2012 Dallas Marathon (Half for Me)

Distance: 13.1 miles
Duration: 2 hr 6 mins
Avg Pace Per Mile: 9:38 (official time)
Weather: 70 degrees (HUMID)
I'm so glad I did not have my eyes set on a sub 2 hour race. My Half Marathon PR is 1 hr 56 mins. It was too hot for that. Oh, yeah and I had a baby a few months ago, so there's that too.

EXPO (Saturday) 
I'm going to backtrack for just a moment. Saturday, Trey and I took the girls to the Dallas Convention Center and we checked out the expo. I was hoping to see my friend, Jeri -- She lives in South Dakota. I've been blog/twitter stalking following her online for a few years. I like to think, the stalking is mutual. I was so excited when her schedule and my schedule worked out and we were able to meet in real life. She's so much fun! I enjoyed the few hours we spent walking the expo floor. I wish we had all weekend to hang out, but I'm sure her Dallas family would hate me for kidnapping her.

Instead of kidnapping Jeri, I did the next best thing, we ran together. Granted, it was only about a mile and a half, but still...

I promise, she's totally normal. Haha!

SUNDAY MORNING: RACE DAY 
3:30 am
I heard Dakota moving around in her crib. I got her and fed her.
4:00 am
Got dressed. Ate Oatmeal with bananas walnut and cinnamon. Updated my music playlist. I needed Weezer!
4:50 am
Becca arrived at my house and shortly after, we were in the car driving to Dallas.
6:30 am
Parked! I was worried about traffic, but going to the expo the day before really put me at ease. I knew where I was going and I had a general idea of where I wanted to park.
6:40 am
First porta-potty break.
7:00 am
Met Jeri near the 9:30 pace group and had to say goodbye to Becca, since officials were enforcing assigned corral locations. She was assigned to C. I wanted to run with her too.

By 8:05 am I was running. The first mile was fine, but then the heat started to get to me and I knew it would be a terrible mistake to push it. So, my race strategy was to run and do my best to keep a 9:30 pace. If it was cooler (maybe 40-50 degrees), I think I would have shot for a 9 minute pace. Honestly, I was thrilled just to be running, my longest distance since having a baby - (6 months postpartum). I ran the first mile and a half with Jeri. She gave me the green light to go on without her, so I did. We met at the finish line.

Becca and I after the race. She is also a momma. Her son turns one this month. She did great, I'm so proud of her and I'm pretty sure she exceeded her goal time.

It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for me:
After I finished (30 minutes later), I was so thirsty. I needed bottled water, not a kid cup that volunteers were handing out at the finish line. You guys know how I am about water. When I went in the expo, there was a massive crowd, trying to make their way to the expo area and I was standing there trying to make my way over there too, I almost lost it. I felt nauseous, weak, light headed, irritable, and extremely thirsty and hungry. Remember, I ate at 4:30'ish am. I was on the verge of fainting. Once I broke away from the crowd, drank water and ate food - I was back to myself. Next time, I need to run with at least one gel and have my own snacks handy. I thought Gatorade and water would get me through, but obviously not. It worked for me before, but this time I didn't take into account that I'm still nursing a 6 month old.

Recovering
Today, my legs feel sore, but not trashed.

More Race Stats 
 

Now We're Talking

It's been weeks since we bought our TV. Well, I finally got the wireless network to communicate with the TV. It took several customer service calls to Phillips and a few online forums, but now I'm ONLINE. Have you ever wondered why things that involve wireless routers are so complicated? So many meaningless numbers, it's all greek to me.

Whatever, I'm up and running, so who cares?
I can view my Twitter feed, while I'm watching TV and I can Stream Netflix, without having the PS3. What's up?! I may never leave my bed now. It also has some other cool features, but Twitter+TV has made my life.

Abilene Vacation for the Little One

Erin and Mike are taking a vacation and since this is the busiest time of the year for Trey, there is no way we are taking vacation too...however, Cheyenne will be spending a few days in Abilene. From what I hear, she will be swimming and making her rounds visiting family. I hope Abilene is ready for this girl. She always has a full agenda when she's in town, so if you see her around A-town, say HI!

She's ready to leave....

Did you notice the Pillow Pet? Last week, Erin told me Cheyenne requested a pillow pet and something else....

Yeah, let me work on that...HAHA!



Have Fun Cheyenne, Mommy and Daddy will miss you!

Sugoi Compression Socks

This past weekend, I went to Luke's Locker and bought compression socks. A wonderful sales lady helped me out. Those associates know so much about running and gear...OH, and they put up with customers like me -- After running over 15 miles in my new shoes, I realized I needed a different size. To my amazement Luke's took them back...Great customer service. Now, I'm a customer for life.

Back to the Socks: 

So, the lady showed me a pair and was giving me all the details on a particular brand. I wanted to save her time, so I interrupted and asked about the price. 60 $$! That was completely out of my price range. Good gravy, they are socks! Trey had to remind me they are special socks. He's right. Well, I did not walk out with the gold-diamond embellished pair, but I did walk away with Sugoi compression socks for half the price. I spent the rest of my Saturday afternoon, evening, night, and Sunday morning in them. Yes, I wore them to church. Oh, they were amazing. My legs and even my sore hip/thigh felt like new. 

I know some people don't buy into the whole compression recovery thing, but I'm a believer. Special thanks to @jerilee40. A while back she wrote a blog post that sparked my interest. I know that compression socks won't make me invincible, but I'm glad they will help speed up my recovery. 

Twitter Update

"For the Fourth of July, I went swimming, ate lots of junk that mommy normally wouldn't feed me (thanks DADDY) and stayed up late with Angelica."

Twitter is a Beautiful Thing. A+ Runner's World

If you’ve been on a treadmill, you’ve probably been shocked, not literally shocked (hair sticking up), but static electricity-shocked. We’ll this happens to me all the time and it annoys me to no end.

I follow Runners World on Twitter and saw about a month ago someone asked them how to prevent treadmill shock. I waited for a while and never saw a response from RW. So, today I thought I’d follow-up and send them a question into cyber space via Twitter and what do you know…RW sends me a direct message. It went a little something like this….

dominiqueia@runnersworld did you ever respond to the question about preventing treadmill shock? Static Electricity shock while running on the mill?

runnersworld: Yes, try grounding yourself by touching a nonmetal wall before touching the mill.

runnersworld: And it's actually probably not the treadmill but rather dry winter air...

I just thought it was cool that someone responded to me and with some useful advice. Now the next time I’m running on the mill, while watching Jersey Shore (what? You know you watch) I won’t dread touching the side rails at every water break. Thanks Runners World!

I’ll leave you with this wonderful quote from Jersey Shore, “You stalked my whole life on the boardwalk! My WHOLE life!” My guilty pleasure exposed, but really I feel less guilty watching while running. No apologies here. What’s your justification?