Tag Archives: ING Miami marathon

It’s my Friday.

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Thursdays are my Fridays – I’m very lucky to have Friday as ‘my day’.  If the rain steers clear tomorrow I plan on trying to run 8miles for the first time in months.  I have a half coming up in October, which on the calendar looks really close now!  Then it’ll be time for the half at Thanksgiving and before I know it Miami will be looming…can I handle it?  One thing is for sure I am eating like a horse again with all this running.  My resolution is to at least try to eat like a healthy horse.

Have any of you ever responded to a Facebook offer?  I was a little skeptical when I first saw ‘xyz has just redeemed and offer at abc’ appear on my news feed but today for the first time I acted on one and bought a necklace.  I have been looking for a while at the J.Crew bubble necklace but there are some things I just won’t spend $150 on – costume jewelry is one of those things.  I’ve found lots of copy cats on eBay and Etsy.com but still some of them are $30 and above, and seem a bit risky to chance.  Well today I saw an offer at Lovely Lola Boutique and with shipping the necklace is just $14.90 – so I ordered 2!  You have to make a separate order for each necklace but at $14.90 it seemed too good to miss and well worth the risk…I’ll keep you posted when they arrive – though it sounds like it’ll be late September as there are just two girls packing and shipping!  This is not an endorsement as I have no affiliation with them – so fingers crossed that the necklaces are as fab as I hope!

The pink one would have looked great with my outfit today.  I’m wearing my green J.Crew shorts (in the sale at $35), an old H&M top, Zara off white jogging jacket and my Frye Carson button shorts.  Had to dash out of the house this morning to carpool so the photos were taken in the office bathroom!  Sorry!

This morning as I dropped off Hugh, one of the teachers at daycare told me I looked a different person from when I was taking Poppy there 5 years ago…I have to agree I don’t recognize that person anymore either.

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6 months and counting…

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So it is now 6 months until the Miami marathon.  I’ve spent a few hours this week figuring out a training plan – mainly following Hal Higdon’s Novice 2 plan.  I also plan to do a couple of halves between now and then – I just wish it wasn’t so damn hot right now.  I dropped my car off for a service yesterday and took advantage of the 6mile journey to run home – blimey it must have been 90degrees at 8.30am – I needed that coconut water afterwards!  I’m also trying to adapt my diet without being overly obsessive or restrictive – cutting out alcohol (well at least between Sundays and Thursdays!), more fruit, more juices (beetroot, celery and ginger is a favorite), zero fast food and more protein.  Now  just need to incorporate some yoga into my schedule every week for a good stretch.

I have an update on the Express jeans I was lusting after the other day – with the magic of CRM and shopping cart technology Express must have seen I kept loading my cart with the light pink jeans but not actually hitting ‘order’!  Low and behold yesterday I got an email offer from the for jeans at $29.99!  Jobs a good ‘un – pink jeans now on their way to me:)  Promo code was 1626 if you’re interested in them too – it seems to apply to all their jeans right now – not sure how I managed to restrain myself and only order the pink pair!

I’m now officially over living in the basement – clutter is everywhere and I’m finding it impossible to keep tidy…but there is light at the end of the tunnel – the tiling is almost done, the painters are in the the hardwoods get finished next week – so with any luck we’ll be done at the end of next week!  Of course the painting and work that has been done is so sparkly and fantastic that it makes the other areas of the house look a little tired…we’ll get to them eventually once my son has stopped slamming his Tonka truck into every wall and baseboard!

Thankfully my fabulous Husband was around this morning to take on the duty of photographing me.  After a couple of days in tunics – sorry no photos – I opted for my fab J.Crew green chino shorts – these are 4″ but I noticed they had some 3″ and 5″ lengths in the sale online in other colors.  I’m wearing them with my AllSaints vest, H&M linen jumper and fabulous Sam Edelman Louie tan suede boots.  Ankle boots with shorts has to be one of my favorite looks from this summer.

We’re in full preparation for the return to school in a week hence the folder of sight words and reading on the table!

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Just buy a book.

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Hmmm since I got my iPad I seem to be going through a phase of reading, dare I say it, ‘self help’ books – maybe it’s because I can read them safely without people seeing the cover – in fact I just realized I can avoid the shame of being caught reading ’50 Shades’ that way – no I haven’t read it yet.  Anyway when I talk about self-help I don’t mean ‘helping me become a better person type books’ – more ‘how to attain a goal books’ or ‘books that inspire’.  For example the first book I read on my iPad was ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall.  It really was a great read for an amateur runner – really fun and inspiring – or so I found anyway.  Okay now a confessional warning – I am a fan of the US version of The Biggest Loser – I don’t watch every season but those I have I have found incredibly inspiring – and I love Bob Harper.  Bob is one of the trainers on the series and is great t.v. – his Facebook page is fun to follow too.  Anyway he has a book that has been on the best sellers list for a while – ‘The Skinny Rules’.  Sadly I got suckered in and bought it.  Now I think we all know what the rules are to keeping slim (I really wish he hadn’t used the word skinny – no one should want to be skinny) – and this book really states the obvious – but still it’s written quite light heartedly and I am enjoying dipping in and out of it to keep me focused on my goal of losing a couple of pounds ready for my marathon training.

Did someone say ‘marathon’?  Ah yes that little race I signed up for in January – suddenly January seems very close indeed.  So now I am on the search for a book to help me train for my marathon.  MM keeps saying just run more but my mind set tells me I won’t have to do that if I just read a book about it…I’m such a sucker!  The one I have my eye on is called ‘4 Months to 4 Hours’ – brilliant – just read it and do a bit of training and I can run Miami in 4hrs – perfect!  If only that was all there was to it…Now I just need to find the book entitled ‘Stop Shopping and Learn to Save Millions’.

This is my outfit from yesterday – I went to see the fabulous O’Neil again for a haircut wearing my bright pink J.Crew chino shorts, AllSaints Pipali tank and Sam Edelman suede Louie boots in tan suede (yes I have the taupe rose too) which are my favorite boots for a while – really comfy and I love the fringe.  I promise the photos will improve soon – the bathroom floor went down yesterday!

 

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The day after…

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I did it!! Not the best time ever but under 2hrs 30 which became my goal half way round as the temperatures soared and the hills of Atlanta took their toll – 2hrs 28mins was my finishing time – a little disappointed but this is far outweighed by the elation and euphoria of finishing my second half.  I was literally in tears as I crossed the line I was so happy and excited to finish.  The crowd really carried me home for that last half mile.  It was so incredible to see the top marathon finishers finishing along side us – it certainly puts into perspective how fast and what amazing runners they are!  Speaking of marathoners I must congratulate my blogger friend www.runninginmommyland.com who finished her first full marathon yesterday!!

The atmosphere was brilliant and the organizers did a fabulous job from start to finish.  My heart was pumping to the disco beats thudding from the speakers as we waited anxiously in our corrals.  Then at 7am we were off – of course the start is always a tad slower when there are 15,000 other runners with you.  I barely noticed the first 3 miles but it was strange to be running in the dark.  I knew I was a bit slower than normal so tried to up my pace a little.  I started to feel those brutal hills and at one point at about 6miles I thought I was done for as I felt my left knee start to tighten.  Of course in those circumstances all you start to think about is the niggle, which ultimately makes the niggle worse.  I pulled up momentarily to hit the ‘reset’ button and make sure I was okay to continue.  Once I started running again it felt fine and I found my stride again.  The problem is once you have stopped once, mentally the challenge is up and it’s easy to stop again.  Non the less once when I was running I felt fairly strong and tried to focus on my form.  I really believe I think too much when I’m running on my own.  I’m much happier when distracted by good conversation and company so I am recruiting more running buddies – look out:)

I’m now planning to try and run about 5 a year.  There is the ZOOMA Atlanta women’s half in April, then a welcome break over the summer before the AllState 13.1 in October, the Atlanta Thanksgiving half, the Miami half/full marathon in January, followed by the Georgia half again in March.  Depending on how my training goes over the course of the year and if I can correct my form to eliminate any knee problems I seriously may consider the full in January.  Miami would be a great place for a full – fairly flat plus plenty of opportunity to party afterward!

Before I do any more long runs I really must buy some tops that don’t chafe.  The chafing was exacerbated by the heat but crikey I have some nasty welts around my collar bone and chest and under my arms today from my hot, wet skin rubbing on the seams of the tank I was wearing.  I have trouble finding great tops that are supportive as I prefer a shelf bra – so if you have any favorites please share with me.  I’m looking at the Lululemon ones right now but this Back on Track tank that I like is completely sold out online.

My Finishers Medal:

Finishers medal

My Post Race Reward:

Post-race reward