3rd Half Marathon complete...

So I believe I've mentioned before on this blog, if I have no upcoming goal (read: race) I have very little motivation to run.  For the first 1/2 marathon I was terrified I wouldn't be able to run the full 13.1 miles, so I followed a strict schedule of running and other workouts 5x per week.  The second one I slacked due to travel and didn't do much of the non-running workouts, but I did manage a number of longer runs around 10-12 miles which got me through.

Several months ago, Annie and I took a look at races in other countries and selected a night run in Estonia.  With the 'white nights' they experience we thought it would be a cool experience and a good motivator to keep running after our Hague 1/2 marathon. White nights, dear readers, are a phenomenon experienced at the top of the Earth where the sun hardly sets and the night is turns a greyish-whitish color instead of blueish-blackish.

Unfortunately, this run again was slackerville, but unlike the last race, for this one I fit in fewer long runs, so while the first 11 miles of the race were ok but slow, the last two were painful and I actually walked a little bit - something I didn't do on either of the first two.  My right knee ached a bunch and I couldn't remember if that was usual far distance pain, or I'd actually hurt my knee, but the number of injured people in my life right now made me slow to a walk for a few seconds a few times at the end.

When I finished it was quite dark out - what happened to the 'white nights'?!?  My wonderful support team was there waiting for me even though it was dark, chilly and buggy when I finally crossed the finish line. I'd also like to note that Estonians are fast runners! While I am slow, I spent a lot of this race (after the 10km racers finished) running with very few people.  There were also tons of spectators at the start of the race and a lot less than that, which surprised me given the race looped around the city a bunch of times and was at night, which I thought would make it appealing for people to BBQ and party while watching.  I was wrong.

Spectators, you are very important to runners.  You are especially important to me.  While training I run slow, but while racing, I feed off the crowd's enthusiasm and run much faster.  I smile at people, I high five children, I pump my fist for the bands, DJs, dance teams, etc that line the sidelines and perform.  I'm a fun runner to watch and cheer for, IMHO.  Anyway, if you take anything from this post (or my blog) it should be these two things #1 - you too can run a 1/2 marathon and #2 - cheer for the runners and strangers that run in your life or in races in your area... it does make a huge difference to them.

Unfortunately, without the crowd, I was slooooooooow.  The race was long and Rakvere is a nice town, but not exceptionally pretty and the course wasn't very interesting, so I was a bit bored with the run.  My podcasts (I mentioned I don't listen to music while I run, right?) weren't particularly interesting, so I couldn't zone out listening to a cool story or anything.  Anyway, enough complaining.  I finished, which is always my goal.

We spent Friday before the race checking out Rakvere and then Saturday/Sunday in Tallinn.  It was a lovely little city and it was really nice for walking, eating, pictures and general visiting.  Two thumbs up to Estonia.

Here are some fun photos :)

Pre-run Solyanka - YUM!

Medival castle visit - shot my first arrow

Run hardware (trophy & t-shirt)

Gorgeous Tallinn

Gorgeous Tallinn

parade in the streets

Jason loves marzipan - invented in Tallinn!

Tallinn prison - used by the KGB and then still used in 2004

Medical performance room

KGB execution room

abandoned cell with girlie pics still hanging

Tallinn medieval fortress walls from the 1300s

Old town, Tallinn.... beautiful

Georgian lunch - strange drinks - on the right is oregano lemonade 

more gorgeous Tallinn

park exercise randomness

Will post some Russia photos soon.  Also, please see my FB of Jas/Annie's great pics from the actual race.

From Estonia with love,

Liz

New shoes, new 'tude

Yesterday I ran 13 miles.. Slowly... On my run I thought about all sorts of things, one being my awesome friend Annie (yes, the occasional blogger on this site) who has been injured for a few months and is making her recovery.  Her dad's a big runner and has been asking her to look into her shoes (Nike) for a while.  She finally heeded his advice and headed over to our local running shop where she discovered she overpronates and runs as though she's only got a very thin strip of road to run on (think catwalk strut?) after running in front of a camera.

This was really interesting to me and I know I could make improvements in my running.  My first (and only) run with a trainer they told me I can't look down (but how will I navigate the uneven sidewalks in Amsterdam?!) and I swing my arms too much, which burns valuable energy.  I was given exercises - keep your chin up and run with limp arms pretending you are cradling eggs in your hands (which are straight by your sides).  The first was ok, the second? Awwwwwwwwwwkward.  I do practice these because, hey, who am I to doubt a professional running trainer? And at my last marathon, my friends said my form did look better.

I needed to head to the running store because one of my batbelt bottles (it's important to refuel on any run over 1 hour) cracked.  I decided to bring my two pairs of New Balance shoes with me to the store so the pros could inspect my wear patterns and film my gait.  They did it quite quickly notice that I also overpronate. With my current shoes, it's a bit surprising I haven't yet gotten injured, but my theory is that I am awesome about stretching and I don't push myself too hard (hence running slowly) which both help injury prevention.  I walked out of there with these babies: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 13 which won Runner's World Runners Choice in 2012.  When I ran in these, my feet hit the ground evenly - it made an impressive difference.  Also, he told me I'm hitting the ground wrong and need to try to hit on the outside of my foot.  I asked for a way to do this he said "try to point your big toe to the sky, that will keep your heel out."  A new challenge.  I'll work on it.

When I asked the guy if there were any better looking shoes I could choose from he said, "yeah, it seems that the designers at Brooks are blind" ugh.  Well, they're good shoes.  Ugly shoes, but good shoes.  Oh well.

New kicks!

In other news, I ran 13 miles last night.  It felt good.  Tomorrow I will see about doing another long-ish run in my new shoes.  Till tomorrow?  Have a super Saturday night!

Liz