2012 Nearly Naked Mile--Iowa City, Iowa

On Saturday at 12:15p.m. my friend Rhoni Jo came over so we could practice our swimming for our Triathlon coming up on June 9th. We went to a local gym to practice and ended up swimming 22 full laps in a 21 meter pool, so our total distance was 1010.50 yards. After that we headed back to my house for a quick snack and to load up our clothing we were going to donate.

To participate in the Nearly Nake Mile for free you had to donate at least 1 item of clothing and whoever had the most clothing to donate would win a prize. I started hounding my children to get rid of old stuff because I wanted to donate the most. I was happy to get 3 full bags of clothing to bring. At 1:50p.m. Rhoni Jo and I arrived at the race site which was downtown Iowa City.

We were a little early and they were still setting up for the 3p.m. race. They still let us check in and get our super cute shirt which you will see in pictures later. I totally did this race to get the shirt. I gave the race staff all the clothing I brought and they counted out 54 items. I thought I was going to win, UNTIL someone backed up in a large suburban filled with black trash bags full of clothing. Yes they won.

Since we were so early we decided to take a long walk around downtown. We ended up walking just over 2 miles before the race started, then did our race. We both walked the race because Rhoni Jo just had knee surgery 3.5 weeks ago and isn't quite running yet.

This race was filled with crazy college kids. They were all mostly naked, many of them in just underwear. Rhoni Jo and I were the most dressed people there and probably the oldest people there. Too funny. Here are some pictures:


Rhoni Jo and I before the race.




Love the tu tus, especially on the dog.



Nearly Naked college guys, with some crazy guy jumping up in the back to be in the picture.



One of the signs.




Front of the shirt.  Love it.



Back of the shirt.



Me with a sign.  This should be my saying for my Half Marathons.



Rhoni Jo with her sign

This group of college kids took over 2 hours to put on body paint, they are all only wearing underwear or bathing suits.  Too funny.

Another view of them. They won the Group Costume contest.

2012 Doc Dash 5K--Iowa City, Iowa

On Saturday, March 24th at 7:40a.m. Jason, Scott and I traveled to the University of Iowa so I could get my packet, shirt and timing chip for the Doc Dash picked up. I figured it would be super busy and hard to find parking, but we were early and parking was easy to find. The weather was overcast and about 55-60 degrees which is perfect weather to run in. The results are here if you want to see them.  My personal results are these:  I was 302nd place out of 624 people.  121st place of 352 Women.  I held an average 9:08 minute mile for a final time of 28:25.  I am happy with this time because I ran hard and there was a long hill for the last 1/4 mile of the course and it was hard to run when you are tired.

Great things about this race:
Plenty of signs and volunteers, you always knew where to go and how to get there.
Plenty of food after the race and it was put out before so you could nibble if you had to.
Chip timed so there is accurate timing.
Indoor bathrooms!
Race Shirt
race Bib for your racing book
well marked course.
lots of door prizes and I won one!
Beautiful medals and trophies for the winners.

Things that could be improved:
Water on the course--there wasn't a water station at any point on the course.  Usually in a 5K there is water at mile 1.5 or something like that.  Not sure what the race organizers were thinking because you need water when running, especially if you are actually running hard.
An actual packet with goodies in it.-- The packet that was received was just a small plastic bag with ads and some coupons in it.

Jason and Scott came with me to watch me race and take pictures.  Scott really wanted to be there even though in this picture he appears less than thrilled.

This is my friend Bill.  He used to take my Body Pump class at another gym I worked at years ago.  He loves to run and runs races almost every weekend like me.

Before the race.

Some volunteers at the First Aid station.  You can't have a race without great volunteers.

Joe the owner of the running store Running Wild in Coralville, Iowa.  He has given me tons of great running advice from over the years.   It was awesome because at the end of the race I won a $20 gift certificate to his store!  Thanks Joe.

On the Right is my running friend Mike Yeries that I see at almost every race I run.  On the Left is Tyler Sullivan, one of the fastest runners in Iowa.  Today he placed 5th overall, his time was 16:38 with a 5:21 average mile.  Super awesome and fast.  If you happen to look at results from many races I've ran in, he is usually First or Second place.   It was great to meet him and pick his brain for how to get faster at running.  Basically  to do that, you have to run more and do speed work.

This bandana says it right.  I want a shirt that says this.

Speaking of food, here is some that was provided for the runners and there was plenty.

Massive amounts of Scooby fruit snacks!

Yummy treats!

Running to the finish.  Jason took this picture.

Post race picture.  Glad to be done!  However then Jason took Scott to an Easter activity at the church so I ran home  another 3.1 miles.  I know I'm a crazy runner.

2012 Casi St. Patricks Day Run 5K

It was a gorgeous March day around 65 degrees when I woke up. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and I don't remember any wind.  All of us met at North Dodge Athletic Club in Iowa City at 7:35a.m. so we could travel together to Davenport.  We chose that place because most of us were going to swim laps in the pool after the race so we could practice for our upcoming triathlon.   We arrived in downtown Davenport by
8:30 a.m. and found parking within 3 blocks of the race.  Thank goodness we arrived early because had we been even 15 minutes later there was no where close to park.  We found the shirt and bib pickup quickly and then went back to the car to get ready for the race.  By the time we all ran our race it was 75 degrees and a little humid. This race has been going on for 30 years and today was the 30th anniversary of that race.

There were many great things about this race that were done very well for instance:
Streets blocked off for safety.
Many police officers downtown helping with the race.
Medical tent
Plenty of food after race
Plenty of water after race
Bib and Shirt pickup went smoothly (well except for my friend Rhoni Jo Barnes, they had her listed as Rhoni for her first name and then Jo Barnes for her last name which was crazy.
Free pictures taken after the event.
Instant Results
Results posted online within 24 hours
Chip timed with a disposable chip so you DON'T have to give it back.
Accurate distance for the course.
Starting and finishing timing mats.

Things that need to be improved for this race are:
 MORE PORT A POTTIES.  There was like 30,000 people downtown (someone mentioned) at least for this race and they had THREE potties.  Seriously only three. Not sure what the race organizers are thinking.  Thank goodness there were many generous businesses who let you walk inside and use their toilet.   
NOT ENOUGH WATER AT THE ONLY WATER STATION
My friends Rhoni Jo and Tracy both walked the race this time.  Tracy did due to a foot injury and Rhoni Jo just had knee surgery 2.5 weeks ago.  By the time they got to the water station there was NO WATER.   They were hundreds of people from last so this means hundreds of people didn't get water.   NOT ACCEPTABLE.  

The race results are here if you care.

My personal results were these:  I was 964th of 2070 Overall.  50th of 144 in my age group of 35-39.  374th of 1179 Women.  I held a 9:42 Pace and my final time was 30:02. So not my best time at all.  I was disappointed to get a time of anything over 30 minutes.  However this was my first race this year in this humidity so I need to get used to that all over again.  Plus at the water station there was a backup of over a hundred people and we were at a stand still and couldn't even move forward for over 30 seconds.  NOT happy about that and then when we could move forward we could only walk for at least another 30 seconds.  I'm sure that didn't help my time at all.

Here are pictures we took today:

From Right to Left:  Stephany, Rhoni Jo, Tracy and Me.

A picture of the race map with Rhoni Jo and Stephany posing behind it.

Some race volunteers.  You can't have any race without them.  Thank you for your time.

Our awesome running socks and shoes with our timing chips on.

The lead car for the race.

Finish and Start line.  This picture was taken when the children lined up for their 1/4 mile race.

My friends and I dressed up to race.  I love our socks, beads and shamrock headbands.  We are just so cute.

Tracy with her fun glasses on.  The sun was hitting us weird.  I love Tracy's race number.  Too cool.

The front of the shirt

The back of the shirt

My race number

A picture of the picture that Walgreens took of us.

This lady was dressed up as a pot of gold.  I chased her down to get a picture with her.  I hope she didn't mind.

The back of her costume.  The words on her backside were "Follow the Pot of Gold"

Lastly, Tracy happened to snap a picture of me running.  Too cool.  I don't have the best running form in this picture, however I was slowing down so she could get a picture and I was waving.