Sunday Run Day

Sundays are quiet days around here.  Very quiet, actually a little ghost-town quiet.  All stores are closed.  Some restaurants and gas stations are open.  No errands to the grocery store or any shopping, for that matter.  Even pharmacies are closed.  If you get sick on a Sunday, you have to drive to the airport to get medicine at the pharmacy there.  It has been strange to get used to, but at the same time, so refreshing.  Sunday mornings, we have been listening to sermons from Riverwest, our church in Oregon.  We miss the people and the church incredibly.  Then we usually go for a family run or a long walk at some point during the day.

There are great paved and gravel trails that go all over.  Nearly everyone walks and/or bikes on a regular basis.  Trails go through woods connecting towns and through farmland giving walking routes to people who live farther out of town.  It's beautiful countryside all around us.

On the south side of town here in Kloten, there are extensive trails that go through the woods.  There are benches and fire pits with cut firewood for free use to cook a picnic lunch (brats, anyone?).  Sunflowers grow wonderfully and fields are all over.  It's very picturesque.

On the north side of town, past the church, the school, and fields or corn, a trail goes uphill into the farmland.

These water fountains are all over the place.  Bryce said that they are fresh drinking water, so no need to pay for water in Switzerland.  I have yet to drink from them.  Maddie loves to cool off and splash the water on hot days.  Even yesterday, it was cool and overcast, and when we passed it, she was sure to say, "Hi Wawer! Bye Wawer!"  Most of these fountains have dates on them when they were constructed.

On most runs (which are around 30 minutes or so for me these days), Maddie almost always says, "Nannie run! Nannie run! Down, Mama!"  Then she runs for less than a minute and I put her back in the stroller.

Going out for a run or walk is a daily activity for us.  It's been good to get out of the apartment as much as possible, especially on nice days.  It's amazing what getting outside can do for everyone's mood.

But oddly enough, it's been cooler and overcast or raining about 3 days a week.  Those cooler days are even better for a run.  I love Fall weather, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to say goodbye to summer.

Tomorrow, August 1st, is Swiss National Day, which means today is Friday for Bryce!  We're trying to figure out what we want to do.  We were planning on going 2 hours to the Bernese Oberland area (Interlaken, Murren, Lauterbrunnen) for a long weekend to explore the Alps, but the weather forecast doesn't look great for that area, so we rescheduled.  Eat some Lindt chocolate or Emmental cheese tomorrow!

Myrtle Beach Marathon

I finally got a second to put the video clips together and download my pictures from the marathon.

We made it!

It started at 6:30am on Saturday morning, Feb. 19th, and we finished about 4.5 hours later. The first 13 miles, I was feeling great, we were running faster than our planned pace, and I was loving it. Unfortunately, we had to stop 4 times along the race for me to rush into a porta-john, which was unusual. It started getting pretty hot out, 70 degrees and sunny, and I was feeling a little dehydrated. So mile 13 through 18 was a little tougher and we slowed down. From mile 18 to 23, I was feeling great. After mile 23, it was...rough. All the muscles in my legs felt like rocks grinding against my joints, even my arm was cramping up, we were dripping sweat, it was hot, my feet were full of blisters, and I was literally just focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. When we hit mile 26, I started crying a little bit, out of both joy and pain, and then Bryce pulled out the camera (again) so I snapped out of it.

Then I saw it. The finish line. The beautiful beautiful finish line. Hallelujah Lord!

We did it! I never in my life thought I would run a marathon. Never wanted to. Didn't even want to want to. Now that I've done it, I know it's possible and it's not intimidating anymore. The day of and the next day, we were walking like penguins, but by Tuesday, we went for a short 3 mile run. Recovery was a lot easier than I expected. Contrary to other people who get obsessed with it, I am not already planning my next marathon race. I would like to do another half marathon though. I could see myself doing another one at some point, but not any time soon. Not only is the training very time consuming, but it gets expensive!

In 4 days...

I will be lining up

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And taking off

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For my first marathon ever.

In Myrtle Beach.

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I'm still surprised to see old and young side by side running 26.2 miles

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I'm a little nervous. But I'll have my own *handsome* personal trainer, cheerleader, and best friend with me

And it's supposed to be in the high 60s/low 70s and sunny this weekend! So after, you can catch me napping on the beach with my Valentine.

Running

Since our half marathon in the OBX in November, we have been running. Actually, training. I never thought I'd say this... I am training for a marathon with Bryce.

I still think it is crazy. But the truth is, after such a fun time running in the Outer Banks, I thought, "I just ran 13 miles, I'm half way there in my training for a marathon, if I'm ever going to do it, now is the time." After a few days wondering if I should commit, I finally did. I am just now starting to feel okay with the idea that I'm going to try to run 26.2 miles in one day.

A couple weeks ago, it was freezing. And we were still running. One of the coldest days we went out for a run, it was 15 degrees, and with the windchill, it was 3 degrees. If you saw us on the road, you would have seen these 2 people:



We are hoping (God willing, no injuries or mishaps) to run a marathon in mid February.

13.1: Check.

We ran the Outer Banks Half Marathon on Sunday, November 14th. It was a blast!

As my second race ever (and also second half marathon), I really loved it. I think I pushed myself more than the first, and it felt good to finish knowing that I did. The course was flat the entire way, minus a small section on the bridge. It was awesome weather-low to mid 50s, sunny, with a nice breeze.

Just like the first race, Bryce was the cameraman and videographer. It was funny looking back at the pictures and videos throughout the run. This time, I made a video, so now you can feel like you ran with us...without running it.

We stayed in a shanty little motel on the beach in Nags Head. It was fine for a one nighter, in and out thing. Don't know if I would want to stay there for a week, but the options in the OBX are limited, so we were thankful to find a decent place to stay within our budget.

We didn't really go out to the beach much, it was more of: we drove there, watched the Hokies play, filled ourselves at Outback, watched more football, went to bed, woke up, ran, showered, took a picture by the beach, got in the car, and drove home.

Oh, and we were sure to replace all the calories we burnt at Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast. I don't normally like pancakes anywhere other than made at home, but I would argue that Cracker Barrel has the best pancakes I've ever tasted.

Getting close to home...

Great weekend.

13.1 miles!

One of the awesome things about my husband: he is a dedicated runner. He has done a couple marathons, a triathlon, and multiple half marathons. He loves to run. I sometimes wonder if he actually studied running technique, the right shoes, training, injury, and other "running topics." When we got married, one of his dreams was to run a marathon with his wife. My reaction to hearing that dream was, "What?? Me??" and then I laughed to think I would be able to run any race for that matter.

It was only a couple months after the wedding day that we started to run a couple times a week together. From the beginning, I was pretty intimidated by his running. But he always let me determine the pace. Not only did Bryce love every minute of it, but I soon began to really appreciate running. Once I started running more, I began to realize that I felt really good and enjoyed exercising more often. By the Spring, we decided to run a half marathon together! Due to schedule, moving, and other factors, we waited a few months to run our half marathon until December 12, 2009. We ran the "Thunder Road" half marathon in Charlotte, NC.


The morning of the race, it was in the 20s and 30s, but once we started running, we got pretty warm. It is a smaller race compared to some half marathons. There were 3,002 runners in the half marathon. Most of the race was through beautiful older neighborhoods. Along the way, there were a few DJs playing music and at the end, a couple live bands.

Bryce kept me laughing the whole way. He ran ahead of me and took pictures of me running, videotaped me, and kept encouraging me up until I crossed the finish line. I loved it! I think it was especially fun to set the goal for myself, train for a few months (with a great trainer!), and finally accomplish the goal together.
We've already started looking for other races we're interested in running. We're hoping to run one later this Spring.

Will I run a full marathon? Right now, my answer is "no." Then again, if I had been asked to run a HALF marathon two years ago, my answer would have been "no."