Runniversary Edition: Sixth Year of run and fun at the New Jersey Half Marathon

I'm filled with such gratitude that I once again got to return to the New Jersey Shore to run my favorite half marathon.

This was my sixth year in a row!

4:30 AM and ready to go

The weather was good and I ran with a few good friends and we ran for fun. It gave me great joy to return once again. For a minute it looked like I might have to be away for business. And actually I was but I managed to get in the day before and still pull off running my favorite race. 

Mile after mile of this race reminds me how far I've come. 

I've had ups and downs along the way but I will forever be eternally grateful for that one February day in 2010 I signed up for it for the first time. 

The bling

Victorious

Next stops are a few OLY triathlons over the summer and then my dream race: NYC Marathon. :)

Do you have a favorite race or a race that you try to never miss? What's your longest streak of doing the same race?

Hope you are well!

XO

Jen

Running a race without racing

First medal with Angela

PR!

That's always a kinda goal in the back of my mind going into any half marathon. At very least, I'm always thinking about running the best I can and 'leaving it all out there.'

This Sunday will be different.

This Sunday I will be running the NJ Shore half marathon in Long Branch.  I LOVE this half. It's extremely special to me.

First of all, it's in the Dirty Jerz. My home state, it's my bro yo.

Secondly and more significantly, it's my anniversary half. In 2010 I toed that starting line with anticipation, a little bit of fear, wonder, hope and determination… later that day, I crossed the finish line a half marathoner - a runner, it was the first real goal I'd ever made and completed and it changed my life.

Last year, I took a full half an hour (maybe more) off my initial time.

This year, time will not matter. I will not be PR'ing and I might even finish worse than my first year!

And it's awesome.

Why?

Because I'll be doing this half with my husband. This will be his very FIRST half. I will run at his pace which is probably around what I was doing when I first started running. Marty run? Run a half marathon? This is a miracle - I am so grateful for. A good habit he just might've (well definitely) caught from me. ;)

I had the privilege, pleasure and bestowed kindness to run my first half alongside one of my best friends, Angela. I know her engine was revving to run the speedy pace she could. She walked when I had to, stopped for water when I needed a break and took pictures when I wanted to pose with mile markers. That first half was epic and it was made more special because my friend selflessly ran every step by my side.

This Sunday I will do the same for my hubby. Cheering him thru every mile, reminding him to hydrate and fuel up - I'll take pictures for prosperity and I'll keep him moving when he (maybe) hits the wall right around the 10 - 11 mile mark (at least that's where it happened for me!) And then I'll get to experience that once in a lifetime joy of crossing that finish line by his side.  His life changed forever. And mine too… I'll have the privilege and joy to be there for his first time. Every step of the way.  How awesome is that?

PR? Who needs a PR?

Have you ever paced anyone?
Did someone pace you for your first race or races?
If you are interested - read about my very first half here and last year's 1st anniversary run here.

XO
Jen

PS:  I LOVE you guys. thank you for the outpouring of love, support and cheerleading with the film. It really is gonna take this village to raise an awesome film and words can't describe how appreciative I am of you guys.

PSS: Still owe you a BL post… might not happen. Truthfully, after the walk-off and all, it was kind of an anti-climatic finale. I'm yawning over the thought of a post. Kim looked awesome. I will say that. Sick body. Wow.

California Dreamin' - Racing on the west coast

Signing up for races is addictive!

I made a decision to spend a few days in LA to convene with my Cali business partners, get some meetings done and yadda, yadda, ya so I figured I'd do that in conjunction with a race.

My business partner, Angela, who was the one who introduced me to running to begin with runs Surf City ever year. She kept inviting me to run it with her and I was hemming and hawing… I mean it's Super Bowl Sunday and as a big football fan, I had to take that into consideration! Well with my crappy team safely out of any chance to make the big game, I had nothing standing in my way.

me and Ang after Jersey Shore half 2010

Yesterday, I decided to make the commitment to run Surf City on February 5th - it's supposed to be a beautiful run along the ocean - and it's flat and fast (with typically ideal weather) so I hope to use this one to PR.  I'm so excited.  And I'm very excited to run with Angela again. She ran my very first half with me in Jersey. She was waaaay faster than me but she paced me the whole time and made my first experience awesome.

Then, today I decided to pull the trigger and sign up for The Hollywood Half.  I mean, that race just has my name all over it.



The race is on April 7th. It starts at Universal Studios and you run parts of Hollywood Blvd and Sunset and look at how cute the bling is:

Hoooray for Hollywood!

So my first two races will both be on the West Coast - which is cool because I can always justify the trips there with work related stuff in addition to the fun of the run! Plus a trip in February and another in April breaks up the winter very nicely.

I'm also planning on running the New Jersey half marathon in Long Branch again. In fact, my hubby says he's gonna run it too! (Woo!) He just started running again and training. That would be awesome.

I've decided not to run a full this spring though, I'm loosely following a marathon training program. I've been doing the weekday 'assigned' runs and then slightly modifying the long runs (like 8 miles instead of 10 and 10 miles instead of 13) but still overall increasing my weekly mileage.

My grand plan is to continue my lucky/winning streak and get into the NYC marathon in the fall and if for some reason (perish the thought) I don't get in, I'll find an alternate fall race.

Hope you are all doing well!

What races do you have coming up? 

Did you apply to the NYC lottery?

XO

Jen

The Extra Mile: Giveaway

I am back baby!

Operation no mile left behind (I just decided to declare it an "operation" by the way) is paying off. I've run for one week straight! Monday - Monday and that's good news for me! Part of the reason I was able to run everyday is because the "do a lot of miles" pressure was off and i just ran when i could or felt like it.

Now, admittedly, most of those days were mere 2 miler's - in an effort to just do something. Remember in my last post I decided not to poo-poo or look down at any opportunity to get something in.

Well, because of that stance, I logged the most miles last week that I had in more than a month (20 miles!) and the two milers helped me to feel motivated to do my 'longer' runs of 4 and 6 miles. Not to mention that all those "throw away" miles actually added up to 10 miles - exactly half of what my week totaled out to be - truly proving (at least to me) that those baby runs are valuable.

Most importantly with my no mile left behind 'tude, it's gotten me motivated to run again. The pressure is off. If I'm busy and can't get in 3 or more - I'll take 1.5 or 2 and not feel guilty about it and I love that I'm loving running again.

I am right back on track with the half marathon schedule that I'm following to get into half shape for a half I'm planning to do in October. I have two I am eyeing - Either the Atlantic City, NJ half or the Los Angeles RNR half.  I travel to LA often but money is tight so between flight and race fees, it might not work out. I'm going to try to decide by next week (before Sept 1 when both race fees increase.)

AH! YAY!

So with all of this talk of taking miles when you can, not leaving them behind and going an extra mile when possible, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity for a giveaway!

I've been reading this book called The Extra Mile: One Woman's Personal Journey to Ultrarunning by Pam Reed. WOW - talk about taking miles! This woman WON Badwater TWICE - her second win, she even beat out Dean Karnazes by a mere 24 minutes. She's competed in some of the biggest, toughest and some might argue craziest long races out there. 

If you would like to win a copy of the book all you need to do is be a follower of this blog and leave a comment. 

Get an extra entry if you post on your blog/facebook page/twitter account and tell me about it. 

Give away will continue until Tuesday August 30 and the winner will be announced sometime shortly after that.

Hope you find plenty of opportunities to get an extra mile in this week!!

XO

Jen

PS: If you want to try to win something really cool check out Words to Run By - Sara's giving away a pair of CEP compression socks and shorts!