Hot Chocolate 15k Recap

There really is no better motivator than chocolate.

My expectations for the Hot Chocolate 15k were not very high because my husband’s company party was the night before (and hello finger foods and open bar!) I’m not a big drinker but because my husband had been out of town for so long (an eternal month!), I wanted to enjoy the night with him and eat, drink, and be merry–not worry about what I ate because of a race the next day.

All cleaned up

So I indulged and had two cocktails and paid several lengthy visits to the other bar, the cheese bar 😀

We still made it home early because, well, we’re not much of the party type. Seeing 9 o’clock before my head hit the pillow made me at least feel like I’d get a decent night sleep.

I woke up, er, my son woke us up at our usual 5 a.m. time and I began getting ready. I wasn’t sure whether to go with shorts or leggings as the weather in Arizona is still pretty mild (don’t hate me). I decided capris because I’m a wimp to even the smallest drop in temperature.

I had a ton of friends doing this race so I made sure to get there early with enough time to take pictures and chat. There were 3 running groups that I was meeting up with–2 before the race and 1 after–and two co-workers who were also running. Trying to find everyone proved to be an awesome warm up 🙂

My AZTNT crew ❤

Several MRTT chapters 🙂

Teachers on the run!

The race had corrals which I liked and was happy that I was in the first one with several friends from my running group. We all run similar paces so when the gun went off, we all stayed together at the beginning.

We were chatting and not really even paying much attention to our pace which was great considering I hadn’t wanted to anyway.

The first mile beeped a 9:00 flat and I was pleasantly surprised as I felt great and had been talking the entire time. We kept running, keeping up our conversation, giggling, and just having fun. The second mile beeped 9:06 and again, we were happy to have maintained our pace talking the way we were. The third mile beeped, 9:07. Now I was starting to get a little competitive with myself and figured if I had been keeping such a steady pace, I might as well try and keep it that way the rest of the way. One of my friends began distancing herself and sped up her pace, another friend began to slow down a bit. I kept it steady.

I checked off miles 4-7 at

8:58
8:53
8:54
8:58

Yes, please congratulate me for those beautiful splits! 😀 I was feeling so good and felt like I was on total cruise control.

Part of the credit does go to my husband though– he had not signed up to run the Hot Chocolate 15k because he thought he’d still be out of town. Since he’d made it, and needed to get some mileage in anyway, he decided to run part of the course with me 🙂

Mile 8 was part of an awful long out and back and I beeped it away at 9:09.

The last mile was all about finishing strong and getting to the chocolate as quick as I could.

8:48!

And the end result was a brand spankin’ new PR!!!!

Almost a 2 minute improvement!!

I was so incredibly thrilled! I wished this would’ve been a half marathon because the way I felt would have earned me a new 1/2 PR lol! I was so happy with my splits and felt that this was by far one of the best races I’ve ran this year. Such a good way to start to close out the season (I do still have one more race, a 1/2, on Sunday!).

Having such little expectation and going into it with purely fun in mind I think allowed me run such a good race. I want to remember all of this for future races! All stressing out does is make me overthink things and lose focus on why I do this in the first place–to have fun!! 🙂

After the race was more socializing. Seriously, this race just had good vibes all around.

One of my friends I’d started with finished just behind me and we met up with some others in our group to pose for pictures.

My AZTNT girls

Mandatory podium shot!

I was also finally able to meet up with another one of my running groups to take a fun group pic

#RunEatTweetAZ (follow us on Twitter!!!!!) 😀

And then best of all, several co-workers had come to cheer me and two of my fellow teachers at the race.

Love my job and co-workers ❤

I must have stayed a good hour post race just hanging out. It was so. much. fun.

Oh, look who I ran into!

I can’t forget that along with an awesome race, the swag is what makes it even better. Along with a sweet jacket, finishers received this awesome medal

It didn’t melt!

and of course, chocolate!!!

Nom!

If you’ve never done a “fun” race, this would be the one to do. It’s still a race you can be competitive at if that’s your style (the top finisher ran it in 49 minutes!), but it’s also one that’s all about having a good time.

Having done it two years in a row, it’s become a yearly race that I will for sure always have on my calendar 🙂

–Have you ran for chocolate?

–What would be your favorite food to “run for”? (mmm, pizza)

This post was written by me and contains my own honest opinions. I was not compensated in any way by Hot Chocolate 15k organizers. (But if you guys wanna hook me up next year, I’m all for it!! 😉 )

Marathon Training Week 3 and Turkey Trot 5k Recap

Posted by hellyontherun in 5k, Race, Running and tagged with 5k, Marathon Training, Run for the Cure, Running, Sick, Turkey Trot December 3, 2014

Whew! I’m alive!

I realize it’s December now and I’m a little late on this Turkey Trot Recap lol, but….

I went home to Mexico (well the border, but same thing) for Thanksgiving and came back with two sick kids and a sick mommy 😦

We got to my hometown Wednesday night and I had plans to run the local Turkey Trot the next morning. I kinda really wanted to run it since last year it was my first “official” race post pregnancy and I wanted to see if I could beat my time–last year was 25:40– and, most importantly, it’s also a race that raises money to help local cancer patients and their families. My mother-in-law is in her second battle with breast cancer.

I used to run up that 'D' hill during cross country :)

I used to run up that ‘D’ hill during my high school cross country years 🙂

I knew that circumstances would be different than the previous year. I was alone without my husband to help with the kids so sleeping arrangements were me with two toddlers in a small room. Yeah, not a lot of sleep happening. I managed to get in a couple of hours and was up with ~~the sun~~ my son at 5 a.m. (actually, the sun wasn’t even up then!) The race started late, 9 a.m., and I was thankful for this so my body could adjust to the exhaustion I was feeling from traveling the night before and little sleep.

At the race I met up with my fave high school buddy, Camilla, and we chatted as the smaller kid races passed. Her son ran his first 40 yard dash and it was the cutest thing! I wanted my daughter to participate but didn’t enter her because I wanted daddy to be there too–next year 🙂

Then it was my turn! I scooted myself at the front and chatted with a girl I knew would place in my age group–she always does. The horn sounded and I saw her speed off. I tried very hard to maintain even splits but that first mile always goes by so fast and my watched beeped away a 7:40 something mile.

Mile two was an uphill incline and it always gets me. I managed to stick to a mid 8 minute mile and tried so hard to get a better 3 mile. I barely got it under an 8:30 and finished the race with a 25:11 (8:12/mile). Just about 30 seconds better than last year’s race! Not a PR but that wasn’t what I wanted; I wanted to beat the previous year’s time and I did it 😀

Camilla was cheering me on at the finish line and snagged this pic of me gunning it at the end

It doesn’t look like I’m going fast but it sure felt like it lol!

I went to look at the race results and saw I had finished 4th in the 20-29 age group—juuust missed it! Next year I’ll be 30 and the odds will ever be in my favor as there were only about a handful this year and I counted about 4 that finished slower than me. So I have that to look forward to–at least for my hometown race lol!

The rest of the day was spent with family and the next day, Friday morning, is when the unhealthy bug bit us. My son woke up vomiting and was miserable the entire day. I decided to call the trip short and leave Saturday back home and when we got there, it was my daughter’s turn. She was even worse and lasted the next two days super sick 😦 On Monday, I went to work the most sleep deprived I’d ever been probably since my kids were newborn. I made it through 1st period before I had to call in for a sub. I felt so sick and I knew that it was now my turn to suffer.

It was the longest time of no running since I could remember (not counting post-marathon rest) but I felt like it did me a lot of good to rest my body and let myself fully recover.

Prior to the Turkey Trot I had run on Tuesday a good solid 5 miles at an 8:58 pace which brought me to weekly total mileage of: 8.1

Yep, lol!

–How was your running week(end)? Did you Turkey Trot?

–Ever ran sleep deprived?

I’ve got some humble pie left over if you want some

Posted by hellyontherun in Half Marathon, Race, Running and tagged with Character Building, Half Marathon, Humble Pie, Marathon Training, Running November 24, 2014

Part of my recap for my training this past week includes a half marathon race.

I’ll start there.

The Gilbert 1/2 was an anticipated race because it’s local–like less than two miles away from where I live. This being the case, the route was along roads and canals that I frequent making the course advantageous to me in some ways.

Yeah, uh huh.

I woke up and got ready, dressed in shorts and my run club shirt. I packed an extra set of clothes in case I wimped out being so exposed. (Yep, I later redressed in my car.)

I met up with my run club amigos near the start and we talked about how silly we were for being so cold–considering those in the east coast were suffering through record breaking snow.

I chit chatted with Harry (who ran a 1:34!) and he pep-talked me into running the race hard. I had been going back and forth between treating the race more like a training run–considering I’d run a marathon 4 weeks earlier) or taking advantage of the familiarity of the course and attempting another sub 2 hour–maybe even PRing.

I decided on the latter.

The first four miles were great. I was feeling pretty good and well under the pace I needed to sub 2. I made a mental challenge to try and continue to keep my splits under 9 minutes. The next 3 miles were pretty darn close but still successful.

Then I started feeling twinges of pain in my groin around mile 8 and felt myself slow down considerably. I felt that I was still on pace to get a sub 2 though and didn’t let my spirits falter despite registering the next 2 miles well above 9 minutes.

I don’t know what the hell happened to mile 11 and it wasn’t until after the race that I saw it had been an almost 10 minute mile!Somehow, I had missed hearing the beep of the split and failed to see how much my pace had slowed. To me, I felt like I had still been maintaining pace (funny how that happens huh?)

I attempted quick math in my head to see what I needed to do to finish strong but saw again, for the millionth time in my life, how much I struggle with simple addition and subtraction. I decided to just finish as strong as I could so when I saw mile 12 approaching, I began to speed up.

And that’s when my calves awoke. The worst calf cramping I’d ever experienced joined me on that last mile. I cursed and swore and yelled at myself (in my head) that there was no way in hell these cramps were going to keep me from sub 2ing.

I hopped, tip-toed, skipped–did whatever I could to cross that finish line without stopping, trying my hardest to not lose that sub 2.

My official time was 2:00:16.

TWO HOURS AND 16 SECONDS.

Seventeen seconds people. Seventeen seconds.

And I have absolutely nothing and no one to blame but myself.

I had been so confident that I had that sub 2 in the bag, I let it run away. The race wasn’t finished at mile 8, when I had comforted my concerns at having had 2 miles so close to the necessary, required pace. The race wasn’t done at mile 10 either, when I again eased any fears at having registered two miles well over the necessary time.

Waking up at mile 12, by then it was too late.

When I crossed that finish line I was so upset at myself. I was upset that I had let myself run that race so badly. I was upset that I wasn’t celebrating with my friends who had subbed 2’d.

I was upset that at mile 7, I had already been celebrating.

I have no idea where I was here but I apparently was still in high spirits.

It took a few minutes for me to regroup and set aside my own frustrations to focus on my friends, several of whom had achieved a major goal of sub 2ing for the first time. They had been training long and hard and it really was no surprise they’d done it. They’d trained and ran a smart race (unlike me). I took several pics with them and helped them celebrate a well earned PR. I sincerely was/am happy for them as they truly deserved that accomplishment.

When I walked back to my car, I sent a message to my husband to call me as soon as he could. He’s been out of ~~town~~ the country for several weeks and it’s been so hard without him. I really needed him at that moment.

He called me and just like I knew he would, made me feel so much better. He let me know what a dummy I was but told me that this was what I needed. That I got much more from this race than what I would have gotten had I actually subbed 2.

And he’s so right.

When I got my sub 2 earlier this year, I had worked so hard for it. I put months of training (this was 6 months after having my second baby!), studied the course, practiced my splits, thought about it constantly. Crossing that finish line at 1:58:11 was seriously one of my biggest accomplishments ever–even surpassing running my first marathon. I was so emotional and so proud of myself.

I didn’t deserve this sub 2 and now, a couple of days post race, I’m really glad I didn’t get it.

————————

The rest my training week prior was somewhat uneventful–well, kinda.

On Monday I met up with my co-workers and did more stadium drills. On Tuesday I ran 4 miles with my run club at half marathon pace (ja!) and I took a rest day on Wednesday.

Thursday was the last Adventure Run my local shoe store was hosting so a bunch of people from my run club met up to run it. A lot of us were taking it easy considering we had the race that following Saturday.

I was happy with the 3 miles we mapped out but as we were reaching the end, my throat felt scratchy. Then I started to feel my palms itch. And then my legs.

I was having another allergy attack.

I was able to finish and I sat down to organize my tickets for the raffle and hoped the symptoms would just fade away.

They didn’t.

I told a friend I was feeling an attack coming but that I felt okay enough at the moment to drive myself home. I promised to text her as soon as I got there. As soon as I got home, I took some Benedryl and lay down.

The race on Saturday looming, I wondered whether or not I should run it. But yeah, we know what happened lol!

I’m frustrated that these attacks keep happening and that I’ve never gotten a clear explanation on what causes them. The doctor said it was just Exercise Induced Anaphylaxis and that there are really no preventative measure besides not running. (Yeah, no.) He suggested I take allergy medicine prior to each run but I don’t like that idea. It figure it’s just something I’ll have to deal with. It doesn’t happen every time I run or exercise and luckily I can feel the symptoms as they arise and take care of it as soon as they come. It’s just scary and frustrating.

Anyway, how was your running weekend?

Have you ever had a character building run/race? What are some things you’ve learned from running?