Strides for Rides 5K- Iowa City, IA- Saturday morning October 29, 2016

A local 5K that I decided to do totally last minute. It was a beautiful day to run, just a little warmer than I like. Ended up placing 1st in my age group.

Before the race.  Me, Amy and Russell

Shirt, Bib and medal.

Kickoff to Kinnick 5K - Saturday, September 24, 2016- Iowa City, IA

It was a beautiful day. A little hot with high humidity, but gorgeous for September 24th. I decided last minute to do the Kickoff to Kinnick 5K because they said they had enough shirts and medals so I thought, why not? My friend Amy and Chris ran the race also.  Because it was a HUGE race in Iowa City I saw so many people that I knew.  Things went great until mile 2 when I was just too hot and had to take a breather to walk a tiny bit.  So it wasn't my best 5K.  Here are the results if you care:  Results

Before the 5K started

Amy, Me and Chris taking a picture with the Hawk.

Shirt front and back.

On the field after finishing the race.

Chris after finishing.

The biggest medal ever for a 5K, seriously it was WAY overdone.  I'm sure some loved it, but it was a 5K race, who needs a medal this big for a race that small. This medal was bigger and heavier than most of my marathon medals.

Running in for a strong finish.

Crossfit 4th Annual Sprint Triathlon - Oskaloosa, IA- Saturday, August 13, 2016

I found this outdoor triathlon and it was only 80 minutes away. The best part is it was in Oskaloosa, Iowa.  A great smaller town in Iowa.  It happens to be a town where some relatives of Amy's live.  Her Uncle Joe and Aunt Amy Larkin.  The best part of his triathlon is the swim is done in an outdoor pool!

Amy and I did our best considering the heat of a typical August day.  We placed 1st and 2nd in our age group and there were more than 2 in our age group.  After the race we went to lunch with Uncle Joe and Aunt Amy!  The bad part about this race is I lost a contact in the pool.  Weird and not sure how it happened, but when I took off my goggles after the swim it was gone, so it was probably stuck in my goggles, but I never found it.

Before the race began.

Not a great picture of my Garmin at the end of the race.  I actually swam with it.  This was for 500 meters in an outdoor pool, 12 mile bike and a 5K.  My final time was 1:35:24.  Not bad for a Sprint distance triathlon.

Right after Amy finished.  I was still beat red.  I had ran back to find her after I finished.

The race wanted a picture of everyone who placed. 

A finishing picture after getting cleaned up with our new shirts on!

Aunt Amy, Uncle Joe and Amy Larkin!

Solon Beef Days 5K-Solon, IA- Saturday, July 16, 2016

A beautiful morning for a short race.  Amy and I biked from home to Solon which was about 15 miles, completed the 5K, then biked 65 more miles.  For July the weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It was warm but not terrible.  It was 63 degrees with 5 mph winds, but 100% humidity.  I had great results for a day with high humidity.  They were:  A time of 28:52 and placed 10th of 19 in my age group.  Not too shabby.  Amy PRed again for a 5K.  Her time was 32:17.  Full results are here: Results  After the race we biked  on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail.  A super nice trail that I didn't even know existed until that day.

A great picture of Amy and I taken before the race.

Amy finishing strong in humidity.

The LONG bike ride.

About 30 miles from home we stopped for a late lunch here.  Our meals were fabulous.

Midnight Madness - Saturday, July 9, 2016 - Ames, Iowa

Midnight Madness is a race in Ames, IA that is run in the evening in July. Usually it's super hot. This night wasn't so bad.

 I wanted Amy to sign up because she needed to run 9 miles as a training run for her half marathon training, and this was 9.3 miles, Perfect. The race is a 15K split into 2 races. First a 5K race, then a 10K race. You can do either one or both. The 10K is just a double loop of the 5K course, so if you do the entire 15K you see the same spectators 3 times.

 We started out great. Amy actually PRed her 5K distance. The 10K was a different story. Amy was tired by 7 total miles in (mile 4 of the 10K) which was the 2nd loop of the 10K, she didn't want to run anymore. We did a lot of walking that 2nd loop of the 10K, but got it done!

We might have been tired because we did a long bike ride earlier that day.

Results are here:  The RESULTS

Started the day with a long bike ride with all these ladies.

A picture before midnight madness started with Russell, James,Amy and I!

Donut Run 5K - Ames, IA - Saturday, April 9, 2016

First before anything I want to say that I love donuts and love running.  My best friend Amy knew that, found this race and signed me up for it.

 It was a super cold morning. So cold that I thought my hands would freeze without gloves. But the sun was out, there was NO snow and it was a race where you could eat donuts. Little did I know that I would soon hate glazed Krispy Kreme donuts very much.

The race took place in Ames, Iowa.  It was called the Donut Run.  You ran about 1K to a donut table and had to eat as many donuts as you could stomach. Every time you got an entire donut down you got a sticker on your bib and at least 30 seconds taken off your final time.  Amy and I managed 5 donuts each.  It was so gross.  Some guys ate 20 donuts.

It was a fun, organized, different race.  We finished it under 40 minutes with the 5 stops.  Neither of us wanted anything to eat for hours after.

I ran another 3 miles after the race to help burn off all the donuts.  It didn't help much as I felt gross almost all day.   Results are here:  Donut Run results    Pictures are below:

A selfie before the race.

Another selfie.  It was freezing.   Can you tell how cold we were?

Our race bibs after the race with the cute stickers in them representing the amount of donuts we had during the race.

Shirt

A glass that came with our shirt.  Love it.

A picture that the race organizers took of us finishing the race.

Freeze Fest- Marion, IA-February 20, 2016 - 5K

A perfect day in February in Iowa.  50 degrees.  Seriously this is unheard of.  Susan, Juli, Amy, Lorna and I decided to run the Freeze Fest 5K in Marion a couple months ago.  We all traveled together to get to the race.  An hour before we started we all took lots of pictures together.  I saw many people I knew like Mike Yeries, Tyler Sullivan, Julie Johnston and many more.  About 20 minutes before we raced, Juli and I warmed up outside.  It was cold, but not bad.  We did about a mile or less for a warm up.

I started out kinda fast, like about a 7:45 minute mile pace.  I knew I couldn't hold it so I quickly slowed down to an 8:15 pace.  I hoped to hold that pace so I went with it.  Soon I was passing people I wanted to pass and doing well for me.

At the 2nd turn around I was still feeling good, but not great, a little nauseous.  I wasn't sure why for my nutrition was right on.    About 3/4ths of a mile before the end Tyler Sullivan came back to find me and run with me for a strong finish.  If only I had felt better.  I was feeling sicker by the moment and I was dressed in next to nothing so it wasn't because of being overdressed.  I only had shorts and a sports tank on.

Tyler was yelling, RELAX, PUMP YOUR ARMS, DROP YOUR SHOULDERS and much more.  I was trying to do all he said.  I couldn't go faster than I was, not a second faster.  I couldn't even talk back to him to tell him SHUT UP like I so badly wanted to.

The course ended up being a 10th too long and that ended up being bad for me.  My time was 27:05 which was a major PR for this course by 1 minute 10 seconds over my best time for this course.  My PR for a 5K is 26:51 so I know had this course not been long that I would have hit a new personal record today.  Bummed out.  Oh well with the great training I'm doing, as long as I stay healthy I can break it this year.  Link for results is HERE!  My stats are below as well as a bunch of pictures.

I placed 122 of 320 overall
35 of 169 out of Women
5 of 20 in my age group.

Me, Amy, Lorna, Juli and Susan

Our race bibs

Racing shoes

My running coach Tyler Sullivan who placed 5th overall and 1st in his age group of 25-29.  

Another before picture.  Left to Right:  Me, Susan, Lorna, Juli and Amy.

My individual results

Juli, Lorna and Susan being silly.

Mr. Garmin

Tyler with another friend.

Amy, Me, Tyler and Russell from my Cocky Roosters Racing team.

Me taping up Russell's knee so he could run FAST!

A picture taken during the race of me running.

After the race Amy and I went to a restaurant to get pie.  It was delightful!

Amana Freezer 5K - Amana, Iowa - Saturday, January 23, 2016

It started as a super cold morning, like in the teens for temperatures. However, it was the warmest day of the entire week and there was no wind and the sun was shining.  So it could have been so much worse.  Three of my awesome friends decided to run this race too.  Susan, Amy and Lorna

We left the house around 8:30 a.m. and arrived in Amana just before 9 a.m.  We picked up our packets, warmed up for the race, put our timing chips on our shoes, took lots of pictures, found bathrooms and lined up for the race.

The whistle went off and the race started.

I started out way too fast like around a 6:30-7 minute mile, but seemed to be able to keep up the pace for at least a half mile.  Then I slowed down to an 8:30 mile pace.  That was way more doable.  I don't know why I bolt out of the gate.  I seriously can't go that fast on a treadmill ever so I'm not sure how I do it in a race.

The first mile seemed to pass quickly and I started to shed layers by the end of mile 1.  My hood of my shirt came off first.  Then shortly after that the hood of the mask came off.  The cold air outside didn't seem to bother me and I didn't seem to need the mask over my mouth.  Thank goodness for that.

By mile 1.5 my mask was completely off and I was carrying it, along with the gloves they were off too because my hands were so hot.  By mile 2 my headband that covers my ears was off the ears.  Couldn't believe I warmed up that much.  I was never too hot anywhere else except at my head.  I had slowed down a little in mile 2 and there was a train going by that was squealing a high pitched sound that really bothered me.  I pressed on, but was starting to feel that I really couldn't hold this pace.

My 2nd mile showed that I had slowed a little, my pace for that mile was 9:07.  I knew that I wanted a time that I could be proud of, which is anything below 30 minutes, but really wanted under 28 minutes so I knew then I needed to kick it up a notch and run faster.  As people would come up beside me I would try to run with them.  Finally I found a pace I liked but that was well into mile 2.  This is the thing that really bothers me about a 5K, you don't really find your pace until mile 2 and then it's really too late.    I passed this guy, then he passed me, then I passed him, then we ran together.   He tried to talk to me, but I wasn't able to speak back which proved that I was giving my entire effort.  He pulled ahead and I wasn't able to catch him, but I tried really hard.  The last .12 of a mile I kicked it.  I kicked it hard.  According to my Garmin I was doing a 7:30 pace with tiny spurts of 6:30 pace.  Not bad for the finish of the race, but this proved I could have done a little more in mile 2 or 3.  I need to learn to evenly pace myself and give my all the entire race.

I am super proud of how I did for it was a huge improvement over the last time I ran this course 5 years ago.  In 2011 my time on this course was 29:30  and today 27:30!  Wow 2 whole minutes shaved off 5 years later.  Pretty awesome.

Here are my splits and stats:

Pace for race
Mile 1  8:33
Mile 2  9:07
Mile 3  8:55
.12 of a mile  7:53
Best pace was a 6:07 minute mile pace.  Funny.  Now if only I could hold that.

I placed 108 out of 297 Overall
39 out of 167 Women
11 of 29 in my age group of 40-49

The full results are here if you want to see them:  RESULTS

Here are some pictures from the morning:

Lorna, Amy, Susan and Me.  We were bundled up super thick before the race started.  I shed a couple layers when the race was about to start so I wouldn't go out too warm.

Inside the building where we picked up our packet there were bags with meat in them you could buy for $5.00 if you wanted.  My friends bought me a bag.  I thought the sign on the wall was funny.

Right before the race started.  Left to right:  Me, Susan, Lorna and Amy.

Feet of friends.  Here we are with our timing chips on.

A picture taken of me running.  I'm totally posing!

My Garmin with my time!

Susan almost to the finish line.

Lorna almost to the finish line

Amy!

Amy almost to the finish line.

My race bib and finishing results

Front of shirt

Back of shirt

Stuff in meat bag.

My official results.  I was happy except for the 11th place, but when I found out that was out of 29 I was okay about that.  Just felt I had placed more like 7th.

Food we received after the race.

One last selfie!  We are awesome.