Platte River 1/2 (recap)

State #26 Platte River 1/2- Littleton Colorado

Leading up to the race

The only way this race even came across my radar is during my Livestrong race weekend Kim mentioned that her and husband S were scoping it out. Amongst all the talk of having another girl's weekend, Rebecca  mentioned I could crash at a spare room in her house since Kim & S were getting their own hotel room, so girls weekend + free stay = Lisa's on board!

I was super nervous about this race due to high altitude- I can deal with pain, but breathing issues are a whole different beast. Nashville's elevation is about 500ft... Littleton's... 5200ft, BIG difference. Since I had no idea how my breathing would go, coupled with the less than stellar projected weather forecast, I had zero time goals.

Friday night I was surfing good old facebook when I saw Kara show up in my newsfeed as writing a comment on the official race page. After confirming she was in fact doing the race as well, I asked her to join our bloggy dinner. Kara was on my original Colorado Ragnar Relay team (now disbanded due to Ragnar changing their dates) so I was excited that I was able to meet her after all. A few back and forth convos about race day expectations turned into her asking if I would run with her on race day--- sure, why not?!?!

Day before race

Race itself was on Sunday, so I flew into Denver and arrived late saturday morning just in time to hustle over to Kim's concourse / gate so I could greet Kim and the hubby IMMEDIATELY after they got off the plane (always trying to bring joy into other's lives haha) 

After a quick lunch at Qdoba, we head over to get our bib and the race "expo" 

The only big sign that denoted where we were 

able to get the entire 'packet pickup' with one photo, I'm awesome. 

As you can see, this is a smaller race, about 3,000. I actually don't mind small races, and my pocket book LOVES quick in and out packet pick ups :) 

We had a few hours to kill before our group dinner at Chillis, so whats there to do to pass time?!?! Why go to the Molly Brown house for their Titanic tour.. DUH

Unfortunately, all tours were sold out--- I think I saw S shed a few tears. We did get to check out the gift shop though, so not all was lost....

After goofing around, a beer a piece, we head to dinner to meet up with Becka, Laura, their children, 'R', and Kara. Lots of laughs,  stories, and memories shared. 

Although I agreed to help Kara with her race... its still important to carb load in all forms right??

Aside for allowing A and H (6 and 5 yrs old) to have a small bite, I ate the entire thing- all.by.myself. 

After I DOMINATED the lava cake, we had one more group picture, and then said our goodbyes. I just have to add that I LOVE how I've met fellow towers like myself :) 

I went back to B & L's house, chatted, watched some tv, and lights were out shortly before 9pm. In my defense for the early time... CO is one hour behind TN--- thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it. 

Race Day 

Although the race start wasn't till 9am (WAY too late in my opinion) we were up and out the door  by 7:30ish. I admit I have been known to forget things from time to time, so it was no surprise when we were in the car for a solid 5 min and I look down at B's shoe and notice the timing chip attached to her laces... oops, forgot mine back at the house. Luckily R was nice to not complain and turn the car around so I could "officially" run the race. 

We get to the community college where the race start took place, park, and do a quick easy round to the bathroom. Kara texts me shortly after and we meet up and discuss her goals. From what I gathered- A goal was sub 1:50, B goal was to break last years time 1:54 and change- easy peasy....

After some stretching, and dropping off our extra layers at the bag drop, we decide to cycle one more round at the port-o-potties. Amongst the huge sea of runners, Kim and S managed to find us in the crowd (the power of matchy matchy!)

Becka and Kim showing their game face 

We thought it was comical how we towered over B 

After we all had a quick cycle through the bathroom, the race pretty much started. Obviously you could tell where our priorities were considering we were still trying to get a group photo when the gun went off

Kara, Kim, Me, Becka

After the photo we parted ways and all just slowly assimilated into the large mass of slow moving people to cross the start line.  I remember from reading B's recap of the race from last year that there was a large amount of congestion and then when 1.5 miles hit we would be directed to a narrow bike path for the rest of the race---- NO EXAGGERATION there. 

CrAzY congestion

Sometimes you just have races that are a blur- this is one of those races for me. My whole focus was just on Kara and matching her pace, that I mentally checked out of the race itself- here are what I do remember. 

Better recaps can be found from everyone else since I'm the last to post: Kara's, Becka's, Kim's

• I told Kara that she set the pace and I would adjust my pace to hers, one condition was I had to take it easy first mile to allow for lungs to adjust- first mile clocked in at 8:30s which I was surprisingly fine with, but felt it might be fast to help her hit goals. 
• The going out too fast did catch up w/ Kara and a few times we had to slow down or walk... during this time we were able to chat a bit since we both prefer to just listen to music vs. having a conversation the entire run
• The congestion NEVER let up the entire race--- I realized how incredibly hard it is to bob and weave between people while TRYING to make sure you stay with the same person.
• All the aide stations had blue powerade... this was my magic drink in New York- no cramps and had energy the whole time- so decided that I would just stick to this and didn't do any water the whole race. 
• Anytime I accidently bumped into someone (which was often) their response was always so nice "good morning" "sorry about that" or "hey there" were my faves. 
• forecast originally said it would potentially snow / rain, 30s, and windy. actual forecast was 40s, sunny, and only slight sprinkles around mile 11. Some of the other ladies I ran with complained about the wind, but maybe I was just off in la la land because I only noticed it 10 and after. 
• course was pretty boring, lot of tunnels, bridges (although they had a little spring to them when running), and dirty water-- i've seen worse, but i've also seen a lot better. 
• I NEVER had a breathing issue- amazing that for whatever reason that the altitude didn't get to me. (thank goodness!)
• about 1/2 way through race we slowed down our pace significantly, eventually it caught up to me and the shortening of my stride = extremely sore calves and hips- although I wasn't tired, afterward I had difficulty walking
• aside from a few times when I just went slightly ahead of Kara due to congest, we stuck together

• I thought about being super cheesy (as if the above photo isn't cheesy enough) and asked if she wanted to cross the finish line holding hands, but side by side ended up doing just fine. 
• after race food was amazing. you had to walk quite a bit and get in line for the good stuff, but they had tacos, garlic bread, rice and beans, hot dogs, hamburgers, chilli, cookies- YUM
• they handed everyone free rail passes to take us back to start line to retrieve cars (point to point race)

being silly on the rail back to cars 

To reiterate what was said at the beginning of this post, I had zero goals for this race. If Kara hadn't asked me to run with her I would have been so lost on how to run this race. This is not a race you actually want to RACE due to large numbers on such a short trail. Unlike Kim, I would eventually like to come back to Colorado to do a MUCH better race. For those that are in the area, its a great 'no frill' race--- would not recommend if you're traveling from afar. 

State #26, complete- time 2:04:51ish 

So unfortunately, not my greatest recap, so I'm hoping that my upcoming adventures will be better documented: 

Reunion with Becka and Laura in 2 weeks, this time in MY area- RnR Country Music Marathon

3 weeks out will be double weekend in ID and OR with Kim

Although the race sucked, blogging friends make it all worth it sometimes :) 

My brother- first time 1/2 marathoner!!

Meet my oldest brother Eric (and his adorable son / my nephew Joseph) 

There are 6 years between my brother and I, so growing up, our age + different interests meant we didn't really have much in common.
I was "the runner" of the family, Eric was "the baseball player" and Andy was "the football player."
 Now I may be getting my story mixed up, but from what I can recall, it was back in the spring 2010, when Eric decided to pick up running as a way to lose a little bit of weight and get in better shape. We occassionally chatted about the dos and don'ts of running, enough to get him started, but I didn't think it would last. As he felt more comfortable with his ability, he began signing up for 5ks left and right, always hoping to beat the previous race's time.

Before long he graduated from 5ks and wanted to race a longer distance. During Thanksgiving, him and I ran the Turkey Trot 5 miler (both of our first times racing a 5 mile distance) which you can read about HERE. Although the race sucked for both of us in terms of how we were feeling, we both surprised ourselves with our times.

Before the Turkey Trot

I went on to beginning my '50 1/2s in 50 states quest' and Eric kept running (to the best of my knowledge) but  more maintenance than building up mileage.

Unbeknownst to me, as I would recap my races / adventures, Eric started to get inspired to see if he too could one day run a half marathon- thus deciding to sign up for the  15th Annual Air Force Marathon (since its practically in our backyard in Dayton, Oh)

Once the school year ended in May (hes a teacher and baseball coach) he began a training program to prepare for this race and from what I was told- was RELIGIOUS about sticking to the runs. Our conversations became more frequent as he was going through a lot of the 'trial and error' aspect of what works for longer runs, dealing with heat, etc.

About 1.5 months before the race, I decided that since he was serious about doing well, I wanted to come home and pace him to what his goal time was... plus a trip home is always fun.

My parents were gracious enough to buy me a flight home to save mileage on my car, so once back in Dayton I met up at Eric's house and we made our way to the expo! He already went the day before, but decided to go back to get some goods!

Entrance leading into the expo.

As far as the expo itself- not as big as I expected. Instead of being in a large room, the expo was set up around the upper deck of the Nutter Center- which is an arena. Whats nice about the set up is that its spread out so you literally just walk the outer perimeter of the arena before you come to an end where you're forced to walk down into arena to get your bib and bag. The con side is you had no idea what companies were there until you walked into them.

I managed to get a great steal- 3 for $30 on Chica Bands! I know there are so many headband companies out there- for me, it just depends on who has the best deal at the time / what are the best designs. Found a great matching band for my running skirt, and as an added bonus, 2 pairs of my FAVORITE running socks Thorlo socks in pink and magenta! They don't carry these at my local fleet feet, so I'm always looking at expos for these bad boys. 

Eric spotted this gem and knowing my love for taking photos with mascots, he suggested asking Mr. Newbalance (which I have NEVER seen before) for a photo opp.

We heard a speaker behind a curtain, so we peaked to see who it was- Dr. Mark Cucuzella who was talking about the benefits of barefoot running or using a minimalist shoe. A lot of the information I already knew, however it was fascinating learning about body positioning and compensation etc that your body already does when running in certain types of shoes

After listening to him for an hour (something I've never really done at an expo before) we head home, eventually have dinner, then depart ways. 

Eric sent me a photo of his pre race outfit, which I thought was cute how excited he was, so I decided to do the same.... FYI it was going to be chilly at the start, hence the multiple shirts so he could take it off and put at bag drop

I wanted to be as bright as possible so my mom, dad, Tracie (Eric's gf) and little Joseph could easily spot us. I think I NAILED it. Also my first time using arm sleeves- yikes!

Up next- our race report!!!! 

400s and winded

In an attempt to reach my goal of running consistent sub 8 minute miles in time for Ragnar Vegas I was looking around for a few speed workouts. The biggest challenge I'm finding is that October is almost too far away to start using Speed work to train for that, however I know I want to be faster for my halfs too, so I need to find a balance.

I found an article in this month's edition of Runner's World that talked about improving your time using 400 repeats. 

Basically take your average mileage pace, divide by 4, then subtract 10 seconds from there to get your ideal 400 time. Since I don't have an average mile pace because I'm all over the place, I decided to say it was 8 minutes (probably not smart) 8:00 / 4 = 2:00 min, subtract 10 and you get 1:50. Well I negotiated with myself that the article was referencing 5k times, and my average mile for that would be high 7s, soooooooo it wouldn't be too big of an issue if instead of subtracting 10 seconds I subtracted 20 seconds. 

1:40- didn't seem too hard, infact I was thinking it was rather slow considering I used to run 400s back in the day... oh silly Lisa when will you learn. 

I didn't have a lot of time on my hands, so driving to the track and back was out of question. I decided to get some good function out of my Garmin and run around my neighborhood to see if I could find a 400 straight away (or close to it as possible bc sometimes the Garmin is iffy) 

I was in luck that the last house on my road and up to the stop sign was 400 m- behold... my make shift track... complete with a slight uphill going one way. If you click on picture to enlarge, you can see in the distance where there is a cross road... that is my ending point. 

The RW plan said to do 5x400 at your pace (1:40) and then walk 400. Again crunched for time I decided to just rest for 1 minute. 

I finally got to tinker with my garmin and used the interval setting- since I already had my 400 meters laid out, I just put it in for a countdown of 1:40 and then a 1 minute rest for 5 repetitions. 

First one was miserable- I didn't realize I was running uphill or that there was wind and I myself was 'winded' much before hitting the stop sign- wow I suck at pacing. 

I wish I could say the next 4 were easier, but that would be a lie, I was still tired each time I reached my end point--- maybe next time doing them on the track wouldn't be such a bad idea because then at least I know the entire time what distance I'm at.

Does anyone out there do non track speed workouts? 

OR anyone do 400 repeats? 

I've read a lot on 800 repeats as well, I'm just in my experiment phase to see what works best for me... todays workout, not so great.