Donut Run 5k (Tuesdays on the Run Edition)

This past Saturday, as part of my at least one race a month, I participated in the Donut Run 5k.  There was a short window to pick up packets on Friday night, but since I worked till 8 PM, I missed the window.  Thankfully we could pick up our bibs before the race. 


There was a kids race at 8 AM and then the 5k started at 9.  I got there right before the kids race started and picked up my bib and shirt.  I was able to see the kids run.  I swear, they are all so cute!

I walked around some and checked out some of the booths.  They had Belle from Beauty and the Beast and the local baseball mascot, Nutzy, as well as the VCU mascot.  I have to admit I did stalk the VCU mascot some, as that is my alumni and I wanted a picture with him.  I actually was wearing my VCU jacket and he got all excited.


I headed back to my car to put the shirt away and get myself ready for the race.  I headed back and realized the bathrooms were inside, so of course I had to try and go.  Once I made it through the bathroom line I stretched a little and headed out to the start.

There were tons of people lined up.  There were no waves, so I just stepped in where there was room.  The MC mentioned that there were 1000 people signed up.  Wow, that was a lot of people.  Though as I looked at the results and only 600 finished the race.


The race started out of the track area and on to the streets.  I realized that some of these same streets are the ones that I have run over and over with my 10 mile route.  Since I hadn't trained for a half or longer in a long while, I haven't been on those roads in awhile.  It was nice to be on the same roads, but not be the same route.

I had only run twice since my last race, the Ashland Harvest 5k, where my knee really started hurting.  By that race, I had worked my way up to a 30/30 run/walk.  Since I seemed to have a set back, I went back to 30s run and 1m walk.  My knee wasn't bad, but it was bothering me for the last couple of miles.  The course was rolling hills, and my knee really did not like the uphills.

The best part of this race was that there were munchkins at both of the water stops.  Yum!!

During the last mile we came close to the finish line.  I even passed my car on the street.  While I wasn't tired and my knee was holding up, I didn't like getting so close to the finish line without finishing.  It was just a mental thing I guess.

I did finally get to the finish line and was happy to be done.  I went over to one of the younger girls and asked if she could put the medal around my neck.


I grabbed some water and a donut and headed out.  I had some errands to run and an appointment to get my hair cut.  Then I went home and took a 2 hour nap.  After working 60 hours this week, that was the treat of the weekend.

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.

Ashland Harvest 5k (Tuesdays on the Run Edition)

Many years ago, when I was training for my first half marathon, I heard about the Ashland Harvest 10k.  I had always wanted to do it as we do not have many 10ks around here and I have always liked that distance.  I was happy to hear that they also had a 5k option.  To my surprise, they have always had the 5k option and I never realized it.

I signed up for this race a few weeks ago before one of the price bumps.  This would be the race I did for October.  I had been looking forward to it, as Ashland is such a nice little quaint town.  Most of my bike rides are from my house up through Ashland and back.

They had packet pickup for a couple hours the evening before as well as an hour before the race started.  I decided that I would get up early and get my bib before the race.  That would give me time to get parked and situated and not worry about anything last minute.

That morning it had been raining, but radar showed that by the time the race started, it would be sprinkles if not gone.  I got my bib and shirt and two tickets for door prizes.

The door prizes ranged from $25 off oil, to a gift certificate for Creative Memories, to jewelry.  The drawing was at 8:30, so everyone would just need to check back after they were done with their race.  I put my tickets in and headed back to my car.

On the way back I saw that they were setting up a pin for two horses.  I made a bee line over there to say hi to the two beauties.  It turned out that they were from Wings of Hope Ranch which rescues and rehabilitates horses.  There are free programs for children who are in need, no matter what type of need.  It's mutual help between the horses and children.


I went back to my car to shed the jacket and sweats and get ready.  As I headed back to the main area I heard someone call my name.  It was a lady that I see from time to time at the gym.  She actually volunteers with Wings of Hope Ranch and was only running to support them.

It was time for the race to start so we headed to the start.  The 10k start was at 8 and 5k at 8:10.  The 10k had a separate start line and they did their thing.  I stretched some and just kinda tried to enjoy the moment.  It was in the mid-50's and the rain had stopped.  It would be a nice morning to run.  There were some announcements and then the National Anthem and then we were off.


The race started on a unpaved path that went from the road we were on to the road next to the railroad.  I hate running on unpaved paths cause I'm such a clitz.  But I made it to the other road without issue.


My knee had been bothering me a lot more then usual the last few weeks, so I tried to keep an eye on it.  So far so good as I continued my 30sec/30sec run/walk.  We ran parallel to the rail road for about a mile.  I was bummed that no train came while we were running next to it.  The 10k course was a bit different so there were runners coming towards us for a little bit of that part.


About mile in, we turned off the road next to the train tracks.  We were now running through a neighborhood.  Even though I bike a lot through Ashland, I have never been to this part of the town.  It was nice to see a different part while running.  A lot of the houses had their Halloween decoration out, and I enjoyed seeing all sorts of scary items on the lawn.

We had our first an only water stop.  I actually didn't grab water as I really wasn't too thirsty and I knew I would get a bottle at the end, so I kept on trucking.  Around mile 2 you could see we were near the finish line.  I knew we had a turn off soon, to get the extra mile in, but I don't like when races get you so close to the finish line when you are not close to being done.

After the turn away from the finish line, we ran through another cute neighborhood.  At this point the 5k and 10k were on the same course and would finish together.  There were a handful of runners around me at any point of the race.  I knew the ones that zoomed past me were the 10k runners and the rest I was playing leap frog with.

At this point my knee started to bother me.  I tried to slow it down and made sure that I took all of my walk breaks.  But after I did my second mile well under 13 minutes, I knew why my knee was hurting.  But at the same time, I knew that if I kept it up, I would do my fastest 5k in a long time.  I really tried to talk myself into slowing down, but as usual, I got caught up in the fun of the race.

We came around and the finish line was behind me.  There were two ladies in front of me that I knew I could pass.  I knew that going full out at the end would not help my knee, but it felt great to just run as fast as I could.  As I came close to the end, I saw my friend from the gym call my name.  My knee hurt, but after stretching at home, it felt better.

I got my bottle of water and headed to see if I won any of the door prizes.  I did not win anything, but that was OK.  I love door prizes and it's just fun to see what could be won.  I realized at that point that we didn't get a medal.  I think their logo would make a super cute medal, but if that meant more money for the charities, I was OK with that.  I noticed that if I left at that time, I could make it to Costco as they opened, so I headed to my car.

I would defiantly do this race again, either the 5k or 10k.  Even though the courses were a bit different, it was very well organized.  Even when there were only a couple people around me, I never felt like I would get lost, or end up on the 10k course.  There were different colored arrows plus a ton of volunteers everywhere.  Plus there was a door prize with tons of options to put your tickets in.


I just looked at my official time, and shockingly, I was 3rd out of 4 in my age group.  I didn't see anywhere that said that they did age group awards, so it was OK that I didn't stay.  And I looked and one of the ladies I passed at the very end was in my age group, so the knee pain was totally worth it. :)

I haven't chosen my races for November or December yet.  But I have a couple in mind, so stay tuned.

What has been your favorite attraction at a race while you waited for it to start?  Do you like door prizes as much as I do?  Do you get swept up in a race and push it more than you should?

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.

My Journal and Running (Tuesdays on the Run Edition)

Last week I went into some basics of the journal I have been keeping.  A big part of it revolves around my running.  Here are a few items that are specific to that.


I have my 2018 Race Calendar.  I list all of the races that I have done or plan to do throughout the year.  If there is a race I'm thinking about, I list it with it's date in pencil.  For next year (2019), I want to add an extra row at the bottom for the 2020 race dates that I'm interested in.  That way I'm not always looking up a specific race/date online.

My plan in the next couple weeks is to create a list of races that I want to do again, or interest me and the month that they are usually run in.  That way I can do a quick glance of races and the time of year.  And the great thing with the discbound journal is that I can slip that right in after my 2018 Race Calendar as well as put it into my 2019 journal.

Right now I am just running 2-3 times a week with nothing specific to train for.  Before, when I am training for a race, I would use different things to track my schedule.  Mostly, I would print out calendar months and put the mileage on them.  I do like having it in my journal better because I always know where it is and it's not all crumpled up cause I put it in my work bag or something like that.  I had put what I planned to do in pencil (since that seems to change every so often depending on my schedule or injury) and then came back and put the mileage in pen.  I don't think I really want to change much to it, except, maybe making it neater. :)

On a weekly basis I track two things that have to do with my running.  The first is my mileage.  When I was in training, I would put how many miles I planned for the week, but now it's just a plan to run that day.  I also list my Functional Training class that I take at the gym.  The R/S to the right is if I rolled and stretched.  I like to keep track of that because when I am sore, I can look back and see if I did my stretching and if not, that's probably why.  And it's a good reminder to do it every day.


The other thing I track on a weekly basis is my water intake.  While I'm usually really good about drinking water, there are days that I just don't get enough in.  Tracking it helps me remember to keep drinking as well as looking back from a bad run to see if I had enough.


On a weekly basis, I don't really comment on my runs.  I use a separate log for that.  I've used this log for the last few years and like the format that tracks my stats.


I have thought of just doing the list of stats somewhere in my daily journal to see if I can see fluctuations between heart rate, spm, average pace, etc.  I created a page, but never got very far with it as I'm not sure if I like the format I set up. 


The last thing that I do keep in this journal is my race recap.  A race recap is too long to keep in my running journal.  They are also too long to include on my weekly pages, so I have separate pages for them.  I like to hand write my recaps before I post them here on the blog.  Mainly because I can put all the boring facts and feelings in there that would bore most of my audience.  I want to keep my race recaps for the blog to be the fun and interesting things.  The fun part of my handwritten recaps is that I try to find fun washi tape that matches the theme of the race to mark the pages so that they can be found easily.  For the Run and Ride, I found amusement park washi tape.


For my runDisney Star Wars, I found a ton of cool Star Wars washi tape.  I also like to use themed or running stickers as well as cutouts from handouts that might be passed out during the expo/packet pickup.

If you keep a hand written journal, what do you keep track of for your running?

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.

Let's Finish This! (Tuesdays on the Run Edition)

As I continue my goal of doing at least one race a month this year, my pick for the September race was easy, the Speak Up 5k.


In 2014 I ran the Shamrock 8k and volunteered at the half.  I would learn that a 16 year old girl, Cameron Gallagher, passed away just after she crossed the finish line of the half.  She suffered from depression and anxiety and wanted to raise awareness of teenage depression by creating the Speak Up 5k.  Her parents, who did not know she was working on it, found the plans, sponsorship requests, and speeches for the race and made it into reality in September 2014.  I've wanted to do this race since, but each year I had a conflict.  This year I didn't.

The race was in Byrd Park, the same park where I did the Frostbite 15k.  I arrived there about an hour early so that I could find parking and do packet pickup.  I found parking just across the street from the park and went to pick up my bib and shirt.  The packet pickup was by bib number, not last name.  Thankfully they had a bib lookup board.  The shirt was so soft, I can't wait to wear it.


There was an after party and the booths were mostly set up.  I decided to walk around and see what was there.  I was amazed that this 16 year old girl had this dream and her family and friends made it come true.  It was sad that she was not here to see it come true.


It then hit me that there is that much support and help out there for those with mental illness today.  I started to tear up thinking that if there was this much support and openness out there when I was a teenager, I probably wouldn't have been in so much pain.  While I am fairly comfortable talking about my depression and anxiety now, it was much different when I was a teenager.  I teared up, partly because I was happy for those that have the resources but also sad that I didn't have the same thing.  To say the least this was a very meaningful race, even before it started.

They were also handing out this card. Take time to read it both ways, it’s very cool. 

I headed back to my car to put my shirt up and grab my race things.  I also wanted to get some cash to donate to the CKG Foundation.  I hung out at my car a bit and before I knew it, it was time to head to the start line.

They had pace signs lined up and I headed to the back of the start line.  Cameron's dad said a few words before the start, including letting us know that it was not a race, but an experience.  He said that before Cameron started the Shamrock Half, she turned to her friend and said "Let's finish this!".  And we were off.


The morning was overcast and very humid out.  There were so many walkers where I started and had to run off the path to get around.  I love walkers, but I think they should have had one more pace sign for walkers so that the runners could start ahead of them.

There were several cheer stations.  Some had high fives, others had water soakers and silly string.  and others had bubbles.


There was even a bag pipe group.


This park had a 3 lakes and we were able to go around all three.  There was also one water stop that we crossed twice.


I couldn't wait to finish, only because it was so hot and humid.  Everyone was drenched with sweat.  A couple of the people taking photos were from my photography workshop that I took over the summer.  It was fun to see them.

There were also a lot of inspirational signs.


Thankfully there was a lot of entertainment on the course to help distract me from how humid it was.  I was grateful to see the finish line.  I crossed the finish line and was surprised to see that they were handing out medals.  They also had cups of water and tons of food.


I walked around one more time through the booths in the after party.  They even had a bounce house set up for the little ones.  I was glad I did this race and know I will be back again.


If you or someone you know is suffering from depression, anxiety, or any thing else, Speak Up.  There are resources out there to help.  Remember you are not alone, help is available.

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.

Pink Power 5k (Tuesdays on the Run Edition)

Uggg, it's been forever since I've had time to do a post.  Work has just been crazy for the last couple of weeks and I've just been too tired when I get home to think.  But I do have this week off and I am taking full advantage to catch up on everything, including posting.

A few weeks ago, on August 11, I ran my August race.  Like most places, it's hard to find races in the summer, August especially.  This year was the 10th year of the Pink Power Triathlon.  It is a sprint triathlon that is only open to women and it was my first triathlon 5 years ago.  And no, I didn't sign up for it this year.  This year was the first year that they added a 5k on Saturday open to both men and women.  And I signed up for the 5k.

When I got the email the day before discussing the details of the day, they had said that they were still taking walk up registration and they were still advertising the fact that the first 100 signed up would get a medal.  I knew that this would be a small race, which is never good for me.  I didn't even have past years to look back to see if I would be able to finish the race before they started to clean up.

I got there early as I planned on picking up my bib before the race and I wanted enough time to bring everything back to my car and still have time to stretch and stuff.  I got down there and it was sprinkling.  I got my bib and shirt (which was so soft).  I asked how many signed up and they said 54.  My stomach sank.  I decided to wait in my car since it officially started raining.  When it was time to head back to the start line, it had stopped raining.  Not that I would have minded it to continue, as it was hot out.  But for the race it stayed dry, but overcast.

The parking lot was set up for the tri the next day and I looked around to the crowd as we waited and saw a few men (7 in all) and a bunch of ladies.  I was terrified that I would be left in the dust.  The national anthem played and before I knew it, it was time to start.  The course was the same as the one they use for the tri, so I sort of knew what to expect.  A big down hill to start, tunnel under the road and around the lake, back through the tunnel and through a neighborhood, and then back up the hill we came down at the start.


Most of the runners took off.  There were a handful of people back with me and I started to feel better.  I stuck with my 30s run/45s walk, even down the big hill.  I knew I could make up time if I just ran down the hill, but I have been very protective of my knee.  No way was I going to mess up my knee again this time by over doing it when I didn't have to.

At the bottom of the hill, we rounded to the tunnel that took us to the park with the lake.  The tunnel was very slick and dark so I took my time through it.  The lake was beautiful.


I even saw ducks!


Back through the tunnel and on this gravel path.  I made sure I was careful as uneven ground is very hard for me.  I didn't remember this path from when I did the tri, but it was very interesting.  It happened to be the "Richmond Coal Basin".  There were a couple restoration type buildings that were on display.  This was the Grove Shaft Ventilation Building which was built in 1924.


We ran up a short little hill and into the neighborhood.  I realized that this is the same neighborhood that hosts the Tacky Light Run, which made sense since the start is in the park with the lake.  Earlier I noticed that there was a man running without a bib near these ladies and he kept taking pictures of them.  He had run ahead of them and past me.  He mentioned that this was his wife's first race in several years and he was there to support her.  That was nice to hear.

After the neighborhood, we were back to the main road and that hill.  Having to end a run on a hill like that is just cruel.

This does not do the hill justice - it was steeper then this looks.

I kept up my walk/run even on the hill.  I made it up and through the grass to the finish line and I was done.  There were not many people left cheering people on and I knew that there were only a handful behind me, so I decided to stay and cheer on the last few.  It turned out that there were only ten ladies behind me, and it was so much fun to cheer them on.


Overall it was a fun race.  I know I shouldn't be nervous about finishing last, but it's more then that.  I'm afraid that these smaller races would be packing up before I can even finish.  And really the lady that came in last had the loudest cheering section.  And after all of that, I looked at the stats when I got home and in my age group I placed third out of five.  Unfortunately they were not doing age placements.  Always my luck. :)




Do you like to do races the first year?  Do you like very small races like this?

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.

Star Wars Dark Side 10k 2018 vlog (Friday Five Edition)

I had finally caught up on all of my race recaps!  I know, finally.


In case you missed the recaps from the Star Wars Dark Side Half Marathon Weekend in April:

• Expo & vlog
• 5k & vlog
• Magic Kingdom & vlog
• 10k 
• Half

Here is my vlog from the 10k on Saturday.  Enjoy!

I'm linking up with Fairytales and Fitness and Running on Happy for Friday Five 2.0

Pony Pasture 5k 2018 (Tuesdays on the Run Edition)

As I was doing all of my recaps for the last few races I participated in, I realized that as of June, I had done at least one race a month.  Being half way through the year, I decided to see if I could finish the year doing at least one race a month.  I signed up for the Pony Pasture 5k that was on July 28th.  It was down by the river and after looking at the race results from last year, I knew that I would be able to finish before they packed up the finish line.


Pony Pasture is a popular hangout on the James River.  It is where people come to walk some of the trails, put their kayak/canoe/tubes in to ride down the river, or swim.  I was down there a few weeks ago with my photography workshop taking pictures.  The race was to start at 7:30 and while you could pick up your packet the night before, there was also packet pickup before the start of the race.  While the parking lot there is big, it would not accommodate all of the people expected, so they set up a shuttle from a shopping center which was close.

I had decided that I would pick up my packet before the race.  And since I knew the parking situation was not great, especially if I want to bring my shirt back to my car, I decided to get there a little before sunrise and take pictures as the sun rose.  I got there about 5:50 and brought my camera and tripod down to the river.  For the next 30 minutes or so, I just took different pictures as the sun came up.

By 6:30 I was packed up and ready to find the table where I could pick up my bib and shirt.  There was only one person in front of me and they just asked for our name, no ID needed.  The bibs were not chip timed, so I got the next bib on the stack.  They gave me my shirt and that was it.  The shirt is one of those soft cotton ones, which I like to wear around the house.


The park had real bathrooms, so I went to use them.  I then walked around some, stretched, and played on my phone till the race was ready to start.  At the start it was 72 degrees with 100% humidity.  I was drenched before we even started.  I debated on carrying a water bottle with me, but in the end I decided it was too much trouble.


The race was an out and back and everyone lined up on River Road for the start.  They played the national anthem and then we were off.  Not knowing how my knee would be, I decided on a 30/45 run/walk.  Soon enough the runners were ahead and there was a good little group around me doing different run/walk intervals.

River Road is very pretty with the river very close.  There were plenty of trees which provided plenty of shade, even though it was overcast through the first part of the morning.  They did not close the road from traffic, but since it was 7:30 on a Saturday, there were not a lot of cars out yet.


There was a water stop just after the first mile marker.  Just in time as I was getting thirsty.  Soon after that I could tell my knee was going to act up.  It wasn't hurting yet, but it was tight.  We continued down the road to the turn around.

Since it was an out and back, we had the same water stop again a little after the second mile.  On hot days like that, I am glad we had a second water stop.  By the second mile, my knee started to officially hurt.  I continued on, running slowly and making sure I took all of my walk breaks.  It wasn't bad like it was for the Star Wars Half, but it did hurt some.


Before I knew it, I had hit the 3 mile marker.  I couldn't believe that I was almost done.  Despite the humidity and a little bit of knee pain, it felt like I was only out there for a mile.  The finish line was a turn into the parking lot and down a small hill.  There were still tons of people there cheering the finishers on.  Since it was not chip timed, several people were calling out the bib numbers and the time as we ran down the chute.

This being a small race, there was no medal.  I kinda wished we got a medal instead of a shirt, but that's OK, I did only have to spend $20 for registration, so it's a win either way.  The only thing I didn't like was that I didn't see any water or fuel for after the race.  I didn't look very hard, as I had water at my car, but I did think that was odd.

I walked down to the water and got a finisher picture with the river.  I stretched some and headed home.  The good news was by the time I got home, my knee felt good.  So maybe I am on my way to recovery with it <knock on wood>.  Overall, I really enjoyed this race.  While it wasn't as exciting as the Run and Ride 5k from last month, it was just peaceful.  Everyone was super nice and encouraging and being down by the river was the icing on the cake.  I would do this race again.



Would you rather have a shirt or medal?  

I’m linking up with with MCM Mama Runs, Marcia’s Healthy Slice, and My No Guilt Life for the Tuesdays on the Run linkup.