All Things Running. And Racing Rules...Do You Follow?

Does it get much sweet than this after a running a marathon?!  

After a five hour car ride from Northern Washington and spending three to four hours driving around a marathon course cheering my husband on, filling water, blasting music (since it was supposedly a no-ipod race), and trying to entertain bored kids, I was definitely in need of a good run tonight!  But all I really wanted to do was wax my mustache and unibrow, take a shower, grab a beer and veg out to some mindless television show or catch up on blogs.  


I am so glad I went on a run!  I wasn't expecting the energy that I found. Instead of the forced four mile run that I was going to try to "fit in" instead of my 12 miles with 8 at marathon pace, I was transfixed by the life sized moon and the strawberry mango sunset that awaited me.  I ended up being pleasantly surprised with 6.5 miles with three of them at a somewhat marathon pace:
Mile 3:  7:45 mostly uphill.
Mile 4: Mix of hills 7:18
Mile 5: 7:19 last half of this one was a pretty big hill!  


I returned as one sweaty, happy lady!  And ready to hydrate!  Water. Beer. Water.  

Friday's Tempo on Treadmill (shortened due to time):
incline on 1.0
.5 warm-up
1 mile @ 7:04 pace (8.5 setting on TM)
1 mile @ 6:59
1 mile @ 6:54
.5 recovery pace
1 mile 7:04
1 mile 7:04
.5 cool down


The Hubby's Marathon

Yes, as I mentioned in the caption at the top, it really didn't get much better than this today.  That's why I had to include this picture more than once.  Our three kiddos were so proud of their daddy after he finished his marathon!  As they should be.


As most of you already know, my husband ran his first marathon mostly untrained on July 4th.  He was training for a 5k and his longest run had been a half marathon 3 months earlier.  He decided to jump in the race with me and see what happened.  What happened was that he ran a 3:24 and stuck with me every step of the way and was strong all the way to the end!  


This is what made us think that he should try to Boston Qualify so that we could run Boston together.  Since he is 32, his qualifying time this year is 3:10.  Waylon had 8 weeks to train but was confident that it would be possible.  Out of those 8 weeks, he spent one week under-rested and over trained, one week of injury and rarely ran over 40 miles a week due to work, being a dad/husband, and being part of a leadership development program.  Oh, and his rib went out of place the day before the race and left him in pain even when he woke up this morning to run.  But we were still betting that he would do it!  

Mile 14.  Restocking his water.  

No BQ this time but MAN, I'm proud of him!  3:20:03 (unofficial).  And a learning experience.  Another marathon under his belt to make him that much more determined and focused on the next one!  I'm sure I could write a race report for him that would be as if I ran it since I was there for so much of it....driving around, playing music, handing him water, and cheering him on....but I'll spare you the small details and just leave you with the picture and words that he posted on facebook today:

"I learned a few things today.

1. 8 weeks of training isn't long enough for me to knock 14 minutes of my marathon.

2. It is more fun to run a marathon with Amanda and music than without

3. Head winds and super flat courses are not ideal.

4. My family is awesome and they are great supporters.

5.Amanda is a badass to beat her BQ time by 16 min.  I did NOT pay him to say this.  :)

6. Beer is good (ok, I knew this already) but it is really good after 26.2"

Race and Running Rules.  Do you Follow??
Okay, I'm just a little irritated here. I'm usually not a person to get all caught up on pet peeves and dwell on the negative things but this one kind of gets me fired up.  Here's the deal, this marathon that my husband just ran was one that banned ipods or music devices. NO MUSIC/EARBUDS!  My husband knew this going into this thing and he also knew that it would make the race harder for him.  But he trained without music and prepared to follow the rules.  Now here's the thing, if there are going to be rules put into place for a race like this, I think they need to be enforced and followed or it just isn't fair for everyone...not a fair playing field in my opinion.  The winning woman ran a 3:14 or something like that and she came into the finish line with her earbuds in for all to see and NOBODY cared!  What?!   I understand the rules are for covering their own butts in case someone gets hurt from the traffic and open roads but is there an unspoken "rule" that you can break the rules at your own risk?  Or can people get disqualified for not following this rule?  This is why he didn't break the rule...he figured it would really stink if he did BQ and then got disqualified for using music.  I was just a little annoyed that so many runners went without music because it was stated very clearly and boldly that music was not allowed and some just went ahead and did what they wanted with absolutely NO problem.  So those that followed the rule, ran this race without music that could have helped them on those open roads with very few supporters. And those that didn't follow the rules...well, they enjoyed their music and ran their race just as they wanted...despite the RULES.  This just bugs me. I think that if they are not going to enforce a rule like this then they need to state in the fine print: use music at your own risk. 


Inspiration
When I was at a stop in Washington on my way home, I heard about Ana Maria's 30k this weekend and I went from being drowsy and bored at the wheel to being all CHARGED up and inspired!  After a week of mileage in the high 70's, AM raced an amazing 18 plus miles on tired legs and hills in an incredible pace.  Gosh AM, you motivate me!  Keep on sharing your running life with us!  


So, how's this for getting back to running in the Runninghood?!  


Do you break the racing rules when it comes to running with music?  Do you think these rules should be enforced or do you think that it should just be an unspoken rule in running culture that it is okay to use your ipods anyway?