Getting excited!

So many good things are coming up including 3 glorious days off of work!!! I heart government holidays. Especially this one, because it's the official kickoff to Summer!

Besides that, Dan and I have plans to catch the Hangover 2 in the next day or so. We're also going to head up to Boulder on Sunday so that bright and early Monday morning we can run the Bolder Boulder!

It's pretty munch the biggest race that I've ever participated in and I've wanted to run it for the past 2 years. It's a 10K and over 50,000 people are signed up to run it this year! It's the biggest 10K in the US.

Besides being in one of our favorite Colorado towns, we'll know a bunch of people running it this year, so it should be a great time!

Even though my training since the Colfax half has gone a bit down hill over the past few weeks, I am still hoping that I can PR in this race. I never was able to write a post on my first 10K back in April, but I'll try to get to that before this race happens. I also have a 5K to write about, so I'm a bit behind.

Basically though, in order to PR I have to run this puppy in less than 57:46 (a 9:19 pace). Dan is also going to run it, so I'll keep you posted on how he does :) I'm sure well, because his training has pretty much consisted of yoga classes, swimming and an occasional light quarter mile jog with the dog!

On the agenda today: Work, 5K treadmill run, BodyPUMP, then perhaps a movie date!

Also: Happy Last Day of School Dan!! (I'm just slightly jealous, but when you're on your 8th summer of this, it gets a bit easier) :)

Do you have any plans for the upcoming holiday weekend?

Currently Loving...

the Mirra wedge from Banana Republic.

It looks like a perfect shoe to bring to Europe, but it's still full price right now, so I am trying to hold out until sale time. And if there is one thing I know about Banana, there's always an upcoming sale time! Now I just need to stay strong and be patient until it happens. Easier said than done :)

It Tastes Like Summer!

At the grocery store on monday I saw two things that mean summer to me and had to pick them up for that nights dinner.

Cherries and Corn on the Cob!!

Dan and I have found a new recipe for Buffalo Chicken Wing Sandwiches that we've pretty much had once a week for the past month so I thought I would share. It takes about 10 minutes to put the whole thing together and it's really yummy, so that makes it a winner in my book.

I found the recipe in one of the past few month's Real Simple magazines and have modified it slightly so that it's a little less caloric.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 Rotisserie Chicken, shredded (if you can get one from Costco, then you'll probably have enough for leftovers)
• 1/2 Cup of Hot Sauce (we use Wingman's Buffalo Style Medium Sauce)
• 1-2 tablespoons butter (I tend to use less butter)
• 1/4 Cup Blue Cheese Crumbles
• Bread/Bun of your choice

And here's how to make it:

First heat the butter in a skillet and then add the chicken and mix it up. Then drop in the hot sauce and mix it again. Once the chicken is warmed through you're done! Just place it on your bread, which tastes even better toasted and add blue cheese.

This dish is normally awesome, but with cherries and corn on the cob off to the side, it was a perfect start to summer meal!

San Diego, Take Two

While I did not get to go see Shamu in San Diego, we did head over to Balboa Park one afternoon. It was so pretty!

I think this was the biggest tree I have ever seen! Unfortunately our photo in front of it made us look like ghosts.

The Spanish style architecture in California is so beautiful.

The buildings throughout the park were completely amazing.

Unfortunately we went to the park on a Monday, and we found out that pretty much everything inside the park is closed that day of the week.

We were able to get inside of this open air greenhouse though.

Seeing these photos again after over a month makes me want to head back.

Dan pretty much wanted to pack his bags and live the life of a beach bum during this trip, so I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

However, next time we are definitely going to see Shamu.

A Giant Ship with Fighter Planes aka... A Boy's Playground

So with all of the running talk and training that has been happening, I have neglected to post about some of the other stuff that I have been up to over the past few months.

While last year's Spring Break trip to Cabo will be a hard one to beat, we still managed to have an awesome vacation on a much more limited budget. This year, we spent part of the week in beautiful San Diego. What a great city! Neither of us had ever been before and we loved it! We pretty much ate and drank our way through it and had the best time. Our friend's Mike and Anne were out there with us and we had so much fun. One day, while Anne was at law school, the boys and I went on a tour of the USS Midway. It was a H-U-G-E ship (a crotchety old man got upset with us when Mike called it a boat), and it was interesting to see how people lived aboard it as it floated around from war to war.

Just to warn you, Dan and Mike had a lot of fun with make believe during this tour.

These are the bunks that crew had to sleep in. I felt really bad for anyone with even the slightest bit of claustrophobia, because there was not much room at all.

Of course, Dan got locked up in the ship's Brig

and had fun taking the wheel where ever possible.

we thought this slogan was funny.

Look at how pretty San Diego is!

don't I look good in a captain's chair?

I think Mike is telling Dan to watch out for a giant iceberg in this one ;)

who knows ;)

If you ever are out in San Diego, I would totally recommend going to see this cool piece of US history. Just be sure to bring a bunch of guys. They make it much more entertaining.

Half Marathon Q&A

My sister posted the following comment and I decided to make a post out of it, because I am bad at referring back to comments and I thought this would be good to remember:

Melissa Anne said...

ash this is awesome! did you get a runners high at all during the race? did you stop to pee? how do you feel today? i'm so intrigued!

MAY 16, 2011 11:46 AM 

I'm not sure that I got a runner's high, but I did feel like I kept myself in "the zone" for a lot of the race. I was really struggling through a lot of it to keep my speed around where it was, so that may be why I didn't hit it, but who knows.
I didn't stop to pee at all during the race and that was a huge concern of mine! I did hop into one of the hundreds of port-a-potties they had at the start area right before the race started. I think that this was really helpful. I also only went to about half of the water stations (I think 4 in total) that they had along the course. I felt really hydrated throughout the race and really just used them as a way to take a short walk break so that I could recharge and run faster.

I also took a Shot Blok around mile 6 but it made my stomach hurt so I didn't take any more. Usually they help me out, but I think since the race started so early in the morning, my body was just not very used to having something like that at the time.

On Monday I felt really sore... my legs and hips were really tight and I seriously considered working from home that day. One of my toenails also hurt. I was actually afraid to look at it after the race because I thought it was going to turn black and fall off like I have heard runner's talk about, but so far it has just been a bit painful and that's it! The good news is that each day my muscles feel a bit less sore than the day before. I've talked with friends who have done races this length and they say that it will take at least 5 days to fully recover.

Hopefully that's everything! When's your first half Melis?

If You Plan on Running a Half Marathon...

...it's good to have a team of supporters cheering you on. Charlie couldn't come to the race, but he did leave me the following note on our fridge.

He's so thoughtful :)

My First Half!!!

I did it!

Here's my bib that I picked up on Friday at the expo. It's the first one I've gotten that has my name on it. I'm pretty sure that it means that I have entered into the big leagues of racing.

The race started at 6am and this is what the view looked liked from outside of my hotel room when I got up. Do you see that glare? That my friends, is rain. Not the best of circumstances if you are going to run your first half, but I just layered a lot and tried not to think about it.

Here are my friends Randi, Chrissy and Shannon at the start of the race.

The course was pretty flat overall and took us around the Denver area.

I'm not going to lie. It was hard and far! The longest run I had done in my training was 11 miles and I was hurting a lot at the end. The best part about the route was after mile 7 when we got to run through a fire station. It really helped motivate me to go faster. While I had a stretch goal of coming in under 2 hours, I knew that coming in under 2:05 was going to be hard for me, so throughout the race I pushed myself to run 9:40m/m or under. I was able to do that for all but four of the miles and I came in just under the 2:05 mark!!
Here we are at the end of the chute that leads out of the finish! I am so proud of us for running our first half!

Now for the results! I did end up running .09 miles more than I had too, but all in all, I am really happy with my numbers. My splits from my garmin looked like this:

Split    Time     Distance    Avg Pace
   1       09:32        1.00           09:32
   2       09:28        1.00           09:28
   3       08:57        1.00           08:57
   4       09:21        1.00           09:21
   5       09:01        1.00           09:01
   6       09:14        1.00           09:14
   7       09:44        1.00           09:44
   8       09:27        1.00           09:27
   9       09:47        1.00           09:47
   10     09:49        1.00           09:49
   11     09:18        1.00           09:18
   12     09:19        1.00           09:19
   13     09:49        1.00           09:49
   14     01:52        0.19           09:39
Sum  2:04:46      13.19          09:27

My official time was 2:04:42 and I had an average pace of 9:32!!
Overall: 1385/3779
20-29F Div: 227/774
Females: 650/2409

My muscles are so sore tonight and I am super exhausted because I didn't sleep very well last night. But I've taken it easy today and had my fair share of Advil today and hopefully tomorrow I'll feel closer to 100%. Now I'm off to bed :)