Flying Pig Marathon Archives - Lindsey Hein

Beginning of a new training session.

OutForARunAdmin — Sat, 24 Nov 2012 20:31:00 +0000

We missed the Drumstick Dash this year. I was sad to break the tradition & was sad not to start off Thanksgiving with the BoMF crew, but with Marshall, it was decided to head out of town Wednesday and miss the run.

Instead Glenn and I woke up in Crown Point and ran 10 miles. I am so happy to be able to do longish runs together again. I know once he starts his training for Carmel, our paces for long runs will be way too different, but for now while he is maintaining fitness before he ramps up training in a few weeks, I’m enjoying being able to do some runs together. Like old times.

I’m taking two days off and on Monday, I’ll begin my 16 week training plan for the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. I haven’t done an entire 16 week training cycle since our first marathon in 2008. 16 weeks seems so long to me, but with the Rehoboth Beach Marathon two weeks into the training, I think it will be broken up nicely as I’ll have a mild cut back for two weeks after that race.

My real goal for Rehoboth is not to PR, but to run a negative split, which I have NEVER done. This will help give me the confidence to PR with a negative split in the spring.

I haven’t decided what pace to try for for Rehoboth, still need to sit down and come up with a game plan. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking possibly, go out at 8:20 pace and pick it up slowly for the last 13 miles.

I know it will be hard to control the pace, but the goal of the marathon isn’t to race, it’s to teach myself control and also to enjoy the run. This race isn’t supposed to hurt, it’s supposed to feel good. (I envision it to be similar to how I felt for Flying Pig in 2011). I didn’t race Flying Pig, as it was a marathon coming off 6 weeks after a PR and we just signed up to run it for fun. So I ran, I didn’t run slow, but I didn’t run fast and when I finished, I felt like I could run 5 more miles. If I run Rehoboth smart, that is how I should feel when I finish.

And this has nothing to do with my upcoming races, but this is what the boys are up to today:

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Month of May

OutForARunAdmin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 14:08:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I last posted. I have decided it is hard work to keep up with a fairly consistent blog entry. So here goes a new one for ya! It seems like I have been up to a lot of racing and what not since last time. Like the Arcade Fire song, I’ll see how fast I can make the month of May go.

Since I last posted, we ran the Flying Pig Marathon in Ohio on May 1, as Lindsey blogged about the other day. It was fun to run the marathon with Erik, even though he took off at mile 10. It is always fun to experience someone’s first distance attempt. It was a great weekend! It was fun as well to run with Lindsey the last six miles, despite my lack of food attack at mile 23. All in all a good marathon.

The following weekend was the Back on My Feet 5k, which was the first timed 5K they ran and was in conjunction with the Indy Mini downtown. They were loving the massive crowds! I’ve got to say it is pretty cool to see 40,000 plus people at the start and all together, even though the actual course sucks I think. So that was a great time to see all of them racing. My plan was to run the 5k with Mitch but we were separated at the start. I guess I ran the weave through the slow moving traffic a little too fast. I ended up running an 18:43. So that was pretty cool. The legs definitely felt tired from the previous week. The only thing that kinda sucked about the race was I ran under someone else’s bib so I can’t get any time glory…oh well guess I will just need to run another 5K.

The next weekend found me in the back woods of the Ozark National Forest of Arkansas doing the Syallamo’s Revenge 50 mile mountain bike race. Let me just start by saying that the first 27 miles of this race were by far the absolute most difficult trail I have ever been on. The race started down in Blanchard Caverns and went straight up a steep fire road for about 1.5 miles upon which time you entered he$$, also known as the trailhead. I knew it was going to be difficult riding but I would have never imagined the amount of greasy roots, up hill and down hill rock gardens, and mud that I encountered in the woods.

Greg, Lindsey’s Dad, and I decided beforehand that we were going to ride together. I usually leave him at the start of these things and do my own racing but it was actually a lot of fun to have someone to suffer with…even though we were moving slower than I prefered…no big deal though.

All in all, Syallamo’s was a great time. A hard time but a great time nonetheless.

The next two weekends were spent hanging with our respective families in Crown Point and Bloomington for my Mom’s birthday and then Mother’s Day.

May was definitely a hectic month but a fun month. I don’t think that we would have it any other way….we wouldn’t know what to do if we didn’t have something going on every weekend

I’ll see if I can do a better job of keeping up with this…I do have triathlon news to talk about now.

-Glenn

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Lindsey’s Flying Pig Race Report

OutForARunAdmin — Mon, 30 May 2011 21:37:00 +0000

Flying Pig was a planned “Run for Fun” Marathon. Given that Glenn and I had both PRed in March at the Lower Potomac Marathon, we figured we deserved to that. When I was running Lower Potomac in March, one of the biggest motivators to keep up a good pace and finish with a PR was knowing that at Flying Pig 7 weeks later I could just sit back and enjoy the race, no worries about time. Glenn had plans of running with our friend Erik for his first marathon. Erik is a naturally gifted runner and wanted to run 3:00 hours for his first race… and Glenn was going to try to pace him/try to stay with him! (although 3:00 is 5 minutes faster than Glenn’s PR of 3:05) So the just chillin idea for him obviously wasn’t happening.

At the start of the race we were all in trash bags getting rained on. (I’ve never given in to the trash bag wearing thing before, but it was actually really great). Glenn, Erik and I all started in corall B, but after the bathroom stop right before the race we never found eachother again so- of I went to run the 26.2 on my own! (well, along with however many other people race Flying Pig).

Warming up felt fine as I was soaking in the atmosphere and crowd. Around mile 5 I started to get those marathon thoughts that creep in your head when you still have 20 miles to go. You know…. thoughts like, maybe I will just take the 1/2 marathon course instead, or how the heck am I going to do this? Why am I spending my morning doing this? Then I started thinking of how jealous I would be on the ride home when Glenn and Erik would be talking about the full… and about how ultimatley I really do want to run a marathon in every state, so what would be the point of cutting this one off and having to do Ohio all over again.

The whole race I remained at a steady, very comfortable 8:20ish pace and refused to speed up like I tend to do around miles 7-10. As usual, I was watchless, but everytime I crossed another mile the volunteers yelling out paces had me at that same steady pace. I was honestly kind of waiting for when I would “blow up” and have to painfully make my way into the finish. Our March marathon was only 7 weeks before- and we only made sure to get one “long” run of 16 miles in before this race…. and that was just one week before. (not very smart right?)

After the Lower Potomac Race when my race friend Steve coached me to my brand new PR- I told myself I wanted to pay it forward and do something similar for someone at Flying Pig. I kept trying to find someone who looked like they needed encouragement and run with them. Unfortunately I never found anyone who seemed interested in my company… and the last thing I wanted to do was be annoying to someone who was already hating life because they are in the process of running 26.2 miles. Since that plan fell through, I just made sure to encourage those who I ran past and really try to lift people up who seemed like they had lost the mental battle.

I get to mile 20- a little bored and wishing I had some entertainment. I look over to the right side of the road and there’s Glenn standing on the side waiting for me. Apparently at mile 10 he decided he didn’t have the interest in trying to push himself for 16 more miles with Erik, and certainly didn’t want to hold Erik back if he couldn’t keep up. He had walked an entire mile before I caught up to him (he was pace for a 3:10… so it took a while for me to catch up to him) What a precious husband I have.

Over the next 6 miles, we talked a lot, and I loved it. We were cruising and it felt great. 3 miles in to that last 6, Glenn had a lack of protein attack- he was starving (forgot his mini cliff bar at the hotel). and had to slow down. Of course I wanted to slow down with him- because he waited for me and his company was much better than running by myself…..but I was kind of hmmmmmm…. frustrated because I had had such a consistent pace the entire marathon and felt really comfortable still at mile 23. I really just wanted to see if I could finish out at that pace with that much comfort. Luckily at mile 24 there was this mystery homemade aid station that was handing out full size cliff bars. Perfect! Although he did fumble it once he got it opened, dropping it on the ground, it didn’t stop him from woofing it down and giving him energy to pick it up and finish on in at that steady 8:20ish pace I had been keeping.

As we were coming in to the finish with about 1/2 mile to go, I realized I was still feeling pretty good and totally had another 5 or so miles in me. Do I see an ultra in our future? Pretty tempting! The only kind a marathon that feels better than the kind where you finish feeling as though you could run a few more miles is the kind that you set a new PR. OK, and maybe also the kind where you run with someone for their first marathon.

Next up: We are going to do our first triathalon this summer. Yippie!

Erik, Glenn and I night before the race!

Standard Glenn & Lindsey Marathon Morning Breakfast

Of course… watching track the night before in our oh so lovely Extended Stay Hotel

OCD in action the night before a race.

OCD still in action.

Glenn & Erik around mile 5….before the NAKED guy running the race was tazzed and taken to jail…. (Lindsay, Eriks wife was at mile 6 cheering for us and saw him run by in all his glory before the cops got him)

Glenn & I finishing together in 3:38 and some change. Out of 8 marathons- we’ve only actually finished two together.

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Lower Potomac River Marathon RR

OutForARunAdmin — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 23:40:00 +0000

We made it to Piney Point!

At packet pick up, we were kind of thinking… what have we gotten ourselves into? It was basically a table set up with three ladies who handed us our bibs and t-shirts and expressed no interest in us being there. Hi, thanks for the bib, bye, was pretty much the extent of the conversation.

We head over to our hotel which ended up being an extended stay. It was kind of creepy, off to the side of this industrial road. When we walked in, nobody was at the desk, and it was eerily quiet. Finally this girl comes around the corner to check us in. She talked in a really soft voice and had a strange presence about her. She was doing the creep. I went straight to the bed and checked out the sheets to make sure everything looked clean. I’m not saying that means they were clean, but it made me feel better.

Glenn offered to take me down the road to a Marriott we saw that wasn’t full, but we would have lost our money on the extended stay, so I sucked it up and we stayed at the creeptastic hotel. One more mention to the creepiness of this place – there were several vacant looking rooms on the third floor and the curtains were pulled back all funny like it was an abandoned building. Overall creepiness factor of this place was 8 out of 10.

On to race morning- we showed up at 6:50 for the 7:15 start time. Since it was such a small race everyone just lined up and the race director said Ready, Set, Go. Glenn made sure to head to the front of the line, since he was trying to qualify for Boston – and although this course is a Boston certified course, there were no chips! So, he couldn’t afford to lose any seconds, in case he qualified right on the dot. We get to the line – hug, kiss and we are off.

We knew going in to the race there was at least one out and back section that we would see each other, but did not realize there would actually be three- at miles 5, 10 and 19. Here are our the 2 second passing recaps:

Mile 5 – We feeling good and I made sure to run over and high five- I don’t think he was really feeling that, but I made him do it.

Mile 10 – We asked how each other were feeling – he says good, I say ok. He tells me I’m in 2^ndplace for the women by a lot. Of course I realize this, and I feel a little frustrated because knowing I have a chance to place I start feeling pressure to try and hold it. Let’s be real here – 2^nd place a mile ten doesn’t mean you’ve got anything in the bag.

Mile 19 – Technically this was more like 18 for me 19.5 for him. We look at each other in obvious pain. I am on a downhill, getting close to the turn-around point and he is climbing the same hill I am going down, on the other side of the street. Now I’m focused on the fact that in about 10 minutes I am going to have to run by butt up that hill, he is so painfully climbing.

Needless to say those three points of the race were the most fun, as we were able to give a little support to each other, and although that was a big race highlight in my book- the most important part of my race happened at mile 10. This is when I started running with a guy that had gradually caught up to me. We started chatting a bit and he asked me what pace I was going for. I tell him I’ve trained for a 3:30 and would really like to break that, but have had a hectic two weeks, so I’m just seeing what happens. He tells me, “Oh you are way on to break that”. I tell him, I kind of guessed that, but I’ve been here before at mile 10. There is a lot of running left.

Glenn likes to joke and say I have marathon affairs with other guys, because I usually end up running with a random guy in races. He is openly fake jealous about this. So about this particular marathon affair – this guy is a very experienced marathon runner, he has done over 25. His PR is 3 hours flat, but for this race, like me he is going for a 3:30. Naturally we decide to stay together. I tell him I am hoping to chill at this pace until about mile 15 and start picking it up. He tells me not to, thinks I will bomb later on in the race if I pick it up that early. I think it through and decide I am going to trust this guy.

I decided not to wear a watch for this race (no watch, no ipod, no distractions). The only clock on the course was at the ½ marathon. I am usually very good at guessing my pace, andI had an idea how fast we were going. At the ½ marathon we were at 1:40 and some change, which was a good sign… on for a 3:20 if we didn’t lose any speed. I have not however, EVER run a negative marathon split. The closest I have ever come was in St. Louis last year when I ran a 3:34, and even then I was 13 minutes off from a negative split. So, although I felt pretty darn good, I didn’t see it being hopeful that I wouldn’t lose at least 5-10 minutes.

Over the course of the next 16 miles, we talked about marathons, Glenn, his girlfriend and kids and just running in general. This guy pretty much coaches me in for the last 16 miles. He tells me to relax down the hills and shorten my stride just a bit up the hills. (miles 12-24 had a decent amount of rolling hills, that were doable, but definitely challenging) More than anything though, he boosts my confidence, which is what I really needed.

Now I am focused and it’s the middle of the race. The 2^nd place situation is something I’m really thinking about. Miles 10-13 the girl in third was slowly gaining on me, and at 14 went on to pass. It discouraged me a bit, but as I was running behind her for quite a while, I realized her stride was looking labored. At mile 18, Steve looks at me as says “you’re going to beat that girl” I laugh it off and get more nervous. He tells me my stride looks great, and my breathing is on and it’s going to happen. Sure enough, we end up passing her at mile 19. She hung on for about a ½ mile, but soon fell off. What I didn’t expect though, was at mile 21 when the girl who had been chillin in 4^th place most of the race came cruising by us. Literally cruising. There was no hope for me keeping up with her, so we just tried to maintain pace and move ahead.

At this point, although my main goal of the day was to just break 3:30, I want 3^rd place. Let’s be honest, 3^rd feels a lot better than 4^th. Miles 21-26 were pretty darn painful. I think I told Steve I was thinking about crying on 4 different occasions during these miles, along with also telling him I thought I might pee my pants. He told me to go ahead and do that if I had too, after all there were showers at the end of the race. The good news is that I actually didn’t cry or pee my pants, but at least Steve was OK with it if I did.

As the mile markers crept by, it was getting pretty hot and I was in a mental battle to get my body to the finish line. I kept telling Steve to just get me to the next mile marker. At mile 24, he tells me I’m going to blow my PR out of the water, while also blowing that 3:30 goal out of the water. I’m thinking…. Look Steve, I don’t know… we’ve still got 2 miles left, I could crawl it in for all you know. I start reminding myself about how badly I was hurting in Chicago last year, which helped, because I knew for sure that no matter how bad I was felt… I DID NOT hurt that bad.

Once we cross mile 25, Steve sees a guy up ahead that looks like he may be in his age group and suggests we slowly creep up on him and pass, in case they are in the same age group so that he doesn’t miss out on an age group place. I tell him – “no way, can’t make that happen, but please go get him for yourself…. You helped me get here, and I will see you at the finish line very soon. Steve decides as long as he has 400 meters, he can catch this guy, so he’ll hang with me a big longer. Sure enough with 400 meters to go, he takes off and passes.

With a half mile left in the race, I know for sure I have third place locked in, which felt awesome. I turn the corner after the 26 mile marker to haul in the last 200 meters. Like always, there’s Glenn walking towards me to see my finish. There he is, holding up my Boston sweatshirt. I was so focused on getting my butt to the finish line; I realized I had briefly forgotten about my husband’s hard sought after goal. 1 second later it clicks… he’s holding up the Boston shirt to signify that he QUALIFIED!! As I’m gutting it out to finish I look back at him, yell “what was your time?!” He yells back “3:05”… holy crap he smashed the current Boston Qualifying standard by 5 minutes! I start screaming out of excitement – and forget about my pain for a second.

Twenty steps to go, I look up at the clock – turning over to 3:24. I can hardly believe it. There are two people who I want to bury in hugs– both Glenn and Steve. I run over to Glenn and celebrate our huge PRs and his first BQ. I am so excited for him, and can’t help but feeling a little selfish that I am almost (ALMOST) equally excited about my 3:24. Immediately after I hug Glenn… I have to go find my buddy who coached me to this PR. We hug, get a picture and I thank him 5,000 times for his encouragement.

I tell him he got me to the finish line in that time – and really believe he did. Although I clearly physically got myself there, one thing I know for sure is that without him, I might have had a new PR, but it certainly would not be 3:24. Two very important lessons in running– or achieving any goal was shown here. There is nothing that can replace the importance of having confidence in your abilities. There is also nothing that can replace the importance of boosting someone else’s confidence when they need it most. He made me believe that although I was hurting, I did not need to slow down and I could in fact destroy 3:30.

Oh Happy day – An amazing race for both of us, a quick pasta dinner with the other runners, the award ceremony – where indeed I grabbed the overall womens third place and received $100.00 in prize money, and my now Boston Qualified husband placed 2nd in his age group, with a 9th place overall finish. Not too shabby! Let me humble myself really quick though and mention that there were only around 160 runners in the whole race. =)

Pictures from our adventure!

Steve and I – it’s not often you run 16 miles with someone you’ve never met. Just one more reason runners are so weird.

We recognized this guy from a Runner’s World article last year. He is a Marathon Maniac – Literally. Very nice guy, runs about 80-100 miles a week.

Boston Bound!

Thank You for boosting my confidence Steve!

Bye Bye Piney Point!

We hop in the car, turn on the Decemberists and talk about the race for the next two hours. It’s a good thing we both love this so much, otherwise we would find our conversations completely annoying. And by the way, have you ever sat in a car for 12 hours after running a marathon? Talk about uncomfortable legs.

Next marathon cued up: Flying Pig – Sunday, May 1st.

And…. the Hein’s will be seeing everyone in Boston next year!

Happy Running!

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