After seeking asylum in Canada from a country that had been in Civil War for years, Diane was recruited to run for the University of Iowa with Coach Layne Anderson where she was a three time All American. She has a marathon PR of 2:27:50 and you’ll hear in the interview that her favorite distance is the half marathon where she olds a PR of 69:12.

In this episode you’ll hear about life growing up in Burundi, making her first Olympic team at such a young age and what her journey to the United States looked like and so much more!

Diane was so kind to stay on for an extra 20 minutes for our patreon supporters! Check out patreon.com/lindseyhein and support at the $5 level or more to gain access to that!

Show Notes:

Becoming – Michelle Obama

Alicia Keys on Arm Chair Expert

Gabrielle Union on Oprah

Being Mary Jane

Follow Diane:

Diane on Instagram

Follow Lindsey: 

Lindsey on Instagram

Lindsey on Twitter

Lindsey on Facebook 

Join the I’ll Have Another Facebook Group

Support the Podcast on Patreon

Sponsor:

Previnex

Code “another for 15% off your first order

Currex

Code” IHA15″ for 15% off your order

Lily Trotters

Code “another” for 25% off your order

]]> https://lindseyhein.com/2020/07/03/episode-257-diane-nukuri/feed/ 1 https://lindseyhein.com/2019/05/13/one-america-500-festival-mini-marathon-weekend-recap/ https://lindseyhein.com/2019/05/13/one-america-500-festival-mini-marathon-weekend-recap/#comments Mon, 13 May 2019 17:34:21 +0000 https://lindseyhein.com/?p=10495 more »]]> I’ve always been a fan of the One America 500 Festival Mini-Marathon. There are so many reasons, but a few include that it was my very first half marathon in 2005, it’s right downtown Indianapolis; the city I am so proud to live in and it’s such a well organized and entertaining race. Seriously, you don’t go a mile without some sort of entertainment or organized cheering on this course. So much local energy cheering on runners on the race course. I smile so big when I run by the bands and the groups you see year after year.

This year, coming off baby number four and Boston- it was for the pure enjoyment of running for me. I was so happy to have friends coming in from all over to visit and run the race with me. (Well not really with me, they all ran much faster than I.

Janae, Charlie and Kim all came from Utah, Cali and London to be a part of this weekend!

We started the weekend with a shake out run and then a fun meet up at the expo. It was so nice meeting so many listeners and seeing new and old friends at the expo.

This is Jeff- who has been following along the podcast for a long time now and Glenn and I have become friends with him over the years. He is such an inspiration after being a long-time smoker, non-running kind of guy, he took up running in his 50s and hasn’t looked back having clocked several half and full marathons. He also gives back to the running community (which we should all do) He ran the back of the pack sweep crew last year at the Mini.

Race morning was super fun and Glenn and I partied the entire race. (We did pass up the whiskey shots a random spectator was passing out around mile 11 though.  I just didn’t think I could keep that down haha.

Don’t mind me, live insta-storying the entire race. AND GLENN with his mouth full of donuts. We just don’t mess around with half marathons around here.

And this is what it looks like after you collapse from kissing the bricks in the most perfect push up you can muster halfway through the race. Shortly after this picture is when we found the donuts that Frank Shorter was passing out and Glenn had people ask him to also take their picture kissing the bricks. Race partner and race photog.

We finished just over 2 hours- talked the whole time about who knows what. I can’t really believe I ran Boston at a faster pace (barely faster but still) than I did at the Mini. I definitely was “playing” harder at the Mini than I did at Boston, but marathon recovery ain’t not joke ya’ll! Even though it rained the entire race- the rain didn’t feel bad and the atmosphere was still fun. It only got cold and icky feeling after the finish when we tried to hang out a bit at the Athletic Annex tent.

If you have never raced this half marathon- you need to put it on your list. It’s so fun and if you are looking to race fast, it’s a PR friendly course as long as you are in the right corral for your speed! Huge thanks to the 500 Festival for doing an A+ job per usual and bringing so many fabulous people to our city!

After there race, we had a great celebration with Michelob Ultra at Athletic Annex ‘s brand new location. Even though it wasn’t planned this way, there ended up being so many guests from my podcast in the building- we had to get a picture of it!

In this picture from left to right top first then bottom, Kristin Srour, Hollie Hughes, Janae Baron, Bob Kennedy, Charlie Watson, Tina Mui, Casey Kenely, Christi Beth Adams, Glenn Hein, Denise Mcmillan, Kimberly Clark, Ericka Andersen, Leann Faust, Holly Wheeler. (Holly, Wheeler, Casey Kenely, and Leann Faust were all part of a live podcast recording that is available on patreon)

Perhaps the coolest part of the weekend was getting to meet Hollie Hughes and her family. She pushed her son Jonah to a Guinness book world record at the Mini- running a time of 1:24:52 pushing a Hoyt Wheelchair. Hollie and Jonah are both a huge inspiration and if you haven’t listened yet- listen to my most recent podcast episode with her to learn more about their story!

Huge thanks to all my friends and family who showed up for this weekend! What an incredible community we have in running. I’ll finish this post with a family picture from the after party. Glenn showed up with all four of the boys- three of which had their “I’ll Have Another” shirts on, which was totally his idea and just way too cute. The boys don’t come to many of my work functions anymore… especially not the whole crew…. so it felt really special to have them there.

Big thanks to the 500 Festival Mini for a great weekend and thanks to Michelob Ultra for supporting our after party and engraving finish times into pint glasses— that was a huge hit! We’ll see you all next year for one of the most fun weekends of the year and certainly the best month in Indy! MAY!

I ran this race for the first time in 2005. It was my very first half marathon. My mom, dad and one of my sisters did it too. My sisters and I actually just recorded my third podcast episode and we discuss the experience.  (More on the podcast in an upcoming post) I ran the first 6 miles with my mom and then finished on my own. I wasn’t trained- had ran around 6 miles for the longest run leading up. It was so hard. In the 10 years since that first time, I’ve done it 8 of the 10  years. And it’s fun every time.

Once you’ve ran a few half marathons, it’s easy to jump on the bandwagon of “Oh the mini is too crowded”. People who have done it a few times, sometimes think, I’ve been there done that, I don’t like it, there are too many people…. It’s only for first timers. I’m here to say that I am no first timer and I LOVE the mini. Here’s why:

• It’s an amazing event for our city. HELLO- it brings thousands of people into Indy and is great for the local economy. Duh.

• It’s fun. Stop taking yourself so seriously. You aren’t trying out for the Olympic team and it’s not a big deal if you have to weave around in the first few miles. If you really want to avoid that- run a race beforehand to get yourself a starting spot in a closer to the front corral. Last year I ran a 1:38 starting in something like corral F (which is sort of far back for that time) and it really wasn’t all that bad. I mean there was plenty of weaving, a bathroom break, and it was fine.

• How fun is it to see our city filled with people full of energy and happiness (or despair if you check in on them at mile 10) all morning. You’ve got first timers, people who do it every year, people running for fun, people running with a family member or friend who are doing the race for the first time ever, people trying to PR, people running for a charity close to their heart. There are SO many reasons they are out there testing their limits or just having fun and it’s a good thing. Who cares if you have to bump elbows with some of them for the first few miles?

• It’s the 40th running of the 500 festival mini AND the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500. That is cool.

• You get to run through Haughville. You might say it’s a dumpy part of town, but I say, open your eyes when you run through and think about how maybe you could be a part of making it better.

• Speedway is totally the new “in” part of town with Big Woods, Dare Devil — I noticed how cute it was and how much it had changed already last year when we ran through. My friend who runs the speedway running club told me I won’t even recognize it this year.

• The finishing shoot is amazing- they play old clips from the 500 which is so cool. The stretch on New York is long, but it’s a fun and fast last mile with plenty of people cheering you along the way.

This is the breakdown of my 500 Festival Mini Marathon Experiences:

• 2005 – First Half Marathon Ever- along with my mom, dad and one of my sisters. Nobody was prepared. We all wanted to die. I ran a 1:59:52. My goal halfway through the race became to break 2:00. The longest run leading up to it was 6 miles. I was REALLY proud of that sub 2 hours. I so wish I could find a picture. Sad face.

• 2006 – Started dating Glenn this year and convinced him to run it with me. I think he beat me though. No he did. I just checked. He ran a 1:46:24 and I ran a 1:47:15. At least he didn’t walk. When he ran his first 5K with me the year before, he had to take a walk break halfway through.The best part about the picture below- well there are a lot of best parts, but Glenn is rocking a cotton pizza express shirt that said “I get it every night” and you better believe that cotton shirt had blood streamed down the front of the shirt at the end from his bloody nipples. We didn’t know about body glide back then. I can’t even talk about the leg chaffing I experienced. Because my legs don’t not touch. (There’s an inside joke there; after the race, as I was basically crying from the leg chaffing pain, I looked over at my mom who had ran too and asked her if she had the same issue, to which she responded with “My legs don’t touch”) So that will forever be etched in my mind. My legs touch, but my moms legs don’t touch. Whatever man. Pro leg touching over here. (No bashing my mom, she’s great, these are just the things I just like to call her out on)

• 2007 – We ran again, Glenn ran 1:52:14 and I have no clue what I ran, because I must have used someone else’s bib. There is no record of Lindsey Andersen running, but I did run it that year.

2007 Mini Marathon

• 2008 – This was the year, we got married, bought a house and ran our first marathon. We did this as a training run for the marathon. I ran a 1:37:30 and Glenn ran 1:37:45. This is actually a funny story, because we started the race together and broke apart around mile 6 and never saw each other again until the finishing shoot… where I was in front. Sorry bout’ ya Glenn. Your soon to be wife won. But really because of this race, I realized it was a possibility that I could try for a BQ on that first marathon. It planted the seed of confidence I needed. (keep in mind BQ standards were 5 minutes slower back in the day) Oh my gosh. We were babies.

• 2009 – This is the year I trained senior citizens at the John H. Boner Community Center to walk the 13.1. It was a long process, but it was pretty cool. I spent a lot of hours walking with this group and riding my bike next to them in the months leading up to the race. We must have been newly weds, because I somehow convinced Glenn to walk the whole race with us. It took us over 4 hours. And like Mildred always said “who said we couldn’t do it.” Mildred was one of the seniors I worked with who is no longer with us- she actually wasn’t one of the seniors who was able to do the race, but that was one of her favorite phrases and I carry it on. And let me tell you- this was an experience these women will never forget. What an accomplishment.

• 2010: The year we thought we were too cool. I actually think I had Glenn working all day cleaning up one of the seniors houses. There are stories for another day of all the things I had Glenn doing when I worked at the JHBCC. He’s moved furniture, put together desks, rode around on holiday lights tour of the city, made chili, took the day off work to help me with a picnic for 350 senior citizens. I was really good at bringing him into my work. For some reason, he’s never brought me into his… he must not trust my spreadsheet skills.

• 2011: The year I coached a bunch of Tech HS kids and ran with them: This was part of The Super Bowl Legacy project that I was proud to be a part of. When the Super Bowl came to Indianapolis, the community center that I worked at was heavily involved in all of the efforts to revitalize the city- specifically the near eastside. This was one of several amazing projects that came about due to the Super Bowl Legacy project. Also, my little sister SHELBY (who was rocking the pink hair way before it was cool, ran her first and only half marathon that year and wrote about it.

• 2013: The year I grabbed a bib and used it as a training run. I was just coming off my Shamrock Marathon PR and pretty much serial racing. I had very recently raced Rock the Relay, (ran that really hard) and the Carmel Half Marathon the following week. I had just started triathlon training for the first time and was on my way to my first half Ironman.

• 2014: The Year Glenn ran & Marshall and I cheered. I had just ran Boston, was newly pregnant, but didn’t know it yet and was dealing with some series plantar fasciitis. Glenn ran a 1:24 and then I sent him home with Marshall so I could hobble/run home with my plantar fasciitis foot.

• 2015: My first half post Louis. It was fun for the first half of the race and I worked hard for the second half. The second half ended up being a great confidence building run for what was to come over the summer and into the fall. (before I epically tore my plantar fascia) DAMN FEET.

I haven’t full out raced the mini since 2008 right before our first marathon, but I’ll plan to do that sometime in the next couple of years. I do plan to run for sure this year, but not sure if it will be used as a race, training run or for fun run.

All this to say. I’ve only missed two years since the first time I ran this race. And now looking back, I’m sad I broke a good streak. You should get on the train too man. It’s fun. And you ain’t too cool to run it. Also- if you’ve never run a half marathon- this is a great place to start!

Have you ever run the 500 Festival Mini Marathon?

Are you running it this year?

What’s your favorite part of the race? 

Why do you Mini?

So, I simply tweeted that I was looking for some girls running or spectating who would be interested in rooming with me, secretly hoping no one crazy or annoying responded. The names changes multiple times, but I ended up in a room with Katie, Ruthie & Sarah. All amazing women and I’m so glad I had to opportunity to get to know them and spend the weekend together. It’s crazy how you meet some people for the first time and you can “pick up” like you’ve known each other for a long time. This group definitely worked.

With the roomies:

Katie & I at the Oiselle Team Dinner. I’ve got a lazy eye going on or something. Thank you so much to Rebecca for opening up your beautiful home to us! 

Was also so much fun meeting a lot of Oiselle teammates 

About the actual Race:

I had  Blast on the bus and hanging with some awesome ladies before the run. This was such a different experience than the first time I came. I don’t recommend running Boston as your second marathon, I really don’t. It was intimidating and I was all alone, didn’t know anyone. For some reason in a sea of thousands of people where you don’t know anyone, you feel more lonely than if you were with only 5 people knowing no one. This year, I felt like I knew everyone and it was one big runner party- so much fun.

With the girls heading out to Hopkinton on the buses. Yes we sat in the back of the bus and were super chatty the whole time. Yes we were probably annoying to those around us. No we didn’t care.

I knew going into this race, my range for my finish time would be between 3:25-3:40. Thought if I felt amazing & super rested I could pull 3:20 out, but not likely- around 3:30 was what was most realistic. I started the race with Ashley and we planned to hang together through most of it. (She got bored with my crawling at mile 18 though and decided to move along a bit) It ended up being a pretty hot day- I think the temps were nearing 70 when I finished and it was super sunny. I felt the effects of the heat early on. I only skipped one water stop and started dumping water on my head at every stop pretty early on.

We ran the first 10K too hard- both full knowing that we were but the down hills were a lot of fun and running a bit faster was enjoyable. I knew for sure we wouldn’t hold that pace, (7:20-7:30) but we were cruising, super chatty and having fun. I bet I high fived 100 people in the beginning. Eventually I put a stop to the high fives because they were starting to wind me. They push you back.  I tried to make sure to give one for kids who looked under 5ish either way, how can you say no to that. The first 6-7 miles ticked off quick. At mile 8 we decided to pull back a bit.

My left foot where I have some painful plantar fasciitis was giving me trouble early on and I was kind of worried I would end up hobbling to the finish, thankfully it let up a bit once we hit 14 or 15. My legs were feeling the hills around mile 11 and they just burned up through the rest of the race. I had anticipated this and it was completely expected.

At mile 13, we passed the girls at Wellsely and I gave two kisses and the second I literally knocked the girl off the metal railing they were all hanging over. Oops. Guess I got a little aggressive. If I wasn’t racing, I was gonna get some kisses. I don’t remember Wellsely being nearly as loud or fun when I ran in 2009, but it was by far one of the highlights of the course this year.

Ashley and I even took a selfie during Wellsely– YES Ashley posted on Facebook during the marathon. Multitasking at it’s finest. (No, I don’t normally carry a phone when I race, but I brought it along for fun, plus in case I couldn’t get to my checked bag at the finish, I wanted to have it one me.

I had some serious moments of doubt once we were through that section. For some reason, I’m finding out that mile 14 is usually a tough one mentally for me. I told Ashley I felt like crying and she told me then I should cry. I chose not to but was having a hard time wrapping my mind around 12 more miles. The legs clearly weren’t ready for running 7:30s for the first half of the race. You know what you do when that happens? You collect yourself, slow down a bit and just keep running. Remind yourself that you are grateful to be there and you get to do what you’re doing right now.

The rest of the race was pretty much just run, it will hurt and you’ll be fine- once again I found myself smiling big on the uphills even though I was running at a very slow pace and my legs felt like 100 lbs. At one point I realized I had smiled so much my cheeks hurt. Smiling through pain makes it so much better. Every mile, I just focused on getting to the next because the thought of 3, 4, 7, 8 more miles seemed awfully far and the single miles were ticking by pretty quick. A mile really isn’t that long. Really, it’s not so if you think of it like that, it helps… most of the time.

While the downhills wear on you know matter what- I could tell I’m a much stronger runner than I was in 2009 (I better be!) based on the fact that it wasn’t incredibly painful to run down the hills. While it was more effort than what a downhill usually fills like and my legs were heavy, my quads weren’t screaming like they were the first time I ran this race. It’s pretty amazing what experience will do for you.

 I saw Michele and Leticia at mile 25 – this is how excited I was (Below pic) I thought I might see then sooner than that and wasn’t sure if I’d missed them. Was so glad they spotted me. Didn’t care one bit about losing time, made sure to run over and give them big hugs!

I have to say, it got to a point, I think around mile 23 when I was feeling pretty tanked that the screams were making my ears ring. There was insane energy and screaming through the whole race. Taking the turn down Boylston street was amazing. As I ran down the street on the last straight away, I was eyeing where to bombings happened last year, thinking it wouldn’t have happened yet at this time and all the chaos and sadness that took over the city just a little bit later in the day. I am grateful that I got to be a part of this day and honored to run the streets with people who have big dreams and care so deeply about what this race really meant this year.

Below is a picture of Ashley, Mary, Me & Laura. Ashley, Laura and I were all running for fun & Mary was racing. She killed her current PR running a 3:08! I’m excited to be back in the game and aiming for times like that sometime soon! I really am SO happy for her. She honestly killed it- she started a few corral back from us, but didn’t pass us until mile 14 and clearly KILLED the second half of the race. Well deserved and well ran my friend. So happy to meet you in real life. Interested to see what your splits were!

I ended up running a 3:32:48. I’m completely content with that. My mom reminded me that it’s literally only been three months since my surgery. While it seems like I could have plenty of time between surgeries to build and then pick back up after- especially since the reconstruction wasn’t a huge procedure, it’s still a hard thing to do. You have to factor in so much to prevent injury and keep your body healthy (especially the older you get… not that 30 is very old… but it’s not 20!)

Oh and I literally jumped into the starting corrals with Todd Oliver, Carmel Marathon Race Director and then crossed the finish line at the same time as Michelle- one of our Carmel Marathon Pacers and Dan Ball, one of my Indy friends from Back on My Feet.  (Dan ran a stellar race- he also wasn’t going for a PR, but ran amazing negative splits!)

A great weekend. I’m so glad I decided to go. I think it’s so important to go do stuff like this, I want Marshall to grow up seeing me do things I love and being adventurous- sometimes together as a family and sometimes on my own. And to me finding three random girls on twitter who I’d never actually met and heading out to Boston by myself was kind of adventurous haha. Maybe I’ll get a little more dangerous next time.

Thanks for tracking and all the love on Monday- was so much fun knowing friends where cheering for me and all the other runners out there! 

Did you run Boston? How did it go? What was your favorite part?

Did you live stream the race? 

GO MEB!

So today I warmed up 15 minutes, ran 30 minutes hardish and cooled down for 40 minutes. I started out the 30 minutes at 6:53 pace and realized it was too fast 5 minutes in. Bummer. But I quickly reminded myself, you can’t jump right back to where you were. I took it down two notches to 7:03 and held that until the last 10 minutes where I sped up to 6:58 and then back to 6:53 for the last 5 minutes. It felt good. The effort was there but it wasn’t out of control. Lot’s of smiles, deep breaths, good music, some singing (hopefully just mouthing words) & a good book. If I was doing an interval workout, I wouldn’t read during my on sets, but this pace was controlled enough that I was able to read. I’m reading Rob Lowe’s book – Stories I only tell my friends, it’s pretty good. Don’t ask me why I’m reading it, picked it out to be a mindless entertaining read and it’s doing the job. Pretty interesting too- he was one driven kid trying to break into acting.

As I was running and throughly enjoying the endorphins the hard work was providing me, I thought a lot about being content where I am right now. Stop comparing things to where I was, where I want to be and to whatever everyone else is doing. I think this is something we need to wake up every morning and remind ourselves of depending on our circumstances. Back in December, I was running 10 mile days 4 days a week and was loving it. Now is not the time for it. One 10 mile day plus a long run with some shorties mixed in is where I’m at this week and that’s just fine.

I think I’ll run the Hoosier Half this weekend– I want to get 20 miles in on Saturday and I’ll sandwich the race in between the 20. I’ll push myself during the race, but I’m not sure what that will produce and honestly it doesn’t matter. I’m just going to be in the moment. Enjoy it for what it is, no thinking about what I could be doing or have the potential to do. I am where I am NOW. Working hard feels good no matter where your current shape is.

 So completely irrelevant to the running, I thought I throw in some of my favorite pics from this past week: 

Family pic at my parents house. I wanted to take a picture since we were wearing clothes that weren’t workout clothes. We had a major fail trying to get Marshall in the picture, so just let him do his thing and it turned out pretty good anyway:

Marshal and Cadence. Besties, or so Marshall thinks:

Twins and let’s just note that this kid ALWAYS has a ball in hand:

And this is one I love. The neighbor kids who I mentioned in my last post came over yesterday and played basketball in the front yard, while I enjoyed the sun & although they didn’t realize it, they were highly entertaining to Marshall and gave me a nice break. Gonna miss this house and neighborhood.

That’s all! 

What do you do to stay content right where you are? 

What’s your favorite part of a hard run? (My answer: Endorphins)

For a few years, I’ve been following along one of my  high school classmates journey to a healthy lifestyle. She has come a LONG way, losing over half her body weight along the way. AND, she’s running her very first marathon this Sunday!! Along the way, I would see her posts about running- I remember when she posted about her first half marathon and I was so excited for her. I knew it would only be a matter of time before she signed up for a marathon.

Meet Kassi. A mom, wife, teacher and runner.

Over 4-5 years, she lost 126 lbs and in the middle of all that had two babies. “My best pieces of advice are to start small and make changes that you can sustain for a lifetime.” – Kassi

Tell us a little about your story and what brought you to make a change and start working out and exercising. When and Why did you start running? 

I was initially motivated to make a lifestyle change when I was planning for my wedding.  I was vainly discouraged with dress shopping because of limited options, but more than that, I wanted to start my newly married life healthy.  I didn’t want to be limited based on my weight.  252 pounds on a 5’0 frame is a lot of weight to carry, and although I didn’t have issues then, I know I would have had major health issues if I would not have began losing weight.

I started running about 9 months into my weight loss journey.  One morning I decided to run a mile on the treadmill before school and my students encouraged me to run more and more.  I signed up for my first 5k and immediately got pregnant.  I did a 10k during my first pregnancy and signed up for a half marathon to help me lose the baby weight.  I was 8 weeks into training for the half when I found out we were pregnant with baby #2.  I ran for the first 22 or so weeks of that pregnancy and couldn’t wait to start again once I had Reid.

Now I run for my “me” time and to have that sense of accomplishment when I’m done.  I’ve met so many great friends and have truly done more than I could have ever imagined.

Why running? 

To me, running was something that I always hated.  Never did well in PE class and I would have never thought in a million years that I would one day consider myself to be a runner.  Now I think it’s a great type of exercise and it can be as social or independent as I want.

What does running given you?

Running has given me confidence and an outlet.  Again, I would have never thought I’d truly be a runner and here I am less than a week out from running a marathon.  It has showed me that my limits are endless.  It has also given me some amazing friends that I would have never met otherwise!

Beyond running what are your other favorite workouts, if any? 

I love spin class and group fitness classes.  I hate strength training on my own, but I love doing it with a group.  I’m excited to try TRX classes this Spring and am planning on starting to swim so I can do a Sprint Tri in 2014.

What is your advice to someone who is ready to make a change and make their health a priority?

My best pieces of advice are to start small and make changes that you can sustain for a lifetime.  It’s not about a quick fix- it took me nearly 4.5 years to lose 126 pounds.  Granted, there were two pregnancies in there, but I wasn’t about diets, deprivation, pills, etc.  I used a calorie tracker on www.sparkpeople.com and had an awesome community of ladies there.  Accountability and support are also huge.  There is no way that I could have made the changes if my husband, Steve, wasn’t on board.  So many friends say their husbands won’t eat healthy, tempt them with treats, etc.  He has always been great about helping me make healthy choices and cheering me on at the finish!

Supportive husband Steve!

 What’s the hardest part about staying motivated and how do you stay committed?

One of my biggest issues is facing the mommy guilt.  Being away from the boys when I work out, or placing them in the daycare at the gym, has always been a struggle, but I know that a healthy mom is a happy mom.  I want to be able to run and play with them for many years to come.  They motivate me by wearing my medals and saying they want to run like me.

I still struggle with binge eating occasionally, and when I do, I go straight back to setting goals and rewards and tracking my calories.  I also get really honest with Steve about the struggles I’m having because I need that extra accountability.  I know that eating/weight will always be an issue and struggle that I have to face, but since I’ve truly made lifestyle changes, it’s maintainable.

What race are you about to run THIS Sunday?

National Race to End Breast Cancer.  We are running in memory of a great friend, Amy, that lost her battle with breast cancer.

How have you prepared for your first marathon?

I’ve followed a pretty loose 3-4 day/week training plan with a few friends…usually 30-40 miles/week.  I have two 20 mile runs and one 23 miler under my belt.

PRs:

5k: 26:26

10k: 58:14

Half: 2:02

Hometown – now I live in Anderson, SC

Family – Husband, Steve, 2 sons: Parker (3) and Reid (1.5)

Profession – Teacher, (soon to be stay at home mommy at the end of this school year)

Favorite post race/run food – Pizza

What do you like to do beyond running? Watch college football, hang with my boys, shop, read, craft

Favorite quote or motivational saying– Philippians 4:13 is my guiding quote for life in general

Best of luck to you Kassi- I know you are so prepared. Love that you have 26 prayers for the race, you have great support and your playlist will be the bomb. Most importantly though- trust your training. It’s there.

Can we all take a little inspiration from Kassi and get motivated to do something BIG? 

Any words of encouragement for her VERY FIRST marathon this weekend would be greatly appreciated!

Have any good songs for her playlist on Sunday? Tell her your two absolute favorites!

The last two Mondays I have used them as pseudo rest days and run super easy for like 30 or 40 minutes. I am not trying to “run streak” or anything like that but I’ve found this to be working for me right now.

Here’s my log from Week 4:

Week 4 – Jan 27th – Feb 2nd

8 runs
68 Miles
2 Workouts

Monday – 4 miles

Recovery day from the prior weekend. I drove up from Bloomington that morning so I didn’t run until 6:30 or so. Felt really tired because of it. I almost never run at night. 7:45 pace.

Tuesday – 10 Miles – 7:11 pace.

Easy run with a pickup the last two miles. I am enjoying this type of run. I start out nice and easy for a couple of miles and then progress the pace to where I am at AT and faster for the last mile or two. I think it provides a nice little stress without overly taxing your body. It was stupid cold out again, like -40*F wind chill. Went back to Bloomington to get Lindsey and Marshall after staying in Indy Monday night.

Wednesday – 8 Miles – 7:22 pace.

Easy run. Traveling the state continues. I took Lindsey and Marshall to Crown Point today so she could recover and I could work. It would almost be easier if Lindsey worked outside of the house because I could just take Marshall to day care and we could stay in Indy but thankfully all the surgery stuff is essentially behind us. Came back to Indy Wednesday night.

Thursday – 11 Miles
2 Runs.

First run was the workout for the day:

8 Miles.
6:49 pace.
2 Mile warmup.
5 mile tempo run in 30:40 – 6:30, 6:17. 6:07, 6:00,5:46
1 Mile cooldown
Good effort. I really enjoy progressive type runs. Too often people hammer from the gun and then struggle.

Second run

3 miles

Easy run with the dog. 8:15 pace or so. This is the first week that I have added a secondary run into my weekly load. I did it for a couple weeks in the fall. I plan on adding some more secondary runs throughout this cycle until I get to 10-12 runs a week.

Friday – 10 Miles

Easy run 7:27 pace. Got to run outside for this one since the snow had been cleared and it was not stupid cold. See my log from last week for my thoughts on winter running and the treadmill. Basically…get over it!

Saturday – 15 Miles

Back in Crown Point for this one. I came up Friday night after work. CP got a big storm Friday night into Saturday which made running outside not a very good option so I took to my parents treadmill.
Nice long run. 7:10 pace. Spotify and @iRunFar coverage of Rocky Raccoon and Sean O’Brien ultras got me through.

We then celebrated my Dad’s 63rd birthday. The joke was it was like his 7th birthday party of the week…he had at least 3 for real though. If cake is present it is a party in my book.

The original Hein Family plus the new ones. My Dad’s 63rd birthday.

Sunday – 10 Miles

6 @ 7:30 with increasing pace over the last four. Moved from 7:30 to 5:50 over the last four. Pretty standard FF run following a long run for the Mohican cycle. 

We then came back to Indy and went to a Super Bowl party with some friends. What a terrible game…but I’m glad the Seahawks won.

Super Bowl parties look like this now.

In the last week, I have drove from Indy to Bloomington, back to Indy, back to Bloomington, back to Indy, to Crown Point, to Indy, to Crown Point again and finally back to Indy.

Happy to be home this week and that Lindsey is back on the road to recovery and the surgeries are behind us. 

This week will again be around 70 miles with one or two secondary runs…probably two. I’ll hold that for a couple of weeks to make sure I can handle it along with the miles before bumping up again.

I’ve done some moderately hard tempo runs and some fast finish miles here and there but yesterday I decided to do mile repeats. I’ve been focusing on building distance and not speed. But I really wanted that “how I feel after I kill a speed workout feeling”. So naturally, I did the mile repeats. They always hurt and I’m always left with the feeling of, I just worked hard for that and I’m glad I did- now let me conquer the rest of this day.

If I was in the peak of my training, I would likely do 5 repeats and I honestly considered doing 5, but instead finished with a strong 4. As I was finished up the 4th, I let the thought enter my head again to perhaps do 5, but decided I was happy with the effort I put out and there was no need to prove that I could in fact do a 5th. Sometimes it is important to get the extra in and push through it, but sometimes it’s equally as important to end feeling strong knowing that you can keep pace and crush the last repeat.

I have done a good job listening to my body for the MOST part in this post surgery journey, minus 2-3 runs….. (remember this one… ouch… I do) when most of my body was ready but a few areas were not). Today, I knew 4 was enough, and I was perfectly content with it.

The workout went down like this:

15 minute warm up

4 X 1 Mile @ 6:25, 6:22, 6:22, 6:15 with quarter mile jogs between sets.

15 minute cool down

Building a high mileage base has helped with my confidence for a workout like this. If you think about running around 7-10 miles most days of the week, then 4 mile repeats, while the pace might be hard and taxing does not seem like that many miles. I can mentally wrap my head around less than 26 minutes of hard running.

I do believe I’ll be focusing more on the high miles rather than the speedy speedy stuff through the rest of my Boston training though. It’s what makes me happy right now and is much less stressful than the pressure of speed work.

I know I’ve said it a lot recently, and I’ll probably say it many more times; I really don’t know if there is a PR in April, but workouts like this and my 20 on Saturday are giving me confidence that it could be within reach. The 4 week recovery after next week won’t be nearly as intense as the 6 weeks I had back in October, not to mention this surgery won’t take as much out of my physically.

Regardless of all that talk, I’m starting to enjoy my running in a different way. Although I have been a mom for a year and a half now, my alone running time has become more and more valuable and helpful for my sanity as of late. I haven’t been seeing it as a task I need to get done as much as I used to, I’ve been seeing it more as a freedom.

I’ve always enjoyed what running brings me, but the freedom right now has been something I’ve needed more than ever recently. I love that I have chosen to stay home with Marshall and I by no means have it rough at all. (My sister does this with two kids and her husband is overseas for months at a time… I know I have it made) But man no matter how you slice it being in charge of another human being all day everyday can just wear you down sometimes and running has proven to be my saving grace time and time again. I honestly don’t know how people do it if they don’t workout. I would be crazier than I already am without it.

That being said, I’ll just say I feel like the luckiest lady alive that I get to be Marshall’s mom.  

Children’s Museuming…. what we do in between naps once a weekish to get out of the house! Pretty sweet to live so close to such an awesome place.

My dad was in Indy this week taking my mom to the airport & asked us to go to the RV show at the fairgrounds. Sure, why not? And these boys sure are cute with their popcorn. Also, I’m pretty sure Marshall mattered the word PEE while we were there.