Tag Archives: SGF

Cooler Runs & Rain Jackets

May 15, 2014Daily Life!, Runningdoggie rain jacket, half marathon training, morning run, runner, SGF, shihtzuharkey12

Happy Thursday! I hope you all have had great weeks. I can’t believe it’s already almost the weekend again! Geez! I’ve decided life will never slow down, so this is my new norm. Although, my spring racing season is almost over. So what does that mean?! More sleeping in! More running for fun! More Jazzercise! And then also…more anxiety because I haven’t raced in so long! Haha!

So this week has been wonderful for running because the temps have dropped drastically. Every morning has been around 35-45 degrees! Perfect! So I got in a quick 6 miles yesterday and then 5 miles this morning.

Each run started out super slow for me. But I’ve read somewhere that you should never judge a run by the first mile. So by mile 2, I tried to add in some speed work to make my legs remember what it feels like to run some 8:30 splits. It’s wasn’t super fun, but it did feel good to go fast and suck some cold air into my lungs. If I want to get a new half marathon PR below 1:54, I’ll have to really push some speed work this weekend and early next week!

Along with the cooler temps came a lot of rain. And by a lot, I mean ALOTTTT. So poor Mac has been cold and wet since Monday. But never fear – mommy pulled his lovely rain coat/poncho out for such a soggy occasion!

He hates me. Like really, really hates me. But he stayed dry. 🙂

Soggy doggie no more! He even went pee while wearing the jacket which was a miracle. In the past, he refused to potty with it on, which completely defeats the purpose. But yesterday he was brave and found that it is indeed safe to pee while wearing his yellow poncho!

Off subject here, but if you have a little male dog, does he pee on literally anything that sticks up out of the ground? Because Mac does. And he totally doesn’t care what it is. If it’s taller than the grass, he is gonna mark it.

As for a recap of the rest of my week, it’s been work and Jazzercise like normal. I’ve also been trying to eat a large salad at lunch everyday and have at least one serving of fresh berries!

And I must say, the fresh berries have been a welcome change to my eating habits! Plus they are a sure sign that summer is right around the corner!

Well have a great night, folks. It’s jazzercise like normal for me. I’ve got some new songs and I’m excited to teach! Wish me luck!

Go Girl Run Half Marathon, Springfield 2014

April 27, 2014Running13.1, go girl, Go Girl Half Marathon, second half marathon, SGF, Ultramax Sportsharkey12

Hey pretty people! I’m back!! I was on a writing hiatus due to my life reaching a whole new level of crazy! But I’m slowly feeling better that everything is calming down, and I’m not losing my mind. 🙂

It’s been one whole week since the Go Girl Run half marathon here in Springfield! Fail for this race recap being so delayed!! But I still wanted to share my experience with you. I’ve been one busy racing lady, and each race is a truly different experience!

Ultramax Sports, the local running store, hosts the annual Go Girl Run race series in several cities in Missouri and Oklahoma. The first race of the series this year took place right here in downtown Springfield last Saturday. The Go Girl series offers a 5K and half marathon at each event. I was signed up for the half marathon, along with my girlfriend Heather. And our other friend Carley decided to run the 5K!

Heather is in pink and Carley is in purple! Both events took off at 7 am. I snapped a quick selfie before leaving the house because no one was up to take my picture yet!

I wore the exact outfit I wore to the Little Rock Marathon minus the rain jacket! When you find a good race outfit that doesn’t chafe in all the bad places, stick with it! 🙂 The sun was still coming up as we lined up right outside the Expo Center to start the race. It was around 50 degrees with a beautiful forecast for the whole morning.

After a quick prayer and the national anthem, we took off. I was near the front because this event was seeded by corrals and my pacer was almost at the very front of the pack! Pacers started at 1:45 for this race. I would’ve liked a 1:55 pacer to help me gain a new PR, but they only offered a 1:50 or 2:00. So I was brave and took off with the 1:50 pacer group!

As a reminder, my first half marathon was 1:56:10. So anything faster than a 1:56 would be ok by me! But you understand why a 1:50 finish would be pretty darn fast. 🙂 Regardless, after the first mile, I really thought I would be okay sticking with the 1:50 group. We were running fast, but the weather was perfect and I felt great. The pacer (a 30-something retired military guy) was extremely positive and took his job very seriously. He was so encouraging and talked us through the entire course and helped us up each hill. I was rocking along with our happy little group. And then my bladder got angry. Not again!! I had to pee. 😦 Ugh!

I officially am done drinking coffee before races. Done. Finished. Finito. I thought I had it figured out but I was wrong! At mile 6 I booked it into the porta potty stop which was luckily unoccupied. I peed in 30 seconds flat and busted out of there in search of my pace group again. I wanted to catch back up with them so badly! After another mile of mild sprinting (yuck), I made it back to them… For one more mile I kept up, but mile 9 hit and I couldn’t continue at their pace any longer. Boo!

I let them pull away and I settled into a more comfortable pace of around 8:40 per mile. That sprint out of the porta potty killed me but I was too determined to keep up! The rest of the course I was alone mostly. I passed a few ladies here and there but so thankful when I hit mile 13. I was bored of being by myself! But we hit a major hill – the biggest of the race – right at mile 13, so that helped my focus come back to the race and ran as hard as I could up that darn hill. I came around the corner of the Expo Center to see Nick cheering for me at the finish.

I was slightly bummed as I saw the 1:50 pace group relaxing and stretching after their finish, but I was extremely happy with my own finish! 1:54:02! Woot! New PR for me!

I got my big medal and met my girlfriend Carley who was sweet and waited around after her 5k for me and Heather to finish! We met up with Nick and headed into the finishers area to get a smoothie and snacks and photos!

Heather finished a little bit after me and we went to greet her at the finish line. She was struggling with a blister and the rising temps, but she still finished with a smile!

It was such a fun event! I loved the atmosphere of happy and positive women cheering on complete strangers as they crossed the finish line. Plus, they have out 6″ wide medals, wine glasses, and awesome tech shirts. Awesome awesome race bling!! Plus I love little glass for wine! 😉

Nick and I headed home for showers and relaxing. I was pretty exhausted after my new PR! Mac watched over me as I put my feet up on the couch.

Such a sweet boy!

Overall, I give the Go Girl Half Marathon an A rating! It was fun, well organized, and had awesome goodies and support. I’ve already signed up for the next race in the Go Girl series, which takes place in Columbia, Mo on May 24! It’ll be the kick off of our Memorial Day weekend!

To make things confusing though, first up is the Divas Half Marathon this upcoming Sunday, May 4, in Branson, MO. Nick, Mac, and I will be heading to Branson for the weekend on Friday night. I’m hoping it turns into a nice little weekend vacay for all of us. We are staying in my parents timeshare condo right near Branson Landing where the race starts and finishes. Nick and Mac can have fun exploring downtown Branson while mommy runs!

I hope you all have had a great weekend and are refreshed and ready for the week ahead. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long week for me with the anticipation of the race weekend!

I will talk to you all soon! 🙂

Shamrox 15k Race

March 16, 2014Runningmorning race, SGF, Shamrox 15, st. patrick's day, Ultramaxharkey12

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve all had great weekends. I’m currently snuggled into my couch with Mac under a blankie, so we are doing pretty darn good. 🙂

We did lots of St. Patrick’s day celebrating yesterday! It all started with the Shamrox 15K race in downtown Springfield. It was hosted by Dublin’s Pass and Ultramax Sports, a local running store, and it was one of the best local races I have done. It was well organized and had lots of support and post-race goodies.

We arrived about 20 minutes before the race. I immediately headed into Dublin’s Pass (restaurant right by the start line) to use the restroom. I refused to have a repeat of the mile 2 potty break from the Little Rock Marathon!! The starting chute was already filling with people and they were calling the 15k participants to the start line, so Nick snapped my picture before I lined up.

It was around 45 degrees and sunny, so I opted to wear a green tank and running skirt. I was cold during this pic, but that went away by mile 2! I only waited in the starting chute around 5-7 minutes before we took off. But we first got to hear the national anthem played by a local bagpiper.

I think bagpipes are so cool!! I was lucky enough to be right next to this guy so I could really see what was happening. It was definitely not a typical start to my Saturday morning!!

After the national anthem, we started the 15K right at 8:05 am.

It felt like a lot of people were there as we took off! I always hate taking off at races because I run too fast and weave around people to get away from the crowd as quickly as possible. But I was definitely running way too fast. My RunKeeper app read off my pace at 10 minutes in… And said I was running at a 7:58/mile pace. Oops!!! Slow your roll, crazy woman. I made an effort to calm it down and slowly got my pace down to around 8:15-8:20. Which is still fast, but I knew I could hold it for most of the 9 miles ahead.

All the runners around me slowly faded as we hit the 3-4 mile zone during the race. It was getting warmer and I could tell a lot of others had dressed for cooler temps. Long black sleeves and full length pants were not going to cut it at 50 degrees and sunny! They were making me sweat just looking at them. I passed lots of people and was getting passed here and there. And then mile 6 hit. And it came with hills. All the way through mile 9. Ugh.

I couldn’t believe the hills we were running on. I didn’t even know hills like that existed in Springfield! This is when the race became mental for me. ‘You are a freakin’ marathoner. Do not let these hills win on a 9 mile course.’ And for some reason this motivated me to actually run faster up each hill I came too.

I was at the finish line before I knew it. Mainly because I wasn’t expecting to finish so fast. I even thought to text Nick that I had 1 mile to go. And he was glad I did as he wasn’t expecting me to be done yet either! I crossed the finish line in 1:16:09. Nick tried to snap a frantic photo of me, and somehow took it in black and white.

Woohoo!! The best part of this race was the finish line. I immediately got a finisher’ pub glass. And was then ushered into the beer garden to get some refreshments!

I was amazed when I went to the food line. I saw the normal bananas and granola bars. But then I was also offered a hot breakfast burrito! Umm, really?? Yes please!!