Race Report: Living Dead Challenge (2-4-1!)

The Living Dead Challenge just sounded like a good time, right y'all?!  5k on Saturday night and half marathon on Sunday morning.  I'm typically a morning runner, but usually have faster times at evening 5ks...strange.  I was really looking forward to this particular 5k because it was at Starkey Park which is a very familiar course.  And flat.

The race directors also did a one mile kids run before the 5k, in which children (who were dressed up for Halloween), ran a mile and collected candy at "fuel stations" along the route.  It had to be the most adorable thing that I've ever seen!  After we cheered on the kiddos, I ran a warmup mile and a half with Ben and Tracey.

There's a small issue with my marathon training and racing.  I have to run before and after the races in order to get the assigned mileage for the day.  It's really not so bad, this is the first year that I've been incorporating races into my training schedule, and it's been working out pretty well so far.

The weather was actually really nice for a 5k, and the sun was just about to set as the 5k was finishing.  I set off and was trying to run the best I could knowing that I also had to run a half marathon the following day.  Ben caught up with me right around the finish and really helped push me to the end.

5k is the race distance that I love to hate.  I love how short they are, but I hate how you have to basically go all out in order to achieve the time you desire.  I've really, (really) been trying to break the elusive 25:00 minute mark.  I'm getting close...super close.  In fact, the Bride of Frankenfooter 5k is my new PR!!

25:03 - 4th out of 38th age group, 64th out of 329th overall

Ben actually got 3rd place in his age group, so he got this really cool looking bronze hand award.  We proceeded to use it as a prop whenever possible on the way home.

All hands on deck!

Hold on!

Shout out to the Saucony's that carried us through the 5k on Saturday night! (From left to right - Tracey's Fastwich, my old school Fastwitch, Ben's Ride)

The following morning for the half marathon, I wasn't really feeling it.  My original goal was to finish around two hours.  Ben decided that he was going to stick with my for this race (bless his heart!).  This normally goes one of two ways - it's either extremely motivating or really aggravating.  Ben is naturally a talented (faster) runner than I am and running just seems to come so easy to him.  Which can be a little frustrating for me.

About halfway through the half marathon course, the water stops were out of water.  Not good.  Luckily, Starkey Park had their water coolers full of ice-cold water.  This race just really fell apart after that.  I got some cramping from the Gels (I'm assuming), it was getting hotter, and there was no water.  It was really a tough race.  And I was very happy to finish.

2:03:32 -- 5th out of 24th age group/40th out of 128 females/88th out of  210 overall

And wouldn't you know it - Ben placed first in his age group!  (I told him that it was his award for being such a patient human being)  The award for first place was a gold foot (not nearly as cool)

We did clean up at the raffle afterwards.  I won a $50 gift card to my favorite running store Suncoast Running!  Tracey got some sort of light up balloons and a cigar bar gift certificate.

Overall, this race was a TON of fun.  I don't remember ever laughing so much before or after a race.  More importantly, check out the BLING!!

It's on, again

Marathon Training, that is!

I'm currently starting Week #6 for the Disney World Marathon. This time around I am going to try the Hansons Plan.  The longest run is 16 miles, but there is a 8 or 10 miler the day before. The schedules are based on the philosophy that no one workout is more important than another, not putting too much emphasis on one workout, and not doing 40% of your weekly mileage on one day.  Simply, teaching you to run/race on tired legs.

You can find a Runner's World article on the Hanson's Plan HERE. I actually read this article back in January 2011 when it was published and I photocopied it and but it on my fridge. The bottom line, there are many training philosophies that runners and coaches recommend for the marathon (and other distances). My goal is to find the right one that works for me.  I felt as if my training for Space Coast went really well, but race day was the pits.

I feel as though the training has been going really well so far.  Here is a glimpse of what I've been up to, the actual totals are in parentheses:

Week #1:

Monday: off (1.35 in Jenny's bootcamp)

Tuesday: off (5)

Wednesday: off (5)

Thursday: 3 miles (off)

Friday: off (5)

Saturday: 3 miles (6)

Sunday: off (0) 

Total: 6 (actual total 22.35)

Week #2:

Monday: off (4)

Tuesday: 2 (3.5)

Wednesday: off (3)

Thursday: 3 (4)

Friday: 3 (2)

Saturday 3 (3)

Sunday 4 (4)

Total: 15 (actual total 23.5)

Week #3:

Monday: off (0)

Tuesday: 4 (4)

Wednesday: off (0)

Thursday: 4 (4)

Friday: 4 (4)

Saturday: 4 (5)

Sunday off  (7.5) 

Suggested total: 20 (actual total 24.5)

Week #4:

Monday: off (0)

Tuesday: 5 (5)

Wednesday: off (0)

Thursday: 3 (6)

Friday: 3 (4)

Saturday 5 (6.3)

Sunday 5 (12)

Suggested total: 21 (actual total 33.3)

Week #5:

Monday: off (0)

Tuesday: 5 (5)

Wednesday: off (0)

Thursday: 4 (6)

Friday: 5 (5)

Saturday: 4 (8)

Sunday: 5 (10)

Suggested total: 23 (actual total 34)

There are a few things that I have learned so far.  Number one, doing yoga on my off days feel amazing on my legs!  Number two, my compression sleeves are my new BFF!  Number three, I can pretty much kiss any other physical activities good-bye for the remainder of this training plan.

There are also quite a few races coming up on my race calendar:

Sunday, October 21st: PHCC 5k (one of my favorite races because it benefit's the PHCC's Women's Cross Country team that I just have to be the advisor for)

Saturday, October 27th: Bride of Frankenfooter 5k

Sunday, October 28th: Frankenfooter Half Marathon (combined to be the Living Dead Challenge) (No idea why I signed up for this, but it should be fun?)

Friday, November 2nd: Richard's Run for Life (Always a favorite, the BEST post-race party in Tampa!)

Sunday, November 4th: Wildhorse Half Marathon (Very first trail half marathon - yikes!

In other running-related news since my last post...I ran the First Annual Cheval Cares 5k and somehow landed up in the Top Ten females: (with Kat, Melissa, Tracey, and Jena who were all much faster!)

Saw my very first water moccasin on the trails.  And it just so happened to be a part of a whole water moccasin family.  

Ben and I traveled to Utah for the very first time and had a blast.  Ben totally rocked his Xterra National Companionship trail half marathon, the people were super nice, and the scenery was breath-taking (this picture is from Snowbasin above the valley).

Living Dead

Well I successfully missed the entire month of July on the blogging end.  Whoops.  There has really been so much going on lately.

We will start with work life (part of the reason for my "living dead" title).  The summer hours at work are Monday - Thursday for 10 hours and then Fridays off.  Started in May and ending August 10th.  It always seems like such a long amount of time; and in the beginning, I always wonder what I am going to do with all these available Fridays.  But with one week left, I feel as though the summer as flew by and on Fridays I'm so exhausted from the week that I feel as though I'm a living dead person.  So I will celebrate my last Friday off this Friday, August 10th and frankly it's kind of a relief.  I will certainly miss a "free" day while most people have to work, but getting off work at 4:30 will be nice!

Other goings on:

Picnic Island #3 was on Friday, July 13th.  The tide was fairly low again and Ben and I both had a good time at this third and final run.  36:57 was my official finishing time, good enough for: 187/620 overall finishers, 38/217 female finishers, and 6/34 in my age group.  Annnddd, a cool campfire mug (as pictured below with my fast friend, Vera):

My Boston Red Sox loving friend, Jamie, gave Ben and myself some cool Rays koozies that we broke out for Dave Matthews Band summer tour in West Palm Beach:

Ben was reunited with Chris for some lawn action:

Here we are rolling around in the grass: (It was hot as Hades this day)

Those sunglasses pictured above? Lost 'em in the Atlantic Ocean along with my favorite Bucs hat.  But the water was AH-mazing!

I bought some new Brooks Adrenalines for marathon training.  (I fought with Brooks to give me some black shoe laces, but they refused so I rigged up my own).  I believe they look much better with the black laces instead of white...but you be the judge:

Trail running has also been going well.  Notable accomplishments: had my longest ever trail run (8 miles), my fastest pace trail run (10:10 pace, also 8 miles), saw my first coral snake, had my first wild boar sighting (including a baby boar), took another tumble, and saw tons of water on the trails.  Trail running has really given me a chance to focus on my foot falls and breathing and just enjoy being outside in the woods. I never thought that I would be running 8 miles consistently (especially after running 10 or 11 road miles the day before), but it's been great.  

I must also say that I've been fortunate enough to team up with my buddy, Tracey, for many of these trail runs.  (Special shout out to Paul for holding down the Tripp household on those Sunday mornings!)  Having someone to chat with, laugh with, and share these new milestones has really been a great experience.  So much so that we have even considered doing a trail half marathon this year...stay tuned.

Other confirmed races coming up:

Sunday, August 26th Run for the Fallen 10k.  (This is a FREE event that I'm doing with a team from work)

Saturday, October 27th and Sunday, October 28th The LIVING DEAD Challenge (5k on Saturday NIGHT and Half Marathon Sunday MORNING! WHAT?!?).  This one should be fun and local!

Race Report: Picnic Island #2

This race went much better than I could have ever anticipated; however, it did not start off great.  Ben and I left the house at 5 pm to head over to Picnic Island, thinking that we would have plenty of time to get there for the 6:45 race start.  But, there was a TON of traffic.  We didn't land up getting to the park until 6:15 - ahhh!!

There was plenty of parking available, but not too close to where race registration was located.  We had to run to get our race numbers and while Ben can pee in the woods, I discovered the line for the ladies room was too long to make it before start.  I recalled seeing a restroom at the front of the park that was open, so I decided to make a run for it at 6:24, but it was over a mile round trip.  But, there was no way that I was going to be able to make it through the race with all the water I drank.

There wasn't anyone at the front bathroom so it was very quick and I ran back to meet up with Ben and spray down with bug spray before the start.  We jogged most of the race course and it was much more than a mile by the time we got to the start line.  We met up with our friends Vera and Joe and had approximately three minutes to spare before the start of the race.  Whew!

The water levels were really low for this race, so it made it a little easier than Picnic Island #1 because you didn't have to slosh through the water as much.  Unfortunately, there are also a lot of rocks in the water that were now on the shore.  Which I got caught on and fell in the first 1/2 mile or so.  SUPER embarrassing.

The remaining of the race was pretty uneventful.  I did loose my Sweaty-Band in the cargo net, but it's my own fault for wearing it to this particular race.  I will say that knowing the race course is a plus for Picnic Island.  Here are the splits from my watch:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	35:45.6	3.71	9:38
1	8:35.2	1.00	8:35
2	9:49.7	1.00	9:50
3	9:22.6	1.00	9:23
4	7:58.2	0.71	11:13

Overall, 7/58 age group, 32/298 females, 180/717 overall.  This was my best finish at at Picnic Island ever.  It was a little bit of a rushed experience at the start, but it was also helpful that the tide was low and there was plenty of cloud cover.

Here is photo of Vera and myself with our Top 50 finisher glasses:

Next and final Picnic Island will be Friday, July 13th! 

Race Report: RAP River Run

Yesterday was my first actual 5k since November of last year. (I did the Kumquat 5K in January, but the distance was only 2.92 miles).  Personally, I find the 5k distance horrendous.  I'd much rather do a longer distance race where I can really settle in to a pace.  I was really hoping to break 25:00 at Rap River, but was going to be realistic with myself as far as the heat/humidity was concerned in a June race.

I was able to pick up our race numbers and "packets" the day before, so Ben and I didn't have to arrive too early.  We have a special parking location near Fitzgerald's in downtown NPR that I always like to snag in the morning.  We arrived and set out on the new 5k course to warm up a little and stretch before the race started.  I knew that in order to break 25:00, I would have to maintain a 8:02 or better pace for the entire race.

The start line had markers for different pace per mile, I had thought that I would line up where I thought appropriate.  However, I should have realized that other runners don't always pay attention to the markers.  The first lap around the lake was a little hectic, but I hit the first mile a little faster than I wanted to.  I knew that I had to calm it down or I was not going to be able to hold on for the remainder of the race.

However, I totally lost focus after the first mile.  I can not really pin-point any one particular thing that went wrong, but it was not my day - and that's okay.  This was the fastest 5k I've ran since 2004, so I'm making progress and will keep working at my speed.  I will aim for another race when it cools down a bit in the fall.  And as Ben says, I should probably build a bridge and get over it.  Here are my splits from my Garmin:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	25:26.0	3.14	8:06
1	7:40.4	1.00	7:40
2	8:11.3	1.00	8:11
3	8:26.9	1.00	8:27
4	1:07.4	0.14	8:03

Official chip time is 25:25, 8:12 per mile.  8th out of 65 in my age group, 211 out of 923 overall.

Official age group results are HERE

The other really great thing about the Rap River Run is that PHCC participated in the Team Challenge this year.  Our college president is on the board of the RAP House and suggested that we form a team.  Admittedly, we completely slacked on coordinating a team outfit for the race, as pictured below:

Ben, myself, Bobby, Merissa, Julia, Ana, Bob and Alex

But, we totally won the Fastest School Team Award!

It was a great moment with my co-workers as we talked over breakfast about what campus we should house our huge trophy on.  And how we would need to get a big case with mirrors for all of our future awards. =) 

Team results are HERE

Next up, Picnic Island #2 on Friday Night!

Race Report: Picnic Island #1

This Friday was the first of three summer Picnic Island Runs.  I was really looking forward to running this race because it is really different than any other race that we do normally.  However, on Saturday, I came down with some sort of cold/voice funk that pretty much stuck with me all week.  I was disappointed because I was really hoping to run well in this race.  

Typically, we do about one race per month, but because of other commitments the last organized race that I did was Trout Creek in March.  Ironically enough, it was also put on by Jim at Tampa Races.  The one really great thing about doing a race that you've previously done, is that you are familiar with the course.  (This has proven to be my nemesis in some cases as well, AHEM - Gasparilla, I'm talking to you!)

When we arrived at Picnic Island, we got our race numbers and shirts, met up with our friend Cami, sprayed ourselves down with bug spray and then set off to check out the water levels.  All the race entrants received and e-mail the day before the race to indicate the tide would be at the highest level right around race time.  Sweet!  And they were right, the water level was about hip-level.  

We saw two younger women on a dock and they had their iPods and shiny new sneakers on and they asked Ben and myself if we have ever ran this race before.  We told them that we have and that you shouldn't plan on salvaging any clothes or shoes from this particular race.  They looked HORRIFIED! We just said good luck and continued running towards the other end of the park.

The race started right at 6:45 and Ben surprised me at the start line to say that he wanted to run the race for fun with me.  What?  He really is the sweetest fiance and/or running partner that I could ever ask for.  I mean, he is WAY faster (legitimately) than me on a bad day, so for him to slow down for me during a race is CRAZY.  

We hit the water pretty early on.  And both my shoes came untied - whoops!  I decided I was just going to go with it and just try not to trip over them.  We made it through the first mile or so and then we hit a rock/sand hill that the people in front of us decided to walk over.  So there was a little bit waiting... ho hum.  Then we looped back to the beach and met our first obstacle:

There was also a tire hop and then hurdle to go over before heading back in to the water.  There was a lot more walking/wading in hip-level water before running back around through the first field and up and down several hills.  The real kicker of this race is that you have to swim/wade/walk/run out to a buoy that comes up to about collarbone level before running up the final hill to the finish.

Here are the splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	36:56.1	3.60	10:15
1	9:26.3	1.00	9:26
2	10:47.4	1.00	10:47
3	9:23.6	1.00	9:24
4	7:18.8	0.60	12:08

Overall, I was the 52nd female out of 292 total females, 199th finisher out of 699 total finishers and 14th out of 55 in my age group.  Not bad for a sick day.

Next up, Rap River on June 9th and Picnic Island #2 on June 15th

Race Report: Trout Creek Trail 5k

This year I've made the decision to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.  In order to step outside my comfort zone I've been trying and doing things that I've always told myself that I couldn't (GASP!).  This first started with my goal of a sub 2:00 half marathon.  The fact that it happened relatively early on (February) left me searching for a new goal.

Ben has really been digging trail running since last year.  He got his first taste of a trail race at the Xterra Wildhorse in November.  Tampa Races has a really sweet deal where you can run for free if you provide a volunteer for the day.  So Ben got to run Wildhorse, Florida Challenge and will be running the Claw for free.  Watching all these bad ass runners cross the finish line is really very inspirational.

It's one thing to run a 5k, 10k, 15k, or half marathon on the road; it's a totally different animal to run one on the trail.  Ben pushed me (gently) to try a trail race.  Reluctantly, I agreed and so did his dad.  We set our sights on the Trout Creek race a while back, mainly because of the 5k distance.  I did purchase a pair of trail shoes (which I love), and have been training on the trails for a few weeks.

Luckily, we live pretty close to Lake Rogers Park (short trail loop) and Flatwoods/Trout Creek.  Unluckily, I fell last time I ran Flatwoods with Ben and then fell again (within the same week) when I was at bootcamp.  Personally, I find falling more painful for the ego than anything else.  But, I did injure my hand pretty nicely both times.  In the same spot.  Needless to say, I was VERY nervous about the trail run and falling again.  (I spotted a guy wearing gloves at the start line - very smart!).

This particular race started on the bottom of a berm at Trout Creek.  Here is a photo from last year's race:

It's really not that bad of a hill, but it's a very interesting way to start.  The first mile was on top of the berm so there were no roots or anything technical to deal with, which was also a little surprising.  After the first water stop, we ran through a field before entering down a single track trail.  The trail led across the main road to a path around the lake (which I assume leads to trout creek).  

The scenery is so breathtakingly beautiful that you almost want to gaze at the water or beautiful trees with the sun coming in just right, but if you don't watch where you are heading you could be face first before you know it.  Ben's dad was right behind me the whole way, so we were sort of running together but not really running together because the trail wasn't wide enough.  

Mile two was pretty uneventful, and I was beginning to think that I might actually be able to complete a trail run without injuring myself.  Tampa Races normally has a (cheesy, but fun) DJ that entertains during the races.  I started to hear the music from the finish line and instantly knew that I was pretty close.  Right around the 25 minute mark, I came upon a pretty rooty (?) part.  And it happened.

I fell. Hard.  Ben's dad was right behind me so I was trying not to curse (or cry), but I wanted to do both.  I hit the same hand that I had the first two times and it was bleeding pretty good.  Ben's dad helped me up (even though I told him to keep going) and we kept going.  I believe I also said another curse word or two before reaching the finish line.

Here are the final splits:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	29:07.6	3.19	9:07
1	8:23.7	1.00	8:24
2	9:17.6	1.00	9:18
3	9:51.0	1.00	9:51
4	1:35.3	0.19	8:16

I had three goals for this race:

1.  Finish under 30 minutes
2.  Don't fall
3.  Get a cool campfire mug

Two out of three isn't bad!