LaPorte By the Bay Half Marathon

This is the final leg of a series of bridge runs.  The first two are two 10k's over the Kemah and Galveston bridge, then a half marathon over the Fred Hartman bridge.  I did this series last year and hated it.  I am horrible with any incline over 0, so because of that and my desire to challenge myself, I ran them.  This year I had no intention to run the series again (TX Bridge Series), until Bryan asked and asked to run it.  I informed him what the races were and that it entailed a half marathon at the end.  He agreed and said that he would train with me for the runs and do it.  So, we signed up. 

The 10k's were actually much easier than last year and we both had fun doing them.  Bryan apparently did not have a problem running them as he was playing car games with me (actually with himself as I was ignoring him, or trying to).  We got onto the bridge (Galveston causeway) and he punches me, twitter (yellow car), out of state plate and slug bug.  Well I was shocked he was doing that and told him to run on ahead of me, which he did, thank goodness. 

The half marathon I think he was nervous, I didn't care what I ran (secretly hoping to beat last years time and possible beat 2 hours), but it would of been find no matter what time I had.  This run was all for him, when he stopped, I stopped.  It was nasty hot and humid, 74 degrees and 100% humidity, just nasty.  We took off and he got caught up in the excitement and started running a bit to fast, I was constantly telling him, slow down.  He finally got into the pace we wanted and we ran on.  He could see the bridge from some of the roads we were on and kept asking is that it, is that it?  We finally crossed onto the highway and began the bridge, I think he was a bit surprised at how steep the bridge was.  The bridge starts off flat, then a very slow incline, then straight up.  We got to the middle of the steep incline and he starts to walk.  As we approached the top when you looked below all you could see was fog over the bay, that was cool.  Usually you can look over and see where we turn around at, which is a local marina, but that day it too was covered in fog.  When we hit the peak of the bridge, you could feel the temp drop about 10 degrees as we were running into the clouds.

Once we turned around to head back up the bridge, you looked over at the bridge and it was totally engulfed in the clouds.  As we got closer the sun was beginning to burn the fog off and the peaks of the suspensions were just peaking out of the cloud.  By the time we hit the bridge the clouds were burned off and it was no longer a cool temp drop, it was plain HOT. 

We walked quite a bit mostly for him and once for me.  Once we got off the bridge we were both out of our mixture that we carry with us and decided to just stop at the aid stations and get water and Gatorade.  We had to go under an overpass and while we were running, I decided to reach over and punch him "twitter"  haha.  Totally caught him off guard.  That was funny.  We finally made it back to the finish with a time of 2:07 each with him beating me by 1/10 of a second.  Matthew, Hannah and Stefanie were there cheering us on and helped us as we finished up.  They are what makes a good race possible. 

We began our walk back to the car 1/2 mile back, to stretch the legs and walk them off.  We get back to the car and Bryan "attempts" to get into the car and hollers out that he can't sit.  Of course I am laughing because I forgot that would happen as I have run enough half's that I recover a bit quicker now.  So we stretch and dry off and decide where to go for second breakfast. 

Overall I am so proud of Bryan for doing this race as it is a very hard one because of the bridge.  He is signed up for The Woodlands half marathon coming up this March, which now he has 13.1 miles under his feet and that one is FLAT and I bet he will come off with a faster time than me. 

As for the bridge series next year, he of course has no interest in doing it.  BUT Matthew does, so that probably means because Bryan and I can't help ourselves, we will be torturing ourselves again next year. 

One more to get the long distance bug and so far she wants to do a marathon relay with us 6.5 miles, then who knows a half will soon follow.  I love my running family

 Cracker Barrel-his choice of second breakfast

 Bryan and I coming in-we are the ones without tops on :-)

 After the race

The medal you get when you finish all three races.  You get one for each race, then the final one here

Texas Star Tri

July 14 my husband, son and myself participated in the Texas Star Tri in Montgomery.  This was the second time for Matthew to do this race and the second pool swim for Bryan.  Me it was my first pool swim.  Our day started early as usual, we got to the race to get our gear setup and get Hannah to the person in charge of the volunteers (best way to get your kid watched after, have her volunteer).  She got to help out at the finish line putting medals on everyone and handing the runners water.  Later at the awards ceremony she was handing the awards out. 

Matthew and Bryan didn't want to get a practice swim in, but I did so that I can make sure my breathing was under control.  When I was getting into the water I saw my buddy Chris Hill, he had 5 of his clients that he was training them for IMTX.  I felt good when he asked me if I was bi-lateral breathing and if I was doing it every 3 strokes, of course I said yes, because that is what I was doing. 

I got out and headed back to my bike, where I found other Conroe Triathletes there, Judy and Jim (Judy was next to me in the bike racks and in the swim).  We chatted and got ready, then headed to the potty for the last time, then to the pool to line up.  Judy was in front of me, Matthew a couple people behind me and Bryan (odd numbers were on the opposite side of the pool) was across the pool.  We waited then, it was our turn. 

I dove in (mistake) and when I did my goggles came up and I got a super shot of water in my eye.  I kinda fixed it, then just dealt with it.  I caught up to Judy, tapped her foot, then went around her at the rope, come up onto another lady who was going to slow for me, so I watied for my chance to pass her, popped my head up and swam as fast and as hard as I could because there was another swimmer coming towards me.  I did this to I think 2 more people.  There were helpers grabbing your hands to help you out of the pool, but I decided to do it myself, as did my husband.  For once when I got out of the water, I was not totally dis-orientented.  For the swim, I was totally in control, unlike when I have done the open water swim, where the water was in control of me.  I got out and headed to my bike, with a small jog. 

Bryan was already out of the water and I assume on the bike when I got to my bike, I was not looking at that point.  I put my shoes and helmet one and rolled out.  Not even to mile 1 and I hear this sarcastic "on your left", yup Matthew had caught up to me.  Now he rides a road bike, which is lighter and faster, plus he is clipped in.  I ride a hybrid, which is heavy and a bit harder to get going.  So, when he passed me, I had to give absolutely everything I had to catch him.  Matthew slowed down on the hills, where I powered up them (determination at its best).  As I was about to catch him, Matthew caught up to Bryan, passed him, then Bryan starts peddling faster, then I pass Bryan and he tried just as hard to keep up (he is on a hybrid too).  Well I FINALLY passed Matthew and had about 8 miles to work my butt off to keep him behind me.  He passed me one other time, but I got back in front and when we got to the dis mount line, I was first!  Of course time wise he beat me by like 45 seconds, but I rolled in first and in my book that is what counted.  LOL

So, I racked my bike, grabbed my water bottle and headed out on the run.  Of course Matthew had to change his shoes and I was jacking with him about it.  As I headed out of transition, Chris hollers at me that I still have my helmet on.  Yup I was that dork starting to run out with the helmet on.  So I chunked it at the exit of the transition and took off.  That's what I get for trash talking my husband.  The run course was very good, 90% of it was on grass fields, mostly shaded.  Last year the finish was on the track, but you had to run about 300 meters to the finish line on the track, so I was ready to do that.  Well, they changed it up a bit and you only had maybe 50 meters.  I sprinted in and finished.  I went back to get the rest of my clan, Matthew came in before I turned around, then Judy.  As I was heading back, I came across Jim, ran him him, then went back for Bryan, found him and raced him in.  All were accounted for. 
 
Judy and I were gathered around the monitor that posts the results and I glanced over and realized that I got FIRST in my age group as well did Judy.  That was totally awesome!  When the time came for awards, I got to have mine handed to me by my daughter, which was more special as she was just grinning ear to ear when she heard my name called.  I ended up with the fastest swim ever 6:55, the fastest bike ride 35:50 and almost PR'd my 5k.  Matthew PR'd on everything and Bryan, well his knee was hurting too bad and it showed. 
 
Overall, this was a very good experience at the Texas Star Tri. 
 
The pics are Hannah giving me my award, Judy getting her award and Hannah and the race director getting ready to hand out awards. 
 

My First Blog Ever

I have never blogged about anything, and I have been seeing so many do it and it seems to be a way of "talking".  I sit at work for 9 hours a day and basically do not do any of that, so this could be nice. 

The title of the blog is just as it says, my family getting fit.  My son is 13 and runs cross country and track.  My daughter is 7 and runs just a mile (not by her own choice). 

I used to run in High School, Cross Country and Track and was still decent when I was in the military.  After years of running here and running there, I finally stopped.  That came upon a pretty bad bout of depression and with that the weight gain came as well.  It also stemed from me being laid off from yet another job, I found myself at home feeling sorry for myself and becoming extremly lazy.  When I was only 10 pounds of the weight that I delivered my son at, I decided this is ridclious.  No one would run with me and I really did not want to run alone.  With my son running CC, that gave me the push to help him and that pretty much did help both of us.  He for sure was not going to let his mother beat him at all.  He though is like me, not fast, but completes the race with pride and hard work.  I am not in any means a fast runner (for long distance), but it is something that I truly enjoy.  Then I decided to sign up for a 5K and my husband bought me a Garmin 405.  I was off and haven't stopped yet, that was just a short year ago. 

Once I ran my first 5K, I just had to do another and another.  I have now completed 3-5K and 1 Obstacle course and have a mud run in a couple of weeks.

I am now running to further my miles and my times and of course to keep myself fit and trim.  I crosstrain with P90X and that program along with my running is so worth all the time I have to put to it, and that is alot of time to the two together! 

Overall my goal is right now to complete a 5K, without walking and making it under 29 minutes and just crossing the finish line in a 10K and to get my children to acutally enjoy running with their mom instead of complaining and trying to count the miles and say "I am not running this many miles in one day."  One day they will understand how much of a body dump running can be on your mind, body and soul.