At long last, I went to a real running store. I live well over an hour away from any "real" running stores. (Being the running snob that I am, I don't consider the mall stores "real.")
I had to pick up Emma at camp about a zillion miles away. On the way up, I took Emma and the baby through Columbus, Georgia (curse you Columbus with your "one wrong turn and you're in Alabama" lack of signs!) We went on a bit of a side trip to Calloway Gardens. Unfortunately, I only remembered how boring it is when we got there. (Okay, it may be lovely when it's not 100 degrees). We then went on a side trip to the Wild Animal Safari Park. Hello, surreal! We bought some food and hopped on the zebra bus with no windows. You hand food to the animals, unless they have "horse-like" mouths in which case they may grab a finger, so you throw it.
I'm totally digressing.
My mother and the baby and I went back a couple of weeks later to get Emma. I had a gift card from the Turtle Crawl Tri (or as I think of it, the ocean horror) for Big Peach Running Store. So, off we went. After a few map reading glitches, we found ourselves at a little store in some Atlanta suburb. Small, but packed full of tasty treats! The guy helping me was about 18 and had a very "hands off" approach. Really nice, but I almost felt like I needed to ask if I could you know, buy something. And this after I mentioned we were on a pilgrimage! Strange. He put me on a treadmill and some funny scale type thing (I don't think it weighed me- wouldn't have agreed to get on that!) Turns out I have high-normal arches and should run in a neutral shoe. He said I had a great steady gait, which was odd since all I could see in the replay of the video was my duck landing. When I pointed it out, he said something to the effect of I land like a very steady duck with very little deviation. Uh, okay. Trust me, I still look stupid.
So I tried on a bunch of shoes- I ended up with some Asics and some superfeet liners... and a new sportsbra... and some socks... and gels. I asked about Newtons, but they were a bit dismissive in a "I don't really know much about them" kind of way. And then we had to leave- my mom was growing a bit impatient (even after the high of finding new people to tell she ran a half-marathon) and the baby was starting to sprint on the little fake track they had for shoe testing.
And that was it.
Oh, and I've run twice in my Asics with the green superfeet. Did three miles on each run and was absolutely crippled. Thanks, trained shoe fitter guy! HA! It worked out in the end because they are really comfortable for walking and seem to help with my PF, but still...
Liking the sportsbra and the socks as well, and haven't run enough to try the variety of Hammer Gels I picked up. Probably should check the expiration dates. You know, now that I think about it, I'm not really sure why I'm left with such a good impression of the whole running store experience. Weird.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 4, 2010
5k benefit for Emmanuel school
So I don't even remember the name of this race, which is CRAZY, cause I won it.
You read that right.
I was overall top female... WTH??
OK, there were a lot of beginners there and the usual fast people were obviously not there. I decided to take this race more seriously and ran a real warm up. I started out in the direction of the one mile fun run. A friend's 5 year old, Patrick, was running the one mile. His grandfather was far behind him and his older brother predictably dumped him. I decided Patrick would be a good running buddy so I joined the one mile fun run. He actually was perfect- we'd sprint at a 7 minute per mile pace, and then walk at a 22 minute pace (he also caught a ride on a golf cart for the one big hill- smart kid!) It was a really good warm up- note to self: bring Patrick to every race!
The 5k started. All I really wanted to do was get past the clump of little kids who always start in front of me. I pushed hard and saw I was at a 7:30 pace, which was ridiculous. I held on though because those little kids are fast little sprinters and I couldn't see them (or hear them because I was listening to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on some sort of horrible loop). At about 1.5 miles I caught a teenaged girl- I told her we were halfway there, and she stopped pretty much instantaneously. So then I felt like crap- I thought I was encouraging her, not taking away her will to live! Regardless, I was pretty certain I was now the first girl, so you know, to heck with her- she's young, they'll be other races... I passed a water stop- a small dog tried to get me. Hello, who brings an unleashed dog to a water stop? Oh well. And now I'm going uphill. It's feeling hard, but not impossible. Now my Garmin may be hurting my pace- I see I'm still in the 7:30s. I felt like I could go faster, but I was worried I'd literally fall down. Hmmm... oh, and I'd never moved that fast, so my actual coordination felt off, as in I wasn't sure I was swinging my arms fast enough. I distracted myself by listening to yet another round of "Don't Stop Me Now." It was making me absolutely crazy, but it worked that far and I couldn't possible jinx myself by changing it.
Finally, the finish. A guy in a tri shirt passes me with a "good race" comment. It doesn't bother me one bit because he was young and fit and he should have been in front of me way before then. I push through, hearing "first girl." Crazy. My time was 23:09. My long standing 5k PR was 24:42 so I'm pretty surprised.
I picked up my medal and went on home trying to figure out when I became a "real" runner. And then I entered my 5k results in the McMillan Running Calculator, and see a prediction for around 3:40 for a full marathon. I know it's probably optimistic and reflects proper marathon training, but I need a 3:50 to qualify for the Boston marathon... oh, the torment. Curse you, Boston dream!
You read that right.
I was overall top female... WTH??
OK, there were a lot of beginners there and the usual fast people were obviously not there. I decided to take this race more seriously and ran a real warm up. I started out in the direction of the one mile fun run. A friend's 5 year old, Patrick, was running the one mile. His grandfather was far behind him and his older brother predictably dumped him. I decided Patrick would be a good running buddy so I joined the one mile fun run. He actually was perfect- we'd sprint at a 7 minute per mile pace, and then walk at a 22 minute pace (he also caught a ride on a golf cart for the one big hill- smart kid!) It was a really good warm up- note to self: bring Patrick to every race!
The 5k started. All I really wanted to do was get past the clump of little kids who always start in front of me. I pushed hard and saw I was at a 7:30 pace, which was ridiculous. I held on though because those little kids are fast little sprinters and I couldn't see them (or hear them because I was listening to Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" on some sort of horrible loop). At about 1.5 miles I caught a teenaged girl- I told her we were halfway there, and she stopped pretty much instantaneously. So then I felt like crap- I thought I was encouraging her, not taking away her will to live! Regardless, I was pretty certain I was now the first girl, so you know, to heck with her- she's young, they'll be other races... I passed a water stop- a small dog tried to get me. Hello, who brings an unleashed dog to a water stop? Oh well. And now I'm going uphill. It's feeling hard, but not impossible. Now my Garmin may be hurting my pace- I see I'm still in the 7:30s. I felt like I could go faster, but I was worried I'd literally fall down. Hmmm... oh, and I'd never moved that fast, so my actual coordination felt off, as in I wasn't sure I was swinging my arms fast enough. I distracted myself by listening to yet another round of "Don't Stop Me Now." It was making me absolutely crazy, but it worked that far and I couldn't possible jinx myself by changing it.
Finally, the finish. A guy in a tri shirt passes me with a "good race" comment. It doesn't bother me one bit because he was young and fit and he should have been in front of me way before then. I push through, hearing "first girl." Crazy. My time was 23:09. My long standing 5k PR was 24:42 so I'm pretty surprised.
I picked up my medal and went on home trying to figure out when I became a "real" runner. And then I entered my 5k results in the McMillan Running Calculator, and see a prediction for around 3:40 for a full marathon. I know it's probably optimistic and reflects proper marathon training, but I need a 3:50 to qualify for the Boston marathon... oh, the torment. Curse you, Boston dream!
Swamp Run 10k
Haven't really posted lately (that's how all my posts start). As the title says, I ran the Swamp Run 10k a couple of months ago. I really didn't even want to go, but my husband was already committed to watching the kids. Seriously, who would pass up that opportunity on a Saturday morning?!
I drove out to the Swamp Park, hopped out of the car, and realized it was freezing! I had on shorts and a light t-shirt. D'Oh. Either I didn't notice the temperature in my frenzy to get out of the house or it dropped 20 degrees in about 10 miles. Either way, I was not really happy.
I grabbed my bag, threw on the long sleeve race shirt, and wandered around doing that pre-race thing- go to the car, get the Garmin, drink water, lock car, put key in shoe pocket, freak out thinking I need something else, get key out, open car, repeat.
Finally I decided I was just going to have to be cold and left the race t-shirt behind. I was concerned that wearing the t-shirt before the race would guarantee a twisted ankle.
The race starts. I have no expectations. I started out at what felt like a slow pace. The first mile is on the road. Somewhere around mile 2 you head into the trails. (Trails are really just narrow grassy paths). It was hard to pass on the trails, and I was actually feeling like moving fast now. Got to another open road and started passing people. It felt a little risky to pass people around mile 3 and 4, but I was feeling strong. I even passed a girl who totally killed me at the Gate River Run last year (I expected her to get me back, but she didn't. Sweet!)
There's a turn-around on the roads, which was a nice distraction. There weren't that many people in front of me. Since it's an out and back course, I tried to push it some to avoid any log jams on the trail. I saw my friend Mary. She yelled some encouragement, as always. (Mary is in her late 50s, but crazy fast!) I pushed past her and headed home.
I saw two men ahead of me the last half mile. I passed both, expecting they'd catch me in the end. I never really have a final sprint. They didn't catch me! Shocking. Final time: 52:10. A new PR and good enough for 2nd in my age group and a little trophy.
I hung around with the old runner guys after the race who let me in on their trash talking- that was hilarious. Me and the 60 year old guys. They had a big pancake breakfast too. Usually I skip it, but this time I thought "hello, pancakes!"
All in all, pretty fun. Oh, and when I looked in the race results later, the two guys I passed were like 67 and 14. Yeah, I felt a little bad about that...
I drove out to the Swamp Park, hopped out of the car, and realized it was freezing! I had on shorts and a light t-shirt. D'Oh. Either I didn't notice the temperature in my frenzy to get out of the house or it dropped 20 degrees in about 10 miles. Either way, I was not really happy.
I grabbed my bag, threw on the long sleeve race shirt, and wandered around doing that pre-race thing- go to the car, get the Garmin, drink water, lock car, put key in shoe pocket, freak out thinking I need something else, get key out, open car, repeat.
Finally I decided I was just going to have to be cold and left the race t-shirt behind. I was concerned that wearing the t-shirt before the race would guarantee a twisted ankle.
The race starts. I have no expectations. I started out at what felt like a slow pace. The first mile is on the road. Somewhere around mile 2 you head into the trails. (Trails are really just narrow grassy paths). It was hard to pass on the trails, and I was actually feeling like moving fast now. Got to another open road and started passing people. It felt a little risky to pass people around mile 3 and 4, but I was feeling strong. I even passed a girl who totally killed me at the Gate River Run last year (I expected her to get me back, but she didn't. Sweet!)
There's a turn-around on the roads, which was a nice distraction. There weren't that many people in front of me. Since it's an out and back course, I tried to push it some to avoid any log jams on the trail. I saw my friend Mary. She yelled some encouragement, as always. (Mary is in her late 50s, but crazy fast!) I pushed past her and headed home.
I saw two men ahead of me the last half mile. I passed both, expecting they'd catch me in the end. I never really have a final sprint. They didn't catch me! Shocking. Final time: 52:10. A new PR and good enough for 2nd in my age group and a little trophy.
I hung around with the old runner guys after the race who let me in on their trash talking- that was hilarious. Me and the 60 year old guys. They had a big pancake breakfast too. Usually I skip it, but this time I thought "hello, pancakes!"
All in all, pretty fun. Oh, and when I looked in the race results later, the two guys I passed were like 67 and 14. Yeah, I felt a little bad about that...
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