Exactly.

Favorite Race Photo of myself, EVER.

Photo of me immediately after the Swampstomper 50k.

Here's some other gems:

Chowing down at the half-way mark.

Approaching the finish...

Almost there...

Crossing the finish line with a smile.

Alright. I'm ready for the next one. Sign me up ;)

Sometimes it just Sucks.

Now, I realize that anyone who half-way regularly reads this blog will never think to the contrary, but I just gotta say... that running isn't always butterflies and haikus. Sometimes running SUCKS. Actually... I'm going to go out on a limb and say most of the time it sucks. Particularly if you're training for something. Sure, all us runners get poetic sometimes about about how awesome we felt during a particular run, or how we were reminded of our spirituality while out in nature or something, blah blah blah... but dude, honestly... that's just BS that we feed people to convince ourselves that we aren't all a bunch of crazy, OCD, sadists.

YES, there are those occasional runs, that make us feel "alive" in some sense that we don't get out of everyday life. But, in general, those come once every 100-150 miles (at least for me).

This past weekend's run was no exception. Suck-city.

To preface, I had battled the NOLA Flu with vengeance all week. I battled it out and actually only managed to take one half-day of work off the whole time (yes, I hate my co-workers... I didnt mind being socially irresponsible and exposing them to the illness. Sue me. I had work to do). But, I didn't run all week. This for me, is unheard of. Seriously, I'm not sure I've taken a whole week off running since I ran my first marathon in 2007. The last run I had managed was the 17 miler in New Orleans the week prior.

So, Sunday morning... as I lined up with the other Nashville Striders at the Titans Stadium ready for a 16 mile training run, I tried to embrace the impending suck. I tried to ready myself that this wasn't going to be a fun run for me. Not with the time off, the mucus still taking up shop in my lungs and even more so, the scenery on this particularly training run BLOWS. Here's the tour for you: Stadium, Ghetto (and not even cool, sketchy-ghetto.. more like industrial-boring ghetto), Park (and not a cool, pretty park. Boring -no- scenic-details with tons -of- dog -shit- to -navigate park) and back through the Park, Ghetto and to the Stadium.

The run started off pretty well. It was cold. And somehow, I hadn't really dressed appropriately for the run. As we started nearing the park, I started to lose interest in the run. We were only about 2-3 miles in and I was already bored out of my mind. And it had nothing to do with my company. In fact, I was thrilled to be running with two of my Relay Teammates, and would have loved nothing more than continuing our conversations at the local bar or coffeshop. Preferably somewhere warm. But, the run was boring me.

By the time we entered the park and embarked on the long out and back loop within it, I was starting to have moments of non-suckage. At times I would feel energized, but those moments were fleeting and were quickly replaced with moments of total suckage again. Overall though, I was barely getting by.

And then around mile 10 of the run, we were encountered by a girl from our group running back towards us asking for a cell phone, telling us to dial 911. There was an emergency situation ahead of us and we sped up to see if we could offer any help. When we got there, it was clear that it wasn't just a sprained ankle, but a serious, serious injury that was possibly life-threatening and rather than go into specifics on here, I'll just say please, buy a Road id and also, if you're going to be running in a remote area, please have someone in your group carry a cell phone. I NEVER carry a cell phone on my runs, but I will definitely be carrying one when I run in parks from now on. We stuck around for a little while, as, one of the people I was running with had offered her cell phone and her phone was still in use with emergency personnel, trying to get them to our exact location. Finally, someone told us to run to the trailhead to try and alert the ambulance to their location when it got there.

With something constructive to do, we took off. And I mean, really took off. We had a mile to get to the trailhead and we ran like we had just robbed a bank (I'm sure in actuality wasn't all that fast, but after running 10 miles, it felt really really fast). We eventually heard the ambulance turn off to go a different route into the park, and we slowed down a bit, but the adrenoline was still pumping and we were still running faster than I probably should have been.

By the time we got to within a mile or two of the finish, I was done. Physically, mentally, emotionally done. I was freezing from stopping for so long, my right hip was giving my some tweaky pain, it took every ounce of my willpower to keep going. I wanted to stop and walk so freaking bad. But the only thing that kept me going was knowing that the walk was going to take longer and be even colder. By the time we got to the stadium, I announced to my friends, that I was done with 15, I wasn't going to loop the stadium and get the extra for the full 16, I just needed to be finished. They too decided that 15 was enough and we finished with 15 exactly.

I was beat, I was cold, I was mentally exhausted, I was stiff, I was tired, I was done. It was awful.

Today, I've got a stiff right knee (not my IT band, but the center on the backside of the knee) and a stiff right hip. I think it's just residual stiffness from the cold and from not getting any other runs in last week. Hopefully, I'm due one of those awesome runs, soon. I need it.

17+ miles in the Crescent City

I love running, it's as much a part of my daily routine and life as brushing my teeth. And one of my favorite things about running is that you can literally do it anywhere. And so anytime I travel, I always bring wayyyyy too many running clothes in the hopes of getting out into the city. This past weekend was no different. Except... I didn't have plans for a nice 1 hour jaunt throughout the city... No... I had plans for a long run. A very long run.

Here's the deal. April needed an 18 miler this weekend according to her training plan. Initially, I found a 30k race in New Orleans for Sunday morning that I thought would be awesome to do and then I realized... Wait... Sunday morning comes immediately after Saturday night. Probably not the best idea. So, instead since April and I were the only ones in town on Thursday night and Friday morning, we decided we'd do it on Friday morning.

We did well on Thursday night. We fueled up on some pizza and water and then we hit up the Huge Ass Beer place (Hey! Beer contains carbs). And we were back to the hotel room and in bed by 11:30. The plan was to hit the streets at 7am, as to give us plenty of time to get back to the hotel before the next friend got into town (11:30) and also before a thunderstorm rolled in.

I had mapped out a perfect 17 mile route, basically making 2 loops of the square of Canal Street to the River to Esplanade to City Park to N. Carrollton back Canal. Easy. One loop was 8.5. I figured we could get the extra mile in the park, or down by the river or something.

We started out okay... we hit the walgreens next door for some water (April is snooty with her water and wouldn't fill her bottles up with tap water, like I did) and then we headed down Royal Street towards Canal. To be honest... initially I wasn't feeling spectacular. I didn't feel bad, but I didn't feel great. One awesome thing though? The weather! It was overcast and like 63 degrees. PERFECT. We got a little turned around making our way to Esplanade from the river, so tacked an extra mile or so at that point by going the wrong way, then correcting ourselves before we actually made it to Esplanade.

April and I run in two totally different environments. She's a residential runner and I'm a city runner. I'm used to dodging people, cars, waiting at intersections, etc. She's not and she was getting stressed out by all the stimuli around. Finally we got to Esplanade and at this point, I was actually starting to feel kinda good.

There was one problem though. April has a garmin... but it's not a GPS garmin, it's the foot pod/cadence garmin. And everytime I would ask her what our pace was she'd say something like... 12:30/13:00... OCCASIONALLY I'd get an 11:30 out of her. But, I knew that there was no way in hell we were running that pace. I mean.. don't get me wrong.. I can and will run a 13:00 minute mile... but right then, we weren't. So, by the time we hit the park and April told me we'd only ran like 4.5 miles and we'd been out for over an hour I thought I was going die.

Despite that, we plugged on and decided to make up some extra mileage within the park.

April when we first arrived at City Park

We spent about another hour in the park. Running along the paths there... finding a track and running a couple loops on it, and we spent a good part of that time looking for a bathroom (surprisingly... not for me! holla!). We darted out of the park to hit up a gas station for a bathroom, but it was sketch-city, so hopped back into the park... thinking SURELY TO GOD there is a public bathroom somewhere. Everytime I saw any type of shelter-y looking building.. I'd say... "that looks like one" and we'd run over to it and it would just be like a maintenance shed or something. Eventually... we came upon a playground. We decided to take a mini-break and we hopped on the swing set.

We convinced ourselves that we were actually coming up with a new form of cross-training to be performed mid-run. It was awesome. I hadn't been on a swing in years and I forgot how fun they are! (and how weird your legs feel afterwards).

At this point I was trying to convince April that by the time her garmin told us we had 18 miles.. we'd probably have 19-20. She didn't care. She wanted to see the 18 miles on her watch. And ultimately, as much as I hated hearing it, I completely understood. So I tried to shut my trap and we headed on... Even though she revealed to me that she hadn't recalibrated that thing since she first got it YEARS ago. For a brief moment I thought about ripping the watch off her wrist and smashing it into the sidewalk.

We hit up a Walgreens, so that I could get some gatorade and so that April could use the bathroom. At this point, according to her watch, we were about half-way and I thought.. ohhh 9 miles. That's so NOTHING. Until I realized it had taken us 2 hours to run the "9 miles" we'd ran so far. We made it back down Canal Street, back to the river and then back to Esplanade, where I decided to take a detour so that we could run up Bourbon Street for a bit.

The soberest we'd see Bourbon Street all weekend.

It was here that we started to encounter people and delivery guys and we weaved through the city at this point... just pushing and trying to get the last 5 miles that we needed. We headed back to the River to try and run up and down the river as much as we could to make up the last 3 or so miles that the garmin said we needed. But by this point, the storm was moving in and the wind had picked up. Finally, April said that she wanted to go back to the hotel and finish whatever mileage was left on the treadmill there.

So, we headed back. When we got to the hotel, her garmin read exactly 16 miles. I KNEW that we had ran more than that, because there was no way we were averaging a 13+/mile pace. We had been running for 4 hours, sure we had a couple of breaks for like 5 minutes... but we had been actually running for at the very least 3:45. That's 14 minute miles, in fact! NO WAY.

April did another mile on the treadmill and I half-heartedly did some free weights in the weight room and we called it a day.

All-in-all the run SUCKED. I never once felt like I got in the groove, I was stressed out by the garmin situation, but the thing is... we got it done. And I have to admit, it was cool running through the city and I felt like by doing it, I had a better sense of direction the rest of the weekend. I knew where things were, how the streets worked. And I didn't feel bad when I drank 10 zillion drinks that night and indulged on Turtle Soup, Pecan Encrusted Redfish, and Pecan Pie with Praline Ice Cream at Palace Cafe later that night (or the Muffaletta and fries and 2/3 of Aprils fried shrimp at the place we had lunch). So, that's a bonus.

I tried to map out our route on running ahead when I got back as best I could and I came up with 17.12 miles... but I know there's some extra random street running that we did that I just can't remember. Whatev. It sucked, but it was totally worth it. Thanks April for not letting me convince you to quit after like 10 miles or something, like I tried to. (I'm not a good running partner, folks). And also April, please for the love of God re-calibrate that thing!

I am alive, but just barely

Well, I survived the weekend in NOLA.

The weekend started out great:

Then there were a few "awkward" moments:

Followed by some hilariously fun moments...

And then of course... don't forget the breakfast of champions at 9 am.

Glenlivet 15 year poured into a "Huge Ass Beer" cup anyone?

There were Mardi Gras Parades from Balconys of people we didn't know...

There was also a New Orleans Saints Parade...

There was also the triple crown of drinks in New Orleans:

And yes... some mechanical bull riding...

All in all, it was probably one of the best weekends of my life... except, I came home with this...

I seem to have contracted the black death.

I'll be back when I get over this awful post-NOLA sickness.  

Back on the Wagon (almost)

And no, I'm not talking about alcohol. I fell off that wagon a long time ago, folks.

So, a week after my 50k, I decided to join the Nashville Striders for their first marathon training run of the Spring 2010 season. The Bongo to Bongo 14 miler. It was wet, but it was fun! It's amazing how much MORE fun a 14-16 mile run is than say... a 20 mile training run.

I actually only got in 13.5, but aside from the last mile which hurt a little, I felt really, really good. Then my Monday night tempo run was a perfect 8:42 pace and I only felt like I was going to die a couple of times (improving?? possibly??). I think having the stress of the 50k off my shoulders has really allowed me to enjoy running again. I'm getting back in the groove, baby.

But,  before I get all gung-ho on your asses. This week is not going to be a high mileage week. Wanna know why??? Because tomorrow afternoon, I will be here:

Celebrating my 30th birthday with some of my favorite people in the world! I will be running 1 day while I'm there. Friday morning, April and I will get up and hit the streets at 7am to tackle 18 miles, before spending the rest of the weekend succombing to the evil temptations that Bourbon Street has to offer. Basically... I'm going to be drinking and partying my ass off.

And when I get back next week... it's on. Back to serious running. Back to serious working out. Back to serious attempts at appearing hardcore. I've got a date with the 3:59 marathon. April 25th. No distractions (besides 2-3 half marathons that I will use as tune-up races), just lots of miles and training.

**Side note... So, maybe I started my birthday celebration a little early with yesterday's HUGE Gamecock win! How often do you beat the #1 team in the country? (If you're a gamecock... maybe once in a lifetime, sadly). Obviously, I had to mark the occasion by climbing out of my pjs and heading to the local bar. Sure, getting up this morning at 5:30 to run SUCKED, but it was sooooo worth it.

The Things I Carried

To The Race: Complete change of clothes including underwear, socks and flip-flops. Forgot actual shoes. Diet coke, gatorade, and water bottle for after the race.

During The Race: Fuel Belt with two bottles. One bottle with water and one bottle filled with gatorade. A Cliff bar for the half-way point, a snickers bar, black cherry shot blox, dried cherries.

Home From The Race:

About 2 pounds of Memphis mud and rain water. Awesome.

On Thursday night,I finally got the nerve to dig my clothes from the race out of the plastic bag that I shoved them into on Sunday afternoon and attempt to clean them in my bathtub. It was not pretty. Mud caked deep inside my shoes and leggings. Gross.

Race Report: Swampstomper 50k (Part Deux)

Read Part 1 here.

(FYI, this installment is really long.. so be prepared).

So, I had reached the halfway mark. 16.3 miles down and 16.3 miles to go. I headed back to the trail with an energized spring to my step. I was feeling good. And hitting the trail again... as a 50ker, knowing that all the 25kers that I would meet along the way would know that I was a 50ker made me feel like a badass. And you know I loved that.

I knew that this stretch was going to feel long. The beginning of the race, I was hating every moment of this stretch. But this time around... I was used to the cold water and the mud (although, the mud got worse and worse... the more people who trodded through it. We seriously must have destroyed the trail by the end of it). I focused on the trail and simultaneously let my mind wander. I started thinking about the accomplishment that this was going to be.

As I ran, I thought of what it has taken me to get to that point. I thought of the obstacles I've overcome and the changes I've made in my life that led me to that exact moment on that trail. And for the first time in my life, I felt really proud of myself. I felt proud that I had taken control of my life and that I was living my life the way I wanted to live it. Right now. Not next week. Not next year. Not tomorrow. But today and everyday. And that's what I felt most proud of. Taking the proverbial bull by the horns and running with it (pun intended).

My life is no different than everyone elses. I've had obstacles to overcome, challenges to face, demons to wrestle with, but I finally started facing them head on. And without getting all Tony Robbins on you, I just want to urge anyone who's not living life like that.. to DO IT. Today. Now. I promise, it's soooooo worth it.

Ok... enough with the inspirational BS.

So, as I ran this 5.1 miles to the next aid station, I felt on top of the world. It was my favorite stretch of the race. Miles 16-21. It was also at this point in the race that I learned the value of a shuffle jog. Holy shit people, that is THE way to go when you're running through mud and water. Just get you a nice little rhythm and shuffle jog your way through it. (Although... this course wasn't super technical with roots, etc... so.. if that were the case, the shuffle jog would not be well advised).

It was also at this point in the race, where I started singing. Out loud. For whatever reason, I had "Jimmy Crack Corn" stuck in my head... so, here I was, shuffling through 6 inches of mud singing... "Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't care, Jimmy crack corn, and I don't care..." over and over again. And.. the sad thing is... it didn't even annoy me! I eventually switched to the the epic Joe Espositio classic from Karate Kid: "You're the Best Around." It was good. Real good.

Right before I got to the aid station, I ran upon two guys coming down a steep hill. The lead guy immediately started singing... "She was walking in, as I was walking out." (From "Glory Days" Bruce Springsteen). I joked with them that I wished I was walking out, instead of walking in... and then asked if they'd switch with me. They laughed. And then kept on... I guess they weren't keen on the idea of switching with me.

Once I reached the aid station, I was still feeling awesome. Loving that I only had a little over 11 miles left to go. I chatted up the volunteers while I stuffed my face with peanut m&ms, Heed, and bananas. One of the volunteers asked me if I'd seen many people on the trail... I told him about the girl behind me and that I had just met the two guys. Then I casually asked..."So, how am I doing on time? I'm not in danger of missing any cut-offs or anything am I?" He looked down at his watch and he said... "well, not really... but you've only got about an hour to get to the lake."

I almost choked on the Heed. I had NO idea that I was getting close to a cut-off.

"The lake is about 4.5 miles away." He said. "You can make that in an hour. Once you get there by 2, then you're golden. That's the last cut-off. "

I looked down at my watch and saw that it said 12:55. I dropped the half eaten Oreo I had in my hand and I took off. There was no freaking way, I was coming this far and NOT finishing. But, I knew he was lying. I knew that the lake was actually 5 miles away, because they had told me that the first time I was there. F***. There is no way I can run miles 21-26 in 1:05. But, I had to. HAD TO.

This was the 3rd time I fell... coming down a big hill, I fell on my ass and just stayed there till I had slid all the way down the hill. Faster than trying to get back up and regain my balance. I pushed it. I ran as fast as my legs could go. There were a few small spots where we were up high and the trail wasn't too wet and sloppy and on these few parts I really tried to kick it into gear. When I reached the next aid station, I flew right through it. "Gotta get to the lake by 2!!!!" I yelled. "See you when I'm on my way back!"

I kept looking at my watch. Trying to figure out how much trail I had left. I ran harder than I've ever ran in a race. Not that I was running all that fast, but for the conditions and the fact that I had already been running for 5.5 hours and that I was running miles 21-26, I was going as fast as I could. One guy passed me on the out and back loop and said, "Tear it up." I liked that. Tear it up, indeed.

As I started getting closer to the lake (or what I hoped was closer, haha). I started seeing people coming back from there... I asked one girl.. "how much further to the lake??" "a little more than a mile and a half." she said. NOT the answer I wanted to hear... at that point I had about 20 minutes before 2:00. I started asking people when the cutoff time was... none of them knew.

Eventually I came upon the guy in front of me and as I passed him, I told him.. "dude, I think we have to be at the lake by 2:00."

"Naw.... 2:30." He said.

2:30 was exactly what I wanted to hear. But... who do I trust? A man at an aid station? Or a guy who has been out on the trails for 5.5 hours?? I continued on.

There was a big climb to get to the point where you hit pavement and run down to the aid station at the lake... that damn hill slowed me down. As soon as I hit pavement I booked it. I ran my ass off and when I got to the tent, I looked down at my watch and it said, 2:00:30. "DID I MAKE IT???" I yelled out.

Everyone kinda looked at me and I was like.. "ohhh SHIT." I waited for someone to speak.... "Did I make the cut-off??" I asked again.

"Oh yeah, you have till 2:30."

OMFG. Are you serious??? I just ran my legs off. I ran 5 miles in 1:05 in muddy, sloppy trails. I told the guys what the other Aid Station guys had told me... "oh yeah, they don't know what they're talking about." one guy said. Awesome.

I took my time at this aid station. The volunteers were chatty and kept telling us... "oh, you've got 2.5 hours to make it back and you've just got about a 10k to go."

Sooooo doable, right??? I mean.. I could WALK 6.2 miles in 2.5 hours. Easy. I could probably cartwheel the whole way. Right???

I headed back to the trail for my last 6.2 and after hightailing the last 5 miles and thinking I had all kinds of time for the last 6, I slowed down considerably and when I came upon the girl I had passed at the half-way point. I told her.... "Just a little over a mile to go!" to which she replied... "Yeah, but I'm not going to make the cut-off." to which I emphatically told her... "Sure you are! You've got till 2:30!!!." And she said glumly.. "It's 2:25, now."

And that's when I realized what an asshole I am (I did apologize to her) and I realized that it had taken me about 25 minutes to go a little over a mile. F**K!!! Where did the time go??? At this point, the dude I had passed was right on my tail and I let him in front of me...

We chatted a bit. It was his first 50k, too. He was from St. Louis, he asked me about 15 times in the span of a mile if I thought we were going to make the cut-off. (I think he was really foggy at this point). When we reached the last aid station, the volunteers (who were the ones I blazed past earlier) said... "you made the cut-off!!" and I explained that I had till 2:30 which I didn't know. The lady told us that we had just over 3.5 miles to go, so I opted to not stop and just continued down the trail. I needed to be finished more than I needed a Golden Oreo.

I also knew that I still had a snickers bar on me, and decided to eat it once I came out of there. I scarfed it down as I shuffle jogged and made my way towards the end. This stretch felt REALLY, REALLY, REALLY long. I couldn't help but become obsessed with my watch and I must have looked it a zillion times. I also tried to keep ahead of the guy behind me. Only as a way to keep on a steady pace. I didn't care whether I was dead last or not... but I wanted to be done sooo bad.

With about 2 miles left, I could see people ahead of me. They were the two women who bolted in front of me when we first got on the trail at the very beginning. I tried my damnedest to catch up with them and let my brain obsess over it for the rest of the trail. I think deep down I knew I wouldn't catch up to them... but at this point, it was just about finishing and with a goal of catching them, I was getting there faster than I would otherwise. The last 1.75 was killer. I had noticed a sign that said... 1.75 on it and I knew that meant it was 1.75 to the end (or at least to the end of the trail). I glued my eyes to the trail, looking for every marker that counted down another quarter of mile. Finally, I got to the big, steep hill that meant that the trail was almost over. I climbed up it and came out of the woods and onto the grassy area to the pavement. I saw April's car and then I saw April... I ran towards her. Hoping that she'd run the last bit with me. I was going to beg her to, if she didn't automatically. Luckily, she did and I immediately started talking to her... (she was probably walking to my jogging, haha). I dont even remember what I said or what she said... but I was just happy to see her and happy to see the finish.

As I crossed the finish line I immediately started crying. If I had let myself.. I would have bawled like a baby... but I tried to fight the tears and ended up with that awkward, loud, half sob, half sniffing thing. One guy made some comment... "that's right... get emotional." and that helped, cause it made me crack up.

I stood for a minute, trying to get a hold of myself and eventually I sat down on a bench for a second. I noted to April, "this is the first time I've sat down in 8.5 hours."

I tried to get out of muddy clothes and shoes and socks as fast as possible, cause I hated that April had been waiting on me for SOOOO Long. But it was a slow process. Just getting my shoes off took 5 minutes. Each foot was swollen and the mud and water had caked them to my feet.

Eventually I got into clean clothes and stuck all my clothes and shoes (I threw my socks away) into a plastic bag and we hit the road...

My official time was 8:29:37. I was 22 out of 24 (they ended up letting the girl behind me finish).

I did it. I completed my first 50k. It was hella hard. But I made it. And I got the kick ass medal to prove it...

(the volunteers make the medals!)

Later that night, after the hamburger, onion rings, and milkshake... I had to take 3 advils. I've never had to take a pain killer after a race before. But, from my knees down.. my legs just ACHED. My calves, my achilles, my feet, behind my knees. I was laid out on April's loveseat and about snapped her head off when I mistakenly thought I heard her ask her husband for a leg massage (she actually just asked him if she could stretch her legs out. My bad. haha).

It was worth it, though. I'm ready for my next one :) (a dry one, preferably!).

I just want to take a minute to thank April for carting my stressed out, bitchy ass around all weekend and for being patient with me and waiting on my slow ass for 8.5 hours on Sunday. You're the best. I love ya :)

And, in case you're wondering... here's all the finisher's times for the race:

5:29:55 (Last year, 4:42 was the winning time).
6:02:18
6:21:00
6:24:17
6:24:18
6:37:40
6:47:57
6:58:31
7:10:41
7:28:42
7:29:06
7:34:42
7:36:45
7:44:24
7:59:20
7:59:42
7:59:42
8:07:14
8:15:23
8:27:40
8:27:40
8:29:37 ME!!!
8:32:04
9:48:57