VT City Relay Marathon May 23rd, 2009

Where does time go? This weekend we headed off to VT for The VT City Marathon. We did not do the full marathon; We ran the five person relay with Laura, Melanie, Dan and Ed.

The weekend began with a pasta dinner at Joe’s house on Friday evening. A whole bunch of ARE runner's attended. We sat around, ate pasta and chatted on the porch for awhile and then headed home. Saturday our relay team car pooled and headed to Burlington VT. First off to the expo and then to the hotel where we met up with Joe and his crew and a short two in a half mile run. We came back and went to dinner at Junior's and then chilled for the evening. Sunday morning everyone up early and ready to run. We headed off to the start at Battery Park. We met up with all of the other runners from Albany . About 75 Albany Running Exchange runners came to Vt. A lot of these people were running the full marathon. Others running a two person relay, some a three person relay.

Laura was our first runner with a 5k. Off she went at the start. It was a rainy morning, so waiting for our relay team to come in one by one, we began to get cold. Laura came in and handed off to Melanie where Mel went out for a 5.5 mile leg, then Dan with a 6.6 mile leg and then to me. By the time I received the yellow bracelet I was freezing and soaked. All I wanted to do at that point is run to get warm or head back to the hotel and get under the covers, but that was not a choice at the time. My leg was a 5.5 mile leg. I was handed that yellow bracelet and off I went. I felt great running. I left Battery Park and headed up North Ave. Like last year I was amazed that I was running these Streets in Burlington because of my family history in Burlington . I passed the cemetery where my grand mother and many other family members are buried then the North beach entrance where we have camped and swam many times. I ran through my cousin’s old neighborhood and back onto North Ave. I ran past the trailer park we lived in while my dad was serving time in the Air Force in Libya and then by my aunt's old house. What memories! Time flew by for me. There was so much support on the course water stops, music, cheering from by standers, bubbles from young kids, it was so nice. About a mile from my hand off to Ed the sun came out…Awwwwwwwwwww…THE SUN!!! I was so happy to know that the day was going to be sunny. I came up to Flynn school where Ed was waiting for me. The pass and Ed was off. I couldn’t believe that I just ran 5.5 miles. It went so quick and I felt so amazing the whole time, what a good feeling. I waited at that leg for Kathy to finish her leg so we could run back to the finish line and watch our team mates come through the finish line. Our team did a great job with a time of 3:56:07. After the run and we headed back to our hotel and enjoyed the pool and alcohol. Did I say alcohol? The Albany Running Exchange runners took up the whole second floor of the hotel and we had one big party…It was a great weekend!

Prospect Mountain - May 9, 2009

I always think to myself after a run or a race, “what’s next?” I will finish a race and think, “I can’t believe I did that!” Well, this run was the top of all “Oh my Gods!” Let me start with the beginning. Last year I can remember Joe Benny talking about running Prospect Mountain. I can remember thinking he was nuts and that only really good runners could possibly do something like that - not people like me.

Now back to this year. I am training for the Green Mountain Relay on June 20th and my dear sweet boyfriend, who I think wants to kill me, suggested that Prospect Mountain would be a good training run. So, I call my friend Melanie and she is as crazy as myself and says, “Let’s do it!” So we all sign up without putting a lot of thought into it. Before the race, Melanie suggested that we do hill work at the Pinebush. The hills in the Pinebush were amazing. We ran them three weeks in a row and I thought, “Awesome, this is really going to help with Prospect Mountain.”

Okay, are you still following me? While I’m telling you about Prospect Mountain keep the word mountain in mind. On Saturday May 9th, a large contingent of ARE members met up at our apartment and we followed each other up to Lake George. We were all excited about running this race. We went to packet pickup where we received beautiful technical tee shirts. We then left to join all the other runners at the start. While standing at the base of the mountain, Ed, the boyfriend who I think is out to kill me, brings to my attention the beautiful scenery in the distance. He then tells me that is the top of the mountain. At that point I come to realize that I am not running some little hill in the Pinebush. I was running an incredibly huge mountain. That is when I started to think to myself, “Am I nuts?” “How am I going to do that?”

Still somewhat excited, we wandered over to the start line. Everybody around us was talking about their strategy on how they will make it to the top. The gun went off and off we went. The beginning is a slow incline with a little bit of flatness. I’m okay with that so far thinking, “okay I can do this.” Then the climb begins and continues and continues and continues and never stops. At one point I put my hand on my chest and felt my heart pounding so hard that I really do believe that if you were looking straight at me you would be able to see my heart coming out of my chest with every heart beat. I do believe that if my heart was to ever give out, this race would have caused it. I continued to run and the incline still goes on and on. When I typically run I think of so many things like work, my kids, bills, things I want to do, the beauty of the run, Ed and so many more things. This race I thought about the finish. I kept asking myself, “When? When will this be done? When will this Mountain stop? WHEN?” Then it happened, the finish line, the beautiful finish line, and people rooting me on at the end. I was done! I was so thankful to be at the top of this mountain. I was so amazed I accomplished such a thing as climbing a mountain, shucks, running a mountain. I ran up an elevation of 1,601 feet.

After everybody I came with finished the race, I took in the beauty of this mountain. You could look down over Lake George. It was very foggy but still beautiful. What a fantastic sight. Okay, here’s a question for you. What do you do when you climb 5.68 miles up a mountain? The answer ...you turn around and run back down and that’s just what we did!

Marathon Training Begins! - May 3, 2009

The Training begins! On Saturday evening Mel, Dan, Laura and Kathy came over for our first MCM team meeting. Ed and I made dinner and were ready to make out our training schedule. Mel brought all of her Marathon training books and her thoughts on what we should do to train and when to start. Dan and Ed got the calendar out and began writing down the mileage for each long run we should have. We have decided to run our own mileage on the weekdays and on the weekend we will get together for our long run. We will pull each other through the pain we will endure on our long runs. We will support each other when it hurts the most.

We decided on a 26 week training starting April 27th finishing Marathon weekend October 25th. We decided to start our training at 10 miles since we felt that we could all handle 10 miles to start. We also decided that we would get up on Sunday (the following morning) and do our first 10 miler from Thatcher Park to Tollgate Ice cream in Delmar, and so we did.

Sunday morning we headed up to Thatcher Park to meet up with our team. Ed decided to drive a support vehicle instead of running due to a sore knee, and boy was I glad to see him every three miles with water. Having someone following us with water is a huge bonus. We ran down Thatcher hill and then up some hills and back down. We came to a couple of killer hills on Rt 85 but we nailed them. We began our training and were all thrilled that we did our first 10 miler together.

St. John's / St. Ann's Spring Run Off - Apr. 25, 2009

Another 10k! I still blow my own mind that I am running 10k’s … Shucks … (running period!) This 10k was a fundraiser for St. John’s/St. Ann's church in Albany . The night before the race the church hosted a pasta dinner. Ed and I met up with Laura, Dan, Mel, Greg and his wife Debbie. We enjoyed the pasta and the wonderful company and then home we went. Saturday morning we were off to Albany for the race. The race was down at the Corning Preserve in Albany . It was an up and back race. Meaning you run half way and turn around and come back. It was a very flat, fast course. It was the most beautiful day of the season so far. A perfect day! I ran pretty good. I felt pretty good. I did pretty good! I did have a personal best of 53:47. After the race we decided to go out and do a cool down of another 3.1 miles ... yes, I did a cool down of 3.1 miles. I laugh sometimes about the things I do now that I would never had imagined ever doing before.

Dodge the Deer - April 19, 2009

What can I say about Dodge The Deer? Incredible? Fun? Amazing? Let me start with the weekend as a whole. First Friday night, Ed and I went over to Josh and Sara’s for a mass production of DTD cookie making. We went over to meet up with about fifteen other women to make cookies for the winners of the race. We made squirrels, deer’s, chipmunks and other cute characters. Did I say we? I meant all the other women and myself. All of the men went into the computer room to prepare for the race …NOT!! They were all just watching videos and talking about other races and making each other laugh. Anyway, we (the women) made about 150-200 cookies.

Saturday, Ed and I took a ride out to Schodack State Park to help Josh with setting up for Dodge the Deer. It was a very nice day. We helped set up the finish line area and the start area. After setting up Ed and I took a run of the course with another Josh.

Sunday Morning, We were up bright and early. We volunteered at the registration area for the race. I am not completely sure but I think close to 500 people ran this race. It is a 5k trail run through Schodack State Park followed with a cook out and great company. The race started at 10:00 am so at about 9:45 we got ourselves ready to run. Ed and I met up with some other people and the race began. I really like this run, I felt great the whole run. I felt strong and loved running on the trails. It was a very good run. I beat my time again from last year and that is always a plus for me. I would definitely race the Dodge The Deer again.