Category: Race Recap

Hey guys! I can’t wait to tell you all about our wonderful trip to NYC! Just a fair warning, this post is going to be lengthy and include lots of pictures. I hope that’s okay …

Before we get to that though, I want to just say thank you so much to everyone who voted, shared my posts and encouraged me over the course of the Runner’s World cover search process. Your kindness, love and support has meant so much to me! In case you missed it, I didn’t win. The whole process was so long and there was so much hype about it, that by the end of the contest I had really become a lot more emotionally invested than I even realized.

I didn’t find out until the afternoon before the announcement was made live that I hadn’t won. At first I was pretty disappointed. The more I thought about it, the more that I realized that the whole point was for me to share my story (i.e., the Lord’s story). I did not need to be on the cover of the magazine to accomplish that. All of the finalists stories are going to be in the December issue of the Runner’s World (which comes out November 10th) and all of our interviews are floating out there on the interwebs for the whole world to see, so I feel like I did what I was called to do and I am happy about that!

On to the fun part! I am going to tell you about our pre-race activities, recap the actual race itself and tell you about our post-race festivities.

Pre-Race

We headed over to New Orleans Thursday evening. We stayed in an airport motel that night because our flight left for Newark at 6 a.m. and we didn’t want to wake up before 2 a.m. to travel to New Orleans the morning of the flight. We scored an awesome, direct flight from New Orleans to Newark for less than $200! It was definitely worth the extra drive for a cheap, direct flight. We met our friend Shaw-fin at the airport.

We landed in Newark and took an uber into the city and were checked into our hotel before noon, which was really nice. We stayed at the Chambers Hotel on 56th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. The hotel was really nice and the location was absolutely perfect! I would definitely recommend it. After we got checked in, Daniel, Shaw-fin and I headed over to the race expo to pick up our bibs. That’s where the fun began!

We stayed at the expo for a while. It was really crowded and there was so much to see and take in. I love race expos and this one was incredible! I found the Runner’s World booth and got a picture of the TAG Heuer advertisment that featured all of the cover search finalists (bottom right picture). We were also able to get a sneak peak of the December issue and get a picture with Bart Yasso holding up my page (top left picture). That was so cool!

Another highlight from Friday was that I got to meet my coach. He is based out of Charlotte, NC so I wasn’t sure if we would ever get to meet in person. I was so excited to learn that his daughter was running NYC and that we might be able to meet in person. She is a phenomenal runner and they were really busy all weekend, so I was really appreciative that he took time to meet with me before the race. We talked some about the race day plan and talked about what I wanted to do next. That is still currently the million dollar question, by the way.

We were worn out after a long day of traveling and so we didn’t do too much else Friday evening. We made a quick stop at a little deli to get dinner and some groceries to have in the room for the rest of the weekend and called it an early night.

We headed out early Saturday morning to go over to Central Park to run a few miles. We met up with our friends from home, Ali and Melanie and watched Melanie run the Dash to the Finish Line 5K. She ran great (got a new PR!) and we enjoyed seeing her and spending the morning in the park. The weather was perfect!

After her race we all met up with our other friends from home, Jim and Kari Ann, for breakfast at Astro Restaurant. It was a pretty small restaurant with a local, diner vibe and we loved it (you will also see this appear in the post-race section of this post). The coffee was good and there was something for everyone. I was a big fan of their Greek yogurt bar. Saturday morning I got the “Very Berry” and it was ah-mazing.

Saturday afternoon several of us had tickets to see the Lion King on Broadway. Daniel was adamant that we were going to see a show while we were in town and I’m so glad that he had this idea. The costumes, the music, everything was simply breathtaking and refreshingly innocent. We all loved it!

Watching a musical also made for a great pre-race day activity (as opposed to something more active). I wanted to make sure to get to bed early Saturday night, so after the play I went back to the room to get my stuff laid out and get some good rest. Daniel and the rest of the group went over to the Rockefeller Center and up to the “Top of the Rock” observation deck. They said the views were amazing. I hated to miss out on that, but after all of this training, I was determined to get plenty of rest the day before the race.

Race Recap

Sunday morning, I was up around 4:45 to get ready. I was nervous, but really excited. I was accepted into the sub-elite program, which was very intimidating but made for an absolutely incredible race day experience (to get into this program you need a 2:35 marathon or 1:12 half-marathon for men and 3:05 marathon or 1:27 half-marathon for women). We had special transportation to the start, a special staging area before the race, a clear starting position at the front of the race, and a dedicated recovery area at the finish.

We took the Midtown bus at 6 a.m. to the Ocean Breeze Athletic Complex on Staten Island. The athletic complex is a brand new, huge indoor track and field facility. All of the elite and sub-elite athletes were here before the race. They had breakfast there for us (coffee, water, fruit, bagels, etc.) and we were able to stretch, warm up and stay indoors until about 30 minutes before the race start. The elite athletes were doing all kinds of warm up drills and running, but I don’t typically do any sort of warm up before a marathon (maybe I am supposed to), so I basically just sat there, taking it all in. Here is Meb!

We lined up on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge around 9:40 and the cannon fired at 9:50 for the start of the race. The first mile of the race was straight up the bridge. The view from the top of the bridge was incredible because we could see the entire NYC skyline. The second mile was straight down the other side of the bridge. I tried to not go out too fast, but it was really difficult to reign the pace in running downhill. Mile one was 7:01 pace (pretty much exactly what I was shooting for) and mile two was 6:28 (oops). I didn’t feel like I was really running at a hard effort the second mile, it was more of just a naturally faster pace as gravity pulled you down the bridge and you tried not to get trampled by the thousands of runners behind you.

The course takes you through five boroughs of New York. You start on Staten Island and then run through Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and finish in Manhattan. I tried to settle into a groove after we got off of the (first) bridge. I was feeling pretty good and I settled into a fairly consistent pace. Miles three through fourteen were 6:43, 6:37, 6:30, 6:38, 6:41, 6:42, 6:44, 6:44, 6:42, 6:37, 6:48, 6:48.

Going into the race, I knew that the course was going to be challenging because of the hills. I did some hill work this training cycle, but I don’t think any of the hills in lower AL could have fully prepared me for the hills and bridges in NYC. I don’t know if this elevation chart really does it justice, but those darn things were rough.

I slowed down a little bit during miles fifteen and sixteen (7:05, 7:08), as we crossed over the Queensboro Bridge. At this point I was still feeling decent and I knew that I was going to slow down some over the bridges anyway. That was part of the “plan.” I was able to pick the pace back up a little bit after we came out onto 1st Avenue and I continued to cruise along through mile twenty three. Miles seventeen through twenty three were 6:56, 6:39, 6:47, 7:02, 6:48, 7:09, 7:14.

During mile twenty four, I hit the wall (hard). I ran 8:09 for that mile. Ouch. I honestly think that my fueling was adequate and I think on a flat course I may have been able to hold my pace at least another mile or two, which would have pretty much gotten me through the finish. Perhaps that is just wishful thinking, but I’m gonna just go with it for now.

Speaking of fueling … for any of you that may be interested, I’ll share my race day fueling with you. If not, feel free to skip the next three paragraphs and continue on after that.

Pre-race I took in between 300 and 400 calories, which is what my coach recommended. I had 4 oz. of Noosa (Australian yogurt), half a banana, one packet of UCAN (vanilla protein) with 20 oz. of water, a small (probably 4 oz.) cup of coffee and a small cup of water (probably 4 oz.) with an electrolyte tablet. By my calculations, this was about 375 calories, 7g of fat, 53g of carbs and 19g of protein. This was more than I typically take in before my long runs, but we also didn’t start running until close to 10 a.m. and I usually run at 6 a.m., so I knew that I needed to eat more beforehand than I do on a typical long run day.

During the race I alternated with water and Gatorade Endurance Formula at the aid stations. Basically I tried to take a few sips of something every 20 to 30 minutes. I took water at mile three, Gatorade at mile seven, water at mile 11 and Gatorade at mile 15. Thankfully I was able to see Daniel out on the course (at mile 18) and he was able to hand me a bottle of UCAN (cranberry raspberry) that I mixed with 12 oz. of water that morning. We weren’t really sure how big the crowds were going to be and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to get a bottle from him out there or not, but I’m glad it worked out. The handoff was executed seamlessly and I was off!

I drank half of the UCAN at mile 18 and the other half at mile 20. I took a few more sips of water around mile 24.  By my calculations, this was about 200 calories and all carbs (approximlatey 50g) during the race itself.

So here we are back to the lovely mile 24 (my slowest of the day) … I didn’t really talk a lot about my goals for the race here beforehand, but basically my A goal was 2:55, B goal was to go under 3:00 and C goal was to PR (under 3:03). Somewhere in the beginning of mile 24 the 3:00 pacer passed me and that was really tough mentally. It was like I could see my goals slipping away and I wanted to catch them so badly, but my legs were just not cooperating.

The last two miles of the race are in Central Park and making the turn into the park definitely gave me a bit of a boost. I knew I was almost there! The crowds were awesome and I was able to pick the pace back up enough to manage to squeak out a little bitty PR (fifty-six seconds). The last two miles were 7:38, 7:19. Given the difficulty of the course, I am still really happy with the end result.

After the race I was spent. I got my picture made with my medal and stumbled my way over to the tent to get my gear check bag. Once I got to my phone, I was able to text Daniel and we were able to meet just about two blocks from the finishers tent. I thought I was doing okay, but quickly realized that I was not going to be able to walk back to the hotel. I asked Daniel how far it was and he said, “I’m not sure; maybe a mile or two.” I am pretty sure at the rate I was going, it might have taken us two or three hours to walk that. I sat down on the curb to rest for a second and asked Daniel if we could just get a cab. After a few unsuccessful attempts to hail a taxi, I looked over and noticed a man with a pedicab (basically a bike that pulls a cart behind it for you to ride in) just hanging out on the corner and I (strongly) suggested that we should take that. Daniel let me have my way (he is a smart man) and we took a very expensive ride back to our hotel. That in itself was quite an adventure, but worth every penny.

We got back to the hotel and at this point I was freezing! The temperatures were in the sixties, so it wasn’t super cold out, but once I stopped running I was so cold. I took possibly the longest, hottest shower in the history of showers. After a couple of hours of rest and rehydration, I felt much better.

Post-Race

The one thing that I really wanted to do while we were up there was go ice-skating. I didn’t want to go before the race, because that seemed too risky, so we had decided earlier in the trip that we would go after the race. I don’t know how much I actually thought that through, but alas I am stubborn and had made up my mind that we were going to go ice-skating and so ice-skating we went.

We had a great time and miraculously, neither one of us fell!

We met back up with our group after skating and we went to a post-race, celebratory dinner at Bill’s Bar & Burger. We ordered three appetizers for the table to share (fried pickles, sweet potato fries and hot wings) and all got burgers. The spectating spouses ended up with over 10 miles of walking for the day! We all earned our dinner that night for sure. After that we hobbled around Times Square for a little bit and stopped for coffee and dessert at CaffeBene.

Monday morning we all got up early to go for one last run in Central Park. This was more of a take in the scenery kind of run and we stopped for lots of pictures and enjoyed the beautiful fall weather and gorgeous views. It felt good to move around some and my legs felt much better than I was expecting, which was a pleasant surprise.

After that we all headed back to Astro’s for breakfast. We all enjoyed it so much Saturday morning that it just seemed like the right thing to do. We even got our same booth and everything. We pretty much felt like regulars at this point. Someone even stopped us on the street to ask for directions (Daniel told them the wrong way, but that is not the point). Monday morning I got the “Yogurtccino,” which was equally as ah-mazing as the previous order.

While we were sitting at breakfast, we got an email from the airline letting us know to expect travel delays and increased security at the airport. President Obama flew into Newark Monday and they basically shut down the entire airport while Air Force One was landing and taking off. Everything got really backed up. We left extra early, just to be safe, but we made it to the airport and through security really quickly. Then we waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Our flight was delayed for over four hours, which wasn’t a lot of fun, but I was able to work on this post some so that ended up working out I guess. We got home really late Monday evening and thankfully, I was able to take today off work to regroup, unpack, do laundry, pick up Brooks, grocery shop, etc. We had an amazing trip with some amazing friends, but it is always nice to be back in Sweet Home Alabama. That reminds me, one of the bands in Brooklyn was playing Sweet Home Alabama as I ran by! I loved that.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful week!

Hello friends.

We just got home from a wonderful one-day getaway on 30A. I ran the Blue Mountain Beach half marathon in Grayton Beach this morning. This was my first time to run this race. Actually, I had never even heard about it until this year and only stumbled upon it online. I was searching for a half marathon to do as a tune up race before New York and most of the half marathons around here are later in the year. This weekend is 3 weeks out from the marathon and that is about as late as I could fit one in and reasonably expect to be recovered enough for the marathon. We had to travel a little bit to find a race, but believe me, there are much worse things than having to travel to a beautiful destination race at the beach for a weekend.

Daniel had to work for a little while Saturday morning and I had my training group Saturday morning as well, so it was a pretty quick trip over and back, but it was a lot of fun and it was a nice break. We dropped Brooks off at the doggie ranch and headed over to Florida Saturday afternoon. We stayed in Miramar Beach, which is just east of Sandestin. We got checked in and settled into our room and discovered that Daniel forgot to pack his running shoes.

Y’all. Really? We went to New York and he forgot his dress shirt and now we go to a race and he forgets his shoes. He didn’t run the race, but I definitely wanted him to run the warm up and cool down with me. I am starting to think he is doing this on purpose. Luckily, we were really close to the outlets and so he was able to find a new pair of (very bright) racing shoes at the Adidas outlet.

Since we were already at the outlets, I decided to do a little shopping myself. I got two pairs of jeans at The Loft (they were buy one, get one free … don’t mind if I do) and got a super cute pair of boots and a necklace at the Saks. We will see if Daniel forgets anything next time! Ha.

After we left the outlets, we stopped by the grocery store to stock up on some snacks for the game and for the race. Then we ordered dinner to go from Applebees and came back to the room to watch the Alabama game and get to bed early. If this is what being old feels like … I really like it!

We woke up pretty early this morning to get ready for the race. Packet pickup was at 6 and the race started at 7. We got there right at 6, because I wanted to get my packet and have plenty of time to get a good warmup in and not be rushed to get to the start line. Since I missed (aka bombed) my long run last week, coach wanted me to get one last 20 miler in this weekend, which meant that I needed to do at least a 3 mile warmup before the race and then 3 or 4 miles after as well.

The race start and packet pickup was at the Grayton Beach General Store. We found the start and got checked in with no problems. There were more people than I was expecting, but there were actually several races going on. Today was the half marathon and a 10K and yesterday, they had a 5K and a 10 mile race. You could sign up for the 5K and 10 mile race Saturday and the half marathon Sunday and over the course of the weekend, you would’ve raced a marathon. They called this 26.2 @ Blue. We weren’t able to do that this year, but it does sound like a fun option to try sometime. They have a similar type race on Tybee Island in GA where you run a 5K Friday evening and then a 10K, a half marathon, a 2.8 mile run on the beach and a one mile race Saturday, giving you a total of 26.2 for the weekend. We’ve always wanted to do that one as well!

Anyways. Back to the race report … Daniel and I did a three mile warmup and then it was time to line up for the start. My goal pace for this race was 6:30 per mile. My actual average pace was 6:31 per mile, so that was pretty much right on target. Unfortunately, I didn’t really run the smartest of all races and I was struggling at the end! My splits were: 6:31, 6:14, 6:17, 6:22, 6:23, 6:31, 6:27, 6:39, 6:37, 6:41, 6:43, 6:42, 6:38. The first 3 miles were too fast and I paid for that. I was supposed to “ease into” 6:30 pace, not start at that and then drop down well below that in the first 3 miles of the race. Note to self: do not do this next month in NYC.

I got sucked into running someone else’s race instead of my own. When we lined up on the starting line, I knew I had some competition. There was a girl who was running strides out and back from the start line the entire time while most of us were just standing around waiting for the start. Daniel was standing off to the side with me and I told him that she looked serious. He said, maybe so, but he wasn’t entirely convinced. After this went on for a good 5 minutes, the race director announced that there was one minute until the start. At this point (almost on cue), she immediately took off over into the bushes (like 50 feet max from where everyone was standing), went to the bathroom and then darted back over to the start line. I have never seen anything quite like that (from a girl at least) in my life. At that point Daniel looked at me and said, “Yep, I think she is serious. Good Luck!” And we were off!

The first few miles were very flat and I quickly settled into my 6:30 pace. I came through mile one in probably about 5th place overall. I was trying to stay with serious girl. I figured we might could work together. I tend to run my best races when I run side-by-side with someone else. Over the course of the next couple of miles, we passed the other folks and were running 1st and 2nd overall and were running pretty much side-by-side. We actually got passed back by one guy just after mile 3 when we somehow managed to run off course (but only for a few seconds). There was a turnaround, but the sign at the turnaround said “10K Marathon Turn.” For some reason, that didn’t register in my mind that it was the HALF turnaround as well. Serious girl kept going, so I did too. We didn’t go too far out of the way, because I stopped and asked the policeman sitting at the turnaround if this was where the half turned as well. His response was, “I have no idea. They just told me this is the turnaround.” Okay then. We shall turn.

We kept the pace pretty steady for the next three or four miles. Unfortunately, those first few fast miles started to catch up with me and my pace slowed after we came through the 10K. We came through the 10K finish and the first place guy stopped. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he might not be running the half. Daniel hopped in the race and ran a little bit with me around mile 7.

She had already put a pretty good gap on me at this point (as you can see in the picture above), but it was still manageable. When we hit mile 8, we had a little out and back segment and Daniel dropped off to wait for me to come back through. This is where the “mountain” of Blue Mountain Beach came into play. The course description said that we would run the only mountain on Florida’s beautiful Gulf Coast, but honestly I wasn’t expecting it to be anything too difficult. It probably wouldn’t have been had I paced myself properly at the beginning of the race, but I didn’t …

Miles 8 through 10 felt like they were all uphill! And it was windy. And the sun was in my eyes. Basically I was just struggling. Serious girl put a pretty big gap on me and there was no way I was going to catch her at that point. Thankfully, having miles 8, 9 and 10 uphill meant that miles 11, 12 and 13 were somewhat downhill. I was definitely thankful for that, but I couldn’t seem to pick my pace back up at all. I came through the finish in 1:24:55, which is only a few seconds off from my best half, so overall I am very pleased! I definitely needed a good reminder about the importance of smart pacing. Nothing like learning a lesson the hard way to make it stick with you more.

Daniel joined me for 4 cooldown miles. Basically this was more like a shuffle, but we got it in. That was my last long, long run (I realize this is a relative term) before the marathon and I got a pretty solid 20 miler in. Bring on the taper! We were also tracking several friends that ran Chicago today. Everyone did so well (woo hoo)! It was so much fun getting all of the text alerts after my race and definitely made me more excited about NYC.

We hung around Grayton for a little bit after the race, got some coffee and I got my award. I was hoping that they might put me in the men’s division (I registered as Sam instead of Samantha) because then I would’ve been first place! How crazy is that? I usually sign up as Samantha for just that reason. I’ve been called out in the men’s results before. I’m pretty sure today is the only time it would’ve actually been advantageous.

We got cleaned up, checked out of our hotel and headed in search of some food before getting on the road to head home. We decided on Panera. For some reason, Panera just really sounded good to me. I got their new ancient grain, arugula and chicken salad. It had red grapes and fresh apple and cabbage slaw tossed with white balsamic apple vinaigrette and topped with toasted pumpkin seeds. It was so, so good. Maybe I was just really hungry, but I thought this salad was amazing!

We got back on the road, I put on my compression sleeves, propped my feet up and took a nice little nap.

Now the laundry is going, we are about to go pick up our little booger from doggie ranch and get weekly groceries. Back to the normal routine. We had a really fun trip and I would definitely recommend this race to anyone that is looking for a fun, relaxed half marathon along a beautiful scenic route!

Hello hello!

A New Job

Well, I have officially started my new job and it has been quite a whirlwind. If I had to pick one word to describe it thus far, it would be overwhelming. Change isn’t easy. I keep trying to remind myself of this. I know I can do this. I have been doing this for 7 years now. I guess I didn’t really expect this change to feel like a big change, if that makes sense. The work should essentially be the same, but I am coming from a pretty small firm to a much larger firm and they are in the middle of a huge software conversion. Basically everything that I learn right now is only going to be applicable for the next 75 days and then everything will change again. The first day was very trying and I was definitely second guessing my decision.

I started off that morning with an easy run with Daniel and left home in plenty of time for a quick stop at Coffee Loft before getting to the office. I was off to such a good start! And then, major coffee spillage (on a white skirt nonetheless). Not really the way I wanted to walk in on my first day.

I really had no clue what to expect on that first day (i.e., I had no control over what was going to happen that day), what the exact details of my part-time schedule will look like or what type of returns I will actually be working on. Fear of the unknown is very overwhelming to me, so I was already a tad uneasy about the whole situation.

The first thing we did that morning when I got there was to take a quiz called “kingdomality” which is supposed to highlight your personality type and how it fits into the corporate “kingdom.” Everyone was gathered in the conference room (cue social anxiety) while one other new hire and I took our quizzes. I usually enjoy little personality type quizzes, but this one not so much. They read the results out loud for everyone and we have a print out that we are supposed to put up in our office with our result as well. Here’s what I got:

Your distinct personality is The Black Knight. Your overriding goal is to win.

You approach each task or situation as a contest to be won strategically and efficiently.

Because you can control your feelings, it is not unusual for you to charm, as well as successfully delegate tasks and responsibilities to the more emotional types. You are often concerned with what’s in it for you. You seldom involve yourself in activities where you can not foresee a reward for your investment or effort.

On the positive side, you can be analytically empathic and logically persuasive.

On the negative side, you may be unemotionally manipulative as well as impulsive.

Yikes. I mean, really? Unemotionally manipulative. So the rest of the day I am questioning myself. “Am I really manipulative? Holy cow, I’ve never thought that about myself before. I sure hope that isn’t right. Now all these people think I am a horrible person.” So, lots of self-doubt going on in my ‘lil brain. I know I am competitive, so there’s probably something to that, but I definitely did not control my feelings for the rest of the day.

It seemed like one thing after another and eventually I just broke down. That day ended with lots and lots of tears. I guess sometimes you just really need to cry it out. Here’s a tip though, crying dehydrates you. If you’re gonna cry it out, drink it up. I felt absolutely horrible by the end of the day. As I am typing this now (Wednesday), after lots of prayer and encouragement from friends and family, things have started to get better. Remember how I said I wanted to do a post about control? Well, yeah, I need to do some reflecting there and try to not let myself get so worked up. God’s got this.

Race Recap: Crime Prevention 5K (A New PR)

And now, on to the fun part! Yesterday evening I ran the Crime Prevention 5K in Mobile. It’s fun to do an evening race (just for something different) and the race usually has a pretty good turnout. This was my sixth year to run it. Daniel met me downtown after work and we did a 2 mile warm up together, and then found some friends and chatted for a little bit before the race started. Going into the race, I had a few goals in mind: 1) average at or under 6:10 pace, 2) beat last year’s time (19:35), 3) negative split (run each mile faster than the last), 4) win, and 5) have fun 🙂

I was in about 4th place (for females) through the first half mile or so. There was a pack of about 7 runners all keeping around the same pace, a pace that was a little faster than I was thinking I was going to start off at, but I knew if I didn’t stay with them, I was going to end up in no man’s land and have to work by myself. I decided to take a chance and push the pace some to keep up with the group. We came through the first mile in 5:54. A tad faster than I was aiming for, but hey sometimes you just gotta go for it and I was feeling good! I moved up into second female during the second mile and we came through that mile in 5:53. At this point, I knew if I could just hold this pace, I was on track for a PR. Thankfully, I was able to stay with one of Daniel’s training buddies, Jim, for almost the entire race. He is a human metronome and having someone to work with and keep the pace even was a huge help! I passed the first place girl somewhere right after mile 2 and then we saw Daniel shortly after that. Oh, hey!

Seeing Daniel was a big boost (he was there spectating, not racing) and I was all smiles going into the last mile because I still felt really strong. The last mile was 5:58, and the last .1 was 0:36. I had a total time of 18:21 on my watch, but  the “official” time on the results is 18:23, so we will have to go with that.

I didn’t quite get that negative split goal, but I did get all of the others! I really enjoyed the race and feel like I ran smart and gave it my best effort. It is so nice to have a tangible result to see that all of the training is paying off. Daniel and I ran a short cool down after the race and then stayed around for the awards. I won a $100 gift card to McCoy Outdoor Company, which I am pretty excited about! I was a frequent customer there when I worked in Mobile, so I am excited to go back and see Joe and the staff there and pick out something fun.

And just a little shameless plug (because I don’t think I’ve shared this on the blog yet), please vote for me to be on the cover of Runner’s World. I am a semi-finalist, but need your help to make it to the finals! I would really appreciate your votes and if you would share with your friends and/or followers. You can vote once a day through August 16th. Here is the link. #RWCoverSearch #1400

Thanks y’all! I hope everyone is having a good week!

This is my first official “race recap” post, so get excited! Today was the LuLu’s Hot Trot for ARC 5K. The race definitely lives up to its name, as it is extremely hot and ends up being more of a trot than a race. The course is flat and is an out and back with a little side loop added on. The race starts at 7:30 at LuLu’s in Gulf Shores, AL. This is probably one of my favorite races of the year, mainly because of the location and time of year. This race usually falls on father’s day weekend, so my parents are typically in town and we go out on the boat after the race. Today was no exception.

After a two-ish mile warmup, we returned to the start line just in time to line up. I was already absolutely drenched in sweat. The temperature was in the mid-to-high eighties and the humidity was out of control as well. We all knew we were in for a real treat at that point.

This wasn’t necessarily a goal race for me, and coach said that I should try to keep a low 6 minute pace. With that in mind, the race started and everyone took off. The first mile was 6:15. I felt pretty good and felt like I was going to be able to hold somewhere around this pace. There is a turnaround just past mile one and then you run about at half mile back and turn right onto an approximately one mile side loop. This side loop is by far the toughest part of the race. The second mile was 6:20. I still felt okay, but knew that I was not going to be keeping that pace for the remainder of the race. There is zero shade at this point and I was really starting to feel the heat. It felt like a wave of heat washed over my body somewhere in that second mile and once that happens it is really difficult for me to maintain the pace. The third mile was 6:45 and the last .25 was 1:30, for a total time was 20:50.

The course was .15 long. Apparently there are two different certified courses that run basically the same location and so we started from one start location and the turnaround was set up at the other course location. Although it doesn’t sound like much, this extra .15 definitely makes a difference in a 5K. I was hoping to run just under twenty minutes and I think that I would’ve been pretty close to that without the extra distance. Luckily, we all ran the same course out there and I managed to come away with the overall win for the females. No complaints here. The race was hot, challenging and fun. Exactly what I hoped for 🙂

Daniel had a good race too! His first mile was 6:02, second mile was 6:06, third mile was 6:07 and last .25 was 1:08, for a total time of 19:23. He was fourth overall.

Running Wild was very well represented today, with first and second overall female and top 10 male. Team Cheetah!

The post-race party is always so much fun. Everyone just hangs out at the restaurant before it opens. It is a relaxed, fun beach atmosphere and is very family friendly.

Lizzie and I with our awards. We also both won door prizes as well and Daniel’s good buddy, Kenny, who was third overall also won the grand prize giveaway of a free weekend stay at the gulf. Everyone racked up on the prizes 🙂

I was a tad bummed that I didn’t get a coffee mug this year. I have a couple from prior year races and they are the best. I use them every day at work. Thankfully, Daniel got one and he doesn’t even really drink coffee …

After the awards, we headed out on the boat for a fun afternoon on the water. Dad put the boat in at Weeks Bay and came to meet us at LuLu’s. We headed down towards the Pirates Cove and Perdido Bay area and explored Josephine and Soldier’s Creek before heading back to to Weeks Bay. Then we went about as far as humanly possible up the Magnolia River, about a half mile past the Cold Hole.

Mom and Daniel (accidentally matching in their coral and navy).

Dad and I on the boat. He is our fearless captain.

Brooks, aka the happiest dog in the world. He loves the boat and the water oh. so. much.

Whew. I am officially worn out now. We had a wonderful day and are planning to do it all over again tomorrow (minus the 5K part) to celebrate father’s day the only way my dad would have it, on the water!

I hope y’all had a great Saturday. Happy father’s day to all the dads out there! Gotta run!