Mike to Mike Half MarathonFayetteville, NCMarch 24, 20193:08:39 Temp: 38* at the start, 50s by the endWhat I wore:hat, tank top, Skirt Sports Happy Girl, ProCompression socks, and Altra One 2.5 (that I switched into from Escalante at the last minute.) I signed up for this race on a whim because my friend Liz was an ambassador and offered me a free place to stay. I somehow totally ignored the fact that it was a 5 hour drive home. On I-95. On a Sunday afternoon. Oops. Oh, and I didn't actually run more than 6 miles between my half marathon in December and this one. Oops. My drive down went smoothly and I managed to meet up with another friend from Skirt Sports for lunch on the way. When I got to Fayetteville, I scored the … [Read more...]
Half Marathon #75: Frederick Running Festival Half Marathon
Frederick Running Festival Half Marathon May 5, 2018 2:22:18 Temp: 50s-60s What I wore:hat, tank top, arm sleeves, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra Skirt, compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 The weather prediction for this race was originally pretty unpleasant - 50s and rainy. But we got lucky and the rain moved out and it ended up being ok running weather, although a bit humid and warm near the end. I stayed in Frederick the night before at a friend's house, so race morning was pretty easy. I walked over to the start, arriving 10 minutes early, and ran into another Ragnar Ambassador. A few minutes later, it was go time. As soon as I started running, I could tell I was tired. This was my third half marathon in 3 weeks, … [Read more...]
Half Marathon #74: National Women’s Half Marathon
National Women's Half Marathon April 29, 2018 2:11:57 Temp: mid 40s to low 50s What I wore:hat, tank top, Reebok half zip, , a Skirt Sports Lotta Breeze Skirt, compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 Once again Mother Nature decided to mess with us. Saturday was a warm and gorgeous day. Sunday dawned cold and windy. Yes, layers again. Sigh. Also, sticking with this spring's theme, I hadn't planned to run this race, but when the opportunity to transfer a cheap bib happened, I took it. Nevermind that I was getting up at 2am the morning before to volunteer. Who needs sleep anyways? I got up at 4am and was out the door to meet some MRTT friends by 5:10am. I had on one of Jones' outgrown sweatshirts and a pair of toddler mittens and … [Read more...]
Half Marathon #73: Petersburg Half Marathon
Petersburg Half Marathon April 21, 2018 2:14:01 Temp: mid 40s to low 50s What I wore:hat, tank top, Reebok half zip, , a Skirt Sports Happy Girl, compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 Apparently the theme for this spring is "what the heck do I wear?" I was really torn on how many layers to wear and, in fact, changed my mind many times. At one point I had on a jacket and tights. Thankfully, I had the good sense to take some layers off and ended up dressed perfectly. The Petersburg Half Marathon is about 40 minutes south of Richmond and I happened to be in Richmond for the weekend to go to NASCAR (more on that another day.) Shoo and I were staying with one of his best buddies' family, so I was able to leave him with them and head … [Read more...]
Half Marathon #72: Runners Marathon of Restion
This past week was all kinds of crazy, thanks to the weather predictions. I got the bright idea last week to drive down to Raleigh with Shoo to run RNR Raleigh since Beer Geek and Jones were going on a trip. Well, the crazy weather canceled their trip (they were going on a road that doesn't get plowed - no one expected snow in April!) and I wasn't sure what the weather here was going to do, so I canceled my trip too. Instead of going out of town, I volunteered with Ragnar at the Cherry Blossom Festival. The high point of that was meeting Meb! I also got the bright idea to run a local half marathon instead. I'm trying to get my mileage up for my Ultra Ragnar in Pennsylvania in June and I've just been unmotivated to run long. This … [Read more...]
Lifetime half marathon #70!!!: Autumn Georgetown Half
Autum Georgetown Half Marathon October 1, 2017 2:22:48 Temp: high 40s up to low 60s What I wore:visor, tank top, Nike arm sleeves, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra, Altra compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 This has been quite a week and it's only Monday, sigh. My cat managed to jump onto the table at precisely the wrong moment and cause me to throw a bowl of soup across the table. It covered my phone, my computer, and a bunch of important papers. It even got into my hair! I've managed to salvage everything except the computer. It is currently upside down over a fan, with hopes that it will dry out and be usable again. So, instead of following the topic of Tuesdays on the Run, I'm going with a race report since it was … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #69: Navy Air Force Half Marathon
Navy Air Force Half Marathon September 17, 2017 2:28:42 Temp: 73* with 95% humidity What I wore:visor, tank top, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra, Balega socks, and Altra One 2.5 I am currently in the highest mileage month of training for the Marine Corps Marathon. I've been running a lot of double digit runs and, quite frankly, getting a bit bored with it. So I suggested to my running partner that we run the Navy Air Force half marathon and then run home instead of running our 16 miles on our usual route. (Don't ever suggest something like this without actually checking the distance to "home".) She was on board, so we both signed up. I had a crazy weekend lined up, so we took the metro over to the expo and picked up our packets … [Read more...]
My 50 States Half Marathon Journey
After I finished the Marine Corps Marathon in 2008, I thought to myself "what challenge should I take on next?" My answer was to run a race in all 50 states. At the time, I had only run one half marathon (ZOOMA Annapolis) and had not actually fallen in love with that distance yet. So, I set out on my journey to run a race in all 50 states, but my only goal was that as few as possible be as short as a 5k. I know. Looking back, I wish I'd set the half marathon goal earlier. Why? Because I have to re-do a few states and none of them will be easy. I need to re-do Alaska (10 miler), Illinois (5k), Iowa (10k), Oregon (10K), Utah (10k), and Washington (5 miler). If I were still counting all races, I'd be at 39 states, sigh. But here I … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #61: Wausau Half Marathon (WI)
Wausau Half Marathon August 20, 2016 2:22:16 Temp: Mid 60s but crazy humid (96%) What I wore: hat, tank top, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra, compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 If I hadn't been going for Mercury, I never would have gone out of my way to run the Wausau Half Marathon. But from an organizational standpoint, it was a nice small town race. Packet pickup was a piece of cake and parking on race morning was plentiful and easy, despite it being Wisconsin roadwork season. I ran into a fellow Skirt Sports Ambassador before the race, but she was pushing a racing stroller with myTeam Triumph, so she started 10 minutes ahead of the half marathon. The race started on time and we headed out of Marathon Park. I knew it … [Read more...]
Reevaluating my goals
Here we are, just over halfway through the year. I like to do a mid-year checkin to see if I'm on track to hit my goals. Short answer: I am, mostly. But lately I've been questioning my goals. Are they frivolous (I mean, who really cares if I hit Mercury?) Are they milestones towards our personal goals or just stand alone goals that don't get me closer to where I want to be? And does that matter? Does every goal need to have a bigger purpose or could the purpose of simply keeping myself moving be worthy enough? I don't have the answers at this point, but I'm pondering. … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #57, State #29: New England Series – Rhode Island
New England Series: Rhode Island May 19, 2016 2:22:09 Temp: low 50s What I wore: hat, tank top, a half zip, a Skirt Sports Happy Girl skirt, Features compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 This was race five of the New England Series. (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts preceded it.) The race took place at the Coventry Center Park in Rhode Island. It was a really short course, so we'd have to do 11 laps. Luckily, it was all paved, with only one hill to speak of. I was feeling a little rough. My right glute was staging a protest and decided it did not want to participate in the race. This made running a little bit of a challenge. However, the weather was basically perfect and Beer Geek told me we had no time … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #56, State #28: New England Series – Massachusetts
New England Series: Massachusetts May 18, 2016 2:37:33 Temp: mid-50s-60s What I wore: hat, tank top, a half zip, a Skirt Sports Happy Girl skirt, compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 This was race four of the New England Series. (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont preceded it.) The race took place at the Northfield Mountain Recreation Center. My quad was feeling a bit sore, but otherwise I felt pretty good at the start line. (Apparently I planned to sleep-run this one) Then we began moving and I realized my legs were pretty fatigued. And then we turned onto the grass field. Running on grass is a special kind of hell. This was thick, in need of a mow, grass. I felt like my feet got stuck with every step. It was exhausting! I … [Read more...]
