2 thoughts for half marathon number 2

Two seems to be the lucky number here: I raced my second half marathon just yesterday morning and PR'd by over two minutes from Eugene Half in 2010! Second race recap about to commence...

This past Saturday night was a wild, no sleep, butterfly tummy kinda night. It marked one day until Seattle Half Marathon, 10+ weeks of training, and the end of my fundraising of $1000 for Every Mother Counts. Being my second 13.1 ever, I was hesitant about a lot of things, mainly logistics of what to eat/what not eat, how many miles to run the week prior,  which flats to wear etc etc.

1 week before
Knowing that I'm in more of the minimal mileage stage right now, I chose to only run 26 miles last week: 8 mile LR + 3 mile days with minimal workouts. Who knows if this helped or hindered my "race plan" but one thing is for sure, I felt veryyy rested stepping up to the start line.

1 day before 
Festivities started with pasta feed on Saturday day, hosted by the "hostess of the mostess," (Mr. and...) Mrs. Robinson! Birds in the house were spoiled with apps, pasta, vino, salad, and choclatey desserts. Lucky for me, Natty P. joined us for din din and we got to chat a bunch about how she was going to pace me, where she was going to jump in, and my goals for finishing.

Day of...

Sunday morning was race day! Seattle Half started at 7:30 which meant I was up at the crack-o-dawn to eat oatmeal + a banana and get in a positive mind set. The past week I'de been telling myself two thoughts that in a way became my "mantra" for the race: 1. It's going to hurt 2. It's going to be okay.. ha! Wise I know, but for some silly reason it spoke to me and it was on my mind until the start. 

Horn blew and my 1:35 pacing man started running and so I followed.. using my Nike+ watch was a bust, it gave me the wrong splits and stopped half way through but lucky for me I chose not to look at it anyways! First mile started at a 7:40, then sped up each mile. Natty jumped in at mile 2 and from there on out, it was me and Natty the whole way through. 

I remember feeling exhausted at certain miles, having trouble on the hills, and lacking energy at miles 11 and 12. But for each negative there were positives right there with it. It was pretty cold and foggy which I loved. At mile 3 right after the tunnel my bestie was cheering for me and shortly after, my boyfriend and his mama were yelling my name at mile 5. Mile 7 I saw the Nuun setup and Mason gave me a boost of confidence to power through the hilly miles coming up in about 30 seconds from that point. And lastly, the hill up Interlaken which I had been dreading somehow gave me a second wind and I was right by Natty's side when she told me we were going to pick up the pace. 

At mile 13, Natty dropped off to the side and let me stride the last bit to the finish. I heard a women shouting out times and after hearing "1:31...." the biggest sigh of relief hit me. Officially a 1:32:01 time, 18th female overall, and a half marathon PR that I had hoped for! 

I can't say I loved the race, but to say I was proud of myself for the hard work I put in for that morning is a very fair statement.

My family and friends met me at the finish and I was honestly overwhelmed with gratitude for having everyone there to support me yesterday. All the people who I care about most in my life came to cheer me on, and I got to celebrate with a ton of Oiselle teammates who raced their butts off as well. It's always the little things that make racing such an addictive high. Runners know that the love and support that race day brings is unlike anything else.  

Successful day, successful finish and a positive outlook on what my next race will bring me. Here's a few fun photos from Sunday, a little blurry but better than nothing for now! 

I'll put up some more a little later when I get them... and of course we can't forget the epic post race breakfast at Barrio with the crew...

Barrio on Capitol Hill

Kerr ordered me a "recovery" drink of Bailey's and coffee #happycamper  

Mac (*and her thumbies) photo bombing my delicious Mexican style b-fast.

...and the family, rockin #teamEMC! 

Huge congrats to all racers who completed Seattle Half/Marathon yesterday!

Can't outrun the flu.

I should have known hanging around so many sicklings the past few days that I was bound  to catch a cold or some kind of sickness. I spent the entire day with my sister doing some Sunday shopping when the night before, her and my dad caught the flu and were sick all night Saturday. Let's be real, I was asking for it. Sadly, after leaving Julie's birthday dinner early last night because I felt nauseous, that was only the beginning to a loongggggg night. No more details necessary, but the flu got the best of me.

I took a few pieces of advice from Mac's "Runner's Sick-Kickers" list from last week. Echinacea, zinc lozenges, water, water, water, water, and rest.  One thing I swear by to this day is good ol' ginger ale and saltine crackers. No idea why it helped but I swear it saved me last night when my body felt like I was in a coma and being hit by a bus!

The hardest part of it all is wanting to run and knowing how silly it would be at the same time. A few days off won't kill me and even though today is "Track Tuesday" in my workout world I know I can shake this sickness faster if I'm smart about it. Two weeks until Seattle Half means staying positive and just revising my run schedule:

May be a little ambitious for how I'm feeling right now, but I'll see how I feel tomorrow and reevaluate while I try to stay sane. 

When you're sick how much time do you take off of running? Does running ever make you feel better? 

B-day Recap & Oiselle Run

Birthday bash is almost over (one more dinner on Friday night, lucky me!) and it was seriously a crazy fun packed entertaining weekend to say the least. The best way to explain the celebrations is through pictures, but for a short recap, my girl friends came into town from Oregon and helped me celebrate through shopping, dining out, getting our nails done, throwing a party at my casa, and bar hopping in Seattle. And after singing Taylor Swift's new song "22" on repeat the entire day until I was singing it in my sleep, I'm beginning to think 23 could not come any sooner. (Click on that link if you haven't heard it, she's just brillianttt).

Having old best friends in town and spending a whole weekend with them was definitely a trip down memory lane, recapping my Freshman year at UO and wining over how college goes by in the blink of an eye. The perfect way to celebrate, here's how it went down.

Turning 22, in pictures.

Of course it began (and ended) with the red cup. We trekked over to Starbucks near my mom's house. She met us for coffee and rambled on and on and on about baby stories that I've heard a million times. Then we were off to downtown for some serious shoppin..

Damage was done around the city and we stopped by Nordstrom Cafe to fuel up on their unbelievably yummy salads before we headed back to Greenlake... 

We decided (well, I decided) last minute to make an appointment at a nail salon that opened up right near my place about a month ago. I can't remember the name of it but the service was pretty hilarious. At one point the lady looked at my friend Kelly and asked her to finish taking off her OWN nail polish while she started on the next girl (hense Kelly's reaction below on the far left, hahaa). I get it, we brought in 5 girls unexpectedly, but really?? May or may not go back.

My boyfriend Josh came over when we were all getting ready and brought these beautiful yellow roses that are still blooming on my kitchen counter, and my roomie set out champagne for mimosas in the morning!

And more and more food trickled in...

We threw a little birthday bash at my place with a bunch of girls I've become close with over my college years, from UO to UW friends from running cross country and track my sophomore year.

Eventually the party got moved to a friends house in the neighborhood, and we had ourselves a mighty good time.

Thankfully daylight savings time was in our favor and us lucky ducks got an extra hour of sleep that next morning. I was meeting a bunch of Oiselle gals in front of HQ at 10 am for a run I was not about to miss.

Solidarity 5K for #TeamEMC.
November 4th was a special day in itself because while the NYC Marathon was planning to be run, Every Mother Counts was promoting solidarity 5Ks for anyone around the country to run in honor of maternal health awareness. Oiselle gathered a group of 8 women who all met at HQ and ran around Greenlake and up through Upper Woodlawn to cheer on our new teammate Shannon! It was awesome getting to see some everyone again and it was definitely decided that these sporadic meet ups need to happen much more often.

OOH. And before I forget.
If you follow me on instagram, you most likely saw my new obsession and all time favorite gift to shoot my running addiction through the roof: a new GPS watch from my bf! I got many twitter comments on this watch asking how well I've liked it so far (called the Nike+ Sport Watch) and so far everything has been smooth sailing except for a minor bump today. I couldn't get it to link this morning after walking around aimlessly for 10 minutes trying to find "satellites," BUT... the look of it, the light weight, and all of its features are exactly what I need in a watch to help me keep track of my pace and intervals. Here's a little looksie of it (I debated between the black and yellow or the all black, but they also have white too).

It's a gem, and a keeper.

There ya have it, last weekends recap posted a week later (it's okay, I know I'm talking to a wall). Ultimately for me, school comes first and sporadic blogging has to happen when papers need to be written too!

22 on November 3!

Two days away until I turn 22! Birthdays to me are the funniest memories. What used to be the cool Skate King parties with the fancy ice cream cakes and competitive party favors, somehow turned into quaint dinners with a group of best friends and a night out at the bars in celebration. To say I feel more "mature" as a descriptor is quite telling, but in my head the jump from 21 to 22 is dauntingly OLD.

Last year I celebrated my 21st in a foreign country with new friends and a new city I called home for nearly three months (that post will come soon). Australia was possibly the most memorable place to turn 21, but now I'll be 22 and new memories are ready to be made.

After catching up with my old roommate Kelly from freshman year at U of Oregon, we got to talking about my birthday which conveniently falls on a weekend this year. Little did I know that my three closest friends from U of O wanted to come to Seattle and celebrate 22 with me! Kelly, Alie, Jen and I basically did everything together our first year of college. We lived in the same dorm, went to all the football games, coordinated our class schedules to match and road tripped all along the west coast from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and California. I miss them all the time and lucky for me, even after being away from those three amazing girls for so long, they're so excited for yet another road trip to come up to Seattle!

(Me, Alie, Kelly, Jen, and my twin sis Olivia)

For now it's time to clean, buy groceries, get in a seven mile run with my roomie Julie before it gets dark, and try to find mattresses to house three girls in my baby sized apartment - any thoughts? (and as I say to my Oisellista's, it's almost the weekend...and I'm DTP!!)