Three Thrills Thursday

Workout: 3 miles at @10:10 pace on the Corpus Christi Seawall. It was really hot. I was sweating like a hooker in church. And I blow dried the sweat out of my hair and called it fixed. I did shower. At least I only stink on the top of my head and not all over.

Thrill 1:

The hubs is mad at me. Why you ask? For blogging too much. Not just writing the Bitchy Runner blog. But I have several blogs I don't want to miss. And can spend hours reading blogs and sippin' wine.

Apparently he is tired of seeing this. Me on the couch. Face in laptop. Focus on blogs.

So, I will work on this. It'll be my April resolution.

Thrill 2:

April 4th is Doug and my 13th wedding anniversary. I'm out of town until late, late Saturday night. The 4th is on Monday. I'm thinking we should go for sushi on Sunday night. I love Doug. I love sushi. Doug loves sushi. If I'll stop blogging so much Doug will love me. So maybe we'll go eat sushi. I will not blog while eating. And all will be well.

Look how darn cute we are.

Thrill 3:

Did you get your tickets? To what?

The Gun Show of course.

Happy Thursday!

Whine and Wine Wednesday

Workout:  None.  I had to leave super early to get on a bus.  (see explanation below)

I am in Corpus Christi, Texas.  I have been on a charter bus all day driving here.  I am chaperoning teenagers.

Whine:  I can't have wine for the next four days.  That makes for a sucky Whine and Wine Wednesday.

Wine:  None. :(

This is the most pathetic blog post ever. 

One good note is that I hope to get to run on the seawall at least once or twice while I am here. I did that last year and really enjoyed it.  My goal is to get up early in the morning and do three miles before the hectic day starts.

That's all I got.

What is your Whine and Wine for the week?

Training Plan

My goal for the half was 2:15:00.  I finished in 2:16:05.  I had more in me.

Our next race is Heels and Hills on May 1st.  It is a race I have ran twice before.  It is VERY flat.  It is a small race, so course traffic is not an issue.

2:15:00 is an easy goal.  I secretly want to go for a 2:10:00.

This race has men pacers wearing skirts.  I plan to draft off of the ass of the 2:10:00 man in tights. 

I am traveling for work the rest of this week.  We did yoga this morning.  No scheduled workouts the rest of the week. I will be in Corpus Christi, Texas.  I love to run on the seawall.  I will try to fit in a run, but it is not looking good.

Worse case scenario, I rest this week we start fresh on Monday.  That gives us four weeks to prepare.

Ignore my typos.  Thursday should be Jillian's 30 Day Shred.  I apparently only have 20 days to give her.

This is the training plan Runners World created for me.  Well kind of.  It had us running on Thursday's, but we want an extra cross training day.  I like it.  Will it work?

What do you think?  Is this a good plan?  What changes would you make?

Rock 'n' Roll Dallas Half Race Review

This was my first Rock 'n' Roll event to run.  They are expensive, but fun.

It was required that everyone attend the expo to pick up their own packet.  This is the first race I have ran that would not let friends pick up for you.  A bit of a pain, but the expo was good.

Doug, Randee and I went to the expo on Saturday afternoon.

Parking was $12.  Boo, but we were aware of this before we went.  Rock 'n' Roll did a good job of sending out updates and keeping racers informed.

Apparently they want you to Run Happy and not Bitchy.  The Happy Runners....nah.

We did LOTS of shopping!

They had a lot of vendors at the expo and all three of us bought something....or a few things.

Doug was very amused by the Human Jesus Lizard sign.

All in all the expo was great and I'm glade I chose was made to go.

We knew from the White Rock Lake Marathon that traffic could be a nightmare.    We left at 5am for the 8am start.  It ended up being perfect.

This was my first race that started and ended at different points.  We parked at Fair Park (the finish) and they shuttle you to the start line.

It was hard, but we finally found a Starbucks that opens early on Sunday.  It was very close to Fair Park and many roads were blocked off trying to get there.  We had to make multiple detours and drive in reverse, but we got our caffeine fix.

Randee and Brittany.  Is her tongue on that nasty glass?

Randee pointing out her boobs.  As if we did not notice those big ol' things.

All us girls ended up sporting our new compression socks.

 Talia's kick butt phone GPS got us from the Starbucks to the race, via a parking lot, in like two minutes.  We did not hit any traffic! Awesome.  We could see the highway's backed up as we snuck in and parked with ease.

I think we're becoming real runners.  Randee popped a squat by the dumpster.  Don't say gross.  You know your laughing.

We had to wait about 3 minutes to get on a shuttle.  Just long enough to take more pics!

Doug and I.  Ahhh.

The cool kids, Brittany and Talia.

The dorks, Randee and me.

I wore my first ever throw away shirt.  At the expo on Saturday it was nearly 90 degrees.  On Sunday morning it was in the 40's.  BIG difference.  Perfect running weather, but cold standing around weather!

Randee and Brittany cheesing it up on the school bus...aka shuttle.

Why's Doug's head so blurry?

Talia looks like she is in her bathrobe.

We were super impressed with the Starting Line Village.  The best part was that we arrived before the port-a-potties got super long lines and super nasty.

Even after popping a squat, Randee wanted to try out the un-poop filled potties.

It was about an hour before race time.  We had no problem entertaining ourselves.

Ha!  Randee and Happy in the same picture.  Funny!

We were peeing like rockstars.  You didn't know that rockstars squat?

The Start Line Village.  They had areas for water, food, medical, and a crap load of other things.

Doug was a happy man!  Nice butt Talia.

I'm not sure what Randee took....but she was VERY entertaining.

Brittany lookin' all fly.

Then Randee and Brittany had a boxing match.

Then we found Alecia from Tin Can Treader and her dad.

They rocked a 2:11:35.  They had the exact same finish time, but they placed Alecia one spot above her dad.  She was quite happy about that.

We were all in different corrals.  Sadly we all split up.  Randee and I got in corral 9.

Funny side note.  Randee put 1:30 as her estimated finish time when she registered.  She was in corral 1.  Thankfully elite runner Randee was kind enough to move back and start with me.

Our view for about half an hour.  They did a wave start.

Last minute self portrait.

And we're off.

5K done.  Why we have our mouths wide open I have no idea.

10K done.  Half of each of our heads.

I lost Randee around mile 8.

15K done.  How do my nose hairs look?

The course had a few rolling hills on the first half, and was mainly flat or downhill the second half.  The course was awesome. Downtown to uptown.  Lush treed & beautifully landscaped neighborhoods and parks. It really did show off the best of Dallas.  Live bands every mile and great spectators and cheer squads continually along the route.

There was water every couple of miles and every other stop also had Cytomax.  I actually liked the Cytomax and I never like sports drinks.  Around mile 8 they also had Gu.  Each replenishment station had plenty of supportive and entertaining volunteers.

My official finish time was 2:16:05.  I was hoping for 2:15:00.  I had a little left in me when I finished.  I could have done it.  Only the last two miles seemed to go on forever.  However, I only died about 2 times.  Not my typical 18.

Randee did great for her first half - 2:17:54.

The Sweaty Runners.

My splits:
Mile 1 - 10:33 (due to traffic that was nearly impossible to get around)
Mile 2 - 10:32
Mile 3 - 10:21
Mile 4 - 10:11
Mile 5 - 10:33
Mile 6 - 10:14
Mile 7 -10:43 (this mile had the hardest incline)
Mile 8 -10:31
Mile 9 - 10:16
Mile 10 - 10:11
Mile 11 - 10:30
Mile 12 - 10:03
Mile 13 - 9:50
.1 - 8:32 (my sprint to the finish & I swear I was peeing on myself)

We had to wait in the cold for a while, but we got to see Doug cross the finish line.  He had a huge smile on his face and was punching the air.  Not sure what that was about, but proud of him.

No pictures, but....

Talia finished in 2:09:41. 

Brittany finished in 2:06:41.

There was a ton of water, sports drinks, bagels, bananas, and other options at the finish line. Even as the last runners were finishing there was more then enough left.

We did not stay to enjoy the concert or festivities.  It was drizzling and cold.  And there were no wraps.  Bummer.

Doug and I joined Alecia, my parents and all the kids for lunch at Boston's.  We were ravenous.

Alecia and Doug were so hungry they were gnawing on their medals.

My lovely mom and Audrie.  It was Audrie's 9th birthday!

We considered wearing our medals to work on Monday.

My dad came to lunch like this.

We got home and I put on my compression tights and socks.  And iced.  And took ibuprofen.  Oh yes, and bathed.

And then went to the grocery store in this.  Sexy don't you think?

The Bling.

I loved the Rock 'n' Roll Dallas Half.  I will run it again. The course was awesome. The organization was awesome.  The entertainment was awesome.

Busy Fun Weekend

Busy, busy race weekend!

Friday evening was Audrie's 9th birthday party. 

Six 9-year old goofy, giggly girls.

We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe.  We had a reservation, but it still took forever.  I think we were there about 2.5 hours.

All of the girls BUT Audrie stood in their chairs to dance like chickens to the birthday song.

It's hard to believe, but I was shy in groups when I was Audrie's age also.  She is a wild woman at home.  But very quiet and easily embarrassed in public.  Even with her friends.

Gloria was nice enough to help me chaperone the girls.

What's up with my eyes?

We stayed the night at the Embassy Suites.  We had a super sweet suite.  Two bedrooms, two baths, a living/kitchen area and an office.  Perfect!  Gloria and I locked ourselves in one room to watch a movie and sip on wine.  The girls had two tv's and plenty of room to spread out and enjoy themselves.

They had an indoor heated pool so the girls got to swim.

Gift opening pajama party.

Excellent hot breakfast the next morning.  The girls went back for more about ten times each.

Fun had by all.

On Saturday afternoon we hit the Rock 'n' Roll Half expo.

Great expo!  Check out the race review for more pics and details!

Saturday night Gloria hosted a pasta party for her husband's birthday.  Since several of us were running the next day this was a fantastic idea.  Sadly I did not take any pictures.  Bummer.  Believe me, we definitely did some carb loading.

Doug and I headed home early to get ready for race day and were in bed by 9pm!

Stay tuned for the full race report for my first Rock 'n' Roll event.  I loved it!

Check out Skinny Runner's blog here for a super,fantastic giveaway worth over $400!  

How was your weekend?  Any races or slumber parties?