Run with the Nuns 5K
January 28, 2012
St. Petersburg, FL

I don't normally run a short race like this when it is so far away (about an hour), but I loved the name of it. I was really hoping to see a few nuns out there running in their habits! Only one nun that I could see and she was on a bike, leading the runners, once we started.

I went into this race thinking I would like to make a respectable finish time. I had been sick all week. I still felt a little stuffy and my stomach was still a little upset.

I arrived a little over an hour early, the kids race was first, so I wanted to get there early for packet pickup and to find parking. I hung out in my car, enjoying my coffee, after picking up my goodie bag. The shirt was very cute and it fit!

About 10 mins before race start, I hit the bathroom one more time and then walked over to the starting area. The last of the 1 mile runners were running by, so everyone gave them big cheers. I lined up with everyone and soon we were off!

The race was run mostly on the roads in this large park. We ran out, turned to the right, ran through a parking area and then turned right again. We ended up running a big circle, passing the spot were we had started. We ran through the parking area again, but this second time we turned left. About a mile and a half into the run, we left the road and ran the next mile on a trail that was part dirt, grass and leaves. I kept my eyes on the ground, looking out for tree limbs. I was making pretty good progress up until this point. I think my time slowed down a little on the trail. I like the cushion of trails, but I like the traction on roads to help me go faster. :) At about mile 2.5, we ran back onto the road, passing the start line once again. We ran another half circle before reaching the finish line.

Overall I am very happy with my race. I could feel the effects of the cold. Even though I was dealing with that, I still had a great race. Only a few seconds off my PR! Amazingly I got 2nd place in my age group too!

Garmin time: 25:36
Official time: 25:38

Splits: 8:09 (mile 1), 8:24 (mile 2) ,8:23 (mile 3), 0:40 (.1)

So happy to say that I got a PR at the Race for Jena 5K this morning! This was a last minute race. I think I signed up for it Wednesday. But, I was feeling pretty good post Ragnar, so thought I would give it a go. I wasn't sure how much speed I had lost while dealing with my ITB pain. Well, turns out, I haven't lost to much of my hard earned speed! My time for the race today was 25:33. Average 8:12 min mile. Very happy with it. :)

I felt pretty good from the get go. Gina started out running a pretty quick pace, so I held back figuring I would try to catch up later. I did catch up just past 1.23 mile, but she pulled ahead again when I stopped for a quick drink of water. Never did catch that speedy girl! :) I ended up getting 2nd place in my age group and Gina pulled out first place.

Ragnar Relay Florida Keys
Miami to Key West, January 6-7, 2012

Team Nacho Typical runners left Sarasota in 2 vans Thursday evening around 6 pm. Van 1, my van, stopped to pick up Renee in North Port before continuing on to Miami. We had me, Sandy, our driver, Carl, Stacie, Dak and Renee. Our 6^th runner, Krista was going to meet us in Miami at the hotel.

After a little confusion on the crazy roads of Miami, we arrived at our hotel in Coral Gables and were in bed by 11, with a wake-up call set for 5:30 am. I managed to get a pretty good nights sleep, only waking up briefly when Krista came in a couple hours after Renee and I went to sleep. The team met up in the lobby before heading to Starbucks for a much needed venti coffee. The Starbucks was right on the course, so we saw some Ragnar runners pass by. Some teams started as early as 5 am!

Our next stop was the starting area. We all went through the safety presentation before getting our bibs, shirts and little cooler filled with goodies. After a van 1 team photo, we headed over to the start area. Carl was leading us off as our runner 1. At 7:15 a small group of runners started their Ragnar journey under the giant orange arch. Carl had a 5.7 mile run that took him from the island we started on, over a couple of bridges to Coral Gables were he handed off to me.

I was so excited to get running! It was just before 8:30 am when I got started. I crossed two streets before remembering to turn on my Garmin. I ended up running past the Starbucks we stopped at earlier in the morning. I resisted the temptation to stop for another cup of joe. J This area is a super nice shopping area, but it soon turns into a not so great area. I could see one runner a few blocks in front of me and there was another runner a block or so behind me, so no running company when I hit the really bad area. It would be nice if they could change this section. A lot of sketchy looking men hanging out in front of the houses and on the sidewalk. Thankfully there were not many cars on the road because I was forced to run off the sidewalk. I ran a little faster to get through it. I’m so happy I wasn’t running through that area earlier when it was still dark! A few blocks later, we had to climb some stairs to take a pedestrian bridge over a busy road and then down the stairs again. I took it easy on this. I then came to the issue with the stop lights. I had caught up with the woman in front of me and the woman behind had caught up to us both. We all waited for the light to change and then crossed. At the other corner, we had to wait again for a green light. Well, I waited but the other two dashed across the road! I waited a bit then ran for it too. Of course it was just when the cars to my right got their green light. Thankfully I didn’t get hit! The two women got a good lead on me as they were lucky to get green lights at the next few corners when I got reds. I had to stop at a total of 5 lights. It cost me a few minutes. Near the end of my run, I was happy to see the sign at the corner telling us to turn instead of going strait. A guy way ahead of me had missed the turn though, so I stopped and yelled out to him a few times. Finally he turned around and saw me waving and pointing to where we should be running. We had just a little bit to go before running into the exchange. The guy had caught up to me and could have passed, but he was nice and held back letting me go in first. I handed off to Krista and then I was done with my run for about 12 hours! Total run: 4.27 miles in 39:56.

Krista ran her 3.1 and then handed off to Stacie. She ran her 5.2 and then handed off to Dak. He ran his 3.8 and then handed off to Renee who ran 8.7 to the Miami Zoo, where we handed off to Van 2. We managed to find a Starbucks while Renee was running. I got a nice cold Frap and then changed into dry clothes. It was fun catching up with Van 2, who we hadn’t seen since the night before. We hung out with them for just a little bit before they took off after their runner and we all went to lunch at Applebees.

After lunch, we headed to the Homestead Speedway, the location of the next major exchange were our van would take over running from van 2. We had a few hours to hang out and rest before Heather, runner 12, was expected to come in. A few of us wondered over to where Ragnar had set up some food booths. I ended up running into Gina and Linda at the little fire pit where they were roasting smores. I grabbed a stick and a couple of marshmallows and hung out with them for a while. I ended up going back to the van after a bit to rest, but it wasn’t easy to rest in the van. It soon got hot. So Renee and I headed back to the speedway and hung out in the middle section to watch the runners finishing up their leg. We met up with the rest of the team back at the van and then walked back to wait for Heather to run in. Van one had let us know that she would be coming in soon. We found Liz, Lynette and Erin hanging out near the entrance to the speedway, so we hung out with them for a bit waiting for Heather to run by. Carl, Sandy and Renee went up to where the exchange was. Soon we saw Carl running by us, heading out for his second leg! Heather had already run her 2 mile lap around the speedway and we missed that and the exchange! She was not happy that we missed it when we caught up to her a few minutes later. We chatted with van 2 for a bit before heading out.

We passed Carl a couple of miles into his run. He didn’t look like he was doing so great so we pulled off to the side a little ways down to check on him. He said he was doing just fine, so we headed to the next exchange were I would take over. By the time we got there it was pretty dark. I had my vest on, a light clipped to my visor and a headlamp that was on a stretchy band that I put around my waist. I wanted as much light as I could get! Soon enough Carl came into the exchange and I was off. 

This run was the one I was most worried about. It was just under 5 miles of dirt and gravel road ahead of me. The first part of the road was very uneven. Lots of deep  groves made from the tractor wheels. My lighting was good, but it was hard to get any depth of perception. I was happy to be off of that and onto the paved road. That lasted for only a few minutes. Soon we turned onto the Southern Glades trail road that would take us through the everglades. It was a very narrow road. We were told to stay to the left. Team vans would be passing us on our right. The road had lots of rocks. They were not tiny things either. I just focused on watching the road right in front of me highlighted by my headlight. About halfway down the road I passed my friend Karen. She was a pro on this road. She had ran the same legs for this race last year.  I talked with her for a minute before continuing on. Just before I got to my exchange a guy in skimpy shorts and no shirt passed me on my left. He distracted me for just a second, but it was enough time for me to misstep and twist my ankle a little. Thankfully it wasn’t bad and I ran it in to exchange with Krista.

 Back at the van I grabbed my towel and foam roller and got down on that road in front of the van to stretch and roll. My IT band was feeling just a little sore from the uneven surface. There will be no trail runs in the near future for me. Krista had one of the hardest runs. She ran the same road I did, but her run was twice as long! She ended up having a great run. She handed off to Stacie, who had an 11 mile run that was unsupported by the vans. Thankfully for her, she was now off the gravel road and onto the Overseas highway leading into Key Largo. I slept through most of Dak’s 7 mile run. It felt good to catch a little nap. He handed off to Renee at around 1:30am. We all made our way to the next major exchange at Coral Shores high school. It was a mad house there. We drove around a bit, trying to find a place to park. Sandy found us a nice and quiet side street. We all pilled out in search of bathrooms and our van 2 team. Soon enough Renee was running into the exchange, where she once again handed off to Lynette. We made another pit stop before heading to the van. 


I was so tired at this point! I climbed into the last seat in the van, pulled my snuggie over me, put in my ear plugs and went to sleep. The rest of the team discussed whether or not we should stay at the school or drive to the next exchange to sleep. I didn’t care. I just wanted to sleep! Sandy and Carl set up their sleeping bags outside, while Renee slept on the middle seat and Dak slept on the front row seat. Krista and Stacie slept in the driver and passenger seats. We got a couple of hours of sleep before getting up and heading toward Marathon. We decided to stop at IHop for breakfast. It was so great to get another meal! I hadn’t had a real meal since lunch the day before. There were two other teams from Sarasota having breakfast there. One team was the Sarasota Storm and the other was Shane's team who had my physical therapist, Michael, on it. He asked how my IT band was doing and I told him it felt tight, but OK.

After breakfast we headed over to the next major exchange point. We were all ready to run our third and last run. Carl started us off again after Heather ran in and slapped the band on his wrist, he had a short 3 mile run, so we didn’t waste much time getting on the road. I got going around 10 am. It was a nice temp out, but I knew once I got running, I would be hot. I had just a 12 ounce bottle of water with me, some cliff blocks and 4 endurolytes. My left IT band was pretty stiff from the get go, so I took short walking breaks the first two miles. I kept my pace up, so my mile splits were still around 9:30 min miles. At the base of the bridge, I stopped to take a couple of pictures before climbing up the stairs, to get to the parking area of the old 7 mile bridge. After the parking area, we ran down stairs to get under the 7 mile bridge. I stopped for another photo there. The woman I asked to take the photo, had a little trouble figuring out how to do it, so my time for that mile ended up being about 12 minutes! Oops. J My IT band was feeling better now, so I decided to run without breaks for a while. I climbed the last few stairs and started running on the long bridge. It was beautiful out there, but so hot without any shade. We had a bike lanes width of road to run on going against the traffic. I felt pretty good until I got to the hill part of the bridge. I was making my way through my water pretty fast by then and started to get worried. I ran a little more than half way up the hill before stopping for another walking break. I also posted my status on facebook and posted a photo. Not sure I’ve done that before in a race, but what the heck, this was not your average race. J By mile 7.5 I used the last little bit of water I had to swallow a couple of endurolytes. I knew it was going to be rough for the last part of the run and my knee was starting to hurt, so I decided to start taking a short walking break every half mile. This seemed to work out pretty good. I thought I only had a total of 9.1 miles to run but I passed that mile and still hadn’t hit the exchange. I ended up running 9.54 before handing off to Krista. Total time: 1:40:03. Much slower than past runs. The last two miles really brought down my overall average.

Krista had a brutal 9.3 miles to run. While she was out there toughing it out, we stopped at a gas station, where I got another Gatorade (finished the first one fast) and a Nestle Crunch Ice Cream bar. The best tasting post run snack! We drove back towards Krista to check up on her before turning around and heading south to the next exchange. Krista handed off to Stacie, who had a shorter 4.1 mile run. She then handed off to Dak who ran a very speedy 3 miles before handing off to Renee. She had said she was going to take it easy because of the heat, but that didn’t happen. She ran her run superfast.  A little after 2 pm and we were done! Very happy Nacho Typical Runners were ready to get to Key West and check into the hotel.

We got checked into the Southernmost Hotel, which was right next to the finish line and after party. Renee and I got to our room and showered before heading out to check out what was going on. We didn’t expect Van 2 until 6:15 pm. I wasn’t feeling so great at this point. I should have eaten something real after my 9.5 mile run! I had snacked on beef jerky and a small pack of cashews and the ice cream after the run and that was all I had had since breakfast! I picked up a bag of M&M’s which seemed to help, but really, I was ready to pass out. I was so happy when the rest of the team showed up and we were all ready to run in to the finish!

Finish time: 35 hours and 31 seconds.  213 out of 246 teams in the mixed category. The winning team finished in 23 hours! Wow.

We all gathered together and hung out for a little bit trying to figure out dinner plans. The plan was to meet up at 7:30 and go to dinner somewhere. I knew I couldn’t wait that long. I ended up just eating a bagel with peanut butter and honey and an apple for dinner then going to bed at 8:30. So happy that I did, because I felt so much better the next morning after 9.5 hours of sleep!

 I would recommend this race to others. It was very organized, with great attention to details that made the race run smoothly. Kudos to Cary and Carrie! J Overall I had a great time and it was a fun experience. I’m not sure I would do it again though. I love my sleep!

Nacho Typical Runners team dinner at Blue Heaven Sunday night.

The 15th Annual 5K Jingle Bell 5k Run/Walk for Arthritis

It's not often that I run an evening race. It always hard to figure out the best way to be ready before the race starts. I went to the gym for a short workout in the early afternoon after I got off work. I rode the stationary bike for 10 minutes and then did weights and core work for 30 minutes. I decided to eat a little something that would get me through the race, but not be to filling. I got an order of fries and a side salad at the nearby Wendy's. :) I then went to do a little Christmas shopping before heading over to the Starbucks near the start of the race. I got there just before 5pm, I ordered a Venti peppermint mocha and hung out until my friend Dawn showed up. Race start was 7 pm. Once Dawn showed up, with her daughter, we hung out for a while, then decided to walk around outside and check the vendors that had set up booths. Before we knew it, we had about 15 minutes until the start. We hit the porta potties then went to find a good spot to start the race. The street was packed! Over 2500 people had registered. We managed to get a spot that wasn't very far back from the front/ start line.

Soon we were off! I felt good. My IT band and knee didn't feel tight at all, which it often does in the morning. I didn't have my Garmin on or my music with me, so I just went at a pace that felt good. I hadn't planned on pushing it at all. It's a "fun run" so there was not going to be any official timing. About a half a mile down the road, I heard a guy next to me tell his friend that we were running an 8:40 pace. That worked for me. Not as fast as I would have fun it in October, but my body isn't in as great as shape as then. I past the first water stop because I figured it would be better to get water when we passed it on the way back, it was an out and back course. But, on the way back, just before mile 2, all the volunteers were facing the runners heading out and when I stopped to ask for water, they all ignored me. I grabbed a cup of water, but all of the cups were empty. :( So, I just decided to keep going.

During the last mile, I was starting to feel thirsty and really hot. It was a very humid night. But, I pushed through it because my legs were feeling good and it looked like I was going to have a good finish time according to my watch. About a half a mile before the finish, the walkers who were walking the 1 mile distance merged with the runners. I was dodging people and little kids left and right. I think it's great that people bring there kids to these events, but they should not let a little 2 year old walk back and forth in front of people running! I was almost tripped twice!

Finally I get to about mile 3. The finish line is straight ahead. I just have to run through the intersection and then the finish line is a little ways down the road. All of a sudden the light turns red and we are forced to stop and wait!! I have never been held back at a red light before! I guess because it was a "fun run" they thought it was OK to do this, but it really sucked! Everyone was complaining. I stopped my watch. I was about to have a great finish time, it wasn't fair that I had to stop! Lots of poeple caught up to me at the light and ended up passing me when we were allowed to start running again. I finished strong through and was very happy with my time of 25:37! I wish this had been a timed race (with no stopping) because that's a PR!

Not sure I will do this race again. I know the money is going to a great cause, but the hassle of dealing with all those people is just not worth it.

10th Annual Holiday HalfathonMadeira Beach, FL 12/11/11

I ran this race for the first time back in 2002. It was the first year for the race. I remember it being a little challenging because of the 2 hills (bridges). It was also a memorable race for me, because it was to be my last half marathon for a few years. I found out two weeks later that I was pregnant with my son. This year was the 10th anniversary for the race, so even though I wasn’t able to run very far without pain, I wanted to go out there and do this race.

My plan was to walk the first two miles, then start a run/walk of quarter miles each. I had tried this method for 8 miles earlier in the week and it worked well. No ITB pain at all.

I arrived in Madeira Beach about an hour before the walkers start time (runners started a half hour later). I picked up my chip and then hung out for a while with a couple of my running club friends. Soon enough it was time to line up for the start. There was actually a pretty decent crowd of walkers. I was worried there would only be a few of us. I got to stand at the very front of the starting mat, my first and last time probably! The race director gave us some instructions, including the fact that we should stay on the sidewalk until the runners caught up to us. The roads were technically closed until then. The National Anthem was sung for us and then we were off!



Right away I was being passed by many walkers and people who were slowly running. I didn’t like that at all! But I stayed with the walking, like a good girl. I actually was keeping up a pretty good pace, less than 15 min miles, which is a fast pace for me. By mile one, I couldn’t take it anymore and decided to just run one quarter of a mile to try to put some space between me and some of the other walkers. I picked up the pace to an 8 min mile for the quarter of a mile. It felt awesome to zoom past a bunch of people! Plus, I had a little extra space on the tight sidewalk. By mile 2, I was really happy to start my run/walks. I kept up a pretty good pace, sub 9 min miles, for a few miles during the running portions. This allowed me to gradually get past a lot of the walkers and slower runners who had started off with me. By mile 4, I started looking over my shoulder every once in a while because I expected the fast runners to catch up to me at any moment.

Miles 1 through 5: 14:06/ 12:37/ 11:24/ 11:03/ 10:55

The next few miles went by with no problems. I felt great. No aches and pains. I had plenty of energy and despite the warm day, I felt perfectly fine. Just after mile 6, we looped around a park and then entered the Pinellas Trail. We would be on this until just before mile 12. As I left the park area, I saw the lead runners off to my left, making their way toward the park. The lead runners caught up to me by mile 7.5. It was pretty cool running with the faster runners for the next few miles. They sure make running look effortless and easy!
My running pace started to slow down a bit during the second half of the race, but I was still pretty happy with my pace. I stopped a couple of times to stretch out my hamstrings, which felt a little tight.

Miles 6 through 9: 11:44/ 11:45/ 11:39/ 12:15

By the time we got to the last water stop, just before mile 12, I was starting to feel my knee stiffen up. It wasn’t painful yet, but I knew if I pushed much more, it would become painful. So, I walked a little more during this last mile. Normally I would be beating myself up because I was slowing down and walking more, but for this day, it was part of the plan to finish injury free and ready for Ragnar in a few weeks. I enjoyed the view of the lake and watched out for the guys playing disk golf. I managed to finish the last .1 with a run and run it in strong.

Miles 10 through 13: 11:49/ 12:10/ 12:13/ 13:21

Finish: 2:38

I'm pretty happy with my finish time considering I only ran about 5.5 miles of the race! I got my awesome finishers medal before heading over to get water and a banana and my bag. I found the medical guys to get an ice pack from them, then sat on the grass and stretched a little and iced my knee. I didn't stick around to long because I wanted to get on the bus and back to my car as soon as I could. No waiting for the bus, which was awesome!

This is how I feel! It is so hard not being able to run right now!

IT Band Knee pain

I went for my second run of the week today and it didn't go well. I had taken off 4 days after realizing the pain in my knee wasn't going away. Thursday's 4 mile run went fine, so I thought I'd push it to 6 miles this morning. I got in 3 before the pain started up. By mile 4.5 the pain was pretty bad. I ran very slow to finish out 5 and then walked in the last mile.

I'm not sure what to do! I've been icing, foam rolling and using the stick on my IT band. I guess I should take off at least a week, if not 2 weeks. I need to get in a workout though or I will not be fun to live and work with. Just need to figure out what is safe. I might try the elliptical at the gym on Tuesday.

Wish me luck!