Finish At The 50 – 10K Race Recap

On July 3rd, I ran the Finish At The 50 10K race at Gillette Stadium – home of my beloved New England Patriots! The event had a 5K option as well, plus there were supposed to be fireworks after the race. Unfortunately, they cancelled the fireworks the day before due to the weather forecast, which turned out to be a bad decision as it never rained. Some speculated it’s because the Boston fireworks were moved from Friday to Thursday due to weather and they are put on by the same event company, but who knows. It was a big bummer though!

First, let’s talk about that weather. Hurricane Arthur was moving in and we expected rain both Thursday and Friday. However, as of Thursday morning, no rain in the forecast – yay! Bad news – it was going to be hoooooot and humid. This is what it looked like just prior to the race kickoff:

 

 

It absolutely felt that hot, too.  The breeze was the only saving grace of any comfort whatsoever. It was a hot breeze, but at least it gave us some sensation of air movement. I have to say, the rock stars of the day were the people in the neighborhoods that we ran through. It seemed every couple tenths of a mile there was someone in their front yard spraying the runners with their hoses/sprinklers. I ran through every.single.one. It felt glorious!

 

 

I had the day off from work, but unfortunately Tara did not. We made our schedule work the best we could and thought we might end up having to each drive up there separately, but luckily she was done early enough that we could go together with a slight modification. We ended up arriving around 4:30 I think. Parking was really easy, right next to the stadium, and just a short walk to registration. That was also seamless with no wait. The only strange thing about it was that we had to go to one area for our bibs, then go to the opposite side of the courtyard to get our tshirt. Not a big deal, just strange.

 

 

After I got my stuff, I tried to meet up with some Unleashed teammates before they started. Two of them were doing the 5K race (which started at 5:30) and one of them was doing the 10K with me at 6:30. We were able to find each other just in time and get a quick pic before the race started.

 

 

After the ladies took off, Mike went to get some pics so Tara and I headed over to meet up with the NE Spahtens that were there at the race. I only know one of them personally from Unleashed, so I said hello to her and then just kind of stood there awkwardly for a few minutes because everyone else was already kind of chatting in their little cliques. I decided I’d rather go sit in the shade than be that random girl standing there, so we sat for a bit. Eventually, another Spahten came over and sat with us that I had never met before and we hung out basically until just before the start of the 10K. We did manage to get a team picture, but it was quite the ordeal trying to squeeze everyone in for the person taking the picture (who was at a really weird angle). This was the best one that Tara could get of all the attempts she made.

 

 

We went over to line up right around 6:15-6:20. They did the National Anthem and then shortly after we were off – sort of. They started the race, but it was a good 3 minutes before I crossed the start line. This is the only pic Tara could get of me for the entire race, right after the start. I had noticed Julie and Dan standing on the left, but never saw Tara, so this is the moment I yelled out to Julie who hadn’t even seen me run by. It was all quite comical.

 

 

I’m hoping I’ll get better official race photos, because they took a bunch of them towards the end in the stadium. We even got to run through the big blow-up helmet the team runs through before a game!! I was so giddy running on the field that my favorite team runs on. SO amazing!

After the race, we found another Unleashed teammate and managed to get a finisher shot of everyone. Even the kids are Unleashed kids!

 

 

Shortly after, we all split up and went our separate ways and I tackled the beast know as “A million stairs”. I forgot how many I would have to climb after I just ran over 6 miles and I was not a happy camper! Tara, Julie and Dan thought they were hysterical and Tara made this lovely little collage to show my disappointment in these stupid stairs.

 

 

See them all?? Do you see???

 

I did pretty well overall. I was aiming at finishing under 1:30 and just barely squeaked by with 1:29:18 by my Garmin (unofficial email said 1:29:14).

 

 

This is definitely a race I would do again, but I would hope the weather would be a little more gentle on us! My gang were troopers, even though they went in the restaurant and ate while I was out there melting!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Face The Music Friday #29

Fitness this week:

Saturday – 4 hours of raking the yard

Sunday – Jamestown Bridge 10K

Monday – rest/chiro appt

Tuesday – 1 hr Unleashed OCF class

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – rest

 

So this week didn’t go exactly as I had planned. I ended up switching schedules with someone Mon/Tues/Wed while they were on a trip so I worked different hours. I’m a creature of habit and when things aren’t part of my regular routine, I get thrown out of whack. I’ve had a lot of little extra things to do this week and, along with working those different hours, I just didn’t manage to get my workouts in that I wanted. For instance, instead of the run I planned on last night, I fought with a filing cabinet and my car for 1/2 hour. By the time I got home, I’d already said screw it.

 

 

 

This weekend will be the first time I run 7 miles as part of my training plan. I’m a little nervous, but it looks like we’ll have perfect weather this weekend so I’m looking forward to it. We also have a lot going on in terms of doing stuff around the house so we’ll be moving around plenty. I’ve got more yard work to do to prep the lawn after all that raking last weekend, plus we’re going to grab some paint because Tara will be home for April vacation and she plans on repainting the office. We’re finally going to hang up my race medals on the awesome hanger that I got for Christmas so I’m really excited they can be displayed because I’ve worked damn hard for them. I can do some during and after pics because she already started taking shelving down so it’s not technically a full before picture, but you’ll get the idea.

I’m gonna keep it short this week, so straight into the music we go. I’m a big fan of Broadway and musicals in general. I love music so much and seeing it acted out just makes me love it even more sometimes. Needless to say, I watch Glee. I loved the idea of it and when it started I liked how they mixed up or mashed up songs and sometimes even made them better. The story lines are pretty weak, but I still watch because of the music. I’ve actually discovered several songs I love through watching it that I didn’t previously know.

This past week’s episode “Bash” started with this haunting Stephen Sondheim song from Into The Woods. I thought it was hauntingly beautiful and it gave me goosebumps (even listening to it again as I found the YouTube video).

No One Is Alone – Glee Cast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jamestown Bridge 10K Race Recap

Race #4 of my #14in2014 was the Jamestown Bridge 10K in Jamestown, RI on 4/6/14. I couldn’t have asked for better weather for this race. It was a bit on the chilly side, but bright, bright sunshine and only a slight breeze – perfect for running on a bridge! This race was also the polar opposite of what I had experienced the weekend before in the Run The Reservoir 5K.

The race start was at 9:00am, but we planned on getting there around 7:30 because the only parking available was along Route 1A on the street. We didn’t want to have to park a mile away and walk that far after running 6 miles – which I had never attempted before.

Luckily, Tara knew the area where we needed to go, so we got there no problem and got a really close parking spot. Once we determined we were far enough away as not to get towed or ticketed, we headed over to the Park & Ride where the tents and portapotties were set up. We just people watched for a bit and tried to stay warm. It ended up that I dressed perfectly for my run, but unfortunately I was cold the whole time leading up to the race! I really need to be better about wearing more layers I can shed, or else we need to wait in the car sometimes.

 

 

 

 

About 15 minutes out from the start, I started warming up and hit the portapotty line one more time. There was a 5K starting at the same time as us, but on the opposite side of the bridge. They had been bused over by shuttles prior to us lining up. While we were waiting to start, they didn’t make any announcements or anything so people started wondering what was going on. Then they said the 5K had started. OK, but what about us? We didn’t end up starting until almost 9:15 according to my phone. By then, I’d lost my signal on my Garmin and was having trouble getting it back. I literally got it back right as they told us to start going.

 

 

I started out feeling strong. I decided I would run as long as I felt I could (lately I’ve been doing 4 min run/2 min walk). The MC had warned us to save energy because the first mile was downhill, so don’t burn ourselves out. I took his advice to heart and just kept a slow steady pace. I didn’t stop to walk until after I’d reached a mile (about 10:30 I believe). This was where we hit the huge incline leading to the top of the bridge. I tried to jog up it a little, but I wanted to conserve my energy to run when I could on flatter ground (or downhill). Once I hit the peak, I did speed up a bit on the downhill, but still not by much because I knew I still had a ways to go.

 

I’m right not the white line in the front of that pack. In about 1 minute, all those people will pass me.

 

Once I reached the bottom of the bridge on the other side, we turned into the neighborhood portion of the run. It was really nice seeing people out on their lawns cheering us on. The volunteers did a great job with the water stops and pointing us in the right directions. This course was VERY well marked and I never had any instance where I thought I might get lost.

After a couple of miles through the town, we turned back on to the bridge for the second killer incline. I did the same thing as I did the first time – walked up to the peak, ran quickly downhill. The issue with this one was that nice downhill mile we had at the beginning was uphill for the last mile back! I ran as long and as often as I could, but I walked a substantial portion of the end of the race. I didn’t feel too bad though, because every single person in view in front of me was walking as well. It was a seriously killer ending to a very hilly race. I liked seeing Tara on the bridge overpass when I was coming in at the end. Lots of people were up there cheering either as spectators or walking back over to the food tent after finishing the race.

 

 

What I didn’t realize about this race, that Tara said she heard an announcement about before the start, was that it was a gun-timed race. I was kind of annoyed about this because I didn’t know. The bibs had timing chips on them. We also received numerous notifications that we could sign up for a website that would text real time updates about us to our friends or family. I had signed Tara up to receive texts by filling in my name and bib # and it said she was all set. I didn’t even notice when we started if there was a timing mat when we crossed, but I do remember one when we finished.

Unfortunately, I started towards the back of the pack because I’m slow and don’t want to get in the way, which means precious seconds were eaten up after the gun went off until I could start running. What sucks even more is I’m not 100% on my time because I forgot to stop BOTH my Garmin and Runkeeper app when I finished. So my “official” time is 1:20:16. I assume I probably could have been just under 1:20, but who knows. At least it’s an automatic PR since it’s my first 10K!

 

 

One last thing I have to point out is that they put out the biggest, most diverse food spread after the race. There was pizza, bagels, half a dozen different kind of little bags of chips, granola bars, cookies, peanuts and a bunch of other stuff I can’t even remember right now. I came in pretty close to the very last person and there was still TONS of food left and Tara said people were stuffing it in their coats, too. That’s pretty amazing. I’ve been to other races where I’m lucky if there is a banana left when I finish.

I would definitely recommend this race. They were highly organized, well marked and lots of super helpful volunteers directing us at every turn. I can’t say if I would do this race again because of those crazy hills, but I am a special type of crazy so I suppose I’d challenge myself to do it again just to beat my own time.

 

 

 

 

Face The Music Friday #28

Fitness this week:

Saturday – Run the Reservoir 5K race + 1.5 hour trail running “class”

 

 

 

Sunday – Rest

Monday – Chiro appointment (more about that soon)

Tuesday – PT stretches and rest

Wednesday – Short run

 

 

Thursday – 1 hour Unleashed OCF class

Friday – PT stretches and rest

 

I’m a little bit crazy, as you can tell by Saturday. My hip has really been bothering me, so I’ve been limiting my running. I could totally tell when I ran on Saturday, too.  My endurance isn’t worth anything right now. I think I walked more of that race than I ran…but I did it and didn’t feel too bad afterwards. I’ll eventually have a race recap at some point. Tara caught the cold that I’ve finally gotten rid of and didn’t want to hang around (which I don’t blame her at all!) so we headed home. It was then I realized I could make the trail running class if I left right away, so I grabbed the address of the high school that we meet at, changed into my trail shoes and took off. Let me tell you, I felt like a joke.

The people in the class were all really fit people and even some elite racers, along with a second trainer. I COULD NOT keep up. I was so winded and kept ending up at the back of the pack the entire hour and a half class. Even if I was up to my fittest last year (in terms of running endurance), I couldn’t keep up with the pace they were running. We started at the high school to “warm up” by running through the woods, then up and down repeatedly through a ravine, then over next to the stadium where we went up and down a really steep hill for 5 minutes. Then we ran over to the bleachers where we proceeded to run up and down them the entire length of bleachers (on the bleachers, not steps). Some squats thrown in for good measure, then we took off behind the bleachers running down a hill into a clearing where we did some burpees. Then “sprinted” (yeah right) back up the hill we ran down a minute ago before we headed into the real woods where we’d be running.

Very steep terrain and not so much of a “trail” is what I recall after that. Up and down lots of hills (as you can see by all the squiggles on my Garmin picture). I was ready to quit about 15 minutes in, but I figured if I couldn’t keep up, I would just walk up and down the huge hill in the middle while they ran in and out of the woods. I was wheezing at that point, which I’ve never done and could have been cold-related. I did eventually suck it up and rejoin the group, but felt bad because anytime he stopped to regroup and do a head count, they would be doing push-ups or squats or burpees while they waited for me. I still had to do some, too, but they had to do a lot more because of the waiting so I felt really bad about that.

I ended up making it through, but I seriously overtaxed my hip and have been paying for it all week. It was feeling a little better mid-week, so I decided to do that short run on Wednesday to test it out because I have my first ever 10K on Sunday!! The run felt pretty good and the pain actually went mostly away while I was running. I’m nervous about Sunday due to the huge inclines, but I’m pretty sure even with a good amount of walking I can beat the time cut-off. I have one hour to get to the “last chance” point before I’ll have to get a ride back. I think it’s totally d0-able.

On another note, I have to admit I’ve been a really bad blogger friend. I’m so overwhelmed lately I haven’t been spending as much time online. I’m trying to reset myself basically. I’ve been working on my eating this week, which is going great. Next week I’ll be adding my strength training back in, possibly more running as well, too. I need to buckle down. I only have less than 2 months until Tough Mudder! So yeah…I haven’t been reading most blogs, definitely not commenting at all and not even bothering trying to write my own. If you’re still around to read, thanks for sticking with me.  🙂

 

Since I’ll be doing a good amount of this on Sunday, I thought this song was fitting for this week.

Running Up That Hill – Placebo