Official Race Time

The official race times have been posted. My time was 36:45 which is 20 secs slower than what my RunKeeper App said but that is still a great time considering my practice runs were much slower. That means I run about an 11 min pace. I hope to improve and run 9 or 10 min miles in the future. I definitely can't wait to do my next race!


In other news life has been pretty chaotic. Just lots of working and planning a move. Most of my free time is spent playing with the little man. He's getting so big and he's super active now so he always wants to play. I bought him a kiddie pool the other day when I was at Job Lot so I will leave you with a video of him splashing and having fun.

First 5k Recap!

Today was my first race ever. My fleet feet group was participating in the Bishop’s 5k for kids sponsored by the Episcopal Church. The race has a lot of church teams and clergy runners. They give awards to the fastest clergy people and Church group that raise the most money for the charity.

The morning started off like any normal Saturday group run. I got up a little before 7 to feed little man and get myself showered and ready. I had my usual pre run breakfast of a slice of whole wheat toast smeared with almond butter on one half and strawberry preserves on the other. If I eat anything else I get stomach cramps. I’m very surprised I could eat that normally I would never eat anything because my stomach can’t handle all the churning as I run. I remember in h/s on our 3-mile runs before field hockey practice having to throw up on the side of the road if I ate (gross I know). My mother and one of her friends came to cheer me on and bought little man with them. They even had a sign!

I had to meet the team at 9 am. I got there around 8:30 because I live farther and wanted a place to park. But it turns out the race wasn’t as packed as they thought so it didn’t matter. I saw the coaches and then went to get my race number and wait for the other team members. We all chatted and warmed up before we ran. The coaches took a bunch of group photos and then we lined up for the start. We all started like two pace groups before the walkers. The gun went blew at 9:30 and we were off.

The first mile was easy peasy. The weather was wonderful sunny but with a breeze unlike the practice run when the sun was beaming and it was 85. I wanted to die then but this was a peace of cake. I ran with my iphone to use the runkeeper app so I knew my pace, the distance, and when each interval was. Since the weather was not as hot and there were going to be water stops after mile 1 and 2 I opted not to wear my amphipod profile hydration belt instead I wore the amphipod pouch which fits my phone, ID, and keys. I was hoping for the best with the pouch since I had never tested it out before but it actually worked wonderful. I didn’t notice it was there while I was running and it never budged which is good because it just clips to your waistband, which seems like it would make your shorts sag.

I ran through the first mile skipping all the walking intervals I had set up on my phone. The only time I walked was the water stops at the end of mile one because even running very slow made me spill water all over myself. The start of the second mile I still didn’t have to take any walk breaks I was really trying to push myself through the whole 3 miles with no walking (in our training we finished w/ 4:1 min intervals) I didn’t end up walking until the huge hill. I decided that this hill and I were not going to get along and there was no compromising. In my practice run of the course the hill hurt my knees and my calves burned for a whole week after. That hill is no joke it is huge. Once I got to the top of the hill I started running again.

About ¼ mile after the hill I saw the street sign for Webster Hill Boulevard. When I saw that I stepped up my game. I pushed myself like I had never pushed myself before and sprinted all the way down the street. This was the end!!!! We started on Webster Hill Boulevard so I knew it wouldn’t be too much farther until I reached the finish line. I ran as hard and fast as I could through my burning calf muscles and everything. The coaches and 3 of my other team members who had already finished were there cheering and to take pics. The time at the finish line said 36:25. Pretty good better than my practice run of the course, which was 38:30. Hopefully I will get my official time sometime this week! I can’t believe I actually ran and now I can’t wait to do my next race.

Oh and the lack of pics is due to my sister stealing the batteries out of my moms camera this morning. So I’m extremely mad there are no pics but I will def get some from the coaches when we have our end of training party next week.

Running

Eight weeks after giving birth to my son I finally got the approval from my doctor to begin working out again. I had done prenatal yoga and went for daily walks during my pregnancy but I missed working hard and really sweating. M and I joined a gym the next day and I started going 6 days a week for an hour. It was fun people watching but after a month I realized I hated the gym. I was anxious to get my pre-pregnancy body back but not that way. I had never been a gym person. When I was younger I participated in a lot of outdoor activities like ropes course, hiking, soccer, biking, and going for walks. I continued this for my first year of college until I met M who is an indoor person. I’m not an indoor person at all, in fact I hate being cooped up inside.

I decided enough was enough and on one extremely cold February morning with snow and even a little ice on the ground I found it in me to bundle up in layers lace up my running shoes and hit the pavement. I never felt so liberated in my life. It was like the world was lifted off my shoulders, I had time to myself to think and be with my own thoughts. No arguing with M, no crying baby just peace of mind. Now granted I couldn’t run very fast at the time and had to take some walking breaks but I kept going for 30 mins. I finally found an activity that I could enjoy that was just my own and on top of that I could ultimately lose some of the weight I put on. I continued doing this for the rest of the week and even downloaded the Couch to 5k program for my iphone so I could have an actual plan of action and possibly improve how far and long I could run.

Around the end of February I had been doing this for 4 weeks. I was starting to feel pain and discomfort in my calves and feet. I knew for a fact it was my sneakers (they were Nike running shoes but I bought them more for style not performance). I started telling my mom and she told me about this running store that her doctor had recommended she go to and get fitted for proper sneakers. She emailed me one of their newsletters and I saw they had a program for beginning runners that was like Couch to 5k but you have coaches and other group members to lean on for support. Immediately I knew I wanted to join. I thought to myself if I don't join I would eventually give up.

Ten weeks ago I went to Fleet Feet Sports Hartford I was fitted for that new pair of running shoes (why do they call them shoes and not sneakers lol?) and signed up for their No Boundaries Training Program. I can now say that I’ve come a long way from that cold morning when I first laced up my shoes. I can now run a whole 4 miles without stopping and will be completing my first 5k race this Saturday. I’m super excited to be racing and to have not given up on myself. I love what running has done for my sanity and how it has made me love my body and appreciate all I can do which I find extremely important as a mother. So on Saturday I won’t be worried about my time or what place I come in I will just be amazed that I accomplished this goal in my life.