Beware - ZOMBIES!!

Today I ran the Spooner 10k. It was a Halloween themed race & they also had a Spooky 5k. We were encouraged to dress up, which I gladly did. It was another opportunity for me to try out a costume for the upcoming Disney races. I had already ran in a sparkle skirt, so this time I decided to try out my Megara costume. It was in the 40's at the start of the race, and I had bundled up in what I thought was appropriate. However, I soon found out that 2 layers of shirts and my costume would still be a bit too much. After about the first mile, I stopped to take off one of the shirts I had underneath my costume. that was a task and took me about 5 minutes of wriggling around to get it off. Needless to say, this would NOT be a PR race. Add that to the massive hill during the entire mile 3-4... yup, I was not getting a PR.

So instead, I decided to just slow down, take it easy & finish the race.
I finished the race in my worst 10k time to date, but it was still a good experience... one step closer to those Disney races!
It was a fun race, and I got a super cool shirt, but one that I probably won't do again. I tend to avoid hills like the plague.. once is enough for me!

Now, this Megara costume used to be huge on me. it was like an XL and I wore it when I was a size 20-22ish and it was long (to my feet). I took it in by like 6 inches on each side, cut it short and voila, a super cute running costume for the Enchanted 10k (and Spooner 10k!)

And because this race did not give a medal, I decided to earn my Zombieweek virtual race medal. It was a 5k distance, but it's a big medal (3 inches) and glows int he dark - I figured it was worthy of 6.2 miles.
NO, my skin isn't really green, I used a photo editor to make it green, but decided it was appropriate for that medal 

It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's....

SUPERMOM & SUPERSON, flying through the freaky 5k!!

Another great 5k with my oldest son is in the books.

I'm doing a costume 10k race next week to practice running in a costume and my son heard about it said he wanted to do one, but he's never run that far, so being the good mom that I am, I had to find a costume 5k for us.
The East Providence Fire Fighters Freaky 5k was awesome! The long sleeve (cotton) shirts rocked (see the picture of it below) and we got a cool, reuseable, hard plastic cup filled with candy. All that and the entry fee was only $20!
Then they had a huge spread of real bakery donuts... can we say YUM! They tasted amazing. Along with coffee, fruit (oranges, bananas, apples), etc.

The course had a few hills... you know how much I hate hills. lol. And the steepest one was at the end... don't you hate that?  But otherwise the entire course was marked with cones so we had a little lane to run in, there were police & fire fighters all over the course. They even had someone at each mile telling us the time.
The weather was beautiful - a tad chilly, but for late Oct, it was nice. I had no trouble running in my costume and found it to be good practice for the Disney races, but my son, who was wearing a costume with pants & long sleeves got a little hot during the last mile.

After we finished, they treated us to pulled pork sandwiches, chili and pizza. There was even a DJ playing songs.

I thought we were being somewhat original with our costumes. My son wanted to reuse his Superman costume from a few years ago and I got a matching superman shirt to wear with a team athletic sparkle skirt. But there were about 5 other superman, supergirl, superwoman, etc. Oh well!! Our favorite costumes that we saw others wearing were Mr. & Mrs. Pacman along with about 10 colored ghosts.

Overall, it was a wicked fun time and we will definitely be back for next year!

Tufts 10k for women

I already had a pretty good proof time for Disney (has to be a 10k or longer). But the key word was "pretty good". I wanted better... I had to try for 'just one more'.
I signed up for the Tufts 10k for Women because 1. it was one of the only 10ks between now & the cut off date of Nov 1st. and 2. because there would be over 7,000 participants and I figured it would be a great practice run for the crowded Disney races.

The day was beautiful, about 63 degrees - just perfect for a race! We had to see ourselves at the start line. I joined the 10 min mile pace because I was hoping to finish as close to the 10 min mile mark as possible. It didn't really seem that crowded at that point, but once we got started, it was definitely crowded! They didn't stagger the corrals which would have probably helped with the crowding, so once the gun went off, everyone just kept moving towards the start line until, you got there and started off. I was probably about 4 'corrals' back from the start line and it took me about a minute to move up to the start and get going The first mile I was weaving in & out of people and I didn't end up stopping for a walking break because it was just too crowded.

The course was really nice & scenic. We started at the Boston common, went across the charles river on the Mass Ave bridge, then down & back on Memorial drive which was right along the river, then back over the bridge, through a historic distric and to the finish. There were water stops ever mile. Mostly flat - just one small hill around mile 3. Even though it was crowded, most of miles were around the 10:30 mark. At the halfway point - the 3.1 mile mark, I was expected to finish in about 1:02-1:03. But at mile 5 I hit a little bit of a wall and that mile was 11:00...ouch! I had to pull it together for the last mile... I wanted a PR and better proof time so badly. I pushed as hard as I could for that last 1.2 miles and finished in 1:06:08. However, my GPS tracked that it was actually 6.3 (not 6.2) so my 10k time was probably 1:05ish. My overall pace was 10:30 accourding to my GPS. But because the 'official' time tracked me at 1:06:04, they divided that by 6.2, which gave me a pace of 10:38. Still, that was 3 mins faster than my last 10k, which should give me a good enough time for good corral for Disney. At this point, I honestly don't know if I could have done any faster than that (maybe just 1-2 mins faster), so I am happy with that!! I do hope to keep improving and hopefully reach the 10 min mark for my 10k as well.

The thing I disliked the most was the start time. It didn't start until noon, but we had to leave our house at 8 am because they were closing off streets at like 9am and we wanted to make sure we got a parking spot in time. We didn't get home until after 3 pm so it made for a very long day! Because the race did not give finisher medals to everyone, I earned my Red Queen 10k medal. Huge bling for a PR!!

5k PR!!

I has been a long, HOT summer. My previous PR for a 5k (3.1 miles) was achieved on June 20th and my time was 32:08. That's a pace of 10:22 minutes per mile.
Since that day, I have been trying super hard to break that record, but with the heat during the summer months, it just wasn't happening. For months, I couldn't even break the 11:00 min mile mark. Then towards the end of September, the cooler weather set in and slowly, my pace started to get better.
Until, FINALLY, I beat my 5k PR tonight! My first mile was 10:18.... second mile (which didn't feel any faster) was 10:03. And then... my last mile was 9:58. I couldn't believe it! I finished in 31:12, at a pace of 10:04 per mile. With negative splits!!! normally my first mile starts off fast and I get slower, this time it was the other way around until victory was achieved!!

Finally, all the sweat (literally) from the hot summer months... all those runs I had classified as "bad", had paid off!

I normally keep my virtual race medals for long runs, but I decided a long awaited PR deserved something special

Be Our Guest Virtual Race

I participated in the "Be Our Guest" Beastly challenge. Which was a 5k for a Belle medal and then 13.1 miles for the Beast medal and then you would get an additional rose medal for completing the challenge. Well, since I don't run half marathons yet, I combined my miles from a few runs to earn all 3 medals! 

It's a bird, No, it's a plane!! Soaring 10k!

On Sept 22nd, during a training run I ran my Jost Running "September Soaring 10k".
Now, I actually had to run more than 6.2 miles. An 8 mile run was on my training schedule for that day.  So the first 6.2 miles went towards my Soaring 10k and then rest was just icing on the cake! I was running a tad slower than I normally do, but I soared through the first 6.2 miles in 1:10:01... pretty cool time, right?

I had a cool personalized bib to wear.

When I got home, I submitted my results to Jost Running so that my name could be placed on their website. Remember from last month - this is probably my favorite part since I'm competitive and like to see where I finish.
Right now I'm representing the middle of the pack at #8.

Today, my medal arrived. I tore open the package like a little kid on Christmas and out slid not one, but 2 pretty airplane medals.
The team at Jost Running, once again, sent me both the medals for the 5k/10 which is the blue & white plane and the 1/2 & full marathon which is the yellow & green plane. And a sweet note too!
Check out these beauties!

The 5k/10k medal, which is the one I earned, is white with pretty blue & red glitter.
The 1/2 & full marathon medal is all glitter - yellow, green & red.
They are both very well made, just like the medals in the previous month. And I love the added touch this time around of the customized ribbons - they both say "Jost Running Soaring 2013"
These medals definitely do not disappoint!

My son saw the medals and was eyeing the yellow/green one (green is his favorite color)  so I let him try it on.  

He likes to run with me so he has a few medals of his own. He thought this one was very cool and guess where the green one ended up? You guessed it - his medal rack. He won't be running a half marathon any time soon, but I'm definitely going to make him go for a run with me sometime soon to earn it! =)


Want a sneak peek of Jost Running's October medal? These look AMAZING and I can't wait to get my hands on it! Ever need a bottle opener but can't find one... that won't be a problem anymore =)

So what are you waiting for? Head over to www.Jostrunning.com to sign up for your Oktoberfest medal. And use the code Carbload to get 15% off! ENJOY =)

Rockin 'n Rollin in Providence!

I really wanted to do my local Rock 'n Roll 1/2 marathon, but I wouldn't be quite up to that distance in my training schedule yet, so my friend (who is running the Tinker Bell 1/2 with me) and I decided to sign up for the half marathon relay. It wasn't split evenly down the middle, so I volunteered for the 8 mile portion... I was feeling a little crazy, but up for the challenge.

We picked up our bibs the day before and checked out the expo. And because we were doing the relay, we also got drum stick "batons" to pass off to each other during the race (which we decided not to use)

I went to bed early the night before, because my "nice" alarm was set to go off at 4:55am, followed by a "mean", louder alarm at 5am. Luckily, I was able to drag myself out of bed at the 4:55 alarm and did not need the mean one to yell at me.
I got ready quickly and then stepped outside.... BRRRRR, it was freezing! Ran back inside to get a long sleeve shirt and then I was ready! Went & picked up my friend and then drove to Providence.

I was cold out, ok, freezing!... about 48 degrees, while I walked with my friend to the start line to make sure she was settled & ready.  And then I headed off to the bus stop. See, they don't provide us transportation to & from the relay transition point so it was up to us to provide our own. I opted to take the city bus (as advised by the RnR official people), which turned out to be an extremely hectic experience. I got to the bus station with plenty of time & started chatting with some other fellow 2nd leg relay racers.
As we stood around waiting for our bus, 5 mins, 10 mins, 15 mins went by... it was late! And we started to panic. What if we didn't make it to the transition point in time for our partners? Just as we were trying to decide if we should get a cab & split the cost, the bus showed up. And he was unaware that he had to take 10 (yes, only 10 out of 150... apparently everyone else decided to park near the transition point) people to a race and that streets were closed. Luckily we had an angel among us. She wasn't running the race, but she jumped on the bus with us & was able to navigate the bus onto the high way and around the city to the transition point.
And just in the nick of time too! As soon as I got there, I got a text from my friend that she was at mile 4 - only 1 mile to 'relax' from my hectic bus experience before it was my turn to run.

I had a blast cheering the 1/2 marathoners running by and listening to the band playing.
"Elvis" was at the relay transition point handing out medals to the relay participants as they finished their leg

A few minute later, I saw my friend running towards me. I said bye & good luck to my 2nd leg new 'bus riding' friends and took off! At first it felt a little odd to be joining the rest of the 1/2 marathoners so late in the race, but after a few minutes, I fit right in and the first mile passed in no time!  There was a band at every mile marker to keep us entertained.
I was also entertained by the signs I saw from spectators watching. Some memorable ones I saw were "Why do all the cute ones run away.", "Don't poop", "Nice legs", "Smile if you're not wearing any underwear" (ok, YOU try not to smile after reading that one)

The first 4 miles of my leg were pretty hilly. My leg was advertised as "relatively flat" LIES!!!!! ALL LIES! Around the 8.5 mile mark (my 3.5 mile mark), I approached what was told was the last hill and as I walked up the hill, I ditched my long sleeve shirt because I was nice & toasty, finally! But I knew that wasn't really the last hill - there was a small incline at the 13 mile mark - yup, they make us run uphill for the last tenth of a mile! But I would let it slide.... for now!

At the mile 9 mark, I realized my leg was half over already! It sure did pass by fast. And I knew i had to be on the look out for the 3 Little Pigs Challenge tent at the 9.8 mile mark to get my piggy medal. I definitely didn't have to look too hard - as the tent was easy visable with it's piggy balloons and pig mascot hanging out in the road. but boy was I surprised when the lady handed me a HUGE medal... well, 2 of them actually, because my friend did the challenge too & I was picking up for her as well. I stuffed one into my ifitness belt, which almost didn't fit, and then hung mine around my neck. Let me tell you, that medal was big, HEAVY (I had to run 3 miles with it!) and sparkly. I LOVE IT!

The last 3 miles mostly consisted of a big loop - which I wasn't too thrilled about, but it turned out to be no big deal at all. I normally don't like to run loops because it makes me want to cheat & cut across to the other runners coming at me. lol. But I didn't cheat, I promise - you can even check my Garmin!

The last 3 miles were filled with photographers snapping pics every where i looked. I felt like I was being chased by the paparazzi!
As I was closing in on the 13 mile mark, I ran by the bus station and laughed... how ironic that I had come full circle! A few young kids, about the same age as my kids, were on the sidewalk waiting anxiously to see their parents go by. They gave me a high five as I ran by and it almost felt as if my kids were there cheering me onto the finish.
Up the small incline and then there was the finish! and I saw my friend off to the side cheering me on as I passed by her to the finish where I thrust my hands up in the air in victory - something I've felt cheesy doing at the finish line in past races, but not this time!

I got my medal and then had water, chocolate milk, bananas, protein bars, etc shoved at me from every side. I grabbed what I could, posed for a picture and then headed off to find my friend & relax for a minute. 

Overall, apart from the almost sticky bus situation, it was a great race... hills & all. I want to do it again next year & i plan on doing the entire half myself!


My hard earned bling