Paddy's Five Miler Recap! (I failed at taking pictures)

Today, the weather was as feared; freezing cold, and wind gusts of up to 35 mph! Luckily, the race started at 10:30 am;  I love that kind of start time, it's nice not to feel rushed in the morning!

  I had my usual race breakfast of a Ray's NY bagel, coffee and almond butter.  I checked the weather 5 million times to see what the temps were going to be at 1030am.  I finally decided on wearing fleece-lined tights, a long sleeved tech shirt with my Six03 shirt over it.  I packed my warmest gloves, and brought my white wool headband to wear on my head.

My parents nicely met Max and me at the Pease Tradeport at 9:45;  they agreed at the last minute to watch Max so that Neil could do our taxes! It worked out well, Neil got to do our taxes with minimal interruptions, Max got "ya ya" and "pa pa" time ,and I didn't feel as stressed about rushing back after the race, especially since the post-race beer was something I was looking forward to!

  After parking my car, I met my friend Lenny to do a 1/2 mile warm-up-  the warm-up didn't really warm us up at all!!  Just before 1030, we lined up towards the front, and got ready to race!  I had to start my music on my phone before the gun went off, as I had no intentions of taking my mittens off.

When the gun went off,  I realized that we had placed ourselves further back in the crowd than we had expected, there were a lot of people to weave around.  The 1st part of the race was great, the 1st mile is mostly all downhill, and the wind hadn't yet picked up much.  I got to the 1st mile marker at 7:25.  This felt comfortable, but probably because it was the 1st mile.
  The 2nd mile felt great as well,  I was getting into a rhythm, and despite the cold temps, my breathing was ok.  (7:12.)  The 2-3 mile is made up of a slight uphill and turn-around point, it was great being able to see the lead runners run by, and fellow Six03 runners!  The wind had picked up a bit, not horrible at this point, but uncomfortable. (3rd mile at 7:53.)  After the turn around, I felt a lot better, the wind had died down.  After about 3/4 of a mile, the course turns right, it goes up the street where we do hill repeats at lunch.  I saw my friend Karla parked right alongside the hill- she told me in advance she was going to yell at me (in a nice, but aggressive way :) ), she helped, and was there at the perfect time!  The wind by now had picked up so much, that I had to do everything in my power to not get blown over.  Fourth mile (7:25.)
  The last mile was BRUTAL. Not only was it slightly uphill (feels like a giant hill at this point in the race), but the wind was blowing so hard, that it tripped me up! I could hardly move forward at all, and had to focus on just keeping my head down, and trudging forward.  I really was trudging.  Right around the 4.5 mile marker, I had a similar dizziness and blurry vision that I had from the last race.  I'm stating the obvious by saying that I will talk to my doctor about this now.  Luckily, I was able to make it through the finish line in one piece.  Official time per Cool Running was 38:58.
  I got in the tent, had a ton of soup and water- and went to find the beer!!

Forgot to stop my app after crossing the finish line! 

Play List for Tomorrow's Race!

Tomorrow is the Paddy's Five Miler on the Pease Tradeport;  it was supposed to be held last weekend, but was pushed to this weekend due to a snow storm.  Last weekend, I pictured that I would be running the race in capris and a t-shirt;  I also optimistically thought that the bulk of the snow would be melted.  I am a fool. It's snowing again, and tomorrow's forecast looks like this:

Not horrible, but not expected for temperatures at the end of March!

The race is held in the office area where I work, so I'm used to running the course from my runs at lunch.  It has a somewhat late start (10:30am) because finishers receive a beer at the end of the race! I've only done the race once (back in 2011), and had fun.  I like the 5 mile distance too, it doesn't feel like your lungs are going to explode as much as 5ks do!

I'm excited for tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to recap the race tomorrow!

Now, on to the important things.... (besides my running outfit for tomorrow, which is still yet to be determined because of the weather.)

My playlist!  I love listening to music when I am running in a race, it helps me focus, and helps draw my attention away from any discomfort.
 I did take the time to put together a playlist last night, here's what on the latest list! Let me know if you have anything to add!

Don't knock "Jukebox Hero"...also, I title my playlist "Seacoast 1/2 Marathon Playlist" because I'm too lazy to make a new playlist for each race, I just keep editing my string of songs.
Here are some of the songs for tomorrow:

Other songs include:
  -Shark Attack- Grouplove
 -Right Thurr- Chingy
-Sabotage- Beastie Boys
-Get Low- Lil Jon
-The Man- Ed Sheeran
-Rather Be- Clean Bandit
-Flashed Junk Mind- Milky Chance
-Yellow Flicker Beat- Lorde
-Carry on Phenomenom- Kishi Bashi
-Cigarette Daydreams-Cage the Elephant
-White Winter Hymnal- Fleet Foxes

Back by No one's Demand!!! :)

Stitch Fix #13!

After 2.5 months, I decided to blog again;  I missed writing, and now that I'm not training for a marathon, I have a few more minutes in the day to do one of the things I love.  Maybe the 80" of snow on the ground, or biting cold temperatures had made me feel gloomy,  but yesterday's 50 degree temperatures helped get me out of a funk.

  Since I last posted, I have run 1 race (the Mid-Winter Classic) on February 1st and have received 3 Stitch Fixes.  Last night, I received Stitch Fix #13 (*number is probably not accurate, it's somewhere around 13.)  I am training for 2 races- both are half-marathons (Great Bay Half and the Wallis Sands Half.)

**Mid-Winter Classic Recap**

I was nervous going into this race; it was my first 10 mile race ever, and the race happened to fall right after one of our 500 snowstorms of this Winter.  Plus, it was the first race I was going to do after the Honolulu Marathon. Luckily, I was going to be running with some of my girlfriends, so that helped a lot to have familiar faces around!  I did want to race it, and take advantage of some of my lingering marathon fitness.  My goal going into the race was to try and finish between 1:15-1:20 with less than an eight minute mile pace.

The morning of the race, I had my usual Ray's NY Bagel (the closest thing to actual NY bagels that you can find in New Hampshire) with almond butter.  My friends and I met each other at the liquor store at the traffic circle, not to pre-game, but to carpool.  The temperatures were pretty cold, and we heard rumors that the course's conditions were not going to be good.  I went back and forth about wearing trail shoes to help with traction on icy roads, but eventually settled on my favorite race shoes, the Saucony Type A6.  They are racing flats, but are very comfortable for all distances- and mentally, they make me feel faster.  I wanted to be warm enough so I wore my Under Armour fleece-lined tights..these are by far, my favorite tights ever- and so cheap for tights! Check them out here.
I wore my Saucony 26 Strong hoodie that we got in Honolulu and my Six03 Endurance shirt over the hoodie.  I was cold at first, but felt fine throughout the race.

The course was super hilly, with lots of fast runners- the first few miles were a lot of rolling hills (actually, the whole course was a lot of rolling hills.) The course ended up being ice-free, and very well organized by the race's volunteers.  Around the 5th mile, there was some ice, but nothing bad.

  I felt pretty good for most of the race, but around the 9th mile, I felt like I had the worst brain freeze ever and started to not be able to see straight!  Now that I type that out, it sounds a lot scarier than it actually was...I was probably just tired and in need of a donut.  Just before the finish line, I saw my friend Laurie cheering- that helped me push through the last little bit.

  Despite not being able to see straight through the finish line, I ended up finishing in 1:19, and luckily, my vision was soon restored!
  After the run, my friends and I all went to Whole Foods in Portland for coffee..and I got a donut!

With my next half-marathon in less than a month, I am hoping to add more long runs into my training...it's been difficult with the constant snow, but I've been been watching Orange is the New Black and Scandal* on the treadmill.

*PS- I've decided that if recruiting doesn't work out, I should probably work for Olivia Pope with my master super sleuth internet research skills.  (self-decided.)

Stitch Fix #13!

I have three other Stitch Fixes to talk about, but I'll only do my most recent one.  For the past three months, I have been asking my stylist to PLEASE not send me anymore scarves, skinny jeans or polyester blouses.  I'm not really a scarf person, and I have way too many skinny jeans.  Wide-legged jeans and pants are coming back in, and I really wanted a pair.  Last month, I didn't get a pair, so I was very excited to see them when I opened up my Stitch Fix, yesterday!

I was really nervous that the pants were going to be too short, I have a 35" inseam, so it's hard to find pants that fit well.  I was SO excited when I tried on the pants and they were just long enough! Neil thought they looked like mom jeans...but whatever.  I kept them.

Then, I tried on a striped lightweight sweater.  It was cute, and would look good with cutoffs in the Summer or with my sexy mom jeans. Keep!
  The next piece of clothing was a  light green shirt with bat wings...I forget what the style is called, but it legit had bat wings, or flying squirrel wings.  That shirt got a big thumbs down from everyone. No way, Jose.  See, now I'm talking like I wear mom jeans.

  Then, I tried on a purple colorblock sweater;  I thought it was super cute, and pretty reasonably priced- keep!
  Finally, I tried on a sleeveless silk tank that looked like it was printed with exploding butterflies; it also made me look 7 months pregnant.  Return.



So that's some of my life of late- I'm hoping I will be able to blog at least once a week!