Non-Cooking: Army Ten Miler (and other Birthday festivities), New York Marathon Goals

Finished!

Army Ten Miler

Two weekends ago, my dad and I completed our 6th Army Ten miler. The Army Ten Miler always falls on my birthday weekend, which is both a blessing and a curse (early wakeup!). This race means a whole lot to me, as it always reminds me of how far I have come. I started running in the summer of 2006. My dad (a lifetime runner) and I had taken to walking after work on a pretty regular basis and my dad kept saying he thought I would enjoy running. At that point, I had zero interest in running but I had started hitting the gym regularly in an effort to lose the freshman/sophomore 50 (sadly no exaggeration). The last time I had attempted runninh was the prior January, in the 15 degree weather, and I made it about a mile. (That is one of the reasons I always laugh about New Year's resolutions - who really wants to start exercising in January?! I am truly in awe of anyone who sticks with it.) One weekend I was going out of town and couldn't get to the gym. I told my dad we were going to try running on our nightly walk. We ran a quarter of a mile, walked a bit, ran some more. I made him hold my water bottle and had to keep telling him to slow down the whole summer. We kept with it though, and by the end of the summer I was running pretty regularly. We decided at the end of the summer to make next year's Army Ten Miler our goal race and trained for it for over a year. I remember the 5-7 mile runs that led to three hour naps (I did not know the power of Gatorade/electrolytes just yet). We had countless conversations about whether we were ready and if we could escape the dreaded "recovery bus" that swept the course. Finishing that race was a supremely proud moment for both of us!

Non-Cooking: Ragnar Relay!

Two weekends ago, I participated in a 12 person, 200 mile relay with several of my coworkers (both ones I knew and new ones I met). It was SO MUCH FUN! Basically, the idea is you are on a team with 11 other people and the teams are split into two large vans. One person from the team is running at all times and you trade off every 3-10 miles for a total of 36 legs (I had a total of 13.8 miles scheduled). When the people in the one van are running/supporting the runner, the other van is "off" and tries to get a bit of shut eye and/or sustenance. We started at 10:30am on Friday in Cumberland, MD (hello Mountains!) and ended at 3:30pm on Saturday at National Harbor. I had been asked to do it several times but have always said no, mainly for a combination of not fitting into my training/recovery schedule and not fitting into my preferred bedtime of 9pm (slight exaggeration). This year, however, is my in between Ironman year so I thought, why the heck not?!

Non-Cooking: 20/120 weekend

Previewing the cheer station during my own ride

The past two weekends have been jam packed and full of fun! A bunch of my buddies are training for Ironman Florida November 2nd. Their biggest training weekend in the Team's Ironman training plan consists of a 20 mile run and a 120 mile bike ride (which happened for this group 2 weekends ago). From my experience, at this point they feel like dog meat and need all the support they can get. To make it more bearable, the team makes a BIG deal of it, and BBQs both days, encouraging teammates to hang out until the long riders are finished. One of the most vivid memories I have of my 120 mile bike ride (in the heat of August and on 4 hours of sleep) is coming up to a corner and being greeted by my friends Sherri and Greg, bearing gifts of cold water/gatorade and food. They saved our lives. Given how I have been MIA due to my travels this summer and I am missing the race as it coincides with the New York Marathon, I was determined to use this weekend to pay forward  all of the support I received.

Luckily for me, my marathon schedule also called for a 20 mile run. Typically I don't go to team runs. It's usually easier for me to just run from my house & I don't like having to worry about my pace. However, two weeks ago I  met up with the team for an 18 mile run and fell into the same pace as three new people, Derek, Chris, and Meghan.. It was great! The 3 hours went by so quickly, we held a steady pace (10:40ish),  and went for coffee after at a local coffee shop of the W&OD trail. I loved that my Sunday morning was both social and productive. For the 20 mile run, Derek and I ran together again & had a consistent pace of 10:15! As a side note, I love that I am getting faster and am really enjoying the rediscovery of my love of running I have experienced over the last few months. We were also joined by my mentor on the team, Mary, as well as a few others for half of the run. I skipped out after the run to meet up with the BFF and then to make cookies for tomorrow's ride.

Sunday morning I woke up early and drove out to Nokesville for the ride. The ride started at 7am, and it was still a bit dark with a heavy fog. Luckily I remembered my long pants! I rode (and struggled to keep up) with Mary and Becky for a fast 66 miles. 

Then the real work began. I walked through the parking lot with my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and I swear, I have never been so popular in my life! I was happy to have brought something to make the riders feel better as they headed out for the last 40 miles of their ride. Once I made it through the parking lot, I grabbed some fajita and headed out to to mile 97 of their ride with Mary to cheer them on. We brought some of the infamous Team Z fries with us!

Mary and I at the cheer spot

We were joined by two people I hadn't met before, Lindy and Marcia, as well as fellow Ironman Wisconsin alum Erica. I loved getting to know the ladies as we waited for the riders to come and by the end of the day I had two new Facebook (and real life!) friends.

Cheer Crew!!! I loved making two new friends

Boy were the riders grateful to see us! The 120 mile ride turned out to be 127 miles. In addition to the fries, Mary brought boiled potatoes and a container full of salt. LIFE SAVER! Here are some pictures of the cheer station:

Aileen (left) is training for her 3rd Ironman (and has two more planned for next year) and was one of my Ironman training rocks. Sherri (right) was the reason I signed up for my Ironman, did Ironman Lake Placid in July, and came out to support Aileen for  her last 40 miles. These two are amazing! 

Derek (my running buddy) and Aileen love them some salted potatoes

John (one of my favorite riding partners) also came out to support Aileen her last 40 miles. He also brought homemade beer!

Riding 100 miles makes you sore!

After the last rider passed through, I went back to the parking lot and hung out at the BBQ. Despite needing to make another batch of cookies for my coworker who was leaving, I really enjoyed just hanging out and lingered until 5:30ish or so. It was a long day but so worth it!

Overall, the weekend was just a great reminder about how wonderful Team Z is and how grateful I am to have found such a diverse and supportive group of people. After being away a lot of the summer and out of the loop most of the year, it was so nice to just be back with the Team Z family. Talking to the Ironman (and non-Ironman) folk got me incredibly excited for next year. A ton of my favorite people will be training for Mt. Tremblant, in additional to a whole bunch of people I haven't had the pleasure to meet yet. I can't wait! I just need to get through a little thing called the New York Marathon first...