Wordless Wednesday

Elise helping with the turkey on Thanksgiving.

Dad, Jeremy, Thomas, and I did a Holiday Lights Run on Black Friday. It was so much fun!

Dad fell asleep while testing out a couch we were looking at.

Literary Cat Co was a huge hit!

Getting water bottles laser cut during Small Shop Saturday.

Using the stickers from his Christmas goody bag from Oma and Opa.

Pitt Turkey Trot

Everyone in my family (minus Ty) wanted to run the Turkey Trot 5k in Pittsburg. It would be the Thursday after my Sunday half-marathon so I planned to just run it with Elise. The race directors posted these really cute blankets and said they would go to the top 3 overall male and female finishers as well as the top finisher in each age group. I wanted one of those blankets so I decided if I felt recovered enough from the half, I would go ahead and race the 5k. I had communicated everything to Ty, but I guess not really with the rest of the family. I felt a little fatigued on my run the day before the race, but no pain in my bone spurs, so I decided it was a go! We looked at the race course and it was open to traffic with some traffic barriers on the main street. I wasn't comfortable with Elise running the race without an adult with her so my dad said he would run with her so I could race. Carter didn't want to run so he spectated with Ty.

Ty didn't want to be in the picture since he didn't run the race so he took it for us.

The race stared at 8am, less than a mile from my parents' house so I planned to run to the race start as my warm up. We weren't sure how parking would be because they had over 400 people signed up for the race and Pittsburg is a small town so Thomas decided he'd drive over to my parents' house (he lives in Pittsburg now) and run over with me. I knew the race started at 8, but planned everything like it started at 7:30 by mistake so I got up 30 minutes earlier than I needed to. I made sure to do yoga before the race to help with my tired legs. I had some kind of weird tummy bug the Tuesday/Wednesday before the race and my stomach was still hurting a bit. I ended up dry heaving a little on the warm up which wasn't reassuring, but I felt totally fine during the race. I guess the warm up got that all out of my system.

Me and Thomas ready for our warm up to the race start.

I always get a little worried looking at other runners before a race when I have my sights set on an overall finisher place, so I was glad we didn't arrive at the race start with much time to spare. Thomas and I went up in the corral together and I saw Julie, a girl I ran against in high school, and we said hello. Then the race was off. There were quite a few women ahead of me but I knew I had plenty of time to pick them all off. By the half-mile mark I was in 4th overall female, as far as I could tell. I wasn't positive there weren't other women ahead that I couldn't see. There was a woman way out in front, a younger looking girl, Julie, and then me. I was confident Julie would catch the girl in 2nd and I was hopeful I would be able to as well. Usually younger runners go out a bit faster than what they are capable of in the first mile, so I was hopeful. I was a little discouraged that if they didn't take the overall finishers out of the age group results, Julie was in my age group so I wouldn't win my age group to get a blanket either. I knew I had to get in the top 3 if I want to ensure I would win a blanket. That blanket was a big motivator for me! I went through the first mile in 6:49 and I was shocked! I did not feel like I was running that fast! 

Taking off at the start of the race.

I knew from running a Turkey Trot after the Route 66 Half that I usually fade a bit in the 2nd mile when my legs are tired from a previous race, but am able to rally really well the last mile. Luckily for me, the females ahead of me were also fading in the 2nd mile. We hit the halfway point of the race on the Watco trail and all the sudden the woman who had been way out in front was right next to the girl who was in 2nd and Julie was right with them. It didn't take them long to overtake her and I knew by how much she was fading, that it was a matter of time before I caught her too. I went through the 2nd mile in 7:08 which was more the pace I expected to run for the whole race so I wasn't discouraged it was slower and I don't remember if I even saw it during the race. With a half mile left in the race I caught the lady in 3rd place and she started to go with me which I didn't expect since she was fading so much. I wondered if she slowed enough during the 2nd mile, she'd have a lot left and make me really work for it. I encouraged her to come with me, but after a few steps she fell back behind me. I was really gaining on the girl in 2nd place and felt confident I would likely catch her as well. I didn't want to leave it to a sprint at the finish because younger girls usually have a pretty strong kick! I passed her with a quarter-mile to go and encouraged her to go with me, but she didn't even attempt to. I went through mile 3 in 6:51! Then I took off sprinting as fast as I could. I told myself that girl would be sprinting behind me and I may have missed a woman in front of Julie so I had to go! I ran the last portion of the race in 5:53 pace!

As I walked over to Carter and Ty they told me I was 2nd overall female, I got my blanket! I cheered on the girl in 3rd and talked to her after the race, she was 13 years old! I drank some water and then ran back out on the course to find dad and Elise so I could run it in with them. I saw Jeremy with his dog, Moneypenny, and cheered for him. When I found dad and Elise they were way further up in the race than I expected! Dad said Elise only walked 3 times during the race! She wanted to walk with about a tenth of a mile to go and he encouraged her to keep going because once they turned the corner she would be done. She did such a great job! After they finished, I ran out to mom and ran/walked to the finish with her. I was thrilled about how my race went and it was fun to tell her about it. We all wore our turkey hats and I told her I had 3-4 people compliment my hat as I was running. There was one family that came out onto their porch to cheer and said they liked my hat. Mom said no one had complimented her hat and a race volunteer heard her so she complimented mom on her hat!

Elise was cold and wanted to go sit in the car to wait on the awards ceremony. Dad took Elise to the van to warm up. I went to the truck to change out of sweaty clothes and Carter went with me to show me where Ty had parked. When we got back Thomas, Jeremy, and Ty thought it would be fun to check Toast, a restaurant that opened just to serve Turkey Trot participants after the race, to see if they had coffee. There was a long line so we turned back. While we were walking back over from checking out the restaurant, they started the awards early so I missed getting my overall award and picture. Elise didn't get out of the car fast enough and missed her award and picture as well. I was most excited about her getting her award, so I was really bummed about that! 

Thomas finished in 20:53 and knew there were quite a few guys around his age ahead of him so he wasn't sure if he placed in his age group. When they didn't call him for his age group, he assumed he hadn't placed. When we got home and I looked at the results to see what he would have needed to run to place in his age group, I saw 24:12 had won his age group and he wasn't listed in the results. If you typed in Thomas' bib number, he had a time but for some reason wasn't included in the overall results. We've never had that happen so had no idea to check to make sure he was in the results, we were bummed he didn't get his award. He was 16th out of 386 overall and 1st out of 14 in his age group. I was thrilled with my time of 21:31 which was only 11 seconds slower than the 5k I ran in September, even with a half-marathon on my legs! I averaged 6:54 pace! I was 20th overall, 2nd out of 220 women, and 2nd out of 24 in my age group. Jeremy finished in 27:08 which put him 82nd overall, 58th male, and 5th in his age group. Elise finished in 29:33, 9:30 pace! She was 125th overall, 46th female, and 3rd in the 12 and under age group. Both the girls ahead of her were older, 11 and 12. If the age group had been 10 and under, she would have been first! Mom registered her under the name Elise Hurford on accident. Dad finished right with her in 29:32. He was 124th overall, 79th man, and 2nd in his age group! Mom ran/walked, but mostly walked. She finished in 49:08. She was 312th overall, 167th female, and 2nd in her age group. It was a great way to start our day and we are planning on doing the Jingle Bell 5k as a family next weekend.

This race was exactly what I needed after the half-marathon. I was a little bummed with that race and felt like I didn't run as well as I was capable of running. Then I ran this 5k and ran so much faster than I expected. I was absolutely thrilled! I figured I'd be able to run under 23 minutes, but definitely didn't think I'd be under 22 minutes, let alone so close to my most recent 5k time. It was the spark of excitement I needed to make me feel really positive about my running again! It was worth the hype/obsession with winning one.

I absolutely LOVE my blanket!

Wordless Wednesday

Ty surprised me with lunch at work and stayed to answer some questions the class had for him.

Carter played in his first ever chess tournament this past weekend!

Elise went to the race expo with me to get a picture for Oma.

Trying out the air hockey.

I got to watch a couple of my students dance in a competition.

Milo was taking up a small portion of Tesla's dog bed so she laid on the floor.

Milo wanted to go the the library with us.

Dinner out with co-workers to enjoy the Christmas decor.

Route 66 Half Marathon

My whole plan for this fall season was to get my bone spur pain under control and earn my 60/70 mug at the Tulsa Run. When all went well with the Tulsa Run, I toyed with tacking the Route 66 Half-Marathon onto the end of my training cycle. My priority was recovering from the Tulsa Run and ensuring I didn't have a flare up of heel/foot pain related to my bone spurs, so it would mean just easy running between the races. I decided to go for it and signed up for the half-marathon tapering my expectations. As I've entered this era of slower race times, seeing my half-marathon times slide has been the hardest for me. I would love to run sub-1:35 again but I haven't been able to get back there and I knew this one wasn't going to be it. In the past when I was training for the half as my goal race and did the Tulsa Run in training without a taper, I was able to run the same pace or a smidge faster in the half than what I had run at the Tulsa Run. I knew with a taper before the Tulsa Run and just easy running between the races, that wouldn't be the case this year. I was thinking realistically I could expect to go from a 7:20 pace at the Tulsa run to a 7:30 pace for the half. I really wanted to run a 1:37 half, but figured I'd start at 7:30 pace and then try to work my way down from there. My friend April thought that sounded like a good plan so we decided to meet in the corral by the 1:40 pacer and start the race together. 

Picture taken by Elise at the expo.

I got up at 6:15, ate overnight oats, did yoga, and stressed about the rain. It was upper 40's and raining and at the last minute I grabbed my rain jacket as we walked out the door. On the drive to the race I moved my bib from my tank to my shorts since I wasn't sure how long I would race in my rain jacket. Ty dropped me right at the start area, I took a last minute porta potty break, and stood under trees to stay a bit drier. Normally we park and walk to the start so I was there much earlier than usual. I waited a while to enter the corral and then found the pacer to stand with so April and I could find each other. I was very calm, but enjoying the quiet. Then came April with her crazy energy and I was excited to see her. There was a native drum circle before the start of the wheelchair race which was awesome and then the National Anthem was played by a guy on saxophone. My favorite part of the start is always the confetti that rains down when they shoot the gun. We were off and I wasn't feeling awesome from the start. The pace didn't feel fluid, but I wanted to stay with April so I kept chugging along. There's a lot of downhill during the first mile so I think some of feeling off was all that pounding on my legs as we went down. We went through the first mile in 7:21. April was concerned, but I told her that was likely right where we wanted to be with all the downhill.

Taking off at the start in my rain jacket. You can see half of April!

It didn't feel like the pace slowed at all and we went through mile 2 in 7:37. During mile 3 April moved over so I could grab water at a water stop and when I looked back, she had fallen off pace. She had made a comment during the first couple miles that she didn't think she'd be able to hang so I decided not to pull back to run with her. After the race, seeing that she was only 30 seconds behind me, I wish I'd pulled back with her so we could run together for longer. I thought she would be falling significantly off pace, but she didn't at all! I had already taken my jacket off during the 2nd mile and tied it around my waist. It had been full on raining before the race but for the first few miles it slowed to a drizzle and I was optimistic it would stop all together. I saw Ty and the kids during the 4th mile and was able to toss them my jacket. I was so excited to see them because Ty wasn't planning on seeing me until mile 8 so I was resigned to running with my jacket for that long. It was very exciting to toss it off earlier! I went through the 4th mile in 7:10 and figured my watch was struggling with mile splits due to the rain because I definitely didn't feel like I had run a 7:10 mile.

Mile 5 went through Woodward Park. I spent most of the race around the 3:15 marathon pacer and assumed that meant I was on pace for a 1:37:30 which I was excited about. I was calculating my time at the race clocks at the mile marks and was right on pace to run around that time. Mile 5 has some decent hills and my split was 7:32. I was exciting to still be hitting 7:30 miles on the hillier parts of the course. I never felt fluid and effortless, but I didn't feel rough by any means. We went down Peoria during mile 6 and I was excited to be nearing Runner's World on Peoria since Ty was planning on being there with the kids and I always get a ton of cheers as I go past the running store since I'm on the race team. Mile 6 was 7:09 and I again felt like that wasn't accurate. I went through the 10k in 46:26, which was only 26 seconds slower than I went through the 10k at the Tulsa Run. I was really excited about that, but also didn't feel as strong as I had at the 10k point in the Tulsa Run and I had further to go. My original plan had been to push the pace on the 2nd half of the race, but based on how I was feeling I decided to see how I was feeling at the 10 mile mark and try to pick it up there. I saw Ty and the kids and was so excited to high five them. I was bummed I missed Elise's hand, but I got Ty and Carter.

I went through mile 7 in 7:16 and I started feeling a little bit rough. I wasn't hurting per se, but I was struggling a bit. It also started raining harder once we made it to Riverside which reminded me of the Tulsa Run because it rained the most during our stretch on Riverside during that race as well. I started feeling a little bit cold as it started raining harder. My headband was soaked, so I had shoved it in my back pocket miles ago. I tossed my jacket at mile 3 and had shoved my gloves in the pockets of my jacket while it was tied around my waist. I focused on trying to catch up to the people running in front of me. I'm listing my mile splits here, but I don't remember seeing most of them. I was focusing more on the clocks at the mile markers and calculating my estimated finish time. Mile 8 was 7:20 and then we had a couple miles down Riverside. I was so bumped to see my friend, Alicia, and her husband, Joey, at 33rd street and that was a HUGE pick me up! I felt like I was pushing the pace, but I wasn't gaining any ground on the runners ahead of me which was discouraging. Mile 9 was 7:26 and mile 10 was 7:29. I saw the clock at the 10 mile mark was at 1:14 and I told myself if I could run a sub-23 minute 5k, I could run under 1:37. I was super excited about that because I did not expect to be under 1:37 at this race. I felt like I could definitely do that. During the later miles on Riverside I could see the top marathon runners running on the trail going the opposite direction and I was really confused. They shouldn't have even been on the trail system. When I quickly looked at the course map that morning, it looked like the same course I've run so many times and I didn't look closely and notice that change. 

There's an out and back on Southwest Boulevard and getting onto it from Riverside you go up a little hill. In years I've had really good finishes, I felt great going up that hill. On years with rough finishes, I struggled going up the hill. This year I felt fine going up the hill and passed a few runners. I like the out and back because it's nice to get a chance to see the people ahead of you and behind you and cheer for each other. I cheered for friends as we crossed paths and I saw April and realized she hadn't fallen that much off pace. I was excited for her. Her PR is a 1:37 or 1:38 so I knew she was having a good day! At the end of Southwest Boulevard the marathon went under the road and followed the trail so they split off from the half earlier than normal which I was bummed about. As we neared downtown we went up a big hill and I started really struggling. I was also confused about where we were because this portion of the course had changed, I'm guessing due to construction. My main goal was to run around 7:30 for the final miles, but I was shocked when my mile 12 split popped up as 7:52. I didn't feel like I had slowed that much. I was really proud of how much I rallied in the last mile and pulled it back down to a 7:33 mile. That whole mile was a struggle and I was hurting a lot. It wasn't my legs hurting, it was my head going fuzzy and I was feeling really weird. I pulled out a 7:16 pace for the last 0.25 miles of the race. When I ran past the 26 mile mark for the marathon I knew I had 0.2 to go and I was already at 13 miles. At that point I knew a sub-1:37 for sure wasn't happening. I didn't have a great idea of what my time would be, but I looked at my watch and realized I wouldn't be able to finish fast enough to be under 1:38 either. 

I was hurting enough toward the end of the race, that I was telling myself things like "10 minutes to go, you can do anything for 10 minutes." Then sub that for 5 minutes and 2 minutes, etc. I saw the clock click over to 1:38 as I was sprinting to the finish line and I remember thinking in my head, there will be cameras at the finish line, smile, but as you can see from my finish line photos, that absolutely did not happen. I crossed the finish line and walked a little bit before stopping my watch. Then I kept walking and looked down in confusion, realizing my time was still running. I had hit the lap button instead of the stop button on my watch which I have never done in a race ever. I was so out of it, my eyelids kept flickering shut and I started feeling like I was going to pass out. It was the weirdest feeling and it was more what I've experienced after finishing a rough marathon rather than finishing a half-marathon. A few volunteers recommended I go to the med tent, but I just wanted to get out of there and get to Ty. One of them actually chased me down and tried to direct me there and I just thanked her and kept walking. She kept following me and directing me to the med tent, but I didn't go. Ty said maybe I should have gone, but what were they going to do, make me eat pretzels? I guess my one experience with the med tent tainted my view of going there and I felt like if I was with it enough to walk and decline the med tent, I was with it enough to not need to go. The kids were at the end of the chute and super excited to see me. I told them it was a rough one and they went running to tell Ty, he told them he knew just from looking at me.

I'm cracking up over this series of finish line photos. I swear I look worse than I did finishing Grandma's Marathon!

My finishing time was 1:38:20 which I was initially disappointed with. I really thought I was in shape to run a 1:37 something. Then I looked at my average pace which was 7:26 per mile. I was excited about that because I was only 6 seconds per mile slower than I had been at the Tulsa Run! Normally my watch reads 13.18 for this race, but this year it read 13.25. I think the changes to the course, they had to make due to construction, caused the course to be a bit longer than in the past. Had the race been 13.18 like it usually is, I would have been just under 1:38! So I decided it was silly to get too focused on my time. I was 114th out of 2,899 overall, 19th out of 1,682 women, and 6th out of 236 in my age group! Last year 3rd female ran just under 1:33 and this year 3rd female was 1:24! My time would have put me 2nd in my age group last year, so this year there were just a lot of fast runners who showed up! The weather was even better last year than this year, along with the course being a smidge shorter. I'm not a huge fan of cold rain, but I was thankful I wasn't in the marathon because I for sure would have ended up with some kind of chaffing or blisters and I didn't end up with either since I ran the half! Now that I've had more time to process my race, I'm really proud of what I was able to do after a summer of super low mileage and lots of cross training dealing with my bone spurs. I think this spring I can get my half-marathon time closer to where I'd like to be. All things considered, being under 1:40 was a great time for me right now! I may run another half-marathon in December because I get free entry with my race team, but it will depend on my recovery. Next up is a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving which I will either race or run easy with the kids, I'm leaning toward racing it!

Route 66 Race History, post here:

1:32:39 Half in 2007

3:40:05 Marathon in 2008

3:58:04 Marathon in 2009

1:51:40 Half in 2011

2:19:57 Half in 2012 (32 weeks pregnant)

1:35:43 Half in 2015

1:31:49 Half in 2016

3:38:58 Marathon in 2017

3:25:27 Marathon in 2018

1:32:32 Half in 2019

3:52:57 Virtual Marathon Relay in 2020 with mom, dad, Ty, and Thomas

1:38:20 Half in 2023