10K Race Recap and Coxsackie

On Monday, I ran a 10K with an awesome group of Moms! 

Stroller Strides does a 5K/10K training program to get mums ready to do a road race, and I was privledged enough to 'lead' the 10K training group for the last two months. I've really enjoyed getting to know these four awesome ladies, and am SO proud of how much they've accomplished. Through foot pains, hill aversions and everything else... we did it!

Woo hoo!

10K? CHECK! 

I wasn't planning on running the race for time, but I felt pretty well lining up for the start. The course rolls through a beautiful residential area of South Salem/Lewisboro, around a lake, and there's plenty to look at - although being a race of only 118 people (357 in the 5K), there were certainly points where I couldn't see a whole lot of other racers in the vicinity.  

My race prep normally this involves going to bed fairly early the night before, drinking a lot of water, and sometimes doing some yoga or stretching. Sunday I was so exhausted from everything going on in our house (see below) that I needed (NEEDED!) a mango margarita.  It was amazing. And apparently (as told by my husband) this will become of my night-before routine. Or at least until I have a bad race. While clutching the drink, I found my Garmin in a box (still unpacking - blech!) and took my iPod out to charge, but unfortunately left it at home Monday morning! Luckily I had another one in my car (from using it at the gym the previous week), although it didn't have my new mix on it. Oh well! There's always next time :) 

We got all checked in (not a bad race shirt, and it all came in a nice re-usable grocery bag, love 'em!), met up with all the other 10K racers, snapped a few pictures, and got ready to run! At race time (8:00), it was about 70 degrees, and about 70% humidity. Luckily, most of the roads were fairly shaded. It did, though, get significantly warmer before the 5K start at 9:30!

By the numbers...

6.2 miles

50:48

8:12/mi average

1/4 division

7/44 females

27/118 overall

3 nasty hills

1 shoe-tie

2 box turtles (1 moved off by fellow runner)

3 squished chipmunks

Now, comes the "Mum" part... We've been battling Coxsackie Virus at our house since Thursday. Not sure what it is? Thank you, WebMD. I was really unsure of how well I'd be able to be able to run the 10K, mainly because of the lack of sleep I'd been getting!

So, after a bum rash (thought it was just needing some Desitin) and a back rash (thought it was allergy to the salmon we let O try) - Oliver came down with a fever at daycare on Thursday afternoon. Friday I stayed home with him, and luckily we had the weekend to heal. Boy, was it a long three days! He really didn't eat a whole lot more than watermelon, jello, popsicles, and cheddar broccoli soup. (No matter how he's feeling, he will ALWAYS eat this soup - gotta love the kid!). Friday and Saturday nights were LONG. He'd get up every 3-4 hours or so, needing some more medicine (just infants pain reliever), and SCREAM until it kicked in. He developed a few sores on his chin, two visible ones on his tongue, but it seemed to be more a sore throat than anything else. Poor buddy! It's never fun when a baby is sick, but even worse when they can't vocalize what hurts :(  

Good news is that we're on the mend now, not contagious, and returning to our cheerful, happy self! And that's always a good thing!

No registered races coming up. But that probably won't last for long. I'm ITCHING to break 50:00....

Mommy friends and a new 5K PR!

Mother's Day generally involves breakfast in bed, maybe a pedicure or a massage.... what did I want to do on "my" day? Run, obviously!  Ridgefield, CT (along with cities in 10 states) have an all-female race on Mother's Day, and it was awesome.   (To clarify: they also have a kid's race, which was SO cute, I can picture Oliver doing it someday!) 

Never turn down a cute race tshirt! (Baby blue, well-cut cotton shirt!)

A bunch of friends ran it last year, before we moved back up here, and I was very excited to run it this year.  I signed up last week, once the move was finalized. It was only about 25-30 minutes away, and it made me realize just how much I love doing smaller races.  I got to the race 45" before start, a friend picked up my bib for me (thanks, J!), and it was super easy to get to and from the start/finish. 

We ran like mothers!

I hadn't seen some of these awesome mums in 6+ months (K/J - how did that happen?), but it felt like we had just done some Rail Trail training runs together... glad to be back! :)

I ended up finishing in 23:18, new PR! It breaks down to 7:31/mile, which I'm pretty psyched about. (LOOK!)I do have to say that having trained on some serious hills (for our 10K in 2 weeks), I felt awesome with the rolling hills and even passed a few people going up some hills! 

Team SS ready for our 10K race!

Upon crossing the finish line, we were all handed a very pretty red rose! I hung around a little and waited for everyone to finish, then Kerry and I headed over to check out the results.  Well.... I made the first printed page. Then, I looked over at the place in division. #2! WHAAAT?!?!?! How did that happen? 

Anyway, I was going to head straight home to shower (and then off to IKEA), but clearly wanted to wait around and see what I 'got'! They were announcing the division winners, and said some other girl's name for #2. (They read them in 3rd, then 2nd and 1st). Felt like a dummy for sure, until they read my name for having come in FIRST. [The girl who 'beat' me was 2nd overall, so I guess they pull out of division for that? This is all new to me....]

My first time placing in a race!

In addition to this beautiful bouquet of flowers, I got a free race entry into next year's race! (Ben was hoping for a cash award, not something that will just feed into my 'addiction!')

Happy Mother's Day to all of my Mum friends (runners and non-runners), as well as my three moms! I hope you all did whatever makes YOU happy today! 

Race recap (SO late!)

So, somehow the last two and a half weeks have flown by, and I have just not gotten around to writing my race recap post. SORRY! I know (ha!) that you've been waiting (ha! ha!) for this post. 

In short... WE DID IT! 

Us, circa 1990

My sister and I crossed the finish line of the Jersey Shore Half Marathon. Together. For those of you who know us, and have known us for - oh - twenty years or so, know that this is pretty cool for us. We've come a long way.

I'm pretty sure we'd both be lying if we said we didn't feel slight disappointment for our time (2:00:43), especially as we've both broken 2 hours before. But, that wasn't the goal for this race. (9:13/mile isn't too shabby though?!)

We signed up together, each of us ran for the last few months for different reasons. Through different sicknesses, in different states, and we learned that we are very different runners.  

ME: running shorts, fuel belt, and glide. (aka marketer's dream)

AMES: soccer shorts, compression sleeve (on one leg, totally intense looking) and vaseline.  (She did see another girl in soccer shorts lining up, and they totally air high-fived from 20 ft away!)

It was a GREAT course from Asbury Park down to Sea Bright and back. (We opted for the out and back as opposed to the three-loop course, great decision). It was ridiculously flat, only having to go up and over one small bridge. It was super foggy when we started, you couldn't even see the ocean from the boardwalk! By the time we reached the turn-around point, most of it had burned off, and we even got some sun! 

From the RunAPalooza! website.

After the race, we headed to shower at a friend's house (Thanks, J+N!) and had lunch before heading back. A nice little morning :)

The back of Amie's shirt!

All in all, the worst part of the race was that the photographers (stationed throughout the course) didn't take a single picture of the two of us together. Not even at the finish line!  Now, normally I would understand this... but we were wearing MATCHING NEON GREEN SINGLETS throughout the race and we CROSSED THE FINISH LINE HOLDING HANDS. 

Dude, seriously? Take ONE picture so we can give it to the parents for Christmukah, or put it on an ornament or something. Lost out on some $$ there, that's for sure! 

On the back of my shirt, was a crazy picture of O from his birthday and it said "13.1 for my 13 month old." As Amie pointed out, it was ONE day before he was 14 months, ha! 

Up next: 

Mother's Day, Run Like A Mother 5K - Ridgefield, CT - 5.13

(Putting the team back together for this one... can't wait!)

South Salem 10K - 5.28 

(Yay team Stroller Strides 5k/10k training!)

Stay tuned for what I decide about registering for a fall half and maybe even a full! Eeks!