Turning 30 Years Young

P6160173
Originally uploaded by Rebecca Sudduth

First;
I turned 30 over a month ago on June 16.
One (of many) thing I have learned thus far is that life is a series of decisions based on rules and emotions, with the pendulum constantly swaying back and forth between the predominant influence. I had a fabulous time during my trip to Alaska, I could totally see myself living there at some point.

In 7 days I will be attempting my first go at 50 miles at the White River 50 miler in Washington State near Mt Rainier. I am looking forward to that journey.

Secondly, some wildly belated race reports;

Hatfield and McCoy Marathon
June 12, 2010
Williamson, WV
State Counted towards 50 states; #7 WV
4:38:+

Country course, small marathon, everyone was super friendly, frequent water stops.
Limited lodging options so I opted for the "Bed and Breakfast" option, which isn't really a bed and breakfast as we know it, this instead was locals opening their home for the night of the race for $25-45 for the night. I was a little worried and had my camping stuff at the ready to sleep in my car if it turned out badly. I arrived and checked in, they gave me the phone number of my host lady, I look down and have no cell signal. "Oh well I will figure something out," I thought and headed to get my spaghetti dinner. They had a re-inactment of part of the Hatfield McCoy feuds (it was a real thing) and at the end I start chatting with the person sitting next to me. They were announcing some things that I could not hear due to the sound system acting up from the thick humidity and heat. At some point I randomly decide to check if I had safety pins for my race bib, nope, so I walk up to the front. At that exact moment the host lady and the other guest were standing up front, they had been announcing my name to find me and I was completely not paying attention. The host lady then drove us over just across the state border to the start in Goody, KY to show us where it was (5 min from her house, nice!).

OK, aside from that there was a good showing of Marathon Maniacs and we got a big group shot under the start banner as it was a small race and you can do that at small races. It was also a chip timed race, however there was no timing mat at the start, weird but I guess it saves some money. Everyone was super friendly, the runners were mostly from out of town so very chatty as well. Aid stations just about every mile, and the drenching thunderstorms at regular intervals kept down the temps that would have otherwise made it a more interesting run, if you know what I am talking about.

To top everything off, at the finish line they had great food (drinks, fresh fruit, and BBQ) and they gave every single finisher a mason jar (representing moonshine) with a hunk of wood inside with a metal ingraving of the race logo and your overall place number (mine was 91st overall). Nice touch, and it was raining steadily at the end, luckily it was a warm rain. Walked back to my car that was parked behind the coal house (literally a building made out of coal), drove back to the host lady's house, showered up then hit the road, returning a different route home that was an hour longer but involved less windy roads that required pushing in a clutch.


Mayors Marathon
June 19, 2010
Anchorage, AK
State Counted towards 50 states; #8 AK
4:28:+ (10 min faster than the previous week)

Small expo. Should've done the pasta dinner, it was hosted in the Anchorage Museum, darn!
Temps in the 50's, most of the trail on jeep (technically tank roads) roads on the AFB or on the paved bike trails that wind through town. Runners not very talkative, although I did meet a former Vashon Islander running that currently lived in Fairbanks (random!), he had gone to school on the Island when Burton and Vashon Elementary schools were for kids on the respective ends of the Island. Aid stations with water, Ultima, and often pretzels and orange slices (nice touch!). The after party had great food too.

This race originally was run at midnight but has not for many many years, but that would be cool if they still ran it that way. My first marathon in my 30's, hopefully I won't slow down much.

Flying Pig Marathon Duffel bag giveaway winner!

And the winner is.....

#6 Psyche from Run Like Ya Stole Something

I couldn't figure out how to do the screen shot so I just copy and pasted the result below. Please email me your snail mail addy to rebecca.sudduth at gmail dot com. I will get the bag in the mail this week.

True Random Number Generator
Min: 1
Max: 2
Result: 6
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Time for bed, getting up early for another long run. Trying to ramp up my mileage for the White River 50 Miler at the end of July. Lots of chaffing from today's run with the high humidity, ouch!

Flying Pig Marathon Part 2 and 3

Flying Pig Marathon
Part 2 - Expo and Pump N Run, Saturday May 1, 2010

After breakfast at Superman's house (his trail name from hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2008) I met the rest of the group from Seattle at the expo around 2pm, went through the expo for a 3rd time. After wandering around, I went to get weighed in for the pump-n-run for the lifting portion of it. I had to bench press 60% of my weight and arm curl 40%, I ended up with 14 reps for bench and 10 for the curl, ending up with a silver medal for a combined 20-29 reps. Interesting diversion and a way to encourage runners to work on upper body strength as well.

Dinner was delicious Italian food at Pompilios in Newport, KY, just across the river from downtown Cincy. It took us an hour to get seated and got our table just as the delayed Kentucky Derby was starting, we were watching at a nearby pub while we waited. We were also staying nearby in Bellevue, KY so this was a quick drive.


Part 3 - The Marathon Sunday, May 2, 2010

Awake at 5am for the 6:30am start. The hotel had put out the continental breakfast an hour early to accommodate the runners which was very nice. A thunder storm with heavy ran rolled through around 3am or so and it was still raining when we got up. It was warmer outside than inside the hotel lobby, we would be wet but warm. We had some difficulty finding our way to the start and several of us in the car were getting nervous, we got there with 15 minutes to spare. The rain decided to downpour 5 minutes before the start, soaking any last dry parts on our bodies, half of the crowd had garbage bags on.

I felt OK for most of the race, stopped at several port a potties anticipating needing to use them, not wanting to get caught in between them. However, I did not need one until mid race, so I lost about 15 minutes with the frequent stops. After actually using the port a potty I started to feel a little peppier, and actually ended up feeling better for the second half and ran a negative split. I had some weird spasms in my right calf during the loooong hill from mile 5.5 to 8 which made me start to plan to bail on the race at the half marathon turn around, but once the climb finished it started feeling better so I continued on. The rain was off and on all race long. Tons of great spectators along the route and VERY frequent aid stations. Nice course, but I feel like I zoned out for most of the race. But I got my pig medal and learned a bit more about the US of A along the way.

Marathon #7, State #6.

To celebrate, I am going to do a giveaway of one black Flying Pig Marathon Asics duffel bag, I somehow ended up with two of them. To win, post a comment with 1 random fact about the town/city/area that you live in. I will randomly choose the winner and post the winner on Saturday May 15. Entries limited to those living in the US of A due to shipping costs.

Flying Pig Marathon Part 1/3 April 30, 2010

The drive from Cville to Cincy
1. Random 2 mile run on the Allegheny Trail near MP 1 on 64 just inside VA at the VA/WV state line
2. "Deactivated" car alarm goes off while driving 75mph down the interstate, turns out my foot was pressing on some wires near the clutch pedal. I discovered this as I moved my foot placement to down shift at an exit, instantly the alarm went off, weird.
3. Race expo, got faked out that you could avoid the booths by completing packet pickup, turned out you still needed to walk through the entire place to get your tshirt, and apparently also got a duffel bag and race poster. Random but nice.
4. Dinner at Skyline Chili with 2 Appalachian Trail SouthBound thruhikers from 2008 that Derek hiked with, apparently Cincy is somewhat known for it's chili, not to be confused with Chile.

Charlottesville Marathon Race Report April 17, 2010

Charlottesville, VA Marathon
Saturday April 17, 2010
Marathon #6 (Already ran VA)

Race Report
Time 4:50:and change
Overall Place 411/501
Female Place

So my goal heading into this race/run was to just finish. With completing this marathon I would become eligible to apply for Marathon Maniac status, something I had been eyeing the last 2 years or so. The first half went great, running on Old Garth road through the countryside. Loved that you were in the country so quick after leaving town, even on foot. I was running a steady 9:30 to 10 min miles for this section, and leap frogged with Laura until mile 10 then did not see her again as I slowed. I try to drink gatorade at every aid station until it bothers my stomach then switch to water, however this time it made me need to rush to the restroom (with none around) about 5 minutes later after drinking it, starting around 15 miles. So I tried this one more time to test my hypothesis a few miles later, only to have the same result. So I walked through that and then would run until it upset me again, I tried using the porta potty at Riverside Park with no results. So for the rest of the race I ran when I could and then walked when my stomach got angry. What also probably contributed to this was the lack of GU at the advertised stations, not sure if they ran out or they just weren't in place to hand out. So the electrolytes were likely a factor, I had pondered wearing my Nathan HPL water pack but decided that there would be enough aid stations and Gu, oh well.

Not too many spectators but I loved the pink lady whoever you are, who was cheering for the runners while running herself. Also, the rescue squad ladies who were manning the right hand turn off of Locust by Martha Jefferson Hospital were great cheerleaders, thanks!


Laura's blog
http://absolutlyfit.blogspot.com/

2.5lb Little Rock Marathon finisher's medal

Great marathon on Sunday 3/7/10 in Little Rock, Arkansas. I ended up staying in a hotel that was right by the start, I had not realized this when I booked it. It was nice to have less stress the morning of the race. I felt off all weekend with a persistent headache, I even pondered not starting. But I took a nap, went to the pasta dinner and got excited all over again. Woke up at my normal East Coast time but laid in bed for a while. Got some coffee in the lobby, checked on the race start, then again as it seemed too late to really be starting at 8am, then finally headed out to line up.

The start was a combo of the relay, half and full marathoners which can sometimes spell trouble, but spreading people out in the corrals helped a ton. Good aid stations, sometimes they seemed really frequent and some sections later in the race they felt really spread out. I did some bad math again at mile 17 and figured out in error that I had ONLY 8.2 miles left (I really had 9.2 left at that point), so if you can imagine my disappointment at mile 18 (sigh, I had done this previously at the Richmond Marathon as well). Oh well. I ran with one handheld water bottle to practice running with it and to make sure I stayed up on my hydration with the warmer temps (60's) predicted. I was coated in salt at the end but I never got too warm so as to upset the GI tract. I felt really, really bad for the first hour after I finished, but once I ate some pretzels I felt better. The main hiccup was all the Delta flights that were canceled or delayed after the race, leading to some sprinting through Atlanta's airport to catch our connecting flight (me and 5 others). One guy even ran up the escalator which I could not still do, I could run the flats but had to walk the ups. We made the connection but it still left almost 30 minutes late.

The course was relatively scenic and ran past 4 major landmarks in Little Rock that I recognized (maybe some more that I didn't know about). In order we ran past the Clinton Presidential Library, Capital Building, Governor's Mansion (he was out cheering the runners in jeans and a sweatshirt, very classy for him to make a showing), then the Little Rock Central High School and nearby historic gas station.

A great run but I won't be back, trying do the 50 states, maybe on my second go around with the 50 states...back to work on Tuesday.

My First Ultramarathon

Holiday Lake 50k++ February 13, 2010 near Appomattox, VA - Per the website it was 33.26 miles long, my Garmin clocked it at 32.5 miles, 7 hours 5 min 32 seconds.

Highlights

• The trail was snow covered, it was also snowing at the start of the race
• Some snow was hard (dirt road section), some snow was powdery (ahem, near the powerlines) and like running through sand (but consolidated and harder mid day with the sun out)
• I was worried about making the cutoff at 4hrs15min, I went through at 3hr33min
• I was worried about bonking as I wasn't eating much and had done a long run of 6 miles (stupid but allowed me time off to heal from achilles tendonitis).
• I ran with yaktrak I had won from iRunFar for the first half and they worked great!
• I was 1 of 2 people that raced in a Portland Marathon finisher Tshirt (mine 2008, his 2000)
• I didn't take any pictures, but the trails were postcard perfect covered in snow
• One guy was running in a plaid kilt complete with matching sash (I didn't see him after the turnaround but I am sure he finished)
• Loved running with my Garmin Forerunner, still learning how to use it
• I got matching blisters on my middle toes, lateral aspect at the tip (and nowhere else, weird)
• Coffee in the morning is my friend, but not mid-race
• Pretzels and pringles are good race foods (I had cravings for ramen at times)
• Got a little snow sunburn on my face, but was wearing a hat (forgot sunglasses in the car)
• I met several great folks, all with the same crazy addiction to running
• Always a hoot to see David Horton talk, how does he have energy to run after talking so enthusiastically!?