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.

 

Steamboat Classic {June 17, 2017}

Steamboat Classic 15k 2017

June 17, 2017

7:00 am

Official Time: 1:08:22 (*No stroller*) (31 second 15k PR)

Overall Ranking: 58/666

Female Ranking: 8/296 (and awarded 7th out of top 25 because one of top ladies was pulled out for overall masters female winner)

(My 9th race of the 2017 season)

Well, now that I am finally sitting down to crank this report out - it is just over 3 weeks after the fact.  I need to take a page from Clint’s book and get more of my race reports at least partially done the day I run so that I remember more of the great details! 

I didn’t run Steamboat last year - I played Mama-duty and spectated with our nearly-two-month-old Gabe near the finish while Clint ran.  I did run it in 20:15 and earned 19th female overall with a 1:08:53…which was my old 15k PR.  My goal for this year was "simply" to PR and to place in the top 25 again - love how Steamboat recognizes the top 25 runners in each gender with a plaque. Honestly, when I placed in the top 25 in 2015 it came as a total surprise to me - I really had no expectation of doing that well at a race that has a notoriously "fast" field of runners.

As I made plans for my Steamboat-strategy, I stressed about the Gabe-factor.  With the super-early race start, if we were to leave him in Normal with a babysitter - we would have to either have someone come to our home really early or bring him to someone else’s home really early. This option didn’t seem kind to either Gabe OR whomever this person may be.  I thought about running with him in the stroller…but MAN…those HILLS!!!!  However, Tim Van Hoof was planning to spectate Holly-Rae’s race with their kiddos and graciously agreed to watch all three kiddos. I helped out a tiny bit by bringing our new (to us!) double stroller to help out with the kid-and-gear hauling. SO thankful to him for watching our little guy and of course for keeping him safe and helping him have a fun morning!  For a while, it looked like it was going to RAIN Saturday morning - and it, again, stressed me out on Gabe’s behalf. I decided that if it was raining, I would push Gabe in the race with the rain cover so Tim didn’t have to deal with THREE kiddos in the rain. Insert eye roll. That would’ve been TERRIBLE! Thankfully, it didn’t rain so we didn’t even need to think/worry about any of all of that!

Holly-Rae met us at our place at o’dark thirty and we headed over to Peoria with Clint at the wheel. Seeing as it was her BIRTHDAY we had to have a little celebration in the car. HOORAY for birthdays!  When we arrived in Peoria, we met up with a bunch of teammates in the lobby of the Mark Twain hotel. I did my best to get Gabe and his huge stroller packed and ready for the morning and met up with Tim and the kiddos once they arrived in town. I transferred Gabey over to Tim’s competent caring hands and headed outside with Holly-Rae to get in a little mile warmup. It was already steamy out. ICK!!

I realized, with a start, that I had FORGOTTEN my prized, much-counted-on huma gels. ACK!!! Thankfully, the ever-generous Holly-Rae gave me one of her small handheld bottles to use - it was filled with water and 100 calories-worth of Tailwind. I was really thinking I would need SOMETHING in the way of calories during this race (right, wrong, or otherwise) so it felt good to at least have something with me (a crutch? placebo effect? actual aid? who knows…whatever it may be, I was grateful to have it with me. THANKS for your selfless generosity Holly-Rae!!).

We headed over to line up and the adrenaline coursing through me picked up its speed. There were SO many people - and so many FAST-looking people! This race always brings out tons of studs (to use Carol's term!).  Race volunteers directed people saying that only those who thought they would be in the top 25 should line up in the front area.  I had placed in the top 25 two years ago and thought there was a good chance I could do so again today…but felt like a tool lining up in that area, so I didn’t. Yeah, I am a wimp. Oh well.  

The crowd started to get larger and larger (and the starting area got hotter and hotter!) and before long, we were poised and waiting - ready for the signal! As I waited, I thought about my race strategy - go out hard, but not too hard. Try to keep my first 2 5ks decently equal and then make the third 5k the fastest - it’s somewhat downhill so this is a totally reasonable goal. 

As the signal sounded and we started out…I tried not to be too crazy and reminded myself that most of the fastest people busting out from the start were doing the 4-mile distance. Still, mile 1 managed (as usual!) to be a little quicker than I should’ve made it.  Mile 1 - 6:48

I quickly reigned in my pace, settling in and embracing the suckiness. Man, was I SO grateful I wasn’t pushing that darn stroller. It. was. HOT!!  Mile 2 - 7:17

Here the lucky folks doing the 4-miler “get to” turn around.  Never mind the fact that they are hurting, too, as they run their 4 miles at a faster pace…I am always envious of them at this point! As I started in on the big hill on my first loop of the park I did my best not to slow down too much. The sweat dripping from my body was pretty gross and impressive. Josh Favus was at the top of the hill - just as I remembered from two years ago! It felt great to see a familiar face in the midst of the discomfort.  As the course snaked through the park and back on itself, I had the privilege of seeing some familiar faces for the first time.  First, I saw Clint and gave him a shout.  Soon after, I saw Gary and Steve and yelled out at them as well. Next were Holly-Rae who was followed not far back by another BloNo runner, Aimee Dziekan. Mile 3 - 8:00

First 5k - 22:32. I’ll take it.

I LOVE the people that set up the sprinkler. I run through that thing. Every. Single. Time. AHHHH!!!! Mile 4 - 7:21. Great, dropped the pace back down from that ugly Mile 3.  With that, it’s time for the second and final loop through the park…starting first with The Hill.  I concentrated on keeping my breathing as much under control as I could - in through my nose, out through my mouth. I wanted to walk so badly but knew I just couldn’t allow that madness.  Water and Josh Favus were at the top - both refreshing in their own right. Mile 5 - 8:03. Not too shabby, but of course I knew I needed to dial it back as I continued through the park.  Before long, the switch back started up again and I said hello to the same crew as before - kinda like some fun deja vu.  This time I saw Holly-Rae and Aimee together.  I had been counting females so that I could estimate if we were in the top 25.  Based on my quick counting, they were right around 24-25ish at the time - I relayed this information to them with a shout and told them to keep pushing! Mile 6 - 7:41

Somewhere around here I came to the last ascent in the second loop of the park and some super-fit chick passed me and literally bounded up the hill. I probably had to literally pick up my jaw off of the pavement - how the heck was she able to move so effortlessly and why the heck had she been behind me for so long?! I can’t remember where she finished, but it was at least a few spots ahead of me.

10k - 45:58/ Second 5k 23:26 - slower than my 1st 5k, but this was to be expected seeing as the bulk of this was HILLZZZZZ.

As the third 5k started, I did my best to get serious about pushing as hard as I could until the end.  I still have lots of work to do regarding pacing for longer races like this. I just don’t know HOW badly I am able to hurt/where the boundaries of my abilities truly lie. Mile 7 - 7:21  One of my favorite parts of this race is at mile 7.3ish as you are running out of the darn park - it means the hill work is done and there are just TWO miles left of the course. These miles are basically downhillish and bring you right to the finish!  Mile 8 - 7:18

I saw Tim and the kiddos to the left as I closed out the 9th mile. Tim was holding Gabe and I could tell that Gabe saw me - we locked eyes and he smiled. I said “HI GABEY!” and continued on my way, feeling kinda bad about it knowing that he might cry and be confused as to why he saw me for a second and then I disappeared.  Mile 9 - 7:13. 

Time to finish this thing out!! I put my head down and ran as hard as I could with what I had left as I ran down the final descent and turned left to run into the finishing chute. I saw Clint (woot!) and saw 1:08 on the clock. I wasn’t sure if it would be good enough for a PR but I pushed as hard as I could to finish things out.

Final 0.23 - 6:10 pace

Total Official Time: 1:08:22/7:20 per mile average pace 

(Third 5k -22:24 - barely faster than my first 5k by 8 seconds!)

(And, yes, a PR but barely…just by 31 seconds!)

Clint and I cheered Holly-Rae in and hung out in the finishing area for a while trying to make a plan about how to find Tim and the kids.  Before we had time to figure out a plan - they appeared!  Tim resourcefully made his way down to the finishing area, taking all work/effort out of our hands. What a great guy :).  Also of note, Clint and I ran into our old-crazy-British friend Andy Wheatcroft in the finishing area and chatted with him for a bit. Every conversation with him includes a smattering of cursing, both in American English and British English - and we can only understand maybe 65% of what he is saying. But, it’s all funny so there’s that! Great to see him!

While we waited for the awards we celebrated our girl Holly-Rae’s birthday with some homemade gluten-free/dairy-free oatmeal cream pies that we brought. YUMMMM. I do love any excuse to make/eat sugary desserts (#sorrynotsorry)! So, thanks for having a birthday Holly-Rae - and thanks for spending part of it with your crazy teammates running a hot and crazy race!

THANKS to Mitch for the privilege of being on the Often Running Racing Team and for allowing us to be a part of this consistently fun event.  THANKS to my teammates for the fun in Peoria together - what a great day with lots of outstanding runners and all-around people.  THANKS to Coach Clint for helping me get some great PRs this season and continuing to push me even though I don’t even know what I am doing.  AND…big THANKS to Tim Van Hoof for hoofin’ our collective THREE Van-Wells kiddos around while Clint, Holly-Rae and I raced!  While I genuinely do love sharing races with Gabe, it is pretty great to have the opportunity to “relax” and “just race” without needing to worry at all about him!

Next up - the Bix is just under 3 weeks away!! This year is big #14 for me and #5 for Clint. My current PR was set in 2015 - 52:01 (7:26 pace). I am hopeful for a sub-50 finish this year (7:08 or faster average pace) - too lofty? We’ll see!!

PICS-

-2 Race pics from Steamboat website

-Precious Cargo/the Van Wells kiddos spectating 2 mommies and 1 daddy running

-Me + Gabe with Aimee D. during the top 25 awards (great snap, thanks HR!!)

-Me + the Birthday Girl with our awards

-Oatmeal. Cream. Pies. (and also, some awesome peeps :))

-Wells Fam

 

 

Toluca Double Diamond Dash {June 10, 2017}

Toluca Double Diamond Dash

June 10, 2017

8:00am

Official Time: 21:17 (*Pushing Gabe*)

Overall Ranking: 12/72

Female Ranking: 1/34

(My 8th race of the 2017 season)

The first I heard about this race was when Race Team Leader Mitch mentioned that he would like for the team to go run it - sure thing, Mitch! Count me IN! 

Coach Clint has LONG been on my case (RIGHTFULLY SO!) to be a good girl and incorporate more strength training into my weekly running routines.  Tuesday the week of this race I finally did some “stuff” after my run…body weight strength stuff like some squats, lunges, etc. Wednesday I was so sore that I said, “NOPE!”…and decided not to do any more of that crap until after Steamboat. Sorry Clint. I know, I know, I am such a pansy. 

I had some “high-ish” hopes for this 5k. I thought maybe I could even get a PR, based on recent workouts and runs, and had 20:10 in my head as a goal (with the ever-elusive sub-20 as a “pie in the sky” goal). (*For reference, my PR is 20:34/6:38 pace which was set at St. Pat’s in March with the stroller)  

Coach Clint told me to try to go out somewhere around that pace for the first mile at Toluca (and not to blow up by going out TOO hard!), hold on for mile 2, and then try to hammer mile 3 if anything was left.  Sounds like a solid plan to me!  I tucked it away in my brain and vowed to do my best to follow through with his suggestions (unlike my lack of follow through on strength training).

We did our “recent typical” race-morning routine - waking up early (Clint always manages to pry himself out of bed more expediently than I manage to do myself) and my breakfast-eating of a gluten free pita with almond butter and salted honey whilst wrangling the small man to get us all ready to get out the door. We left for Toluca around 6 and arrived around 7. We weren’t exactly sure where to go…I think the race info just stated a road or something like that so we drove around for a bit (not long, as the town is tiny!) looking for something that resembled a race start. It wasn’t hard to find, and once we did we parked and got ourselves ready to go. Clint retrieved our bib numbers while I got Gabe fed and situated in the stroller.

We joined the team for a warm-up…I ran with Amber and Holly-Rae for a two mile jaunt on the course. As we ran, we “enjoyed” the heat and the wind and the hills.  We chatted about the fact that we shouldn’t count on PRs. Of course it was still irrationally in the back of my mind….but I also knew it really wasn’t realistic.  It was pretty awesome…as we approached the finish line area at the end of our 2-mile warmup, one of the race organizers asked me to try pushing the stroller through the finishing chute because he wanted to make sure we fit. How awesome and sweet!! He ended up making it a little wider to accommodate our wide load. So thoughtful (LOVE small, personal races!!).

We visited the porta-potties and then headed over to the start on one of the quiet country roads the course was situated on. I weaseled to the front-ish with the stroller (in the crowd of roughly 70ish runners I didn’t feel too bad about that, though I am sure people rolled their eyes about a darn old stroller butting its way to the front - I don’t blame them of course!!), put the brake on, and then did a quick sprint out from the start to get my legs moving a bit. 

We all lined up, did our obligatory team high-fives and pats-on-the-backs…and we were off!! In the words of the great Holly-Rae…BARFO! It wasn’t long before we felt the wind pushing us back. “Go home!” the wind shouted.  Of course, we all pushed through it and followed the course, first to the left, then to the right. I did my best to do my usual bust-outta-the-start-as-fast-as-I-can when I am pushing the stroller so I am out of everyone’s way. I was the first chick out of the gate and did my best to keep the big boys within my sights for as long as I could.  Mile 1 beeped in 6:41 - pretty darn perfect, as far as the plan goes (to have the first mile be around my 5k PR pace of 6:38).

I could feel myself slowing down as I rode the rolling hills (no, I didn’t say “rode the stroller” - contrary to popular belief I have yet to actually try jumping on the back of the stroller and riding it down the hills).  I did my best to push and breathe and fight through them.  A young girl battled with me for the front position but I was able to stick with her. She was in front of me slightly for some time between the 1 -1.5 mile or so portions of the race but always within a few steps in either direction.  After we turn, things felt HOTTTT. I did my best to keep my breathing under control, but I know I sounded awful at some points.  Mile 2 beeped in 7:02. Way to slow down, Rachel! I knew that a PR was clearly way outta the picture…but I wanted to do my best to hold on to the top female position.

I tried to buckle down and push as hard as I could. I did a couple surges to try to put distance between myself and the young girl who was fighting me for 1st. By the time we got past the 2nd mile I was pretty darn sure I could hold her off until the end (as long as I didn’t trip, get hit by a car, or pop a tire in the stroller). Mile 3 clicked off in 6:54, not where I would’ve liked but I was thankful I managed to pick up a bit of speed compared to the middle mile.

Soon the finish was in sights….boy do 5ks HURT! However, at least it’s only for a short period of time :). I saw Clint yelling encouragement to my left and I started “sprinting” toward the finish.

The final 0.11 on my watch was at a 6:03 pace - I’ll take it!

Time on my watch was 21:16/race time was 21:17…43 seconds slower than my PR in March but the conditions at this race were definitely not as good as they were in March. I’ll take it. There will be more 5ks and more chances to be faster later this summer.

I grabbed a water and immediately went back to cheer in the rest of the team. So many great performances, as usual! I love our team and camaraderie! We have fun wherever we are!

It was pretty great to accept the 1st place female medal from Mitch with Clint who earned the 1st place male medal! CONGRATS to the rest of the team as well. 

AND - post race, we got to hang out with teammate and friend Carol at the beach at Wildwood!! THANK YOU for the invite - it was a beautiful, FUN morning with you! <3 a="" have="" need="" party="" sometime="" span="" swimming="" team="" to="" we="">

Thanks to the usual suspects - Mitch, Often Running, the rest of the team, Saucony, and Coach Clint! It’s always so much fun to be out there with everyone.

Pending Race Report (*again, Mitch, sorry for the delay!) - Steamboat 15k (no stroller)

Next Race Up - Park2Park (haven’t decided on stroller)

Race On Deck - Dog Days 5k (with stroller - this will be fun because it will mark my 1 year anniversary of stroller racing! Last year’s Dog Days event was my first stroller race with Gabe - he was 2 1/2 months old at the time.)

Pics -

TEAM!

Me + My Motor at the Start

His and Hers Medals

G enjoying his fav post-race fuel

Daddy + Son…cool dudes!!

Have a great day, all!

~Rachel

 

Memorial Mile {May 29, 2017}

Memorial Mile

May 29, 2017

“Elite” Heat Start: 8:00 am

Chip Time: 6:33.4

Watch Time: 6:20.1 (where my watch beeped at a mile…my watch had the course at 1.04)

Overall Ranking: 11/14

Female Ranking: 2/3

AG: 2/3

“Recreational” Heat Start: 8:10 am

Watch Time: 7:22

(*It doesn’t matter at ALL - but just for the sake of conversation, the reported #1 Recreational Heat runner got 8:22...so technically I would've gotten first had I been actually "entered" in the run)

{My 7th race of the 2017 season...and Gabe's 4th race of the 2017 season!}

First of all, please feast your eyes on THIS:

Yeah, that’s the elevation profile for this silly one-mile-long race.  

Why did I choose to run this?  Why not - it was on a Monday holiday…no work…my good friend Amber was doing it…sounds like a fun challenge, right?!  The night before the race, I told Amber that I would see her there IF I woke up in time and IF I felt “ok.”

The days leading up to the race I had some doozies for workouts (for me).  Saturday, I ran a 12 mile “long run” with 6 1k repeats in the middle of the workout. My first two 1ks were run with the stroller at a 6:39 and 6:46 pace.  The final four 1ks were run without the stroller (thanks, Coach Clint, for supervising at the track! :)) at 6:14, 6:14, 6:21, and 6:35 paces.  Sunday, I accompanied Clint to the ISU track where he was completing a 1k repeat workout. I planned to just do some “easy miles” and somehow that turned into me running a “stroller mile time trial” after a 3 1/2 mile warmup.  I was shooting for 6:10 (my mile PR was 6:17, set at the Main Street Mile in 2014)…but somehow I managed to get this "time trial" completed in 5:54 - whoa!!

So, yeah, I say all of this to say that my “lead up” to the Memorial Mile wasn’t exactly probably what one would do if they wanted to run their very best…but seeing as running a fast mile really isn’t my “A” goal, who cares right?!

Monday morning I was able to wake up fairly easily and got Gabe ready to go.  I had formulated a very loose mental game plan of running the recreational heat at 8:10 so that I could push Gabe - the website explicitly stated that there was a “recreational heat” available for those pushing strollers, walking, etc. and that no strollers were allowed in the other heats. Totally fine and understandable - I didn’t want to press my luck since I do try to edge my stroller into many area races as long as race directors don’t explicitly forbid it/kick us out ;).

Clint planned to run down to Miller Park where the race finished and would meet us there by 8:10.  He did ask me before leaving to clarify that I would NOT, indeed, be running the women’s heat or the elite heat. I assured him that I would only be doing the recreational heat since I was bringing Gabe with me.

Gabe and I made our way down to the race start and got there around 6:35. Late registration/packet pickup went until 6:45 and I did my best to make sure that we got there prior to that cutoff.  After some chatting with friends at the start I decided that I would register for the elite heat and leave Gabe/the stroller with someone at the finish if I didn’t see Clint prior to the start. Whatev, right?! YOLO! HA!

Gabe and I went over to the swings at Miller Park where I pushed him for a bit…the boy LOVES swings!  Then…I decided to ask Julie Sibley (race director!) if it was OK if I ran the elite sans stroller and then grabbed the stroller and ran with Gabe the half mile back to the race start and then run the recreational heat (slated to start at 8:10).  I knew it would be cutting things close, time-wise, but I wanted to give it a whirl. I love crazy plans!!  She said that since the recreational heat didn’t have awards that I was more than welcome to give my weird plan a whirl. Sweet!  This made me feel better about my plan to do the elite heat - frankly, racing with Gabe is my favorite. I genuinely hope that doing these crazy races together is something that he will start remembering once he gets a little older - making these memories together is pretty special (and totally worth the added challenge).

About 7:30, Amber and I went out for a warmup.  I left Gabe in his stroller with Mike Eckhoff at the starting line (BIG thanks, Mike!!) along with an applesauce pouch to give him as a distraction if needed.  Amber and I scoped out the route from the finish line back to the starting line so that I had my strategy ready to go for after the elite heat (PS can I just say, referring to something I ran as “elite” anything is just kinda laughable ;)).  After a mile and half, we stopped at the starting area - where Clint was standing waiting and chatting with some other runners.  I sheepishly told him that I was going to be running the elite heat and he probably rolled his eyes, unsurprised ;).

We chatted with the other runners a bit and Amber and I scoped out our “competition” - a young speedy thang named Taylor was the only other girl…and we had seen her around enough to know that we should make peace with the fact that we wouldn’t be getting top chick in this race. HA!

We lined up at the start (all fourteen of us!) and waited for the signal…and soon we were off! So the elevation profile doesn’t really show it, but it FELT like the first quarter mile or so was uphill. I hit it as hard as I could and was able to bust out from the start first among the girls and stick with the bulk of the group of guys for at least a little bit (watch average pace was reading around 5:45 at this point). When I crested the first little uphill and started to go downhill a bit, my legs felt like literal jello…perhaps the most jello-y they’ve ever felt in the history of my running. SO weird. I felt like I was pushing really hard at that point but still standing still.  

Around a half mile, Taylor passed me and I made peace with the fact that I would not be catching her. Nope - my old lady legs couldn’t hang.

I watched my average pace fall to the 7’s at one point as I climbed the final hill. OUCH…legs were on FIRE.  As I turned to the right and made my way to the finish line on the final quarter, I did my best to dig in and push through as strong as I could to the finish. A bit back from the finish, my watch beeped off a mile in 6:20. I crossed the finish in 6:33 (1.04 by my watch), hit “lap” on my watch, grabbed the stroller from Clint, and headed down to the start…to do this thing AGAIN!  Thankfully, G appeared super content.

Clint ran with us back to the start and we chatted a bit. It was definitely heating up. I tried to will my legs to work quickly to get down to the starting line but, boy, was I tired! We saw the recreational group toeing the line and heard the starting signal blast when we were still about a block and a half back…I picked up the pace, hit my “lap” button again when I got to the start…and started chasing down the field.

It didn’t take us too long before we started passing some walkers and kiddos. My body was definitely feeling spent and I was cursing myself for making the silly decision to run a second heat…but I powered on.  After about a half mile we had passed all but a final group of 5 or so (two guys, presumably dads, and three kiddos).  We passed all but one kid and rounded the right-hand turn toward the finish line. I slowly reeled him in and passed him (even though I did feel a little guilty about it, truth be told).

I crossed the finish line around 8:15 race time, but my watch for my last mile split read 7:22 (or 7:34 for the final 1.03) - since I had started the mile a bit after the heat had set off.

Two hard miles and a total of 4.1 miles for the day…rounding out a three-day hard-effort-fest of 21.1 total miles with 3 hard miles (2 with the stroller) and 6 hard 1ks. I probably should’ve taken a rest day the next day, but I ended up running until the next weekend when I took Friday-Saturday-Sunday OFF. Can we say burnt out?! Or wimpy…you be the judge.

THANKS to Mitch-teammates-Saucony-Coach Clint-baby G for making things FUN and FAST!  Looking forward to a great rest of the summer with everyone. Next up - Toluca 5k (report pending!). On deck - Park 2 Park. Still trying to decide - next “big” goal.

Have a great day! :)

Rachel

Mile 1...

Mile 2...

2nd Place Female in Mile 1!

Lake Run 12k {May 6, 2017}

Lake Run 12k

May 6, 2017

Start: 8:30am

Finish Time: 53:18 (7:08 pace)**

(PR of 1:39)

Overall Ranking: 16/188

Female Ranking: 3/89

30-34 AG: 1/10

Sixth Race of 2017 (third with stroller)

So Sunday, the day after the IL Marathon, I realized that the darn ol’ Lake Run was just TWO WEEKS away!  I ran my mouth (or fingers, I guess) and had typed in my race report that I wanted to try to be the top female finisher in the 12k (Exact quotation: “I was the top female finisher in 2015. I hate to be greedy, but it would be awesome to repeat that performance! It scares me to put something like this kind of a goal 'out there' - but I think I need to start being more brave”). Insert eye-roll here. While I am not exactly poo-pooing my performance that year (I know I should be proud/satisfied...and I am), it was on the slower side of Lake Run 12k Top Female finishes, historically.  I won with a 54:47 (7:21 pace) that year.  That’s all good everything, but the winner last year/2016 ran a 50:33 (6:46 pace) and the winner the year before my win (so 2014) ran a 51:30 (6:54 pace). So, yeah, I should’ve thought things through a little more before putting THAT crazy/unrealistic desire out there!!

Somewhat going along with that topic (running my mouth/fingers), at some point I commented that I wouldn’t be running again post-IL Marathon until the Lake Run (so, in effect, taking two entire weeks off).  Well, that lasted all of three days.  My crazy brain and body was itching to run Monday!  I was running again on Wednesday with an easy-peasy little stroller-pushing’ 5k (with the last mile at 7:44/my marathon pace).  So, yeah, in other words I never really know what I am going to be doing. Clint! Get me under control!

The week of the race, once I realized how stupid my comment about wanting to win the 12k was, I thought about doing the 7k instead (out of embarrassment, truth be told). All along I had planned on pushing Gabe in the race even though I had multiple people offer to watch him (thank Tim for me, Holly-Rae ;)).  I genuinely enjoy pushing Gabe and I really don’t think it slows me down all that much. Ok, let’s be honest. It probably does. But it’s ok/worth it.  I also, for just about one hot minute, considered registering for the third distance - the half marathon.  Yeah, no.  On Thursday I finally bit the bullet and registered - for the 12k, my fav Lake Run distance (ok, the ONLY distance I have ever run at this event).

With race start being 8:30 AND local, we didn’t have to wake up as insanely early as we had to for some previous races (here’s looking at you, IL Marathon/Champaign and Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon/Springfield!).  I had my alarm set for 6am and rolled out of bed around 6:15am. I showered and then ate some breakfast (thanks, Chef Clint, for preparing it as usual!), packed my bag, and then got Gabe up and ready to go.  We headed out around 7:25 (later than we wanted, as per usual) and got to the race site at 7:49 (I remember because I commented to Clint that we had exactly 41 minutes before the start as we made our way down to the starting area).

Note to future-self if I happen to read this race report next year as I am prepping for the Lake Run - LEAVE EARLIER!!!! We parked our car like a million miles away from the start! Ok, maybe not a million - but at least a half mile! It took a little longer than what is ideal to make our way down to the race start and get ready, but it really all worked out ok. We chatted with friends and used the porta potties. Running besties Amber, Holly-Rae and I went out for a nice, easy 1-mile warmup, running by other running bestie Tanya who was doing a more-responsible longer warm-up. Someday I need to be “responsible” and do a longer 2-mile warmup and add some strides and dynamic stretching in like Clint instructs….buttttt for all of my races lately I have been cutting things way too close to race start and leaving myself only enough time to do one mile. Oh well, one is better than none right?!

Lake Run, here we come!

I made a final pit stop to empty the bladder (being a good post-bladder prolapse patient…my PT says the seemingly simple task of frequently emptying ones bladder can stave off many “issues”! Ladies, you hear me!) and made my way to the start. I smiled confidently as I pushed Gabe/the stroller to the front of the line-up. This is the most uncomfortable part of stroller racing. I KNOW people look at me with irritation but, trust me, it’s a whole lot less invasive if I just start up there as opposed to starting toward the back and doing my best not to run into peoples’ poor ankles. I set Gabey-baby up with one of his fav applesauce pouches and awaited the starting signal.

Oh crap. I had forgotten that they use a freakin’ CANNON to start this race. Uhhhhhhhh…. The SLP-mama in me started to mentally hyperventilate about the potential damage to little G’s hearing. I quickly strategize that I would lean my body over the stroller and cup one hand over each ear as best as I could to at least muffle the sound somewhat. As soon as the cannon blasted, I would jump up and blast out of the start as quickly as I could to get out of peoples’ way…and start my watch.

They lit the cannon…I leaned forward and cupped my little boy’s precious ears as he slurped on the applesauce, unsuspecting.  I held my watch in my teeth…oh yeah, important note, I had made the decision with Clint to run this race “blind”/without my Garmin on my wrist….BUT I still wanted the data, so I had planned to start the watch and then drop it into the cup holder on the back of the stroller so that it would gather my splits.  After a few seconds (that felt like minutes!), the fuse burned down and the cannon blasted! Gabe didn’t even jump (WHEW!), I sprang up and simultaneously hit “start” on the watch and rushed forward as quickly as I could with the stroller. As we took off, I dropped the watch face-down into the cup holder on the left side of the stroller handle. There was no way I would be able to see anything unless I put forth lots of extra effort - good.

We started off at what felt like a quick clip. I felt like I was moving fast but not TOO fast. I could see the leaders (a bunch of dudes + the ever-inspiring Carrie Mack) just a few yards ahead of me and settled in. I chatted with some of the runners around me, all guys, including the familiar face of Eric Fortune. He joked, “Huh, I wonder if Andy Kubiak will with the 12k” as we watched Andy round the lake to the right…at least like 200 yards in front of the rest of the runners, still speeding up. HA!  Gabe, clutching his beloved applesauce pouch in his hands, took the spout of his mouth to talk and wave to the other runners. He chattered and waved while I gave him back my typical encouraging motherese, “I HEAR you, buddy! You’re talking to the RUNNERS! Tell them HI! They are so FAST, aren’t they?! OH LOOK at the WATER! Oh there’s a BIRD! He says TWEET TWEET up in the SKY!” Yeah, yeah, I shouldn’t wast my precious running-energy on talking/narrating to my bebe…but you just can’t take the speech-language pathologist out of the mama and you can’t take the mama out of the runner…so you get what you get ;).

I heard the first mile 1 beep on my watch and took mental inventory of things - I was feeling  pretty dang good! (Mile 1 - 6:53)

The leaders were still in my sights (but by no means within striking distance) after I finished the first mile but most were out of sight by the time I hit the second mile. Things felt generally good, though it was driving me a little bit crazy not knowing what my pace was. I really wanted to ask someone but soldiered on “by feel.” I knew that if I could keep the same people around me I was probably keeping a pretty steady pace. Probably.  Soon my watch beeped again.  (Mile 2 - 7:04)

Man oh man, those little rolling hills on this course are NO joke. I had run a tempo workout with Clint on this course a few weeks back - my final tempo workout of my marathon training cycle. Monday, April 11 the three of us headed out to the lake where we completed the Clint-prescribed workout of 2 miles easy, 4 miles tempo (6:50-7:00), 1.5 miles easy. I remember really struggling through the 3rd and 4th tempo miles in particular (tempo splits - 6:54, 6:50, 6:55, 7:00). I reminded myself of the fact that I had run THAT hard WITH the stroller in basically the same conditions as race day.  Therefore, I COULD and WOULD push through to the end for a course PR! BEEEEEEP (Mile 3 - 7:06)  Looking back, I am kinda disappointed in myself that I couldn't get closer to an average pace of 6:55ish the way I did during that tempo run...but I guess that tempo run was on legs that hadn't been torched on a marathon two weeks prior so I should be satisfied ;).

Somewhere during my 4th mile, I heard gal pal and bad-A runner Aimee Dziekan’s voice behind me yelling, “RACHEL! RIDE THE STROLLER DOWN THE HILLS!!!!” I laughed and turned around momentarily to give a strong-arm gesture and yelled back, “WOOO HOOOOO YOU KNOW IT!” At this point I was SO happy to hear her voice - it gave me a mental push (SHE’S CLOSE ENOUGH TO SHOUT AND HAVE YOU HEAR HER - HURRY UP OR SHE WILL CATCH YOU!) as well as a much-needed relaxing funny moment during moments of pain.  I saw her (thanks for wearing bright yellow-green, Aimee!!) somewhere behind me - maybe 200 yards or so?  I wondered if I would be able to hold her off until the finish… Sometime during this mile I saw Tim Van Hoof, my friend Holly-Rae's hubby, and their cutie-pies Gracie+Jack set up with a cheering station basically in the middle of a terrible, terrible ascent. I yelled at them that I was thinking about passing the stroller off after all!  But…I kept on pushing.  Soon enough, another beep (Mile 4 - 7:08).

The course curved around to the right and I thought about how I was REALLY READY to be all done with this race. Man oh man, it HURT! Beep…(Mile 5 - 7:03).

Thanks for the pic and the cheers on the course, Andy!

I knew that soon I would be making the right-hand turn onto the longest straight-away of the race…whenever I get to this point on this route I remind myself that it is ALMOST over.  Well, I made the right-hand turn into the FREAKING WIND and felt like I was pushing my stroller into a stinkin’ WALL. HOLY OUCH. As I made the turn, I peered back over my right shoulder to see if I could spot Aimee.  Yup.  A yellow blur was not far behind me.  At that point I made peace with the fact that she would be catching me, but I still did my best to hold her off for as long as I could.  RAWR AIMEE!  At some point, I recall feeling a presence behind my left shoulder. I glanced back and noticed that a guy in a red shirt was tucking behind me … drafting! HA! Seriously, though, way to use your resources guy! I am pretty sure that the stroller+I did offer him up a bit of relief from the wind for a bit. No skin off my back - I had to fight through it one way or the other. Someone else might as well benefit from the battle I had to fight regardless of my surroundings! ;).

As I ran down that sixth mile marker, Tim and the kiddos drove by in their familiar black Jeep.  As they passed me, I waved as Gracie and Jack leaned out the open back window and yelled at us, “GO GABEY! GO RACHEL!” It was so silly-adorable and I was grateful for the push!  I definitely feel the love from those Van Hooves! ;)

Somewhere right around the sixth beep (Mile 6 - 7:19), sweet Aimee pulled up alongside me and fellow area runner Kevin Hanrahan. Kevin and I had been running back and forth together for much of the race. When she pulled up, she even stuck around to chat with me a bit instead of just blowing by me like she could ;). Thanks, Aimee!!  Aimee and Kevin both pulled away from me after mile six and I continued to fight on through the blasted blasting wind.  Soon, it was time to turn left - and earn a bit of temporary relief from the wind.  I cruised along over the bridge and made a right…back into the wind and UP that darn final hill.  The seventh beep couldn’t come quickly enough (Mile 7 - 7:19).

I turned to the right again and was welcomed by a little less wind…almost home! The final turn is left - back into the wind, but at least here you can SEE the crowd and the finish AND there is some cover from the houses and trees. I tried to pick it up and push it in faster, but my legs and arms were pretty darn exhausted. I crossed the finish with a smile and grabbed a water bottle as I was welcomed back by familiar faces - teammates and other area runners.

Total- 53:18 (watch said 53:26 - took me just 8 seconds to stop it in the cup holder;))  Final 0.49 by my watch was at a 7:17 pace. So much for finishing with a stronger pace! Oh well…I really didn’t have much left!  As usual, Gabey was an angel (true to his name!).

It was WEIRD to cross a finish line and not have Clint there waiting for me!  This ONLY ever happens if he is running a longer event.  After I crossed and got a snack (dates and figs FTW!), I walked back on the course to spectate/cheer for others and to see Clint cross.  I stood and chatted with area super-star runner Carrie Mack for a bit, congratulating her on her win in the 12k and her super-great race (sub 3 hours!) at Boston a few weeks ago.  We watched two guys cross the finish of the half in 1:15. I was REALLY surprised but just figured they were faster than I realized.  Before long…there Clint was, in all his glory! As he rounded the final corner, I cheered for him and started running after him. I shouted, “You better run faster or we will catch you!” Some lady who was running the 7k or 12k turned and looked at me like, “WHAT?!” I smiled and nodded toward Clint - hope she knew I was yelling at him and not her. I tried to stay with Clint but alas I couldn’t hang, not even kinda. I backed it off to walk/slow jog it in, pretending like I never was trying to keep up with him in the first place. Oops.

I was super proud of his finish - 1st in his age group and 2nd overall in the half with a nice sub-1:30 (in spite of not really focusing on training for this distance!)

After I caught up with him we chatted with friends, teammates and other area runners and helped cheer people in/pass out a few waters at the finish. One of the best parts of the Lake Run is seeing so many familiar faces. It’s such a fun and festive event - everyone is usually in a great mood and all pumped up for SPRING and RUNNING and FRIENDS oh and the beer (I always forget about that since I don’t care about it ;)…I’m always like, “where is everyone?!” ohhhhh……beer garden….).

Little angel-boos!

WHAT I LEARNED:

• Pushing a stroller for 12k is hard.  Pushing a stroller for 12k over hills is harder.  Pushing a stroller for 12k over hills in the WIND is hardEST!
• I STILL need to incorporate some strength training into my weeks. (*insert eye roll*)
• I can manage a watchless 12k (Though I do wonder how things might’ve been different had I worn a watch. Would I have pushed harder at some points if I knew how much my pace had dropped those back miles? I don’t know!)
• I love the strong women in our running community. I already knew that though. (Ok, ok, the strong men are pretty cool too) But in all seriousness, the camaraderie of strong women has lately begun to mean even more to me - women who push one another to achieve higher levels of strength (both mental and physical) as opposed to being rudely competitive and condescending are where it’s at. HEALTHY competition is one thing - when it pushes us ALL to be better. The nasty stuff that makes everyone feel awful and even sick-y - not so cool. Glad to be on a team with STRONG women and to enjoy camaraderie with the other STRONG women in our running community!

WHAT IS NEXT:

• Steamboat 15k (June)! (sans stroller!)
• Park2Park 5-miler (July)! (with stroller!)
• Enjoying as many Tues/Thurs/Weekend group runs with my running crew as I can! (with stroller!)
• Helping to lead an area summer running group for women on Monday evenings (with Gabe!)

THANK YOU TO:

• You know, all the usual suspects….Mitch, Saucony, teammates, Coach/Chef/Hubby Clint and Gabe! Y’all are amazing!!

**So weird - 7:08-7:10 pace seems to be my current jam.

1)  Run for Hope 10k with stroller March 26 - 7:10 avg pace

2)  Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon without stroller April 1 - 7:08 avg pace

3)  Lake Run 12k with stroller May 6 - 7:08 avg pace

Looks like I need to start pushing myself out of my default/comfort pace!

Fun times with this guy!

Often Running Racing Team {love these guys}

Daddy + Son :)

Clint with his sweet age-group award: a Lake Run/Destihl pint glass!

Oh c'mon Tanya. Be proud. You did great!!! :)

Gary had to get some practice wrangling a baby boy...preparing for his own baby's arrival in just a month!

When a half marathon isn't enough...you run home to make it 24 miles for the day. HA!