Hope Isn't Canceled 10k

My mom signed us all up for the Hope Isn't Canceled Virtual Face Mask Run. It was either a 5k or 10k for all the adults. You didn't have to specify when you signed up. I wasn't sure when I was going to run mine or which distance I would go for. Then the kids and I ran their fun run on August 4th since the weather cooled off for about a week. After we ran the fun run my mom did her 5k that same day and Jeremy decided to run his 10k later that evening. I figured, well heck, I might as well get my run in during these unseasonably cool days! I was planning on a 9 mile mid week longish run the following day so figured I might as well turn it into a 10k. I'd run a mile warm up, the 10k, and then a 2 mile cool down for a total of 9 miles. I really wasn't sure what pace to shoot for after the debacle that was my Run OK Virtual Half Marathon on July 3rd. I had no idea what I'd be able to do and I hadn't done any speedwork in a long time. I decided to treat the run like a tempo and just run what felt comfortably hard for the 1st half (hopefully around 7:15 pace) and then pick it up after the turn around. I haven't felt off and weird like I did around the time of the virtual half so I hoped this race would go better than that one did!

Since I was just running a mile warm up, I started the 10k portion of my run on the roads before I made it to our paved trail system. I decided so I'd have an official time, I'd restart my watch after the warm up so I'd just have my time for the 10k by itself. My first mile was 7:18 and I felt fine. I figured that was about what I'd be able to do and I was okay with that. Then my 2nd mile was 7:06 and I hadn't felt like I'd sped up at all which made me happy! I did get confused at one point because I'm so used to having my warm up included when I run tempos and I couldn't figure out how I'd only hit 2 miles on my watch before I remembered I had restarted it after the warmup. Mile 3 was 7:13 so I was right around the 7:15 pace average I had hoped for on the way out. I checked to see what my time was at 3.1 so I'd have an idea of what my finishing time might be. My first 5k was a little under 22:30. I figured I could pick it up to around 22:00 for the 2nd 5k and run a 44:30 or so. I was excited about that as I had just been hoping to be under 45!

I went through mile 4 in 6:57 and was super excited about how good I felt. Mile 5 was 6:58 and my legs were starting to feel a little bit tired but I knew I could make my last mile the fastest. I went through the last mile in 6:53 and decided to run a decent amount past 6.2 so I'd for sure have a 10k. Unfortunately that section of the trail has quite a few twists and turns which slowed down my finishing kick a bit. I ran the last portion in 6:50 pace. I decided since I was probably around 44:30 or so, I'd go ahead and run out to 6.23 to make sure I had the distance and because who cared if I picked up a few extra seconds. I was so shocked when I stopped my watch and my time was 44:02! Had I known I was that close to breaking 44, I would have sprinted a little harder or stopped at 6.22 instead. Darn! I definitely didn't expect to be that low in the 44's. I guess my math was a bit off. I was thinking 7:00 pace would be a 22:00 5k and didn't think about how much under 7:00 pace I was running!

I was really excited about my time and was super pleased it was so much faster than I expected with an average pace of 7:04 per mile! It made me feel confident that I'd be able to run a faster half-marathon right now than I did at the beginning of the month. I don't know what was going on with me then, but I'm so glad to be mostly back to normal now! I was also proud of myself for focusing on my improvement over how I felt running the Run OK Half to how I felt for this, rather than focusing on the fact that I would be running a half-marathon at the pace I ran the 2nd half of this run in if I were in good race shape right now. 7:04 pace for a 6 mile tempo off no speed work is great for me! Plus it was faster than any of the 10ks I ran in the summer race series we used to run every summer. So I'm starting in a good place to run some decent times in the fall. After Virtual Boston, of course!  

Wordless Wednesday

Playing in the sand at the Gathering Place.

Tesla must've had a busy afternoon playing with all these toys.

The kids spent around 2 hours building stuff for and playing with their hamsters.

Carter fell on a rock in the backyard and we ended up at Urgent Care.

It looked pretty good after it got glued.

Carter is always reading!

Walked in and saw Carter reading like this while doing abs so Elise jumped up by him to try it out.

Elise was asleep. Ty and I were talking about picking up Dairy Queen and when Elise heard she popped awake right away.

Moving a garden box at Ty's grandma's house.

Elise fell asleep in the car on the way home from Ty's parents' house.

Tesla was driving Ty crazy by getting on the futon and messing up all the covers. I put a dog bed by the futon and problem solved, she's such a good girl!

I ordered a second set of track and car with my birthday money so the kids each had one to play with. They had so much fun playing with them all afternoon.

Reading their books we picked up on our way home from the library.

Groovy Joe, Thelma the Unicorn, and Nibbles are all favorite books around here.

Elise asked me to take this picture but I don't remember why, something about the shape of her banana bar.

They painted a mask on the Golden Driller!

Playing in the garden after a family lunch picnic.

This melts my hearts like a million times over every time I see it!

Carter and Katie

Carter wearing car track while video chatting to Oma on his tablet.

The kids decking Tesla out with car track.

Carter ready to ride the mechanical shark.

Touching the shrimp at the aquarium.

Elise wasn't tall enough to ride the shark so she got to feed the turtles.

They were so excited to see the otters.

Elise couldn't see so Carter picked her up.

Who was more into the movie, Carter or Tesla?

Carter made pizza crackers for Elise and himself for lunch.

 

Hope Isn't Canceled Fun Run

My mom signed us up for this race. In our race packets we all got new masks which were really nice and for every race entry they purchased a meal for a worker on the frontline. You can still register through September 30th if you are interested, just visit their website here. Elise was really excited to run the fun run but Carter wasn't quite as excited. We talked about where to do it and Carter wanted to run to Sonic and get special drinks after our run. Sonic is almost exactly a mile from our house with sidewalks almost the entire way so that was perfect! Since I have the app we get half-priced drinks at any time of day. We decided to do it right before lunch so Ty could stop by and pick us up on his way home for lunch. We decided to do it the day we did (August 4th) because we had a cold snap and it was in the 70's. Since it was so cool Tesla got to run with us too which was wonderful!

We all took off together and Elise was pacing herself off Carter. Then he started walking and she took off on her own. I was impressed she was consistently running around 9:00 pace the whole time. I asked her to walk for a bit so Carter could catch up. Once he caught up, she took off again and averaged 8:15 pace until I had her stop to wait for him before crossing the street. She sat waiting on him and yawned, it was so cute and I cracked up when I realized I got a picture of it. We ended up making it to Sonic in 9:57. The distance was 0.9 miles so it was 10:56 pace, not bad considering we walked a few times!

After this I decided Carter needed some real shoes to run in. I ordered him some shoes from Kohl's with some Kohl's cash I had. Hopefully he will enjoy the next fun run a bit more if he isn't wearing crocs. He insists running in crocs is fine, but I can't imagine it feels good! We are running our Virtual Aquarium Run Fun Run tomorrow morning so I figured I'd better get a post up about this one first!

Finished with our run and waiting for our drink order.

Enjoying their drinks!

Summer Reading Program

We love doing the summer reading program at the library each year. Both kids have done it since they were babies and it's so special to get their medals each year. This year the program was a little different but we were so glad they went ahead and put it together for everyone! Instead of visiting the library 4 times and reading 8 books to get a medal, you just read 8 books to receive a medal. They used an online reading log website for you to track your books and when you completed the program you could go to the library and pick up your medal in their curbside pickup. 

Posing with their medals.

Normally you can continue on to 25 books read to earn a prize and a book of coupons. They didn't do that this year so I decided to do our own thing. There was a library bingo page in our summer reading program packets (I do the adult one each year). They had a bingo page for preschool and younger as well as one for elementary-aged kids. I told the kids if they read 8 more books and got a blackout on their bingo page they would win a prize. Carter's bingo page was reading different kinds of books while Elise's was mostly literacy-related activities. I ordered some Lego guys to use as presents for them and decided that would be their prize. Then at the last minute I decided I wanted to give them coupons too so I made up some coupons of my own. They were a huge hit. Carter loved them so much he would wake up each morning and plan out which coupons he wanted to use that day. He has asked for another reading challenge so he can earn more coupons.

Showing off his black out and his prize bag.

Super excited about his coupons!

Showing off her black out and her prize bag.

Cutting open her Lego person.

Read about some of our past summer reading experiences: 2016, 2017. We've done the summer reading program every year since Carter was a baby but I haven't always written a post about it.