2009 Seven Bridges Season Starters 10 Mile

Seven Bridges Season Starters 10 Mile
Woodridge, IL
May 3, 2009

Last Sunday I ran the Seven Bridges Season Starters 10 Mile race, a well-organized, small CARA race that I’ll definitely run again…especially since it’s now home to my 10-mile PR! For this race, my goal was to have something to aim for in between the March Madness Half, which was back in mid-March, and the Elgin Valley Fox Trot 10 mile on Memorial Day. I wasn’t expecting a PR, which was last set at 2006’s Park Forest Scenic 10 (1:35:48), but I was hoping to get under 1:40. I thought this was pretty doable, in spite of a bad 9 mile long run the previous weekend (on Saturday) at Poplar Creek. That day it was warm, so I was hoping my lack of warm weather acclimatization was at fault.

The day before the race I was feeling a little nervous and excited. Brian and I had fun with my dad and his girlfriend talking about our upcoming cruise vacation in a couple of weeks and ate a prime pre-race meal of pizza followed by cake and ice cream. Perfect! We got home early and were able to get to bed early, too. Unfortunately it wasn’t the best night of sleep…I actually had a nightmare that King Kong was standing over our house trying to get into our bedroom, through the window. He ended up getting into our attic and was trying to stick his arm through the attic hatch in my closet…weird dream!

Luckily the sound of the 5:30am alarm interrupted the King Kong attack. I got up, feeling pretty rested. I was glad that the day was sunny and supposed to be in the 50’s for the race. Brian and I got to the race start pretty early, which allowed for us to take our time getting my race packet, which was a nice reusable bag, tech shirt, water bottle, and about a million flyers from sponsors and other races. I made an early stop at the portajohns and picked the wobbliest one on the end…I seriously thought King Kong from my dreams came to knock it over (ugh!). All of them were in a row, butted up against the curb which caused them to tilt forward a little bit. Ironically enough, while waiting in line for a final pit stop, the same exact one (out of the 10 that were there) freed up for me to use. Lucky odds. ;-)

After warming up a little, we headed to the start of the race. With a little over 150 people for the 10 mile race (5k race started 15 minutes later), it was a pretty laid-back start.

Start line

My strategy was to start the first 2-3 miles at 10:00-10:15 pace and then try to go under 10:00 pace for the rest of the miles. My March Madness Half Marathon average page was 9:42, so I figured I could run 9:30-9:45. The first mile went by pretty fast, and my legs felt pretty good, which is rare since it usually takes me a couple of miles for my legs to warm up. I looked at my watch and it said 9:27. Woah! A bit faster than I expected but the pace felt ok so I decided to continue at that level. The first part of the course is on paved streets, which leads to the Greene Valley Forest Preserve trails, where most of the race was held. Brian was at the trail entrance, cheering me on and taking pictures. I didn’t expect to see him at that point, but it was a nice surprise!

The trail was a nicely groomed, wide crushed limestone trail and with the smaller number of participants, I didn’t have any issue with crowding, which was nice. I was able to maintain my pace and passed by mile 2 in 9:26, wow! I felt great and was really enjoying the trail, which was relatively flat and curvy during this segment. I cut the tangents as often as possible, in full-on racecar mode. ;-) I saw the omnipresent Brian again when I got back onto Greene Road and then to the trail on the other side of the street. This section had a couple of nice hills, but it didn’t seem to affect my pace too much as Mile 3 and 4 were 9:31 and 9:40. I was actually passing people here and there, enjoying the sunny day on the prairie trail. The volunteers at some of the trail junctions were the only spectators, but they were great and cheered us on. Mile 5 was a beautiful wooded section and mostly downhill. At the marker, Brian was there again, happy to see me hit the halfway at 47:07 with a split of 9:02! I still felt good and while this pace was pretty speedy for me, I felt I could hold it. I figured that even if I had to slow down in the last couple of miles, I would still make it under 1:40.

Mile 5

The course then led back to Greene Road for about a mile. I didn’t mind because the view was surprisingly pretty, looking toward Greene Hill, which is actually a former landfill. I think I’ll come back here and actually run up and down the hill (I think it’s maybe 300-400 ft high?) for TransRockies training -- there’s a road with a scenic overlook at the top. This was a nice downhill mile and I passed mile 6 in 9:10. From Greene Road we hopped back onto another part of the trail, and there were more rolling hills on this segment. I was thinking how well this day was going and how much I was enjoying this course. Brian, super spectator, was standing near mile 7, which was a 9:30 split, and he ran with me to get back to the car and cheered me on for the next mile or so, being the encouraging, wonderful boyfriend that he is. :-) I was definitely in the zone by then, trying to maintain pace, feeling really excited that barring any issues, I was on my way to not only sub 1:40, but a PR!

Just past mile 7

My mile 8 split was 9:17 (still holding!), and then shortly afterward Brian wished me well and told me he’d see me at the finish. Less than two miles to go! Mile 9 was pretty flat and curvy, my stomach was a little upset, maybe because I was nervous and excited about how well things were going, and my split was 9:23. Now we were back on the road and a nice downhill, I kept pushing, passing a couple more people before turning onto the final stretch, a little over half mile left! Ugh, keep pushing! I was starting to feel a little nauseous, but focused my attention to my legs, willing them to go faster…I passed a guy and then set my sights on a man and woman running together who were ahead of me. I pushed a little harder, and moved past them with less than a minute to go, ahhh, the finish line, Brian cheering, keep pushing! Then a few steps before the finish, I began to retch and nearly gave up my pre-race bagel to the pavement, but luckily the feeling passed and then I crossed the finish line. Whew! Last mile was 8:56, total time…1:33:23!! A new PR by over 2 minutes!! I walked through the chute, hunched over, out of breath, but SOOOO happy that I ran a great race. What an awesome feeling!

Heading for the finish

We hung out a little bit afterward and then headed home, stopping on the way to have breakfast, which was excellent. All in all, a great morning! After we got home, instead of taking the obligatory post-race nap, I had a date with my friend Christie to go rollerblading at Busse Woods. We ended up going for a leisurely 8 miles. In spite of racing hard in the morning, the rollerblading felt good and it was fun to be outside in the nice spring weather. Then later, I finally took my post-race nap. No dreams about King Kong attacks this time! ;-)

Brian's Photos:


Brian's Blog Post

Mile Splits and Course Map from my RunningAhead Log

Race Website

Results

Nike's Believe in the Run Contest - Vote for Janeth!

A good friend and runner, Janeth Salazar-Ohst, and her friend, Wendy, made a video for Nike's Believe in the Run contest. This well-made and inspirational video shows us what it means to be runner among all the other life roles -- woman, daughter, sister, wife, mother...it gave me chills watching it. If you like it, too, please vote! You can vote every day until April 28. As of today, April 23, the video is ranked 9th!

Update - April 25 - Janeth and Wendy's entry is now 5th overall, 1st video, and most viral video!!! KEEP THOSE VOTES COMING!

BELIEVE IN THE RUN Sponsored by Visit NIKE USA

Save this link in your bookmarks and vote every day if you can!

Vote for Janeth - "The Run has always been in me"

Brian featured in "Road Killers" ultramarathon article

Brian was featured in a good ultramarathon article called "Road Killers" that was published in the Chicago RedEye today. While I'm not an ultramarathoner myself, I can definitely appreciate why people do run them. It's the same reason why I run (one of many). It's all relative -- 5k, 10 mile, marathon, 150 mile, though things do get a bit more involved the higher up the mileage scale you go. :-)

I love the ultramarathon scene, especially its laid-back atmosphere. The ultrapeople just rock. There's a lot of camaraderie even though it's an individual sport. I have a blast crewing Brian and cheering for people at these races. I look forward to doing that next week at the McNaughton Park Trail Runs, where Brian is running the 50 mile (there's also a 100 mile and 150 mile race). Party time!


The picture from the article was taken right before last Sunday's Shamrock Shuffle 8k. The photographer was definitely a trooper for following us around in the blizzard-like conditions before the race.

As I was freezing from standing outside in the snow for so long before the race, I thought about ultras that Brian has run...if he can survive those, I can certainly survive only 5 miles in slush with numb feet!

Photo taken by Russ Foster right before the start of the Shamrock "Shushle" 8k

Check out Brian's blog posting about the article:

Brian's Blog Post

Who knows? Maybe I'll join the ranks at some point...though I suppose the TransRockies Run (113 miles in 6 days) that Brian and I will be running together in August sorta qualifies, doesn't it? :-)

2009 Running Goals

It's already March, but I think it's better late than never to make an official 2009 Goals blog posting. It also gives me a reason to actually post to my blog! After a fun time at the Milwaukee Marathon, I got a bit lazy in November, and even lazier in December. Luckily I bounced back a little in January, but this winter had really zapped my motivation, so I was still slacking on my training. As February started, being that it's a short month and still in the dead of winter, I decided to run every day of the month. In the nearly 13 years I've been running, I have never done a "running streak" before. I think I have only run about 5-6 days in a row, so this would definitely be a challenge. The rules were that I needed to run at least 2 miles each day and that if I ever felt any pain other than sore muscles that I would stop the streak, knowing that it's just plain dumb to get injured doing this when I have other, bigger goals this year!

I am happy to report that I was able to complete my 28-day February running streak and impressed with how my body held up. Yay!


It involved a lot of treadmill running (I have turned into a winter wimp), but also a fun week of trail running in Arizona. I liked that I dismissed any excuse I've had in the past and just RAN. After all, 2 miles -- 20 minutes -- is not that much of a commitment. I am so glad I did it!

Now it's time to resume a normal training schedule and incorporate more formal, quality workouts. I have the March Madness Half Marathon coming up in a couple of weeks. While I don't expect a PR, I now feel prepared for it. This month I'd like to just run consistently (not that hard now that I ran every day last month!), lose 5 lbs, and try for a new 8k PR at the Shamrock Shuffle at the end of the month. It will be crowded and I unfortunately don't have a seeded number in the first wave this year, but I am in "Corral D" of the second wave, so hopefully I will be able to maintain my goal pace. We'll see!

Here is what the rest of the year looks like so far:

May 25 - Elgin Valley Fox Trot 10 Mile
I just love this race. This will be the 7th time I've run it. It's too early to tell if I will be able to PR here. By then I will have started a new training schedule so this may just be more for training and fun purposes.

June 12-13 - Madison to Chicago Relay
It was such a fun race last year, I am sure this year will be as fun! Hopefully without massive downpours and tornado warnings. ;-) Last year I ran 10-11 mpm average. I am hoping this year to run 9-10 mpm.

July 9 - Bastille Day 5k
Maybe a 5k PR? This race is sponsored by my company -- I organize a corporate team. Hopefully the weather will be better than it was last year and that the course is marked properly (2007 was .2mi short and it would have been a PR for me).

August 23-28 - TransRockies Run
This is the BIG ONE of this year...it's the BIG ONE of my 13 years of running! It is a 6-day stage race -- running in the mountains anywhere from 12-25 miles each day, from Buena Vista, CO, to Beaver Creek, CO, for a total of 113 miles(!!!). Brian and I will be running this together as Team New Leaf Ultra. We start training in May. I am excited and a little terrified at the same time... :-) After running marathons almost every year for the last 12 years, now is as good of a time as any to up the ante a bit!

October 11 - Chicago Marathon
I should be recovered from TransRockies to run well at Chicago. Running Chicago is always a party (well, maybe not Heathathon 2007...), I figured, why not? After all the TransRockies training, maybe I'll PR!

There may be other races I decide to do, but that's all for now. Aside from that, I'll continue having a blast crewing Brian at his races this year, I just love the trail ultra scene. :-)

Here's to a fun 2009!

2008 Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon

Lakefront Marathon
Milwaukee, WI
October 5, 2008

I ran the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee last Sunday, which was my 11th marathon finish. I wasn’t expecting to have a PR race this year as my training hasn’t been the best, but I was thinking that I could realistically get sub-4:45 or definitely under 5:00. I also wanted to enjoy myself and experience a new marathon course considering that this was the first time I have run this marathon.

On Saturday, Brian and I showed up at the expo and picked up our race packets. The expo was fairly small, though probably typical for this size of marathon, which is limited to about 2700 participants. After that we headed to our hotel to drop off our stuff before heading out again to have an early dinner. The first restaurant we tried was right across the street from the official marathon hotel, so there was already a long wait. Not wanting to stand around for very long, we decided to walk around and find something else. We settled on going to a Rock Bottom Brewery, which we assumed would have some good pre-race carbo-loading dinner options. After a very filling meal, we got back to our hotel and I ended up having a great night of sleep in spite of pre-race nerves.

The alarm went off at 5am and then Brian and I got ready and left our hotel at 6am to drive to the finish. Since this marathon is a point-to-point course, there were shuttle buses for runners to take to the start, which was at Grafton High School. We got onto a bus at about 6:30am, and were wondering whether our bus driver actually knew where she was going. Luckily those toward the front of the bus helped her, along with a radio call to verify our destination. After some confusion once we finally got to the high school, and we were able to stay within the warm confines of the school to await the start and do any last-minute preparations.

The rain that had been forecast was not present – yay! It its place was a beautiful sunny sky and the temps perfectly in the upper 40’s – ideal running conditions. With about 10 minutes before the start, we lined up in between the 4.5 and 5 hour expected finish time signs.

After listening to the national anthem being sung and a tribute to fallen runners by the race director, the gun went off to begin the race.

It only took Brian and me a little over a minute to cross the start line. I brought my camera with me and planned on taking pictures and video during the race. As for race strategy, I wanted to stay within a 10:30-11:00mpm pace for the first half, and then see what I could do in the second half. I wasn’t sure if Brian would be running with me the whole time, but we agreed at the start to run at least the first few miles together.

The first several miles of the course are run on rural roads with farms and a house here and there. It was rolling but not too challenging. Running with Brian made the time go by really fast. The last time we ran a marathon together was the Chicago Marathon last year, the “Heatathon” that zapped me both physically and mentally. This was a much happier, more laid-back experience.

My legs were actually feeling a bit heavy closing in on the halfway point, and I told Brian that I didn’t think I was going to speed up any faster at this point. I also told him to go ahead if he felt good, and that I would meet him at the finish. As we passed the halfway point, though, he decided that he wanted to stay with me and help me achieve my goal. We ran the first half in 2:19, so I felt that sub-4:45 was still within reach.

The miles were going by pretty well for me even as the course became more rolling. Then Brian said that his stomach wasn’t feeling very well at about mile 14-15. As we approached the aid station near mile 16, he said he was going to make a pit stop and that he would catch up with me. I decided to walk until he did. At this point fellow ChiADead Paul caught up to me and we chatted a little bit. A minute or two later around mile 17, Brian caught up and then we were off running again. Brian’s stomach felt better, but now the effort of continuous running on pavement was starting to take its toll on his legs. He has mostly done trail ultras which is different training than running a road marathon. I myself felt pretty good in spite of a little leg stiffness, so I tried to keep a steady pace. So now it seemed like the roles were reversed…that I was pulling Brian along. He told me to go on ahead if I wanted, but I said that I wanted to run this race with him. I was having fun and since it wasn’t going to be a PR race for me, I wanted to experience the joy of finishing a marathon together with him.

The miles continued to go by, and then we were running in a really beautiful section of Milwaukee right near the lakefront. The sprawling historic homes were a treat to look at, for sure. As we passed Mile 22, I was doing the math in my head and realized that we had about 50 minutes or so to finish the last 4.2 miles to get under 5 hours. I didn’t tell Brian that at the time, I just tried to keep us running a decent pace. After we passed Mile 23, I did tell him that we had about 39 minutes to run the last 3.2 miles to get under the 5 hour mark, which was still very doable. It gave us something to aim for and to keep going in spite of seeing a lot of people around us walking a bit here and there (it can be infectious :-)).

There was a nice downhill around Mile 23-24, so Brian says “time to take advantage of some free speed!” and barrels down the hill leaving me to eat his dust. ;-) Even a nice downhill won’t make my legs much faster than they were already going.

After the hill it is mostly flat until the finish, and I was able to catch up. Now we were contending with some lakefront breezes which didn’t matter much because we were almost finished! I was getting excited about being able to hold hands with Brian, crossing the finish line together. :-)

Right after we passed by Mile 25, I nearly did a face plant after tripping over a curb as I was crossing the street. I think I was a little distracted after taking the last picture with my camera, not to mention that I was probably dragging my feet a little bit at this point. ;-) I took two huge, leg-straining steps to prevent my fall…OUCH. That got my heart rate up a bit! We continue on, getting closer and closer to the finish area. The Mile 26 sign was now visible…wow, only a few minutes left! I took some more pictures and video and then put it away so that we could focus on the finishing stretch.

We clasped our hands together with about 10 feet to go and stretched them in victory to cross the finish line! Awesome! Our final time was 4:58, which I was really happy about. It’s one of my slower marathons, but one of the most enjoyable. I am so glad that I was able to run this race with Brian. We helped each other make this a great experience.

After some post-race photos and food, we started to head back to the car. As we were walking back, it started to lightly rain, which turned into more of a moderate rain once we got in the car. I’m so glad the rain waited until we were finished. :-) On the way home we indulged in some post-marathon pizza and then of course, a post-marathon nap. The best way to cap off what was an awesome Sunday!

Brian's Report is here

Links:
Race Website
Race Profile Map

Results:
Overall Race Results
Kelly and Brian

Photos:
Link to Photos