1. Waking up on time: I couldn’t sleep the night before the race. I kept having nightmares that I would wake up late for the race and start crying. I guess I can say Nina slept for me. We woke up at 5am so I could have enough time to shower and dress, eat breakfast and, warm up.

2. Eat Breakfast: I did have a chance to eat a light breakfast before the race.  As I said before, I normally do not eat before running, but I didn’t want to start the race on low fuel. So I ate a banana, a piece of toast, and a little bit of coffee. I also took some GU when I got back to the room.

3. Items to carry: I decided not to carry anything with me during the race. I wanted to feel as light as possible and didn’t want to feel bogged down with crap attached to me.  Nina gave me her Garmin to wear so I could pace myself during the race. Man, that helped a lot!

4. Warm Up: Our hotel was in Covington, KY which is right across the Ohio River. It was about 15 minutes from the starting line. As we started to leave the hotel, Nina noticed that I didn’t have on my chip. Whew, that was close! I ran back to the room to retrieve my chip then Nina and I walked briskly to the starting line with minutes to spare.

5. Line up position: By the time I reached the starting line, the wheelchair racers were just taking off. I had 5 minutes to put on my chip and get to my position. The elite and fast runners were at the front of the line, of course.  By the time I put the chip on my shoe, the ten second countdown began. There was no way I was going to make it to the middle of the pack by then.  So I stayed at the front with the fast runners and began to run.

6. Pace: Surprisingly enough, I did not start off too fast. I knew that I was surrounded by fast runners and hoped that they did not get irritated with me because I was in their way. I tried to find a place close to the sidewalk and continued to run at a 10 to 11 minute pace. As the first few miles went by, it was really hard to take walk breaks. I just wanted to continue running, but I knew that walking would pay off in the long run.

Around mile 6 the hills started. When I heard that Cincinnati was hilly, I was expecting hills like Franklin. Those hills were nothing! It was like bumps in the road! As I passed some of the runners, I could hear them breathing like they were having an Asthma attack. Give me a break! It was at that point I was thankful for training in town instead of using the inclines on a treadmill. The hills lasted for about 2.5 miles.

As I turned the corner to reach mile 9, it was all downhill. The runners around me were excited and I talked with a few runners as we laughed and enjoyed the easily ride to the finish line. Mile 10 came and went. I surprised that I didn’t “hit the wall” as some like to call it. I continued to take walk breaks and get Gatorade at the pits stops until mile 12.

I  could hear the roar of the crowd as I got closer to the finish line. It was very exciting. I knew I was going to finish.  When I saw the finish line I threw my hands in the air and shouted with joy that I did it! I kicked up the pace, going from a 9:30 pace to 7:45 pace and continued until I go to the finish line. 2:17:06 was my final time.

I finished in 2:17:06! I couldn’t believe it!! That’s almost 13 minutes below the time I set for myself (2:30:00)! The average time to finish was 2:31:09. Over 22,000 runners participated in the Flying Pig Weekend races. 8,594 ran the half marathon. There were 5,465 females and 3,129 males. Overall, I was 3860 out of the 8,000+ runners, and 1,834 out of the 5,000+ female runners.

I cannot take God enough for allowing me to experience such an event.  I would like to thank him for bringing Nina into my life.  She allowed me to think beyond and try for something that I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing.

I’m definitely planning to do another half marathon before the year is over. It’s such an honor for me to be a part of a group of athletes that I can share an interest with. I’m planning to run the Anderson’s Midnight Flight 10k so I can beat the crap out of my best friend’s ex. After that, I plan to run another half marathon before the year is out and train for the Flying Pig Marathon in 2010. I’ll save the Boston Marathon until 2011 when I turn 26.

Well, today is the day I leave for Ohio. I’m excited and nervous at the same time, which is excepted. Something would be terribly wrong otherwise. I’ve taken precautions like buying new shoes, preparing what I’m going to wear on the big day, and resting my legs.  I will be fine. Like Nina did with the Frog Love 5k, here are a few tips for myself as I prepare for the big day.

1. Waking up on time: The race begins at 6:30am sharp! That is fine by me, but usually I’m just starting to wake up at 6:30am. This is going to be interesting.

2. Eat Breakfast.I usually don’t eat breakfast before running and considering the time I have to be up, I’m still not sure what I’m going to eat. I don’t want anything that’s heavy. I was thinking of drinking a low-fat, high carb and protein shake, but I’m not sure.

3. Items to carry: I won’t be taking my Ipod. Now this is going to be interesting. I need music to run. I’m not like others who like to run in silence or talk the whole time. Without my Ipod I don’t know what I’m going to do, but since this is such a big event, I think it will go by smoothly. I may carry a small waist pouch that has the essentials like tissue and Gu.

4. Warm Up: Warm up says it all. I don’t think I have to explain the consequences if I don’t warm up.

5. Line up position: This event is all-in-one and what I mean by that is there will be wheelchair racers in the front and they get a 5 minute head start. Then the speed demons are next, the middle of the pack runners, the slow joggers and walkers. This event is going to be huge because the half-marathon, marathon, and relay races start at the same time.  I’m would be in the middle.

6. Pace:You can’t help starting out fast because of the adrenaline rush right before you take off and the crowd cheering you on, but I’m determined to start slow. I want to run at a 10 to 10:30 pace so I’m going to continue to aim for that.

6.  Cool down and party hard because it’s over!

I just got my bib number today! My number is 10583!

Exactly one week from today at 6:30am, I will be crossing the starting line of the Flying Pig half marathon. Finally the longs months of training have come to a close. I completed my last long run this morning. 10 miles in 1:44:00. That’s around a 10:40 pace, which is good. I took a 30 second to 1 minute walk break after every mile and it helps tremendously. That will probably be the last intense run I do before the big day. 

Monday: STEP class

Tuesday: 3 mile run

Wednesday: STEP class

Thursday: 2 mile run

Friday and Saturday: Rest

Sunday: Race day!

I’m starting to feel the excitement and I’m ready. I don’t think I would have changed anything in my training schedule.

It’s now less than two weeks from the the Flying Pig and I’m getting nervous. So many “what ifs” are crowding my brain. My number one fear is injury. I’ve been really careful the last few weeks and cut down on my running as soon as I feel the slightest irritation in my legs. I’m probably just overreacting, but 13.1 miles is a huge jump from 3.1 miles.  The bad part is that I’m starting to have weird dreams.

The dreams started a few days ago. I dreamt that one of my co-workers was my “running mentor”. He found me somehow walking around Ohio looking lost  and offered me a ride. From there, he told me advice about warming up and what to eat before the race, etc. We stopped for breakfast and he made me buy a huge stack of pancakes, eggs, and bacon (for protein buildup). From there, the dream went to the day of the race. Nina was there of course and so was Carla to cheer us on. I was dressed as a piglet. I had to wake up at this point. I was totally creeped out.

Last night I had a weird dream that I was coming home from work. It was night and I had recently meet someone by the name of Frank who had given me his number if I needed help. There were two trees on each side of the front door. They didn’t look like normal trees with a thick trunk. The trunk was like branches twisted together. If you ever seen The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the White tree of Gondor is what the tree looked like only they were brown and not white.  As I started to open the door, I noticed the trees started to move. When I looked closer, there were snakes moving in the trees. There wasn’t just one or two; there were a lot of them. They didn’t look like they were going to attack me, but they just kept moving and starting at me. Their skin was brown with blacks stripes wrapping around their bodies. I  had a panic attack. I couldn’t scream or move. I could only look at the snakes move in the trees. Once I was able to move again, I walked back to my Jeep and called Frank to help me find a place to stay for the night. He was surprised that I called him so soon. Ok, this dream was creepy too.

I’ve noticed a trend that when I’m extremely stressed or nervous about something, I start to have weird dreams. I’ve prepared long and hard for this race so I guess the best advice to myself would be to continue what I’m doing and be optimistic. I don’t care about what time I finish. I just want to cross the finish line free of injury if possible.

This is something that I’ve wanted to write for a few weeks and now that the bulk of tax season is over (yeah!) I can finally write about it. For the past few weeks, I noticed that no matter how much I stuff my face with food, I end up losing a few ounces or pounds. This is something I’m not bragging about, but it’s fascinating to me! 

I have to confess that there have been times where I would just eat whatever I wanted because it was a running day. Even some of my friends noticed my eating habits before I do. I’ll just burn the calories when I run or do some other exercise. Do all runners go through this phase? I’m sure there are a lot of them do. Am I using running as an excuse to eat whatever I want? Well, yeah!

I’m still running about 20 to 25 miles a week. I’ve slacked off a little this week, but I’m back in the groove now and should hit the 20 mile mark by the end of the week. Even with my slacking, I’ve lost a few ounces. I still wonder how I’m going to rebound from this when I stop running as much. I know I won’t look like Rollie Polie Olie overnight, but I have to prepare myself for the change once the Flying Pig is over.

We have less than 25 left before the Flying Pig Marathon. At this point, I’m ready for it to be done. I’m tired of training. I’ve been training since December because I thought it would take me longer to train since I haven’t run a half-marathon before. I don’t want to slack off now when it race is so close, but I’m ready to get back into my casual running.

 When I come home doing my long runs, I would look like the ashiest person known to man. I first thought that my skin was drying out, but when I looked closer it was salt. WTF??? Nina told me that I needed to eat more salty foods or drink Gatorade.  I found an article called “Salt and Runners” at runtheplanet.com  and it says “Some runners have saltier sweat than others. Salty sweaters tend to end up with a crust of salt on their skin after a hard workout…If you lose two pounds of sweat per hour for four hours of sweaty running, your sodium losses can become significant (4,000 milligrams of sodium). You should eat salty foods to replace the losses.”  So Nina was right. I drank Gatorade and I don’t look like a ashy person anymore.

Now Protein seems to be an issue. This week has been “Hell Week” because of so many things that happened. I just seemed exhausted all the time. I was eating right and exercising so I didn’t see an issue. On Friday, a few people asked me if I was getting enough protein. What? The first thing that popped into my mind was a steak. I’m not a red meat eater. I can eat a burger once in a while or sausage, but that is my limit. I’m a chicken and seafood girl. 

I asked one of my co-workers if lack of protein makes you feel tired or exhausted. He said that protein and complex carbs can make you feel exhausted. “Your body burns the carbs for fast energy and the protein helps repair your muscles as you break them down. If you are working out real hard with not much protein your body will be much slower in repairing itself which could make you feel that way. Right after a hard workout your body is screaming for protein and easy carbs to break down. The carbs give your body the instant energy it needs so it doesn’t eat your body. The protein helps it rebuild itself.”

Just the thought of increasing my protein intake make me sick. Then I realized there are other ways to build up my protein intake. I could drink protein shakes (that actually taste good) or more dairy products so I’m considering that.

Imagine my chagrin when I got to the track for yesterday’s interval workout and discovered that my iPod was nowhere to be found.

I was a little disturbed by this for two reasons:

1) My iPod is my running partner. I know I can run without my iPod, but I don’t want to run without it.

2) What if I left it at work? What if it fell out of my pocket in the parking lot? What if someone finds it? What if they find out it’s mine? They’ll know what kinds of dorky things I actually listen to in the privacy of my own brain! Oh, the shame!

I took a deep breath. I can do this. I can run around the track 26 times without music or podcasts distracting me from the monotony of the task at hand. Sure. And I will not stress about the possibility that some stranger might, at this very moment, be looking — and laughing — at my choices of music and podcast downloads. Sure.

OK. Onward to the workout.

I actually enjoy running around the track. It’s not something I want to do every day, but it’s definitely a step up from the treadmill. And it’s ideal for intervals and speedwork.

So my plan was as follows:

Mile 1: Warm-up jog
Mile 2: 400-meter tempo/400-meter recovery jog (2x)
Miles 3, 4, and 5: 800-meter tempo/400-meter recovery jog (4x)
Mile 6: Wasn’t sure yet; I ended up doing some “fartleks,” then cooling down for the last half-mile.

One problem I have when I run around the track is that I lose count of how many laps I’ve done. I try to remember to wear the Garmin for that reason … but I didn’t have it yesterday.

No Garmin, no iPod. What was I to do? It didn’t help that the temps were in the 50’s Fahrenheit and it was spitting rain.

So I started to run. I had 26 laps to run. How would I keep track of it all?

Ah. 26 laps. 26 letters in the alphabet.

So Lap 1 was “A.” I thought of all the names I could that started with “A.” Then I did the same thing with “B.” Then “C,” then “D.”

That was fine for a warm-up jog. But I needed tunes to power me through the tempo laps.

So I got to “E.” What song title starts with “E”?

I spent the first 200 meters trying to think of a song that started with “E.” Couldn’t do it. Finally settled on the Eagles’ “Life in the Fast Lane.” So I played that song in my head as I ran.

What about “F”? Again, it took me a good 200 meters to think of anything. (Funny how the brain works, or doesn’t.) Then I came up with John Denver’s “For Baby (For Bobbie),” which is a good running song anyway.

I made my way through G and H and I, but I can’t remember what songs I came up with for those.

“J” was “Joy to the World,” a.k.a. “Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog.”

“K”? Couldn’t think of a song. Ran to “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas.

My mind drew a blank on “L,” too. With all the millions of songs that start with the word “Love,” I couldn’t think of a single one. So I ran to an oldie — Billy Joel’s “All For Leyna.” I was way cool back in the 1980’s, when I could actually play that one on the piano. Whoo, me.

When I got to “O,” all I could think of was “Onward Christian Soliders.” It actually was a good one for the tempo run.

“Q” was a recovery jog. Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (the slow part, at least) worked nicely.

“R” and “S” were both Rick Springfield songs. Yeah, baby, I’m from the early 80’s and I was a teenybopper who read Tiger Beat and Teen Beat and listened to Rick Springfield albums while staring at his album covers and/or kissing his posters. Deal with it.

When I got to “X,” all I could think of was “xylophone,” because “X” always stands for “xylophone.” So I ran to Elton John’s “Daniel,” since it has kind of a xylophoney sound.

I really hit a block on “U.” I thought about singing “Over the Rainbow” as “Under the Rainbow,” but I decided that was breaking the rules. I couldn’t think of a single song title that began with “Ugly,” “Under,” or “Unite.” So I ended up with the Battle Hymn of the Republic, since it’s the national anthem for the United States and all.

I know. Whatever works.

“W” was “We Are the World,” which is actually a really good song for walking, if you’re listening to music on your iPod and want to walk at about a 4-mile-an-hour pace. “Y” was “Way Over Yonder,” by Carole King. And “Z” … couldn’t think of a song, so I cool-down-jogged to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”

It actually turned out to be a really nice run, and it was fun thinking of songs, then singing them in my head, as I ran. I thought of songs I hadn’t thought about in years and years–such as Sylvia’s “Nobody” for my “N” lap, and Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” for the “P” lap.

I’m thinking this might be a nice approach to take when I’m running the half-marathon: 13.1 miles equals approximately 26 half-miles. A letter per half-mile. A new song in my head every five or so minutes. I can do that.

OK, enough of my nonsense. Now maybe you can see why I don’t want some stranger discovering what kinds of songs I have on my iPod.

(By the way, I found my iPod. It had slipped into the passenger seat of my car. It was right there all along.)

It been at least a week or two since I’ve reported on how my training has been. Every since Daylight Savings kicked in, training for the Flying Pig has been a little rocky. I’m told all the time that runners have “off weeks” where things do not go as planned. The problem is there are days when I just do not feel like exercising at all. I’m not sure if I just lost motivation, I’m tired or if I’m not eating right. My chocolate cravings even disappeared!

Last week, I ran a total of 16 miles, which I think is good considering I was recovering from shin splints two weeks ago. This week I already have 15 miles in; 12 miles on Sunday with Nina and 3.4 miles on Monday. I did Fitness Boot Camp on Tuesday and I was surprised that it didn’t tire me out like it used to. I was supposed to run tonight (Wednesday), but I got off from work late and didn’t feel like running. So I decided to write about it instead.  By the end of this week I will probably have over 30 miles. I plan to run 5 to 6 miles on Thursday and my long run of 10 miles on Saturday. It only depends if I feel like it. The only thing I want to do when I get off from work is go home and lay down with a nice book or watch “Twilight” all night long.

I hope that this lack of motivation or energy will go away soon. When the weather stops acting bi-polar, it’s really nice to run outside. I can’t stand when it rains one day and the sun is out the next day.  I still have Yankee blood in me so even the Spring weather makes me uncomfortable at times.  I’ll just have to see how this week plays out.