I can smile - AND RUN!

This was posted by Go! St Louis today.  Finally! Proof that I am a HAPPY runner!!! 

GO! St Louis Halloween 10K, 2014 Edition

This morning was the Halloween 10K, one of my favorite races of the year!  We were out late last night, I had a few minor tweaks to make to costumes then went to bed by about 11:30. My kiddo has her seasonal allergy cough right now, so that woke me up around 1am. Alarm went off at 5:35am. Needless to say, I was TIRED!

It was raining on the drive downtown. Sprinkling, pouring.... we had it all. It cleared up when we pulled into our parking spot, but started again on our walk to the starting line. As you can see, I was soaked before I even started!

I love having the Arch in the background!

I told myself before the race - I just wanted to be better than last year. Last year's results were 1:01:44, so my goal for myself was simply a sub-1 hour 10K. That would require my pace to be even faster than last week, but since I had such an awesome time last weekend at MO Cowbell, I figured I could push myself. This is my last race of the "season" so I knew I could leave everything on the road today.

Crossed the start line and hit the button on my Garmin and started RunKeeper (yes, I use both. I'm ridiculous.)  I kept checking my pacing - I couldn't remember the EXACT number I needed to get to PR the race, but I knew it was faster than last year's 9:57 average... Until about a half mile in when I realized that my pace was there, but my mileage wasn't! I never actually hit START!! I just hit the button that wakes up my Garmin. UGH! So I started that up and hoped that RunKeeper was having an "on" day.

The weather wasn't awesome like last week (Cowbell weather was PERFECTION) but it wasn't awful either. The rain had stopped before we started running and if I recall correctly, it didn't start up again.

One minor annoyance was that they didn't take down the signage from the 5K, so when we were around 2 miles (who knows, my Garmin was wrong! *weeps*) we ran past the sign for 1 mile for the 5K!!  I think they planned the route so that the water station at 1.5m in the 5k was the 2mi water station for the 10K/half marathon. But between that and the Garmin error, I spent the first four miles having NO idea where I was. I just tried my hardest to keep my pacing below 9:40. Obviously, I did ok.

I started rationalizing with myself around mile 5 - I can slow down and still PR... I think. I did the math quickly, I was at 48 minutes at approximately 5.2 miles and got nervous - a 10 minute mile would get me there JUST under the wire - and that's if Runkeeper was still on target (which it rarely is!) Instead of easing up, I gave it all.

Finishing the race with the clock time under an hour was awesome. Finding out my official time was 58:04 - spectacular!!  Such an awesome feeling. FURTHER awesome? Look at the stats - 40th in my age group, 369 overall? That's top 30% of the racers! I've never considered myself fast (and I'm still not ever going to "win" a race) but I know that I can keep improving.

2011

2012

I love comparing how far I've come.  This one - this one is making me a happy camper tonight. 

2013

2014

Costumes all came together. I think my costume only made sense when I was standing with my family :-)  but my little people looked like ADORABLE little Lego characters. The fun run was great (once my daughter stopped crying that her costume broke in the first 100 feet...) I usually run "fast" with my daughter while my husband stays with my son. This year, since hubby was actually a registered runner, I let him take the fast one and I held back. My little guy (3 1/2) did an awesome job. I'm thankful for the mom with the stroller behind us who encouraged him - "You have the piece of resistance!! Run fast, Emmett!!"  My son was thrilled, gave me a high five and ran his heart out. It didn't last long, but it was so much fun <3 We walked a lot of the mile and found my speedy family members waiting just shy of the finish line so that we could all finish together.  I am so proud of my little runners. They are troopers for going out in this weather! And I'm so thankful to my husband that he supports this crazy hobby I've picked up in the last few years.

Half Marathon #5 - Check!

So as I mentioned, I wanted to PR from last year. Last year's time was 2:21:40 and this year I just wanted to get 2:20. It's all I wanted, all I expected from myself. 

And I KILLED it. 

I knew going into this that I was going to have to have a 10:40 average to make my PR. I started off and my first few miles according to my Garmin were looking good, low 10's. I purposefully tried to slow myself down so that I didn't wear myself out too early. And I found it hard to slow down to a 10:40 pace!!  I kept reminding myself if I started to ache that I CAN slow down - I was under no pressure to keep going 10:15, 10:20 miles. But every time I tried to slow down to 10:40, I found myself moving right along with the crowd!

Everyone was so nice on the course! I ran into some familiar faces and made some new friends along the way. I normally don't remember much of my runs, but I was trying so hard to ENJOY this one!! I know that my tendency is to speed out of the gate, so around mile 3 I warned myself I needed to slow down a little bit. But mile 4.5-5 was the "High Five zone" at a farm where they invite spectators to high five as the runners go through! As soon as I knew the farm was coming up, I sped up a little (hence the 10:11 mile at 4) to see my family!!  And it was worth the sprint because I got two of the sweetest little hugs ever. 

The next few miles is through a community. I tried to keep my headphones out and take in all the sights of fall (the weather today - PERFECT. Mild temps, no glaring beating sun...), appreciating all the people who came out to cheer for runners.  Once you come out of the community, it's almost mile 8. That starts a SLIGHT uphill. Mile 10 - the ONLY true uphill run in this race! Sort of mean that they put it so close to the end, but it is what it is!

Once I hit 10 miles, I had my favorite thought - "Now it's just a Tuesday run. A 5k!" And when I looked down and realized I had a 5k left and was only at 1:42??  The writing was on the wall that I would PR, by how much was the question. 

I kept going, tried to keep myself from sprinting at that very moment. My Garmin was off by about .2/mile and I kept having to remind myself - MORE than a mile left, MORE than a half mile, etc.  As I rounded the corner to the street I knew the finish line was on, I knew it was TIME to sprint! I saw my family again right at mile 13. I didn't ALL OUT sprint like I usually do, but I was at a good clip into the finish line. I paused my Garmin, got my medal and tried not to explode. The clock as I passed said 2:17!!! Could I have possibly broken not only 2:20, but 2:15?!!!

Once I finally found my family, my first question for my husband was "Did you get the text? What was my official time??" 

2:15:27. 

ZOMG, I shaved SIX MINUTES off my time from last year!!!!!! 

 

I have a 10K next weekend. then no more races on the books for awhile. I may try to sneak a few 5ks in before next spring race season, but I'm definitely going to keep going and training! I never in a MILLION years thought I could hit 2:15. Now it makes me wonder what else I am capable of doing!! 

Go! Halloween 10K 2013

Sunday was the Go! St. Louis Halloween 10k, maybe my favorite race of the year! I love love the 10k distance - it's far enough to be a challenge but not so far that it kills me. 

This year they changed the course so that it went along the riverfront, down to the Arch grounds. It was neat, aside from spending most of the race running into the sun!

I started out, trying to pace myself. I felt

Work out before the mile mark and thought "well great, this can't be good." Took a peek at my pace on run keeper and realized I could slow it WAY down and still meet my goal of finishing in under 1:10. I had run the race in 1:27 (2011) and 1:08 (2012) but after a half last weekend and only 1 run the week between, I wasn't sure how to expect my body to perform. 

Turns out, it did just fine!

I kept trying to slow down but my pace felt good! My splits were ridiculous and I wish I had picked it up a tough around the corners to come in under 1 hr. But, I wasn't far off at 1:01:40!! 

It just felt GOOD! It made me want to come home and sign up for more races, which is an awesome feeling. 

After the 10K, my kiddos were signed up for a 1 mile fun run. It was more fun for me than E (she burst into tears when someone encouraged her to keep going) and AJ than Daddy (who was wearing jeans and long underwear haha).  But in the end, both of them got their shirt and medal and were happy. :-) 

Guess I should do something more official with all these bibs now!! 

St Patrick's Day Virtual 10K, done!

So this weekend is the #13in2013 sponsored St. Patrick's Day virtual race. 

I did NOT want to run this morning. I have lost my workout mojo and haven't been able to find it. My knee has been tricky lately - I think my kneecap hates plyometrics. Learning I need to avoid it for awhile, but thankfully running doesn't hurt too terribly much. 

I wore a knee brace. I was ready for this, after all, I did 10 miles last week. 6.2 should be easy peesy, right? 

Except it's 45 degrees outside. And I'm a weenie. Mile 1 I was sure my lungs would explode. Mile 1.5 I was sure my hands were gone. Mile 2 I couldn't feel my legs anymore (so it wasn't so bad) and by mile 2.5, I had worked up a SWEAT! 

I had Runkeeper telling me my pace every mile. I was shocked when it kept telling me 9:36, 9:42 etc per mile. My 5K time was just shy of my last 5K PR - 29:12. 

Miles 3.5-4.75 dragged. But when I hit my interval change at 4.75 miles, I knew that the next interval change would indicate I had less than a half a mile left to run. I hit that 5.75 mile mark and SPRINTED. 

And made it - in 59:59, almost 10 minutes faster than my Halloween 10K time from October!!! 

So much for not wanting to go for run today! 

Next weekend, I have an Anywhere5K and the weekend after that is my third half marathon! A few weeks after that, I have the Chance to Hope Run in Color Hope in Motion 5K. I am so excited for that one!   My 4.5 year old daughter will be running her own races the same days as my half and the Hope in Motion 5K. 

Clean Pizza & Another Virtual Race

We have been on the hunt for the "perfect" pizza crust. I'm telling you, it's been YEARS. A few times we have thought we got close but never there. Flavor but not texture, crunch but not thickness, toppings but not sauce. Then we moved to clean eating and figured it was over, we would NEVER be happy with a clean crust. Until . . .

Last night - perfection.

I made a sauce last time and froze it. I used the recipe from The Cultivated Life, but used diced tomatoes instead of tomato sauce. Then I found this recipe and METHOD (method was the KEY) for pizza yesterday. Obviously I had to clean up the recipe to fit it to our lifestyle. I used 2 cups of whole wheat flour and a 1/2 cup of whole grain corn flour. Molasses instead of sugar. Closer to 1 1/4 tsp yeast. Closer to 1 1/2 cups water. Coconut oil instead of olive oil.   I added about 2 tsp of whole grain corn meal on the bottom of my pan because hubby enjoys that texture.

I followed the baking directions exactly, starting it on the stove then moving to the oven. It was perfect around 18 minutes.

We will be doing this one again VERY soon. It was a huge hit in this house!

I did my second virtual race this morning, the Anywhere 5K. My goal was a PR, of course. I was dying by the end, but I did it!! PR'd my 5k with a time of 27:20! Super excited to have run an average 8:47 mile! What?! My plan was to run 4 minutes at 6.5 then bump it up to 7.5 for a minute. I was able to do that the whole time. I even ran a minute and a half by ACCIDENT at 7.5! I didn't even notice. It's so nice to feel like I'm progressing, improving and becoming more fit and more able.