Fit Chick Britt

First thing here, I finally FINALLY got a good marathon finisher photo except what is that big glop- sweat? snot? smack in the middle of my forehead?! Brightroom you are no better than Raceshots.

Second thing, Being the math nerd I am I love the marathon finish stats the Houston Marathon provides. Way. too. cool.

I felt like I was moving like molasses the last few miles, but I guess I wasn’t doing so bad.

and just for kicks….

Lastly, I owe a big big big thank you to Rachael. Rachael I don’t think I would have even made it through marathon training without you. You always seemed to be there for me when I needed someone to run with or complain about training to. I’m so glad we got to experience most of the marathon together YOU ARE THE BEST!!

That’s all I got! Goodnight,

Marathon #2 in the books!

I’d say that’s a success.

I woke up Saturday morning to no alarm clock. I really debated going downtown early to watch Meb and Shalane kill it in the time trials, but I decided it’d be in my best interest to not make an early 45-minute trek downtown, sleep in, and walk as little as possible the day before the marathon.

Rachael and I headed to the expo around 10 am and picked up our packets and some goodies. By goodies I mean ridiculously expensive headbands. Oh and Rachael’s 26.2 sticker

We had lunch at Panera Bread and chatted about how nervous/excited we were about the marathon. I don’t really recall what I did for the rest of Saturday besides finalize my marathon playlist on my iPod and make homemade pizza (my go-to pre race dinner).

Surprisingly I slept really well Saturday night. I almost forgot I was running a marathon until all my alarms when off at 4:15. I was so paranoid about waking up on time I set 3 alarms, anyone else do that?

I had no problems waking up due to my excitement and race-day adrenaline. I had my usual coffee, PB toast, and put on my carefully picked out race outfit.

I arrived at the George R. Brown at about 5:45 and promptly found Rachael. We checked our bags, found the port-a-potties, and headed to our corral. We ended up being able to line up at the very front of corral 2 which worked out in our favor. The weather was perfect and I was able to ditch my throw away sweats and gloves before the race even started.

Everything went by in a blur and before we knew it the National Anthem was sung, the gun went off, and it was our corrals turn to go.

Pre-race Rachael and I had a race plan to try to maintain an 8:30 pace for the first 6 miles and see if we could increase our pace from there. I was all smiles (except for a slight mishap with the race course being mismarked and runners being unsure where to go) for the first few miles as the realization that I was finally here running the marathon I trained for for the last several months.

With some weaving and a few elbows here and there we were able to maintain an 8:30 pace for the first 6 miles pretty painlessly. My garmin was being kind of weird placing my pace all over the place from 7:45-9:30/mile, but at each mile marker I could gauge we were on target with pace. At mile 4 I spotted my Hubby which was a nice surprise I wasn’t expecting until mile 6.

Miles just ticked by so quickly and I, pretty rapidly, determined I was feeling awesome (must have been the iPod playlist). I kept feeling myself speed up from miles 10-on once the half marathons had split from the full and just went with it. Rachael and I trucked along listening to our iPods (I’m probably the worst running companion as I made no conversation and didn’t want waste my energy talking- Sorry Rachael!).

The half mark came up pretty quick in around 1:50:27. Close to my PR-Woo!.  I saw hubby again at mile 14 and the worst hill of the course came (not many hills in Houston)which was pretty challenging. Once I passed that point I was still feeling great. I kept trekking along. Around mile 15 Rachael and I started getting a little farther apart and eventually we split up.

I was still feeling awesome through miles 16, 17 and 18. I was taking fuel (clif shot gels) every 4 miles and a cup of water from every aid station.

Around mile 19 the distance started to hit me. There were all of these random signs (I think they were advertisements for some supplements?) along the course that said “Welcome to the Wall” and “Are you Tired” which psychologically made me realize, um yes I was tired. I started to struggle to keep my pace up and mile 19 I slowed down to an 8:40 pace. I realized I was hot and tired around mile 20 and started to bargain with myself that I could certainly finish a 10k in 55 minutes (that seemed like an eternity). My stomach starting rejecting the sports gels after mile 16’s gel, and I grabbed some frozen grapes from a spectator at mile 20. Best. Thing. Ever.

Mile 20 is the part of the course where you start to see people fall apart. People begin to walk and cramp up and things can get scary. I told myself there was no way I was going to walk. My quads knees, ankles, toes, everything just didn’t want to move. I focused on just keeping a 9:00/mile pace and looked forward to seeing my Mother and Father in law waiting for me at mile 22. Let me tell you, seeing them was a boost I really really needed. Thank you guys for coming out to support me! Having family along the course is so encouraging and truly motivates you to keep going. 

Someone handed me a bottle of water around mile 23 which was such a blessing (bless you whoever you are). I kept my 9 minute pace and at this point was just ready to be done.

I started thinking about all the people from home, friends, and family that had been cheering for me through Facebook, text messages, phones calls, and twitter and I used them as encouragement to not budge from my pace. I never walked once.

Once I hit mile 25 and started to see the buildings of downtown approaching I started to get excited. Marathon #2- you are mine! I tried to pick up the pace but my legs felt like molasses from holding such a quick pace (for me) for the first 20 miles (8:25). I sure felt like I was sprinting.

Making that left turn to face the finish line was just as exciting as the first time. In the final stretch I couldn’t see him, but I could hear my hubby yelling my name. I felt so accomplished and so relieved approaching that finish line. All that hard work: tempo runs, stress,  long runs, blood, sweat, tears, races that had disappointed me in the past, were behind me. No matter how hard it got approaching that finish line I never ever gave up.

My final finishing time was 3:45:56! I beat my first marathon time by nearly 9 minutes. I left feeling like I couldn’t wait to run another marathon and motivated to improve my time even more!

Thanks for listening to my lengthy recap and thank you all of you who read my blog who always provide me with encouraging words of support and advice. You are all greatly appreciated and I don’t think I’d be as motivated without your support.

Hey Friends!! I hope you have been enjoying the last month and the holiday season that comes with it! I had a wonderful Christmas spending time with family and friends. Between hubby and I we have a lot of family. We made the rounds Christmas Eve and Christmas day and by the third Christmas meal I was ready to put my stretchy pants footie pajamas on.

Yes…. I got fiesta ware AND footie pajamas for Christmas….

Another wonderful thing I enjoy about the holiday season is that several of my friends whom live out of state are in town. We did our annual Christmas cookie exchange party, painted cute Christmas pictures at Painting With a Twist, and had fun salsa dancing while ringing in the new year.

While I love the holidays, this weekend is one of my favorite weekends of the year. It’s the first weekend in a long time where there are no plans and no places to be. We get to relax and wind down and get everything back in order. Lord knows my house is screaming for some attention and I slept a near 10 hours last night! It was glorious.

I have a great recipe for you this morning! Healthy banana muffins that contain no oil and no  butter. And you know what that means?

There’s room for chocolate

and of course black bananas are the best for healthy baking. My in-laws think I’m crazy for always wanting to take home their old bananas.

Here what you’ll need:

• 2 ripe bananas
• 3/4 cup old fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking soda

FitChickBritt Eat Well Tip: For an even healthier muffin simply omit the chocolate chips or substitute with orange zest or walnuts for extra flavor.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease or line 12 muffin cups. In a medium bowl, mash bananas well. Combine eggs and bananas. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt, sugar and baking soda. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups. Fill about 3/4’s of the muffin cup with mixture. Bake in oven for 11 to 13 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Enjoy!

Hope you are having a relaxing weekend like me. Tell me one thing you did this holiday season!

What do you want first? The good? or the bad? Let’s start with the bad so we can end on a positive note.

The Bad

• The trek to San Antonio started with sitting in an hour of traffic before we even made it out of Houston. Fun.
• I’d been stalking the weather all week and I was not happy about it. 100% humidity and70-degrees at the start of the race with the temperatures rising in the 80’s. It was as  bad as I pictured it being. Maybe worse. Have I told y’all how much I HATE running the humidity? I’d pick the dreadmill over humidity no contest.
• 
• Hills- oh the hills. Houston is FLAT. San Antonio- not so much. I have done zero hill training and I was expecting this “flat and fast” course the race site had bragged about. There were steady climbs throughout and a killer overpass at mile 13. That was just mean.
• I hated every single step of this race except for the one to get back in the car to go home. I went into the race with a less than thrilled attitude. The corrals were crowded and people were very pushy. I felt the way the start and finish were set up was sort of chaotic and kind of not worth all the hassle of “just running the half.”
• 
• The course was kind of boring. We went through a bunch of neighborhoods and downtown buildings and in and around some overpasses. However, apparently, according to the race video I was sent, we ran past the Alamo. How did I miss that?

The Good

• I carb loaded the night before with Rachael and our Hubby’s. We went to a place that Hubby had seen on man vs. food that had crazy-huge 42’ pizzas. We all split a 20” and couldn’t finish it.

• Despite the fact that my mind wasn’t in the right place I was actually able to convince myself to push it. It is strange how I view a half marathon as more of a “go all out” race and feel like I can try to push my pace pretty hard. Thanks to marathon training 13 miles doesn’t seem all that far anymore  
• I originally signed up to run the full marathon but a month or two ago I decided I would just run the half because I didn’t want to run two marathons that close together and I want to do really well at Houston. I spent the entire race congratulating myself for making the best decision by not running the full marathon in those weather conditions. (Sorry Tara)
• The crowd support was great. The people of San Antonio really came out to support the runners. The funniest spectator sign of the day I saw said, “Try not to suck.”

• The finish line was very organized. Plenty of volunteers, getting in an out of the food lines was quick and easy, and we were given glorious cold towels.
• I left the race with a shiny new PR by 5-minutes. PR’s are always good I beat my primary goal of finishing in under 1:50. My official time was 1:49:32.