Hello? Is this thing on?

Ahem, hellooooo? Is anybody there? Oh wait, you're all here. I'm the one missing. Sorry for being such a neglectful blogger! Anyway, I'm here now for a catch-up post and that's all that matters, right? Right!

Busted Soles

Ok so first of all, we are going to rewind to May 6. May 6 was the first race of the Busted Soles Trail Race Series in Danville, VA. This trail series was Mr. Marathon's way to stay motivated and stay in shape. These races were held once a week for the 4 weeks in May on various trails around Anglers Park and Dan Daniel Park in Danville. The runs were varying lengths, from 4 to 6 miles each week. It was hard to tell the distance because GPS watches aren't very reliable on those trails, between the trees and intense elevation change. Anyway, he came in first place for each race and won the series! He enjoyed the races each week, and all the camaraderie involved. Fun! Moving on!

Super Run

As we have mentioned before, mister and I coach the running program at the elementary school where we worked this past school year: I coached Girls on the Run and he coached STRIDE (Success + Teamwork + Respect + Inspiration + Determination = Excellence in character!). After the season began in March, we have been working with our teammates on character development, and of course running. We had a long, interesting season, and we ended our season with the Super Run 5K as our celebration on May 16. It was Super Fun! (see what I did there?????) I was an official Running Buddy, and my little runner girl did pretty great! She kept pushing, even though she was tired. Every time she needed to take a break she would walk, catch her breath, then take a deep breath in, then out, then she would confidently say, "OK, I'm READY!" and we would take off again. Love it!

Oh, and that guy that runs with me sometimes came in 2nd place overall. Way to go... (see picture below). K moving on.

Yippee.... HAH!

Off the Rails Sprint Triathlon

Most recently, our adventure has been a triathlon on May 31. Mr. Marathon's recent goals include a little more swimming and biking, and just as much running (stay tuned...!). Anyway, last year he did the Off the Rails Sprint Triathlon in Roanoke, VA, and loved it so much that he decided to do it again this year! And do even better!

MHC Inspire representing!

What you might not have expected is that I did it too! Just one leg of it, though, so it's not that impressive. I formed a relay team with my runner dad, whom I've mentioned before, and my biking bald-headed brother, who owns Chain of Fools Bike Repair in Uptown Martinsville. We had so much fun being Team "Hulkfeldt" (which is a play on their last name/my maiden name "Huckfeldt" and it's super duper funny because I came up with it!!) and we rocked out in the mixed relay team category and placed 3rd! Out of 3 but not that it matters because we had lots of fun.  Mister placed 3rd in his age group, with a time of 57:48! Fun was had by all!

3rd place mixed relay! Woohoo!

3rd place Age Group Male 25-29

Ok, so the medals are intended to be a part of a 3-race series of triathlons and duathlons.
Each race you get another piece to the "puzzle."
But my relay team had three people. Mission accomplished!

Women's shirt logo.... one of my faves, definitely.

Triathlon: The Aftermath (even though it was just a sprint)
The receipt says it all: FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD haha!
And in case you didn't believe us, here is hubbs, showing off his FOOD (before and after).

Mister's splits for the tri.... total time 57:48.6!

Relay splits didn't come through, but here's our total time! 1:11:40!

Oh, and hubbs finished his semester off strong
and even won 2 awards for being a smarty pants!

BRM 2015

This year was Mr. Marathon's 6th time running the Blue Ridge Marathon-- America's Toughest Road Marathon! (Read about previous years' races: 2014 and 2013) This year, he decided to tackle his training for this marathon head-on. He took his long runs, he did his speed work, and he even took a training run on a couple of the mountains that are part of the marathon course. He still thinks he could have trained a lot harder or better, but considering this is the marathon that he keeps signing up for year after year, he'll take what we can get on it.

First of all, one thing that he felt helped him a lot was his practice run. A couple of weekends ago, he decided to go up to Roanoke to train on the course. Despite it being cold and windy, he took off from the River's Edge Complex in downtown Roanoke, heading up the Greenway towards the Parkway. His first mountain was Roanoke Mountain, which is about a 4 mile loop literally up and down a MOUNTAIN. Then right after that, he headed straight to Mill Mountain, home of the famous Roanoke Star. Then, he headed back down Mill Mountain and finished up on the Greenway. It seems like it would be short and simple, but it was a total of 15 miles with some serious elevation changes. It ended up taking him 2 hours and a few minutes, which he was very happy with, but it also made him realize that he should have been training hard on tougher courses throughout his training.

Fast forward two weeks from the training run. Race day is upon us! As we woke up at the crack of dawn (or just 5:00 AM like I always do), we had a goal to leave our house at 6 to make it there in time to get in line for porta-potties. And of course, like warm-up and stuff. But mostly porta-potties. After standing in line for a significant amount of time, it was T-10 minutes to race time. As the countdown began, it was ready or not, here we go! Runners for all three races (half, full, and 10K) were off from the mass start (and I went to get breakfast...). Mr. Marathon as he was beginning to climb up towards the Parkway, he was at 3 miles in 23 minutes, and as he was approaching Roanoke Mountain, he was trying to come up with a strategy, which ultimately ended up being slowing down on the uphills, taking off on the downhills, and maintaining a steady pace on any straightaways, or as straightaway as it can be on the BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY. He made it to 9 miles at 1:09, and by that point, he was headed towards Mill Mountain. This was still area that he had covered on his practice run, so he was pretty comfortable with it, and it made it fly by! By the half marathon split, it was 1:40, and he was still going strong, or at least pretending to. He still felt great, and kept trying to be confident that he would meet his modest goal of breaking 4 hours.

As he started heading to the third and final mountain, he really became more and more motivated. This is because the third mountain goes through residential areas and a lot of local residents are out, cheering on runners, passing out sustenance, or even offering an alcoholic boost! He only accepted the first two though. Peakwood, affectionately known as Pukewood, is the most infamous mountain on the course. At this point, you are most likely starting to wear down, and you're not able to push yourself as much as you want. At this point, your body begins to control you. But nevertheless, he kept trucking on and pushing up the mountain.

One thing that he talks about that kept him motivated was not necessarily passing the half marathoners, but the way they treated him as he ran by. They made him feel important and like he was a big deal. They would say, "Marathoner coming! Move over! Let him by!" and he would tell them, "You don't have to do that. I can go around. This is your race too, and you're all doing awesome!" This was not said to him just once or twice, but multiple times, as if he was passing the same person with the same great attitude, when in reality, this mentality was shared by a good majority of the runners in this small-town race. He couldn't believe the great attitude they had, despite being passed by a marathoner, they still had it in them to motivate one another, and even the guy that's passing them. He appreciates this because this is what he likes to do himself. He likes to pass on the positivity to fellow participants, and he loves it when the favor is returned.

Once he got up to Peakwood, he reached the peak of Peakwood (redundant right???) and felt a huge relief during his descent. But he knew he still had a few small hills to overcome. He says it was funny the way his mentality was working at this point because he began to change his plan of attack. Now it was power-walk up the hills and try to run everything else. The first hill he had to power-walk was at the 20 mile marker, which by the time he got it, he saw a sign that said "WHAT WALL?" And he was like, "Really???????????????????? What wall? WHAT WALL? THIS! THIS WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" They honestly couldn't have placed that sign at a better point in the race for him. He was really beginning to hit his wall, but he didn't officially "hit the wall" until about mile 23, at which point, he really had to slow down and walk most of the time, and run only whenever he had enough energy to do so. It didn't help that by this time of day, the sun began really beating down, and it was about 75 degrees, which seems like a beautiful day most normal people, but it is a scorching day while you're trying to run a marathon! It was tough to try to stay cool and finish strong, but finish strong he did. When he turned the last corner and saw the downhill finishing chute, he took off and gave it all he had, or what he had left anyway.

BRM, sixth time running!

As he finished, people were telling him that he was only the 11th marathoner to finish, but at this point, he was looking for me and ice, not necessarily in that order. He dunked himself in the ice that was intended to cool off beverages, not a sweaty marathoner, but hey, sweaty marathoners gotta do what they gotta do! So he did. My personal favorite moment from that day was when he just looked at me after rolling around in the ice tubs and said deliriously, "Do you ever have that moment when you just have to shove ice down your pants???" Um, no, babe. But uh, you do what you want... And so he proceeded to do just that, but I'll spare you additional details. However, he decided that a kiddie pool that had a sign that read, "FEET WELCOME" he decided that this was discrimination to butts and decided to fight the man on this one and plop down into it and roll around.

Impromptu ice bath!

After cooling off finally, he laid down in the shade on a blanket in the grass and did not move. He rested for a while, then proceeded to drink 3 Vanilla Cokes and eat some pizza and oranges. That was only the snack before lunch/dinner at Steak N Shake!

Chillaxin'

Mmmm soda! He hadn't had soda in weeks
due to his training!

We stuck around for the awards ceremony because his time of 3:32:44 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) landed him not only at a surprising 10th place overall finish, but it also landed him 2nd place in his age group!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After running this race for 6 consecutive years, he finally won an award!!!!!!!!

Showing off his 2nd place age group award

Official stats

The ever-intimidating elevation map of the course...

Stay tuned as we approach our triathlon season and ramp up our training for some upcoming goals of ours...!

wazUPwid our month-long hiatus?

Um, so we haven't posted in over a month. Let's take a moment for me to facepalm because of my lack of blogging.

This is me, sitting in front of the computer,
realizing I have stunk at blogging lately.

George Costanza knows how it is.

and in the spirit of Easter coming up....

Sorry bout that! But it's not because we haven't been up to anything, by any means.

In fact, before we even went to Ft. Lauderdale, Mr. Marathon tackled the wazUPwidis (hence the title of this post) Urban Run and Stair Challenge, but we were so busy in our preparations for Florida, we forgot to post about it! This race was an interesting change of pace. I was not brave enough to attempt it, especially the week before my marathon, but of course, my mister said....

.... and we headed north to Roanoke for this Urban Run and Stair challenge. This race was in downtown Roanoke and was a very interesting concept. It started on the street, but it ended up running through parking lots, parking garages, up and down stairs of buildings, across bridges throughout town, and on all kinds of urban terrain. It was roughly a 5K distance, factoring in all the elevation changes. He enjoyed the challenge, and won third place in his age group!

After the wazUPwidis Challenge and Ft. Lauderdale, we have tried to maintain our training fairly consistently, and one of us (ahem, not me...) is doing better with this than the other. He's been running with his STRIDE boys' running team, our running friends, with other friends he's gotten into running, and by himself. He has stayed plenty busy with his running! 

All 5 years' awards/finishers' swag

He decided that he had to keep his streak going with running one of our wonderful local races, the Martinsville Half Marathon (see previous years' posts 2014 and 2013). He has run it every year since the inaugural run on March 26, 2011, which adds up to 5 times running it! I have run it twice, but decided to sit it out this year. My time-challenged husband almost accidentally sat it out this year too, though. He pulled up to the starting area with 15 minutes to spare (or so he thought). Then, him being the social butterfly that he is, he started chatting with fellow runners, and getting ready at a nice, leisurely rate. Then, he decided to hit the portapotties. While in the portapotties, he heard "GO!" and he assumed that must have been a practice GO, or it must have been the 5K start....

LEFT: Original half marathon starting photo. RIGHT: For effect, we have edited Alfredo in, as if he was actually present at the official start

NOPE. It was the half start. He missed it, and he was still wearing his hoodie and sweatpants. Right at the start line, his clothes were off in a flash (well, his over-clothes... he kept on his running clothes... barely... just kidding!.... maybe....) and he took off. He started about 2 or 3 minutes behind everybody else, but ended up catching up with the front of the pack around mile 4, settling in at around 8th place. He ended up finishing 6th overall, 1st in his age group! What a way to go out with a bang, considering he had a birthday this week and moved up from 20-24 to the 25-29 age group!!!!

This race is like a birthday tradition at this point....
It always falls right around this birthday!

Race staff helping him quickly undress before the race...
I'm not sure how I feel about this...!?

Lonely start....

Catching up

Mile 7ish

Mile 9ish

Victorious finish, nonetheless

He has some upcoming events, including a Spartan Sprint race, the Blue Ridge Marathon, and the Off The Rails Sprint Triathlon coming up this spring, and hopefully I won't forget to blog about all of these exciting events! 

Publix Ft. Lauderdale A1A Marathon

This weekend, Mr. Marathon and I took our show on the road…. or on a plane, more accurately. We headed south to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida for the A1A Marathon!

Our adventure began Saturday morning when we drove down to the Raleigh-Durham airport. We parked our car, and said “Peace out!” to the winter weather and left that freezing cold weather behind. Our flight was only a couple short hours, then we had landed in nice sunny, warm weather.

Side by side weather comparison....

Our travels were easy, but once we got there, things were a little difficult. I know, I know, we were in Florida.  How difficult could it be? However, we had a ridiculously expensive cab ride from the airport to the hotel, we had a hard time checking into our hotel, and then we had another ridiculously expensive cab ride to find the expo, and then we somewhat got stranded at the convention center where the expo was held. Then, the weather got a little cold. Yeah, right, you’re probably thinking to yourself. But it really did! It was about 48 degrees by the time the sun went down! And we were wearing shorts and short sleeves. We got a little too excited for the warm weather, I suppose. Anyway, we also had some other stuff to worry about, like some stuff I needed to do for my substitute, and my mister had some school work to do, and we had forgotten a couple of things, like we always seem to do while traveling, and so by the time it was 10:30 that night, I was pooped, and I had hoped to get in the bed by 9! We were going to have an early morning!

Pre-race Flat Stanleys!

Anyway, after we got to sleep Saturday night, we had a bright and early morning on Sunday. We had set our alarms to go off at 3:30, to call a cab by 4:30, to be there by 5:00, to be in our corral by 5:45, for a 6:00 AM start time. Phew, that makes me tired just typing that out again. But we made it, got our gear checked, pottied, and made it in time to line up.

At this point, it was still dark. Fort Lauderdale was kind of still asleep, besides the hustle and bustle of the marathoners. It was very peaceful (and chilly!). I was also getting very nervous around this time, because I got to thinking about the lack of training I had put in for this race. I realized that I had put in some good consistent mileage in January in the WW3 challenge, but past that, I haven’t really been sticking to a plan or getting in any long runs. I had done a 10 miler and a 13 miler, but that was really it. I was terrified, but luckily, hubbs was planning on running with me! He had initially hoped that this marathon would be a backup Boston Qualifier, but since he got his qualifying time in Savannah, he decided that this race was all for me! Also, the day before it was Valentine’s Day, so it was a Valentine’s present too. However, a more suitable dinner came later that day, but we couldn’t mess with pre-race nutrition… ya dig?

I was so excited to spend all this time with him, considering we never run whole races together anymore. Yes, he comes back for me, but this time he had committed to staying with me the whole time! No matter how slow I knew I was going to be. This race had a 6 hour cutoff time, which to most people would seem like plenty of time, but since my previous time was 6:19, I was a little wary. But I knew with my personal pacer, I could do it! Maybe! It just took a lot of convincing to tell me that I could do it.

So instead of blogging about every single minute of the race, here is a photo journey through the rest of our run.

Let's run a marathon!
But first, let's take a selfie!

Morning view of the sunrise along the A1A

Beautiful sunrise!

8 mile split of the half and full

Chris the banana man gave us free bananas!
He was a Starbucks employee and made a pit stop at
a Starbucks to pick up bananas for the
pace group we were hanging out with.

Mile 15... starting to slow down...

The plants along the course were gorgeous! Love the hibiscus!

Mile 20-- shufflin along

Random girl was giving out Twizzlers around mile 21 or 22!

Mile 24... I don't wanna talk about it.

Picking it back up....

No, those kids weren't faster than me... the Fun Run had just started!

Post race pride and smiles!

Finish time was officially 5:53:30!

Attempting to hobble along the beach to take pictures

Finally, I want to take a second to talk about something a friend mentioned to me before going to run this race. She said “Make sure you have realistic expectations.” My expectations going into this race were not that demanding. I was thinking I would not even finish the race, honestly. I kept telling myself that I would at least have a good time in Florida, if nothing else. I said I wouldn't cave and run the half, but I might DNF (did not finish) the marathon. Either way, I had low expectations, and even lower self-esteem, considering my lack of training. But I am proud of my finish time. For me, and for me only. If any other runner saw a finish time for a full marathon, 26.2 miles was 5 hours, 53 minutes, and 30 seconds, honestly, they would not be impressed. If Mr. Marathon’s finish time was 5:53:30, you would say “WHAT WAS WRONG WITH HIM?!?!??!?!” But if I told you that my finish time was 5:53:30, an improvement of 25 minutes and 41 seconds, and that I crossed the finish line (relatively) strong, despite being completely mentally and physically drained, with tears of joy in my eyes, would you be impressed then? I hope so, because I sure am! 

Collage of post-run shenanigans

That being said, though, we don’t have any other marathons on the docket right now… besides the Blue Ridge Marathon for that crazy guy I run with…