5 Arizona Races You Should Run {link up}

Posted by hellyontherun in 10k, 5k, Half Marathon, Marathon, Race, Running and tagged with 1/2 Marathon, 10K, 5k, Araivaipa, Esprit de She, Local Race, Marathon, Pat's Run, Phoenix Marathon February 20, 2015

So I’ve been slacking on my Lost Dutchman 10k Recap–not because I did so poorly I swear!–but because I’m still sick 😦

After quite a few days of yuckiness, I’m finally starting to feel like I’m on the mend (don’t want to jinx it though!).

I absolutely love the Lost Dutchman race and have done it twice, both times running the 10k distance. Instead of recapping just the race though, I’ve decided to include it in Cynthia, Courtney, and Mar‘s Friday Five: 5 Races to Run in 2015 🙂

Now I know the race is in the past, so technically you can’t run it in 2015, BUT, it’s still a race that I super highly recommend, especially if you want a beautiful Arizona race.

1. Lost Dutchman

I love this race because you get a lot of options. There’s an 8k trail race, a 10k, a 1/2 marathon, and a full marathon to choose from. Tons of people from my run club love and swear by the half marathon raving on its stunning views and overall fun course. I have yet to do the half because this race is 2 weeks before Phoenix Marathon and I’m always scared to race race so close to a full. So I stick to the 10k.

The 10k has some small, rolling hills (and from what I’ve heard, the 1/2 and full as well). It’s an out and back and the first 3.1 miles has you running with a huuuge mountain as your scenery. It’s gorgeous.

Seriously though

The race is super family friendly with the start line for all races at an actual park. My husband took my daughter to cheer me on and they played on the playground while I ran 🙂

This year I didn’t run so well, unfortunately. In fact, I might venture to say it was my worst race 😦 I think the fatigue of training and my sickness caught up to me and I just couldn’t muster the energy to run fast. Last year I place 2nd in my age group and snagged a 10k PR so I had a lot to live up to. Wasn’t even close this year. Oh well…it was still a super fun race. One that I love because of it’s small size and homey feel. And killer views 🙂 I’ll do this race every year for sure.

and she loves it too!

My fave cheerleader

2. Esprit de She 5k/10k (and du and tri)

This is another smaller race that I really like. There are several states that this race is held in but it’s def not a super big one. It’s an all female race, which I kinda, really like. It’s basically a party with bunch of girlfriends. Wine included!

There’s a 5k and 10k option and the one in my city was a loop you circled twice (for the 10k). This was another race I didn’t do so well in (damn 10ks!) but it’s still another that I’ll do every year because of how much fun it is. The post race party is THEE best.

Me and my beautiful friend, Nadia (who placed 4th overall!)

Esprit de She also holds triathlons and duathlons. Someday, I might get crazy and attempt the du 😀

I’m an ambassador for EdS and while I don’t have a coupon code to offer for the race, you can use my track code, EDS003 It’s NOT a coupon code, it just tracks how many people I send to the race (in any city).

If you do want to do the du or tri, that I do have a code for: AMBASRD will save you 15%.

3. Phoenix Marathon

I’m kinda biased 😀 This was my first marathon and I’m so glad I chose it as my first. I love that it’s not a HUGE race ala Chicago or Marine Corps (although those are amazing) and you can’t not like the elevation chart

The race has a 10k, 1/2 marathon, and full marathon option and it’s quickly become a top marathon to run if you’re attempting a BQ. Duh right? With an elevation chart like that? The full sold out for the second year in a row.

There are a gazillion bloggers/IGers who are doing this race next weekend so you will def be seeing a lot of pics leading up to and the day of. You can also follow #ItsGoingDownAtPHX if you want to see double the fun. Seriously though, a TON of people are doing this race. Except this person who should be doing it, dammit.

4. Aravaipa Trail Race (or find a trail race near you!)

I love, love, love trail running and the trail races to do here in Arizona are put on by Aravaipa. I plan on doing more of their races in the future but the one I have done was SO FREAKING ~~HARD~~ AWESOME. It was a night 27k trail race. Yes, night. I had no idea what I was doing; it was my first trail race and my first race at night and it was def hard. But something totally cool and something I will totally do again.

Aravaipa Adrenaline 27k

Wouldn't this distract you too?? Photo Cred: B. Swanson

I ❤ the desert.

If you haven’t done any trail running, I highly recommend it. There’s something so liberating about the trails. It’s like there’s less pressure running on the trails then the roads. Less focus on time, more focus on the love of running. On the feeling of awesomeness that is running. Just do it. You’ll love it.

5. Pat’s Run

This is the race to run in Arizona. I can guarantee if you’re in a room with people someone will have run this race at some point. Maybe all of them will have.

It’s a 4.2 mile course in honor of Pat Tillman, former ASU and Cardinal football player who wore #42. He left the NFL to defend our country after the events of 9/11.

This is not a race to run if you’re super focused on time. It’s just way too crowded. There are TONS of people who run this; it sells out every. single. year. Pat’s Run also has “shadow runs” in different states where runners run the same distance, 4.2 miles. Check out the website to see if there’s a Pat’s Run in your are (those stateside).

This will be my little girl’s first race! We signed her up last year but then had to cancel when we took our impromptu trip to Spain. She’ll be doing a 42 yard dasher ❤

The race ends inside Sun Devil Stadium (Arizona State University) at the 42 yard line. So you get to run through the tunnel and enter the stadium as you finish. It’s pretty awesome.

I’ve also written more about this race here 🙂

I stayed local and that’s because there are so many awesome races here! So if you’re ever in Arizona and wanna race, make sure you let me know you’re coming though so I can run with ya! ❤

–Do you like small, local races? or larger, more well known races?

–What is the race to run where you’re from?

Thanks to the DC Trifecta ladies again for hosting!

Week 14 Phoenix Marathon Training Recap

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running and tagged with Marathon Training, Phoenix Marathon, Running, Sick, Taper, Valentine's Day February 16, 2015

This is the first time that I’ve every truly experienced the taper crazies. Before, I wasn’t so stressed as much as excited. This time, I’m a nervous wreck.

Yep, pretty much.

I mentioned last week how I’d come down with a serious head cold, well it hasn’t gone away. In fact, last week it turned into a full blown I feel like death sickness. My head hurt, I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t talk–think smoker, raspy voice. It was bad.

But I ran. Oh, by golly, I ran.

On Sunday and Monday, I took a rest day after my twenty miler the previous Saturday. Remember how I lamented about my knee? Yeah, it’s sore 😦 Ugh!!!

Tuesday I forced myself to get to my run club’s Tuesday run. They all heard my voice and asked what the hell I was doing there. I managed to get in a good 5 miles (9:05/mile), despite sounding and feeling miserable.

Wednesday I was officially on the struggle bus. I had 9 Yasso’s on the schedule and I really didn’t want to miss this day of training. So I went and it was not pretty. Last week, I was so proud of my 800s and how consistent they were; this week, not so much. They were all over the place.

At least the circles are pretty 🙂

Thursday and Friday I rested. I tried to rest as much as I could. I actually took the day off from work on Thursday to help out my situation. I was just so exhausted.

In other news, I’m looking into transferring schools closer to home. My current commute is around 40 minutes both ways and even though I absolutely love, love, LOVE, my current school, I really want to be close to my kids and husband. On Thursday I found an opening at a school I’m interested in close to where I live. I scrambled all afternoon getting everything I needed to fulfill the application. As a result, it wasn’t as a relaxing day off as I’d planned lol! But still very exciting as I’m keeping my fingers crossed everything works out.

Friday, my husband and I had our Valentine’s Day dinner. We opted to do it then instead of Saturday night because I had a race on Sunday and didn’t want to run with a full stomach from dinner ha!

Cheesecake Factory 😀

A few of my friends and I had planned to run the first 8 miles of the Phoenix Marathon course the next morning, Saturday. We wanted to get our legs ready for that initial downhill. I set my alarm for 5 a.m. and tried my best to get a good night’s sleep.

But it didn’t happen.

I woke up to the sound of my alarm and my throat on fire. There was no way I’d be able to run that morning and not make my situation worse. I texted my girlfriends that I wasn’t going to be able to make it. And then I cried.

Yes, I cried.

I got so emotional. I’ve been working so hard this training and I feel like it’s slipping away. Between being sick and now this knee hurting, I’m afraid that any chance of doing well is going out the window. I know I’m being dramatic, but it’s tough having things so out of your control. Ugh.

Later on Saturday, my husband suggested we go for a run ourselves. He knew that I really wanted to get the mileage in. So we did 6 miles around the neighborhood and I came home to a Valentine’s card and a new pair of shoes!

❤

Those six miles were tough and I was not feeling good about the race the next day. If you follow me on Insta or Facebook, then you know that those tough 6 miles were a foreshadowing of a not-so-good Sunday 10k race. I’ll be doing a full re-cap tomorrow but yeah, it wasn’t my best piece of work. By any means.

Welp, there you have it! A big struggle week but I made it through.

Total miles: 21.7 miles
Water Intake: B+ (at least something went well this week lol!)

–Do you run when you’re sick? How about if you’re reeeeally close to marathon time?

–How was your Valentine’s Day?

Week 13 Phoenix Marathon Training Recap

Posted by hellyontherun in Marathon, Running and tagged with Long Run, Marathon Training, Phoenix Marathon, Running, Taper, Yasso 800s February 9, 2015

Yep, it’s that time!!! TAPER TIME!!!

Can’t believe it’s already here–after 13 weeks of training, I am 3 weeks away from the big day and…

and I’m not sure how I feel….excited? Yes. Scared? Yes. More scared than excited? Kinda.

Maybe nervous is better. I’ve worked so hard this training cycle. Harder than the first time I did Phoenix Marathon (I was 7 months post pregnancy so any hard core training was just not feasible with 2 under 2) and way harder than Marine Corps Marathon (my dream race with no real goal goal). This time, I’m no a mission to get a sub 4:30. So I def have a goal. My paces in my training lead me to believe that I can meet that goal but the unknown of race day is what has me nervous. I just won’t know until the day arrives. That’s hard.

Anyway, last week was a good week of running. I was suffering through a nasty head/sinus cold–I don’t know what was going on but my head and nose and throat were not happy–but I still managed to get some decent runs in.

On Monday, I stayed home and rested. I knew I wasn’t well and wanted to give myself some recovery time. But I was back at it on Tuesday meeting up with my run club buddies. One of my friends who I hadn’t seen in months was there. She doesn’t do cold very well so rarely if ever, makes it out during the winter. But with warmer temps in the Valley lately (I’m not even going to tell you about our awesome weather), she was there and ready to run. I love running with her because she. is. fast. But like achievable fast. Like the kind of fast I can do if I push myself but can’t do if I tried to do it every day kind of fast.

I’m hoping for this pace at my next race. Fingers crossed.

I used to run these paces with her last spring but hadn’t really been pushing myself lately like that in a while. I have a 10k next weekend that I’d love to run in that pace–my PR is from that race last year and I love to beat it. We shall see.

Wednesday was Yasso’s at the track. Last week I averaged a 4:10ish 800 for the 7 that I did. I was hoping to keep it more at the 4:06 I’d done two weeks prior. Wednesday night? Success.

Nailed the track workout and rode a pretty awesome runner’s high the rest of the night:

8×800–4:08, 4:06, 4:06, 4:02, 3:58, 4:02, 4:02, 3:58 (with a short recovery in between each set)

running circles under a full moon

By Thursday though, I was exhausted. My head and throat were really bothering me and I felt like the 4 miles I had planned wouldn’t be as helpful as a day’s rest. So I took the day off. Not completely though. Salt tagged me to take on Day 4 of the prAna challenge she’s been doing and attempt the following yoga pose:

flexibility is not in my bag of tricks unfortunately

There’s really not a whole lot of bending going on, but I was a good sport and shared my yoga “pose” with the world anyway lol! I took the rest of Thursday and Friday to stretch and foam roll and try and get myself healthy for the weekend.

Because Saturday I had my second and LAST 20 miler!!!

I wasn’t sure how I’d do considering I wasn’t feeling 100% and I told my husband that if I felt like I couldn’t go on or that I was doing more harm than good, I’d call him to get me. Luckily, I didn’t have to do that as the run went pretty awesomely.

My friend that I’d done the first 20 with agreed to the insane start time of 4:15 a.m. There were 4 others who’d decided to also start in the middle of the night (I swear, I love my running group. We’re all a bunch of crazies) and we all got started right away. 4 of us 6 were running similar paces (me and Jen, and 2 others) so we were in good company. The first 10 miles went by smoothly and without a hitch and before we knew it, we were halfway done! It had seriously felt like it’d flown by. And it kinda had as we’d done this 10 faster than we’d done the first 10 in the previous 20 miler.

Besides mile 10, I’m pretty proud with the consistency.

We took a potty break after mile 10 and then headed right back on. The short break had made my legs a little stiff; I could especially feel it in my left knee, but I kept trucking. I made it to mile 15 still feeling good and took a GU. With 5 miles left, I was pumped I’d been running so well. Miles 15 and 16 chimed away both at 9:17 and Jen and I looked at each other incredulously–whoa there! We regrouped and continued on. I could definitely feel my left knee but the pain wasn’t anything intolerable and I finished the 20 miler feeling really, really good with the run.

The second half was little all over the place as far as splits lol!

I was very pleased with the run and I felt good the entire way. Even running out of water at mile 18, I felt good. (I was running with my hydration pack–I don’t plan to during the race.) My knee hadn’t bothered me throughout but when I was done, oh boy. It was pretty instantaneous. As soon as I stopped, I felt my knee start to bruise and swell. It was super tender to the touch.

Once I was home, I immediately iced and that helped. I had to run (not literally, thank God) to my daughter’s soccer practice so I didn’t have much time to ice but as soon as that was over, I was back with the ice pack on the knee. I’ve been icing twice a day since Saturday and it’s already feeling better. I don’t want to psych myself out at all or let negative thoughts start to creep in. I know I’ll be fine and I know that I’m prepared for this race and I know that regardless of the outcome, I’m already super proud of my training and how far I’ve come as a runner.

Seriously

If someone had told me a couple months ago I’d run 20 miles (for the second time!) at a 9:44 average pace and still feel like I could’ve kept going……no way I’d believe them. No way.

And there you go! Three more weeks until the big day–here’s hoping the knee heals and February 28th arrives with sunshine and perfect weather 😀

Total miles: 29.02
Water intake: B I missed my water goal 3 out of 7 days but did have one super stellar day (Saturday) where I drank a zillion gallons.

–How was your running week? Did you race or have any races coming up?

–What’s your taper strategy? How do you keep from getting the “taper crazies”?