No Running, Just Hiking

I was a bad girl this week. Absolutely no running happened. I had a crazy busy weekend and after running with Run Colorado Saturday morning, tailgating all afternoon before the Kenny Chesney concert, getting home around 12:30am and then waking up at 5am to meet some of the MHTC to run Waterton Canyon Sunday morning  I was drained. As much as I should have gone out running, taking some time to rest up from my hectic weekend sounded like a much better idea. Plus I knew I had a 4 day llama camping trip starting on Friday to look forward too.

For those of you who are unaware my dad owns llamas, yes llamas. And each year we try and go on a backpacking trip with them as a family. However this year my brother opted to go to Vegas to celebrate a friends 21st birthday, so I got to bring my man instead :).

I won’t bore you with details, rather I will just give you the main highlights:

• I rolled my ankle twice (3 fewer times than last year), but the second one knocked me on my butt for a good while and was swollen for a few days after we got home. However instead of resting I was back to running the day after we got home
• My favorite flowers were in bloom. Last year when we went camping we were a week too late and they had all dropped their flowers. But this year we camped in a field of them!
• I happened upon a mountain goat as I was walking down the trail. It was so fluffy and soft looking. I just wanted to pet it.
• We ate like royalty.
• It rained… a lot.
• Over 4 days we hiked approx. 20 + miles.
• And of course I repped Run Colorado!

Ready to hit the trail!

Bill Goat!

Lunch time among the flowers.

River crossing like a pro!

Favorite flowers in the entire world! 

The fisherman and cooking up the catch for a snack.

Mom's First Half Mary

My mother and I have always shared a love for running. While my dad and brother were off camping and doing other “boy things,” mom and I would sign up for local 5k or 10k races together. Over the past few years we have averaged 4 or 5 races together. This year we currently stand at four completed, but still have five months to go (and at least 2 more scheduled!). And I have already experience the most memorable race of 2013, the 2013 Sand Creek Half Marathon.

Ever since I ran my first Half Mary a year ago march I have been trying to get my mother to do one as well. I begged, told her I would train with her, run the entire thing with her. Yet every time I brought it up she put up quite a fight, deflecting the conversation and refusing to do one all together. But little did she know I had a card up my sleeve that she wasn’t expecting me to use: I had joined the Mile High Track Club (MHTC). If there ever was a group of people who could convince my mom she could do a half marathon it would be the MHTC. This club is filled with the most supportive people I have ever met. They come from all walks of life and have different running related goals, but their number one priority is seeing other people succeed. So I made her a training plan and started taking her to Tuesday night Pub Runs and Saturday morning group runs with the group. Within a few weeks she was really into training. We would make plans to get up in the morning and run together (she always made it, I rarely did - my bed was so comfy), however, I usually made the evening runs together.

Before we knew it race day was upon us! The night before I made my my usual pre-race dinner- gluten free pasta with sauteed vegetables and pesto sauce. And then since I had picked up our packets a day earlier we laid everything out that we were going to need in the morning. I do this for two reasons: 

• so I don’t forget anything, and
• so that I can get a few extra minutes of sleep. 

Then we talked about race day strategy. At the beginning of this whole thing I promised her I would run with her the whole way, and her only request was that I get her to the finish line. Time to her I found out did not matter, she just wanted to cross that finish line with a smile. I told her not to worry and then it was off to bed early.

Yes we were the mother
daughter team that wore 
(semi)matching outfits...

The next morning when we arrived at the start line I had to immediately begin taming my racing instincts. I positioned us between the 10 and 11 minute pace signs so that we wouldn’t get caught up in the excitement and start out too fast. However I forgot that the 10k started at the same time as the half, so it was still hard to pace ourselves when the 10k runners took off sprinting. 

Around mile 2 we fell into a rhythm and this is where we saw my dad and brother for the first time, and as an added bonus my cousin and his wife came to cheer my mom on!

At mile 6 I asked mom if she wanted a Clif Shot and she said that she was feeling pretty good and didn’t need it right then. In hindsight I should have forced it on her, but at that point i figured she knew her body better than me. The next point where our cheering crew was able to get on the course was mile 10. It was at the top of this really long gradual hill that started around mile 8. It wasn’t a lot of elevation gain, but it just got old after a while. Mom finally took a Clif Shot, which was probably a little too late as her body was already depleted, and then we were off.

With only 3 miles to go I didn’t know how much to push  my mom. Secretly I had a goal for her to finish in 2 hours and 30 minutes. I had to keep reminding myself that was my goal FOR her and not her own goal. As we came back into the park I told her she couldn’t stop running, we were so close and I knew everyone was waiting at the finish line waiting for her to cross. Turning the corner towards the finish line I made her kick it into the next gear. This took a lot of persuasion as we were both pretty spent, but once she saw her cheering section she started picking up the pace.

We crossed the finish line in 2:31. And look she even had a HUGE smile on her face.

The  most epic finish  montage ever!

Sand Creek Half Marathon Finishers

MHTC/Run Colorado Sand Creek Half Marathon Finishers

I am such a proud daughter and so inspired by my mother. Thanks to everybody who supported her through this!

So mom now that you have done a half, I guess the question is when are we training for a full? How about the Cincinnati Flying Pigs Marathon? You have until May 4th to train!

You Know Your A Runner When You Plan Your Vacation Around a Race

I had been trying to get down to Atlanta to visit my friend and her husband for a while. We had tossed a few ideas back and forth but none of them ever really panned out. But then she mentioned that over the 4th of July the largest 10k in the world is held in Atlanta every year. It is called the ACJ Peachtree Road Race and got its title of worlds largest by attracting 60,000 runners annually. Once she explained that I was sold! But there were a few things I had to take care of before I could fully commit:

• Convince our other friend, Alex, to join us for a post college reunion
• Run a qualifying race for an early wave
• Casually mention to Alex that the vacation would be based around a 10k
• Get guaranteed entry since Peachtree is lotto based

Number one was pretty easy to do, but the other three took a while to check off my list.

For those of you who are familiar with the Bolder Boulder, the Peachtree is structured similarly. It has multiple waves with the first handful being waves that need to be qualified for. Getting in an early wave is key to avoid weaving in and out of slower runners or walkers. Thankfully I ran a 10k in January that not only gave me a qualifying time good enough for Wave D, but was also a PR!

At this point I realized that Alex would also need a qualifying race as well. So I had to break the news to her that while in Atlanta we would be running a 10k on the 4th of July. Lucky for me she was already training for her first half marathon so it was easy to convince her to run a 10k and for her to run a local 5k to get a qualifying time.

Last was making sure I got a guaranteed entry into the race since I was traveling across the country and booking my travel before the lotto occurred. To do so I needed to join the The Atlanta Track Club. This was easily done online, but I am pretty sure I procrastinated until the very last day to do so to get entry into the Peachtree. Now all I had to do was contain my excitement until July.

10 days out from heading to Georgia the weather forecast predicted a temperature of 81 degrees around start time. This worried me. Not only was it going to be HOT, it was going to be humid as well (and as I learned on the trip, humidity and I do not get along). I braced myself for scorching heat and the preparations I would need to take to keep cool and run a solid race. But as the day got closer the forecast began to change to nothing but rain, torrential downpour rain. I went from thinking about heat exhaustion, sunburns, and chafing to focusing on keeping the rain out of my eyes, blisters I was bound to get on my feet, water logged shoes and again chaffing. The day we arrived in Atlanta I was worried. The rain was coming down in sheets of water and rivers were running through the streets. I was not looking forward to the next day. I just kept thinking that my time would be slow. However when we woke up the next morning we were greeted by a slight drizzle! Perfect running weather! It was perfect enough to keep the humidity down and the temperate cool.

ACJ Peachtree startline

Course map and elevation profile.

As we made our way to the start line I started to get more and more anxious. There were so many people around and the energy was high. I kept thinking about the advice Mike have given me the day before I left. I knew that if I focused too much on what he was saying I wouldn’t run a solid race so I just kept his words in my back pocket for when I needed them:

• Use the first mile as a time to feel out your legs since it is a slight uphill
• Miles two and three are downhill so open up. At this point I wasn’t going to be using a lot of energy so I just needed to trust that my legs would carry me.
• Mile 4 is going to feel weird since you will be running straight uphill but just keep your turnover.
• And finally hammer out the last two miles

Alex, Kimi and I started at the same time but agreed that if we needed to drop back we would or push ahead if we were feeling it. We stayed together for about the first half a mile and then Kimi and I pushed ahead. At Mile 1.5 when the downhill really starts to happen I heard Mike’s voice saying “open up”, so I took off. The next to miles flew by and I felt great. And then at Mile 4 I felt it. The uphill hit me like a ton of bricks. My legs didn’t know what hit them. But thanks to altitude training I cruised up the hills. And then it was almost as if the next two miles never occured because I was tyring the corner and the finish line was staring me in the face. I crossed the finish line with a time of 56:50. A minute off of my PR. But I felt good! This is a race that I definitely want to travel to again to try and better my time!

Finish line pictures! Got lots of compliments on my Run Colorado gear!

The rest of the very rainy vacation consisted of a few training runs, a Braves firework game, seeing Despicable Me 2, and much needed girl talk with my two best friends.

Week One and Castle Rock Half Race Report

Well week one of training is complete. Nothing exciting, just a normal week of running for a total of 19 miles. The most exciting this was the Castle Rock Half Marathon with a bunch of people from the Mile High Track Club.

MHTC represent!

Castle Rock Half Marathon Race Report

I will admit I was a little skeptical about this race. It is the first year that it had been held and they capped the half marathon distance at 300 people, a relatively small field for a half marathon. But I was pleasantly surprised at how well the morning went. There was awesome course support - plenty of water, gels were provided at mile 8, and the volunteers were awesome! Only hiccup that I noticed was that the half marathon and 5 mile split off was not well marked and many 5 mile runners ended up on the half marathon course for a while and had to turn around.

Going into the race I had no plan. I didn't plan on racing it, but instead my only goal (besides finishing it) was to try and keep a steady pace throughout the whole race. I have a tendency to go out too fast and crash towards the end. I was determined not to let this happen. But like usual I got caught up in the adrenaline fueled hype at the beginning and took off way too fast. I kept trying to pull back but I just couldn't so I settled in at a 9:30 pace and hoped for the best.

Castle Rock Half Marathon course map
and elevation profile.

I completely underestimated how hard this course would be.I knew there were hills but I didn't realize that the hills kept rolling for the entire 13.1 miles. Looking at the map posted on the website it appeared that the hills leveled off at some points. But I was wrong... very wrong.  Not much elevation was gained or lost, only about 350 feet total over the course, but the abundance of hills was ridiculous. You were either running up a hill or down one, with no flat ground to be found. Challenging you mentally and physically. But even towards the end, as exhausted as I was, I was thankful for MHTC hill repeats and the hilly Saturday runs with Run Colorado.

I ended up crossing the finish line in 2 hours 13 minutes and 46 seconds. Not my best time. Not my worst time. I am happy with it. I gave a good effort and can now set my sights to helping my mom complete her first half marathon in 2 weeks! But the best part of the day was spending it with an awesome group of people. Congrats MHTC for everything you accomplished on a tough course - a few PR’s, AG and overall wins! Way to represent!