A lesson well ran!!

The Tely 10, the most hyped up run in St. John's for new runners and for veteran runners.  Well, for me and my girls it was a first for us and we felt it!!

Holy crap!! We just signed up for the Tely 10!! Time to start training we have 2 months left we got this!!! Lots of healthy eating, runs every night, peps talks on how we will finish!
Little did we know that it was something that we didn't expect no matter the training, let me start speaking for myself....

Morning of the Tely I was hyped!! I mean to the point of, and this IS too much information, being glued to the toilet with nerves, I mean all morning!!!! When we came upon the start line I held back tears, walking through the people to get where I needed to be.. Tears, when I heard them say go... Tears, it was an emotional morning, I was thinking, I'm here I made it I'm running the Tely!!!

It was hot, so hot that all my water went under my hat instead of in my mouth, and I was feeling great!!! The hype of the people on the sidelines with signs, and thinking about how proud I was of myself!!  I didn't beat my time but I know some tricks to beat it next year, no selfies, no texting and no turning around and going back during a race!

All was great and what everyone told me was true, the Tely 10 is like no other! But, nobody told me that after all of my adrenaline wore off I would loose everything! Meaning my mind would stop working, my legs would not move, my feet would scream at me "what the f*^k did you do that for?"
I wasn't aware that my whole personality would change for the next 4 weeks!!
And that's exactly what happened!! I stopped running, I stopped eating well, I stopped cross training. I always loved to run since I started, and I always will.  But my mind and body stopped trying and it was great!!! I got to relax and enjoy time with my boys and not concentrate on exercise and running all the time!

I am now back at it!! Not 110% but at least 90% and this means NewfieShells will be put on hold for more family time, I will enjoy my food, and  I am running again  starting last night lol,  2 weeks before the 5 and dime I may try and beat my 10KM PB but if I don't it's okay, there will be many more races and many more runs!
I am also signed up for my first 1/2 marathon, the Hypo half and I am so excited to be able to run it no matter my time (although I want to do it in 2 1/2 hours 🤗)

I'm so thankful for the Tely for teaching me that running is fabulous but don't let other things in life run past you as well, and for teaching me to keep running towards something bigger and better because you Can do it!!!

Lots of bling coming my way, and lots more lessons to be learned!

Holy Tuckers Hill!

Training for a half marathon is hard! I know I can run the distance but my body hurts after. I feel good but still hurt, if that makes sense. I ran my longest run yesterday with Shelley. A full 18 km’s!! Seriously. My longest run ever, my Garmin even said so! There was a group of us running yesterday, a couple different distances and a couple different start times but it all worked out because we all pretty much finished around the same time.

I have wanted to do this run for EVER! After 3 years of missing out I was able to do it! I didn’t do it before because either I wasn’t ready to run that distance or I had family commitments. So yesterday I got up nice and early and picked up Shelley and made our way to Coffee Matters in Paradise. While we were getting ready to start our run we noticed Chris Cox in his vehicle. Apparently he didn’t get the memo that his group was running at 7:30 am not 7:00 am. So we carried on, ran around the back of Neil’s Pond. On the way in I told Shelley that I was not in the mood to see a moose, I don’t think I could out run a moose. Actually. I know I can’t outrun a moose.

When we were finished with Neil’s Pond I asked if we were done. Only another 16 KM to go. That is the Tely 10 all over again. Dear Lord. I did feel pretty good, planning in my head when to eat my Swedish fish! I was so happy when I found Halloween candy at Sobeys in Paradise on Friday! It is the perfect serving size and small packages that fit in my fuel belt.

5 km into the run we stopped (my request) so I could chow down on some candy and Shelley could eat some Rice Krispies. We walked a bit just because the road was horrible with lots of gravel.  We kept going, I still felt pretty good. I knew that St. Thomas Line was long but holy crap, it is much longer when you are running it. Along the way, Shelley saw a whale (no she was not hallucinating, we were by the ocean) and we saw a Bald Eagle. We finally got to the end of St. Thomas Line! Finally! But if you have done this run before you know what is to the left! Tuckers hill! This is a huge hill. I had to stop a couple times but Shelley KILLED it! She will be so ready for the Cape 2 Cabot! I was scopping out the woods to see if I could find a place to pee but now a days there are too many hidden cameras and I don’t want my parts on the internet.

After getting up over that hill there are a couple of "rolling hills" until you get to the Bell Island Ferry wharf. I had to stop a couple more times and I ran out of water but I still felt good. I ate more candy along the way which certainly helped. I finished that run with a huge smile on my face! This is the run I have always wanted to do, even before I wanted to do a half marathon.  

I feel good about the half Marathon now that I have this run done.  Only a couple more weeks of training! 

We killed the Dime!

So we killed the Dime. Well more like we butchered it! After my last blog Tara Philpot mentioned that she would run with me today. I sent her a message to arrange a time and distance. She said 11 am and I said 10 KM. (For the record she thought I was going to say 4 km.) As I pulled up to Peter Barry Duff parking lot I was thinking, “Who picks 11 O’Clock in the summer to run 10 km??”  It was 26 degrees out! 26!! Well. Tara did. Haha.

So the plan was to run the Dime of the 5 and Dime road race. (If you want to register, you can do so here http://www.paradiserunningclub.com/Five_Dime.html)  But don’t do this route!

We started off good, went right to the guard rail. Good start, right!? Did I mention it was 26 degrees out? On the way down the road we were trying to figure out where the turnaround was for the 10k because it is not marked yet. Get on that will ya Marc? We couldn’t find it. 

On goes our brilliant ideas. As we were running we made so many plans to run up a couple Cul de sacs or run around the pond again. I don’t think we ever did make it up one of them, the thought was there though!

As we were running, I thought, “If we run the dime route we STILL have to run up the big hill again to get to our cars. Who wants to do that?” Not us! Remember, it was hot out! I am still suffering from a cold and sometimes it hurt to breathe. Just sayin! 

We turned up Buckingham and all of a sudden we started talking about Diane Coffin. At that same time we got goose bumps just thinking about her. We ended up talking to her and asked her to help us get through this run and up the freakin hill. On comes the big gust of wind that was non-existent the whole run.  

We carried on with our run and went around the pond. At this point, I didn’t care if we had 3 km in, I was done. But I wasn’t. I dipped my hands in the pond to cool off and we carried on.  We were walking for a bit. It was hot out. We noticed just up a head there were three garbage buckets on the side of the road.

Tara: Ok we will run when we get to the first bucket.

Me: How about the second one?

Tara: Ok

Me: umm how about the third one? (Mind you these were all pretty close to each other)

We keep walking.

Tara: Ahh we just passed ALL THREE buckets.

Me: Shit! Let’s run.

So you can imagine what our run was like. We had good conversations and a few laughs. We ended up trying to figure out where the 10 k turn around was again so we onto Three Island Pond Road again.

Me: Ok. We will run down to the yellow car and turn around.

Tara: Ok.

So we run

Tara: How about the grey car? (This was further down the road.)

Me: Seriously?

We keep running.

Me: Let’s run down to the third light pole.

Tara: What?

We kept running. I was hot. It was hot out.

We turn around at the light pole and head back to the car. For some strange reason our watches were off by a full KM! Seriously! We were side by side the whole time. For the record we are going by her watch, which made us run further. On my watch we ran 8.73 but on Tara’s watch it was 9.73.

On goes the run and we are on Buckingham again and yet again Diane’s name appears. And again the wind picks up. Of course it was in the wrong direction and in our face up the hill but she was there with us again.

The run was fun but we agreed the next time we run during the day it won’t be at that time.

I still ended up running tonight. Hard core Lori ran on with Batman and did about a billion hill repeats while Coach Molly, Shelley and I took it easy and got a couple hill repeats in and did 5 k.

Only 1 month 5 days until my first Half Marathon.

Diabetes sucks!

Ok. So that run was brutal! I woke up Sunday morning with a sore throat and a head cold but I didn’t feel anything until later that night. Yea Happy Anniversary to me! LOL Monday Morning I could hardly lift my head. I woke up and helped get the girls ready for daycare and then went to the couch. I couldn’t get back to sleep for like 2 hours. I was thinking, “If I am not asleep by 9:30 am I am going to get up and go for a run!” So next thing I knew it, it was 11:30 am and I was just waking up from a little snooze.

I hate being sick and I hate complaining about being sick or hurt. I am sick and tired of being and sick! And being a diabetic I will always feel this way. Some people will never understand.  I am not giving up though!  I have learned so much about what I can do and what I can be pushed to do.  I had a Dr’s appointment today and he asked me why I run. I said, “I have to. I see results.” That was a good enough reason for him.  As I was leaving my appointment at the Health Science Centre I was looking for Sue Rideout because it seems like after every appointment I see her and give an update! She must have been off today! hahaha

I went running tonight thinking I could push through all the sickness and I did pretty good for a while. I had to stop on the trail before the boat house and walk. I walked for about a km but I just kept thinking, “at least I attempted it and still going and not curled up under a bench by the water.”  I took a short cut and walked across the old Acan Windows parking lot and back to my car at the Community Centre parking lot.  Something in me though made me start running up the hill when I got to the cross walk. THAT. WAS. HARD. My chest hurt and my breathing was bad. But I did it. I didn’t give up.

I really have to suck it up though! We have about five weeks until the Maritime Weekend and I feel like I am falling behind. Between this week being sick and just life events I am finding it hard to get the runs in. I am going to try and get 10 km in on Thursday during the day so if you want to push me through it let me know.  

That Tely 10 was hard!

New day, new month. There are so many changes that are going to happen.  I am going to train harder for the half marathon in September. I even said I would do the Cape 2 Cabot training runs with Crazy Shelley and Hard Core Lori. If Paula’s knee holds up she will join us too. I am going eat better by tracking all my food in My Fitness Pal. And I am going to look for another job since I quit my job on Monday. Sometimes you just have to do what feels right and when you have 100% support from your family you know it was right decision.

So back to running, I ran the Tely 10 for the 3^rd time this past July and it was by far the hardest run I have ever done.  The day before a race that Marc and I both run we try and get the girls to sleep over to their grandparents or drop them off in the morning. So this race my parents took my kids camping with them and to my kids surprise they took my niece as well. So I called my brother to figure out who was bringing back the kids when we got on the topic of running the tely. Robert was asking me what I wanted to run it in.  I told him my goal this year was to get in under 2 hours but if it was hot out I just wanted to beat my time from last year which was around 2:06. 

Robert is much faster than me and I didn’t want to slow him down but he insisted he would run with me and we would get my predicted Tely time of 1:50. This means I would probably die and not live to tell the story. Did I mention Robert is an ironman? Ya seriously. A few years ago when he was training, he started at the finish line than ran to Tely start line THEN ran the Tely. Something. I . would. Not. Do.

The conversation ended when Robert said, “If I see you at the start line I will run with you.”  I was thinking sure by! You will find me in 5000 people.  Well  people, he found me.  We had a chat. Joked around about me getting under 2 hours. I laughed and said noooo that means I need to keep a steady pace of 6:30! That is nuts. I don’t run like that!

So we started running, it was good. Nothing to it. Then it rained. Rained a lot. Then it stopped raining. Then it got hot. Then it got hotter. Then I felt like stopping. Then it got hotter. Robert was giving a play by play on what our time was and what kind of buffer we had.  We were “ok” until the last few km’s. I was done. I had nothing left in me. Nothing. Robert was ahead of me for a bit trying to get me to run faster. Ya that didn’t happen. I didn't get under 2 hours but I did get a personal best of 2:02:31, I am happy with that.

I had some toe issues (again) after the run so my first run was tonight with Shelley and Lori. It was a much slower pace but I didn’t stop and I felt pretty good going around Octagon Pond and I normally hate running around that pond.

Until next time…

The magical world of Disney…running!

I am a recreational runner.  For those of you who know me, you’ll know that I run for exercise, I run for health but mostly I run for fun.  I’ve never been one to aim for faster and faster paces or bigger and bigger hills…I like to run comfortably without over-exerting myself, minimizing my risk of injury and enjoying myself while I’m at it (well most days anyways!).  Although a personal best is always a great accomplishment, it's not a priority for me and never my main goal going into a race.

2014 WDW Marathon Medals

Enter Disney races…an opportunity to run a 5k, 10k, half marathon or full marathon (or any combination of these on certain race weekends!) in the most magical place on earth with likeminded runners.  Disney races draw huge crowds year after year with upwards of 40,000 runners on some race weekends and the hefty race fee (up to $200 US) doesn’t seem to deter people from registering.  Two hundred dollars to run a half marathon!?!?!  You must be crazy, many of you are now thinking in your heads…yes I think it’s crazy too but then there’s a part of me that feels like this is such a unique opportunity with such amazing race support that it’s worth every American penny.  So what’s the draw?  Let me share some highlights of my Disney race experiences...not the least of which is the incredible finish line bling.

 

For Disney fans, running a race through a Disney park is the ultimate experience (and I am a huge Disney fan!).  You get to run through the parks when they are closed to the public, along backstage roads and see Disney in a completely different light. Multitudes of characters and entertainment along the course route provide a welcome distraction and motivation. The generous time limits and huge numbers of short interval runners, like myself, make it a really comfortable experience (well as comfortable as running 13 or 26 miles can be!) with no judgement for your slower pace or your walk breaks.  There is a large proportion of Disney runners that follow the Jeff Galloway walk-run-walk program who are walking every 1-5 minutes.  Don’t get me wrong…there are still plenty of runners who do longer intervals or run straight through but it certainly doesn't seem to be the majority.  Disney commonly sees runners who are too intimidated, scared or embarrassed by their slower pace to sign up for local distance races that draw the faster and more experienced runner.  In discussion with others, I commonly describe it as the perfect race for someone who doesn’t think they can run a half or full marathon. I guarantee you I would never have been able or motivated to run a full marathon had it not been for the Run Disney series.

Disney's Fit for a Princess Health & Fitness Expo,

2012 Princess Half Marathon Weekend

The Disney race experience begins with the Health and Fitness Expo doubling as race kit pick-up.  Hundreds of vendors, both smaller local and larger national companies, display and sell their products, offering up free samples and the ability to try and compare the latest fitness apparel, nutrition products and running gadgets.  A speaker series with celebrity and expert guests offers up seminars on training, nutrition and wellness.  The expo lasts several days and is an event in and of itself not to be missed!

https://tootallfritz.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/marathon-start_rundisney.jpg

The most common question I get from people who ask about running at Disney is ‘don’t you find it hot running in Florida?’  Well, the majority of Disney races take place during the winter months and they all start in the wee wee hours of the morning to avoid the sun and heat.  Following a 3am wake-up call and a 4am bus ride to the start line, runners assemble in the starting corrals by 5am for a 5:30 start.  Starting corrals are lettered A through to however many corrals are needed for a particular race…in my largest race, the corrals went to the letter P with between 500 and 3000 runners per corral.  There’s music and entertainment at the start line with special appearances by Disney characters.  The atmosphere is energizing and electric and when it’s time to start (because it’s Disney!) each corral gets their own countdown and a fireworks send-off to start the race.

The first several miles are in the dark and along a stretch of highway but just 3 miles in you’ll pass through the gates of the Magic Kingdom.  The view of Cinderella’s castle as you turn the corner on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom (and if you’re fast enough, catching the castle lights at dawn) is absolutely magical.  In the 5 times I’ve run that particular race route, I’ve yet to make it down Main Street without tears streaming down my face (yes I truly am a Disney geek!).  And running through the castle…seriously amazing.  Although there are long stretches of highway between the parks (only about a quarter of a Disney race route is actually run in the parks) the bits in the park are so much fun that you don’t mind the stretches of highway.  Every ¼ of a mile there is something to distract or entertain you from Disney characters to marching bands to acrobats on trampolines.  This has to be one of the only races where it is perfectly acceptable (and encouraged!) to stop running in the middle of a race to line up for a photo with your favorite Disney characters…I waited 25 minutes for the most coveted photo of all…Mickey and Minnie at Cinderella’s castle. 

My one regret however from my 2014 marathon experience (and one of the main reasons I’m going again this coming January) is that I didn’t take the time to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster in Animal Kingdom during the race.  Yes, you read correctly…stop and ride a roller coaster during the marathon! The Animal Kingdom park is at the half-way point in the marathon route and is open by the time most runners reach it.  Given that you run right past the ride entrance anyways and they let marathon runners skip the line…why wouldn’t you?  I won’t be skipping it this time.  Another highlight for many runners is stopping at the Mexican pavilion in Epcot, less than a mile from the end, to pick up a celebratory margarita to cross the finish line with…perhaps I’ll try that this time around too!

Running at Disney is certainly not everyone's cup of tea but if you're looking for a destination race where the focus is less about pace and more about having fun this is a great series to consider.  Half marathons at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida take you through 2 parks…usually Magic Kingdom and Epcot.  Want the full Disney running experience?  You’ll have to aim for the full marathon which takes you through all 4 Disney parks and the ESPN Wide World of Sports and is held just once a year in January.  Never run a marathon before?  Don’t think you could do it?  Trust me, if it’s on your bucket list to someday run a full marathon this is the one to do.  Yes it’s 26.2 miles (42 km) but it’s by far the most entertaining miles you will ever run.  Interested? Check out www.rundisney.com, there’s still space available and time to join me in training for the 2017 Disney Marathon.

Short Interval Running…not just for beginners?

I’ve been trying to be a runner for a very long time.  And by a long time I mean decades.  As a young twenty-something, I tried running as a strategy to lose weight and quickly discovered that it was hard.  Really hard.  I tried over and over again through my twenties and my thirties and each time I failed.  I tried various learn to run programs, each with the same result…every time I attempted to run for longer than  7 or 8 minutes I would fail.  My lungs would fail, my legs would fail and worst of all, my spirit would fail.  Fortunately, my stubbornness would win out and each time I would tell myself that there was no good reason for my failure…I just needed to try harder.  I had a few good years that I successfully managed a 10 and 1 run/walk interval but for those years the result was a lot of injuries and very few of those ‘good’ runs that you hear the ‘real’ runners talking about.

Fast forward to 2011 when a friend and I spontaneously signed up for the Walt Disney World Princess Half Marathon.  I had run the Tely Ten a few times, several years earlier, but a half marathon was completely new territory.  I was drawn into the excitement, the bling, the tiaras and the tutus and decided that I needed to find a way to run successfully, without getting injured, and feel good about it.  Having not learned from my previous mistakes, I again registered for a traditional Learn to Run program with a local running group…according to the schedule I would be able to run 10 minute intervals with a one minute walk break by the end of the 10 weeks.  If you’ve been following along I’m sure you can guess what the outcome was…again I struggled and didn’t complete the program. 

Luckily, my running partner had done some research for the Princess race and discovered the training programs on the RunDisney website.  As a retired Olympic marathoner and the official trainer for the RunDisney race series, Jeff Galloway recommended trying his run-walk-run method: short running intervals – no more than a 5 minute run before taking a short walk.  He claimed that anyone could run a half marathon (or even a full marathon) using this method.  We restarted our training, using a 3:1 run/walk interval and found ourselves running longer and longer distances…without exhaustion, without injury and best of all with energy to spare.  Four months later we successfully completed our first half marathon - injury free, feeling great, proudly sporting our tiaras and medals at the finish line.

The theory behind the shorter intervals is to rest before your running muscles get fatigued.  This is where my mistake has always been in the past (and where many others fail I suspect)…waiting until you are tired before you take a break.  Because the muscles responsible for running are slightly different from those for walking, resting them early allows for longer periods of activity overall and less stress on those muscles that are more prone to injury when overworked or fatigued.  Because you are not ‘tired’ when you take your walk breaks, you move faster overall and recovery is much quicker than if you wait, allowing you to run (and walk) faster for each interval.  In many cases (myself included) short interval runners end up with faster finishing times than those at a similar level that run continuously or only take walk breaks as they feel necessary.

Along this journey I’ve discovered so many others just like me…desperately wanting to run but never successfully making it past that magical 7 or 8 minute interval.  The high rate of drop-outs in Learn to Run programs after week 5 supports the notion that longer interval/continuous running just might not be for everyone. 

Do I feel like I’m not a ‘real’ runner because I stop every 3 minutes for a short walk? Yes, sometimes I do, especially at the start of a race when others look at your walking break at 3 minutes in as a sign of fatigue.  But the problem is that I’ve learned that I can’t successfully run for longer periods without exhausting myself (or worse, injuring myself).  I like to run fast (well fast for my books anyways) and I can’t do that for the longer intervals.  So the choice becomes easy: run shorter intervals with more frequent walk breaks or not run at all.  In the end, a mile is a mile is a mile…run it however makes you feel good.  For me the shorter intervals mean feeling better and finishing faster and that equals a great run in my books any day.