The Life of a Running Momma

Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Spavinaw Centennial Celebration 5k

During my stent off running to heal my knee, a friend asked me to run the Spavinaw Centennial Celebration 5k because her friend was the race director. After I ran the Jenks 5k and was so close to breaking 22 minutes, I decided to go for it at this race. I was hopeful after an extra week back running I might be able to break 22 minutes and give myself a big confidence boost going into the Pitt Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. The race didn't start until 9am so I slept in until 7, ate breakfast, did yoga, and headed to the race. I run out at Lake Yahola sometimes and I knew the race was around there. There isn't much parking in the area so I wasn't sure how that would work. I figured I'd have to park a ways off and run to the start, no big deal since I'd need a couple miles to warm up anyway. I got to the parking lot and they had shuttles driving people to the start, I didn't want to do that and waited until the shuttle left so I could see which way to go to get to the race start and took off for my warm up. I ran a 2 mile warm up with 4 strides at the end like I had for the Jenks 5k.

Winnings, they had finisher medals, but I didn't want one.

A little before 9:00 I headed toward the race start. It was weird because no one was making announcements to get people to head to the race start. I started wondering if the race was going to start late because they were still shuttling people down or something. Then at 9:00 a race volunteer walked over to the timing tent and from the conversation they had, it sounded like the race organizers thought the timing people were in charge of starting the race and the timing people ended up starting the race for us. I was impressed with how quickly they pulled things together and got us going after not realizing they were expected to start the race. We took off at 9:01. I knew it was going to be hard to beat my time from last week because it was so windy. On the way out, I thought maybe the wind wasn't as bad as I thought warming up, but later realized it was because it was a cross wind that was mostly at our backs for the first half of the race. The race was an out and back. I saw my friend, Johnny, and his dog Shadow right in front of me. I ended up pretty much maintaining the gap behind him the whole race.

I went through the first mile in 6:52 and I was not feeling strong at all. The first half mile, I kept thinking, "I don't feel as strong and fluid as last week." I told myself to just hold on until the turn around and then see what I had left for the way back. I counted that I was 9th overall and figured I could catch some of the men ahead of me. We hit the turn around and I immediately felt the wind at my face. It was gusting very strongly and I knew picking up the pace and negative splitting would not be happening. I saw the 2nd place female and I had a very safe lead on her. I just kept my eyes ahead and focused on sticking with Johnny, not letting him gap me any more than he already had. I went through the 2nd mile in 7:09 and was pleased it was faster than I thought it would be. I felt like I had slowed down a lot more than that. Thinking back, I had for the 2nd half of the mile and it was the first half of the mile with the wind mostly at my back that kept my mile split from being as slow as the pace I was currently running.

I remembered running down a gradual, not steep decline around 0.4 miles into the race so I was dreading that uphill on the return trip. I was really dreading it. I ended up thinking I missed it because I never really noticed it. Knowing I had a nice gap on the 2nd place female, I was so tempted to give up and coast in because I was feeling really rough. I told myself to keep pushing because it would be a good workout. Thankfully I had Johnny right in front of me and focusing on staying with him kept me from giving up and slowing down. I felt badly that I was able to have him pull me along, but was up with him to help him. He said knowing I was right behind him really helped him push during the race, so I'm glad I was able to help him even though I couldn't catch up to him. After the top male finished, the lead motorcycle drove back to lead me into the finish. Johnny said when the motorcycle pulled up beside him, he knew I was right behind him and kept waiting for me to sprint past him. I was really trying to catch up to him, I just had nothing left. He mentioned me "letting him beat me" and I told him there was no letting, I ran as hard as I could! My 3rd mile was 7:21 and my finishing kick was 6:47 pace. When I finished I dry heaved a bit as I walked to get water, so that was a bit embarrassing. I finished in 22:08. Which sounds better than it was, only 7 seconds slower than last week in worse conditions, but I averaged 7:07 pace compared to 7:00 pace last week.

I originally planned to run my cool down out to my car to get sweats, but decided to run my cool down out on the course so I could cheer on my friend, Julia, and everyone else as they finished. During my cool down I realized the first half of the race was a slight decline the whole way so the second half was a slight incline the whole way. That made me feel a bit better about my 2nd half being so much slower! There were signs out on the course that I noticed as I was racing, but didn't read. I enjoyed reading them on my cooldown. They had facts about water and the Spavinaw Water System. They also had some water themed jokes that I enjoyed and will include at the end of this post. I felt like it and wanted to read all the signs, so decided to run the whole course again as my cool down. When I got back to the start area I found my friend, Julia, and we waited in line to get our free hot drinks. After that they said the awards ceremony would be starting at 10:30. We only had a few minutes so I decided to just go without my sweats as I wouldn't have time to get to my car and back. It turned out they started the "ceremony" 15 minutes late because they were waiting on the mayor to arrive. Then, once he arrived, it was actually a ceremony for the centennial of the Spavinaw Water System which lasted for almost an hour and then they quickly passed out awards afterward. I was so annoyed and wished I would have just left. I'm pretty sure they told runners it was an awards ceremony so people wouldn't leave and it would look like there were more people there for the ceremony. I felt bamboozled and ended up not getting home until 12:30 which really annoyed me! Not to mention sitting there freezing during the whole ceremony!

I was 7th out of 182 overall and 1st overall female. They ran out of fun run bibs and gave some of the fun runners 5k bibs so it shows a woman ahead of me, but she was actually in the fun run. She and her daughter both did the fun run and they took her daughter out of the results on Saturday, but the mom is still listed. The 5k and fun run started together and they announced for fun runners to line up behind the 5k runners, even so I expected to have some fun runners up front who would impeded us, but I had no issues. We ran through some fun runners at the end of the 5k, but there weren't very many since most had finished before I came through, so there were no issues with the 5k and fun run starting together (at least from my standpoint).

I've been using my cup every day for my morning coffee.

Jokes from signs:

What do you call a Yeti who lives on a lake?
A weti

What does a fish say when it swims into a wall?
DAM!

If H20 is water, what is H2O4?
To drink and swim in, silly!

Saturday, November 16, 2024

Wordless Saturday

Type 1 Diabetes walk for my friend's daughter.

Roosevelt's has their Christmas decor up.

Field Trip to the Aquarium

Working on requirements for a first aid badge at Girl Scouts.

It was storming so Tessie hid in the closet.

Carter running up to photobomb here cracked me up!

Type 1 Diabetes Walk

Elise (with Carter and Gma) came to visit my class because she was out of school and we weren't.

New shoes!

Elise made an invitation in Canva for our Cox family Thanksgiving.

Late Halloween Party

Friday, November 15, 2024

Jenks 5k

Less than a week back to running after my knee injury/stitches (read more here if you missed it) I ran past a former student while out running. He was in my class in 1st grade and is now a senior in high school and runs on the cross country and track teams. He stopped me and asked if I was running the 5k or half marathon at the Jenks Half. I told him I was just coming back from having stitches in my knee so it hadn't been on my radar. He said I should come and I couldn't say no, so I signed up for a 5k with about 2 weeks back running under my belt. In 2016 I ran the 5k and he was there spectating because his older brother was on the cross country team and running the half marathon. He and his sisters were so proud that I won overall, male or female, and they all ran my cool down after the race with me. So this race has a special place in my heart due to that. If it weren't for him, there was no way I would have chosen to run a 5k this soon after 2.5 weeks off running.

My winnings!

I think due to walking weird to keep from bending my left knee, when I started running again I had a lot of pain in my right glute. I was doing my physical therapy exercises every night and it was still hurting on all of my runs and for most of the day. Finally, the week of the Jenks 5k I felt like my left knee was healed enough and able to bend enough to add yoga back into my routine. It wasn't an immediate fix, but within days, the combination of physical therapy and yoga had the pain mostly in check. Friday evening before the Saturday race I felt amazing on my run. Up until then, I was planning for a time in the 23:00-24:00 minute range and was hoping I could be under 24 minutes. I felt so good during that run, I thought I might be able to hold 7:00 pace for the race and I got really excited. The big event at this race is the half marathon so the 5k is usually pretty small and not super competitive, hence me winning overall with a 19:55 in 2016. I knew there was a chance I could be the top female finisher in the 5k.

The morning of the race I got up at 6:00, got ready, did a pre-run yoga video, ate an almond butter biscuit, and drank some coffee. I already had my bib because I picked it up on Thursday after work, so I could just park and head out for my warm up. The 5k started at 7:45 but the half started at 7:30 and I wanted to see Luke and cheer him on as he started his race. So I ran a bit of a warm up and stopped back by the starting line to cheer for him and then ran a little bit more of a warm up. I decided to run a few strides in my warm up to get my legs going a bit before the race and I felt great for all of it! At the start line, not many people were wanting to be up front and I knew it was a gun start with a chip finish, so I went right up to the front. We took off and there were some high school aged boys out ahead along with a high school aged girl who I passed pretty much right away. My pace felt fast, but definitely something I could hold for the race. I felt really confident in my position as first female by the time I hit the mile mark. My first mile was 6:47 and I was feeling good!

I had been slowly reeling in a boy in a Sandites jersey (Sand Springs High School) and at the mile mark I caught up to him. There was a very large gap from him to the boy ahead of him so I decided to tuck in with him and ride it out with him until the turn around. I didn't remember the course from running it before, but based on what the race director said at the start, I thought it was an out and back because he mentioned a turn around. I decided I would just hang with him until the turn around and then pick it up for the 2nd half of the race. When we made it to the out and back section, I realized we were significantly over halfway, I think it was around 1.8 miles in. When I realized that I was thankful to be closer to the finish than I thought, but I was bummed I didn't have as much time to make up for slowing a bit.

My 2nd mile was 7:12. I took off with a mile to go and the boy went with me, which was helpful and helped me really push the pace. The race finishes with a lap on the track and I figured he would out kick me on the track so my plan was to hang with him as long as I could. It worked and I was able to push back down to 7:04 for my last mile. When we hit the track, the boy pulled away from me. I heard the announcer say the first female finisher was coming through and it was going to be close, she might be able to break 22 minutes. I really wanted to break 22 minutes and gave it everything I had. My last 0.15 of the race was 6:37, but I didn't quite make it. My official finishing time was 22:01. I was proud of running 7:00 pace and hadn't lost as much fitness with my time off as I expected. I was really excited about it and also fired up to break 22 minutes. A friend invited me to come run a 5k a friend of hers is a race director for when I had stitches in my knee and I told her I would think about it once I could run again. After this race I decided to go for it. I'm excited to run the race tomorrow and see if I can run under 22 minutes with a more consistent race. My critique of this race was that I slowed quite a bit in the 2nd mile, but I didn't regret making that decision so I would have someone to run with. I knew being a bit out of shape, the 2nd half of this race was going to hurt and it was so much more fun to run when I had someone to run with. I was 5th out of 79 overall and 1st out of 43 women. I was 3 minutes ahead of the 2nd place female!

I grabbed a water bottle and then took off for a cool down. I wanted to get my cool down in before Luke finished his half marathon so I could cheer for him. When I got back to the track from my cool down, the race director asked if I got my overall award. I told him I hadn't and he apologized. I told him it was my fault because I took off on my cool down right away. I got my awards and then picked up some food. They had food from Taziki's and donuts from Quik Trip. I got to see Luke finish. We chatted and then he walked with me to my car so he could give me a senior poster. I took pictures of him finishing, but didn't even think to get a picture together. He suggested it and I was so glad he did because I made a little side by side comparison from the 2016 picture and the picture from this year. It's such a sweet memory and so crazy to see how much he has grown!