Steady and Slow

Since all the snow excitement there hasn't been much else to say, Christmas came and went and the New Year was ushered in with a tiny pop. On the 31st of December I finally took the plunge before the price went up and entered myself into the OKC Memorial Marathon. Time will tell whether or not this was a wise decision or not but on the 1st I duly began training in earnest. Fortunately this took the shape of a 2 mile slow run which given the late night and the vast number of puddings was probably for the best. I've had another run since then as dictated by the Runner's World Plan and have another today. This is knuckle-down and get serious time thankfully I have a new toy to assist with with this. With the magic of magical things I can put on my training plan at a click of a mouse and with a press of a button and some satellites doing something clever I can make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to be. I love new stuff and running. And stuff.

Just chillin'

Sights on the way to work.

The sun has got its hat on

The sun has come out but it's not going to be enough to melt the snow. I have to go to work at 1pm and I don't have any wellies. This is going to be interesting...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We don't have a fire, but if we did, it would be delightful. It is cold and the furnaces are up full-blast. Tomorrow is looking to be a snow day too. I wonder how long our pantry will hold up to us being holed-up?

Baby it's cold outside!

Norman is shut down. There is no school. There is no university. Ice is falling from the sky and the meteorologists are very excited. Apparently the library never closes though so I could be called in. This seems daft though, it's cold outside.

Route 66 Half Marathon - 19/11/06 - PR 2:19:13

I rocked Route 66. I got my kicks and I smashed my target of 2:20:40. Not by much, admittedly, but by enough to make me a very proud young lady. And look, here I am after the race still standing and still smiling!

It went really well, it was a very cold but sunny start but as you can see from the picture it was sunny by the end. I positioned myself in with the 4:45 marathon pacers and I figured that they would get me started on about the right pace though of course as soon as the big gun went off.



Of course that plan didn't work and I got over excited and perhaps took off a little too quick off the mark.

I was feeling strong though and sticking with it. I was actually on target for around a 2:15 despite the hills and motorway on-ramps that they had neglected to tell me about when I signed up (Oklahoma is supposed to be flat and I've had no hills to practice on.) Unfortunately though about 4 miles out from the finish my hip started giving me jip and I had to stop and stretch which took me 2 minutes off pace. Magically though the stretching worked and the last two miles I must have done in a 8-9 minute pace which is insane as I usually run at 12 minutes per mile! I guess the signs along the course about "Digging deep and aiming high" and "Pain is fleeting, a PR is for life" must have struck a chord!

I'm very content, the stretching seems to have worked and my hip is no longer giving me any jip (though I think that might be in store for me tomorrow) I'm going to take ibuprofen for any possible swelling and maybe ice a few joints. Anyway now we are home and I'm about to check my bank account to see if I have the available funds to sign up for the Oklahoma City Marathon in April. If there's a bug, I believe I've caught it!

Faulty Blogging

Ok, so something went wrong with the clever blog plan. As you can see it was working until I actually tried to blog about something interesting but let me assure you that the photos were fabulous and very, very interesting. Maybe one day the blogosphere will be kind enough to let you see them. Maybe not. Who can tell? Anyway, fortunately we were not entirely reliant on the mobile blogging devices (which has in it the photos but without the magic of mobile blogging I don't know how to get the photos into the computer - must buy bluetooth USB thingamy) we also took photos with the digital camera...

I got my kicks

2h20m right on target

This is just the beginning!

It's cool but not too cold, a gorgeous morning. I'm so excited I can't stop going to the bathroom...

All dressed up with somewhere to go

Nearly time to leave and stand in the street in cold, dark Tulsa.

Vaseline, my friend

It's 6am and I've been up for about an hour and a half forcing down coffee and porridge. I'm showered and dressed and have administered vaseline to the possible chafe spots. Just an hour left to pace before I get in the corral...

Penelope, prepared.

All chipped up and ready to go

We've arrived in Tulsa and I have my bib and chip - a magical thing that will automatically log my time. The chip is on the shoe and I'm ready to go. 14 hours to go though. How will I contain myself?

Power lunch for a power run

It's fuel. Honest.

Less than 24 hours from Tulsa

And we're off. 22h35m to the race, about 2h to Tulsa. Am I ready? I hope so!

The excitement begins...

I have made a list and I'll be checking it twice. Mustn't forget the special dual-layer socks or electrolyte containing jellybeans! I've nearly packed ready for the off in the morning and could just burst with excitement!

What I found in the library today...

I have been doing dramatic readings in an old cow poke voice all evenin'. I also learnt a southern word for skewiff: 'cattywampus'. How awesome is that?! Cowboy up dudes and gals!

The Roving Reporter

I just wanted to quickly note that I am now a blogger on the go. Through the power of joining the 21st century and having my very own mobile phone with a camera I can now send pictures and messages from anywhere I have reception. I can't wait until next Sunday. Mobile, instant race reports will be mine...

Go Sooners!

This is the level to which Sooner madness has gone on the OU campus. Every soap dispenser on campus comes with this tiny, but heartfelt exclamation.

Running against the wind

This must be a record but it's Saturday morning and I had to get up at 6 am (which I'm thinking there should be a law against) and even though it's 9 am now I don't seem to have found my brain enough to do anything very productive. So I thought I would blog some more...

As I might have mentioned (once or twice) I've been running like a fiend. I have two weeks left to go until my half-marathon in Tulsa and I've been running like a running thing on running tablets. A half-marathon is 13.1 miles and 8 months ago I couldn't even run 1. I've had a lot of work to do. I've been following a plan and building up to it slowly and on Tuesday I reached my training peak at 11.27 miles (distance courtesy of Gmaps). I've been trying to prepare for the race-day starting line-up at 6 am by running at that time and fortunately for me with the "Fall back" it is now light enough to do so. So up I got at 4 am, stuffed myself with porridge and then went back to bed (what else was I going to do for two hours?) At 6am up I got again and slid into my running gear. Unfortunately my running gear consists of shorts and a t-shirt and 6 am on the last day of October wasn't all that warm. I convinced myself though that it would be fine once I got going, so I pulled on a cap and some gloves and off I went. I knew it was cold. I knew the wind was strong. I knew it was fairly chilly but I did not realise that the first mile of this run would be heading straight into the wind. I steeled myself. I'm tough, right? I've run in London in January, how hard could this be? Pretty tough. I had to pull my cap down several times. The goose-pimples on my arms did not disappear as I "warmed up", in fact they started to go numb. Bah humbug! I'm far too stubborn to let this get to me. Fortunately my course then took me in the opposite direction. I was flying! Heck, I even took my gloves off. But alas, my course is circular and eventually after mile 6 (when I really could have done with the wind behind me) there I was, running against the wind again. Running against Oklahoma wind isn't all that fun. Oklahoma is flat which means there are no hills to break the wind up and running against it is a bit of a mission. The gloves went back on and my face fixed into a determined glare such has never before been seen. I began to notice that I couldn't really feel my arms and that they were perhaps a little redder than their usual complexion and that perhaps my thighs were a little chilly to the point of numbness. Only 3 more miles to go. I'd be fine. I was fine. Cold and tired but fine. Later in the shower, after the itch of cold-skin getting suddenly warm had subsided, I noticed a darker complexion on my legs and arms, wind-burn I suppose. I don't think I've ever had wind-burn before, it's quite the novelty. I think I might buy some winter running gear today though, I'm not sure how much novelty I can take...

From now on it's taper time. Tomorrow I'll cut back to just 9-10 miles and next weekend I'll only do 5. I love being able to talk about the distances for my runs as "only" or "just" something I never dreamt I'd be able to run. I remember back in April whooping as I made it around Walpole Park for the first time (0.8 miles) and later almost bursting into tears with joy at my first mile, now a mile is too easy even for an easy day. I feel great, strong and powerful. I imagine myself on race day crossing the finishing line without even once having had to break into a walk. I could go nuts over the next couple of weeks having to cut back on my mileage though. I'm not sure Amanda's looking forward to it...