Race Report: Kayla O'Mara Memorial 5K

Yesterday's Kayla Run was supposed to be my first race post-baby. I'd been planning it since before having the little whippersnapper. Put on by my friend Erin, in memory of her sister and benefiting the scholarship fund in her name, the Kayla Run is a cannot miss event on my schedule each year. I volunteered in 2013 when I was injured and I walked the 5K last year while pregnant. So this year I was super stoked to make it my comeback race. But, you know how these things happen. The husband says "Wanna do (insert race here)?" and I'm all "Sure! Why not?" despite being totally out of shape. And then it happens again and before you know it your planned first race back is now your third. It's all good though, because this way I was able to actually track some progress.

Going into the race I was thinking that I'd really like to break 20:00, but I quickly realized that a sub-20 at my current fitness level was probably a little ambitious, especially considering the big hill in the first mile followed by two more not so flat miles. On second thought I decided that I'd be happy with anything faster than the 20:38 I ran at Volkslaufe on July 4th.

I did mention there is a big hill in the first mile, right? And the other hills? Yes, two sentences ago. Well, that's about how long it took me to forget that fact once the race started and I went blasting out at 5:58. That whole first mile I was watching my friends Tammy and Sue, both super fit right now, up ahead of me thinking that I was waaaay too close to them. I hit the first mile marker just past the top of the hill, did a mental face palm, and dialed it back. The surprising part of it all was that I didn't feel completely spent from my first sub-6 mile post-baby. I did pay for that (still astoundingly stupid) first mile with a side stitch the rest of the race, but I actually felt strong coming off the hill (apparently all those hills I've been running in my parents' neighborhood when my mom can watch the little scamp for me are paying off. And by the way, he sat up in bed this morning for the first time! I watched it happen on the monitor and when I went into his room, there he was, sitting up in his crib, smiling, all "what took you so long, mommy.")

One thing I've always noticed about coming back from a long break is that it takes me a long time and a lot of training and racing to get back any sense of what pace I'm running. That 5:58 mile? I was prepared to see a fast first mile time due to the alarming lack of distance between myself and Tammy and Sue, but without those two to gage off of, I could have been running a 6:30 for all I knew. I have no innate feel for pace right now. Which is why when I dialed it back for the second mile, I unintentionally dialed it back a little too much and hit the second mile in 6:38. Felt a lot faster than that to me. Oops. On the plus side, an inadvertently sandbagged mile allowed me to pick it back up for a fast finish. I hit the third mile mark in 6:08 to round out some seriously all over the place splits (and this time I can't blame it on messed up mile markers). Add in the change and my final time was 19:28. Really? REALLY! I was second in my Age Group, good for an awesome Mizuno running hat (Erin always has the best AG awards), and 9th overall female. It was a very fast field, including a 13 year old phenom who ran 18:22 for 4th place (I swear they're growing girls faster these days).

My new favorite post-race pose

When I first considered my pre-race delusional on target goal I was thinking if anything I could maybe just squeeze in under 20 minutes. I certainly didn't expect to crush it like that, so I'm really happy with today's race. I'd be stupid not to be. Bit by bit it's coming back. Sort of almost by leaps and bounds actually. No question, I am definitely starting to feel like a runner again. Next stop: sub-19. Ha, that's funny. Though come to think of it, that's not as absurd as it sounds because I don't imagine I'll be running another 5K anytime soon, probably not until next year. So if I'm not breaking 19 by then something is seriously wrong. Who knows if I'll ever break 18 again.

Up next is the Crim 10 Mile on August 22. This, on the other hand, is maybe a little absurd. Maybe not. My long run is up to 10 miles, which I've done the past three Sundays, including today. I'll do 12 milers the next two weekends (complicated post-baby running schedule permitting) and hopefully I'll be ready for a reasonably strong race on the 22nd. It's a tough course, though, and more often than not it falls on a really hot day. I have to remember that I did have a baby seven months ago, I've only been running for four of those, and a 10 mile is a whole other ball of wax than a 5K. If I go out too fast in a 5K there's generally not all that much race left to suck it up and finish. Go out too fast in a 10 mile, especially one that doesn't get hilly until halfway through, and I could be seriously screwed.

I'm sure it was a miracle, complete with sparkles

I really ought to start carrying my phone during my runs so when I come across the scene of a miracle I can take a picture as proof. Unfortunately today you'll just have to take my word for it.

This morning, 6:30ish, I was about a mile and a half into my 8 miler when there by the side of the sidewalk I saw evidence of a spontaneous healing. Two crutches, abandoned in the weeds, no houses or businesses all that nearby. I can only assume that some lucky soul was crutching along, perhaps feeling down about their plight, when suddenly they found themselves levitating, rotating in the air and engulfed in sparkles (for some reason I envision a miraculous healing as something like the Beast's transformation at the end of Beauty and the Beast). When the shiny light gently placed this person on the ground they found their pain had disappeared, their need for walking aids completely gone. The crutches are still lying forgotten where they fell as he or she skipped off in happiness and disbelief, no doubt trailing residual sparkles.

That's what I like to think happened.

Or perhaps those crutches are there in the event that some unlucky person suddenly comes up lame (probably no sparkles involved in this case). We've already established that I don't run with my phone so it's nice to think that if I strained a calf muscle or something mid-run I could just look off to the side and find a handy means of hauling my injured body home.

I'm bringing Gingerbread back

So I'm a little wistful and sad this weekend because for the third year in a row I'm missing the Great Lakes Relay. GLR, only the greatest weekend of running in Michigan, or anywhere really, is a 3-day, 300 (or thereabouts) mile relay race across northern Michigan. 10 person teams leapfrog across the state from Lake Huron (more or less, even less these past 2 years since the start has been at Tahquamenon Falls in the Upper Peninsula) to Lake Michigan (always Lake Michigan, no more or less about it, right on the beach in Empire, MI). 

I met my husband and two of my best friends at GLR so it means a lot more to me than just the running. 2008, 2009 and 2010 I ran on a coed team with Leo in which we won the Mixed Division all three years. I took 2011 off by choice and came back in 2012 with an absolutely stellar all-girl Open team, the Gingerbread Girls, made up of sub-three hour marathoners, including two 2012 Olympic Trials qualifiers, wicked fast college/just post-college girls, and sick masters runners (Peggy, over 50 and running sub-20 5Ks, gives us mad handicap). We finished in second place (after handicap), thirty seconds ahead of Leo's all-guy team (oh how they wept!). I couldn't run in 2013 because I had stupidly listened to my doctor when he said I'd have an easier time getting pregnant if I backed off my running, which I did and then promptly got hurt. Yes, I know that sounds backwards, people normally get hurt when suddenly boosting their training, but I'm also the one who managed to get the horrible anti-depressant side effect that only 1% of people on it get (still can't wait to tell that story). So that year I was hurt and out of shape. In 2014 I was pregnant and out of shape and this year I'm just plain out of shape. Plus, with Leo running (he lives for GLR weekend) someone had to stay home with the little schnitzel fritz (I have no idea what that means, but my mom said that's what her (not the slightest bit German) mother called babies and I think it's cute. [pause for googling] Ah! Apparently it's a German restaurant in Colorado. Somehow I don't think that's what my grandmother had in mind).

I've just now decided that I want to run one more Great Lakes Relay, but there's only two ways I'll be happy doing it. First choice would be with the Gingerbread Girls, but only if it's actually ALL GIRLS. They've had to add some guys the past two years because it's really really really really REALLY really hard to find ten fit and healthy runner girls, all willing and available that weekend and not already committed to a coed team. It's a very popular wedding weekend; Leo lost one of his best guys to a wedding this year. Apparently it's also a very popular family vacation weekend (talking to you, Tammy). Or I'd be happy running on a coed team with Leo, but I know there's no way he's going to leave his 2013 & 2014 champion all-guys team (he just called as they finished Day 1 and his team was first across the line, one minute and 40 seconds ahead of the second place team, which happens to have his brother on it).

So now I'm on a mission to return the Gingerbread Girls (none of this Gingerbread People crap like this year, no offense to the guys on the team. I'm sure you're very nice gentlemen, I just don't want you on my team) back to their original glory. My friend Erin swears this is her last year (she said that last year too) but I refuse to let her retire from relay. I can't imagine running GLR without her. Yes, I know, she's run it 3 times without me, but she's a stronger, much less co-dependent person than I am. I would love it if we could put together the fastest, strongest team possible for one final killer GLR. And by then I'll probably be emotionally able to leave the little angel pikey (that one's my mom's) with my parents for a weekend. I think.    

The original Gingerbread Girls, 2012  

Race Report: Bastille Day 5K

Apparently I'm just going to race myself back into shape. This was another last minute, day before game race day decision. I kind of like this spur-of-the-moment, whimsical, sure why not, what the heck method of race planning. That, combined with my wretched state of fitness, make for race mornings completely free of pre-race jitters and a wonderfully nonchalant attitude towards my actual performance. It's those races you plan for months in advance and actually train for that can really gut you.

My lackadaisical attitude was a good one for today since the course was all kinds of messed up. Evidently lots of tinkering with the course to work around construction in downtown Fenton, MI caused some incorrectly placed mile markers. Or since there is also an art festival in town today, perhaps they were going for an abstract or post-modern 5K. Either way it made for some very amusing mile splits.

6:14 for mile one. I would love to say I was running that fast but I am very aware that I wasn't. I purposely started out slower than last week (6:24 or so for that first mile) because I knew it was a hillier course, I hadn't done much of a warm up, and I just plain didn't feel like trying to run that fast. I wasn't wearing my Garmin but there is no way that mile wasn't short. 

That's okay because the second mile was long. Really long. Possibly the longest mile I've ever run. That split was 8:39. Mile two was basically one long climb so I know I slowed down, but I didn't slow down that much. I didn't suddenly lose a limb. I was not attacked by sloths. 

Have no fear though because I was about to come raging back with a 6:09 third mile. Yes, this did have a nice downhill finish but, again, I just wasn't running that fast. Another short mile. Or something. Add in the final .1reallyitcouldhavebeenanything and I finished in 21:52. 

Now that was a little depressing. After all, I ran last weekend's 5K in 20:38. Yes, this course was hillier and it was a hotter morning and I wasn't trying as hard, but really? Barely breaking 22:00? I haven't run a 5K that slowly since high school. Come to think of it I haven't run a 5K over 20 minutes since high school, but I'd really rather not pull on that thread right now. However, before I could hang my head in shame, my friend who won the race, bearer of happy news, told me that her Garmin measured the course a quarter mile long and that made me feel loads better. Phew. I didn't have to retire on the spot.

Leo ran the 15K and he said those mile markers were equally art deco. Unless he really did run that 5:02 ninth mile and was just being modest. All in all it was a fun morning. We both won our age groups. I think I was 5th female overall but I'm not sure. Leo took 3rd overall. 

The best part of everything was that my 13 year old niece ran her first official road race. She's getting ready to start high school in the fall, will be running cross county, and has so much potential it's sick. She ran just under 25 minutes (remember the course was .25 long), finished with a smile on her face and loved the hills. She didn't even break a sweat! Imagine what she could do if she actually worked at it a little bit!! She did tell me she knows that she could run faster. Up until now, and mostly evident during her one year of middle school cross country, she hasn't had a competitive bone in her body. I think that's changing. And it won't hurt that today she snuck in her first age group win. By a week! Her age group today was 13 and under and she turns 14 this coming Friday. I am kicking myself now for not getting a post-race picture of the two of us, but hopefully there will be lots of opportunities for those in the future. Preferably ones where she's sweating a bit too. 

The little monkey had a blast at his second race (read: he did not cry once).   

Race Report: Volkslaufe 5K

I wasn't going to race until the first weekend in August. Today I was just going to chill at home with the little man while my husband went up to Frankenmuth, MI for the Volkslaufe 20K. Always held on the Fourth of July, Volkslaufe is a favorite race of ours because we get to see lots of friends and they give out great beer steins as age group awards. I missed it last year because I was pregnant and the year prior to that due to injury and I was all set to miss it this year as well. But then yesterday Leo talked me into going. Honestly, it didn't take that much arm twisting. I wouldn't have wanted to take the little squirt if it was going to be one of those notoriously hot Volkslaufe days, especially since with awards not being handed out until noon it makes for a longer than average race morning. But the forecast called for  beautiful weather, with temps no higher than 80 degrees. So in the spirit of getting out of the baby bubble I happily agreed to go. And I figured, what the hell, why not hop into the 5K? Since the 20K goes off at 8:10 and the 5K isn't until 10:00, both of us racing wasn't an issue.

The biggest challenge of the day for me was less about running the race and more about going to a race with a baby in tow for the first time. And I have to say that everything went just about as perfectly as could be hoped for. No screaming demon baby! No diaper blow outs! Nothing important forgotten at home (I was ridiculously over packed--we may have needed 3 outfit changes!). The only time he got a little cranky was when we were waiting to watch the start of Leo's race and he was ready for a bottle (Oh, and apparently he didn't want to go back into the stroller during my race after his dad had gotten him out. He also wasn't enthused about a return to the stroller while we were waiting for awards, but once he realized he was going in there so I could feed him his apples and cereal he was all "I can work with this."). So anyway, long, rambling, rather unnecessarily detailed story short, things went well.  

As for the race, that went about as well as could be expected. No, that's selling myself a little short. It went quite well, but in a bittersweet kind of way. I ran 20:38, with mile splits at about 6:26 (oh that's gonna come back and bite my ass), 6:25 (somehow still hanging on) and 6:40 (and there it goes, but thanks to a downhill finish I didn't fall off pace nearly as much as I could have). No clue what my last .1 was and someone was saying that the course was long, not that it matters. On one hand I'm all "Sub-7:00 pace 5K for my first race in 19 months, 6 months post baby, on some really minimal training? Hot DAMN, Go me!" But on the other hand it's a pretty harsh reminder of how far I have left to go to get back to, or at least close to, the kind of fitness and speed I've enjoyed in the past. But it is a start. And it felt so good mentally to be racing again. And knowing my little cheerleader was waiting for me at the finish made it all the sweeter. The stein I got for my 2nd place age group finish is nice too, but he is the best award imaginable.  

 

So apparently this is a thing

Over the course of my long, spotty, sometimes successful (no doubt requiring a special alignment of planets) running career I've had just about every running-related injury imaginable. Plantar fasciitis, tendinitis of the achilles, patellar and peroneal insertional varieties, IT band syndrome, countless calf strains, shin splints, stress fractures, micro-tears, compressed metatarsal nerves, heat exhaustion and you get the picture. Actually I shouldn't say I've had every injury because I'll probably jinx myself and get the one or two I've not had during my next run. Like a labral tear. Or a pulled hamstring. At least I don't think I've every pulled a hamstring. Maybe in high school. Not sure. Those years are starting to get a little blurry.

Three of those injuries listed above hit me back-to-back-to-back during the year and a half we were trying to get pregnant. So when I finally did pee out a double line in April 2014 I was in horrible shape. I was barely running 20 miles a week and still struggling with patellar tendinitis. At that point it seemed silly (and probably unhealthy) to try to keep running during the pregnancy. So I started walking, hoping that the long, enforced time off would heal EVERYTHING.  

Lo and behold, it did! The little tyke was born in January so once the weather was nicer I started running again. And after a couple false starts (cranky knee, tweaked gluteal attachment) I'm actually running pain and ache free for the first time since January 2013. I'm still in abysmal shape and up until two days ago I hadn't run anything longer than 4 miles, but I'm getting stronger (slightly) and faster (marginally) and I'm starting (actually) to feel like a runner again. With the baby it's harder to find time and opportunity to run, though I'm getting the hang of stroller running and my husband and mom have been great about helping me fit in runs on my own. Still, it's going to be a long road back to where I want to be fitness-wise so I need all those opportunities I can get, with or without the little stink bug.

Which is why I am most unhappy to have suffered my first BABY RELATED injury. Yes, apparently this is a thing. I must have missed that chapter in my Baby 411 book. Yesterday morning, while holding the little cherub, I reached down to pick up one of his toys and felt something wrench in my mid-back. My first thought was, "Oh no, that's not good." I immediately ran for the Advil and was pleasantly surprised to not have it be much of an issue throughout the day. Until, that is, I got home from work. I only did one massage, but the necessary forward leaning appears to have been enough to really flair up whatever strained because it's mighty uncomfortable now. I probably could have run this morning, because I mostly only feel it when I bend forward, or take deep breaths. Or move. Still, the last thing I want to do is make it worse. Fingers crossed it feels better tomorrow and I'm able to start running again. With my new little coach, how could I not be anxious to get back out there? 

Watching mommy work hard is very entertaining.

I am looking forward to him being big enough to sit forward facing in the stroller so I can lose the extra weight of the carrier, but I'll miss seeing that face while I run.