Screaming Pumpkin Race Quarter Marathon (6.55 miles) Peoria, Illinois--October 25, 2013

The weather was absolutely perfect for a night Halloween race. It was cold, but a perfect cold.  The wind was super light if there was any so it didn't blow our wigs off or our head decorations off.  You were only cold if you were standing still.   I wasn't ever too hot, or too cold.   The race started exactly on time of 5:50 p.m.

 We went to this race with our friends Kyle and Lisa. They picked us up and we went to Peoria. It's about a 2.5 hour drive from our house.  I'm really not sure how Lisa and I were able to talk our husbands into dressing into tu tu's or tights or anything they had on.  This is one reason how I know our husbands love us so very much because they dressed up in these ridiculous costumes to have fun with us.

Lisa and I are devils to show that "The devil made me do it."  Ha.  I made Jason's and my tu tu's and they turned out ok except they were a little long and were full of static.  Next time I will make them shorter and easier to run in.  I'm so grateful to Lisa for going to the Halloween store and getting not only fun wigs, but the tights for Jason and all the other fun stuff.  It was a great time.  During the race we would check out some of the really old gravestones.  It was fun to run some, walk some, goof off a bunch.  If you want to check out the website for this race go here.

This race has many good points:

• Finishing medals--this year were gorgeous.
• Great food after the event.  
• Easy packet pickup 
• Chip timing bib
• Bib for your scrapbook
• music before and after the event
• medical tent
• lots of parking close to the event
• Marathon and marathon relay options.
• lots of porta poties
• You run through a cemetery and that is just fun.
• plenty of water/gatorade stations in case you needed them.

The bad points are:

• This year the course didn't seem as well lit as last year
• The pavement had seriously deteriorated from last year so there were tons of pot holes and broken pavement everywhere so you really had to watch your step or you would roll an ankle or die. 

I took a few pictures so here they are.  I should have taken pictures of all the awesome costumes I saw because there were some great ones this year.

All of us.  Jason is showing some leg.

Lisa and I in our devil outfits.

Posing for another group picture with a giant cat.

The front of his costume.

The back of Jason's costume

Another great group picture.

The awesome finishing medal.

The race bibs.

Close up of the medal.

New goals

Over the last month I have been making some new goals in fitness.

One of these is to either bike or swim at least once every week.  This is harder as winter is approaching and that makes it harder to bike in the freezing cold.  Last week I biked a couple times and swam laps one day, however this week the biking and swimming didn't happen.  I plan on setting out my stuff tonight so I can bike into class at the Rec Center tomorrow and teach and then bike home.  It will be a cold ride, however I have a light on my bike so it will be possible.

Another goal is to get back on my elliptical and use it again.  It has been collecting a bit of dust and needs some love, so this week I got on it and did a mile.  Next week the goal is 1.10 miles.  I would like to increase my distance on the elliptical each week by 10%.

Another goal is to run more often and run more miles each week.  I have been running so much more in the last 3 months than I did all year because the first half of the year I was still fighting an ankle injury.

Last week I decided that I needed to be more consistent in my running and the only way to really do that is two fold:  Set goals each week and run a little bit further each week.

Last week I set my first running goal of the year and that was to run every single day except for Sunday.  This is something I've never done in my 3.5 years of running.

My sports medicine doctor who has done at least 10 Iron man competitions said that doing several short runs is very important in running.  Meaning.

Don't go out on Monday and do 5-8, then skip a day, Wednesday do 8, skip a day or two and then do 12 on a Saturday because it was your long run.

Instead spread that out a bit like this:

Monday 5, Tuesday 3, Wednesday 5, Thursday 3, Friday 2, Saturday 10.  This will be much easier on your body.

Since I'm still in the 15-20 miles a week point I ran my mileage this way:

Monday 1.16, Tuesday 2.06, Wednesday 4.10, Thursday 4.03, Friday 1.03 and Saturday 7.01 miles.

Total 19.39 miles for this past week.

My new goal for the next week is to run 10% further than this week and to also run every day again.  I feel absolutely amazing and look forward to running again.  It is easier to make time for a bunch of short runs than it is to squeeze in 2-3 longer runs.

Timber Trek 2013--Amana, Iowa

It was a perfect day to run. It was cloudy and 65 degrees. The obstacles seemed so much harder this year and CVRA lengthened the race to just over 5 miles long, but it was still awesome. I'm so glad my family all decided to run with me. Such a great day!  If you want to see the results go HERE !

All of our racing feet.  To me this picture means this:  Sharing your love of  running with those you care about the most. 

Here is a picture of most of my family.   There are two more children that belong here however they have moved out.  I was thrilled to have most of the family running together.   What a great day. 

Alyssa and her friend Sofia.

Finishing the long trail race.  I gave it everything and
wore myself out.  What a great race.

Alyssa finishing strong.

Scott and Jason finishing together!

Happy to be done.

All muddy and soaking wet.

Brenden in his muddy clothes before he changed.

Scott all wet and muddy.  He was not
happy at all.  He was super tired.

Brenden won 2nd in his age group.

Alyssa all muddy.

The front of Brenden's medal.

The back of Brenden's medal.

Jared showing off his new running shirt.