I'm Back! And have an ENERGYbits Giveaway Winner!

So, I fell off the face of the blogging Earth.  And kinda off the face of the real Earth too, if that makes you feel any less neglected.  Life got pretty busy the last few weeks with work and the holidays.  And honestly, I wasn't running or working out much at all so didn't have anything meaningful to talk about except random ramblings.  Sometimes those are fun too though.  Here are a few snapshots of things I have done over the last few weeks:

Twin Day!  I can't pass up a good opportunity to post a twin day picture.  I think when my blog gets super duper popular, I will start posting an outfit that everyone should wear and then you can all send me your twin day pictures.  Or it will just continue to be Grace and I matching from afar.  And on Wednesdays, we wear pink.

And while we're at it, Grace and I had another twin day while she was in town!!  Go Bears!

My cousins Katie and Kelly and I also had a twin night.  We wore our matching footie pajama onesies, decorated Christmas cookies, and watched Elf.

Christmas Eve with the Smiths is probably my favorite day of the year.  We had a lot to chat about now that 2 of the Smith girl cousins are engaged!!

We played a few games.  In this one, two people had one of each of their hands tied together and then had to use the 2 remaining hands to wrap a present and use ribbon to put a bow on it.  Katie and I won in 2 minutes and 9 seconds.  We were all very competitive.  Mom and Dad were a close 2nd.  I think they had an advantage since Mom is a lefty.

And we sang some songs.

And now it's almost a new year, things should be calming down a bit, and I have started to pick up the running again!  But I'll get to the running details in my next post, which I promise will be tomorrow and not in 2.5 weeks.

I FINALLY have a winner for my ENERGYbits giveaway!  I'm sorry it took my so long to announce, it was not an expected blogging hiatus.  I used the Excel random number generator and the winner is.....

Congrats Jackie, I know you will love them!!  Send me an email with your address and you will receive your sample of ENERGYbits in the mail  :)

Have you had a crazy busy holiday season too?

What was the best thing you did over the past few weeks?

(Long) Weekend Photo Bomb - 11/27 - 11/30

It's been a nice long holiday weekend off of work and I've been busy with all sorts or activities.  I did 2 races (a 5k and a half marathon) and will have a full recap of those in the next few days, but in the meantime, here's the long weekend in pictures:

Dinner and gambling at the casino.  Dad hasn't quite figured out that the iPhone can be turned sideways to get everyone in the picture.  Mom and Patrick were the big winners of the night.

Catherine and I ran the Edison Park Turkey Trot 5k (like we do every year) in matching turkey headbands and tiger-print shorts.

My dear little cousin, Elizabeth.  We share a love for bread.  I told her that's called carbo-loading and she helped me carbo-load for Saturday's race  :)  On Friday, we celebrated her new baby brother's Baptism.

Post-half marathon selfie.  Very cold!

All aboard!  The entire Smith family (and "SigOs" - significant others) took a Christmas trolley ride through the city.

A few of the girls, ready to go.

View of the Chicago skyline from Smith trolley stop #1.

 Dad and I at the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights - Smith trolley stop #2.

Things escalated quickly... even had to make a few extra stops for beer/champagne runs (and bathroom runs).

Started the weekend with gambling, why not end it with a little family gambling?   A pizza party after the trolley and a 30+ person game of LCR - Shannon was the big winner.

And another running selfie.  An easy 4 miles Sunday morning in my all purple outfit.  Just kidding, I put another shirt on over that, but thought it looked funny when I was wearing all purple so I had to take a picture.

So there's the long weekend in pictures!  How was your long weekend?  What did you do??

Happy Halloween from Colleen :)

I like when my name rhymes with things, so that's why Halloween is a good holiday.  But here's some other reasons why:

Candy.  Free candy.

My favorite Halloween candy will always be Kit Kats I think.  M&M's and Nerds were also big favorites of mine.  I eat M&M's on the reg, but I don't think I've had Nerds in forever.  It's not candy, but here's a cupcake I ate (at 9am) from a co-worker:

Costumes.

There is no costume in the world that will ever be as good as my parrot costume.  I wore it multiple years and I love it and wish I had it for my children, but it is gone forever.  I am unfortunately not wearing the wings in this picture, but you can kind of see the tail - the wings were awesome and colorful like that.

Senior year of college, I was Pippy Longstocking.  My roommate Colleen, who now has her very own running blog too, did my hair really awesome like that.

I was Dora the Explorer during 5th year of college.  The night before I was Dora, I was a gymnast which was also an awesome costume but I unfortunately have no pictures of.  I wore my cousin Katie's red, white, and blue leotard and matching scrunchy with tons of glitter in my hair.  Anyways, I bought the Dora the Explorer backpack, kept the tag on, then returned it after.  That's how it's done.

 

Being a troll with Christina was easily the best costume of my adult life (thus far).  My hair had remnants of green in it for days, no matter how hard I scrubbed, but it was worth it.  I haven't worn the nude body suit since, but I hope to one day soon.

The annual Halloween card from the Grandparents Smith.

My freshman year of college was the first year of this card.  It has since become an annual happening.  The front says, "A Scary Thought" and on the inside, "Life Without God." Usually they include a $1, but this year it was even better...at least for me that is.  A scratch off lotto ticket was inside and I won $10!  This year's card also had 3 riddles to solve; do you know the answers?

What do ghosts serve for dessert?

Who won the skeleton beauty contest?

What do witches put on their hair? 

My Chicago Marathon Super Fans

I remind my family quite frequently that I had nobody watching me in my very first marathon in Columbus of 2010.  My parents (and all the other aunts and uncles) had a 50th wedding anniversary party to go to that weekend and Columbus is about a 6 hour drive from Chicago.

But they all made up for it at this year's Chicago Marathon!  I didn't expect so many family members to come, but my family sure does love running.  (We even have our own marathon, 2 years strong.)

I'm not 100% sure, but I think they all planned to wear red on purpose.  I knew to look for my family around mile 4.5 first and was told Aunt Mary Ellen would have a red Elmo balloon.  Sure enough, I spotted them all.  I hope they weren't too bored while waiting, but it seems like that got some good family photos in the meantime.  (And obviously they didn't have to wait too long since I was RIGHT behind the Kenyans, duh.)

 They all had really great signs too!

Besides my family, I also had a lot of friends come out and cheer too!  Catherine and Matt were at miles 3.5 and 16.5.

Wondering what a TIGER BODYSLAM is?  Catherine's main track event in high school was the 2 mile race.  If you've ever been to a track meet, distance events aren't nearly as fun to watch as sprints and given the longer distance, the field of competition is pretty spread out.  A lot of times, the slower runners end up getting lapped by the faster runners.  To take care of this problem, at one meet the 2 mile race was called "Tiger takes the Tail" where the runner in last place after each lap of the 2 mile race would be stopped and not allowed to finish the race.

So basically, we decided that for this to happen, the tiger mascot person would body slam the person in last place and not let them finish. I'm glad I didn't get tiger bodyslammed during the marathon.

Steph and Danny were around mile 17-18 I think?  I don't remember that clearly, but Steph was jumping up and down with her sign.

Christina and Jim were around mile 6 with a big pirate balloon and n awesome sign that said "Your feet hurt because you're kickin' butt!"

I tried to remember other good signs, but my brain was kind of fried while running.  One said "Run quietly, I'm hungover" and then all the standard ones like "Worst Parade Ever."

But back to my fans...

I think the most mobile group of fans was Uncle Ron, Uncle Rob, and Jessica.  They were at 16, 18, and 20...as well as the earlier miles 4 and 10.  They used a car, which proved a better strategy than the other group who walked and barely missed me at 17.

Another perk of having fans at the race is that they can take pictures and I don't have to pay for the professional ones if I wanted a picture.  However, this does not improve the quality of how I look while I run.

I really loved my headband...I don't know if I can give enough plugs for how awesome those Sweaty Bands work to hold my hair back and are also glittery and thus, awesome.

I also spotted a few other people I knew along the course which was good to see.  And of course, the other 1.7 million strangers were great to see as well.  So thank you to everyone who was able to come out and cheer!

And also thank you to my fans who were not physically there, but texted me throughout the days leading up to the race and afterwards.  Some of my friends even made signs, took pictures of themselves holding the signs, and then mailed me the pictures.  :)

Race Recap: CHICAGO MARATHON 2013

Well, the Chicago Marathon is over!  I have so much to say about it and don't know where to start, so this will probably end up a little scattered, but I'll do my best.  And I'll also probably have a post every day this week on various events of race weekend (the expo, the pasta party, the recovery, etc.) but I'll try to keep this one to the actual race recap.

Summary/spoiler alert: I finished in 3:23:15!  A PR by close to 6 minutes and Boston Qualifier!

My parents dropped off Angela, Olivia, and I as close as they could to the starting area and we made our way through the security checkpoints.  The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect for marathon running, but the morning was rather chilly.  We were wearing clothes that we could discard at the start line and never see again - to be donated to a homeless shelter in Chicago.  Angela and I discarded our clothes right before entering the corral and a man with a vest that said "Clothing Donations" was on his walkie talkie saying "we are going to need way more bins."  There were mountains of sweatpants and sweatshirts all around.

We also waited in a really long porta-potty line...but glad we did so before the race.  Once we got settled in a spot in the corral, it was time to go within about 5-10 minutes.

The first 8 miles of the race flew by.  It was definitely the easiest/most fun hour-ish of running I've ever done.  Our goal was to start at 8 minute pace for 4 miles and then pick it up to 7:30-7:40.  I don't remember splits exactly, but I think the first mile was 7:49 so we said we could ease up a bit.  The problem was that we were stuck behind the 3:30 pace group which was huge and taking up a lot of space all running together.  So over the next 3 miles, we were still doing about 7:45-7:50 working our way up and around that 3:30 group, but still not trying to go too fast.

We saw so many people throughout the course - the first being Catherine and Matt around mile 3.  I almost missed them but luckily they saw us and called out...and I heard them over my awesome playlist of music which will be a whole separate post because obviously you need to know exactly what I listened to for 26.2 miles.

 

I think I could also write a decent amount on all my spectators and signs, so I will save that for later, but the important thing right now is that I saw my family around mile 4.5 for the first time and I was STARVING (I'll explain why when I write about the pasta party...do you like all my cliffhangers?) so I yelled to my mom to buy me a bagel.

Sure enough, when I saw them again around mile 11, my dad had the bagel for me so I grabbed half and ate it while running.  I took water at every water stop, and Gatorade at I think only 2 during the first half and every station the 2nd half.  Apparently when you lose a lot of sodium, your body essentially starts producing salt, so I had a white ring around my face when I finished.  I also took GU Energy Gel 3 times throughout the race - around miles 9, 16, and 22.

Angela and I didn't talk much throughout the race, but when we did, the conversation went like this:

*Pass a mile marker*

"7:32"

"We should slow down a little and save it for later"

"Yeah, we should"

*Pass a mile marker*

"7:26"

"We should slow down"

"Yeah, we should"

*Pass a mile marker*

"7:34"

"This is comfortable, but we should maybe slow down a little more"

"Yeah, we should"

But we did not slow down.  I personally am glad we did not...hopefully Angela feels OK about it.  I know it is best to run negative or even splits (or even slightly positive splits at the marathon distance since negative/even splits are extremely difficult at that distance), but I also knew that by the time we were at mile 9, I needed to just go with it while I felt good.  And I did feel really good.  Angela decided to ease up a little and dropped back from me around mile 15-16.

(professional photo by MarathonFoto)

Around mile 19, Mac magically appeared.  I was very surprised because he had passed Angela and I around mile 10, but apparently he made a bathroom pit stop somewhere along the way.  He and I ran together for about the next 2 miles until he started to fade back a little.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with how even my pacing was for all of the race.  Yes, I died off the last 10k, but not nearly as much as I could have (or did during my previous marathons).  I ran it pretty exactly according to my plan.  Since I knew I wanted to beat my time from the Columbus Marathon in 2010 and I knew my splits from that race at the 10k, half, and 20 mile marks, that's what I was comparing myself to.  I was 1:40 ahead of pace at the 10k, which worried me a little because I was afraid maybe we did go out a little too fast.  But actually, I remember thinking I was only 40 seconds ahead...not a minute and 40 seconds.

(professional photo by MarathonFoto) 

And it's a good thing I did think that because at the half, I was 58 seconds ahead of my first half of Columbus.  And knowing myself, if I would've thought that I went from being 1:40 ahead of pace to only 0:58 ahead of pace, that might've mentally screwed me up a bit...but what you don't know can't hurt you.

After we hit the halfway mark, my plan was just to make it to 20 as fast as I could, knowing that no matter what, the last 10k was going to be miserable.  I wanted to/thought I could be at mile 20 between 2:31 and 2:34.  My brain was shut down at this time, but I think I remember being there right around 2:32:00 - 2:32:30, which was 2 to 2 and a half minutes ahead of my Columbus pace.  I didn't mentally put that split into my head though because I thought they recorded a 20 mile split with the chip so I figured I'd look later, but I guess not.

(professional photo by MarathonFoto)

Where I started to really struggle was around mile 18.  I knew I had about an hour or so to go and knew I could do it, but that's where I did start to experience some mental doubt in how fast I could realistically do those last 8 miles...I went from feeling pretty awesome to not so great pretty darn quickly.  I made the decision to walk through the next water stop I saw and that I'd walk through each one after that, which is also exactly what I did in Columbus.

So I would run all the way to the very last Gatorade person at each water station, take that cup, and start walking while I drank it and then take one of the very first cups of water, drink what I could, and make myself start running.  I imagine each stop was about 30 seconds, but really I had no concept of time.  I once again surprised myself with the fact that I really did make myself start running ASAP after drinking my liquids.

The last mile was pretty much the worst thing ever, especially "Mt. Roosevelt," the small hill within in the final 400 meters of the course. By this point I really knew I was going to finish in a great time though, so that made me push throug that final mile. And I saw Aunt Bernadette  saying "you're doing it!" Because she knew I would PR.

And then I finished!!

 (professional photo by MarathonFoto)

So I have a lot more details I could share and want to share, but those will come later this week because I've done enough rambling for now.  Basically, the race went as perfect as it could have and my pacing was better (more even...not quite as much dying at the end) than I could've ever expected from myself.

Frericks 5k & Parents Weekend

This weekend was Parents Weekend at Univeristy of Dayton, which I think is actually now called "Family Weekend." Conveniently, most of my best friends from UD have a younger sibling there still or live in Dayton/Cincinnati.

My mom and I weren't able to leave until after work on Friday, so we went straight to the hotel to bed. But Saturday morning we were ready to go for a day of fun. First on the schedule was the Frericks 5k around campus.

I knew it wasn't going to be a super competitive race because it tends to be a lot of the parents and younger siblings that walk the race, but also a decent number of runners too. I did a short warm-up around the Ghetto and lined up at the front, where I noticed there were no other girls except for a tiny 13 year old. She looked fierce and ready to race.

The horn sounded and off we went. I had a strong start but almost immediately felt like I was straight-up sprinting and obviously couldn't hold that for 3 miles. Erin and her sister Elise were standing near Marycrest, only about 3-4 minutes into the race and as I passed them I said "this already blows." As I kept going, I felt a little better and came through the 1 mile mark in 6:47. I was nervous for the 2nd mile because I knew it included Stuart Hill, the longest hill on campus.

"If a hill has its own name, then it is a probably a pretty tough hill."

Getting up the hill wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still rough. I was just looking forward to the downhill, and I passed 2 people on my way down (both guys, just the one 13 year old girl was ahead of me and she wasn't even in sight any more). I don't remember exactly what my split was for mile 2 but I do remember thinking I was still on basically the same pace, around 6:50.

The third mile was also difficult and by this point I knew I wasn't going to catch the girl ahead of me and I could tell when we kind of zig-zagged through KU Field that there were no other girls anywhere near behind me. I saw Erin and Elise again and was feeling better than when I saw then at the beginning, but I was also ready for the race to be over. I had no idea where the race ended bit just tried to keep pace. Then I finally saw the 3 mile mark and the finish and kicked in with what I had left. I finished in 21:20, averaging 6:52 pace so I was happy I stayed very consistent the whole time.  And I won a UD sweatshirt :)

After the 5k we went straight to the football stadium for tailgating. Dayton's football team isn't anything special - except for the few years this kicker graced the field.

Tailgating for the football game was a lot of fun!  All the parents made delicious food.  Mom made these brownies and a turkey appetizer.  Erin's parents brought Chic-Fil-A chicken which was also amazing.

I wasn't really drinking much because of marathon training, but I did join in on a few beer games!  I miss college.  And all these people.  It was so so warm out and I was beat, so mom and I went back to the hotel for a nap.  But then it was back to campus for dinner at Milano's with Patrick and Erin.

After dinner, I went to Grace's brother's house to meet up with all of my friends again to watch the OSU game.  We had a great time just hanging out, watching the game, and chatting.  It's so rare now (except for weddings) that we are all able to get together so it was really special  :)

We're all best friends.

Tempo Runs & Twitter

Yesterday, I read this article about tempo runs and ironically, I ended up doing a tempo run last night, which was not originally planned.

Mac and I were going to do mile repeats, but decided on just a normal run instead.  I thought a normal run would be good instead of a hard workout since we are racing on Sunday and I want fresh legs for that.  Well...normal/marathon pace for Mac = tempo run for Colleen.

I don't know all the actual splits on this because I was not in charge of the Garmin.  I think the first 2 miles were about 7:30 and then we picked it up for a few to 7 minute pace and then the last mile was back down to about 7:30 again.  I had my watch at 48 minutes and mapped it out online to 7 miles, so if that is all correct (or even if it's a bit off), that was a really fast run for me!  We did stop in the middle for a bit to stretch, etc. but that is quite alright and I needed that break.

So after I read that article on tempo runs, I started freaking out that there are only 5 and a half weeks left until the Chicago Marathon and that I haven't gotten in enough "quality" workouts or "marathon-specific" workouts.  I decided I really need to build in some tempo-paced runs.  With only about 3 weeks left before I have to taper, I wanted to know what workouts I should try to get in.  So I did the logical thing and emailed Catherine.  Subject line: important running question.

First of all, I realize this article is from 2007, but I doubt running philosophy changes that drastically (even though I do think running has gotten way more popular in the past couple years and more and more research has been done).  I just stumbled upon it yesterday because the Columbus Marathon tweeted it, so I read it.  They tweet lots of good articles.  You know who else tweets awesome stuff?  I do.  So you should follow me @CSmith_Run.  While you're at it, also follow @PJSmith9.  He tweets good stuff too (and he knows it).  Some examples:

Anyways though, Catherine and I are pretty comparable in pace and she has trained for a few marathons and knows what workouts are good.  So I trust her.  I asked what pace she does for tempo runs and if she has any good workout suggestions.  She usually does tempo runs around 7:20-7:30 pace, so that was consistent with what I was assuming.  The article says tempo pace should be 30-40 seconds per mile slower than your current 5k race pace.  I did a 4th of July 5k averaging 6:55 pace and I think I would be even a little faster than that now.  So the 7:20-7:30 tempo pace sounds pretty reasonable and manageable.

The article also said a good indication of tempo pace is the "talk test."  A simple question or answer should be possible, but conversation should not.  This was definitely true on our run last night...my sentences were pretty broken up in between gasps for air.  And then Mac got too fast for me so I was about 10 feet behind for a bit.  Conversation is not possible that way either.  I guess that means I need to get faster.

Catherine suggested a workout of 2 x 3 miles at tempo pace.  I think that would be a workout that would be very beneficial.  The article from Runner's World suggests a tempo workout of 2 x 5 or 6 miles at tempo pace, but with the warm-up and cool-down, that would essentially be a long run with tempo portions.  A workout that Mac has on the schedule in a week or two is 3 x 5k, which would also be at a "tempo" effort.  So I think I will aim to do that when he does and then make one of my two remaining 20 mile runs into a tempo workout/long run.  Two workouts in one!

Who is your favorite person to follow on Twitter?

Any good tempo workout suggestions?

Guest Post: Erin's "17 Things About Colleen"

Today I have a special treat for you - a guest post written my by lovely cousin Erin.  We are like peas and carrots.  She is the one who got me into blog reading and encouraged me to start my own.  And now that I have been working hard on this blog and just yesterday finished my "About Me" page, Erin decided she would like to give my readers a little more insight...

Hey there! My name is Erin, and I am Colleen’s cousin. I am also a 20-something living, working, and working out in Chicago…I just don’t run insane distances like CSmith. I graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 2012, and the only other real things you need to know about me are that I am obsessed with Christmas, the Cubs, and the number 217. The last one usually needs a little explanation, and it’s pretty simple: I was born on February 17.

In light of the fact that today is 817 (aka halfway to 217!), I figured today would be an optimal day to write 17 things about Colleen that you cannot learn from her About Me page. I could probably come up with a full 217 list items seeing as I have known Colleen since the very first 217 that I celebrated, but I think that’d be a little much for you to read. So here goes!

1. Colleen and I once bought a sign at a craft fair that said “Forget the dog, beware of Colleen.” We hung it up on the door of her room. I think she still has it.
2. Pennellwood Resort is Colleen’s (and my) favorite vacation spot. I know she already posted about it, but it’s so important that it deserves its own list item here, too. There are plans in the works to perhaps open up our own Pennellwood one day.

3. Colleen loves Christmas almost as much as I do, and we both love Christmas music. I start listening to it on October 17 (aka 1017) each year and force her to do so also. Our favorite Christmas song is “Joy to the World,” by Neil Diamond. We – along with our cousin Katie – made up a dance to that song and filmed it in 2002. We all wore our matching pink North Face fleeces in the dance.
4. Colleen ran the 2010 Columbus Marathon all by herself and with no spectators. Most importantly, she was number 217 for this race.

5. Colleen loves bread, specifically Pennellwood bread. Pennellwood bread is just what you’d expect it to be – bread that Pennellwood Resort baked each and every morning. It was fresh and delicious, but no one loved it more than Colleen.
6. Plaid skirts are always in style on Christmas, and Colleen and I (accidentally) coordinated our Christmas Eve outfits one year to keep with the trend. Great minds think alike.

7. Colleen, our cousin Katie, and I have dubbed one night each year “D-Day.” We use this night to annoy Colleen’s dad, Don, and it falls during the week of Thanksgiving. Examples of past annoyances include putting post-it notes all over the kitchen walls, turning on every single light in the house, and filling his car with random objects so that it’s nearly impossible for him to get in let alone drive. They are harmless pranks, but they are fun. And he gets annoyed, which is the point.
8. Tubing on our uncle’s boat (we call him Captain Ron) is one of our favorite memories and things to do. Sometimes we both tube at the same time and then execute a mid-ride tube switch.

9. Nesquik is not called Nesquik when conversing with Colleen. It is referred to as “the Q,” because she used to drink so much of it that it was essentially her drug.
10. Colleen and I once made a commercial for Juicy Fruit gum when we were about 13 and 11 respectively. It had something to do with Avril Lavigne’s “Sk8er Boi” as the background music I think.
11. Usually, for our birthdays, Grandma and Grandpa Smith give each of us cousins a bag of chocolate chip cookies as part of our gift. Going along with number 5, Colleen instead receives a bag of rolls for her birthday.

12. G-chat is where Colleen and I spend our time conversing every single day. We also text very pointless messages to one another, which occasionally include random Forrest Gump quotes.
13. Pizza Hut used to be a huge food staple in Colleen’s life. We spent many a Friday night sleeping over at her house and ordering from “the hut.” Their breadsticks are divine.
14. For about four years in a row (maybe more?), Colleen was a parrot for Halloween.

15. Acronyms are used far too frequently in our conversations. A few commonly used examples include: DTJ (“do the job” or “did the job”), BOG/GOG (“be on G-chat”/”get on G-chat”), YATWL (you are the weakest link”), CCC (“Colmone Country Club), LNPTDID (“Let’s not put the ‘duh’ in ‘dumb’.’’), and HIHACLY (“Happiness is having a cousin like you.”). That last one is a phrase we saw on a plaque at one of the Arlington Racetrack Craft Shows we attended.
16. The 4th of July is a big day for Colleen, although we typically call it “the FOJ” (gotta keep the acronym theme alive). A lot of our family members come to Niles to watch the Niles Parade, since it is pretty great. Colleen’s favorite part of that parade is the Little People.

17. Colleen and I enjoy making lists, and our best one was “CAEUSTDL 2010,” which was “Colleen and Erin’s Ultimate Summer To Do List.” It included a number of things that we never accomplished, but obviously we still have it and will cross everything off eventually. I hope you’ve enjoyed this list and keep coming back to CSmith Run to do just that!