!