DryMax Socks

I love race expo's, I love to walk around and see all the vendors' and all the new stuff I have not seen. Several years ago it was Bondi Band- I bought several and I still use from time to time today. Then there was the wooden medal holder that I saw and purchased at Little Rock half marathon expo, that is completely full, leaving me to wonder what I will use for 2010 season. This year in Dallas the first booth that I passed that drew me back was the Drymax Socks booth. I see a guy with socks playing with them in a bowl of water, so I thought to myself this is something I have got to see. He rolled and dipped the socks in the water and then he told me that he was going to press then down on a dry paper towel and the towel would stay dry. Well as I am thinking that is the biggest piece of BS I have ever heard, he touched the sock to the paper towel and not even a drop of water was there. I let him go through his sales pitch about how these socks prevent blisters more than any sock out on the market, blah blah blah. He told me that they were normally $10 a pair but at the expo if you bought 3 pair it would be $20, So when he finally quit talking I said sold. Little did he know he had as soon as he put the socks in a bowl of water. You see I am the blister queen, I put Vaseline on my feet to run 3 miles, because if I don't I get a blister- I don't know why since I also use the proper anti-moister socks, some of my previous posts have described the ugly,awful blisters I have earned running over the past couple of years. So back to the Drymax, I have used these sock twice on my runs since Dallas h/m once for an easy 4 miles and last Sunday on my 20 miler and guess what no Vaseline (cause the directions say not to use it, and NO blisters. This is the first time ever that I have run over 10 miles without at least a hot spot or blister and my feet stayed dry. I will never buy another sock other than these. Thank you whoever you were for dipping those socks into the bowl of water as I strolled by your booth. Check them out at www.drymaxsocks.com

Merry Christmas All

I hope to see you on the roads soon!

Graduation

It was a big weekend in the Baugh house. My hubby graduated with his master's on Friday night. I am so very proud of him as he has worked really hard the past few years trying to get back into school and get his degree. About one semester before graduation he deicided to get his teaching certificate and then his master's. So he has been a busy boy the past 6 years. After work Friday I went and got my hair trimmed and then rushed home to get dressed. Graduation was at 7 and we gathered in the pavillion and waited. It was me, mom, brother, sis-in-law, father-in-law, mother-in-law and a few close friends. After graduation we went to have dinner and drinks at The Grove, delicious food, BAD service, beautiful setting and great drinks.
Saturday I rested a bit, cleaned house and finished up some last minute Christamas shopping. Later in the evening we went to a Christmas party at The Grube's, great friend and great food.
Sunday was my 20-miler getting me ready for Houston full marathon. I met up with fast Russell and Kathleen at 6:15 and we headed out basically all the way to the back of The Woodlands, turned around and came back. 20.06 miles finished and now time to taper.

Work Monday and Tuesday and then done until January 4th.

Merry Christmas to All and I hope to see you on the roads soon.

Post race recovery and A little bit of bragging.

I seem to be recovering well after my half marathon (PR) on Sunday. Monday was a nice rest day that included crawfish and beer with my family. Yesterday I was looking at some of my stats from the race and although I am no where near fast or was no where close to winning. I took pleasure in some of mt results. My splits were all negative, @ mile 6.214 my avg pace was 10:29 (gradually all up hill) @ mile 3.784 (still mainly up hill) and finally going down hill the last 3.109 miles were @ 9:08 avg pace. In the final 3 miles I passed 411 ppl and was only passed by 13. There were 3083 woman that finished behind me and 1717 a head of me. The last one I will brag about is that I beat 39% of men. So I did not win the race but I kick alot of azz. Last night I went to the track for 3.5 easy miles. I felt tired after my run but not sore. Tonight is Master's swim.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Dallas White Rock Half Marathon

My goals for this race were to race healthy, have fun with friends, and high hopes of a PR. All of these goals were accomplished on Sunday. My friend Kathleen and I drove up to Dallas on Saturday morning. When we got to Dallas we went straight to the expo and meet up with Russell picked up our packets and started walking around looking at the different booths. Bill Rodgers was speaking so we listened to him for about 30 mins and then finished walking around. We were about to leave when he walked right up and started talking to 2 men standing behind me so when he was done I introduced myself and asked for a photo. Unfortunately the only camera I had was my blackberry so the picture is not that good but oh well. After the expo we headed to Hard Rock for lunch. After lunch we went to the hotel to relax and rest our legs. At dinner time we went to Chamberlin’s where my cousin Lance is the manager had some yummy seafood apps and a beer or two. I felt like a rock star at this restaurant, the chef came out to our table and introduced himself and thanked us for coming in and wished us well in our race on Sunday, the hostesses, waitresses and bartenders all came by to meet us and wish us well too. Not mention they took care of us 100%. If you are every in Dallas look up Chamberlin’s Seafood Market and go eat there, they are right off the Dallas Tollway. After diner we went back to the hotel and laid out our race clothes a pile for cold weather and a pile for warm weather & went to bed around 10pm. I slept normally like I do the night before a race- restless tossing and turning, dreaming about waking up to late etc. Wake up call came in at 6:15- bathroom, shower and got dressed, went down to the lobby for continental breakfast, which included a banana, one egg, half of a pancake and a small piece of sausage. This is not my normal pre race breakfast but it was good and I took a chance with trying something new. Sorry Coach Kim! We left out hotel for a short 10 min walk to the American Airlines Center, when we got there we saw Althea, dropped our bags and stood in line for one last bathroom break. This is where I saw my next celebrity, Crazy Tracy from the biggest loser- she looked fabulous and excited about her race. I noticed she was in the same wave as Kathleen and I but after leaving the bathroom line I never saw her again. The first wave started at 8:00am I was in wave C, but we were across the mat in about 10mins 30 sec s after the first wave. The course was decent; it was a slight elevation gain for the first nine miles, then a slight decent, in which about 3 miles were on a beautiful trail. Cons of this race were, aid stations were horrible, water and Gatorade were not ready for runners when we came through, each aid station I stopped at I had to wait for them to pour my Gatorade into a cup. Water stations were not well marked and volunteers were not yelling out. The course was way too congested, they need to reroute so accommodate the 22,000 runners. A lot of time was wasted on trying to get around other runners/walkers on small streets that were also congested with parked cars. Coming into the shoots were difficult to again they were very narrow and there were several runners who thought it was a good time to stop and high five family members or kiss their loved ones 20 yards from the finish line. The finish line was a fiasco as well, the stuffed the finisher shirts, medals and finish line photos in an area less than 20 yards long and when you got through there you had a football field length of nothing before you went to the finishers tent. The finisher’s food consisted on hard cold bagels, granola bars and fruit- But lots of beer and two great bands. So as a Beer lover they redeemed themselves with having plenty of beer. I ran a good race, I felt good for most of it, my calf hurt a bit between mile 11 and 13 but I was going for a PR and it was all downhill so I ran through it. When I crossed the finish line my Garmin said 2:11:20 but when I checked my chip time it was 2:12:16 a little disappointing- I guess my Garmin jacked up and I didn’t realize it, but I still got a PR and I had fun and I feel great today. Pros of the race, a great expo, great entertainment, scenic course, lots of beer, nice participation and finisher shirts, lots of crowd support. I would recommend this race and would probably do it again especially if they fixed the congestion issues.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

3 sleeps until 13.1

3 more sleeps until Dallas White Rock half marathon. Am I nervous? not really. Is it driving me crazy with what I hope for and what will be? YES.. The most important thing I want is to be healthy and that's what I am sure of no matter what. What I hope as far as goals, 2:00-2:12. So I guess we will see on Sunday.

Last night was Master swim, it was better than last week and I think it will get better each week. Took it easy (slow, even slower than normal) since I am racing this weekend. Swam 1700.

Hope to see you on the roads soon.

Houston had a snow day

Yes Houston Texas had a snow day. My company even let us leave early on Friday, some areas around town got several inches, The Woodlands which is where I live got screwed, we had an hour of big flurries but nothing stuck. I did however use this is a rest day and stayed indoors by the warm fire. Saturday morning some of our running group decided to sleep in and start our run a little later than normal, to let the ice on the roads get the opportunity to melt before we headed out. At 9 am we meet at Starbucks and set out for a 32 degree run. It was not a great day for me, I had 15-16 miles on the schedule and around mile 10 the pain started to settle in. Just before mile 14 I was in excruciating pain from my hips to my calves. As soon as I hit mile 15 I walked the .75 back to Starbuck's and drank a Grande Peppermint Mocha then headed home for a hot soak in the tub. After the long soak in the tub feeling a little better I decided to head to the mall and do some Christmas shopping for my man but I can't tell you what I bought him in case he decides to read my blog someday... Sunday was our running club holiday social, great food and good times, I took Sunday off as a rest day. Monday was my final furlough day thank god that I will be getting full pay checks again this will help out in the upcoming purchase of my new bike. Will post pictures as soon as I get it. I met up with my girl Robin for lunch and some shopping for me, then a 5:00 massage from Cruz, my calves will probably be a bit sore for a few days but they are much better than they were Saturday and Sunday. They were so bad she broke out a hot stone to workout the knots. My honey finally got home from Florida last night or early this morning is more like it, but I am glad he is home, I missed him like crazy. Tonight a track workout. 2-3 x 1 mile. Wednesday master swim- still makes me sick to my stomach.

Sunday is my half marathon in Dallas. #1 Goal is to PR anything under 2:13:00. #2 would be to get in under 2:10:00, Long term goal is sub 2:00.

Hope to see you on the roads soon!

Thanksgiving Day 5 miler and other updates

On Thanksgiving morning I ran Run Through The Woods in The Woodlands. It is a great local 5 mile race that is about 1 mile from my house. It also includes a children's 1 mile race and a 3 mile family walk. It is a flat coarse other than 1 overpass that you go over twice. Every year this race seems to attract more and more ppl, this year there were about 5000 participants. It was a cool morning and the race went well, my coach and I had talked about what my goals were for the future that include a 1/2 mary on Dec 13 and a full on Jan 17. I had decided to have fun with this 5 miler and not really race it. With all that said it turned out to be a great morning, I felt good and I ended up with a PR- unintended but everything felt right and it just turned out that way. PR 50:11.

After two days of completely stuffing myself full of food with Thanksgiving turkey, potato's, greenbean casserole and stuffing I ran long on Saturday. I ran my first 20 miles since completing Oklahoma marathon back in April. It was a challenging run for me, I started out with a couple friends who are a little set back with injury but after about 7 miles I was on my own. I tried to stay focused and when the Garmin beeped at each mile I drank fluids and depending on mile I was at ate a Gu or took endurolites. When I arrived back at Starbucks Team Strive all cheered me back in and congratulated me on completing 20 miles- the longest run of the group that day.

Monday night I headed to the track for 5.25 easy miles.

Tuesday TRACK w/o was canceled boo

Tonight is the first night of swim clinic with Woodlands Master swim- I am swimming with the big boys tonight- I am kind of nervous..

Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband Logan (who does not even read my blog).