Change of Scenery

People have a lot of questions when they find out I'm a "distance runner." My distances right now cap at 14 miles and there are A LOT of people out there putting in WAY more miles than me. Still, that type of mileage can be intimidating to beginner runners or people who have never tried to run at all. The usual questions I get regard fatigue, injury, soreness and stretching, but I think the most common questions are more along the lines of, "don't you get bored," "how do you convince yourself to keep going," and "don't you get tired?"

Yes, you can get bored and yes you can get tired. But if you've trained to tackle 13 miles your body will do it. End of story. It's the mental game you then need to play. You're mind needs to be prepared to keep on going, not your legs.

Since I began training I've figured out what techniques work best for me. If I'm running with my group distance is never a problem. We usually run at a pace that we can have a conversation comfortably, which means we're talking to each other the whole time. During races it's a bit more difficult. We're usually running at a quicker pace and are almost never together. This is when I have upbeat music to help keep my pace and repeat mantras to myself when I get tired. Some of my favorites mantras are:

-Just one more mile (even if there's several)
-You can do it
-You've trained for this
-Push harder

I also focus on my breathing and maintaining a comfortable pace, adjusting it whenever I feel necessary. But my favorite thing to keep myself occupied during a race is pick out a person ahead of me that I'd like to pass. I'll take my time, maybe pick up my pace a tad, and slowly pass them. Then I pick the next person. This seems to be the best way for me to get through half marathons.

Recently we've been registering for races in areas we don't usually run, for the excitement and the change of scenery. A few months a go we did a 10k on Tybee Island in GA. Claire and I actually ran this entire race together and I FINALLY got some good race photos!

Pre-Race Team Photo

Finally an action shot where I don't look like I'm dying!

A few weeks after that a group of us went down to Tampa for the Gasparilla half marathon. The Expo was pretty big and we had a lot of fun. I even had the opportunity to get my body fat and BMI measured. They did the measurement by having me stand on a machine that weighed and measure me, while gripping handles for a few seconds. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I was pretty pleased with the result.

Height: 5'8" 

(I really think I'm 5'9"...maybe I wasn't standing up straight)

Weight: 138 

Ideal Weight for me is 125.3 to 164.9

BMI: 21

Ideal BMI for me is 19 to 25

Body Fat %: 22%

Ideal Body Fat for me is 19% to 25.4%

Body Fat Mass: 31 lb

Ideal Body Fat Mass for me: 26.4 to 35.5

I was happy to find that I'm within the healthy range for all categories (though I'd prefer to be on the lower end of each of those ranges...)

After we all got measured we headed out to the water front for some R&R.

CJ with the Lego Man I found in Chris' van

Chris, Colin, John and CJ

Me and Mary

When the sun started to go down we got settled in the hotel and enjoyed a pre-race pasta dinner at a local favorite, Luigi's. We hit the sack early because our half marathon started at 6:30am.

We woke up at 4:30 am to the beginning of a storm. The wind was whipping and as we pulled into the parking garage it started to pour. Luckily the rain let up just minutes before our race began.

Chris and his bed head before the run

The run was beautiful and scenic, however, and it kept my mind occupied. For the first few miles I was completely focused on moving up in the pack. I accidentally started in the wrong heat with runners who would finish in over two hours. weaving in and out of people for a few miles made for an interesting run.

My goal was to finish under 1 hour 50 minutes and unfortunately I didn't quite hit my goal. I finished in 1 hour 51 minutes. I'm blaming it on the people dodging... But I did walk away with a bad-ass skull and cross bones metal :)

We also ran the local shamrock run last weekend, which was followed by the appropriate St. Patrick's day beverage: Guinness.

You'll notice some different faces in the above photo. Stephanie joined us, after taking a few months off of running due to some knee pain. Doug made it out and brought along our friend Pat. I finished the 5k in 23 min, 48 seconds.


My next "interesting" race is the LoziLu Women'sa Mud Run in Jacksonville, FL next month. We decided on a team name of the Bluffton Beer Runners. What can I say? We like beer!!

So the trick is to try different routes, try different races, challenge yourself, trick yourself at times and keep it interesting! Start slow and build your mileage. Anyone can be a runner. You just need to try :) And find an awesome group, it really helps!