Thanksgiving Runs 2017

Well I had the goal of getting this post out before the end of November. Clearly seeing as the date is December 3, I have failed. Regardless, here is our recap of our Thanksgiving runS (yes we did 2!) for this year.

One Tough Turkey 5K (Danville, VA)

First on November 18, we did the One Tough Turkey 5K in Danville, VA. This small, low-key run was held at Angler's Park, which is a place that both Alfredo and I run fairly regularly, but the route for the race is all of the hills in that one little area all at once. Hence, the TOUGH turkey. The concept of the race is interesting, too. It had no shirts, finisher awards, or entry fee. All that was required is that you donate a can of food to participate! I didn't feel ready for this just a few short days after the Outer Banks Marathon, but hey, a free 5K? Gotta do it! And to make it even better, the running store where Alfredo works was hosting the race. So of course, I ended up doing it. Even though I knew those hills would get me.

Showing off
1st place trophy!

The run started at 8:00 am, then after just a short distance, the course began up a hill. A huge hill. One that I feel like even my car struggles up. (Ok so possibly some over-dramatization. Maybe.) But regardless, the whole first half was straight up it seemed. The second half was rolling hills (rolling mountains?), which was kind of confusing. I was wondering how we went straight up hill the first half, and in the second half we had some downhill, but there was also some uphill left? Even though it was run on a loop and we were ending up exactly where we started? Whatever, it will never make sense to me, even though I have examined the elevation map. WHATEVER. Moving on, Alfredo ended up winning with a time of 18:46, and I met my goal of running the whole thing, which may seem like I set the bar kind of low, but I knew those hills would make me really want to walk. I ended up doing that and exceeding my expected finish time of 33 minutes, and I managed to surprise myself and break 30 minutes with a time of 29:56 (unofficial). And it was all for a good cause-- feeding those who need it during the holiday season!

This is what he did when he came back for me
and the photographer said "Act like it doesn't hurt!"

He's such a ham....

Gobble Wobble 5K (Auburn, GA)

The event shirt was super cute!

The second Thanksgiving run we did was in Georgia while visiting my family. We found the Gobble Wobble 5K in Auburn, GA. This one was on Thanksgiving Day, November 23. This run was only 20 minutes or so from where we were staying with family, so we didn't even have to get up super early for the 8:00 start time! We got up, ate breakfast, and were on our way. First of all, I checked the weather forecast while we were still home in Virginia, and it was saying high 40s/low 50s that morning so I packed a couple different options in case the weather changed. I packed short sleeves, long sleeves, shorts, and capris. I felt like between these articles of clothing I would be able to dress myself for a Southern, late-fall morning. I WAS WRONG. It was only 43 degrees, which doesn't sound like that much of a drastic difference, but it was very cloudy. I opted for the long sleeves and capris, and I bout near froze! Usually my fingers regain feeling after a mile or so, but fingers stayed frozen until I went to go get my big fuzzy jacket from the car!!!

Anyway, Alfredo ran this one too. He started at the front of the pack to take off on this unknown course ahead of us. The race was held in Little Mulberry Park, which was a cute little park with a paved walking trail that went up through the woods and around a pond and a lake. It was surprisingly hilly, but nothing we couldn't handle. We went up, we came down, we went up, we came down, etc etc, and we went around the various loops of the park. Alfredo came in a solid 3rd place overall with a time of 18:32. Unfortunately, this race only recognized 1st place overall, then 3 deep in age groups, so he ended up placing 1st in the 25-29 age group, which is almost better??? Great time regardless!

1st place age group medal

I ended up finishing (frozen solid) with a time of 28:04. I was pretty surprised by that time, as I was expecting closer to 29 minutes since I was still recovering from the marathon and I was recovering from a particularly hard few days at work. Would it have been nice to finish in under 28 minutes? Yeah, but I was still happy with what I was able to do! Also, I came in 5th place in my age group out of 29 people, so I was near the top! So even though I didn't place, I am still happy with that.

Me crossing the finish line (blue shirt)

Then we got to go to see my family and eat tons of delicious food at our Thanksgiving lunch! So what a great day it was, indeed!

Look we made a new friend!

Our new kitty, Norbert, didn't run any 5Ks
but he did participate in Thanksgiving
by having his own feast--
apparently he likes pumpkin??

#RWrunstreak 2017 & Danville Braves 5K

Last year between Memorial Day and the 4th of July, I had completed the Runner's World Run Streak (or the #RWrunstreak), which was just a little challenge set out by Runner's World to encourage runners to run at least 1 mile every day between the two major summer holidays. This was meant to help runners keep running through the summer. It is so hard to get motivated when spring racing is over and fall training hasn't quite started. So I needed this kick in the rear to get me into gear! Last year, Mr. Marathon did not join me due to a busy schedule. This year, we both completed the 37 days in the challenge, and then some! We both have officially (as of today) made it 70 days!!!!!!!! Let's look at the mileage:

HIM: 335.5

HER: 249.65

Danville Braves 5K

Mr. Marathon also completed a 5K during his run streak. This race was on July 15 in Danville where he works and goes to school. This race was hosted in conjunction with Danville's local minor league baseball team on a Saturday morning before the Braves played that night. Mr. Marathon has been working on speed training so he was very excited to see what he was capable of at this point. He went out racing and hit the road. His biggest competition were 2 teenage guys who were leading for most of the race. He hadn't been feeling that great, so he was having a hard time breathing, which is kind of important for running. DUH. He ended up pulling away in the last mile and one of the 2 guys was still right by his side. The course finished unfortunately on an uphill, which he was thinking that would be where he would lose the race. However, the other guy apparently had the same thought. Halfway through the hill, he wanted to slow down, but just as he was thinking that, the other guy stopped because he got light-headed (Mr. Marathon looked back to make sure he was ok!), and a course volunteer went over to help him. This gave Mr. Marathon the lead and the extra motivation to kick it and finish strong. He took 1st place overall with a time of 18:50! A great time! Even better, the overall male and female winners were given the privilege of throwing the first pitch at the Danville Braves game that night! So that was a fun experience! And he got a cool bat trophy as his award. All of this, just to find out 2 days later that he had BRONCHITIS..... for the past FOUR WEEKS. 

Back to the Run Streak

This all being said, we made it past the 37 day mark, then I wanted to go further than last year (42 days), and then we decided to just keep going until the end of my summer before I start teaching again this school year. This is the end of our intentional, official #RWrunstreak. If we keep on streaking from this point on, it will be unofficial and unintentional. We made this conscious decision because today is a very important day for me. It is Day 1 of my MARATHON TRAINING PLAN! I am now IN TRAINING for a fall marathon! I am still undecided which one. I am torn between the Richmond Marathon and the Outer Banks Marathon. They are on November 11 and 12 respectively, so my 14 week training plan kicks off today regardless. 

Pictures! 

Last year, I took a picture and posted it on Instagram every single day. This year, I tried to take a picture most days, but some days I was just not feeling it. Sometimes I took a billion pictures and hated them all at the time so I didn't post them. So here you go, you can get some inside scoop, never before seen photos of my #RWrunstreak! A picture for every day!

Days 1-25

Days 26-50

Days 51-70

Run for Kids 5K

This past Memorial Day, we traveled south to Georgia to spend time with my family that lives there, and to celebrate my grandparents 67th (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) wedding anniversary! While we were in that neck of the woods, we found a 5K to try out!

Because both of us have decided that we want to focus on shorter distances, we wanted to use this race as kind of a "baseline" race to know where our fitness level is. We arrived in Georgia kind of late on that Friday, so Saturday morning came really quickly and we were running (lol) on not a whole lot of sleep. We woke up early that morning and hit the road for the 30 minute drive to Monroe, GA for the Run for Kids 5K, which benefited the local Boys and Girls Club. It boasted being "flat and fast" so we thought How bad could it be?

It was a beautiful morning, sunny and 68 degrees. We lined up and took off at 8:00 AM sharp. We noticed pretty immediately that it wasn't as flat and fast as we had thought. The course was pretty simple though. It was just an out and back one way then an out and back the other way, and it finished in the park the same way it started. Along the way it had some, ahem, "rolling" hills. It wasn't drastic elevation change, but enough that it shouldn't be considered flat. Either way, it wasn't too bad. I overcame poor eating choices from the previous day and being overly tired from not enough sleep, and I met my goal! I know I said we wanted this to be a baseline race, but I felt trained up to get close to my current record. I managed to hover around my goal pace for all 3 miles, and then I crossed the finish line with a shiny new PR of 27:30, which means I cut off 22 seconds from my previous record that coincidentally I ran at the last 5K we did in Georgia!

Finish line shot! My time was actually 27:30 though FYI

Mr. Marathon got a good feel for how much he is able to push at this point. He was tired from lack of sleep the previous night as well, and he was tired from some tough workouts during the week before the race. He was tired and sore, but he still pushed and went all out on race morning. He was hoping for a sub 20 minute finish time, and he managed to hit his goal! He finished in 19:05, which he was very happy with. We both met our goals, but to top it all off, there was tons of pizza at the finish! Oh, and we both placed 1st in our age groups! And last, but definitely not least, we got to spend a great Memorial Day weekend with my family!

This past weekend, we traveled to Baltimore, Maryland for a 10 mile race, but we will get around to a recap for that one soon enough. For now, enjoy some more pictures from our 5K!

Last turn to the finish!

"I'mma just hang out like this while
my wife takes a pic for my Instagram"

That was a lotta pizza for such a small crowd!

1st place 25-29 F age group!

1st place 25-29 M age group!

Showing off trophies

Trophies with the event shirt

2016 Year in Review / 2017 Preview

Last year, we had a fun time reminiscing about our 2015 and making our plans for 2016 around this time. So we decided to do it again!

2016 was a tough year for plenty of people, that's no secret. It seems like there are infinite memes on the Facebook about how much 2016 sucked.

Since we are fans of MMA...
Mr. Marathon's brother is an MMA fighter!

For all the fans of Grey's, Scandal, etc. HAH!

But for us, we actually had a pretty decent year. Let's review, shall we??

Just a collage of some of our fun run-ventures of 2016!

In the winter, we traveled to Charleston in January for the Charleston Marathon (and both hit personal records!), he ran 105 miles in one week for the the What's Your Wall? challenge again, he nailed the rail and I ran it, and we got to do the Martinsville Half Marathon again. Then in spring, participated in the Blue Ridge Marathon & Star K 10K then hopped a plane to BOSTON! Then we had a really busy month of May! In the summer, I did the Runner's World Summer Run Streak (and then some!) and we got to do a new 4th of July race! Fall rolled around and he did some running and Spartan-ing, and I did some running. In November, we did our second marathon of the year and I achieved my marathon goal (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I got pneumonia that sidelined me for several weeks, and he completed his second 24-hour ultramarathon! My pneumonia also derailed my 100+ miles a month goal, but I made it November 2015-October 2016 (12 consecutive months) before I had to cut back in November and December due to doctor's orders.

Here are my monthly totals during my 100+ mile/month streak!

And now for our total running mileage from this calendar year:
HIS: 1,762.56 total miles in 2016

Hubby's "Best Nine" (most liked) pictures from Instagram in 2016

HERS: 1,122.68 total miles in 2016

My "Best Nine" from Instagram

PHEW! I'm exhausted just recapping all of this! As this year comes to a close, we realize just how much we have accomplished this year, in running as well as other aspects of our lives. Mr. Marathon is halfway through his Bachelor's degree, and I got a job teaching at a new school this past August!

We are so proud of all that we have done in 2016! In 2017, we have a few plans already in place. We will be traveling back to Boston for mister to run the Boston Marathon (4/17/17) again, and he plans to do the Blue Ridge Marathon (4/22/17). We also have plans to stay active, have fun, run a lot, exercise as much as we can, and take on other challenges/races as they come.

We wish you all a very happy new year and many happy miles in 2017!

Great Goblin Gallop 5K 2016

Flashback to October 22, 2011. It was my first 5K! I ran it in 39 minutes and I thought it was the hardest thing ever!
Fast forward 5 years later. I ran the exact same 5K on the exact same date: October 22, 2016. I ran the whole thing, and I completed it 11 minutes faster than 5 years prior (read about the other years we did this race too: 2012 and 2013). I had a great race this past weekend, and I finished in about 28:23 (according to my Garmin.... still waiting for official results). What made it even better is that almost our entire Sunday morning running group (the "Breakfast Club") showed up to race!!!! It was so much fun spending time with the Breakfast Club and supporting a local race. Unfortunately, Mr. Marathon was working that morning and couldn't be there, but the Breakfast Club (and Mr. Marathon's entire family!) showed up to race. Oh, and I placed 1st in my age group, so that was pretty groovy too!

The Breakfast Club!!!!

I started reflecting after this year's Goblin Gallop. Five years ago, it took everything I had to do 3 miles. Three miles was my long run. My weekly training was something like 2 runs a week of 2 miles or less, and I was averaging 13 minute miles, even pushing my hardest. Fast forward to present day- I am running 20-40 miles a week currently, training for the Marshall University (full!) Marathon, and my training paces are averaging around 9-10 minutes per mile for most runs. Now, this may not sound impressive to many of you, but looking back I am so proud. 5 years later, and I haven't quit. Doing something for 5 whole years without giving up, just taking some breaks and suffering from some injuries and burnout. Staying committed for 5 years to something as physically and mentally demanding as running has been quite a challenge.

So I encourage you to take a moment to reflect. How long have you been running? Has it ever seemed impossible? Do you ever take a moment to appreciate how far you've come (or gone)? Be proud of yourself. Running is hard-- believing in yourself doesn't have to be.

High fiving! 1st and 2nd place in the 25-29 age group!

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place 25-29 age group

Me with part of Mr. Marathon's family....
What a good-looking bunch!

Oh, and we are 11 days from the MARSHALL UNIVERSITY MARATHON!!!! EEEEK!

Busted Soles, Running the Vines 9.33K, Appalachian Power Festival Run 10K, and Tuff Strutter 5Kish

We have had some excitement in our run-ventures during the month of May! So this is one big post recapping all of May! So hold on and away we go...

Busted Soles

Last year, Mr. Marathon took on the Busted Soles Trail Race Series, which is a series of trail runs each Wednesday in the month of May of varying distances from 3-6 ish miles in Danville, VA. Each week was a different distance with different weather and different struggles, but each week, the first place winner was ALFREDOOOOO GARCIAAAA! He ended up winning the series overall, and then the final Wednesday night, there was a delicious potluck dinner of tons of yummy foods! Everybody won at the potluck! Even me, although I did not run in any of the races. Hah!

And they're off!

Race #3, which was about 4 miles

Last race of the series! I had to be in the pictures too!

The gang after the potluck dinner (Mr. Marathon is on the far right front row)

Running the Vines 9.33K

May 21st was supposed to be the day for me. I have been trying to get my 10K in under an hour for quite some time now. My previous PR for the 10K was 1:04:19 in 2013, and I was determined to get it under an hour. I haven't been doing many 10Ks but I had been training for a PR. I did a couple of practice 10Ks, and one day I got a 1:01, then after a couple more weeks of training, I got a practice 10K in under an hour! I was thrilled, and I knew (hoped????) I was ready. So I signed up for the Shelton Vineyards Running the Vines 10K, which we had done previously and it was actually my first 10K in 2012. Anyway, we drove over an hour to Dobson, NC to the winery to get our run on. We got ready, warmed up, and took off. Nothing was super eventful, and we started just fine. Both of us were a little confused when we got turned around a little early. Since we had run the course before, we knew where the turn around was supposed to be. Granted, Mr. Marathon was well ahead of me. But he was still equally confused, Both of us trusted the course volunteers and thought maybe they had added some mileage at the end or added an out and back somewhere along the way. But no, we were wrong. He finished with a time of 36:19 and me with a time of 55:51. But neither of us could accept these great PRs because the course was 0.4 miles short! He ended up finishing 2nd place overall though! It was great that the race organizers offered a discount for next year's race or some other local events due to the confusion, though! That was very nice of them and I do hope to do one of the races they offered, BUT I still didn't get my official 10K PR! Luckily, I remembered the Appalachian Power Festival 10K that would be held the week after. So, I signed up for that, and tackled it head on!

We both won! Hooray! psych

2nd place overall prize- a bottle of wine! Just in case we didn't WHINE enough during the race ;)

Appalachian Power Festival 10K

This race was all me. Mr. Marathon had another event coming up on Sunday the 29th, so this 10K on Saturday the 28th was all for me. We traveled north to Roanoke for me to finally (hopefully) get my PR! Today was the day! It was fairly warm (low to mid 70s) and very sunny, so that's a little uncomfortable to run in, but regardless, I was determined. I lined up at the starting line ready to go. Now, I got a little excited I guess because I started waaaayy too fast, but I managed to maintain my necessary pace for a PR for the first 4 miles. Then, the heat started getting to me. My breathing was ok, but I did have to use my inhaler, and I had my handheld water bottle with me, but the water was getting warm as well. I stopped at a water stop for some ice cold water, and kept trucking along. Because hubbs wasn't running, he was just spectating and taking pictures. He ran in with me after mile 4.8 or so. By that point, I was not feeling well. But I had managed to maintain my pace, so I knew I had to keep going despite the fact that I had 2 somewhat challenging hills remaining on the course. I kept going until I saw the finish after the final climb. I usually give an extra OOMPH at the end, but I didn't even have that in me. I saw a number starting with 5 on the clock  (it hadn't gotten to an hour yet!!!!!!), and gave what little I had left, crossing the finish line at 59:46!!! I did it! But I didn't make it much further before giving what I had left... in my stomach... on the pavement. Blech. That heat really got to me, but I managed to pull of a PR and my sub-hour 10K!!!! Hooray!

Going up the first hill of the course

Running along the Greenway

Victorious finish

We found some fellow MHC Inspire fellas from our running community!

My surprise 3rd place finish

Closeup of my bling

Tuff Strutter 5Kish

So now we talked about why Mr. Marathon did not run the 10K with me... It was because he was signed up to do the Tuff Strutter 5K(ish) the very next day. This is a great race that he did a couple of years ago. It is put on in conjunction with the music festival Rooster Walk that is held here in Martinsville and Henry County, and last year, it was moved to a new location and they didn't get to have the race. Now, before the festival and the race moved, he ran and won the race in 2014. He had heard that this year's course wasn't as hard as the previous course, which he determined after running this year's course was a lie! Or maybe it was the fact that it was raining the whole night beforehand so most of the course was nice and muddy and slick! He had his trail running legs it seemed since he had won the Busted Soles Trail Series, and so he did very well in this 5Kish (the ish is because it was closer to 3.4 miles I believe) and he won 1st place overall with a time of 23:41! 

The Tuff Strutters are off!

And he's done!

Now, we have finished out the month of May strong (despite a surprise root canal for SOMEBODY the day before the Running the Vines race), and we are taking on June. We don't have anything officially on the docket yet, but we are hoping to do a 4th of July run. Other than that, we are just going to keep on running!

Surprise root canal!

Yay!

Until next time, guys!