Tuesday, November 20, 2012

2012 Richmond Marathon & Half-Marathon

November 10, 2012 7:30 AM
Richmond, Virginia



Time Pace Division Division
Place
Gender
Place
Overall
Place
Bib #
Owen (Full) 3:48:08 8:42 M35-39 128/385 864/2580 1184/4716 553
Torre (Half) 2:01:19 9:15 M45-49 169/322 1355/2539 2544/6855 13283
Malissa (Half) 2:50:13 12:59 F30-34 636/699 3869/4316 6289/6855 16031

Written by Owen:

This race is a little over an hour away from my mom's house.  We talked Gramps (my step-dad) into running the half-marathon, which Malissa was also running.  We met them at the hotel Friday before the Saturday morning race.

I like to do as little driving as possible at my marathons, probably because we always do so much driving to get to them.  But I hate parking, traffic, etc.  So we walked about a half-mile to catch the shuttle to the expo.

Grandma and Gramps with his bib.
 After the expo, we walked to a really nice restaurant, but there was an hour long wait.  That's was OK with me, we sat outside and the time flew as we chatted.

I love my mommy!

Malissa and Torre
After the restaurant, we hung out back at the hotel, then got ready for the next morning.  Our hotel was a half-mile from the start, which wasn't until 7:45 for the half; 8:00 for the full.  It was pretty nice getting to sleep in later than normal for a marathon.

We walked to the starting line together (Grandma, Gramps, Me, Malissa, Michael, Kyle, and Alicia).  Gramps and Malissa were running the half, which started 30 minutes before the full.  Grandma's job was to be the head cheerleader.  Because of the way the half started at the same place but then skipped to the second half of the full, we never ran the same route near the same time.  So when I planned Grandma's cheering route, all I could make work was for her to see everyone start, everyone finish, and me once at mile 17.

The race started and it was pretty cold.  I had worn a throw away hat, sweater, and gloves.  I ditched those as the gun went off and took a couple of miles to get warm.  Because Malissa's wave didn't start until 7:50 or so, I caught up to her around the two mile mark, just before she went right and I went left.  That was a nice surprise.

The course was beautiful and I could not have scripted better weather.  It was low 40's for most of it until the very end when it warmed up to around 50°. The crowd support was amazing.

Seeing my mom, kids, and Torre (who had just finished the half) at mile 17 was a really good boost.  My plan was to run comfortably and try to finish around 3:35.  I was perfectly on pace until around mile 18 when it starting getting tougher.  Each mile after that was exponentially harder than the previous.  I haven't hit the wall that hard since Grandma's.

The last couple of miles I had to mix in some walking breaks, which is very unusual for me.  My finishing time of 3:48 was 13 minutes slower than goal, but still very acceptable.  I have a pretty aggressive goal of finishing all 51 states/D.C. in under 4 hours on my first attempt, and I've done it so far.  I now am 9 for 9.

I saw my family just before the finish, so I ran over and gave them a five, and then finished another wonderful marathon.  I was hoping for some finish area pics with everyone, but Torre was in a hurry to get to the hotel so I don't have any of me with him after the race.  Below are what pictures I do have.  But first here's a video (I'm the one in the yellow Marathon Maniacs singlet that goes to give my family a five).


Here's my Garmin Data:
















Written by Malissa:

I went into this race with hardly any training. I’ve been in a bit of a rut with my running lately. Owen told me it was ok to back out but I still wanted to race. I love racing just not the training. Plus it was Gramps’ (Owen’s step-dad) first half marathon and I was so excited for him!

I had zero nerves going into this race. One thing that has come from running my marathon and three halves is confidence. I now know that I can do it. It may not be my fastest race but I will finish. I also know that if I don’t train boy is it going to hurt but I was ready for the pain.  

The days leading up to the race Alicia was sick. Race morning I woke up with a sore throat and sneezing. I packed some cough drops along with my Gu in my spi-belt just in case. Another reason I was excited about this race was we had our kids make special encouraging tattoos for us to wear on race day. 



I also made one for myself that said I can do this. I wanted to have a reminder when the race got tough, that I can finish. When I’m struggling in a race I look at my watch a lot so I put the tattoo next to my watch so I would be reminded every single time I looked at it.


Going in to the race I was hoping to finish around 2:40 but would be happy with anything under 3 hrs. The race started and already in the first mile I was cursing myself for my lack of training. Around mile four I found my groove and was on pace to come in at my goal time. I enjoyed miles 5 and 6.

There were lots of fans with clever signs. I love a good laugh while I run. Some of my favorite were:
  • In my eyes you all run like Kenyans
  • I promise I won’t tell anyone you were crying
  • Sometimes I fartlek when I run
  • I got up really early to make this sign and it wasn’t easy.
My body started slowing down around mile 7 and at mile ten I decided to text Michael and tell him I was running a little behind. It was around that time that the lead marathon runner passed me. It was his mile 23 and he started after me! I am always amazed at how fast and graceful elite runners are. I found myself picking up my pace a little after that.


I talked to a few runners toward the end of the race. It was just what I needed to keep my mind off of the fact that my knees where killing. I also looked at my tattoos a lot. It was a great reminder that my kids were at the finish line waiting to cheer me home. It wasn’t too much longer before I got to the downhill. I was looking forward to this part because that meant the race was almost over! As I was running down the hill to the finish line I was looking for my kids, grandma, and gramps. The first place girl marathon winner was coming in at the same time so the cheering was so loud. I would be lying if I didn’t pretend that it was for me. At the last minute I saw my family cheering for me and I was so excited and overjoyed because that meant that I was done! My fourth half marathon was complete and I promised myself I would train for my next one.














Monday, November 19, 2012

2012 "On Cosby" Moonshine 5k

October 20, 2012 9:00 AM
Cosby, Tennessee



Time Pace Division Division
Place
Gender
Place
Overall
Place
Bib #
Michael 21:23 6:53 M10-14 1/? 3/? 3/? 211
Owen 21:43 6:59 M35-39 1/? 4/? 4/? 209
Alicia 27:51 8:58 F1-9 1/? ?/? ?/? 212
Katie 29:00 9:20 F1-9 2/? ?/? ?/? 214
Malissa 33:49 10:53 F30-34 ?/? ?/? ?/? 210

Written by Owen:

This was my birthday weekend.  What a fantastic weekend it was!  We were lucky enough to have our friends, the Alves, join us on this weekend trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Friday we made the trip to Gatlinburg.  We had dinner and then hit the hotel ready for our race in the morning.  This is the 5k that Malissa and I ran last year.  It's a small race, and the winning time last year was within reason for Michael and me.  Last year I paced Malissa, and Michael wasn't there.  So back then, I told myself we'd come back next year and see if Michael could win a race.

Same location as our pic last year.

Kids having fun.
It's an out and back course, so it was easy to see how much of a lead people had.  At the start, I could tell that Michael and I didn't have a chance to win because there were two really fast runners.  After a half mile, Michael and I were in 5th and 6th place.  I knew that the top three overall got pretty cool trophies, so I told Michael to concentrate on 3rd.

Michael passed those two guys that were in 3rd and 4th.  So now Michael was in third, and I was in 6th.  I could see that both of them were hanging with Michael pretty close.  I thought they were probably thinking about that 3rd place trophy also.  I thought, maybe, that if I passed them that may make them think that 3rd place was out of reach and they wouldn't push Michael so hard.  So I pushed it and passed them.  

By this time Michael was 20 seconds or so ahead of me in third place.  I tried to keep up with him, but could not.  But I think my plan worked, as those two guys finished behind me in 5th and 6th place.

They gave the overall winner that trophy, then 1st, 2nd, and third male awards to the actual 2nd, 3rd, and 4th overall places.  So I got a cool trophy too!

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place overall.
We talked with the overall winner, pictured above.  He said his roommate had won this race in the past and he liked the trophy so much, he traveled from out of town to try and win one for himself.  So kind of the same thing that I was trying to do for Michael.  Turns out he coaches cross country for a high school, and the second place winner was one of his students.

Alicia and Katie had a friendly rivalry leading up to the race.  It was probably fueled by both dads more than by their own competitiveness.  They had trained together for a previous 5k, but were held back and ran together.  This time, we told them to race their own race and have fun.  When I saw them after I had passed the turn-around point, they were still together.  At the finish line, Alicia crossed about a minute before Katie.  They took 1st and 2nd in their division.  If they both trained more, it would probably be a pretty good competition.

Alicia and Katie with their awards.



After the race, we took in all that Gatlinburg has to offer, which is a lot.  Mike and Lynn treated me to an amazing birthday weekend.  The highlight for me was the aquarium, which is AMAZING.


The kids hangin' with the penguins.

On top of the space needle.


Birthday dinner at Bubba Gumps.