Race Catch Up - PART II - Sharing the love one mile at a time.

This past summer I was training for the Rock-n-Roll Philly Half Marathon. 

This was to be my redemption race for 2 past races. 

One, the Broad Street 10miler that I pushed really hard at but was pretty unsuccessful - even though I did finish - it was just a miserable race for me. (I knew exactly why - I was undertrained - or not trained at all. Either way it was tough.)

And two, the Crawlin Crab for 2013. I felt great that race, but my buddy needed me more so my hopes of a PR just didn't happen. And most days - I'm ok with that. Running for me is about who I'm with, and not always about what I'm achieving. The fact that I can say I've run a bunch of races is pretty much a huge achievement to me. 

So all summer long, beginning in early June, I was out running. Usually this happened before I headed off to my summer job. I was up and out the door by 6am - the latest. It was a schedule that I actually stuck to. I even began to notice that I felt like crap if I didn't run. Hmmmm....must be something with those positive endorphins I hear people talk about!! 

Somewhere around August a friend of mine told me that they were walking the Crawlin Crab Half and I was more then welcome to join them if I wanted to. 

A light bulb went off! Hey! I could get Janet to run the 5k with me, walk the half and then get the awesome challenge medal! You know I LOVE the bling!! Done and done!

So I convinced Janet to run the 5k with me. 

She had been looking for a new fitness goal, so it was a win win. 

Now I just needed her to train. 

While she wasn't getting up and running at 6am with me, she was making an effort, as long as I was with her. For the month of August, we sporadically made some "training" runs. I got the extra "cross training" because I got to push my 30something pound nephew in his stroller while we did our runs. 

Not every run was great for her, but she did it. 

Most runs, we would finish her portion of the run, and then I would go run another few miles while her and Donnie played on one of the many playgrounds at Ft. Monroe. (Note to self though - don't run past a playground during your run, or you will have a very unhappy 2yr old to push!) 

Race weekend came and Janet wasn't as confident in herself as she wanted to be. School for me had started so there wasn't much running time for us, and the house was also plagued with this horrible cold. To say that morale was done would be a correct statement. 

However we pushed through and stuck to the interval plan. 

It was actually a pretty decent day for a race. 

Janet might not have been a fan of my constant motivation and she probably wanted to give in and walk at about mile 1.5, but she did it. She finished. 

She stuck to the plan. 

And she finished just  seconds over where she wanted to be. 

So for her first officially timed 5k, I was very proud of her.

And now we have a new PR to meet at a future 5k. 

Gineff and I are always looking for new running buddies! The more the merrier!

Oh - and she thought I was crazy for turning around and doing the half the next day! I probably was, but wait till you see the bling!!

Pre-race. She has no idea what's she's getting into!

Traditional post race bling selfie!

Double Trouble BLING!

Added two more to my collection after the half the next day! I swear those challenge medals just keep getting bigger and bigger!

Race Catch Up.....PART 1

Ok - it's been awhile, and I really have no good excuse. 

Probably because there just isn't enough time in the day. 

There are probably a million other things I could be doing right now, but instead I'm going to sit here on my couch, enjoying the rainy weather outside and try to catch up on stuff. 

So here it goes - 

Wicked 10K

I came back from the Rock-n-Roll Philly Half without much running going on. 

I can honestly say - I don't think I ran at all.  Maybe a few miles here and there but nothing major. 

So the next race that was on the list was the Wicked 10k. 

I've done the Wicked for the last two years and while the weather has been pretty awful for those, the weather for this one was perfect. 

It was another Gineff & Liz run. (Yeah for running buddies!) 

It was going to be our "long" run before Disney's Wine & Dine! Apparently in our world 6.2mi is an appropriate long run for a half marathon - with little to no training! We're rebels like that!! HAHAHA!!

So we stuck to our normal 3:1 intervals and did amazing. 

I was proud of Gineff since she hasn't run in a while. 

The last mile and a half, I thought we stood a shot at breaking our PR from the Chikfila 10k in May. 

When we crossed the finish we were both super happy!! 

It was a beautiful day (a little breezy) but gorgeous. 

And they had moved the after-party back to the beach! 

So we grabbed our gear bags, did a quick change into flip flops and new shirts, and headed to the food and beer line. We first opted for the food line since that was the shortest. It also gave us a chance to refuel while we were waiting in line for beer. We grabbed our two beers and settled into some sand for a little people watching. The costumes were awesome! I'll be honest - my costuming was non-exsistent. It was one of those - your lucky I showed up races. 

While I love the fact that there were so many different costumes, it just wasn't something that I had the time to worry about or come up with. It's hard enough some days just to run - let alone run holding onto a styrafoam piece to make me a part of the Yellow Submarine - nope just not in me!

Overall - we had a great time! And when I finally did have the time to look at our chip time - we were only about a minute and 45 secs off of our PR time. For not having not trained or put in any real big mileage, I'll take it!

Our next big race was the Wine & Dine in Disney. I can't wait to write about that and share all the awesome pics from the weekend. It was absolutely amazing and I wish I could go back and run a race at Disney every month.
But till next time....here are my Wicked 10k pics!

Getting ready for the race!! Always pre-race smiles!

Running buddies keep bringing in the bling!

A bright and sunny Saturday AM earning another J&A medal!

You gotta have your Blue Moons in the sand!