Miles on the 'mill.

12.5 miles on the 'mill today.

That's right: 12.5. Twelve point five.

A mere .6 away from the half marathon and that will be run in the lovely environs of Flushing Meadow Park in Queens. I can totally handle it.

For real. If I can run 12.5 on the 'mill, 13.1 on real roads should be a piece of cake. Of course, I'll be pushing harder in the race, striving to make a time goal that is much faster than I ran today. But still.

In case you're wondering, no, I hadn't planned to run that long on the treadmill. I had grand plans of running outside yesterday. But my baby is sick and he was in rough shape yesterday so my long run was out. Neither of us slept that much last night so I wanted to be nearby in case he needed to nurse (which he did) or in case my increasing sleep deficit finally caught up with me (which it didn't).

I ran this one nice and slow for the first 9 miles and then picked up the pace, running mile 10 at 8:30 and then slowing back down for mile 11, finishing the run in 2:00:30. Afterward, I ate and ate and I plan to eat more. Good thing my parents are cooking dinner tonight!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

~ Felice

Paranoia will destroy ya.

File this under "At Least I'm Not as Crazy as the Happy Runner."

Or just laugh at me. Either is fine.

First, by way of background, we're 5 weeks from the half marathon and every little sore anything has me slightly paranoid. When I started to feel a little something in my left knee yesterday I kinda freaked. I never have left knee problems. Whenever I have any sort of foot/knee/hip problems they are in my right leg. Always. So something in my left knee? Yikes-ola.

It was one of those funny-surface feelings. It felt as if some ligament or tendon was just loose and flapping around right under my skin. It didn't hurt, which I figured was a good sign, but I definitely felt the flapping when I walked up or down the stairs and when I sat or stood.

I didn't want to think about what could be wrong.

And so I thought instead about how terrible it would be to have to miss the half marathon. I would be doomed. These thoughts ran through my head all day, especially when I felt the flapping. Stupid knee!

Or maybe just silly, silly me.

You see, on Thursday I had cut my knee. Just a wee little cut but it bled so I covered it with a band-aid. That's right. A band-aid. Apparently, not a tight-fitting band-aid because that was what was causing the weird flapping around feeling on my knee. It wasn't a torn ligament or pulled muscle or off-set kneecap. Nope, just a little bandage on a little cut.

So, yeah. I'm OK. Still on for the half.

Now, doesn't my crazy paranoia make yours seem normal?

You're welcome.

~ Felice

HMRRC Winter Marathon Relay 2011 race report. Part 2.

If you haven't read Part 1 you can find it HERE.

OK, so on with the race!

Janis and me at the start. Yes, we are in matching jackets.

Before I get too far into it, let me point out that this race is small. The marathon had 77 finishers and there were 43 relay teams. So there were about 110 of us at the start. This meant that there weren't crowds of people holding me back from a fast start. And because I was so itching to race, I needed to be held back.

I spent the entire first mile trying to rein myself in. Pace yourself. Don't go out too fast. You've got miles and miles to go. Live your Plan A. No 7s. No 7s.


That was the big thing. I didn't want to run anything under an 8-minute mile because I didn't want to burn out early in the race and end up dragging for the remaining miles. My goal was to run at a pace I believe I can hold for 13.1 miles, or 8:40 per mile.

Since there were so few people in the race I was quickly running by myself. A few times I fell into step with someone and we ran together for a bit but I was mostly running alone. Occasionally I would pass someone or someone would pass me. Whenever someone passed me I thought about trying to go with them but then remembered by own advice. Run your own race. Live your Plan A. And I would hold back and keep to my own pace.

Which was hard to do at times, given the crippling winds that cropped up throughout the course. But I like to think I did relatively well sticking to my pace.

I had told Suzy, who was running the second leg, that I thought I would finish around 80 minutes. At the first turn-around (the course is an extremely exciting five looper around the state office campus and some roads on the UAlbany campus) I caught sight of the clock (there were no time markers anywhere else on the course) and it read 28-something. For some reason I thought the turn-around was at Mile 3 so I figured I was way off pace. In reality, the turn-around was at 3.5 or so. But, I didn't figure that out until later.

 Waving to Suzy just before the first turn-around.

Suzy was out cheering me on like the super teammate she is and when I saw her after the turn-around, I told her I was probably going to be slower than I had originally thought. She was encouraging, though, and didn't seem to mind. I, on the other hand, did.

Feeling a tad deflated by what I thought was my time through 3 miles, I tried to pick it up. When I hit the Mile 5 marker, though, I realized that I had been wrong at the turn-around. My time was 41:13. Clearly, I was running fine, under my 8:40/mile goal.

So then I just ran. I often had to run with my poor hand in front of my face to block the frigid wind but I kept running strong. I was feeling good and at Mile 7 I felt sure that I could beat 80 minutes so I started to tell myself to run hard. I didn't need to hold back at that point, I needed to push. It wasn't easy to push in the wind and cold but I gave it a shot.

As proof of how ridiculously cold it was, the Gatorade I had in my handheld bottle began to ice up over the course of the race. Yeah, nothing like chugging down ice crystals on the run! Oh, and my jellybeans (my "fuel" of choice) were as hard as rocks when I tried to eat them. I managed to suck on a few of them until they were pliable enough to eat and then I just gave up. Plus my fingers weren't all that happy when I took my gloves off to fish the 'beans out of my pockets.

I pushed on to the turn-around where I saw Amanda and Suzy waiting for me:

Sunny gals! 

I tagged Suzy and she was off on her leg. And then I felt like I would hurl.

Seriously. Poor Amanda had to listen to me curse about the cold and the wind and speak complete nonsense the entire way back to the indoor waiting area. I was just spent. Cold and spent.

But happy! I had BEATEN my goal. Here are my splits:

Mile 1: 8:08

Mile 2: 7:55

Mile 3: 8:17

Mile 4: 8:30

Mile 5: 8:29

Mile 6: 8:19

Mile 7: 8:43

Mile 8: 8:23

Mile 9: 8:46

last .26: 2:06 (8:08 pace)

Total: 1:17:30, avg 8:22 per mile

26th out of 43 overall for my leg (male and female)

Yay, yay, yay!

After I warmed up and grabbed some coffee and a banana, I realized that I had beaten my goal by almost 20 seconds per mile. I can't tell you how happy that makes me!

I changed out of my race garb and then Owen showed up to drop my 4-month old off (so I could nurse him, etc.).

My finger chomper, hanging with the runners!

After I finished my leg, Suzy went out and ran her 5.7 mile leg and Amanda ran her 11.3 miles. Both of them did GREAT! 

Go, Amanda, go! 

Amanda bringing it home for the team!

Not to be too boastful but we kicked some serious butt! Our official time was 4:05:34 -- 16 minutes better than last year! Can't wait to see how much we improve next year.

Suzy, Amanda, me after the relay.

It was such a fun day: Relays are awesome. It was especially fun this year because my good friends Janis and Bridget were part of a team, too. Janis ran the same leg as me, which was her longest run ever! And Bridget ran her leg through some bad foot pain, but she toughed it out. Way to go, girls!

Janis, me, Bridget before the race.

So, here we are at the end. Thanks for your endurance in making it through my race reports! I'm hoping this report is just the first of many for this year.

In the meantime, hope you're all having a good week. Thanks for stopping by!

~ Felice

HMRRC Winter Marathon Relay 2011 race report. Part 1.

Note: I've never broken a race report into parts before but this one was getting too long so I decided to just go for it! Here's part 1!

After Sunday's race, I know what it is like to run 9.2 miles when the temperature is 16 degrees, but feels like 3.

This was the weather on Sunday (thanks, Suzy!):

16 degrees. And windy -- don't let the 12mph fool you. When it "feels like" 3 degrees and you're running into the wind, that 12mph "feels like" 50. No lie.

Yeah, the weather was the talk of the day but it didn't define it. Awesomeness did. Running the Winter Marathon Relay with Team Pink Ladies for the second year in a row was capital-A Awesome! For real.

But it didn't start out that way.

First, there was my sleep. Which lacked. Yup, the one night I really wanted some solid, uninterrupted sleep was the one night that everyone woke me up. Repeatedly. Life of a breastfeeding mom . . . 


Who needs sleep anyway, right? Not me, apparently.

As I've said before, I'm dealing with the less-than-ideal sleep so it wasn't a big deal. I got up, had a breakfast of two pieces of toast with peanut butter, a big glass of water and some coffee. And then a little more coffee. I had packed all of my gear the night before so I was more or less ready to go. But there was one glitch -- Conal woke up with a slight cold (sneezing, runny nose) so that botched the morning plan for the boys and meant I had to unexpectedly rush around before heading out the door to go to the race. And once I did get out the door -- later than I had planned -- the car wouldn't start. What the what?!?!?


I almost screamed. Instead, I ran inside and got Owen and he started the car, promising me that it would start fine later, and then off I went. I rushed and rushed but ended up getting to the race late and flustered. Fortunately, my friends were all there and all helpful. As I mentioned on Friday, the relay was shaping up to be a bit of a running party with so many of my friends running and it really was great to see them when I got there.

I was running the first leg of the relay so being late wasn't cool. Sure, Suzy or Amanda could have taken my leg if I didn't make it there on time but that would have been incredibly lame. Who can't make it to a 10:00 start on time? Fortunately, I made it, bag o' nerves though I was. And with Suzy's help, I pinned my number on my jacket and was ready to go.

First, of course, we had to make time for some group pics. Since I was so flustered, I didn't take any photos but Suzy busted out her camera and let me steal use her pics.

THE TEAM!! Suzy, Amanda, me.

Our team . . . with some of the competition :-)

(Amanda, Suzy, me, Janis, Bridget)

Pics done, we headed to the start line, which was not too far from the nice indoor gathering space but felt like it was miles away because of the cold (did I mention it was cold out?) wind.

We lined up with the rest of the nutty relay racers and the even nuttier full marathon racers. The relay is broken into three legs: 9.2, 5.7 and 11.3 miles. I was running the first leg, 9.2 miles. A decent race distance for this point in my half marathon training. I decided to use this as a tune-up race to check how my training really has been working and to see if I could hold my half marathon pace for the 9.2 miles. In my head, I've been thinking that I should be able to run at an 8:45 pace for the half. With 6 weeks to go until the half, I figured that if I could hold that pace over the 9.2 I would be in great shape to hold it over 13.1 miles. The most important thing would be to not start out too fast, since I'm prone to fast starts and end-of-race fades. Before the start, I told myself I didn't want to have any miles under an 8 min/mile pace. I drilled myself on that. Pace yourself. Pace yourself.

Here I am trying to stay warm before the start:

Futile efforts, for sure.

Just before the start of the race, we turned into uber-huggers and started sharing them all around. Then we lined up and listened to the barely audible instructions and the (no kidding) verbal call of, "On your mark. Get set. Go!"

And with that call, we were off . . .