2010 C.A.R.E. 5K and 10K Run--North Liberty, IA

The most awesome thing about this race was that my friends raced with me!

I teach a Body Sculpt class and for the last year and a half these three girls have been super loyal to my class and hardly ever miss it.

Stephanie and I have ran many races together this year, and we have been trying to talk Carmen and Bretta into racing with us since May.

Yesterday Carmen and Bretta did their first 5K race! I am so proud of them and glad they accomplished this goal! Stephanie came in 2nd place in her age group in the 5K and earned a medal! I ran the 10K and beat my last 10K time!

From left to right in the pictures is:

Carmen Davis, Bretta Shelton, Stephany Coleman and ME. I hope to do many more races together!



Here's all of us on Monday after Body Sculpt class sporting our shirts from the race. I think I look exhausted, guess that means I did a great class!

I can run that far.

This week was tougher. I was scheduled to run 4 miles on Monday, 8 on Wednesday and 4-5 on Friday and then 6 on Saturday.

Monday was great, did the 4 miles early morning, the weather was beautiful and I completed my goal.

Wednesday came and I didn't want to get up early. I had a major attack of the lazy bug.

So I didn't run early morning on Wednesday, however after teaching Sculpt my friend Stephanie said she planned a long route for us to run. It was a 5 mile route. She said, "You can do the 5 miles now and then go home and do 3 later." So we ran 5 miles. It was a hilly route that about did me in and it was slightly hot out and very sunny. But we did it. However I never did run 3 more miles later in the day.

I decided to do 8 straight miles on Friday. That's exactly what happened today. I got up at 5:20 to get Daniel up (he is taking care of someone else's dogs this week). Anyway then I prepared for my run and left around 5:41 to be exact.

I was running for 93 minutes.

There were two really massive hills in the route I picked and those were very hard that I ended up walking up the end of the hills to make it to the top. Other than the small amount of walking up those massive hills I ran the rest of the way.

I am really glad I was able to do it and feel very ready to run 6 miles tomorrow (yes in a race again).

Then next week the schedule is 4 miles Monday, 9-10 on Wednesday, and then 4-5 on Friday and then 3 on Saturday.

Then week after next is the Half Marathon. Yes I'm crazy.

Only 19 Days to Go

As the title reads, only 19 days left until the Half Marathon (13.1 miles)

My goal was to run an entire Half Marathon this year. I have one scheduled on September 11th in Waterloo, Iowa.

I'm excited for the race, and extremely scared at the same time.

I have been running every other day to every other 2 days for the last 5 months. Mostly I have been running 2-3 miles, but recently realized that I should be running further than 3 miles to train for the race.

I looked at many different training schedules online and found one that fit what I felt was safe and doable.

According to the schedule I had to run 3 miles on Monday last week, 7 miles on Wednesday, 3 miles on Friday and then 3 on Saturday. I accomplished that.

This week is 4 miles today, 8miles on Wednesday, 1-2 on Friday and 6 on Saturday

Next week 4 miles on Monday, 9 miles on Wednesday, 4 miles on Friday, 7 on Saturday

Week of my race 3 miles on Monday, 3 miles on Wednesday, Rest on Thursday, 1 mile on Friday and then 13.1 for the race on Saturday.

I sure hope I'm able to do this. Running is super difficult for me.

2010 Lone Tree 5K--Lone Tree, IA

Had a great race in Lone Tree, Iowa today. It was their Fall Festival and they had a 5K Run/Walk and a 1-Mile Fun Run. I'm still not sure how you can call running fun, but it's slowly getting easier.

My friend Stephany drove me to this race. She had an excellent time of 29:05 her best time ever. She placed 2nd in her age group.

Best thing about this race was I won a door prize. A $10 Gift Certificate to Sheels (a local sporting goods store)!

My time today was 31:04 better than last week, but slower than a couple of my other 5K times. I feel like I'm getting slower for three reasons.
1. My muscles seem so tight lately. I'm sure it's the amount of classes I teach along side trying to train to run.

2. I'm running longer distances more often and to do that you have to really pace yourself. My long distance pace is an 11 minute mile and I think I just run too slow the entire way.

3. I really don't know what I'm doing.
This past week from last Saturday to today I have run 22.6 miles. To me this is amazing since I went from last year of NO running ever and not ever planning on it to running at least 10-15 miles a week now.
Last Saturday was 6.2 miles, Monday 3.1 miles, Wednesday was the long run of 7.1 miles, yesterday 3.1 miles, then today the race of 3.1 miles.

I'm currently training for a half marathon (13.1 miles) so to do this you have to have a long run each week and it has to be longer each time.

Here is what is scheduled for this week.

Sunday REST
Monday 4 miles
Tuesday Cross Train (I consider this my Zumba classes and Body Sculpt that I teach)
Wednesday 8 miles
Thursday Cross Train
Friday 1 mile
Saturday 6.2 (10K race)
Sunday REST

If only I had a 2nd day to rest. Maybe that's all I need for more speed in my running, not sure, so if you are reading this and are good at running, please post any suggestions on getting faster and enduring to the end.

2010 St. Judes Sweet Corn Festival 10K Race--Cedar Rapids, IA

Today my friend Stephanie and I got up super early to go to Cedar Rapids to run a race there. Here is a picture before the race.

This is my 9th race of the year. I never thought I'd like running, but today I actually had a great time. My time was 1:04:14 this beats my last 10K time of over a minute. I placed 13 out of 17 in my age group.

Here is a list of the races I've done so far this year:

May I did a 5K in Marion
June I did a 10K in Iowa City then a 5K in Burlington, Iowa
July I did a 5K, Half Marathon and the Bix 7 mile
August so far I have done a 5K and a 10K

I have a few more races planned, but the one I'm actually looking forward to is the Half Marathon on September 11th. My goal is to run the entire race because my first Half Marathon I walked half of it.

These are all small steps towards the ultimate goal of a Marathon by next October 2011.