I Bought a Candle, Who Am I?

I have never been a candle person.  Never understood why people have them.  I mean you have to remember to blow them out and if your house stinks maybe just buy some bleach.  However tonight I was prusing store shelfs and thought I needed one.  I feel calmer already.  

I need a pair of America themed running shoes.

After a month and a half of low mileage, tons of stretching, foam rolling and foot exercises I think the feet are getting better.  My runs have felt fantastic this last week,  I feel like haveing a few days of running in tank top weather really helped my feet.  Most days have been too cool for tank tops but still shorts weather, so much more plesant than last month.   I was about to start thinking about skipping Free State 100k next month or at least dropping to a shorter distance but finally going to have a decent amount of milage this week so just see if my feet hold up I guess.

What's Up

Gretchen and I took a little trip.

Had some playground fun and visited some museums.

At the art musum Gretchen pointed out all the nakedness in the painting and sculptures.

She seemed to enjoy the Air and Space musum the best.

She thought we walked too much and prefered to ride on my sholders.

Gretchen at the race expo playing a running game.

And oh ya we visited my sister Courtney and ran the Rock and Roll DC marathon. 

It was her first marathon and she did fantastic!  It rained the whole race so was pretty chilly despite being 45ish out.  I was happy to get the 26 miles in since my mileage has been so low latly but it wasn't the most fun race.  I've been having plantar fasciitis issues and my feet kinda hurt after the first  6 miles so not great.  Finished in 3:58.  After the race I was so cold, getting back to Courtneys place for a hot shower and dry clothes felt like quite the treat.   

I am diganosing and treating myself.  I am stretching and foam rolling tons, doing fun foot exercises, icing my feet and wearing weird socks.  I have also been avoiding running on hard surfaces such as concrete and pavement( except of course for the 26.2 I ran on Saturday.)  I think it's working but hard to tell for sure.  My feet definiatly hurt less but it's not gone.  All very frustrating but hopfully it will go away soon.

New Protien Bars, Class Pass and I'm Cold

We tried a new protein bar recipe.  They taste like candy bars, have the calories of a candy bar but more nutritious ingredients and full of protein. The recipe calls for almond butter, we used peanut butter the first time and almond butter the second time, both good.

Tried out Class Pass.  It is a monthly pass giving you access to classes at different gyms in your city.  Just started up in the Kansas City area.  Last week I went to a yoga class at Zen Zone in Lee Summit and loved it. I took a class with Rebecca, she was great!  They offer child care as well, big plus!   My running legs are seriously needing to add more yoga and stretching to my life.  I spend every morning walking like my dad when I attempt to jump out of bed(no jumping involved).

The weather is not agreeing with me.  I apparently decided I'm done with the cold and been spending most of my time in the gym.  Did make it outside today since I got out of work early and It is apparently the nicest day of the week at a warm 41˚.  Felt good for my 7.5 miles.  I have the next 2 days off work and looking forward to trying out a variety of classes through Class Pass.  I'll let you know what I like.

Greatest Fear Realized and Back At It

So apparently I was a little delusional at 3am on the trail about there being no one close enough to hear me singing.  I guess having someone hear me sing was better than someone attempting to murder me.

Took a solid week off from running after the race.  My legs felt fine after a couple of days but my feet were still achy.  I started back with 4 slow miles yesterday.  Not the best but not bad, felt good to run again.  Feet didn't seem to like the first 1/2 mile while they were on concrete but fine after that.

I quit lifting weights about a month and a half before the race, mostly because I was using all my exercise time to run and then didn't want to make my muscles all sore right before the race.  I started back up with the weights and my muscles are all a whole diffrent kind of sore this week.

And I decided on the rest of my race schedule for the year.  I had already signed up for Rock and Roll, Free State, and Rockbridge before running the 100 miles but wanted to hold off on signing up on any more 100's till I knew how I felt about them.  Turns out I want more.  I'm going with the Hawk for my 2nd 100.  I did the 50 last year and it's a good race and nice course.  I kinda wanted to do something different but its local so lots cheaper than traveling and I already have 2 runcations this year.  

Rock and Roll DC Marathon March 14th

Free State 100k April 18th

Psycho Psummer 50k July 11th

Hawk 100mile September 12th

Rockbridge Revenge 50k  October 3rd

Rocky Raccoon Race Report

Taking my mom and daughter with me I left for the airport early Thursday morning for Houston and we were already in Huntsville around 11 in the morning.  I got that nervous feeling like you feel when you are on a roller coaster right at the very top right before it is about to go down.  I felt that way till race morning.  Like I was just about to jump off a cliff and the feeling only got worse once I figured I wouldn't have a pacer.  My 1st 100 and I had gotten diffrenent feedback on weather I'd really need one or not.  Some people were like you have to have one, others said it was a looped course so not necessary.  Didn't matter really at this point anyway and it turned out fine without one.  Lots of people were running without one.

Friday we went over to packet pick up and they had a kids 1 mile trail run.  An out and back of the first 1/2 mile of the Rocky Raccoon course.  7 kids participated and Gretchen was the yougest but they made it super nice for them with numbered bids, race shirts, timing and lots of cheering.  I went with Gretchen and she ran/walk the whole mile finishing in 15:30 and was given a metal chicken for her efforts.  So Cute!

After we went out for pizza, perfect prerace food.   Grechen was sleep deprived and I thought it might be brtter if I didn't force my mom and her up at 4 in the morning to drop me off.  I put up a FB message to see if anyone staying at the motel 6 would give me a ride and got a response.  I was in bed by 8 but not asleep till much later and woke up several times during the night.  3:30 came quick, I dressed double checked to make sure I had all I would possibly need in my bag and was out the door to meet up with Jason and his friend David for a ride.  They turned out to be perfect early morning prerace companions.  Stopping for coffee on the drive over then chit chating in his truck till close to start time.  

I ran into my friend Rick who told me he just decided to sign up for the race the day before.  Talked a moment then dropped my bag off in the start area, hit the bathroom and it was start time.  Still dark when we started out but with so many headlamps I didn't even turn mine on for the first couple of miles.  Getting through the first 3 miles to the aid station was slow with 367 people starting the race but probably good to keep myself slow.  It thined out a little by the next aid station 3 miles later and after that it really thined out and I could pick my own pace.

I felt good and kept with my plan to run an 11 something pace till dark then figured I'd have to slow down at that point.

I wore the same shorts and compression socks I wore at both my 50 mile races because they seem to work well for me.  I wore a long sleeve technical shirt, a light jacket, stocking cap and went with my Nike Pegaus road shoes.  Twice while running someone yelled "nice shoes"  that day.  I have no idea if they were being sarcastic or serious.  I would assume sarcastic but thats my nature.  I wore a vest with a small hydration pack for water.  Carrying Honeystinger chews in case I got hungry between aid stations, extra batteries, extra salt and wipes just in case.

The aid stations were spaced about 3, 6, 12 & 15.5 miles apart with the start/finish area at 20 miles.  During the day and night I took 2 salt pills at every other aid station, ate at least 2 full PB&J sandwiches, mini pancakes with bacon, pickles, oreos, pringles, gummy bears, mashed potatoes, rammen and a few other things.  I started drinking soda in addidition to sports drink at  the aid stations around mile 40.  Mostly Mountain Dew, and ginger ale for no particular reason.

I think my nutritional, liquid, salt intake the whole race was pretty spot on.  My stomach felt great and I never felt like I was having any dehydration or other issues.

I felt really solid about my running up to about mile 73ish.  I was happy to get out of the start/finish area for mile 60 before dark and was able to get a few more miles in before headlamp time.  I figured I just had to get through the next 20 and the last 20 would be nothing.  Well the first 12 of that lap felt great then I guess my legs just decided they were done and I had to start walking.  I would try to run and there would be this intense pain in my glutes everytime my foot hit the ground.  Forcing myself into a shuffle for a small bit was the best I could do and then I would just think about how my foot was going to catch a root at any moment.   Walking that last loop was all I could do.  It hurt when I looked at the split times later and saw how long that last loop took.  Walking it everything seems so much farther apart especailly in the dark.  The course was set up so you would pass people regularly except for the 6 miles in the middle of it.  It was late and I was tired.  I would look at the dirt trail and think how comfortable it looked, how I could just lay right down and fall asleep but I resisted.  When I was fairly certain no one was around I started singing to pass the time on that last loop.  "This land is your land"  over and over again to myself, just felt right.  When I finally would reach an aid station I'd grab some food quickly and push myself out of there because those people sitting down with blankets looked so so commfy.  Of course they probably were not commfy, there was a reason they were sitting down, probably involving some serious pain.  

I perked up a little leaving the last aid station knowing I only had 4.5 miles to go till the end.  I finally let myself look at my watch and thought I could get there in under 24.  Once I saw the start finish area I started running, seemed easy when I was down to 1/10th of a mile to go.

Finished in 23:25:03 was handed my belt buckle and just so happy to have finished.  

Lucky me Jason my ride from a day ago came over, he was waiting for his friend to finish and offered to drive me back after.  His friend finished less than a minute after me crazily enough.  We hung around for a short bit, I sat my butt on the ground for the first time since the race started.  Was nice.  Back at the motel about an hour later I was in the shower immediatly because I smelled so so bad.  Spent the rest of the day sleeping and eating, eating and sleeping.

Race	100M
Bib	342
Name	Kristen Weigand
Age	35
Gender	F
Division	30-39
Total Race Time	23:25:03
Lap 1	03:46:32
Lap 2	03:37:54
Lap 3	03:45:46
Lap 4	04:52:43
Lap 5	07:22:08
Overall Place	99
Division Place	6
Gender Place	15

Really great experience and looking to do another one maybe in the fall.  I think if I increse my mileage a bit and maybe a little more time with weights in the gym I could probably improve my performance.  Also really cool to be in a race with so many impressive runners and the race were the female north american 100miler trail record was broken by Nicole Studer.  She ran the race in 14:22.  I remember her passing by me a few times during the race and she looked really happy and was friendly.

Any 100 mile race suggestions?  

Getting Pumped

Less than a week out now from the Rocky Racoon 100.  Just making my lists and checking them twice.  I think I have the travel and accomidations in order.  I know my mom is way more concerned about me getting this part right than me.  I have almost everything bought that I think I might need during the race but it's hard to say.  I'm paying more attention to the weather reports in Huntsville than Kansas City now.  It's still calling for rain next Saturday but it's a week away still so I and probably everyone else running the race is hoping that changes.

Was wanting to watch Fight Club to get me pumped for the race.   Fight Club is an inspiratitional running movie, right?  While watching  I wrote a list of quotes to think about while I am running.

At this point I don't think any more running will do me any good.  I'll run maybe up to 10 miles this week before the race but probably really doesn't matter if I run another mile before the race now.  Nothing left to do but channel the confidence of Kanye West and believe that I'll dominate those 100 miles.

What movie gets you pumped for running?

Buddha on the Mountain Top

So just over 2 weeks now till the Rocky Raccoon.  I'm feeling really good about the race at this moment, like running a 100 miles is going to be a pleasant way to spend the day.  All that time to just run and think.  Feel like I should have a better understanding about what I really want out of life.  Meaning of life and all that crap.  Truth is I will probably not have any Buddha on the mountain top moment,  just be lucky to finish without pooping my pants.  Which would be good as well.

Thinking about this quote

Thinking about this article  The Most Important Question You Can Ask Yourself

and this article A 2 Step Plan For Getting What You Want

Nothing is that difficult just be honest with yourself and what you really want.  Enjoy the journey not just the finish line crap.