Woodstock Academy 5K Race Report

I’m sure by now you have grown weary of reading race reports from me, so I will keep this one short and sweet. Very sweet, actually.

Typical pre-race routine – oatmeal; pb, banana and toast; coffee.

I convinced the whole family to come and support me for this second to last race of the season…so the hubby and the two furry friends all piled into the Jetta with me to travel to Woodstock, CT – about 35 minutes from my house.

Weather was near perfect – a little cold, making it tough to figure out how many layers to shed at the start…but I’d rather be a little warm in the cold than a lot warm in the heat.

Michelle and April-Anne were there – this was April-Anne’s last race and run for the season. She’ll be joining us again in the spring, if she can resist the running chicks for that long. And Michelle brought reindeer antlers for all of us to wear. With jingle bells on them, of course.

Registration was being held in a tiny golf course club house that had a roaring fire in the fire place and was just bustling with all sorts of activity. The start line was a half mile uphill from the registration area, which served as a great warm up.

And with a simple ‘ready, set, go!’ we were off!

The first mile was all downhill. As we passed the club house, I threw my jacket, gloves and reindeer antlers to Jason…and was greeted by my adorable doggies wearing antlers of their own. Totally hilarious (there are pictures – to be posted soon). As I passed the first mile marker, I was shocked to see 6:40 on my watch. Wow. This one was really gonna hurt if I kept that up. But then I realized that I had been running entirely downhill, so that must have had something to do with that crazy split.

As we approached the turnaround point, the leaders were all passing by us on the opposite of the road. I think I counted two or three females ahead of me. Holy cow….how did that happen?

Mile two ticked off in 7:09 and we started the gradual climb back up the hill. It was at this point where all the negotiating began…’Slow down, wait for Michelle and April and just enjoy the race. Why must you kill yourself at these things?’…and other similar thoughts crossed my mind. But I also started thinking about how cool it would be to get a sub 22:00 time…so onward I pushed.

Mile three started to get hard and I felt like I was hitting some kind of mini ‘Wall’ out there. I hit the mile three marker in 7:31 and knew I just had a little farther to go. There was no kick left really…I had once again managed to leave it all out there and couldn’t wait to stop running. I was in a 2/2 breathing pattern for the entire race. Damn, that was really hard to maintain (not to mention all the throat-clearing and spit – eww).

Hit the finish line in 22:09 – so close! But still a PR and a great time as far as I was concerned.

My body wasn’t feeling so great immediately after I stopped – some weird and wild cramping going on in my intestines. I crunched into a little ball for a minute or two and then we walked back down the hill to the clubhouse. By the time we got to there, I was feeling much better.

At the awards ceremony, I learned that I was first in my division! And I think I was the third or fourth female across the line. Michelle placed third in the same division as me, and April placed third in her division as well.

The Running Chicks, a winning team!

(PS – AND, and, and…My pregnant arch-nemesis missed this race…so I have slipped into first place – age division – for the Race Series that we are in!)

From The Driver’s Seat

Back in college (‘university’ to some) I had a boyfriend who was very, very meticulous about his Volkswagen GTI. The exterior was always clean, waxed and shiny and the interior was spotless and uncluttered. I used to tap the dirt off my feet off before I got in, just to make sure I didn’t get the floor mats dirty (even though that’s why the mats exist…to catch dirt). It was amazing. I never understood the obsession, but when I finally got my own car, I realized that keeping my car clean was a matter of respect.

So, I became clean-car owner, but on a more rational level…no q-tips in the vents to clean out the dust, no six hour cleaning sessions. I was just one of those annoying people that kept the interior of their car free of debris and clutter. No stray trash, nothing hanging from the rearview mirror and nothing at all in the backseat. It would get a little dusty from time to time, but never dirty. Like I said, annoying but not obsessive.

And then something happened.

First, I got dogs. The backseat was now required to have an old sheet draped on it, to save the cloth upholstery from dirty paws, drool and fur. The back windows now have little nose prints all over them (which always make me smile).

Then just the other day, as I was climbing out of the car, I noticed something odd. There had been a shift in the universe and the interior of my car no longer looked like it belonged to me. It looked like some kind of explosion had gone off…like a running catalog had throw up all over the inside of my car.

In the front seat, there were no less than three water bottles, in various stages on fullness. On the floor was an empty PowerGel packet. On the driver’s side door, there was a pile of banana peels, apple cores and empty granola bar wrappers all bursting out of a garbage bag. A glance into the back seat revealed the following items: a pair of clean running socks, an empty Gatorade bottle, a towel for soaking up sweat, a bottle of Febreeze, a rain poncho, a winter running hat, two baseball hats and my gym bag, overstuffed with running gear. In the glove compartment, I carry a spare LIVESTRONG bracelet.

And the smell. Oh my, the smell in that car. Wow. I’m almost embarrassed to take the dogs for a ride, let alone a human.

I’ve since tidied the car up a bit. But let’s face it, I am who I am. And apparently, I’m a runner who has a less-than-tidy car. Totally worth it as far as I’m concerned.

Over the Hills

After a disaster of a day, I could not wait to get home and hit the road. I didn’t care that it was hot and a bit muggy. I didn’t care that I had to dig a sports bra out of the dirty laundry. I needed to put some distance – both physical and mental – between the crappy day and me.

After about a 1/2 mile warm-up, I set my sights on some hill repeats. I say this like I’ve done it before; I haven’t. This was my first attempt at “hill repeats” and I was determined to not be intimidated by the task at hand. There’s this steep but short hill right near my house that always kicks my butt at the start of my run…so now I wanted to kick it back.

Being optimistic, I thought I would shoot for five times up the hill. Then I got the hill, and decided that three times up might be a more realistic goal. I wanted to feel proud when I was done, not defeated. And so it went – up the hill and down; repeat. Three times. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but it was hard. I was astonished when I realized that it was taking me over 2 minutes to conquer the hill each time! Of course, the downhill was the best part – I love when gravity does the work for me.

I finished up with another 1/2 mile and then grabbed my dogs for a cool-down walk together. The hill workout took about 24 minutes (without the cool-down walk) and this morning, my lungs feel like I developed asthma while I was sleeping. A little tight in the chest, but it’s like sore muscles after a good weight-lifting workout – it reminds you of how hard you worked.

I may whine and complain about all the hills in my area of the state (Northeast Connecticut) but I just have to keep reminding myself that they will make a stronger runner.

I Run Because I Can

I was talking to a friend of mine recently about why we do silly things like run marathons or push ourselves out the door when it’s well below zeor outside and her answer was so simply beautiful that it kind of knocked me on my arse.

She told me that she runs because she can. She wakes up everyday grateful for being able to run. She runs every day because she lives in a world free of war or landmines or IED’s.

This got me thinking, what gets me out the door every morning besides the fear of getting fat like my mother? What drives me to do it and I think the answer is I run because I love it. I am so aware that I can run and that I have everything in life that I want. No matter what goes on in my life a run can clear my head and give me a fresh look at a problem.

For this I am truly grateful.

How about you, why do you run?