Half Marathon #1 in the books!

Whew! One down, more to come. After a long harsh winter, spring made herself known April 6 and in perfect timing. Newmarket NH was a great little town to experience my first half marathon. I got there early and met a few new friends, one woman who had just run a half marathon the day before and was there to run the 5k. The course went through the great brick building lined main street and out into local neighborhoods before winding through the forest on a hard packed dirt road. The last couple miles involve a heartbreaking (for me) out and back to a subdivision on a peninsula. From there you start back into the main street area, which is just in sight when the volunteers direct you to the right for a small detour and another hill! Once up that last hill (last of many, did I mention that?) it's all downhill to the finish line. At this point I turned to the runner next to me who was kicking it up a notch and said "Nice work, finish strong!" to which he replied "Together?". I nodded and tried to keep pace as we sprinted for the finish, unfortunately this sprint began about 300 meters out and I just didn't have it in me to stay with him so I cheered him on as he sprinted down to the line. We shared a high five and a smile at the end, it was a great day.

At mile 11 I wanted to quit. My lower back was killing me and my legs felt like dead weight. If I came around a bend to another incline, regardless the size, I was cursing in my head. I find it nearly impossible to believe my pace at the end was the same at the beginning but it was. I was able to average 9:07/ miles and finished in 2:02:39. I had secretly been hoping against hope that I could pull it off in 2:00. Then, on the bus ride in the woman in the seat ahead of me replied "oh, it's hilly" when I inquired about the course. At that point I adjusted my goal to 2:20 so I was quite thrilled with my finish.

I had a wonderful time at this race, it was well organized and everyone was courteous and friendly.  There were musicians throughout the course, even a banjo player playing a tune and hula-hooping simultaneously. There was a yard full of red-solo-cup bearing folks cheering us on and such great support throughout the whole race. Best signs? "Keep Going! Keep Going! (That's what she said)" sitting next to "Good Job Random Stranger!". Great day. 

At the Finish Line in 2:02:39   

The Route   

2 months till Ragnar, 2 weeks till Great Bay 1/2 Marathon

The Amity Island Running Club is in full swing! No, not training and doing speed work. We're deciding on logos, what shirts we want and if we order koozies or not. I think we go for the koozies.

I got away from 2-3 milers last week and cranked out a couple 4 mile jaunts. It's starting to feel good to get going a little bit further and although I'm nervous, I am feeling good about the Great Bay 1/2 Marathon next month. 

Hockey is winding down, 4 skates left till the rink closes. After that my running will probably be bumped from 2-3x a week to 3-4x a week with strength training worked in. Having the extra daylight is so refreshing and invigorating! 

I managed to get in a 6 mile run Sunday, the weather was beautiful and I am really enjoying adding to my go-to loop. I've been using Running Map to get an idea of miles and really like the fact that they let you do a hybrid map, showing the satellite view with the roads. I've been using the Old Dump loop (3.75 miles) as a base and adding on to each end. I've noticed, thanks to RunKeeper and listening my own body, that I actually tend to speed up towards the end of my run. It just goes to show that the first mile really is the toughest (for me at least). At the distances I'm currently running, the biggest challenge is mental, the body can handle it, it's just a matter of getting the mind on board.

Track this, the Jawbone UP24 & RunKeeper

My mother and father are FitBit users and after speaking with them here and there about the trackers I decided to check some out. After looking into the different options on the market I decided to go with Jawbone's UP24. I really only looked at FitBit Flex and the UP bands. I like the "holistic" approach that Jawbone (or at least Jawbone's marketing department) takes. 

I ordered right from the company, in hindsight, Amazon would have saved me a few bucks and would have shipped faster but I received it and began wearing it immediately as it came charged. I started wearing it around 5pm and hit the treadmill once I got home, I soon found myself at 92% of my recommended steps for the day and thought "I need to calibrate this thing" but alas, I did not. I failed to run the next day and found myself at my desk rather than in the field due to the less then tropical temperatures (wind chill of -2 in New England is rough...) . I tracked only 80% over the entire day.  I love the sleep data and have actually gotten over 7:45 hrs of sleep every night since I got the band, something I wouldn't have guessed. 

Because I use RunKeeper, the UP24 was a better choice for me because the two connect and work together. I have been an Endomondo user for the past few years but RunKeeper's ability to set long term goals won me over. The only thing I dislike about RunKeeper taht Endomondo rocks at is  giving you other activity options, Endomondo offers an extensive activities list which includes everything from tennis to hiking to ice hockey. RunKeeper's "other" activity list is very limited and I find myself having to log my ice hockey games under "Sports". I guess it is called RUNkeeper so I can't hold it against them. On the app I was able to set my goal of 500 miles and each run I track or log builds to that goal. RunKeeper then talks to the UP app and voila! I can access my run data in UP. 

Thus far I am impressed with both and will continue to use it on a daily basis. The sizes are a little tricky as my wrist measurement fell in between the large and the medium, I opted for the medium and find myself giving it an extra squeeze here and there to keep the limbs overlapping like they are in the package but looking at images online it seems that they don't necessarily have to overlap as much as I like them to.

Having something that gives me feedback like these apps and bands do is interesting for me and helps me stay on target. They are welcome additions to my training repertoire and I think they can only add to the assessment of my running and activity. Plus it feels a little Star Trekky, and I LOVE that....