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Gracie’s Gear

Richmond Marathon Recap

by Natalie on November 24, 2009

richmond09 (33)I was recently at my first T3 event, the happy hours organized by the Annapolis Triathlon Club of which I am now a member, and I was talking to a new friend who asked me how long the buzz lasted from a marathon. He was convinced that triathlons leave a longer lasting buzz with athletes than running events. I imagine every athlete will have an opinion on this, but it’s more than a week after my second marathon and I’m still enjoying my runner’s high. So before it fizzles I’d like to recap the Richmond marathon, my second 26.2 mile experience. [click to continue…]

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The Treadmill Ten

by Natalie on October 17, 2009

Heavy, cold run is not my ideal running weather. Photo by AlmazUK.

Heavy, cold rain is not my ideal running weather. Photo by AlmazUK.

I’m not a huge fan of running on treadmills. It’s also not something I’m good at which makes me like it even less. But when it’s 45 degrees outside and there is a steady, heavy, cold rain, I have to admit I’d rather run on the treadmill than in that weather. The trouble is that I’m on week 12 of training for the Richmond Marathon and I already lost one 7 mile day to the weather and my own schedule. The weekend called for 8 miles and 15 miles and I started agonizing over how I was going to make this happen as soon as I saw the forecast earlier in the week.

I had already planned to flop the 8 and 15 so that the 15 was on Saturday and the easy 8 would be on Sunday. I believe I’ve run 7 miles on a treadmill before but I literally couldn’t wrap my brain around doing 15. For the first Saturday in a very long time I did not have to set my alarm clock and I was able to just let my body sleep as long as it needed. And apparently I needed sleep; by the time I got to the gym it was 10:45 a.m.! I was headed to the gym thinking I’d shoot for 8 miles and if I could get to 15 that would be awesome; I decided to deal with the remaining miles as best I can on Sunday and if I don’t get to this week’s full 47 then I’ll just have to deal with that. [click to continue…]

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Long Slow Distance Lessons

September 14, 2009

At the Annapolis 10-Miler this year I was behind a couple girls with t-shirts that read on the back “Trained on LSD and Speed” and as a runner I thought that was cute and a clever play on those two words. It wasn’t until days after the race that I started to really consider how [...]

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A10 Traditions & Highlights

August 31, 2009

Have you run the Annapolis 10-mile race before? Runner’s World rated it one of the top six 10-milers to run in the country. This year was the 34th annual event which is put on by the Annapolis Striders who hosted something like 5,300 runners and managed an enormous number of amazing volunteers who were integral [...]

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Gracie’s Gear at Annapolis 10-Miler Expo

August 26, 2009

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to volunteer for the ZOOMA Annapolis Half Marathon and 10K because it was not a race that I was ready to run. This coming weekend is one of my favorite Annapolis races put on by the Annapolis Striders, the A10. Unfortunately I missed registration and learned too late [...]

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Gracie’s Gear Review: The Bottoms

June 5, 2009

When I first started running I used whatever sports shorts I happened to own at the time, and at the time what I had were baggy old gym shorts, some with the elastic thinning out. In college I was lucky enough to inherit from my roommate a pair of blue Nike running shorts. They were [...]

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ZOOMA, Thunder, & Chocolate

June 1, 2009

Most runs start pretty early in the morning and the ZOOMA Annapolis race had a start time of 7 a.m. for runners of the 10K and half marathon course. This means that volunteers had to be there long before the sun was even up to ensure that water stations, information centers, parking lots, exhibitor areas, [...]

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Gracie’s Gear Review: The Tops

April 14, 2009

If you were to dig through my drawer of running gear, you’d either be shocked, disgusted, or entertained by the variety of sports bras in the drawer. I played volleyball in high school and wore only cotton Columbia sports bras probably because that is the only brand I knew of at the time and there [...]

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Am I a Weekend Warrior?

April 10, 2009

A few weeks ago I joined the online group for my local trail running club because I decided that once I get back into training (starting tomorrow as a matter of fact!) I’d like to mix up my normal street runs with some trails. I have always loved the North Face ad that stares at [...]

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The Things We Carry

April 9, 2009

In college I read Tim O’Brien’s novel “The Things We Carry” during my junior year when I was participating in Semester at Sea. My English class during that semester read books related to the history, culture, lifestyles, and people of the countries we visited and since Vietnam was on the itinerary O’Brien’s novel was more [...]

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