long runs

I know you're all probably sick of reading about my running all the time, but I'm gonna write more about it anyway so I can document the painful fun memories.

So several weeks ago (Feb. 23) I returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a second long run. This time there was no snow, I ran 19 miles, and I had a friend with me. She dropped me off at the start of the Parkway and I ran about 4.5 miles by myself, then she met me at a cross street (since the Parkway itself was still closed for the winter) and we ran about 10 miles together. The whole point of my going to the Parkway is to get in some long inclines (and declines), but I felt bad for her because I had several warmup miles that were flat, up, and down, but when she got out of the car and started running it was four miles up with no breaks. And that was brutal. The run felt so much harder than the last time I'd done it, but I think that's because I was going faster since there was no snow or ice to navigate. (And also because she always runs faster than me and I didn't want to slow her down too much.) At the end of her 10 miles she got back in the car and I continued on back to the entrance of the Parkway where she picked me up. Those last few miles were pretty rough, and I had to stop a couple times to stretch. The problem with stopping, however, is that starting up again is always hard when your body is that worn out. I always feel myself chugging slowly along in the beginning, like the wheels on an old locomotive before they get into a smooth rhythm and pick up speed. Anyway, I got my miles in and logged over 2100 feet in overall elevation gain, and it was really nice to have a running buddy on the Parkway.

A few weeks later (March 16) I ran my longest run thus far: 21 miles. I ran around Charlottesville but tried to make it as hilly as I could (though I'm still nervous that all my "hill" running is not really cutting it as far as preparing for long mountains in the marathon next month). Within the first ten miles I'd already gone up Observatory Hill three times, and I was ready to stop running. But I didn't. Those last eleven miles (with another two trips up O-Hill) were pretty miserable. So miserable, in fact, that there were times when I just started crying. But crying messes with your breathing, so I had to cut that out to avoid getting cramps. I thought a lot about how painful this run was (no shooting, injury pains though, thank goodness) and about how the marathon was going to be even longer and harder, but I never really considered stopping or quitting. I also wondered if I was nearing "the wall," but I don't know. I guess not? This run logged me over 2200 feet in elevation gain. The rest of the day was spent napping and laying on the couch.

And finally, yesterday I ran 14 miles around Charlottesville. I was supposed to work on making 10 of the miles faster, but I also wanted to get some elevation in, so I did O-Hill twice and tried to pick up the pace for the rest of it. I thought I was doing okay with my pace when I'd look down at my GPS watch, but the overall splits at the end didn't really reflect that as much as I would have liked. Oh well. That's part of why I chose to do this really hard mountainous marathon first—so I don't have to worry as much about my time! Yesterday's run was also capped off with a pistachio shell find!

Las Vegas v.4

So like I said, I went to Las Vegas almost two weeks ago with my family for our annual Nascar weekend trip. Here's how it went down:

Friday I got up super early for my 5:20am flight, and when I arrived in Vegas at 9:45am Ryan picked me up and we went to eat at a New Mexican restaurant filled with maps of New Mexico and Southwestern art. Then we checked into the South Point Hotel and Casino (located on Las Vegas Boulevard but a couple miles south of the strip) and took a nap. A couple hours later my parents arrived, and that's when we all headed to my packet pickup and dinner.

Saturday was my half marathon. After we got back from the race I showered and changed, then Ryan and Mom and I went to the Hard Rock for a great lunch at Culinary Dropout. I was starving after the race, but then I was stuffed after lunch. So it was time for a nap. That evening after Dad was back from the Nascar race, we all went to see the Gatlin Brothers in concert. There were two kids in the audience, and after them Ryan and I were definitely the youngest people there. It was fun though.

Sorry it's fuzzy, but look how happy we look! Even if Ryan is hiding his face as he takes the photo, and I am accidentally blocking Mom.

Sunday both Dad and Ryan went to Nascar, so Mom and I headed to the strip for some sightseeing. We started with the conservatory at the Bellagio, which had a springtime and butterflies theme.

Bellagio conservatory.

Butterfly house!

I love that Las Vegas has so many mosaics, like this one at the Bellagio.

Next we walked to the Paris for lunch, then to the Flamingo to look at real live flamingos. Then we took a break at Margaritaville and got to sit up on the outdoor patio because the weather was so nice, and from there we walked to Caesar's Palace to play some slots. Finally we'd killed enough time that Ryan and Dad were done with the race, so we went to the Monte Carlo to meet them and walked to New York New York for a good Italian dinner.

Giant slot machine at New York New York. Alas, he didn't win.

Later that night Ryan and I visited the ice bar at the Monte Carlo. They give you a coat and gloves (with upgrade options for a fur coat and hat, which we didn't spring for) and you go inside and drink out of ice cups and sit on ice seats and the whole thing is very cold but also pretty neat. (Or "cool," if you will.) I don't think I'd enjoy it if I were wearing a skirt and heels like most girls at night in Las Vegas, but I wasn't.

They wouldn't let us take cameras inside and they wanted twenty bucks to buy the photos they took. So here we are outside the bar after our freezing visit inside.

Monday we all went to an outlet mall, since that's how my family rolls on vacations. While there we enjoyed a big sushi buffet lunch. Ryan also spotted a professional wrestler at the buffet (I think it was this guy). When we got back to the hotel we had to take naps again, and then Ryan had to go back to Flagstaff which was very sad. Once he was gone my parents and I headed to the strip, where we watched the volcano erupt at the Mirage, had a drink at Treasure Island, and ate dinner at the Wynn.

The rocks are a "volcano" at the Mirage that erupted shortly after this photo was taken. Sure I have some shots with the fire and lava, but this one is prettier.

Hehe.

Love these mosaics at the Wynn!

Tuesday my parents and I went to Red Rock Canyon (where my half marathon was on Saturday). Dad and I hiked around on the red rocks while Mom drove around and took pictures on her own. The great thing about the red rocks is you don't have to stay on a trail, and you can wander wherever you want!

He's so strong.

 

Red Rock Canyon pistachio sighting!

 

 

Pretty desert.

After a little while we met back up with Mom and drove to a different spot, where Dad and I went for a 1.5 mile hike to a spring. The trail was really just an old road and was covered in rocks. A lot of rocks.

There are at least five bighorn sheep in this photo. Only they didn't really have big horns.

Once we reached the spring a man told us about a cabin just a little farther up, so we headed toward that but then a different man coming from that direction said it was farther than we thought, so we turned around. Poor Mom was just sitting in the car all this time and we didn't bring any water with us on this desert hike, so I was fine with turning around.

This was the spring (dammed up) at the end of the hike. Not the most exciting end-of-hike-destination, but oh well.

 

End of the hike! We survived.

Parents!

By this point it was mid-afternoon and we'd never had lunch, so we headed to Big Dog's Brewing Company for food and cold beer. Then we booked it back to the hotel so we could all freshen up and head to the strip for the evening. That's where we saw the Cirque du Soleil show Mystère, which was fun. Except watching all those acrobatics can really make one feel physically inadequate.

Tuesday was my last night in Vegas, so I ended the night by finally winning some money on the slot machines back at our hotel's casino. Up until that night I'd been losing left and right. (And by that I mean I lost, you know, like twenty bucks a day.) So that was exciting.

Another fun family Vegas trip on the books!

sighting sent in

My brother and his friends are touristing it up in the Southwest for spring break. (Luckyyy.) They sent this pistachio sighting to me from Bandelier!

Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon

Last weekend I went to Las Vegas for the annual family trip for Nascar. (But I didn't actually go to a race, only Dad and Ryan did.) Doing a little poking around on the internet beforehand I discovered that a marathon/half marathon would take place the same weekend, and it was definitely a race I wanted to do! Since I'm training for American's Toughest Road Marathon, I need to try and get lots of elevation change in my runs, and the Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon was a good fit. The course did a horseshoe loop on the road through the canyon, and had a cumulative elevation gain (according to my gps watch) of 1,525 feet. That's about half of what my marathon will have.

I arrived in Vegas Friday morning, and that evening my whole family drove out to the Suncoast Hotel and Casino so I could pick up my race packet and sign a form saying I wouldn't pet any tortoises. After dinner we all had an early night, since we'd be getting up super early! Mom volunteered right when I mentioned the race several weeks ago to come with me and watch, and it wasn't until Friday that I forced convinced Ryan to come, too. (Dad didn't come because he wanted to get to the Nascar track early, and he gets a free pass in my book because he's coming to watch my full marathon in April.)

So at 4:15am I woke up (Thanks to jet lag, it felt like 7:15 for me! Not so for my Arizona- and New Mexico-dwelling family though.) and headed next door to my parents' hotel room for my bagel, banana, and coffee. I woke Ryan up at 5:00, and by 5:40 the three of us were heading across town to the shuttle pickup at the Suncoast. They dropped me off but I had to wait ten or fifteen minutes for the next shuttle, and they followed in a shuttle for spectators about half an hour later.

According to my training schedule I was supposed to run fifteen miles that Saturday, which meant I had to run an extra two miles in addition to the half marathon. My plan was to get there early enough to do a two-mile warm up, but I only had time for 3/4 of a mile before I needed to take off my sweats, hand over my bag, make one last pit stop, and head to the start. Unfortunately the porta-potty line set me back a little, and I actually started the race about two minutes late. (Which is fine since they used chip timing, though apparently the winners were all based on the gun time.)

Okay, now for the race itself and pictures! Perhaps the best thing about this course is the scenery. Big open desert fills the center of the canyon and was always on my left, and red rocks and snow-dusted mountains surround the canyon. It had rained on Friday, but even though Saturday morning started out really overcast, it was dry. (Disclaimer: I took these pictures while running, so they may be blurry or tilted.)

Still in the visitor center parking lot, shortly after the start.

That sky looks ominous. Ryan hoped it would rain so he wouldn't have to come. It didn't.

The first 5.5 miles were mostly uphill. I was really proud of myself on the uphills, because even though I wasn't fast, I was able to keep chugging pretty well and pass people going up. I had looked at the course elevation profile ahead of time and thought the uphill would end at mile 5 though, so that last half mile uphill was sort of tortuous.

Look how pretty the mountains are!

Self portrait in motion.

After the scenery, the next best thing about this race is all the downhills! It's 5.5 miles up, but then 7.6 miles down without too steep of a grade, which made for some speedy miles for me. I still ended with my slowest half marathon time (this was my third half), but I felt really good about the whole thing and passing people on the uphills gave me more confidence about all this hill/mountain training I'm doing for my marathon. My official time: 2:00:46.99. Age group place: 8 (out of 54), gender place: 31 (out of 282), overall place: 125 (out of 496).

My mom took this as I crossed the finish line. I know the timer says 2:02 but don't forget I started late.

I was pretty beat after pushing through the last mile or so. Ryan was at the finish line and I had to grab onto him while they cut off the chip timer from my shoe.

After the race I drank some more water and ate half a banana, but then I headed out on the road to run another 1.25 miles to get me up to 15 for the day. Then we loaded onto the shuttle bus to get back to the hotel with our car. Overall I really liked this race. It was small and there wasn't a lot of crowd support due to the nature of the course, but the scenery made up for it.

Ryan complained a lot about having to get up so early to stand around at my race.

But really I think he enjoyed it. He got to hang out with Mom and later I heard he told Dad it was "beautiful" out there with snow on the mountains.

Thanks for the support family!