More/fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon

April 30, 2013 By Anne in LIFE Runners, NYC, running 6 Comments

My New York

Our half marathon (April 14) was the day before the Boston Marathon bombing. In fact, our plane touched down in St. Louis one hour after the the tragedy. I wanted to let some time pass before posting much about our trip to NYC and the More/fitness Half Marathon.

My 5th Half Marathon

Feelin’ LIFE Runner strong!

It always feels good to pass someone on a hill…

…With the wind in my hair.

The last steep hill that I topped just before this point was a killer…

Heading to the finish line!

Finished!

…And ready to go again!

January 2010 I began training to run a half marathon then later a full marathon. Since that time I’ve finished 5 half marathons and 1 full marathon. I have not been much of a runner and in fact am an ex-smoker.

Running is hard (at least for me it is). Every time I finish a race, I feel like I’m going to collapse. I always recover quickly though and then look forward to the next one.

The More/fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon is in NYC’s Central Park which is a challenging course to say the least…lots of steep hills. This was my third time around with this event (2010, 2011 and 2013).

I was so pleased to finish with a time of 3:02 which is a PR for me. The weather was perfect at 51 degrees and sunny.

Here’s Kristina and I before the race got underway. We were pretty excited. This was Kristina’s first half marathon. She did great too! I knew she could do it! I forgot how hilly this course is but Kristina knocked it out just the same.

This is us getting ready to take off on our adventure.

New York Road Runners – Charging Phone

@ The Expo Picking Up Number

With Mika Brizenski @ Expo

Too much fun with Kristina…Laughing all the way!

Night Before Race – Ready!

@ Mike Huckabee Show

We went to the Today Show and Joe Jonas (One of the Jonas Brothers), was disguised and standing right in front of us. A girl had asked him to prom via a viral video, and she was being interviewed just about 2 feet from us. Then they come over to this guy with long hair and start interviewing him. Then next you see her face and reaction to realizing who is beneath the disguise. So cool… check out the pictures in the slideshow below.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The dark and dismal Italian Restaurant that was filled with murals including one that overshadowed our table.

Kristina at the NYRR’s Club

Stardust Cafe – the wait staff perform and are awesome!

My marathon medal is shaped like Missouri. Then the rest are half marathon and this weekends 5K medal for first in age division. I gave one of my half marathon medals to Carrie who is a marathon mom.

What a great time we had in NYC. I love NY! I love running in NY too. It was a wonderful experience to go with Kristina and be there for her first half marathon. We are LIFE Runners!

Running My Fastest 5K

April 27, 2013 By Anne in running Tags: 10 000 Women, 1st Place, 5K, Boston, Boston Marathon, Demographic profile, health, Pregnancy Center, Running, Sports, United States 15 Comments

I ran a 5K this morning for the local pregnancy help center and came in first in my age division.

That’s a first for me. I ran it in 34 minutes even with a good size hill at the end (category 5). A year ago I ran a 5K for Jefferson City Diocese Vocations and I believe my time was 42 minutes. It doesn’t seem like much difference but this is a pace of 10:37 per mile. Last years was a pace of 13:05. The average pace of women age 50 – 54 is 13:20 based on 10,000 women of that age group running 5K’s in 2010.

So that’s a major milestone for me. I’ve always been the slow runner in the back and for today, I wasn’t the fastest, but not the slowest either.

It was a good day.

Here’s a picture me (#11) and my LIFE Runner team mates that also ran the 5K…

Qualify for the 2014 Boston Marathon

April 21, 2013 By Anne in running Tags: Boston, Boston Athletic Association, Boston Marathon, Events, Marathon, Qualify for Boston Marathon, Road running, Running, Sports 9 Comments

Photo Credit: Washington Post

A high percentage of marathon runners are thinking the same thing right now…”I want to qualify for the 2014 Boston Marathon.” As a show of support for the victims, their families, the city of Boston, and the Marathon itself.

I know I’d like to, but that means I’d have to be running a marathon fairly soon at a pace that is faster than I have done before.

Hmmm…..

Let me know who else is thinking about this too.

Boston Strong!

April 19, 2013 By Anne in running, tribute Tags: Boston, Boston Marathon, Boston strong, life, Marathon, we are Boston 3 Comments

Support Boston as they mourn and dig in to move forward. As said before, we are Boston! Marathons are a celebration of life…respect and protect it always.

We Are All From Boston

April 16, 2013 By Anne in NYC, running Tags: Boston, Boston Marathon, half marathon, Marathon, More/fitness Magazine Half Marathon, New York City, Running, St. Louis Missouri 4 Comments

Thoughts and prayers for the city of Boston, race participants and families. So tragic.

Photo Credit: Washington Post

Kristina and I had just arrived in St. Louis from NYC (3:15 CST) when we heard the news about Boston.

Kristina Davis, Anne Carmichael before the More/fitness Magazine’s Women’s Half Marathon in NYC’s Central Park, Sunday, April 14, 2013

I set a new PR (results below). Will post more about this later.

Our excitement, about returning home after our race, changed to shock and sadness for all in Boston when we heard the news.

Right now, we are all Bostonian’s!

130415171849-24-boston-marathon-explosion-horizontal-gallery

Photo Credit: CNN

130415170914-23-boston-marathon-explosion-horizontal-gallery

Photo Credit: CNN

130415165412-18-boston-marathon-explosion-horizontal-gallery

Photo Credit: CNN

Prayers

Kristina Davis is Running Her First Half Marathon…Give Her a Shout!

April 8, 2013 By Anne in Miscellaneous, NYC, running Tags: Central Park, event, half marathon, Marathon, More/fitness Half Marathon, New York City, Road running, Running, Sport 3 Comments

Anytime someone pushes beyond their limits…it’s exciting and inspiring. Kristina inspires me. She has every reason not to run. Yet, she is reaching higher and running farther than ever before.

Sunday she will run her first half marathon. I’m so proud of her. Proud to call her – friend. A great friend too.

Keep her in your prayers and give her a shout out. We are running Sunday in the More/fitness Half Marathon in NYC’s Central Park. She’s worked hard for this and it will be life-changing.

Finished 8 Miles and Packing

April 7, 2013 By Anne in NYC, running, Video Tags: Alex, Athletics, half marathon, Jim, Marathon, NBC, Running, Sports 4 Comments

Back home after run this afternoon. Been busy getting ready for trip. Creating and marking off all of my many lists.

I usually over-pack…trying not to this time.

Going to NYC with a friend of mine. Jim and Alex will be cheering us on from home.

Really excited. I haven’t run the More/fitness Half Marathon since 2011.

A video someone shot of that race…

Toes are ready for combat…They are black any way – bruised from training…again, so knowing more bruising is on the way, I just painted them black.

Now it’s time for…”Tattle Tail Corner.”

Jim thought he’d do Cypress a favor last week and got her a hair cut.

Poor Cypress…

Are Siberian‘s supposed to have their hair trimmed??? Let’s take a look…

She’s an indoor dog so I’m assuming she’ll survive it (us). Just had to give Jim a hard time about it.

Then when I was driving home from KC Friday…

Passed a fire …You could see the smoke for miles. All I could tell as I passed that it was a structure that was burning but couldn’t tell what it was. Fire trucks were on the way.

Time to get back on track and continue my quest to prepare for NYC and More/fitness Half Marathon. Also, the Apprentice is starting soon.