A Perfect Race - Wounded Warrior 2011 - Irving Texas 2011
My 6th Half Marathon this year! YAY GOD!


6-12-2011 Today God let me run a perfect race...

Up 5:00 a.m. home by noon :) Yea God! We live in McKinney - Race in the William's Square of Irving!

Faith (Daughter age 9) and John (Husband) were supportive and happy alllllll day long :) Yay God!!!!!!!

This was my first time to do race day registration and it was so much easier than I thought it would be.
Took a total of at the most 5 min! AWESOME VOLUNTEERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Left our house at 5:30 and arrived at the race at 6:15 PERFECT timing hardly any traffic and not much traffic going into the race parking. LOTS of easy to get to Race Parking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY God !!! : )

I knew the course because I had done it last year and it was HOT HOT HOT BUT!!! I was prepared for it and that helped more than words can express because I knew the course and I knew they would have LOTS of ice-cold rags, ice-water, ice for my hat, ice-towel around my neck , and ice-to put in my shirt to keep my heart machine (EKG-internal loop device) coooool!!! Also I knew there would be two or three water falls to run through and boy oh boy do they help!!! YAY GOD, THE LIVING WATER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Praising God for CK Sports moisture wicking socks cause I totally soaked my shoes in the water falls and pooring ice water over my head at each aid-station and YAY YAY YAY God NO BLISTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very little need for Police Traffic control as most of the race is on the trails CAMPION TRAILS (UNDER the TREES lots of the race is tree cover!!!!! :) Thank you God for the shade with the temps in the 90ies :) )

The first two miles and last mile of the race is on the street right behind the Williams Square area and very little traffic uses that road anyway sooooo for me this is PERFECT because I feel awful when I am holding up traffic and you can see the people saying bad words when you run by :( makes me sad for bothering them

PERFECT POLICE VOLUNTEERS!!!! They looked HAPPY  :) and they even encouraged us!!!
Go Irving POLICE you ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very few bikes on the trail and this is a real blessing to me personally cause after 10 miles when a person on a bike yells, on your left or on your right, I do not even know my left from my right at that time :) lol!

Signs for the bike riders to be careful could have been helpful and if signs had been posted the week before telling them to expect a crowd the next weekend I bet the bike riders would have waited to ride. I know as a bike rider when I know a race is on our trail I try to give the race the space :)

The aid stations were FULLY STOCKED with LOTS of water and power aid and TONS of people passing them out!!! AMAZING VOLUNTEERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also a great tip...I wear a camel back and did not even need to refill it because my husband and daughter met me around mile 5 and again around mile 8 with bottle water :) It is an out and back course so my family gets to see me TWICE from the same spot!!! and they get to SIT in lawn chairs and ring bells and help other racers between the time they see me at mile 5 and then again at 8 :) The camel back also holds lots of Gu I passed out 5 of them to people who needed them and they were VERY thankful YAY GOD!!!!!!!!!!! :)

A great tip for the race would be to have at least one Gu station on the TOP of the turnaround little hill as I saw several people hit their wall at this point and they had no Gu.

In my camel back I also carry a Gu for every mile :), Vaseline in a little zippy bag - when my feet have a hot spot I STOP and put this on to prevent blisters, several tiny salt pkg (I use the one from the edamame bean pkg cause they are water proof :) (They are great for cramps) , Individual sunscreen pkgs, antiseptic wipes/ facial wipes (for bathroom breaks) :0, gum, drivers license, phone, emergency information, pain med, icy hot individual pkgs, and a few honey pkgs (Honey =Old fashion Gu's :) and of course ICE WATER!!!!!!!!

MY WILL NOT RACE WITHOUT favorites are a white washcloth to put ice in and put on top of my head and slip the hat over it, and a white cup towel size towel to WRAP ICE IN and put around my neck and I drop ICE into my shirt it is stopped (held in the shirt by my race shirt bar) - This ICE keeps my HEART : ) cool!!! Remember I have a machine in my heart :) I REFILL this ICE at each aid station. Takes only a few seconds when they are ready and let me scoop it out... it can take what seems FOREVER when they do not have ice in a bucket and they take FOREVER to personally scoop it out while talking with their friends :( . Sometimes I have to beg for ice but as soon as I show em the scar where my heart machine is implanted that give me some ice - PRAISE GOD for ICE and volunteers who give it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YaY God!!!

RACE TIP: If a race has a big trash can full of ICE and WATER ASK first!!! Most of them are for dipping your hats in and passing out ice towels or MY FAVOIRTE ICE SPONGES on HOT HOT HOT days like today but sometimes they are their water buckets they use to fill up the water cups :( ... anyway if they have a cap dipping bucket USE IT! You can run 2 miles in an ice cold hat and never feel the heat even with temps in the hundreds! Again, Praise God for ICE and volunteers who will give it to you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YaY God!!!

My daughter and husband sit in lawn chairs and pass frozen bottle water that have thawed just a bit to runners... as you run and it melts you can sip ice cold water... doesn't get better than that :) and they LOVE to encourage people and ring bells :) I also often put these frozen water bottles in front and back of my running shirt to keep my temperature down... it sounds weird I know but it works and feel COOL!!!  and Praise God for people who ring bells!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This place has TONS of places for FAMILIES to park and sit on the side in chairs with umbrella's and watch their DVD's on the computer and play their DSI's :) This course has THREE different half marathons a year on it so far and it is my FAVORITE half marathon course to run around the DFW area cause your family has such an easy time :)  Thank you God for helping our supportive families!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish they would have a half marathon on it EVERY MONTH of the year cause I would run each one God willing !!!!! YaY God for awesome half marathon trails :) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay God!!!

The three different races on this course are the Hills and Heels in March (Sign up early for this one, it fills up fast) then the race I ran today The Wounded Warrior in June, and Hills and Heels and Him in September.

There were 1800 runners signed up today, not all showed up, as I think the heat scares them but I am 48 years old and have heart condition and if I can do it ANYONE can! They have water stations allllllllllllll over the place and like I said ice ice ice and water falls to go through and the best volunteers around. and get this I saw soldiers running the full half with 50lb back packs on so if that does not inspire you nothing will. I saw kids as young as 10 and adults over 70 finish this year and last! Temps were over 100 last year.

FAMILY FRIENDLY RACE! :) From the start of the race where the kids can play around the fountains and horse statues to the easy traffic flow so they can go to McDonalds and play and eat breakfast while mom or dad runs that first 30 min or so :) Then my family goes and parks at mile 5 of the course but there are TONS of places to park and watch!!! and once you find a good spot you get to see your racer TWICE!!! now that is cool!!!

Three of our daughters favorite things are bringing her chalk to write messages of encouragement on the side walk, making poster boards with rainbow messages of encouragement to put along the course and ringing bells! and boy oh boy does that encoruagement help all the runners !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tip : Ya got to get to the 5 mile spot a bit early to get the calk messages drawn before the runners come by :) Praise God for calk messages to encourage us !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then after your family see's ya twice they can head to the finish line and if you are a slow finisher like me they will even let your child run into the finish with you for a photo finish! Doesn't get better than that!!!
Praise God for race photographers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All the races are for good causes. The race today was for the wounded warrior fund. To be a part of helping, is ,well, it is better to give than receive and you feel!!! :) that when doing one of these races.

and then ON TOP of that, you receive stuff tooo a great sweat wicking running shirt and socks and an awesome medal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The race medals for this race as PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My hat goes off  to the person who designs them!!!!!!! YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When the kids in uniform put that medal around your neck, well, let me just say, I didn't see many dry eyes. Then you can walk over to several booths that have each branch of the military, yep again the tears flow and flow from thankful hearts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Praise God for each of them !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the kids they let you buy a COOL military coin medallion for $8.00 and your son or daughter will get something that looks a lot like mom's or dad's finisher medal and that makes them SUPER happy!!! :)

You can take a photo by a tank with wheels 7 feet tall... Yes I said WHEELS 7 feet tall! It makes an awesome photo There are soooo many photo places and things for the kids to learn and see!!!

and it is just AMAZING to role model to our kids how to show respect and thankfulness to the military who risk their lives for us every day! Let your kids them take pictures with, hug and shake hands with men and women from each branch of the military!!! You will ALL be in thankful tears :) Praise God!!!

A PERFECT RACE! A PERFECT DAY! Thank you for each and every min each and every volunteer gave to make this a PERFECT RACE! a very special memory for our whole family. YaY God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
God bless America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ephesians 3:20-21

To Run a Half Marathon Every Month

Goal 2011 Run a Half Marathon Every Month


I have this goal of running a Half Marathon every month this year.

So January 29th God let me run and walk the "Texas Half" in Dallas - That one hurt

On February 19th God let me run and walk the "Stonebridge Ranch Half Marathon" - more hills OUCH!

March I counted the Ft. Worth Cow Town Marathon for the March marathon. I tried to run the Ultra 50K but only made it to mile 21! It was on the 27 of February only a couple days before March and so well I counted it as my March half Marathon. :) Yes that one hurt but I am STILL MAD at myself for not finishing cause I know I could have! I ALMOST ran the Dallas Rock and Roll but I was at conference and didn't run it.

Well , April rolled around and I got sick the day of the half I planned to run (The Lone Star 70.3) It is UNFINISHED BUSINESS and God willing I will get to finish that race next year. I'm still mad at myself for not at least trying to finish the swim in that triathlon! The other half I really wanted to run in April was the "Hills and Heels Half Marathon". I thought I would be too sore from the Lone Star 70.3 so waited to long to enter and it sold out (I personally - Love the "Hills and Heels Half Marathon" so I was really sad when I didn't get to run it). I sure didn't want the Dream to die four months into the goal soooo.... on the last day of April...

God gave me the idea to make my own Half Marathon... It is the HOPE Marathon.

" Heavenly Opportunities for People Everyone!" To date it is my Favorite Half ever and... NO PAIN!

The fee to register is to give something to a charity of your choice and bring a stuffed animal if you have one to donate to the local fire department to help children who are in an emergency.

So it started at 9:30 a.m. AAAAHHHHH a nice time to start. The course was outside my front door. AAAAHHHH a nice place to run. Our neighborhood has a perfect one mile loop so I repeated it 13 times.

AAAAHHHH the convince of my own nice clean restroom to use. and the best part of all I could check on my 9 year old daughter every few miles. :)

Had a ball.... The weather was PERFECT. Temp in the 70's and 80's cloud covered and shaded almost the whole way!  My husband walked/ran the last three miles with me.  AAAAAAHHHHH such a happy memory!!! Thank you God.    The medal... My daughter made me a picture and my husband bought me a necklace with a running shoe on it.  My daughter added her little silver cross to the necklace Priceless!

1-29-2011 Texas Half Marathon

Texas Half Marathon - White Rock Lake Dallas, TX 1-29-2011
"The Zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this" (Isaiah 37:32) We get tired. Who gives strength? The Lord Almighty
Favorite part of race - The nap I am going to take in a few minutes! The icy hot patches! Oh and the meal at OutBack Steak house with family after the race Yummy Yummy Thank you God! Also Thankful John and Faith ran the 10K and everyone in the race was safe! God bless the many volunteers!
Had a sore throat and only 4 hours sleep - almost didn't go to race. Thankful for a supportive family who encouraged me and got me there. Thankful to friends and family who prayed me through it.
Temp - started in the 50ies ended in the 70ies beautiful clear sunny day
Port-O-Potties steps from where we parked - no lines :) on the race plenty of port-o-potties- One at the first mile! No line and I was thankful because I had to go again!!! :)
Traffic - I'm thankful for the traffic! We arrived at 6:00 a.m. which turned out to be a perfect time. The parking lots filled within minutes. Once started, I'm thankful for the fuel. I took two "Gu's" (for those of you who don't run marathons, they are these little slimy packets of energy. Some of them even taste... ok). Anyway, I took two... which lasted till I got to mile 4 or so... arrgggghhhh!!! What was I thinking. I'm already out, and still need one for every 30 min. or so after! The race gave half cups of m&m's at mile 8. Nice. After finally dragging my bootie across the finish line, they had bagels and bananas there. That was good... But I want MEAT! (Hence... Outback :)
Spectators/ sings/ bells and noise makers = few/no signs :(/no noise makers - I need!!! them :)
Hazards - TONS of bikers... yelling on your left on your right - by mile 11 I did not know my left from my right, 5 hills or so, a wooden bridge, a mile or so of rough road surface. Finish line UP HILL with no crowd to cheer you on.
Blessings - Lots of volunteers to work the water stations, wonderful ROTC students passed out medals, my husband and daughter came with me and ran the 10K
Water Stations - had plenty of water and Gatorade - spaced well until mile 6 then got sparse. Had to stop at water fountain twice but Praise God for the water fountains :)
Shirt - Blue with a large Texas on it - sweat wicking material **** four star see picture attached
Medal - Red Texas on a silver square with the date ****four star see picture attached
Crowd - I estimate 500 for the half marathon - nice calm non competitive start in my opinion
Friendly, encouraging group of runners and volunteers - over 1,000 signed up in both events

Favorite memories - talk to a guy the first 6 miles who is training to run the marathon in Greece. Sounds so fun!!! 12 min mile pace for the first 6 miles! That's good for me. Mile 7 almost gave up- thighs began to cramp/heart rate 217!/and ran out of water - Team in training mentor shared his water with me :) Called my husband and said I am about to give up - this is my first time in 7 half marathons and 3 full marathons to call and say I was giving up... I joked and said come get me and He said, "No! Later you will be mad if I do!" He was right of course and glad he didn't but just talking to him and knowing he was praying helped so much!!! Then met two teachers from Oklahoma and ran the next 5 with them. They were fun and funny and time passed quickly - Thank you Jesus... Last two miles saw a lady with GOD on her back and ALL things are possible with on the front of her shirt, she was struggling so I stopped and told her I had Victory in Jesus on my back and Ephesians 3:20-21 on my front and we could finish the race together :) she was encouraged and started to run again. She thanked me over and over - I told her it was God helping her not me :) Played my Christian Music on the Iphone out loud from mile 8 to 13.1 Tons of people said thanks for the inspiring music. My buddy from the first 6 miles found me at the end of the race! In my mind this was the childhood buddy I told you about in the last blog who had a very hard week and we were running together!!! I had no idea I had helped him but he told me several times thanks for helping him with those first 6 miles :) I told him it was God not me... As I ran I saw a lady who looked familiar and sure enough she found me at the end of the race and said she remembered running Kauai with me... what a small world we live in :) Her name is Cheryl and she said she has done the Cow Town Ultra 3!!! times and would look for me and help me finish that race next month... Thank you - Thank you - Jesus when you call us tooooo something you REALLY do bring us through it. To God be the GLORY Great things HE did!!!!
Would I race it again? Yep in a couple hours after this nap, God willing :)

IDEA for a new marathon concept... Race to the Restaurant!!!
So here is the concept:
Instead of T-shirts you get a FREE meal at one of 7 or so Restaurants along a running path... you know the string that always show up together on the freeways... OUTBACK, Chilies, Olive Garden, Fuddruckers, Chinese, and on and on... So you run 13 :) Hit the restaurant and have a nice meal and rest for an hour :) Then get back out there and run the second half!!! Good idea right??? After that meal and rest I know I could have run 13 more... ok so maybe I am delirious... I really would have needed a nap tooooo and what would the cut off time have to be extended toooo hum.... 8:00 to noon for the first half... 1:00 to 5:00 for the second half... anyone want to plan a race like this with me... I bet we would do wellll!!!! The restaurants would donate the food for free advertisement :) Hey now we can give the T-shirts toooo God bless and good night...
If this crazy little race review inspired you to sign up for Team in Training to raise money for cancer will you tell them Susan sent ya??? It helps with my fund raising goal that I have to make.
If this crazy little race review inspired you to sign up for a race will you consider donating $10.00 To the attached link... if ya just had fun reading it how about $5.00 --- Most of all have a blessed day :) God is good!