10-13-2013

getting ready to drive to long beach for my 3rd marathon this year!

woot-woot!

 random stranger took a blurry pic of me O.o
i should've just taken it myself.  oh well!

 this is andrew.  he's one of my students (who had me 2 years ago as a freshman, too, when he ran this race and won his age group as a 13-year old with a time of 4:30ish?)

 we ran together for the first 20 miles.  however, he hadn't trained as much as i did, and his knee started to hurt.  so he fell back with about 6 miles to go

here are a few girls from my bc classes (whom i also all had two years ago, as freshmen) they made a sign for both me and andrew! they were probably right around the end of the 24 mile marker, which was when i was starting to get pretty tired.  i was soooo happy to see them i was waving my arms wildly and screaming back at them.
[they even told me some random guy ran past saying, 'i'm mrs. carlson!' heehee]

after these guys, my friend from school, stephanie fidel (spanish teacher) was there - she was also out past mile 7, on the beach path (she lives in the area).  it was sooo great to see her.  she was the only one i knew who'd be out there, so i was looking forward to mile 25 because of her!  but seeing her, after the girls, made it all the better!

then maybe another 1/2 mi or so later...i saw two seniors (1 from calc, 1 from mv).  i screamed again and knew i was close to the end so i kept on running as fast as i was able to.  =)

the half-marathoners and full-marathoners merged around mile 24 or so -- on ocean blvd back to the finish.  since these were pretty much all the walkers by this point, they were moving 'slow' compared to me.  i felt like i was flying.  it was just like the carlsbad marathon all over again (but a lot more crowded).  it somehow really helps me mentally.  the OC marathon in may was not like this (the marathoners end in a different location).

here i am, at the finish.  i was able to see a number of students -- and sadly, i missed seeing a few! =(
i wanted to wait to see andrew come in and finish.  he finished around 4:40.  payal (one of the girls at mi 25) ran along side him for a while because he was really struggling at that point.  how great is that?!!

 here he is, trying to muster up a smile for me.
he was hurting.  =(  poor kid.

 i went to go pick up my 3rd beach cities challenge medal and they also gave me a beach towel!
last year i got a two-timer t-shirt (which i am actually wearing right now, as i make this post)

 unofficial results from the race tracker that crashed...
my kids weren't able to track me like they had hoped.  =(

just downloaded data from my garmin watch...

here are my mile splits. 

mile 24 was definitely my slowest mile!  it's a good thing i saw lots of people at mile 25 to help me kick it into high gear!  mile 26 was my fastest!  still had enough in the tank to push through hard.  

yay!

 after i got home, i took my usual ice bath, threw on my compression socks and capris, and snuggled in with the quilt of my 2010 races.  sleep didn't come though...so i just kind of laid there for a couple hours.  oh well!

 mom and i went to go eat at piranha sushi and i was STUFFED.
i actually didn't eat lunch when i got home.  so i had a total of 2 pieces of pb toast w/ sugar, 8 GUs, and one rice krispie treat in my belly while having run 26.2 miles.  hmm, maybe that wasn't so wise.
but i sure ate well for dinner!

 i had to help dashiell finish up his ancestor project.  so he worked on writing something interesting about his grandpa in addition to the map of montana that needed to be included.

 he really wanted to put his handprint on the shirt, just like grandpa's own real shirt, but then he also ended up wanting to put something about the Griz on there.  so we decided to do half and half.  i looked up a Griz logo and drew it out for him.  he colored it in, and did a pretty good job at it!
i think the belt buckle really finishes the look.  i glued it on top of a couple of pieces of popsicle sticks so it's a little raised, like the buckle would be.
[dashiell was actually concerned i didn't make the belt go all the way around to the back...but once i pointed out that the shirt, pants, and shoes were only visible from the front, he let it go.]

 brenny fell asleep quite awkwardly tonight.  =p