13.1, Run and Done!

April 14, 2015 / thievinsteven / Leave a comment

Well, the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon is over. I finished my first ever half marathon and Amanda got a new personal best time on her run! We went to the expo on Friday and bought some new running gear. The only picture we got was me getting a little overly friendly with balloon running man. I don’t think he minded though.

On race day we got up at 4 in the morning. That’s right.. 4. in. the. morning. It wasn’t so bad really, but it made us pretty silly for a while. The adrenaline of race anticipation coupled with a short night’s sleep made us pretty looney.

We were also very cold! It was pretty windy and we were dressed for running in the sun, not standing around for two hours in the dark so we hopped into a hotel lobby to warm up and wait for the race to start.

I had planned to take it pretty slow at the start, like 11 or 12 minute miles until I warmed up and could tell how I was going to feel for the run but instead I was amped up and excited and feeling good so I took off at around 10 minute miles which is more my typical pace for short runs. I was able to keep that pace going for quite a few miles so I was feeling good about hitting my target time.

A lot of the race is a blur. I was mostly focusing on good running form since I was still worried about my ankle and concentrating on breathing good and maintaining a steady pace so half the time I didn’t really know what street I was on but I do remember the music. The first band was playing Last Dance with Mary Jane. A short while later the marching band blared their horns down at the runners from a bridge over the street. Scattered cheerleaders and other bands and a really cool drum group later in the race.

One thing I wasn’t prepared for is how much the spectators cheering affected me. I remember the girl at the water station in mile 6 who said “I see you Steve! Keep it up!” She was the first one who called me by name and at first I was all paranoid like who are you? how do you know my name? Then I realized it was printed on my bib and felt kinda silly.

A little after mile 10 my foot started hurting. I had run the whole thing so far so I wasn’t about to stop. As I kept pushing on the pain in my foot got worse. To make matters worse, spectators were pretty sparse near the end until you got real close to the finish. I was nearly reduced to power walking status about half a mile from the finish when I heard Amanda yell “Go Steve!” She came out to run with me for a minute and cheered me on and yelled to the spectators “This is Steve!” so then they all started cheering for me and I got a fresh burst of energy that carried me to the finish. I couldn’t stop smiling and in most of the pictures I’m sportin a big delirious smile and look something like this:

If I end up buying the pictures maybe I’ll post one, but maybe not since I look kinda like a doofus 🙂

In the end I finished in 2 hours and 25 minutes when my target time was 2 hours and 30 minutes so I’m pretty happy about that. I never knew Michelob Ultra could taste as sweet as it did. Here we are enjoying our finisher beers! I felt super accomplished and proud to have finished and to have run the whole thing!

Remember to hydrate kids!

And then redehydrate! We went out to celebrate at Cowfish for burgushi and cocktails. We had a sushi foll with rare filet mignon on top that was really delicious. Amanda had a refreshing citrusy vodka drink.

But I had a bourbon drink. It also had some citrus undertones but the show stealer was the candied bacon. As you took a bite you first tasted bourbon dripping from the bacon, then a sweet candy flavor and finally finished off with bacony goodness. I highly recommend it if you have an opportunity 😀

My foot is still hurting unfortunately. I did get it checked out and hopefully it will be better in a few more days but as of now walking more than very short distances is a bit tough. Next race will be easier though 🙂

Rock n Roll Raleigh (now with llamas!)

April 13, 2015 / Amanda / Leave a comment

Hi friends!

We had a fantastic race yesterday where we both PR’d! Which is a slightly bigger deal for me than Steve since this was his first so any finishing time is going to be your best finishing time.

I have always enjoyed reading race recaps from other people so here is my shot at a race recap 😀

We woke up at 4:30am (OMG) because the streets started closing at 5:30am and we needed to get to the parking decks. Yes this early morning wake up is as awful as it sounds. No they don’t get easier with more races.

The race didn’t start until 7:00 am so we had an hour and a half to chill and freeze in the wind. We hopped into a nearby hotel lobby with a bunch of other runners. This was glorious because hotel lobby = toilets that flush! And we were able to wake up a bit before it was time to get corralled!

There were almost 6000 runners doing the Rock n Roll Raleigh Half Marathon this year so they did a wave start to help prevent congestion at the start (thank god!!). I was in corral 4, so I wished Steve good luck and left him to find corral 13.

And then we were off!

Crazy right?!?

I was shooting for 1:50 (8:20 min/mile) so I hung out with the pace group for a while. I also hung out with them because we had the same shoes on and therefore they were cool peeps ya know. The course was mostly downtown Raleigh which has some small rolling hills. Here’s an overview of the course with the elevation profile below it.

The first ~~downhill~~ part was AWESOME. Was nice and relaxed and didn’t have my music on and had a great time! Then around mile 6 we started going uphill. FOR. 3. MILES. It wasn’t all steep. But it was all uphill. This was where I lost the pace group. Which really only happened because I walked through the aid station at 7.2 miles and grabbed a GU (the only fuel I took for the entire race). It was also where I decided that a little extra motivation was needed and I started up the iPod which was a miracle-worker for my morale!

I got my legs back around mile 10 and then promptly lost them on that last steep hill you see at the end of the elevation profile. Ugh. I walked a bit. Not gonna lie.

The finish was right around the corner though! So I picked up the pace for the last 1.5 miles and had some sub-8 min miles there at the end and finished strong at my new PR of 1:50:12!!!

Steve was still on the course so I speed walked through the finisher’s area and grabbed everything that was handed towards me (water, Gatorade, chocolate milk, pretzels, a sandwich, a banana, and a protein bar) and made a beeline for the gear check so I could grab my phone and try to get pictures of Steve.

I think I was a little out of it at this part because I saw a llama chillin on main street! I was like….OMG is that a white llama?!? Why would someone bring a llama to a race?!? Who has a llama in Raleigh?!?….wait…..that’s not a llama….that’s a dog. WTF Amanda…..

Anywho. I was able to catch Steve on his home stretch and ran with him for a bit before I realized that that was stupid cause I just finished a half-marathon and was tired and my feet hurt.

See him in the orange!! Note: we both wore orange for this race. It was embarrassing.

On my way to catch him at the finish line, I ~~hobbled~~ walked past a new patisserie and stopped in to grab some celebratory macarons! (They were incredible and dreamy) If you are ever in the Raleigh area, check out Lucettegrace for some seriously delicious treats.

I’ll let Steve tell you about the race, but we both had a blast!

Race pros:

Plenty of aid stations. I actually skipped 2 (which I rarely ever do).
Awesome spectators!
Great and challenging course
Very organized
Weather was perfect for running (slightly cool and breezy)

Race cons:

So many hills
The finisher area was pretty spread out (I had to walk a while to get to the med tent/gear bag area and to the beer garden)
Streets closed suuuuuper early

See ya later!

Race day approacheth

April 9, 2015 / thievinsteven / Leave a comment

So the Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon is on Sunday. This will once again be the longest I’ve ever run which is exciting and terrifying. At least during this run if I collapse then someone will be there to save me.

I’m actually feeling decent about the run except that my ankle has been hurting for a week or so after playing some basketball. I don’t even like basketball, there’s a reason I haven’t played in two decades. My first shot said a lot about how great I am at basketball and it turns out may have been foreshadowing how I’m going to get stuck a couple miles into the race.

Let’s hope I can keep moving and don’t need someone to come knock me loose with a water bottle like the poor basketball ended up needing.

I’m planning my fueling out a little better to avoid the delirious state I found myself in at the end of my ten mile run so hopefully I’ll be aware of where I am and what I’m doing toward the end of the race.

Truth be told I’m a little anxious, a little nervous, a little worried, a little yes I realize those are all just synonyms, and I’m a lot excited! I’ve been training for this for… I guess about 10 weeks. I’ve stuck to my training plan pretty well except for the swine flu week *shudders* and I didn’t do much of my taper because of my ankle hurting.

I just hope our neighborhood dentist mascot makes it out to cheer the racers on. He really brightened my day earlier this week and if I can be half as happy as him at the end of the race then I’ll be doing well 🙂

Actually I’m pretty sure he’s miserable inside there but putting on a smile for the rest of the world…. which come to think of it might be the case for me after 13.1 miles too. On a more positive note, if I pass out, fall and break my teeth out then he can fix me up 😀

Anyone else racing this weekend?

I’m A Visual Person or Why I Dislike MATLAB

April 8, 2015 / Amanda / 1 Comment

Hiiii! Happy Wednesday/Hump Day/Half-way Through The Week Day!

I’ve been a sub-par blogger as of late due to forgetting to take pictures of my days. Please don’t hate me 😉

At school I’ve been focusing more on actually attempting to do things a scientific way. Usually, I just order parts and assemble them and hope for the best. This isn’t exactly a scientific method and I have a hard time justifying why I choose specific parts. My bad. I just tend to follow my gut and ignore any maths that may be necessary.

BUT I am trying to change my ways and be a good little grad student for a change (it’s ok if this sounds hilarious because it totally is). I spent all day yesterday working on a mathematical model for a heat sink design. Rather than just draw something out and say it looks good, I want my design to have a purpose behind it!

So I dusted off my Mathcad skillz and started math-ing.

So pretty.

Anyways, not many people know about this software, so imma nerd out for a min and tell you about it. Most engineers/scientists use MATLAB. It looks a little something like this…

It’s a code-based tool that does just about anything you want it to. It’s super useful and awesome and everyone loves it. On the other hand, I don’t hate it. It’s not my favorite tool simply because my mind doesn’t work in a step-by-step computer fashion. So coding and I don’t usually get along too well. Luckily there is other software out there (Mathcad!) for people like me who are more visual/scattered thinkers.

Mathcad is more designed for engineering than it is for science and such, but it allows me to write out equations as I would on paper. It also keeps track of units, is a built in word processor, and you can put images in your files. While there is a certain ‘language’ that the software uses, it’s very intuitive and easy to keep track of. Here’s an old version of Mathcad that shows what I’m talking about.

This makes WAY more sense to me than this…….

Both are doing the same thing (the pictures aren’t but please ignore that I’m trying to make a point here) but one is a code-interface and the other is a graphical interface. My brain prefers the pretty pictures 🙂

Are you a visual thinker? How does it affect the way you work?

PS if you are interested in learning more about Mathcad, let me know! I may be able to write up some basic tutorials in later posts.

Hoppy Easter

April 5, 2015April 5, 2015 / thievinsteven / Leave a comment

Happy Easter everyone!

Just checking in quickly today. Amanda and I are up in Virginia today to see my 3 month old nephew Blake. He’s a very cute baby which is good because some babies look like lizards. We’re not sure why he’s so cute and if you had seen my older brother you would wonder too. Pretty sure he got all his looks from his mom although balancing coffee cups on his head is likely from his dad.

Before we went up, it was nice enough outside to get some ice cream so we took Indy along. She LOVES ice cream and hasn’t had any since last summer. She knew too, as soon as we came out with the ice cream she got very excited and reached up to sniff the bowl. We got her a peanut butter and vanilla bean combination, two of her favorites.

Indy’s reaction to the new nephew is pretty entertaining. She is a little scared of the tiny person but also seems very concerned when he cries and is constantly checking on him to see what’s wrong. Then when someone takes the baby elsewhere she sniffs the spot where he was to investigate. The jury’s still out but I think she’s ok with him.

That’s about all for now. Amanda is on a jelly bean craze. She ate all of them out of the Easter basket and has requested we stop for more on the way home so I guess I know what we’ll be snacking on 🙂

PhDeviants

Misadventures in grad school, running, and life

Month: April 2015