Hot Chocolate 15K

  The Hot Chocolate 15K is my 3rd race of 2014 and I ran it with my good friend, Alicia.  Some back story on this race: I believe this is the 3rd year it has been here in Dallas and I have not run it before because it's a little pricey for a 5K/15K combo.  The upside is that you get some really NICE race swag, the best of which is a fancy hoodie that has gotten increasingly more awesome since the first year.  After seeing people in their hoodie last year, I was kind of jealous and had put this on my "maybe" list for this year.  When Alicia and I ran (walked) the DRC Half in November, she saw some info on it and after I told her a little more, we decided to go for it.  The DRC Half was our first race to run together and neither of us trained, so we ended up doing a lot of walking and we both finished with some minor injury pain.  This time, we showed up to run and we had a blast!

  This race starts in Fair Park, runs through a good portion of Lakewood, comes back around the back side of Fair Park and then you do the last little portion through Fair Park back to the finish line.  I went into this race with Alicia acting pretty cool, since I've run most of that area, but I have to tell you - they found some hills that I was unfamiliar with.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's a pretty challenging route!  For those of you that ran it - what about that hill at Mile 5?  Man!  That was a tough one.  The great part is that Alicia is a cycle coach, so we're on this hill and I was losing a little steam and she's like, "Come on!  Let's do this!  Push up the hill!"  It was awesome having my very own coach with me.  Ha ha!  I got to return the favor later, since this was the longest that Alicia had ever run, so around mile 7 she was starting to waiver a little and I talked her through the last couple of miles.  She wasn't going to stop running, but sometimes it's nice to have someone that  knows the area to talk you through exactly where the turns are when you are getting tired.
  The weather was fine - it was pretty cold, but we were all expecting much colder, so we tried to limit our complaining.  If you look closely at our finish picture below, you can see the frost in my headband.  I kept thinking the sun was going to come out and warm us up a little, but that nice little break didn't come until way later in the afternoon.  The run wasn't bad - the walk back to our car after the race was the hard part.  Man - that's one of the hard things about Fair Park races.  You have to show up pretty early to park (usually in the dark), then you generally have to walk across the entire park to the race start.  Getting to your car after a race then has 2 issues: 1) walking that distance after a long race in possibly bad weather 2) finding your car.  Luckily we had both picked out some landmarks (and a lot of cars were gone, since the 5K started earlier than us), so we found the car without many problems and promptly blasted the heat.
  I don't want to skip the best part of the race - the FINISHER'S MUG!  This is the 2nd reason people love this race (behind the hoodie).  When you finish, you head over to grab a finisher's mug, which includes the following: cup of AMAZING hot chocolate, little bowl of dipping chocolate, snacks to dip (rice krispie treats, banana, marshmallow, pretzels, wafers).  Man.  So damn good.  I will admit that the hot chocolate is the best part - especially in that weather.  I ate the rest of the snacks, but really only dipped the marshmallow.  The chocolate is good, but it's pretty rich - was a little too much for post race.

Here's our finish picture with our finishers mugs and a group shot with some other running buddies:

We had SO much fun.  Now I'm trying to convince her to sign up for Gladiator in May.  :)

Too Cold to Hold Race Review..and updated race calendar

Race #2 for 2014 is in the books!

This race is part of a 2 race combo I registered for last minute because they have a cool medal combo - the medal from this race and the medal from the Too Hot to Handle in July will clip together to make one big MEGA MEDAL.  I swear, throw some cool swag out there and I will sign up - I'm such a sucker.  I got a pretty cool little beanie for this race as well, which I love.  Shout out to Theresa, who went and picked our packets up early in order to get that little hat.

  I have to say the report on this one is pretty simple, especially for those of you that run the same trails I do at White Rock Lake.  First off - let's talk about the weather and the beauty of living in Texas.  Saturday morning, when I NORMALLY do my long runs, was awesome.  GREAT running weather.  Cue Sunday, the day this race took place - FREEZING temps.  Ridiculous.  We had planned to meet early, run 5 and then hit the race for another 5.  The weather just took the wind out of our sails, and since we ran double digits for the last 3 weeks, we figured we'd be fine with 5 this week.  A girl ran past me and she was wearing a pea coat...like the coat I wear to work...and I was like "I'm not even hating."  It was cold.
  The race started and finished at Norbuck Park, and was put on by Run On, who always does a great job. There were sponsors, treats, hot chili (for the finish), cold beer (for the crazies), free samples, a great MC, large outdoor space heaters, etc.  They had it covered - we, of course, took part in almost none of that.  We stood under the heaters before the race and then promptly headed for the car at the end.  So I can't speak to all the post race fun, but it looked great.  It was hilarious when we got there, everyone was huddled by the space heaters and it looked like that scene in I am Legend, when Will Smith has to go into the building to save the dog and all of the weird zombies are huddled together and kind of vibrating as a group.  I was laughing at the scene.
  They started right on time (extra points) and we headed out under Buckner and to the lake.  We ran the lake all the way to the Bath House, at which point they made us take that left and climb up Northcliff.  For those of you that know this hill, you know that it is no joke.  It was a nice little challenge for a 5 mile run - although the 10 milers had to climb back up into the neighborhoods on the way back.  For the 5 mile route, we went up Northcliff, took a right into the neighborhood and then came back down about half way past the Bath House.  Our turn around was before the stone tables and then we just headed straight back to Norbuck.  Easy Peasy.  Took about 2 miles to really feel warmed up and then just as we were getting comfortable, we turned around and figured out where the wind had been.  UGH.  We had the arctic blast in our face most of the way back.
  As I said before, we picked up our medals, looked around and then headed right back to the car, which I promptly drove to Starbucks.  Ha ha!

Here is my updated race calendar for 2014:

2014 Races

January 11, 2014 – Bold in the Cold 15K - DONE

February 2, 2014 – Too Cold to Hold - DONE

February 8, 2014 – Hot Chocolate 15K

March 29, 2014 – Women Rock ½ Marathon

April 19, 2014 – Hit and Run 5K

May 11, 2014 – Gladiator Rock N Run

May 17, 2014 – Spartan Super

May 18, 2014 - Spartan Sprint

July 13, 2014 – Too Hot to Handle

October 5, 2014 – Tough Mudder

November 8, 2014 – Nashville Marathon – not registered yet

Date TBD – Spartan Beast – not registered/scheduled

Hot Chocolate 15K up next - I'm excited to see some of the swag at this race.  

 

Fresh start for 2014...and Bold in the Cold Race Review

I just looked back over my last post, which was last JULY?! - so much for my plans to do a race review for every race last year.  I definitely ran a few more in 2013, but I'll admit that my fitness level definitely deteriorated after September - just lots of life changes that I let get in the way.  In an effort to get back to climbing, crawling and running shape, I'm signed up with a new gym/trainer and I've already put together a Spring schedule that includes a race a month through July.  I have races planned for the latter half of the year, but those are longer distances, so I'll be re-working a schedule for the fall later in the year.  Here is a list of the races I am targeting:

2014 Races

January 11, 2014 – Bold in the Cold 15K - DONE

February 2, 2014 – Too Cold to Hold 5M – not registered yet

February 8, 2014 – Hot Chocolate 15K

March 29, 2014 – Women Rock ½ Marathon – not registered yet

April 19, 2014 – Hit and Run 5K

May 11, 2014 – Gladiator Rock N Run 5K

May 18, 2014 – Spartan Super

July 13, 2014 – Too Hot to Handle 15K – not registered yet

September 13, 2014 – Savage Race – not registered yet

October 5, 2014 – Tough Mudder – not registered yet

November 8, 2014 – Nashville Marathon – not registered yet

Date TBD – Spartan Beast – not registered

Date TBD – Spartan Sprint – not registered

I have high hopes to get in a full marathon this year and I am DEFINITELY getting my orange headband at Tough Mudder this year.  I was registered for 2013, but a number of elements came together and I wasn't able to make the race.  I start the year with a few road races, middle of the year are some OCRs, then it mixes up a little.  

First race for 2014 was the Bold in the Cold 15K out at Lake Grapevine.  I have not been running much, just a few short ones here and there (officially on schedule now), so I was nervous about a 10 mile race.  Turns out, no problems!  I have been working out, so I was not in completely terrible shape, and I took a few short walk breaks at the water stops, but overall, it was great.  I had never run out at Lake Grapevine before and I have to say that it's just beautiful out there.  The course was pretty challenging - who knew there were hills in Grapevine? - and the weather was perfect.  Theresa and I had a lot of fun, we talked the entire race and it was over much faster than I expected.  The shirt is a really cute, women's sized tech shirt, which is always a plus - especially since this race is very reasonably priced.  I think they had cotton shirts last year, but those runners also got beanies, which several people were wearing.  I was happy with the tech shirt instead.  

For a small-ish race, the organization and support were amazing.  All of the volunteers on the course were cheering and saying nice things, the police officers were very friendly and the water stops were so clean and set up well.  I was really impressed with the overall feel of the race and how nice everyone was.  The LGRAW group did a really great job and I will be keeping an eye on their events going forward.  It was nice to run a new place and I would love to see more events like this.  Here is a pic of me and Theresa at the start line and a screen shot of my final route from mapmyrun.com: 

Great start to the new year!  

Summer Muddin' 5K...and an injury

Summer Muddin' 5K is the 3rd race in a 4 race series that I'm running this year.  This was my favorite race of the 3 so far - mainly because it was nice and HOT outside.  The race in March was cold and rainy, the race in May was warm at first but freezing after we got soaked, but this weekend was STEAMY hot and the water only helped with cooling us off when needed.  I'm one of those crazies that prefers running in the super summer temperatures.  They've tweaked the course here and there, but for the most part, I've got the hang of it now.  I was still pretty nervous the morning of the race because somehow (and I'm not sure how) I had convinced several coworkers and family members to sign up for this race as well.  A handful of them had either run a mud run before or at least a road race - but a large percentage of them had not run a race at all.  I was so nervous about everyone having a good time!  At the start line, there ended up being about 15 of us total, all at different levels of fitness.  The last 2 races in this series I've run with two of my girlfriends - both of whom were also there on Saturday.  It worked out perfectly because each fitness level had 3-5 people each, so no one really ran alone that didn't want to, and we ended up finishing in 4-5 different groups.  My cousin Sarah ran with me and she and I ended up running the entire thing together, which was a lot of fun.  I hadn't previously run that entire race, so it was fun to really get after it a little bit...push the limits. 

 

There weren't many changes from the May course - there was one large mound of dirt to crawl AND an extra mud pit, which was new - but other than that, obstacles were the same.  I would like to point out the picture of me climbing the big wall.  It's hard to get up that thing, so some of us girls use the side braces to get up and over.  This also illustrates the funniest part of mud runs, which is that you usually end up with a stranger's hand on your butt at some point during the race.  I managed to do the traverse again, which was awesome - and Sarah and Kelly both did it for their first time!  I still get freaked out at the warped wall, but I'm bound and determined to figure that thing out in October.  There's a much larger version at the Savage Race in November, so I need to get it together and conquer that obstacle.  The slip and slides were super fun, as usual, and it was awesome to go flying into the water with my cousin.  The mud pits were tough - the heat did make it hard to keep the ground soft, so I have a lot of scrapes and bruises on my shins - nothing new for me. 

 

So then, since everything was going SO well, I decided to make a silly decision and hurt myself.  They have an obstacle where there are logs in a brace that you are supposed to climb over (there are 3 in a row).  There are 2 options: one log is about neck height for me and the other is about waist height.  So you have a choice...your own choice to make.  I normally go for the waist high one - it's easy to swing a leg over and hop to the other side.  My cousin was with me (she's a few inches taller than me) and she says, "I'm going to try the high one!"  Well, if you know me, you know that I couldn't let her try the high one without giving it a go myself.  So I put my hands on it and it's obvious that I won't be able to push myself up without a little run and jump action.  So I take a few steps back, run at it, put my hands on it and jump.  I don't make it over enough to stay on the log - but since it's super slick and wet, I slide all the way backwards (4 feet?) and hit the ground (HARD) flat on my back.  It knocked the wind out of me and hurt like hell.  I got up pretty quickly and stepped off the course for just a few seconds.  My poor cousin - I give her mad props, she was so worried and she didn't laugh even once - and I know that it was at least a LITTLE funny to see. I got up, got moving and we finished the race, but I knew that this one was going to really hurt.  We were the second group of people to finish, so we were hanging out watching for the rest of our people.  As we stood there, I could feel the muscles in my neck and upper back starting to lock up, it was pretty painful.  The first call I made when I got in the car was my chiropractor/friend to get some early treatment ideas.  He gave me some tips and I was able to get in to see him today.  Basic diagnosis - a little bit of whiplash - from basically clotheslining myself on a big log.  Nice.  The appointment today helped and now I'm taped up.  It's not HALF as bad as I was expecting for 2 days later.  I'm hoping it will just be a couple of days before it's feeling more normal.  Unfortunately this means I have to go easy this week, which sucks, since I was getting all geeked up about my Summer/Fall training schedule.  *sigh*  Let this be a lession about showing off...it never ends well.

 

 

Matt, Brandon, Brittney, Deanna, Trish and I

 

Me, Aunt Libby (she turns 50 tomorrow!), Stevie, Uncle Steve, Sarah

 

Lisa, Kerstin, Me, Nana and Lauren

 

Up and Over!

 

You always meet nice people at mud runs!

Gladiator Rock N Run 2013

  This was my second year to run this race, which hit the scene in 2012.  Last year we had a large group of family that all ran it together and we had such a blast.  This year a lot of people were busy the day of the race, so it ended up being a group of my coworkers, couple of their spouses, my cousin and her coworker.  I ended up running the entire race with my cousin and her coworker, but my coworkers were right behind us at the finish line, so it was nice that we all pretty much came in together.  This is probably the hardest 5K distance OCR that I've run.  It was pretty tough last year, but they upped the difficulty this year!  It was a different location, and this place was awesome.  It was right on the banks of Lake Ray Hubbard, off one of the large boat ramp areas.  Boat ramps make it a lot easier to get in the lake after the race to clean up! 
  They really shook it up on the obstacle front, which was awesome.  There were some of the usual stuff - wall climbs, tire run, cargo net climb, net crawl - but they had some different things that you usually see in the longer OCRs AND some new stuff that was pretty fun.  There was a big surprise where we had to do a version of a burpee where we pushed a cinderblock up over our head and then completed the burpee motion using the block as a hand grip - we did 30 of those.  There was a tire carry, a 40 lb rice bag carry AND a section where you had to carry a partner about 20 feet and then switch to have them carry you for 20 feet.  That was pretty hilarious.  OH and I almost forgot about the "dumpster diving" obstacle.  We had to climb into AND out of 2 giant dumpsters.  There are buckles on the corners on the outside of dumpsters, but there is NOTHING on the inside.  So we basically had to boost each other out and over the sides.  There were 2 water crossings, one where you had to be submerged to go under some logs and another one where you just had to cross a small creek.  The creek was tough, there were some big concrete blocks under the water and we all ended up with some gashes and bruises from that one.  A huge win for me at this race is that for the first time - I got all the way across the monkey bars!!  I was SO stoked!  So now I've finished a traverse AND the monkey bars.  My goal before the end of the year is to get up the damn rope climb - my nemesis and the only obstacle I didn't complete this weekend - AND to get better at climbing the angled walls, 1/2 pipe obstacles.  I struggled this time on the Beast, which is a steep A frame with ropes to climb up and over.  Unfortunately it gets ridiculously muddy by the time we get there and the ropes this year were thin, muddy and hard to maneuver.  I need to work on pulling my body weight up and over the walls - it will really help with that.  I'm so thankful to my friend's husband who helping launch me up the wall and the nameless volunteer who helped pull me over the top.  I walked away from that one with some gnarly bruises.
  My favorite story of the day (and one my cousin laughed about all the way back home) involves the 300 foot mud pit.  Oh that's right, I hadn't mentioned that yet.  Gladiator decided to really go for broke in the mud pit department and built the "longest mud pit in the world" at this race.  It was broken up into 4 or 5 different trenches, so you'd climb a hill, crawl through mud, climb another hill, more mud, etc.  Well the second trench they made ESPECIALLY deep, so the hill to get over was nearly impossible.  It was steep, slick and had no foot/hand holds.  So basically people were hanging over the top and pulling people over while the people in the trench launched them up and over.  It was our turn and Sarah (my cousin) launched me up while a dude at the top helped pull me over.  You can't just make it to the top either, you have to get OVER the top or you will just slide right back down into the trench again.  So we get Sarah over next and then it's Kelly's turn (my cousin's coworker).  I hang over the top to help this guy pull her while someone at the bottom is pushing her.  The guy pulls her to the top and then turns to help someone else and she starts to slide, so I grab her arm to pull her over and I do TOO good a job because she comes flying over the top, slides down the other side, directly in to me and takes me out as we both go flying into the next trench together.  Damn we were laughing so hard!  I'm pretty sure the photographer caught it, but damn it would have been awesome to have it on video.  Sarah just kept laughing and laughing, standing off to the side as an observer.  She seriously laughed about it the entire ride home.  I was just grateful neither of us got hurt - it was a vicious impact.  Can't wait to see the pictures. 
  Overall it's my favorite so far this year.  The weather was great, the organization was awesome and it was just so much fun.  My next race was supposed to be June 1st, but they just pushed it back to September.  So that means the next one will be Splash Dash 5K on 6/22 with the kiddo!

2 Race Weekend

This weekend is just the first of many races that I have planned for the next couple of months.  May and June are definitely my busiest so far.  This weekend was a 2 race weekend, which was awesome AND a little tiring all at the same time.  First up:

Cinco De Muddo!
This is the second 5K mud run in a 4 race series put on by the same organization at the same location.  My friends and I did the St. Patrick's run they put on and this one was geared around Cinco de Mayo.  The weather was definitely a lot better than March - we were so cold and uncomfortable at the end of the last one that it was hard to keep a smile on our faces.  The sunshine was nice and though there was a cold breeze at the end that made it tough to stay warm, it was still WAY more pleasant.  This was almost the same course, with a beginning half mile or so of obstacles, a 1.5 straight trail run and then another mile of obstacles to finish it up.  One big change was that they took the zip line out of the race - it was still there, but they made it more of a fun "after race" activity to help rinse off, etc.  This cut back on the line AND took a lot of waiting out of the race itself.  The obstacles were all pretty similar - it started with the same muddy bog, but this time the mud was so deep that I got stuck and had to throw myself to the side to pull myself out of it.  I did NOT lose my shoes though!  They added some 6 and 12 foot walls to climb, and I'm proud to say that I climbed the 12 foot wall on the side WITHOUT the helper steps.  I may have used the side brace and a little boost from a friend, but I got over that thing - it was awesome.  They still had the basics: A frame climb, tire moutain climb, TWO slip and slides, rope wall climb, quarter pipe climbs, pitch black maze, balance beam, hay bale climb, log crawls...etc.  There was a large mud pit at the end, of course - just in time for awesome finish line pictures.  My favorite part of this race was that for the very first time (and I've attempted it 3 times) I was able to complete the rope traverse!  I couldn't believe it - I was so psyched.  This is a frame that you climb up and over, then hook your arms/hands and legs over a rope and pull yourself across the rope - usually above a pit of water.  I was so excited when I got off of that thing.  I do have to shout out to Nana, who held her hands out under my back for a little added support.  The vegetation was a lot different this time on the trail run - last time it was pretty barren, but this time the grass and trees had grown up so much that it felt like we needed machetes.  It was a complete jumgle and the grass was taller than me in a lot of places.  Last time we ran through a dry river bed - but this time there was water, so we ran through the actual river.  We did a lot of climbing in and out of the river, which was a cool twist on the route.  Overall, this group's races are just getting better and better - this was a big improvement over March and I'm sure they're going to be even better by the next one in July. 

Girl Scouts Troop 5K!

The second race was a much smaller event, but something that I've been excited about for a while.  A couple of months ago a friend of mine asked me to come and speak to her Girl Scout troop about exercise and running.  This would be to help them earn their "practice with purpose" badge and their yearly them has been "Get Moving!"  I think that its so cool they are being encouraged to get active at an early age.  I'm late to this fitness game and love when I see active kids getting outside and playing.  I spoke to them back in February about setting goals and building up slowly.  I gave them all a 5K training program to work from to build up to being able to run their own 5K race.  They ordered super cute Girl Scounts medals and set up a donation drive to the Food Bank at the same time.  I decided to bring the kiddo with me - it would be his first experience at an event like that and since it was a more casual race, I knew we could both just relax and have fun.  The race was at a park in Plano with a small little lake in the middle.  So the route was a 4 loop run around the lake with a water stop at the start line.  I knew going into this that the chances of Gage running/walking the ENTIRE thing were slim.  But I figured we'd go and see how it went.  It was so much fun watching all of the girls (and their moms!) running and having a good time.  Gage ran quite a bit AND walked a bit.  I carried him once or twice and at the end of the day, we ended up doing 2 of the 4 loops.  To be honest, he had the energy to walk 2 more loops - but he did NOT have the attention span.  Ha ha!  There's a big playground we kept passing and he was not going to let me walk him past it for a 3rd time.  He's a lot like his mama, though - he would be distracted or walking, and if another one of the kids ran past him, he would start running after them, yelling, "Hey wait!  I'm going to catch you!"  Little bit of my competitive streak in there, I'm afraid.  We still got our medals and he had a lot of fun outdoors, chasing kids and playing at the park.  It was a lot of fun! 

Rock N' Roll Dallas Half Marathon

Last October I was building up mileage for a race and started running on my lunch breaks at work. A few of my coworkers had run a few small races (5Ks, mud runs, etc) and we started talking about a half marathon. I put a little schedule together for them based on making RNR their goal race and told them they were welcome to join me at lunch anytime. We turned into quite a little running crew, and one of them started meeting me on weekends for long runs. One of my coworkers recruited a bunch of her friends to run it as well, and then I found out my sister in law had signed up. On Sunday morning, I lined up for my 13th half marathon with 8 women that were all ready to complete their first and it was so awesome. We ended up split into a couple of groups, but everyone crossed the finish line. It's probably the most relaxed race I've ever run, I just really enjoyed the scenery and had fun. I handed out high fives, thanked the volunteers and laughed at all of the posters. Some of my favorites included "Motivational Poster", "you can't quit, you're not the Pope", "Hey Girl, run away with me? (With a picture of Ryan Gosling)" and "run complete stranger, run!". The weather ended up being perfect (too cold standing at the start line) and we had a blast.

I will say that I've now run 3 half marathons since having the kiddo and I haven't focused in any way on my speed. After this one, I think I'm starting to get a little itchy for those old PR times. Thinking about working on my timing and finding a good race to run on my own so I can work back toward that 2 hour mark. Watch out!