"America the Beautiful"

Something hit me this year going into the Austin Marathon/Half Marathon 2011 Event.  It hit me that this was my Fourth Year being involved in this Race (2x Half/2x Full), I could actually say that I am a seasoned racer.  When realizing this, one would think that the jitters before the horn goes off would not affect me anymore, or the night before I would be able to sleep without running everything through my head over and over, BUT no that is not true.

Sunday, Feb 20th I woke up at 4:30 am to get ready for the Austin Half Marathon.  This would be the 3rd Half for me this season (Nov-Feb) and I just woke up with a "I don't want to" attitude.  After contemplating calling my Coach at 4:30am for a get your "arse" out of bed speech and go do the race, I decided his wife probably would not like me so much, so I counted on my husband to give me that speech and he probably would have but with 1hr of sleep (due to a band gig) I think he had his fingers crossed that he could go back to sleep himself.  So with much fight with myself I started thinking of all the hard work I had done to get to this race, how much work Coach Dave had put into me doing this race, and what if I did not do it? How would I know if what I was doing paid off, if it was working or not?  So that is when I got myself out of bed!  I have always said that I can be my worst or best enemy.

As I finally got out of bed and started prepping myself for the race I started it out with a scaled down version of my Paleo Breakfast.  Oh, did I leave that out?  I have been in a CrossFit Challenge for 7 Weeks (total 8 weeks) and it has consisted of me completely doing a different training program and eating routine.  I have been Training doing CrossFit Class 2x Week and CrossFit Endurance Running the other days, with usually only 1 Rest Day (sometimes 2) and Eating a Complete Paleo Diet (with 1 cheat meal a week and my usual Latte here and there (sugar free/skim milk). Breakfast consisted of 1 egg, half avocado, half paleo bar, which if your a runner most runners would prefer a bagel and peanut butter that early in the morning.

Let me back up a little.  With the first Half Marathon of the Season it was the San Antonio Half Marathon and I PR'd my time by 4mins, which was a time from 2008 that I finally broke.  I had been doing regular CrossFit Classes for a Year at that time and on and off with the Paleo Eating, Running was the usual Half Marathon Training Plan.  I have to say the weather was perfect and I just felt strong and totally kicked that Half out of the park for myself.  Night before ate lasagna, wine, ice cream.  For breakfast I think I had some coffee and maybe a full bar.  But it was the feeling strong, is what was so great.  It was also an extremely flat course.  So great race, but from there to what I did for the 3M and Austin was completely different.  You can say I have struggled, learned, grown, and had to give over my mind set for the last 7 weeks.

We will totally just ignore that 3M Half Marathon happened.  It was a horrible, hot, miserable race for me, lots of stomach cramping and just nasty.  I had only been in my Challenge and New Routine for 3 Weeks and it totally just crushed me.  SKIP AHEAD!

Austin Half Marathon 2011! 
The Week Leading up to this event I did Workouts and hard workouts Mon-Thurs, took off Fri-Sat from Workouts (worked all day Friday) and had a Great Race on Sunday.  Eating, Mon-Sun Morning was Complete Paleo (minus the few chocolate bites I had Monday night valentines).  I have really added a ton of Greens to each meal and watched my protein intake and just been cautious of the ratio of carb/protein/fat that I intake.  Leveling off some of the greens Saturday, eating a big breakfast with some greens and paleo pancakes, lunch a 6oz steak, broccoli, sweet potato, snack apple w/ almond butter, and dinner 6pm was 1 egg and paleo pancake, lots of Water and Coconut Water intake.  I was ready!  You already heard earlier about my fight with myself and breakfast.  So lets get to the race already....

So many people, such a huge crowd, I ended up not in the way back of the line which is where I usually start, I was starting with the 9min mile crowd (we all know I am not that fast but why not start there?).  As the horn goes off I still had those jitters and the thoughts of why am I doing this? I am not feeling this today.  But as we started and I cued up my music it began to feel good and then I realized the first 6miles of this race was uphill (big hills).  Did I mention that this whole race is about the hills and scenic view of Austin?  They even changed the route this year to add more hills.  Aren't they nice people?  And I remember clear as day rounding the corner and going up a hill at around 1.5miles and "America the Beautiful" coming on from the Zac Brown Band, and as it started playing I looked up and saw an ocean of runners climbing the hill and thinking to myself "I love running races", "today is going to be good", and from there it was a good race.

I ran with passion and enjoyment, my quotes were "peace and strength" and "pain is weakness leaving the body".  I felt strong, I had my shot bloks and gu, I felt the squishing of blisters but still at mile 9 I was having fun.  I realized at mile 9, when I was still enjoying myself and pushing, that I really had grown stronger, faster and better at running, and that the CrossFit Challenge and New Training and Eating Routine really had made a difference in me. 

As a Runner I know that if you PR in this Race its amazing b/c this is one you just don't usually compare to the San Antonio or 3M Races b/c of the Hills.  I only looked at my watch 3x b/c I was just going to do what I came to do and that was push to the end, cross the finish line knowing you gave everything you had.  And that is what I did.  At mile 12 going up a horrendous hill I gave everything I had, if it were not for that hill I would have had a PR but with that hill I was only shy of my PR by 2mins which made me very proud knowing the extreme differences in the Route of the races.

To end this very long blog I have to say I am so Excited to continue this Training and Eating Routine and taking it through to the Chicago Full Marathon Oct 2011.  Thank You to my Cheer Team and Wonderful Family, JT and Cassie, (Cookie was there too).  Thank You Coach Dave for helping me through and letting me fully trust you with this Challenge.  Thanks to Coach Nikki b/c she was my first CrossFit Coach and the whole "pain is weakness leaving the body" quote is from her.  And just Thank You for CrossFit Cedar Park for making me into a stronger athlete and runner.  It was a Good Day and I look forward to seeing what happens in Chicago!