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| (Starting clockwise from left-Bethany, Andrea, Ashley, and Mirna) |
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Mid Week Run 03.23.11
Our Mid Week 7 Miler
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| Andrea, Ashley, Mirna, and Bethany |
Since our mid week runs are starting to get longer and longer, we have decided to meet not only on Saturdays, but also Wednesdays for our marathon training program. We decided Wednesday evenings work best for our family and/or work schedules. Today we decided to run around the South Hill, up and down a few hills, which is typical in Spokane. Boy were we spoiled running on flat routes like Fish Lake and the Centennial Trail, so by the time we finished 7 miles, we were exhausted. What a great workout with some awesome ladies!
-Posted by Mirna
Sunday, March 20, 2011
HALFWAY THERE! Week 8 Complete=Total 28 Miles
Our 8th week completed, we are halfway done. I can't believe we have been consistently training for our marathon for almost 2 months! Time sure has flown by...only 8 more weeks until M-Day! We had quite an interesting run this weekend. We ran from Stateline to the Valley YMCA on the Centennial Trail alongside the Spokane River.
We had pretty much every type of weather imaginable...not surprising since unpredictable weather is notorious in the Inland Northwest.
In theory we had the perfect plan...we would begin in Stateline, ID, run "7 miles" to the Valley YMCA where we had another car parked, make a quick stop for water and nutrition, then turn around and head back to equal a perfect 14. So, with hats, gloves, and our best attempt to don waterproof gear on, we began what we thought would be an easy 7 miler first half.
Andrea and I led the group and we were about 1/4 mile ahead of Bethany and Ashley. After running almost an hour, I checked my Garmin GPS watch and worriedly said to Andrea "We're hitting mile 6 and we haven't passed the Valley Mall...do you think our mileage is off?" We decided to keep running because first of all we had no other choice, and secondly it was freezing temperatures and we needed to keep moving!
Around 7.5 miles we saw a man walking his dog. We decided to ask him how far the Valley YMCA was. He responded with "it's down the trail further...about 2-3 miles..." Our hearts sank...here we were running in big snow flakes, wet, and we had opted not to wear our water running belts since we figured we would be refueling after an hour. What were we going to do?! I'm sure I shouted a few profanities, but Andrea, the optimistic mama said, "the farther our first leg is, the shorter our second leg will be...we can do this." She encouraged me to keep going and we kept thinking of all the postive things about the run, which to be honest was really, really difficult...but hey, it was still better than the Dreadmill, right?...right?...right?
So we just kept on running...and running...and running, as I drove myself crazy checking my darn watch...7.8 miles...8.4 miles...9.2 miles...until we finally saw the YMCA in the distance...HALLELUJAH we were going to survive! Okay maybe I'm being a bit dramatic but I was so relieved to see the car! We picked up our speed and ran to the car, which intended up being mile 10! Bethany and Ashley later told us that they were feeling pretty discouraged because the whole time they thought it was taking them over an hour and half to do 7-8 miles so pacing at only 13-14 minute miles...were they relieved to know that we had already hit 10 miles by the time they reached the car. Did I mention that during this time we ran through snow, rain, wind, and cool temperatures so we had pretty much hit every weather element possible except for sun?!
We all quickly grabbed some water and GU/nutrition and this time decided to wear our running belts for the second half. Rather than running back to the beginning, which would have made it 20 miles, Andrea, again the brilliant mama she is, quickly modified our route by having us go 2 miles further on the trail and back to the YMCA to finish up our 14 miler. I was too cold and exhausted to think so I'm glad she was quick to re-route our course. We took a slight detour off the Trail, along some random streets, over train tracks, through some neighborhoods, until we found the Trail again. When we hit 13.1 miles, we cheered and clapped our hands...it was a monumental moment because it was the farthest ANY of us had EVER run! With the last ounce of energy that we could muster, we finished up our 14 miles. WE DID IT!!!
And wouldn't you know it, the sun finally came out after we were finished? Yes, it's always an adventure with the Spokane Marathon Mamas!
I found the quote below and I felt that it truly captured our weekend run..
The only way to define your limits is by going beyond them." - Anonymous
So I think we misunderstood the "14 mile loop"...we figured it was probably 14 miles ONE WAY from Post Falls, ID to the Valley YMCA, but since I'm so directionally-challenged, who knows? But it doesn't really matter because we had a great time anyway...so bring it, Winderemere Marathon!
-Posted by Mirna
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| Spokane River around Mile 9 of our route |
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| Lots of snow, apparent by my hat |
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| Bethany and Ashley braving the snow |
Andrea and I led the group and we were about 1/4 mile ahead of Bethany and Ashley. After running almost an hour, I checked my Garmin GPS watch and worriedly said to Andrea "We're hitting mile 6 and we haven't passed the Valley Mall...do you think our mileage is off?" We decided to keep running because first of all we had no other choice, and secondly it was freezing temperatures and we needed to keep moving!
Around 7.5 miles we saw a man walking his dog. We decided to ask him how far the Valley YMCA was. He responded with "it's down the trail further...about 2-3 miles..." Our hearts sank...here we were running in big snow flakes, wet, and we had opted not to wear our water running belts since we figured we would be refueling after an hour. What were we going to do?! I'm sure I shouted a few profanities, but Andrea, the optimistic mama said, "the farther our first leg is, the shorter our second leg will be...we can do this." She encouraged me to keep going and we kept thinking of all the postive things about the run, which to be honest was really, really difficult...but hey, it was still better than the Dreadmill, right?...right?...right?
So we just kept on running...and running...and running, as I drove myself crazy checking my darn watch...7.8 miles...8.4 miles...9.2 miles...until we finally saw the YMCA in the distance...HALLELUJAH we were going to survive! Okay maybe I'm being a bit dramatic but I was so relieved to see the car! We picked up our speed and ran to the car, which intended up being mile 10! Bethany and Ashley later told us that they were feeling pretty discouraged because the whole time they thought it was taking them over an hour and half to do 7-8 miles so pacing at only 13-14 minute miles...were they relieved to know that we had already hit 10 miles by the time they reached the car. Did I mention that during this time we ran through snow, rain, wind, and cool temperatures so we had pretty much hit every weather element possible except for sun?!
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| Ashley and Bethany excited to see the car near the Y |
We all quickly grabbed some water and GU/nutrition and this time decided to wear our running belts for the second half. Rather than running back to the beginning, which would have made it 20 miles, Andrea, again the brilliant mama she is, quickly modified our route by having us go 2 miles further on the trail and back to the YMCA to finish up our 14 miler. I was too cold and exhausted to think so I'm glad she was quick to re-route our course. We took a slight detour off the Trail, along some random streets, over train tracks, through some neighborhoods, until we found the Trail again. When we hit 13.1 miles, we cheered and clapped our hands...it was a monumental moment because it was the farthest ANY of us had EVER run! With the last ounce of energy that we could muster, we finished up our 14 miles. WE DID IT!!!
And wouldn't you know it, the sun finally came out after we were finished? Yes, it's always an adventure with the Spokane Marathon Mamas!
I found the quote below and I felt that it truly captured our weekend run..
The only way to define your limits is by going beyond them." - Anonymous
So I think we misunderstood the "14 mile loop"...we figured it was probably 14 miles ONE WAY from Post Falls, ID to the Valley YMCA, but since I'm so directionally-challenged, who knows? But it doesn't really matter because we had a great time anyway...so bring it, Winderemere Marathon!
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| Mirna, Andrea, Ashley, and Bethany after 14 miles |
-Posted by Mirna
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
St. Paddy's Five
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| Mirna and Andrea |
Mirna and I participated in the St. Paddy's Five - a five mile race on Sunday, March 13. We had just run a 12 mile training run the day before so we thought this would be a nice recovery run. Ok, instead, we decided to just run!!
Mirna kicked some royal ASS - she finished with a time of 40:30, pacing at 8:01 per mile - YOU ROCK MIRNA!! She finished 14th in her age group (out of 72), 95th out of 599 women runners and overall finished 290th out of 1051 runners!! I am inspired by this woman and thankfully, didn't try and keep pace with her or I would be in the hospital recovering from a heart attack!
I wasn't too unhappy with my times either. I finished with a time of 46:31, pacing at 9:18 per mile. I was number 22 out of 72 in my age group, 212th out of the 599 women runners, and overall was 496 out of the 1051 overall finishers.
It was a beautiful morning with sunshine and nice temps - perfect for our run. Then our little ones did the kids fun run - and Bethany brought her son to join as well! They did a nice lap around the track and got their finisher ribbons at the end - fun for all!
Looking forward to our 14-miler this Saturday...pray for dry weather!
~ posted by Andrea
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Week 7 in Hawaii
Hi Friends,
Finally getting a chance to post on my training runs for week 7 in beautiful Hawaii! I had some fun training outings and each of my three runs this week was completely different.
For my first run of the week, my husband Greg and I switched off so each of us could stay with the kids while the other was running. I had a very nice, easy 4 mile run - I didn't go until about 11 and you can see it was warm and sunny!
My second run was scheduled as a 6-miler. It had been raining hard off and on and I found a break in the weather and headed out. There were massive puddle-type lakes across many of the roadways and I had to maneuver around them throughout my run. I had a loop in mind that I was going to do and was out about 3 1/2 miles and the loop wasn't turning back yet so I figured I better turn around or I would go too far. Right about the time I decided to turn back, a HUGE downpour began. I was completely soaked from head to toe - it was as if I had just gotten out of the pool! I have never been that wet from the rain before - EVER! And I was 3 1/2 miles from home. The rain continued and I managed to make it back...nothing like a squishy run in water-logged shoes! I ended up doing about 6.8 miles. I don't know if you can tell how wet I am from the photos, but maybe check out the small lake in the street behind me (can you see the rain hitting it?)
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| Andrea after first 4-miler of the week |
Finally getting a chance to post on my training runs for week 7 in beautiful Hawaii! I had some fun training outings and each of my three runs this week was completely different.
For my first run of the week, my husband Greg and I switched off so each of us could stay with the kids while the other was running. I had a very nice, easy 4 mile run - I didn't go until about 11 and you can see it was warm and sunny!
My second run was scheduled as a 6-miler. It had been raining hard off and on and I found a break in the weather and headed out. There were massive puddle-type lakes across many of the roadways and I had to maneuver around them throughout my run. I had a loop in mind that I was going to do and was out about 3 1/2 miles and the loop wasn't turning back yet so I figured I better turn around or I would go too far. Right about the time I decided to turn back, a HUGE downpour began. I was completely soaked from head to toe - it was as if I had just gotten out of the pool! I have never been that wet from the rain before - EVER! And I was 3 1/2 miles from home. The rain continued and I managed to make it back...nothing like a squishy run in water-logged shoes! I ended up doing about 6.8 miles. I don't know if you can tell how wet I am from the photos, but maybe check out the small lake in the street behind me (can you see the rain hitting it?)
The last day we were there, Thursday the 10th, I thought it would be great to do my last Hawaii run as a barefoot beach run. (Having shoes that were still sopping wet helped make that decision!) My husband and I headed out just before sunset and had the best run yet. The beach was beautiful and the waves were rolling in...it was so enjoyable. We ended up doing 3 miles and it was just perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better location for our final run and we said our goodbyes to the sand and surf.
The next 24 hours were total chaos...we were packing and then the tsunami warning alarms went off - we had to evacuate! Our family finished packing, threw everything in the car as if we weren't coming back and drove out into the night searching for a place to park on higher ground. We all ended up sleeping in our cars, which there really wasn't much sleeping. It wasn't very fun but we did get the go ahead to return to our home at 8am the next day. We went back to our house, ate and cleaned up, made sure our bags were ready for the airplane and then headed for home. Thankfully our flight was not cancelled and we made it home just before midnight on Friday night. I was worried we wouldn't get back for me to do our 12 mile run on Saturday (sounds crazy, I know!) but we made it and I was glad to see my marathon mamas!!
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| My Hawaii treadmill!! |
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Week 7 Complete! Total Weekly Miles=26
This week we pretty much ran a marathon...although it was broken up into 4 runs; 4 miles + 6 miles + 4 miles + 12 mile long run=26 MILES!
Special KUDOS to Andrea who is the BOMB-DIGGITY! Not only did she escape a Tsunami warning evacuating to higher grounds, but slept her last night in Hawaii in her car with her husband and 2 little girls! Yikes!
Andrea then took a late flight home Friday night to the mainland, landing in Spokane at 1 am! However, she still wanted to meet up with us for our scheduled 7 am 12-miler. GO ANDREA!
So our run this morning was beautiful, with temperatures in the late 30's. The sun was shining brightly as we ran alongside the Spokane river again on the Centennial Trail. This week seemed to be a smoother run for all of us...maybe it was the weather..maybe it was the endorphins?
Either way, it was nice to have the whole gang back together again!
Special KUDOS to Andrea who is the BOMB-DIGGITY! Not only did she escape a Tsunami warning evacuating to higher grounds, but slept her last night in Hawaii in her car with her husband and 2 little girls! Yikes!
Andrea then took a late flight home Friday night to the mainland, landing in Spokane at 1 am! However, she still wanted to meet up with us for our scheduled 7 am 12-miler. GO ANDREA!
So our run this morning was beautiful, with temperatures in the late 30's. The sun was shining brightly as we ran alongside the Spokane river again on the Centennial Trail. This week seemed to be a smoother run for all of us...maybe it was the weather..maybe it was the endorphins?
Either way, it was nice to have the whole gang back together again!
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| Ashley, Andrea, Mirna, Sarah, and Bethany |
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Aloha from Hawaii! Andrea's Hawaii 10k
Aloha Wahines!
I competed in my first 10k on Sunday, March 6 while on vacation here in Hawaii. Ok, not really competed, but participated and finished. I was thinking during the race that I have not done a 10k race before - lots of 5k's, some 4 and 5 mile races, 20 Bloomsday runs (7.46 miles) and then half marathon and marathon relay - but nope, don't think there has ever been a 10k in there. Anyway, I knew while in Hawaii that I would have the 12 mile run to complete and months ago saw this run coming up. It was during the time we were going to be here and only about 30 minutes from where we are staying, so I signed up and prepared to do it. It was the 34th running of the Hawaii Pacific Health Women's 10k: http://www.hawaiipacifichealth.org/womens10k/. How fun to do a women's only race!!
Got up on Sunday morning at about 5:15, got ready and just before 6:00 headed out toward Honolulu. The race started at 7:00 and it was just beautiful out! It was in the low 70's and away we went headed east. Waikiki was behind me, the Pacific Ocean was to my right (with surfers bobbing out there waiting to catch some early morning waves!), and Diamond Head was on my left. We ran slowly uphill and on the other side of the small peak was the area known as Kahala. We ran through a very nice neighborhood with huge, beautiful homes and then looped around and went back down the last two miles the same as the first two miles. We had a few misty raindrops but mostly sunshine. It was such a good feeling to finish - I was pretty warm by the time I was done. I ended up with a time of 1:03:11. Not too bad! Guess it could be considered a PR since it is the only one I have ever done! :) I finished 44 out of 185 in my age group and 387 out of 1650 finishers. It was great to get the rose right after crossing the finish line - very nice touch! However, if a race is all about the finishers tees, this didn't hit the mark! Check it out - just plain, white cotton and pretty plain logo, etc. Oh well...
My runs here have been hot and humid and wonderful - and I am thrilled that I actually did something a little out of my comfort level while on vacation. Not so much the actual race, but the logistics, getting myself up early, driving myself there and finding where to go, etc. I missed my race buddies and had to go it alone but it was pretty cool to run a race here in Hawaii. A great memory to keep, even if I do have to toss the tee!
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| All finishers received a rose when they crossed the finish line!! |
I competed in my first 10k on Sunday, March 6 while on vacation here in Hawaii. Ok, not really competed, but participated and finished. I was thinking during the race that I have not done a 10k race before - lots of 5k's, some 4 and 5 mile races, 20 Bloomsday runs (7.46 miles) and then half marathon and marathon relay - but nope, don't think there has ever been a 10k in there. Anyway, I knew while in Hawaii that I would have the 12 mile run to complete and months ago saw this run coming up. It was during the time we were going to be here and only about 30 minutes from where we are staying, so I signed up and prepared to do it. It was the 34th running of the Hawaii Pacific Health Women's 10k: http://www.hawaiipacifichealth.org/womens10k/. How fun to do a women's only race!!
Got up on Sunday morning at about 5:15, got ready and just before 6:00 headed out toward Honolulu. The race started at 7:00 and it was just beautiful out! It was in the low 70's and away we went headed east. Waikiki was behind me, the Pacific Ocean was to my right (with surfers bobbing out there waiting to catch some early morning waves!), and Diamond Head was on my left. We ran slowly uphill and on the other side of the small peak was the area known as Kahala. We ran through a very nice neighborhood with huge, beautiful homes and then looped around and went back down the last two miles the same as the first two miles. We had a few misty raindrops but mostly sunshine. It was such a good feeling to finish - I was pretty warm by the time I was done. I ended up with a time of 1:03:11. Not too bad! Guess it could be considered a PR since it is the only one I have ever done! :) I finished 44 out of 185 in my age group and 387 out of 1650 finishers. It was great to get the rose right after crossing the finish line - very nice touch! However, if a race is all about the finishers tees, this didn't hit the mark! Check it out - just plain, white cotton and pretty plain logo, etc. Oh well...
Ok, so the race was a total of 6.34 miles. I knew it would get me at least 1/2 way to my 12 mile mark - now...what could I do to get in all 12 miles? I could run it twice - even thought about it during the race, but of course, that didn't happen. I did park 1/2 mile away and run to the starting area as I was worried about getting my number. Then had the 1/2 mile back to my car...ok, now we are up to 7.34 miles. I didn't feel up to it right when I got back to our place (my family had picked up some malasadas for breakfast, which are pretty much just a deep-fried donut - and they were yummy!) Finally, later that afternoon, I got my husband to go out for a 4 mile run. So didn't quite reach my 12 mile run but got nearly there. :) Even if it was broken up, at least I got in the mileage.
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