Spring Race Reviews

All Roads Lead to Shiloh Relay
May 10th

Chester, IL

Half Marathon Relay (4 Person Team)
11th Overall in Mixed Teams

This event was a fundraiser for scholarships in the name for 4 children that were killed in a horrific house fire.  It was the first year for the event and they had an outpouring of teams and I am hopeful that it will continue in the years to come.

Most of my running pals were running the half marathon, Tim included.  Leah was already on a relay team, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to participate.  My knee was still hurting after Uncorked, so a half was not in the cards!  Leah suggested I ask her coworker Michael Holcomb if he was interested. He was, and even got 2 other folks to join us.

I like relays because it's fun to cheer folks on.  I don't like relays because there is usually a lot of a standing around before you get to run. I was runner 3.  The morning started off cloudy and humid, by the time I got to run, it was sunny... and humid.  Fun stuff.

Really, the running wasn't as bad as it could have been.  My leg started on an uphill, but it was in the shade.  The worst part was an long. flat section without any shade. After I got through that, there was a pretty steep downhill and then the finish.  My knee started hurting pretty much the minute I started going downhill, but I managed a pretty even (slow) pace throughout and was happy to be done!

The event flew by and our team had a lot of fun cheering ourselves and other teams on. It was brutally hot at the end of the event and watching the half finishers coming in was intense.  Most were sweaty messes.  Tim was miserable because he wore a very old pair of shoes.  Poor guy couldn't even walk after!

Overall, it was a fun day and I was happy that I was able to fumble through a run without too much pain.

Levee Fest 5k/Half Marathon
June 14th 

The Bottoms

Time/Distance:  31:20/5k

We had just gotten back from our vacation in Florida and even though we ran while there, we also overindulged in food and drink.  Tim decided he would do this half as a kick-off to his marathon training.  I decided to to just sign up for the 5k just to get a run in.  My running has not been going very well.  In fact, I haven't been able to run a full 3 miles without stopping because of my knee for a few weeks now, so it's been frustrating.

The morning of the race was gorgeous!  Cool temps always makes for a better run for me.  The 5k and half started at the same time, so Tim decided to run the first part of the 5k with me.  Well, my watch messed up and then my shoe came untied, so I told Tim to just go on.  I was already checking out of this thing.  I told myself to run until the turnaround and then I could walk.  When I was almost there, I realized my knee wasn't bothering me too much, so I decided to just keep running.  Then, I was behind a girl that was running a good pace for me, so I just stayed behind her.  The route was uber flat.  I could see the finish and decided to kick it a little bit.  Well, that was stupid. Because it was so flat, it only LOOKED like the finish was close.  In reality, I still had a little under a mile when I decided to try to push.  My last mile was insanely fast for me and I was a mess when I finished.   Sure, it was no record breaking time for me, buuuut, I ran a full 3.1 miles without walking!  This was a total win for me!

Tim came in feeling pretty good about his "training run" with a time of 2:04:34.  He said he came out a bit too hard in the beginning and it was pretty lonely out there.  I'm looking forward to supporting him in these upcoming months of his training.

Race Review: Uncorked 100K Relay

Uncorked 100K Relay
4/26/14

Katy Trail, Missouri

Time/distance:  10:23:07/100K

This was so much fun!  Seriously, doing events like this makes running worth it!

After the Land Between the Lakes 23K, Jaime and her family left right after for vacation.  As we were driving home, Jaime sent me a text about doing this relay.  Tim and I were like, "Sign us up!"  We figured we'd have no problem finding a 4th runner. Why would we, right?  Um, wrong!

So, we signed up and figured we'd split the course up between us if we absolutely had to.  As we got closer to the event, the more nervous we were getting.  A 100K is about 62 miles.  Split between the 3 of us?  Um, that's a lot.  Especially since I was a slacker with distance training at the moment.  We decided that we had to convince Leah to do it with us.  I think we all became rather annoying to her, but in the end, she decided to join us.  Thank goodness!  There is no way we would have been able to do it without her!

This event was on the Katy Trail, which they had just opened up for foot races.  It was the first race on the trail, so there really weren't a lot of teams.  I was runner 3 with Leah passing off to me.  My first leg was really flat, but quite shaded and pretty on the trail.  A little girl was waving to everyone as they passed.  I stopped to give her a high five and she gave me a flower, so I put it in my hair.  I ran the entire time at a steady pace and when I passed off to Tim,  I was excited about the day.

My second leg was my longest one.  It was hot and I didn't eat properly, so I was pretty hungry the entire time I was running.  Also, I was completely alone on the trail.  At one point, I was afraid I had missed a sign telling me to turn or something.  I was uber relieved when I finally saw the hand off spot.  Which I could see for like a mile!  I handed off and went directly to the car to eat.  Talk about a case of the rungries!

Before my final leg, I was feeling a bit nervous.  I just didn't want to run anymore.  Tim offered to do my leg, but that would be mean him doing two back to back, and we knew the final leg was going to be hilly.  I had to just suck it up.  It started to sprinkle when Leah passed off to me.  It never fully rained, but it did make it pretty sticky out.  I was near 2 other runners, so I wasn't so lonely on the trail.  I also had a random moment where I ran into a girl I went to high school with!  She probably thought I was nuts because I was so excited to see her.  The last couple of miles were up hill and I could tell I was having issues.  My leg was burning pretty bad when I approached the final hill.  Jaime was at the bottom ready to run up it with me (in flip flops!) and said "Don't worry, they can't see you until the curve."  So, I walked until then.  I handed off to Tim and the SoIL Halfcorked Trailblazers were almost done with the relay!

We hurried to the finish and waited for Tim at the top of his last hill.  He kicked butt, of course.

I think when you spend a day running with folks, you can't help but get to know them in a whole new way.The four of us had a lot of laughs throughout the day.  These people are awesome.