Race Recap: 2013 Run River City Marathon Relay

OK I swear I started writing this post about a month ago, but craziness kept interrupting!  Here is how I started it off... 

So this is LONG overdue, and my memory is fading, but I still want to share what I can about the incredible experience that was Run River City.  This is Peoria's VERY FIRST marathon event, and I was really proud to be a part of it!  I ran the fourth leg of the relay:  the last 7.5 miles.  But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

It turns out, the hardest part of running a marathon relay isn't the running.  It's not even the WAITING for your turn to run, which a number of people (collectively referred to as "They") warned me about.  It's not getting up at 4am to drive an hour in order to meet your team members. Not even the part where you need to get creative and figure out something like a "team uniform" for four relative strangers to wear so that you can recognize your fellow teammates when they're heading down the final stretch to hand off that baton. 

Nope.  It's getting four people to agree to run a race together.  And KEEPING those four (or getting replacements) so that on race day, you still have a team to race with!

This whole thing started with me and Liz.

I've known Liz since college, circa 1996; we had ECON 101 together and we were both obsessed with Ani DiFranco.  I was wearing one of her concert tees (likely a version of this one), and, as if we shared a secred code-word society, Liz said, "Nice shirt."  The rest, as they say... is way to complicated to get into.  Suffice to say we were fast friends and fell in love, they way girls do, and I hope that never changes.

Liz and I cooked up this idea of running the relay, mostly because the Run River City event didn't offer a 10k, and a 15k seemed more than either of us was prepared to take on.  We christened ourselves "TEAM FOLKIN' YOU UP" - a reference to how we met.  (Ani created her own record label, Righeous Babe Records (RBR), whose one-time slogan was "Folking You Up Since 1990.")  So I roped a couple of running friends into running with us.  One dropped out but we found another.  Then the other dropped out and found her own replacement.  Then that replacement dropped out and two days before the event, we found it was just me and Liz again!  Oh, the DRAMA!  I put out an emergency call on the Lake Run Club Facebook page and two people VERY GRACIOUSLY agreed to join in the fun. 

Our team was set:  Liz, Ray, Anne, and myself.  I had met Ray once before, actually just a couple of weeks before - we had worked a finish line together - but had never met Anne.  I don't think Anne and Ray knew each other at all, and of course, being from Chicago, Liz didn't know either of them.  After some debate and uncertainty, that was the order in which we ran:  Liz, Ray, then Anne, with me coming in as "anchor". 

Liz came up with a general uniform for us to wear (bright yellow shirt!) and made us these awesome tutus and headpieces.  The tutus served so very many functions!

Sadly, the one thing the tutus couldn't do was help us to identify one another on the morning of the race - there was a very hectic and stressful time when Liz and I were together, and we knew that Ray and Anne were here, somewhere, but we couldn't locate them.  And Liz and I had all 4 tutus.  Eventually, we did find eachother and here's where our story begins:

 

Obligatory pre-race, near-dawn photo, HAD to take it in front of the Army of Port-a-Johns!

I think Ray got the best compliment while running in tutu: a woman shouted encouragement as he passed, and he overheard her a moment later telling another spectator: "Now it takes a REAL man to run in THAT!" He did look mighty spiffy..

 

I don't know about everyone else, but I found the tutu very useful in dealing with the baton.  I was wearing my normal fanny-pack to hold the normal race gear:  ShotBloks, gum, ChapStick, phone, iPod, etc, etc, etc.  On its own, there was no way I could fit the baton in there, but it turns out I could sort of wedge it in there and pull the tutu over it to hold it in place.  This was great because it was so terribly hot and humid, my hands were really sweaty and gripping that plastic tube was a pain!

 

So after all our preparation and all the emergency get-a-replacement-runner drills, the race was finally ON and the gun goes off:  Liz was up first.

I was easily entertained/infatuated/slightly obsessed with my tutu.  Also, I hadn't really had my coffee yet and we had over an hour to kill while Liz ran her leg.  So... THIS picture exists.

We were able to wait along the course at about the 2-mile marker - I took these as she passed us.  It's easy to find her:  just look for the tutu!

Then it was time to pass the baton:  Liz handing off to Ray.

From there, Liz, Anne and I walked to Ray's car (and just missed seeing him on the way - we could here people calling out to "that guy in the tutu!" darn, those things were GENIUS!  Thanks Liz!), and drove to the next exchange point.  Just enough time to use the facilities and get some water after we parked the car, and here comes Ray:  just look for the tutu!

Fun fact:  Ray had run a 10-mile TOUGH MUDDER race the DAY BEFORE this marathon relay!  The one where they ELECTROCUTE the participants!  How's that for commitment?  This guy is a BEAST!  And so generous of him to do this with us!  THANK YOU, RAY!

Ray passes the baton to Anne:

Once Ray got some water and hit the head, he, Liz and I got back in his car and drove to the final exchange point.  Again we had some time to kill.  (The race organizers provided really great directions between exchange points so it was really efficient.)  We parked at a Walgreens and I was disconcerted to realize I hadn't taken any photos of me in the lovely feather-boa headband that Liz had concocted for me!  This is the best I could do:

I was NOT winking!  The sun was in my eyes!  I swear!

My friends Heather and Chuck and their son were waiting for us at the third exchange point.  We got to visit with them for a good 20 minutes or more while we watched for Anne's approach.  Anne is fast, and this was the shortest leg - 5.75 miles - but it seemed like it was taking quite a while.  Probably because I was expecting it to go so quickly, and the anticipation of starting my leg was killing me!  "They" were right; that part is hard.  I kept yelling, "Where's my TUTU?!?  I wanna see that tutu come this way!"  (Look, I said from the outset that I am slightly obsessed with the tutu... You were warned.)  Evenually, she did - and made great time, too!  I told the team they could expect me in about 90 minutes, and headed out on my own.

 

I didn't get any pictures of the hand-off from Anne to me, because... well, I was running at the time.  

I won't go into great detail about the specifics of my leg, but here are the highlights.  It was really hot and humid.  I had run the Lake Run 12K just two weeks before (about the same distance) in two-mile intervals and hoped to do the same with this race, but it was not to be.  By the time I started running, it was after 10am and quite warm.  I was struggling to finish a half-mile at a time throughout.  Plus, Peoria is a hilly place.  None of the hills on this leg were terrible, but more elevation changes than out at the Lake, certainly. 
I knew early on that there was no way I was going to finish in my planned 90-minute timeframe.  I was walking too much.  (You may remember, this was my 4th race week in a row and equal to the longest race just 2 weeks before.  That's a LOT of racing for me and my body was pretty well worn out.  I'm never doing that again.  If I'm going to do all 4 of these races next year, I'm going to need more conditioning.)  Enough with the excuses - my speed was pretty decent, when I was running, and I was so excited to finally be doing my part, I just wanted to finish happy and strong and without injury or incident!
As planned, about the half-way point of my leg, I took a couple of ShotBloks and two waters from the nearest stop.  Those help so much!  I use the ones that don't have caffeine, just electrolytes and whatnot.  The "Performance" ones, not the "Energy" ones.

About 4 miles in, we took a turn onto this lovely paved trail.  Lots of shade, no wind.  This was one of those good news, bad news things... lots of shade!  but it's still hot and humid and now there's no wind.  I used the talk-to-text feature on my phone to send Jason a message:  "I am at Mile 23" (Sidenote: I love that my phone keeps all this stuff.  I can see now that I sent that message at exactly 11:00am.) Another mile, and my feet were KILLING me.  (This foot issue was what got me into the PT office; it was getting worse, but I didn't want to see a doctor until my spate of races was done.  Dumb, I know.)  Mile 5 or so, my hip was feeling stiff and beginning to feel sore. I was feeling pretty low.  I took my last ShotBlok and waited for the boost that was sure to follow.  

This is where the volunteers and organizers became AMAZING.  I can't tell you how great it was to hear people shouting "Go tutu!"  "You got this, ballerina" (Yes, that's right, I am a dainty ballerina, a fairy, even...  light as air, and that means I can run forever. Oh HEY, there's that guy who's dressed like a fairy!  Running the whole marathon in that outfit, now THAT takes some eggs... and he's passing me after 20 freaking miles - that is SO badass! wait, where was I, have I slowed down?)  Overhearing little girls asking their moms o the sidewalks... "Is she a princess?"  "Princesses can run too?"  (Oh, HELL yeah they can, little Padawan, yes we CAN.)  (Yup, that was a Star Wars reference.  I'm THAT geek.  I thought you knew this already?) 

There was one guy, not sure what he was doing, maybe adjusting orange cones or road blocks or something, but he was in a golf cart, and at one intersection, he noticed me and made a point to make eye contact and yell something.  (I have no idea what he said, and it probably doesn't matter, but whatever it was, I was really soaking it in.)  Five minutes later, I was walking and massaging my hip, trying not to limp on my stupid foot, when the golf cart passed me.  He got out to do whatever he was there to do, noticed me again, and again made a point of eye contact and cheering me on.  Maybe he was doing that all day, maybe I really looked like shit beat, maybe he made a point to do that with one runner at every stop, I don't know, but I found the energy to yell back at him and tell him how much I appreciated it.  Of course, I think all I could muster was a hearty "YOU are AWESOME!  Thanks!"  But sometimes, that's enough.  I started running again.

At 11:35am, I sent another talk-to-text message: "I am half-mile out" - this must have been just a few minutes before that next picture was taken.

Jason made the trip over the Peoria and met up with my team while I was running my leg.  He took these when I rounded the last turn and approached.  

That's me, that speck in the back there.  Just look for the tutu.  :-)

Getting closer... never mind that woman with the blue hair.  :-)

I don't mind telling you, I nearly burst into tears when I laid eyes on those bright yellow/green shirts and pink & black tutus!  And then again when I saw my dear hubby.  I wasn't feeling broken but I sure was beat.

 



 And here I am! 

 And off we go - the whole team runs the last quarter-mile ...

 

And crosses the finish line together!!

I will DEFINITELY run this race again!  Lots of fun and they did a great job organizing it.  Plenty of water stops, lots of GU and Shotbloks and candy on the course, and TONS and TONS of community support.  It was really great!! 

Signs I caught along the way:

Plus, this race had some SWEET BLING!  

Our results:  TEAM finished 90th out of 125, and I finished 65 of 73 women for the final leg.  As you can see, several minutes shy of my 90-minute goal.

Oh, and there IS one more thing the tutu is good for:

Drunk pics of my dog.  She HATES playing dress-up!  But I find it so VERY entertaining!

Race Recap: 2013 Steamboat Classic 4-miler

I was traveling for work again this week, which means lots of driving, some crappy food, minimal exercise, and very long work days.  It was fun working with a new client this week, though - lots of new problems to solve, puzzles to work out with my team.  Good stuff.

Friday we pulled anchor about 3pm and I started the 3-hour drive home... except I needed to go past home, to Peoria, to pick up my race packet for Saturday's race.  Technically, I could have waited until Saturday morning for pickup, but they had a mandatory Friday weigh-in for the "Athena" division... and after my third-place showing in the "Foot-Pounder" division at the Lake Run, you bet I'm signing up for the weight class.  Mandatory weigh-in the night before seems a bit much if you ask me, but what the hell.

So I picked up my packet, and headed back home.  I had a nice evening with the hubby, packing my race gear, listening to too-loud music and had a couple of adult beverages, and off to bed, just a little too late.  Summer has arrived here in central Illinois and the races are starting earlier.  The 40th running of the Steamboat Classic was set to start at 7am.  I got up a little before 5am to run through the shower, get dressed, locate coffee and hit the road.  MAN, I hate getting up that early, but I really enjoy my races!! 

Here's what I noticed before I headed out:

I get to ask them for a Large shirt this year (NOT an Extra Large), and they give me a shirt with "XL" plastered across my chest!  What the HELL, people??  

I've run this four-mile race several times (last year's race recap is here).  It's fun, it's flat, it's fast.  It's HOT.  Last year I started out way to fast and did a lot of walking, finished at 54:29.  The time before, I was on a run/walk interval program and not yet running continuously, and even then I finished in 54:09.  I'm still dealing with some pain in my hip and calves so I wasn't sure how much running I should plan on today, but I dared dream up a goal of finishing under 49 minutes.  I didn't have a plan for a run/walk interval or anything, just "take it as is comes" and walk if and when it felt necessary.  

I met up with Joe and his brothers with about 45 minutes to spare; we chatted it up for a while, and I decided to hit the restrooms while there was still time.  What I found was a line for separate men's & women's restrooms (of course the line for the women's was about half-mile long).  I passed that up in favor of seeking out the porta-potties.  What I found then, was another line about a half-mile long!  Twenty minutes later and I realize there are actually TWO lines, fanning in opposite directions, BOTH of which were about a half-mile long (explains why the line was moving so s l o w l y...)  

Five thousand runners. Twelve porta-johns. Yeah, that math works.

Potty issues aside, I made it to the starting line just before the gun.  It was threatening rain, but all I saw were clouds.  It was a bit hot - about 70 degrees - and super humid.  I ran for about 5 minutes and then checked in:  how are my calves?  How's my hip?  My ankles were feeling weird yesterday after driving all afternoon, how's that going?  I felt GOOD.  I decided to just run by feel, and keep checking in along the way.  If I needed to walk, I'd walk.  

They have quite a few water-stops, especially for such a short distance, but with the heat, that's usually a blessing.  I got to the first stop a little after the 1-mile mark - and NO WATER!  After the whole wait for the bathrooms, I was annoyed about this.  But it was early yet, and I wasn't desperate for hydration or anything.

I made it to the second water stop at mile 2 without any issues.  My Garmin notified me I'd finished the first mile in 11:30 - on pace for my goal - and I was still feeling good. My hip was fine, my calves were starting to loosen up, so I happily kept on going!

After the 2-mile mark there was another water stop - this one WITH water - and I took a break to walk a bit, drink up, and assess my situation.  I was still feeling good so I revved up and got back to it.  I had finished mile 2 in about the same time as mile 1 - 11:35.  With that 90-second break, mile 3 was a bit slower, but I must have sped up a little because I only lost about 40 seconds.
I was feeling great. This is awesome - I feel like I could do this all day!  Only one mile to go!  I could FLY if I want to.  There's no stopping me no---OUCH! What the hell just happened to my hip?!? Oh, Jesus that hurts.  Yup.  Thirty-seven minutes in; Stopped me dead in my tracks.  I walked for another minute, massaging that thing in my hip... right where the PT works on it every week, that thing felt like it was just a little bit on fire.  It hadn't burst into flame but it was definitely smoldering.
OK, so I walk a bit.  Maybe I walk the rest of the way - it's less than a mile to the finish line, it's not that big a deal.
Who am I kidding - only a mile to go, I'm NOT going to walk all that way. This is a race!  For crying out loud, I train for this!  I PAY to do this!  The pain in my hip eased back a notch and I decided to run another quarter-mile and see what happened.  I figured one of two things would happen:  1) it's fine, works itself out in a minute or two, a minute of walking was all that I needed; or 2) it's not fine, and it's not going to be fine, and I'll be walking again within a minute or two.  But I wouldn't know unless I tried running on it again.
And you know, it eased up even more after I started running again.  I was able to run the rest of the way in, and even managed a sprint in the last 30 seconds - the Garmin says I got up to a 6:30 pace in that last burst!!

RESULTS: 

Overall:  2450 of 3124

Females 35-39: 161 / 229

And check out the Athena Division results: 

Again, it's a REALLY small field and my chances were pretty good to place!  Sadly, I did not.  But I'm happy with 5th place.  I'll take that.

Post-race, the poor organization continued:  this is definitely a theme for this year.  I remembered from last year, they keep the water stowed away about a mile from the finish line - last year I gave up before I found the damn water!  I did find it this time, and stretched for quite a while before I found Joe and his brothers again.

We went for food & snacks and found lines even worse than the porta-john lines.  And don't even get me STARTED on the line for free beer.  Ugh.  We chatted for a while and decided to skip the whole thing.  The guys had a golfing date, and I decided I could probably get myself a free beer at my friend Heather's house.  (She understands the occasional need for a beer at 9am... you know, after a race of course!)

All in all I'm still a fan of the Steamboat Classic.  The weather makes it a very challenging race every year, even though it's flat.  And now, I've got a new personal best to try and beat next year.  (But I may bring my own snacks and a cooler of beer for afterward.)

More travelling blues?

Last week I was travelling yet again, this time to Solon, Ohio, again for business.  The week didn't start out well:  I arrived at the airport at 5am ready to catch my 6am flight, which was cancelled.  The next flight out would get me to Chicago about a half-hour after my connection to Cleveland took off.  The airline had me on standby in Chicago but couldn't guarantee me a flight to Cleveland until 4pm, which meant possibly a full 8-hour shift at O'Hare... and they couldn't or wouldn't provide me access for the day to the business center so that I could work during my layover... so I opted to rent a car and DRIVE to Ohio.  It was a LONG day (especially since, after making the determination that it would be fast and easier to drive, I found there would be another hour or so's wait for the rental office at the airport to open! It WAS only 5:30am at this point after all.) Along the way, I found I had a very scratchy throat.  By the time I reached Solon and my hotel, the scratchy throat had graduated to a full-on Sore Throat, and maybe a bit of a cough... not good.

By morning I was Officially Sick.  I was a mess, and I was in a hotel and scheduled for lots of meetings with lots of people.  I'll skip the gory details of my week, but it was long, there was NO exercise, but I didn't have much trouble avoiding "bad" foods.  My hotel has a little kitchenette, so when I arrived on Monday I headed straight to Trader Joe's and picked up a week's worth of groceries.  I was able to have a healthy breakfast and bring a lunch to work each day, and - what I'm going to call "reasonable splurges" for dinner each night, cooked in my little kitchen.  For a travelling week, it was an unmitigated success!  (And I forgot to weigh in so not sure where that stands.  I'll find out this weekend.)  My flights home on Friday went exceedingly smoothly and I arrived home before noon, no driving for me.

I was feeling marginally better by Friday, which was good, because I had PLANS.  Friday was the 10th... the first day of my Birthday Week, and my friends' band, Triple Charge Time, (oh, and check out their YouTube page here) was playing at a new venue in Peoria.  I took the dog for a walk, took a nap, and then got cleaned up and took every bit of cold medicine in the house to ward off the gunk, and headed out for the night.  Jason had to work in the morning so I was flying solo - which was kind of a fun change of pace, but also meant I needed to take it easy on the beer, as I would be driving myself home.  All good things actually, since if you remember from my Glendale post, I had a race Saturday morning, the Evergreen 5K out at the lake.  An early evening going BIG on the music but small on the beer worked all the better for me.  I had a wonderful time, got to catch up with my friends and see a few people I haven't had a chance to talk to since I left the firm three years ago!!  It was great.

Saturday morning's 5k was... well, fine.  I was feeling better, but definitely not over my cold yet.  I decided "Hey, I've paid the registration fee - I'm going!" But didn't feel well enough to run at all.  So I compromised.  I took Coty with me, and we walked the whole thing.  She enjoyed a new route in completely unfamiliar terrain, I enjoyed the INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL weather, nice, flat course, and a lovely 3.1-mile walk.  We finished last and really enjoyed ourselves.  I picked up my t-shirt, commemorative pint glass, and visited with some of my running buddies during the after-race festivities.  Our unofficial time was about 56 minutes... a far cry from a record!  (Though maybe not my LONGEST time...?)

I spent the rest of the week in "recovery" mode.  I'm nearly over this cough, and last night when I walked the dog, I tried some running, to see how my lungs responded.  I managed some intervals:  2 minutes (then about 8 minutes of walking), then three, then four, and after more walking, I found we were about a half-mile from home and tried a 5-minute interval.  After each interval, I suffered a ridiculous hacking coughing fit, but I was able to get through it well enough.  I hope by Friday I'll feel well enough to do a long run.  I'm still training for that 10K next month, and I'm pretty sure there's another 5K in the meantime, for the McLean County Autism Society.

Aside from that, the most exciting thing I've done the past two weeks has been watching Boardwalk Empire.  Jason and I have watched the whole first season On Demand - I like it!  We've started in on Season 2 tonight while I've been writing.  Guess I'll get back to it now.

Have a lovely evening, all...

Race Recap: Steamboat Classic 2012

Today's race went fairly well.  It was the Steamboat Classic 2012 in Peoria.  Here's the breakdown.

TRAINING:
I have been running the TNAM route as often as possible - about once a week, 4.37 mile route - as my training for this 4-mile race, so I felt pretty well-prepared, but haven't been running as often as I would have liked.  It may have been a mistake to run 4.37 yesterday morning, but I just couldn't help myself:  I had the day off work and it was great to get out there on Constitution Trail in the morning with my dog!  We took it pretty easy, did plenty of walking and didn't push too hard, knowing I was racing this morning.

PREP:
I laid out all my gear last night, got up at 4:45am, hit the showers, dressed & headed out the door.  I planned to get coffee at the gas station on my way out of town but had to wait several minutes as they weren't open yet when I arrived!  It was me and the 5 old men who clearly gather there each morning for their coffee klatch, waiting for them to unlock the joint.  Got the coffee but in my caffeine-deprived state, I forgot to put any sweetener in it (guess it's been quite a while since I hit up Casey's for my morning joe) - turns out it wasn't half bad.  Maybe I can start reducing the amount of artificial sweetener I use each day??

Hit the road about 5:35 headed for Peoria (about 40 miles), feeling behind-schedule but knowing the race doesn't start till 7am and my race bib / chip / packet had already been picked up by my good friend and former boss, Joe.  I made great time - ate most of my PowerBar on the way so my stomach wasn't empty, parked the car and texted Joe right about 6:10am. (It was already over 70 degrees and fairly humid.)  Joe and I failed to properly designate where we were meeting so that he could give me my bib and timing chip, so a bit of confusion followed.  I did get a good stretch and warm-up walk in while waiting for him to meet up, but ended up making a last-minute rush to find him (amid approximately 5,000 people) and get my gear on with just a couple of minutes to go before the starting gun!

RACE RECAP:
Last-minute snafu aside, I found the group of 11-12 minute pacers and headed out.  I felt like I was stuck behind a whole bunch of really slow runners, might have joined the group too far behind the starting line... but then I got to the first mile-marker and my phone (MapMyRun app) announced my first mile was at a pace of 10:40!!!

I knew I was in deep trouble.  I started out WAY too fast.  Tried to get my pace under control at that point, but it was tough because the runners never really spread out the way they normally do:  usually, within the first mile, especially if you're relatively slow like me, the pack spreads out quickly and you can find a nice space where you're not jockeying for position and cutting through / around groups all the time.  This didn't really ever happen with today's race... it got better after about the 2-mile mark, but not until the last 800-1000 meters did it really clear up. 

There was also the issue of water-stops (or in this case, the lack thereof).  When I ran this race two years ago, there was a stop with water and Gatorade just before the 2-mile mark.  My habit of running with a bottle of water in hand saved my bacon today for sure.  In the heat today, even with my bottle (which was getting warm and also a bit salty from all the sweat on my lips as I took a sip every few minutes), I was looking for the water stop, hoping for a few ounces of Gatorade to keep me going.  NOPE!  The first water-stop was just before the THREE-mile marker today, and then another was set up at about 3.5-miles.  (I'm still pondering what the hell was the point of that.)  And, you guessed it, no Gatorade.  Just a couple of really nice families, filling pitchers from their front-yard garden hose!

At this point in the race, having started out way too fast, I was flagging.  My walking breaks were getting longer, and my running intervals were getting shorter.  I was really pushing, using all my willpower, to run for just 3-4 minutes at a stretch. If I remember correctly, my phone told me I was at 23 or 24 minutes at mile 2 (still not bad for me, but I was really feeling spent already), and about 37-38 at mile 3.  I was getting slower.

One really great thing about Steamboat is the route for the 4-mile run.  It's essentially an out-and-back route, on major roads near downtown Peoria, with a (mostly) gradual uphill terrain for the first two miles, and mostly flat or downhill heading back.  I pushed on and found a little energy once I saw the "800M to go" sign.  Not coincidentally, I think that was about when the leaders in the 15K race began to pass us.  Then "400M to go" and finally rounded the corner for the final straightaway to the Finish Line and I REALLY found the Afterburners!  For better or worse, I did finish strong.

POST-RACE:
Steamboat had a kind of disorganized post-race party.  I had trouble finding water, and food, but they DID have plenty.  In fact I wished they'd had little grocery bags or something to carry things in, because I grabbed a couple of granola bars, a banana (only at a little of that, was NOT what my body wanted today), and a nectarine, plus a can of Diet Pepsi and an ice-cold bottle of water.  Did you catch that word, "nectarine"??  I say this is the best damn post-race party anywhere, I've never seen nectarines after a race, and wow, do I LOVE me some nectarines!!  What a great surprise!  I went back for a couple more after I rested a bit.

I went and found Joe, with his brother, his son, and two of their friends.  We compared notes and decided to head back to the food/ water area and get our free beer.  There really is nothing quite as tasty as a Bud Light at 8:30am after a hard-run race in the heat!!

I didn't take any "Before" picture today, and normally don't take "After" pics, but when I met up with Joe, and the others they insisted on taking several.  I haven't seen them yet but I'm certain I look positively abominable!  If they are at all presentable, I will consider posting one (but don't hold your breath).

OK now for the stats:  I've run this race only once before, and two years ago at that.  Time to beat today was 52:45.  I haven't checked online yet for my official time.  I was concentrating so hard on sprinting to the Finish Line that I failed to check the Big Clock, but my phone said I ran today in just under 54 minutes.  This would be disappointing, except the phone also says (based on GPS) that I ran nearly 4.5 miles! (Not the 4.0 that I was racing...)

So, drum-roll, please...  (I'm sure you'll wait patiently while I go check the web site.)

OH SONOFABITCH!  The results haven't yet been posted, though the race has been over for 3+ hours!!  Guess you'll have to wait along with me!

Race for the Cure

I kept myself pretty darn active last weekend and didn't give myself much down-time.  A run-down of the weekend's events:  

• Friday I left work a bit early and enjoyed some time at home with Jason.  I had to get up at dawn to make it to an early-morning race, so I was good and stayed home, made myself a reasonable dinner, got my gear together, hung out with the dog, read my book, and went to bed early.

• I got up a little after 5am and headed out.  I arrived at the race with plenty of time to find a parking space and get a warm-up walk and jog in, and check out all the vendors, goodie-bags and swag they were handing out.  (This is actually a critical point because the Peoria Komen Race for the Cure is an enormous event with approximately 25,000 participants.  Numerous businesses and other local organizations have tents set up and it's an absolute madhouse, really fun, but you HAVE to give yourself time to check it out, roam around, and navigate through all the people!)

• Race results:  totally awesome!  I stuck with my plan of running 10 minutes and allowing a strict 1-minute walk break.  I completed the 5K in 37:41 my personal best for a 5K!! (and a 12:20 minute-per-mile pace!)

After the race

• I called my mom from the finish line and wished her a happy Mother’s Day. 
• Back at home, we took Jason’s grandmother to lunch for her Mother’s Day celebration and then she helped me shop for new shrubs to replace the ones we tore out last weekend.  We went out with friends Saturday night and had a blast.

Brunch on Saturday.  Ummm, Grandma & others were there, but OK you got me, I'm really only including this photo because I look great in it!

• Mother’s Day I woke up to find my step-son had made me breakfast and left is all wrapped up on a TV tray with a lovely card – what a treat!
• After breakfast I spent the rest of Sunday digging in the dirt and setting everything up right with the landscaping. 

A word about the Race for the Cure:  I’ve run this 5K nearly every year since 2005, when I didn’t do any running at all, just walked.  Each year I’ve raised as much money as I could and hounded all my friends and co-workers for donations until they were downright sick of hearing about it.  Here’s why:  My mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in May 1990.  The tumor was found to be malignant and over the next 8 months she underwent chemotherapy.  (There’s probably an entire book’s worth of material describing the experiences of those months, but for today I’ll suffice with saying this:)  It was an incredibly difficult year for my entire family, but this year she is celebrating over 21 years as a breast cancer survivor.  Race for the Cure day is a day for me to remember that time, celebrate my mom, support other survivors, raise funds for further research, and reflect on how far we have come since those dark days in 1990 and 1991.  I always get very emotional during and after the race – I get uncharacteristically overwhelmed at the finish line and I really wish my mom was there with me.  I wish we’d gone together more than just the once before she moved away.  I also wish I wasn’t wearing that ill-fitting hat in this picture.

Me & my mom, Race for the Cure 2006

At any rate, it was a fantastic day, I’m really pleased with my performance, and all-in-all I had a pretty awesome Mother’s Day weekend.