Tom King Half Marathon

Me and Jessika

Me and Michele

Well, today I set a new P.R. of 2:03:11. The results can be found here. (I'm in the 30-34 age group)My previous half time was 2:12:15 (Country Music Marathon 2006) and last years Tom King was 2:20:6. I am pretty happy with my time time today because No.1-I was shooting for a 2:10 and No.2-An under 2:00 CMM next month will be a piece of cake. I ALWAYS do better at the CMM than I do at the Tom King, and I don't know why because Tom King is flat...and CMM is hilly. I'll kick my training into high gear for the next 4 weeks...I can do it. My friend Nathan is planning to run the CMM this year and I was hoping he'd run it with me, but at the rate I'm going, I don't think he'll be able to. He's shooting for a 2:20/2:30 range.

The staring temp was around 30F. Perfect running weather, but we were FREEZING before the gun went off. I was comfy by .5 mile though. I was wearing a pace bracelet set for a 2:10:00 and it said I needed a 9:55 mile. Mile one was around 8:30. And it continued to be like that the whole race. I stoped and stretched once and walked some in the 2nd half of the race so those miles were slower, but none of them were 9:55. they were all lower.

I lost Jessika at around mile 5, and saw her again passing me after the turn-around. (It's an out-and-back race) She finished in 1:55 something. Go Jessika! Of course today's race was considered a "light training day" for her considering the fact she's doing the Full Marathon in April.

There was beer all along the race route which made this an even better event for me. I am not a fan of this race..it's boring and there are no spectators along the route. But if they serve beer again next year I won't dread it as much. I drank beer 3:1(they also had h2o and gaterade of course) I think the beer gave me an edge and knocked off some of the pain. Had I not drank the beer, my time would have been much slower. (Hehe)

The race finished in LP Field (where the Titans play) with the announcer saying my name and my half dead body up on the JumboTron screen thingy. Then I got the CUTEST little shamrock medal when I crossed the finish line. I have a collection of Tom King medals and they are the same every year. But this year they changed it. Sweet!

They also changed the post race grub. This year they served breakfast instead of lunch. It was good. Overall I would have to say this was my favorite Tom King, and I am glad I ended up doing it. I even got to meet Michelle..one of my fellow Bloggers. She is a really cool chick and hopefully I'll see her again soon!

Predators Fangtastic 5k 2007

Me...About to kill over

This was one of the funnest runs I have done. The crowd was impressive with 1500 competitors in the FREEZING cold, and I absolutely loved the course. The first mile was done in 7:48..mile two was 14:44, and mile 3 was 24:33. My chip time finish was 25:52 but the Garmin may say something better. I haven't checked yet. I ran it with Jessika and she pretty much stomped on me with a time of 25:09. Good Job overall and I will definately be back next year! We got free Preds tickets and went out afterwards. This was the first 5k I have ever seen people running with jeans on.HA! Lots of Pred fans. 2,200 signed up and only 1500 actually ran it. Well, there were more than that because there were people running without chips.

The 2004 Country Music Marathon!!!!!

This was my first and probably LAST full marathon. I don't even know where to begin! I can honestly say I bit off WAY more than I could chew with this one. I started running again in October, and signed up for the marathon with Team in Training so I would actually stick with it. I had to raise $1600.oo to train with them, and if I didn't raise it by a certain dead line, I had to pay it myself. It's a good cause and they provide coaching "for free" provided you raise the money. My dog grooming clients came through for me on this one so it wasn't a big deal. However, the training WAS!

I talked my friend Valerie into doing this with me. I met her at the animal control where I volunteered, and she seemed cool, and she was in good shape so she was game for it. Also, a Clique of about 8 of us (The Pink Princesses) formed within the group, and we always ran together during the runs. It was really good girl bonding, and that's the part I enjoyed the most. I don't really talk to any of them any more for some reason, and I don't know why because we were all really tight at the time. I miss them. We all wore pink, feathered tiaras the day of the marathon. It helped us keep up with each other.

I trained with the Team in Training group for 6 months, and almost quit after every other long run. I just wasn't ready. We would do a run, and it would take me a week to recover from it. During our 16 mile training run I got delerious and my nose started bleeding and wouldn't stop for nothing. I was talking out of my head and not making sense, and everything I looked at had a colored halo around it. (I was also seeing think like giant eagles swooping down on us) Valerie freaked because she thought I was dying, so she flagged down a cop to take me home. We were in the middle of NO WHERE (not unusual) so I don't know where she found a cop. I decided at that point I was only doing the half, but then I did the 18 mile run and felt GREAT! Nothing hurt, I wasn't crying..and I decided to go on with the 26.2. The farthest we trained for was a 20 mile run which I skipped like a dummy because Bailey had a baseball game I wanted to go to. I figured if I could do 18, I could do 20...and if I can do 20, then I can do 26.2...right?

So..Marathon day arrives and we all set a goal for 5 hours 30 minutes. This is reasonable (not impressive, but reasonable) for someone who's never ran a marathon before...I thought. The crowd was HUGE! I had NO IDEA that many people would be running this crazy thing. As it turns out, most of them were doing the half, but still...it was an insane amount of people running. It was poring down rain and cold and I was getting soaked to the bone. I hated that my feet were getting wet, but I socks in my running pack so I thought I would be ok.We did good up until the split where the half runners go one way and the stupid...I mean full runners go another way. I was already tired at this point because we started off too fast, so I just wanted it to be over. (I think the split was around mile 10...I had a LONG way to go). But, I trudged onward. The Pink Princesses threatened to beat me to a pulp if I ditched them. God, I was dying.

Then all Hell broke loose. On the way down to Metro Center 3 of us had to pee so bad we could barely walk...much less run, and for some reason there wasn't a porta-John ANYWHERE that we could find. (The support on the second half SUCKS!!!!) So we decided to just go...right there on the side of the road behind some hedges in a PARKING LOT!!! Right as we were done with that a girl collasped on the pavement in front of us. The EMT's were helping her and she was covered in blood from hitting her knees, and she wasn't responding. She had a half-marathon tag on, though so I couldn't figure out why she was even back that way. The halfers turned off 3 miles back. I ran on and lost evertone but Valerie, so she ran the rver with me. At that point I got really sick and puked by the miles 17 marker..then I felt better. Whn I was coming out of Metro Center, a chick beside me was just bawling her eyes out and I remember chatting with her and trying to make her feel better. This was mile 18 ..and I thought she really need to pull it together if she's gonna finish this thing. We gotta long way to go.

Well then I get to mile 19, and this is where I had my first mental break-down. Valerie's kids and Husband were at the 19 mile marker and they ran with her all the way to the 20 mile marker. I had not seen my husband or kids ANYWHERE although they promised they were coming, and I just lost it. I started crying and I couldn't stop. I found the rest of my group sitting down eating salt and drinking gatorade and this made me happy for a small time. Valerie decided to keep running so that was the last time I saw her. We were still on target for a 5:30 because the pacer was behind us so we chilled out there for a little while. At this point the rain had stopped hours ago and the sun felt like a laser. It was so hot, and REALLY humid. My feet had already been wrapped twice by the EMT"s because of the wet socks and blisters. (By the time the rain stopped, it was too late to change into dry socks..my feet were trashed) And I could barely walk. They almost felt broken, too because of all the pounding. I took 3 B.C. powders and a shot of tequelia at a bar we passed. Didn't help. As we were getting close to SHelby Park, I remember thinking I wanted to quit because my feet were hurting so much, and I really did think I had broken something. AT this point, the 5:30 pacer ran past, and I just didn't care. I had been at it 4 hours and 20 minutes, and still had 6 miles to go. That 6 miles took me TWO HOURS!!!!!! I got kinda crazy, and laughed and cried and sang and cried and laughed some more and cried even harder. I quit every other yard. the girl who I was comforting back at mile 18 was now comforting me. It was a BEAST of a run. I remember thinking it was worse than natural childbirth..(Connor..9lbs 6 oz..no meds). It was the worst experience of my life and it didn't hit the wall. The wall crumbled down on top of me and it was made of boulders. I vowed NEVER to run again. EVER!!

The last mile I sat down and cried so hard I couldn't breathe, and my coach cam eoutta no where and walked me to mile 26..where Low and behold...there stood my husband. I was NOT a happy camper. I only had .2 left to go, and he was at MILE 26!!!! *&^*&^% My friend Kendra was also at mile 26 to run us all in because she had already finished. I was happier to see her, actually.Just too mad at Doug. He said he had been playing golf all day.

When I got to the finish line, I walked through the water misters and got my heat blanket and food and photos taken, went home took a shower and fell into bed. They said not to do that but I was DEAD. I got up later to get ready for the Brad Paisley concert and I literally collasped to the floor because my legs wouldn't hold me up soI crawled to the bathroom. I couldn't walk right for over a week! The Marathon won!!

Race Judica 5k March 2004

Dang if this one didn't totally kill me. It was held at Percy Warner park which is NOTHING but hills. (Great training if you need hill work-outs..awful for racing or trying to get a P.R.) Our little running clique (Pink Princesses)at the time signed up for this Bad-Boy instead of doing a scheduled training run for the marathon. The plan was to do this 5k, THEN finish the distance we were SUPPOSED to run afterwards. Well, that didn't happen. Not only were we in tears halfway through the race, one of the girls twisted her ankle when she went of the side of the road. I love running this park NOW, but at the time I had never purposely run hills before this race, so I was in hell. In fact, I used to avoid hills at all costs. This race was a not-so-gentle reminder that I needed hill training desperately, and I started running hills once a week afterwards. Hills are now my friend. Thank-You Race Judica! Time=34:04 (ewww)

Tom King Half Marathon 2004

My next race was the Tom King Half Marathon, which was held in March of 2004. AT this point, I had been training for the CMM foraround 5 months, and we had gotten up to 15 or 16 miles on our long runs. I remember the weekend of the Tom King was suppoed to be a 7 mile run according to the training schedule, because we had run 15 miles the weekend before and we alternated long and shorter runs on the weekends when we would train as a group. (we meaning Team in Training) So to do a half marathon was putting alot of stain on my body, but I wanted to see where I was at fitness wise, so I went for it. I remember Georgina saying she had done it the year before and she HATED it. Of course, any run through Shelby Park pretty much always sucks because there is just nothing out there. It's boring, and there is no crowd to cheer you on. My friend Mary Thom calls it"Children of the Corn ". It's a lot like a horror movie out there. I don't remember much about running in the park except for it seemed endless. Valerie ran with me pretty much the whole way, and we started racing right about the time we saw the Coliseum. (The coolest part of the race is finishing at the 50 yard line on the field there.) I finished in 2:38:16,(Coulda, shoulda, woulda done better) and Val finished in 2:38:15. Doug and the Boys were waiting for me at the finish line which was cool, but then Doug disappeared because he thought I drove, but I rode up there with Valerie and she had already left, so I got stranded. I had to wait around for almost 2 hours before he answered his phone to come back and get me. Men!

Rudolph Red Nose 5k 2003

In October of 03, I went to zip my pants up and couldn't. They were a size 10!!! This is when I decided it was time to lace up the shoes again and hit the road running. I ran all my life, but after having 2 kids, I guess the weight just snuck up on me since I had not had alot of time to run or anything. I signed up for the Country Music Marathon in October, and then decided to do this race with some girls I had met at the training runs. This was my first 5k since the Carlsbad 5000 in California in 1993. I was in the Navy then. (I did it in 27:15).

The Rudolph is a race that is held the first weekend of Dec...right before the parade. This one was during the day, and it was COLD!! It was sleeting a little and spitting snow, then rain. Just gross. And I really struggled through it. There were 5 of us who ran it together, and I came in 2nd out of the 5. I was so proud of my 33:03 time! The other girls did it in 37 minutes so I felt like a stud. It really was fun and I guess I re-caught my racing bug here. The crowd was great. They lined the street of Downtown Nashville along the parade/race course, so it really kept me going. The bad part is the hills. There's a hill out of the Coliseum..right at the start. I had not done any hill training yet so this really killed me. I walked right at the beginning. Then down the hill at 2nd ave. Then we turned on to Broadway and turned around there, then BACK UP the hill on 2nd. (walked again) then down the hill at the bridge and all the way around the Coliseum, then the finish line. It was SOOO hard, but I was happy with my time all things considered. At least I had a starting point for future 5k's (My favorite racing distance.)