Race #38- chORD Half Marathon

When I first heard there was a race through the University of Florida campus on September 28, 2013, I was so excited!  I love my campus and miss my days there.  I convinced my hubby to get up waaaay early and drive me up there to run the chORD Half Marathon. 

When we got there, it was pretty empty.  And honestly, it stayed that way. 

I had been saving my orange and blue Lululemon outfit for the perfect race and I was so glad I did! (This was my first time using KT tape.  And yes, I'm a dork and had to get orange and blue)

Look--its pretty empty.  Only 162 half marathon participants and 40 5k participants so only a little over 200 runners in all!

We took off and did a big block.  I knew right away that the distance was off.  I figured that the mile markers would fix itself eventually.  (but no...wait for that part).  The  mile markers were on tiny boxes on the side of the road.  Sometimes they had volunteers helping point the direction, other times you just had to make sure you could see the people ahead of you.

After that first big block, you ran back by where you started.  The 5k runners finished their race and we did the part of the big block again before heading off into the rest of campus.

Hubby surprised me by being towards the end of the second big block.  Probably around mile 6ish.  See how there's no one around me?  Yup.  That's how it was a lot of the time.  People were quite a bit ahead of me and quite a bit behind me.  Didn't feel like a race, so much as a training run on campus.  Oh well, I enjoyed seeing everything.

One of my favorite parts was running through the stadium corridor.  The only problem was, once again, it got confusing.  You had to run it twice.  But there weren't any signs saying that, just a person at the end of the first loop.

Not the best picture, but the field is behind me.

The corridor

After we got out of the stadium, I felt water.  I thought maybe the sprinklers were on.  Nope, it was raining.  I didn't see that coming at all.  I ran the rest of the race in the rain. 

Another confusing thing, towards the end, at one point, a police officer let people continue going straight, where they would turn right at the end of the road.  Then right in front of me, she directed people to take an immediate right, telling us to turn left at a certain road.  Umm..why divide the runners randomly?? 

Anyways, I knew at that point, the half marathon was not going to be a true half and I got mad.  This was the first race that I was running on my own so I was pushing it to be a great time and it was a half mile off.  I hoped maybe my Garmin watch and Runkeeper app were both wrong, but Kory said that he heard several people complaining at the end about the short distance.

I finished, got my medal and headed to the car.  I wanted out of the rain.

My official time was 2:19:46.  I was 109th place overall (out of 162) and 23rd (out of 32) in my age/gender division.

So even though there were a lot of kinks that need to be worked out and I was pretty frustrated at the end, I would definitely do this race again.  I absolutely loved running through the UF campus!!

Weekly Recap- December 2-8, 2013

My knee was really bugging me this week so I took the week off of running.  I debated doing my long run this weekend.  But I decided to go ahead and do it and while the first 8 miles hurt my knee, it felt better after that so I'm glad I did!

Saturday-- 19 miles in 3:40:46 (Mile 1: 10:17, Mile 2: 11:29, Mile 3: 11:32, Mile 4: 10:53, Mile 5: 11:41, Mile 6: 11:48, Mile 7: 11:28, Mile 8: 11:46, Mile 9: 11:45, Mile 10: 11:45, Mile 11: 11:46, Mile 12: 11:28, Mile 13: 11:39, Mile 14: 11:41, Mile 15: 11:53. Mile 16: 11:46, Mile 17: 11:42, Mile 18: 12:12, Mile 19: 12:12, average pace: 11:37)

Total miles:19
Total miles in 2013: 600.49
Total miles: 1025.98

Race #37-- Miracle Miles 15k

I ran Miracle Miles 15k on September 21, 2013 (yes, I realize I am more than 2 months behind...sigh). 

 

Here's our race shirt.  Once again, the small is too big.  They need to either make extra smalls or even better, gender specific shirts!!

 

                                                  

I was a little nervous because a) I hadn't run much in 3 weeks, since the Disneyland Half Marathon, because of my injury and b) because it was the first race I'd be completely alone from leaving my house to getting home. 
 

I did something really stupid.  The day or two before the race, I went and got new shoes.  I figured that my shoes had to be my heel problem so I went all the way up to Fleet Feet.  I had them look at the way I ran again, and the girl decided I didn't need to be in Guidance shoes, but in Neutral shoes.  I had always ran in Guidance but I'd been told several times I didn't really need it so I decided to try the Brooks Defyance.  Dumb dumb dumb. 

 

As for the being alone, it was a little awkward to just be standing around by myself and to ask someone to take a picture of me (not sure why, since I ask random strangers to take pictures of me and my friends all the time).  But I needed my pre-race photo.

 I'd never done a race completely by myself before.  The only other time I'd run alone, my parents and hubby were there and I ran with a friend the first 3 miles.  But this time I was alone from beginning to end.  But luckily I ran into one of my friends (and teachers at my school), Jen.  It was her first 15k and she rocked it!

Around mile 5, my knee started bugging me.  Not the one that I injured the year before.  My good knee.  I was hoping it was just a random thing.  (Nope--it got worse and I had to get an MRI and everything.  They can't tell what's wrong though.  It finally started feeling better and then I re-injured it during the 6k on Thanksgiving.  But that's another story.  I really shouldn't have run in new shoes.  I know they say nothing new on race day, but I have a tradition where I ALWAYS wear a new race outfit.  And I'd never had a problem with shoes before.  Live and learn I guess)

Anyways, I finished the race only a little past a minute over my other 15k time so not too bad.

After the race they had several tents.  There was an insanely long line for Panera bagels so I skipped it and got a smoothie sample and walked around for a little bit.

 

 

 

 

 My official time was 1:42:53 with a pace of 11:02.  I was 1086th place overall, 125th in my age division, and 547th in my gender.  Right over the middle for everything. 

 

It was a fun race and the first of 3 race weekends in a row!!

Weekly Recap- November 25- December 1, 2013

I ran 2 races this week--a 6k on Thanksgiving morning and the Space Coast Half Marathon this morning.  My knee had been feeling better but then suddenly the pain came back full-force during the 6k.  And I've been limping around ever since.  I was really nervous about today's race.  My knee killed for the first two miles, to the point that I thought I was going to have to walk the whole thing, but then it just turned into achiness, which I can deal with.  So I got lucky! 

Today, I also hit 1000 miles that I've run since I've started!

Tuesday-- 8 miles in 1:25:30 (Mile 1: 9:42, Mile 2: 10:57, Mile 3: 10:20, Mile 4: 10:54, Mile 5: 11:02, Mile 6: 10:47, Mile 7: 11:11, Mile 8: 10:39, average pace: 10:41)

Thursday-- Subaru Distance Classic 6k- 3.60 miles in 35:06 (Mile 1: 9:35, Mile 2: 10:06, Mile 3: 9:38, Mile 3-3.6: 9:38, average pace: 9:45)

Sunday-- Space Coast Half Marathon- 13.27 miles in 2:21:38 (Mile 1: 9:42, Mile 2: 10:24, Mile 3: 10:54, Mile 4: 10:49, Mile 5: 10:58, Mile 6: 10:31, Mile 7: 10:36, Mile 8: 10:51, Mile 9: 10:40, Mile 10: 11:07, Mile 11: 10:58, Mile 12: 10:51, Mile 13: 10:51, Mile 13-13.27: 9:59, average pace: 10:42)

Total miles this week: 24.87
Total miles in 2013: 581.49
Total miles: 1006.98

September Villains Weekend--Sunday Funday

The last of the major events we had planned was a special event private breakfast at the Backstage Propshop at Hollywood Studios.

Pictures by Regina Hyman Photography

(oh the dreaded hat)

But first we had a ride through at Toy Story Mania.

 Then it was time for breakfast!

 

The venue was so neat!  We had so much fun wandering around looking at all of the props

 

 

 

 

 These are my photos below.  The food!  There was so much! There was fruit and pastries

Eggs and potatoes

Bacon and sausage

 French toast sticks, and my favorite--Mickey waffles!

 There was also a special juice (I think it was called Jungle Juice) that we ordered along with other juices, coffee, and milk.  It was so good! 

And  I had to have a picture of me with an Oscar (my GMR roots)

Back to pictures by Regina--- we have to have the funny group shot

And the whole group! 

We headed back out, sad to leave (I should say sad to leave the event.  I'd be back to work in a couple of days).

And of course Kory had to be funny behind the Streetmosphere.

 

 Later on we met back up for our last dinner together at Yachtman's Steakhouse.  So yummy!

I started off with a specialty drink (I don't remember what it was though--that's what I get for taking so long to write my posts!  But it was really good!)

I had the lobster bisque..the chunks were huge!

And the steak with the blue cheese butter and twice baked potato.  There was also a little thing of buttered popcorn grits.  We all know my obsession with popcorn so I had to ask to try some.  It amazing tasted just like buttered popcorn!  It was so good but so rich that I couldn't finish the whole thing!

Since it was Jennifer and Charley's anniversary, the restaurant brought us out 2 of these special dessert trays.

And I had to order the crème brulee!!

It was a great way to end the weekend but I was sad that everyone had to go.  Hopefully we can plan another one in the not-so-distant future!