Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon

I ran the Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in Nashville today! Finally, after what seems like a million miles of training. 

It poured in Nashville before the race. Like, we had to hide in a car wash to get out of the rain (we were not the only people in there). The race was postponed almost a half an hour to try to avoid having runners on the course during a storm. When it came time to actually run, it wasn't raining anymore, but I was already soaked. My poor shoes and socks were soaked. My worst fear was that the weather was going to do a typical Tennessee thing and rain really hard, then the sun would come out and immediately there would be oppressive humidity. But the sun never really came out. 

Thanks for doing me a solid, Sun. I appreciate it.

I'd say the first 7 miles were pretty easy. I kept a good 9-10 minute pace. Then I decided to grab a little cup of Gatorade and eat a Poweraid energy gel packet. That was probably my worst mistake. I got a horrible cramp in my left side that I couldn't shake the entire rest of the race. It slowed me down considerably. 

But I finished the race. I finished it slower than I had wanted to, but there were more hills in Nashville than I anticipated running up. I'm a slow poke up hills. 

I can't wait to do another one! But first up, I'm going to house this Burger King and take a loooong nap on the couch with some french bulldogs. 

Spring PT Test

I took my Spring physical fitness test yesterday. 

I have always been a bit worried about my push up score. Actually, I've ALWAYS been worried about my run score, but lately its been more about the push up score. 

Let me clarify, I am NEVER worried about passing. I could pass any day of the year someone asked me to take a PT test. However, I prefer to study for any test I take. And a few weeks before the scheduled bi-annual PT test, I amp up my push up and sit up performance to make sure I am ready. I work on the run at all times. 

Even though I truly enjoy running... apparently I enjoy running slow!

So my Spring scores are as follows:

What did I just see? Was that at least a 90% in all 3 events? Are you freaking kidding me!?!? That is the first time in my entire career I've done that! 90-90-90 qualifies you for the Physical Fitness Badge. You sew it on you PT uniform. 

I was hoping for a better run time, but I burned myself out doing sit ups (and it was raining, so I love to blame the weather). My push ups were more than I expected so I was really happy with that count. 

One of my Soldiers earned his PT Badge yesterday too. We joked that we are PT Patch Buddies now. The real joke is that only douchebags wear the patch on their uniform. Sorry if I offend anyone, but seriously, you know its stupid. This patch is like a giant neon sign that screams, "EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM ME!" No thanks, I'll pass on that. 

But earning it for the first time after 10 years of service was still a nice milestone to meet. 

Profile

So I really needed to go to sick call. But I don't do that. I made an appointment at the clinic instead because I would rather miss work than PT. At my appointment... I was put on profile. *gasp* I have not been on a physical limitations profile since I had surgery in 2012. 

Worst of all, I'm on a no running profile. More worst of all, the half marathon is in 1 month. 

I am having very bad bilateral foot pain. I believe its been a long time coming, but running so much over the past couple months aggravated it. But you know what started the aggravation?

A freaking dog toy. 

Gertie with the weapon.

Here you can see the pointy end she gnawed into the bone.

A haphazardly lain dog toy that I didn't see on the floor. One of Gertie's favorites. I jumped up off the couch in a hurry to break up a brutal french bulldog dog fight and stepped on this stupid toy. Its a hard bone that Gertie had widdled into a shank. And really hurt my right foot. Like, I was on the floor writhing in pain Peter Griffin style. That acute injury caused me to compensate, now the other foot hurts too... blah blah blah.

Both my feet hurt so bad. So I had no choice but to go to the doctor.

I convinced my PA that I really only needed 2 weeks of rest. She understood that the half marathon is important to me but also cautioned me not to seriously injure myself in the process. She gave me a 2 week no running profile, prescribed Motrin and sent me to get my feet x-rayed. After the half marathon at the end of April I am to come back so she can set me up for a bone scan.

I've made it nearly 10 years in the Army without a major injury. I've recently gloated about that. Now this happens. 

Thanks, Gertie. 

Too Long Run

I decided it was time for another long run in preparation for the half marathon in April. So I picked a random spot in the back 40 of Ft Campbell to run. On my way to my chosen spot, I noticed a lot of Soldiers out training. One of the 101st Brigades is in the middle of a big field problem and it is running through the weekend. I didn't think it would be a problem, but as I was running along Jordan Springs Road, LMTVs kept speeding past me. In an effort to not die, I made the command decision to find a side road and change my route.

The first side road I came to was called Hellcat Road. I'm familiar with Hellcat Road because it was a land nav boundary road for one of my many EFMB attempts. I had forgotten how hilly it was, though. And it's a dirt and gravel road. Basically, Hellcat started to kick my ass. Hellcat turned into Oriental Road. And then into Destiny Trail. I almost met my destiny on that trail because the hills only got steeper. Destiny kicked my ass. By that point I was at 6 miles at lost in the woods. 

Eventually I saw a stop sign glimmer on the horizon. Civilization at last! Or, at least, a road sign so I could try to get my bearings on where I was. Palmyra Road? I'm familiar with it but nothing looked familiar. So I kept running. Running. Running. I was tired from the all the hills I had just trudged up. After a while I came to another intersection. It was Jordan Springs Road! Now I had a better idea of my location. But I ran into the problem of the LMTVs speeding past me again. Opting out of certain death, I ducked down another side road. This one was unnamed. I should have known better. 

I ran along this dirt and gravel road until I crested a hill and saw a rather large creek in my path. I had no choice but to take my socks and shoes off and wade across to the other side. The water was super cold. As I was putting my socks and shoes back on on the other side, I was thinking about how ridiculous this all was and finally checked my Run Keeper app to see my distance. 8.5 miles. And I had no idea how far from my car I was. I started to scour the GPS map on the app: searching for my start point in relation to my current location. Eventually I was able to trace my path back to my car. Although I couldn't tell exactly how far away I was, at least I had a known route to take to get back. 

I didn't have it in me to run anymore. 8.5 miles of hills was enough for me. So I started walking. Walking. Walking. I walked past a few really old cemeteries. That was pretty neat. I kept walking down this side road (that turned out to be named Ghost Corps Trail) and a stupid LMTV still barreled past me. What crappy luck! No place is safe when 101st is in the field!

Long story short, I ran 8.5 miles of hills today, walked an additional 3 miles of hills and almost got ran over multiple times by LMTVs. Great Saturday on Fort Campbell. 

Cats and Selfies

I was pretty hung over this morning, but I managed to drag my ass out of the house to go run. 6 miles. 6 pretty slow miles. But 6 miles non the less.

While I was on the way back to my car, a cat crossed my path. Except it wasn't just any cat. It was a BIG cat. Like, a 40 lb cat. It wasn't until it registered that it didn't have a tail that I realized I had just seen a bobcat. 

The bobcat had seen me too. Once it crossed the path and was in the cover of the trees again, it stopped, sat down and looked at me. 

Do you see him?

Look closer.

So I stopped and took a picture of it. Then I took a selfie because, like the rest of my generation, I'm a narcissist. A couple of dudes crested the hill as I was taking the selfie and I got really self conscious that they caught me taking a selfie. I started running again and didn't warn them that there was a really cool cat just a few feet away. 

Bad selfie. Don't care!

That was the first bobcat I've ever seen. But not the first time I've been busted taking a selfie. 

8 Miles

I set a goal to run 8 miles this morning. 

You see, the bigger goal is to run the Nashville Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon in April. So I'm going to train for it. Train better than I did for the last half marathon that I did in Egypt. To train for that, I ran 4 miles a lot of times and complained a lot. The experience of the actual 13.1 miles was miserable, to say the least. Because I wasn't really prepared. And it's so damn hot in Egypt. But mostly, I wasn't prepared.

So as I was driving out to the area I was going to begin my run, I started to talk myself down. The usual, well maybe I'll just do 6. Or if I just do 4 that's better than nothing. I do that because I hate the feeling of failure, and if I set my sites low, then I can't be too disappointed. I think the Army has trained me to never get my hopes up high and to aim low. Isn't that terrible?

I started running out in the back 40 of Fort Campbell with the plan of 8 miles, but the bail out option of 6. I figured I'd see how I felt at 3 miles and make a decision then.

Well 3 miles went by and I felt fantastic! So I ran 4 and turned around for a total of 8. I killed those 8 miles, too. NO WALKING. And no complaining. There wasn't any complaining because I was alone, but I didn't even do any mental complaining. 

My average time was around 9 and a half minutes a mile. My two fastest miles were 5 and 6. I ran those in around 8 and a half minutes per mile. It felt so good! I actually felt like I could have gone further. I am confident I will destroy the half marathon in April.

Goal (unaltered) complete. 

Run Trail

I took a 4 and a half mile run through the rain this morning on a trail through Fort Campbell that I have never explored before. It was really pretty, and there were a lot of rolling hills which made the run more challenging. 

Campbell has made a lot of improvements to running trails over the last year. There are more than when I first PCS'd here. They have been blacktopped, mile marker posts placed every quarter mile, benches and picnic tables are scattered around. There are dog clean up stations where you can get baggies in case your dog poos on the route. And garbage cans so you don't have to carry poo around with you. They even put in parking lots near "start points" on the trails so you have a reasonable place to leave your vehicle. 

I saw a bunch of deer in the woods today. Most of the Campbell deer give zero shits that you are there. They know when they are on main post, no one is going to shoot them. Smart little guys. 

I wish the trails had been like this sooner. I hope Fort Wainwright has a similar trail system set up for me to utilize in weather that doesn't include feet of snow. 

Record PT Test

I'm not redeployed yet, but I'm pretty sure PT is a safe subject to talk about.

 

I took my biannual record PT test today. I wasn't really feeling it. You know what I mean, like I wasn't concerned that I would fail, or even totally bomb an event. I just didn't feel like doing it. When I did my first sit up, I knew I wasn't going to break any world records today. I definitely didn't break any land speed records on my 2 mile run. But I scraped by on a 271.

 

 

One of these days I'd like to score 90% in my run. Someday... when I'm in the next age group and the standard drops a little.

I won't be in that next age group until I'm 32. I'm in the worst possible age group right now. All the maximum reps and run times are the highest to score 100%. For some reason the Army is convinced Soldiers are in better shape at 27-31 than at 18 years of age. I've been in the Army for 8 years, which means the Army has abused by body for 8 years. I may be 30, but the wear and tear the Army has put on my body puts me right around 36!

People say there isn't a birthday to look forward to after you turn 21-- bullshit. If you're in the Army, 32 is a pretty important birthday!

Fun Color Run

North Camp had a 4th of July Color Run this morning. This was my first Color Run. I see they've grown in popularity over the past year or so. I always look at the pictures and I think to myself, "That looks so fun." But then I never do one; that must mean I don't like fun.

 

I decided to give fun a shot this morning.

 

My assumption that it was going to be fun was a little skewed. I seemed to forget the part that there was still running involved in a Color Run. I focused on all the colorful pictures of people smiling at the end. And blocked out the running. 

 

The route was 5k and there were 4 points where colored powder was thrown. Maybe if we had more color to throw or less distance to run, the event would have been better. It was really humid this morning, which made the running significantly less fun- not that I ever find running to be fun.

 

 

 

 

But once the running was over, and we all got to see how messy and colorful we were, things started to look up for the Color Run. Now I was the smiling face at the end of the race, like in all those pictures. I suddenly felt like I had fun. Right now I feel like if you asked me if I would do another Color Run, I would tell you I would, because I'm still on the high of not running anymore.

 

I had fun this morning. I gave fun a shot, and I was successful.

 

Now, hopefully all this dye will wash out of my hair. I've washed it twice, and I still have blue streaks.

MFO Half Marathon

I did my first (and probably last) half marathon this morning. That's 13.1 miles, in case you weren't tracking. That's a looooong run. Especially since I haven't run long distance like that since being stationed at Ft Bragg-- a decade ago.

I didn't do the run to compete against the other runners. I did the run to complete the run for myself. Check it off my bucket list. It took me 2 hours and 27 minutes of continuous running. Some laps faster than others but it averaged to 11.5 minute miles. Slow. But I don't care. I completed it and didn't die....

I didn't start wanting to die until around mile 10. It started getting hot and my arches in my feet were starting to ache. My hips were getting tight. I really wanted to walk. Really really. But I didn't, mostly because I wasn't sure if I could get my legs going again. I ran the whole time.

 

I'm very proud of myself because I am not a runner. I am not built for speed-- I am built for comfort. Like a luxury sedan, not a sports car. No, no sports edition here. Cruising only.

NCO Run

I don't know why, but the Army thinks it's necessary to celebrate things by running. Thanksgiving? Let's run! Martin Luther King Jr Day? Let's run! 4 day weekend with no holiday significance? Let's run! It's Friday? Let's run!

So this morning we ran to celebrate the 43 brand new Non Commissioned Officers that were promoted down range in Iraq. Every NCO in the battalion got together (that was a whole lot of people, too) with our Command Sergeant Major and she took us on a run from Hell in honor of all of us newbies.

I understand the tradition. CSM Walter tried to pump us up and motivate us with a speech about how we are the backbone of the Army and nothing would get done without us. But personally, I do not like being physically exhausted by 0730 in the morning. I do not wish to celebrate an important career milestone that way. Sweating and wishing for sweet death does not equal a party for me. I felt no joy the entire run, until we stopped and I could finally catch my breath and put the flames out in my calves.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I love being a Non Commissioned Officer. But jeesh, can we for once just celebrate with beers?