BRF: Winnings

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"Thanks @underarmour @uawomen! I found a matching pair #underarmour #freestuff #brf2013 #baltimorerunningfestival #giveaways"

DC Nike Womens' run 04.28.2013

Some of you may know that I loathe running, loathe it with a passion, yet for some reason I always seem to be running a race, whether its a silly run like the Wicked 10k, or some charity run Avon Breast Cancer 5k its the same.. I HATE putting on my running shoes and going out for a run.  For some reason the boy LOVES this exercise so I have learned to endure it -- it helps me with endurance for dragon boating is my mantra... but I keep signing up for these races because of the race bling, the cooler the better.

I did the Rock'n'Roll Mardi Gras inaugural run in 2009 well first because it was the inaugural run (i love these too -- got a cool looking Mardi Gras like medal for that one.  It is way cooler than the standard medal -- picture mardi gras beads with a race medal attached.. and since I was doing this one, I wanted the extra bling from the RNR series, so I did the VA beach one too that year and got the 26.2 medal (2 half marathons...)

Well this one that i just recently did, the Nike Womens' half marathon in DC was just all of the above.. cool medal, inaugural.. so it hit all the must have columns.

The only teeny tiny problem was, i didnt really train for this race.. i mean yes i did run, i mean i ran a 10 miler at the end of March, another 10 miler at the beginning of April.. a 10k last weekend.. I should be ready right?  hmmm maybe if I had been training instead of the sporadic running maybe but do i regret running the race?  ummm lets see..

Tiffany necklace.... hmm check!
Male models (in this case ROTC) in tuxes handing out the necklaces on a silver platter .... check!

nope not missing anything here.... so yep it was totally worth it.

Yep I am suffering today -- calves are SO tight, and i have chaffing issues (since it was warmer than I've been running recently AND i forgot to body glide). but it was totally worth the fall at mile 3 that included a roll, yep the volleyball instincts picked right up and i rolled out of my fall.. a curse at mile 1 because some chick and her friend decided at mile 1 right when they got to the mile 1 mile marker they would just randomly stop to take pictures.. REALLY chick, mile 13 is where you should stop to take that sucker.. not at the beginning of the race where you could potentially drop out but at the end where there is only but a couple of steps left for you to go before you get your prized male model and tiffany necklace... ok well you can only keep 1 but who's really counting here?

Here's another picture of the necklace -- note this is 2 necklaces to show both sides of the charm.

Isnt it pretty? and its all MINE!  mine!  i earned every single carved letter on this necklace.. because today, I Hurt.. I hurt like there is no other.. walking is a problem, it hurts.  Do i regret doing the race even though I know I wasnt prepared for it?  nope -- I had as i said, previously run 10 miles or so without any consequences, I wasnt expecting much for the extra 3.1 miles that I would have to do.  I knew that there was a chance that I would feel the way I do today.  I dont regret 1 single second of the run -- its something that I wanted to finish and I got a cool reward for it.. yippie!

Cape May 10 Miler, before run car pic

So I ran the Cape May 10 miler this past Sunday.. Never mind that I've not yet trained up to do a distance this long in quite some time.  In fact, I believe the last run that was of some distance was maybe a 3-4 mile run in the last 3 months?  AND maybe i've run that distance 2-3 times?  So was this potentially a bad idea to sign up for a 10 miler? ummm YES!  did i do it anyway?  ummm YES!  Did I enjoy the run after a great DB workout on Saturday? ummm NO!  Not only did i start the run with sore quads and tight calves because we did a lot of squats on Saturday AM -- I'd not trained to actually run the distance, but of course stubbornness persists and of course I finished the run.. Well after what I would normally be able to do if i were ohh i dont know training for an actual run (I can typically run 10 min miles, this ended up being more close to a 11-12 min/mile pace) but since I'm signed up for 2-3 more runs in the next month I guess i'll maybe actually train for the rest of the month.

This was just a picture of the 2 cars at 7ish am prior to the run -- notice that there was frost on the windows.. um ya cold..

Wicked 10k in pictures

So I randomly (ok so maybe not so randomly) since a coworker found this race for me 2 years ago.. decided to do a 10k run in VA beach during Halloween weekend.   Well, not knowing about Sandy was a godsend because I would have never signed up had I known about Sandy... but because I didnt realize Sandy was coming, I signed up and what a fun, and windy weekend it was. 


A view of  the stragglers finishing up from the Balcony in our hotel room

 The Swag: (Long sleeved tech t), Tarvis like cup, finisher's medal

 

A closeup of the cup

Post Race Party:

Chili in a bread bowl

giant inflatable spider

Baltimore Marathon Relay

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"Baltimore relay medal"

Well this was my saturday.... details later maybe.

Sole of the City 10k

Some while ago, back in February, I saw a foot race (running) that was being advertised in the city as an inaugural race and it was only a 10k!  Well within what i felt i could be running at-- I am notorious for wanting to do races and then realizing a week prior to the race that I'm not up for it because of yet another injury or aggravating some injury.  The race premium (one of the 2 reasons that i like to do the races--the other being the finisher medal) was a under armour 1/4 zip escape light weight jacket.  Nice, right?  So I tried to sign up a week before the race closed to no avail -- online signups were completely full.  I ended up driving to Charm City Run to sign up in person the day it closed (per the advice of one of my dragon boat team mates).  Well the day has come, time to run the race and i've run 2x prior to the race (oops!) but i've also made it to 4.5 miles each time i've run so I can run this race and know I will be ok to finish -- it may not be pretty and I may be hurting tomorrow, but I CAN run this race.. and I WILL finish.

04.17.2012 Dragonboat Team Runs

So this past winter we started a new Dragon boat running group.  Why on earth would we run in addition to all the things we do?  It helps with our endurance apparently.  So as some of you know, i broke my foot back in November and attempted a team run back in March and it was sort of successful, except for the fact that my foot was sore for a week after -- oops?  Recently, i decided that i needed to get gait tested and since I was picking up compression socks from  Charm City Run after the fiance did the Cherry blossom race 2 weeks ago I decided while i was there I might as well get gait tested.

Now gait testing is not a fast process, first you get sized for shoes (it helps if you already know your size-- which i did) and then we did a walk test.  Basically, I walked from one end of the store to the other and the sales associate watched me walk as to figure out how i tread.  She basically told me that the running shoes i was using (Asics Gel Nimbus) were not the right shoes for me because I pronate -- and i needed a shoe that would correct that.  Plus apparently  i have lower arches than normal so those shoes wouldnt be really good for both reasons.  So we ended up trying on 5+ different shoes, each time, getting back on the treadmill and getting video taped.  5 shoes, at least 10-15 mins per shoe, you do the math -- not a fast process.  I ended up narrowing it down to 2 different shoes a different style of Asics (Kayanos) or a pair of Saucony.  I felt that the Asics didnt have weird padding on the bottom which the Saucony did(and apparently this is what happens -- you find a brand and the padding is similar so you gravitate towards those shoes naturally) so I ended up buying the Kayanos.  But, because they are different (they correct my foot treading) I cant wear them on longer runs yet -- just short distances, which is clearly not a 50 minute run, so I decided to wear what my feet have been use to -- the Nimbus.  Clearly, that was a good idea since I ended up running 4.5+ miles yesterday in 50 mins, not my 10 min/mile pace but I did walk a bit on the run back from the inner harbor so that probably added more time.  But, this week I'm going to start running with the Kayanos a bit, probably break them in slowly -- by adding them to my daily run (which i'm suppose to be doing, but really failing at right now).  If i run 1 mile/day in them they should be broken in soon, right?

Dragonboat Team runs

For the last couple of weeks (probably more like 8 weeks now?) my dragon boat club has been doing team runs on Monday nights.  We all get together (by we I mean about 5-10 of us) and go out for a 30-40 minute run-- with everyone running at their own pace.  At the halfway point everyone would turn around and run back so that we would all end up finishing about the same time... well at this point, I had broken my foot and was unable to run with the team.  So, instead of team runs I would spend 60 mins in the gym (it always took them 10-20 mins to corral everyone and get going so i would get a head start) doing cardio, mostly on the recombinant bike.  I was told by my ortho that I was not allowed to do elliptical or anything else that would put pressure on my foot.  So i was restricted to basically the bike, and sometimes the seated row.   Even after I got my walking cast off, I was still hesitant in going out for the runs -- I had attempted it before at the end of Feb on a treadmill and lasted 2 mins before my foot started to hurt so i stopped and switched to elliptical.  So, today was the first day I felt good enough (plus it was gorgeous outside, so I didnt want to be stuck in the gym) to go outside for a run-- and hmm what a run it was.   I probably ran 4 miles, though Nike Run told me i did 5 and some change, in about 45 mins or so-- which is fairly decent since well i've not really run since before last October (had a plantar facititis flare right before the Baltimore Marathon series).  I was running 10 min miles before and from what I can tell I was running sub-10 min miles today, yippie!