Monday, November 7, 2011

Race Report: Run as fast as you can for as long as you can.

The N & O Old Reliable 10K Run: Raleigh, NC

Run as fast as you can for as long as you can. That was my motto about 5 minutes after I started the race. 

Since the 50K on October 15th, I've ran about 5 times; junk miles mostly. I wasn't planning on anything special for this 10K and actually signed up for it at the last minute.

I manuevered myself towards the front of the start. I was also starting with the marathon, marathon relay, and half-marathoners at the same time. It was a cluster but it still worked out.

As during most of my races, most of the run was a blur. I get in the zone when I race and get tunnel vision. Unless someone is streaking buck naked or falls and eats it, I'm probably not going to notice. However, as I was running up the first hill, I passed an older gentleman that looked like he was wearing a singlet over a sweater. No, that was just his back hair. He was nice though and told me good job and I said the same back to him. Also at one point, there was a priest standing outside a church blessing all of us : )

Mile 1- 7:06

Way faster than I needed to run but I was weaving in and out of folks trying to get ahead and out of the gaggle.

Mile 2- 6:48

Whoa nelly! I looked down at my watch at one point and noticed it said 6:15. WTH are you doing! You can't keep that up, you'll die! Slooooow your roll sister.

Mile 3- 7:04

Still faster than I needed to be going. However, I hit the 3 mile mark at 20:57....my 5K PR is 22:39. You do the math : ) That's a 5K PR BABY except it doesn't count. At least I know I can possibly run a sub 21 5K in the near future!

Mile 4- 7:04

I was being very consistent but I started to hit a little wall at this point. The fast pace was finally catching up to me and I was wondering if I'd be able to keep it up a couple more miles.

Mile 5- 7:19

A little slower but I still couldn't believe I was doing so well! I never expected to do so well during this race after barely running the last few weeks. I just keep surprising myself.....and that doesn't get old.

Mile 6- 7:08

At this point I knew I was going to do well. I hadn't looked at the total time during the last couple miles so I didn't know just how well I was doing. I'm terrible at math and never keep track of pace so the finish was a total surprise. The last .3 or so was almost all up hill and I was struggling. I didn't run at a total sprint at the end like I normally do because I had no steam left. Just how I like it.

Finish time- 44:20 (chip time) 44:53 (gun time)
PREVIOUS 10K PR- 45:05 from 2007
Put that in your pipe, 26 yr old Chris, and SMOKE it! 

5/244 female overall
1/45 in my age group 30-34
24/487 overall
Hell to the yeah!

I have another 10K this Friday : ) I am a glutton for punishment I guess. I plan to smoke the bags off of this one as well. I did well last year but want to do even better this time. It's a trail race too! We'll see!

LIVESTRONG!

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Shamrock Whale Challenge and raising money for the LIVESTRONG foundation

     Back in 2008, I was deployed to Afghanistan. It gets REALLY boring over there if you had a job like I had. You have to be creative in what you do on your off time; find new things to do. This was my third deployment there and this time I brought my Fugi Cross bike with me. The base I was on had about an 8 mile paved loop around it and that's where we'd run/bike. I was online one day looking at races in the US and came across the LIVESTRONG events. They had run/bike events in a few major cities that year, one being in Austin, TX. I then got the idea that I could email the race director and ask them if I could participate in the Austin event, from Afghanistan. It can happen, right?
     Once I emailed them, they were all for it and wanted to do everything they could to help me out. I was going to raise money for them too so they sent me all sorts of things to help with that. I still have enough LIVESTRONG yellow bracelets to last me a lifetime and I still wear one everyday : ) I ended up raising $1700 for them and rode 50 miles on my bike. That was the most I'd ridden then and it was hard to ride over there once the traffic picked up. The whole experience was awesome and just can't be put in to words.

I conducted a 'ruck march' as one of the ways to help raise money. Me and about 10 other guys rucked around the 8 miles and I carried all of the donations in that ammo can : ) We started before the sun came up and it was amazing to watch it rise over those mountains.







     So now I want to run the Shamrock Whale Challenge in Virginia Beach, Virginia St. Patty's Day weekend 2012. This is the 8k on Saturday and the Marathon on Sunday. I ran the dolphin challenge last year which is the 8k and half marathon. LIVESTRONG is offering to pay the entry fee for those who will raise some money for them before race time. It is only $250 so I know I can raise that and hopefully lots more by then. I'm so excited to be doing this and hope that I can represent them proudly once again. This is about much more than an entry fee. It's hopefully a small little bit that can eventually help save millions of lives.

If you would like to donate, my donation page is:

Please let me know if you have any trouble viewing or accessing the site.

THANK YOU!

LIVESTRONG!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Shoe porn


Come to find out, the Uwharrie Moutain Run (which consists of 8, 20, and 40 mile distances) sold out in a couple of hours yesterday! THAT'S why it took me so long to register/get the page to load up. I'm even more excited for this race now. I'll be doing the Frosty 50K, in Jan, in preps for it. Those will be a couple of c-c-cold races!

This cold is kicking my a$$. Being sick is no fun. I am taking zinc and echinacea with my vitamin/other supps at night (as normal), cold meds, and I'm sucking down green tea like it's nobody's business.

I got some new shoes a couple days ago! I now have a third pair of Brooks Ghost 3's in the only other color I didn't have them in yet. Love the Ghost's! I used the new ones during my run yesterday. My feet/shins didn't like it at first but were adjusted by the time I finished. They have lots of cushion for my high arched feet.

I also got the Keen A86 TR. I swear they were blue in the picture when I ordered them but they are VERY purple. They even look less purple in the pic I took below but they are bright! I could care less though. I just hope they rock the trails. They are very light and I'm guessing Keen's version of minimalist. I'll have to ease in to them.

I got both pairs of shoes off of Sierra Trading Post (www.sierratradingpost.com) for $120 including shipping! They have a 20% code on their website right now and the shoes were $60ish to begin with. You can find great deals on there.


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

First post!

This is the first post of my new blog. I've been a blogger on Runner's World's "The Loop" for quite some time. The Loop is pretty cool because you can read a lot of other runners blogs and are easily accessible. But who doesn't want their own blog? The plan is to post on here from now on and I'll probably just copy it onto The Loop.

I'll blog about running and everyday things. I hope it is of some interest to someone. My favorite blogs to write are race reports summing up a race that I've recently completed. If my running tales can inspire someone else to try things they never thought they could do, I'll be happy.

I think I have caught a cold because I've woken up the past couple mornings unable to breath. Last night, I signed up for the City of Oaks 10K which is this Sunday. I hope this thing passes by then, otherwise I'll be hacking up stuff as I'm running. This morning, I signed up for the Uwharrie Mountain Run 40 miler in February. Registration opened this morning at 8am and it took a while to get the website to load up and for me to finally get registered. I'm guessing lots of others were trying to register before it fills up.