Racing to Lose a Toenail ~ My Half-Marathon Weekend *Homeward Bound 3/16 p.25

[that's nice]

Thanks Tim! I believe there were 21,000 who finished. Is that right Liz? Not sure how many started the day, but had to stop or were swept.

Wow... 21,000!!!!!

 

[kcandbella]

Wow that is early! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the race!

 

[butiflfeet]

I'm finally caught up! Congrats on the house! So exciting! I can't wait to hear how you did in the race

 

[carissanboys]

i bet those fireworks scared the people in the hotels that were near by, i know it would scare me at that time of themorning.

I hadn't thought of that!

Wow... 21,000!!!!!

Yeah. A lot of people. But, it wasn't quite as crowded as I thought it would be while running.

Wow that is early! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the race!

Hopefully I can update soon.

I'm finally caught up! Congrats on the house! So exciting! I can't wait to hear how you did in the race

Thanks!

 

[carissanboys]

Just a quick update...

Things around here are very crazy and stressful. Dealing with all of the house "stuff" but we should officially be under contract now.

This morning I had to take our dog, Baxter, to the vets. He's been vomiting off and on for a while now and I figured we'd better get him checked out. My worst fears were confirmed. He has an obstruction. He has been the CHEWIEST puppy from the moment we brought him home so I guess this was really inevitable. We tried our best to keep him from eating things around the house. He was gated to our downstairs and the boys weren't allowed to bring their toys down. But, of course, living in the house with 3 boys and them being home all day, every day, something was bound to sneak past. He is currently at the vets having surgery and hopefully everything will go smoothly. Our wallets will take a big hit and not exactly the best time for it with the new house and all, but I just want my puppy better.

For those who didn't read my PTR, I thought I'd share some photos of my little guy. He is almost 11 months old and a chocolate colored miniature schnauzer.

Photobucket is acting up so I only have a couple to post. The first one was taken when he was 9 weeks old:

And this one was taken back in October during a camping trip. He's much cuter when his hair is longer and curlier (like it is right now).

 

[blue_river]

We walked VERY quickly through the World Showcase and arrived about 30 minutes after ADR time. Liz explained the situation to the CM and we were told to go on up.

Very cool!

I had just enough time to hit the restroom before we were seated. Our group consisted of a couple and a family of 4. I immediately loved the décor of the restaurant. So neat! Liz and I both would have loved to indulge in an adult beverage, but we decided it wasn’t the best idea with a half-marathon the next morning.

wuss

http://i228.photobucket.com/albums/ee163/carissanboys/half-marathon%20trip/L4.jpg[/IMG]

Slurp!!!!

I really enjoyed Mission: Space. It’s amazing how they can make you feel like you’re really taking off and experiencing all of the adventures along the way.

I have yet to try it...maybe the next time with Samantha



Congrats again on the house!!!

 

[blue_river]

Poor little Baxter...Pixie sends hugs

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Poor Baxter! I hope the surgery goes well.

 

[DrMomof3]

Poor Baxter!!! I hope everything goes well.

I had forgotten about the Carissa thing! I noticed it on race day and totally thought of you!

Amanda

 

[MeMom]

Precious little fella! I hope he feels better almost immediately. He has no idea what is happening to him. He will get a lot of lovin' when he gets home, I know!

 

[liznboys]

Thanks Tim! I believe there were 21,000 who finished. Is that right Liz? Not sure how many started the day, but had to stop or were swept.

There were ~27,000 registered and there were 21,964 finishers (I just looked at my finishers certificate..I did not know that off the top of my head. lol)


When I do my race next month, I'm going to buy hard boiled eggs (if they have them, I hope!) the night before and use ice like we had thought of doing.

I did really like being in our spacious corral E! I may even do that again in the future, it was so nice back there. And having the porta potties right there was great!

And we're off! Not sure I want to relive some of that race.... lol I did like the first 6 miles.

 

[KatGarcia]

Sending some puppy pixie dust your way for your furbaby.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh no! I hope Baxter feels better once his surgery is finished!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

How frustrating to not be able to sleep the night before the race. I know it would have been nerves and excitement keeping me awake!

The start of the race looks so exciting....fireworks and Mickey! YAY!

 

[carissanboys]

Congrats again on the house!!!

Poor little Baxter...Pixie sends hugs

Thanks Heidi!

Poor Baxter! I hope the surgery goes well.

Thanks Lessa! Everything went very well.

Poor Baxter!!! I hope everything goes well.

I had forgotten about the Carissa thing! I noticed it on race day and totally thought of you!

Amanda

I wondered if anyone else who knew me noticed.

Precious little fella! I hope he feels better almost immediately. He has no idea what is happening to him. He will get a lot of lovin' when he gets home, I know!

Yes, he's been pampered. That's the hard part - him not knowing why all of this was done to him.

There were ~27,000 registered and there were 21,964 finishers (I just looked at my finishers certificate..I did not know that off the top of my head. lol)

That's what I thought the numbers were. I wasn't totally sure on the total number registered but that was the number that popped into my head.

When I do my race next month, I'm going to buy hard boiled eggs (if they have them, I hope!) the night before and use ice like we had thought of doing.

Good plan!

And we're off! Not sure I want to relive some of that race.... lol I did like the first 6 miles.

I know what you mean.

Sending some puppy pixie dust your way for your furbaby.

Thanks so much, Kat!

Oh no! I hope Baxter feels better once his surgery is finished!

Not sure he feels better at the moment, but he'll get there.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now that photobucket is working for me again, I uploaded a more recent picture. He's not looking at the camera (very difficult to do!), but I like this one. As a friend said, he looks regal.

Surgery went well. The doctor showed me the x-ray and he saved the marble. Not quite sure what to do with it!

Anyway, he's pretty much just lying around in his dog bed. He does walk around a bit when he needs to go to the bathroom and he's definitely hungry! I've never seen him devour his food like he did last night! He's on lots of meds (pain/anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, antibiotics) and has to eat a bland, soft diet for a week. Just trying to keep him quiet for now. I'm sure that will be more of a challenge in a day or two. I haven't looked at this tummy yet. Kind of scared to!

Thank you everyone for your kind words and thoughts.

 

[liznboys]

Surgery went well. The doctor showed me the x-ray and he saved the marble. Not quite sure what to do with it!

Anyway, he's pretty much just lying around in his dog bed. He does walk around a bit when he needs to go to the bathroom and he's definitely hungry! I've never seen him devour his food like he did last night! He's on lots of meds (pain/anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, antibiotics) and has to eat a bland, soft diet for a week. Just trying to keep him quiet for now. I'm sure that will be more of a challenge in a day or two. I haven't looked at this tummy yet. Kind of scared to!

Thank you everyone for your kind words and thoughts. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Just keep it (the marble) away from Baxter!

That's great he's eating well. Did he lose weight and is trying to get back to normal now?

My neighbors puppy was fixed a few months ago, and she, being a very energetic dog, was jumping around like crazy after her surgery. There was nothing they could do about it! Makes you cringe when they move around so much thinking about the stitches and all.. ick. I hope Baxter stays fairly calm for you!

 

[DisMomAmy]

I'm glad to hear Baxter is home & doing well. I hope he gets some spring back in his step soon.

 

[carissanboys]

So, the race had begun! Liz and I were off, running side by side, and trying to avoid others. Almost immediately I noticed how tired I felt. I'm not sure how much of it was the lack of sleep and how much of it was the humidity. I just wasn't used to running in such moist air. All of my running during the summer months had been inside on the treadmill with the A/C running. My outside running mostly took place during the cold, dry months.

I need to take a step back for a minute. My goal for this race had been to follow my 5:2 run/walk ratio. My longest run to date had been 10 miles, which I had done at a great pace. I was pretty confident I could do that half in under/around 2:45. However, around the time of my 10 miler, I could no longer ignore the pain I was having in my groin area. It was really painful during the run and even more so the week afterward.

About a week before the half, I had a visit with a relative who is a sports trainer and he was able to give me a plan to deal with my groin strain. The problem was that the warm up exercises he had me doing (leg swings) made my hamstrings extremely sore. By the time of the race, I was dealing with sore hamstrings and a strained groin. The groin was feeling better than it had, but it was still lingering.

I went into the half not sure I'd be able to finish let alone manage a time of 2:45. Not far into the race, the pain/tightness in my hamstring was very noticeable. The groin didn't start bothering me immediately, but by mile 2, I was feeling it. Add that to the lack of sleep and humidity and I knew this wasn't going to be a great race for me.

Liz was also having issues with feeling tired physically. I'm sure she would have had a much better time if she'd run on her own and not stayed with me, but it was nice to have the support. If she hadn't been there with me, I probably would have walked even more than I did and had an even worse finish time.

Like I mentioned before, I don't remember a lot of the details of the race. I do remember the first water stop was crazy. There wasn't much notice that it was coming and people just stopped right in front of us all over the place. I don't remember the others being so bad, but that first one was crazy.

I know for a while we kept pace with the 3 hour pacer. It was kind of surreal because I felt like I was going much faster than normal, but in fact, was going quite a bit slower. It was sometime during this first half that Liz and I realized we definitely weren't going to make the 2:45. And I started to think I probably wasn't going to make 3:00 either. Once I realized it wasn't going to be a great time for me, I decided to just relax. I was already in some pain, so why push it and make myself miserable at the end? I knew I could finish the race and I would rather finish and still be able to walk afterwards.

I was so hot! My plan was to stop at some point and take off my long sleeved shirt and just wear my short sleeved. Liz wanted to stop at the bathrooms near Pinocchio Village Haus in the Magic Kingdom. That way we wouldn't have to deal with lines for the port-a-potties and we'd have more space to move around. So, I was very focused on just getting to MK!

We made it! Time to run down Main Street towards the castle - a moment I had been greatly looking forward to.

We had to stop for a picture in front of the castle! I hate this picture of myself, but you can see how hot I was!

Main street seemed much shorter than normal. I guess running down it will do that to you. I was so ready to make our way to the restroom so I could change! I tied my long sleeved shirt around my waist (it was my tech shirt from doing the Wicked 10k and I didn't want to toss it). I will say that once I got rid of that layer, I was fine the rest of the race! I never felt too hot again.

Liz and I had already decided that we would part ways after our bathroom break. Liz was going to try and pick up the pace a bit and I had a feeling I'd be slowing way down. I left the bathroom before she did, hollered good bye, and was on my way.

Up Next - A sad moment during the race

 

[carissanboys]

Just keep it (the marble) away from Baxter!

That's great he's eating well. Did he lose weight and is trying to get back to normal now?

My neighbors puppy was fixed a few months ago, and she, being a very energetic dog, was jumping around like crazy after her surgery. There was nothing they could do about it! Makes you cringe when they move around so much thinking about the stitches and all.. ick. I hope Baxter stays fairly calm for you!

He really didn't lose weight. But, he was eating more than normal for a while. He was probably trying to make up for all of the puking he was doing. Baxter was the same way after he was neutered. Thankfully he's been a bit more calm with this surgery. I think it's probably more uncomfortable for him than the neutering was.

 

[carissanboys]

I'm glad to hear Baxter is home & doing well. I hope he gets some spring back in his step soon.

Thanks Amy! He's almost back to normal. Well, except for having to walk around with the collar of shame and having a belly that is all shaved and exposing a yucky looking incision.