Race Report - Sweat Your Thorns Off Virtual 5K

This morning I participated in my first ever virtual race, hosted by The Boring Runner.  I printed out my super cute cactus bib and got ready to head out the door.  Bugleboy took my picture before heading off to a meeting at work.

I wore my new Lululemon running skirt that my parents bought me when I was visiting them in California this summer.  It's so light and comfortable, love it!

I ran the Sweat Your Thorns Off Virtual 5K as part of the 8 mile long run I had scheduled for this weekend.  It was hot and humid this morning (86 degrees, 94% humidity, making it feel like it was over 100 degrees), which meant slower splits and more stops for water.  I ran one of my favorite routes through a local park.

I started out by going over the hills and through the woods...

 

Around the pond...

And past the meadow...

After leaving the park and heading home I also ran past the FDA, yes, the Food and Drug Administration.  One of the perks of living in the DC metro area is that I run past these uber important things all the time.  I opted not to take a picture of the FDA since there are lots of signs like this one posted on the huge fences surrounding the place.  I didn't want to appear suspicious or anything.

All in all I ran the 5K in 31:18 (not too bad considering the heat index) and my full 8 miles in 1:24:35.  And I DEFINITELY sweated my thorns off, whatever they are!

Race Report - Rockville Twilight 8K

As I mentioned in my previous post, we enjoyed a visit from Bugleboy's brother and his wife a couple of weeks ago.  On the last night of their visit we had a girls' night/boys' night out.  Sis-in-law and I ran the Rockville Twilight 8K race together.

This was the first time either of us had ever run a night race.  It turns out I definitely prefer to run in the morning.  Nevertheless, the race was well-organized by Potomac River Running and there was a huge turnout.  This was the 27th annual Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest, and with thousands of runners lacing up, I think it's safe to say it's something of a local tradition.

I picked up our packets on Friday evening from the PR running store in Rockville and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the race t-shirt was actually a sleeveless tech shirt.  Score!  I was also excited to get a coupon for a free oil change in my goody bag, AND Sis-in-law gave me hers since she lives in California and won't be able to use it.  Double score!

Saturday dawned cool (like 62 degrees cool) and drizzly, seriously unusual for the mid-atlantic region in summer.  Neither of us was excited about the prospect of running in the rain and we waited all day for it to clear up.  No luck with that, but I'll take cool and wet over hot and humid any day!  We headed up to Rockville, arriving about 45 minutes before the start of the race.  We opted to hang out on the sidelines rather than check out the vendors in the streets (still raining).  However, we did get to try the new Bodyarmor sports drink made with coconut water.  We had the raspberry blueberry goji flavor and my personal opinion was that it tastes a lot like cough syrup.  I'll stick to Gatorade, thank you very much.

Race time finally arrived and we made our way to the starting area.  Just like that the rain let up and we were able to run the whole race without getting drizzled on!  We started out in the middle of the giant mob of runners and spent the first mile weaving around people and trying to find some open space where we could run at a comfortable pace.  It turned out that made us run a much faster first mile than we'd anticipated.  We were able to (mostly) keep our 9:15 pace throughout the race and finished in 46:57.  We thought we'd be running around 10 minute miles, so we were very pleased with our results!

The logistics were all very well planned out.  There were water stations and port-a-potties aplenty.  The roads were blocked from traffic and there were enough volunteers along the course to make sure runners went the right way.  The spectators were encouraging all along the course as well.  There was even a rock band of pre-teen boys playing for us during mile four!  So cute.

Running at night is very different from running during the day.  First of all, it's dark!  I found myself concentrating so much on trying to see the road and avoid potholes and other uneven parts of the course that it took away some of the excitement of racing.  I'm sure my heightened attention to this was due to my still recovering sprained ankle, but I haven't been as worried about it during my regular daylight runs.  Second of all, it's dark!  One of the things I love about racing is checking out the sights along the course.  I really enjoy running in new places and taking in the scenery, which is one of the reasons that I rarely repeat any particular race.  It's harder to do that at night.

I think the best part of the race for me was the post-race food.  Along with the usual granola bars, bananas, and bagels, we were offered Indian food (think naan bread and curry vegetable frittatas), chips and salsa, and beer.  Yum!  After chowing down we stretched a bit then decided to head home, picking up the boys along the way.

While Sis-in-law and I raced the night away, Bugleboy and his brother participated in the great American pastime.  They watched the Nationals beat the Braves 5 to 2 while enjoying Ben's Chili Bowl and lots of brotherly bonding.  Being the hard core Dodgers fans that they are, they both wore their hats even though they were far from L.A. watching Washington play Atlanta.  Go Dodgers!

Harper's Ferry

My brother-in-law and his wife have been visiting us from California this week.  It has been fun to have them around and we have enjoyed doing some touristy DC things (MLK monument, Smithsonians, drinks, etc.).  I especially liked Ai Weiwei's Zodiac Heads outside of the Hirshhorn Museum.  Here we are with our respective "heads."

Bugleboy - Year of the Pig

Yours truly - Year of the Goat

Brother-in-law - Year of the Rabbit

We share a love for the outdoors, so on Monday we packed some snacks and lots of water and headed to Harper's Ferry, West Virginia.  What better way to strengthen a sprained ankle than by doing some hiking!

My husband (henceforth known as Bugleboy) and I had been to Harper's Ferry once before and had done a smaller hike with some friends, but we've had our eye on the Maryland Heights trail for about a year now.  We figured this was a good time to give it a go.  We first hiked to the Overlook Cliff, where we had a great view of lower town Harper's Ferry at the intersection of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.  Then we made our way up and around the rest of the Maryland Heights trail, stopping at several historical civil war sites along the way, including artillery batteries and a stone fort.

Bugleboy and I with Harper's Ferry in the background, the Potomac to the left, and the Shenandoah river to the right

Brothers and sherpas (They graciously carried our snacks and water up the trail)

After several hours of hiking in the July heat and humidity, we headed to Dogfish Head Alehouse for lunch and drinks.  It was a sweet reward!

Cheers!

Later that day our dog, Dizzy, got a mini hike of his own at our local park.  Happy weekend everyone!

Dizzy, curious but cautious about the creek

No Bueno

Injury is no fun at all!  I celebrated the last day of school by going on a beautiful trail run the next morning.  However, I rolled my left ankle a few times, eventually resulting in a not so beautiful fall that left me with a deep gash in my right knee, bruising on my hip, and a sprained ankle.  A trip to the emergency room, followed by a visit to an orthopedist, and I have spent the last four weeks doing physical therapy, but no running.  It wasn't the way I'd imagined the start of my summer vacation, but it has been an eye-opening experience.  I had never done any type of physical therapy before, and I have learned a lot of new exercises that I will incorporate into my weekly strength building routine.

Yesterday I was able to go on my first run since spraining my ankle.  I ran two miles on the track and was so glad to be back at it.  Things are looking up!

Be Back Soon!

The school year is winding down.  There's so much to do and so little time!

Like a stack of assessments to wade through and progress reports to write...
(By the end of this weekend - yikes!)

Like a GIANT roll of laminated projects to cut out, sort, and make into books...
(I think I'll put the hubby to work on this one.)

Like packing up my classroom so it can be used for summer camp...
And a bajillion other things on my to do list.  It'll all get done in the next two and a half weeks, but until then I'm sure I won't be blogging.  Hopefully I'll be running at least a little.  See you when summer break arrives!

Race Report - Rock 'n Roll USA

I’m so glad I picked the Rock ‘n Roll USA half-marathon as my come-back race!  It was amazing.  It felt so good to run a race again after coming back from a foot injury in the fall.  The race was well organized, the weather was perfect, and it was just an all around fun time.  Now for the details…

My husband and I headed to the expo on Thursday afternoon (as locals were encouraged to do).  I picked up my packet and technical shirt.  We had a choice of colors and the most difficult part of the day was choosing whether I wanted a white shirt or a navy blue one.  I ended up going with the white since it will be much cooler while running this summer, plus it will match more of my shorts.  We had a good time walking around the expo.  There were tons of samples being handed out, so we tried everything from nuun to macaroni and cheese to Snickers brand energy bars and more.  We also tried on Newton running shoes.  They were interesting.  They felt different, but weren’t amazing.  I couldn’t see spending $175 on them, that’s for sure.  I did score a pair of Brooks Adrenalines for $75 though.  I also won a free t-shirt from the Brooks fair.  My hubby won a bandana.  Not sure he’ll get much use out of that thing.  We had fun playing skeeball though.

I took the metro to the race.  Of course there was a problem on the metro and we were delayed quite a bit.  Not to worry though, gear check was quick and easy and I made it to my corral with time to spare.  Soon enough we were off!  The first mile felt slow, mostly because there were so many people that it was hard to move around them to run.  It turns out I was in a much slower corral than necessary.  Oh well, live and learn.

The course itself was great.  There were some hills, but nothing too tough.  We ran around the Supreme Court building, past the Washington monument, through Howard University and along H Street.  There was a good combination of neighborhoods and DC touristy things.  It was fun seeing so many people in their front yards cheering us on.  Some even handed out water, beer, fruit, and free high-fives!  The actual course support was great, too.  There were water and Gatorade available approximately every other mile and the half-marathon course also had bananas somewhere around mile 5 or 6.  The bands were a lot of fun, too.  The variety was great.  We heard everything from rock bands to marching bands to brass bands.  Unfortunately you only actually hear the bands as you are running by them.  I wish there was a way to spread out the speakers or something so runners could hear the music for more than just a minute at a time.

After crossing the finish line we were handed our very cool medals.  There were plenty of bottles of cold water and Gatorade available.  They also had chocolate milk, which I LOVE drinking after a long run.  I’ve never had chocolate milk offered at a race before.  There were also the usual bananas, apples, bagels, granola bars, fruit bites, etc.  Lots of people headed over to the beer garden after leaving the finishing chute, but I decided against it.  Beer just makes me thirstier.  Instead I found a spot in front of the main stage and settled in for the Switchfoot concert.  I was so excited to see them and they did not disappoint.  I actually saw Switchfoot perform in the late 90’s at Point Loma University in San Diego, so it was fun to see them again.  I run to their music all the time.  They played a great combination of new songs as well as some of their old favorites.

Overall the race was awesome and I would totally recommend it to anyone.  I was very pleased with my running.  My goal was to finish in 2:10 and I came in at 2:03:04.  Needless to say I was extremely satisfied.  I shaved a full 25 minutes off of my old PR and kept my pace under 10 minute miles for the whole race.  Here’s how the splits worked out:

Point     Time            Pace

5K          00:27:35     8:53

10K       00:56:31     9:19

10M      01:32:32     9:31

Finish   02:03:04     9:50

Average pace 9:24

Now to enjoy some corned beef and baked potatoes for dinner!