Columbus Half Marathon 2016

The last time I ran the Columbus half it was a real sh!t show.  Literally.  My stomach just exploded and I had to take three port-a-john stops.  This time I had different thoughts.  I wasn't nervous, my stomach emptied early in the morning, and we had good logistics and I was able to stop into the port-a-john before the race without incident.

Things started pretty well.  I goofed and didn't have my watch on autolap per mile, which of course, I didn't figure out until three miles in.  Just in enough time for my stomach to revolt.  You have got to be sh!tting me!  Literally.  I got lucky and cut a guy off to get an open port-a-john somewhere in the three to four mile range and decided to just do my watch manually.  That's probably better anyway as my Garmin is always off from the mile markers (especially in a race downtown).

I was cooking.  I was moving.  Things were going well.  I really felt like I was racing, like I was back to the old Meredith. 

Mile 5 - 7:35
Mile 6 - 7:31
Mile 7 -  7:54 (uphill? long mile? gel?)
Mile 8 - 7:24

Then my stomach started to bother me again.  You have got to be kidding me?!  How can this keep happening to me?  I have, literally, raced more than 30 half marathons including faster ones than this.  How are my guts not cooperating?  I took another bathroom break.

Mile 9 - 8:23 (bathroom stop)

Dave saw me right after this.  I didn't see him.  But I was angry that I was losing time so I know I was going fast here.  The picture even looks like it.

Mile 10 - 7:22

Alright five kilometers to go and my legs and lungs and heart still feel good.  Come on Meredith.  Salvage a good race here.

Mile 11 - 7:40
Mile 12 - 7:48
(Both of those were uphill into downtown.)
Mile 13 and 0.1 - 7:49 (7:11 pace)

The overall time was 1:41:43.  Ya know, I'm okay with that time.  I haven't done a half marathon in over a year and I didn't have any specific training for this race.  I was able to take the endurance and speed I had from aquathlon training to turn this into a decent race.  If I wouldn't have had the stomach problems I wonder what I could have done.  For years my goal has been 1:35 or better.  I know I've got this in me. 

PS - Dear Marathon Foto, it you're going to charge me $24 for a single download, I am totally going to steal your images and put them on my social media.  Love, Me

Official Pictures from the World Championships

I spent about a million dollars to get four pictures from the world championships.  This might be a once in a lifetime opportunity so I HAD to get the pictures.  Right?  RIGHT?!?!

Coming into T1.  I like that you can see hair stuck to me as this proves how freakin' humid it was even with only a 1.55 run.

Coming out of the swim.  I don't know if I am starting to look like I've got swimmer's body or I just need to slim down my arms/chest.  Either way, doesn't everyone look stupid in a swim cap?

 Heading out on the second run.  Look at the focus.  Or, I'm saying, "where the heck is everybody?"

And the finally, quite possibly the coolest finisher picture of all time.  The time is irrelevant as it was from the start of the first age group wave and I was in one of the last waves.  But how cool to have the finish line all to myself, waving my flag, with my hands up in victory?!

Week in Review

I got back to business this week and totally kicked ass!  With the little one in preschool several days a week I have been able to do ALL my runs outside.  I also did some core work and got back in the pool.

Swimming - 4950 yards
I missed one swim this week.  I had intended to do it on Saturday but forgot there was a swim meet that closed down the pool.  Maybe I'll try to fit it in next week.

Running - 29.02 miles
Woah!  You read that right.  I had a great week of running - 4 runs, all outside.  I did a fantastic track workout of several 800s, the fastest one being 3:12.  I haven't hit that pace in a long, long time.  I also did a long run with hill repeats.  I found the steepest and longest hill I could find and made it my bitch!  Half/full marathon training has begun.  It's my happy place.

Strength - 0.5 hours
I did two small core workouts this week that left me crazy sore.  The first one was done with our middle school swim team.  I totally schooled them, but was sore for days.  The second workout was done at home, late at night, waiting on the bug-a-boo to fall asleep.

Next week - more running, more swimming, more core.  I see PRs in my future!!!

September Totals

Can you believe September is over already?  Man!  That went fast. 

September was all about the WORLD FREAKIN' CHAMPIONSHIPS!!! And, oh, there was still good training.  Check it out.

Swimming - 13,036 yards ~ 7.4 miles
Yes, this is a weird number.  That's because I did two 1000 meters swims in the ocean and I converted them to yards in my spreadsheet.  I also passed 200,000 yards (114 miles!!!) for the year this month.

Running - 67.1 miles
Not many miles, but when you're training for a fast 5K there really doesn't need to be a whole lot of miles.  Don't worry!  There will be a lot of miles coming up in the next couple of months.

YMCA Visits - 11
Cost Per Visit $3.42

After Anderson started preschool and we returned from Mexico, I just got tired of taking Anderson to the Y.  And frankly, I got tired of going to the Y.  All of this will be changing soon.  Another blog post on this soon.

October is here which means pumpkin everything (yuck), Halloween (my least favorite holiday), and miles, miles and more miles.