Cowboys and Hills

Wednesday was a wonderful day. I spent an hour driving three miles round trip to the post office to mail Kari her reward for completing the No-Dessert Challenge. It took me an hour because Baltimore is such a super fun place to drive around.

But when I got home, my reward from her was waiting for me!

Cowboy cookies and banana bread muffins. Kari's banana bread is amazing, but it doesn't stand a chance when competing with her cowboy cookies. Added bonus: most of the cookies broke into pieces during shipping, so you can eat a ton of little pieces that may have originally been 3 cookies, but consider it one cookie, or even less. Totally worth 24 dessert-less days (but who was counting?).

I was about to head out for a run, and somehow managed to avoid devouring half the cookies directly before. I ran five miles in the rain at a surprisingly quick 8:50 average pace - those afternoon runs are just always faster than the morning ones.

Mike wanted to get some hill training in, so we met for a 5am run at Loch Raven Reservoir. Here's some pictures I took on my last run there.

Beautiful, right? Doesn't running there watching the sunrise sound like an incredible way to start the day?

I wouldn't know, because I was already in the shower when the sun was rising. At 5am, it is 100% completely pitch black. Needless to say, I was wearing my knuckle lights, which did an impressive job of lighting my way, but I was still terrified. I thought I wasn't scared of the dark because I run in the dark all the time. Turns out there's a big difference between running in the suburbs dark (streetlights, car, and tons of fluorescent lights on fast food places) and in the woods alone hopefully with no killers dark. When a deer slowly ambled right by my car while I waited for Mike, I nearly went home. A orb of light directly in front of my feet is not enough for me.

Despite all that, we managed to get a pretty good run in. In seven miles, we climbed over 1,300 feet, and in my opinion, that's a lot of hill climbing. My average pace was about 9:33, and I was pretty pleased with that. I thought I'd be running much slower after the marathon, but so far, other than the first two runs, I'm more or less back to normal.

My week just kept getting better and better. After some yoga Thursday night to loosen up, my mother and stepfather arrived for the weekend! They are visiting until Monday. So far, the activities have been drinking wine and watching Modern Family, and drinking coffee and watching the news. Essentially laziness amplified by wonderful company. Life is good.

Sub - 4 Wednesday

I liked Amanda's idea of including sub-4 in the title of every post this week, so I can continue to brag about it, so I'm going for it.

Monday night I went to Bikram. I really didn't want to (it's at 7pm, way too late for this Grandma) but I was meeting Lily. I was so tempted to cancel but I forced myself to do it. After 90 minutes of sweat soaked hell, I went home, passed out, and happily discovered that stairs didn't hurt the next morning. 

You would think the marathon would be the worst pain, but the foam rolling and Bikram used for recovery hurt more. And I didn't even include an ice bath this time.

Last night, Carolyn hosted a run through a meetup group when are both in. It was mostly people who had participated in BRF (Baltimore Running Festival) over the weekend, so we could all suffer together running again just 3 days later. I didn't take any pics, but here's Carolyn and I before the marathon.

I did five easy miles with my friend Deidre and another guy in the group, Sean. I was surprised that despite a little soreness/tightness in my quads, my legs felt fine. After other marathons, sometimes when I run or even do the elliptical, even if my legs feel fine, my heart rate is much higher than it normally would be at that level of exercise. I didn't wear a HRM, but I didn't have that feeling, I was easily chatting and felt good.

So in other words, I didn't look like this

This pretty much sums up the first 20 miles of the marathon. Kara looking adorable and happy, and me looking like "WHY?".

After last night's run, the group met back up and went out to dinner. I used to be opposed to social activities during the week, but recently I've started loving them. Something about actually enjoying my life and not just hammering through five days to get to the only two that don't suck.

I was supposed to meet Mike to run this morning, but he canceled when it was pouring rain. I was going to do it on my own, and do grad work after school, but then I realized I could do grad work while it was raining, and run after school. Great plan, right?

FAIL

I'll happily take a rainy Wednesday for a clear weekend though.

I don't have much else to say, so let's look at more marathon pics. My bib was on a race belt, and kept sliding to the side, so that must be why I have only ONE terrible picture to enjoy. The others were found my looking up Kara and Eric's numbers.

Arriving at the race - exhausted and pretending to be excited

Look how happy we are!

 I was shocked when I saw the background of this picture. The lake is miles 20-21, and I specifically remember hating life at that point. For once, I got it together for the cameras. It didn't last though. I'm pretty sure Kara didn't hate me at this point yet because it was way too crowded to go too fast, and Celine and I weren't having our love affair yet.

 And there's the picture that indicates I may have a future in modeling.


Alternate title "What crossing the finish line in under 4 hours looks like". 


Another option "The only finish line picture where Alyssa is not pausing her Garmin".


Strangely enough, Kara and I specifically remember crossing the finish line together, yet, where is she?

Sub 4 Aftermath

As you may have noticed from the title, I am obsessed with the fact that I ran a sub 4 marathon and have no intention of shutting up about it. All weekend, I continued to  be in shock that it even happened. And let's not forget, I'm about to go to work, where I have some very kind coworkers who will be sure to ask about it, but let's be serious - only runners really care and understand. Before I signed up for my first marathon, I would have had no idea what sub - 4 even meant, much less how impressed I should be by it if an average, non-naturally fast runner accomplished it. So I need to continue to brag to fellow runners.

So, obviously you clicked on this blog, so you are dying to hear about the repercussions of running a 3:54 marathon. 

1. Activity level

Casi, Carolyn and I had grand plans of going out to dinner and finally seeing Second City on Sunday night, but as we left Carolyn's Saturday night, barely able to keep our eyes open at 10pm, we all agreed to lay on our respective couches all day on Sunday. When I woke up, Eric and I watched the TV coverage of the marathon, I sat around and blogged, and my greatest accomplishment was putting the laundry away. We did go to Target, but that was purely motivated by my plan to get a stool to sit on while I teach. I've been meaning to for awhile, and the pain in my legs elevated this to a necessity. Target is right by Qdoba, so that was a win win.

Eric's greatest accomplishment was putting together my stool (which was on sale!). BTW, teaching now requires constant access to a laptop, which is were I'll often be sitting.

It swivels and is padded!

2. Training

Somewhere during the marathon, Kara informed me we were supposed to run 3 miles the next day. I laughed at first, but as it was early on, I had plenty of time to get on board with the idea. When I saw on Daily Mile she had already done 4, I decided it was time to man up. If I want to run 50 miles, I should be able to run 4 the day after 26.2. 

Eric kept trying to take one where I didn't look scared. Wasn't happening.

I wore my other adorable headband from  Emily!

  
It wasn't pretty, but I lasted 4 miles. I also chose the hilliest route I could. The uphills felt great, the downhills were awful. The first few steps were just horrific. After that, it got a lot better, but still painful. I didn't wear my Garmin, but I can guarantee this run was slow. I did not walk though!

 After the run, the foam roller came out, and the real pain began. Eric could hear me moaning and crying from the other room. I followed that up with Yoga for Runners. 


3. Pain
Since I magically got a sub - 4 without even trying, and danced last night, which I believe is a huge secret to marathon recovery (worked in Shamrock!), I figured I'd magically wake up the next day with no pain. 


Not so much.


I have the typical post - marathon soreness. Walking felt totally fine, but standing up or sitting down hurts, and going down stairs backwards is the only option. Today I'm able to stand up without grabbing on to everything for leverage, so I think the foam rolling was worth it. Tonight is Bikram, so that may be interesting.


4. Runner's High

Last night, Lily and I signed up for marathon #4! It wasn't a crazy runner's high though. We've actually  been researching for weeks, and Friday we decided on the winner. Prices go up tomorrow, so we had to sign up Sunday. We choose it partially because of the date, we wanted to do a winter marathon, rather than a spring one, to allow us time to train for a Half Ironman in the spring.


5. Dessert eating
I'm all over it. Kara made us a homemade Reeses Peanut Butter cup, it is gigantic, unbelievably delicious, and brings me happiness with every bite. I'm also working on the leftover double stuff oreo PB brownies. Life is good.


What's your post race recovery plan? Is being incredible lazy on the agenda - because if not, it really should be.

Sub 4 Marathon recap!

First things first: Thank you so much for all the supportive comments, tweets, texts, and messages of any kind - those things really do make a big difference to me. Honestly, thinking about writing a triumphant facebook post, tweet, and blog recap is absolutely huge for my motivation, much more than you might think!

Second: We all know I don't know how to shut up, and take lots of pics. My marathon recaps are just that: marathons. You've been warned.

On Friday, the last bell could not ring soon enough for me to fly out of school and straight to Michaels to start picking out puffy paint. I've never run a marathon that didn't involve puffy paint, and I wasn't about to start now. I went a bit wild with my selections.

Not long after I got home, Kara arrived, and the party really got started. 

She said something about this not being a normal activity for 28 year olds, but I didn't understand that comment.

My shirt got lots of compliments. Kara's got lots of dirty looks.

Kara was nice enough to help me create my post marathon epic dessert: two double stuff oreos, glued together with peanut butter, baked into a brownie (in a cupcake form). I've never in my life baked and not licked the batter, but I had less than 24 hours to go in my no dessert challenge, and I wasn't about to give up now.

Kara and Eric took one for the team and tested the results for me

 It was a true slumber party where we stayed up late chatting, until nearly 11pm! Saturday morning, true to race day form, I was up before the alarm at 4:30 am. 

 I broke a cardinal marathon rule (well, actually a lot of them, throughout the week) and wore my new headband from Emily, which arrived just in time! Check out her awesome headbands, it survived a tough 26.2 without budging, and was adorable in the pictures.


We forgot the camera, so we took some lame ipod photos before the race started. My running group rents out a bar that is just steps from the start line, with a real bathroom and everything.

So many great training runs with Jill went into this marathon!

Eric is morally opposed to taking nice pictures

A little abuse helps

 We lined up at the start, and Kara's Garmin decided to be a jerk and not turn on. Eric googled and found a solution, but it had magically lost charge overnight. So, she was stuck with me if she wanted a time, since she wasn't actually "registered". To show solidarity, I swore not to look at mine either. For someone who couldn't manage to leave the Garmin at home for a 3 mile run 2 days prior, that's a big deal.


My friend Jackie was running the relay, so she started out with us.

I wanted to line up with the 4:15 pace group, which I thought was ambitious. Kara laughed at me. My marathon PR was 4:17, at Shamrock, which had a total of 40 feet of elevation gain. According to my Garmin, in yesterday's race we climbed 4,063 feet. So my thoughts were, I would love to PR, but with almost no taper and the focus of training being on endurance, not speed, I didn't think it was in the cards.


I had two goals for this race, and neither one was time related. Don't worry about what the Garmin says, and don't pee. Everyone was shocked I didn't have time/pace goals, and that is pretty unlike me. But I didn't want to get discouraged if I wasn't meeting them, and I didn't want to run a marathon and feel like a failure, so I just ignored the numbers game for once.


 Kara set a good pace, and I spent most of the first few miles feeling good but worrying if we were going out to fast. I guess we chatted too much the night before because we were oddly quiet. Jackie told us to go ahead after the first two miles. 


The first 3-4 miles are straight uphill, so once we got to the zoo at mile 4, it flattened out a bit and had some downhills, plus we got to see a raven, penguin, and skunk that they brought out for us, so we were pretty excited, laughing, talking, and having a great time.


I continued to feel good as we headed downhill back to the harbor. At mile 9, there are tons of crowds and people waiting to start the half, and that's exciting. A few girls from my running group were there cheering me on, and that boosts me up like crazy. Kara made fun of me for being a "Wooo" girl, and sprinting every time I saw someone I knew - I own it.


We headed through Federal Hill for miles 9-12, and there is an out and back part, which is great during races. I saw Jackie, Jill, and Carolyn, and was so glad that we could cheer each other on for a brief moment. Being so far ahead of people I'd trained with made me a tad nervous (especially since Jackie was doing the relay, not the marathon!) but I ignored it. 


As we headed back through the harbor, I saw Casi and Donnie, who were doing the half, lined up to start and got to high five them. I looked frantically for Eric, but he was the one runner I never got to see!


The half started at 9:45, and Casi and Donnie were in the fourth corral, so I knew it had to be between 9:50 and 10:00 am, which meant our half time was under two hours. At this point I thought: "well, this will either be really awesome or totally screw me later on". Turns out, our half split was 1:56:59. Considering my half PR is 1:50:33, that's fast. Running right next to the half marathon start was really exciting, and I pretended I was just starting too. Last year I was too slow to see the halfies start, so it was a good feeling.


We headed through Harbor East and Fells Point. This is a part of the race I absolutely love, because it's our old neighborhood, and it's filled with Deja Vu. I grabbed a snickers and was so excited to eat chocolate after 24 days without it. I should have waited a little longer, snickers + racing a marathon doesn't equal delicious. 


After Fells Point, we start another ascent through Canton. At mile 16, we join with the half marathoners. Since there are 10,000 of them, we had been dreading that point, and the dread was justified. Last year, I joined with all the walkers, and it was awful. I have no problem with people walking, but I have a problem with people walking 5-6 across in the middle of the road and not letting runners through.


This year, we joined with faster runners, but somehow the paces didn't match up, and it was much more crowded and worse that the walkers. We were just fast enough to need to constantly pass people, but it was so crowded, that passing involved seeing a hole, sprinting in front of people to it, then slowing down to our normal pace again just to weave around people and repeat the process. The constant sprinting, weaving, and changing pace was exhausting me, and this whole stretch was uphill.


At mile 18, we begin a huge ascent that lasts until Lake Montebello at mile 20. Kara was sprinting up it like it was a little short, steep hill, and this was the point when I was getting angry and just decided that if she wanted to sprint, she was on her own. In my head, I politely told her that this hill had more than a mile to go and I didn't want to sprint it. In her version, I screamed angrily at her to take it easy on the hill. Perception is your reality.


I was thrilled when we reached the lake, since reaching 20 miles in a marathon is a turning point, and reaching a flat section after a 2 mile hill is cause for a celebration. Kara claims I told her we had finished the last hill, but what I said was, we were done with big hills. Usually I love running around the lake (it's in lots of races, and I bike there a bit), but this time I was pissed because it was narrow and caused even more congestion, and my legs were just so tired and sore. Mile 20 in a marathon maybe a turning point, but it's generally a turning point from "YAY, I'm running a marathon!" to "Shoot me, I'm running a marathon!". I always get a bit nervous. At mile 20, the clock said 3:02. This was my exact time at a 20 mile training run, so I knew it meant a 9:08 pace. WOW.


We left the lake, and then we just had five more miles to go. Mile 21 was starting to feel extremely tough, and as we hit 22, I hated life, I hated everyone, and I was just miserable. As we cut in front of yet another pair on an uphill, I guess some girl didn't like that, so she grabbed my shoulder, and shoved me. Everyone asked why I didn't react, but, honestly, every tiny ounce of energy I had was going in to continuing to run at that point, I couldn't even muster enough strength to speak to tell Kara what happened.


Some people are anti music, but I don't care what anyone says, at this point, my ipod saved me, and turned the marathon around for me. I put in my headphones, turned on my playlist, and Celine Dion came through with "It's All Coming Back to me now". Laugh all you want, but Celine and I had a private moment together, I went to my own place, and my mood went from "I want to stop running and punch everyone for being alive" to "I love this marathon!". Thank you, Celine.


Apparently, the music also affected my pace, because Kara finally had to tell me to slow down. After 20 miles of me begging her for mercy, I was so excited to finally be the speedy one, that I think I sped up. At one point she got really angry and started yelling at me and calling me "Crazy Lady" (um, did she read her own shirt?). I was totally confused, because I was following her plan of running by feel, and I felt good! I wanted to finish with her though, so I tried to rein it in. I knew she was angry, but I knew once we crossed the finish she'd like me again.


I am truly shocked at how good I felt miles 22-26. Sure, I was in pain, and there were still hills to contend with, but mentally, my spirits were way up, and miles actually seemed like miles, as opposed to my previous experience, where each mile between 21 and 26 seems like a marathon in itself. I only questioned if they forgot to put up a mile marker once (mile 24), instead of every single time! 


At mile 25, you can see the stadiums (where the finish is), and it's all downhill. I'd been gunning for that, and when we got there, I was thrilled, and couldn't wait to finish. As we reached Camden yards, we only had a half a mile to go, the crowds were going wild, and I just kept reminding myself that even though I felt like I was going to die, to enjoy this feeling of being about to finish a marathon!

Can you spot me?

I had stayed true to my word, and not looked at my Garmin. Once I glanced at it, about halfway through, just to make sure it was working, I saw numbers in the time screen, but didn't look at anything else, and got no usable information from it, other than that it was on and working. 


Therefore, as we approached the finish, our time was a total mystery. When the clock came in to view, it said 3:55, and I screamed something like "it's under 4!". I had absolutely no intention of running a sub - 4 marathon that day, and had thought that was maybe a good goal to hit in a few years. Seeing the clock still within the 3 hour frame was the shock of a lifetime, and I was so relieved when I heard the announcer say something about "we are almost at the 4 hour mark" so I knew I wasn't hallucinating! After we got our medals, we just kept mumbling things about "sub 4" in amazement, got the time on twitter and facebook, took one look at the gigantic line for food, then decided to skip it and leave the finishers area. It took us 10-15 minutes of standing in a huge crowd just to get out, which was awful on my legs at that point. That is the one part of the race that I wish was better organized.


We finally got out, and found Lily, who rocked the half marathon with an amazing time.

Eric ran the half and got a huge PR!

Sub 4 marathoners

 Once we had everyone we needed, we went back to the bar to pick up our stuff (which was upstairs - cruel). I told our running group coach my time, and her face was priceless - absolute astonishment. Her comment "Well, now you need to start running faster". Oh....crap.


Jackie was nice enough to give us a ride back to her house, and let us shower there. I knew Kara had been pissed at me during the last 6 miles, but when she shared her actual thoughts about me during that time in the car, I was truly terrified. I thought I'd been angry at some points during this race and in the metric marathon, but apparently her inner race bitch is really scary.


 Kara headed out, and we went to finally get some food at a local Mexican restaurant with Jackie, her husband Dan, Lily, and Tricia. Then we walked about 2 miles to Carolyn's house, which seemed like torture at first but ended up making my entire body feel much better. 


Carolyn hosted a post race party for all the runners, and it was fantastic. Amazing food, karaoke, dancing, and tons of detailed race recapping.

No party is complete without Baby Got Back - even post marathon ones

 

They were looking forward to Tricky for weeks.

 FINALLY, it was time to dig in to my dessert. It was all I was hoping for and more, but I'm ashamed to say I couldn't finish it. Normally, my appetite defies logic, and I can put away enough dessert to take down a full grown man. For some reason, after a marathon is the one time I need to use that weird phrase "I need to save room", which I normally don't even understand. If I'd finished the brownie, I wouldn't have been able to  indulge in the Sundae Bar that Carolyn created.

 

Overall, this was an amazing race, although a challenging course, with absolutely wonderful volunteers. I carried a Deer Park water bottle, which I refilled three times, and every time the volunteers were sprinting around to get me filled and back on the course as fast as possible, all while smiling and being encouraging at the same time. I highly recommend the Baltimore Marathon to anyone, don't let the scary description of hills stop you, this race is so much fun! You also get to see so much of the city.


I'm so glad Kara decided to come down and run it with me, there is no way this sub 4 would have happened without her fantastic pacing and pushing me!


Stats
Gus consumed: 4
Times in the bathroom: 0
Times looking at pace on Garmin: 0
Miles I listened to my ipod: 3
How I felt: I was pushing it, but I wasn't about to die. Only felt that way a handful of times.
My splits:

Check out that drop at the end!

The rest: 



Amount Eric loved his medal: