The Forest Hills 5K And A Commitment

I'll address my ineptitude in blogging momentarily. For now, here's a re-cap of my latest 5K adventure.

The Forest Hills 5K was this past Saturday. It benefits the schools I grew up in and runs through the 'burbs instead of the dirty, nasty streets of downtown Cincinnati like so many other races do.

Finishing time: 41:12

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

(Click on the collages to see a larger view.)


A few shots before it started. It was before 8:30 and already steamy hot. It was one of the first hot runs of the year and definitely the first hot race. Hello sweaty head!


Some signs, some firefighters (big and small) and me at the halfway point. I stopped running shortly after this because the course went back uphill. Oh yeah, this course was surprisingly hilly. Yikes! And I've lost my ability to run 3 miles without stopping. I can force 2 miles uncomfortably, but 3 alludes me once again. Turns out I reached my distance peak right before the Emerald Miles back in March (read the post here). Go figure.




Finish line photos. Check out the top left corner shot...I totally look like a runner there! That stupid Bengals mascot was all up in my grill, yo. Had to get around him.


Me and my photographer, my mom. The pile o' donuts at the finish line (along with bagels, water and bananas), me offering the donut to my mom, and some browsing after the finish. Ah the joys of freebies after a race! =)


The race also featured a mascot race. A mascot for each of the 9 local schools (6 elementary, 1 middle, 2 high schools) and some other local organizations like businesses and college and professional sports mascots. My high school track coach (the bee below) won the race last year and took the prize again this year. Go coach!


Me with the mascots. A picture with the organizations from which I matriculated, plus two. Clockwise from top left: Mercer Golden Eagle, Cincinnati Bengal, Xavier Musketeer, Ayer/Summit Bee (can't remember, didn't go there; my high school track coach), Turpin Spartan, Kroger Bagster.

This is the professional picture, taken by Cincy Sports Photos.

After the race-day events, I got some time to rest, get un-sweaty, and get dolled up to go to a wonderful wedding. One of my best high school friends, Anne, put on a beautiful event. It was so great to see her wedding come to fruition after so much planning and it was REALLY great to see all my friends (and a handful of parents) in one place. Here's a collage:




So, about my blogging slackertude. I'm going to remedy this.

Here's what's happened. Running, as I've said before, has become a full-on part of my life--pretty much un-spectacular. I forget to blog about it because of that, but I don't want to stop. I still love keeping you all up to date, and I definitely need the accountability to keep me going. You all have been so helpful until this point and I need your help.

So this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to post. I'm going to post after every workout. It might be one sentence, two sentence, 8 paragraphs, 3 pages. Seriously. If I go out and run a ho-hum 2 miles or a crappy 1 mile, you're getting an update. It'll likely be from my phone and will likely be boring. But I'm going to do it.

Don't worry, I'm going to continue to do my classic over-long posts with pictures and such, but because they seem to be happening fewer and farther between, I need to do something else.

So there it is. My plan. Is that okay? I hope so, because I'm doing it anyway.

So, news:

• I got a new job! Big change. Big, BIG change. I'm scared and excited and scared. It starts on June 7.
  
• I start boot camp on June 6. I'm scared and excited and scared about this too. But I've been noticing my arms getting flabbier and fatter lately, so Imma need this.
• I'm doing the Redlegs Run for Home 5K again! This was my first 5K last year, so I'm excited to return to the scene of the crime to see how I fare. This day also marks the 1-year anniversary of my "road racing career." Woooo! (Last year's post.)
  
• My post-Pig toenails are still in less-than-stellar shape. I didn't lose them, but I still think that would have been easier. The big toe nails are still...um...oozing. Goodness. But I finished the antibiotic and I've been keeping them clean, so yeah...good stuff.

Alright, that's all I've got. I guess you'll be hearing from me tomorrow since I plan on running then. Wheee! What's up with you all? How's the running going?

Emerald Miles: Full Recap

So I had a bit of a goal going into this race. Blech. Goals. You know how I feel about those. I didn't make this one for myself, though. I kind of adopted it from Caitlin. I wanted to run the whole stinkin' thing.

Since she and I had a great 3.1-mile run two weeks ago, I knew we had a pretty good chance of making it happen.

So anyway, backing up a bit ...

I had some buddies in this run. Caitlin, of course. This was her first 5K and the one she wanted to complete before her birthday later this month. Matt also jumped on the bandwagon.

Caitlin in her first race T-shirt and race bib. YAY!

The three of us before the race. (Thanks for the pictures!)

We couldn't have asked for a better mid-March day to run the first race of the season. It was warm enough to leave the gloves, fleece vest, and ear-covering headband in the car. The sky was completely clear and the sun was shining.

The starting line at the start of the Purple People Bridge in Newport, Kentucky.

We found out mid last week that the mighty Ohio had overrun its banks so much that our race route was underwater. During packet pick up on Thursday, they assured us that there was a new path and that it was flatter than the old one (YAY!) Unfortunately, it wasn't all that much flatter. There was still a monster hill to climb during the last half mile of the run. Slow and long. Whew.

So yeah, unfortunately that hill had me pretty much convinced from the beginning that I wasn't going to be able to run the whole time. I'm wicked bad on hills, which should make the Pig really fun. I walked for a total of maybe 1:30 to 2 minutes in three different places. Two of those were really brief, one (on the hill) was much longer. I stayed in front of Caitlin until the hill up to the bridge where, as I predicted, she kicked my butt and got a nice distance ahead of me. Go girl!

As I finally got to the top of the hill (the middle of the Purple People Bridge), I could see the finish line and REALLY wanted to sprint to the finish. Yeah, turns out it was a bit further away than I thought. That was the hardest I've worked during a finishing stretch yet. My body just did not want to go any faster and I couldn't catch up with Caitlin.

Caitlin finishing. I'm in the white long-sleeved T-shirt over her right shoulder.

All in all, I'm pleased with myself. I set a new PR and I ran more than I could have dreamed I would at my last 5K. Very cool!

Me, post-run and post-post-run-snack, quite content to be sitting and leaving a monster butt print on the pavement.

Somehow they captured our finishing times and pace without timing chips. Someone will have to explain that to me. Anyway, here's the screen shot of mine and Caitlin's finishing times. Matt, the newest runner of the three of us, came in around 33 minutes (WOOHOO!) and kicked both of our butts.

There we are!

The good news is I won't be running another 5K until mid-May (Forest Hills 5K). That will be after a 10K, after a half marathon, and after completing another 4-week session of boot camp. I should be hot to trot! (Oh yeah, looks like Caitlin and I are doing the Rat Race 10K. Yikes again!)

And to wrap up, here's our group post-race picture.

Great job you two!