30 Before 30: Complete a dozen half marathons

This Sunday I completed another of my 30 Before 30 items: Finish a dozen half marathons!  Here's the list of all the half marathon's I've done:

Race Name and Date

1. Bronx Half Marathon - 2/11/2007
2. More Half Marathon - 3/25/2007
3. Brooklyn Half Marathon - 4/14/2007
4. New York City Half Marathon - 8/5/2007
5. Ft Lauderdale Half Marathon - 2/17/2008
6. New York City Half Marathon - 8/16/2009
7. Manhattan Half Marathon - 1/24/2010
8. Brooklyn Half Marathon - 5/22/2010 - Personal Best 1:52:47
9. Queens Half Marathon - 7/24/2010
10. Bronx Half Marathon - 8/15/2010
11. Miami Half Marathon - 1/27/2012
12. Detroit Half Marathon - 10/21/2012 - Second Best 1:54:45

Sunday was the Detroit Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon and Half Marathon.  I somehow wrangled my brother and Taylor to do it too.  Hey, a girl's gotta have good company for these sorts of endeavors, you know, the ones that start in downtown Detroit before the sun comes up.

Saturday was a busy day.  Taylor's sister and her boyfriend were here to visit, and Michigan was playing Michigan State in football (a big game).  The major challenge for us was that football game days require lots of walking, standing, and drinking (beer); all things one might normally avoid the day before a half marathon. We opted not to "avoid" so much as "limit" said activities.  We did walk to the game, but we sat down at the tailgate and didn't drink (too much) beer.  We found a place near the top of the stands at the game, where we could sit rather than just stand.  Here's Garett and I at the game:

It was a great game, including a last-second field goal to be Michigan State for the first time in 5 years!  Here's the crowd celebrating: 

After the game, we immediately headed back to our apartment, let Nashville out (he'd been in his crate 7 hours) and left to grab a pasta dinner before heading to our hotel in downtown Detroit.  We opted to stay downtown rather than get up before 4am to drive there and have to find parking in the morning.

Here's a blurry pic of the Renaissance Center in Detroit as we got into town Saturday night.  Taylor's office when he starts his job next year will be in this building!

Here's our lovely room at the Robert's Riverwalk Hotel

We had to request a rollaway bed for Garett since the hotel room I booked only had one bed (oops).  We went to bed pretty much immediately after it arrived seeing as it was 11pm and we had to be up at 5:30am for the race. 

In the morning, we each had our own routine of things to get ready:

Taylor with his ridiculous regimen of antacids, vitamins, decongestants and Dayquil:

Me with my very specific pre-race food requirements:

Garett standing shirtless...this is what he does.

We got to the start line very smoothly thanks to the shuttle offered by our hotel.  Here we are, all ready to go :)

So my official goal for the race was 1 hour and 50 minutes, which works out to 8:23 miles.  Taylor's goal was 1 hour and 30 minutes or 6:52 miles (insane, I know).  My brother was originally shooting to run with Taylor, but unfortunately, he got an IT Band injury during training and wasn't able to run as much as he needed, so his goal was just to finish.

We separated at the start line.  The boys went in Corral B and I went to Corral C (for Carissa, I think).  My corral was really full, so I actually stood outside it until the first group or runners started at 7am.  As people started to move up, I was able to move in.  I crossed the start line at 7:01:40am.  My intention was to use the timers that are always on the mile markers to keep track of my pace.  I find that doing math during the race really helps to distract me.  So with each mile, I would calculate whether I was ahead of or behind the average pace I needed to break my time and that would keep me going.

Fat chance.  Turns out that apparently Detroit decided these markers were unnecessary because I got to mile 1 and had NO IDEA how long my first mile had taken.  Rookie mistake, I had no watch at all so I couldn't even keep track of my own pace.  This was quite deflating. What was also deflating was the mile-long hill that was the ascent of the Ambassador Bridge. That's right.  For miles 1 and 2 I felt really good and was really enjoying the run.  Then came mile 3, where we climbed what seemed like 1,000 vertical feet up the Ambassador Bridge that links Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Despite the hill, the bridge was definitely a high point of the race.  The view over Detroit and Canada as the sun was coming up was really amazing.  The mile-long descent was also amazing.  It was, however, at that point that I realized I probably wasn't going to make my goal time, because the pace team for the marathon  time that worked out to double my half time (3:40:00 for those who are good at math) passed me.  Their pace, despite all my training, just felt way too fast for me.  Such a bummer too.  I had been fighting a cold/allergies/sinus issues for weeks, so I knew I would have to have a great day to make my goal and I did not.

Running through Canada was good.  You run right along the river and have a view of Detroit (oh, the beauty).  I was pretty impressed with the crowds considering it was before 8am!  I took my first PowerGel at mile 5.5 or so.  I opted for the Tangerine because it had caffeine and I was dragging.

At mile 6.5, we began our exit from Canada by heading away from the river and toward the entrance to the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel.  The tunnel was great, for the first half...the down half.  I felt like I was coasting and the sound of all the steps echoing around me was pretty cool.  Then came the climb back from underneath the Detroit River.  Not so fun.  It started gradually enough but like any truly grueling hill, it got steeper as it went!  By the end, I felt like I was climbing a staircase as I breezed (staggered) through Border Protection (take THAT, "what was the nature of your visit" man!).  I actually had to stop as soon as I got out of the tunnel to stretch my poor left hip flexor.  It did not know what had hit it.

Mile 9 was really cool because you come out of the tunnel in the middle of downtown Detroit and there are big crowds cheering.  It's quite fun.  If only I hadn't felt like death.  At this point, I seriously considered just letting my pace fall off to a slow shuffle.  Luckily, I was brought back from the brink just before mile 10 by none other than my brother!  Now, it wasn't a good thing that we were running into each other.  He's typically much faster than me so the fact that he was running my pace or slower meant something was very wrong.  And it was.  Apparently he felt find until about mile 7 and was running at a good pace and then his IT band said enough and that was that.  He still had the endurance to keep running, but it was excruciating.  Excruciating enough to run with little old me for the last 3 miles.

I'm a bit of a sap when it comes to running and I was so happy that Garett and I were going to finish the race together.  He stuck with me and I with him.  Around mile 12, we looked for our Uncle Steve whom we'd expected to see, but we missed him.  That was ok though, because now it was time for the homestretch.  We again headed into downtown, making one final right turn to see the finish line.  At this point, I still had no idea what my pace was, but I figured it wasn't good.  Garett gave me a pep talk and picked up his pace.  If he could do it, I could and I dug as deep as I could and finished strong.  The clock read 1:56:18 when I crossed the finish line.  The math I had waited the whole race to do somehow failed me but I was able to determine this was probably my second fastest time.  Not what I had hoped for, but not bad!

Here are some photos of all of us during the race.  Sorry for the low-res and watermark...I snagged them from the race site:

Garett and I together toward the end.

 Love the bridge in the background

  Ouch, ouch ouch!

Cheer for me!

Taylor was waiting for us at the finish line an it turned out he had done very well!  He ran the race in 1:32:15, or about 7:04 miles.  Insane!  He used a pacer and said that it really helped him.

Here's a photo of all of us at the finish.  I would TOTALLY buy this one if a download didn't coast $24.99.  SERIOUSLY?!

We grabbed some snacks, stretched, got our bags, and went to find Uncle Steve.  It turned out that we hadn't planned very well and had no idea how we were going to get back to our hotel.  Garett was limping horribly and taxis were impossible to find.  Not to mention most roads were closed anyway.  So meeting up with Uncle Steve for breakfast while the race cleared out was the perfect plan.  Here's a picture he took of the three of us just after we finished (medals donned):

And here are Garett and I with Uncle Steve:

We spotted an ancient little diner nearby (the place seriously hadn't been painted nor the tablecloths (featured below) changed in probably 35 years.  No matter, the french toast, sausage and coffee were delicious and all 4 of us ate our fill for less than $20!

After breakfast it took us a solid 45 minutes to finagle our way around, under, over and eventually through the actual race course and to our hotel.  And still, the poor souls running the full marathon were making their way to the finish line in front of our hotel:

I was so relieved not to be running the full marathon that day and very proud, along with my husband and brother, to officially be a:

So there it is, my 12th half marathon - Complete!

Here's the medal, pretty sweet!

It must be love (but hopefully not for me)

It has been way too long since I blogged!  I'm sorry for the delay!  September was a busy month with Taylor going back to school and my work picking up heading into the last quarter of the year.  However, I have been making time this past month for my newest passion: Tennis!

Back in July, Taylor and I decided one day to play some tennis, just for fun.  Well, turns out it was A LOT of fun!  From then on, all I wanted to do was play tennis!  We played almost every single day in August, including when we were out of town.  I would literally google tennis courts in the area to make sure I could play!  We played on clay courts on the shores of Lake Michigan, hard courts in Holland, Michigan, and out in Estes Park Colorado overlooking the Rocky Mountains.

I wouldn't say I have a natural skill in tennis, but I've really enjoyed working toward being better.  My forehand was pretty good right off the back, but I had to work A LOT on my backhand.  Initially, it would literally fly all over the place and almost never land in the lines.  My serve has slowly evolved to where it's not great, but it is acceptable and quite consistent.  After playing with Taylor for about 2 months, I was ready to try playing some other people.  I started just playing with a couple of friends.  Sometimes I was the better player, other times they were.  I loved playing with friends, but I found it hard to be competitive with them, so I decided to look into local leagues or ways to find opponents.  My Aunt Shari is an avid tennis player, and she suggested we join the USTA, which I did.  I'm a card-carrying member, see!

Aunt Shari mentioned that she had played in this thing called a Flex League in Florida.  Flex Leagues are where you basically are assigned to opponents online and you play with them on your own time.  I was pumped, so I looked to see if they had one in Ann Arbor and it turns out they do!!

It also turns out there was one starting THAT WEEK, so I joined!  So far, I've played two matches and I am 1-1.  The first match was a come-from-behind victory and I was really proud of it.  The second one was just a hard match.  She was better than me, and I was tired, so it did not end in my favor.  My Aunt Shari joined the league too, and we are playing our match this Saturday while we're up north for my cousin's wedding.  We'll see how it goes!

Oh and in case you're wondering what the title of this blog post means.  In tennis, when you have 0 points, your score is referred to as "love." So basically, I LOVE tennis, but I don't want my score to be LOVE.  Get it?  :)

And now here I am, debating between running and playing tennis tonight with Taylor.  I would really prefer to play tennis, but we are also running a half marathon in 2 weeks and I have to get ready.  Decisions, decisions...

Oh, one last thing.  I'm also thinking that Tennis will help me complete my "take a class in something that interests me" from my 30 before 30.  Stay tuned!

30 Before 30: Buy myself an expensive piece of jewelry

Last Week, Taylor and I spent 5 days in Estes Park, Colorado with his parents.  They spend several months each summer out there and it is such a treat to get to go.  We had a great time and in the process, I was able to check a 30 Before 30 off my list!  Here's a recap.

View from Taylor's parents place:

We got there on Wednesday night and stopped for dinner at a Thai place in Boulder.  It was delicious, but I ate WAY too much!  Thursday to be honest, I can't really remember what we did besides play a little tennis (my newest obsession) on these courts.  Check out the BEAUTIFUL view!

 

Friday was Taylor's Mom's birthday, so we took a hike:

After the hike, we had to run in to town to mail something for Taylor's mom and on the way in, we noticed that the road back to their house was closed.  We asked a cop and he said there had been a fatal accident further up the road and that we would need to hang out in Estes Park for a while.  That didn't seem so bad, and we were past the point of turning back, so we headed in to town, went to the post office, and decided our next step would be to stop in at the Estes Park Brewery.  Now, Estes Park is not known for its craft beer, and in the 10 years that it's been there, no one in Taylor's family had gone, so our expectations were not high, and it's a good thing!  The beer was decent and they offer 4 free samples when you walk in, so we can't really complain, but unfortunately, the entire atmosphere of the place was just dank, and Taylor has decided in his next live, he will buy the Estes Park Brewery and will turn it into something more like the awesome craft beer places in Michigan!  Sounds fun!

Anyway, we dawdled a little more and then were able to sweet talk our way back up the road on account of the fact that we were only going about 2 miles when the accident was about 20 miles up the road.

Later that night, we went out to dinner at Lake Mary's Lodge, which was absolutely beautiful, delicious, and fun on account of the fact that there were several rehearsal dinners and even a wedding going on while we were there.

We came home and had cake and wine and Mary Elizabeth opened her presents: A rice cooker from Taylor's older brother Alex, a Camelback and an iron skillet from his dad, and some Toms shoes from us, which she proudly sported in an almost-matching-outfit to mine a couple nights later:

On Saturday, we got up early and took a tram ride up a mountain and did a little hiking, where i was greeted by a clearly-well-socialized ground squirrel:

Then we headed back to the house, where my good friend Laura and her husband came out to stay the night.  Taylor and Michael hiked the 14,000 foot mountain in Estes Park, Longs Peak, on Saturday night/Sunday morning, so they came out Saturday afternoon to get ready.  They brought their 1-year-old son Andrew, and we had a lot of fun playing with him.

We had a spaghetti dinner (gotta carbo load before the 15-mile hike!) and the boys turned in around 9pm because they had to get up at 2:30am (you read that right) in order to be on the trail by 4am.  Basically, when hiking Longs Peak, you have to get up by 10 or 11 so that you can get down by mid-afternoon and avoid the thunderstorms that swirl around the summit daily.

It turned out that 3 of Michael's friends had also decided to do the climb, so we swung by to pick them up on our way to the trailhead (I drove them, but did not climb).  They were a teensy weensy bit un-prepared in taht they were wearing shorts, had very little water, and seemed like they had been out partying the night before.  I wasn't sure they'd make it!  Here's a group photo before the start.

 After the hike started, I didn't really hear from them again for most of the day, but Taylor did take some good photos:

Apparently there was a detout to this beautiful lake:

 Marmot:

Unfortunately, they could not summit the mountain due to 1) the aforementioned unprepared hikers and 2) the fact that Taylor was sick!  Too bad, because it was a perfect day, but now we have an excuse to go back and hopefully I can join them!

While the boys were hiking Longs Peak, Laura and I went for a nice hike with Andrew at Lily Lake:



Sunday night we went to a delicious Nepalese place in Estes Park and then went shopping and bought Taylor a Longs Peak shirt.   We also came across this image on a T-shirt, which appears to show Nashville driving home a drunk cowboy:

 Seriously, that dog looks so much like Nash!

On Monday, we did our traditional drive up to the Alpine Visitor Center, which is in Rocky National Park at 12,000 feet.  It's a beautiful drive where you always see elk and sometimes even a moose!

We decided to take an old, dirt road instead of the usual Trail Ridge Road up the mountain.  It was very fun, but I was so scared the whole time that we would go tumbling (in our car) over a rocky outcropping.  Ridiculous, I know, but Taylor's parents car is a huge Ford Expedition and you can't see the ground outside the vehicle sometimes, so it's scary!

Here I am shooting a Nike commercial on the mountain:


And here's where we finally get to the 30 Before 30 part.  In the Alpine Visitor's Center, there's a gift shop full of touristy stuff, but then they also have this one section of nice jewelry either made in the park or by local Native Americans.  It's mostly silver, turquoise, etc.  I had been keeping my eye out for a turquoise necklace, and I know you can get them relatively cheap, but I figured if they had a nice one there, maybe I would spring for it.

So, I looked around and didn't really see anything, ignoring a more rag-tag cabinet off to the right. When I had looked at pretty much everything else, I walked over to the cabinet I had been ignoring.  The reason it looked so random was because it was full of pawned jewelry.  At first I didn't see anything I liked, but after a minute I zeroed in on a shorter turquoise necklace and asked to take it out.  As soon as I held it, I knew I wanted it.  You could tell it was high quality, and it had a magnetic closure, which makes it really easy to wear.  Here's a photo of the necklace and the info about pawn jewelry:

So that was it!  I wanted it!  I bought it!  It was "expensive" by my standards, though by no means exorbitant.  I really like it.  So much so taht I went outside and immediately modeled it for Taylor over the mountains:

Monday night was our last night in Estes Park.  We watched a beautiful sunset before packing up to leave.  Until next time!

A wonderful weekend "Up North"

If you live in Michigan, the phrase "up north" means a lot more than just "stuff in a northerly direction."  It is a lifestyle in the summer full of boats, lakes, rivers, campfires, beer, cards, and questionable personal hygiene.  Think Kid Rock's All Summer Long, but minus the confederate flag bikinis and Alabama/Werewolves of London rips, and you have "Up North".

Well, after almost a whole summer in Michigan, Taylor and I had still not managed to make it Up North.  Between him traveling Monday through Thursday and Nashville having puppy class every Saturday, we were booked through the end of July.  But on August 3, Taylor completed his internship (with a job offer, yay!) and we hit the road almost immediately, with pup in tow.

The first right of passage was Up North traffic.  Being a typical northeasterner, Taylor immediately likened it to "Jersey Shore Traffic."  Luckily, Michigan just can't muster the pure terror and sheer volume of traffic that the New York Metropolitan area can, so the traffic really only delayed us by 15-20 minutes (Ha!).

We made great time and arrived Up North at around 9:30pm just in time to meet my parents and our good friends Carole and Randy at Elk Rapids' Harbor Days.  I expected this to be a water-based festival of some sort, and was promised beer.  What we got was a hot, inland beer tent with Busch light only.  The saving grace was that the cover band, The Bronk Bros, was actually really good.  I was the DD, so I didn't drink much and we headed  to our cabin about 30 miles away around 11:30.  My parents and Carole and Randy actually headed back then, too, but they had taken the boat to the festival and actually ended up taking almost 3 hours to get back to the cabin.  So we had time to get settled with the dog and nod off to sleep before they came back around 2:30am.

After a short night sleep, we woke up early to the morning light causing Nashville noticing the caribou and deer hanging all around our cabin.  He began FREAKING OUT as he realized he was being watched by a variety of wild animals, but have no fear, mom was able to save him from the caribou by placing a blanket over his crate so he couldn't see them (magic!).

We got up and Taylor and I decided to go play tennis and take Nashville for a swim in Lake Charlevoix, which is right down the street from our cabin.  We found a nice isolated corner of the beach where Nash could chase the tennis ball in crystal clear water.  After that, we played tennis for about an hour until my parents called to have us come meet them all for breakfast.

After breakfast, Carole and Randy packed up to head out and mom, dad, Taylor and I headed out for a beautiful day on the lakes of Northern Michigan.  We put in in Lake Bellaire, then took the boat through the beautiful Grass River, which is a very shallow river with grass reeds and small houses dotting it.  You have to go very slow because it is so shallow, so it's very relaxing.

After the Grass River, we arrived in Torch Lake, which is one of the most beautiful freshwater lakes in Michigan.  It's water are crystal blue, primarily because it is so deep (250+ ft) and has a sandy, rather than a muddy, bottom.  Here's Taylor and I in the water: 

We spent some time on Torch Lake until the weather headed south, then we went back to where we put in via the Grass River.  I napped on the front of the boat the whole way back.  After we took the boat out, we headed to the town of Bellaire, where we were delighted to learn was the site of Short's Brewering Company's Brewpub.  We had some delicious beer and sandwiches before heading back to the cabin in East Jordan for a campfire (complete with S'mores!)!

On Sunday, my parents were heading back down to Ohio, so Taylor and I made plans to go to the Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore, a beautiful part of Northern Michigan that we had both heard a lot about but hadn't gotten to see.  Basically, there are acres and acres of beautiful sand dunes plunging into Lake Michigan and the water of the lake is shallow, warm, and crystal blue.  I was lucky enough to find a pet-friendly room at The Homestead, a beautiful "Freshwater Resort" on Sleeping Bear.

After helping my parents pack up at the cabin, we headed to sleeping bears and went straight to the visitor center.  Their top recommendations were the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive and the Dune Climb, so we headed out to do both immediately.

The Scenic Drive had 10 or so pullouts and areas where you could see nice views of the dunes and surrounding areas.  Here are some highlights:

Nash and I overlooking Glen Lake, a beautiful blue lake:

We did a 1.5 mile hike on the Cottonwood Trail:

Nash and Taylor ran up a little dune, here they are victorious:

And tired...

The next stop was this place where a dune plunges 400 feet at a very steep degree into Lake Michigan:

Nash checking out the view:


Those little dots are people climbing back up, that's how big it is!

Family Photo Op!

Then we went to the dune climb.  It looks like just a little sand hill, but when you get up close, the .25 mile, 137 foot ascent is KILLER!  I only made it 1/3 of the way.  Taylor made it about halfway.

After all of our fun dune exploration, we we checked in at the hotel, which was so beautiful!  We made dinner reservations at the fancy Italian restaurant at the resort and decided to catch the sunset before going to dinner.  The resort sits on the east shore of Lake Michigan and therefore has beautiful sunset views.  We also had a bottle of the white wine we bought for our wedding and we drank it while watching the beautiful sight:

Pup at sunset:

Our fellow onlookers:

We had a fantastic dinner complete with wine and desert before heading back to our room.  The pup was quite tired:

The next morning, we got up bright and early and played tennis at the beautiful clay courts overlooking Lake Michigan:

After tennis, we took the pup to the beach so he could swim in Lake Michigan: 

It was his first experience with waves...

Finally, we cleaned up and grabbed lunch at the lakeside cafe, where I also snapped this great photo of the resort pool which overlooks the lake as well.

Lunch spot: