The Girlfriends' Half Marathon results are in! It really was a great event for so many reasons. The weather was perfect… no rain! Plus, there is something to looking out at a sea of 1500 women running/walking that just makes me, and no doubt so many others, smile. All along the course, volunteers (or the children of some of the women in the race) would clap or even offer a high-five along the way. If that wasn’t enough to lift your spirits, the breathtaking views of Vancouver sure did. On top of all that, running the girlfriends half was a way to help raise over $35,000 for Susan G. Komen. Way to go Sherri of NW Personal Training, you do put on one amazing event!

(My girlfriends: Carrie Haring-Armstrong, Diana Shaw, Jen Crego, me, Kris Petersen, Kate Carter, Kim Lester, Amanda Pou)
Results (full results here)
1. Megha Doshi, 27, 1:26:44
2. Angela Lindbo, 39, 1:30:06
3. Kim Lester, 35, 1:32:13

(Christina Nelson (aka: my awesome coach), me, and Diana Shaw (my girlfriend who works out with me in the House of Pain))

It was a blast to hang out with all my girlfriends. Each one of these women is amazing and I enjoyed cheering for them and having them cheer me on during the race. My race didn’t go as I had planned, but that didn’t matter. I was surrounded by my girlfriends.

(My friends waiting in the port-o-potty line. 1500 women it was a looonnnggg line!)

My husband was wonderful enough to meet me at the finish line with all four of our kids. (Thank you, honey!) I, unfortunately, had an asthma attack at mile eight and did not retrieve my inhaler until mile 9 1/2. By that time the inhaler was mostly ineffective, so at the finish line I had to head straight to the ambulance to obtain more medication in the form of a nebulizer. But once I could breathe again… I was off to find my sweet family for some hugs and kisses.

(Here I am so happy to have my inhaler. Breathing is a good thing.)

Once we were together we headed down to cheer my mom as she power-walked the race. The kids made “Go, Grandma, Go!” signs and were very excited to show them. When we arrived at the spot where I knew we would meet her, we cheered wildly for all the beautiful women still running and walking. My daughter Avery was so happy to see all those women wearing pink- her favorite color! Alexis, my other daughter, would just about jump out of the stroller when a gal would go by wearing her favorite color- purple. She would scream, “Yay, PURPLE! I love Purple! Run fast, purple lady!”

My mom showed up at the area faster than I expected, and we cheered so loudly we startled the volunteer with screams of, “Yay, grandma!”. After a quick hug and kiss break my mom was off again, like lightning. I quickly packed up all the kids and headed up to meet her at the finish, where she placed first in her age group! That’s right. My 71 year old mom rocked that half. I had plenty of funny looks when my mom hopped up to get her trophy because I was yelling “Woo, hoo, That’s my mom! Oh, yeah. Check out my cool mom! She just got first place! Way to go mom!” I was so proud, and I wanted everyone to know.

(My mom, 71 and beautiful!)
After I calmed down, we settled in to eating and hanging out with our girlfriends. What a great way to finish a race. The food was fantastic, as I expected. The finisher's gift was a cute necklace and a hot pink water bottle. The shirt is so cute (check out my mom rocking the new girlfriends shirt)! I recommend signing up early next year because it’s going to sell out, fast! And make sure you finish ahead of me, otherwise there will not be anything to eat when you arrive at the finish line. Laugh and run on, my friends!

(My mom and I enjoying the food. What wasn’t consumed was sent to local food banks after the race.)

My crappy half marathon

Like an idiot I didn't take my inhaler with me. So at mile 8 when my asthma flared...I was in pain. Until my coach showed up at mile 9-9.5 with my inhaler. Thank GOD! I was hurting. Add to it the fact that I have a stupid cold, have not been getting sleep, and a hammy that hates me. It was not a good race day. I sucked...SUCKED hard! I think I did the 1/2 in 2 hours. Crappy. At the end of the race I flagged down the firefighters to get some more medication, to stop the stupid asthma attack. Well, it worked. The nebulizer is wonderful for asthma, but makes you shaky and want to throw up. Which I was happy to oblige...twice.

Now I'm home sipping some ginger tea and wishing I would have just DNF. My hammy was killing me on the run, see I told you it hates me. My coach even said I should just let her drive me to the finish and be done with the race, that it was not worth getting hurt over. I agree, but I am far too stubborn to listen.

On the up side next weekend I have a 5k race, maybe I'll do better.

800's and 100's in track

Tonight's track was a pleasant one. I was able to run them for me. First 800 in 3:14, then a 400 cool down lap. Next 800 in 3:22, I only stepped up the pace when I heard someone trying to catch me, otherwise I was not pushing it too hard. Then it was on to 100's. I held 18 seconds so that my hamstring would not get too mad at me. It worked my 'hammy' feels great, well as good as it feels these days. What a nice workout.

Oh yeah, now that is a workout!!

I just returned home from a double header. Not baseball, silly. One hour in the House of Pain and then 4 mile run with 4x.25 mile hill repeats.


Let's start with the House of Pain. Working on negative pull-ups right now, five of them. However, I think I will do a full pull-up by myself before the end of the month. It feels close. Christina devised a wickedly fun workout today. A circuit of one minute at each station done five times. Here are the stations: Jump-ups onto steps (about knee height), push-ups, back rows with 15lbs weights, and then eight count body builders. It was a definite cardio workout. At the end I could not will my legs to do the body builders. Pure leg fatigue. It was lovely. Thank goodness my friend Diana let's me partake in these HofP sessions. This week I will be adding a second day at the HofP with my friend Jami. Oh the fun we will have.

After the HofP, Christina said she would tag along with me on a hill repeat run. Sounds good, I love company on hill repeats. We jogged out from her house to the nearest hill a mile and a half away, good warm up. Man it sure did feel like I was working hard. Just as I was thinking that I said, 'jeez, sorry I'm slowing you down so much, but I am having a hard time pushing the pace today'. To which she said, "Uh, do you always warm up at a 7 min pace?" "Uh, no not even close." Hey, maybe I should forget my watch more often? Oh, and running with someone faster than me helps a lot. I feel obligated to push the pace, so they don't have too slow down too much, well that's not entirely true. I love to run with faster people, so I can push myself more. I know the pain I work through today will pay off in the race down the road.

Now back to the hill repeats. I love doing hill repeats, you get to rest at the end of them. You push yourself hard and then get a short rest period. What's not to love. Maybe that's why I like the 5K. You push yourself hard for 3.1 miles. Then you hurl yourself on the ground in bliss, knowing you pushed yourself hard the whole way. We did four .25 mile hill repeats. I was satisfied with my effort when my last one was faster than my first one. That was thanks to Christina, pushing me. Nothing like someone giving you a 20-25 second head start and you are not allowed to let her pass you. I pushed that last one so hard, I saw a few fairies. Good times.

What's that? Am I still on that 'runner's high'? Oh, yeah! Add to the fact that I've lost five pounds. I only have five more pounds to get down to 135 lbs. My goal weight. I know that those hill repeats will help me shed some of that. So get out there, find a good hill and run...HARD!

Miles are back

My total miles for August were 136.60. My total miles for September were 47.92 miles. And so far this month I have logged 54.5 miles. I am so happy to have my miles back up. I gained about 5 lbs last month, because I was not logging the miles and I was a tad bit stress with the house situation. I'm glad to report I am back down to 142 lbs and on the way to 135 lbs, which is my goal weight.


December 17, I go in for a few surgery's and will be off running or any exercises for 4 weeks. Oh that will be hard. Now I am trying to decide if I should give you guys the blow by blow of the surgery's or not. On one hand, it's kind of gross and embarrassing. On the other hand, maybe it will help other not feel so embarrassed about it or even help some people not feel 'judged' about doing them. Hm mm, I must ruminate on this one. Stay tuned. I'm sure I'll spill the beans.

 

MIA

I'm back running, just busy with other things, too. Ran the Portland Five Mile on Sunday and then paced a friend for the last 7 miles of her marathon. I had to run two miles in to get her, but hey that was an easy 14 miles on Sunday. Monday I managed some hill repeats and 11 miles. The first 4 miles were at an 8:08 pace. I was estatic that my hill repeats were the same as what I ran them in May and June. So I have hope that my times will drop quickly. yeah!

Keep an eye out, Skirt Chasers is coming to Portland and maybe Vancouver in 2010. More details to break in my blog post on RunOregon.