Ready for the 2010 Calendar

I found a site yesterday GoTribalnow.com for women triathletes. Haven't really figured it out yet but I think it is going to be a helpful network for me. With that hunting around, I figured it was time to start planning what my 2010 Race Calendar will look like. I had no idea how much and how many ideas I would have. Yes, I am even considering spring and fall marathons. I figure what the heck! I am already trained for it. I just need to keep pushing. John and I have set a hefty goal this year, so we need to start getting focused on what it takes.

Swimming is going to take priority this winter. I am going to once again take a swim class and then work with the masters group as much as I can. Of course I need all the help I can get. I am very confident with my running and cycling - climbing ability. Yes that is a minus climbing ability. I need some work there. I don't think it is a lack of strength as much as it is knowledge on gear shifting. Once, I can get that swim thing down I will feel so much better. White Lake of course is on my list. I am going back for one more TRI at that.

So with all that said and written, I have my calendar out, I am pulling up calendar of events on-line and oh, a training plan or two might be nice.

The Day After

I wrote a blog the other day that wasn't very nice so I am glad I kept in the edit box. It was all about what I wasn't thankful for this year. All the heartache and pain we as a family are feeling, the loss we feel, the memories that should be made at our house from now on and that aren't happening. You get it. But then I read another blog on all the things I should be thankful for. It did give me perspective and for a moment made me feel bad for being a "Debbie Downer". Then at lunch yesterday, my step-mom made each of say one thing we were thankful for and I yes had to think about it! But I gave an answer and we moved along.

All night, I thought about that game. Here we are the day after, my heart still hurts, the memories of yesterday were not made, my faith is still lost, but I am reflecting today on the memories that were made. The true friends that I do have, and a family, as dysfunctional as we all might be, that would walk to the wherever and back for me, for the two beautiful children I have been blessed with, the husband who for whatever reason, puts up with me and never fails to say I Love You! For all of you I am thankful.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Quote for the day

Nothing's better than the wind to your back, the sun in front of you, and your friends beside you.

Aaron Douglas Trimble, Runner

As you have heard a hundred times, I hate to run alone so the above quote today I felt was perfect for me.

It is hard for me to imagine how others get out and run and train all alone! Oh don't get me wrong, I have some in my group who will get up and run 20 miles all by themselves. I can just tell you that I wouldn't do it! A marathon would not ever have occured if I had to do that. I love to run but I love the company of someone right beside me. Like social drinkers, I am a social runner!

Happy running!

Return to Running

This has been a recovery week and it has sucked. I have felt like a cheater all week. I hear my other friends talking about their runs and text from them asking if I want to run 6 miles with them. Ha Ha, that was a funny one. As I couldn't really walk straight until after I saw Jeremy. Looked and felt like I think a 100 year old woman would feel.

With plans to see some other friends of mine run a half marathon in Danville on Saturday, I learned they had an 8K. I thought what the heck, I will register (yes they had tshirts) and just get the legs moving. I had no plans of trying to make a time that was respectable at all. I even said I would walk most of it. I just wanted to get out and do something. Seeing that I think I gained 5 lbs. last week as well. I needed some form of exercise. So with that being said, I registered.

This past week in good ole North Carolina fashion, our weather was horrible. I think after all was said and done we had like 5 to 6 inches of rain over the course of a few days. So the course in Danville, VA who obviously got more than we did was under water so they revised it. Yes to a much more difficult route. Go figure! I always wonder if they know Scott Bassett when you see that it starts on an uphill and ends on a slight uphill. He must be friends with everyone in the running world. I am convinced of it and calls to tell them how to make the most difficult of courses.

So as you already can tell this course was hard. Hard for me and I only ran 4.96 miles. My girls who ran the half, hats off and bows to you. YOU ROCKED THAT COURSE AND OWNED THOSE HILLS! Pan Connor came in first in her age group, Christine Flowe and Amy Rhyne both PR'd. WOO HOO! My girls rock!

We all started together but by mile 2 my shins felt like they would explode so I walked. I walked/ran the rest of the course and still my time was 50:22. I will take it and proudly I might add. During the race there was a girl that I would pass and then she would pass me, and as she did she would say "come on you can do it". How sweet of her to root me on like that. I kindly told her I knew I could, but I just ran a marathon less than 6 days ago. I would be perfectly fine with my little program I had going on. So when I finished before her (hee hee) I cheered her on to the finish.

Yes I ran against alot of people's better judgement. I feel great today though! Which I am very glad of because I will be honest, I was scared to see how my feet and legs would feel so soon after the marathon. Was I going to regret it? I don't so now I am getting my gear ready for a bike ride to honor our fallen cyclist David Sherman.

Happy Running.... This week I am back to a schedule, not sure which one yet, but I am oh, I plan to drop some weight. Not sure how, but I am going to work on that as well! Lots to do!

OBX 2009 Race Report

You have no idea how good it feels to type those words "race report". Long time coming. Short intro for the newbies to this blog and there are a couple.

Last year I trained for this race and was not able to run it due to an injury. I decided then that I was not going to let anything happen this year to keep me from crossing the finish line if it meant crawling across it! So here we are.....

Boy this has been a year. Lots of things personal and professional have happened. Some good, some very devastating and the devastation has happened recently so on Sunday when I sat out I ran this race for the loss in my life that I have and will feel for the rest of it. But a marathon is not planned or thought out quickly so this maybe the longest race report you have ever read...Just kidding. Training is training and those of you that run know the hours it takes. Those that don't run, your obviously my friends and you as well know what my family suffers through for me to train.

I am not sure how to write a race report that I feel good about. I am so use to complaining that now that I have something good to say I don't know where to start. So let me start with my about.com group. If I get this wrong they will correct me!

I joined a running forum last year when I started training to run this race. I got the best advice from several ladies on being a new runner. Wendy gave me wonderful advice along the way, then we found each other on facebook and we decided to run this race together. Wendy is my barefoot runner! Then the group grew. We kept a thread going for goodness I have no idea how long. A LONG TIME! We made our plans and those plans changed numerous times back and forth. The group has us all coming from NJ, VA, KY,TX,and PA. During the year we all had set backs of some kind and the RA girls setbacks are different than ones we as regular runners experience in my opinion. To days of not being able to run because your body just won't let you or just not having the energy because your body attacks itself, so I have such admiration at how they kept going. HATS OFF TO YOU GIRLS FOR YOUR DETERMINATION!

So our plan was to meet at the expo on Friday and we did. I got my number and my tech shirt. Yes I am tired of tech shirts, but I guess I won't be complaining when I don't have to buy any long sleeve ones anytime soon. So I just bought myself a regular t-shirt. We had a great dinner and went to our respective places to sleep. They camped and I had a hotel room because Jordan went with me.

Saturday morning was to be an early morning as Jeri was determined she was coming and running an event even with a bum leg. She did it, with those Viabrims for bare footers on I might add! I overslept and at least got to see her finish. Wendy's daughter ran the kids fun run barefooted as well. For a kid to run barefooted, I am so impressed. No one warned the poor thing about those crazy sand spurs. She looked miserable when we saw her but she got a big bright smile on her face and ran it in when she saw us and heard us cheering for her. We headed back to the Expo to enjoy some more OBX spirit. I got to see folks I know from home and that was exciting with all the people who would of thought. Then I went to rest the legs and nap. No nap was gotten due to the fact I had mental preparation to do.

I had been mentally preparing for a long time, with list and sayings of encouragement and just spending time in the moments of what it would be like to finish. But the list was taking over. I had to narrow down the outfits since I brought 5. Yes I brought 5 outfits to choose from. Clothes picked out and laid out, now rest. I tried. I never closed my eyes. Early dinner, the endless pasta bowl and perogies at The Flying Dutchman was the meal of choice. I have pictures but I am not posting all of those here. I will put them on Picasa and you can check them out later.

Early to bed, early to rise. I actually laid down at 7:45. Of course my blackberry was blowing up, so I finally turned it off and got to sleep and slept great. Got up at 5 a.m. had my planned out breakfast and coffee (of course). Got dressed, and was on my way to the start line. It wasn't that far from our hotel. Jordan dropped me off, Jill and Crystal picked me up and we there we were. At the start line to our first Marathon. At this point, the nerves took over and I felt like I was going to be ill. Time dwindled and it was it time to take our place. We found our pace group of 4:30. Yes I know, high ambition. But you can always drop back, hard to catch up. Our group I didn't think was paced well so a man I was beside, Steve Price and I ended up out front of them. We didn't look back. We were keeping a great pace and we felt good. You know I make a friend at every race I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't run. Steve and I talked and laughed for 24 miles. We loved hearing our names being cheered for, or for me, it was go Chatty Girl Go, since that is what my shirt said! Of course my feet hurt, but I knew that going in and I wasn't stopping. If I had to crawl across I would but I was finishing and that is what I told Steve. I would give you a mile by mile report but we would be here for days. This race is so well supported by the community and the going ons is just too much to write. Let's just say OBX knows how to turn it on when it comes to fun! Bloody Mary's, Tequila shots, beer, gummy bears and Reece's cups along the way. My kind of place! But at mile I think 5 or 6 I look to the right of me and it is Steve Mekita, a guy I trained with last year. So we caught up and ran together for a bit and then "my" Steve and I were off. Don't worry Steve M. caught us at mile 19. So from 19 on we would catch each other back and forth. It was fun and it was a goal. That went along with the 7 foot pirates who were run/walking and I was having a blast with them. So we cross a little bridge and we are like oh yeah that was nothing. Then we look up and seriously we both say "OH HELL" at the same time. Driving that bridge and running that bridge are night and day different. Well we decided to walk/run that bridge. My knee was killing me at that point so it was a walk/run from there on until Mile 24, when I knew I was almost there and it would be over and I thought I could come in under 5 hours. I wanted to finish in 4:45 but a potty break and the knee where not having that, so under 5 I would take. Hell I would be happy with a finish. So I kicked it in, left my two friends and I was on my way. I passed people and that felt good and I also got tired of hearing your almost there from the people in the cars eating McDonald's but that is to be expected. I promised I would never do that again at a race. Especially if I am watching a marathon. Because yes it may be all relative at that point that you only have 2.2 miles to go, but when it is you running those last few miles after running 24, yeah shut up folks. So I round the last half mile. I think that is when the smile hit. That is when I knew I had it and I knew I was finishing a goal that I made two years ago. I see the finish line, I make sure my number is turned around and then I hear "AMY BARNETT, JAMESTOWN, NORTH CAROLINA", ok I know it is me and I don't care that you just pronounced my name wrong. I have made it. I then hear yeah Amy, I knew my friends were there, but there were other people I knew. Lucy, Dawna and Elaine. Of course my daughter did not plan well so she couldn't get through the traffic to be at the finish line. Oh well no family at the finish line, but the best of friends where. First thing I did was text anyone who would care that I was done. When my husband called me, I think he was actually either crying or about to cry. How sweet! When he was probably thinking, thank God this is over. I had not been the nicest of wives toward the end just because of all that had been going on.

So to sum up my race report. I had a blast. Where I said I would not do it again, I lied. I would do it this weekend if I could. There is no feeling like it. I was trained very well (minus the training runs I missed do to whatever set back I had), I was fueled well, I was rested well, and I was mentally prepared. I had at no time any breakdown thinking I couldn't do it, I had no time where my body said you can't do it. Well my knee felt like it would blow out but nothing Dr. Jeremy Phillips can't put back together.

You know I am not sure what I would do different. This was such a great experience! I did what I set out to do and that was to finish and have fun. ACCOMPLISHED......Oh what will I do this coming year?

Thank you's

Now that today is behind me and I am officially a Marathon runner, I need to thank a few people that have pushed me, woke me up early and just stood right beside me through it all. In case your wondering I think my official time was 4:51 something.

John, Jordan and Ally...this race is for all you have given up due to my training schedule. You have had plenty of nights without me and waking up mornings with me gone. Things in our house fell by the wayside because I needed to run. Your an awesome family and I am blessed that your mine, even if I didn't show it. Pam Connor, for your wisdom, your encouragement, your constant friendship, your text, your prayers and Thursday night speed workouts! Christine, Kay and Amy R., for Saturday mornings of keeping me accountable and running right by my side, pushing me when I said I couldn't and of course listening to all the griping and complaining. Jess and Jill for your years of listening to the griping, complaining and talk radio. To all of you, your friendships, which mean more to me than that, you have become family to me! For my coach, Suzanne, girl you have earned every penny. I know I have been difficult throughout the entire year. But I am strong today because of you! Oh and you will be proud at mile 24, I said to myself, "is this all you have". I think it paid off.

This week someone made a comment, and a simple one at that. But it has pulled me through some dark moments and I want to thank her because I bet she didn't know at the time how it would effect me. Marisa, for the athlete that you are and the encouragement you give even though I am not in your group, Thank you! To all of my other friends, running and non-running, thank you in general for always asking how it is going and reassuring me I could do this. I am positive I have missed someone key to my life, but it doesn't mean I am not thanking you in my heart. OH my Chiropractor...how could I forget him! Dr. Jeremy Phillips has gotten my feet moving so that I can do this and if I promised on Facebook that if I couldn't do it he was who I was blaming first. Well, JP, I did it and now I better be the first person your client list for Tuesday! Because I need putting back together.

THANK YOU EVERYONE! I could not of done this without the role you play in my life! Yes, I am your needy friend and thanks for be there! YOU ALL ROCK!

Race report to follow soon!

One last time, thanks for all your friendships, your encouragement, your faith in me, and for just standing by me! I love you all! Sounds like a eulogy doesn't it? Well feel free to us it if you need to cause this might just be the death of me tomorrow! LOL!

GETTING NERVOUS

My time is drawing near...finally the nerves are kicking in and I AM SCARED TO DEATH.... I can't imagine what 26.2 miles running is going to feel like but I can only imagine that I am going to have to find some delirium some where around mile 20. For those of you that run with me I know your already feeling sorry for the people in this race around me! I am feeling sorry for them as well.

I saw Dr. JP this morning, the worlds best chiropractor! I told him this was like a last chance workout. He had to do his best this morning. So with that said I think my calves will be black and blue from his thumbs! I guess I should be glad and on Sunday I will be I am sure, but right now, not so much.

There seem to be alot of us GBORO folks going and I am wishing each of you good luck and hope I get to see you somewhere along the trail. OBX here we come.....