1/2 Marathon...3 weeks later...

Oh...hey.

I was at a family graduation party yesterday and was reminded gently (and sometimes not so gently) that I had not updated the blog since our victorious and glorious 1/2 marathon on May 30. I guess I have had enough time to decompress by now. Hopefully. So lets try this:

The night before, my family and I headed out to Madison to hit up the marathon expo, which was pretty uneventful. We checked into the hotel, met up with Alyssa and her mom, and checked out the local Olive Garden for some cheap and abundant carbs. My brother D.J. told the hostess that Alyssa and I were twins (we do look alike) and that it was our birthday, so we even got free cake. Thanks D.J.! We headed back to the hotel and sat in the hot tub for a while, and tried to go to bed early. I could not fall asleep, I probably got about 2 hours that night. I was up at 4 to eat a full breakfast and tried to get back to sleep, but that was a fail, so I just laid in bed until 5:30. We left the hotel with Alyssa's mom at 5:45 and had no problem getting downtown and to the start in time. We warmed up and stretched like good little runners, hit the port-a-potties, and were ready to go! Then we watched the crazy marathon runners start. And then it was time for us to start!

The first 5 miles were easy. (Too bad there are 8 after that right?) Alyssa had to pee right away so we hit the first bathroom we could find, which caused us to lose our pace group, but whatever. They were crazy anyway. Those first miles were through campus, and it was hilly. We had some choice words for the people who plan the route on our way up the hill on Observatory, but we were on campus so we knew where we were and that helped a lot. We saw our families around mile 5.5, and that was great! I really don't remember the next few miles, but I know that at mile 7 I had to stop and pee, and that's when my body though we were done for the day. Sitting down was a terrible life decision. It took a lot of convincing to get my legs to believe that we still had 6 miles to go, but somehow they got the message and we kept chugging. There really weren't many people on that back half of the course, and it was getting HOT, and we were just not feeling it. When we hit mile 8, I got excited, because we only had 5 miles left, and that's less than an hour, and 5 miles is nothing, right? Ha.

We ran along the lake for a while, which was nice and cool, and then we looped around Menona Bay, which is where I really started to hurt. We saw 2 people being taken off of the course on stretchers, probably because of dehydration (it was 88 degrees and HUMID when we finished). Someone was blasting "Telephone" by Lady Gaga, and that was nice. People had their hoses out and were spraying us down, and that was even nicer. But I was not feeling it. I was trying to keep smiling, keep chatting, doing whatever it took to keep moving forward, at a decent pace. Because we only had 3 miles left dammit. And 3 miles is NOTHING. I should be able to FLY for 3 friggin miles. Finally, FINALLY we hit the one mile left mark, and I almost got excited, but for some cruel and evil and demonic reason, the asswipe route planners decided that the last mile should be UPHILL. People were just walking (or limping, or crying) everywhere, it was like a giant game of frogger, and I honestly thought I was going to puke up about a gallon of yellow gatoraid. But to our credit, we ran up that entire damn hill. And then just where I thought the finish line was...there was more hill. So we kept running. We heard our parents cheering for us, so we ran faster (showing off our studly skills....). And then....we ran up a little more hill. But then we were done! And I did not throw up, and we got our medals, and more water, and then we hobbled about looking for our families. Alyssa's watch said we ran it in 2:15.08 (not including potty breaks), and I was really pleased with that time. Our goal was 2:10, but seeing as it was hot as balls, and hilly, and our first 1/2, I can not complain.

We found our families, and drank more, and began to slowly move back to the cars. Stretching and walking back to the car took a while, but I stayed on my feet. We got back to the hotel, and I took a ridiculously long shower, and then was anti social and cranky the rest of the day, and ate 3 pieces of deep dish pizza for dinner. Because I earned it dammit.

I was really proud of us after the race, but I know we still have a lot of work to do before the marathon in October. I started Hal's 18 Week program this week, and I decided to do Intermediate I, because the novice ones looked like a huge step down in mileage for me, and I did not want to slide backwards. I know I have never run a marathon before, but I think I can handle it. We'll see how it goes. I leave for my counselor job at Loras All Sports Camp on Tuesday, so balancing work and training and dealing with random crises that arise will be an interesting and new challenge, but I'm up for it!

These last few weeks I have been getting back into my full training schedule, I was really sore after the 1/2. A few weekends ago I ran the girls on the run 5k downtown which was a blast! I had so much fun running with a great group of young women and their inspiring role models who did not care about time or splits or any of the other crap most "serious" runners care about. Despite the rain, everyone had a great time. And the medals are sweet. Shout out to my cousin Lauren who coached a great group of girls all spring! All I heard about for 3.2 miles was how cool "Mrs. Kaminsky" is, and how funny she is, and how awesome she is, and blah blah blah blah (just kidding Lauren, but seriously, they were quite enamored of you...).

Thanks to everyone who continues to support us during our training. Having you there for us (and knowing full well you will judge me if I just give up at this point), really helps! Keep the advice coming you crazy running people (I seem to be related to a lot of those types)....

Until next time!
Katie

CARBS!

Its finally here. Taper week. How long have I looked forward to this week you ask? Way too long. It seems that since day one of this ordeal, I have wanted to be able to carbo load and not do much else for an entire week, and let me tell you, it feels damn good. Despite my inherent laziness, and the joys of not having to run 8 miles a day, I do feel a bit "clumpy". For those of you who aren't Valenti children, "clumps" is the term my Mom uses when one of us has too much energy, for instance:

"D.J.! Do you have clumps? Go spike that volleyball outside!"
or
"Jack, stop biting Meg and go work out the clumps."
or
"Katie, stop lurking. Gosh you are clumpy. Go for a run."

My lovely roommate can tell you how I get when I get the clumps, but its somewhere between me after an exciting lacrosse game and me on mountain dew, with some extra crazy eyes thrown in.

And that about describes me this week. That and I get to eat all of the carbs I want and no one can stop me. (Not that any sane person would EVER get between me and my food, but you know what I mean).

I know at this point I should have a "race plan", and I should be worried, and I should know the route by heart and have my fanny pack ready and my shoes clean and my outfit laid out. I don't. I know I'm a bad runner, but I'm trying not to take this too seriously. And by trying not to take it seriously I mean I am being my lazy self and not really caring too much. My race plan is this: run until I finish, don't start too fast, walk through aid stations. My outfit....we can let Meg decide that one (she has always been the fashionable one). I refuse to wear a fanny pack. I will not get lost on the course because there are thousands of people and signs and arrows. Even I can figure that one out. And its really not in my nature to worry. Not about stuff like this at least. This is supposed to be fun (at some point at least, maybe the first mile or so...).

If you find me on a street corner in Madison at some point on Sunday, you can point and laugh and say I told you so! You should have prepared more you ignorant first timer! But then at least help me get back to the car please.

Off to eat another baguette! (Have I mentioned that I love carbs?)
KV

Did You Know...

More interesting things I've seen while running:

1. A squirrel pooping. It kind of looked like it was hunched over eating an acorn, but there was no acorn...

2. A woman picking her nose while driving. I guess texting isn't the only dangerous thing to do while behind the wheel...

Interesting things I've learned:

1. Sneaking in finger scoops of cookie dough before running is a BAD idea.

2. Vaseline does NOT help lube up your legs like Katie's "Body Glide." If anything, it makes them stickier and chafe more.

4 DAYS!!

~A

The final countdown...

Ya I suck at updating this, I know. Sue me. I'm at home now, and not wasting time on my computer NEARLY as much as I do when I'm at school. So I just keep forgetting to do this.

Anyway, running in the village has been good. Flat, full of traffic, hot, but good. It is hard to find long routes around here, because I don't have a really large area where it is safe to run. So basically I run around the perimeter of town, or zig zag back and forth across it. I think that as summer wears on, I will have to go downtown and run along the lake to get my longer runs in, because I can only run back and forth down Lake street so many times.

7 days until the half marathon. Seriously, when we started this whole training thing May 30 seemed like it was so far in the future, but time flies when you're getting disgusting blisters! Lets hope I'm ready. Last week was by far the most miles I have put in:
Sunday: 10
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 6
Wednesday: 8
Thursday: 6
Friday: rest
Saturday: 6
So this week I get to taper! And eat a lot. And ice various parts of my body. And maybe try that whole stretching thing again, I kind of fell off the wagon on that one. My two goals were to run a marathon and touch my toes, and right now the marathon seems a whole lot easier.

As for next weekend, we finally have plans for getting to/staying in Madison. My family is going to head up Saturday afternoon, meet up with Alyssa and her mom, check out the Expo and pick up our stuff, eat a lot, and then eat more, and then sleep because runners are crazy people and like to start physical activity WAY too early in the morning. If anyone is going to be in Madison running or cheering or just because you live there, hit us up! We would love to see you (and give you our water bottles to hold along the course...).

Until next time (which won't be another month, promise :))
kv

There's No Place Like Home

Interesting/embarrassing things that have happened on my runs since I have been home:

1. When I run, I tend to spit a lot, but I at least do it discretely to the side in the grass. But the other day I turned to spit and didn't hear the guy coming up about to pass me and missed spitting on him by nearly a millimeter...oops. My bad.

2. I forget how warm weather brings out the bugs, especially near dusk. So naturally, I run into a swarm of nats and i accidently eat one as I'm inhaling. So for some reason I thought it was a good idea to blow it out of my nose (even though it went into my mouth) and got snot all over my face. Fail.

3. Last Saturday must have been some high school's prom because I ran by plenty of limo's and girls in pretty dresses. I ran by a big group getting their pictures taken and became too distracted looking at the girls' colorful dresses that I tripped. Bad. Not just a little stumble, but the kind where you think you're gonna face plant and by some miracle your legs catch you awkwardly just in time.

4. After my tripping incident, I saw a school bus up ahead with its flashers on and was like hmmm that's interesting, I've never seen a school bus on a Saturday...and then I noticed a bunch of overly eager moms with cameras and thought no...no. But yes, there was a group of kids who took a school bus to prom! I was confused because I wasn't sure if wow, that's so funny/cool, or wow, that's so lame.

5. On the last mile of my 10 miler, I was going very slow. It was like the little engine that couldn't. But i was still trudgin along when a car passed me and some little teenage boy yells out "Come on, you should be sprinting!" Merrr...not the kind of motivation i needed.

Man it's good to be home!

~A

Freedom!

Hey Blog,

Man oh man it's been a crazy week. Since Sunday, I have gotten a total of 15 hours of sleep. As an art major, I don't have exams during exam week like normal people. Instead, I have final projects and critiques all this week, mixed in with school, and an art history exam. But today my friends, today at 5:35pm all that madness had ended! God save the queen! Needless to say, I am pooped. I know this is a blog about running and not Alyssa's time to complain, so on that note I'll admit this to you:

I haven't run since Saturday morning...

I just couldn't do it, and I didn't want to push myself with the minimal sleep I've had this week. To make up for it, I'm going to run 7 tomorrow and 10 on Saturday/or tag along with Katie on Sunday (which she doesn't know yet). And like she said, those two combined is more than I ran my first week of training, which was 14/15 also. We'll see how things go.

Xoxo

Gossip Girl (Alyssa)

HOLY SHIT THE HALF MARATHON IS 25 DAYS AWAY!

AHHH.

Remain calm. Heres whats been going on:

I realized that I ran more miles in the first two days of this week (9 on Sunday, 6 on Tuesday), than I did in my entire first week of training (14 miles TOTAL). Thats amazing. I have come so far, and thats exciting. But the fact remains that I have not run more than 9.5 miles yet, and a half-marathon is 13.1. So thats 3.6 miles longer than I've ever gone. I will do 10 this weekend, so we'll see how that goes. Also I have no idea what the taper schedule is for a half marathon, guess its time to google that ish.

Anyway, my schedule for this week is as follows:
Sunday: 9
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 6
Wednesday: 5, hills
Thursday: 6
Friday: rest
Saturday: 4, fast
Sunday: the big 10 (probably slow, but trying to stay at 10 min/miles)

My new mantra is hydration and calories. I have been feeling so sluggish on my normal daily runs (which are now 5-7 miles...) and I think that its because I am not eating enough carbs and drinking enough water. After drinking poweraid for an entire year last year, I had grown an aversion to the stuff, but lately I have been drinking more gatoraid. I guess my body needs that. Hmm. Especially now that the weather is getting HOT, and I am sweating for hours at a time (a wonderful vision for all of you readers, Im sure).

My other worry is that I go home in a little over a week, and as much as I love the Chi, there are NO hills anywhere. Madison is hilly. I have to deal with them every day here, and thats good because I will be running the half marathon here, and there will be hills in said half marathon. So my trick is going to be finding hills in Chicago to practice on. Which might be a struggle.

I'm sure the 3 people who read this LOVE listening to me complain and worry and moan. Thats why you are here for me, yes. If anyone has ANY advice about running 13.1 miles, please hand it over. Well just have to see how this all goes....

Happy Hump Day!
kv