Wordless Wednesday

Monarchs on the Mountain event

Elise helping an injured butterfly get onto flowers in our front yard.

Snuggles on the couch while watching Elemental.

Came across a beaver's handiwork during my long run on trails.

Elise was home sick with adenovirus.

My angel baby napping.

Everyone joined us for naptime.

Ty clipping Milo's nails.

We discovered Dutch Bros does pup cups in special, little cups!

Art class with Elise on day #2 home sick.

Run the Rails 5k

After running the Miles for Milestones 5k I really wanted to do a different 5k that would read correctly on my Garmin. That way I would have a better idea of what my average pace and mile splits were. I found a race in Skiatook which I thought was about a 20 minute drive from our house, but was actually almost 30 minutes away. It was a certified course on a Rails to Trails paved path. It was either run that 5k or a run a 5 mile tempo and I decided the 5k was preferrable, so I signed up. I looked at past race results and the winner of the race usually ran around 21:40. That would probably give me someone to run with because I was expecting to run around 21:40. Had the winning time been typically slower and I'd likely have to run the race alone, I wouldn't have done it. I had a really bad speedwork on Wednesday leading up to the race which made me less than enthused to run the race, but I've gotten really good about not going all doom and gloom when a speed work doesn't go well. I used to get so upset and feel like there was no way I'd reach my goals when one speed workout didn't go well. Now I just let it slide off my back and give myself credit for putting the effort in, even when the times aren't there. Having to run in the evenings and doing a lot of speed work in 90+ degree weather has also helped shift that mentality.

Post race with my overall medal in front of a little pond at the cute park by the start area.

I got up at 6am so I'd have time to do a short yoga video before I left at 6:30. I arrived at the race area a little before 7:00 and I'm glad I gave myself plenty of time because they listed the race start as the area where a festival was going on that day and there was quite a bit of traffic with vendors getting set up. I had time to park and run a mile warm up before the race. As we were walking to the start I heard a guy talking about this super fast 8th grade girl who lined up in front of me. I was bummed that I was likely going to get beat by an 8th grader because I'm not in good shape, but I told myself it was more about my time than place. I heard the guy talking to the 8th grade girl about how if either of them ran a PR, they'd both PR. Her PR was 21:40 and his was 21:46. I was excited that I would have them to run with. It was obvious he was pacing her, so I'd have 2 people to run with. We took off and there was a guy who went out in front, followed by the 8th grader and the man. I was right behind them. We ran through grass and made 3 turns and then we were on the path all the way until the turn around. I felt great from the get go which was a surprise. By the time we made it to the path, I passed the guy who went out in front and the girl. I pulled up alongside the guy who was pacing the girl and he stuck with me until the half-mile point. Once I pulled away, I ran the rest of the race alone. 

I went through the first mile in 6:56 and I was super excited that I was right where I wanted to be. My goal was to run around 7:00 pace and I was hoping I'd be able to average under 7:00 for the race. We had three road crossings and there were police officers there stopping traffic. I thanked all of them. The 4th road crossing was just before the turn around and there wasn't anyone stopping traffic, but I was able to make it across without stopping. There was a water station at the turn around which was an unmanned table with water bottles set up along it. As I neared the turn around I realized we had been running slightly uphill on the way out so we would have a slight downhill after the turn around which I was looking forward to. I focused on maintaining pace so I could run sub-7 for my 2nd mile too. I saw the girl and man running together after I turned around and I didn't have that much of a lead. I knew by passing them so early, I made myself a sitting duck for them to chase. Multiple times throughout the end of the race I swore I heard someone coming up behind me but each time I passed people they cheered just for me so I knew I must have a decent lead on the people behind me.

I went through mile 2 in 6:48 and was so excited. I was crushing my 7 minute goal. When my first mile was 6:56 I was expecting that to be my fastest mile of the race, but it ended up being my slowest. Then my mind drifted to the fact that I was running my half-marathon PR pace for a 5k. I quickly reminded myself that I have bone spurs and am working my way back from months of low mileage so this was a really good race for me! The last mile I pretended that an 8th grader was closing the gap and I didn't have any confidence that I'd be able to out kick a 13 year old, so I needed to move. My last mile was 6:45, but I missed that mile split and didn't see it until after the race. Then my finishing kick was 6:32 pace and that was with the little section through the grass which slowed me down a bit. I was super excited as I neared the finish line and saw the clock was just over 21 minutes,  I was going to be well below the 21:40 I was hoping for! My finishing time was 21:20 which was an average of 6:49 pace. I definitely did not expect to be under 6:50 pace for my average and was so excited. That gave me hope that I can get back down under 21 minutes again! I wasn't so sure when I started training again this fall. 

I was first overall male or female out of 37 finishers. After I finished I got a water from the cooler which had no ice and was room temperature which I thought was weird. I cheered for the girl who finished 2nd overall in 21:37 and was a bit proud that I helped pull her along to a PR. She beat the guy who was pacing her by quite a bit. I chatted with her and her mom after the race. Her mom was 3rd overall female and is the same age as me! As I walked back up to drink my water and cheer for other finishers before running my cool down, I thanked one of the volunteers for being out there. She said, "I got that right, didn't I? That runners prefer warm water to cold water after a race." I was baffled. I have never heard that before. I personally much prefer cool water, but I'll happily take any water. I mentioned it to Ty when I got home and he said he prefers room temperature to ice cold water after a race. I'm curious if this is a thing and I've just never heard about it before. Any runners out there who agree with Ty? I just assumed the majority of runners prefer ice cold water, but maybe I'm in the minority. My finishing time in the 5k predicts a 15k in low 1:08 and all I need is under 1:10 so I feel good about my chances of getting another 60/70 mug at the Tulsa Run! I'm extra thrilled that I ran this with only 3 weeks at or above 30 miles since Grandma's Marathon in early June! I still have a lot of improvement I can make. I'm hoping I'll be training for Boston in the spring and I'm hoping that may include a sub-21 minute 5k as well! The Boston Marathon announced that with a record number of entries this year, they are planning to notify everyone by early October. In the past notifications go out a week after registration opens. This will be almost a month later, which is crazy! I'm just glad to know it's going to take a while so I don't expect to get an email any day.

Wordless Wednesday

Carter fell asleep while Elise and Ty were at gymnastics and I was taking a shower.

Elise made fundraising posters and hung them up all over our house.

The cats were very interested in Elise washing her feet.

The van loaded up with everything for the field trip.

Field trip to Woolaroc was cancelled due to transportation issues so we walked to a playground instead.

Elise ready for the Fun Run!

The kittens helping Ty with the fridge.

Elise set up a nail salon in the backyard.

Dinner picnic movie

We went to Woolaroc over the weekend since they didn't get to go on their field trip.

Crazy hair, don't care!

Enjoyed the first adult craft club at the library by our house.

Carter reading to Oma over FaceTime.

Walked by and there was a little doggy reading on our couch.

All the 5th graders at the park for their field trip.

Carter got to read with a 2nd grader for reading buddies.

Miles for Milestones 5k

Last year we ran the Fun Run at the Miles for Milestones event supporting The Little Lighthouse. The director of the preschool I worked at is now the director there and texted me to invite me to run the race. So, of course, we had to participate! I was focused on preparing for the Houston Marathon and getting long runs in so I didn't run the race, but signed up for the Fun Run to run with Elise. It was the first year so it was a smaller event. Elise was super proud that she won the Fun Run. This year I had a 3 mile tempo run scheduled the weekend of the race so it was perfect timing for a 5k. I'm starting to feel a bit more in shape after the months of low-mileage weeks following Grandma's, thanks to bone spurs in the heel/ankle area of my foot. I think it's as resolved as it is going to get, but I'm hopeful I may be able to run without pain again at some point. It's not terrible pain, but there is definitely discomfort in that area throughout my runs and a fair amount of swelling and discomfort after runs.

The 5k started at 8:40 and the fun run started at 8:45 so I wasn't able to run the fun run with Elise this year. Ty said she was a bit nervous and walked with him for a while before taking off running. Carter said when she started running, she was zooming past people. He said people were talking about how fast she was and were guessing she would slow down, but she never did. She finished in 9:40 which wasn't that much slower than last year considering she walked about 1/10th of a mile at the start. When she finished, she stood by the finish line to cheer on other runners. It was so sweet to hear her cheering for me as I finished!

Ty got a picture of Elise after the turn around.

Friday evening I had a pizza party after school for my students from last year who read over the summer. I was so exhausted by the time I got home, I could barely stay awake. I set an alarm for 7:30am just in case we all slept in and we did! I wanted to do a pre-run yoga video to stretch out my heel and ankle in hopes that would help with my bone spur pain during the race. I was a bit nervous because I wasn't sure how things would feel and the Firecracker 5k, which was my most recent race, was so painful! We didn't get to the race as early as I would have liked so I only had time for a mile warm up. Carter wanted to run it with me and I couldn't talk him out of it, so I ended up only doing 0.9 miles. I got to the start area as they were starting to count down and didn't see any fast looking women toward the front so I went ahead and worked my way up to the front and we were off. My watch didn't start when I pressed it so I was looking down to see if it started when I pushed it again and didn't see there was a camera person staged in the middle of the path and I ran straight into her. I apologized profusely and was so embarrassed. All the runners around me were saying, "What was she doing in the middle of the path," and "What was she doing there," so that made me feel a little bit better. According to the difference in my first mile split from Garmin to Strava (since Strava cuts out time not moving), that incident cost me 7 seconds! I never would have guessed I lost that much time.

I passed a lot of men right away in the first half-mile of the race. When we made it up the path and toward a bridge that crosses over to the east side of the river, I was disappointed that we were going under the bridge. When you go under the bridge, you run on a bridge underneath the road and Garmins lose satellites there. I ran my PR half-marathon on a course that went under the bridge so it didn't read as the half-marathon distance on my Garmin and Strava even though it was a certified course, which annoys me! The loss of satellites adds up to a little over 1/10th of a mile. I didn't care about that as much as I did realizing I wouldn't know what my first mile split was since by the time my watch would register a mile, I'd already have run over a mile. Coming back from an injury and this being my first race, I really felt like I needed my splits to help me know what I was doing. Maybe it was actually better because I ran by feel more than pace, but it would be a nice baseline to know where I am. Going into the bridge area I was running sub-7:00 pace and under the bridge when I looked, it was reading all kinds of craziness like 11:00 pace since my time was still going, but the satellites weren't registering any distance being added. My first mile split went off in 7:15 and I told myself that was better than the Firecracker 5k and that mile split wasn't even correct!

When I made it to the halfway point I was at 10:50 so I knew I was on pace for around 21:40. I was really excited about that! I knew I could turn around and push on the way back. At that point I saw how far I was ahead of the person closest behind me and I knew my watch wasn't going to register the mile splits correctly so it was a little bit hard to keep pushing, but I just kept my eyes on the guy ahead of me and worked on reeling him in. I was pleased that after the first portion of the race, I wasn't feeling any pain where I typically have been! My 2nd mile split was 7:07 and then I took off for the last mile. We went uphill to come out of the area under the bridge and I really took off. When I made it to the Fun Run turn around, I started passing fun runners who were still out on the course. Around in there I passed the guy ahead of me. I started thinking about what the finishing time would be for the fun runners and figured if they started 5 minutes after us, they would be finishing in around 16 minutes. Then I saw Carter and Ty walking as I got fairly close to the finish line and cheered for them. Carter started telling Ty they were going to get beat by someone in the 5k. As I neared the finish line I heard Elise cheering for me and saw her standing right by the finish line! I saw the clock was around 21:30 and was pleased with my time. 

I finished in 21:42. My Garmin registered 2.97. With the loss of satellites under the bridge, it should be right around 3.1 although I'm not sure what the distance actually was. 21:42 would be 6:59 pace and while I think it is possible I averaged that pace, I'm not sure I really ran miles 1 and 3 fast enough to average that with a 7:07 middle mile. I know after I ran into the camera woman I got a burst of adrenaline and for a while when I looked down at my pace, it was 6:20, so maybe I did run my first mile fast enough to off set a 7:07 second mile, who knows! I'm a bit disappointed I don't have a great idea of what my actual time was since the distance is uncertain. The 10k did have a certified course and it measured 6.1 on my friend's watch who ran it, so I'd say it is safe to say going under the bridge effected the race distance by about 1/10th of a mile, just like it has with every other race I've run that followed that course. The uncertainty of what my time would be for 3.1 made me want to run another 5k which is something I haven't wanted to do in a long time, so I guess that's a plus! I was 5th out of 157 overall and 1st out of 96 women. Elise was 14th out of 137 in the fun run, 7th female, and 3rd in the 0-19 age group. Both the girls ahead of her in her age group were 15 years old. Carter finished in 17:37 which was 68th overall and 17th in his age group. Ty turned around early and decided not to cross the finish line because of that. Later he joked about it being his first DNF. We all enjoyed the race and want to make it a yearly tradition. Hopefully next year I'll be in good enough shape to run the 10k!