That Time I Accidentally Ran Nine Miles

I mentioned before that I'm sort of helping (I say "helping" because I'm not really in a position to coach anyone, but I do have a lot have half marathon experience, so I'm basically just tagging along and shouting out some not so helpful advice every time I open my mouth.) two newbie future half marathoners.

We've decided that Tinkerbell Half is the goal so we have a lot of time to get trained. Saturday morning, we headed out to a local trail to do 6, maybe 7 miles.

It was quite an adventure, let me tell you. First, the trail we run is part of a local sports complex called Reach 11. It's popular with runners, walkers, cyclists and horseback riders.

We all run at different speeds and have different endurance, so we started out very leisurely and walked two minutes and jogged 90 seconds. A few times, I put on my iPod and ran a ways ahead so I could get a little extra mileage in. When my Garmin read 3.5 miles, we turned around.

On the way back, we ran into a group of riders doing a poker ride. There were little tents set up and when the riders would ride by, they would get a card. At the end of the ride, the rider with the best hand wins. Pretty cool, right?

Then we ran into a guy riding a mule and leading another one. The second mule spooked and tried to run off. Luckily, all three of us are horse people, so we attempted to assist the guy in catching his loose mule. Let me just say, that guys was not appreciative at all, and pretty much yelled at us that we were doing it wrong.

Siiiiiiiigh.

Okay, buddy, catch your own damn mule then! We stuck around anyway just to make sure the more mule did get caught and then we went on our way.

It's really cool to run under the freeways. I don't know why, maybe it's just because they are so massive.

By the time we were about a half mile from the parking lot, I realized that somewhere along the way, I dropped my iPod. How can I possibly run without my iPod?!?!

So I ran back a mile and a half to the over pass and there it was. I think that's the fastest mile and a half I've ever run in my life.

There you are!

So that's how I ended up running 9 miles. I was so hungry by the time we were done, that we went to a late breakfast and inhaled our food.

That was an adventure run for me! Hope everyone had a good weekend!

Kiss Me I'm Irish Run 8K Recap

Yeah, I know. This race was almost two weeks ago. But better late than never in my recapping, right?

When I first signed up for this race, there were several people that wanted to do it with me because it looked like so much fun. But then they all dropped like flies, one by one, so I turned up the feel-sorry-for-me factor big time and got two of my friends to come along and spectate so we could drink green beer have breakfast afterward.

Of course, I wasn't prepared enough to have an entire outfit put together for a St. Patrick's Day themed race, but I did order my first Team Sparkle skirt. I love it!

Narcissist blogger self pic coming right up!

My friends (a.k.a. my newbie half marathoners in training victims), Tabatha and Kimberlee, decided to meet me at the start at West Gate, which is about 45 minutes away. I managed to arrive early enough to go pick up my race packet, run back to my car to drop off my goodies and be back at the start just minutes before we were set to take off!

There were three distances to choose from: a 4K, an 8K, and a 17K with a half an hour between each start. I decided to go with the 8K. Sometimes I forget that I'm not a fan of shorter distances. I always start out way too fast. I've been working on speed (I've moved up from snail pace to speedy turtle pace) and so I had a really hard time keeping myself slower right off the bat. During the first mile, I was cruising along and several times looked down at my Garmin to see I was running at like a 9:30 pace. What?!

I'm running so fast, I'm blurry!

Well, I know way better than to do that. Total rookie mistake. I hit a short term wall right after mile one. Oopsy. But, I forged ahead and took a few pictures while I caught my breath.

Spotted a Ragnar shirt! And I love a man in a kilt...
also a man with wings on his shoes.

Gotta love a dog friendly race!

I got my second wind between miles 3 and 4 and then really picked up the pace for the last mile. The finish was a little bit of a cluster because we all had the same finish line, so the very slowest of the slow were finishing up the 4K at the same time I was finishing up the 8K. We're talking the casual walkers with strollers wearing jeans and walking 5 abreast blocking the road. So I dodged around them left and right for the last half a mile.

Holla!

Even though I was running way faster than I usually would, I ended up walking a lot because my muscles were really fatigued. I cruised through the finish with a fairly slow time over all, but that's okay considering I was just there for fun and I haven't been training overly hard.

The finish line was really festive. I would totally recommend this race. It's very well organized, cheap, dog friendly and fun. The race shirts were tech fabric, which I've come to really appreciate.

Cute, right?

And you get a big Hershey's Kiss and a green beer. What could be better?



Okay, so green beer looks pretty gross and
I didn't actually drink it.

Get in my belly!

Run Disney isn't the only place to get a character picture! Although, there was something really creepy about this leprechaun, I must admit. But since I'm not one to pass up a good photo op, I braved being mauled by his giant freaking head.

Look at that face! That is the stuff of nightmares.

Afterward, we decided that we were starving, so we walked over to Saddleback Ranch for breakfast. I can't help it is they were serving $1.99 mimosas! I had to order one...or several.

How could I resist?

Then for whatever reason, they also gave us complimentary shots. Do runners give off an alcoholic vibe? Maybe the several mimosas tipped them off...

So yeah, after all of that, I wasn't going to risk driving. So what did we do? We walked across the street to the outlet mall and shopped for many hours. Then I spent money I don't have on a purse I don't need.

I can not be trusted to shop after drinking.

In my defense, it was 65% off, which in Coach-speak is still really expensive. But whatevs, the damage is done.

Moral of the story: don't run a race, then drink at an early hour and then go to the Coach outlet. You will be sorry.

Weekend of Awesome

Wow, I almost forgot that I have a blog. I know y'all have been staying up at night wondering what happened to me, but life has been super crazy and busy. Plus, I've been seriously distracted by important things like Instagram and rekindling my love of Twitter. Priorities, I know. I think I'm going to set up a separate Twitter account for my blog and running stuff so I can keep that stuff separate from my fandom/random stuff on my current Twitter account. But not today. I'll probably think about doing that for weeks until I finally get around to getting it done.

I still have to recap my my Kiss Me I'm Irish run from last weekend, but first, I have to share my weekend of awesome from this weekend.

Seriously regretting not buying this for one of my
costumes for Dumbo Double Dare.
Boooo.

I found myself at Tucson Thrift Shop Saturday night where many shenanigans took place. And I sang the Thrift Shop song about a million times that evening.

But first things first. The reason I was in Tucson was to take Louie to his first rated horse show! I really hadn't planned on showing, I was just taking him to get some training done at a horse show environment. As luck would have it, there was a scratch on Sunday, so I made my horse show debut with only a few hours notice. And on Lou's birthday! Happy birthday, Lou!

Here are the highlights:

Lou all wrapped up and ready to get on the trailer.



Our show tent. Classing it up!

Beautiful sunset at the Pima County Fairgrounds

Lou and me after a successful maiden voyage.

Little Lou did great! He got a good score and came in second. I'm really excited because he made a few baby mistakes, but he's only going to get better. Woot!

A super tired baby after a long weekend.

Saturday night, we hit the town in Tucson for some dinner...and some wine. Now, mind you, we had several glasses while still at the horse show. Tucson is a college town (I actually went to college in Tucson. Go Wildcats!), and that means several very interesting shops.

First up was the Tucson Thrift Shop.

This group always means trouble. The Quattro Amigos
Lara, me, Kristy and Sarah

Possible scene from Criminal Minds. Creepy, right?
Me and Lara

This is your captain speaking...

Next up was a head shop. I haven't been to a head shop in like 10 years, at least. Let me tell you, the very adorable guy behind the counter knew his pipes and bongs. Now, mind you - and this was emphasized about 4 times - they DO NOT sell marijuana paraphernalia. They sell tobacco pipes. We may be older than the college crowd, but we're not stupid.

It's very freeing to be 36 years old and not give a shit about being cool anymore. I made that kid explain to us in great detail how all of the pipes and bongs worked. A twenty something Jaime would have hung around for hours flirting with that kid because he was A.) adorable and B.)strangely knowledgeable with excellent customer service skills. But then I felt vaguely like a cradle robber. Whatevs.

Those are horse pipes.

I should probably note that at no time were we using any of these "tobacco" pipes - for tobacco or for anything else. Drugs are bad. Don't do drugs. And stay in school. Mmm'kay?

So, yes, this was a great weekend. Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day!

Ragnar Relay Recap - Part 3

Just in case you can't get enough of all of my recapping, here is Ragnar Part 1 and Ragnar Part 2.

I realize I don't have a lot of actual running pictures for Ragnar. *Notes to take more running pictures on my next Ragnar Relay*

I used my stick non stop during Ragnar.

Our non stop picture taking in general was slowing down at this point. We were all starting to feel exhausted. Not to mention, it's hard to take good pictures in the dark!

After our second round of running, we ended up at the Anthem Community Center. Next time, I'm bringing a camping mat or yoga mat. We literally stretched out on a wood floor and tried to catch a little bit of sleep before we had to head to the next exchange point at 4:00am.

I think we only managed a couple of hours before we were back on the road. I was dreading this leg. My last leg was my longest and listed as "very hard" which, if you read my Ragnar Top Ten, you know means "crippling",

I won't go into all of the details, but this last leg was one of the most difficult runs I've ever done. The second half was almost entirely uphill, with the last couple of miles being ridiculously steep. It was 24 hours into our race and we had slept a total of maybe 2 hours. I was freezing and pretty much all around miserable. And yeah, there may or may not have been a few tears.

The was only one little area at mile 6 for van support, so my wonderful van mates kept pulling u-turns so that they could yell out support. It was the only leg where I saw more than one person fall apart.

On one of their drive-bys, Tara yelled out the window, "Everyone else looks like shit, too!" And that made me laugh.

But then I was done! I was runner 2, so 10 more of my team mates had to finish up their last section, but I was done! Now I could relax and watch the rest of our van finish.

Melissa and Jenna (Photo by Megan)

Tara

Grumpy Cat doing some driving...



Lance offering water to Megan

We met up with van 2 at the last van exchange and waited for Megan to finish her leg.

Nicole, Jenna, Megan, Jenn, Lara, Me, Chris
Stacie, Tara and Megan

Van 1 was done! We went to lunch, picked up various cars, and then headed down to Tempe to meet at the finish line.

Finish Line at Tempe Town Lake

Team Dessert finishes Ragnar Del Sol 2013

Doing Ragnar was an incredible experience. I loved my team and the girls in my van were awesome. We had so much fun. It was harder than I was expecting, but I'm so, so glad I did it! I would definitely do it again...as long as my van mates were as awesome as the Ice Cream Van. Thanks, Team Dessert, for a most excellent adventure.

Ragnar Relay Recap - Part 2

I don't know why it's taking me so long to organize all of my thoughts and pictures about Ragnar. It's such a surreal, awesome experience that I'm sad I didn't take even more pictures. Anyhoooo, if you missed Part One, you should clickety right here.

After seeing Nicole off at the start, all of us from the first van raced back to the vehicle to follow after her. Being newbies at this point, we weren't entirely sure how to do the whole "runner aid" thing, but Nicole ran with water, so she was a-ok.

Exchange 1...middle of Nowhere, AZ.

Not much fanfare at the runner exchanges.

We learned really quickly that the course maps are pretty misleading. I present Exhibit A:

That elevation looks like it should be really easy, right? Well, let me just tell you, it was not. There may be a net elevation loss, but there were hills along the entire route. And this was my easiest leg, for sure.

The good thing is that I was rocking it. My first 2 legs were really speedy for me. Soon enough, I was at the exchange and then Jenna off and running. That girl was fast. Like super fast.

Exchange 2

Later on, we had a little bit of time to kill at one of the exchanges.

Jenna

We became obsessed with Grumpy Cat.

And Grumpy Cat liked our photos..

Before we knew it all of our runners had finished their first legs and we met up at the van exchange, where van 2 would would be active and we could relax for a few hours.

The van exchanges were a lot more crowded than the regular runner exchanges and there was definitely a lot more to look at...

Yup.

I don't know how people ran Ragnar before the invention of the smart phone. As soon as we were back in the van, we were Googling lunch options. We were starving. We ended up at Macayo's for Mexican food. Oh man, the margarita's looked so delicious! But Ragnar also has a no drinking during the race policy, so there's that.

Despite how yummy the margis looked, I really wouldn't have wanted to run with alcohol in my system. After snarfing everything in sight, we were excited to be able to use real bathrooms instead of port-a-potties...

Me, Nicole, Melissa and Megan.
Real running water!!!

We had a few more hours before we were to exchange vans once again. Exchange 12 was at a high school in Surprise, AZ. We took a little nap on the soccer field...not a comfortable napping location, but a hell of a lot better than the gym floor we slept on later.

I think other places in the country have grass that is actually green...

I think we only managed to crash for a short period of time before we were getting the text alert that night time hours were in effect. I wasn't kidding when I said they take this safety stuff seriously! So we trudged back to the van, put on our safety vests and had a quick snack.

Yes, that is a Squeeze-it in the picture, courtesy of Nicole.
I didn't even know those still existed!

Waiting very impatiently for a text from van 2 to let us
know when their last runner was en route....

Pretty soon, it was getting dark, and so we headed over to the runner exchange area so Nicole could start leg 13.

Van 1 is ready to rock!!

Let's get this party started!