XC2 turns one

Today is my bloggy birthday! Fun-fetti cake for everyone! I know everyone says this, and I've said it before too, but I honestly never thought I'd stick with this for more than a week, much less a year.

This blogging and running community has been so good for me, and thank you all for being one of the favorite parts of my day. I've gotten more encouragement, support, motivation, and entertainment than I ever imagined. I feel like I have all these new friends all over the world who feel the same crazy passion for running as me.

I figured I'd celebrate the occasion with a little stroll down memory lane. Here are my 5 favorite posts from the previous year.

5. How I got here

This was my very first post, so I felt compelled to include it. It was neither funny nor containing pictures, so it's amazing anyone kept reading. I try to at least include some pictures these days to make up for my pathetic attempts at the funny.

4. Fun with stick figures
Come on, don't you want to read the story that goes with this stick figure? (It's a wonder I still have a job some days since I spent an hour at my desk in the middle of the afternoon one day creating this post.)

3. PCC Triathlon race report

My first triathlon where I decided to do it six days before the race, had no idea what I was doing and managed to win my age group. It was definitely the first of many tri's in my future.

2. Srry

Classic cougar tale of schooling the neighbor boy and chicking him in life. (Not to mention it was my first 50+ comment post. Woo hoo!)

1. GG Marathon race report

Training for my first marathon was what got me into blogging in the first place. I've read so many inspiring, emotional, motivating, and straight up funny marathon race reports from all you, and running one (and writing about it) has been one of my proudest accomplishments.

Thanks again for writing, commenting, and making running way more fun over the last year than it ever would have been otherwise.

Race pics

First, the Under Armour jacket was indeed safe and sound under the road cone after the race. Clearly you were all very worried. Happy to hear your priorities are the same as mine. I knew you were my people.

Second, thank you all for the virtual hugs and virtual bitch slaps in response to my whiny report. Both were needed and appreciated.

Third, nothing like reliving the highs and lows of race day with some pics. RunnuRMark (who had a fantastic race) mentioned he spotted me. This was his comment:

yeah, it was BEFORE you crossed [the finish]...and I won't lie, I could see those last 5 miles on your face :)

Temper it with a smiley face all you want-- ouch. Also, it turns out, quite true. Rough batch, to say the least. Here are a few of the semi-cute ones:

I mentioned I wasn't prepared for the cold. Well, this was my cold weather gear.

One pathetic blue glove. ONE.

Which I threw away at the half way point before turning into the wind and instantly regretting it.See, don't my sad little hands look cold? Perhaps that's why I'm carrying them up by my arm pits?

Oh look, a quasi-smile! Don't worry, it's fake.I spent most of the race doing this. Pulling down my shirt and giving the side eye to people in full-on winter wear. (Dude, is that fleece?!)

Thank you finish line. (Oooh, look at that quality chick job. Okay, that makes me feel a little better.)

To quote my mother: You look cute a button, hon, but I probably won't put them ALL on my Facebook page if you don't mind.

Good call mom.

KC HM race report

I marinated a day and a half on this report hoping to improve my attitude about the race before typing it out. Turns out, nope! Still pretty damn disappointed.

The short story is 1:52:04 and a 1:30 PR, but the long story is that's about 7 minutes slower than I wanted to run.

I ditched work early on Friday to drive down to Kansas City to meet up with my sister, pick up my packet, and go out to eat with her adorable boyfriend before going to bed early.

The drive to the race was dark, cold, and slightly raining, but my biggest concern was the time. She lives right on the marathon course, so a million roads were closed with the Plaza/start line packed and nuts to navigate. We pulled off right before the road block for me to jump out. Tick tick tick. But wait! Mom wants a picture!

This was taken as the national anthem was being sung. Actually, this was the second picture taken. Apparently the first one was not cute. (She was right too. That's why God gave us sisters. To correct such things in life.)

After the second picture, the anthem was over and I was pretty panicked. One quick hug from her, and she drove off.... with me still wearing my jacket. This was not a throwaway jacket. This was my most favorite, wear everywhere, security blanket jacket. Should have known it was going to be that kind of day. I quickly stuffed it under a road cone and crossed my fingers it would still be there in a few hours.

The race itself was very hilly and very cold, and I wasn't as prepared as I should have been for either one. No race plan, way under-dressed, out too fast, blah blah blah. The first miles were 8:15, 7:18, 7:50, so you can estimate how the end went to end up with my final pace. The last 5 miles were miserable. Miserable.

The event was organized, the volunteers wonderful, and the course lovely, but I won't be running it again. It chewed me up, spit me out, and aside from finally being done, wasn't very fun. Although this little one took fantastic care of me and always makes me laugh.

The trip was a success, but I just know I'm running better than that. Way better. Saturday just wasn't the day, and KC just wasn't the course. There will be more races, however, probably not this year and unlikely for awhile. I need to get some crap sorted out and I just wanted to go out better than that.

Today was a consolation run though. It was sunny and warm for probably the last time this year. Miles 1-3 were at recovery pace, but I opted against turning home and instead turned on the gas. My quads were shredded from yesterday, but the rest of me felt great. I ended up running 10K with the last three miles at 8:20, 8:10, 7:55. What should have been race pace. I will be unable to walk down stairs tomorrow, but I needed those last three miles. I needed to feel sweaty and powerful instead of shivering and weak like I did yesterday.

Congrats to everyone who raced this weekend and killed it. Can't wait to read all your reports. Running and racing is a blessing, and while I'm currently pouting about my rough one, I haven't lost sight of that.

Girly Girl

The husband is feeling slightly sick, and with Saturday's half marathon coming up, I can NOT get a cold. Even if that means not running in the windy rain this week and going to the new gym by my house on a visitors pass to swim.

I managed to get dressed and make my way to the little 3 lane pool area. One foot in, and woah, the pool is crazy hot. Like, 84 degrees hot. Bathtub hot. Man, good thing I wasn’t doing a serious workout, or I’d have died. I’m sitting on the side having just put my pink swim cap on and adjusting my goggles when the door to the main workout area opens up and two guys walk in. (The wall between the pool and lifting area is totally glass, so everyone can see back and forth.)

Guy 1 walks right over to me and while he isn’t huge, but he has a cut off t-shirt, lifting belt, and weight gloves, so he’s a quasi-meathead. His dorky friend hangs by the door a few feet away. This was clearly not his idea to come talk to me.

Guy1: Hi. Is the pool warm today? (leans over next to me to reach in and splash around)
Me: Yes, it’s hot actually. Uncomfortably so.
Guy1: So what are you a professional swimmer?
Me: Nope. Triathlete.
Guy1: Swimming, biking, and running, huh? Which is your best?
Me: Running.
Guy1: How fast do you run?
Me: I do more marathons and half marathons than sprints.
Guy1: Like, how fast can you run 2 miles?
Me: Well, I’ve never done that. I did run a 5k a few weeks ago in 22:30ish.
Guy1: How far even is that? Is that fast?
Guy2: It’s 3.1 miles, and yeah, it’s pretty fast for a gi—
Me: Pretty fast for a what? A girl? Thanks a lot.

I was quick to laugh, but poor dorky sidekick was bright red and DYING when I called him out on it. That’s why he will always be the dorky friend.

Now while this is going on, there's another conversation I was having in my head. I’ve briefly touched on Regular Niki (RN) vs. Athlete Niki (AN) in the past, and while I fully realize the third person is obnoxious, it’s just easier to type that way.

RN uses her car seat warmers when it gets below 50.
AN runs outside until it’s 10.

RN is girly and squeamish and wouldn’t get in a lake if someone was drowning.
AN is willing to risk life, limb, and bacterial infection for a race t-shirt.

They are (mostly) mutually exclusive personalities and often at odds.

I’m sitting at the edge of the pool in my non-descript black/blue Nike one piece and just put on the cap when these guys walk in. The conversation above happens while the conversation below happens inside my head:

RN: Oooh! Boys!
AN: Get rid of them. We’re working out.
RN: But, but, boys.
AN: Work. Out. Now.
RN: Crap, did I shave my legs today?
AN: No. Ha.
RN: I have to get this stupid cap off!
AN: Absolutely not, it took forever to stuff your hair in and get it right.
RN: I’ve seen pictures of myself in it! It’s not cute! And I have such pretty hair!
AN: The cap draws attention north and keeps them from staring at your stubbly legs at least.
RN: That was mean. I can’t be charming looking like a pink alien!
AN: It will be totally obvious why you’re taking it off. Don’t be That Girl. It stays on.
RN: Off.
AN: ON!
RN: OFF!!
AN: ON!!!
RN: OFFFFFFF!!!!

*cue music and slow motion video*

Rip off unflattering cap
Shake out hair like a shampoo commercial
Tilt head to the side, smile, and commence conversation

Chalk one up for the girly girls.

M2M Relay Race Report

The 2nd annual Market to Market Relay was yesterday, and for the most part, it was a fantastic time. The weather wasn't as terrible as I feared, but 10 degrees warmer and a little sunshine would have made it even better. People would have mingled more between stages instead of stayed huddled in the vans.

Here's how I packed the night before.

Sheesh, it was like packing for a week long vacation. Four sports bras, four socks, three Under Armour shirts, three pants, two shoes, two pairs of gloves, and various items to keep me comfortable and entertained between stages. Not to mention all the food.

Despite my best selective weather watching, this was the scene as opened the garage at 4:45AM.
What I failed to capture was the screaming wind and near white out conditions I had to drive through to get the meet up point. Fun, no?

I only knew a couple of team members, so after introductions, we were off to the start line with 150 other teams. I was stage 4, and honestly, I don't remember much of 1-3. It was way too early for me. But soon, I could sit warmly in the van no more, and it was my turn.

5.0 miles, 7:46 pace

Thankfully my stage was along a flat, cornfield-surrounded trail. It was cold, but the wind had calmed and the snow was beautiful. One of those "this is why I love running" days. I felt great. Loved getting back into the van when I was done though, don't get me wrong.

My next stage was supposed to be 3.5 miles. See, I'm quite happy about that. As I'm standing there, that orange flag volunteer behind me announces, "this stage has changed, it's clearly marked, but it's 6 miles now."

Quite a few teams were making changes to split it up or trade people out, but no way I was bailing. I was feeling too fantastic after the first run. Apparently obnoxiously cheesy as well.

After six very hilly miles, I could see the town water tower still quite a ways in the distance. Not happy. It was 6.61 miles, which FYI (otherwise awesome) volunteers, is NOT the same as "6 miles".

6.61 miles, 8:10 pace

I spent most of the late afternoon eating, chatting, and sleeping before being poked awake to knock out my last stage. Tired, stiff, and hungry, but my spirits were very lifted when I realized my route was along the same trail I used to run every day in college. Such fantastic memories of that time in my life when I was figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be. Did a lot of good thinking along that trail.

2.95 miles, 7:55 pace

Shortly after, we made our way to the finish line and all crossed together.

89 miles, 21 stages, 11:40:58 finish time, and awesome matching singlets.

With the extendo-leg, I finished the day with 14.44 miles and 53.8 miles for the week. More than I planned with a half marathon on Saturday, but it felt fantastic to run like that, and hopefully I can duplicate that feeling and pace next week.

But let's talk about the piece de resistance of the whole day: The long anticipated Razz meeting. (Well, there was that one stalking incident, but this was less dark restaurant and parking lots and like, a real meeting.)
Conclusions:

1. Miller. Genuine. Draft. Ew.
2. He's taller in real life than I thought.
3. He's really nice. I know, color me shocked too!

Just keep clicking

If you've ever talked to a Nebraskan for more than 10 minutes, you likely talked about one of two things: A.) Husker football or B.) the weather. We love talking about the weather. Love it. Especially heat and especially snow. The big Market 2 Market relay race is Saturday, and I've received no fewer than five e-mails from fellow racers with weather forecasts. They were all a little different, so I figured I'd do some research of my own.

Let's see what The Weather Channel says. They have their own channel. They must know what they're talking about. High of 37 degrees, 70% chance of snow, wind 15 mph.

Snow?! Well, since every woman on that channel is busy growing a baby right now*, they're allowed a certain degree of inaccuracy. That can't be right.

How about NOAA. That's run by the government. I'm encouraged.
High of 39 degrees, 60% chance of snow, wind 17-22 mph.

Not much better. Let's keep clicking. (Come on internet, don't let me down.)

High 41, 30% chance snow, no mention of wind.

Ding ding ding! I think we have a winner! And who am I now considering the Gold Standard of news and information at this point? Fox. Yep, I'm that desperate to not be cold and miserable during this thing.

On the off chance Fox isn't right, I'm getting pretty ready:

• The pants, gloves, and hats have been drug out of the closet and stuffed into my bag.
• Books have been borrowed to keep me busy (since an Us Weekly takes 25 minutes to buzz through.)
• The trash talking points have been brainstormed, captured on 3x5 note cards, and laminated.

As an update, Razz has already swung with a classic pre-race sandbag (typical) and over-compensating for his Garmin inadequacies. Please. I think we all know how this will end. Feel free to submit pre-orders for your championship commemorative book and DVD now. It comes with an adorable XC2 sweatshirt.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend too. Can't wait to spend another Monday reading race reports and not working.

*Although I will shamelessly steal his jokes.

So that's a 5K, huh?

Thanks for all your tips on how to actually run my first 5K yesterday. Wow, they're over fast. I can't say I'll ditch distance training ever, but I certainly see the appeal of quick and dirty. This was a pretty good one. I alluded to it before, but I did have some unscientific goals.

C goal: finish and enjoy the day
B goal: 24:00
A goal: 23:00
A+ goal: 22:11 (my MN friend's time)

Those Race for the Cure folks put on a great race. My friend E and some other Boji girls were in charge of all the volunteers, and they did a fantastic job. A race that big (especially with so many non-regulars) isn't easy. Everything was super organized, thoughtful, smooth, and really focused on what was important that day.

The weather was supposed to be sunny and cool. Thank goodness for the sunny, because it was 35 degrees cool. I get my chip, warm up for a mile or so, and make my way to the start line. Who do I happen to see? Coach! I've mentioned it before, but I can't go fast by myself. Only with Coach on Thursday night run group can I get myself going with any speed.

"OMG OMG OMG! IT'S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU!! HOW FAST ARE YOU PLANNING TO RUN TODAY? CAN I STAY WITH YOU PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?"

(Yes, I talk like that before races. I get a little spazzy when nervous.)

Run Coach was one of the top AG 5-10K runners in the state before he had a massive heart attack last year. He's slowly back to running, but he has a very narrow window of temperature, pace, and exertion he must follow. Thankfully, that usually coincides with my full-out effort.

He said his goal was 7:45-8:00 miles. I knew I wanted to go faster, but since I'd never actually run that fast for 3 miles, I thought it would be good to hang with him for at least the start to make sure I could do it.

Go!

Most of the first mile was crazy down hill and we were flying. It leveled out, and his pace didn't slow much.

Me: (sucking air) Um, we're going at a 6:52 pace. (sucking air) Did you know that?
Coach: Really?
Me: (still sucking air) Are you supposed to be going that fast?
Coach: My heart rate monitor says 87 bpm....but maybe it needs to batteries.
Me: YA THINK?!

Mile 1- 7:09

That's a faster pace than any 800 I've ever done. Thoughts: this could end badly.

The next mile was mostly this conversation:

Me: Are you doing okay? (sucking air)
Coach: Yeah, fine.
Me: Okay, because we're no where NEAR 8:00!

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Mile 2- 7:21

Better. I guess.

The last part was back up a lot of the hill from the first mile, and I was equal parts sucking air and trying to remember CPR from my life guarding days. Unfortunately, when all I really did was get a tan, flirt with boys, and not pay attention to silly things like CPR class.

...please don't have a heart attack... please don't have a heart attack... please don't have a heart attack...

Either of us, really, since I was dying.

Mile 3- 7:29
Mile .1- :40 seconds (6:52 pace)

The finish line! The glorious, glorious finish line!

Final stats-
22:39 (7:17/mi)

12/300ish chipped Female

4/61 AG

I was soooo excited. I never ever thought I'd run it that fast. After confirming he was feeling just fine, I thanked him profusely, briefly met his lovely wife, and parted ways happy to know that unless I can get Coach to pace me for every 5K I ever do, this may be my lifetime PR.

Perfect weather, great cause, super volunteers, a damn speedy race and back home to run 8 more miles (in preparation for my upcoming relay and half maraton) before The Husband is even awake. Man I love fall.

(Super congrats to everyone else who raced this weekend. I've spent half my day reading all these exciting race reports. Work Shmork!)

Racing for the Cure (and tagged)

I've run quite a few races this year, and I can't think of a better cause than Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure on Sunday. While cancer hasn't directly effected my friends or family, all the stories of success, strength, heart, and fight I read are inspiring. If me running a 5k to support this great organization helps a teeny tiny bit, sign me up!

With that being said, I have no idea how to run this. I've never raced a 5k before. There's a goal time dancing in my mind, but it's not based on anything scientific and I have no idea if it's even doable. Basically it's what my friend ran in Minnesota that I'd kind of like to beat.

Any suggestions for a race strategy? Fly and hold on? Keep the reigns on the first half? There will be 15,000+, so the first mile may be slower whether I want it to be or not. What kind of pace should I plan relative to my repeat 800s? I'll take any advice.

Also, super cool Jess at Run Girl Run tagged me because apparently my blog is tops. (Duh.) Thanks Jess!

Answer the following questions with only 1 word answers...

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2.Your hair? brunette
3. Your mother? nutty
4. Your father? hilarious
5. Your favorite food? pizza
6. Your dream last night? odd
7. Your favorite drink? water
8. Your dream/goal? family
9. What room are you in? family
10. Your hobby? running
11. Your fear? dark
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy
13. Where were you last night? home
14. Something you aren't? short
15. Muffins? yum
16. Wish list item? purse
17. Where did you grow up? Omaha
18. Last thing you did? eat
19. What are you wearing? sweatshirt
20. Your TV? big
21. Your pets? none
22. Your friends? awesome
23. Your life? great
24. Your mood? happiness
25. Missing someone? slightly
26. Vehicle? Accord
27. Something you're not wearing? socks
28. Your favorite store? grocery
29. Your favorite color? pink
30. When was the last time you laughed? dinner
31. Last time you cried? Tuesday
32. Your best friend? lovely
33. One place that I go over and over? fridge
34. One person who emails me regularly? husband
35. Favorite place to eat? Pancheros

I tag anyone who needs something to write about. Anyone who reads here is tops too.