shamrock ‘n’ roll

today I ran the shamrock ‘n’ roll 10k held in downtown Plymouth by Kona races. I did their Wicked 10k run last fall and had a blast, so I met my running buds for the race early this morning. I was going on about 4 hours of sleep, which did not make me happy, but I was still excited to do my first St Patty’s themed race.

Impromptu photoshoot time:

Sherri, Dee and me before the race

having too much fun!

angel style (clearly I was the smug angel)

Sherri & Dee kept saying how cold they were and I actually felt fine?! this was weird for me because usually I am the cold one. I had less layers on than I normally would, and it was 25 (but felt like 18) degrees out. maybe all these long runs in the winter have finally toughened me up?!

Then I ran into my long lost Twitter bud, Megan!

taken from her blog

I have not ran with Megan since last August, so it was really nice to finally see her again! She and I are very close in pace, and had talked about possibly trying for a sub 50 PR (my current PR was at Bayshore last year, 51:07). Even though I haven’t been doing a ton of speedwork, I felt like maybe it was possible. But I also knew it was likely that it might be one of those, wait for the summer when it’s warmer goals, too. We decided to see how we felt and go from there.

We started at the start by the 50 minute pacer. The race started right on time and off we went! I lost Megan pretty quickly in the race and just tried to settle into a groove. I felt pretty good, and not like the pace was too difficult.

I ran the first mile in 7:59 and felt pretty good, so I kept going. The 50 minute pacer was about 10-15 seconds ahead of me, so I made my focus to catch up to them. Second mile went in 7:46. I hit the pacer (finally!) but felt good so I decided to push it a little bit ahead of them, because if I got tired later then I could just drop back to the 50 minute pacer. But my goal was not 50 minute, it was sub 50. so I knew I had to be just a little bit a head to hit that.

Mile 3 was a little slower, 7:53, but I still was ahead of the pacer. I started to feel it at that point, there was some headwind and slight inclines in the course, so I had to dig deep and keep my focus on the goal. Mile 4 was my slowest mile, 8:01, but I still knew that the PR was in my grasp. Once I hit mile 5 at 7:35, I knew it was going to be hard but I was gonna have to push it. Leave it all on the course. I started looking up at the clouds and imagining my dad with me. The last 15 minutes felt very hard. I started wanting to walk, but convinced myself that the disappointment I’d feel in myself for missing my goal by 20 seconds (or whatev) would not be worth it. Once I hit mile 6, 7:41, I pushed it as hard as I could. I crossed the finish line at a 6:38 pace, running 6.36 in 49:09 (chip time)! I also placed 7th in my age group out of 160, 39 out of 1066 females, 193 out of 1818 overall.

I was ecstatic! I definitely felt tired and a little out of breath, but I could not believe how much I crushed my goal time! To knock almost 2 minutes off of my PR was mind blowing to me. I waited to meet the rest of my group at the finish line for more pics:

Sherri, Katie, me and Dee

Josh, Katie, me, Dee and Sherri

Dee and Sherri both PR’d and we all congratulated each other before parting ways. It was freezing at that point (sweat gets cold quick!). I ran home, showered, foam rolled and threw on my compression socks before taking a quick nap because I wasn’t sure how my legs were going to feel. I woke up feeling much better, and not too shabby, either.

I was relieved I didn’t feel bad because we had plans to have people over for an Irish dinner. Bourbon Molasses glazed corned beef & cabbage- yum. Best part about this dinner? I didn’t have to cook it! Chef Nate prepared it all. But no way could I start the party off without a #plankaday!

st. patty’s day style!

overall, I had a fantastic st patricks day! I hope you did too!

Any other shamrock runners?

How do you work through mental blocks when trying to PR?

Are you a fan of corned beef? one of my friends told me they don’t normally like it, but loved the way Nate prepared it.  not liking corned beef? unheard of!

my first time as a pacer, long runs, medals and more!

I got my medal for placing 2nd in my AG!

 

A lot has happened since last week when I PR’d at Freeze Your Franny! I met the girls on Sunday to run an easy 8 miles (part of the schedule). By Monday, my quads were toast so I rested. I felt pretty good the rest of the week so I finished two 4 miler runs (one fartlek, one moderate pace) and was ready to go for Saturday’s 10 mile run. 

 

We met up at Paint Creek Trail to begin our run on the snowy, 19 degree day. 

From Dee’s Instagram

I was prepared for the temps and layered well. The first 5 miles were a breeze! We felt good, were laughing and joking around. Always a sign of a good run. Then we stopped, I took a GU, and turned around.

WHOOSH. Right into the wind. Also, all of our sweat was now freezing. I started instantly regretting an out&back route, and just tried to keep my head in the game. I reminded myself how easy this would be in warmer temps, counted songs, and tried pretending I was super warm. It worked, and when we checked our times, we realized we had negative splits. Nice! 

I thawed out, showered, drank some coffee and went with Nate & some friends to Joe Louis for the college hockey team. Go Blue!

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My friend Sherri & I registered for the Super 5k by Running Fit a couple weeks ago. When I registered, I considered this my back up plan if I didn’t PR at Freeze Your Franny. When I did (!!! still excited about that), I promised Sherri I’d help her PR at this one, since her time a FYF was a little bit slower than she’d hoped. I was still in my PR euphoria when I felt myself texting the words “I’ll pace you to a PR!”. Later on I thought ‘um duh I’ve never paced someone before…. or been paced at that matter. How am I going to pace her now?”

So I did what any runner happy, type A personality person would do- I researched. A lot. I read some blogs (Skinny Runner has a great post on this), I thought about what I would want in a pacer, and I Google’d. I felt fairly confident. For one, she wanted to run a sub 28 5k and her fastest time was 28:17. I knew she could shave those 17 seconds off no problem . 

But then the pressure started. I’d feel really bad if I couldn’t help her PR. I knew she wouldn’t  be mad at me… but still, I’d be disappointed in myself somehow. I know that doesn’t make sense, but for some reason I felt like her PR would be a reflection of how I helped her pace, even though there are a million other factors (weather, energy level, gear, etc) that could be responsible. 

Regardless, I woke up today ready to go! And then I saw these temps:

Um, what?! 1 degree?! I don’t think I’ve ever ran in a temperature under 10 degrees! I pushed the thoughts of just staying in bed with Nate out of my mind and layered up. We got to the start with plenty of time.

I’d like to do another post about the Super 5k because I think it’s a really awesome race. If you’ve never done it before, you totally should!

We chatted in the car a bit, waiting until the very last second to exit and get to the starting line, but the time whittled away quickly and we found ourselves in the midst of 2,000+ racers. I tried to get us in the middle of the start:

And we were off! We had some trouble getting around people slower than the pace we wanted at first (bad pacer move, Alexis), so I was worried we couldn’t get on pace early enough. I knew we had to average 9 minute miles. Finally we got to some clearance and made some major headway.

Sherri was feeling good, and we strolled along on pace for the first 1.5 miles. That’s when I could tell she was losing a little steam. I kept right with her and started saying all the stuff I try to think in my head when I’m running alone: “You’re doing so great, you got this, you can do it! Just think how close you are… you’ll be upset if you don’t get your time now!”. We hit a decent hill and I know that can be discouraging when you’re already tired so I just kept saying “you can do it! push yourself! you’re stronger than you think!”. She bounced up and started really pushing it, especially when I showed her how close the finish line was. I was a little ahead of her the whole time, mostly because I was trying to keep the pathway clear for her if she needed to get by people, but I dropped back right at the finish and let her cross before me. 

Her official time was 27:39!! Almost a 40 second PR! I was so happy and proud of her! She really has come such a long way from when she started. It made me feel good that I could be there for her to encourage her when she started losing motivation. 

Welcome to PR city, Sherri!

 

I really enjoyed helping someone reach their goal. I’d love to do it again! Overall a great weekend of running! 

 

Freeze Your Franny 5k

Gonna try this blogging thing again.

 

Last Saturday, I ran the Freeze Your Franny 5k held at Stony Creek Park. It was my second time ever running at this park (we did a 6 miler a couple weeks ago), so I had little knowledge about the course or the race environment. 

All I really knew is that I was looking for a January race that was moderately priced and seemed fun. Freeze Your Franny was all of those things: $20 register fee, warming tents, and soup & hot chocolate after the race. Sounds perfect right?

Sherri and I carpooled and we met up with the rest of our running group:

Sherri, me, Dee, Dawn and Katie

While waiting in the tent, we met Detroit Runner and chatted with him for awhile. He’s a super nice guy, and it was nice to meet the face behind the blog/Twitter I’ve followed for the past few months. 

We wished each other good luck and lined up at the starting line. I was already cold. I hate cold weather, but I’ve been running outside more just to get my long runs in. I had on 2 pairs of gloves, 2 pairs of socks, duck tape on my shoes, 2 shirts and a fleece jacket- and I was still cold! I was hopping around at the starting line, just wanting to get the race started, so it would be over with fast.

Here’s the thing… I was not really planning to PR at this race. Deep down, I really wanted to (I always do!), but I knew with the cold temps it would be unlikely. It was windy, 19ish degrees, and we were right off the water. Not a good PR environment. 

The race started (finally) and we all took off! Dee shot out ahead of all of us like a rocket… and I steadied my pace and dodged people as I made my way to the front. The run felt hard, but I was certain it was because of the frigid weather. Almost as soon as I started, the words “DNF” drifted into my head. Huh… what?! I’ve never DNF’d, and it really came by surprise that I would even think that. Especially about a 5k. The negative thoughts kept creeping- I can’t feel my hands, my face hurts, I need to stop and walk, just stop, just stop! I was mentally battling those thoughts the entire race. We hit the 1 mile mark and I realized I ran the first mile in 7:05. Holy canolli. A small voice peeped in my head: you can PR. No way, I didn’t think it was humanly possible in these temps. Still, I pressed on, arguing with my negative thoughts the whole way.

I tried to stay with the people I was next to, figuring they must be going around the same pace. I skipped the first (and only) aid station around 1.5 and was really just trying to convince myself not to stop. All of a sudden, the unthinkable happened: I dropped my iphone. Yes, my newly replaced, iphone 4s fell face down on the ground- and a runner almost trampled it!!! “Sorry!” he exclaimed, which I profusely thanked him for, yanked my iphone up and kept moving. My phone was fine (Thank God) but I was angry, cold and tired. I wanted to stop and walk but I begged myself to keep going because it would just take me that much longer to finish if I did.

Finallyyyy..what felt like forever later, I saw the finish line. I glanced down at my time and saw I still was going to PR. I tried to push it as hard as I could at the end, but it really felt like I had nothing left to give. 

This beauty of a pic is me at the finish line. Possibly my worst race shot ever. I was just so done at that point. I don’t know why, but this was the hardest race I’ve ever ran, mentally & physically. 

I crossed and looked at my phone and it read: 3.15 in 22:49. WTF. no way did I just PR in what felt like my crappiest race ever?! I was so cold I couldn’t even be excited, so I waited in the warming tent until Sherri finished and then I dragged her away from the race we went to go get coffee.  

Once I warmed up and came home, all of a sudden I was positively giddy! I was all “I love running, running brings butterflies and bunnies!” Oh PR city, how I’ve missed you. 

I got on Twitter and did my normal stalking catching up on my Tweep’s runs. I chatted with Detroit Runner about his time, and told him I’d taken off because I knew there was no way I placed in my AG.

WRONG. Chip time: 22:51, 2nd in my AG (!!!)/60, 63/950 overall. WHAT WHAT WHAT?!?!?!

My splits:

Mile 1   7:05

Mile 2   7:19

Mile 3   7:19

Mile 4   7:12 (oh how cute, a 7 second increase for my final ‘push’ at the end)

Positive splits yes, but a solid PR and placing in my age group? I just can’t believe it. The race director contacted me and said I missed getting my medal so she’d send it to me. I was just utterly shocked. 

The thing was, I didn’t feel fast at all. The run felt hard, but I attributed it to the weather and my thoughts of doom and gloom. I was really upset at how hard mentally the race was, until my friend pointed out how determined I was to not only push those thoughts aside and finish, but to PR at that. And my other friend Janet reminded me how last year I would’ve never even ran outside in those temps, let alone raced! It just goes to show how far I’ve come. My first 5k in Aug 2011 was 28:41- that’s almost a 6 minute difference from now! 

So even though I had a hard race, I didn’t give up on myself and kept believing. I still cannot believe that I PR’d at what was the hardest race in my life. Guess that means I’m one tough cookie.