CASI St. Patrick's Day 5k {March 17, 2018}

2018 CASI St. Patrick’s Day 5k

Davenport, Iowa//10:00 am

-22:11 (7:08 pace) *with stroller/Gabey!*

-3rd in F35-39 AG (out of 136)

-16th Female of 905

-98th out of 1532 total finishers

(My 3rd race of the 2018 season)

Our friend Aaron Van Lauwe, who I am "informally coaching" as kind of an experiment of sorts (maybe Wells and Wells Coaching could be a thing someday, eh?! ;)) had his sights set on this spring 5k and suggested that we come up to the Quad Cities and do the race as well. Around the same time that we had started considering participating in the race, my sister let us know that Koo Koo Kanga Roo was going to be performing at a children's museum in Bettendorf, Iowa not far from where she and her family live later on that same day. TWO great events in the Quad Cities on the same day, plus getting to see my family?! Count us in! So, we made plans to head up to the Quad Cities on Friday night for the Saturday morning race and Saturday afternoon concert. Clint Gabe is quite obsessed with Koo Koo Kanga Roo and we were pretty pumped to be able to give him that "experience."

This race also happened to be the same weekend as/the day prior to our local Bloomington St. Patrick's Day 5k that is one of our Often Running Racing Team team races - so we had already been planning on doing this race as part of our team responsibilities/commitments. However, we love novelties - doing two 5ks on back-to-back days? Sure! I decided to try to do both of them (as long as Gabe was cool with it ;)) with the stroller - never had I ever done two stroller 5ks on subsequent days! Since my body has been less than cooperative with volume lately as far as long runs/Boston training goes, maybe I can beat it into submission with some 5k pain. Ha! We have both done a fair amount of races in the Quad Cities area, but we had never done the CASI St. Patrick's day 5k and were excited to try a new event.

Friday, Clint ended up taking a half day (I was already off on Spring Break!) which was really nice because it meant we got to leave earlier than we were anticipating (we originally planned on leaving around 5:30 when he got home from work, which would have probably ended up being more like 6 or 6:30 knowing our track record...ha!). We drove to my parents' house first and dropped Gabe off, who was all too happy to hang out with Gram and Pa for a bit. We then drove on to Davenport where we picked up my race packet...and Clint ended up registering for the race. Surprise (eye roll, wink).

Ok, I can't even really begin to explain HOW EXCITED I WAS that at packet pickup there was a booth advertising a variety of other Quad Cities races, including one of our faves - the Quad Cities Marathon. AND - at this booth they had a bunch of leftover Quad Cities Marathon GLOVES that they were giving away for FREE!!! I am a dork, I know, but the gloves that they gave participants at last September's Quad Cities Marathon and Half Marathon were AMAZING. I LOVE mine - they are actually so warm that they are TOO warm at times! I was afraid I had lost one of mine this winter after a run, but thankfully ended up finding it. But now...both Clint and I have BACK-UP pairs of the best gloves ever and we have FOUR pair in our household! This is the kind of stuff I get worked up over, guys. Thrilling!! :)

After gathering our things, we headed back to my parents' house. First, though, we made a pit stop at one of our favorite Quad Cities places - Natural Grocers. We stocked up on a few things and then went to join Gabe and my parents. We prepped some dinner (kinda late at this point, but oh well), played for a while, and then headed to bed.

Race day morning we woke up and Clint prepped his coffee. We "admired" the gross-looking cold/rainy weather outside while we got our things together.  As usual, I let Gabe sleep as long as possible before getting him up...he ended up waking up on his own around 7:30 with a simple shout out to "Mama! Dada!" from his room at my parents'. We ended up leaving a bit later than we had hoped (the story of our lives ;)) but got out the door between 8:15 and 8:30 (we had been shooting to leave around 8 to get to downtown Davenport before 9 for the 10am race start). We ended up getting to a parking garage not far from the start around 9:10 which ended up being just fine. We got the stroller situated and headed for the race area. We had to double back when I realized that I had left the all-important fruit snacks for Gabe in the car. BIG error!!!

After gathering the snacks, we headed back toward the starting area again. In addition to being just plain cold (around 34 degrees) and windy, it was starting to sleet...amazing!! HA! We got Gabe situated inside the stroller with the weather cover on top and arranged some toys and snacks for him inside his "bubble." Clint and I then jogged around a few blocks for a 0.6 mile "warmup of sorts" in the nasty "wintery mix" falling from the heavens prior to jumping into the starting corral. As we stood there, I looked around a bit for Aaron but was certain we wouldn't see him among the crowd of 1500+ participants. By some twist of luck, all of a sudden - there he was, to Clint's right!

Clint's festive, shiny new green Saucony Triumphs...
because who doesn't like a bit of "wintery mix" to break in a new pair of shoes?! ;)

We situated ourselves in the starting area about 5 or so rows back. Clint, at that point, still hadn't decided if he was sticking with me and Gabe or if he was going to run his own race. That guy ;)...such a funny one. In my head I knew the odds were slim that he would stick back with us - but I was game for whatever happened. Considering my current fitness level (not as high as it was at this time last year), I was hoping to stick as close to 7:00-minute miles as possible.

I wished the boys luck and got ready for "go" time. When the starting signal went off, it became woefully apparent that we had not situated ourselves nearly close enough to the front of the corral. I found myself having to really hold back to not run over any ankles and had to loudly (and as politely as I could muster!!) say, "excuse me!" "coming through!" and other similar statements a few times as we made our way down the first street and through the first turn to the left and second subsequent turn to the left as we entered 3rd street. I saw Clint streak off past me...no patience for the crowd, for sure. Ha!! See ya, Cleent! ;) The bulk of the course was spent running first west on 3rd Street and then making a sharp turn around to run back east on 3rd street before heading back down to the start/finish. In spite of the crazy navigation required, mile 1 clicked off in 7:07.

Around 1.25 miles, I hit the turn around and made my way back down 3rd street INTO THE SLEET AND WIND. Uuuuughhhhhh. I was grateful, for Gabe's sake, that I had put the weather shield on the stroller but, MAN, that thing makes the stroller feel like a TANK as I push it!  Mile 2 was over in 7:12. I was actually kind of impressed with my relative consistency.

With a large portion of the race running back on itself on the same street, there were lots of people-watching opportunities. It was fun/funny to see many people had broken out their St. Patty's Day best for the event. WOW - some people really get into the costume thing! I love it. Ha!  Also, it was fun to hear some of comments people made about seeing a stroller runner (one kid said to his mom, "WHY does she have a BABY with her!?" Good question, kiddo! :)).

Shortly after making the 4th of just 5 turns in the race, Mile 3 clicked in 7:22. Honestly, these splits (while positive instead of the desired negative) were pretty dang consistent. I eyed a girl about 50 yards in front of me and decided to buckle down and see if I could catch her. I caught her literally as we crossed the finish line. My clock time was 22:11. Later I was utterly astounded to see the final 0.11, according to my watch, was in a 5:39 pace. WHAT?! Ok, I realize that it was just a tenth of a mile, but for ME this is crazy fast. Kinda cool!!

After crossing the finish line, I continued on to do a tiny little cool down - trying to get in the habit of letting my body cool down like a "real" runner (even if it is just for a bit). After 0.4 miles (basically just a jaunt around a block), I joined Clint and Aaron to chat a bit before heading up to the tent where they had set up the post-race snacks. Aaron told us that he had clocked a 21:04 which is a 5k PR for him (about 20 seconds over his previous PR set last October) - SWEET! Of course, HE did all the work...but it was kind of encouraging that my advice/informal coaching had resulted in a 5k PR! I'm excited to see what he will continue to do as he works toward his next goals!!

Aaron headed out to run his cool down to his car that was parked about 2 miles away before heading out to drink green beer with a friend. It was good to see him for a bit, though!  I was thrilled to see some of my favorite Kind bars in the boxes of post-race food - the Pressed Pineapple Banana Kale Spinach bars...a pretty random sight at a post-race party. Usually there is a bunch of stuff I can't eat (pizza, sandwiches, cookies). We printed out our results and were pretty entertained to see that we had both gotten 3rd in our respective age groups!

Cool to both get 3rd!

Kinda neat, considering this was a big race (bigger than we are used to, for certain!).  We stuck around to collect our awards during the awards ceremony and then made our way back to the parking garage and then to my sister's house to clean up, eat some lunch and get ready to see KOO KOO KANGA ROO!

Dada gave the little guy a lift so that he could see the show better!

Clint helped hold the parachute for the concert-goers to rush under at the end of the show.
Gabe is all, "What the heck is going on?!" 

We played in the museum for a bit after the show. Gabe loved the "fufuflies."

This concert wore him out...and inspired him to rip off his shoes and socks prior to passing out in the car afterward.

After the show, Gram and Pa came over to my sister's family's house for
playtime, reading, and dinner before we headed back home to BloNo.

After the race, I didn't feel very worse for wear (my Achilles pain has really been minimal lately*, though my knees are still acting up) - and felt somewhat confident that I could at least stay upright to finish a 5k in our hometown the next day! I was excited by the idea of successfully completing two stroller 5ks in 1 weekend and made a loose goal for myself of "negative splitting" the weekend and running the next day's race faster. Seeing as it was a local-to-us event and an Often Running Racing Team event, I wanted to be able to do my best at it, too. Stay tuned...

Next up - Bloomington St. Pat's 5k!

*Thanks to a variety of factors, I decided to try the AIP (Autoimmune Protocol) diet. Basically, this is an elimination diet that requires a person to stop eating a ton of stuff - including grains, legumes, nightshades, sugars, and dairy. It supposedly helps heal your gut and decrease inflammation in your body and is recommended for people who deal with autoimmune diseases. I have celiac disease (I was diagnosed in 2008) and therefore do not eat gluten (truly never - no cheating). Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease and sometimes other food intolerances run hand in hand with the gluten intolerance that celiac disease is known for. Honestly, I have known that other foods "bother" me (namely dairy), but I am pretty stubborn about it all because food is delicious and elimination diets are HARD WORK. Long story short, the inflammation in my achilles is almost nonexistent since eliminating sugar. I hate to admit it - but, for my body, there might be something to this food intolerance stuff (more than just the gluten thing that I have known about for almost 10 years now). As of the day I am writing this (Monday, March 19), I have been doing the AIP diet for 14 days. I definitely don't plan on doing it forever...but I am using it as a way to try to figure out how to be the most healthy that I can be and to see what works for my wonky body. There are many details that I am not including here, but this is the short version!