Barb T.

AAAhhhhhh.....much nicer weather here in Holland!  BUT, I was very tired today from all the work to pack up and leave our house then the all night plane ride, so I really took it easy today.  AP was 11:58 which included to pit stops.

Holland beat Brazil!  Quite a game!

Tomorrow will bit a longer run.

Oh what a beautiful morning....I planned out a route and of course got a bit lost but enjoyed MILES of forest!  Started out this morning around 6am with a temp of 63 and 94% humidity.  I have to say that 63 F in 94% humidity is just NOT the same thing as running in 94% humidity 10 degrees north of the equator with a temperature of 85 degrees.  Not even comparable.  Needless to say I finished the run and the temperature was a mere 67 degrees.  Oh if feels so good!

 AP was 9:55

Nice and cool morning.  It was probably around 60 degrees or so.  Did 1.93 mile w.u. with an AP of 10:33

MP miles 4.37 @  9:29 (little slow...need to try and pick that up a little bit)

w.d. did 1 mile at 11:08

It's cold, drizzling, and wonderful!  Hands are cold as well as toes.

This evening I ran easy 3.03 miles with my 2 girls.  They're getting in shape!

Started out this morning with 55 degree temp and 89% humidity.  Saw an amazing meadow that still had clouds/fog hovering over it.  Magnificent.  Finished the run with temp of 63 and humidity of 80%.  I'm now sitting and cooling down and FROZEN!  Was a bit tired today so took it easy.  AP was 10:14.

May run this PM with the girls.  Holland vs. Uruguay this evening!  HUP HOLLAND!

ooooooo I'm frozen.  Start temp ~55 degrees and end temp ~59 degrees.  I felt much better today.  I'm thinking that I'm running a bit faster because I'm trying so hard to warm up.  AP was 9:40.  Not bad.  Holland advanced to the finals!!!!!!  Hup, hup Holland!

Ran in the pm with my older daughter (10 yrs old) and we went 3.03 miles and she wanted to go hard.  Our AP was  9:16.

Nice and easy run this morning.  Very enjoyable.  AP was 10:44

first 2.525 miles AP 10:09

second 2.525 miles AP   8:52

overall AP 9:31

Nice run this morning.  Wasn't planning on picking it up as much as I did the second half, but I just felt good and went.  Tomorrow's workout will be tough...mile repeats.

Nice workout today.  Ran along the dike near the camp ground where we are staying.  Got a bit warm towards the end of the work out, but it went well.

8:16, 8:43, 8:42, 8:49, 8:31, 8:32, 8:34, 8:49, 8:32, 8:37, 8:25, 8:48, 8:29, 8:29

Avg was 8:35.43

Nice morning running along the river dyke near the camp ground.  Sun comes up around 4:30am though not me!  Ran around 5:30am.  Ran easy for 2 miles then picked up the pace a bit for 3 miles then did 1 mile at marathon pace then slowed down again.  I was a bit tired still from Saturday's work out but it went well.

2 miles warm up 24:39

(10:56) (10:29) (10:49) (9:26) (11:44)

Good run again along the Westerschelde.  I saw some wonderful birds....sea gulls, pheasants, and others that I don't know their names.  Also saw LOTS of rabbits jumping around and some sheep.  What's interesting about running along the dyke is that ships pass through on their way to and from the North Sea.  Saw an HUGE boat carrying LOTS of containers.  

 Anyway, ran warm/easy (12:57) (11:41) (10:34) (10:15) 

then tried some marathon pace miles (9:36) (9:23) (9:01)

then warmed down (10:41)

May or may not run tomorrow morning.  Have to leave for the airport at 6am.  Suppose I could put in a few miles as we walk and wait for a connecting flight in Atlanta.  We shall see...USA here we come!

last run in Holland before we head for the airport.  AP 10:05

Felt good to get out and run this morning.  I'm terribly jet lagged and not sleeping well, but hopefully that will change soon.  Did a 6 mile loop first 2.92 miles AP was 9:50 and the next 3.05 miles AP was 9:25.

Felt great to smell the Arizona desert.

Well, this morning started out good.  Was out running by 5am and it was relatively cool.  Enjoyed running not far from the base of the Catalina mountains.  Breath taking view.  I ran just over 5 miles at an AP of 10:30.  It was nice.  A bit hilly but nice.  I arrived at the nearby High School and did 2 miles at marathon pace on the track...9:27 and 9:16, then started the 5.18 miles back home.  After 3 miles towards home I was toast.  My legs were tired and I didn't want to push it so I went into a Starbucks and asked to use their phone and called my husband who came and picked me up.  Just didn't want to push any more.  Combination of fatigue from jet lag and I didn't eat very well yesterday and boy howdy did I feel it. Plus I'm still not sleeping through the night...waking up at 3am and not able to get back to sleep.  Live and learn.  I'm fueling my body well today!  And also making sure I'm drinking enough water so that I'm well hydrated for the marathon...a week from tomorrow!  We'll be driving to CA on Thursday next week.  At least AZ and CA are in the same time zone!  Well, I'm FINALLY going to unpack the suitcases...happy running!

Walked 2 miles with my girls.  It was fun!

It was a nice morning.  Bit warm and humid but nice.  Set out to do an easy 4 miles and then missed a turn as I must have been sleeping or listening to something really interesting so I ended up going 5.2 miles.  AP was 11:02

Had a really easy morning.  Ran 1 mile with my girls then we walked the 2nd mile back to our place.  Tomorrow I'll probably go 4 or 5 miles easy.  

Ran 2.9 miles this morning.  Started out really easy then picked it up towards the end just to get a tiny bit of speed in.  Felt good.  AP was 9:57.  Will probably do another 2 to 3 miles with my girls this morning.  They're doing the progressive marathon this weekend so have a 5K to do on Sunday.  Today is their last miles to put in to have reached 23.1 miles prior to race day.  Tomorrow is a looooooooooooong car ride from Tucson to San Francisco!

Made it to San Francisco.  13 1/2 hour drive.  Had a nice walk in COOL weather.  Will probably job nice and easy in the morning.  Good night.

Oh it was wonderfully cool running this morning.  Went 3.6 miles nice and easy.  Felt so good to just jog nice and easy.  Tomorrow will be lots of rest and taking it easy.  Sunday....fun, fun fun!  AP 11:04.

Well, we're heading into San Francisco in about 2 hours.  Will check into our hotel and go to the Expo.  Gone over my 'pack the bag' list and the 'race day' list and I think we're ready to go.  I'm nervous and excited.  Good luck Barb!

I need to make this brief for the moment as I'm very tired and my stomach is not happy.  But, I'm still in the stage of 'I can't believe it'.  If these race results are official, I qualified for Boston!  I screamed, I laughed, and I cried.  More details later.

OK...here's a bit more info. about the race and experience.  The weather today was perfect for running the marathon.  I started running at 6:52 am and the temp was about 56 outside.  When I finished 4 hours later the temp was about 63.  I ran this marathon taking walk breaks every 4 minutes with the break lasting 45 seconds.  The race had a record number of runners for the event and it was indeed congested.  My target pace was between 9:00 and 9:15 per mile.  The first 7.6 miles my AP was 9:12, next 5.5 miles AP was 8:54, next 6.9 miles AP was 9:14 and the last 6.2 miles my AP was 10:10.  I was pleased with the my pace for warm up at 9:12 and the 8:54 AP dropped as a result of some down hills.  The next 6.9 miles had lots of ups which were followed by downs, but I just seem to remember all the ups!  But, it went well.  During the 3rd part of the marathon, came across an elderly man that was shooting for a sub 4 marathon and he saw that we were taking walk breaks so he hung out with us for a while an actually pushed up our pace a bit.  It helped my to get through all of those hills and he was encouraging me that I was going to reach my goal.  I think he was probably my angel, but because of the push through the hills boy howdy did I feel it the last 3 to 4 miles of the marathon.  You can see that my pace dropped significantly and that probably occurred around mile 23.  Around mile 23 I hit the wall.  My legs didn't cramp, but they were toast.  As I walked through one of the water stations I took some water and thought I'd have some GU to see if that would help me get through the last 3 miles.  I was even starting to see black spots.  I tried to keep moving forward and kept glancing at my watch, calculating if I was really going to be able to do this.  The last mile, once I got back on the Embarcadero road, I just grit my teeth and pressed on.  When I saw the finish line I found some more grit from somewhere and just kept on going.  I stopped my watch after I crossed the timing mechanism, glanced at it and I couldn't believe that it looked like I made it!

In comparison to the other SFMarathons that I've run, I could really tell that I was much better trained.  It really helped my a lot through my training to refer to several of the blogs on this website.  Thanks to Sno, Carolyn and Bonnie.  You probably didn't know that you helped, but you did!  I benefited from your experience, training programs, and encouragement.

Today is the 'day after' and I'm feeling pretty good.  As Sno says, I would say on a scale of 1-10, I have about level 5 monkey legs but the thing that is really bothersome to me right now is my stomach.  I'm eating and drinking to refuel and hydrate my body, but when my food gets to the intestinal level, I'm in trouble.  Don't know if it's because of pushing my body to its' limit or what.  I just do hope it will settle back down soon.

I have a question regarding the Boston Marathon now.  I've been reading their website and gathering some info and I was wondering if with a qualifying time in 2010 I could still use the time to run the Boston in April of 2012 (rather than 2011).  I suppose I could continue to work and train hard (which I will) to qualify again in 2011, but what if I don't make it in 2011?  Can I use my 2010 time?

Well, fellow bloggers, again, thanks for all of your encouraging words!

Oh...wish I could give you mile splits, but I don't have a Garmin...maybe one of these days!

Took a nice and easy 1.5 mile walk.  Nice and cool outside and great company.

Another really easy day.  My legs are still a bit sore...2 monkeys...I'm going to try and run about 3.5 miles in the morning before we jump in the car for southern CA tomorrow...Disneyland here we come!

First run since the marathon.  Legs were a bit stiff starting out, but felt good.  Didn't go much distance.  AP was 10:11