Ragnar Relay

Hello friends, family... world,

We ran the 202 mile Ragnar Relay over the weekend.  We are exhausted but stayed safe and had a lot of fun.

Check out Ariana's running website for a race report, fun pictures and even a video!

See ya!

Tucson Marathon 12/13/09

I went into this marathon hoping to break 3 hours. As the marathon was getting closer, I was thinking of trying for a 2:55-2:57. That was my "A" goal, a perfect day, the stars aligned. Anyways...

Before we headed down to Tucson on Saturday, we met our close friends for breakfast at the Orange Table in Scottsdale. They make my lucky "Monkey Cakes"- bananas, almonds, and coconut. They are to die for and I love any kind of pancake! It was also Terri's birthday!
After breakfast, we caravanned to Tucson, hit up the expo, and drove the course, as they had changed parts from last year. My sister, Marisa, also wanted to see it as this was her first full marathon! The course looked very daunting. Don't get me wrong, there is still some nice elevation declines, but many more hills than I remember. The entire beginning is rolling hills, miles 7-9 were some nice steady inclines, inclines toward the end, and a hill at mile 23. Marisa was looking a little nervous! (I think we all were!) We went back to the hotel, ate chicken and rice, showered, and tried to get some sleep.

We woke up at 4am and I was ready to rock! The weather was supposed to be perfect!I wore a holiday red top that Terri gave me (brought me luck!), Nike boy shorts, arm warmers, red/white striped gloves, and a red poinsettia for my hair. Quite festive! We dropped Shannon off at the 1/2 marathon busses, and Mike dropped us off at the full marathon busses.
Matt, Marisa, and I got on the bus, met our friend Donovan and shuttled to the start line. It was about 40 degrees. We went to the port-o's, took off our warm clothes and made it to the front of the start line just in time.
My mile splits:
Mile 1- 5:54 nice downhill, was nervous that I was going too fast though. Caught up with the first gal, we talked for a bit.
Mile 2-6:46- Rollers
Mile 3-6:37
Mile 4- 6:43
Mile 5- 6:42 Took a Vanilla Gingerbread GU
Mile 6-6:36
Mile 7- 6:32
Mile 8- 7:52- Big incline for about 1.25 miles. Intentionally took it this slow to save energy
Mile 9-6:57
Mile 10-6:34 Took second Vanilla Ginger Gu and a salt tab
Mile 11-6:33
Mile 12-6:36 Started worrying that I was going too fast although I felt really great
Mile 13- 6:39 This is where God decided to make it interesting for us runners and gave us a 10-15 mile per hour headwind for the rest of the marathon. That wind was brutal!
Mile 14-6:42 I tried to draft, but I couldn't find anyone!
Mile 15-6:47
Mile 16-6:51
Mile 17-6:44- Took a GU Roctane
Mile 18-6:50 Passed a girl and many men that tried to pass me. :D
Mile 19-6:40
Mile 20-6:57 Where is the turn??? :) Passed the second place female who zoomed by me at mile 2. Started my mantra that my daily mile friend John H. told me- Be strong Ariana, this is your race. It really helped, thanks John!
Mile 21-6:56 Took a GU Roctane
Mile 22-7:03 Start of the incline- and my decline!
Mile 23-7:14
Mile 24-7:08
Mile 25-7:09 Didn't think I was going to break 3 anymore, than I hardened up and made myself push. I was NOT going to let all of my hard work go to waste.
Mile 26-6:57
.33 (per Garmin)-6:14
I turned the corner and saw the clock said 2:58:xx, I was going to do it!!!
I ran through at 2:58:54!! Second female finsher, 11th overall finisher out of 1,246! I broke 3 hours!!! That is a 6:50 minute per mile pace. Official results:
https://www.runraceresults.com/secure/raceresults.cfm?ID=RCLK2009
I was so happy, I of course cried.

It was a little too close to 3 hours for comfort, but with the wind, I'll take it. :D
I felt really good the entire way. My legs never cramped up, no stomach problems, and the miles just flew by. However, once I stopped running, my legs seized up like no other. Very painful! So I just walked around and tried to shake tham out. I could still move, just not very fast!
Shannon and I:
My brother Lukas and I:

I found out that Shannon had met her goal of 2 hours for the half-marathon! So amazing! She worked to hard this training cycle. She beat her previous time by 30 minutes!! Unbelievable!

I was able to see Matt come in at 3:13. Not what he was shooting for, but with the wind, he did SO amazing. I am so proud of him! His average pace was 7:22. So awesome!
Above: Matt getting ready to make his final move and pass this guy! And he did!


Terri came in at 3:15, looking as strong as ever. This girl is an amazing athlete. Just so solid every run!
Terri's husband Mark- His FIRST marathon! came in at 3:16! They did SO awesome!!!


Then we waited for my sister. It was getting close to 4 hours, and I honestly thought with the wind, she may come in at 4:15. She was just shooting for under 5 hours.
All the sudden, Shannon spotted her coming around the corner looking totally zen!
We were screaming our heads off for her. I looked at the clock--3:56!!! She crossed at 3:56:41. Unbelievable! My first marathon was a 4:36!!! She rocked it! I think she is ready for more now... I cried again. So proud of her. Unreal.
The awards were not supposed to start until 12:30, at about 11:45 I hear my name being called our for my award! I got a trophy. Matt and Terri both got third in their age groups and got a sand art. As you can tell, its a small race. :)


Pic of my festive-ness. :D

After the race, we went back to the hotel, checked out, and Shannon and I went to the hot tub with a few beers. We dunked our sore legs in the pool first and it felt really good! We left Tucson and later that night went to our friend Mark's house to celebrate Terri's birthday. He had make-your-own pizzas with homemade dough and all of these gourmet toppings. So amazing! To top it off, he had homemade Limoncello and Tiramisu! A perfect way to end a great weekend!

Today my legs are much more sore. Time for some massage. I have a really busy week at work, so I may actually take the entire week off before I attempt any recovery runs.

Next up- I am signed up for PF Changs full marathon. I think I can do better. It all depends on how I recover though as the race is 5 weeks away. I am also meeting with a coach on Saturday who is also a phenomenal runner, so I am VERY excited!

Tempe IronGirl

At the start line hands on watches!

What an amazing race! I won the 2009 Tempe IronGirl with a time of 1:03:27, a 6:19 average pace over the 10 miles. I felt so good! I was only aiming for 6:40's, but I surprised myself. The stars were aligned for me today!
I had some AMAZING girls to compete against (including a world-class triathlete) , which made for a good race. I left my main competitor at mile 8 to finish strong with my last 2 mile splits at 6:06 and 5:56. I just felt really, really, good. Matt, Terri, Mark, and Bradford were all there cheering me on and said I had a smile on my face the entire time. This is my first win at a big race, so I am really excited about it, not to mention, I was kind of the underdog (or unknown) going in.
On my tail. :) Great racing!

I got a lead bike! Holy cow!




So close to the finish in a sprint.
I think this has to be my best race picture of all time. :)
Crossed the mat, I'm done!

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=10228#racetop

Shannon did awesome in the 5k, a new PR for her after dealing with a severe injury this past month!
Yay! Alissa and Alanna both ran amazing 10 mile races as well. The Irongirl was a great race and so much fun!
Next up...Tucson!

Fun Stuff

So I found Tank nestled on the couch with my Runner's World the other day. I KNEW he loved running too! Maybe he just has a thing for Grete Waitz! :)

I got my FIRST pair of racing shoes in the mail today! I have been really wanting to try the new Brooks Launch performance trainer/competition shoe. Matt has been hearing about it for weeks! I was about to order them online and he broke the news that he had already ordered them for me. Seriously, I am the luckiest girl in the world. He wrote a little note to go with them that he is proud of me for chasing my dreams. He is so unbelievably sweet and thoughtful. *sigh*

This is them, nice and bright and just in time for my race on Sunday!

IRON GIRL TEMPE

So, we went to watch Terri, Brett, Jim, Jan, and many of our other friends run the Phoenix 10k/5k today. They all did so awesome ! I cannot believe how many people were there! It was great! The McMillan elite racing team from Flagstaff was also there, so it was really cool to see the women race. Holy Mackeral they are fast!

So, I *just maybe* got the itch to race and I *just maybe* signed up for the Iron Girl 10 miler next weekend at Tempe Town Lake. Maybe meaning yes. :) I am super excited for it and also I am curious to see how my training has been going. My goal is a 6:30 pace for the 10 miles. We'll see. :) I have 82 miles scheduled for this week, so I am going to cut that and taper a bit.
Yesterday I ran 20 miles with the last 14 miles at marathon goal pace (6:45-6:50) with my last mile at 6:20. It felt great!!!

Here is the link to iron girl, it looks really fun!

TEMPE IRON GIRL 10 MILER

Wish me luck!
xoxo

New Stuff

I will start out the post with some great news! Matt recently got promoted to a team leader position at Vanguard!!! We are very happy and super excited! He is such an awesome leader!

We are both still training like crazy! After my 100 miles week, I dropped to 80 miles for the next week, I have 90 miles this week, 82 next week, 90 the following, and then we get to cut back our mileage for three weeks as our legs get ready for the marathon!!! It is kind of daunting to train so hard for one race. Anything can happen on race day, so its hard to know that you are putting all of your eggs in one basket.

I recently finished up parent-teacher conferences, which were awesome, but kept me super busy. So know the storm of the holiday season begins! This is the best time to be a teacher. There are so many fun things to do with the kiddos. I love this time of year!

I love this article/survey. You might be a runner if....
The points are so true. I especially love the one about planning all of your eating around running! I will be so sick of bland chicken and Quinoa /rice/oatmeal by Dec 13th!

100 mile week update

Matt and I just returned from Tucson. This morning Matt ran 21 miles, and I ran 24 on the marathon course. It was a great, solid, run. Our good friends Terri, Mark, and Mark ran as well. We all shared a hotel room last night and were on the road running at 6:30am. The weather got quite warm as the sun came up, but everyone finished really strong. A very fun trip! We laughed and laughed!

I am THISCLOSE to finishing my 100 mile week. I have 94 as of today. Tomorrow, I have 6 slow, recovery miles to take me to 100! This is what my week looked like:

Monday- 12 with hills am, 4 recovery pm
Tuesday- 13 miles easy am, 5 miles track practice with 3x1600 repeats pm
Wednesday- 8 miles recovery am, 4 miles recovery pm
Thursday- 12 miles general aerobic run am, 4 miles recovery pm
Friday- 8 miles easy am
Saturday- 24 miles @ 7:33 pace
Sunday- 6 recovery

Besides tired legs, I didn't find the 100 mile week to be as mentally and physically draining as I expected. I feel really, really, good about it. If I can do well on 24 miles during such a high-mileage week, I think I can do well at the marathon after a nice taper. This is the only 100 mile week in this training cycle I will do though. I don't want to burn out. I have a few more weeks of high 80's and 90 miles coming up.

I treated the run today like a dress rehearsal for the marathon (not as fast of course!) So all week long, I have been living off of chicken, rice, quinoa, yams, and oatmeal. I am off to get a slice of pizza! I have been dreaming about pizza for 3 days!

Pictures from today- ok, I look super gross, but I had put water on my head and it was so hot outside. How on earth does Terri look so cute after running for 3 hours? So not fair. :)