Her Name is Rio.... Before the Raleigh R&R Half

Me and Rio in Central Park

It's my last day at home before I fly down to Raleigh for three nights and one half marathon with one of my best friends from college, Rio.  Amidst the craziness of packing, finishing up work, and bracing for travel, I wanted to take some time to share and reflect on why this trip and this race is important.

I met Rio just before college.  I had just moved to Massachusetts literally the day after I graduate high school.  Rio had met my roommate-to-be at a college orientation that spring, heard I was relocating to somewhere I knew no one, and called me out of the clear blue sky, introducing herself and taking me out.  She was my only friend that summer.

Rio was on my dorm floor freshman year.  She earned her nickname here by opening the door to her room, yelling "STUDY BREAK!!!" and blasting whatever song she felt like - often Duran Duran.  Her name is Rio and she dances on the sand.....

My 21st birthday.  

Rio and I stayed very close over the years.  Through the tough years of graduate school.  Through a string of boyfriends.  She moved to Scotland for graduate school and I came over to see her, spending a week in a car where I made her pull over and take a picture of every sheep we saw.  It's Scotland.  That's a lot of sheep.....

Rainbow at a castle on Loch Ness in Scotland.
We didn't see the Nessy...

She got my my first job in my industry.  You know - that career that feeds my children?  She was one of only two bridesmaids in my wedding.  I had my baby girl.  Then, when I was pregnant with my second, she decided to relocate to San Francisco.

Rio took this photo of very pregnant me (hard to tell)
hugging my baby girl

It was the right move for her.  While she was out there, she started running.  As two girls who had eschewed fitness as only pretty girls in their twenties can (we even got kicked out of a campus yoga class for being rowdy), this was both amazing to me and felt a little bit like a betrayal.  Wait, that's too strong a word.  But there she was, sailing, skiing, meeting all sorts of athletic fit people in sunny California and knocking of half marathons while I was still 20 lbs overweight, covered in spit-up, and exhausted.  I was both proud of her and in awe of her.

Fast forward a few more years to last fall.  Rio met her dreamy husband in California, married him, and they moved to Raleigh.  Back on the correct coast, still far away.  In October of last year, their first child was born.  Before baby girl Rio even made her entrance, big Rio and I decided to do this race together:

It was to be my first half marathon, and her first half after becoming a mother.  Can we take a moment to give her some bad ass mother runner points for running a half six months after having a baby?  It would be perfect - I've finally joined the ranks of runners, and she's joined the ranks of parenthood.

Well as it turns out Rio and I are both impulsive, so we both ran a half last month.  Which kind of spoils the "first" part of that plan.  But it's still going to be awesome to run with her!!

Our original plan was to just enjoy the experience.  Run when we wanted, walk when we wanted, and dance to the bands at every mile mark when we wanted.  After a somewhat disappointing experience at the New Bedford HM, I had two choices.  I could double down on training, leave Rio behind for this race, and push to break the 2:15:00 goal I didn't achieve last month.  Or I could stick to the original plan.

A flurry of texts and phone calls to Rio and my coach over the last few weeks have 100% confirmed my race goal - the original plan.  I will not run this for speed.  I will run this for fun.  I will enjoy every sunshine-y, gorgeous second of this race.

The course itself is a little hillier than New Bedford, but not too bad.  In the center of Raleigh.  Rio even bought us VIP parking and portapotty access, so... clearly fun will be had.  Secretly, I'd love to finish in under 2:30:00, but I have to accept that that may not happen.

One big reason that this might not happen, aside from dancing in the streets, is my hips.  This morning while waiting for the bus, my little girl spread out her legs and bent down, resting her head on the ground.  She says, "Mommy this doesn't stretch me at all".  Oh, to have the flexibility of a six-year-old.  

Ever since New Bedford, I've have a deep, aching pain in my hip sockets.  Mostly when I walk or run - the impact jars stabbing pain into the joint.  I finally elucidated this enough to my coach that he has taken me off impact sports for my taper week, but the pain remains.  I've stretched endlessly.  I've tortured self with a tennis ball and foam roller.  I'm taking enough NSAIDs to dope a horse.  I'm only doing swimming, biking, and strength.  But it's still there.  I am hopeful that it's just bursitis or some kind of bruising that will heal with time, but in the meantime I'm not setting any PRs.

This trip down to NC will also be my PR for number of days I've been gone from my family.  I was feeling pretty apprehensive about this and guilty, until last night, when this conversation occurred:

Me:  I'll be gone for 3 nights and home by dinner on Monday.  I'll call every day and we can Facetime.  Dad is signed up to get emails the day of the race so you can track how I'm doing.
Kids:  Ok.  That's fine!  You'll have fun.  We'll just pretend it's like a work day that you were busy in the evenings for.  But longer.  [totally unphased]
Jedi [to me]: Honey did you want to bring the IPad with you for entertainment?
Kids:  Noo!!!! I don't want to not have the IPad for four days!!  You can't Mommy!!  wailing and tears......

Mommy leaving?  No problem.  IPad leaving?  Hysterical sobs.  The jig is up kids.  I'm going to enjoy my weekend away!!!!

Taper Snooze

I am having a problem with the snooze button.  

As in, I am hitting it far too much.

It's taper week for me, in preparation for the Old-Fashioned 10 Miler this coming Sunday.  This past weekend I ran my last long run in prep for this race - a 9 miler from my gym on Saturday morning after my Total Immersion class.  I had a good amount of hemming and hawing about how and when to get this run in - between the cold temps, the predicted storm for Sunday (which never happened), and a birthday party on Saturday afternoon, Friday night I was in a tizzy as to whether I should treadmill it, brave the cold, do it at home, do it at the gym, do a spin class instead.... decisions are so hard.  But I truly feel superstitious about The Running Gods - fickle deities that reward effort, but also dole out injuries to unsuspecting disciples like the vengeful gods of old.  I feel like training mostly inside for an outdoor race is testing the limits of their patience, so after driving my planned route to make sure sidewalks and shoulders were mostly clear and the footing would be ok, I headed outside.

Golden arches pit stop.  This and the playground
is all McDonalds is good for.

Love these

The route I chose starts with the first two miles up a fairly decent grade, so my pace naturally was slow.  Sheriff gave me no specific pace goals except to attempt negative splits in the second 4.5.  Which I figured I could do, since the second half was more or less downhill.  (What goes up, must..... yeah).  It was overall a nice run.  Beautiful sparkling snow, blue skies. A bathroom stop at McDonalds was much more comfy than some of my usual accommodations.  I couldn't remember how to reset my Garmin, so I ran totally by feel. 

Once I made it back to my car, I checked Strava and was pretty disappointed with my overall pace.  Nearly 12 minute miles.  Wasn't I supposed to be getting better at this?  My midweek treadmill runs were much closer to 9 and 10 minute miles (albeit shorter).  What the heck?

Love Strava.  It give you medals for even crummy runs.

So this run didn't do much for my confidence going into this weekend's race.  But I know I am being silly.  For heaven's sake - I actually RAN all nine miles, something that I couldn't do even a month ago.  Afterwards Sheriff told me not to worry about the pace, but that yes he did expect me to run faster at the race and my half marathon in March.  Ok.  Maybe less looking at scenery, more learning to set Garmin better and sticking to a pace.  But also, I have to remember that I've not been running very long in the grand scheme of things.  Hummingbird (a consistent 8-9 minute mile pacer) told me a while ago that she didn't crack 10 minute miles until she got serious about her training last fall.  This sentiment was echoed in today's post by Sue for This Momma Runs for Cupcakes.  This is my beginning.  

Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party of a good friend's baby son.  We had a lot of fun making his cake.  Then on Sunday I was supposed to have a trainer ride, but my body wanted a rest day.  So I took the kids to the gym to play in the kid gym and to swim.  After an hour of playing and running around the gym, I took the kids into the pool, only to have my little guy (who has had a cold for weeks just like the rest of us), tell me that his ear hurt and he wanted to go home.  He was lethargically floating on his noodle - not getting his had wet or jumping or splashing or anything.  So I packed up my wet and crying kids and headed home.  Sheriff's comment on that workout in Training Peaks - "Having kids sounds tiring."  Oh yes.    

Spaced Out Birthday Cake

Sunday evening, after being in charge of the kids all day (Jedi was on a baking binge in the kitchen), I really needed some yoga.  I told the kids, "I am taking over your playroom.  I have played with you all day.  For the next 45 minutes, I get to be the most important person in this family.  You are welcome to stay and do yoga with me, to play quietly in the leftover space, but you may not fight with eachother or bother me.  If you do, you will go to your room until I am done."  Yes moms, it's ok to say you're important.  The kids nodded solemnly.  I picked an advance Vinyasa flow video (a style that moves quickly through postures so you get a good amount of flexibility and power).  To my surprise, the kids followed along for nearly the whole 45 minutes.  They did great.  They also thought Mommy trying to do a headstand was hilarious.

So now it's two days later, and I haven't worked out since.  Yesterday's trainer ride got snooze buttoned.  And then further cancelled when I decided a craft night out with girlfriends was much more what I needed than another sweat session in the basement.  I set the alarm this morning fully ready to atone.  It went off, I got up, brushed my teeth, changed, and then went back to bed.  Again.  My body is still sore from the long run and from the yoga session (which despite the cute kid pictures was H-A-R-D).  My body and spirit seem to want rest.  And that is okay.  It is taper week, after all.

I did however, pack a bag for my lunch break, so three miles or so need to happen during the day today.  I warned Sheriff I was going to be an exceptionally bad athlete this week, but I have to draw the line somewhere.

How long did it take you to get to your pace goals consistently?
How do you fight the snooze button??  Motivate me!