1st Annual Turkey Trax 5k

I ran my best 5k yesterday! It was a first annual 5k called "Turkey Trax" held on Thanksgiving morning. A portion of the entry fee went to a charity of our choice (from a list of about 5). I ran for Rainbow House here in Columbia. I stopped only twice, once for water, and once to catch my breath after a particularly lengthy hill. :) The course was a nice loop starting at Rock Bridge High School, past Bethel Park, down Nifong to Providence, and ending on the RBHS track. My time was 31:52.

Gobbler Grind in Overland Park, KS 11.21.10

It's fair to say this race sucked. LOL! But I had a good time anyway! I had been sick since the previous Thursday but decided I would go and just see how I felt race day morning. We drove to Overland Park, KS on Saturday and checked into our hotel. Then I took a nap. Met up with Carl, Bev, Diana (Bev's sister) and her charge, 11-year-old Maria, as well as David Holmen, our new race buddy we met in Denver, for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Early to bed for me. Carl and Bev said they heard me coughing through the very thin walls that night! (Sorry about that.)

Race day morning I felt OK, so I decided to go ahead and run the race. About 5 times during the race I got cheered on by a MIZZOU fan who noticed my hat. I felt obliged.... We were, after all, in Kansas. He and his daughter were cheering for his wife, who was always a minute or two behind me. They'd cheer me on, then her, then move on to the next spot to cheer us on again. I'd come around a corner and hear "MIZZOU! Go MIZZOU! You got this MIZZOU!" What fun! Thanks, MIZZOU fan! That helped a lot!

Diana took this picture of Carl and me at the start line.

Carl with Diana Burton. She's done a billion marathons. 

The race course was not bad. A lot of the run was spent on this paved trail (below) through a woodsy area. A small amount of time was spent on roads. I felt really good until about mile 8. At that point my shoes started hurting my feet and my legs started to crap out. By mile 10 I was doing a lot of talking to myself. "Only 3 miles to go. You can do anything for 3 miles." I ended up doing only slightly worse than my best time (Denver), coming in at 2:45:48. Not bad for a sicky running in the crazy wind that day!

 Carl took this pic of me coming toward the finish line.

Beautiful weather for running, just windy. Carl ran the half also and did great, coming in at 2:19:43. Our super fast friend Dave ran the full marathon and came in at a blistering 3:21:45. Next half, as of now, isn't until the Illinois half on April 30, 2011.

ING 2011 NYC Marathon Lottery

I completely lost my sensibilities yesterday and applied for the NYC Marathon lottery for next year's race. I successfully registered and applied. I took an extra step and completed a "scavenger hunt" item for a chance to be one of 50 selected today.... One of the things I could do was take a picture of myself eating a Power Bar and upload it to Marathon Monday Mania's Facebook page. Hilarious. I did it. Here's the pic.

They posted the first 20 winners from this group this morning on Runnersworld.com. I was not selected. Then they posted all 50 winners on their Facebook page. I was not selected. Sigh. Oh well....funny picture anyway. I hate Power Bars!

BTW, Carl wasn't selected this way either, but we're both in the general lottery. Winners will not be determined until late April, 2011.

Visit the race website here!

Denver Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon 10.17.10

This was, by far, my BEST half marathon experience! Waaahooooo! No porta potty stops. None. Zero. Nada. Ziltch. Now, onto the experience!

Carl and I flew out to Denver on Saturday afternoon, checked in to the hotel (Sheraton) and met up with Carrie to head to the expo. We only had about an hour but it turned out that's really about all we needed. Expo was pretty good. Lots of vendors, lots of free stuff. Here we are with our Disney princess crowns on.

Carrie, Krista and Carl at the Denver RnR Expo 10.16.10

Waiting for a table at Maggiano's in Denver

We had a great race-eve dinner at a place called Maggiano's. It took us FOREVER to get a table, but it was well worth it. Great pre-race dining experience! Waaay better than those race sponsored pasta buffets.

Then it was early to bed for me, but not before laying out all my race day gear! LOL.

There was a 6:55 a.m. start, but we were way back in corral #15 (Carl was in #14). It took us about 20 minutes to get to the start line (15,000 runners!) Since we were so close, we ran the first 5 minutes or so together (Carrie was ahead of us in #9). Then CG kept running while I took my first walk break. We were on our own.

The course wound its way through the city and we also got to run through two city parks, so that made for a nice change of scenery. Seeing the mountains in the distance was quite a change, especially when we are used to running on the trail in CoMo! The whole race course is over a mile high but neither Carl nor I was impacted negatively by the altitude.  Carrie lives in Colorado, so she was fine, and turned in a GREAT time of 2:25! 

Here we are showing off our medals!

KSM at the finish!

CJG at the finish!

CG and I had worked hard a couple nights before the race to set up a run/rest plan for my run. It WORKED! I was hoping for a 2:45 finish and I made it in at 2:43:28, a PR for me and I'd say my best race so far. I ran through all my planned runs for the whole race! That is huge for me. Carl also got a PR of 5:21:04 and beat his goal of 5:28. This was his second, and best, marathon. Fair to say we all had a blast and a great race experience.

A few more finish line pics!

Carrie waiting for Carl to finish

Carl at the finish!

Carl and Krista at the finish! (CG looks a little worn out!)

Carrie propping up Carl at the finish!

Illinois Half Marathon 5.1.10

Well, I wish I had remembered the title of my last post ("I Get to Run") as I was running last Saturday at the Christie Clinic Illinois Half Marathon in Champaign, IL. It's fair to say it was the worst half marathon experience I've had thus far. Let me be clear. It was a bad race FOR ME. The weekend experience in total was excellent. 

I got very little sleep the night before, which isn't totally unusual. I think it's typical for runners to sleep fitfully the night before a race. But I mean I hardly slept at all, and I was up at 4:00 a.m. Also on race mornings, I can hardly choke down any food or drink. Not good.

The previous night (Thursday) we'd eaten the pasta dinner and heard two great speakers. Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon, at age 20. She was literally tackled on the course by the co-race director, who was irate that a woman had entered his race. Unfortunately for him, but lucky for the rest of us, the press caught the whole thing and pictures of the event went around the world. Kathrine finished the race. And changed the course of history for women in sports. Jean Driscoll has won the Boston Marathon (race-chair) 8 times and still holds the record for that event. She's also a para-Olympian. She was born with Spina Bifida and has been wheelchair bound since age 15. How lucky I am to have met these two amazing women the day before at the race expo. I bought Switzer's book and she signed it "Krista! Running gives us everything. Go for it! K. Switzer, Illinois, 2010."

The race start was festive, exciting, as they usually are. 14,000+ people in this one. Carl and I started out together (after a late start - apparently the 5kers didn't go as fast as they'd planned for and we were waiting for them to get off the course).

   

We ran together for about the first mile and a half, then Carl went on. He was doing the full marathon (for the first time). I felt pretty good then and continued on, stopping at all the available water stations.

The course was great, I thought, and the race pretty well organized. I would have liked to have seen more water stations. The organizers even mentioned in the race material that they were paying attention to porta potty issues this year, yet at the stops on the course, there were maybe 4 to a stop. That's just not enough to alleviate the lines. Those are my only two complaints. Otherwise, great course. Flat, obviously. It was Illinois, after all.

At about mile 2, I saw an old friend (Amy George) and stopped briefly (maybe 15 seconds) to give her a hug and allow her husband to snap a picture. Pictures are important!

At about mile 4, I started to feel really bad. Let's just say that from there until about mile 9, I visited ALL of the porta potties. Since there weren't enough at each stop, I had to wait in line at all of them, thereby losing precious time. But, believe me, when you are in a position to have to wait in line at a porta potty, and then USE them, your concern for time is minimal. You just resign yourself to a bad time. Fuck it. I'm screwed. Just HURRY UP IN THERE!! :)

Anyway enough of that. You get the idea.

I walked most of the course. It was pretty, and the cheering Champaign/Urbana residents throughout the whole course made it fun. Great support!

I was able to run into the stadium, through the team entrance and onto the field at Memorial Stadium, home to the University of Illinois football team. The atmosphere at the finish line is always great, people cheering, the announcer blasting over the sound system, music. Fun stuff. I ran past the finish line with a disgusting time of 3:24:07. Worst. Time. Ever.

Once I got that medal, I headed upstairs (yes, after the race runners had to CLIMB up the stadium steps to the first level where they had the food stations.) I got some food and went back down to the field, where I took off my shoes and sat in the sun while eating my pizza, pasta and peanut butter cookies. Once done, I checked the time and began to wonder about my friend and running parter, Carl, who was doing his first full marathon. He was to text me when he got to mile 20 to give me an idea of when he might cross the finish line.

While waiting, I went to the end zone and lay down in the I in ILLINOIS. This felt weird, and I kind of enjoyed it. :)

I got the text from Carl when he had reached mile 20 and it said "20. Heart rate and leg issues. Sorry slow" I was just so happy to get the text that I didn't care when he made it across the finish line, just as long as he made it. Our original plan included him finishing in time to get me back to Columbia to sing in a choral concert that night. That didn't work out, and he felt guilty for coming in later than planned, but I assured him that his health and his finishing were, and will always be, the most important things to me.

As he crossed the finish line at 5:51:16, I was screaming and jumping up and down on the sidelines! He looked over and stuck his tongue out at me and grinned. What a great sight!!! His medal is twice the size of mine, as it should be.

My next half will probably be in Joplin, MO in October. Yes, I'll do another one. There's just something about crossing that finish line that gets in your blood. Porta potty stops or not.

I Get to Run

I'm doing my fifth half on Saturday, the Illinois (half) Marathon in Champaign, IL. I think this may be the first time that I am looking FORWARD to it. I don't "have" to run it. I "get" to run it. I am lucky to be able to run it.

I've got my music, my tennis shoes and my running clothes. What more do I need? Let's do this thing!

Additions to the Playlist

Since my last 1/2 I've only added four songs to my running playlist. I'll add a few more I assume, and I'll post here when I do.

Additions include:
I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
Mercy  - Duffy
Maybe - Ingrid Michaelson
Free Me - Joss Stone