After reacquainting with my pillow and my TV, here's what's next!

Me and running buddy Karl showing off our
marathon medals at Brews.
I'll do an official photo post soon!! 

I can't get the 30 Rock theme out of my head. Because making it through the end of Season 2 (love the episodes with Edie Falco) and most of Season 3 has been hands down the most productive thing I've done since the 2011 Columbus Marathon. (Tracy Morgan just tried to kill Jimmy Fallon. Very nice.).

**Warning: Pointless, scatterbrained post ahead**

That's outside of work, that is. I did get to cover what will probably be the story of the year, when a bunch of wild animals were set free in Zanesville, Ohio. In between chuckles over the increasing absurdity of the story, I managed to get one of my stories picked up by USA Today, and another by the Cincinnati Enquirer. (Insert shameless plug for professional Facebook page here.) 

"It's like Noah's Ark wrecking here in Zanesville." Jack Hanna

And here's some more news: I'm now a certified Spinning instructor. Starting in November I'll be teaching at the Newark Y, 6 a.m. Wednesdays and 6:30 p.m. Thursday. So if you're in my neck of the woods come see me!

Spinning was the only activity I did last week, so my DailyMile displayed a whopping one workout. I proudly posted this shining accomplishment on Facebook and Kim B. promptly responded: "Hey...you are supposed to be taking it easy."

Facebook post from Monday 10/24. 

Spinning Thursday was fun but slightly nerve-wracking. Jamie let me be in front of the class with her. Once I'm settled in and on my bike I realize I'm in a 90-minute class. But Jamie ran Columbus too (and we wore our twin shirts that day to prove it), so if she could do it, I had no excuse. I survived the first half no problem. Most of the class left at the break, leaving just a few brave souls. Jamie let me cue some jumps, and I learned that it is not easy to talk and count in my head. 

Race Report: 2011 Columbus Marathon

Today was a runner's nightmare. I overslept!!!

But despite the biggest thing that could possibly go wrong on race day going wrong, I beat my Cleveland time by...

Wait for it...

Drumroll please...

19 MINUTES!! 

I ran the Columbus Marathon in 4:13:12, an average pace of 9:40, beating my Cleveland time of 4:32:50 (average pace 10:24). I am shocked at my time. I can't believe I did that well.

So my morning went like this: Heard the alarm go off at 4 a.m. thought I hit snooze but I didn't! Next thing I knew it was 5:15. 

Fortunately, I still had time to get there -- gun was at 7:30. Fortunately, Lizzie Dog peed right away. Fortunately, I had packed everything the night before so I was able to just grab my bag and go -- I'm out the door by 5:30. Fortunately, there were no cops on 161!  

I get into Columbus by 6:15 but traffic was snarly. It takes me a half hour to get parked and by the time I get to the Hyatt, where MIT was meeting, it was time to head to the start. "Way to scare everyone by showing up late," says Bill B. as I hand him my bag to put on the truck. I grin. 

We start the procession toward the start and I catch up to some of the 10:30s walking. "JESSICA!!!!!" Kim says, "You had us so worried!!" 

We get to the start and I have to pee big time. The line for the regular port-a-johns is atrocious, so Meredith, also in our pace group start poking into local businesses looking for a ladies' room with no line. In Dunkin' Donuts, someone tells us where there is a port-a-potty with no line. Jackpot!! Actually it had a short line, far more bearable still. We make it to the start just in time. 

There's no hope of finding the pace teams, it's too crowded, too many people!! That's right, I ran the whole thing without a pacer, and pretty consistently too!

I'm #3713, and here's the plan!

Ok so the race expo was fun, but now I'm a little overwhelmed. Time to take a breather and write everything out.

I'll finish this when I get back from the store :)

Things I need to do tonight:

~Pack

~Charge iPod

~Sync iPod, equalize volume

~Shower

~Eat

~Go to store and buy preserves so I can have my traditional almond butter and jelly bagel for breakfast

~See if Goodwill is still open, get a throwaway

Expo time REDUX!!!

WAHOO!!!!!

I have just returned from the Columbus Marathon Expo! Fun flashback to the Cleveland Expo.

This is going to be a photo post. I'll do my more serious "Here's the Plan" post next, and then the playlist post!

Fun times at the expo! I spent an hour and a half working with Deb M. at the Bondiband booth, and got three Bondis out of it. One is a prezzy for someone, here are the other two -- not sure which I'm going to wear tomorrow:

Here's the shirt, front and back:

Nervous ramblings as race day approaches

*****GULP*****


The Columbus Marathon is SUNDAY!

To say I'm nervous would be a vast understatement. This is marathon #2, and what I'm going to write is complete deja vu from what I wrote before Cleveland:

"Here's what killed my confidence... I'm ashamed to say it but I dropped the ball on my training."

So, yea, totally dropped the ball on my training -- and I don't have a move to blame it on this time.

Everything went great through the final 12 (well, 13.1) mile run. Then I went out two days later. And my legs just wouldn't move! I ran with Karl in Granville, he tried to push me to no avail, I gave up after 1.5 miles.

Ok, I needed rest. I took 2 days off. I was visiting my parents and tried to go out for 3 miles that Friday. Part of it was maybe the big dinner, but this time 2.5 miles was too much. Now I'm getting nervous.

The next day was my Spinning certification class, which I'll blog about in a separate post (likely after the marathon). I let two really difficult spin classes take the place of the 8-mile run. I burned almost 800 calories between them, so I didn't feel guilty.