The 13.1 (controversial?) sticker

As you may or may not know, I'm training for my first marathon in October. In my training, I've run two half-marathon distances, and signed up for my first half-marathon as well, which is in 2 weeks (eeeekk!).

I bought myself a 13.1 car magnet on Amazon.com, and when it came in the mail, I wondered whether I could put it on my car now. I mean, I have run 13.1 miles twice. But I haven't run a 13.1 mile race yet. I did decide to put the magnet on my car, but I googled it anyway to see whether you're supposed to run a real race first.

I didn't find out the answer to my question because of the baffling negativity toward people who run half marathons from runners and non-runners alike. People who run half marathons were referred to as "quitters" and "failures." People who placed 13.1 stickers on their cars were criticized even more harshly for bragging about only making it half-way. Here is a quote from a forum that I absolutely refuse to link to because I do not want it to get any more attention: "Putting those stickers on your car is the equivalent of putting one on that says "I was too much of a pussy to run the whole race."". Written by a non-runner btw.


WTF? 

I know that nobody (other than my mother) reads this blog, but this is just something I feel like I have to say.

Seeing 13.1 and 26.2 stickers on cars every single day while I shopped, sat in traffic, or drove to my running group inspired me to train for this marathon. The stickers showed me that people who run marathons and half-marathons are regular people who sit in rush hour traffic just like me; not super-humans to whom I could never relate nor aspire to be like. They brought the marathon back down to earth, and helped me to believe that I can do it too. I can honestly say that if I had not seen so many of these car stickers, the likelihood that I would be running a marathon this fall would be much, much slimmer. And once I complete the full marathon, I sure as hell will place a 26.2 sticker on my car. 

Is it bragging? Yes, partially. I will be so proud of myself, and I'll want to sing it to the world. But I know that these stickers will also inspire people, like they did for me.

For what it's worth, I also see no reason why anyone should poo poo on other running distance stickers. 5k sticker?  Great! Running a 5k is a completely different experience than a longer run, yes. But that doesn't mean that less effort is put into each minute. In a 5k race you run harder and faster the entire time, put in 100%, and leave the race feeling contentedly exhausted. I even saw a 0.5 sticker for a crossfit enthusiast, which I thought was fantastic and worthy of a brag. If you only had to run 0.5 mile, would you run it at a marathon pace? NO! You'd go balls to the walls, and put it in everything you had. About once per week, I will run one single mile as fast as I possibly can and leave it at that. Afterward I wheeze for half as long as it took to run the damn mile, barely able to move. I can imagine that if I was running half of that distance, I'd feel the same way when I was done; as thought I couldn't possibly take another step.

Don't be ashamed, and don't let the cyber-bullying-ass-hat-wearing-dick-cheeses of the world make you feel bad about yourself for the things you choose to do with your spare time or the stickers you choose to place on your car.

Let your freak flag fly, as they say. Let it fly.

Word

Baltimore Running Fest 2011

So, I did it! I ran in the Baltimore Marathon Relay yesterday! It was such a beautiful day to run; the weather was perfect! I spent the night before dutifully eating my carbs (CRAB FRIED RICE! SERIOUSLY!) and going to bed semi-early, and it really paid off. I had great run. My husband Joe and my best friend Kelsey came to watch and cheer me on! Kelsey is awesome. She made shirts and everything. They had bacon cheeseburgers on them and said, "SARAH!" So fitting. I had been saying for weeks that as soon as I finished running, I was going to eat a bacon cheeseburger for lunch. And oh did I!

As for the race itself, I did really great. As you can see in this post and this post, I've been running at a 9:30+ pace all while training. But in the race, I pulled off a 9:03 pace, and finished my 7 miles in 1:04:04.

I ran one of the two longer legs of the race, and had the best pace of my entire team. I feel like that's something to be proud of! My pace looks slightly slower when you look at the team score compared to my tracker, but that's due to the fact that I had to stop and take off the time chip, which was secured around my ankle, and pass it off to my teammate. My time didn't technically end until she left the exchange zone with the chip attached to her person. Overall, we had a pretty good time for the entire marathon with 4:29:43.

Individual leg lengths:

Our Team's time:

Speaking of tracking my pace, I've never been happier to have my iPhone. I really had a hard time deciding to get one, and everyday I feel more and more like it was the right decision. Not only did I love using my iPhone to track my run and listen to music (today and throughout training), but I was able to snap pics throughout my run so easily. I sent picture texts to Joe and Kelsey to let them know how far along I was. I mainly sent pictures of the mile markers:

Doing this while running was so much easier and understandable than sending a text message saying "I'm at mile 8" would have been. Plus, this way there was no confusing between mile 8 of the entire marathon and how far I'd run personally. By doing this, they knew when I was getting close to them so that they could easily snap a photo. Here I am:

 Overall, it was a really great race, and a good experience. But I think next year I'll do the half-marathon. I've done the relay twice, and I think I've gotten all of the satisfaction I can out of it. Especially when I work really hard to have a great pace, and my teammates really don't measure up. Not trying to have my nose in the air, but when one of your teammate's pace is a full 3 minutes per mile slower than yours, that overall time is kind of a let down. Plus, I barely trained for this, and with a little more effort toward training, I think I could pull off the half. Not to mention, I really want one of those nifty "13.1" stickers for my car! Vain? Probably. I don't care though.

Speaking of vain, here are a few more pics of the day. Eat your heart out, bitches:

 Word to your mother.

Countdown to the Baltimore Running Festival

The 2011 Baltimore Running Festival is October 15, which is less than 3 weeks away. I'm running in the team relay, which splits the marathon between 4 people. I've done this race once before in 2007.

Sexxxy... I just ran 7 miles. Give my FACE a break. And my bandanna. It needs a break too. Indefinitely.

This race pretty much has the best medals ever. Here's my medal from oh sev'.

And here is the marathon medal for this year. I'm not running the marathon, so I know mine will be slightly different, but still AWESOME.

Once again, my portion is 7 miles, which is really no biggie, but kind of a biggie if you haven't been training... Which I really haven't been. I mean, I've been running 3 miles here and there. And going to bootcamp class twice a week. I'm naturally a pretty good runner, so I know I can go out and do the thing without training. But I also know training and being ready for it will make it so much more enjoyable.

Lately I've been trying to get a little more serious about training. Yesterday I ran 7 miles on the elliptical, with moderate resistance to make it more like real running. It only took me 40 minutes, so I know this was more like running 4-4.5 miles.

Today I went out for a real run, with the idea that I would run the full 7 miles, but I only did five.

Not a bad pace, especially because i took 2 walking breaks! My feet started falling asleep, so by the end I figured it was better to stop than to hurt myself. I can always try again in a couple days.

Anyway, I'll probably insert a few updates into the ole blog between now and race day. I know this shiz is sooooo interesting, and you cannot possibly wait to read more about it. Chill you guys.

Kick off is 8 minutes away, and I have other things on my mind at the moment.

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