Cherry Blossom

I’ve been meaning to write this blog all week.

I wanted to type up my own little review of the “Cherry Blossom 15K”. This race being our 6th race in a row since Februrary 14. We (being Chuck, My Mom and me) have been on a streak! It has been fun and I’ve loved the training. Although, the Cherry Blossom managed to kick me in the bootie. I am not sure if it was that race itself, or just a long stint of a lot of running.

Me & my Mom

My girl Jenny and myself ran the Cherry Blossom 15K together last spring. G and Dennis were out there too. It rained and it was cold. We had a good time anyway. I PR’d at 1:24:35. Oh yeah! Chuck was supposed to run his first race ever that day. He didn’t make it because he hurt his leg a few weeks before and ended up on crutches for a week and limped for a month! So Dennis ran as Chuck (is that allowed?). So, since I had participated in the run last year, I figured I knew what to expect….

WRONG…

We showed up to the race. It was colder than I would have like, but pretty with the sun shining, so who can complain? We got there later than we normally do for a race, so we didn’t have long to wait around to start. The race started and Dennis, G, and Jenny had all planned to run out a little faster than I had in mind. So they were gone. I WANTED to PR this year. I really did. I figured I could at even just under a 9 min/mi… not too hard right? A friend of ours, Bug (Kristen) and I planned on running right at the same pace, so we stuck together. OK, so at the beginning of the race, immediately something didn’t feel quite right! We turned right instead of left on Rivioli (unlike last year’s race?) I told Bug, who didn’t run the previous year, that something was weird, but of course we went with it… over hills, down hills, over hills, down hill, over hills, down hills… yeah yuck! Then something else seemed weird. We were hitting mile markers and my Garmin wasn’t agreeing with them. We were quite a bit ahead of what the marker signs said and with each mile it got worse and worse??? I was confused and it was kinda messing with my mind! I was thinking that maybe they were just placed wrong and that the last mile would be really short. We finally got up to where the course said 8 miles and I knew where I was, Bug and I realized something was crazy, but we didn’t fret. I just told her I’d mark a lap on my Garmin when we hit 9.3, that way we’d know our time for the real race distance. Once we hit 9.3 my Garmin said 1:24:01, which yes is a PR. But I’m not really counting it cause it wasn’t official… The last mile (yeah, the race ended up being 10.2ish miles) was rough for me. I had never run past the 9.3 distance. My quads felt like jelly and I was out of juice. Bug and I finished at 1:32:22.

Bug & Kat..................................

I was tight that whole night. I soaked my feet and rested most of the afternoon. The next morning. OH MY! My quads were so sore and my right hip was sore. I felt like I’d been hit by a car.

Sunday we went out the GA Children’s Home trail and ran an easy 55 minute run. It felt good to stretch out and take it easy. Guess What? I didn’t fall this time! Yeah me. This is Chuck and me running... He's a trail monster. He always does better than us, maybe it's his Indian blood.

Monday at work I was still sore and my hip was still tight. I was reconsidering my goal of running a half marathon in October.

Now I’m feeling good. My hip still has a little something weird going on in there… but it’s not pain. So, I’m ok with that. I’m going to take it easy as far as mileage this week. Since it’s probably going to be raining, I guess that’s a good thing!

Gate River Run 15K

Last weekend (3/14/09) was a mini vacation. I didn’t get back to work until Wednesday of last week and I have been busy… this past weekend we had a lot going on. So, I need to catch up and start with the Gate River Run 15K weekend. My FAVORITE run of the year. This run is the USATF Championship 15K. 15,000 signed up for the 15K this year and approximately 5,000 for the 5K.

On Friday 3/13/09 we (Me, Chuck, Jenny, G, Dennis, Kristy, Bug, and Tim) all left a cloudy cool Byron, heading down I 75 to Jacksonville, FL. The trip down was uneventful (that’s a good thing right?) We ate at Fazoli’s in Valdosta, trying to carb up! We got to the Wyndham Riverwalk in Jax at about 4 PM and we all got to our rooms, put our stuff up and changed clothes.

The Wyndham was the host hotel for the Gate River Run. So they provided transportation to the race Expo and the race. We caught the bus to the expo, got our race packets and T-shirts then walked around for about 2 hours looking at all the neat running and fitness merchandise, services, etc. We got our 2009 GRR glass and all kinds of freebees.

Bug has a friend named Josh (used to work at RunFit) that is a manager at a new running store in Jax… called Jacksonville Running Company. We all went to his store and a few people bought new shoes, we all stocked up on sports beans and such. They even gave us all a Mizuno running shirts with the JRC logo on it to wear during the race.

We went to Seven Bridges for dinner. I had to constantly fuss at Chuck and Tim to not order beer… I kept telling them to wait until Saturday. They both drank some, but not as much as they wanted I’m sure. Dinner was great! We were all riding together and a few people needed some last minute items from WalMart, so we had to stop by there. We didn’t get back to the hotel until after 11PM. It was probably 12 by the time we got to sleep.

5:30AM the alarm goes off. I am so excited at this point. I took a quick shower (yes, I always shower and shave before a race… can’t stand to have fuzzy legs.. wind resistance??? Hahaha) Got dressed and got all my race gear ready. We met up in the lobby with the rest of the crew at 6:30AM to catch the bus over to the race… the race was across the river from the hotel. We were all sleepy but happy.

Jenny and I ran the GRR last year, it was just the two of us. This year all the folks listed above (Kristy and Tim ran the 5K) ran with us. It was Chuck’s first 15K. I was so proud of him, all of the training he had put in to get up to the distance he was about to run. Jenny and I kept telling everyone how cool this was going to be, but it’s hard to describe until your really there.

The 5K started at 7:45, so we wished Kristy and Tim a good race. The rest of us bounced around… it was cooler than we expected, a little windy, and we were basically standing in thick clouds. But at least it wasn’t raining and at least there wasn’t the 30 – 40 MPH winds that we dealt with in 2008.

After standing in line for porta-potties a few times… race time rolled around. The Star Spangled Banner was sang beautifully. The elite women start the race at 8:25AM. The gun sounding gives me chill bumps. There are SOOOOO many people there. When the gun sounds for the rest of the top seeded men, and us mere mortals, there are so many people that we just stand there for about 2 minutes, waiting to start walking, and finally run across the start line.

As we begin the run (and for the remainder of the race) the streets were front to back, side to side, packed with people. We almost immediately lost sight of G, Dennis, and Jenny who are faster… Bug was somewhere about 3 minutes ahead of us. Chuck and I stayed together. I wanted to cross the finish line with him. We stayed at about a 9:45 mi/mile for the whole race. It’s also a pain to try to duck and dodge people and try to go any faster.

There are tons of spectators and bands. Never really a dull moment. Rock groups, high school bands, signs, banners, families in their yards, cocktail stands, you name it.

The “Highlight” of the race is at approx. 7.75 miles. The bottom of the Hart Bridge… better known as the Green Monster. It is a half mile incline at a six percent grade. It’s really not THAT bad, but it is a hill that never seems to end. You think your at the top and it still insists on going up and up. But, once you reach the top you have less than a mile to run and it’s mostly downhill around to the JAX stadium where the Jaguars play. We finished in 1:28:38 (chip time)… 1:30:38 (gun time). Our goal was for under 1:30 so we were very happy with that time.

After the race it was to the FREE BEER tent to drink MGD 64.

We walked around the post-race festivities for about an hour and a half until we all got tired and were getting cold so we headed back to the bus to go to the hotel. After showering and changing again we went out shopping and then to a post-race party put on by the JRC. It was a good time.

Sunday was a gorgeous day. The sun was bright and the temps were great. Most everyone had a bit of a hangover. Chuck and I didn’t drink much at all, so we were fine. We met with Jenny in the lobby at about 9 (Jenny did in fact have a hangover) and we went out for a “recovery” run. Ha ha. We ran down the riverwalk, crossed the Acosta bridge, ran down the north bank of the river then back across the Main Street bridge to the south bank where our hotel was. We just did 3 miles easy. Chuck didn’t agree that you can run easy runs over bridges. Oh well… it was so pretty and the scenery was great, we didn’t care. After the run everyone went down to the pool and we soaked up the sun and put our tired feet in the cold water.

The crew (with the exception of Chuck and I) headed back to Byron on Sunday afternoon. Chuck and I planned to extend the vacation a little bit so we rode up to Tybee Island to stay one more night out of town. We checked in our room then drove to Savannah to check out the Riverstreet St. Patty’s Day celebrations. We ate and had a few beers. Really enjoyed watching all of the people acting crazy!

We woke up Monday morning and ran 4 miles down the beach in Tybee Island. It was wonderful out there. It was the second time I’ve ever had the pleasure of running on the beach. I could really live like that!

At about lunch time we checked out and headed to Byron. By the time we got to Dublin it was raining and getting cold. Sorry Middle GA, but you guys had a crappy weather weekend… We didn’t want to come back!

We took Tuesday off to have time to clean up, wash clothes, do grocery shopping, all that REAL WORK type stuff. Blah.

So, Wednesday was back to work but I had the BEST weekend. I couldn’t have asked for more : )

Another Week, Another Race

Last week’s training went well. Chuck is still working nights, so it is messing with his workout / running schedule, which in turn messes with mine, since we generally train together. Mostly it is causing a problem for him due to the crazy sleeping schedule from working at night.

So, since he worked Thursday night he was able to be off with me on Friday during the day time. Friday we went out kinda early and ran an easy 3 miles down the road from the apartments. It felt good to run in the springtime weather. It was our first “warm” run so far.

Saturday (poor Chuck on only 3 hours of sleep) we got up and headed to Geico for the 12K. It was a foggy morning, but it was neither hot nor cold… so I wasn’t complaining. I had told Chuck that we were going to run together, since he always accuses me of dusting him. Which is not necessarily true! I have been running a lot longer than him. But I have just recently decided that getting a little faster is something I’d like to do…. I guess I decided that right around the time we started running together. So in my opinion, he is already as good as I am now, and it took me 6 years to get where he got in 6 months. Yes, I’m hatin’!!!! ANYWAY… I told him that I would stay with him for the whole race on Saturday. I wanted to finish together.

See I have this little competitive nature that I like to deny. I told my girl Jenny once “I’m not competitive”… she busted out laughing. But continued to tell me that I am, but not competitive in a mean way, that she thinks I’m generally competitive against myself… I thought about it and I guess that’s right. She said that last March when we were running the Gate River Run together (almost exactly a year ago). I was reflecting on that conversation as I ran the 12K with Chuck on Sat. We both had the MP3 on so there wasn’t any convo to entertain me…. I prefer conversation to music… so I had to keep my mind busy somehow.

During the race I kept a pretty close eye on the Garmin. We were keeping a 9 min/mi pretty steady. I wanted him to keep the pace just to prove to him that he COULD do it. I also had my ulterior motives… I WANTED to be running a little faster maybe. I had no problems staying where he was, and I’m not at all trying to say that I’m so much faster or whatever… I just WANTED to blow out my previous year’s time…. even though I had promised to finish with him. He did manage to keep a 9 – 9.30 min/mi for the majority of the race. He pulled the hills very good, charged them really. I was very proud of him for his 2nd 12K.

I was very happy to finish the race side by side with him seeing as how he IS my running partner. I enjoyed the race overall. It was one of those runs that nothing hurts, all was good, mind and body. Each mile marker just came and went, I wasn’t constantly thinking about wanting the run to be over with. I truly enjoyed the run. This I am thankful for, because had I been trying to PR the run would have been more painful, not such an enjoyable experience.

I learned a lesson at the Geico race:

I realized how much I AM in competition with myself, and that it’s ok not to win! Because, if I lose, I also win. I just have to find out where the victory is.

We finished in 1:09:35. Jenny got 2nd in her age group, Mom got 1st, and I got 2nd!

Here is part of our little group from Byron: Cherry (my mom) G (Robert) Jenny, Dennis, Me, Chuck.

Sunday we went out and ran 4 miles around Eagle Springs. It was HOT. Really only in the mid 70’s, but it was HOT. It’s hard to go from running in the 30’s one weekend to the 70’s the next. Come on, we’re in Georgia… what should I expect?

Monday night I taught my spin class and worked weights for the first time in weeks. Now my chest and arms are killing me. What was I thinking? Next week I will defiantly get back on a regular weight training schedule… anything to avoid the soreness. Ouch.

Last night Chuck and I met up at my runner mommer’s house (Mom’s nickname). She sat with my punkin’ (Shy) while Chuck and I took advantage of daylight savings time and ran outside after work. Oh yeah, how sweet is that! BUT that is where the sweetness ends. Apparently something was dead in my Mom’s neighborhood. Something stinks soooooooo bad and strong. It was absolutely horrible. I’ve never smelled something that made me nauseated. Not only did it stink horribly, but I was trying to run, which sorta kinda requires breathing. This breathing thing was quite undesirable due to the FUNK in the air. I was honestly thinking that someone was dead in a house and rotting (that sounds bad doesn’t it). I’m hoping it’s more like an animal, a large animal? Chuck is a detective and knows what a dead person smells like and he said that it smelled similar... I'm still hoping it's the animal idea. YUCK.

Back to the run… I’m trying to breathe, but not wanting to breathe cause it stinks, not wanting to breath through my mouth, because something that smells so bad has got to have bacterial funk floating in the air right? Just kidding. It took a mile and a half to get out of that neighborhood into another one that didn’t smell bad. I ran the rest of the run pretty good. I averaged a 9.45 min/mi. I enjoyed the run.

I’m in a great mood today. We are leaving to go to Jacksonville on Friday. Oh YEAH! So excited. The Gate River Run 15K – The USATF 15K Championship… running with the bigwigs… well, running quite far behind them anyway. I love the race, it will be my 4th run of it.

The rest of my week, training wise, should be uneventful. Just a treadmill run tonight and then I’ll rest Thur & Fri.

Trail Run Fun?

I finally did it. It wasn’t a matter of not being sure if I wanted to run it, just a somewhat significant amount of money to pay for a race for two people at one time… But I did it. I registered Chuck and myself for the XTERRA Deep South 15K at Daucet Trails. I am soooo excited about this trail race. My first trail race ever.

I really do love to run the trails. Although, I must admit, I have not run a trail since tripping & falling last time. But that’s just because I don’t want to fall again and ruin all the training I’ve put in for our run in Jax. Ok, maybe I’m just a little scared. So What! I’ll be back out there soon enough.

I’m very goal oriented. I’ve had my spreadsheet since December outlining our training up to Gate River Run on 3/14/09. After that I was thinking… then what? I want to run a half marathon this year. But there isn’t a whole lot out there to run from now until the fall. I want my next goal to be closer than the fall. I like a 12 – 15 week kind of goal to reach.

Now that I’ve signed us up to run the Trail 15K (9.3 miles) that will be perfect for my next training goal. At first I was thinking - we would already be trained for a 15K in March, so what’s the challenge? The challenge being that running the same distance on a trail takes much more time than it does on the road. Also more / different muscles need to be trained… and not to mention… foot /eye coordination?????? Hahahaha.

My next training goal will be for June 7, 2009. That being the trail 15K. To train for the goal I will run trails as much as possible, increase road distance so I’m at least running approximately the same amount of time it will take to complete the trail 15K. I will also focus more on my weight training, specifically lower body. There… that sounds fun!

Gotta go… Excel is awaiting!

Let It Snow

So, how cool is it that it snowed on Sunday! Yippie for the kids in all of us!

Before all of the pretty snow, let’s go back to Saturday’s race. The Cantrell Center 5K. We got up Saturday morning and met up with our usual race crew, me, Chuck, my Mom, and Tim…. Drove the 10 whole minutes to the Cantrell Center (love a close race!) and picked up our packets quickly and easily. I was in a good mood to start with for a change. It was my first race in 3 weeks that my nose wasn’t running like a faucet. Oh yes, cold is gone!

We had driven the course on Friday, and our friends (Jenny & Bug) ran the course a few times in the last few weeks. They said that the course was a little hilly so we were prepared for what was to come.

The race started, and I felt pretty darn good. I didn’t have any specific time in mind. I really just wanted to do better than I did last weekend at Al Toll (26:08). I figured that would be do-able since the first mile and a half wasn’t a super sucky hill. Once I got running good, at about a half mile into the race I could tell I had a pretty good stride going on. I took a few glimpse of the Garmin and was hanging around 7:40ish min mile pace. I was happy with that so I focused on maintaining the pace there. Even over the hills, then the last part of the race, when my chest was burning and I’d liked to have slowed down, I kept my pace as best I could… and ended up being quite happy with my finishing time. My Garmin said 25:24, I think that’s what the time clock said too, but you know how it’s easy to forget after you come through the finish line… It also measured the course at 3.18. I’ll break down my mile splits cause I’m a dork like that.

1 – (7:49) 2 – (7:57) 3 – (8:17) .10 – (1:19)
P.S. I don’t like the finishing line to be around a turn… would rather sprint straight in…

So, I was pleased with my time and the race overall. I didn’t PR, but I did for this year. Chuck & my Mom PR’d. Chuck came in under 27 for the first time (26:56?) and my Mom was right behind me in the 25’s I think… Not sure. Oh, and Chuck ran his PR 5K on 3 hours of sleep. He has been working nights so it has screwed up his sleeping schedule : (

Of course the rain and cold weather came in afterwards. But we stuck around. My Mom placed 1st in her age group! Oh yeah, Go Her!!! Wooooo Hoooooo. I’m proud of her.

Here is a goofy sideways picture of me and the CFA Cow.....




Mom and I went to lunch at O’Charley’s after the race. I had a huge chicken salad. YUM. We didn’t do much else for the rest of the day.

Sunday… we all know about the snow. Chuck and I decided to run in the snow. Our thoughts were… are we ever going to have an opportunity to run in the snow again? We bundled up and ran around the apartment complex in the pretty (cold wet slushy) snow for 3 miles and smiled and giggled about it most of the time.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to Pizza and Wings @ Meldino’s. I only ate 3 wings and 3 slices of pizza. I didn’t have ANY beer. Oh yeah, I was a good girl… and that was my treat of the week. Not bad.

Yesterday we ran a 7.5 mile VERY HILLY course out in Byron. I mean hilly. At about mile 1.5 there starts a series of 3 hills, the last hill being a half a mile long and VERY VERY steep. After the 3 hills you run out to total of about 3.8 mi. and turn around and go back, only to run the HILLS again! OH MY. They are a biotch! But check this out. The last time I ran the exact same course I finished in 1:17:37, but yesterday I had magic legs and finished it in 1:09:31. I’m super pumped up about that. I felt strong and fast the whole way back. Usually on the way back on the hills I want to die. Not yesterday.

Now it’s back to work. Normal day at the office. I’m gonna run tonight on the treadmill. Then I have 2 days of rest ahead of me. I Plan on running a very easy 3 on Friday morning. The Geico 12K on Saturday is next on our schedule. I’m looking forward to that race, I always enjoy it.

Happy Running!!!!!!