Independence Day 5k.

Back in January when I was assembling my mental running goals for the year, I set my sights on setting a new PR for my 5k distance on the 4th of July. Let's face is; getting a PR on one of the hottest days of the year just makes the PR that much sweatier, I mean sweeter. 

The 5k is organized and run by my friends and neighbors, and the start is less than a mile from my house. It's a great event for our community. It's a little bit different than your typical race because I run the route, with a couple variations on a weekly basis. Most races you don't have the advantage of knowing the course like the back of your hand. 

I ran this 5k last year intending to PR and ended up having a horrible race-- finishing at around 31 minutes. The course is pavement, with a 1/2 mile stretch of gravel and at the 1.5 mile mark, there's a gradual-appearing-but-actually-butt-kicking-incline. Last year I crashed and burned on the incline, and this year I was looking for revenge!

I had been so excited about this race all spring, so when I was shocked to wake up on the 4th with zero desire to run, let alone race. I woke up and wasn't feeling the greatest and completely unmotivated. I decided not to run, but at last minute talked myself into going because I knew I'd regret it if I didn't. I immediately chucked my idea of PRing, I was going to be happy just to get my butt to the finish line.

The race started and I still wasn't particularly feeling it, but I started to find my pace and just enjoy myself. It's amazing though, because it didn't take long for my inner race monster to wake up and shake the decks. Hey, if we're gonna race........let's RACE! 

I set an slightly uncomfortable pace and just hung on. It was warm, but there was a good breeze- not strong enough to be difficult to run into; just enough to keep you cool. The end was tough, but you when you finish smiling and on empty- that's a win in my book!

In the end I finished with a brand new of PR; 25:37 which demolished my previous PR of 28:27! I was elated to meet my goal, despite not feeling the best! 

My current training plan is geared towards longer distances, but I'm looking forward to another 5k sometime this fall, and this time the goal is to sub-25!

Post-race text out to my sister, who was also racing that morning, just in a different state. She set a new 2 mile record, like a boss. Last year we raced together, and I definitely missed having her race with me.

Relay Iowa (Part 3)

Part 1 & Part 2
So here we are- 0900 am on Sunday morning, closing in on the finish line!! The night shift runners ran their final legs- and they were tough. The hills at the end of our route were brutal!!! I didn't get a picture of them, but they were intense! Everyone was tired and ready to be done.
 The last couple of miles of the relay followed a bike trail, wound through a residential neighborhood and ended with a steep hill as you enter the park and arrive at the finish line.

Our team decided that it would be fun to finish is true relay style- run super short legs of .2 or .3 miles. We weren't entirely sure how much ground we had left to cover, so we just started rotating our runners, dropping a runner every .2 or .3.

Rotating our so fast made the last bit of the relay fly by. The entire team was totally psyched to be so close to the finish! There was so much energy, but also so much fatigue!!
The route flew by as we sped through our 'mini-legs'. We were trying to keep the entire team together so that we could finish together!! We pulled into the park, vehicles parked and everyone piled out to finish together!!!

We climbed the last bit of hill, and there was the finish line!! VICTORY!!!

Our team set a goal to run the relay in under 48 hours and maintain an 8:30/mile pace. We finished in 47 hours and 4 minutes, and our average pace was 8:19.


In celebration of our accomplishment, we made sure to properly thank our Team Captain!! We managed to catch him completely off guard for a good dunking!

Now comes the fun part- sorting, repacking and a million pairs of running socks missing their sole-mate. :)

At the finish line we were able to Skype with the founders of Restoring Hope International and several of the children from the orphanage. It was amazing to see the little faces that we had run all those miles for.

My celebration burger!! :) After two days of mostly carbs and limited protein, this girl was ready for some meat!  

The park was beautiful! It was such a perfect day- very sunny and super lovely out! There were so many trees, and the river was right there on the edge of the park.  

 

 

 

 

 Team Bfanana Banana! Finished; 47 hours, 4 minutes!!!

The relay was an amazing, fantastic experience! There are just not enough words to explain how awesome it was. Our team was amazing and each person played a significant role- running, encouraging, giving advice, sacrificing sleep etc... Having never met most of the team prior to the relay, I was so glad to see how well we all meshed together and worked together so well.
We all had an amazing time and are already planning a Reunion for Relay Iowa 2014...........Bfanana Banana RUNS AGAIN! :)

Relay Iowa (Part 2).

11am on Saturday, we completed the first 24 hours of our relay. Our team had previously set a goal to finish the relay in under 48 hours, and we were sitting right about the half way point. Most of the team was still feeling strong and we had a lot of miles left to cover. Through the middle part of the day our entire team stayed on the road together for a few hours, instead of some of us going to sleep.


After my 5 mile leg, I had almost 10 hours before my next leg. I did a lot of rolling and stretching, but my legs were feeling super awesome! My last leg on Saturday was at 7pm and my splits were 8:02, 9:25 and 8:58. My pacing over the course of the relay was not particularly stellar, but I was happy to be seeing lots of miles in the 8:XX area.
The weather was still pretty great- low 80's for a high, barely any wind and great cloud cover. 

Saturday afternoon some of the team was starting to get some aches and pains going on. All of us had double digit miles on our legs, and fatigue started to play a role for some of the runners. 

Ice-bath anyone?? 

Saturday afternoon we were stopped by the news crew that covered the relay and they asked if they could interview us. Yours truly got stuck with the microphone. Can I just say now that I hate my recorded voice?? 

Let's just be as awkward as physically possible, because the cameras eat that stuff up.

At 9pm we split into two shifts again and it was my turn to sleep. We stayed in a gym with showers and a very cold floor. I was tired, but had a really hard time actually sleeping. The night shift laid down some really good fast miles for our team and then called us to switch around 2am.
Running in the dark was my favorite part of the entire relay! It was just you, the road and the night! So amazing. Loved every minute of the night legs!! 

The day shift runners were excited to put out some pretty fast miles and keep up the good pace that the night shift team had set up. Through the night they had passed several more teams, and at that point there were only a couple teams ahead of us. When the night shift drove ahead to camp out, they counted and let us know that there were only two more teams in front of us, one just barely 1/2 mile ahead and the other one closer to 2 miles ahead.
Time to catch some runners. :) We passed the first team almost immediately, and then set our sights on the one remaining team ahead of us.  
We were running just a couple miles ahead of some pretty heavy storms, so it was cool and there was quite a bit of wind. The headwind made the morning legs a little bit tough, but still doable.

I was the 4th runner in our morning rotation, so by the time it was turn for my leg, we had pulled up close to one of the runners remaining in front of us. I knew he was far enough ahead of us that I probably wouldn't get the kill, but I wanted to shorten the gap between us so our next runner could pass him.
It was a perfect morning to run- my leg was at 4:15 and I was feeling really good. Just before I hit the 1 mile mark, I realized that I could see the red blinking tail light of the runner in front of me. He had some good ground on me, but I was determined to catch him. I got my 2nd kill of the relay when I passed him just before the 2 mile mark! Woohoo! I got a second wind after passing him and just kept pulling away from him. (Yes sir, you got chicked!!!) My splits were 8:19, 8:52 and 8:57. 

Field of dreams in the middle of the morning!! When the sun came up, the wind picked up even more. It was  almost chilly out! So far we had not run in any rain, even though we were sitting at 60-70% change of showers for the past 12 hours.
During the night legs you were required to wear a reflective vest, headlamp and tail light. We had two sets of lights, but only one vest, so transition took a little bit longer because you had to get the vest off & on the the new runner. At one transition, in the fumble of handing over the vest, the finishing runner forgot to hand the GPS off to the new runner. Tim had already taken off about 1/3 of a mile down the road before we realized. Our first response was to jump in the van and bring it to him, but that would have felt like cheating- even though he ran the entire distance, it was our error to not give him the GPS, and that didn't mean we could use the vehicle. One of our other runners took off in a dead sprint to catch him, while we went ahead in the van and told him to stop and wait. Thankfully we caught him and quickly remedied our error. Early morning brains don't always function the best!! :)

My 2nd leg that morning was at 6:30, and I was starting to slow down just a touch. This particular part of the  leg wasn't super well marked, and I was afraid that I was off course. I spent about a mile worrying that I was lost. Since we had passed all the other teams, there were no other runners or support vehicles out on the road to help reassure me. My splits were 8:41, 9:28 and 9:04. Thank you mr. german shepherd for chasing me and increasing my speed for the last 1/2 mile of my 3rd split.
At the end of that leg I was sitting right at 29 miles. I was ready to be done, but really wanted to hit 30 miles before I was done. :) 

We ran though the town where the night shift team was camped and they broke camp and rejoined us. It was time to get in our last 30 miles and finish!! Our team was excited, tired and ready to be done. It's amazing how tired you can be, but yet completely amped up on adrenaline at the same time.
There were quite a few runners on our team who were starting to feel pretty slammed, so we switched up the legs for the last couple of miles so that they could fall out of the rotation.
My last full leg was a 1 mile leg--- uphill. It was tough, and my legs felt pretty spent! I ran the last mile in 8:46, not horrible, but I had hoped for a bit faster.

9am on Sunday morning- the sun was up, the clouds were looming and we were within just a  miles of the finish!!

Stay tuned for part 3-- the FINISH!! 

Relay Iowa (Part 1)

Relay Iowa - the first 24 hours.

(I decided to split my relay recap into two posts. Basically I'm tricking you into listening to me jabber on and on by splitting it into two different posts instead of one monstrously boring post.)

Relay Iowa may be the longest relay in the United States, but it's about so much more than just running. All the proceeds from the relay are donated to Restoring Hope International , an amazing organization based in Welkom, South Africa. Two amazing couples founded Restoring Hope Village, where they meet  both the physical and spirituals needs of countless precious orphans. Their mission is to restore the HEARTS of the children, because you cannot live a restored life with a splintered heart.
It was amazing to participate in such an awesome event, but also realize that it didn't end in Dubuque.......it was so much bigger than just running, recovery and our sunburned memories. 

Our team of 12 was amazing! I had only met about half of the team prior to the relay, so it was neat to see how well our team clicked and worked together, even though most of us had previously been complete strangers!!
The relay started in Sioux City, right at the Missouri river. There were 17 teams running this year, and each team had previously submitted an approximate average pace per mile. The teams were released every half hour or so, starting with the 'slowest' predicted average and ending with the fastest team. Our team was predicted to be the 3rd fastest team, so our start was at 11am. 

Our team was very laid back, and there wasn't a lot of haggling over details prior to the relay. We decided to run 5k legs, and switch to longer legs later if we wanted to.
The first leg was brutal-- HILLY. As we followed along in the van, I was exceedingly grateful that I didn't have to start out on that leg!! It was intense!! Most of the state was hilly, but there were only a few legs that had soul-crushing hills, and I think the very first leg was the worst!
After our first runner hit the pavement, we started making some rough outlines of who would run what legs at what time. We were planning about 6 hours in advance so that each runner could plan when to eat, what to eat and what time their first leg would be. 

We started out by having each of our 12 runners run a leg, and then split the group into a 'night shift' and a 'day shift'. The 'night shift' would run until early morning while the 'day shift' caught a few hours of sleep. Day 1 was a beautiful day-- about 79 degrees with a light breeze. Sunny, but lots of clouds. The weather was absolutely perfect for running, even at 3pm.

I ran my first leg just after 2pm. I was a bundle of nerves and it was even worse than running a race. You have all the emotions of the starting line of a race, but then you take off all by yourself!! My first leg my splits were 7:46, 9:02 and 8:43. Hmmm.....let's do some better pacing next time. :) My first leg was my hilliest leg of the relay, so it was all down hill from there (pun, intended). 

My 2nd leg was at 5:45pm and I ran 8:34, 8:51 and 8:49. My second leg was through the town of Ida Grove and also included a (very confusing) checkpoint. The course was always well marked, but at the checkpoint there was an arrow pointing to turn right, when you actually needed to keep going straight. The staff at the checkpoint kept me on course, but I was thoroughly confused!  

My 3rd leg was at 8:15pm, the last leg for the 'day shift' team before we split to get some sleep. I ran 9:25, 9:06 and 9:24 during leg 3. My third leg was probably the hardest leg of the entire weekend. I'm not sure why, but I just felt off on that leg, and it was also my slowest. 

Our team had some very fast runners (below 7 minute mile averages), but everyone ran their own pace. As a team we had submitted an average of 8:30 per mile, but we were all hoping to run faster than we predicted. Every single on of my team mates ran their hearts out- we left out legs in Iowa!!

Friday night the Relay provided a spaghetti dinner for the runners. I was in between leg, and the last thing that sounded good was spaghetti. I'm not much of a spaghetti fan, so I wasn't particularly bummed to miss out, but the rest of the team enjoyed it!

The 'day shift' group was spoiled and actually got to sleep on real beds for a few hours. Several of the team are originally from Iowa, so we stayed at the house of one of the runners! A shower and a pillow have never felt so amazing!! The 'night shift' started at about 8:45pm and ran for the next 8 hours. The two shifts transitioned at about 5:15am and the fresh runners took over. We were far enough into the state at that point that the 'night shift' had to camp out instead of stay in at the house.

When we got up, I was feeling great! My mileage total for the first three legs was just under 10 miles (our 5ks were usually just a touch long) and I wasn't feeling any unusual soreness or pain! I was excited to get out and get some more miles in!

Iowa was BEAUTIFUL! Absolutely great scenery! 

I wanted to run my first leg in the morning at a slightly slower pace and ramp up as the day went on. My first leg was at 6:15am and I ran three miles at exactly 9:01 each. This leg was especially flat, and my legs felt good. 

There were plenty of other runners out on the route. We were playing leap frog with lots of other relay vehicles. We were passing other teams every few legs. All of the teams seemed to do a good job of pulling off the road and being safe & mind full of the traffic. We ran all different road and surfaces--- dirt, gravel, chip 'n seal, black top, highways, brick etc..... 

Did someone say carb-load? The provided meal on Saturday was a pancake breakfast. I was definitely looking forward to splurging on some hot cakes!! After I finished my 2nd route, it was my turn to eat!!

Our 'day shift' group decided we wanted to run some slightly longer legs, so my 2nd leg of the morning was just short of 5 miles. I love the 5 mile distance, so I was excited. My 2nd leg was at 9am and my splits were 8:31, 9:12, 9:20, 9:03 and 8:52. As we transitioned and Rikki handed off to me, we were passed by a speedy blonde. I hung with her for about a half a mile, but I knew I couldn't stick with her for 5 miles. At about 3.5 miles, I saw another runner up ahead of me and realized I was gaining on her. I made it my goal to pass her before transition!! She was keeping a good pace, so I kept pushing. About 1/4 mile shy of transition, I passed her going up a hill. Mission accomplished- I got my first 'kill', and our teamed called it when you passed another runner!! :) 

The night shift reunited with us at about 10:30, and we continued on across the state. We were keeping a really good pace as a team and everyone was still feeling pretty great. Everyone was putting out some pretty fast miles, and the hills were an exciting challenge. 

 

11am on Saturday--- the first 24 hours gone-- we're halfway done!! 

Night Run 8k Race Recap!

During my Arizona vacation I was psyched to have the opportunity to run a race! I love racing, and it's even more exciting to race in a new location! I was very glad to share this race experience with my sister. Running is one of our absolute favorite things to do together.
When I was picking dates for my trip to AZ, I scouted out races that would be in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area, or within a short distance from where we would be staying. Once I found the Night Run, I knew right away I wanted to run it!!

The Night Run was held in down town Scottsdale, with the start at the Civil Center. (P.S. If you've never been to the down town area- GO. Night or Day, there is lots to see and do.) They had a 3 mile fun run/walk and an 8k.

Pre-race packet pickup closed at 7, and the race started after dark at 8pm. We picked up our packets and got our bibs and walked around. It was warm, almost 100 and I was interested to see how well I would run in the heat. I did some minor stretching before the race and hit the line for the porta-potties. (While I was in line I chatted it up with 3 women standing in front of me who had just hiked the Grand Canyon the week before!! Hello, new bucket-list item!!)


 My goal for this race was ultimately to just enjoy the experience of running at night and have fun. This would also be my first race post-marathon, so I was just excited to be racing again! I had no idea what kind of time to try and shoot for because I hadn't been timing my runs at all prior to the race in keeping with my May Goal to #RunfreeforMe. My goal was to run all sub-10 minute miles and finish in under 50 minutes.

 
The start was a little bit confusing- someone was talking on a microphone, but I couldn't hear them at all. All the runners bunched up together at the start. There were lots of people and we unintentionally started towards the front of the group. It was very congested for the first few hundred feet but it thinned out pretty quickly.
Tabitha and I started out together, but she said she might not want to run the entire thing at my pace. She is a faster runner than I am, so I assumed this meant she would pull ahead and I told her to go when she felt good! Before we knew it someone yelled out "Mile 1". There were a ton of Garmins beeping around me and I was tempted to ask someone what pace we were running, but I decided not to. I didn't want to spoil the fun we were having by getting hung up on our speed.
After Mile 1, Tabitha said she wasn't feeling super good and she was having a really hard time holding pace. We were talking, and I tried to distract her and help her keep her head in the game, but she just really wasn't feeling it. Finally she told me to keep going, she was going to drop back and walk a bit and see if she felt better.
There was a young girl, maybe 8 or 9 running with her Dad and he was pacing/coaching her. It was so fun to see! They ran alongside us for a few minutes and they were listening to some good old country tunes on his i-pod, so we were all singing along. In my head I made a mental note to not let that little girl beat me!! :)

It was really a beautiful night to run and SO much fun! The course had a lot of turns and we seemed to be going in circles. We ran by a lot of restaurants and bars and the feedback was interesting! Some people were standing out in the street clapping and cheering and high-fiving, while there were quite a few others who were name-calling and booing. It was not your average race atmosphere, to say the least!
I was feeling really, really good and my legs just kept moving. I was passing a lot of people, and trying to just hold to what felt like a steady pace. Apparently I missed all the mile markers, so after Mile 1, I never knew where I was on the course. This made it difficult because I was trying to run hard, but yet not burn out and have nothing left to finish on.
The course was mostly flat with one of two small inclines. I was feeling really, really good and I was moving!

As we got near to the end we circled back around Civic Center Park and I knew we were getting close. Pretty soon I could see the finish line and I started to kick it with all I had. I have NEVER been a strong finisher, but this race I was really flying at the end. I still felt really great and still felt strong mentally and physically.
As I was flying towards the finish, all of the sudden that little girl & her Dad from earlier in the race were right on my heels!! They were kicking it & I was kicking it and the race was on!! She ended up crossing the finish line right in front of me, but according to our chip times, I actually finished 3 seconds faster than she did. 

My official finish time was 45:09, with an average page of 8:50, finishing 266th out of 651 runners! I was stunned to see that I had run all 5 miles at a sub-9 minute pace!! I completely blew my expectations out of the water! I was super happy with how well I ran the race and how good I felt post-run.
After I finished I ran back out along the course to find Tabitha. I expected her to be right behind me, but I didn't find her until Mile 4.
After we split she ended up running some more, but unfortunately got sick around Mile 3. Even after getting sick (twice) she still ran like a champ and finished!!  

She had a very tough race and I am SO proud of her for finishing! Her grit and determination to finish inspire me! I was really worried about her post race, but after getting re-hydrated and some sleep she was good as new!

We stretch in gas-station parking lots 'cause we be cool like that.
(And it was fun to totally embarrass Noah.)

The Night Run was a fantastic race and I loved running it. It was a great experience and if you are a Scottsdale local, I'd definitely recommend you check it out in 2014!