????

Oh Dear God... what did I do?

Whyyyyyyyy?

Dopey Challenge:
5K
10K
Half Marathon
and
a F'ing Full.

Yay.

The Color Run

I've been wanting to try the Color Run for a while now... However, I'm getting a bit sick of all of these cheesy 5Ks popping up everywhere. Like the DJ run? WTF is that? The Glow Run, Rave Run... blah.

Before photo

This race isn't timed... and it's the same route as the New Years 5k and basically the St. Patrick's Day 5mi. They were letting us go in waves, and people were walking right out of the gate. I knew this wasn't going to be speedy, but this was a completely different crowd from the prior Sunday for the Go! It was good to see a lot of folks out there doing a 5K.

I ran the entire Market bitch hill. It was challenging because it was pretty humid out, plus there wasn't hardly any incentive to run since so many people were walking. We ran through the first color station at mile 1, and there were volunteers spreading the chalk, well, I think it was chalk. It was so gross. I tried to not inhale it. I honestly don't know how the volunteers can do that for 1-2 hours. From there on, I did a lot of walk/running. My husband ran this with me, and he wasn't feeling great running either. There were four color stations total.

At the end, there was a glitter "shine" station. I finished in 33:38. If it were timed, I'm pretty sure I would have placed rather well. Oh, and they handed out medals. As we were leaving, people were still starting the race!

We didn't go to the post party. I didn't want to be near the chalk anymore. I'm really not trying to be a Debbie Downer, this race was just different for me.

Finish photo

Go! St. Louis Half Marathon

I have actually never ran the Go! Half Marathon... I mean, I kind of have. I've done the marathon once and the relay twice. When I heard that they changed the course, I had to sign up. I love running the Eads and figured a MO-IL race is kinda cool.

I went into this race with very little training. I was consistent with my running, but I was only doing 3 mile runs. I did do a 5 mile and a 6 mile. And that's it.

So the day before the race I had a bloody mary, a beer, and a glass of wine. Needless to say, I was not taking this race very seriously.

Race Start

We couldn't have asked for better weather. There was an overcast sky, with a gentle wind. No humidity and perfect temps. I started out kind of fast and just rolled with it. It started out rather flat and had a nice downhill into Illinois off the Eads. But, crossing back over the MLK, now that was a bitch hill. There was a short, gentle rain, so that helped. We started to make our way over to Soulard and I was getting myself ready for the Broadway hill. Ughhhh. We climbed the hill around mile 9 and I was so tired.

Mile 10

I tried to keep going b/c I knew I could possibly PR. But... my mind took over and I told myself it was okay to walk just a bit. My legs were feeling incredibly heavy, and then I realized maybe I should have trained for this.

I saw Josh at mile 13 and ran over to tell him that I just missed my PR.

Damn!

What if I did train a little for this? Like just do one 10-miler? Conditions were perfect. I should have PR'd. Oh well, woulda, shoulda, coulda...

I loved this race. I loved that I started with no pre-race jitters.

Finish Line

I finished in 2:05:55. My PR is 2:03:57. How awesome is that finish line photo...lol.

Race finish!

Splits

St. Patrick's Day Parade Run

This is my 4th time running this race. It's a hilly monster, but I managed to get a PR on the course!! There were multiple times that I wanted to walk to catch my breath, but I just pushed through it. I'm really hoping that this is the year for the sub two-hour half marathon....

Before:

Eric, Me, Josh

After:

Run for your Beads 5k

I always love this run because it's around my neighborhood. These are streets I'm always running, so I know the terrain quite well. But.. since the run is held in Jan/Feb, it can be very cold. We were blessed with lovely running weather, starting out around 41 degrees.

Josh and I rode our bikes down to the race start at the Farmers Market. I felt silly wearing my tutu on my bike!

Pre-Race

The race starts out up hill and ends down hill. I wasn't paying attention to my pace, and then around mile 1.5 we got to a hurricane stop. I felt the need to stop since it was a Mardi Gras themed race. But, the hurricane was nasty, so I handed it off to Josh. Ended up walking a tenth of a mile. DOH. Looking back, why did I do that?? It was even on a flat.

My favorite part of the race is running through Anheuser-Busch Brewery. It's straight up hill, but it's always memorable.

AB Brewery

We had some nice down hill segments, and then off to the finish. I know I always look horrible in my race photos... and here I just look like a big dork. That tutu was really hard to maintain, it kept wanting to creep up! Drrr.

Race Finish

This may be my last time running in a tutu.

Anyways, super happy with my results... even though I walked for that disgusting hurricane. I didn't even notice how fast I was running.  I should have paid better attention to my pace.

Hurricane No Bueno!

And we got to celebrate with better tasting hurricanes at the finish!

Post-Race Hurricane

Surf City Half Marathon

I've been wanting to run this race because of the surf board medal... so cool! My friend Andrew lives in Huntington Beach and invited me out for the race. I signed up nearly 3-4 weeks before the race with not a lot of training.

To get to the race start, Andrew and I biked 7ish miles. We also biked to the expo the day before, and ran a fast (for me) 6 miles on the Friday before the race. Needless to say... My legs were pretty tired at the race start.

At the race start.

There were some things I loved about this race, and some things I absolutely hated. I loved: the medal, the shirt, the shopper bag, and the beach.  I hated: the course... It was just so boring and monotonous.  And the sun.... there was no shade!!! It was okay until mile 8 when we had to turn around and run into the sun. I was super hot and miserable.

Running on hot pavement.

I felt so drained, so then I started to walk/run. I just wanted to be done. The last 5 miles were painful, but I got it done. This is what pain looks like...

Suckfest.

Anyways, I finished the half in 2:21:31. Not a PR, but happy with my time considering my lack of training. Also happy that I placed 503/1257 in my division. And, the best part... I got my medal and a California Dreaming medal since I also completed the San Francisco Half Marathon, score!

Worth the pain...  ??

Hello, 2015!

My December was pretty inactive.. I continued to do yoga, but didn't do much running. The break did feel nice, but I did feel a bit guilty. I only ran 14 miles in December!! That has to be my lowest mileage month since like, 2011, when I first started logging my running miles. It's mid-January, and I've already logged 13 miles. Still not the miles I'd like to see... but there has been a ton of crime around the Lou and I'm not comfortable running in the dark after work. I joined the YMCA again, and have been running on the treadmill. I was so proud that I almost went a year w/o the treadmill, and here I am. I just think treadmill miles are cheating miles.

Wall free headstand!

Ouch!

Need to fix my feet...

Because I'm so clever, I signed up for a half marathon on a whim... which is in 2 weeks. I'm flying out to LA to run the Surf City Half in Huntington Beach. The only other race I'm signed up for this year is the Seawheeze, which is my favorite race/event ever!!! I'm so excited to go again for the 4th row in a year.