Marathon Training - Week 9

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 7 miles

Saturday: 16 miles

Total for the week: 27 miles (249.2 to go!)

This week was pretty rough. I was pretty humbled after my half marathon so this week I was feeling unmotivated to run again. Lame, I know, but I think part of it was mid-training burn out. After all, I've been running four times a week for eight weeks without a break. It took every ounce of motivation I had to get out the door on Tuesday afternoon with the kids. Wednesday was better because I ran in the morning with Jonelle (thanks Steve for watching the kids!). However, after the 7 miles, I was starting to have some knee pain again. The pain has been absent from my runs for 8 weeks, which has been fabulous. I thought it was maybe gone for good...

...Wrong-o, wrong-o! I skipped my 2nd 4-miler this week (the first run in 9 weeks I've missed!) but when I went out for my 16-miler today, the pain came back around mile 8. By the time we got to the last water stop - around 14.5 miles - when I started to run, I was limping. I walked for a bit and then finished running, but with the pain. I'm not sure what to do about it at this point. Last time I took about a month off from running and that helped, but I don't really have a month to spare here. However, aside from my knee pain, I felt great running. My body felt a lot better today than last Saturday. I drank Gatorade at every water stop and then had a couple goo things I used. Can you believe I ran 16 miles today? I can hardly believe it myself!

I do feel like an official runner though, since I now own 2 pairs of running shoes. My Pearl Izumis have about 207.2 miles on them so I got my Nikes a couple weeks ago and they already have 60.1 miles on them. The idea is to alternate them. The Izumis I'll use for shorter, mid-week runs and the Nikes I'll use for long, weekend runs. Then, once I have 200 miles on the Nikes I get a new pair and rotate those in. I'll probably retire each pair at about 350 miles. The guy at the running store said it's akin to rotating the tires on your car. That made a lot of sense to me. Whatever helps my body stay pain-free - or at least as close to pain-free as possible!

How I spent my summer. By Brian Hanks

Now that I've got a little time to breath, I thought I would post a few pictures I've taken this summer. Always very observant, I was looking through the pics and realized that I wasn't able to take many pictures of myself - which means, unfortunately, I will not be in every single picture. I can arrange a private shoot for those who are interested.


I lived for a month in a Hotel about a block away from Ground Zero and liked looking at the Brooklyn Bridge while in New York

I worked in the Green building on the left. The view was awesome. The smells on the street were not.

I took one Saturday to go to Brooklyn and went all the way down to Brighton Beach. The street signs are in Russian there.

Then it was off to Chicago for the next 6 weeks. I lived in a 1 bedroom loft apartment near Michigan Avenue and Roosevelt in the South Loop.

I would usually get home around 7:00 or 8:00 and go for a run because I had no DVR, and now I can't watch normal-person TV (commercials = bad). I was a 10 minute walk from Lake Michigan and had my choice of museums and skyline to run by. It's a toss up for me which city's skyline is better.

I liked running by all the boats in the harbor. It makes you forget that running stinks.

I even had visitors. They were very excited to see me.

This is the building I worked in. I was on the 5th floor here as opposed to the 41st in New York. I liked the view from the top better, but suppose my deserved spot would be the parking garage so I should be grateful for what I get.

Fun summer! Big cities are fun to visit! I'm looking forward to living in the suburbs.

Marathon Training - Week 8 + My 1st Half Marathon!

You know those 13.1 stickers you see every so often on someone's car? I can get one of those now! I've officially finished my first half marathon and, let me tell you, it was no cake walk.

Since it's pretty difficult to find races on Saturdays around here - especially if you're looking for a specific distance on a specific date - the half marathon I found was 2 hours away. I talked Jonelle into making the trek with me to the Fallsburg Festival of Races. I was so glad she was there!

Above is our "before" picture. This race was really small (we picked up our packets from a table where they were all layed out), so the half-marathoners didn't even get bibs. We just had to pin on the labels with our names. I put mine on my new Spibelt. I had tested out my sister's while I was in San Diego and I was a fan so I got my own!

This race was so hard. Jonelle's run 4 or 5 different half marathon courses and she said this was for sure the hardest. One reviewer of the marathon (which also applies to the half) wrote, "This marathon is not for the weak willed. Mentally and physically difficult. If you're looking for a challenge, come to Lowell." I had read this review beforehand, but I didn't realize what I was getting myself into for my first half.

The entire course was basically up and down hills, but it definitely felt like more ups than downs. Some of these "hills" were more like mini mountains that we could barely run up. It felt more like speed-hiking at times. It was especially difficult to run up the hills that came on the trails. I kept saying, "Are you kidding me? Another one?" My legs felt like Jell-o.

When we got to about mile 10 (all trail running), I started to literally feel like I was going to pass out if I stopped so I just had to keep going. I got goosebumps over my entire body, which I didn't think was a good sign. At every hill I didn't think I could run any more, but I knew if I walked it would just prolong the torture. Right near the end we could see the finish line, but we had to run around the grass to get there (I hate when they do stuff like that). I told Jonelle to keep going and I took 20 seconds to walk and I felt like I could finish strong.

Our goal was to come in under 2 hours and we did it! My time was 1:57:28 and Jonelle's was 1:57:08. My pace was 8:58.

Overall Place: 40 out of 115
Sex Place: 16 out of 59
Age Division Place: 5 out of 19


We got our finishers' certificates (with a picture of Prefontaine on them), our finishers' medals (yay!), and even finishers' towels! Jonelle ended up with a bonus bronze medal for 3rd place.

The scenery was great during the times we could enjoy it. Here's one of the bridges we ran across. It was fun, but I'm not sure that I'll ever run that particular race again! I'm interested to try another - flat course - half to see how it compares.

Monday: 4 miles

Tuesday: 7 miles

Thursday: 4 miles

Saturday: 13.1 miles (rounding down to 13 for countdown purposes)

Total for the week: 28.1 miles (252.2 to go!)

PS: In my haste to post, I forgot to give a great, big THANK YOU shout out to the Hostetlers who watched my kiddos overnight so I could run the half. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

They're Growing!

Sydney's 10-months now, but at the end of July she had her 9-month well-child check up. She weighed 19.67 lbs. (56%), her height was 29.88 in. (97%), and her head was 17.87 in. (82%). She's definitely looking tall with her long little body!

Developmentally, she's doing great. She mimics a lot of sounds. She also likes to move around a lot and is quite strong. The pediatrician thinks she'll be an early walker - as we've suspected. I think it's a little ways off still, but I'm sure once Brian's around he'll help her learn to walk faster!

She's getting her own little personality, but she is still one of the happiest little babies I've ever seen! She like to pretend cough and already tries to fake cry (she probably learns that from Wes). The parental manipulation begins! :)

Sydney's a funny little girl. I love when she makes this face.

At the same appointment, Wes had to get a weight check since his weight was so low last time. He gained 2 lbs. in 2 months (versus .45 lbs in the 6 months previous). His weight is now 25.79 lbs. and he's in the 14th%.

The pediatrician was really glad and asked what I'd been giving him. I give this kid what he'll eat/drink: whole milk, Eggos, Pop-tarts, (turkey) hot dogs, quesadillas, PB&J, mac and cheese... Yah, not too healthy. He won't eat fruits and veggies (except in smoothies or juice). Even fruits he used to eat, he won't eat anymore. Now I'm trying to decide if I'm letting him create bad habits now and it will come back to haunt him when he's older. I do give him wheat, whole-grain, or mostly whole-grain things where I can (Eggos, mac and cheese, bread). I guess I'll just take it one weight check at a time!

As a tip for other moms of toddlers, I wanted to take a picture of Wes eating using his Kaboost under his chair. We've had this since Wes was about 20 months and it's been awesome. I felt like Wes was getting too big for his Fisher Price booster (plus, Sydney needed to use it once she started eating), but he was too short to sit on his chair by himself. Phone books and the like are hard and slip-slide around. This Kaboost is great! Here's a review where I first learned about the Kaboost.

Wes is a great kid. He likes to help and is happy most of the time. He's learned how to whine, much to our chagrin, but he's usually very obedient. He's very conversational and is starting to say some funny things. He knows he's funny, too. He's also getting good at saying prayers. One night, Brian and I overheard him in his bed saying a prayer to himself. It was pretty cute! And this morning Wes and I were in the bathroom and he looked up and pointed to the picture of Jesus on the wall and said, "Jesus Christ, Amen!"

It's so fun to watch my kids learn and grow! I love it!