Much Overdue - Race Day!

Well- we BOTH FINISHED the race and I went on a blogging hiatus. So- I will try and recap as much of day as I can recall (2 months later!).

For the weekend - Nathan and I were very fortunate to have the whole givens clan here to help cheer us on and celebrate. Meredith and Keith ran in the half-marathon - woohoo! and brought Taylor. Nathan's parents were also in town and helped support us race day! Amanda and Wes also came in town on Saturday for a shindig at our house after the race.

Friday night - we went to Pronto (this has been our pre-long-run-go-to-takeout-dinner). It had worked for us every other long run so we felt it appropriate for our pre-race meal. Nathan also made his "special pasta and broccoli with a hint of lemon" on Thursday night. He is very superstitious about having the pasta 2 nights prior to the run!

As for the weather on race weekend...it had rained for days leading up to the race. The James River was flooded and there was talk of re-routing the race course because of the flooding. Being the weather-watching news following people we are- Nathan and I had to check out the flood waters ourselves. Here is an image we took of the river Friday night before the race.


OK- I will stop rambling and get to the details of the race. Well- let's just say for the next marathon we will do a better job of planning for the "unexpected". We had run every long run together - for the most part felt good and were able to coach each other along if one of us was having an "off-day". Unfortunately, we never really established a plan of sorts AND if one of us was going to feel bad - we both assumed it would be me!

First - we arrived down at the race with masses of people, huge port-a-potty lines, and a somewhat cold, dreary, gray morning. Not the best start to race-day... After a few port-a-potty stops, Nathan and I quickly stood at the edge of the corral we were assigned to and awaited the gun. Once starting- we had a difficult time settling into our pace with the crowds of people and I think Nathan started to get a little claustrophobic. Around mile 2 - he was ghostly white and told me he felt like he was going to vomit. All I could think about was the 24.2 miles we still had ahead of us. Needless to say, he fought through cramping calves, a bum knee, and was still able to finish with an excellent first marathon time!

Around mile 8 - I decided to continue our normal pace as he fell behind a little. I felt pretty good throughout the whole race, but was sad to not have my partner with me. We have decided to run a few more shorter races in the upcoming months 5, 10 & 15Ks for now. We would love to do another marathon at some point and hopefully run the whole thing together! Our current goal is run at least 1 marathon in every decade of our life. We both have our 20s knocked out now and will update with our next adventure.

I have posted some pics from race weekend below. We had such a wonderful time and so thankful for the support we had from family & friends throughout the weekend.

@ mile 18 party stop on boulevard!

Nathan @ mile 18 party stop - looking good!

finishing 26.2 in 4:18:02!

Nathan finishing in 4:40:40! Way to go!


The runners after our races - Taylor was such a good sport watching everyone finish!


Thanks for all the support - it was a great first marathon!


At our house after the marathon - thanks everyone for helping to celebrate my birthday, too! Taylor loved the "birthday cookie cake".

Nathan has now started back to school and I still have a few more days off before I finish my final semester. As for running, we did run the 5K turkey strut in Winston-Salem thanksgiving day and are planning on running the frostbite 15k here in Richmond January 24th! We also have a 5K in February and the Monument 10K in March. We will continue to update our blog with our latest happenings!

Less than 24 hours to go...

Heading out in a few minutes to pick up our race day packets! ! ! It's been raining in Richmond since Tuesday (about 6-9 inches total) and its finally starting to slow down a bit. Word is there may be a detour down by the river due to flooding- should be interesting. I think the only other way to get from the Huegenot bridge to Forest Hill without going down by the river is by running a whole lot of hills. I don't know which would be better, our feet getting wet or running 3-4 straight miles of hills 10 miles into the race. Anyways- we're very excited that the marathon has finally arrived and can't wait to get started tomorrow morning. Here's to hoping our training paid off! We'll blog about the race after we're done- assuming we have the energy!

Less than 2 weeks away!

Well- last weekend Nathan and I completed our last "long" run before the big day. It is amazing how much our perception of "long" has changed throughout this process. We ran a comfortable 20miles 10.25.09 and finished in just over 3hrs. Overall the run was fairly painless - I think Nathan seemed to enjoy it more than I did. Because he is our "hill expert" he decided we should run part of our normal route backwards and end with a few (keyword) hills. Needless to say, the end was not as painless for me - I did feel like my legs would just stop working at any minute, but Nathan kept us going and we charged up the last hills before heading home.

We are now in the home stretch to race day! We have (both) now suffered knee issues, cortisone shots, blisters, and many aches, but I think it will be worth it! This past week we kinda slacked off on our running schedule and now will be running every day this upcoming week; however they will be much shorter runs, (only 1 12miler, 4mi, & 3mi) :)!

We are starting to prepare for race day with food considerations, planning party stops etc. I have signed text messaging alerts/emails up for family. You will be able to track us as we're running throughout the course!

Keep checking our blog for race day pics, etc!

18 & Counting!

We really are back in the game now! We have had two solid long runs for the past 2 weekends! My knee seems to be in great shape and other than Nathan killing his feet in new running shoes, we seem to be feeling pretty good!

This past weekend, we ran 18mi - a beautiful run alongside the James which even included a stop fill up water bottles around mile 10. Last weekend we ran our 16miles - the run was similar to the run this past weekend (packed with a fair amount of hills!). Nathan's wonderful navigation skills have been perfect for our training so far - I am attaching some of his map my runs for us to to refer back to as a reminder of our training!

I cannot believe we have made it this far - we only have 1 REALLY long run left before the big day! This upcoming weekend we drop back down to 12mi and then finalize our last long run with 20mi the next weekend! Thanks for reading about our exciting training - I look forward to continuing to post!

18mi run along the James River



16mi run along river and through the fan

And...we're back in the game

So, this is my first time "blogging" (Anna's been trying to get me to do it for a while)...so I figured I'd finally give it a shot. Last week was an interesting week for a variety of reasons. Anna's left knee has been bothering her for quite a while and last Saturday (9/19) was the first time since we started training for the marathon she had to stop running. We were supposed to run 10 miles and after 8 or so, her knee was hurting enough for us to call it quits. Doing my best MD impression, I astutely observed her gait, palpated her knee and did all the knee tests I could possibly remember from class and decided she had an inflammation of her ITB. We went and bought a ITB strap from a local medical supply store and rested until Tuesday. Tuesday we ran four miles and unfortunately her knee continued to bother her. She scheduled an appointment with a sports medicine doctor in Richmond and was told that she...take a guess...she had an inflamed ITB. So- Wednesday Anna got 2 cortisone shots and some medication for the inflammation and was told not to run until Sunday (9/26). As far as your wife getting injured goes- this couldn't have come at a better time for me (did i just write that?) Last week I had my last microbiology test on Thursday and then a shelf exam (test written by the group that write our board exam) on Friday. I had secretly been hoping for a way to skip a few runs during the week without feeling guilty- and Anna's injury was the perfect excuse. So, with my tests complete and Anna's knee well rested we ventured out again on Sunday and ran 7.5 miles pain free! It's hard to believe we are only about 6 weeks away from the marathon! We'll keep posting updates as they are warranted. I'll attach a map of our 15 miles run a few weeks ago...

Let the Countdown Begin!

Half-Marathon & 10mi 12mi

Now that school is back in session, it is a little difficult to keep up to date! However, Nathan and I have continued to stick to our schedule for our marathon training. We ran our first Half-Marathon in Winston-Salem a few weeks ago. Nathan mapped out a great run for us that I am attaching below. The run went well - it was slightly drizzling, which made for perfect road-running weather.

Since then, we have had 10 and 12 mi runs on sat morning. The longer runs are now taking more time requiring us to think (and plan) our schedules better to accommodate our work and runs! Below are a few of our favorite runs.

The marathon also sent me today a race widget which will help us keep the countdown for race day!

Below is the Half we ran in W-S


Here is our favorite 10mi run in Richmond...


Our 12mi run in Richmond...