On My Way!

It's here, it's finally here! Tomorrow I will be on my way to Big Sur California!  For those of you who don't know, Big Sur is part of the B2B challenge ( Boston 2 Big Sur).

 Last year I was so excited to go out to California to run the Big Sur Marathon after running Boston to complete this challenge. Even though I didn't run Boston again this year,  I am heading out to Big Sur again for round two but with slightly different feelings. 

I remember running the course last year and saying to myself well I can check this off my bucket list for a one and done. I didn't have a desire to come back. Although the scenery was beautiful it was by far the hardest course I had ever run. How could this be when I even ran Boston? 

But when registration opened for 2014, my feelings changed. Like many other races if you don't sign up the day it opens (like the disney challenges), you miss out. I remember talking my sister into going out with me to run it. She agreed. I thought to myself well maybe it won't be so bad this time because we can conquer the hills together. But more importantly we would be doing it for the experience. So I began to get excited about this race again. I had already committed to the Shamrock full marathon in March and I knew that would be the race I would try and run for time, since I'd be running by myself. The Big Sur would be more relaxed and no pressure running with my sister.

 

Since then, things have changed and I'm beginning to think that those hill sound like too much now and a part of me thought I don't even know if I want to do this again.  Maybe I'm just being lazy, I don't know.

So now, like the Shamrock I will be running this race by myself. What do I do? Do I race it and see if I can beat my time from last year?(3:51). Or do I just enjoy the scenary and the race itself and still not worry about time. I feel like you are the only one that puts pressure on yourself. Because I'm running by myself,  I think "I better do well". But at the end of the day does it really matter what the heck my time is? It's not like I'm going to win. I feel as if my only goal is to just enjoy myself.  If you put too much pressure on yourself it definitly takes the fun out of it. And isn't that why we all do it?

So here I am AGAIN, talking about time ( I know, I know). If I beat my time from last year, great! If not, I'm sure it'll be within miniutes and that's just fine by me. For me it's consistency.

 

What are your thoughts?

~L

If you don't already, you can follow along with us on twitter @fairytalesnfit  and @lacers02

Spinach, Bacon, and Sweet Potato Salad From the Runner's World Cookbook

Yup, it's salad time!  When the weather is warm, there is nothing better than a big ol salad!  One of my favorite things about salads is that you can't mess them up! in actuality, I usually end up making my own salad recipes out of my head.  I don't really have a recipe, but they are just certain ingredients that I have found go well together. I should share some of them sometime, but for now, I'm going to share this recipe for Spinach, bacon, and sweet potato salad from the Runner's World cook book.  And like I said, you don't have to follow the recipe to the tee. Just use the same ingredients and you get the idea, right? Enjoy!

What's your favorite kind of salad? Do you ever just make up your own salad? If so, what ingredients do you add that wouldn't be in your normal salad? Don't forget to link up your favorite tasty post today! We are co-hosting this with Lean Lena. Make sure to check her out as well! 

An InLinkz Link-up

The Starting Line at the Boston Marathon

Congrats to all the runners in the Boston Marathon today! I can imagine all the excitement for the runners and their families to be a part of one of the greatest races in the country. I was fortunate to be able to run in it last year and experience it for myself. This race by far was always on my bucket list (as I'm sure it is for every runner).

 



In the corral waiting to start the Boston Marathon

People train their whole running career just to be able to run their dream race here. I couldn't believe that I was actually fortunate enough to be here. I was at the starting line of the Boston Marathon and it was a dream come true!  At the start of the race I told myself I wasn't trying to go for time since I knew it was a hard course.  I didn't want to have to stress out about anything but to just enjoy myself and experience the Marathon. And that is just what I did!  I  have never been to a race that had so many cheering spectators along the sidelines during the ENTIRE race! This gave me much motivation when the going got tough during the course. There were even children high fiving you and giving out Swedish fish and gummy bears. Who could pass that up? I finished the race feeling a sense of accomplishment. I was now able to check one more (big thing) off of my bucket list!

Just after receiving my medal for completing the Boston marathon. This is when we heard the first bomb. I noticed from this picture that the smoke had started to form in the background.

 I no sooner got through the finish line chute and that's when I heard the first bomb that went off. My friend and I had no idea what had happened. We took a quick picture and headed back to the hotel  to find out the extent of the tragedy that had just occurred. My sense of pride quickly changed to a sense of sorrow.  My friend said it best when he said "What a tragedy for many when it should have been a triumph for all". I couldn't agree more.  The finish line experience was much different than the starting line experience.

Congrats to everyone running the Boston Marathon today! We hope everyone has a fantastic journey and a safe finish!

 

  Do you know anyone running Boston today?

What's in a time?

So what's in a time anyway? When most people set running goals, it's mostly about wanting to get their time down and setting a new PR. We're  both gonna talk a little bit about our thoughts on racing for time.

1. When I first started running, I had two goals. 1) to run a 5K in under 30 minutes and 2) to run a 10K in under an hour.  To many people these are not very tough goals to reach, but I admit I worked hard for this and I crushed it! But now I am perfectly fine being consistent at this pace. Does this make me lazy because I don't strive to get my 5k time under 25 min? That would be the next logical step right?  (M)

2. I recently had a running friend ask me about my marathon times. I told him that I ran Big Sur in 3:51 and Shamrock in 3:50 ( last year was 3:47). He asked how in the world I could run the flattest course and the hilliest course in practically the same time.  Does this mean that I did really well on the hills at Big Sur? Or does it mean I could have stepped it up a notch at Shamrock?  I think it just means I am consistent and that's okay.  As long as I keep my full marathon time under 4 hours and my half marathon time under 2 hours, I am happy!  ( L)

3. One of our favorite running books is Running  Like Girl by Alexadra Heminsly. In the book she makes this statement ""Why should I be trying sooo hard to get twenty minutes faster? What's the purpose? What would I ever do with that extra twenty minutes?"

 (I found that part to be extremely funny because it is the raw truth, but as runners we are always trying to improve our times)

But maybe you've found out, 20 minutes can mean the difference between having post race food and not having any post race food left by the time you finish.

At Disney races, 20 minutes can mean the difference between getting a pictures with your favorite Disney Character or not, ( or waiting for that character and having a secondary one come out to replace him or her).

20 minutes can also mean the difference between getting a post race massage, and just missing the tent as it closes up shop.


4.There has been a lot of talk around the interweb lately with people saying "I didn't run this race to "race" it". And that's ok! Sometimes we have "off" days, sometimes we are running with a friend or family member who doesn't run at our pace so we run with them just for the experience of running together, and then there are times where we just wan to take in the scenery and just have fun like at a Disney race!

5. And just for fun, we want to tell a quick story about our friend David. David ran the Jacksonville Bank Marathon without a GPS or any other timing device. He said he wanted to just run on how he felt. He must have felt pretty good not having that "worry" about his time because he ended up qualifying for Boston with that race. Good job David!

So what are your thought on time? Do your running goals often include improving your time?


Thanks to Courtney and the gals for hosting the Friday Five link up where the theme this week is goals.

Fitness Contest!

How many of you have a fitness trainer? How many of you ARE a fitness trainer? I know a lot of you who have your ACE personal trainer certificate ( my sister included) and who are group fitness instructors, so listen up.....

Live with Kelly and Michael is holding a Top Fitness Instructor contest.  (I absolutely adore this show and try to watch it every chance I get) You can nominate your favorite fitness instructor or trainer and you have to tell why they are so fabulous and what makes their training program unique! You can even nominate yourself too if you think you are fabulous! There is no rule against. They said so!

                                                                      Source

Five finalist will be chosen and will be invited to LIVE to show their fitness routine to Kelly and Michael AND they will be featured in an issue of Fitness Magazine! Isn't that cool? I would love to see one of you guys in Fitness magazine!

Oh, and one finalist will win a grand prize of $10,000!   So go enter someone now!  The deadline is April 24, 2014.     Enter Here


Let us know if you are a fitness instructor. Who would you enter? Better yet, what would you do with an additional $10,000?

How to be Creative with Medal Displays from Gone For A Run

If you read our blog regularly, than you know that we like to display the medals we've earned. What's even more fun is when we can do it creatively.   Do you remember the photo medal display that I made for my sister a while back?  I was starting to run out of room on my own medal display, so I was considering making one of those for myself because I really wanted to be able to display some of our fun race pictures along with the medals.

But then, the nice people at Gone For A Run,  that company that sells all sorts of really cool products for runners, asked me if I would be willing to review one of their products.  I was thrilled when I received this Magical Miles medal display, and let me tell you why!

1. It's Disney themed, enough said. ( If Disney's not your thing, there are a ton of other themes to choose from)

2. Very durable! Some medal displays are not as durable. My mother has a display and as of right now she can only display her Disney 5K medals on it because hanging more than 2 "medal" ones on it starts to bend it. That is certainly not the case with this one. I have 7 medals on in it in this picture but I could actually fit a few more on!

3. This great latch allows you to smoothly slide your medals on and off the rod. Once it is snapped into place, your medals are secure and will not fall off.

5. Probably my favorite part about this display is that it allows me to put my own pictures in it. This is of course something that I discovered on my own!  The Magical Miles panel actually slides out from the top. Since there is an opening to slide it out, I can of course slide other images in. That panel is the same size as two 4x6 photographs. There is enough room that I can keep the Magical Miles panel in AND slide my photographs in right in front of it.

Chances are I'm not ever going to find a display large enough to hold all my medals, so I will always need more than one way of displaying them. So say I want to keep all my Disney medals on one display and all my "beach" medals on another display. I just change the picture on the front of the display and Ta Da! I am done!  I love how versatile this is!

Gone For a Run has a ton of other Medal displays that you will fall in love with.  They even have many that they will personalize for you!  Wouldn't that be cool to have you name or your favorite saying on your medal display?  If you are looking for a way to display your medals, you should definitely go check them out.


If you ordered a display from Gone For A Run, what would you want it to say, or what pictures would you use on it?

* I received this medal display from Gone For a Run at no cost to me, but I truly do love this product and all opinions expressed here are mine!

A Memory No Runner Should Have

We normally don't go back and re-read a post that we've already published ( unless it's to fix a typo, and I'm sure we've missed a few of those over the year), but recently I've been finding that going back through our blog to be very helpful.  It lets me remember details of an event I may have forgotten about and when I went to Physical Therapy for the first time I had to write down when I started feeling my symptoms. I could not recall when my pain started, so I looked on the blog to see when I first started complaining about it, I mean "Mentioned" it! 

There is one particular day/event that I probably will never forget the details of because it was one of the most emotional days I've ever experienced.

If you've read our blog from day one, then you may already know what I am about to say, but considering what time of year it is, I thought it was worth resurfacing.

America was certainly shocked when they heard the news of the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013.  I cried. My sister was there running.

 The day I found out that my sister was going to be running in the Boston Marathon, I promptly got online and starting asking advice about hotels. My sister got her notice that she would be able to run the marathon only a few weeks before, so we didn’t exactly have a lot of time to prepare. Either myself or someone in my family (usually my mom) has been to every one of her races and I wasn’t about to miss what could potentially be the biggest race of her life. So I booked two nights at a hotel in Boston. I spent the rest of the week deciphering how I was going to get to all the weekend events (while using public transportation). What train would I use to get to the expo? How would I meet her at the pasta party? Which train was running on race day? How early would I have to leave the hotel? Would I get lost? How would I meet up with her after the race?  Would I be okay driving the 380 miles to Massachusetts all by myself? I was starting to feel anxiety. This was not like watching a race in Disney, or VA Beach (where she usually runs). I had never been to Boston. This was an unfamiliar city to me and I felt like I didn’t have enough time to do all the research I needed to feel comfortable navigating myself around. After finding out that the train I would need (I think it was part of the green line) would not be operating on race day, I decided I couldn’t do this. I cancelled the hotel at the last minute. I felt confident that my sister would be okay. She would be meeting up with some race friends and she could stay with them. They would make sure she got to where she needed to be, and quite frankly I thought that I may just be a burden to her as I tagged along. I didn’t want her to have to worry about me.

 I can’t believe that one split second decision could have potentially saved my life. Watching my sister race is a big deal to me and I always luck out and get a great spot near the finish line to watch her. I don’t know that I would have been in danger, but I know for a fact that I would have been on Boylston Street and I would have been near the finish line holding my sign for her!

 So with blinds pulled open, the sun shining in, and a yellow Labrador sitting on my lap, I watched the race on TV that April afternoon. I watched what little coverage they provided on the Universal Sports channel ( after the elite runners finish, they don’t show the average runners, so I turned it off and went about my business) I got the automatic text saying that my sister Lacey crossed the finish line (in many races, you can sign up for runner tracking.  Each runner wears a tracking chip on their bib. As they cross the finish line it sends a text to your phone giving you the time they finished).   She didn’t actually text me herself, but I knew she had finished. I did text her phone saying “Congrats! You even beat your Disney World marathon time!” I then got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. It was Lacey. She said she just wanted to tell me she was ok.  I could tell by her voice that something was very wrong. I said “what?” I had no idea what she was talking about at the time. She then told me about the explosion at the finish line; it was bad, people had lost limbs, and people died. I just started crying and then turned on the TV to see what was going on. I continued to cry.  I then had to call my mom at work and tell her what had happened before she saw it on the news and started panicking herself. Even though I told her my sister was okay,  I could tell that my mom was en emotional mess. And my dad, well, it was the first day of trout season so he was off fishing and had no clue what was happening.

 I was scared for my sister. I am extremely grateful that she crossed the finish line when she did. Only by the help of God she was able to exceed her expected finish time. She crossed exactly six minutes before the first explosion. She had just got her medal and was in line getting Gatorade and water when it happened.

 I was SO Glad that my sister was okay, but I could have potentially loss my sister the same day I loss my grandma ( she died April 15 exactly 5 years ago). During all this, our home phone started ringing off the hook with people calling to see if Lacey was running and if she was okay.

 From my brief conversation with my sister, I knew she was going straight to the airport (or at least going to try to get there) I was now concerned about her safety even at the airport. My heart was breaking for her as she had to experience all this and to everyone else that was there and of course to all the victims and their family.

 My sister has a stressful enough job as a flight attendant and has to worry about this kind of situation affecting her safety on a daily basis. But now it is affecting the thing she loves to do for fun, running! What is this world coming to?

 

 She finally did make it home on a very late flight Monday night. As I waited in the airport  with flowers and balloons for my sister, an older lady asked what the occasion was and with a teary eye, I told her that I was just happy that my sister was alive and that she made it home safely from the Boston Marathon. She then told her friends, who then told their husbands. So by the time Lacey entered the terminal even complete strangers were clapping for her and hugging her. It was quite an emotional night!

Thirteen days later, Lacey flew to California to complete the second half of the Boston to Big Sur Challenge.  Two races, Two Coast, thirteen days apart.  I was even more frightened for her safety there. I had visions of something going wrong on that big bridge. Thank goodness everything turned out okay.   Although she has no desire to run the Boston Marathon again anytime soon, Lacey continued to run 6 more marathons. Her 7^th will be  the Big Sur Marathon later this month.

If you'd like to read Lacey's Boston marathon recap from race day, you can read it HERE.

 

Do you ever go back and re-read memories from your blog?   Will you be watching the Boston marathon on TV this year?