How do you feel after running a marathon?

A combo of this......

...and this.....!

5hr 23mins 55secs

A full 30 minutes faster than last years, my personal marathon record!

The EARLY start - 4am! I decided to tape (and yes, I now have a very funky tan line!)

The medal, the shell lei and the two beautiful flower leis Laura, Daniela and Cordelia greeted me with at the end of the run!

The afternoon, whiled away napping and reading. More later when I get some mid-run photos!

See how I run!

Hannah helps me with marathon prep! I love these Injinji toe socks! They're great for preventing blisters (I have literally had none since I started wearing these for running), and though I was worried about their longevity as running socks (all those extra seams), these are the same pair I ran my first marathon in last year!

Number on okay - check!

Shoes ready - check!

Okay, here are the details -

Go to - http://www.honolulumarathon.org/ - click on "live results tracking"

Enter either my last name (Waller) or my number (6861) and it should let you know where I am when! If you're on Facebook with me my status should be updating automatically as I cross each of the timing mats too.

Last year it took 15 minutes to cross the line at the start, and i'm thinking of starting in around the same spot, should be accounted for in the timing somewhere (it's all chips) I think there were five mats - 10K, 1/2 marathon, 30K and 40K, 26.2 miles! So you'll be able to see how i'm doing!

We start at 5am (7am West Coast; 10am East Coast; 3pm UK time)!

My goals for this year, very similar to last year - finish, finish in 6hrs, run the last mile and most of all HAVE FUN!

There's still time to sponsor me too! Thanks to some AMAZING people (yes that's you!) I am now over the total I wanted to raise by $60 - woo hoo! How much further over can we go??

And - good luck to Kim running the Holiday Half Marathon in Oregon tomorrow too!

Picked up the Packet!

Went and picked up my race number and packet this afternoon - the expo wasn't too crowded which was super nice! I actually took Hannah with me too, good for Jenny as she got a couple of hours "off", good for me as I had a cutie pie everyone doted over as we went around the stalls! Hannah loved it too, she helped me pick out a t-shirt and hat.

The Honolulu expo, as far as I can tell as I haven't actually run a marathon anywhere else, is somewhat small, unassuming, and primarily in Japanese. I remember being pretty disappointed last year, at least this year I knew what to expect! I did get my shins taped by the nice people at KT tape though - well, I got one shin taped (the right one) and then went on my 3 mile run. I've been having problems with shin splints this year (erm....lack of training perhaps?), and I have to say, I think i'm a believer. The right shin was great on the run, the left had it's usual pain. So I got home and taped my other shin to see if it would help with the pain overnight (they last ~3 days they said), I hope so! It gives me practice before M-Day regardless as i'll need to redo it before then anyway, and this way I can decide if I really want to run with multi-coloured tape all over my legs.....could make for an interesting tan!

I also got to try on a skirt from Running Skirts - the lady there was super nice! They only had wild colours at the store, so I think i'm going to order one online sometime, they gave me a voucher for 20% off, not to be sniffed at and these skirts have the perfect length shorts underneath for my chunky thighs!

Am I ready? I don't think so.....but then I seem to remember not thinking so last year either! I have my number and I just double checked my time for last year 5hrs 53 minutes. If I can come close to that again i'll be happy. It'll be interesting to see - less training and fitness vs experience on the course - which will win out!

Weekend!

Well the weekend started with a bang - saturday morning a group of my favorite girls headed to the Kahala hotel for their awesome breakfast buffet - yum! Let the pre-marathon carbo-loading begin in style! And guess who we saw there???

Yup....you guessed it. Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka) from the series Heroes! He was having breakfast right behind us (well spotted Tara!). I don't watch much in the way of TV, but i've been into this series lately and have been watching it here and there on Netflix. Always awesome to have a famous person sighting! 

Next up I had little Hannah for the weekend while Jenny and Doug had a night at the Kahala hotel, their first night away from little Hannah since she was born! They had a relaxing time and Hannah and I had an awesome time, she was such a star, no fuss at all.

We checked out the marathon preparations......gulp! Have I mentioned it's this sunday! Yikes! I'm definitely in need of that cheer group I had last year, this year could be super painful! Going to pick up my packet probably wednesday, so i'll let everyone know my number so you can follow my progress online!

And the best way to keep a 20 month old entertained? Dress up. Everytime!

Hope you all had a good weekend. Just one more lecture to give - Wednesday sees the end of teaching, just the exam to go - woo hoo! Time most certainly flies....still need to finish up a bunch of xmas presents - yikes!

One week till M Day!

Just one week until Marathon Day! Amazing how time has flown, that means it's just 2.5 weeks until I leave the Island - gulp! Three weekends to go!

This weekend is going to be fun, I have little Hannah for the weekend, while Jenny and Doug go and stay in a fancy hotel for the night right down on the beach and get some much needed downtime. We're going to have so much fun (in other news someone went potty for the first time yesterday, we were all so proud, i'd literally just ordered her a potty for xmas (don't I give the best xmas presents..:0) and it arrived the day before, so she got the hang of it pretty quickly!).

Next weekend is Marathon Day on sunday. I'm scared and excited. The 20 miles last weekend went well, totally wasn't in the mood to begin with, but warmed up to it. Didn't press myself and with my time it would get me in right on track with last years timing (5hrs 55minutes), so at least I haven't got slower! I am worried about that, my late stage training has been somewhat erratic, and I don't have the fitness base I had last year from running the June half marathon and all the little 5K and 10Ks I did. I'm not sure why i'm worried, it is what it is, I'm still pretty confident i'll finish! Don't forget to sponsor me here and pass around to all your friends - i'm just $60 away from my target - woo hoo!

The weekend after I think is going to HAVE to involve the beach. I need a tan, and I need one now, before I hit the snow of Maine! And we're going to have a pre-christmas christmas dinner with Laura, which is going to be fun. Don't tell anyone but i've even managed to get hold of pudding and crackers for the event - woo hoo!

So for now, it's off to the Kahala for a carbo loaded feast!

Update

Packing went well, container loaded - check out the work blog for an update there. Taking a breather, taking the day off tomorrow to clean up my house and hand the keys back, gives me a chance to check over in case anything is missing before the container leaves on Weds. Hoping to get back to running tomorrow, it's been basically 2 weeks off regular runs, and to be perfectly honest, if I wasn't doing this for charity, and hadn't had such motivating sponsors, I would can this marathon, it's going to be a long one! So thank you thank you to all those keeping me motivated!

So a brief break - when I get my head back in a few days i'll be back with a better update, responses to emails and life in general. Until then i'm practicing my best monkey impression while hanging out at the Engels-Holdt's......

Moving and Participating

Hannah gives me a lesson in how to organize my wallet. She's so much more organized than me!

The move went well this weekend, I didn't finish packing up my house, but that's okay, I have until the weekend to get my place squared away so I can move boxes into the container. It's been cute staying with Jenny and Hannah (Doug is out at a conference this week, returns on thursday). Hannah helped me settle in well....:0)

Apparently if I want to run faster I have to eat more blueberries.....that's what the whirling dervish tells me anyway!

Participating in the half marathon went well too. I like to say I participate rather than compete, as it's only in my dreams I would ever actually compete in running. It did go well though - 2 hrs 26 minutes - not bad, and nearly a half hour off my only other half marathon. I was a little bummed, as I thought I was doing better than that, but since I did run 2 miles down and 3 miles back after i'm not going to complain. My knee has been sore since though which considering my knee history i'm a little worried about - so i'm sitting with ice right now - much better today than yesterday, so i'm sure I just tweaked it a little trying to run the last downhill over Diamond Head. Sounds ridiculous, but sometimes running down is harder, and hurts more, than running up. I was pretty proud of myself as I ran all the ups and actually stuck to my plan (mostly) of running between water stops, walking for a minute or two after to refresh, and then running on. Only in the somewhat killer stretch on the way back to Diamond Head (a long way without water with no shade) did I walk a little. And in the marathon I know there is a water stop on that stretch, so I didn't feel too badly.

The one thing this race did tell me is that I can't expect a faster marathon time this year. Originally I was kind of hoping to, but this race cinched that that probably isn't going to happen, I just haven't had the time to do that kind of training. Maybe I can shave ten minutes or so, that would be nice, but anything more than that I think, this year, is just unrealistic. Oh well, at least I am still participating, and it's going to be fun!

Bedtime story with the whole family!

But now it's night night time, i'm pooped, today was a full day of teaching, meetings and loading samples, and tomorrow (and this week) aren't looking any better! If I don't update before next week when the container is gone, please excuse me, i'll be back soon!

Which Gu are you?

Marathon training has hit it's mid point - today I did a half marathon - 2hrs and 25 minutes - 20 minutes shorter than i've run that distance before - yeah! To celebrate the beginning of really long runs, I bought a box of mixed flavor GUs, to try and mix up my mid-run nutrition a bit more (I pretty much have stuck to lemon lime or vanilla). GUs have done me well through long runs (1hr+), the texture sucks (imaging chugging a bottle of corn syrup if you haven't tried these), but it really does give that much needed boost of energy and keeps you going. Unfortunately, as nice as it sounded, Chocolate Outrage is not for me, maybe i'll try the mint chocolate next week....:0)

So this weeks training -

Tuesday - 3 miles
Wednesday - 7 miles
Thursday - 4 miles
Saturday - 15 miles

Wish me luck!

Evolution of My Running

In shoes!!!! Well, I am a girl after all....:0) To the right, my first ever running shoes, in which I ran my first ever half marathon. Though I didn't really like that they were pink, thy did me well. Up until shin splints that is. In the middle are the pair I did my first marathon in. Still going well, though showing the signs of wear. And on the left, my brand new running shoes. Same type as the middle (Nike Structure Triax+), I love them and no shin splints since doing the swop, so i'm sold. These are the shoes I will do my second marathon in.

Yup, I signed up for round two, one of the last things I will do in Hawaii is run the Honolulu marathon, again. The shoes are a little early, but they were half price, so snuck in while I could, and I know my old ones won't stand up to a second marathon, so will need to get them sometime. I would say I hope for a better time, but with my away time coming up, alongside moving and teaching this fall, i'm not so hopeful. If I could sneak a little more convincingly under 6 hours I would be happy.

So let the training begin.....