Another 1/2 marathon

Last weekend, I ran my 4th 1/2 marathon. The Heels & Hills in Las Colinas. I wasn't really looking forward to it since I didn't feel like I was on top of my game. I had been running since my full marathon but I hadn't been extremely serious about it.

I nearly missed the start of the race because this Swiss apparently still doesn't know the difference between am and pm. Funny enough my alarm didn't go off at 5:30 am since it was set for pm. I woke up at 6 in a panic. Not a good start...

I headed over to Las Colinas with no breakfast, had a difficult time finding a parking spot, got my bib and ran into a bunch of friends (guys) that were pacing the race in skirts. They looked hilarious. Some of them had taken their mission very seriously! I ended up with two extra shirts (the one I had on and the shirt I got for showing up to the race) and car keys I needed to get rid of for the race. Thankfully, I saw that a friend was taking pictures at the finish line so I stuck  all my junk with his stuff!

We all lined up at the start line and CZ and I found ourselves with the Steve's. Steve P stuck with CZ and GQ ended up pacing me.

Oh before, I continue, I need to point out that the race was on Sunday morning. On Friday night, Anthony and I went out with some friend of ours. We were playing poker and drinking until 1 am. I didn't go to bed until 3 am. I napped on Saturday in the middle of the day, which meant that I wasn't tired when it was time to go to bed... and then the whole alarm clock fiasco happened. Now back to regular program:

When I realized that I was dehydrated - I am talking about the pasty mouth, feeling like you have a bunch of flower in your mouth kind of dehydrated - before mile 1 and then looked down at my Garmin and saw that we were running a sub 7 min mile. I figured I'd be cooked before mile 5! Obviously, I had forgotten who was pacing me... he wouldn't let me get away with anything. He just pushed the pace and dragged me through 13.1. He asked me to make sure to stay focused, not to cheer for the other runners - unlike at the 1/2 on the same course last October - and to stay on his shoulder. GQ ended up being my water boy, my mouth piece - he'd thank the runners shouting "good job!" for me and a great pacer. He didn't allow me to speak but kept talking during the entire race, giving me encouragement, kicking my butt when I needed it and placing target on runners in front of me and pushing me to "wheel them in".

I crossed the finish line in 1:33:20, a 7:07 pace. Who knew? I thought a 7:30 wouldn't be possible. A PR by 9 minutes! Couldn't be happier! :)

My first marathon!

On January 17th, 2010, after over 25 weeks of hard training, I ran my very first marathon, the Houston Marathon. I was confident that I had trained well and felt that a BQ (Boston Qualifier) was within reach unless something went terribly wrong. I thought that my goal time was 3:40:59. It turns out that it was in fact 3:45.59 since I am turning 35 at the end of the year and would change age category by the time Boston rolls around in April.

The day before, I had flown in from Dallas by myself, checked into the hotel, ran into some friends in the lobby and headed to dinner with my coach Vishal, his girlfriend Ashley and other friends, among them, Shaheen who dragged us to IHOP for dinner. I hadn't had lunch that day because of my flight schedule, the expo I had to head to and just the lack of availability to food around my hotel. Needless to say that 2 blueberry pancakes didn't exactly hit the spot! I headed to bed early and thought I'd fall asleep. Not so much... the lovely hotel was hosting a wedding dinner, in a tent, on the terrace, under my window. I might as well had the DJ in my room. I could understand his every single words. At 10, I called the front desk asking if the lovebird were planning on wrapping their party anytime soon. They informed me that they were supposed to stop at 10:30.

The next morning, I met all the other runners before the crack of dawn in the hotel lobby. The cool people at the hotel had breakfast ready for us! I ate, got ready and was wondering when I'd start getting nervous. We all walked to the start line together. I ran into Vish and talked to Ellie, a girl that Mark had introduced me to. She told me not to stick with the 3:40 pace group, as she had ran with that same pacer on previous occasions and that he wouldn't get the group in at or under 3:40. I got a little nervous when I realized that I'd have to self-pace myself.

The gun went off, I started running and immediately realized that I needed to keep myself from going too fast. I ran into Marc who was planning on running a really fast marathon. He took of after a couple of miles. The first ten miles consisted of me running, looking at my Garmin and say "Oh shit" and then pretty much come to a halt to drop my pace down. My lower back was hurting, which worried me since I hadn't had lower back issues since I had started running. I past the 13.1 marker without any problems but I knew that the race was really only starting.  I saw some familiar faces along the way. Including my friend Sharon, who drove all the way to Frisco and surprised me with a huge "Go Sabine" sign before the 1/2 way mark somewhere. I had prepared for a lot but that certainly wasn't a scenario I had reheared. It took me a quarter mile to get my breathing under control from choking up! I also saw Michelle B and the speedy gang, inc. DZ and CZ as well as Steve H. would was yelling at me to go get' em.

After the 1/2 way point, it started to become work. At 20 miles, my legs were starting to get tired and that's when other runners around me seemed to start dropping like flies. Every aid station seemed to bring more casualties. People would stop, fold over, etc. it wasn't a pretty sight. I was very happy to have my fuel belt, which allowed me to look at my feet, try to ignore everybody around me and power through the casualties.

Somewhere past mile 22, I saw Bruce, who ran a bit with me and told me I'd get in in 3:35, I think he said. I had no energy left by then but I remember mumbling "better than that!". At mile 23, my legs become lead. It became an incredible effort to put one foot in front of the other. To add insult to injury, the last aid station was in the middle of an incline = runners cemetery!  Again, I was very happy to have my fuel belt!

I crossed the finish line in 3:33:39. 24th in my division! My first marathon ended up being a resounding success! Boston 2011 here I come!

Bib	Name	City	State	Cntry	Div	Age	M/F	Event
2598	Norris, Sabine	Dallas	TX	USA	F30-34	34	F	Marathon
Checkpoints 10k Mile 9 Half 30k 0:49:51 - 1:45:08 2:30:16 Finish Pace Proj Time Official Time Overall Gender Div 0:08:09 3:33:39 714 111 24

Over the final 7.5 miles 

You passed 173 runners

And 12 passed you

?

A not too muddy Muddy Buddy!

Always up for an adventure or unable to say "no"... who knows? Who cares!

A few of the usual suspects decided we should sign up for the Muddy Buddy here in Dallas on October 25th. The race is done in teams of two taking turns running and biking. There are five legs in the race. Teammate A runs, bikes, runs, bikes, runs and Teammate B bikes, runs, bikes, runs, bikes.

Seena and I got paired up... just because our first names start with the same letter. Sounded good to me! ;)

I don't think I ever raced so unprepared. I was basically told I'd be picked up at the crack of dawn on my doorstep and to show up with a helmet. That's about all I knew and all I was prepared for. My awesome teammate got us team shirts ready, she secured a mountain bike for the race and got everything organized.

The race was a blast and we rocked it. The biking - despite the fact that I think I had mountain biked a grand total of two times in my life - was awesome and I think I ran pretty strongly despite the hills. Team "Got Soap?" placed 2nd in our age group.

The Great Urban Race

A few of of us from the Ragnar team decided to sign-up for the Great Urban Race and instead of splitting everyone in teams of two, we decided to each race with our husbands. Unfortunately, everyone kind of flaked out for one reason or the other and only teams White Bread & Rice (Ardis and Wilson) and The Swiss and the Geek (Anthony and I) were ready to race!

On October 3rd, after seeing patients, going to school and unloading kids, we all somehow managed to meet at the race start.

The Great Urban Race is

similar to the reality TV show "The Great Amazing Race", we had several clues to solve, challenges to do and lots of running around.

It required a lot of strategizing, lots of running and some luck!

We had to carve pumpkins, purchase and deliver toilet paper to a shelter, taking a two-step lesson, finding license plates with specific letters, complete a smelling challenge, chow down a brownie and taking pictures doing it, etc.

Almost 400 participants and both our teams qualified for the Championship in New Orleans by arriving in the top 25, 16th and 17th respectively. It was a blast!

First race post summer... or so I thought

At the beginning of the year, shortly after moving to the Big D, I decided to register to run my 3rd 1/2 marathon, Heels and Hills and Him. It was scheduled for May. The week before the race, instead of being excited about it, I started dreading it. My typical reaction, when not prepared.

It had been raining a lot in the week coming up to the race and the day before the race messages started to appear on the race web site indicating that they'd be keeping a close eye on the weather. The morning of the race, I got up before the crack of dawn, only to find out that the race had been postponed. Not cancelled, just postponed to September. How amazing is that? We all got the chance to re-register for the September race for free, well actually if I remember correctly the 3rd party vendor doing the online registration charged us $5.

The race had been rescheduled for September 27th. I was excited about getting to run in "cooler" weather... or so I thought. Still wasn't feeling it... still dreading it... especially since I had been sick all week and only ran once all week but I started getting excited about it a couple of days before the race, when I learned that the amazing Shaheen would be pacing a 1:45 group.

Got up on race day, went through my usual routine, headed to the race site, got there way too early and met up with "the girls": Ardis, Seena, Anne, Dawnda, Sharon & co. My stomach still wasn't feeling great.

I joined the 1:45 "group" at the starting line. The "group" consisted of a bunch of amazing runners: Shaheen, Mark O., Michael H. and Claudia. Shaheen was the official pace leader and Claudia and I each ended up with our own personal pacing superstar. The first few miles, it looked like we had a party going, we were so excited, shouting, having fun. Michael kept

us VERY entertained. He actually did the Hokey Pokey running backwards right in front of us. I was working hard trying to run forward and the dude is running backwards doing the hokey pokey in front of me... needless to say, we laughed a lot!

Claudia stayed focus, she did amazing, especially given that she had run something like 14 miles the day before the race. Who does that anyway!? ;)

Fortunately, I didn't realize that it was a straight out and back course on a paved trail because I probably would have stayed in bed. Around mile 6, I broke ahead of the group a little bit and shortly there after, I passed the turning point and started passing runners heading to the turning point. As much as I didn't like the course, everyone's spirit was so encouraging and inspiring. We were shouting at each other, telling each other "good job", "looking good", etc. and there also were inspirational messages every half miles or so. My favorite being "Who's idea was this anyway?" :)

Shaheen, Mark & I

Around mile 8, Mark, my very own personal pacer caught up with me and that's when the fun began. That's right when it started to get really hot and humid. Apparently, the weather didn't get the memo that it was the end of September, or rather, it didn't care. It's Texas after all!

Mile 8 to 10 went fine but I really hit the wall at mile 10. It was horrible. Poor Mark had to listen to my "I can't do it" whining for 3.1 miles. Not pretty, definitely not my finest moment. Shaheen caught up with us in the home stretch. She figured since she didn't have anyone to pace, she didn't have to keep the official pacing time. Keep in mind that 1:45 is a fall-asleep kind of pace for her!

I wish I could say I finished strong in 1:42:49 but it was rather pathetic! I placed 1st in my age

group, 4th female overall and 22nd runner to cross the finish line.

Long summer

It was a very long, humid raceless summer! The good news is that this year, during my annual summer trip to Europe not only did I manage to pack running clothes/shoes but I actually took them out of the suitcase and used them.

There is just no ifs and buts about it, I will never get used to the Texas summer with temperature and humidity levels so high that you feel you've just stepped in an oven. Forget running into that kind of weather.

I literally dragged through my regular Tuesday/Friday 5-mile loop with Sue's group at 6 am in the morning. I mean, how early does one have to wake up to be able to run through a 5 mile loop? Worst of all, I started retreating to the dreadmill. When I start using the dreadmill a whole lot, you know it's bad.

So... running in Switzerland, in Germany and back and forth across the border even, was a nice boost to my running self-esteem that had been tanking in the Texas summer. It was nice to know I still "had it". :)

Ragnar Relay from Santa Barbara to Dana Point

This weekend was an interesting one!

I was a member of team MILFs (Mothers Into Lifelong Fitness), what were YOU thinking? ;) My team was one of the 105 teams running the Ragnar Relay from Santa Barbara to Dana Point. The team consisted of 12 runners, divided in two vans, running178 miles in beautiful Southern California over a 24 hour period.

I was runner #6 in the first van. Our van covered legs 1-6, 13-18 and 25-30 the second van covered legs 7-12, 19-24 and 31-36.

Unfortunately, the night before the race, we were told that we couldn't run leg 4 and then legs 19-24, due supposedly to permit issues but I have my doubts that permits were ever issued given the fact that those said legs were extremely dangerous to run (i.e. the PCH in Malibu). As it was, some of the legs we actually ran, were really dangerous! We had different options to make up our "lost" legs and we decided to pair up with a few of the runners in van 2 running their first legs.

My very first leg was running 5 miles into Ventura, CA my "hometown" in the US. I guess I

must have been really excited because I ran my leg at a 7:32 pace. Since my second leg had been

eliminated (I was supposed to run on PCH into Santa Monica), I opted to run with my friend Monica, who was running her first leg in the middle of the fields off Pleasant Valley in Oxnard. We ran 5.5 miles at a nice steady pace. It was nice to have a running partner to chit chat with!

My last leg, was running 6.6 miles on a trail along Huntington Beach. It was beautiful! I was pretty sleep deprived by then and didn't really enjoy the run but I kept my pace steadily a little under 8, which I can't really complain about.

Both my official legs were on trails along the beach and although the scenary was breathtaking, the van with my other teammates couldn't shadow me (i.e. cheer me on, give me

water, etc.) so it was a little lonely but I made it!

It was a great experience and I'll certainly do it again. It was disapointing that they had to cancel so many legs, it gave us a long break in the middle of the night, so I don't feel like we got the full experience but I did log a few miles and I am happy with that! :)

Mud Run 10k in Fort Worth

Today, my friend Ardis and I ran the Mud Run 10k in Fort Worth. It was brutal but lots of fun!

The weather wasn't as bad as yesterday and it was even sunny.

I wasn't too worried about the race since my goal was to finish. I knew I could handle 10k and I knew I could handle the mud. I wasn't too sure about the weather and I definitely didn't know about the military-style obstacles!

It turned out to be a great race. Lots of fun, encouraging participants and volunteers. It was rough running in hiking shoes, mudy and wet but I made it through. :)

The obstacles ranged from going over a wall, to going up a rope ladder, crawling under wire in the mud and going underwater to pass under obstacles. Here are a few pictures of last year's race: photos I'll update the link when this year's pictures are posted.

I think it took me about 1h05 - 1h10, which isn't bad all things considered. Waiting on the official results.

Ms Stampede 5k

Yesterday, I ran the Ms Stampede 5k. My very first 5k in Texas. I wasn't really looking forward to it because:

1) I despise 5k's, I don't have any self-control and start way too fast and by mile 1.5, I am ready to throw in the towel

2) The weather forecast called for very cold and windy weather

I ran it anyway because I had signed up for it and because it was for a good cause!

It turned out to be a good race. Despite the cold and extremely windy weather, the run was pretty enjoyable. We ran against the wind for the first half of the race, which was really tough, but we had the wind helping us move faster on the way back.

I was pretty happy with my time (22:48) and best of all, everyone else was slower, so I won the race! :)

Official results: http://www.racechiptiming.com/files/MSSTAMPEDEADDISON.HTM

NYE 10k

On Thursday, I was supposed to see my orthopedic doctor to hopefully get the green light to start running again. Unfortunately, we had a showing and the house needed to be in tip top shape, never mind that it was 5 days after Christmas and that we are only about a week and a half before the movers come to box things up. I had to vacate the house with kids and dogs... so I rescheduled the appointment until next week.

In the meantime, I've been running (cough cough) and it has been going well. So much so that I decided to enter my first race post injury. The first annual DAC New Year's Eve 10k. You can't pass a race when it's a mere 5 minutes from your house. Well... maybe I should have because it was in the low 30s and the windchill definitely made the real feel below freezing. COLD stuff!

The race went great, I hit a wall around 5 miles but I pulled myself together and finished in 48 minutes and something. They didn't have numbers and definitely no chips but they did the "I hand you a card when you pass the finish line and you fill it out" kind of deal. I'll be curious to see what my official time is.

Non-the-less, I managed to finish 4th overall female and 1st in my age group, 26-35. I'd definitely run this race again, it was fun!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! :)

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! ;)