Heroes Half Marathon Race Recap and some other tid bits of life

Yes, I'm alive. 

Just barely. 

Time is seriously flying by so fast I can't even stop to breathe. The good news is - we got all of the final approvals for buying our new house in Michigan and we're scheduled to close a week from Friday! How crazy is it that the first time I will be stepping foot into this house myself is less than 1 hour before we plunk down a huge check? Crazy, I tell you. And yes, apparently I do trust Rob that much! 

I'm busy working on organizing everything for the move - the movers arrive a week from today. I'm feeling overwhelmed and anxious, but luckily most everything is in some semblance of order - just need to get rid of perishable foods, organize Julia's playroom (and try to purge without her knowing!) and pack for what I need for the next 30-45 days until we're able to get into the house. 

Nuts. 

I could think of a few people to do this to... (via Google)

Anyway...back to more exciting topics: The half marathon I did last weekend with TriGirl! Did I even mention I was running it? Maybe not. Well, I did and it was so much fun. 

Julie is in training mode, so she had this race as a check-point to see how she was doing and see how close she could get to a new PR!

The race was the Heroes Half Marathon in Everett, about 30 minutes north of Seattle. The race honored those who serve our country and it started/finished right near the Navy base up there. The volunteers were mainly cadets from the area and many high school students in ROTC-type programs. It was really neat to go and at the same time honor Boston while we raced: 

The weather was definitely rainy, but we're used to that here in Seattle. It was a bit windy too which made it feel a lot colder than 46 degrees. But nonetheless, we were ready! 

The course was mainly flat, with the only hills being over the multiple bridges we crossed over. Some of them were a bit steeper than I was anticipating. Julie handled them with ease, though, since she runs in her hometown with 45 degree incline hills. No joke. (ok maybe 20 but whatever...they're steep). 

I asked her if she wanted me to talk to keep her distracted - to which she probably regrets saying yes to now! So I told multiple stories about everything under the sun and probably annoyed the hell out of everyone around me, including Julie! But the miles ticked by which is always a good thing. The man who was in the lead for the half passed us on his way back pushing a toddler in a stroller. Turns out the guy ran like 1:14 and possibly set a World Record for the half marathon pushing a stroller. I had no idea there was such a record!

We pushed on and were feeling great despite the annoying rain and wind (and my annoying stories). Miles 9 through 11-ish were a bit rough, as the mile markers for that and the 10k run they had were a bit confusing. We thought we were further than we were and then ran into another hill. But after a brief potty stop for me, and a walk break for Julie, we trekked on! 

I told her once we we were at mile 12, we were going to pick up the pace to get to the finish. A gentleman came up behind us and asked if we would pace him into the finish because he was struggling. We of course said yes and I told him about the interval plans and he was on board too. 

We picked landmarks and did sprints between them and it worked well (I think/hope)! We then saw the finish line and I told Julie (and our new friend) to just GO and leave nothing on the course! 

I knew Julie was going to crush her PR at that point so I told her the time which hopefully gave her a bit of a push to get to the end. She took off and sprinted into the finish where we saw her husband TriGuy waiting for us with the camera! 

There we are!

Almost into the finish area

We crossed the finish line at 2:04:17...which was a PR for Julie by - get this - 9 MINUTES! Is that so awesome!? I was thrilled for her and so excited that she crushed it by that much. And the guy who latched onto us in the last mile gave me a hug at the end and thanked me for pushing him to the end! That was so humbling to me and I appreciated that very much. 

cheese-ball

Yay!

I had such a great time running with a friend - it made the time fly by and I loved being able to be there for such a huge PR! I know she'll break the 2 hour mark in her next race and be ready to kick major booty for the rest of her training.
Oh and here are 2 of our "official" race photos - they are good ones I think! 

via Ontherunevents.com

LOVE this one! via ontherunevents.com

Thanks, Julie, for letting me tag along for the race! Had such a blast and hopefully we can race again together soon! 

And because who knows when I'll have a chance to blog again, my wonderful friend Nancy came to visit us last weekend and help take my mind off of the move and just have a few fun days in Seattle. We did a lot and had a blast - here are a few pictures from our adventures: 

Tourists!

The Fremont Troll - had yet to get my picture up there!

Lake Union in the background with my wonderful Julia

Cheese!

 And how cool is this: we were in Nordstrom Rack downtown Seattle, and who did I meet? Elizabeth Mitchell, who plays Rachel on the NBC show "Revolution" and was Juliette on "Lost"! She could not have been nicer...not to mention gorgeous and TALL!

She complimented me on the color of my Tough Chik shirt!

So there you have it.
Hopefully I'll come out of this alive on the other end and be back to tell you the tales. 

Have a great week and wish me luck!

Ch-ch-ch-changes....and a triathlon race entry GIVEAWAY!

I realize I've been pretty MIA with my blog in recent weeks/months. In reality, I have had nothing very exciting to talk about. As I've said, I'm not currently training for any triathlons, so I feel like I'm just going through the motions. I've still been biking and running every day, with an occasional swim thrown in for good measure.

The reason I haven't really committed to much is because I knew life was going to change pretty drastically. I just wasn't sure when. 

Well, that change presented itself right before we went on vacation in March/April: 

Did we trick all of you into thinking I was preggers?! Yea, that was the idea! 

No, not that, but we are on the move, yet again! Does this story sound familiar to you? One year ago tomorrow, we left Michigan to fly to Seattle and start an adventure here. It has been a fun ride - we have met a lot of great people and had a ton of fun getting to know the area. Seattle is an awesome city and it's beautiful here.

But reality hit us hard: Michigan is home and there was too much drawing us back, including all of our families, Michigan State, friends, etc.

Rob was fortunate enough to land a job back with General Motors and my job can go anywhere. And the kicker of it all? We bought a house last week - and I've never stepped foot into it. I trust Rob and my sister-in-law that much that I signed my life away in hopes that I like it when I get to Michigan in mid-May. 

Crazy. 

Now that I have a plan in place and hopefully this is the last move for many, many years, I can sort of start planning some races and see where I land. I may do some of my favorite sprint triathlons with my dad this summer and just play it by ear. 

With that, though, I'm unable to race as an ambassador for the Dilettante Women's Triathlon here in Seattle in June. 

So I'm GIVING AWAY MY ENTRY!! I worked with the wonderful race director, Porter, and he asked me to provide one of my readers with an entry! The race is June 15th - here is the LINK to the website for more details! They have a sprint or Olympic distance so if you ever wanted to try a tri, now is your chance to do it for FREE!

Entry is very simple - Use the Rafflecopter below for information! 



a Rafflecopter giveaway Contest runs now through midnight on May 2nd. 

Look forward to giving one of my lovely followers this great prize! 

Good Luck!

**I was provided my entry free of charge in exchange for promotion of the triathlon. I was not compensated in any other way. Contest is only open to women, as this triathlon is a women's only event! (sorry, guys!)**

Senseless.

I debated about posting anything this morning, but I'm thinking that writing my thoughts down may help a bit. 

The tragedy at the Boston Marathon yesterday has really hit home for me and I find myself walking around in a bit of a stunned haze. It's one of those days where you'll look back and say "I remember what I was doing when I heard the news." Panic set in as I realized how many people I knew who were running or there as spectators yesterday.

via Google

My good friend and fellow Spartan Aaron, my friend and fellow Ironman Moe, my childhood friend's daughter Meghan and my friend Adam, whom I met at Ironman Arizona all finished. Several other "virtual" friends I know through this blog, Twitter or various Facebook groups were also running. 

Their families and friends were at the finish line waiting for them.

Any one of them could have been hurt or even worse. Thankfully all of them were accounted for and uninjured.

Then I start to think about Rob and Julia. If I were ever so fortunate to qualify for Boston, that could have been them (or me), too. They are always right there at the finish line for all of my races, cheering me (and my fellow racers) on and there to give me a hug. 

To know that an 8 year old boy, Martin Richard, was killed and his sister and mother are severely hurt as they watched for their dad to finish this iconic race just breaks my heart. 

That could have been Julia in the news this morning. 

It's too overwhelming to think about, actually.

My thoughts and prayers continue to be with all those affected, their families, friends and the residents of Boston. Those who are first responders and ran to the chaos instead of from it are to be commended beyond words. 

via Google

Jeff from Detroit Runner ran 4.09 miles this morning in honor of Boston - that was the time the clock at the finish line showed when the first bomb went off. I will be doing the same later. 

via Google

Nothing will take away the pain those people are suffering, but hopefully they know the entire running community is hugging them from across the world and we all stand united. 

Evil will not prevail. 

Ever.

Peace. 

via Google

I love this time of year...

So I really have nothing much to blog about right now about running/triathlons/etc.

My hamstring is being annoying. 
I have no races on the schedule. 
Life just continues to be busy.

But the best thing right now is THIS: 

If you hadn't noticed, my love for Michigan State runs way deep. 

I love this team. 

via Google

I love Coach Izzo. 

via Google

I love basketball. 

via Google

I love filling out brackets. 

via Google

I love watching upsets.

via Google

I love watching all the games regardless of who is playing. 

Can anyone guess this team? via Google

 I love the NCAA tournament. 

via Google

And it's always fun when Michigan State looks like they're a good team who could make a run. The Spartans won today and are moving on to the Round of 32 on Saturday. 

Our lives pretty much revolve around when the games are on. We'll be landing in Florida early Saturday morning and I already have the cable at our house turned on and ready to go. 

It's all about this: 

via Google

Onward we march! 

Enjoy your weekend and GO STATE!!

Lake Sammamish Half Marathon Race Recap

Happy Tuesday, y'all! 

Hope you had a good weekend and the week isn't kicking you in the back side too badly so far. I tell you what, though. That time change really is a doozy. I have no idea why it's so difficult to handle but it certainly feels like the clocks moved about 4 hours, not just 1. Blech. 

I know, right? via Google

And to top if off, my poor Julia has a double ear infection, making for a pretty rough day yesterday for the 2 of us. Luckily thanks to Tylenol, antibiotics and some TLC (or so I'd like to think!), she is feeling better and was bouncing off the walls again. Whew. 

So back to the topic at hand - my half marathon on Saturday. You remember. The one I didn't train for? 

Yea. That one. 

I picked up my packet on Friday so I didn't have to deal with it on Saturday morning which was a good call. The shirt was nice (long sleeve tech shirt), got some hand warmers, lip balm and a few other items in the goodie bag too! Also picked up a nice long sleeve shirt on clearance with a 10% coupon they gave us. 

I set all of my stuff out on Friday evening since I had to get Julia over to my friend (and her teacher!) Alicia's house early Saturday morning. Alicia was kind enough to drop me off at the start line since it is a point to point race. The weather was supposed to be 42 and sunny with no wind. Tough one with the outfit choice, but I went with capris and a light long sleeve shirt. 

Saturday morning we made our way to Marymoor Park where the race started, shrouded in fog and 32 degree temperatures. Um... not quite 42 and sunny, people! (BTW, I want to be a meteorologist when I grow up - you can be wrong 95% of the time and no one ever fires you.) 

I was absolutely frozen. 

I wandered around for a bit, sat for a bit, texted with Christy, chatted with my friend Gloria and then got ready to start. And then they delayed the start. I have no idea why, but we were supposed to start at 8:30 and it was closer to 8:45 by the time the gun went off. Couldn't feel my fingers at that point. 

I settled into a decent pace at the start as we ran through the park and onto the Sammamish River Trail. I really had no expectation of my time going into this thing. I wasn't sure how I would feel, how crowded it would be (there were almost 1,800 finishers), etc. As I mentioned, I was not properly trained either. 

Trying not to glance at my Garmin, I kept pace with the people around me, and finally started to warm up around mile 3. I took a peek and saw I was steady around 7:45/mile pace and feeling good. 

Since I knew the trail so well, I just took in the scenery, listened to the people around me and just ran. I felt great until about mile 8 or 9 when we came up a short, steep ramp from the trail onto the sidewalk on the road above us. I had to walk! I was pissed at myself and my pace slipped from averaging 7:45-7:50 to 8:15-ish. 

via Steve Sanders Photography. I look like death. This is mile 8-ish I think

Definitely starting to feel the effects of not running more than 9 miles since Ironman. The 10 mile mark appeared and I had to walk a bit more just to regroup. Nothing hurt, but I was just spent and could feel I was hitting a wall. 

We got into Lake Sammamish State Park as we hit the 11 mile mark. Ummmm....so the finish is in the park. How are we fitting 2.1 more miles in? Yea - this is the fun part. They had us do not 3...not 4.... but 6 switch backs in a parking lot. SIX of them. It was an absolute mind game at this point and I was beyond miserable. I did not like this part of the race AT ALL. I didn't have to walk, but my pace was all over the place. I picked back up when I knew I was about 1/2 mile from the finish line. 

There were a ton of spectators lining the finish area which was really nice to see. I crossed the line, stopped my watch and was really surprised to see 1:44 and some change. WHAT? 1:44:42 was my PR (which I got in October in Detroit, during the peak of my Ironman training). So that was interesting. I wasn't 100% sure of my chip time, though. 

I got some food, water and walked as quickly as I could to meet up with Alicia who brought Julia and my car to me near the finish (she's the BEST!). Unfortunately, Julia wasn't feeling well and I felt terribly Alicia had to deal with that. Quick snap back to mommy reality! 

Got this picture from the race website - the shirt and the cute finishers' medal

The results came through later that afternoon and I was shocked at 5 things: 

1) I have a shiny new PR...by a whopping 2 seconds! Official finish time was 1:44:40
2) The woman who won the race was in my age group. She ran 1:15:57 which is a course record. Um, what? That's 5:45 pace. 
3) My age group was 30-39 for this race and even with a PR, I finished 45th out of 395. 45th!!! Wow.
4) I was 102nd female overall out of 1,039. Top 10% but 1/3 of those women were in my damn age group!
5) There are some amazingly crazy fast women here.They should be tested. (I kid...not really...)

Overall, I'm glad I ran the race but know that I'm not going to do that again without actually training for it. Sure, I got a PR but I know I could have felt better and probably run even faster had I been prepared. We'll see if I do another one anytime soon. 

Lesson learned. Oh and I need to move somewhere where fast women don't live! 

I am running a half marathon in 3 days. Um...What?

Ah yes...I'm back after a 2 week hiatus. Honestly, I have been so crazy busy that my blog has gone by the wayside in order to get everything else done. My apologies to anyone out there who missed me. And I know you all did :)

Right? Right.

I'm happy to report that things are going well overall with life - my job is great (albeit crazy, nutso busy). In fact, I got a raise and a bonus (which will pay for my braces...bah) last week which is always nice. I also launched a project I've been working really hard on and gotten super fantastic feedback on it.

Positive reinforcement? Yes, please.

I got to spend a few days back in Michigan last weekend with my parents and my friends. I packed in a ton of stuff in a short time - I was pretty much exhausted after the trip and felt like I needed a day off from my days off! It was odd, though, being away from Julia for the first time in over a year. Seriously. I hadn't gone one, single day without being there to either tuck her in or see her when she woke up. It was an odd feeling but I had fun, and she got to enjoy some Daddy/daughter adventures and they had a blast together tubing and eating junk food. (Don't judge, and don't get me started on that whole topic.) 

Here are a few pictures from the weekend: 

At Snoqualmie, ready to go tubing with Dad!

Rob said she had a blast! And it was warm too!

Meeting up with my old friend Dani after many, many years

My favorite meal at my favorite restaurant in my hometown! Baked ravioli. Heaven.

My lovely friend Melissa who you may remember from surprising the hell out of me at Ironman! I miss her.

Maggie - she's a major kick-ass runner these days

Chris, the brother I never had. Love him.

My Megan :)

My friend Paul, who I have known for 20 years!

My oldest niece, Kayley, with our matching brace faces!

 Much fun was had. 

And in other news, I have a half marathon this weekend. 

But Erika, you haven't talked much about it. 

Yea, I know. That's the issue.

Am I prepared physically for this? Highly doubt it. 
Am I prepared mentally for this? Hell no.

I signed up for this race quite a while ago, while I was still riding my Ironman high, thinking I was invincible. 
Now that it's only a few days away I realize that I'm not sure I'm mentally or physically ready for it. Sure, I've been running 5 or 6 miles, 3 or 4 days a week, but haven't really done more than 9 miles since Ironman. 

Is that bad? Probably. 

I'm also concerned about being able to mentally stay "with it" as I get to about mile 10 or 11, which is where I usually start to fade. I'm not running with anyone, don't know anyone racing, and Rob is not in town this weekend so I won't have any cheerleaders.

The good thing is that the route is flat (honestly, it is flat, not like the other "flat" courses I've run around here. Liars.) and it's where I did the majority of my Ironman training runs. It's right along the lake, it's really pretty, it's a point-to-point race and the weather is supposed to be perfect. 

Bonus. 

I hope a bird doesn't take my shoes.

The problem is, that I feel like every time I race, I have to get a PR. 

Why? I have no idea. 
Why does it matter? I have no clue. 
Shouldn't I just go out and enjoy it and not care about my time? Probably. 
Will I just go enjoy it? Probably not.

For some reason, my pea brain thinks I'm letting myself and others down if I don't kill it at every race. I'm not sure where this feeling came from and how to make it stop. 

It's annoying. 

As I sit here and get more nervous by the minute about the race, I really need someone to smack me around and tell me to knock it off. 

Does anyone care if I don't PR? Um..no. 

That voice in my head is the only one who cares and they can go to hell

Right? Right. 

So I'll do my best, enjoy the scenery, run well and whatever happens, happens. 

Right? Sure... 

via Google

Winning! My Rainman Indoor Triathlon Race Recap

So I had intended on posting this on Monday...it's now Thursday. That's the kind of week I've had. It has been absolutely cray cray up in here. It feels like this week has been 8 weeks long, but at the same time there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. That's a strange thing to me. 

Anyhow... 

Last week I decided to sign up for my first indoor triathlon. I debated about it for a while, forgot about it, and then said "What the hell?" when Christy mentioned it in passing last week. She claimed I would have "home field" advantage since it took place at my gym. Alright, I'll bite. 

Turns out this one was more of a hybrid triathlon - we did a 15 minute swim in the pool, a 30 minute bike on trainers but with our own bikes and a 2.85 mile run outside. And did I mention that my wave started at 6:40...PM?? Very odd, but whatever. 

I got there early to try to figure out exactly how this was going to work. I got my bike and gear set up in "transition" and chatted with a few people there. I was amazed that probably half of the men there were multi-time Ironman finishers. And it was a small race. Lots of very nice bikes in that room. And lots of M-dots. 

via Google. This made me laugh.

I ventured down to the pool to assess the situation and watch the first 2 waves. The heats were small so only 1 or 2 people in each lane which was good. I asked the race director how transition worked and he informed me that the 30 minute "bike" time actually included the time it took us to: get out of the pool, down the hall, through the locker room, through another hall, up the slippery stairs, into the studio, get our bike shoes on and get on the bike. I thought they would have given us time to change and not have to risk slipping on wet floors to run up stairs, but I was mistaken. So I re-assessed my outfit and instead of wearing my Wonder Woman swim suit (oh yea), I opted for my tri shorts and sports bra to swim so I could just grab my towel and run up to my bike and throw everything on. 

It was finally my turn to swim and I chose the outside lane and had it to myself. I noticed very few women in the other heats. We were off and I settled into a steady pace. My shorts were bugging me as they weren't tight enough and dragging in the water a bit. Bah. But I had my chrono watch going and kept track of my own laps along with the lady who was counting for us on deck. I ended up doing 1,000 yards in the 15 minute time, which was exactly my goal.

We hopped out of the pool and ran (carefully) up to the bikes which were set up on the trainers for us. They were calibrated based on our body weight and weight of the bike itself. I kept up a decent pace of around 18mph for the entire time. I lost about 3 or 4 minutes in "transition" so I was only able to get 7.23 miles in. Oh well. 

Time was up and I quickly got my running shoes on, grabbed a long sleeve zip up shirt, my visor and headed down the stairs and outside. It was chilly. The run was 3 loops on the back roads that lead to my gym. Mainly on sidewalks, not a lot of traffic but also not very many lights! It was so dark and had been raining so I was constantly stepping in puddles. Yuck. I passed the only other woman in my heat within the first 100 yards and never looked back. I was trucking and felt great. I didn't look at my watch so had no idea of my pace, but based on the overall time, including "transition", I ran the 2.85 miles in 20:20 which is smoking fast for me - sub 7:00 miles I think for the actual time I was running.

via Google - I was THIS fast...haha!

I finished with a total time of 1:05:20 but that doesn't really mean much I guess - they do some crazy calculations (I'm not that good at the maths) and come up with an aggregated time if we were to have done a "true" sprint triathlon which was 1:25:16. Whatever - I don't question it but it sounds strange. The race site is HERE and it explains how they calculate the time. 

BUT! I found out on Sunday that...

drum roll please... 

...I was FIRST overall female! 

via Google

I've never ever won a race of any kind (I don't count my high school swim meets 21 years ago when I won my 100 backstroke a few times) so I was really excited!

Here's the kicker though... 

There were only 15 women. 

Damn. 

It doesn't quite have the same cache. But a win is a win, right?! Sure. 

Not sure what I won but hopefully something fun - I'm supposed to hear this week. Even if it's just a blue ribbon (or a Pabst Blue Ribbon - ha!), that's cool too. 

via Google - I think THIS should be the prize!!

If nothing else, this event has made me want to race even more now. I have a half marathon in 2 weeks but that's still all that's on the schedule except for the sprint triathlon in June that I'm an ambassador for. 

The taste of victory - no matter how small the race is - is pretty cool... 

Thanks for reading!