Stupid time change

It ruined my weekend. It looks like it's ruining my work week, too.

Haha. I have no shame. I'm really a looker in the morning. By the way, I am wearing clothes, my straps are just under my hair. Promise. 

I don't understand daylight savings time at all. If the farmers really need more daylight to harvest their crops, they should just set their alarms earlier.

Sunday morning I was deathly tired. The night before we had late dinner and drinks with some of my friends who were in town for a conference. We had to wait for them to finish up some evening educational classes first, so we were just getting to The Swizzlestick at 11:00. By the time we had sipped our drinks and said our goodbyes, it was 1 am. Except it was now 2 am. And we had agreed to bring donuts to church, which meant that we had to leave extra early to buy the donuts AND we couldn't be fashionably late like we usually are, because hungry people would be waiting on their donuts.

The only good part about yesterday morning is that while buying donuts I saw these bags of sale bananas - all the loose bananas go in a tote for $1.49. This not only means I'll be making and freezing plenty of banana bread this week; it also means we got to bring a healthier snack option to church. I hate just bringing donut, especially given the high prevalence of diabetes and heart disease in New Orleans.

Now it's off to work in a haze of sleepiness. Unfortunately I have a busy week, too.
What's your view on daylight savings? If I send an obnoxious petition to Congress, will you sign it?

What went wrong? RnR New Orleans 2012 recap

It's hard to recap a race that's simultaneously a PR and your worst race ever.

This was a terrible day to run as the weather was miserable. It was a beautiful day.
I was sick with a sinus infection that I'd had for 6 weeks. I was on the last day of antibiotics and pretty much turned the corner earlier in the week.
The record crowds led to a crazy packed course and we ran out of water at mile 8. The race did start out crowded, but not unbearably so, and the course was well-staffed with fantastic volunteers.
My old knee injury reared its ugly head. Except for lack of training, my body felt fine.
This was my first marathon, and I didn't know what to expect. What is this, number 11 for me?
My Garmin/ipod died; my ponytail came out; I wore the wrong socks; my shoe came untied. Well, my shoe did come untied.

The real story? Pretty simple. I went out too fast, I freaked about the slow Lakefront area late in the race, and I used all my energy up on the first 13. The only thing I can blame is the runner. Moi.

Sunday morning David dropped me at the start area. I started at the very back of a crowded corral one, since two was so jammed I could not even squish in. I did not expect to see so many people up front, but of course most were running the half. This kept the course pretty crowded for at least ten miles. I started with a group of Varsity runners, and I stupidly stayed with them at the beginning. They are all faster than I am, and all but one were running the half. I had no Garmin reception in the crowd, and the fast start threw my pacing.

Mile 1: 6:36. What?! I doubted my Garmin was accurate, since it had been so off at the start, but this still scared me.
Mile 2: 7:00. I knew I should slow down and I dropped behind the Varsity group. It was loud and crowded. I got stuck in a "pack" I couldn't escape from as we headed down St. Charles Ave. I wanted to drop back a little but there were many people behind me.
Miles 3,4,5: 6:57, 6:55, 6:56. Weaving. Maneuvering. Cursing myself every time the mile beeped. I was struggling with my pacing. We turned at mile 4 and I saw David, who took my best race picture ever. I gave him thumbs-down: I already knew I'd botched this race.
Mile 6, 7, 8: 6:57, 6:59, 6:55. Back up St. Charles. Sun was coming out - I was already warming up. Pack thinned a little but I still seemed trapped in a large group. To get out of it I could either speed up or slow down. I should have slowed down!
Mile 9: 7:01, mile 10: 6:53: Through the French Quarter. Feeling fatigued at this point. "Slow down!" I screamed at myself. But I kept thinking, "If I slow down, I'll never make it up later. The Lakefront will be so tough". This was in the back of my mind the whole race. I simply can't trust myself to negative split. I'm always afraid I'll crash no matter what pace I run the first part at, so I start too fast to build a cushion. FYI a cushion has only worked for me once: at the Louisiana Marathon I started fast and hit the wall and still made my time goal. Other than that - never!
Mile 11: 6:58. Onto Esplanade. A little shade. I hoped the halfers would split onto the other half of the divided road here: nope. One of the runners was one of those loud-breathers: grunting puffing, moaning, gagging, spitting, snorting. humphing. I prayed he was a half marathoner: I could NOT shake him from right behind my shoulder and he was driving me berserk.

The guy scratching his head is the loud-breather. If you recognize him,  please tell him to breathe more quietly.

Mile 12: 7:06. As I neared a water table, a man suddenly cut in front and across me, then stopped dead in his tracks. To avoid hitting him I veered right and got body-checked into the Gatorade table. It sloshed all over the place. I said something mean. Oops. Sorry.
Mile 13: 7:05: Finally the half marathoners split off and there was suddenly lots of room. The loud-breather did not. He stuck with me. I hit the half in 130:47. This shook me. My half marathon PR from December is 1:30:26. At this point I knew I was toast. Suddenly I wanted those last 13 miles back. Why was I running under 7's?! I should have been well over that. I was filled with regret and assessed my condition. I was hot, fatigued, and feeling a little low on fuel. My face was crusted with salt. My kidneys felt bruised. I realized I needed to hit the Gatorade and water big time or risk dehydration. I resigned myself to suffer for the second half and miss my goal.
Miles 14, 15, and 16: 7:08 7:07, 7:11. Straight up Marconi Drive, into the wind, full sun. I was hot and tired and I knew all I could look forward to was a long loop on the hot, windy lake. The last half of the course is a "T" up Marconi Drive with a loop on Lakeshore Drive. I was already starting to get into the panic mode that hits in the last miles before you hit the wall. I overtook a woman right before the lake. She was working hard. I didn't even care that I passed her.
My shoe came untied at mile 16 and I had to stop and retie. I was so frustrated that I didn't think to retie the other shoe, too; I felt it get progressively looser all the way until the finish.
Mile 17: 7:09. I turned onto the lake. Headwind. I grabbed some gels at the Gu stop. I started counting ladies at the turn around. I was tenth.
Miles 18, 19, 20: 7:05 7:03 7:09. Nice tailwind - but I knew this meant I'd turn back into the headwind for the last part of the lake loop. I knew this would be extremely hard for me. The sun was strong here, and finally, oh finally, I passed the loud-breather. Now THAT made me happy! I actually passed a good number of men on the lake: maybe ten?
Miles 21 and 22: 7:18 7:27*. Turn around. Back into the headwind. Struggling. I felt my form deteriorating and regretted skipping the gym for a month and a half. My lack of core strength was painfully apparent. I can hardly describe these miles: this wasn't hitting the wall, this was just total exhaustion. I had nothing left. I was ready to quit, but a little part of me knew I was tenth, and I really wanted to be top ten in a hometown race. I forced my legs to move. A friend running her first marathon saw me around this point (she rocked a 3:31!) and told me later that my exhausted appearance actually encouraged her: it reminded her that a marathon is supposed to be hard!
 Miles 23, 24, 25: 7:19, 7:26*, 7:19. My mile splits were depressing me. I couldn't even do the math at this point, but I knew I wouldn't make 3:05. I wanted to give up, but a blue sports bra in front of me seemed to be getting closer. I caught her right at the mile 25 marker. She said something super encouraging, like, "Go for it, girl" and I immediately knew she wasn't actually trying. Turns out she is a professional triathlete for Zoot an this was just a long run for her. Figures!

This picture is funny because you can see David behind me trying to get a picture, too! 

Mile 26.2: 7:25*, 7:00. Nothing left. Just nothing. No burst, no push, no energy. I was not happy to cross the finish. I was just tired. I was mad at myself because I knew I'd messed that up. What if I'd hit the sunny, windy area with lots of energy left? Could I have picked up my pace or at least held on? What if I'd had confidence in my strength late in the race and held back at first? Would I have been faster, or just happier?
Unfortunately, I have to leave that as what-ifs. But I think it's time to try a negative split race. I don't ever want to end a race feeling that disappointed or that tired!
*Looking back, if I had just cut these miles down to 7's, I would have made my goal. Inspiration to hang on at the end of tough races in the future! 
So where am I now? I have Publix marathon in about a week, a race I plan on using as a hilly long run for Boston, and then I have Boston. I have no idea how to run Boston. Any thoughts?

Window treatments

So what the heck do I do with these windows?

These nasty mini blinds have been here since David was in law school and I was underage (don't worry, we weren't dating then). I am over them. But I'm weirdly scared of window treatments. The choices overwhelm me. What should I put here?

And then I'll come back tomorrow and talk about crappy races. I took a rest day yesterday and have nothing else to talk about.

RnR New Orleans 2012: The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good:
- I PR'd with a 3:06:12
- I was 9th female, breaking the top ten in a largish race (this got me in the paper this morning which pretty much made my life. I live a very unexciting life.)
- I won 2nd in my age group
- Not one single female passed me in the last ten miles, and I passed two

The bad:
- I missed my goal of 3:05
- I felt like death for the last TEN miles
- I squandered my "last good marathon chance" this season

The ugly:

My form. My form is ugly. Seriously what the heck am I doing bending at the waist. I look like I'm about to sit down. I wish this was just an awkward fleeting second caught on camera, but nooo, David took about 10 of these and in all of them I'm totally crunched up. 

- This was my most poorly-run race ever: I don't know what got into me, but I ran it totally wrong. I could have had so much better of a race (maybe not any faster, but at least not utterly miserable) if I had started slower and saved some energy for the windy and boring 8-mile section on the lakefront. This was a big disappointment but I am definitely going to try to learn from it.
Agonizing real recap later.

Blogger humble pie

3:06:12 at RnR New Orleans 2012. I did not make my goal of 3:05. In fact, I ran a very foolish race and paced like a complete moron. I am off to eat a huge slice of humble pie. Actually, I think some real pie sounds pretty good right now.

This is how I felt about this race. 

Getting ready for RnR NOLA #3!

Tomorrow is the third time I'll be running Rock n Roll New Orleans, formerly the Mardi Gras Marathon (back before Competitor Group bought the event, the route alternated each year, and at one time it was run across the Causeway bridge: a 26-mile span over Lake Ponchartrain. Talk about a boring course!).
What I'm wearing: You know the old rule about not wearing anything new on race day? I'm breaking that, because Varsity Sports was kind enough to give me a singlet so I can represent during the race. I run with the Varsity track group on Mondays and sometimes join the Saturday long run. I feel like this might have been a bad move on their part. What if I do poorly? What if I finish badly and everyone is like, "Who is that girl in the Varsity singlet WALKING at mile 24?" Also I'm nervous about the racerback because the shoulder area is actually pretty snug, and racerbacks tend to give me a neck ache. I don't even wear racerback sports bras.
Eh, I'll survive, it's only a few hours.

I love Varsity's slogan. Love. 

I'm also wearing some kind of shorts...whatever is clean...and of course, my lucky blue sports bra. I always choose light blue on race morning.
On my feet? Saucony Kinvaras, of course. I love this shoe.
What my goals are: Even though I've been sick and haven't done any specific running to make myself faster, I still hope to PR. A 3:05ish would be really nice but I have to be honest with myself here and say that I think that pace is too much for me right now. I turned the corner on my sinus infection, but I still feel kind of weak, and I certainly feel out of shape, too.
What my plan is: But since I'm bull-headed, I think I will go out at 3:05 pace for a few miles to see how I  feel. If I feel great, I will hang on to that. If I feel tired and winded, I'll slow down and resign myself to a bad race. It's a risky strategy, not very smart, but there is a slim chance that I will wake up brimming with energy and this could work. After all, the weather is still supposed to be high 50's to high 60's - good running weather.
How I'm fueling: Well, tonight I am walking over to Figaro's for pasta and the world's most amazing salad ever (this is not an exaggeration). Tomorrow, I'm bringing 4 gels. Even though there is gel on the course I would rather be prepared; I might miss it, especially if the course is crowded.

Two with caffeine, two without.

What I'm looking forward to: This year I will know many, many runners in the race. I can't wait to see them. I freakin' love seeing people I know on course.
What I'm kind of dreading: The new course has the last 13 miles on a very boring loop on Marconi and Lakeshore Drive. This is a sunny, windy area and is pretty boring (although it;s nice to run by the lake). If you are spectating, please line up on the lake or on Marconi. We runners will need your support!


Are you running this weekend? Tell me about your race! 

Record crowd for RnR NOLA!

In its inaugural year (2010), Rock n Roll New Orleans had 13,000 runners. This year? A record-breaking 22,000. And 7.000 of those runners signed up on a single day, the largest one-day registration Competitor Group has ever experienced. 
That's because RnR offers a $1 discount for every point by which the Saints win, and this year they beat the Colts by a cool 55 points, bringing the cost of the race down to under $40. The discount code is only good the day after the game, so that Monday brought the huge surge of registrations.

So what does that mean for runners?
Well, first of all, I'm not sure that RnR is ready for this kind of crowd. New Orleans isn't really that big, and many of our streets are narrow. Perhaps that's why the course changed this year - it sticks mostly to wide roads. That won't help the finish, though - it's bound to be crowded in City Park.
However, 22,000 is not a huge field. And not all those people will actually make it to the starting line. So I'm not sure it will make it any harder for runners, as long as everyone is properly corralled at the start. The only thing I'm worried about is that the half and full start together and don't split off until...MILE 10. At least I think they do. According to the map, they don't split until mile 13, but I think that the portion on Esplanade Avenue will be split onto either side of the divided street. So I hope.
My advice? Start in the right corral, practice good race etiquette, and watch out for sick runners blowing snot (me!).