Recap of Surf City half marathon

Due to my hamstring difficulties I decided a couple weeks, before the half marathon that I wouldn't be running this half marathon at PR pace, therefore I would try to help my husband PR instead. This will be his 3rd half marathon. His first half marathon was Seattle Rock n' Roll in June of 2014, we ran it together as it was to be our RUNcation, however he surprised me at the finish line by proposing! Our finishing time there was 2:16, and since then he's been wanting that sub 2 hour. My husband's half marathon #2 was last year at Long Beach, but it didn't go exactly as planned, so I was really rooting for him on this one.

My college coach, Coach Foote, once told me to go for it each race because you never know when it will be your last. The way I saw it, if I did not run this race, I would never get to see what I was capable of at that moment in time and under those current circumstances.

But it really was a question as I have become much smarter when it comes to injuries keeping my long term goals in mind. After the Expo, I knew my hamstring would make it, I hadn't ran in almost two weeks, so my worry now was keeping up with my husband. As the race started it took me a couple miles to relax and know I my leg was good. miles 3-7 I felt like I could let myself fly again. Mile 6ish was when my husband started having difficulties. Needless to say that second half of the race was long....the temperature rose, and the sun was in our face the last 5 miles, and yet my husband kept at it with a walk/run rhythm not giving up. We finished in 2:24, not his best time, but not his worst, and finished with plenty of depleted calories to fill with pizza while watching the Superbowl.

I slept 11 hours that night, I had not done marathon sleeping like that in a long time. I was exhausted and my wonderful husband took care of me as I iced and recovered....somehow I thought it would have been the other way around.. I woke up with a super sore left quad, as it was the leg that probably did most the work while I compensated for my weaker right hamstring that had been giving me so many problems.

It is now 3 days post half marathon and I have been on the elliptical allowing the soreness in both legs go away as I assess the hamstring, but tomorrow I go for a run. I am still holding on to my OC goals, yet tomorrows run may have a lot of input in the training for these next 79 days. In trying to stay positive I have even looked up a couple races to possibly do in between now and OC on May 1st. So far all that's on the schedule is Ragnar. I am thinking of possibly adding the La Habra 10k and the Mt. Sac 5k as speed workouts....but I guess I shouldn't get ahead of myself and wait to see how tomorrow goes.

I'm a Skechers Ambassador

As of today I am representing Skechers Performance as a brand ambassador!!!

What makes this even more exciting is that my running buddy Eric was also selected for the program, here we are admiring the "S":

We were told the selection process was exclusive, it is the start of their ambassador program and out of 25 applicants only 5 were selected! Eric and I are both part of the IERC running club with over 550 members that train for various races at a time, making us vocal in the running community. On top of that both of as are true fans of Skechers running shoes, therefore we have brand loyalty.

Skechers has been around for a very very long time, yet they are pioneers in the running/ athletic niche, and here is where Skechers Performance brand has made a huge push in the last 5 years or so. First they picked up Meb Keflexighi, long time marathoner, when all other companies thought he was done. Well, Meb showed them winning the Boston Marathon in 2014, becoming the first American to win the Boston Marathon since 1983!

Two weeks after Meb's incredible breakthrough, Skechers signs Kara Goucher, another great marathoner (and actually my favorite runner since her track days). These two elites have really put Skechers in the running headlines. What's more Skechers is the sponsor of this years LA Marathon, happening in just a little over a week!

I fell in love with Skechers almost 3 years ago. Like I talked about in my first post, I've dealt with plantar fasciitis for over a decade. I hated shoes!!! I could never find a pair that my feet were truly happy with even with my custom orthodics (of which I also tried various models). Way back when I used to love the Nike Pegasus 2000, well of course they stopped making those and ever since I bounced around from brand to shoe to brand to shoe looking for something that I would like for longer than a couple weeks. I wore the Brooks Adrenaline for a year or so and was okay in them, but not happy. I wore the Mizuno Waverider for a few months and was also okay, but not happy. I wore Newtons Distance S for a few months and was okay, but really not happy. These 3 models would have to be the 3 that I was most "okay" with out of the dozens I tried, other shoes I would like for 2 weeks and then felt like tearing them off my feet and tossing them during runs. I then decided to give Skechers GOrun Ultra a try and it was love at first fit, and still loving them now! The Ultra (now on the Ultra 2 model) have a 7mm drop from heel to toe giving somewhat the feel of Newtons in that they are designed for more forefoot running, but with a lot more cushion than the Newtons, which is exactly what I needed!

Needless to say I am such a Skechers fan!!! and now I get the opportunity to promote them! Today I got treated like an elite, with a Skechers gear shopping spree at their Manhattan store. New gear, new shoes to start advertising, how cool is that! Check out this cute and sporty reversible bomber jacket!

 If you're reading this and interested in trying out Skechers shoes and/or gear, contact me for 20% off.

Persevering toward new goals

So why was I torturing myself for 90 minutes on the elliptical at the gym yesterday? My toes numb from the gliding motion, my quads aching from the speed, and my arms ready to give out, this instead of doing what I love...running.

• Well, because I am going through another one of those "injury phases" as I like to call them, a strained hamstring, and since it is low impact it helps to keep me in shape while recovering. 
• Also, I get cranky if I don't get my cardio fix during the week, therefore, I have actually become rather fond of the elliptical. 
• The main reason I am currently pushing to persevere from this injury is that I have 88 days before OC marathon!!!

 I signed up for OC Marathon with various goals in mind:

1. Persevere against this long string of injuries that have been holding me down since last June.
2. To get that Boston Qualifying time that is so overdue on my list of goal.
3. The top reason being to push my own standard in marathoning to a higher level, so that I have to work twice as hard for a personal best time when I attempt another marathon after taking a sabbatical from the distance to work on starting a family. 

With these goals in mind, I am approaching running with a positive attitude. I managed to work up to 16 miles before I had to back off, I was running 8:30 min/miles comfortably during long runs, therefore these past few days that I have had to back off should be recovered easily....right? After all 4 months ago I was still limping through 12 minute miles due to a weird hip problem, and I've come a long way since!

I am lucky to have my amazing husband around to coach me during those brief moments that my positive outlook is broken. Today was one of these days. Today, was track date night...my husband wanted to check out the track workout that some of our friends take part in Monday nights. I went along with him, but even the one mile jog to the track was pretty uncomfortable, so while my husband ran laps with the group, I did push-ups and dips and pull-ups. There was a moment when I wanted to just say "forget it all", it's super hard for me to answer people when they ask what is wrong, why I'm not running, because I feel like I'm always saying the same thing.

What got me back on track to my list of goals was a statement my husband kept making when he told me he wanted to go to track, "I'm trying to better myself, I'm trying to better myself!" In the end that is the main goal I have always had: to better myself, while doing something I love. So I will enjoy everything that running has brought me from the comradery of my running companions (from HS, college, SCRR of Walnut, Pacers, and of course my IERC), to the excitement of competition, and even the obstacles it continues to present me with, because they are all there to better myself. Yet, I'm not giving up on those OC marathon goals, I still have 88 days and "8" is my lucky number!

Once a Runner....

Today I sweated through an hour and half on the elliptical machine, while I listened to The Weekend- Can't Feel My Face and read CNN headlines on TV, all while maintaining my heart rate above 160. I would have much rather been doing this:

Long run around Bonelli Park

Once upon a time I was a runner that ran carefree and pain free. Something like those runners you see on Runner's World magazine that are pictured running with a picturesque scenery in the background and a huge Colgate smile across their face. In fact, once upon a time I was pictured on High School Runner Magazine, full page spread, running this very way! 

Junior year HS track, start line Ayala vs. Diamond Bar

I was a freshmen in high school when I fell in love with running. I ran cross country for a school that had a very very good program. I could still recall the excitement of my first cross country meet... all the anxiety and adrenaline flowing. This was a huge race, one organized into a varsity level race, followed by grade level races. I was racing the freshmen race. The top 100 runners to cross the finish line in each race received a medal, which pretty much meant "everyone got a medal". I finished 106th and one of maybe 10 other girls that did not get a medal in my race! I wasn't disappointed at all, in fact I could care less about that medal. However, this made me grow hungry for greatness.

The improvement was slow. The following year at the same race I just described.... I was 12th in the sophomore race. The following year I was 2nd in the junior race, and grabbed a spot on my school varsity team. In four years my 3 mile time improved from mid 25 minutes to mid 18 minutes. The improvements I made had come through dedication. I recall my coach giving me a clipping from a magazine featuring an old model car that happened to be named the same as my last name. The caption under the featured car said, "it's the little car that does everything well", and my coach had highlighted that part to emphasize the breakthrough I had made in running. I wasn't amazing by any means, at the most I was decent, but I felt great about my accomplishments, because that the harder I worked, the more I got out of the sport I loved so much.

3000 meters representing Cal Poly at USC Invite

Fast forward to racing in college... sophomore year... my first real injury... Plantar Fasciitis. I ran in pain for months, how could I not? our team had a shot at making DII nationals for the first time in almost 20 years and I was their number 2-3 runner. Then one day I couldn't get out of bed. The pain in my foot had caused me to compensate in other areas and I went from having shooting pains to sciatica, that morning my back hurt so much I had to roll out of bed because I could not sit up. This was when I stopped running, well only after pushing myself two more weeks to a poor performance at regionals, which caused us missing nationals by 5 points. 5 points that still haunt me today. I took 8 months off from running altogether, and after slowly easing back into running, towards the end of my collegiate career I did manage to pull out a couple more personal bests in the 5k.

You might be thinking so what! everyone gets an injury here and there right? Yes, but for me plantar fasciitis has never really gone away, although I can go months or even as much as a year without it being an issue, the flare ups continue, and when it's not plantar fasciitis some other injury decides it wants to slow my running down. I can honestly not remember the last time I ran pain free, or had more that two good months of training before I had to back off because of an injury. You would think this would stop me, that I would have found another sport by now, but at part of me just wants to win this battle against my body telling me I shouldn't run. So I reason with it (my body), I back off, I take care of it, I ice, foam roll, see my chiropractor, cross train, and then silently laugh at it (my body) as I return for more running.

Once I was a Runner that ran carefree and pain-free. Now I am a Runner that runs smart persevering against the odds. I take each day as it comes knowing that if I couldn't run today, I will live to run another day... because in the end running loves me just as much as I love it.

Happy swinging that ponytail during a run