My lucky running skirt

I love running skirts, they are oh so cute on but I don't feel fast in them. And if you're a runner who also dabbles in races much like this midpack age-grouper then you know it's important to feel "fast" even if you're not a front of the pack speedster. Hey, it's mind games but if it works, then it works. I'll take every advantage that I can get ;-). As a result, most of my races are run in Nike tempo shorts.

Just a tad over 3 weeks ago I wandered into Hibbett's here in Searcy with a $20 coupon, my intention was to buy a 2nd pair of running shoes but I took a detour into the clothes section. And it was there that I found it--a Nike running skirt that looked fast as well as cute. I kept waffling back and forth on buying it, after all $60 is quite a chunk of change for running apparel (shoes are a different story). Well, that running skirt went home with me after about 30 minutes deliberation.

It's..............Perfect! It's shorter than most running skirts, wicks like a dream, has a zippered back pocket big enough to fit my Iphone in, and it's just darn cute......I've also set 2 personal records in that skirt so there was no contest about packing it with me this week for the Watermelon 5k. It had become my lucky running skirt, I was sure to have a fantastic race again I thought. Well, I thought my lucky running skirt let me down today (yes, I know in reality it was my lack of eating that did me in, but bear with me) and was lamenting to James about how it was no longer a good luck charm.

James, however, in all his wonderful wisdom, pointed out that I still placed in my age group (1st, unless they find some more errors like in the 30-34 group) and I was able to finish the race without puking or passing out despite my poor judgement in fueling (or non-fueling). Therefore the skirt was still my lucky running skirt! Oh, happy day!!!!!!

Ok, ok, this is a silly post but I do love this skirt. As a matter of fact, James suggested that I go buy a 2nd one but I think that would just jinx my new-found good luck charm.

Watermelon 5k (and the week leading up to it)

Race #12 of the state Grand Prix is done, whew! Wow, was it hot!!! I also had some issues with my pre-race fueling this morning so it wasn't the race I would have liked.

If you read my previous post "Food for Thought" then you know all about my blood-sugar issues. This morning I didn't get my usual 300-400 calories and tried to make do with a 100 calorie pack of almonds. Well, short story, my body didn't like the calorie deficit and I was having problems even before the race started. During my warm-up run I started feeling kind of weak and was sweating profusely. In fact I was sweating so much more than usual I had a friend comment before race start about it. I then told a couple more friends what was going on so that if I did happen to have any major problems they would know what to tell the race officials if anything happened. I did have to back off the speed and fell right back into my default 5k time, the 25 minute range, today it was 25:10 :-(. Oh well, live and learn.

Had a Wednesday pickup (had to trade with James again) so didn't get back into Arkansas until Friday night. I did make arrangements with another group of friends (thanks Patti and Brice!) to pick me up in Hope so I wouldn't have to drive all the way to N. Little Rock then back down. That saved me time and money! Just slept in the big truck Friday night and while I was out racing I ran the a.p.u. for Elsie so she could have air conditioning in familiar surroundings.

Oh, jeez, this is going to be a convoluted post.........Going to be working my way backwards just like the foreign movies James hates so much, LOL.....Or maybe not, let's start back with the first of the week.

Monday--visit with sis, nephew, neice, and Mike. Planned on a yoga class in Cabot that evening but screwed up the timing on leaving Russellville, driving back to Searcy to change, and driving back to Cabot. A smart person would have packed their workout clothes and bypassed the trip back to Searcy ;). No yoga for me after all.

Tuesday--3 mile run in the middle of the day because I slept in! Did manage to leave out early and would have made it to Mt. Juliet right at 9:30 pm except for this nasty line of storms that was producing 70-80 mph straight lines winds. Shut down earlier than planned, no use in pushing things when I'm that close and have plenty of time. Truck stop filled up within a matter of minutes after I got there. Also did 20 pushups and 30 lunges on Elsie's walk break before the sun went down.

Wednesday--Woke up early for my 6 mile hilly run at Hurricane Mills. Absolutely fantastic run!!!!!!!!! Beautiful morning, perfect temperature, felt AWESOME. When you have that great of a workout, you just know the rest of the day is going to be good. Saw 2 chipmunks, several squirrels, 1 rabbit, and another runner :-). The latter was a first for me there but he wasn't a local, he was staying in the nearby motel. He also didn't venture out on the dirt and gravel road, shoot, that's the best part if you haven't pulled a muscle in your hip the night before, LOL. The trailer I picked up didn't have 10 zillion things wrong (just one!) and it was light, under 6,000 lbs. I was pulling the hills like a large car. Shop foreman at NLR joked with me that I only had 2500 more trailers to go before I had the entire fleet repaired. It's getting to be ridiculous, sometimes I swear James and I are the only two that bother writing things up. BTW, he also worked on my trailer personally and asked about my running/cycling distances. I think he was kind of impressed the day he caught me doing pushups with my feet elevated off the truck step.

Thursday--run rest day +I was trying to get to Laredo as quickly as possible. Was on schedule to get there and dropped before sundown (no backups in Austin or San Antonio) but ran over something between our yard and the customer that was bad enough to cause a flat tire. Sooo, had to turn around and sit in line to get tire replaced. 2.5 hours blown.................

Friday--woke up before dawn to drive to Pearsall for my workout (it's mostly flat) and got out a good solid 5.75 miles. Not a spectacularly great run but it was okay, no issues. Later in the day I did 50 pushups (broke down into 3 sets) and 50 lunges. Traffic was good through Austin again which is surprising since it was Friday). I even made it to Hope before the sun went down, yay. Except for the tire the night before, this week has gone amazingly well.

I am sooo very tired though, 3 races in a row and only the first one had enough time to give me a rest day between driving and racing. It's wearing on me both emotionally and physically. This coming week I'm picking up on Tuesday so if everything goes well I may be able to do the duathlon that's in Lake DeGray on Saturday. I haven't pre-registered for it because of the messed up work schedule and it's not a g.p. race so it's not a must-do for me, just a would like to do.

My LBS bike mechanic invited me to ride with him and his friends in the morning but I have a 12 mile run to do first thing. Want to get it done before it's sweltering out. If I'm feeling ok in the afternoon may try to get a short ride in. Great thing is that I'm meeting friends so the 12 miles should fly by! I am missing the cycling with my Searcy people though!

Food for Thought

Ok, at what point did I start thinking of food as "fuel" rather than, well, food? I had a slight issue with my mild hypoglycemia this morning because of improper eating. As I was discussing it with a few friends afterwards I noticed that I kept referring to what normal people would call meals as fueling. Kind of mildly bumfuzzled on the way home I started trying to trace this back to its start and I DON'T KNOW! I've been doing it for at least the past year so I'm guessing that it started about the time I started seriously training for my first century ride, the Big Dam Bridge 100.

Since I was already on this train of thought, it took a mild detour into my eating habits. As I've gotten more fit and serious about training I've found that there a lot of foods that I no longer eat. Some are just no-brainers, cut out the majority of soda (it's now a treat rather than a habit), drink more water, eat less red meat. You know, just eating better foods. Other foods I just CAN'T eat if I want to run/cycle/workout because if I do consume them they will result in butt explosions. yeah, yeah, I know it's gross but it's also the most apt description.

But I got started wondering did I always have issues with these foods and I'm just now noticing the results. Or is it a case of my body just isn't tolerating them now. Hmmm, as the title states "Food for Thought."

Ice cream and milk I've always had trouble with but would put up with the resulting pain just because I wanted the instant gratification. Now, when I crave ice cream, I just stop and think about my workout schedule. If a run or cycle session is the next day I just ask myself is it worth a possible emergency trip into the woods. It's usually not ;-).

However, other foods are a surprise to me. Peanut butter is giving me issues (surprisingly I'm ok with Nutella, mmmm, hazelnuts!). I have to watch out for the overly processed breads. Artificial sweeteners are a sure way for my belly to resemble something from the "Alien" movie. Gu brand gels can cause my blood sugar to plummet resulting in the oh so fun shaky feeling. Spicy foods are on the do not eat the day before a run list. Fried foods (even my beloved fried okra) is becoming something I HAVE to avoid, not just should avoid.

Now let's go back to this morning. As I wrote earlier, I'm mildly hypoglycemic which means my blood sugar will drop too low if I'm not eating properly. This pretty much means I have to eat something, usually a carb/protein mix, every 2-3 hours. If I don't I get shaky, weak, and what I refer to as "hangry" which is hungry angry. When it reaches the hangry stage, watch out--I'm very bitchy, and most of the time I don't even realize why until I start counting back to the last time I ate. I've also passed out once due to the hypoglycemia, now I know the symptoms and will eat something pronto.

So the long way around ;), I'm one of those people that will eat before a race, even a 5k. I try to time it out so that any bathroom issues are resolved before race start and I always try to eat the same thing (McDonald's egg McMuffin, no meat, no cheese and 1/2 cup of coffee). I know exactly how my body will react and how long it takes to digest.

Life was so much easier when I didn't think of food as fuel but I must admit that I feel so much better now than 3 years ago.

Running on the road

Kind of an ambiguous title!

I do frequently get asked about how I manage to fit in my runs while I'm out driving during the week, i.e. how and where, so thought I would write a post about some of my favorite places to "hit the road."

First off, it is a fair bit easier for me in that I run a dedicated route. I'm rarely in a new place (although the Alabama stop has added in some variety) so I'm able to scope out the safer/interesting places ahead of time. On the other hand, I am female so it can be a tad more difficult. For example, I will rarely run at night and I almost always have to make sure I have a phone and/or pepper spray with me.

1)Buda, TX--I35, exit 220. Ample truck parking behind Cabela's and if you're wanting a safe fairly smooth route, you can do laps around the humongous parking lot. If you're a bit more adventurous take the sidewalk behind the truck parking area north to the stop light and turn left (west) into town. Sidewalk, then grass/dirt, then pavement. The city is also working on a very nice park that will offer some short off-road trails--yeah, I've already scoped it out even though the barricades say construction crews only ;-). Bathrooms available at Cabela's, Wal-Mart, and at the city park in the downtown. No showers though.

2)Lebanon, TN at the Pilot--I40, exit 238. Safe--run laps around the outlet mall across the street. Adventurous--follow the frontage road east until it dead-ends, at that point you can go across the road for short distance and turn back or turn right. Continue making rights and you'll eventually get back to the road for the Pilot. If you take the right turn option be prepared for uneven grass/gravel surface and some heavy traffic at times.

3)Hurricane Mills, TN--I40, exit 143. Two options here, both are hilly although the west route less so. East route is directly across the road from the Pilot truck entrance (also the truck exit for the dumbasses that can't read) and is very hilly and will turn into a dirt road. Parallels the interstate but is very wooded. West route is the first road north past the Pilot. Paved but you will have to get on the grass when traffic is coming at you. Most everybody gives you plenty of room though and waves. No bathrooms available once you leave the Pilot and surrounding businesses though.

4)Mt. Vernon, TX--I30, exit 146 and 147. Two fuel stops to park at here. I take the north side frontage road to get to a small road that's just west of the Love's and zig-zag my way into town. Service road to Gadlin then left on Franklin and right on Miller. Endless options to check out the town of Mt. Vernon then. There is also the frontage road option if you head west (less traffic than going east). Also if you can find a parking spot at either of the rest areas you can run the frontage road on both sides.

5)Cotulla and Pearsall, TX--I35, exits 67 and 101 respectively. Fuel stops at both these exits and you can run the frontage road at each location and head into town easily. Pearsall is flatter.

6)Kerens, TX--Hwy 31 east of Corsicana. Fuel stop next to a dollar store on west side of town. Cross the highway and explore the neighborhoods. Tree-covered and very friendly people. Downtown area is paved with bricks though so can be hard on the legs. Awesome steak house across the road, try the brisket if it's available :)

7)Dawson, TX--Hwy 31 west of Corsicana. The old truck stop is now a junk store so parking is limited, grrr. Explore the tiny town or head across the hwy to Ranch Rd 709 and run north. No bathrooms once you leave town though.

8)San Marcos, TX-I35, exit 200. Park at the Valero on the west side of the freeway and take Center Point Rd west to Hunter Rd, go either direction. Nice wide shoulders, outlet malls on the other side of the freeway, Starbucks and Whataburger south side of the fuel stop. Only downside is the crater holes in the dirt parking lot of the fuel stop. No showers though.

9)Salado, TX--I35, exit 282. Park at the fuel stop on the east side and run the frontage road south. Very hilly and very windy though. If you can catch the cafe open, excellent food, esp. the chili-burgers or huevos rancheros

10)Prescott, AR-I30, exit 44 or 46. Several fuel stops to park at. Run the frontage road on the south side or go south into town from the Love's at exit 46. Wide shoulders.

There are several other places that I will run at but these are among my favorites or the most easily accessible when you're in a big truck. Feel free to add suggestions in the comments if you're a truck driver with excellent running routes,or even if you're not a driver, just try and make sure it's a location with truck parking please.

Tagged by Tedybehr

Wow, I've been tagged! That rarely happens, so thought I would play along. Truckin Tedybehr was the tagger this time but I'm not going to tag anybody else unless they're reading this and decide they want to do it.

1. What time did you get up this morning? Too freakin early, 0430

2. How do you like your steak? Rare to Medium Rare

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I can't remember

4. What is your favorite TV show? Supernatural

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Anyplace that was a balmy 80F year round in the afternoon

6. What did you have for breakfast? umm, which one? 1st breakfast was a bacon bagel with coffee, 2nd was McDonald's deluxe breakfast (no sausage). Training ride this morning so I was very hungry :)

7. What is your favorite cuisine? other than dessert? Tie between Tex-Mex and barbecue

8. What foods do you dislike? Processed cheese, mushrooms, and mayo (technically a condiment)

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Tie between Carino's and Jason's Deli

10. Favorite dressing? None

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? 2002 Dodge Ram 1500, 2002 Harley-Davidson FXST (at least until I screwed up the carb) and a 2008 ProStar International for work

12. What are your favorite clothes? Running clothes of course, LOL!

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Ireland, Australia, Greece, Hawaii

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? Depends on the day but I run a tad pessimistic so usually 1/2 empty

15. Where would you want to retire? Texas hill country

16. Favorite time of day? anytime after my coffee

17. Where were you born? Merced, CA

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? I'm not tagging anybody so not applicable

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? See number 19

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Everyone

22. Bird watcher? You do mean the feathered kind rather than the one finger kind? If so occasionally

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Neither, lol!

24. Do you have any pets? Yes, Elsie the Miniature Schnauzer Menace

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? No, anything new for me is blogged about already

26. What did you want to be when you were little? A vet and a rock star (never mind that I have no musical talent whatsoever and can't handle the sight of blood or vomit)

27. What is your best childhood memory? Winning the school spelling bee in 8th grade-yes I am a geek

28. Are you a cat or dog person? Dog, cats are nice to visit with but do not want a litter box around, yuck

29. Are you married? Yes, 21 years last May

30. Always wear your seat belt? Yes, even before it was law

31. Been in a car accident? Yes. Why do guys think stop signs and stop lights not apply to them?

32. Any pet peeves? Oh yes! I don't think I have enough space here to list them all but tops on the list is people who don't use their turn signals

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Spinach, black olives, tomatoes, and more spinach

34. Favorite Flower? tulips and hyacinths

35. Favorite ice cream? Rarely eat ice cream because it doesn't agree with me but Yarnell's seasonal Pumpkin Pie

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Taco Bueno

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? One written section for regular driver's license, none for CDL or motorcycle endorsement

38. From whom did you get your last email? Spam--Please Confirm is listed as sender

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Maurices, until I started not buying clothing made in China or Vietnam (unfortunately my preferred brand of running shoes is made in China so can't avoid it altogether)

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? I don't think so.........

41. Like your job? Occasionally, lol! It's been kind of stressful for the past year or so because I haul auto parts

42. Broccoli? rarely

43. What was your favorite vacation? hmm, any vacation I can just hang out at home is my favorite. No particular one stands out

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? hubby

45. What are you listening to right now? Hubby watching Little Black Book on tv

46. What is your favorite color? right now? green but orange, pink, and black are right up there

47. How many tattoos do you have? 6

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? Zero

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 8/2 at 1030 am CDT

50. Coffee Drinker? Of course, what kind of truck driver would I be if I didn't drink coffee, hahaha

White River 4 Mile Classic

I mentioned in an earlier post that I didn't get much sleep last night (understatement, lol!) and knew that this was just going to be a get-it-done race..........

First off, I made it to our yard right at 10 pm last night, loaded up the pickup with Elsie and the bare essentials (forgot my eyeglasses though, grrr) and after a quick detour to the Love's to transfer points from my old card to a new one (btw, if you didn't get that done by midnight last night you've lost your points) and made it home to Searcy at 11:04 p.m. It then took me almost an hour to get things sort-of put away and gathered up for today's race. Blech, 0430 came way too early..........

Despite the Mickey D's coffee I was still bleary-eyed when I got to Batesville, LOL. Guess I should have made my own this morning so it would've been stronger. Oh yeah, that would have been great, me punch drunk already then add in industrial strength caffeine, Ha-ha.

Met up with Carol for my warm-up run (just over a mile) and she introduced me to one of her running partners from the Jonesboro area. This woman is just as bubbly as Carol so they definitely helped wake me up. Quite a few of the Cruisers raced today so got to catch up (conversation-wise) with several of my girls. I miss y'all!!!!!!!

The race--I've done this race the past 3 years and I was hoping this year with the new course I wouldn't have to walk. Well, there's always next year, LOL. Downhill start this year so of course I took off way too fast (7:20 first mile). Yep, it caught up with me quick, I ended up getting the sharp, needle point pain that I always get when I haven't hydrated enough the prior day at around mile 1.5. In this case it was drinking too much coffee on Friday that did me in. This is NOT a stitch, I can run through stitches albeit at a much slower pace. With this pain it's almost impossible for me to WALK and it's always on my right side just below the upper part of my ribcage. Every single blasted time this has happened I can look back on the days before and it's due to not enough hydration. I don't think matters were helped any by the bad meal that I'd eaten Thursday that had me running for the bathroom for a day and a half.

After I finally got the needle point to quit digging into my ribs I was finally able to start back running, after that I just walked for a few steps at the first water station while I grabbed a couple of sips then dumped the rest down my back.

Brenda, Cindy, and Jackie--Thanks for the words of encouragement while I was walking, it most definitely kept me going afterwards.

After that it was just put my head down and plow forward even if it was sooo much slower than what I would've liked.

Okay after all this I'm sure everybody's thinking that my finish time was really, really, slow but it wasn't! I ended up with a 4 mile personal record by just over a minute. Last year's time at Batesville was 37:16 (horrible race-still cringing from it) and my previous 4 mile pr was 34:27 from the 2008 Hot Summer Night 4 Mile at Jonesboro. This year's time was 33:18!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that I still managed to p.r. with that little sleep and having to drive so much just before the race. Even my last and slowest mile was 8:44. I can't freaking believe it! Just imagine how well I MIGHT have done if I hadn't been so doggone exhausted. Notice I say might, in races there are absolutely no guarantees about how I'm going to perform.

124/274 overall
29/115 female
1/10 40-44 female age group
33:18

Afterwards was breakfast at Wyatt's with some of the Cruisers and Tala and her daughter (going blank on her name but she's a pretty amazing girl, lots of grit!). Rick so very graciously bought breakfast for all of us! He's one of the nicest men you could ever hope to meet. And sorry to all the single ladies out there, he's married to an absolutely stunning woman who's just as sweet as he is :).

Guess, I ought to add in that I decided to add on some mileage after the race to go ahead and get my 9 mile long run done for the week. After catching my breath, drinking some water, and visiting for a bit I took off to finish up. You can't imagine how relieved I was after almost 2 miles by myself when I turned a corner and saw Jeannie, Jackie, Ginny, and Rick go running by. Sped up to catch up with them and it made the rest of the miles go by much quicker. So 1.16 mile warmup, 4 mile race, then 3.9 mile cooldown, long run DONE. 5 easy miles on schedule for tomorrow then I'm going to meet Alyson and Petra for a nice flat 25-30 mile bicycle ride at 6 am.

This week is also going to be difficult to get back in time for next Saturday's 5k. It's looking like I won't be loading up until later in the week again. I've already made plans with Patti and Brice for them to pick me up at a fuel stop in Hope that morning so I don't have to drive 100+ miles to N. Little Rock then back down.

and the week in review..........

OHMYGOSH, I'm so glad this week is over. I'm determined to iron the state's Grand Prix series this year and I think my dispatcher is equally determined for me not to. First off, my Monday pickup in TN was moved to Thursday but James very kindly switched with me so I could have his Wednesday appointment. Well, it was either kindness or just a desire to not listen to me bitch all week, LOL..........

Made it to Pulaski early enough to get a decent night's sleep and still be able to wake up so that I could get that day's run in (4 miles) before unloading and reloading. Silly me decided to make part of it a trail run even though it had been raining off and on during the night. I did have a good reason though, Elsie was running with me and the dog's happier if we go exploring when we get the chance so after about a mile, I decide to go down the rocky banks of a creek.

Yep, rain + rocks + creek embankment =Gabby falling first flat on her butt, rolling, and landing face forward. I didn't do a face plant but do have a small cut and bruise on my right palm which made it extremely uncomfortable to push the parking brake in during the rest of the week.

After getting my breath back and taking inventory to make sure there were no broken bones and I hadn't squished poor Elsie, we went on to finish up our 4 miles. However there was very little off the road running after that :).

I didn't think I'd landed super hard on my rear on the first part of the fall but evidently I did catch a sharp edge of a rock. It shocked the hell out of me later that day when I caught a glimpse of a HUGE bruise on my left butt cheek. It's about the size of my fist and now a unattractive dark purple and black color mixture. Glad it's nowhere visible!

Let's see, what else..........I dropped my purse in the pickup before leaving out Tues afternoon and left my fuel and points cards under the seat. That has been a major irritation all week because it meant instead of getting to use the oh so handy fuel card readers outside on the pump I had to make 2 trips (before and after fueling) to actually speak to somebody whenever I needed to top off the tanks, blech.

The 2nd pickup in AL didn't know I was coming in and that meant no product ready. Sat there for much longer than I liked because that resulted in me having to park in a no-security provided parking area in MS. Don't want to go into details here about what tends to go on in these areas but I did get to see way more of the local scene than I liked while walking Elsie.

Thursday I drove over to Breaux Bridge, LA to get in that day's workout (5 miles). Not much to say other than it was hot, humid, and I took a LOT of walk breaks ;-).

No load for me Thursday night so had to wait to be dispatched Friday morning but I did get a trailer just as soon as I qualcommed the list of what was available. Sigh, isn't that my dispatcher's job?

Because of picking up later in the week, this has meant that I've pretty much been in the driver's seat for all of my available working hours once I got loaded at Gadsden. I did take the time to run Thursday morning (Wed. run was before first appt so didn't cut into my available hours) but I knew that I would have zero time on Friday to get it in. Can't afford to be missing many runs now that I'm officially training for a marathon. Think I forgot to add that I ran just over 6 miles at the gym before leaving out Tues.

Nap time

Quick update to let everybody know I'm still around, LOL. Lot of emails and posts to read and replies to be made but it will have to wait until later. Finished my week up in 3.5 days--yeah, Terry I know I just told you Wednesday I don't like to do that :). Guess what, I STILL don't like working that hard. Made it home last night just after 11 pm and had to be up at 0430 to drive to a race--I'm a tad punch drunk right now. Anyhoo, full race report later today or tomorrow, right now it's time for a shower then a nice long nap.

Dam Night Run 5k Part III

The race itself--well by now it's pretty much a blur, LOL! Carol and I lined up near the front so we didn't have the huge delay for the start line like those closer to the back. Oh, that's a major gripe I have about the race-it was chip timed but only at the finish line, there was no start line mat. I think Jackie and Debbie said they counted 9 seconds before they reached the start.

My feet were soooooooooo hot once we got started running and stayed that way for the first mile, yuck. Very uncomfortable. 7:20 for the first mile, 14:41 2nd mile, I only lost a second there, major improvement for me. Unlike the Brickfest I didn't have a bunch of women pass me between mile 2 and 3, YAY! I did lose some time mile 2 through the finish but it wasn't a huge amount and I continued to catch and pass a few people. AND no walk breaks for me this year. I did know that even if I had a 9 minute mile at this point (mile 2) I'd still finish under 25 minutes so had a little extra boost of confidence.

I was so surprised that I caught up to Curtis just before the water station because almost every race I ran last year I was behind him, could see him but couldn't muster up the speed to catch him. Did skip the water stop, I had such a good pace going so didn't want to slow for it and besides I was still carrying my water bottle if I did decide that I absolutely had to have a drink.
Yep, ran the entire 5k with the water bottle that you can see tucked under my arm in the pic from the previous post where I'm tweeting on the phone.

Since I was nearer the front this year I didn't have to view as many people on the sides puking and dry-heaving, whew. I'm getting better but usually the sight, sound, or smell of vomit causes me to almost join in, yucko.

Just before the finish line there's a near 180 degree turn at the bottom of the hill and boy can it cause some problems if you're not used to pivoting that way. Thanks to the drills I've been doing I was able to run through it without slowing a significant amount and powered on to the chutes. Surprisingly I was able to still add a sprint at this point, didn't want to be passed in the last few feet by another female like last year. Can't remember clearly but I do think that I passed a guy through here. Like I said, it was a blur.

I was so ecstatic when I got close to the timing clock and it was showing a time less than my previous 5k personal record of 23:56!!!!!!! Like I posted before the results show my official finish time as 23:26 but I was thinking that I'd done it in 23:46-48. So extra happy now! It will be tough to beat this one for a while though because there was so much downhill. Not that downhills are any easier on your body but once you figure out how to properly run without leaning back and essentially "braking", it feels like you can fly down.

Had that runner's high going afterwards!! Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!!

　

Debbie and me with our age-group awards, a huge nylon tote sack that will come in very handy hauling race gear around.

I've already posted this but the first place female in my age group was in the top 3 Masters so I ended up getting the 1st place 40-44 age group award. Unfortunately I've fallen to 2nd place in the overall female masters in the year's Grand Prix points standings. The woman in first is just too darned fast, LOL!

The weight loss and resumption of speed workouts on the treadmill seems to be working, the past 2 races have gotten me out of the 25 minute range slump that I've been in for the past year. What I've learned though is that if I want to put in faster races (fast for me anyway!) I'm going to have to deal with the feeling of almost puking.............yuck.

Dam Night Run 5k Part II

Now that I have more time to recap the race I think I've forgotten nearly everything I wanted to write, LOL..........Getting old sucks sometimes ;-)

This was my 2nd year running the Dam Night 5k and I'm very happy to say that this year was much more successful than last year's attempt. For one, last year's race was one week after breaking my front tooth at my nephew's birthday party and the dentist wasn't ready to put a cap on it so very, very few smiles. Also this year I was much better prepared for long downhill stretches, although you wouldn't know it by how sore my legs are today. OUCH!!!!!! Delayed onset muscle soreness is a bitch........

The Dam Night Run 5k is a point to point race and you can either run the 3.1 mostly uphill miles to the start line or be trucked up on the back of a local lumber company's flatbed bobtrucks (what they use to make deliveries to small construction sites). The lines can be very long.

Tweeting while waiting in line. Yep, there's the crooked teeth from last year's roller skating mishap :). I looooove my Iphone!

On the truck--got to ride up with Carol to get advice on marathon training. I think we're about to drive the guys on either side of us batty with our incessant chatting and giggling.

Start was delayed only 15 minutes this year as compared to the 45 minute late start of the prior year thankfully. It's HOT and HUMID standing up at the top amid the sea of sweaty runners

The Search and Rescue boat that was providing this extremely welcome shower of water near the finish line.

Don't be fooled--by race end this area is in complete darkness except for the street lights and the finish line area spotlights. Mosquite repellant is a necessity, even though you'd think they'd be repelled by the stench of sweaty runners, ha-ha.

Dam Night Run 5k

Woo-hoo!!!!!!!!! A new 5k personal record--23:26 according to the chip timing website. I thought it was closer to 23:46 which is still a p.r. but hey I'll take the chip time! Don't have much time this morning so will write out a more comprehensive race report later in the week (yeah I know, scintillating stuff. NOT!) I was 22nd female overall out of 281, 133 overall out of a field of over 600.

Carol and me prior to the start--as you can see she is now a member of the Marathon Maniacs! She's done 1 a month so far this year, AMAZING. She's such an amazing, bubbly, awesome person!!!!!!!!! And we were mistaken for sisters on one occasion, LOL.

Waiting in line

At the dam night 5k waiting to get on the trucks

In passing

Comments/compliments/complaints--What I've heard this week and last

1) At Mt. Vernon from one of the cashiers "You're not a truck driver are you?" "Wow, that is so cool that a little bitty girl is driving a big truck!" Now, mind you, this girl was literally young enough to be my daughter and I wouldn't have even had to start as a teenager for that to happen, LOL. Made my day. Actually I'm still grinning over that one.

2)At Von Ormy after my 5 miler the cashier asked had I been out jogging. When I replied yeah and told her my distance for that day, her eyes got huge and she told me "That's a LONG way!"

3)Shopping today at a clothing store I worked at 10 years ago, the manager told me that I was going to have to quit losing weight or I was going to blow away, she then told me I was like her daughter and at our age we had to be careful of the weight loss because our faces would start to get drawn and we'd look old. Ummm, okay, I realize that's happening right now but it's not very tactful on her part.

4) A friend of James' told him that I was going to have to start training IMMEDIATELY if I had any hopes of completing the marathon in November.

5)This next is not any sort of comment that was directed at me but it's something I HAD to listen too and is kind of funny now. I had too much coffee Tues. morning and as a result needed to make an unplanned pitstop at Royse City, TX. Pretty much set the brakes on the truck before it was completely stopped and ran inside the fuel stop. Unfortunately the only unoccupied stall had an out of order sign on it and the other 3 were occupied by little old ladies who were just sitting there talking and farting and talking and farting..................I'm starting to do the "gotta pee" dance and was on the verge of yelling at them that if they just concentrated on the farting and quit the talking they'd finish when one FINALLY come out of the stall!!!!!!!!!

6) was asked at the local sporting goods store if I'd done any long rides lately, when I told him no all my recent rides had been 20 miles or under, he chuckled about me saying "just short rides"

What have I done?!?

I have signed up for my first ever marathon!!!!!! I'm so incredibly excited and nervous and excited and scared..........Well you get the idea, lol.

It's the Midsouth Marathon in Wynne on November 7th, a smaller marathon but it is a part of the ARRCA Grand Prix series so that's why it's going to be my first. I kept waffling back and forth on running it so finally went ahead and registered last night. Told James I can't back out now because I'd be out $27.50, yeah I think that's almost the cheapest fee ever for a marathon. I will be running with friends so that's a huge plus. Training starts this week and I think I'm going to use a Runner's World plan but if anybody has any suggestions please, please let me know.

Goal set, goal reached

Three or four months ago I decided that I wanted to drop an additional 5 pounds to get down to 115. As of today I have reached that goal!!!!!!!! Well, actually the scale read 115.4 lbs but I did have 3 slices of pizza just before bed last night (yeah, that's a huge no-no, LOL). Yippeee!!!!!!!!

Don't know for sure yet if dropping the weight will help in the being faster department because I've not been running that many races so far this summer. I will say that the Brickfest 5k time was a bit better than I expected so maybe it is. I do have a 5k on the schedule for next Saturday night but I tend to run the night races slightly slower (it's hotter!) so that probably won't be a good indicator either.

Anyway, since I (finally) met my weight loss goal my next one is to get a sub 24 minute 5k time. Let's see if the body holds up ;-)