Race Report: 2016 Fred Meijer White Pine Trail 200 Mile Relay

2 vans.  12 friends.  38 hours and 6 minutes.  204.3 miles (16.3 were mine).  1 very cool teammate.  This isn't going to be my usual race report.  I experienced something very different with this year's Fred Relay.  

Team Screaming Thunderboxes at the start

I always have the best time on the Fred, if I didn't, I wouldn't have been back for round 3. But this year was different. I came into this knowing I was injured and horribly undertrained. I knew I wouldn't be running like I had the previous 2 years.   

I knew the night leg would be my favorite.  I don't run with a biker and this year I got to run the handoff leg around Lake Cadillac at midnight.  It was beautiful and my best run.  Something about running in the middle of the night and chicking a guy makes for a good time.

That's Mars in the sky!

Ready for bed!

I knew that the 3rd leg would be incredibly hard.  I wouldn't have been able to finish that 8.9 miles without Kaylee biking with me, being my water sherpa, and keeping me mentally strong. 

Very happy to check of that final run!

Van 1 DONE and ready to find beer (for at least 5 of the 6)

This year the Fred wasn't about me. It was about my girl. See that tall one in the picture up there?  She CRUSHED her first relay.  Being able to experience this race with Kaylee and watch her grow as a runner this year has been amazing. From her hating running, to having run a couple 5ks to sticking with a training plan while keeping up with her freshman year of college, to running her first 10k and then her first half and finally her first relay and covering almost 17 miles in a day and a half (faster than her predicted pace!) is what I will always remember from this summer and Fred 2016. Her other 10 teammates taking her under their wings and cheering her on was so fun to watch as well. 

I've always been proud of Kaylee - she makes it easy - but I'll never forget how blessed I am to experience things like this with her, not just as her mom but now also as her teammate.  The fun shirts, swag and bling are just icing on the cake.

Race Report: 2016 #runDonna Breast Cancer (Half) Marathon

I've been sitting on this race report for a week, trying to decide how best to write it.  Spoiler alert: it wasn't quite the "comeback" race that I'd planned but I finished and that was the main objective.

My midwinter break from school was nice enough to fall on Donna weekend again this year so I started making plans way back in September or October to fly down to Jacksonville and run it again.  It's a perfect excuse to find some warmer weather in February and see friends I only get to see once or twice a year.

There was one problem with my plan...I wasn't running yet.  I had been fighting achilles and shoulder problems for months and was heavy into PT.  But with my PT's (overly ambitious, IMO) blessing, I was told to start "training".  I couldn't run more than a couple minutes at a time until around the end of November so I worried I would never be able to get my mileage up enough to complete 13.1.  Every week from the 1st week of December until two weeks before the race I ramped up my long runs.  By the beginning of February, I'd been able to complete two 10-milers using a run/walk strategy so I figured I was good to go.  Then the week before the race hit me with horrible leg cramps at night and I was seeing the chiro and a massage therapist literally the day before I flew to Jax.

Not in the plan at all.  Add to this a 3 hour flight delay in Chicago and I was worried I wasn't even going to make it to the expo to register.  (Because weather in the Midwest in February is quite unpredictable, I didn't register in advance in case I couldn't make it there - I never anticipated multiple mechanical problems to ground us.)  Thankfully, I made it to the expo with about an hour to spare, rushed in and registered, and then headed to my hotel to chill before meeting friends for dinner.

Little did I know how prophetic this would be 

Just a few days before the Donna, I was chatting with my friend Krissy about the race.  She decided rather last minute to run the half marathon and we made plans to run together for as much as we could.  Krissy is a freaking ROCKSTAR for running a half only 9 weeks after having her adorable baby girl.  I think I was barely functioning at that point.

Requisite pre-race hotel selfie

I was up bright and early Sunday morning after just kind of throwing my gear out the night before.  I headed to the race in plenty of time to hit up the port-a-potties and meet up with Krissy.

Hanging in the ambassador tent with Krissy

It was pretty chilly race morning - in the high 30s - so I was very thankful for the cheap Walmart jacket and my daughter's old track sweatpants.  Those suckers stayed on until about 5 minutes before the start.  Krissy and I discussed race strategy as we hung out in the ambassador's tent.  We were both running Garmin-free but I was planning to call out our intervals (1/2 mile run / 45 second walks) as they played through my headphones.  Our goal was somewhere in the 2:30-2:40 range.  We both agreed if either wanted to change up this plan and do their own thing at some point, we were completely cool with this.  

Even with my lack of training, I was feeling pretty confident in my ability to complete the race using the intervals I'd set up.  My two 10 milers went well and our loose time goal should have been very attainable.  The race is self-seeded so after one last stop at the potties, we positioned ourselves toward the 2:40 pace group.  Krissy found a few other friends in the corrals so we chatted a bit before the start.  Off went the warm-up gear (it was in the 40s at this point) and off we went.  

The first few miles flew by as they typically do when you are having fun and chatting.  BRFs are awesome for that :)  We were keeping to our intervals and it wasn't too crowded, so moving to the side for walk breaks was pretty seamless.  I saw one of my friends around mile 5 and grabbed a quick swig of beer.  Yep, that's how I roll.  I was feeling pretty good although noting I was feeling a bit more winded than usual - probably because I was talking a lot and I rarely talk while I run.  (A peek back at my splits in runmeter also revealed we were averaging about an 11:15 pace with run segments in the low-10s through the first 7 miles or so, which was faster than I'd been training by about 30-45 seconds per mile).  Maybe this was the start of troubles to come.

I ducked into a port-a-potty at mile 6 to deal with a wardrobe malfunction (ie, chafing boobs are the devil but given the theme of this race, I'm thankful to still have them).  The wind from miles 5 to 7 was straight into our faces and it was really kicking my butt.  I was so thankful to hit the half/full split at mile 7 so we could have the wind at our backs for at least a couple miles.  We even got a hug from our friend, Marcia, who I didn't think we'd see.  Around mile 8 we ran into another one of Krissy's friends who was spectating and had the most delicious brownies.  We both enjoyed a brownie and continued on our way.

Having not run with my Garmin, it's hard to remember some of the "stops" except for when runmeter showed stopped time but I know it was around this point that I mentioned to Krissy how my calves and shins were starting to cramp up.  After the bad night cramps the week before, this was one fear going into the race that maybe I should have taken more seriously.  We saw my friend again at mile 9 and someone at the house gave me pickles and pickle juice.  Bless that sweet girl.  Side note - the neighborhoods go all out for this race and there were people grilling and cheering and having a 13.1 mile block party.  It's one of my favorite parts of this course.  The pickles helped a little with the cramping but I was definitely slowing down and starting to hurt.  Just before mile 10, Krissy was feeling amazing and I gave her a hug and sent her on her way.  (Girlfriend crushed her first postpartum half with about a 2:30 finish!)

Headed up the Butler Intercostal Bridge

The last 3 miles of this race are up and over the bridge on Butler Blvd.  With each attempt to run from about mile 10.5 on, my calves and shins cramped more and more.  I even stopped at another bathroom on the bridge because the pickle juice was not making my insides happy.  The wheels had fallen off the bus.  I talked to my friends to let them know what was wrong and that I was definitely not finishing in 2:30. I kept trying to run but it wasn't happening.  It was as if my legs had a mind of their own and at times I was running and walking on the sides of my feet or with my feet turned at a weird angle because the muscles were so cramped.  I had a bit of a cry at the top of the bridge (ok, it was full on sobbing) but at least the view was nice.  I also got to see the winners of the men's and women's races go by me so that was cool.

The Intercostal

I was so close to calling my friends to tell them I couldn't finish but I knew I didn't come 1200 miles in a plane and 12 miles on foot to quit with a mile to go.  I continued my 3 mile death march and when I saw the finish line, I told myself to run.  It' was a 10th of a mile, for God's sake! Surely I could suck it up for a 10th of a freaking mile.  Nope.  My legs didn't get the message.  It was the weirdest sensation ever and I must have looked like one of those deer who are just born and trying to make their legs work.  I stumbled and cramped and I almost fell within yards of the finish line.  Several times.  I've never had this happen before and I was in so much pain and really confused.  I saw my friends just past the finisher shoot and I'm very thankful for Wendy literally holding me up.  She kept telling me how proud she was of me as I hung on her and cried.  For the first time ever, I was put in a wheelchair and taken to medical.  I was a bit pissed my friends did that but it was probably for the best because I couldn't even stand much less walk.  The medical folks massaged and iced my calves and gave me some gatorade.  After I felt like I could walk again I met up with my friends and they took care of me (ie, found me beer).

Love my girl, Wendy

I'm still trying to figure out what happened and why my legs cramped like they did.  My friends suspect the weather may have had something to do with it.  It had probably moved up into the mid to high 50s by the end and with the winds I never felt hot or realized how much I was sweating.  Maybe I didn't drink enough or my calves were more injured from the cramping the week before.  It's a week later and I'm still having leg cramping issues so who knows.  Hopefully it doesn't continue.

Am I flipping off the camera?

While this was my worst road half ever (2:51:59 - a 13:08 ave pace) it was still a finish and a finish that 4 months prior I didn't think I'd even be able to start.  One of my friends called this "triumphant". I'm not sure I'd go that far but my view is a bit skewed still.  The best parts of this race were the sunshine, having my friends there and being able to run a solid 10 with Krissy before the shit hit the fan, all while supporting a great cause.  Any day you get to run in the sun with your best running friends is a good day in my book.

Next year is the 10th anniversary of the 26.2 with Donna so I'd LOVE to come back for a third time.  Heck, anniversary or not I want to come back.  Maybe if the stars align you'll see me in Jacksonville next February.  Want to join me?  Registration starts this spring :)
  

LPGA 5k #ForeHunger #racereport

This past weekend, I participated in the 2nd annual LPGA Classic 5k affiliated with the Meijer LPGA Classic.  I was provided with a free entry to run the race for offering to join a team of Michigan bloggers, but after running I would pay next year.  It was a well organized and very fun event.  (Sadly, or not since we aren't fast, we didn't have enough bloggers to be an official team, but it was still super fun.)

Before the race started, I met up with my friend, Megan, who was also participating and we snapped a picture with Tony the Tiger.  Kellogg's is also a major sponsor and this was a fundraiser for their organization, Simply Give, which helps stock food pantries throughout the Midwest.

This race is very small (only about 500 people total) but was friendly towards any ability level.  There were the uber fast runners - the winner went 15:01 which is unreal to me - all the way to walkers with their kids.  Then there were the rest of us mortals :)  Your entry into the race got you a nice t-shirt, a sling-bag, and if you so desired 2 tickets to the LPGA Classic.

The race is held at Rockford High School, and having been there many times for sporting events, I knew the surrounding area could be VERY hilly.  Luckily, the course was great with a downhill first mile, only one hill in the 2nd mile, and a finish on the RHS track.  I haven't pushed a run in a long time and it felt great to really work this one.  Megan is super fast and finished several minutes before me and she snapped a picture of me on the track.

I finished in 31:02 - a 9:59 average pace!! I haven't done that in quite awhile, so I was very happy with my time.  My splits were 9:30, 10:53 (I really need to work on hills and drinking without walking), 10:02, and then an 8:30 pace on the track.  Who am I???

All of the mile markers featured Tony the Tiger so we had to snap a picture with a giant box of Frosted Flakes at the finish.  After the race was a huge breakfast for all the runners.  Many varieties of cereal, milk, juice, Pop Tarts, various granola bars, protein drinks and even some Gluten Free items were available.

Megan and I hung out with her hubby at the breakfast for awhile before we both took off to get cleaned up.  I needed to rest up before attending the LPGA Classic final round on Sunday!  More on that later this week.

#racereport Rock n Roll Chicago 10k

Photo-heavy post because that's how I feel like rolling on this one.  You're welcome.

After last year's very tough RnR Chicago Half Marathon (in which I ran 18 miles training for Detroit), I said I would never do another RnR event.  I wasn't impressed with the bands at all and I didn't feel like it was worth the cash.  However, the opportunity to see my friend, Renee (who now lives in the Netherlands), was a very good reason to never say never and sign up for the 10k

Renee and I met up at the expo. Decent expo and I drove a Toyota for a $10 gift card, which I used to buy a pint glass.

Love the shirt.

 After walking around the expo for a bit, Renee and I headed to our hotel and I set out Flat Bari.

 We stayed the the Congress Hotel, which I would highly recommend for any races starting or finishing at the north end of Grant Park.  Literally only a few blocks from the start/finish for the Half.  I had a mile walk to the 10k start line down Michigan Avenue.

Took the stairs because the elevator was "busy".

 Renee's friend, Becky, also came into town to run the half marathon and hang out with Renee.  She was a riot and we may have been a little slap-happy by the time we finally got ready for bed. (Note-I recommend packing your own breakfast for races like this.  The girls really wanted bagels and we had to hit about 4 or 5 places before we found any at 9pm at night.)

As usual, I slept very little before the race and was up extremely early.  The temps were already AWFUL with a dew point of 72*.

 We got up and got ready, then took an obligatory, pre-race blurry picture.  Renee and Becky needed to get to their start and I headed south to mine.

 The sunrise over Grant Park could not have been any more beautiful.  It almost made getting up at 4am worth it.

I'll be honest, seeing how tiny the starting corral was really shook me up.  I was very concerned that hardly any people were running and I was going to end up DFL.  Turns out it was really small but I did pretty well considering how hot it was.

 I was in a port-a-potty line 3 minutes before the start, so I jumped back out and self-seeded myself in the 2nd wave.  There were 3 waves and they went off about a minute apart.  Easy peasy.  Luckily, there was no line at the potties about 1/2 a mile in so I stopped to pee.

This was the only picture I took and it was around the 2.5 mile mark.  I was completely drenched in sweat and was stopping at every water station to drink and dump water on myself.  I couldn't even operate my phone so I kept it tucked away.

 I finished in 1:10:05.  I was hoping for 1:15 with how hot and humid it was, so I'm happy with this time.  The best part was finishing 46/167 in my age group.  I'm not sure I've ever finished that high, so clearly the heat really affected the runners.

One of the best parts of the day was the afterparty.  Last year, the band sucked and I didn't stick around.  This year they brought in Andy Grammar and he put on a great, hour-long show.  I was there early enough (thanks to running the 10k instead of the half) to get about 15-20 feet from the stage.  

Super fun weekend with lots of awesome girl time and a great concert.  Not too shabby.

Did you race this past weekend?

2015 5/3 River Bank Run 25k

Saturday marked my 3rd running of the 5/3 River Bank Run 25k.  For those in West Michigan, this is THE spring race event and is the 25k national championship race.  This year, those uber fast folks could also attempt to make the half marathon Olympic Trials as part of the race.  I'm not sure how many attempted it, but what a cool opportunity for the elites.

I haven't been super healthy from a running standpoint and for the past couple weeks, I've been barely getting through my long runs and my weekly shorter runs have been more walks than anything else.  To say I had very low expectations for this race would be an understatement.  I was even debating whether to even show up Saturday morning but because I ran the Gazelle Girl Half a few weeks ago and paid all sorts of money to run this one (and get the Double Down medal), I knew I would at least make it to the start.  My goal was just one foot in front of the other until the finish line, no matter how long it took.

Not feeling confident about my ability to run, I set up Runmeter to intervals (2:30 run/:30 walk).  I wasn't using my Garmin for this race either because I haven't been timing my runs and it would have only stressed me out.

Saturday morning's weather was crappy as per RBR usual.  Some years it's freezing, others are roasting, most of the time it's raining.  Yesterday was humidity, warmth (mid-60s), and rain.  Lots and lots of rain.  I woke up at 4am to the downpour. Because this race is only about 15 minutes from my house, I figured I'd get downtown in plenty of time to park and get to the start.  Sadly, got a little bit of a late start but it ended up working out ok.  Our church is only a few blocks from the start and we were able to park there and wait inside where it was warm and dry.  We even watched a bunch of the 5k and 10k runners go by.


I wandered down to the start about 20 minutes before the gun and found a few friends in the crowd.  The crowd was significantly smaller than in previous years and I'd love to see how many DNS's there were because of the weather.  I had started my playlist before I walked down from church and tucked my phone into two ziplock bags in my fuelbelt.  The gun went off and I took off running with the 11 m/m mile pace group just a little bit ahead of me.

My achilles was squaking at me but it wasn't horrible so I just kept running nice and easy, with walks just to grab water at the aid stations about every 1.5 miles.  I made it through the little downtown area and into the trail system feeling pretty good.  It was around 3 or 4 miles in that my friend Tim tapped me on the shoulder and said "hi".  He and our friend Joe were right behind me.  I played rabbit for them until just after mile 8 when I ducked into a bathroom.  I was clearly well hydrated.

I hit the 1/2 way mark still feeling pretty good.  Much better than expected. I actually felt the strongest through the hills on Butterworth.  My playlist was outstanding and in this section I was singing outloud to Uptown Funk, Pour Some Sugar on Me, and Dear Future Husband.  The people around me were quite entertained.

Just after mile 11 or so I came across Lake Butterworth.  (Thank you to Pete for posting a picture and letting me steal it.) I had to laugh out loud as lines of runners went through mud and a giant briar patch to get around the massive puddle.  People who went through it said it was up to about mid-calf.  I debated for a few seconds about just running through since my feet were soaked anyway, but I decided to go around and ended up with mud soaking through my Newtons.  I needed new shoes anyway.


We came out of the hills and back into town around mile 12 and I still couldn't believe how good I felt.  I was getting tired but other than those water station walks and my mud trek, I'd been running the whole thing.

Then the wheels fell off.  Somewhere around mile 12.5 my legs just said NOPE and started cramping up.  My stomach started hurting and I felt like even when I was running that I wasn't moving.  I realized I hadn't taken any gels since mile 8 so I took another around the 13 mile mark.  I made it to the half marathon mat and then started paying attention to the intervals that had been talking to me the whole race.  I was pretty sure my unspoken sub-3 hour goal was gone at this point and I just wanted to get to the end.

from Wood TV via my daughter - I'm *almost* famous!

For the last 2.5 miles of the race, all I wanted to do was stop running but I made myself run those dang 2 1/2 minute intervals, even if the run wasn't much faster than the walks.  On Lake Michigan Drive, I was my friend, Tammie, cheering and I went over to get a much needed hug.  I think I told her I felt like shit and she said I looked better than shit so to keep running.  I wanted to run the last mile but even in that section I did my walks because mentally and physically I was done.  The last 1/4 mile or so is up a hill that feels like it's straight up but it really isn't.  My legs were toast but I ran that last section with all I had and even managed to chick a couple guys.  Go me!

I crossed the finish line and the clock read 3:06 something, so I was pretty sure I was over 3 hours. I didn't really care but I sorta did.  My legs were one giant pile of cramp and I was having a hard time walking and I was crying.  Interestingly, my sports med doc was working the finish line and he came over to me and put his arm around me.  I know he was just doing his job and making sure I wasn't going to fall over, but it was so nice to see a familiar face. We walked with him holding me up for a little bit until I said I was ok and he gave me a big hug.  I somehow made it the rest of the way through the finish shoot.

I was so happy to get those 2 medals.  I sat down on the steps of Calder Plaza and somehow my friends found me there.  Good thing.  I'd have never gotten back up without their help.

I LOVE the medal this year and getting the Double Down for also running Gazelle Girl was a great touch.  This is the first year (outside of the 35th Anniversary race that I spectated in my boot) that the RBR has had a new medal design.  It's beautiful!  The Gazelle one says Finish2 for Finished Squared and the logos for both races are on the back.

When I realized I could scan my bib to get my official results, I think I SQUEEE'd out loud in the car when I saw I just eeked out a sub-3 hour finish!  For running one of my worst races as far as pace goes, I'm happy with this one.  I fought for that finish starting about 2 weeks ago right up until I crossed that finish line.

Will I run the 25k here again?  I really don't know.  I think I need a serious running break from distance runs and even a break from running in general.  I hated the shirt this year.  I wore it for a couple hours after the race and it will probably never see the light of day again - it's WAY too big and even though I paid extra for a tech shirt, there were no exchanges for tech. So annoying.  The weather is always iffy for this one but at least I earned a little Michigan runner girl cred back for running in the soup after hardly running outside all winter long.  I figure I have until next January or so before I have to decide.

2015 Gazelle Girl Half Marathon race report

Last weekend I laced up my Newtons for my first Garmin-free race, the 2015 Gazelle Girl Half Marathon.  I made a deal with Deb to not wear my Garmin during April and even though she said I could wear it for the race I decided to go into the run blind.  Before I get to the run though, a few other things.

Expotique
This is the 3rd year for the Gazelle Girl and also the 3rd location for its Expotique.  Last year I Woman'd a booth for Another Mother Runner but we could not participate this year due to restrictions put on my Nike (a title sponsor) prohibiting clothing sales.  This year, the expo was held in the field house of our local community college and I really wasn't impressed.  There were very few exhibitors (seemed down from last year) and the only clothing items were Gazelle Girl specific ones from Nike (except for a few shirts from Fellow Flowers and I'm not sure how that was allowed with what AMR was told).  They did have a fun photobooth but really not much else.  I ran into friends right as I got there so that was fun and packet pickup was super easy.  I had paid extra for VIP-tent access and this included a separate table for packet pickup.

Great running into Megan!

Race Morning
I had my usual crappy pre-race night of sleep and woke up to a windy, chilly morning.  This race is only about 20 minutes from my house so getting there is easy-peasy.  I'm cheap so I parked in some free lots about 1/2 a mile from the start and walked toward the beautiful sunrise.  I decided on capris, tank and arm warmers for the race.  Turned out just about perfect.


VIP Tent
Gazelle Girl is not an inexpensive race but fairly on par with other half marathons in the area.  I believe I paid $75 with pre-registration (it was $95 at the expo) and this includes your finisher charm, a decent shirt, and the usual post-race food stuffs.  Prior to the event, a VIP tent was offered, sponsored by Nike.  For an extra $35 we would get a swag bag with water bottle (that my track girl has already claimed), hat and some other food things, a heated tent to wait in, food before and after the race, private gear check, and private bathrooms.  Since I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the expo because of my daughter's track meet, I decided to fork over the extra dough to have a nice place to wait and pee in the morning.  I was pretty sure I wouldn't eat anything before the race but was looking forward to some real food afterwards.  I was also sold on the bathrooms and gear check.


The food was really quite good - muffins, yogurt, granola and stuff for breakfast burritos.  The bathrooms? Not so much.  There was a trailer with 3 nice bathrooms that flushed and had sinks, but this was not enough for the number of people they allowed in the tent.  I used them when I first got there but as we approached T-1 hour until race time, the tent became packed and the bathroom line snaked around to the point I couldn't figure out where it started.  I ended up leaving the tent with 30 min to spare and waited about 27 minutes in a bathroom line to use a port-a-potty.  I got into the corrals just as they were singing the National Anthem.

The Race
I lined up between the 10:30 and 11:00 m/m pacers only because that's where I spotted my friend Jessica.  The race was sent off in waves but it didn't take long to get to the start.  As I said before, this is the 3rd year for this race - it's also the 3rd course.  The first year we had horrible flooding in Grand Rapids and part of the course was underwater.  They changed it the 2nd year I think to prevent that scenario.  This year they changed it again to accommodate a larger field (it was capped at 2000 for the half - the 5k did not have a limit) and changed the race from Saturday to Sunday to make road closures have less of an impact on the community.  I really enjoyed this year's course.

We headed north through downtown and Riverside Park, then up to the 5/3 Ballpark, looped back and came back south.  Most of the course was run on paved trails along the river so the scenery is nice.  Much better than last year's long industrial section. The route started and finished pretty much where the 5/3 River Bank Run 25k will be and downtown Grand Rapids knows how to put on this kind of event.  The police officers were great at keeping intersections safe and the cheer squads were outstanding.  Since this is a women's half, the vast majority of spectators were men and children.  I gave more high 5s than I can count and loved reading people's signs.  As I wrote in my race recap on Daily Mile, my favorites were these two guys whose signs kept changing as they positioned themselves from place to place on the course.  "Free High 5s" turned into "Last Chance for Free High 5s" and his buddy had a sign that said "Beer at the End" at the beginning and "Sorry, I drank all the beer" at the end.  They made me laugh 4 or 5 times during the race.  I also got to see a few friends on the course, including Brian in a dress, and at one cheer station, my friends had Jello shots.  Yes, I really enjoyed that Jello shot right before mile 10 :)  My goal was to run as much of this race as I could and that's what I did.  I stayed just behind the 10:30 pacers for the first 4 miles but lost them when I walked for a gel at mile 4. When the 11:00 pacers passed me at 7.5 I had a little pity party for about 2 minutes, then I literally "Let It Go" when that song came on my playlist.  I knew I was slowly fading but I just kept moving forward.  It was also right around here that I saw the last 2 women walking with a police car following (they would have been about 4.5 miles into their race at that point). Running a half marathon is tough - I think walking one would be even harder and I give those girls major props for being out there.  I only walked through aid stations and around mile 11.5 when I took another gel because my stomach was growling.  Right around mile 12 after the one big hill, I ran into one of my BRFs, Jenn, and we decided to run in together.  When I saw the clock said 2:29 I made us haul ass that last .1 so we'd finish in under 2:30.  We crossed the finish line hand-in-hand and her sweetie got a great picture of us after we finished.

credit

We got our fruit and water and then headed back to the VIP area.  At this point in the day, the heaters probably could have been turned off, but the best part was the real food, coffee, and real-ish bathrooms.  There was no line this time since the majority of the finishers had already finished.  My official time was 2:27:29 (11:14 pace, 214/302 AG, 1367/1981 finishers).  I beat last year's (completely untrained) 2:42:40 so that makes me happy.  I know I'm not in PR shape (would need 2:06 for that) so learning to re-adjust my goals and race strategy was a good thing.

Post Race
Even though I ran this one "for fun" with no real time goals, 13.1 miles is still 13.1 miles and the next day I was feeling a bit rough.  I didn't drink enough water on Sunday and I was rewarded with a killer migraine Monday morning.  I was also pretty achy.  Priority 1: I really need to get these extra pounds back off because my body is getting beat up much more than it should be and my times just keep getting slower and slower.  I also think I need to take a break from the distance stuff after the 25k in 3 weeks.  As of now, I only have a mud run on the calendar and I don't plan on signing up for any fall half marathons.  I think it's time to switch focus.

I like the shirt this year. Last year's shirt was a weird fabric and it went into my race shirt blanket.

Pretty charm. Last year it was shaped like The Mitten but this is cute too.

Will I run Gazelle Girl again?  Probably.  It's local and a well-run event.  I highly doubt I'll use the VIP tent again since it really wasn't worth the extra money.  If they add more bathrooms, then maybe.  As for running watchless, I think for the time being, it holds some merit.  I believe my Garmin will stay uncharged for the 25k with the plan to just have fun and run by feel.  I know I'm not in PR shape for that one so hopefully I can just finish feeling good (as good as you can feel after running 15.5 miles) with a smile on my face.

Kent City Ridge Run 15k Race Report

This past weekend I decided to forgo my usual, flat as a pancake, 11 mile long run in favor of a hilly 15k race.  Friends have spoken highly of the Kent City Ridge Run 15k and I've never run it before, so I figured, what the heck. It was after I registered that I looked at the course and elevation profiles.  Probably should have checked these out first.

Kent City is about 45 minutes from my house and the race didn't start until 9:30, so I was able to sleep in a tiny bit.  I had my usual breakfast and headed out to "Jill's Hills".  The race starts and finishes at Kent City High School and the school was open before the race, so I had a warm place to wait.  Good thing because it was about 16* Saturday morning.

I started out pretty strong considering the race has an immediate uphill as soon as you leave the school parking lot.

Away we go!

 Miles 1-3: 10:32, 11:24, 10:50.  The north/south roads of this course were paved and the east/west roads were dirt and gravel, so the terrain kept changing.  This was both a challenge and a weird change of pace.  I wasn't crazy about the dirt downhills but whatever.  At least the views were nice.

Around mile 2

 Miles 4-7: 11:03, 11:10, 11:05, 11:37.  I wanted to maintain a sub-11 average pace for this race and with the steady uphill in this 4 mile stretch, I saw the average on my watch dip into the low 11's, which pissed me off.  I'd walked a couple times for only a few seconds and was walking through the aide stations, so that didn't help either.

Mile 4.5 ish.  The hill just kept going and going.

Miles 8-9.3: 10:07, 10:11, 8:36 (pace for last .3).  That nice downhill that started at the end of mile 7 pretty much saved my average pace for this race.  I passed a lot of people in these final 2.3 miles, including a guy, so that felt good.  I still had enough gas at the end to log a sub-9 pace too with the final .1 being uphill into the parking lot!  I think I ran this race very smartly and I felt strong at the end, even if in the middle I felt like my legs were going to fall off and that I was sucking wind.

I finished in 1:40:48 with a 10:49 average pace.  I was 11/15 in my AG, 79/115 women and 179/217 overall.  I'm not thrilled with those stats but I am happy with my final time.  This was a training run and I didn't go balls out (unlike in previous years when I've run races as training runs) and my age group is crazy fast.  For reference, the winner in my AG ran a 7:44 pace (finished in 1:11:58) and the top 5 women in my group were all sub-10 average paces. I didn't stand a chance to place much better than I did.  My B goal was to finish in under 1:45 and my A goal was under an 11 m/m pace.  I exceeded both of those goals on one of the hilliest courses I've ever run.  Even with the hills, none of them were as bad as I thought they'd be and I think the varying terrain and ups/downs helped work different parts of my legs.  The race also had a 5k and I saw lots of little kids getting ready to run that one with their parents, so it's a family-friendly event.

For such a small race, the Kent City Ridge Run was a class race.  The intersections were all staffed by EMS and Firefighters from the local fire department and the cutest little girls were handing out water.  While the roads weren't completely closed, the volunteers did a great job of keeping vehicles away from the runners.  Chip timing for a race this small was also a very nice touch.

 The spread after the race was pretty incredible too.  Seriously the best baked potato I've ever had.  In addition to the potatoes with all the fixings, they had cookies, bananas, oranges, apples, gogo squeeze applesauce, carrots, coffee, gatorade and water.  Super friendly volunteers were feeding everyone and they were printing results off as they came in.

For a race that cost less than $25, I would definitely run it again.  The long sleeve cotton race shirt (not tech like they'd advertised but a softer, gender specific cotton) is really nice. They even had 4 different colors to choose from and today announced on their Facebook page if anyone needed to trade sizes that they had extras.  The little medal is super cute, too, and I wasn't expecting that.  If you live in the West Michigan area, the Kent City Ridge Run is definitely one to put on your list.