Two days of rest before the half! :)

Well, the time has come. It's Wednesday, and Run the Bluegrass is Saturday. I am so very excited for this race! I'm excited mainly due to the fact that I won't be running alone. I will be running with my first child! :) How many children can say they ran a half marathon before they even exited the womb? Well, mine will be able to say that.

I've been doing my long runs with my two friends, Sarah W. and Sarah B. Both of these friends I know from high school, which makes the training all the more special. I don't keep in touch with a lot of people from high school, so it's very nice to be back in touch with people that I was able to share high school with, and now I get to share this with them as well. Even if we don't run together during the race, training was a big part of the fun!

We went out this past Sunday for our last long run before the race, 12 miles. Going into this training, I wasn't sure what to expect out of running while pregnant. At first, I wasn't pleased. During my first trimester, I was SO tired that sometimes I couldn't muster up the energy to run at all, so I didn't. But as soon as my energy started to show back up, I started morning runs. I can't run after school because my feet are swollen and it's very uncomfortable to do so.

As for long runs, I've been very pleased! With all of us! We've all been running the entire runs, and at a pretty good clip. For my eight miler, I averaged around 9:20, my nine miler was an average of 9:19, eleven miler was 9:25, and my twelve miler was 9:37.

Our twelve miler included quite a few hills. We ran a couple of neighborhoods that have some pretty good hills and then we went to the Danville Country Club. Our intention was to just run up the drive to the country club and back out, but when we got down the drive, we decided to run the cart path of the back nine of the golf course. All I can say is, WOW! We definitely had our hill work for the week. This course we're running on Saturday is supposedly pretty hilly, so let's hope we're ready for it!

Run the Bluegrass, here we come!

MyMottoz Product Review and Giveaway!

Recently, I was sent a few product from Shannon over at MyMottoz to review on my blog. Shannon was nice enough to send something for my husband and something for me, which worked out great because my husband gets jealous about all the cool stuff I get. So, it was nice for him to have something as well.

MyMottoz is a company that offers athletic clothing with mantras on them. There are SEVERAL mantras to choose from. You choose the piece you want, and then you choose what mantra you would like printed on your piece. Visit their website HERE to see all that they have to offer. It's been down for maintenance, so if you can't get it to come up, just keep trying.

My husband loves to do boot camps at the gym we attend and they make you wear a white shirt for visibility. He chose the long-sleeved technical shirt in the picture, with the saying "Suck it Up" on it. This is his mantra. He loves this shirt! After he started wearing it, I started having to wash it twice a week so that he could wear it to every boot camp he went to. My husband says this shirt is very comfortable, cool, and keeps moisture off of his skin. He also said that the shirt seems to be of "superior quality". He also liked that he got to choose what motto was put on the shirt.

Shannon also sent me the jacket that I am wearing in the picture above. This jacket is perfect for someone like me because even when it's 10 degrees outside, I can't dress too warm. I am hot natured and never really pull out the fleece workout clothes. I have to keep it as minimal as possible because layers always come off throughout my runs.

This jacket isn't too thin, which means it only works for me in cool/cold weather, but it isn't so thick that I want to take it off 2 miles into my run. It has three pockets; two up front and one in the back. It is perfect for carrying your phone, keys, gels, etc. It even stretches with my pregnant belly, as you can see in the picture.

I chose the motto "Thirteen Point Freaking One". While I'm very proud of myself for having a 26.2 under my belt, it definitely isn't my favorite distance. My favorite distance is by far the half marathon, so that's why I chose this motto. I plan on running half marathons as long as my body will let me, so I felt I needed to give it some recognition. Also, I've had tons of compliments on my jacket and it's motto. Thanks Shannon!

Now onto the giveaway!

Shannon also sent me a technical shirt to give away. The shirt is short-sleeved, size SMALL, and says "I bust mine to kick yours". Receive an entry for each of the following:

1. Become a follower of my blog/or you already are - MANDATORY! Leave a comment telling me that you are following

2. Post this giveaway to your blog.

3. Post this giveaway to your Facebook.

4. If you had a running mantra, what would it be?

This giveaway will end on Sunday, April 1st at 11:59 p.m. GOOD LUCK!

9 mile weekend!

Well, training for this half marathon is coming to an end, and I have to say that I feel much better about it now than I did during my first trimester, due to complete fatigue. Now that the horrible fatigue has subsided, training has been much easier.

I've been waking up and doing 5 a.m. runs and I really enjoy that. This week it's been hard to get a run in because my nephew, a senior starter, was playing the the 12th Region basketball tournament to be able to go to the Kentucky Sweet Sixteen basketball tournament. So, needless to say, we've been following him wherever he's played in the hopes that we would get to see him play at Rupp Arena. But, all good things must come to an end. They played in the region championship and lost by 7 points. We are still so very proud of him!

On another note, this past weekend was scheduled for a 9 mile run. I was a little worried, due to the fact that I'm currently 4 months pregnant and I hadn't done an 8 miler, just a 7. Sarah B., Sarah W., and I started our run at 6:00 a.m., when it was still dark outside. At about 7:00, here came the sun. I have to say that even though it's always tempting to sleep in on a Saturday, I thoroughly enjoyed starting our run that early and being able to see the sun rise while I was running. We started at Sarah W.'s house and went through downtown Danville, out to Millennium Park, made a lap around the park, and headed back to Sarah's house.

Now, while I don't have a goal of achieving a PR in this half marathon, I do have the goal of finished with a pace less than 10:00 per mile. I wasn't sure if this was going to be an attainable goal while pregnant, but I think I may have been proven wrong during the 9 mile run. Throughout the entire run, I noticed that I was running at a pace that was faster than my normal 'pregnant pace' right now. But, I just kept running. I feel that when it's time for me to slow down, this baby will make sure I know it's time to slow down or stop.

I finished my run with a pace of 9:19!!! This put me at a total time of about 1:24:00. I don't have my Garmin with me, so I don't know my exact time. Not my best pace on a long run, but I was very pleased with my pace, considering my current state of condition! Now I know that I can finish in under a 10:00 per mile pace. That makes me totally ecstatic! Not to mention that I'm so excited about the weekend of the half in general. My mom, my sister, and I are going up the night before and enjoying a girls night of shopping and dinner. We are staying at the Hilton and just going to enjoy some much needed time spent together. We don't get to do it often enough.

So, my question today is...

If you've ever run pregnant, how did you know when to slow down or to switch to walking?

Specifically Random Headband Winner!

And the winner is, chosen by www.random.org, entry #2...

Jean!

Jean - I will get with you on Facebook about the details!

CONGRATS!

3 Things Thursday

Wow! What a week it has been, and it's not finished yet.

1. I haven't run as much this week as I would have liked, but life happens. I ran 4 miles on Monday, had plans to run Tuesday night but went home and had dinner with my hubby instead, freakish storms all day yesterday, 4 1/2 miles today, 3 tomorrow, and 9 on Saturday. Tomorrow's 3 miler will be an easy 3 so that I can focus on my 9 miler on Saturday. My running week in a nutshell!

2. I'm freaking out about stretch marks! I don't have any yet and don't know if I will get any at all, but they freak me out to no end! We are lake addicts during the summer, and I want to be able to wear my bathing suit!! Anyone out there have any advice on how to help prevent stretch marks?

3. I've decided I need an office assistant. Danville High School is having an intersession week this week where some of their students are job shadowing certain people. I have two high school students with me this week and it's been WONDERFUL! I need this full time!