The Life of a Running Momma: Sweetheart Run 2016

Jeremy Update:

Jeremy made it through his busy day tired but in good spirits. We facetimed him before Carter went to bed so he could say good night. He smiled, laughed, and enjoyed talking with Carter. He and my parents were given clearance to travel to different floors of the hospital without a nurse present so they now have yellow wristbands. The next step will be green wristbands which means they will be able to travel outside without a nurse present. At Jeremy's previous facility he had been walking around with a walker some. They took an x-ray of his leg today and it is not healing properly so he is not to be walking with his walker unless PT is present. If his leg doesn't heal correctly many things could happen and one would be amputation of the leg. His doctor is going to hang x-rays of Jeremy's leg in the room to remind him why he is not to be walking with the walker at this time. Thankfully he's been able to eat more. His nurse charted for him to get his medicine before breakfast comes so he is able to eat more at breakfast as he tried to eat breakfast this morning and just couldn't. He continues to make small steps forward in recovery each day. Now on to my post about the Sweetheart Run...

My mom signed us all up for the Sweetheart Run months in advance, long before Jeremy's accident. Jeremy wanted to do the 10k and I didn't want him to run it alone so I decided to do the 10k too. My mom signed us up as a team, The Sweet Sibs, and I was so excited to rock it out with Jeremy! Unfortunately, that didn't happen on race day, but I am so glad Jeremy inspired me to run a 10k. Other than one I ran due to convenience after Carter was born I don't think I'd run one in about 6 years. I tend to stay with my safe distances, 5ks and half marathons. I really enjoyed the 10k and am looking forward to another one to improve my time! Plus with so few under my belt it is easy to run PRs! The 5k started at 7:45 and the 10k was at 8:30 because there is the option to do a "doubler" and run both events which I am considering for next year's race. The forecast predicted the temperature would be in the low 20's so we decided not to wake the kids up and I'd get them ready and bring them out before my race to decrease the amount of time they were in the cold. If they woke up in time, we'd all go together but I felt it would be too cold for the kids to be there the whole time. As mom and Ty were getting ready to leave for the 5k, Carter woke up and Elise woke up shortly thereafter.

Elise bundled up to spectate.

I wanted to leave the house by 7:45 so I could watch Ty finish the race and so I'd have time to find a place to park in case there were road closures plus I wanted to get a warm-up in. I had Ty drop a pin on his phone and text it to me so I could find the parking lot they were in which was a fabulous idea. It worked out perfectly. There were some mishaps heading out the door so the kids and I didn't leave until 8:00 which made me nervous as I only had 30 minutes to make it to the race, park, and get a warm-up in. Amazingly enough I opened Ty's pin, chose to direct to the pin, and had no trouble with road closures at all! I got the kids bundled up, I had even remembered to grab special Valentine's Day hats for them, and we headed out for a warm up to the race finish to find Ty. As we were running out, Ty came walking toward us to get a change of clothes out of the car. I followed him back to the car, dropped the stroller off with him, and ran my warm-up to the start. The lines for porta potties were really long so I found somewhere else to go and then headed to the race start with 2 minutes to spare. I started talking to a woman beside me who was running the doubler and then noticed a woman standing right at the start line who I know runs 1:27 half marathons and is super speedy. I figured she would easily win the race unless she was running the doubler.

Ty with the kids during my race.

My plan for the first few miles was to run 6:55 pace or so. I was having a hard time reigning it in the first mile. I'd look down and see I was running 6:20 pace so I would slow down and then later my Garmin would say I was running 7:00 minute pace so I decided to stop worrying too much about my pace and try to run off feel. That was a little bit hard because I'm so used to running 5ks and I was afraid I would run my 5k pace on accident, but I did a great job pacing with my first mile in 6:55. There were 2 women ahead of me, neither of them was the woman I had expected to win so I figured she must be running the doubler. By the mile mark I had passed both the women ahead of me and only had a few men a ways ahead of me. Somewhere in the first mile we were running out as some of the 5k run/walkers and walkers were heading toward the finish. One of my favorite moments during the race was running by my mom as she was walking toward the finish. I hadn't been expecting to see her and got so excited to hear her voice! Mile 2 was a bit of a faster mile, but there were a lot of downhills. I should have made a mental note about that for the way back, but I was too worried about keeping an eye out for the guys running a ways ahead of me because I was worried I would lose track of them when they turned and get lost. I went through mile 2 in 6:46. I hit that mile mark right at the bottom of a very large hill. Then we turned and ran on a long, flat, straight road for a while before going up a smaller hill and turning onto a bridge. The turn around was at the end of the bridge and I watched as the people ahead of me ran back by. I noted there were no women ahead of me and I was running 6th place overall. At the turn around the woman directing us was very sweet and told me I was the 2nd overall female. I chuckled because I had seen a man with a ponytail ahead of me and knew she had mistaken him for a woman. Mile 3 was 6:50. I was right on pace to hit my goal of breaking 43 minutes, I figured I needed to run 6:53 pace or under and I was totally rocking that!

A picture mom took of me running by as she walked to the finish.

On the return trip as we headed down the long straight road the people still heading out on the course were cheering for me, and saying "Woo hoo, top women!" so I knew the woman I had expected to win the race was running along right behind me. I figured it was only a matter of time before she passed me. I went through mile 4 in 6:45 with her running behind me as a little extra motivation. I didn't have to worry too much about watching the men ahead of me as I could tell where to turn by the 10k runners still heading out on the course. I was also starting to close the gap between me and one of the men ahead of me so I could see him much better. As we entered into mile 5 the woman behind me passed me right as we went up a very steep and long hill. Up until that point I had felt like I was really cruising and could hit 6:45 pace for days, but going up that hill I realized how hard I had actually been working as my thighs began to burn. We crested the hill and proceeded to run up a slight incline for the remainder of the mile. I'm not even kidding, it took over half a mile for my thighs to stop burning. I was focusing on the woman ahead of me and trying not to let her get too big of a lead on me. I was hurting and working so hard and my mantra for tough runs came into my head and I kept saying over and over, Jeremy's not giving up, you can't give up!

When my watch beeped for my 5th mile split I was discouraged to see what a terrible mile it had been at 7:15. I knew I had lost 20 seconds just in that mile and I would need to run my last mile in 6:30 pace to make that time back up. I knew that was impossible as my fastest 5k was at 6:32 pace and my thighs were still burning a little bit, but I refused to give up. I kept pushing as hard as I could up all the small, little hills in the 6th mile. The hills were unrelenting and I was frustrated I hadn't noticed we were running downhill during the first half of the race so I would have been mentally prepared for what was to come in the second half. I had just been too focused on not getting lost. I was proud that I got mile 6 back down into my goal pace range in 6:52 and I was holding onto the gap between me and the woman in first place. I wasn't getting any closer to her, but she wasn't pulling away from me either. I looked over and saw Ty, my mom, Carter, and Elise cheering for me. My favorite moment of the race was running by while hearing Carter yell "Go, Mommy!" and seeing him smile excitedly when I waved and yelled back at him.

My sweet cheer squad giving me motivation that last little bit.

Coming up to the finish line I was kicking as hard as I could as I watched the clock tick over from 42 to 43 minutes. I knew I had just missed my goal, but it wasn't due to a lack of effort or a bad race. As I crossed the finish line I knew I had given that race every ounce of effort I had in me. I was disappointed in my 5th mile, but knew had it not been such a challenging course I would have run that mile much faster. My official finishing time was 43:11 so even with a 7:15 mile thrown into the mix I beat my 43:17 time from my tempo run a few weeks earlier which I had run on a completely flat course. I covered the 6.28 mile course in an average of 6:53 pace which was my goal pace going into the race so I was happy with that! Had it not been for that 7:15 mile I would have broken 43 minutes easily. Now I'm fired up to run a 10k on a flatter course so I can break 43. There's a race we normally run in early April which is really flat and the times are fast as long as it isn't too windy, so I'm planning to run a 10k there.

The post race party serves pancakes so we stopped off to eat some pancakes and then headed home as it was Elise's naptime and we were all so cold. Overall it was a very enjoyable race and I was proud of how hard I ran. I was sore for days afterward which always makes me feel good about the effort I put in! I finished 7th out of 603 total finishers, 2nd out of 423 female finishers and it turned out the woman who won was not in the doubler she just ran the 10k, and 1st out of 48 in my age group. Not too shabby at all. Ty also had a good race, finishing the 5k in 27:26 which is a great time for him. He has had some hiccups in his training and has cut down from running 5 days a week to 3 days a week so he can focus more on lifting so he was pleased to see he could still run a decent time. He placed 12th out of 35 in his age group and 115th out of 883 finishers. Mom walked the 5k in 53:49. That put her 29th out of 36 in her age group and 818th out of 883 total finishers.