Spokane Marathon Mamas Shirt

Mirna realized after writing about Bloomsday that we hadn't had the opportunity to showcase our fun Spokane Marathon Mama Shirts!

Shortly after we began our marathon training, we decided we needed to get shirts to make our unofficial running group, well, official! We looked at different logos and even asked a local shirt vendor for possible ideas, which she kindly drafted. However, little did we know that Bethany was an artist at heart! She came up with our cute design for our shirt logo-a running mom. (See Shirt above)

We also decided to personalize our shirts with quotes to go on the back. Mirna decided to go with "Running...cheaper than therapy" since running has helped keep her somewhat "sane" LOL. Andrea decided to go with "Run Mommy Run" since her motivation is her two beautiful girls. Sarah decided to just leave the back side of her shirt blank.

Ashley and Bethany decided to go with some humor. Ashley's shirt says "twenty six point freakin' two" and Bethany chose "I thought you said it was only 2.62 miles?!" Ashley and Bethany running side by side created a few chuckles during Bloomsday.

We will post pictures of the back side of our shirts soon. But otherwise we will proudly wear our SMM shirts on Race Day!

-Posted by Mirna

Week 14 Complete! Total Weekly Miles=27 Miles

Let the Tapering Begin!!!

2011 Bloomsday 12K-Personal Best For All

Q: Know how you get a personal best for Bloomsday?
A: Train for a marathon! Then 12K seems just like another short mid week run!

Okay, well maybe not just another short run...but still, compared to our previous 20 mile long runs, completing 7.46 miles seemed much more do-able.

The days leading up to the race was terrible-we had rain, sleet, hailstones, and gusty wind. I guess it was typical Spokane spring weather! However, Sunday morning the weather was PERFECT-full of sunshine, but not too hot.

I had the opportunity to run for my company's Corporate Team: Gentiva Home Health. Talk about Royal Treatment! We received special dry wick corporate shirts, bags that we could check things in during the race, and free food after the race.

Ashely, Andrea, and Bethany were in the Yellow Section proudly wearing their Spokane Marathon Mama shirts. I was jealous that I couldn't wear mine, but since Gentiva paid for my entry fee and corporate opporunity, I wore my Gentiva shirt instead.

Mirna, Ashley, Andrea, and Bethany

Anyway we ran the course, settling into a comfortable pace. We had all the right elements to have a great race-motivating crowd, good food, familiar course, etc. We all finished strong, and although did not all finish together, we were able to meet up after the race to congratulate one another on a great run. Unfortunately, Ashley's D-Tag Timing Chip did not register so she was not able to get an "official" time, but since she ran with Andrea, we can estimate her final time close to Andrea's.

So here's our stats:

Bethany: 1:10:50 (PREVIOUS PR 1:14:46)
Overall Place: 7, 253 out of 50, 611
Ran with a pace of 9:29 per mile

Mirna: 1:03:19 (PREVIOUS PR 1:20:56)
Overall Place: 3, 749 out of 50, 611
Ran with a pace of 8:29 per mie

Andrea: 1:12:29 (PREVIOUS PR 1:16:41)
Overall Place: 8, 077 out of 50, 611
Ran with a pace of 9:42 per mile

Ashley: 1:12:29 (PREVIOUS PR 1:16:45)
Overall Place: 8, 078 out of 50, 611
Ran with a pace of 9:42 per mile

Post Race-Mirna, Ashley, Andrea & Bethany

Overall it was such a great race for all of us. It was a nice confidence boost to know we have improved even with "shorter" runs since beginning our marathon training.  I think it also helped to have used the Bloomsday route as one of our mid week runs, therefore we more or less had an idea how the course was set up, hills, etc. even though we have run the race before.

The dreaded "Doomsday" Hill



So another race in the books!

Looking forward to finally completing our Marathon in less than two weeks!!!



-posted by Mirna

Mid-Week 8-miler

Manito Duck Pond - 5:30 AM Anyone?

We met up again this week for our mid-week 8-miler. I was not able to meet the mamas for a 5:30pm run as I didn't have a babysitter for the girls. However, Mirna suggested we meet up at 5:30AM and get our 8 miles in before she headed off to work. We met at the Manito Duck Pond and it was a beautiful morning! Our 8+ mile run ended around 7am and it was a great way to start the day. Nothing like starting things off in a fabulous mood - really sets the tone for the rest of the day to get an early start like this one. I think we'll do it again next week. :)

~ posted by Andrea

Week 13 Complete - 38 miles!!!

Wrapping up our 13th week with a final double digit run!

Mirna and Andrea

We wrapped up our training this week with a 20 miler - the final of our double digit training runs. I can't tell you what relief I felt after completing this run! And for many reasons, this run was hard for both Mirna and I, so we were truly thankful to finish it.

First of all, Mirna was kind enough to run with me on Thursday afternoon instead of our normal Saturday morning time slot. I was leaving out of town with my girls to visit my mom for the Easter holiday weekend and knew I wouldn't get 20 miles in alone in Pendleton, Oregon. It was wonderful of Mirna to join me a couple of days early. However, we didn't know how challenging this run was going to be. We had completed the River Run on Sunday, which had been a grueling trail run for us (see previous post!) The weather was completely awful - wind, snow, rain, hail, sun at times...you name it, we pretty much had it. And just mentally running on a different day and completely different time probably messed up our heads a bit.

We started out on the Centennial Trail across the river from Spokane Community College. We ran a little over 6 miles to the Fish Lake Trail head. We were going to run out 4 miles and back and then head back to where we started but instead changed our minds and decided to just run out 7 miles and back and drive back to our starting location. We struggled to make it back to the trail head...we were just done! Thankfully, we were able to finish the run on our own two feet (and not crawling or on a stretcher!) I really felt like we accomplished something - however, it does play with your mind. With a couple more days of rest and better weather, might we have felt truly amazing after completing 20 miles, like our other mamas did on Saturday? Maybe so, but I guess we can chalk this one up as a learning experience and a good mental and physical test (that we passed!) for our upcoming "M" day!

Or...maybe we were so traumatized by it that neither of us even wanted to post about it! :) Notice, it's been awhile since we posted! :)

We heard that Sarah (who ran 20 miles with her husband at sub-10 minute miles), Bethany, and Ashley had great runs for their final double digit training - hope they post on here about it! We want to know all the details on why they felt so great after they completed theirs!

Finally, it seems like a long ways from the 20 miler to the marathon...I think we are on a 3 week taper plan. The two weekend runs between this one and the marathon are only 9 and 8 miles so the doubt starts to creep in...is this too long to go without a really long run? Can we really run 26.2 miles in a few weeks? And after feeling not so great about our 20 miler, we are really trying to build up our inspiration in the next few weeks. Thankfully, we still know that anything is possible!

~ posted by Andrea

Week 12 Complete: Total Weekly Miles=34

SATURDAY LONG RUN: 16 Miles

Great run today! We (Sarah, Ashley, and I) chose the Fish Lake trail and it was such a wonderful change in scenery. There was even a part at the very end of the trail(7.5 miles out) in which we continued running on that was a dirt road/trail. it reminded me how much I missed hiking and running on the trails. It was a nice day, so nice that I had my jacket off and just a short sleeve shirt for some of the run. And the best thing, although the weather report was bleak and promised rain all day long, IT DID NOT RAIN ON US!!!

Ashley and I were estatic(since both of us always seem to get the bad weather!). I think it sort of misted and sprayed, but this was nothing compared to the pouring rain, snow, and hail, that we had already encountered. Although my knees ached a bit, and Ashley's foot still hurt, everything seemed better with decent weather and the glimpse of spring on the horizon. And even though still challenging, 16 miles seemed so much shorter than 22!

-posted by Bethany

Spokane River Run 25K

Instead of running our 16 mile long run along the Fish Lake Trail, Andrea and I decided to sign up for the Spokane River Run. Sarah, Bethany, and Ashley ran their 16 miler the today before along the trail. Anway, the River Run is a 25K trail run throughout Riverside State Park. Unfortunately, we both opted not to run with our cell phones, so we were unable to take pictures of some breath taking views. However thanks to Google, I was able to find some images of the park we ran through today. It was perfect running weather (in the 50's), full of sunshine and a gentle breeze.



However nothing could have mentally prepared us for what the route really was like! We both agreed that running this 15.5 trail route was waaaaayyyy more difficult than last week's 22 miler! It was both physically and mentally exhausting. There were some killer hills, uneven terrains, giant mud puddles to avoid, and large rocks we had to hurdle over as we made our way through the challenging course.

Here is the course profile and as you can tell we were constantly going up and down hills throughout the course. We thought maybe we could recover with the down hills, but because of the steep grade and slippery rocks, we had to physically and mentally think about foot placement, stride length, and pace speed.

Often the "trail" was full of rocks

Although it was a difficult course, the time did fly by! We were grateful the course was clearly marked, and there was many water and nutrition stations, almost every 2-3 miles. Thank goodness for all those wonderful volunteers. Sadly, though, we did witness many people lose their footing, trip, and even one young lady fall down onto her knees. We checked on her and luckily she was okay. She ended up finishing the course without further injury but did confess to us that her knees were pretty sore towards the end.
 
Despite the varied terrain, I felt Andrea and I ran a good, hard race. We managed to maintain about an 11 minute/mile pace, depite the fact that we had to walk a few of the hills. It definitely was not conversation pace and often we had to run behind one another since the trail was not wide enough to run side by side. My overall time was 2:50:54 and Andrea's overall time was 2:53:58. We were exhausted when we finally reached the finish line, but proud to have completed the course. It was also a wonderful suprise to see Bethany and her cute son, Bryson, waiting for us at the end. Thanks for the encouragement B!!!

Anyway, I'm sure we'll be pretty sore tomorrow; trail running is definitely different than road running! However, this race made me even more confident that we will do great at our upcoming marathon! Thanks for a great run today Andrea! Marathon or Bust!

Mirna and Andrea

-posted by Mirna