Dog Days 5k {July 8, 2017}

Dog Days 5k 2017

July 8, 2017

6:00pm

Official Time: 20:47.8 (*Pushing Gabe*) 

Overall Ranking: 20/154

Female Ranking: 3/74

AG F30-34: 1/7

(My 12th race of the 2017 season)

I’ve now run Dog Days four times and earned 3 1st AG places and 1 2nd AG place:

2017 - 20:47 (1st AG) (my course PR and 17 seconds slower than my 5k PR of 20:34)

2016 - 25:04 (2nd AG) (*11 weeks postpartum/6 weeks back into running)

2015 - 21:24 (1st AG)

2014 - 23:10 (1st AG)

Last year, this race was my very first stroller race. It was SO hard but it also felt pretty awesome to run with my little guy.  It’s no surprise that I pushed him again tonight, as most of my races are now run with him in his stroller. My C goal was to beat last year’s time (each of my 5ks since then have been faster so I felt pretty confident about this goal), my B goal was to have a course PR, and my A goal was to be the first female. I knew the A goal really depended on who showed up as much as it depended on how hard I could push - so it was really just a wild shot in the dark.  My race strategy was also really on point - go as hard and as fast as I could until I had to slow down.  Let me be clear - this was MY bright idea, NOT my coach’s!!!

This morning I ran a great 8 miles with Amber, Jennifer (another one of Clint’s coaching clients) and then Sharron Carr (familiar face to many in the Blo-No running scene) joined us along with her stroller and son Charles for about two miles.  We met at Tipton this morning at 7 and planned to have an “easy” go of things…but ended up running about an 8:27 average pace with a few miles under 8:15. We blamed the fact that we ran a little faster than we might’ve liked on the fact that we were just trying to keep up with Amber’s daughter Sophia who was biking with us. That’s our story, anyway.  After that run, I met Clint back at home where he made us some killer pancakes (after his own long run of 14 miles).  After breakfast, we hopped in the car and headed to Peoria where we hung out at Camp Wakonda for a while to spectate our good friend Tanya’s 50k+ (the plus is because the course ended up being 35.5 miles instead of a real 50k/31 mile distance! INSANITY!!). We saw her at her mile 21 and 23 which was awesome - I think it meant a lot to see some familiar faces and I am glad we could be there for her! She went on to be the top female finisher in the 50k! The girl is incredible!!

After this adventure, we went to One World (a Wells Fam Peoria favorite) where we ate a lot of food and I drove us home. I hit a tired wall a few miles outside of BloNo but of course powered through. We had a bit of time to lie around at home before heading out again at 4:50 for Lake Bloomington/Dog Days! I might’ve told Clint to go on without me as I languished in a recliner. Man, it was a challenge to force myself out the door for this evening race tonight! However, I am absolutely glad I did (of course :)). As usual, it was great to see everyone - and it felt “awesome” to push myself for a nice hard-effort run.

Amber and I ran a nice, easy 1-mile warmup. There was no way I was running more than that as a warmup tonight, right, wrong, or otherwise. I was tired and frankly, irrationally proud of myself for doing any warmup at ALL! After the warmup, I changed my shoes into my racing flats and lined up. Since it was a chip start, we all had to kinda cram together in the finishing (so also the start) chute and I did my best not to run over anyone’s ankles. I positioned my wheel directly behind Ryan Leuty’s foot, knowing that if I hit him he wouldn’t kill me. A few minutes before the race started, anyway, he started kicking the wheel (likely trying to sabotage me…spoiler alert…it didn’t work)…so whatever. HA!

After a few minutes in the chute, the starting signal was given and we were off! I immediately charged to the outside/right side of the pack to maneuver around a few of the people in front of me (yes, including Ryan Leuty).  We flew down the first straightaway and turned to the right.  Taylor Yaklich and Audrey Jenkins, two fierce little 13-year-olds, had settled into a rhythm next to one another maybe 20 strides in front of me (and were the front women in a sea of men). I told myself to keep them within my sights as long as possible.  As we approached the left turn in the road, I heard two guys behind me chatting about being glad that they weren’t running too hard and were just “jogging” or something along those lines. Funny, guys. FUNNY!!!! I turned my head around to give them a joking eye roll and one of them said, “I am not talking about YOU! I just mean US! YOU’RE pushing a stroller!” Oh whatever ;). But seriously, the first half mile was over in like 3:00/6:00 pace. WHOOPS. The chatty fast guys passed me right around the half mile and we all carried on down the descent to the left hand turn at 0.75. Up the hill a bit…Taylor and Audrey running in stride with one another and within striking distance but I knew if I made a move I would likely blow it at some point. Mile 1 clicked off in 6:23. I knew that was wayyyy too fast but it was still fun to see.

As anyone who has run this course knows, mile 2 is the worst of the three. I did my best to hang on and push to, at the very least, keep a sub-7 pace. The rolling hills as you enter the inner loop keep things interesting. I passed the water stop with a smile at Rachelle Leuty and company, but kept running through without grabbing any water. I had a bottle with Tailwind in it in my stroller should I need any liquids. I hit the turn-around (a fire extinguisher that had been set out in the middle of the road to run around - HILARIOUS!) and powered on….now back UP and out of the darn inner loop. My breathing definitely sounded labored as I hauled it to get up and out of there. I cheered on tons of people as I ran back (a perk of an out and back). Amber and Carol looked gooooood as usual! Mile 2 - 6:57….34 seconds behind Mile 1 (HAHA!).

As I ran down to cross the lake, I did my best to pick up some speed on the downhill. I noticed that Taylor had pulled away from Audrey…and Audrey was actually walking over the bridge. Poor thing was obviously hurting. Taylor rounded the corner to the left to start the hill and Audrey looked forlornly back behind herself, saw me, and started running again. Gabe and I rounded the corner to the right and I told myself…just three laps around a track left! I started singing “99 bottles of beer on the wall” in my head as I powered up the hill…my standard mind-over-matter distraction tool. I know, it’s weird. It started back in my triathlon days when I was trying to keep my mind off of swimming for long periods of time. I would sing that darn song over and over in my head. Whatever works, right?!

My gap on Audrey kept closing. I asked myself if I REALLY wanted to pass her - did it really matter? No, probably not really. I gave maybe an 80% effort toward catching her and kept closing the gap in spite of my tired legs. Mile 3 clicked off in 6:54…at least it was SLIGHTLY faster than Mile 2, albeit barely! I put my head down and put in work for the final 0.1. I crossed the finish, cheers for Gabe ringing out from both sides, in 20:47. The final 0.1 on my watch was in a 6:01 pace. I’ll take it! It was so fun to hear people tell me that Gabe was clapping as he heard the cheers as we ran down to the finishing chute. I love it! This was a great way to close out one year of stroller racing.

Thanks Mitch - this race is always so much fun. Thanks to the rest of the team - whether you were there in person or in spirit at this one. Thanks to Saucony for the best gear!

Next up - the BIX!

Have a great day, all!

Rachel

Park 2 Park 5 Miler {July 4, 2017}

Park 2 Park 5 Miler

July 4, 2017

7:30 am

Official Time: 35:34.7 (*Pushing Gabe*) (33 second PR)

Overall Ranking: 54/554

Female Ranking: 8/272

AG F30-34: 1/35

(My 11th race of the 2017 season)

So Monday around 4:45pm, Clint, Gabe, and I headed to the shop to register for Park 2 Park. We ran into Amber and Sophia there and chatted for a bit - Amber told us she was planning to head to a hot yoga class at 6 for a good stretch after leaving the shop. Hot yoga is one of my love languages, so I commented that I would love to join her…I quickly calculated times in my head and didn’t think we could make it work with such limited time. Clint, however, insisted that I go…so we hurried home, I fed Gabe who promptly fell asleep for a late nap (this holiday weekend had us alllll sorts of discombobulated!). Clint prepped me a bottle of Tailwind (the nectar of the Gods) and I was out the door by 5:40. I called Amber to give her a heads up that I would be joining her…and extended the offer for her to join us for dinner afterwards.  I got to Body, the studio where the class we were attending was being held, with about 7 minutes to spare….turns out there were only 4 people attending the class which was pretty awesome

Yoga was ahhhmazing. I think I have only managed to make it to 3 postpartum yoga classes, a bit pathetic because it is something I truly enjoy. I had to reign myself in a few times to keep from extending too far in some of the poses…my body hadn't done some of the poses for a while and there was no need to get hurt the night before Park 2 Park! After a great class, Amber and I headed back to our place where Clint had made us a great pre-race dinner. Yoga + a personal chef = no excuses NOT to have a great race, right?!

After dinner, we did our best to go to bed early-ish. Morning always comes too quickly on race days…when my 5am alarm I lounged around for probably 20 minutes or so before jumping out of bed to get things ready for the morning.  Clint had prepped my traditional GF pita with almond butter and salted honey, which I started eating as I got things packed up and ready for the day.  A few minutes before it was time to leave, I got our sweet/tolerant child out of bed, changed his dipey, plopped him in his carseat and we were off! We left our house around 6:10, just 10 minutes behind our goal time of 6:00. We drove separately, first to the Corncrib where we dropped off our blue car. Clint hopped into the SUV with me + Gabe and we made our way to Miller Park/the race start.

We rolled in right at 6:30. It felt great to have a whole hour to spare before the start. My stomach was a little rocky…not sure what was up with that. I did the usual bathroom visits (love the option to use the indoor bathrooms at the pavilion!) and chatted with people at the race start while Clint and Gabe and I hung out. We saw Jeremy who hung out with us for a while…but other than that, we didn’t see any teammates.  I was moderately concerned about this because I had Holly-Rae’s race number that I needed to get to her prior to the start!

A little after 7 Holly-Rae texted saying she would be looking for us around the pavilion but was putting her phone in the car…so I put my phone away in its little pocket on the stroller and Clint and I set out on our warmup, all the while keeping our eyes out for the bright Often Running uniforms. We still didn’t see anyone!! As we started in on our “warm up” (we were really already quite “warm” from the muggy air!), my stomach started telling me that it didn’t agree with any sort of running plans I had for the morning. I felt as if I might surely vomit and started walking around 0.7 and turned my watch off at 0.8. Well. This certainly didn’t bode well for the race.

Right about this same time, Clint saw Holly-Rae walking toward the starting area and screamed out to her. She saw us and ran toward us, all in a tizzy ;). FINALLY - we had made the connection and we were able to pass off the race bib…success! We also saw the rest of our teammates…kinda funny how most of us missed each other all morning! Oh well - the important thing is that we all arrived safely, on time, and everyone got their bibs!! BAM!  We lined up at the starting line (no strides for me…stomach said NOPE) and I literally prayed that my stomach would allow me to push hard through this darn race.

My A-goal was to run 6:50s. My 5k PR pace is 6:38. Saturday I ran a 5k with a 6:57 pace (pacing HR). My tempo workouts are generally around 6:50 though, in all honesty, I can’t recall right now when my last one was….so….yeah. Maybe this goal was not realistic. Well, that’s neither here nor there. As I lined up, in spite of my rocky stomach, I was still hoping to finish with a 6:50 average.

I lined up near the front of the pack, always a bit nervous to do so, but I knew I could bust out fast enough to deserve to be up there…plus, again, having the stroller in the middle of the pack is really more hazardous for everyone.  A guy to my right said, “Good luck!” and then reminded me that he was the guy who had helped me cover Gabe’s ears with his hands prior to the start of the Lake Run in May (protecting him somewhat from the loud cannon blast!). Awesome!! I exchanged some, “good lucks” and fist bumps with teammates…and soon enough it was GO time!

As the signal blasted, I did my best to bust out of the starting area without running into anyones’ ankles.  Jennifer LaFrance, a sweet girl who is one of Clint’s new run coaching clients, pulled up next to me and we settled in together for the first mile or so.  We chatted about the fact that it was stupid hot and humid and GROSS and also about our experiences last year at the race. She told me she did last year’s race in a 7:08 average pace but wasn’t thinking she would be able to do that well this year because she’s been battling some injuries. I was thinking to myself, “girrrrl you’re starting out fast and strong now!” I told her about the fact that this race marked one year of postpartum racing for me…my first postpartum race last year was Park 2 Park when I had been back to running for about 5 1/2 weeks and Gabe was about 2 1/2 months old. I had gotten 40:02 which kinda ticked me off because my goal was 40:00 or under. HA!!! Anyway, with this being the one-year anniversary of my jaunt back into racing I was hoping to smash last year’s time (and maybe PR my 5 mile…36:07 set in 2015?).

Sometime during the first mile, Gary and Marshall Watson ran by me.  Uh, why do I always go out harder than Gary? That’s not the way things should be. I literally always see him pass me that first mile in races and think, “Ugh!! I did it again! I have NO business being in front of him for any amount of time!” The first mile ticked off in 6:39. Whoops. Maybe a little too ambitious. Darn race-day adrenaline. Oh - apparently my stomach stopped hurting. Or at least I forgot about it!

Somewhere after the first mile, Jennifer dropped back.  Ryan Leuty ran with me for a while somewhere in the second mile. I was able to keep what I felt was a strong pace during that second mile and pulled away from him and some other ECo peeps. It was so hot. I kept asking myself why I decided to push the stroller. I saw Diane Eckhoff, who had actually offered at one time to watch Gabe during the race, spectating to the left in the Downtown Bloomington area. She gave me a shout and I thought about shoving the darn stroller off toward her…but instead I smiled and soldiered on.  Mile 2 clicked off in 6:46. WOOT! Still sub- 6:50! Right on target for my “A-goal,” with 15 seconds in the “bank,” right?! Uh…yeah.

The third mile started in and I felt my muscles start to refuse to keep firing at their previous rate. Here the course starts a mild climb up to the water stop near the end of Mile 3/around UHigh. I concentrated on my breathing…in through my nose, out through my mouth. I was steaming HOT and asked one of the young boys at the water stop to throw a cup of water on my head. Uh - some quick advice. If you ask someone to do this, CLOSE your EYES. He was alllll too eager to douse someone in the face with water and threw a cup on me with gusto. The water hit my open eyes, causing my left contact to fold and travel down to the bottom of my eye. I did my best to keep running while I blinked maniacally and rubbed my eye, trying to get the rogue contact back in place.  I thought about what would happen if I had to finish out two miles with only one contact…and knew it would give me an awful headache.  Thankfully, I was able to work it back into place and continued on…soon turning to the right and DOWN Gregory before the worst hill on that darn course.

I remembered last year when I got to this point. I can still remember exactly how I felt - almost defeated. It was hot, it was hard, and Julie Sibley was coming up behind me. Pre-baby, I knew I could beat her…but that day, there was no way. She gave me some encouraging words as she passed me up the hill. I sighed, and carried on.  This year, though, I didn’t let up. I channeled her positive wishes from last year and was greeted at the top of the hill by some familiar faces cheering - Ryan Case’s wife (we had just chatted with them prior to the start of the race) and Kristin Techmanski, a co-worker at SPICE. It always feels so good to see familiar faces, especially when it’s during a hard point in a race.

Cresting the hill felt amazing….SO good to get that thing in your rear-view mirror! Somewhere around here I noticed that Taylor Yaklich, a speedy area 12-year-old who had beat me at the Memorial Mile and at the Downs Freedom 5k, was just ahead - well within reasonable striking distance. I narrowed my focus and concentrated on pushing to pass her, which I did somewhere around the 4 mile mark. My 4th mile clicked off in 7:30, my slowest mile of the race by far.

I shook off the feeling of that yucky mile (and made peace with the fact that a 6:50 average pace finish wasn’t happening today) and dialed it in, picking up my pace. I concentrated on trying to put some distance between myself and Taylor. I saw that Ryan Case was right on my heels…pushing a stroller with his 8 month old. Well, there goes my top stroller finish! I knew he would have no problem catching and passing me, but I did do my best to hold him off as long as I could. He passed me with his stroller and cute daughter, both of which were decked out in red-white-and-blue. Ryan Leuty also pulled up next to me again, passing me around the 4 mile mark and then pulling away.

After a quarter mile or so into the fifth and final mile, I was able to catch back up to Ryan. I yelled up at him, “Don’t LET me catch you!” He didn’t respond, but did pick up his pace a bit. I pulled up next to him and told him he could feel free to curse at me if he needed, as I gave him some encouraging heckling.  He was obviously hurting and I wondered if some verbal pushing would help him out. With less than a half mile to go, a cute brown dog ran by on my right side. I thought maybe someone behind me was running with a dog on a leash. Whatever, I am a rule-breaker with my illicit stroller…so I really wouldn’t mind if someone was running with a dog. I turned my head to the right to note, though, that the dog did have a leash on…but it was running with the leash dragging beside it (with no human attached). I turned my head to ask the runner behind me if it was her dog…turns out it was Taylor Yaklich who had caught back up to me! She said it wasn’t, and the dog proceeded to wind in and out of the line of runners from one side to the other. The whole thing made me kinda nervous for the poor lost dog! Right before the trail crosses Raab prior to the entrance to the stadium, I saw Jamey Whitlow - hooray for another friendly, familiar face cheering!

I continued to spew encouraging words at Ryan as we crossed Raab and made our way through the parking lot and into the stadium. I remembered two years ago - in 2015 when I saw David Quinn here at the stadium entrance yelling at me to “Get on your TOES!!!” We crossed the parking lot and entered the stadium. I saw Clint to my right and barreled down to the finish as fast as I could.  Mile 5 clicked off in 7:08. We crossed the finish line right on Ryan’s heels…chip time of 35:34.7 (the final 0.6 by my watch was at a 5:54 pace)…a 7:06 pace (or 7:02 according to my Garmin with the course being slightly long)…and a PR of 33 seconds. 

I know this was a great performance and I am truly satisfied. However, truth be told, I am a little bummed about being so-close-yet-so-far-away to my goal of a 6:50 average pace/sub 35-minute race. This is not to ask for sympathy or pity…I just need to keep working, keep pushing, and keep (hopefully!) chiseling away at my times!!

After crossing, I cheered in teammates and some Heat Wave ladies. After chatting with a few finishers (and making my way over to Clint!), I loaded up the top of the stroller (with Gabe sleeping inside - he worked HARD, ok!?) with water bottles and stood at the finish to hand them out to sweaty finishers!

THANK YOU to Mitch, my teammates, Saucony, and Coach Clint. This is a fun race to suffer through together as a team!

***PS After a tough race and a busy weekend…what’s the most sore today?! Yeah….my arms from that darn yoga class are aching. HA!

Have a great week, all! Hope everyone comes down from the 4th of July holiday-hangovers and is able to be productive in life the rest of this week (ha!).

Rachel

Next up - Dog Days 5K

On Deck - Bix 7

Downs Freedom 5k {July 1, 2017}

Downs Freedom 5k 2017

July 1, 2017

7:30 am

Official Time: 21:36 (*Pushing Gabe; Pacing Holly-Rae*) 

Overall Ranking: 17/127

Female Ranking: 7

AG F30-39: 2nd (to Holly-Rae at #1!!)

(My 10th race of the 2017 season)

This race is a new one for me and one that hasn’t ever been on my radar, in spite of it really not being far from home.  It is in teammate and friend Holly-Rae’s hometown of Downs and is a race that she’s enjoyed numerous times.  One thing led to another and Clint ended up registering us for the race.  He also told Amber she should do it, and like any good coachling, she complied.  Ha!

Still being rather unsure of what my personal goals are for the remainder of this year (for the record, I want to have a great race at Boston next April but am kind of torn regarding what to do in the meantime - mostly I want to just keep enjoying my runs and not get stressed out if things don’t go well or if I can’t get a certain run in on a certain day because of Gabe or something), I got the idea to see if Holly-Rae was interested in having me pace her for this race.  I know this is a race that means a lot to her since it’s in her hometown and full of familiar faces and history.  I also knew that she had some goals for the race - she wanted to PR her 5k and get under 22:00.  Her current 5k PR was 22:07 and I was pretty darn confident in her that she had a sub-22 in her.  

I will say, offering to be a pacer for someone makes me pretty anxious.  It’s one thing to offer to pace a person or a group that is a minute or so below your personal race pace - to me, that feels safer and like something you may be able to relax a bit doing.  However, offering to pace someone who runs pretty darn close to your own pace is kinda frightening - if you have a bad day, you could totally blow it for them!!  Life, and running, only gets better when you step out of your comfort zone, though!  So…I sent her a text asking if she was interested in a pacer.

We went back and forth about it a bit - it seemed like she just wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t rather trying to hit my own PR.  No no no!  I truly wanted to give this a whirl and support a good friend.  So, she agreed and we decided to plan on me pacing her while pushing Gabe.

Holly-Rae picked up our bib numbers the night before the race - one less thing to have to worry about race-day morning.  Thanks, Holly-Rae!  Also, her kiddos John and Gracie presented Gabe with a colorful pinwheel similar to a pinwheel he likes to play with outside of their home. He was pretty pumped about this (see attached picture).

Our goal was to go out at 7:04/5s - this would get us right at a 21:59/22:00 finish if we held it perfectly.  For me, a 7:04 pace still hurts - I tried to mentally prepare myself for the run and prayed that I wouldn’t let Holly-Rae down!!

Holly-Rae, Amber and I all went out for an easy 1-mile warmup together on the first part of the course and then made our way back to the starting area in front of the middle school. It was definitely starting to heat up a bit and I could’ve done without the sticky humidity! Oh well - deal with what you’re dealt!

We lined up in the starting area and exchanged our usual good-lucks with the team.  Gabe grasped his pinwheel (I did attach it to the stroller so it wouldn’t get lost...HA!) and I knew that at some point he would likely toss it from the stroller, necessitating that I make some sort of wild dive to retrieve it. Smart or not, I decided to gamble and let him keep holding it. It kept him from crying in the starting area, anyway. HA!

A young girl sings the national anthem (quite well, might I add!), after which we are given the starting signal - we were off!  Holly-Rae settled in right next to me on my right side immediately.  A few strides into the race, some guy drops his cell phone right in the middle of the pack.  It bounces and lands behind us…he stops and forces his way back through the runners like a salmon swimming against the current. Poor guy! I did see him later, so I know he wasn’t trampled to death or anything. Hope his phone was ok!! 

I keep an obsessive eye on my watch - I have it on the “lap pace” screen so that I know what the average pace of our current mile is.  We run thru Dooley Park and cross to the other side of the village. Mile 1 dings at 7:01 according to my watch and I inform Holly-Rae that we are right on the money and tell her that we have about 3 seconds in “the bank."

Mile two starts working our way thru a neighborhood. We pass a water station which I use as a signal to offer Holly-Rae some of her water that I have in the bottle holder on the stroller.  Holly-Rae barely looks at me but gives kind of a nod and reaches a hand out.  I hand the water off, she drinks without breaking stride, hands it back, and I replace it into its place in the stroller.  At this point, too, I am holding the pinwheel against the top of the stroller in my left hand - Gabe had thrown it out of the stroller, javelin-style one too many times for my liking, so Mama commandeered it.  We start running up a small but annoying ascent and I feel our pace drop. I look down at my watch and note that we started to dip above 7:04.  I steal a glance to my right at Holly-Rae and note that she seems to really be fighting. I do my best to push the pace up the hill but she doesn’t increase her speed.  I do some quick mental calculations and decide that reserving some effort here will probably work out just fine if we use the upcoming descent to our advantage.  I definitely don’t want her to push too hard up this hill and torch her legs.  I drop back negligibly and inform her that as soon as we get to the top of the hill, we will pick things up and hammer it down the hill. Mile 2 clicks in 7:04. Right on the target pace, 3 seconds still in the bank from the previous mile.

Mile 3 starts up and, as she wrote in her report, HR was "really feeling barfo and working hard at this point. No talking, no smiling, just keep moving.”  Motivational speeches are not my forte, but I try to turn on the verbal encouragement here.  I know she is SO close to her goal and we can definitely get her there…but there was little room for error.  I started worrying that my watch was off JUST enough and we were actually missing our goal paces by even just a few seconds.  How maddening would that be at the end?!?After the first quarter mile of mile 3, I let HR know that we had just THREE “laps on a track” left (picturing laps on a track always helps me, mentally…hopefully it did the same for her!).  We powered through to a left-hand turn in front of a school. I let her know we had just TWO figurative laps left and that she COULD keep going! PUSH PUSH PUSH girl! And PUSH she did! She picked it up that final mile and Mile 3 clicked off in 6:54! HECK YES! Mile 3 was the fastest one of the race! We entered the track for the final 0.1...

Holly-Rae wrote, “Coming into the track for the finish was great, seeing so many friends and hearing the cheers.” We saw Clint cheering her on and I stepped back a bit to let HR do her thing and guide the pace for the final bit - I knew she’d done it!  As we hit the final straightaway of the track for the last 100 meters, I let up and let HR finish solo - she had more than earned it!

I finished in 21:36 and HR finished in 21:34 - not only a sub-22:00 5k but also a sub-7:00 average pace!! WHAT a RACE!

After we crossed the finish, I gave HR a sweaty hug and congratulated her on her monster PR.  We then caught our breath, grabbed some water and cheered Amber in.  After this, we jogged back out on the course to run Holly-Rae’s husband Tim and their two kids in.  Tim was running with a single stroller with BOTH kids in it! Ok, maybe they each got out and ran a bit here and there - but mostly he was pushing two kids in a single stroller.  Dad power!  It was fun to find them and run with them a bit as a cool down (as many of you know, I really suck at taking the time to get a cool down in most of the time, so this forced cool down was probably a GOOD thing!).

It was such a fun day - a great kickoff to a super 4th of July weekend.  After the 5k, they did a kids’ fun run - one lap around the track.  Clint and I went out there with Gabe who was the happiest final finisher ever.  He’s just learning how to walk (took his first steps on June 13!) and it took us a good 15 minutes to complete the lap together.  When he got down to the final 100 in front of the stands, he had to stop and have his own little dance party inspired by the music blasting from the speakers.  I am not sure where he got that - not from his mama or daddy!

This race does ten year age group brackets for awards and only recognizes the 1st place individual in each category, which means fewer people get called up - and it also means it’s all the more impressive if you DO get called up!  Holly-Rae, Clint, and Gary each got 1st in their respective categories - awesome job, guys, and great OR representation!!

I am SO proud of Holly-Rae’s performance in this race!  She said in her report that in 2016, she was 22:58 at this 5k and it was a season PR for her.  For her to run 1:22 faster today was just amazing.  I am glad to have had the privilege of playing a small role in her success.  As we all know, pacer or not, YOU - the runner - are still the one who puts in the hard work! WAY TO GO, HR! HR for a PR indeed!  Additional shout-outs to our other ORRT members who were present at this fun race - Gary and Amber. WOOOT! What a fun morning!

THANK YOU to Mitch for letting us have TOO much fun with this running stuff while we represent the great store, the teammates for being just plain awesome and fun to be around, Saucony for the best gear (I am loving my new pink hat that I scored a few weeks ago - lightweight and perfect for these hot summer days), and of course Coach Clint for the guidance and advice.