Wedding Checklist: 4 Weeks To Go

Exactly 4 weeks!! (or 28 days!!!) 

A couple people asked me what all I still had left to do and I figured that typing it all out would help me stay on task so here is my Wedding To Do List!!

       - Buy: forks, cups, plates, ribbon, 4 candles, stuff for the favors, and wrapping paper for
         the card box
       - Go thru engagement pics and tell Elijah which ones are my faves
       - Create and print ceremony programs
       - Make nail appointment
       - Take cake server to get engraved
       - Make slideshow for reception
       - Follow up with people who haven’t RSVP’d yet
       - Make favors
       - Final dress fitting @2pm (June 8th)
       - G’s dress fitting
       - Bridal shower @1pm (June 4th)
       - Write thank you cards
       - Makeup trial
       - Hair trial @5:45pm (June 14th)
       - Card box
       - Decide what cake will look like/flavors
       - Order cake
       - Tie ribbon on the bubbles
       - Reception playlist
       - Schedule of events for DJ
       - Confirm honeymoon
       - Marriage License
       - Change my name
       - Get rings cleaned
       - Make schedule for morning of
       - Pack for honeymoon
       - Invite important people to reception
       - Rehearsal @7pm (June 24th)
       - Pick up rentals
       - Cut tulle for centerpieces
       - Pick up tuxes and dresses

Bleh!! lol… this seems like an awful lot of stuff to do still lol.. especially with final exams coming up!!  People have offered to help me make my favors so hopefully we can knock those out pretty quickly! :)  And I have no idea what I’m doing about the programs lol… and for some reason the cake decision is taking longer than it should…

Although that could be because I have no clue how many people are coming to the wedding… i sent out 100 invites and got only about 57 RSVP cards back lol… so now I have to follow up with everyone who didn’t respond because I’m not paying for 100 extra pieces of cake and 100 extra favors in case they decide to not respond and show up to the wedding after all lol… waste of time and money…

      - Breathe, say “I DO”, smile, and enjoy the day that I’ve been waiting for my entire life!!  :)

30 Days To Go! (and first wedding gift)

OH. MY. GOODNESS!!

S.E.R.I.O.U.S.L.Y

Josh and I only have 30 more days until we say “I DO” (and you better believe I will be saying those words with all caps!!  ;)   I LOVE that man with all my heart and truly believe that God put him in my life at the perfect time, right when I needed him… 

We still have quite a few things left to do… a big one is the cake… (next on my to do list) 

It’s tough trying to work 30-40 hour weeks, go to school, run/workout, and still try to plan a wedding! lol… good thing I never have to do this again!! ;)

I got home from work today and there was a gift sitting on the table for “Zaneta & New Husband” lol… from my great aunt and uncle who live in a different state and won’t be able to make it… it’s our first wedding gift!! :)

 

It’s so exciting!!  AHHHHH!!!  Just to give you a fair warning… since I now have LESS THAN A MONTH… You better believe I will be doing more and more wedding posts ;) lol… so if you don’t like reading about that kind of thing, just ignore my blog for the next month ;)

Wedding Update: MY First Dress Fitting

I had my first wedding dress fitting yesterday!!  My dress had been ordered and I had been impatiently patiently waiting for it to come in… well the night of the cap city half marathon expo I got a call that it was finally in!!  So I called and set up an appointment to go have my fitting…
 

Ok… that picture is not really how my dress looks… but it’s the closest thing to it that you’re gonna see before June 25th lol ;)

Anyways… I’ve been counting down the days til yesterday’s fitting… I was so excited!!!  It is actually MY dress… MINE!!  Not the sample dress that everyone gets to try on… MINE!!!

I was trying to make sure I had everything that I needed and that I wasn’t forgetting anything important… and then I headed out, but had to turn around because I forgot my camera!! lol…. Yeah… I forgot to get any pictures but did take a couple of my mom and I after the fact lol…

I LOVE MY DRESS!!!

I had to get it hemmed about an inch because I’m wearing flats, and I guess I have “runner boobs” (that’s what the lady told me anyways) when she had to pin the top of my dress by like 5 cm lol… um… thanks?! lol  And then came the hard decision….. French bustle or American bustle?

Well, I’m not really in the know on what’s fashionable these days, I just do what I want and what I like…so I decided to go with American lol…  the French one made me look like I had a poof butt… and if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know that my butt is the one thing about myself that I really have to work at liking.. so the smaller it looks, the better lol…

have no clue what I’m talking about?  lets see if I can find some pics to show you…

French Bustle

picture taken from HERE

American Bustle

 
picture taken from HERE

I ended up going with a 2 point American bustle which I think shows off the details in my dress better and doesn’t give me even more of a bubble butt than I already have lol ;)  The seamstress told me I had a time limit when she noticed that  I couldn’t stop smiling and looking at myself in the mirror …imagining my big day…

Even though I forgot to have my mom take pictures of me in the dress… We still managed to get one of my favorite pictures EVER…

yes, this picture deserves to be this big or bigger!  I love my mommy! :)

It was a great day… and I’m so super excited that I’m marrying the love of my life in 35 DAYS!!!!

The Capital City Half Marathon Race Recap

The Capital City Half Marathon
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Start Time: 8:00am

Warning:  This post is LONG

Ok, I won’t bore you with talking about the expo… I’ll just say, I did end up going by myself which is fine because I got in and out without any problems… and J ended up calling me as I was leaving to see if I wanted to meet up in the morning… AND… before the expo I ate this awesome cookie which was sure to make me fast the next morning! ;)  (yes, it says “Fast Eddie”)

RACE MORNING, I had set my alarm to go off at 5:30am, but ended up waking up around 4:45am to the power being out! I was seriously a little skeptical on how I was going to get ready for my race in complete darkness… but it came back on around 5am so all was well!!  I ate a piece of peanut butter toast and water for breakfast and hopped in the shower to warm up a little because it was cold!!

Getting Ready 

Sidenote:  Yes, I, Zaneta (AKA: the not so girly girl) bought a running skirt!! surprise!!
Another surprise… I LOVE IT!!  Now I understand everyone’s need to buy a
different running skirt for each race ;)

I drove the 1 hour trek to Columbus and was immediately SO glad I had prepaid to park at a specific location!!  Seriously… if you have the option to prepay for parking for a race… DO IT!!!Streets were closed everywhere and traffic was backed up majorly!  While I was at a stand still I was texting back and forth with my fiancé before he had to go to work.  So by the time I parked and walked to the starting location I had about 15 minutes before go time!! lol… nothing like cutting it short! ;)  BTW, I had to pee so bad!! lol…

Well I stopped at the first port-a-pot because I thought that if I just got in a line quickly, it would be my best bet… well after waiting for about 6 minutes I decided enough was enough and started walking towards my corral… funny thing… the lines for the port-a-pots by Corral C were empty! haha… lesson learned! ;) 

I got to my corral and actually found J and her boyfriend which was surprising due to the amount of people that were there!  This was the biggest race I’ve EVER been to!  It was quite exciting!  I squeezed in beside them just in time for the national anthem and then they started each corral 30 seconds apart… 3-2-1… GO!!

We started out and it was pretty crowded still even though we had a tapered start.  It did end up spacing out quite a bit after mile 4 or so… I don’t really remember anything specific for each mile or anything like that so I’ll just post some things in general…

I ran with J and her boyfriend for about the first 5 miles BUT we started out faster than I wanted to go… I didn’t want to die before mile 6 and I wanted to have fun during this race…I ran my first half marathon last September with an average pace of 10:10 and this race so far, we had been running 8 something miles lol… um… all I kept thinking was “my 5k splits are 8 something miles!! haha… SLOOOOOOWWWW DOWWWNNNNNNN!!!”  Remember how I told you all, that due to my lack of training because of my crazy busy life right now I was forgoing my goal of a sub 2 hour half marathon?  yes… it’s sad, but I was happy with myself that I realized this and knew not to push too hard and end up hurting myself.  I told J to go on ahead because I was pulling up a little… I wanted to just run for fun and I couldn’t do that if I was constantly worrying about burning out or hurting myself.

I don’t remember exactly when I took my GUs but I remember that I took 3 of them along the course of the race and I grabbed water at EVERY water station and whatever endurance drink they had at about 3 stations… it had warmed up quite a bit and the rain was holding off. 

I had brought my IPod along but never ended up turning it on… there were so many bands and DJs and spectators along the course that I was having a blast without it and I didn’t realize it til about 1 mile left to go because it was cutting the circulation off in my arm so I took it off and held it the last mile. I loved giving all the little kids high fives because they thought this was the most exciting thing ever to watch and cheer for!

… I saw a banana with a “Don’t Poop…. out” sign lol…(the pic is taken from the capcityhalf fb page) and I saw a charlie sheen poster that said “everyone’s a winner!”  (or something like that) and also one of my faves  “humpty dumpty had wall issues too” lol

 

I don’t ever remember having any negative thoughts during this race at all… I remember thinking that I felt really good for the lack of training I’d had and thinking to myself that I would definitely PR this race… and then as I got closer to the finish line I realized that I was going to be really close to my goal time without really trying for it! lol… I was very surprised at myself… there were a few miles that I felt like slowing down but I took inventory on how everything was feeling… how my chest/heart were feeling because I didn’t want to have a repeat of last September, and everything felt good, so I made myself keep a somewhat steady pace those last 3 miles… although they were slower than the previous miles…

Right before the finish line was a hill… but after the hill it was all down hill to the finish!  I LOVED that!!  I had such a fun time… and I ran most of it by myself… no family there to cheer me on… and that was perfectly ok!  I never ended up meeting back up with J… I ended up being able to see them ahead of me for most of the race… til about 3 miles left… anyways… I sprinted down that incline to the finish because I was so proud of myself and my time!!  I was so close to my goal… but it didn’t bother me like I thought it would… I HAD A BLAST!!!

Official Time:  2:03:57
Average Pace:  9:28
Overall Place:  2453/6005
Gender Place:  1010/3502
AG (20-24) Place:  168/462

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After crossing the finish line and receiving my most favoritest medal EVER… I grabbed a bagel, water, muscle milk (i had never tried it before and it was better than i had thought it would be) and then after I cooled down a little bit, I grabbed some donatos pizza and headed over to the Brooks Cavalcade of Curiosities to get my gait analyzed… I guess I’m a moderate pronator and have a med-high arch… anyone want to kind of explain what this means and how to fix it? lol…  I guess I’ll have to do my research…

After all that fun stuff I went back up to the top of the hill before the downhill finish to cheer people on and that was so much fun… just the look on people’s faces when I cheered for them by name and told them they could do it, finish strong, it’s really all downhill from here… it was awesome!  After I cheered for a good 20 minutes, I walked back to my car and found that I hadn’t been alone at all… My fiancé and family were all cheering for me by text messages during my race!!  I have awesome support and I’m so blessed… The text from my fiancé made me tear up…

He basically just told me to keep going strong, that I was almost finished, and that he loved me… so simple, but meant the world to me!

I loved every single moment of this race!!  It was rather emotional for me too… I don’t really understand why… watching all the people after me finish… how emotional they were… I DID PR by 10 minutes, so that was awesome… and being by myself kinda did get to me a little bit, I’m not gonna lie… so I guess that all wraps up into one emotional race… Registration for the Capital City Half Marathon opens June 1st… and you better believe I will be registering for this race again!

I’m a Terrible Person…

I LIED!

On accident…

I thought I would have enough time to pound out a race recap today…

but I ended up being in a car for 4 hours today and didn’t get home till a little less than an hour ago…

I feel like such a terrible person…

please forgive me and still be my friends!! 

BTW, SECRET:  YES, I did buy a running skirt ;) lol  just thought you’d like to know that I went all girly on y’all… I’ll talk more about it in my recap…

WHICH will be posted TOMORROW!!! :)  I get off work at 5 so I will keep my word that you shall have a recap by the end of tomorrow :)

You still my friend?

Don’t believe anything I say now? … that’s too bad…

I’ll make it up to you tomorrow ;)

A Promise I WILL Keep

Hey everyone!!  Long time no see!

I just wanted to let you all know that I had a BLAST
last weekend running the Capital City Half Marathon!!

Here’s the PROMISE:

I PROMISE to do a recap this coming Monday!!
MONDAY people!! lol… I have been so busy this week
it’s crazy!! Extra hours at work (A LOT of them lol, taking care
of wedding stuff, and not to mention that I have to do about 150 pages
of workbook stuff for school due Monday lol… that’s what I’ll be doing now
that I don't have to work anymore this week! (fun weekend I know)

Here’s a preview of what’s to come, I hope you all have a
great weekend and GOOD LUCK to those of you who are racing!! 
I’ll be thinking of you!

I Can’t Afford the Actual Race Virtual Marathon Recap

Ok… a week late but still wanted to post the recap!!  If you hadn’t heard, Barefoot Neil Z held a virtual marathon named “I can’t afford the actual race” … being that I’m on a tight budget because of school and the wedding at the moment, I thought this was a perfect race for my 2011 racing season!!  So thanks Neil!! :)

Click on the badge to take you to the official site

If you signed up for the race before Neil realized he was too busy, he sent you a personalized race bib (included in the price of registering for the race, of course)… well I signed up at the right time because he was actually able to surprise me and make me the most incredible race bib ever!!  It is my absolute favorite race bib of all time!!! I may have to frame it! ;)

Yep… $6.25 … June 25th is when I’m getting married
Z … my nickname
zuh-NEHT-uh … how you correctly pronounce my name

LOVE IT!!! :D 

This marathon was held on May 1st, but technically you had from April 17 – May 1st to get in all the miles as long as you ran the last 1k ( .62 miles) on May 1st… here’s a look at how I got my 26.2 miles in! (you can click on a couple of the dates to get a recap of that run)

                                                April 17 – 3.07 miles in 27:58
                                                April 18 – 5.06 miles in 52:01
                                                April 25 – 8.08 miles in  1:29:39
                                                April 26 – 2.02 miles in 20:30
                                                April 28 – 4.17 miles in 36:00
                                                April 30 – 3.1 miles in 24:55
                                                May 1 – .7 miles in 8.18

  Total:   26.2 miles in 4:19:35

(if I did the math correctly) lol ;)

May 1st, I got the last .7 miles I needed in (more than 1k, so I didn’t disqualify) whew ;)  I didn’t get around to actually running until I got some shenanigans in… I was tired lol
(that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!)

Well that tired me out and I wanted to take a nap…
That’s what Sundays are for anyways right?!

ok ok, no nap… Time to get up and finish this thing!

I ended up slowing down big time halfway thru because I accidentally dropped the TV remote between the wall and the treadmill and tried to keep going so i didn’t have to stop completely while I fished it out lol… yep… who’s clumsy???  *ME* lol… strong finish Zaneta!! lol ;)  

So thanks Neil for putting on this event!! It was fun and really helped me stay motivated to get in some training for my half marathon!!  (recap to come this week)
AND… did I mention I love the bib?! ;)

Happy Mother’s Day!!

I have the most wonderful mom in the whole world… sorry, but I’m a tad biased ;)

She went to every single one of my sporting events growing up, packed my lunch when i was a lazy high school student, let me cry on her shoulder or vent about something that really wasn’t a big deal, asked me how my day went because she actually cared, helped me get through the toughest quarter of my college career so I could graduate, she taught me how to be a Godly woman, taught me how to serve others,  let me make some mistakes so
I could learn from them, and is there for me when I need her… not to mention she just did a 100 mile bike ride yesterday on some tough hills!! 
(among countless other things that qualify her to be the best)

She’s my best friend and I am so blessed to call her my mom!!

Happy mother’s day to all you mothers out there!!  You truly deserve
more than one day to be celebrated for all you do for your children!! 
I hope you feel beyond special today!!

Strides for Mental Health 5k Race Recap

Well now that I have midterms out of the way and I’ve semi-stopped freaking out (for the moment), I can finally get around to posting my race recaps!!  By the way, you all crack me up!! lol… love your comments!!  Especially Pam’s!!  CLICK HERE to see it!  A couple of you were curious as to why I might be running alone Saturday… I may or may not still post about it later… if I don’t, I’ll email you!  OK… onwards!!

First up is my first 5k/race of the season!! :D

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Strides for Mental Health 4th Annual 5k Walk/Run
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Start Time:  8:00am

I ended up getting up later than I wanted to (surprise surprise lol) so I didn’t eat anything, didn’t drink a whole lot of water, and just grabbed the nearest running clothes, threw in my contacts, grabbed my garmin, and rushed out the door lol… yeah, I’m not a morning person remember? ;)

Insert Random AWESOME fact here: My bib was #25!!!  lol  (I’m getting married on the 25th of June)  I just thought that was fun :)

I knew that one of my friends from church was going to be running the race too and knew that he wouldn’t have anyone there either because his wife got called in to work, so when I got there around 7:50am, I started looking for him.  I found him and we lined up together towards the front of the pack… about 4 or 5 rows back from the fast people.  This wasn’t a very big race, so it wasn’t chip timed or anything.

The head honcho counted down and we were off… well my friend runs faster than me and I was running with him…  AKA:  starting out too fast!  I started worrying about it, but decided I could just slow down when I wanted to because I have not been running very much or training very hard so I knew I wasn’t going to beat any records or anything lol…

My friend and I (I’m in the BLUE)

I was feeling good so I stuck with him til right about the halfway point then told him to go on without me…  This race was all mental for me… thats what a lot of my runs have been lately… a mental war… anyways… I was going to slow down with half the race left, but I realized that my legs felt great, it was just my lungs that were sucking air and I blamed that on the cold I was trying to get over… so I just kept running trying to stay at the same pace I was running.

I’m not gonna lie… I really wanted to slow down a few times, but I started getting excited, because I wasn’t doing as bad as I thought I would with as little training as I’ve had so far this year!!  Well, I came up to the straight stretch with about 800 meters left to the finish and I looked at my Garmin and blinked a couple times and then said OUTLOUD  “Heck YES!!”  I didn’t have a whole lot in me, but I dug down deep and picked it up, not a lot, but as much as I could… and I kept thinking “this is why I practice negative splits and ending kicks during most of my runs!  I KNOW I can do this!!!”  and as I kept running that finish line kept getting closer and my time kept ticking away…

My friend had finished with enough time to walk back about 100 yards to the finish to cheer for me and it really helped me out… something about having your named yelled out by someone just breaks through those mental walls…  I gave it all I had at the end and crossed that finish line so happy with myself… so ecstatic…

I PR’d by 19 seconds!!!

AND….

I BEAT MY GOAL IN MY FIRST RACE OF THE SEASON!! I RAN A SUB 25 MINUTE 5K!!!

I was so happy!  AND surprised!!!

My official time was 24:55!!  I did it!! 

I probably would not have run that fast if I hadn’t started out with my friend… I would have just made excuse after excuse as to why I couldn’t run that fast the whole time lol.. so thanks David!! :)  Now, I have to reevaluate my goals for this year ;) lol…sub 24 it is ;)

 

Here are my garmin stats:

Stats

Official Time: 24:55
Average Pace: 8:02/mile
Overall Place: 32/183
AG (20-29) place:  7/22
     **If it would have been the regular 20-24 age group I would have placed 1st by about 1:30!!

Upcoming Races

May 7, 2011 – Capital City Half Marathon
October 16, 2011 – Columbus Marathon

Three Things Thursday: Freak Out Edition

1.  I’m sitting here eating my cap’n crunch and freaking out!!!  I’m running the Capital City Half Marathon.  My second half marathon is this Saturday!!  As in 2 more sleeps from now!!!  I’m so not ready for this lol… I’ll be running it for “fun” but that's gonna be difficult for me not trying to PR lol… but I know for a fact that I haven’t put in the training or the effort so it may even consist of some walking on Saturday! ;)

Also, I’m now going to Columbus by myself and probably running by myself… long story… I may or may not post it later… we’ll see…

2.  NOW  I’m freaking out because I just said out loud “MY WEDDING IS NEXT MONTH!!!”  EEK!!  I’m so not ready for that either!! lol… I mean I AM ready for it to be here so that I can marry my best friend and never have to say goodnight at the door again lol…. but i have so much stuff to do and a lot of stuff to pay for still and I’m kinda freaking out about that now too cuz tuition is due around the same time for both of us as is all the wedding fees and service fees  (we’re both taking summer quarter classes)

3.  AND now I’m just freaking out in general and I’m gonna rename this post “the freak out edition”   some one please tell me to stop freaking out!! lol…  If, by the time I get home from work tonight, I’m done freaking out… I’ll try to type up my race recaps for you all lol… Hope you all have a great, non-freak out, day!!

The Road to Boston: Guest Post by Bethany

Surprise Post #2!!!

I was going to have one more surprise post after this one, but the guest poster
couldn’t pull it off… which is ok, because these two posts are so inspirational!!

If you missed it…. Surprise Post #1 was The Road to Boston: Guest Post by EMZ

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Bethany from Our Love on the Run! 
Her and Ryan are getting married on May 27th!!  24 more days!!!  :)  Go congratulate them!! :)

__________________________________________________

Hi everyone, my name is Bethany from http://ourloveontherun.blogspot.com and this
is my story of how I first qualified for the Boston Marathon.
This post is a bit long, but if you have dreams of one day qualifying,
please try to read the whole thing!
I started running when I was 12 years old as a way to drop some unwanted
weight. I never imagined at that age where running would someday take me and
what a major role it would play in my life. My first "run" was once around
my block and I could have walked it faster than I "ran" it. The run left me
winded and I remember bending over, putting my hands on my thighs. Over the
next couple of months I worked up to 1 mile. I still remember my mom driving
in the car to clock the run for me and when she said "1 mile," I felt a
great sense of accomplishment. I slowly built up my milage over the next
year and a half and finally signed up for my first 10k in 1998. It was $10,
I was the youngest female runner, I was about 25lbs lighter than when I
first started running and my time was 1:02 and change. There were maybe 200
other runners(a race that is now $20+ and has over 1,000 runners).
By the time I entered high school I was running about 5x a week and the
summer going into my freshman year I hit double digits for the first time,
running 10 miles through my town one afternoon.
I ran consistently for 7 years before deciding to run a half marathon. I
always knew that I'd run long distance races someday, it was just a matter
of timing, location and of course money. I remember seeing the Boston
Marathon on TV as a kid and thinking to myself, 'someday I'll be there.' I
completed the half marathon in 2:13:00, it felt surprisingly easy, altho I
had already been running for 7 years and 13 miles wasn't much farther than I
was used to running anyway. I ran a couple more half marathons before I
decided it was time to try a full. I ran my first full in 2005 in a time of
4:54:00. I trained alone and didn't really know what I was doing, I also
didn't know a lot of marathoners at this point.
In 2006 I ran my 2nd marathon in a time of 4:58 and 2 months later I ran my
third in a time of 4:16.
Here is the progression from memory:
#1: 4:54:00
#2: 4:58:00 Goofy's Challenge
#3: 4:16:00
#4: 4:11:00
#5: 3:50:03
#6: 4:05:00 Goofy's Challenge
#7: 3:49:56
#8: 3:38:51
#9: 3:49:00 Goofy's Challenge
#10: 3:45:00
#11: 4:20:00 MCM with a friend
#12: 3:45:00 Goofy's Challenege
#13: 4:05:00 (with Ryan, got engaged at start line)
#14: 3:29:13
#15: 3:56:00 Goofy (Ryan's 1st sub-4!)
#16: 3:40:02
#17: 4:17:00 Alaska, with Ryan!
#18: 3:34:00
#19: 4:32:00 Goofy, with Ryan!
#20: 3:55:00
#21: 3:42:22
As you can see, I've gradually got faster over the years. I credit this to
experience, the more you run, the better you get, the easier it feels both
physically and mentally. I believe I have been so sucessful in running
because I took things slow right from the start. I consistently ran for 7
years before going long distance. I always had a super-solid base and
because of this training was easier and didn't take a toll on my body. I
personally think a lot of people dive into it too fast. I understand, it's
easy to get carried away but the longer you wait the bigger base you will
have and you will be a stronger runner and be less likely to experience
injuries. I personally think you should not begin to train for a marathon
until you've had at least 1 year of injury-free running. So many people
start training for a marathon with injuries and things gets worse and people
are setting themself up for disappointment.
I first Qualified for Boston at the Marine Corps Marathon. I should mention
that after my first marathon I decided to make up my own training plans
rather than follow a standard plan online. I made this choice because I felt
that a lot of plans were too much for me(I was teaching 8 aerobics classes a
week and was full time in college) and I felt the training plans were adding
unnecessary stress to my daily life.
My training consisted of about 40 miles per week with 1 long run on the
weekend, 1 longish run mid week and a 10k race or a half marathon here and
there. My training was and still is very laid back, I never stress, I never
overdo it and I always listen to my body. If I miss a run, I miss a run,
it's not the end of the world and bodies can always use an extra day of
rest!
My PR prior to qualifying at Marine Corps was 3:49:50, run at the Country
Music Marathon in Nashville, TN. To qualify I would have to take off 9
minutes. Marine Corps was my 8th marathon and I was incredibly confident (in
a non-cocky way) that I would BQ. I knew I had it in me and that it would
only be a matter of time before I did BQ. If I didn't BQ at Marine Corps,
then I would at my next marathon. At this point, it wasn't a matter of if,
it was a matter of when.
The morning of the marathon I wore a brand new shirt, brand new socks and I
nervously ate an entire package of Clif shotblocks for the first time ever
about 3 min before the race started, oops. Oh, and I ate Mexican food the
night before and I walked around DC for over 10 hours the previous day and
skipped lunch.
My plan was to run with the 3:40 pace team, a guy named Bill who was running
his 30-something marathon of the year. I started off in the group with about
100 women under age 35 who were determined to stay directly on Bill's
heels!! I was trapped in the middle of this group and missed the first
waterstop. At mile 3 I picked it up just enough to get about 20 yards in
front of Bill, here I had the whole road to myself! At mile 14 I met up with
a girl named, Ryan, who was also looking for a BQ. We ran together the rest
of the way and talked about everything under the sun like 2 old friends.
There's not much I can say about this race, it was FUN, the weather was
perfect and everything went well. I visualized myself crossing the
finishline sub 3:40 the entire time. I pictured myself putting my arms up in
the air and bursting into tears.
At mile 25.2ish Bill suddenly ran by me yelling "let's go ladies, GO! GO!
GO!" At this point I freaked out a bit thinking we weren't going to make it
so I took off running as fast as I could. When I crossed the finishline in
3:38:51 it felt completely normal. I did not throw my arms up in the air and
there were no tears. It just was. I looked down at my watch and hit "stop"
then casually went over to get my medal. It was VERY strange, almost like it
was no big deal. I think maybe because I was so confident I knew I had it
long before it actually happened maybe, I don't know. It still feels weird
til this day. I think bc I truely, truely believed it would happen (at this
race or the next one) I wasn't surprised.
I guess my story really isn't all that exciting. I put the work in over the
years and I kept dreaming until my dream became a reality. I am NOT a
naturally faster runner, not even close. Sure, there will always be natural
talent and people who will BQ on their first or second attempt and people
who are much faster than me right from the start, but that was in no way,
shape or form me. I've taken 1.5 hours off my mrathon time over the years,
I've gone from a half in the 2:10s to the 1:30s, and a 30++ min 5k to a sub
20 min 5k. A lot of people don't realize that I was once a "slower" runner
because they didn't know me back then, but I wish more people knew. Any
struggle that you might be having, I've had it too. Running is easy and
natural for me now and I rarely feel uncomfortable and hardly ever suffer
now, but believe me, I've been there and experienced it all.
If there is anything you can take away from my anti-climactic story, it's
that you CAN. It really burns a hole in my stomach when women who have run 1
marathon in a time of 4:15 say they know they will never qualify. Give it
time. No one expects you to BQ on your first, second or even third attempt.
If a BQ is what you want, then go for it, reguardless of what your current
PR is right now. You don't have to take 30 min off your time in 1 race, just
slowly chip away at it a little each time . Each race you run you'll get
more experience and it'll make the next race that much easier. It's a
process, it doesn't happen overnight. Even if you have a "failed" attempt at
a BQ, there really is no failure at all bc that race is all part of the
overall quaifying process. You don't need to quit your day job, you don't
need to run 60 miles a week, you don't need to run yourself into the ground
etc. A BQ is a reality for most women I'd say if you put in consistent
training over a period of time. Is it a reality that you will BQ on your
first marathon? No, probably not. But if you take your time, plan out your
training, stay focused and stay healthy, a BQ could easily be in your
future. Don't go writing anything off just yet, ESPECIALLY if you have only
run a couple of marathons or none at all. And once you know you can BQ, try
not to be too upset if you don't get it, there will be more chances and in
the end it makes it that much sweeter. Once you know you can do it believe
it to the fullest, so even if you miss it, that's ok, you'll get it next
time.
Well I hope you have enjoyed reading this and I hope you have got something
out of this very long post. Please feel free to send me an email if you have
any questions or need some support. Please feel free to comment with your
goals or your improvements or victories, I would LOVE to hear them! Btw, I
would love to share some of my old race photos from back in the day but
digital cameras weren’t around back then! Lol Thanks, Zaneta!!!
Bethany
Bbertrand@vzw.blackberry.net

What… you want to know pointless running info about me?? ok…

So Nicole over at Running for Love came up with a little running survey and I thought it would be fun to repost on my blog with MY answers lol… Sidenote:  Nicole is also planning a wedding for this year!  AWESOME!! :D

* what is your favorite type of cross training?
I haven’t really been cross training… whoops… Does working on my feet and carrying two,
5 gallon buckets of ice to the pop machine while doing bicep curls count?

* what is your favorite song to run to?
I don't really have one favorite song and I tend to listen to all sorts of different genres of music while I run from classical to hard rock lol.. just depends on my mood and what type of run it is

* what brand of shoes do you wear?
Nike Lunar Glides or Brooks Pure Flow

* do you wear a hat when you run?
Usually yes

* what temperature is your favorite for running?
I hate cold weather so I would say anywhere from 60-80 lol… yeah, I’m crazy ;)

* do you have any big races coming up?
I have multiple little 5ks, my 2nd half marathon on May 7th (this weekend), and my first full marathon on October 16th! :)

* what is your favorite distance?
to just run… 5 miles… to race… half marathon

* are you a morning, noon or evening runner?
I am not a morning person so running in the morning is difficult for me… i like noon or evening TONS better!

* do you run solo or with a buddy?
I tend to run by myself… every once in a blue moon you’ll read on my blog that I ran with someone… which is also fun… but I find it hard to coordinate schedules so tend to be a lone runner

* what's your favorite post run snack?
Chocolate milk blended with peanut butter, a banana, honey, cinnamon, carnation drink (added nutrients), and ice while I sit in an ice bath while eating a bagel

It is sad, but I had to use white milk in this
picture cuz I had run out of chocolate milk

* what's your FAVORITE race?
My absolute FAVORITE race so far has been my first ever half marathon!! I just loved the whole experience from traveling to a different state, to spending the weekend with just my parents, and running an all women’s race as my first half! :D  HERE’s the recap!

* do you wear a garmin? If not how do you track your runs?
yes, my fiancé got me the forerunner 405cx for Christmas (I LOVE it!!) before that I used a nike+ sensor with my ipod

* what is your least favorite race?
I don't really have a least favorite as of right now… I’ll get back to you on that ;)

* what race is your favorite medal from?
My first half marathon!  there was a medallion in the middle of the music note shaped medal (Nashville, Tennessee) that you could take off and put on a necklace

* who is your running idol?
I don't really have one, but I'm really starting to like Kara :)

* how long have you been a runner?
years that I’m counting… 1 :)  (not counting HS track)

* (ladies) do you run with your engagement/wedding ring on?
no way!  I am often times a klutz and just know that something would happen to my engagement ring before the wedding if I would wear it to run in or exercise in… not chancing it!

haha… couldn’t help it ;)  I’m getting
married  NEXT MONTH!!!  :D

* what's your favorite workout? repeats? long runs? tempo? fartleks? 
long runs… although they are my least favorite too ;) lol

The Road to Boston: Guest Post by EMZ

SURPRISE POST #1!!!

The Boston Marathon was 2 weeks ago today…

Many of you ran it, many of us did not…

BUT, most of us have a dream to one day run it… I asked a couple people who have worked hard to qualify and actually ran BOSTON this year, if they would mind writing a guest post on my blog… hopefully their words will inspire you and give you hope!!  I’m so excited to share these with you…

Today’s guest post is written by EMZ from If I Can’t Convince You - - I’ll At Least Confuse You.  She’s pretty awesome.. she’s actually getting ready to run a 24 hour treadmill run for a great cause… so go support her if you can and leave her some encouraging words! :)

____________________________________________________

So happy Z asked me to do this.
I.
Adore.
Her.
 
I started running about 16 years ago. To be honest, I just loved the simplicity of it.
 
Lace up shoes. Hair in ponytail.
And. I'm. Good. To. Go.
 
I would usually run 2-3 miles. However, one day [15 years ago- man, I'm old] after a recent family move.....I got lost. When I returned my dad guessed I had run about 7 miles.
What?
I
Can
Run
7
Miles
And
Not
Die?!
 
A runner was born. ;)
 
I ran my first marathon In 1999 [unknowingly pregnant] and thought.
 
Ok. Been. There. Did. That. Got. The. Shirt.
 
Soooo not doing that again.
 
I continued to run over the next 10 years but then......
 
Wham.
 
Marathon bug bit again. And. Hard.
Started training in late August of 09'. Bought a treadmill. [best $1,750 I've ever spent].
Ran my second marathon on a rather challenging course in December 2009 & BQ'd?!?
 
I vividly remember standing at that starting line telling myself, "leave it all out here. Don't cross the finishline thinking you have anything left in you. You want this. You want Boston. "
 
And. I. Got. It.
 
3:36 - with a slower giddy, grinning, joking, laughing & teary last 2 miles [once I knew I had "it"]. So much for leaving it ALL out there but holy crap.... I just BQ'd!!!
 
Yes. BQ'd. By only running about 34-38 miles/week.
 
Something I know helped me was knowing I had to be diligent in my training. I own my own business & have a family. I needed these workouts--all of them to count.

Boston was a thing I'd heard about. Dreamed of. But now- I'd be running in it.
 
Awesome.
 
In the 15 months that have followed. I've come to better understand the marathon distance. And why it's so flipping awesome. I've now run 12 marathons & one 50 mile trail race. While slowly shaving 18 minutes off my marathon time.
 
My one bit of advice to someone looking to qualify.
 
Do it.
Accept. Nothing. Less.
 
All it took for me was one person telling me it was "unattainable for a novice runner".
 
Tell me I can't & I'll spend countless hours proving I can.
 
It's. Just. How. I'm. Built.
 
So you want Boston?
Guess what?
Boston wants you.
 
If you think you want to run it now--wait till you get there and realize it's 100x better than you had even imagined.
 
The only surprise I had with Boston was "heartbreak hill". I had envisioned it being worse than it actually is/was.
 
The people lining up all along Heart Break Hill are so motivating -- I'm afraid that if I had stopped I'd have had someone yelling at me or pushing my butt up that hill for me.
 
Don't tell but ..... I loved HBH.
 
The crowds are even bigger there for a reason. And. That. Reason. Is. You.
 
The crowds.
The course.
The people.
The volunteers.
The hills.
The outfits.
The $85 jacket you WILL end up buying even though you know it's an overpriced piece of nylon. You. Need. The. Jacket.
 
The finishline.
The medal.
The pride.
 
You've. Freaking. Got. This.

Weekly Roundup: April 25 – May 1

Monday:  8.08 miles @11:06 (1:29:39)
Tuesday:  2.02 in 20:30
Wednesday:  Rest
Thursday:  4.17 miles in 36 minutes (Outside run,Garmin died so in minutes)
Friday:  Rest
Saturday:  Strides for Mental Health 5k (recap to come soon)
Sunday:   .7 miles (finished up Virtual Marathon); Pushups/Crunches [10/50]

Total for Week = 18.07 miles; Pushups/Crunches [10/50]
Total for Month = .7 miles; Pushups/Crunches [10/50]
Total for Year =  78.43 miles**; Pushups/Crunches [88/525]

**Starting in March since I forgot to keep track, but I didn’t run much in Jan and Feb
*** @=outside run (refers to pace)  in=treadmill run (refers to minutes)

March 31.02 miles
April  46.71 miles 

Preview of Next Week’s Posts…

~ 2 Surprise Posts (don’t you just love surprises?!)
~ 2 Race Reports (when I’m not studying for midterms I’ll post them)
~ Survey (you know you want to know more about me!)
~ A couple wedding updates thrown in possibly
~ Nervous talk of my Half Marathon this coming Saturday… EEK!!

whew… ok, that’s a lot lol… This is the plan for my blog this week, but I have a couple midterms this week so I don’t know if I’ll get around to it all or not…

Also… 171 bloggy friends?!  You guys seriously rock!! :)

AND… Me and my sweet fiancé had our pre-marital counseling this week and look what God gave us on the way to the church…

His promise!! How cool is that?  It’s kind of like He was telling us He promised to be with us in our marriage and our journey together…

Blog Posts From The Week

I DID IT!!!
EASTER CAKE!!
Go Check Out This Super Awesome Girl!!
First 5k of the Season

Registered Races

4/30/11 – Strides for Mental Health 5k (race recap coming)
5/1/11 – “I can’t afford the actual race” Virtual Marathon (race recap coming)
               (4/17 – 5/1) [26.2 miles finished!]
5/7/11 – Capital City Half Marathon
10/16/11 – Columbus Marathon

Days Left Until I Marry My Best Friend:  55