Mainly Marathons Appalachian Series - AlabamaMarch 25, 20222:38:10 Temp: high 40s-low 50s What I wore: hat, tank top, a Skirt Sports Hover Skirt, compression socks, and Altra Rivera Location: Eufaula, AL I've been wanting to run this race for several years, but it used to be a fall series and fall was just too crazy of a time for me to be away from home. Plus, that's hurricane season and all the races seemed to have wicked weather. During the pandemic, Mainly Marathons decided to move this race to the spring and it happened to fall squarely between the boys' spring breaks. Beer Geek and I flew down to Atlanta and drove from there. It was nice to get out for our first kid free vacation since we went to Bermuda in 2020. The … [Read more...]
Hotel Coffee is better than no coffee…
Brrr! March came in like a lamb in Virginia with some warm weather, but I'm up in Michigan getting the kid for spring break and it's definitely not warm here. I'm currently sitting in my hotel room waiting for classes to be over so we can head home, so I figured I'd join Deb and Coco for some coffee talk. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that I flew for the third time since early 2020 yesterday. My first trip was to Cape Cod to put on the ZOOMA race. Yesterday's trip went so much better! Everything was on time and all the details went super smooth. I'm really hoping that this means airlines are getting their feet back under them. If we were having coffee, I'd tell you that I made a tactical error choosing my hotel for last … [Read more...]
Training for Back to Back to Back Half Marathons
It's been a long time since I got serious about a training plan and even longer since I prioritized my running goals. From work to kids to Covid, I kept finding excuses to not actually put in the training. I did a decent job of training for the MCM 50k in 2019, but that was pretty much my last organized plan. Last week went pretty close to what I planned... Monday - HIIT bike rideTuesday - easy runWednesday - this was supposed to be speedwork, but I was feeling "meh" so I hit the bike for an easy spinThursday - speedwork + full body weightsFriday - easy 5 miles + armsSaturday - 7 mile "long" runSunday - easy 5 miles + leg day I've written a plan that gets me up to 3 10 mile runs in the last week, so I should be good to go for … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #66, State #37, Heartland Series (IL)
Today's Tuesdays on the Run topic is "scenes from your run". I love to see the cool places people run on a regular basis. Unfortunately, life has been INSANE lately and all of my runs have been straight out the front door and loops through my neighborhood. Yes, my "run this town" project is going great. I have my neighborhood done at least 8 times now, sigh. So, I'm taking the "link up any running related post" option and writing about race #3 that I did at the Heartland Series. Or maybe I should say race #3 and #4... Heartland Series: Illinois May 31, 2017 2:28:19 and 36:00 Temp: Low 50s to mid 60s What I wore:hat, tank top, a Skirt Sports Happy Girl, compression socks, and Altra One 2.5 Once we finished the Indiana race, we headed … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #64, State #35, Heartland Series (OH)
Heartland Series: Ohio May 28, 2017 2:28:09 Temp: High 60s to high 70s What I wore: visor, tank top, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra, compression socks, and Altra Escalante After two days of driving that included a some fun in Pittsburgh, Beer Geek and I rolled into small town Ohio. We stopped by packet pickup, where I couldn't resist buying myself a new medal hanger, specifically for my Mainly Marathon medals. Then we headed to dinner at the local brewpub. We did a sampler of all of their beers, which prompted the owner to come over and chat with us. Then I proceeded to eat a bison burger as big as my head along with a crazy number of tater tots. (It was so big that a random woman actually stopped by our table to ask me if I ate … [Read more...]
Lessons learned at another multi-race series
I've finished another multi-state adventure. It went both better and worse than I expected. I also learned a few new things at this race. Don't worry, I'll tell you all about each and every race soon. For Friday 2.0 with Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness, here's what I learned this time. ChafeX is amazing. Not only does it help prevent chafing, but if you chafe (because you didn't think to put it someplace), it helps you survive the next day's race without crying. When you are running out and backs multiple times, a hilly course is killer. I was quite literally counting how many hills I had left, rather than laps. Salty broth and noodles are better than Gatorade. I swear nothing tastes better 10 or so miles into a … [Read more...]
Packing and planning for a multi-race trip
Time always seems to fly so fast. It seems just yesterday we chose the Heartland Series as our couple vacation this year. Yeah, I know we are weird to go traipsing around the country, running races, as our vacation without kids. Whatever. It works for us. Since we are driving this time, packing is a good bit easier. I can take all.the.things. Or most of them anyways. I did still lay out all of my running outfits and will shortly pull out the gallon bags. Because gallon bags are the best way to pack for a trip that involves running (I use it for Ragnar too.) It keeps the outfit together before the run and then corrals the scent post run. I'm a tiny bit nervous about this series. I'm not worried that I can't run all the miles … [Read more...]
Marine Corps Marathon Do Over
Last year was supposed to be my last marathon for a while and definitely was my last planned Marine Corps Marathon. Yet, here I sit, days away from running MCM again. While I'm still slightly unclear on how I moved from not wanting to run it to signed up, I know that once I signed up, I had a goal. My goal? To run the race with the mental strength I had last year, but the pace I had on my second marathon. To say I'm nowhere near that pace would be an understatement. I have no one to blame but myself. And I know I'll have fun at MCM (and in some ways it will be more fun because I won't be "racing"), but it's not going to be the race I would have liked for my final (for now) marathon. I'd love to go back and start my training over. … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #59, State #31: New England Series – New York
Today is Tuesdays on the Run and our topic is "what you find on the road." Oddly, I've never really found anything interesting, including no money, so I don't have much to say. So, I'm going off topic and finally recapping my last race of the 7 half marathons in 7 days. New England Series: New York May 21, 2016 2:17:36 Temp: mid 50s but warmed up fast What I wore: hat, tank top, a Skirt Sports Gym Girl Ultra, Wonder Woman socks, and Altra One 2.5 This was race seven of the New England Series. (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut preceded it.) The race took place at the Ulster County Fairgrounds in New Paltz, NY. I had done this course before as a full marathon, but thankfully it was … [Read more...]
Lifetime Half #58, State #30: New England Series – Connecticut
New England Series: Connecticut May 20, 2016 2:18:10 Temp: low 50s What I wore: hat, tank top, a Skirt Sports Happy Girl skirt, Beer socks, and Altra One 2.5 Happy Global Running Day! I'm celebrating with a beer run this evening, but instead of a Global Running Day post, I'd rather recap my Connecticut race. It was a really good one! This was race six of the New England Series. (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island preceded it.) The race took place on the Iron Horse Greenway in Simsbury, CT. It was one of the longer courses at 2.184 miles, which meant we only had to do 6 laps. This distance is my favorite. It long enough to feel like you are making significant progress with each lap, without being so … [Read more...]
Five things to know about Mainly Marathons
I love Mainly Marathons. I fell in love with the series on Day 2 of the very first series I did in 2013. I'd found my tribe. All the crazies that were running around in circles for a ridiculous number of miles each day? These are my people. I've now done four full series and parts of two others. I've done 25 half marathons and 2 marathons with them (and now I'm looking at doing a 50K with them in the fall.) Obviously I love running races with Mainly Marathons or I would not go back each year. But there are some things I've learned while doing these races that are useful to know going in. And if you haven't decided you want to run a series, go read my 5 reasons to run a Mainly Marathons series and then come back. The courses … [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...]
