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.
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