Blossom Time Run 2019

I have lived within 30 minutes (or less) of Chagrin Falls my entire life (well, aside from when I was away at college); and I have never done the Blossom Time Run. I have heard horror stories about how hard this course is and since it's always on Memorial Day weekend and a late start (9AM), I've never really been tempted. I usually have some other excuse like being on vacation or something, but this year, I decided, would be the year to try it.

Living Lean always participates in Blossom Time weekend by spectating for the race (and several members participate in the race) and then being part of the parade as well. I wasn't able to join in on the fun last year because we were at Disney, but I was excited to do it this year. A bunch of us met at Mark's house in the morning and the people doing the race walked to the start in time for the 9 AM start. 

The race is 5.25 miles long and the course is as brutal as everyone says it is. I was hoping the rain might hold off, but about 3 minutes after the race started the rain started......and it didn't stop until the race was done. The rain didn't really bother me because it definitely helped with what could have been a horribly hot and sticky race. I decided to set my watch for 3/30 intervals (so 3 min run, 30 sec walk). I figured since I rarely used my entire minute walk breaks during the 10k last weekend that I'd be OK. There were a couple of times that I actually ran through my walk break because it was a much coveted downhill and I didn't want to waste walking then! I did walk for a little longer than my 30 second walk break a couple of times because the hills were definitely killer by the end. 

It was so fun to run past all the Living Leaners right around the 5 mile mark. I knew I was almost done and they gave me that last boost I needed. I was also quite happy because according to my Garmin I was going to finish this race with an average pace that was UNDER a 12 minute/mile!! I was right. I crossed the finish line at 1:01:23, which amounts to a 11:42 m/m! WHAT?!?! Even though it was raining the weather was better than last week, but it was definitely hillier than last week so the fact that I was that much faster made me so very happy! 

I love this picture that Leslie caught of me. After the race I walked back to Mark's house and met up with the other Living Leaners who had either spectated or raced. I was obviously happy to be done and was proud of myself for what I had accomplished. I was soaked,  but felt really good! 

Later that day I got to be on the float for the parade and had a blast doing that as well. It rained again during the parade, but it didn't take anything away from the experience. I definitely look forward to doing it again next year.....and of course you know I'll be looking for a new PR on that course! 

2019 Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon - 10K Race Report

Writing race reports again never gets old. I continue to feel lucky and blessed that I am healthy enough to be back to doing the things that I love. It's kind of appropriate that yesterday was also World IBD Day. I love that I was spending World IBD Day running a 10k instead of sick in my bed or in the hospital fighting a bad flare up of my Crohn's.

On Friday my sister in law and I headed downtown to pick up our packets for the 10k. The picture to the right was kind of funny. My SIL decided to take a picture of terminal tower to send to some of her friends on snapchat. I couldn't tell if she was taking a picture of terminal tower or if she was taking a selfie so I was just kind of standing there waiting for her. She then said, you can be in it; so I did a quick little silly pose. She sent it to her friends and everyone was commenting back with how good I looked. It definitely made me feel great and I decided it was a super cute pic!

Sunday morning we headed downtown around 5:30 AM and we were there in plenty of time. It's funny how things have changed over the years. The race information said you should be heading to your corral by 6 AM (for a 7 AM start). In the past we would have been standing in those corrals for that hour. Yesterday we got there right around 6, but we sat in the car for a little bit; then we went into Tower City to use a regular bathroom; eventually we were heading to our corral and it was probably about 6:45.

It was definitely crowded again. I have to say that the start was a little disappointing as compared to previous years. Usually they will do the National Anthem and even being in the last corral you can hear it. If they did it yesterday I did not hear it. In the past I could also usually hear the starting horn, but not this year. I did see some smoke up at the start line and then we gradually started moving, but it was very anti-climatic.

Last year I was able to get a new 10k PR, but the weather was significantly different and I wasn't really sure where that PR came from! I was surprised that I ran as fast as I did last year so I wasn't really sure if hoping for a PR yesterday was realistic. I told SIL my hopes of getting another PR and told her what time I needed to beat in order to get that PR. She was awesome in helping to push me to get that PR! The fact that I was able to run my fastest 10k in the heat yesterday is absolutely amazing to me. I can't even imagine what I might have been able to do if the weather was more similar to last year.

The heat definitely made it a tough race,  but I was able to push through way easier than I ever have before. I can still remember in 2012 when the weather was pretty similar to yesterday. I was doing the half marathon that year and probably weighed 30+ pounds more than I do now. That race ended up being my 2nd slowest half marathon and I was totally miserable the entire time. I would not describe myself as miserable at all yesterday. Hot? Yes. Tired? Sure. But not miserable.

Determined. Confident. Happy. Those are better words to describe how I was feeling yesterday.

I had my watch set for the 3/1 intervals I have been doing (outside, I've been running with no walk breaks on the treadmill). By the end of the race I think I only used that full minute walk break twice. The first walk break I decided to just run through because it was still very crowded and we were kind of forced to run at a slightly slower pace than I usually run. I decided that since the crowd was helping me to pace slower I could probably maintain that pace for a little longer before needing a walk break. The next walk break I walked and commented that 1 minute is really a long time. Margie and I decided at that point that I wouldn't necessarily use the entire minute walk break next time and I would just walk long enough to get my heart rate down a little and recover my breathing.

Cleveland 10k selfie comparison from 2018 to 2019. 

Throughout the race if we were running downhill and my watch beeped to walk I would ignore it. I would then try to keep running until my next walk break, which I did. There was even one time when we were approaching the horrible hill between miles 4 and 5 when I confused Margie because the incline had started but we were still running (more like shuffling, but not walking). I told her I was trying to run as long as I could because I knew the hill got worse a little farther up and I knew I'd have to walk that part of it. And when we were on that hill I did not see a single person running.

Our watches were obviously a little off from the mile markers so Margie's had already alerted her that we hit mile 5, but I wasn't even able to see the mile 5 marker yet. It was funny because she was pointing out that we had about 15 minutes to finish the last 1.2 in order to meet my goal, but I pointed out that we didn't really know how much farther since our watches were not in line with the official course. It didn't really matter though. I knew we were close and I knew that IF I got the PR it was going to be very close. I knew that I had basically no wiggle room. I couldn't be taking extra walk breaks and I needed to push it on my runs.

I did just that. I ran through several of my walk breaks during that last 1.2 miles. When I could see the finish line I was trying very hard to find that final push inside me. It took a while, but when we were in that very final stretch I was able to kick it in and push to the finish. I was pretty positive when I saw the clock that I had met my goal.

I continue to feel lucky to be healthy enough to do these races. When I read stories like the one about the 22 year old who collapsed yesterday and later died, that feeling of luck becomes even stronger. Yesterday's weather was no joke. The fact that I was not only able to just complete my race, but to do it in my fastest time yet is amazing to me. I don't take any of this for granted.

Not a PR for SIL, but I SO appreciate her pushing me to my PR! 

Official results = 6.2 miles in 1:14:57, that amounts to about a 12:03 m/m. You know what that means? My next 10k goal will be to complete the race with an average pace that's less than a 12 m/m! I do remember that last year I commented that one of the best things was that I felt like I could have kept going. That wasn't the case yesterday, but if we take away that heat who knows what I could have accomplished!

2018 Rite Aid Cleveland 10K - Race Report

Day 49/55

Oh how I love writing race reports! They might be boring for you to read, but it means that I'm healthy enough to be out there running and that never gets old.

Last year the Hot Chocolate 15K was the first "big" race my mom ever participated in. Although she doesn't think she'll ever do that distance again, she was willing to try her hand at a 10K. I have done the Cleveland HALF Marathon 3 times ('11, '12, '17), and since I'm back to running I'd like to keep participating in the event in some capacity. I decided that rather than pushing myself back to the half marathon distance I would do the 10K this year. I remember deciding in 2012 that I really liked the 10K distance. It's long enough to still challenge yourself without being so long you feel like you're going to die at the end. Don't get me wrong though, there will be more half's and hopefully at least one more full in my lifetime!

Getting cold and wet waiting for the start. 

My mom and I decided it would be best to go to the race together so she wouldn't have to navigate downtown on race morning by herself. Not that she couldn't do it or anything, but I know she tends to get stressed about that stuff. 😉I went to her house on Saturday evening to spend the night so we could go to the race together on Sunday morning. It was nice spending a child-less evening with my parents. We stayed up entirely too late watching the majority of the Cavs game.

This morning came quickly and before I knew it I was back downtown to start another race. As we were driving into the city it started misting, which turned into convincing raindrops by the time we parked the car. So much for partly cloudy and no rain! We thought we were going to be able to stay dry until the start of the race because last year they let us into the Q arena prior to the race. That did not appear to be the case this year and we were already quite wet from walking to the start from our parking spot anyway. So we just stood in the rain for the next 15+ minutes waiting for the start of the race.

This race felt more crowded than last year. I was surprised at how long the 10Ker's stayed with the half and full marathoners. We were on the same course until right around mile 5 and then we hooked back up with them before mile 6. It was kind of strange, but kind of cool at the same time. When the 10K went straight and everyone else turned left I thought we'd be on our own until basically the last .2 or so (since everyone finishes in the same place). Pretty soon after we broke off, our course took us on a right turn and all of the sudden we had hooked back up with the very speedy half and full marathoners. The mile marker I saw for them at this point was mile 9....and we were at less than 6. In some ways I didn't think this was a great way to do the course because you have the very fast runners meeting up with the middle to the back of the packers for the 10K. It seemed to be OK though since at this point the faster runners could stay over to the left.

Anyway, I was shocked at how crowded the race stayed. It's hard to tell in this picture because it was so dreary, but this was during mile 4 and it was still quite crowded.

I felt good during this entire race. It almost felt easy - until that horribly annoying hill between miles 4 and 5 (just like last year). That slowed me down quite a bit, but I was able to bounce back to my faster pace when that hill was finally done. I have been doing 90 second/30 second intervals and I was able to keep my intervals the entire time. Actually, there were even a couple of times that we ran through our walk breaks because it was a nice downhill and we wanted to take advantage.

Again, you have the difference between what my Garmin says I did and what the official results show. According to my Garmin I covered 6.37 miles in 1:16:11, which amounts to an overall pace of 11:57 minute/mile!!! The official results were 6.2 miles in 1:15:56, which is a 12:15 m/m and officially beats my previous personal record of 1:17:51! And the best part? I really feel like I could have kept going.

And now 6 more days to work on my goals before our awesome vacation!

And this is what happens to my hair after 6.2 wet miles! 

FRIDAY Weigh In & Packet Pick Up!

I did decide to change my "official" weigh in day to Fridays. It really doesn't matter what my official weigh in day is when I'm weighing myself every day; but there has to be a day that I update my weight in the WW app. I went through the app and actually changed all my official weigh-in's to Friday from the time I started. It's kind of cool because now it shows that I have consistently lost weight every week for the last 7 weeks. Some of those were big losses, and some of them were small; but 7 weeks of my weight going down is awesome! And frankly, in the 13 weeks that I've been doing WW my weight went up once and maintained once. Every other week has been a loss.

I was slightly nervous that after changing my official weigh-in, this would be the first Friday in 7 weeks that I went up. I mean, I ate a lot on Saturday and Sunday last weekend so I wouldn't really be able to be mad if I was up today from last Friday. But I wasn't! I was down .6 from last Friday. That means I'm at my lowest weight yet (since probably 2007). Today's weight was 193.2. I have one more week before our Disney vacation. I know I can lose 3.2 in one week because I've done it before; but I'm not sure that I will and I'm totally OK with that. I am pretty confident that I'll be down again (even if it's just another half pound) and that will still be lower than I ever thought I'd be for our trip. I can't wait to add to this comparison pic from our last 2 trips. What's even better is that I cannot wear that tank this trip because it's just way too big!

Moving on to the next topic at hand; the packet pick up. This weekend is the 41st Cleveland Marathon. I have done the half marathon distance of this event 3 times (2011, 2012 and 2017). On Sunday my mom and I are going to be completing the 10K together. This will be my 3rd stand alone 10K and I'm kind of looking for a PR (because, really, I always am); but I'm not feeling confident that will happen so that's OK. One thing that I am super excited about is the fact that I will be the lightest I have ever been when racing. Let that sink in for a minute. Click on my races tab and check out how many races I've completed since 2007.  I'll tell you - 25.

Ok. I just realized that maybe I was lying about that because I did get down to about 190 in 2007. So, I looked it up and I was lighter in 2007 when I completed my first ever 5K (by only a couple of pounds). So for 24 out of the 25 races I have completed I have weighed more than I do right now. That's another reason why I really want a PR. I mean, I should be able to run a little faster than I did back in October or in October of 2012 simply because I weigh less. But, I know that's not how it always works. What will be will be and I'll just be happy that I'm healthy enough to be out there doing it.

And let me end today's post with this little #facetofacefriday. The pic on the left was taken in February of 2013. I had been out of the hospital for a month, was on a ton of new meds including a hefty dose of prednisone and I was pretty miserable. I hated this pic which was unfortunate because it was a cute pic of Robbie and me together. The middle pic was taken this past Christmas and I love this pic of my family. The pic on the right was the one from 2 weeks ago when I was dropping my daughter off to go to DC and she took a selfie of us in the car. I posted the pic on Facebook and my one friend who hasn't seen me in a while (like only 2 months maybe) called me to tell me how she was so shocked when she saw how different my face looked. I didn't necessarily see it when I looked at that pic so I had to find one to compare it to. I didn't (and still don't really) see much of a difference between the middle and right pics, but my husband said he could see it for sure. I'll go with it. 😉

Happy Friday friends! Enjoy your weekend. I'll be back after Sunday with my 10K race report.