Life after a stress fracture

Who knew it existed: life after a stress fracture! I've been back in the saddle for two weeks now. Well, it's more a reminder of my earlier days in voltige, I am only halfway on the horse! I started running again the week of my birthday starting slowly, painfully s-l-o-w-l-y! It's what I am supposed to do, or at least that's what everyone tells me to do. Well, excepte for my Dr. who doesn't really want me to run until the end of December... he doesn't really expect me to follow his advice though. Thankfully for me, his daughter is a runner, a serious one, not an amateur like me, so he understands.

In typical me fashion, I've put the horses before the cart - is that even an expression in English? - and I signed up for a race at the end of April. Nope, it's not Nashville, I am not running it this year, although my running partner Debbie is and I know she'll smoke it. It's actually a MUCH prettier race! I signed up for the Ragnar Relay in California with the team I was supposed to race with the Ragnar Relay in Texas. We'll be running from Santa Barbara, all the way down to Dana Point. I am so excited, especially given that we'll be running through Santa Barbara and Ventura. :)

I just need to keep taking it easy and s-l-o-w-l-y to make sure I can actually participate in the race.

Almost three months...

... since I last posted!

Well during that fateful 5-miler on August 10th, it appears that I managed to injure myself. My doctor at the Campbell Clinic sent me for an X-Ray, MRI and bone scan and I got diagnosed with a pelvic stress fracture. When the doctor initially talked about 6 weeks off, I looked at him like he had three heads and I started to negotiate with him "Are we talking about 6 weeks from today or 6 weeks form the injury?". Poor guy was shacking his head. Then at my check-up, when I told him I ran a mile at 6 weeks because I felt good, I thought he would strangle me. Thankfully his daughter is a runner so he seems to understand what a bunch of lunatics we are.

Long story somewhat short, after seeing a nutritionist, my ob, had a bone density scan at an endocrinology clinic, I was prescribed both Ensure and Depends. Just kidding! However, it was discovered that my vitamin D levels were very low so I am on a high dosage vitamin D regiment for 8 weeks and I'll see my doctor again at the end of December. Still not allowed to run though.

I've had to miss the Ragnar Relay Race in Texas, running from San Antonio to Austin. I was really bummed and I felt like I was letting my team down. Thankfully, they were able to find another sucker to take my spot. I also have to skip the St. Jude Marathon here in Memphis at the beginning of December. I already had signed up to run the 1/2 marathon as a St. Jude Hero, raising money for Team Thomas. That's another big bummer.

The good news is that during the month of October I completed a Lazyman Ironman. Basically, I had a month to complete an Ironman. It was great because it forced me to diversify my cardio workouts. I was forced to bike more consistently and horror, I even had to jump in the pool twice and do a never ending amount of lapses. Now if I could find something that would force me to strength train...

Slacker

I completely slacked off last week and didn't make it to the race on Friday night. The race was scheduled at 7 p.m. It had been hot and humid all day (we were just finishing week 2 of heat advisories!) and I was exhausted. I didn't think it was a good/smart combo for a race so I skipped it.

This past week, I've logged a lot of miles, including a 6 mile run on Thursday outside, a 7 mile trail run on Saturday morning and on Saturday night I decided to register for a 5-miler race this morning (Sunday). The race is part of the local runner's club road race series. It's a series of several races: 2 x 5k - 2 x 5 miles - 2 x 10k - 2 x 10 miles - 2 x 1/2 marathons. I obviously missed the first two 5k's.

I raced the 5 miles in 37 minutes and 50 seconds. Not too shaby. I can't say that I enjoyed running the race though, as usual, I considered walking or even stopping and I cursed a good amount of the way and had the never ending internal non-sense dialogue/struggle... but I made it! :)

Another 5k...

What's wrong with me? I keep swearing 5k's off, yet I just found myself agreeing to running another one. Somebody please knock some sense into me!

Apparently, I'll be running the "Run from the Sun" 5k, benefiting the Melanoma Research Foundation. The race is being put together Scarlet Lawrence Atkins Foundation. Scarlet lost her battle to Melanoma two years ago, a day before her 28th birthday and three months after giving birth to her daughter. Her mom came and spoke at the running program I currently am part of.

This morning, I was supposed to do a long run... on the treadmill. Sounds exciting, ugh? NOT! I wanted to see where I stood training wise and how fast I should/could run the 5k on Friday. I ran the 3+ miles at a 7:30 pace. It wasn't too bad but I fear that there is no way I can sustain the pace given that we've been under constant heat advisory for the last week or so, it's humid as heck, the race is at 7 p.m. and that there are a few hills on the course. I'll be running the exact same route as my first 5k, which was the Youth Villages 5k. Should be interesting!

Firecracker 5k

Another terrible 5k. Last night, Anthony, our friend Elizabeth and I ran the Firecracker 5k for St. Jude. I am just not cut for running 5k's. The first mile was OK, jumping over bodies, sticking my elbows out to make sure no one would trip me: it was crowded. I looked down at my Garmin a few times and I was around the 7 min/mile mark, even went sub-7 a couple of times. It all went downhill from there! I finished in 23:47, not stellar, 18 seconds slower than my last (and first ever!) 5k. I suppose that being two weeks back into training after a month off just didn't work in my favor! I ended up 12th in my age group out of 152, so that's not too bad.









Before and after the race pictures!

Team Thomas

... and I am also now a member of "Team Thomas". As you already know, I'll be running the St. Jude 1/2 marathon on December 6th. I also signed up to be a St. Jude Hero to hopefully raise lots of money for St. Jude! One of my neighbor and my friend Debbie, I've been running with, told me about Team Thomas. They raised over $24,000 for St. Jude last year. Since it seems such a great group, I had to join in the fun. I have all the info about the St. Jude Heroes and Thomas, of course, on my very own St. Jude page.

On other St. Jude news, Anthony and I are both registered to run the St. Jude Firecracker 5k on Thursday night, July 3rd. It's supposed to be a very fun race, very crowded, but fun! It will be Anthony's very first 5k and only my second! I'll probably take it much slower this time around...

I got dragged...

I am officially a member of M.I.L.F - Mothers In Lifelong Fitness, the team I'll be running the Ragnar Relay race with from San Antonio to Austin, TX. The twelve of us will be covering 196 miles, running 3-legs each over a 24+ hour period. Our team captain is my friend Ardis. We met in the New Moms Group at the local hospital were we both delivered our daughters almost 5 years ago. Time flies!

It's really exciting but it's serious training! I started running again after a month off. I took my running shoes to Europe but they never made it out of the suitcase. I started my training program again last week when I got back in town and it was rough. This week is a little better and hopefully next week will be a breeze... yeah, right! The race isn't until October though. Somewhere at the mid point of the training, we have several runs scheduled on our long run day. At one point, we (and I say "we" but it will be "I" since the rest of the team is in Dallas) will be running 3 5-milers in a day. Not looking forward to that, especially with the nasty heat/humidity combo we're dealing with here.

In other race news, my husband, signed up for the Mightymite Triathlon in AR on July 19th. He will be swimming 1/3 mile, biking 13 miles and running 3 miles. He started exercising again a few months ago and decided to enter this race with our friend Elizabeth, who ran the Germantown 1/2 marathon with me. I am very excited for him!

Another 1/2 marathon in my future and possibly a relay race in my cards...

I have committed to running the St. Jude 1/2 Marathon here in Memphis on December 6th. I've also signed up to be a St. Jude Hero, to raise money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. At St. Jude, children are treated regardless of a family’s ability to pay so fundraising is essential to continuing the life-saving research and treatment that is done there. I am really excited about it.

A friend of mine from Dallas is also trying to drag me into the Ragner Relay race. It's a 196 mile adventure, 36 legs ran by a team of 12 on October 24 & 25 in Austin, TX. Each runner runs 3 legs ranging from 3 to 8 miles each over a period of 24-hours. Should be fun! I have to make sure that it's doable logistically since I'd have to leave Memphis on Thursday to be ready to race at the crack of dawn on Friday, all the way through Saturday and catch up on some serious sleep on Sunday. And of course my husband would have to be available to watch the kids all weekend.

Report from the Nashville Country Music 1/2 Marathon

I survived the Nashville Country Music 1/2 Marathon!

The short version of the report is: "I set a PR by a minute".

And here goes the long version:

Anthony, the kids and I all made the trek to Nashville. We stayed South of Nashville on the way to Brentwood because all the hotels in the area were booked. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to run the race until pretty late in the game!

On race day, I got up at 5, got ready, opened the door and was shocked to see that it was raining outside! I was in the car by 5:20, thinking I'd be parked at the stadium, by the finish line, way before 6 a.m. and have plenty of time to catch a shuttle to the start. Not so much... I sat in traffic for 30 minutes. I guess that's what happens when you run a race with more than 30,000 participants! I finally made it to the stadium, parked my car and waited in line in the rain to board a shuttle. I made it to the starting area around 6:50, barely enough time to drop off my gear bag, grab 3 cookies, two gulps of water and head to my corral, look around for two minutes before the gun went off. Never mind that I needed to use the bathroom. The lines to the porta potties were never ending and no way I was using one of those anyway!!!

They started the race in waves. There were 32 waves based on projected finish times. I was in wave #5.

The race was fun. Of course, I found myself curing, wondering what in the world I was doing running for almost two hours straight for nothing, thinking how my legs started to hurt, how I needed to go to the bathroom, etc. etc. etc. but the live bands along the course, the thousands of people cheering us on with "we're so proud of you", "looking good" and so on was amazing. They also had a few cheerleading groups cheering for us. I won't lie, I had thoughts of knocking a few out with their pitchy/screechy "R-U-N-N-E-R-S - GO RUNNERS!" at an octave I couldn't even duplicate! One of my favorite part of the course was probably around mile 5 or so when the Elite runners were finishing a loop we were just about to start and we crossed path, everyone in my proximity was cheering on the Elites and a few of us were cheering extra loud when the first female runner came through!

I wasn't thrilled by my time but given the fact that I ran my previous (and 1st!) race in Germantown, which is pretty much flat, compared to Nashville, which is hilly, I really shouldn't complain. I ran the half (13.1 miles) in 1:47:32, which puts me as the 392nd female to cross the line, 80th in my age category. My running partner, Debbie, smoked it at 1:43:08, she got in 44th in our age group.

I guess my perspective should be that 13,085 females were slower than me since 13,477 females finished the 1/2 marathon... of course there are all the lunatics that ran the full!

My lovely neighbors sent me some love by TPing my house, changing the house number on my mailbox from 1313 to 13.1 with chalk, writing "Sabine doesn't go all the way" on the sidewalk, etc. Gotta love 'em.

Good result doesn't equal good race

My second race ever - first 5k - taught me that a good result doesn't necessarily equate to a good race. This morning, I ran my first 5k race, the Youth Villages 5k. My running partner, Debbie couldn't make it because her daughter had a soccer game. I was on my own. I knew that I had problems with pacing myself but it became painfully obvious that I had a big issue with pacing during the first mile... I asked myself several times what in the world I was doing running like an idiot during that first mile. I logged in at the first mile mark at 7 minutes even, it was all downhill from there.

Apparently, the clock thought I didn't do half a bad job since I came in 5th female overall in 23:29. I didn't get to be classified in my age category because I made it in the top 5 females. So it leads to the question, what's best: 1st in your age group or 5th overall... I don't know, I almost think that 1st in your age group is cooler. What do I know? I am still a novice!

My husband is appalled by the fact that I've become some competitive. It's the kettled calling the pot black by the way! He and the kids were cheering me on in the last few hundred feet and when I passed the finish line I told him that I thought only 3 females were ahead of me, he told me he didn't think so (he was right, there were 4), that "HOARDS" of people had made it ahead of me. At least I know he'll keep me grounded in case I get a case of big head! ;)

It's official, heading to Nashville

I am officially registered to run the Country Music 1/2 Marathon in Nashville on April 26th. My two running partners won't be running the race since Elizabeth is busy getting ready for the biking season and the few MS races she'll be participating in and Wendy is busy with school.

Thankfully, I found a new running partner. Debbie ran the Germantown 1/2 marathon a few minutes quicker than I did. We ran together for the first time last weekend and we did great. We trained in Germantown where there are actually a few hills, since the race in Nashville is apparently pretty hilly. I think we ran about 11 miles. My main concern for Nashville were the hills. Now I am more confident about running hills but my fear is the level of humidity. I ran 4 miles outside on Wednesday and it was torture, it was humid and the bugs were already out with a vengeance. I guess here is to wishing for a really cold day on April 26th...

Wendy, Elizabeth and I about to head out one cold morning getting ready for the Germantown 1/2 marathon.

First 1/2 marathon - Germantown, TN - 3/16/08

Last Sunday, I got up at the crack of dawn to go run my very first 1/2 marathon, the Germantown 1/2 marathon. I have been training for 12 weeks, along with my two neighbors, Wendy and Elizabeth. The previous weekend, I ran an 8 minute mile, 10-miler, felt very good afterwards and thought I was set for the following Sunday. However, during the week coming up to the race, I ran 5 miles one day and 4 miles the following one and didn't feel good about either runs.

On Saturday night, we picked up our race numbers and then headed to Macaroni Grill to carb-up (and drink up!). At the expo, after picking up our race numbers, we found out in which corral we should place ourselves based on average running pace. W. and E. were in corral D, according to my last long run, it looked like I should be in corral A. I probably will never hear the end of that one! "You people in corral A...", actually my running partners were more upset by the fact that the chart explaining where everyone should place themselves on the starting line, showed pretty colors for corrals A, B and C but that corral D apparently didn't even deserve its own color: it was in a meek gray!

I managed to go to bed at a decent hour but didn't sleep much. I am not used to getting up at the crack of dawn and I was questioning my alarm-setting abilities. I got up before the alarm went off, got ready and waited for Wendy to pick me up. We went and got Elizabeth and headed for the race. While still in the car, we started a game of "real" or "fake", trying to size up our competition, guessing who was a real runner based on their attire. I was getting more nervous by the minute. W. and E. headed to the bathroom before the race and I sat in the hall, looking around me and feeling more and more inadequate. Everyone looked so serious and so professional. I felt like I had "AMATEUR" tattooed on my forehead.

We headed for our respective corrals, my stomach was in a knot. We got some instructions from the race organizers, got to listen to the national anthem... apparently they didn't get the memo that a Swiss was in the crowd. Good thing I wasn't planning on winning the race, or we'd have another Swiss anthem/flag issue, like at the New York marathon in 1997 when Franzkiska Moser-Rochat ended up on the podium with no Swiss flag nor anthem!

And there goes the crazy part: I ran 13.1 miles! Yup... 13.1 miles non-stop, over 21 km.

The first and last three miles were the toughest. The first three miles were uphill and the last three miles were hard because they were never ending. Oh and did I mention that the race organizers thought it would be brilliant to have the last .5 miles uphill? It almost killed me!

I made it though and Anthony, India and Kai surprised me at the finish line. I looked up while some lady was trying to cut off my race chip off my shoe and there they were! :)

I ran my first 1/2 marathon in 1hr48min and finished 12th in my age group. Not bad for an amateur!