Obligatory Reflections Post (Stacey)

Dear Reader(s) - [I hope there's more than one of you anyway]

I have royally stunk at blogging the past few weeks. Life got crazy and composing letters to invisible people sunk lower and lower on my priority list.

Rest assured that nothing exciting in terms of my running happened over the past couple weeks. I skipped a couple of short runs, but did almost all of them and made good time with only a very brief scare with my left hip.

Yesterday, Kelsey and I completed our half marathon together.

It was difficult to put it simply. I almost enjoyed the first 5 miles or so. The next 5 felt really long. The last 3 couldn't go fast enough.

We made it in under our goal of 2.5 hours (not record breaking by any means, but pretty swell for two people who could barely run 2 miles 3 months ago). We only took a couple of walk breaks. Our carb loading and hydration served us well in the long run *harhar*.

We had fabulous split times. The first six miles taking us 1:10 and the last 7.1 taking us 1:18. So for once in my running career, I ran the second half faster than my first half. I was very pleased about that.

Neither of us are seriously injured. Kelsey's hip gave her problems thanks to the banked roads for the first 5 miles. My left leg was bloody at the end of it thanks to some serious chafing. We're both worn out and sore, but proud of ourselves.

Which brings me to my final reflection . . . am I a runner?

At the beginning of this adventure, the answer to this question would have been a strong, resounding, "NO!"

I hated running. I couldn't go very far or very fast. To review, my first run with my poor out of shape dog, my feeble and slow attempt at 2.5 miles, and my triumphant but nonetheless slow attempt at 3 miles.

Now, I tolerate running. This evening, while getting stressed over loan apps, I had an urge to run to make the anxiety go away. Now that's just crazy talk. Granted, I didn't do it, but the urge was still there, which is awfully impressive.

I can go far (13.1 miles to be precise).

I can go moderately fast (sub 9 minute mile isolated and about 11.25 min miles on the half).

I can run MUCH faster and farther than my poor puppy now.

I laugh at 2.5 miles and the idea of walking part of it seems ridiculous.

3 miles is my short run and I can do it more than 15 minutes faster than my first attempt.

Do these things make me a runner?

I've run regularly, but only for 12 weeks.

I tolerate running, but don't necessarily enjoy it.

It's an obligation, but one that makes me feel good about myself.

I enjoy the view as I run through the country and have been privileged to witness some truly spectacular sunsets.

I honestly cannot decide whether to call myself a runner. I still don't feel like I've earned the title for some reason. Maybe it's because at the race I still felt inferior to those people. The athletic ones. The ones with legitimate running clothes and gear. With slender, but strong legs. The ones who finish an hour before me. The ones who have likely been running for years.

So I don't think I'm a runner. But I am healthy, for the first time in years. Maybe first time ever. My heart rate was 52 when I went to the doctor's for an infected blister. I am comfortably in the healthy BMI range. I have lost an inch off my waist, four inches off my stomach, 1.5 inches off my hips, and 6 pounds.

I feel good about myself. I'm proud of myself. I'm comfortable with how I look. Which, if you're a female, you understand how much that means. :)

I doubt I'm doing any more half marathons in the future . . . well, near future anyway. I do, however, plan on staying in "5k shape" as I'm choosing to call it and run semi-regularly. Three/four times a week sounds good to me. And I get to decide how far and how fast I want to go! How thrilling!

So thank you to those of us who have gone along on this adventure with us, whether you ever commented or not.

Thanks to our families who encouraged us and reminded us to run, even when it was the last thing in the world we wanted to do.

A huge thanks to Kelsey, who got me into this whole mess to begin with. I love you. We should try this again in 5 years. ;)

Peace and Blessings. Peace and Blessings. Buh-bye.

(If you don't get that reference, it's ok. But you should be very sad.)

You Never Know (Kelsey)

I am sorry I have been a slacking blogger as of late. It's been 11 days since my last blog. And quite a lot has happened.

After that blog, I believe I ran once more? Maybe? I was supposed to run Thursday, cross train Friday, and run 12 on Saturday, but I failed to do all three. They ended up being quite busy days, busier than I anticipated. I decided to run my 12 that Sunday. However, I prepared rather horribly. I didn't carb load basically at all, I didn't hydrate very well, I didn't get as much sleep as I should have, and obviously, skipping a week of training and then skipping another two workouts after getting back into the swing of things didn't help either. I believe my advisers were half-correct in telling me that I wouldn't lose progress after a week of rest, because aerobically I didn't. I didn't have issues with breathing or heart rate really. But I am pretty sure I did lose progress in muscle build or something, because my legs were not as strong and capable as they had been. I did okay the first 6 miles, didn't walk at all, and then I hit a wall. I finished it and everything, but I was pretty tired and had to take numerous walk breaks and was pretty immobile when I returned. There was no serious pain really, just tired and the regular amount of sore you'd expect after 12 miles.

Monday morning, however, I woke up, and before I made it far out of my bedroom, I realized there was a problem. There was some serious pain in the back of my knee, kind of like where that ligament-y thing that you touch your toes to stretch is. It was more than just a "oh if I stretch, this will get better," kind of sore. It was pretty bad. I barely made it down the stairs when I called my mom in a touch of a panic. I spent all day on the couch, icing my knee off and on, popping ibuprofen, and skimming through WebMD diagnoses without much luck. I was beginning to get really worried that I had done something serious to it, like torn something somewhere. But it didn't make much sense because it seemed to me that if I had torn something, I would have realized it somewhere in the run or somewhere in the 6 hours after the run before I went to bed. Needless to say, there was no "easy 3" that day, and all that I had to give were some tears that were shed in fear that I may not be able to complete the half marathon unless I was in a wheel chair. Stacey and I both had one of those scary "what if I can't run this race?" moments in the last couple weeks, and they are not fun.

Tuesday I woke up, and it seemed a little better, but still not better to a point that I could walk normally on it or do anything close to running. I was still a little worried and trying to figure out if I should go in to a Ready Care or something. However, I wasn't 100% sure that I had health care insurance, and I was also too afraid they would tell me I couldn't run, so I never ended up going. I was still determined to exercise somehow, so I thought maybe I'd give bike riding a chance. I happily learned that it didn't hurt my knee at all, so I rode 6 miles to keep up my leg muscles and heart rate. I didn't take my phone with me, and my mother was rather cross upon my return, after I left on injured knee, giving her the impression that I was only riding around the block, and instead riding 6 miles without any form of mobile communication.

Wednesday I woke up and it was feeling better again. I tried running that night, but I still had to walk/run really awkwardly on it, so I switched to biking again. I took Thursday off, but by Friday, it felt fine, so I ran for 37 minutes. I'm not sure what the mileage was. It was raining outside so I couldn't bring my phone to track it, and I was at my friend's house whose backyard mileage I am not familiar with. I'm guessing it was around 3 miles though, considering how long I ran. Let me tell you, for someone who doesn't like doing laps, running like, 27 times around someone's backyard in the dark is INVIGORATING!!!! And by invigorating, I mean horribly boring. Halfway through, I was sure that I only had like, 5 minutes left, only to find that I actually had 17 minutes left. I hate laps. They're boring. Even in unknown backyards, though I know it quite familiarly now. But hey! No knee problems! So that's good.

Tonight I ran 5 and did so at a pace of about 10.5 minutes a mile. My knee felt fine and feels fine afterwards, particularly after icing it with ground beef that my mom needs to thaw for tomorrow's dinner apparently. That was weird. But hopefully I am good to go for Saturday. Praying for no more Monday morning scares. At least not until AFTER the race.

It's been pretty crazy. I virtually had no serious problem until "senior year" of training, when I experienced all the things you hope to not run into, namely ability-stunting illness and injury. It's put it into perspective for me. Tonight I was riding in a car with my mom, and I updated my facebook status to "In 6 days, I will run 13.1 miles." Immediately after I posted it, a truck pulled out in front of the car in front of us who miraculously manged to only clip the very back of its bumper. We also miraculously were able to brake early enough that we were able to narrowly avoid rear-ending the car in front of us. At the time, I had the ankle of my right leg propped up on my left knee pretty close to the glove compartment. I realized that if we had been involved in an accident, I very likely would have broken my ankle or knee, or both. It's highly likely that I would have had an injury that had prevented me from completing this race in 6 days. And of course while this race has been my goal, I can't take too much of the credit for myself. Each day I'm alive and breathing is a gift. Each day my body works well enough to carry itself a long distance is a blessing. And sure, I have put a lot of hard work into preparing my body to take me longer distances than I thought possible, but I must remember how easily it can be taken away from me. Whether I am able to complete this race or not, this training has been a blessing, and my success and accomplishment is not solely based on my attainment of a half marathon t-shirt, a "13.1" bumper sticker, and a check off my bucket list. Regardless, I have learned that I can do things I wasn't sure I could do. I can persevere and stick with something. I can defeat laziness and pain and apathy and adversity and reluctance and resistance, a lot of which originate within my own heart; my own mind. And I'm sure if I can do that on the sidewalks of my neighborhood, I can learn to do them in other sectors of my life as well. But I am also not invincible. I can have anything taken away from me at any point. This whole experience has been encouraging but also humbling. It's kind of a weird mix. But I don't think that I'd really trade it for much of anything. 

Some people think sports are just sports: some sort of game or competition involving athletic ability. Some people (myself included a little bit honestly) think that long distance running is for masochists. But there's more to it all than that. If you look hard enough, if you let it, I think it often has something for your soul too. That's true of a lot of things. It's just important to always be looking. To always to be thankful. And to always be striving.

I'm an Obedient co-Blogger (Stacey)

Kelsey got after me last night for not posting in a long time. So this is me posting.

Last week was an ultra fail week for me. Monday following my 10 mile I was at Cedar Point all day. So I didn't really count that as a day of rest so I rested Tuesday instead. Wednesday we started travelling for my best friend's wedding in Iowa so I did manage to run 5 miles on a treadmill in what was, essentially a sauna. So I was pretty proud of myself there. But that's where any pride in myself stops. Thursday -Saturday were absolutely INSANE with wedding shenanigans (with being the maid of honor, my attendance at all functions was slightly obligatory). So no running happened, partially due to time constraints and partially due to the emotionally and physically exhausting nature of weddings. Sunday was another travel day and we left early in the morning and got back after dark so I wasn't able to run then either, which brings me to this week . . .

Convincing myself to run Monday was incredibly difficult. After only running 5 miles last week, I was pretty annoyed with myself and really reluctant to put my body through it all again. I did however run 6 miles on Monday to make up for the fact that I didn't do a long run this past weekend.

Tuesday I was going to run 4 miles as scheduled, but due to an unforeseen nap that got pushed aside. Wednesday I decided to run the 4 instead. However, that was also a fail and I only made it 3 miles before I had to call my mom. On the bright side, it was a fast 3 mile time.

Today I was determined to do my 4 miles. I psyched myself up for it internally for most of the afternoon, and even though I was whining and procrastinating on my way out the door, I made it outside and started running. It ended up being a really great run and my fastest 4 mile time ever. Go figure. I don't get it.

I'm starting to get a little nervous about running 12 miles on Saturday. I know running is mostly a mind game though, so I'm trying to keep my thoughts positive. I'm trying to decide whether I want to break it up into 2 6 mile runs or 3 4 miles . . . I'm leaning towards the 4. We shall see. This whole half marathon thing is getting really real.

Holy gracious. What have I gotten myself into . . .

Regaining (Kelsey)

Well, I didn't get my miracle. I didn't start feeling any better til Saturday. I had talked to some people, who suggested that since it was just sort of a head cold to try and run anyway, but the dizziness made me really leery of attempting. Walking straight was even a bit of a challenge, so I refrained. My good friend, Tammera, who was an excellent track athlete at the college I attended, told me that I had about a week window where I would could not exercise and still not lose progress. And I about used up my week. However, on Saturday, I decided to bike instead of run, so I biked about 9 miles. I felt alright while doing it, but when I got back, I did feel like I was gonna pass out. Monday, I ran an easy three, and it went pretty well, except my throat got really dry. And tonight, I ran 4. It went fairly well. I didn't have to stop at all, which made me really happy. And actually, I made pretty great time. About 10.7 minutes per mile. So not bad at all. My heart rate and lungs were fine, which I was so thankful for. But by the end, my left hip was pretty sore, and an old blister on my right foot, which has had plenty of time to heal, was KILLING me towards the end. So not sure what I'm going to do about that.

Tonight, I noticed that it was a little bit cooler outside than usual so I wanted to run in a t shirt rather than the tanks I usually run in. I was just going through the t-shirts thrown on my bedroom floor, and happened to stumble upon my hardcore shirt.

Backstory: my hardcore shirt is this tye-dye shirt that I have owned since the 7th grade. I didn't wear it much til the end of high school and during my summers at camp, but hardcore things tend to happen to me when I wear the hardcore shirt. I built homes in Mexico in this shirt. I have rock climbed ledges in this shirt. I have rushed 100+ children to a small basement and entertained them with my guitar until my wrist bled in a monsoon-like thunderstorm in that shirt. I scaled a wall and cut open a gash in my toe in that shirt. (Yes, I know, blood shed from toe is not necessarily the epitome of hardcore, but still, it was blood shed as a result from scaling a wall. It counts.) I think other hardcore things may have happened in that shirt as well. So as a result of the frequency of blood, sweat, tears, work, mud, rain, and dirt that have been laced in the fabric, I have deemed it my hardcore shirt. And tonight seemed a decent occasion. Getting back on the horse after laying on a sofa for a week may need some hardcoreness. I succeeded with a good time, so I guess maybe that's hardcore. However, nothing that was astronomically hardcore happened. Except that today was the day for dead animals.

Little fact about me.... I enjoy stepping on crunchy leaves when I run. Because there's been such a drought, there's almost as many crunchy leaves on the sidewalk right now as there is in the fall. You see, when I step on a crunchy leaf, the crunch sets off an exothermic reaction, releasing a level of motivation through my body, shooting straight to the motivational cortex of my heart at a level that directly correlates to the level of crunch.  The result: a crunchy leaf crushed beneath foot results in a surge in motivation. Completely scientific. Also hardcore. So today, like usual, I was aiming for the crunchy-looking leaves that were distributed upon my path. I got about a mile into my route, when disaster struck. As my eyes caught glimpse of an approaching leaf, I prepared to crunch upon it. Then, at a moment that gave me long enough reaction time to avoid the step, but not long enough to avoid said step without doing a ridiculous girly looking hop, skip, jump, stutter step move thing, I realized that this leaf was an impostor. It was not at all a leaf. It was a dead..... thing.... I am not entirely sure what it was. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that it was a naked mole rat. However, since those are not exactly a native animal to the mid-Michigan area, my second guess would be that it was a newborn squirrel. Whatever it was, it was dead, it was gross, and it was naked. Thank God I managed to miss it, because stepping on that would not have sent a surge of motivation. In fact, I'm fairly certain that would have caused an exothermic reaction, releasing nausea straight to the pit of my stomach.

I carried on, being more cautious of the leaves I was stepping on this time, and again, at around the 2 or 2.5 mile mark, I came across a dead frog! My entire training, I have not seen any dead animals tread upon the sidewalks that I have run upon. And then today, there were 2! It must be the hardcore shirt. Poor things. I'm sure they didn't see it coming.

In other news, STACEY AND I FINALLY ACTUALLY REGISTERED FOR OUR RACE!!!! :) And it is now "senior year." Hard to believe. It is getting so close....

Resurfacing (Kelsey)

I know all my adoring fans have missed me (my fan list, I suspect, accumulating to a whopping 0) but I have come back again. With some updates.

Good heavens. It has been a long time since I've posted. You know it's bad when Stacey's posted twice since my last = P It has been 2 weeks and one day since I last updated. This is unacceptable. But pretty much unavoidable.

Two weeks ago, I was helping with parking for a concert thing by my church. I ran Tuesday and Wednesday, and if I remember correctly, they went fine. Thursday I was supposed to, but I was doing parking and packing for camp and driving church vans to camp... I'm pretty sure I was supposed to do 4 and I tracked how much I was walking around to complete my various tasks, and I did something like, 3.5 just walking around. Friday was busy too, so I didn't exactly do cross training. And that Saturday, my 9 miler, was a failure. Biggest failure yet really.

That Saturday, I was at Covenant Hills, which is a camp I grew up at and have worked at the previous 3 summers. This past week was family camp, which is the week when families from all over the state come and bring their trailers and hang out and have church services and what not. Covenant Hills provides a terrain that differs quite distinctly from my own. And my first test on it was, of course, my niner. No easing into it. Covenant Hills is quite hilly, hence the name, and quite a bit of it is dirt roads and sand. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, I totally forgot to carb load, didn't really drink enough either... the run kind of crept up on my honestly... And I did horribly. I ended up doing 6 miles and walked the vast majority of it. I quickly learned that the dirt roads were more forgiving with their lesser amount of impact on my knees and hips, but quite unforgiving of my endurance, taking more force from each step and not giving as much of it back to me like the paved paths at home do. I also quickly learned that when I am not mentally into a run, it's pretty pointless. Most long run days, I psyche myself and get motivated and think about what it will be like to finish. I did not mentally prepare that day, and I had nothing to keep me going.

After that, I skipped my three easy miles on Sunday, gladly rested on Monday, skipped my 4(?) on Tuesday, and then Stacey joined me on Wednesday and I got back on track. We did our threes on Wednesday and Thursday and virtually didn't stop and had respectable times. Friday I cross trained with some swimming and some biking (both very fun) and Saturday, I completed my 10. Actually, my 10 was one of my favorite runs so far. I did much better on the carb loading this week, and also hydration. I peed clear like, 3 times before I left :) haha. My 10 was great because it held a new sort of accomplishment, and was also a route with a wide variety. It started out on paved flat country roads, then switched to hilly dirt country roads. Then I ran a couple miles on dirt trails, which was really challenging with lots of hills and softer dirt, but super fun. Probably my favorite part of the route. And finished up meandering around the campgrounds, mostly consisting of hilly dirt roads, a few sections paved. I figure this is closest to what the actual half-marathon route will be like, and I survived with a time of 2:03:36. That's a little over an average of 12 minute miles, which isn't my best, but since I misbehaved and wanted to make sure I survived, I took it a little easier on myself. I really didn't walk at all except for one brief strip where I was going down hill on a trail in the dark. That was more for safety. But yes. Nonetheless, I finished a double digit mileage, got back up after failing, and felt good about it. And Josh, my boyfriend, gets major kudos for running most of it with me. I met me about halfway through the hilly dirt country road stretch, and finished it out with me. I'm not sure how he does it. I have to train. He just seems to be a natural.

Sunday came, and I did my easy three by walking the whole time and catching up with an old friend on the phone. And then "catastrophe" struck.

It started Sunday night, and by Monday morning, whatever it is, hit. I can't tell if it's allergies, or a cold, or allergies that turned into a cold... whatever it is, it has me down and out and unable to complete my runs the last 2 days. Day one consisted of a tickley throat and a runny nose and a touch of fever. Day two consisted of a fountain-like nose, complete with periods of dripping, congestion, frenzied sneezing, and me feeling like a balloon head. Also, lots of sleeping. This morning, day three, has consisted of more congestion and coughing, and the occasional sneeze, and fever now and then. I am desperately hoping to get off my tush and get some running in tomorrow, but it's quite the dilemma. Because if it is allergies, then whatever it is that my body does NOT want inside it, is out there, and running means going out there, likely getting more rejected substance back in my body. But if I don't run, I don't want to the think of the progress I'll lose : ( No one ever said on the schedule what to do if you got sick! Today, going upstairs and playing my guitar wore me out. So I'm hoping for a bit of a miracle here. Or a surgical mask. One of the two.

That's my update. Not too successful. But what can you do? At least I was blessed with a good 10 miler.

Want to lose 4 pounds in two hours?!?! (Stacey)

Are you run down, listless? Do you poop out at parties?*

Do you wish you could lose just a few more pounds?

Well I have a guaranteed solution for you! I lost 4 pounds myself! In just 2 hours!

You too, can enjoy these fantastic results in 2 hours. Just follow these simple steps:

1.) Wait until a 90+ degree day.

2.) Forget to drink water until about an hour before you plan to run.

3.) Drink at least 16 ounces in said half hour.

4.) Weigh yourself just prior to your run.

5.) Run 4 miles, or about 45 minutes outside.

6.) Weigh yourself just following your run. Try not to drip too much sweat on the scale.

7.) Celebrate your FABULOUS 4 pound results!


Well, it worked for me anyway . . . weirdest moment of my life was when I stepped on that scale before my post run hygiene routine (aka, a shower). Was not aware that kind of water weight was possible.


The next two days I get to be with Kelsey again! Yay for running buddies!


*Bonus points if you can name the origin of that quote.*

WILL THE MADNESS NEVER END?!? (Stacey)

I know, I'm super dramatic. What can I say? I'm a youngest child. :)

I ran 9 miles yesterday. It was gross. I was gross. I hurt a lot afterwords, but I did it. So I suppose I have reason to be proud of myself, but I was SUPER annoyed at how slow I went for the second half so it's sort of bittersweet. There are no major cool/fun stories about yesterday so I'll just share some random facts about the run:

-I ran 4 miles then 3 miles then 2 miles, still not sure how I feel about that arrangement.
-I saw another doe. So that makes 2 does at home, and a doe, 2 fawns, and a buck my engagement weekend run (in the storm . . . now that one was a good story).
-Running PAST your house multiple times over the course of a run is obnoxious. It's kinda mean to yourself. I ran by my house 3 times, 4 if you include when I ran in to get water and Gu.
-Triple berry Gu is much better than the mandarin variety. Although I still gagged a little . . .
-I saw this very large bird/goose thing fly from tree to tree. My parents think it was a wild turkey, I have NO idea what it was, but it was slightly disconcerting to run past the tree I knew it was lurking in . . .
-I have new blisters and have re-chafed areas that have just recently healed. I love running SO MUCH. *barfgagcough*

My brain can think of nothing else interesting . . .

Today I ran an "easy 3 miles" which really was 3.25 miles (ish), so I ran a mile, walked a bit, ran a mile, walked a bit, and ran a mile as fast as I thought I could, which ended up being 9 minutes. I was out of the house for a total of 35 minutes and feel pretty decent.

And that's all I have to say about that.

In regards to the title - I was musing yesterday about how far 9 miles is. It's far. I could run from my home to the Meijer store we frequent. Shoot dang. Also, it's not super far from 13.1 miles. So I'm almost to the half marathon distance! Huzzah! On the other hand, I still have a 10 mile, 11 mile, and 12 mile to run. . . . rawr. So I have 4 super long runs before I get to be done with this whole long distance thing. Plus all the little runs in between. I'm almost to the point where I don't totally HATE all the shorter runs. I actually kinda like my runs when they're less than 4 miles, but still, I am SO READY to be done with chafing and blisters and sweat DRIPPING off my face after a half hour outside and random muscle spasm cramps and not wanting to move for 6 hours after a run. But I still have 5 more weeks . . . ughuhbuh . . .