Girls on the Ragnar Run

Hot on the heels of Lunafest, 12 ladies from GOTR piled into two vans and drove up to Huntington Beach to prepare to run 200 miles over the course of two days. Are these ladies crazy? Yep!

GOTR Ragnar Relay Shirts

GOTR Ragnar Relay Team

What is the Ragnar Relay?

For those of you not familiar with the Ragnar Relay - its a 200 mile relay race that 12 people (or sometimes less) run over the course of two days. (More details here.)There are two vans which each carry six runners, and runners 1-6 in van #1 run one at a time, and then runners 7-12 from van #2 run one at a time. Rinse, then repeat. Twice. Each runner runs three times, and the race legs vary from ~2 to ~7 miles. 

Van #1 - Runners 1 to 6

Hood to Coast Movie

Recently Fathom Events premiered the Hood to Coast movie and it seemed relay fever was all around me. Soon after watching this film I was asked if I wanted to join the GOTR Ragnar team. Um.... I passed. The idea of running and not showering and sitting around in a van and then running again without sleep totally didn't appeal to me. In stark contrast though, after this movie came out both David and Christina started thinking of who they could include in their relay teams. They both of course included me in their mental lists. Does anyone really know me?? I'd never do this! (Okay, granted I'd "never" do a mud run or triathlon either. Hmm ... I see where their hope came from).

Team Van I Saw - Hilarious!

Lunafest to Vanfest

Lunafest (more on my blog Socialite for a Night) took place this past Thursday night and Ragnar started Friday morning in Huntington Beach. The brave ladies of GOTR attended the event, piled into the vans, drove up to HB, spent the night in a local hotel, and then were up and at it early the next morning. 

GOTR Van #1

The Course

The 200 mile course ran inland from Huntington Beach, down through San Diego, and ended on the beach in Coronado. Full details here.

Baywatch Team - So Funny!

Updates on the Run

When the ladies took off the next day they started emailing me and texting me pictures from the road. I started posting them as I got them to the GOTR Facebook page (ahem - LIKE US!) and was excited to see how much support these posts were getting from our Facebook fans. Our page was HOT HOT HOT.

Girls on the Run - in TUTUS!

Friday was an extremely hot day for the ladies, but they powered through. As Friday came and went, I thought about the team as I went to bed, and marveled at the fact that they'd be running all through the night.

GOTR in Reflective Night Gear

The next morning I got more updates from them, and continued to get updates and pictures throughout the day. I felt like I was there with them! But without having to sit around all sweaty and dirty in a van. ;o)

GOTR Runner Exchange

Finish Line Party

The team was predicting to finish around 6pm on Silver Strand Beach on Coronado. I planned on meeting the team down at the finish and cheering them on with my special pink GOTR cowbell. Parking was tight in the area so I decided to do something I haven't done in over 10 years... I used my bike as a form of transportation. I loaded my bike in my car and drove it down to Coronado, and then hopped on my bike with a backpack full of ice and beverages and headed to the finish line.

Bella Wants to be a GOTR

Moose Channels His Inner GOTR

Somewhere in my plans my math failed me. The beach was about 5 1/2 miles from where I parked which at my biking speed (with a backpack that weighed a ton) I ended up biking for 25 minutes. I was DRENCHED with sweat by the time I arrived! :o( Oh well, at least I made it there. I found the team in their pink tutus and took some pictures of them as the runners from Van #1 and Van #2 arrived. We all waited for about 20 minutes until the last runner came through. Poor Megan had run 40 miles total between her six legs and the additional legs she ran for a sick teammate who had to pull out at the last minute.

Ragnar Team Missing Allison

As soon as she arrived the team assembled as a group and ran in a pink flurry across the finish line.

GOTR Ragnar Team - DONE!

This event was SO much fun to track electronically throughout the event, and even more fun to watch the team cross the finish line. And it still gets better! After they finished we met back in the parking lot for some cake for Tiffany's 40th birthday. I brought a mini bar in my backpack and mixed some drinks as well (sadly nothing for me, I had a race the next day!)

Happy Birthday Tiffany!

Drinks And Cake - Awesome!

Want to run Ragnar next year? Here's where you can find info on signing up.

Socialite for a Night

I had the pleasure of playing "socialite for the night" again this year at the Lunafest Film Festival in La Jolla. Lunafest is put on by Luna (a Cliff Bar brand for women), and is focused on films made by women, about women, and for women. (As you guessed it, the attendees were mostly women.)
 

Last Year

Last year I attended the event for the first time and didn't know what to expect. I was surprised by how nice the venue was (it backed up to the ocean), loved the cocktail hour on the patio, nibbled my way through the various food and treats that were out, and got to spend a nice evening hanging out with some friends. 

 

Our Photo in the La Jolla Light Newspaper

The films were surprisingly good too! I'm not really into artsy fartsy films. I like romcoms and stupid funny movies. While I can appreciate a good action film or drama now and then, I really just like movies that make me laugh and leave me smiling. Movies to me are an escape, and I want to escape to a happy place! (My worst movie escape ever was watching Marley & Me. GREAT movie, but I was completely unprepared for the storyline and found myself sobbing during several sections of the movie, left the theater totally depressed thinking about the day my own dogs will die, and since seeing that movie I've had several flashbacks to the scene where they are putting him down which bring me to tears. That movie has scarred me for life!)

But back to fun things like drinks and desserts!

Enjoying a Dressy GOTR Event

 

The Reception

The evening began with a two hour reception on the patio of the Museum of Contemporary Art with a nice spread of salads, appetizers, dips, cheese (ewe), desserts, and an open bar. I didn't get there until about an hour into the reception because of work, but still had enough time to mingle with some fellow GOTR friends before the movies started.

 

Dessert Table

While we were on the patio I tried to get a few good pictures of the ocean behind the building, but none of my pictures turned out too well. They didn't capture the beautiful San Diego evening! 

 

Sunset Over the Pacific Ocean

Lunafest is a traveling film festival with the Breast Cancer Fund designated as the primary beneficiary. In addition to the Breast Cancer Fund a local charity is chosen in each city that hosts a Lunafest, and in San Diego its GOTR San Diego! Both organizations had info tables set-up where attendees could find out more about each group. Let me just say I have never been happier to see a GOTR table ... that I wasn't standing behind! I've worked a large share of the Marketing events this year out in the community and it was really nice to get to just enjoy the evening for a change as an attendee. :o)

GOTR Table at Lunafest

The Films

The films started around 7:30 and were kicked off by speakers from Luna, the Breast Cancer Fund, and Girls on the Run. There were 10 films total which ranged from ~ 4 - 12 minutes. You can find a list of the films and where else they have been screened here. Overall I thought the films were great! Some were cute, some were inspiring, but ... several were fairly depressing! 

Our GOTR Board Chair

My favorites were "Getting a Grip" which was the story of the first female Cable Car operator in San Francisco and "Love on the Line" which was a funny cartoon about two lovers exchanging steamy notes via telegraph. Most depressing? "Touch" a movie about two strangers who meet while waiting for the subway and make a connection and one tells the other she was about to commit suicide. Another was "Thembis' Diary" which was an animation to real life recordings of a 19 year old in Africa who records and audio diary of her struggle with AIDS. On the bizarre and disturbing side there was "Mother of Many" which was an animation about a mid-wife. Um ... tooo graphic! Water birth and a fishnet scooper. Nuff said.

 

Schwag Bag

The evening was so fun and the opening reception with the food and wine was a great treat ... but guess what? We got a goodie bag too on the way out! Was this the best event or what? 

Schwag Bags in Mass

Goodies!

If you want to see when Lunafest will be in your town, check out their site here.

Changing Plans

Last weekend I was scheduled to run a 5K - something I haven't done in ages! One of the downfalls of marathon training is that you're running 13+ miles almost every weekend for months. To squeeze in a shorter distance race it usually means doing the long run AND the race. (Unless the race is a half marathon and then I give myself a pass.)

10K to 5K

Upon the urging of Miss Jojo from the San Francisco Marathon and Sam from Operation Jack, I signed up for the ACT Today for Military Families 10K in Mission Bay. This race included a 10K, a 5K, and a kids fun run to raise money to support military families with autism. I was scheduled to run 16 miles last weekend and decided that I would run the 10K, and then run 10 more miles around Mission Bay.

I wrote out a schedule on Friday night before going to bed (to make sure I wouldn't be late), but the next morning I was dragging a bit and was behind schedule, and ended up going out the door with an arrival time at the race of 10 minutes pre-start time. Unfortunately my GPS sent me to the wrong address, and after entering it again and still ending up at the wrong address, my 10 minutes dwindled down to 0 .. and soon I knew I wouldn't make it in time. I called David to ask him to look at the website for me to find  a better address and to read me the schedule of events. The 10K (which I was missing) started at 7:30am, but the 5K didn't start until 8:00am .. which I could probably make. AND .. if I really kept having direction problems, I could always make the kids dash at 9:00am. Har har, thanks David for pointing that out.

I finally got to the race around 7:45am, parked, walked a MILE to the start line, and then milled around for a bit. I knew that my friend Dan and his family were going to be there, so I wandered around looking for them. I was excited to find them by the start line and finally got a chance to meet his wife and two adorable daughters! It was nice to finally meet them in person after reading about them online in Kerstin's blog.

Before I knew it race time had arrived! I was sad to have missed the 10K but hadn't run a 5K in a while so figured it would be fun as well. I started out in front with a bunch of Marines and dashed off in a fury with the lead pack for a while. I was running a sub 7:00 pace for a while but was hurting by mile 1. I slowed down a bit and settled in around a 7:30 pace. The course went around Fiesta Island (which I am so sick of after the RNR Marathon, the Fearless Triathlon, and the Tri Club races) and was flat but windy. I had a few people pass me but held my ground pretty well. I knew a couple girls were ahead of me but was pleased to see that not many passed me! As we ticked through the second and third mile I was neck and neck with a girl who looked about my age. I've been edged out for a place in the top 3 many times by a matter of seconds, and now I'm alert to girls who look like they are in my age group and do my best to run them down to the finish.

One girl in particular was just ahead of me from mile 2 to 3, but right near the finish shoot I kicked it up a notch and passed her by about 10 yards as I came across the finish line. Man that felt great! (But darn, she started 3 seconds before me and claimed 1st in our age group. Argh!) I love knowing I have energy at the very end! Running fast for short distances is way out of my comfort zone right now, and I was hurting towards the end. I checked my watch and virtual trainer after finishing the race and was ELATED to see I had nailed my goal! A 7:30 pace exactly! Whoo hoo! I finished in 23:20! Was that a PR? I'd have to check when I got home.

 My Eight Chins & I Powering Through

As it turns out this was a PR for me (19 seconds faster than my stale 2008 PR), I also placed 2nd in my age group out of 37 (missed 1st by 3 seconds!!), placed 4th among all of the women (276 total), and placed 31st overall out of 514. Wow! I did great!

My WINNING Medal Collection

(I've placed a few other times but didn't get medals)

Shorter Long Runs

I needed some time to cool down and walked back to my car, and then decided to head over to the harbor to finish my long run. By the time I got to the harbor I was tired, but figured I'd get over it. Yeah, I didn't. About 2 miles into my run I turned around and decided to give it another go the next day. Sadly, the next day wasn't much better and I only made it for 9 1/2 miles. I was scheduled for 16 miles this weekend and raced 3, ran 4, and then ran 9 1/2 the next day. Total mileage was over 16, but none of it was consecutive. Sigh.

Focusing on the Run

As this next weekend approached I thought about how I've been overloading my training by trying to combine racing with long runs.  A few weekends before when I was scheduled to run 20 miles I squeezed in a Tri Club club triathlon on Saturday, and then tried to run 20 miles Sunday. I was beat and sore and only made it through 17 miles (which I still think was a huge accomplishment), but it wasn't the 20 miles I physically and mentally needed. I did the club race because I was getting nervous about the Super Seal Triathlon, and wanted to have a practice race to re-acquaint myself with the sport. Although my running suffered that weekend I really think it did help me with my triathlon the following weekend. (More on my blog: Super Seal Triathlon.)

This past weekend I was scheduled to run 20 miles again ... and again a club race was going to happen. I registered again (I'm addicted to free racing) and figured I almost made it to 20 last time, I'd definitely make it this time! A friend of mine from GOTR also registered which I thought would make the event even more fun!

Evaluating Priorities

As the weekend approached I started to get worried. I hadn't run 20 miles since the Rock n Roll Marathon last June. That race was horrible for me and completely ruined my self-confidence in distance running. Because of the mental anguish I experienced during and after that race, I actually decided to quit full marathons. (More on my blog I'm over the Marathon) That didn't last toooo long, and here I am back again with a marathon 3 weeks away. My friend got sick recently and pulled out of the club race, and with the pending rain and my stress over the 20 miler, I did as well. Wise choice young grasshopper! I mean Monika!

On Saturday I headed out to run my 20 miles. I was happy to have put running first, and knew it was a good decision. Getting 20 good miles in 3 weeks before my marathon is key. Doing another club race and having a mediocre triathlon performance which would only serve as a training run for a race that wasn't until June was really not a priority, and I'm so glad I realized that. I was apprehensive at the start of the run and self-doubt crept in. I started thinking about my last marathon and how I had a total mental breakdown. Around mile 7 I actually started crying as I was running. :o( Not ugly crying sobbing, but a few tears were shed. I never wanted to be in the place that I was in that last marathon, and I hoped that this coming marathon would be so much better. I pulled it together and focused and churning out the miles.

I had decided a while ago that I need to do this next marathon without my usual pressure of a sub 4:00 finish. My goal at this point is just to finish a race without a meltdown, and to build my confidence back up. With that in mind I try not to look at my watch. I glanced at it now and then to see my pace, but never looked at the overall time. I had set my virtual partner for a 20 mile run at a 9:30 pace - totally conservative. Inside I wanted to finish at a 9:00 pace, but didn't want to stress about it. As I neared the end of my run I was ecstatic to realize that physically I felt okay. Nothing hurt too much and I felt like I was running at a good pace for my body. As I approached the finish of my run I switched over the virtual trainer view on my watch to see if I was ahead of behind my opponent. I was ahead! I was actually ahead by a mile! whoo hoo! I ended up finishing my run at 3:00:50, which is a 9:02 pace. I did it! YES!!

Three Weeks to Go

So now, eleven weeks into my training I think I'm ready. I have three weeks to go before the marathon, and now its focus time! I need to spend these last few weeks not getting hurt, building up my self-confidence, and reminded myself that I LIKE running, and that is why I do it. I'm honestly nervous to run a full marathon again, and I'm praying so hard that it goes well. 

For now .. its taper time! Usually this means I start to get restless, but now that I'm a "triathlete", it just means that I can swim and bike more to keep my nervous energy at bay. OC Marathon, I'm ready for you!

Race Medal Rundown

One of the things I love about distance racing is the bling. A nice medal just for participating? Thanks! It makes you feel like you're a winner just for trying. :o)

I've managed to accumulate a nice collection of bling over the years, and am always excited to add to my collection with each subsequent race. Recently the San Francisco Marathon asked the Ambassador team what our favorite race medals were and why. I was shocked when the first few ambassadors replied back immediately saying they didn't really care about the medals and just stashed them away. What? I proudly display my medals on my "wall of accomplishment" (haha) next to my diplomas. Maybe its because running is something I never though I could do, but I'm proud of each and every medal and want to show them off. There's quite a variety of designs among race medals and in my collection you'll find the cool, the unique, and the boring.

Full Marathon Medals

Rock 'N' Roll San Diego 2005

 

 

Rock 'N' Roll Phoenix 2006

Los Angeles Marathon 2006

San Francisco Marathon 2006

 

Long Beach Marathon 2006

Rock 'N' Roll San Diego 2007

Chicago Marathon 2007

Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio 2008

Rock 'N' Roll San Diego 2009

Marine Corps Marathon 2009

Rock 'N' Roll San Diego

Take a look at this medal above, and then check out my friend's tattoo below. We trained together with the Rock Runners last year and this was his first full marathon. I thought this tattoo was pretty cool and a nice artistic take on the medal!

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Half Marathon Medals

Rock 'N' Roll Phoenix 2005

Valley of the Sun Half Marathon 2005

 

 

America's Finest City Half Marathon 2005

 

America's Finest City Half Marathon 2006

Austin Half Marathon 2009

Run to the Rock Half Marathon 2009

Surf City USA Half Marathon 2010

San Francisco Half Marathon 2010

Long Beach Half Marathon 2010

Carlsbad Half Marathon 2011

Surf City USA 2011

San Dieguito Half Marathon 2011

I have two other "medals" that I didn't include above, both of which are necklaces. The first is a Tiffany's necklace from the Nike Women's Marathon in 2006, and the other is a heart shaped necklace from the Mermaid Half Marathon a few months ago. I think its a cute idea to give necklaces instead of finisher's medals, but after wearing both for a short period of time I took them both off for the same reason. Maybe I'm weird, but I start to get uncomfortable talking about how many full and half marathons I've completed with a non-runner, and the conversation usually goes there a few minutes after someone asks about the necklace. The shock the person expresses usually makes me feel more weird than accomplished for some reason. As if they think I'm crazy and weird! I mean I am proud of finishing so many races, but I don't usually broadcast it publicly. At work I think only a few people know I run marathons, even though I have marathon art on my walls. :oP The discomfort I get when someones eyes bug out as I talk about races is the same discomfort I used to get when people found out how old I was in school. I'm younger and always felt a bit out of place, and people's reactions didn't make me feel any less weird.

Mermaid Half Marathon 2011

Nike Women's Marathon 2005

But onto other things, here are a few final medals in my collection from various other race distances that I've finished over the years. I love the variety of my bling collection, and its a nice way to visualize my training and all of the mile I've raced, and the hundreds of other miles I trained leading up to each event.