girls’ dinner immediately upon arrival = must

Just a regularly scheduled trip home, “conveniently” sandwiched around Cleveland Marathon weekend. I’m running…

the 10k.

Sure, the “OMG MUST BOSTON QUALIFY NOOOOOW” hype had me considering a cram-sesh to run the full, but the odds of me finishing it 1) injury-free 2) fast enough and 3) without wanting to murder myself weren’t very favorable. If there’s anything I’ve learned over the seven marathons I’ve run it’s to respect the distance. Sure, some people can roll out of bed and drop a 3:30 NBD, but (obviously) I’m not one of them. When it’s time to really put down that BQ attempt I want to make sure I toe the line having done the prep right – all the work, sweat, tears, and “seriously I hate love hate love running” a goal race deserves.

Plus I’m pretty excited to check another race off the CLE list. Looks like next year I have to come back for the 5k (or borrow someone’s child for the kids’ run.)

So if you’re in CLE this weekend half or full’ing it and want a cheerleader let me know. I’ll have my cowbell ready for you. Unless I die trying to sprint 6.2 miles. Then you can all fight over my Nuun stash.

Why didn’t anybody tell me “OMG 10Ks are THE WORST!!!” when I signed up??

Oh and on that note next weekend I’ll be heading back out to Ojai… to run the half. Yes yes YES I wanted redemption on that course, but alas, see above.

Happy weekend!

Sarah OUaL

Anyway, after a healthy breakfast and long hike through Laguna Canyon we came back to the house and Bob declared it the “perfect day for a margarita!” followed by, “can we go out to the beach? do you have a frisbee we can throw? wanna play catch? watch me do a handstand!”

boys being boys, fueled by nuun and tequila

It was the PERFECT opportunity to bust out the Nuunarita recipe, which got two big thumbs (& a frisbee and baseball mitt) from Mr Activity.

And with that the inspiration to test out the liquorability of the new Nuun flavors was born…

cherry limeade, lemonade, watermelon

The next day I employed Kristina as my sous chef – for second opinion tasting, note-taking, and because she had a bunch of awesome mixers and snacks. No mixology experiment is safe without the aid of salty carbs.

You can quote me on that.

hard at work emptying bottles

We came up with a couple SOLID winners, perfect for summertime. There were a few more after these but we stopped taking pictures or measuring anything and truth be told a glass of lukewarm bathwater would’ve been fine with a heavy-enough pour of vodka in it at that point.

So here you are. A few new nuuntail/ nuuntini/ “low-guilt except maybe what you do after them” cocktail recipes.

Watermelon Nuun Daiquiri

Mix a strong batch of watermelon nuun and freeze in an icecube tray. (Shoulda stuck popsicle sticks in a few – maybe next time.) Crush by hitting the shit out of them inside a ziplock with the back of a wooden spoon. I’m sure the neighbors were seconds from calling the cops, especially when paired with the maniacal giggling coming from K and I. Dice up some fresh watermelon, about an even amount as the nuun cubes, and combine in blender with a heavy shot of rum.

Add an umbrella and a Kenny Chesney song for optimal effects.

Lemonade Nuun Sunrise

One lemonade tab in ~6oz water (that’s less than half a pint glass), splash of an orange-y juice (we used mango tango naked), and a two-count pour of tequila. Stir, add ice. Slowly pour a little grenadine down the side so it sinks to the bottom and looks really fancy. If you drink carefully it’ll stay there and you can dump it out because aint nobody got time for weird syrupy stuff when there’s tequila to be had instead.

Cherry Limeade Chaser

(no photo because it’s a tab in plain old water and I’m confident you don’t need visual help to make that happen)

When the daytime boozing kicks in and naptime sounds better than rallying to meet your friends out, take a cherry limeade shot. The caffeine (as much as a cup of coffee, I think) will give you a boost for round two and c’mon you know you’re supposed to be putting back a non-alcoholic bev between drinks anyway. We’re not 19 21 anymore…

(or maybe you are, in which case, enjoy it while you can bitches.)

Sarah OUaL

I was not compensated for this post and no one even offered to come over and make breakfast for my slightly-hungover self the next day. But the good news is I was the most hydrated hungover ever!

Margot! Remember the first time we ran together? I’m surprised you came back.

But slowly, mostly out of desperation to make friends when we moved to CA, I came out of it. Somehow it became easier to talk mid-stride, and falling into a universally-approved pace became second nature. I started really enjoying running with people.

Anyway, there’s been a lot of talk lately about in-race company and pacers. Susan just ran her friend’s first marathon with her, and there was Super Pacer Mason who pushed no less than 7 different people through parts of the Eugene course.

I didn’t mean to get wrapped up in the hype, but this weekend I got a taste of the pacer game at the OC Marathon. Accidentally. And MAN, who knew it was so complicated??!

SkinnyRunner and Kristina were being marathon bosses and running the marathon “for fun” after both crushing Eugene last week, and I decided to fix my long run into the course since their “easy pace” = “a pace I can almost-sort-of-barely hang on to”

After an hour I got bored of them needed a break. I stopped to wait for Monica who was just a few minutes back when Nicole ran by and said my name. We’d met at Eugene, where she’d been gunning for a BQ but ended up having to pull out early (her story HERE).

from Nicole’s recap – fitnessfatale

We were around mile 18 and although she looked good that’s always a scary place in the race.

“Want some company?”

“LET ME DRAFT OFF YOU”

Aint nobody got time for extra words at mile 18. I’ll let her tell the runner’s side (HERE), but I’ve got some thoughts from the impromptu “pacer” point of view.

Thoughts From a Pacer’s First Date

1) It is a very helpless feeling not knowing how to help. I wanted to ask a million questions – ‘is this pace ok? do you want me to run in front or beside? do you want me to tell you a story? do you need anything?’ – but that is a) annoying and b) bad for energy management.

Had I ever run with Nicole – hell maybe talked to her more than twice – it would’ve been a little easier to sense what she wanted or needed, but god damn those miles were the most stressful ever! Pacing is tough shit.

2) I’ve come up with four different approaches towards the pacer/run buddy. It’s hard to tell how your runner will respond if you haven’t tried them out, like a fart joke on a first date. Ideally you’ll have some experience together to get an idea, but remember no one can fully predict how their brain will react in the pain cave. So if your angry little mile 20 friend isn’t responding to your pom pom cheers, maybe try one of the others :

• Distraction

This is the “just talk to me, tell me a story, read the phone book, recite the pledge of allegiance just for fuck’s sake take my mind off this pain” approach. Likely nothing is actually being processed so feel free to ramble nonsense or deep dark secrets – just make noise.

Pam and I with SR at her 50K last year – the machine doesn’t NEED help but said the company made it more fun

• Sherpa

The take-away-all-of-the-thinking approach. Let them run like that hot football player no one knew how they got into college – all body, no brains.

Mason providing course intel and of course hydration support while my brain vacationed

• Affirmation

Your runner is a self-conscious headcase and needs reassured they CAN hold this pace, they CAN finish, they ARE NOT going to die? Or they’re announcing their permanent separation from running due to irreconcilable differences and needs reminded why they’re putting themselves through this ridiculous self-inflicted torture? Remind them of the training that got them here – that they are prepared, capable, and damned if they throw away all those early Saturday wake up calls to quit with 10k to go. Maybe add a little pat on the butt for good measure.

K delirious at mile 25.9 

• Tough Love

It’s “suck it up, buttercup” time. No really. Move your ass, don’t you dare let this person pass you, there’s no crying in running. They might hate you at the time, but they’ll thank you later.

Eventually.

SR giving Monica a little cattle prod to a huge PR at the OC Marathon

Keep this in mind next time you agree to jump into a run or race with a new friend. And trust me, you’ll get to see a real rough side of your friend in those late miles.

Brace yourself.

Sarah OUaL

An homage to everyone/thing that made HugeEug Part 2 everything I dreamt it’d be (& much much more)…

• These Girls; for being the easiest-to-get-along-with roommates equally dedicated to running hard and celebrating hard – and for falling asleep after me if any of you snore

kelli, robyn, sad kristina, me, meghan, sweaty

• Oiselle; for making this group of strangers feel like sisters, and supporting our sport so whole-heartedly

sophia getting a mile 9 five, lots of birds at Ninkasi post-race celebratin’ (source, source)

• (related) Oiselle Cheer Squad; for brightening up the hardest parts of the course with your endless energy – teammates, friends-of-friends, and anyone with an easy-to-read name on their bib “yeah, Joe! go orange shorts!” 

mile 16 – bubbles, cowbells, chicken hats, (unpictured) banana suit – (source)

• Em & Meghan; for your inspirational pints & planks performances, and for cheering your absolute hearts out even though I know both of you would’ve KILLED to have traded your cowbells for timing chips

yes, we ARE all impressed with the sideplank cowbell (source, source)

• Pro Compression; for letting me hang out in the booth a while and for making the perfect orange sock to match my singlet

code “BLG13″ for 40% off  + free s/h on any marathon sock or sleeve

• Every person that said hi (or shouted during the race), for being so nice and making feel super cool. Also thanks for not making fun of how I sound in person. Loved putting so many @____’s with faces and hearing race reports instead of reading them! Oh and sorry to grey-shirt-girl-at-mile-16, who I yelled “I told you NOT to wear that shirt!” at… I hope you had a great race!

thanks for taking our picture, courtney <– new BQ’er, btw

• Nuun; for hydrating so many runners/cheerers/boozers to all-around PR-caliber weekends

if it’s good enough for a 3:17 marathoner, it’s good enough for me (tell K you want a guest post about her race!)

• (related) Mason; for another year of perfectly executed and SERIOUSLY HOW WERE YOU IN ALL OF THOSE PLACES AT ONCE magical pacing duties for so many. I suspect you’re already getting requests for 2014…

with Molly at mile 16 en route to a killer PR (source)

• The Internet; for “introducing” so many rad people, and for making this group shakeout run on Pre’s Trail happen (& Robyn the former native for guiding us bc I fa shur would’ve gotten us lost)

Pre’s Trail with new running friends – can this be every Saturday, please!? (source)

• (related) House 2; for hosting the pre-race carb fest

Corey, Steph, Molly, Laura, Holly, and Allison

• Lauren Fleshman; for being an inspiration to women and runners everywhere, and taking the Oiselle “boob heat” off me for a sec.

she has like, national records, and stuff. and a baby growing inside of her. and obvs I think we’re BFFs now. oiselle bio

• Meggie & Jocelyn; for being the funniest little glitter tattoo Mary Kate & Ashley twins and providing endless entertainment

Or as that guy on the course says – “Thank you for being YOU!” (cc: Holly and Monica)

• Picky Bars; for the awesome post race party and not unsubscribing my club membership after spilling IPA all over your tablecloth.   * p.s. The new flavor is coming! Success! Pre-order/back HERE if you want some

Steph you’re so cute and no that’s not the speed goggles talking (source)

• ALL OF THE OREGON BREWERIES; for providing so many delicious liquid carbs, the premium fuel in which OUaL runs best on

some of the Day 1 haul

• (related, sort of) The VooDoo Donut worker, for “donating” that late night we’re-lost-trying-to-find-our-car-but-hey!-here’s-voodoo!-let’s-go-in! snack when I didn’t know it was cash only and only had card

whatever it was you let my no-cash-carrying mouth have was delicious (source)

• Verizon; for honoring an early upgrade so I can replace my nuun-soaked dead iphone

until then ol’ Flippy and I are getting our T9word on

• My Photo Memory (ok, w Mason’s help); for memorizing the course map and clocking 13.09 miles garmin distance (NO I’m not claiming the course was “short”, I’m claiming I ran fucking awesome tangents)

• And the biggest ‘thank you’ to Kristina; for being the best training partner, travel buddy, and friend. Running that last 1/4 mi with you into the chute was probably the best part of my weekend. I’m so proud of you and can’t wait to see what you do now that you actually know how damn fast you are. And I’m tearing up again…

(source, source, source)

And thank you everyone from HugeEug, for unknowingly letting me steal all of these photos.

Have a nice weekend – good luck to everyone racing, long running, cinco de mayo’ing, whatever!

Sarah OUaL

Which is a cool problem to have, but I’m grateful to finally have had some quiet time to sit down and uninterruptedly hash it all out. Every split, every gut feeling, every overcome negative thought. It was easily my best race EVER and deserves some selfish time in the forefront. At least to me.

(and you, bc you’re here and obvs I’m going to word vomit every detail for you)

Here we go – The Half PR Tale, aka HugeEug Part II…

Oiselle, Nuun, and general Internet friends making race weekend FUCKING AWESOME since 2013 (jocelyn’s pic)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1:38.

That was my original time goal when I began training for the Eugene Half. And this is the first time I’m publicly admitting it.

Half-way through my 12 week cycle things started falling apart – I wasn’t seeing the gains I wanted and my paces were no where near what McMillan prescribes for that goal time. I gutted out the rest of training but rescinded to the fact Eugene wouldn’t be that “Run To The Absolute Best of Your Ability” race I wanted.

So when race week came I adjusted my goals and said all I wanted was to run to my best ability on THAT day. To cross the finish feeling I gave it all I had. If I could run strong mentally and overcome the mid-race self-doubt and unwillingness to hang out in the pain place that’s plagued me before, I’d be one step closer to getting to that 1:3x territory someday down the road.

Bum Wrap & Pros solidified as official OUaL race uniform

I settled into the corral between the 1:40-1:45 pace groups and listened to words by Steph Rothstein-Bruce and Craig Leon, two top US finishers at Boston this year. As the national anthem played I felt the perfect mix of nervous energy and calm confidence, and knew it could be a great day if I kept that balance and didn’t get in my own damn way.

The gun went off, “Sweet Caroline” poured through the speakers, and we crossed the start.

emily’s pic

I kept my eyes off my watch at the start, trying to run on feel until we leveled out and I could lock in to something. I really didn’t want Garmin dictating my run, but running without my usual constant monitoring terrified me that I’d either run a) way too fast and crash and burn or b) too leisurely and have too much in the tank at the end.

7:32, 7:26

The next few miles were a blur of trying to find that perfect “uncomfortably manageable” pace. My breath was controlled but my legs were already feeling the work of the hills and long slight incline. I tried not to let the idea of burning for 10 more miles scare me into slowing down.

Focusing on rhythm and feel instead of numbers worked shockingly (?) well. Each split beeped right around PR pace (7:45), and the consistency I was running at without watch-stalking was super satisfying. Like I finally just let my legs do their thing instead of robotically forcing it, and they performed way above expectation. Crazy.

7:40, 7:43, 7:43, 7:34, 7:44, 7:42

At mile 8 “The Hill” came into sight. I took water from the station (volunteers were stellar, btw) and got ready to put my head down and just go.

But then I heard a yell for my name, and déjà vu to Nuun Kim last year, SkinnyRunner’s mom was there yelling her face off, and then Mason was running next to me telling me to pick up my knees and asking if I’d been hydrating (obviously).

Hearing updates on my friends (he was on super pacer duties for like 10 people) gave me a boost, just in time for the Oiselle cheer force at mile 9. Cowbells, chicken hats, and banana suits are a great distraction from the fact we were running away from the finish line, btw.

Abby, Lauren, Becky, JJ, Meghan, KMet, Sweaty

sweaty’s caption : “see, she DOES love running!’

As we ran out towards the river the feeling in my legs turned from “working hard, muscles!” to “rapidly filling with lead, don’t want to move!” I worried I’d blown it by going out too fast and feared the looming wall that was surely just around the corner.

The thought of backing off to keep the pain at a distance crept in – without an actual goal time it seemed so tempting to turn away from it…

“will you look back at this point and regret it? when you write your recap do you want to admit to everyone you gave in?!”

I thought about the 10 miles of hard work I’d be throwing away, how I said I was going to give EVERYTHING, how the beer would taste better if I kept pushing, and committed to the rest of the race.

Still avoiding Garmin, I focused on just letting the effort feel a little bit harder – I knew I had to keep control a few more miles before really getting into the pain place.

7:49, 7:48, 7:54

“Strong and smooth. Strong and smooth.”

When two miles to go hit, I didn’t care about anything other than gassing out what was left. We were running the gorgeous tree-covered river path and the weather was perfect. There were enough people around to chase but not too many to feel cramped. I let my breath shorten and focused on lifting my knees and pushing off.

“Strong and smooth.”

It hurt. I didn’t think I could hold it. I thought again about giving in, and that for sure I was either going to puke or shit my bum wrap.

7:46

But we hit the bridge with one mile to go – crossing the water back towards campus in a very poignant “homestretch” way. I burned holes in the shirt backs in front of me, desperately trying not to let them pull away. We turned past our shakeout run spot, onto Agate, and up the cruel final hill, the sounds of the crowds at the top pulling me up.

Thanks, KMet… (photo cred Oiselle)

We crested and the Oiselles were there – their excitement cuing my first proud/happy feelings (expression attempt in above photo gets a B for effort). My legs were completely shot and I felt like I was barely moving. The final 1/2 mile to Hayward felt like a fucking eternity and I don’t think I’ve ever been passed by more people at the end of a race, but there was just nothing left to kick with.

7:41, :42s (7:30 avg)

Finally we turned into Hayward, the stands packed and the announcer calling out names, and all I could focus on was picking up my feet enough to not trip and face plant on the Tracktown USA oval where so many world-class athletes have been.

And nearly a minute faster than I ever have, I crossed a 13.1 finish line, with a “hand over heart for Boston.”

… and then collapsed into a volunteer and was put in a wheelchair. For like, a tiny amount of time. Just enough to stop the world from spinning and be able to say (/remember?) my name and where I’m from.

Which I guess validates the “finish on empty” goal?

Eugene Half Marathon, 4.28.13   -   1:40.45 (*New PR)

Almost even more than the race and PR, I’m proud of myself for not letting that original 1:38 goal overshadow my accomplishment this weekend. I set out to run the very best race I was capable of that day, and that’s exactly what I freaking did.

BOOYAH.

More on race weekend (lots of friends to brag about), the magical city of Eugene, and shenanigans soon. All with stolen pictures since my phone went the way of that old PR – RIP to both of you.

Sarah OUaL

extra thanks to Pro for sponsoring me – is this what I’m supposed to say? disclosure and stuff? anyway BLG13 is good for 40% off and free s/h!