Weigh in Day!

A quick post before I meet the group and run this morning - I weighed in and I lost 1.2 pounds this week bringing me to a new all time low weight of 168.4! The gain from two weeks ago is gone and then some! I have now lost 94.1 pounds total! I am a mere 4.4 pounds away from my weight watchers goal of 164!

There has been some people in my life concerned that I wasn't eating enough and lately I have been really starving most of the time - I consulted with a nutritionist that knows about running and food and she confirmed that with my higher mileage I was not giving my body what it need. She told me how many calories I should be eating on regular days and on long run days and I have been following that for almost two weeks and I'm still losing, but am no longer starving all the time. I have also noticed that my long runs go better as well. I feel so much better after doing them with enough food!

There is also the connection of food in San Francisco and my success at Nike - I PR'ed and didn't really try to and I didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard - I stopped and took pictures along the way had a great time chatting with V-jam and just had a really good experience! I even walked around for quite a while afterwards with the left over energy I had! I think that was another wake up call for me. I did so well because I basically ate what I wanted and when I was hungry for the two days before that in San Francisco. I ate way more calories than I would have if I was home and I was rewarded for it in an awesome race. Like a good friend says - the car doesn't run with no fuel in the tank!!

4 Bridges Half Marathon

No I didn't run a half marathon the day after my 20 miler, but I was there! I cheered on some of our group that was running and my boy did the Kid's Scary Scamper! We have been training him for the CIM Marafun Run that is 2.62 miles and on December 6th - part of what I have been training him to do is pace himself and he is doing much better than I did in the beginning! Once he completes the training program they have set up for us and the 2.62 miles he will have completed the cumulative mileage of a full marathon 26.2! He has a little watch that he uses to time himself and he is just too cute! So the scary scamper was 1 mile and here are a couple of Pics!

This was about the halfway point! Isn't he adorable with his bib number on??

Him at the finish - his finishing picture looks like most of mine - looking down and turning off the timer on the watch! They got to cross the same finish line as the half marathoners did!

Here he is with his official time 7:54:85!

After the run and seeing some people finish we went to the Folsom zoo and had a great time!

Sacfit Saturday and Weigh in!

Weigh in first - Up at 5AM to weigh in at 6AM before running at 7AM! I'm at 169.6 - losing 1.4 of the 2.2 pounds I gained last week! I'm happy with that! :) (VERY happy to be back in the 160's)

Today I ran 20 miles - I am ready now to taper (10 miles next week - 5 the following week) and ready for my full marathon! I feel so confident this evening that I can totally do this!

BUT - I'm very tired and I'm going to go to bed now - just didn't want to do that without posting my regular Sacfit post and weigh in post!

I ran like a girl! Nike Women's Half Marathon 2009!

I don't even know where to start - the day was so awesome and I'm going to be in tears again writing this. I met our group of Sacfitters at 6:15AM so we would be together and start together. Here we are bright and early and ready to run! Vanessa - the one in the red shirt did the full marathon - the rest of us did the half.


Me crossing the start line about 20ish minutes after the race started - there was music blaring, everyone was so excited and we had to wait a while for our pace group to be let out of our "corral" so all the faster pace group could go. It was great for building the excitement!! We started out running between tall skyscrapers and just taking in the view - it was amazing! So cool running through the big city! Then we went out onto the Embarcadero. We could see the Bay bridge and there was a cruise ship docked that wasn't there the day before and the pier was all quiet - you could see Alcatraz and it was the perfect weather for running. A little cool with a slight breeze. Just amazing!!



This is me in the middle of climbing one of the hills - in fact I think it was "The big one" - Alcatraz is in the background!

Vanessa with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge - we ran almost 10 miles together and had so much fun! I also after finishing thought I could see her since the full marathon people split from us and then met back right before a split again by the finish line so I went to find her at her mile 16 and only waited about 15 minutes! At that point she was having pain when she ran, but only had 10 miles to go and she planned on walking and finishing!

These were some inspirational signs at the top of another hill - pretty cool shot with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background!

I ran what I felt was a comfortable pace and I kept thinking I could break 3 hours (my previous best time was 3:03:45 but a very different course) We walked all the hills (my angel on my shoulder telling me the whole time to not slow down, walk with authority!) and recovered some at the top and the ran the rest skipping some walk breaks at times and I felt so good. The miles flew by! I don't think I really believed I could break the 3 hours mark until I hit mile 12 and my Garmin said I was at 2:45 - I thought - I could power walk this last mile and still break 3! I ran the entire last mile with no walk breaks and came in with an official chip time of 2:56:01!! I was crying at the finish and some woman came in behind me and was crying and I told her I needed to hug someone and she grabbed me and hugged me, we must have stood there crying and hugging for several minutes! This was her first half marathon! Someone took our picture and after asked us our names, I don't know if it was media or race people, but I hope to find the picture! The rest of the finishers chute was a blur. I do remember sexy guys in Tuxes standing around, but couldn't tell you what the guy who handed me my necklace looked like (can you tell I'm happily married?? it's not about the guy it's about the bling!). They gave us a bag and then lots of food, drink, samples of stuff and a nice little aluminum foil blanket to keep us warm, the finish line was right by the ocean and it was cold and breezy!

We walked around for a while, walked over to see Vanessa and a TNT friend that was there cheering people on and then we got on the bus to go back to the Hotel and start our trip home. I was really emotional last night and again this morning, I guess it took a lot out of me. It was such an amazing weekend with so many positives, I don't think it could have been any better! I also want to thank my hubby for making the weekend so special and being so supportive. I am the luckiest girl in the world!!

And of course and picture of the bling!!! (poor lighting in this picture makes it look gold - it is actually silver - I will take another picture later and post it.)

Twas the Night before Nike!

Original title to my post huh?? Today was once again an amazing day! We did a little shopping, we did a little more sightseeing, we rode the cable car from one end of the city to the other (twice!) I have lots more amazing pictures that I will work on posting when I get home. I met a friend when she came into town and we picked up her packet and then I went back to the room and rested before meeting some members of my running group for a wonderful dinner. We walked over to the start area and decided where we will try and meet up so we can run together for at least a little while. Tomorrow is going to be so amazing! I have my angel on my shoulder and I plan on finishing strong and making her proud!!

Twas the Friday before Nike!

Today was an amazing day! After stopping by weight watchers (I had a 2.2 gain - after a very challenging week) We drove to San Fran and only hit traffic on the bay bridge, found our hotel right away, they had a room ready and we checked in - got stuff in the room and then headed out for the expo. I got my goodie bag and my number and timing chip. We wandered around the expo for a bit and then headed over to Niketown. What an amazing store! I bought a new running cap and we ended up going back later on to buy a t-shirt. I found my name on "the wall" Outside the store all the registered participants are listed on the wall and I took a pic, I will post some pics after I get home. We went and did a little shopping and then went and had lunch at The Cheesecake factory and had the best Red velvet cake cheesecake for dessert! Yum!! We did more shopping and more walking, found chinatown and toured most of union square. I'm so ready for bed now!

Twas the Thursday before Nike!

I'm so excited I can't stand it!! This trip is going to be so great! It has been the first time hubby and I have gone anywhere in a long time without children. The main reason we are going on Friday instead on Saturday. We still don't know for sure what we will do there but I think we will figure something out! I would like to go into Chinatown and there is a little place we want to check out for breakfast and then of course the shopping at Union square, the race expo and other assorted stuff that we don't do when we go because we always go to the tourist areas and don't venture out past there!

Then of course on Sunday is the run! I am torn between racin it and trying to break 3 hours or taking it slow and taking lots of pictures and enjoying the scenery! I have pretty much decided that that I won't decide until I'm running and see how things go. I have decided to play it smart though and walk the hills!

Hubby has taken today off to get things packed, Logan packed and ready to go to Granny and Papa's house and the animals situated and such. Tomorrow morning we get up, take Logan to school, run to weight watchers to weigh in and then leave for San Francisco!!