But the rain didn’t stop me and over 3,100 other runners from tackling the UnitedHealthcare Providence Half Marathon and Cox Providence Marathon. A race where “HOPE” is the state motto couldn’t be anything but uplifting.
I certainly looked happy on race day, as this video my husband took attests. He’s newly obsessed with Vine, the 6-second video version of Twitter. I’m saying “Rhode Races” at the end, but it gets cut off a bit.
I opened my inbox yesterday to find my 2013 Cox Providence Rhode Races
Athlete Guide with official pre-race instructions for the UnitedHealthcare Providence Half Marathon on Sunday, May 12.
I have to say, I’m really excited for this race. It’s only the second race I’ve done in Rhode Island, a place I’ve fallen in love with in the last few years. And there are so many great running puns to be had with Rhode Island, as the “Rhode Races” series attests to.
I’m doing the Providence Half Marathon as a training run. No racing this one for me. My training has been patchy the last few weeks for various reasons—travel, work, all the usual suspects. I’ve been doing more cross training than running in the last month—snowshoeing, aqua jogging, swimming, biking. I have been running too, but not enough to have delusions of running a personal best. Read the rest of this entry →
But since then, I’ve been floating in a nebulous training zone, half-heartedly running and doing some weight training, while philosophizing about being “fit.” I joined two friends in “Fit February,” which meant, for me, making healthier food choices—basically not eating ice cream every night—and exercising five days a week. I succeeded in losing two pounds during “Fit February,” but not much else. It’s been a long, cold, snowy and treadmill heavy winter.
So after two loosey-goosey months, it’s time to focus again, shake out the cobwebs and get some real training done. I’m not a runner who can train hard with no goal in sight. I need a big race to look forward to.
Running toward New Year’s resoultions (Photo: Phil Hospod)
2012 was a notable year in running. The pros dazzled at the London Olympics, the New York City Marathon was canceled for the first time in its history, and a vice-presidential candidate’s not-quite-true claims of marathon glory brought running into the national conversation.
On a personal level, it was a meaningful year for me too. I married my Prince Charming, who proposed after a half-marathon; I ran for my cousin Laura, who died from cancer in June; and I started hosting a web series about running. I also knocked out four personal records in the marathon, half-marathon and triathlon, and ran 10 races total to reach a personal milestone of over 50 “career” races.
Running Goals for 2012
Every year, I like to look back at the goals I made the year before and see how I did. Read the rest of this entry →
Want to train with Meb Keflezighi? Rock the Race with Meb, sponsored by the Meb Edition Sony W Series Walkman, can make it happen.
The 2GB Meb Edition Sony W Series MP3 player comes pre-loaded with audio tips from the marathon man himself along with a booklet on nutrition, stretching, strategy, and more — including a list of Meb’s favorite running songs. A portion of the sales go to the MEB FOUNDATION that aims to help kids lead healthy, balanced lives. Sony has pledged a minimum of $10,000 and a maximum of $20,000 based on unit sales.
The Staten Island course is an out-and-back jaunt along the waterfront that tours runners through the eastern side of the island, with lovely views of Manhattan to the north and past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge—famous as the start of the ING New York City Marathon. We ran through busy neighborhood centers, industrial back roads and residential streets, past shops, jovial construction workers who cheered us on and locals watching from their porches. Read the rest of this entry →
Just about every runner who has ever used a pace calculator has obsessed over the McMillan Running Calculator on McMillanRunning.com. They’ve plugged in actual finish times, they’ve plugged in planned finish times, they’ve plugged in dream finish times to help them predict how fast they can run their next race and plan their pacing.
Now, iPhone users can harness the power of the McMillan Running Calculator with a simple tap of the finger. Brought to you by running coach Greg McMillan, “McRun” is now available as an iOS app in the Apple iTunes Store. Read the rest of this entry →
Rachel Booth wins the 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon. (Photo: runDisney)
The Disneyland Half Marathon on Sunday, Sept. 2 will put more than 17,000 runners to the test on the streets of Anaheim, Calif., as they charge through Angels Stadium, Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure theme park in an attempt to run Disney. Among those runners will be a mix of Disney fans, celebrities like Sean Astin, and former Olympians like Suzy Favor-Hamilton and Jeff Galloway.
But when it comes to winning Disney races, no one knows better than Rachel Booth. She won the 2010 and 2011 Disneyland Half Marathon and 2012 Disney Princess Half Marathon in February, becoming the first woman to win events at both Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. Her fastest time on a runDisney half-marathon course? 1:15:19.
Like many Disney runners, Booth juggles raising two children, a part-time job and training. Read the rest of this entry →
Runners charge past Cinderella Castle at the Walt Disney World Marathon. (Photo: runDisney)
It’s a marathon match made in running heaven. Runner’s World magazine and runDisney announced Monday that the 20th Anniversary Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend will become part of the Runner’s World Challenge series.
The event will run from Jan. 12-13, 2013 and includes the Walt Disney World Marathon, Walt Disney World Half Marathon and Goofy’s Race and a Half Challenge, where participants run both the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. Read the rest of this entry →
The NYC Half took runners on a tour of Manhattan from Central Park through Times Square. (Photo: NYRR)
The 2012 NYC Half Marathon on Sunday, March 18 featured a new course and the largest field in the race’s history with 15,336 finishers. I was among them, trying to accomplish a personal feat: tackle two half-marathons in three weeks and three half-marathons in three months without getting injured.
To accomplish this task, I turned to a new gadget to help me train: the new MOTOACTV GPS and MP3 all in one. I served as a MOTOACTV NYC Half Marathon Ambassador, training and running the race with the device.
The Course
The NYC Half Marathon gave runners a challenging, but scenic tour of Manhattan. Even as a New Yorker who knows the course well, I thoroughly enjoyed running from Central Park through Times Square and down to the historic South Street Seaport.
The first six miles comprised one full loop of Central Park with its grueling rolling hills. Runners exited the park just after the 10K mark, racing down Seventh Avenue through the heart of Times Square before turning right onto 42nd Street for the next two miles. Miles 8 through 12 carried runners along the West Side Highway into New York’s Chelsea, West Village and Tribeca neighborhoods before rounding the southern tip of Manhattan into the Seaport for the finish. Read the rest of this entry →
Running two half-marathons in three weeks must be carefully planned to avoid injury. (Photo: Karla Bruning)
Back in November, I set out on a crazy quest to run at least a mile every day from Thanksgiving to New Year’s with the Runner’s World Holiday Running Streak. Come Jan. 1, I’d accumulated 100 miles in 40 days and had a solid training base.
So I decided to merge the end of the streak with the beginning of half-marathon training. I earmarked Disney’s Tinker Bell Half Marathon on Jan. 29 as a training run for a personal record attempt at Disney’s Princess Half Marathon on Feb. 26. Somehow, everything went according to plan. I crossed the finish line at the Princess Half two minutes faster than my previous PR.
Now I’m looking to capitalize on all that training and fitness by squeezing out one more race—the NYC Half on March 18. New York Road Runners and Motorola invited me to be a MOTOACTV NYC Half Marathon Ambassador for the race and give the new MOTOACTV device a test run.
But with just three weeks between Disney’s Princess Half and the NYC Half, I knew I’d be treading the thin line between capitalizing on training and courting injury. How can a runner prepare to tackle two half-marathons in three weeks? Read the rest of this entry →
MOTOACTV by Motorola is a GPS watch and MP3 player all in one. (Photo: MOTOACTV)
On March 18, I’ll be running the NYC Half, a 13.1-mile tour of Manhattan from Central Park through Times Square that finishes at South Street Seaport. Not only am I running the race, but I am also one of four MOTOACTV NYC Half Marathon Ambassadors.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll be training with MOTOACTV, the official entertainment partner of the NYC Half, a race organized by New York Road Runners. MOTOACTV is a new dual GPS fitness tracker and MP3 player all-in-one made by Motorola. I’ll be giving the device some test runs and running the race with it.
MOTOACTV, provided to me by Motorola, is the first GPS device I’ve ever owned. I’ve been a GPS holdout for a few years for three main reasons. Read the rest of this entry →
The 2010 Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon. Photo courtesy of runDisney.
Disney and nighttime just go together: Cinderella at the ball running to escape to her pumpkin carriage before the stroke of midnight; Lady and the Tramp sharing a plate of spaghetti under a starry night; Peter Pan flying to the second star to the right.
It’s Week 6 of my half-marathon training schedule for the 2011 Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon, and I’m jumping out of my skin. The half marathon is still five weeks away, but I’m already as excited as I’ve ever been for a race. I’ve been channeling that energy into my half marathon training with pretty good results, focusing on one of the race’s key features: the 10 p.m. start. Read the rest of this entry →
Runners feast at the 2010 Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon. Photo courtesy of runDisney.
Ask Miles of Runner’s World recently posed an age old question: Is it better to run a lot but eat poorly, or eat healthy and not exercise at all? Dr. Bill Roberts, RW’s “Ask the Sports Doc” blogger, answered: “I would think that heavy exercise will compensate better for a poor diet than a perfect diet will compensate for no exercise.” Phew!
I run because I love to eat. Sure there are other nobler reasons why I run—because I can, because it keeps me fit, blah blah blah—but I’m not going to lie: eating is probably top three. And eating healthy while training for a race is important. But what if the race has “Wine & Dine” in the title? While training for the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon on Oct. 1, I’m finding that eating healthy is easier said than done. Read the rest of this entry →
Karla (center), her mother and sister ride Dumbo, circa 1980.
I’m a Disney girl; always have been. I wore my Cinderella and Snow White books ragged as a little girl. The first words I remember being able to recognize when reading were “fairy godmother,” and my rubber seven dwarf dolls were among my favorite toys. I saw the movies in the theater as a child (I came of age before the dawning of the VCR, DVD and on-demand), and I eagerly anticipated our annual family vacation to Walt Disney World in Florida.
So I was delighted when runDisney invited me to be their guest for the Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon at Disney World. On Saturday, October 1, I’ll be lining up in the dark for the 10 p.m. start of my first Disney race. I couldn’t be more excited. Read the rest of this entry →
I’m not the fastest runner and I’m not the slowest, but I am a running nerd. A journalist by trade, I love to research, read, learn and cogitate. So stick with me. Like all good nerds, I’ll do the homework and share it. But the running is up to you!
