Giveaway: Cherry Blossom 10 Miler Guaranteed Entry

Facebook is being ridiculous so I am sharing my fun news here, to make it easier to share with others!

I have a guaranteed entry code to the 2016 Cherry Blossom 10 Miler!  The 2016 entry fee of $43 for the 10 mile and $33 for the 5K Run-Walk (plus an online service fee) must be paid online with the entry form but you can bypass the lottery with this code!

If you are interested in receiving this code, please comment on my Facebook page with your favorite running mantra and I will select a random winner on the evening of Monday, Nov. 30.

Good luck!

Death by Running

Once again I seem to be trying to #runallthemiles at one time and it is not doing my body any good.

My calendar for the past few weeks:

October 25 – Marine Corps Marathon – met my A goal, plus some!

October 31 – Anthem Wicked 10K and Monster Mile

November 8 – Across the Bay 10K –  massive PR with a sub-9 average

November 11 – Cross Country Trail Half Marathon – 2 minute PR

November 14 – Rock n Roll Las Vegas 5K – 2 minute “official” PR (but not according to my Garmin)

November 15 – Rock n Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon – Very tough race with rain, high winds, and extreme cold.  Slowest non-trail half in 2 years.

That, my friends, is a lot of running.

After the half on November 11, my left hip started to hurt.  It was feeling better when I would stretch and roll it but, on Sunday, it hurt non-stop during the race and affected my gait.  Add in lingering right knee/IT band problems and, well, I need to rethink my spring plans before I cripple myself.

I am supposed to be in week 2 of training for the Asheville Marathon right now but I have decided to defer to 2017.  It was going to be my “goal” race but, MCM was so amazing, I’m not sure I can top it right now – especially going in to training injured.  By dropping that race, that allows me another 3 1/2 weeks of “easy” running/cross training before I begin training for the Roanoke Blue Ridge (Foot Levelers? what the heck is the name of the race?) Marathon.  Considering that is going to be a very difficult race up a freakin’ mountain, I would rather not be totally incapacitated when I hit the start line.

So, what am I going to do for 3 1/2 weeks?  Not run for the rest of this week (gasp!), and then add in more cross training with short, easy runs.  I’m actually looking forward to a bit of a break.  I think it will do my body, and spirit, good.

 

Race Report: Across the Bay 10K 2015

Well, last year was such a fun event, we ran across the Bay Bridge again this year!  Seriously, I could pretty much copy and paste last year’s report and call it good 🙂

Differences:

• The race organizers had the option to have our packets mailed to us this year so we did that and picked our shirts up at the finish.  Luckily, they had our sizes.  I guess they ran out of shirts (Which I thought they might since the volunteers weren’t collecting the bib tickets). I also heard stories of some people not receiving their bibs but can’t confirm that. We had no problems in either area.
• The food at the finish had problems – moldy bagels and bruised/old bananas.  I was still happy with the pretzels, though!  There were also a lot of food trucks so people had options. It’s not like we were stuck in a food wasteland.
• There were about 6,000 more runners this year and it was pretty obvious.  Parking was a big mess, again (but not for us!) and some people were turned away because they missed the last wave.  Very disappointing for them.
• There were two water stops – one at the top and one right before the shore – and hydration vests were allowed this year.  If you do this race, it is cupless but they rigged up PVC pipe and had a long row of “drinking fountains” along with the spigots to fill your bottles so no one went dry.
• Personally, I finally learned my lesson and wore a very short sleeve shirt and light capris with a visor and no knit hat.  So much better!  The arm sleeves were off before the first mile marker.

Still a bit sharky, even without the hat

• There were a ton of photographers and we will get our pictures for free!  I can’t wait to see them!
• No aborted selfie attempts at the top.

Similarities:

• Great view!

The morning sun is not our friend at this race

• Great running company!
• Great weather!
• A lot of fun!
• Still no sharks 😦

Results:

I have been trying to break an hour for the 10K distance for A LONG TIME.  Like, over a year.  I would get ohsoclose but no cigar.  Ms. S knew I was gunning for a PR but I was worried about her lungs (it was chilly at the start and very windy at the top of the bridge) so I had no idea how things would turn out.  I decided to just run and see what the morning brought.  Well, we started off nice and strong up the 2 mile incline (again, it didn’t feel that difficult) and then picked it up for the descent.  The section after we hit the other shore and had to cross over the highway was a suffer-fest again and was pretty bottle-necked but we keep the pedal down and…. 55:41!!  That’s an 8:58 average, boys and girls!!  I still can’t believe we did that!!

Thank goodness for the running store tent that had rollers for us to use. We may have enjoyed ourselves a bit too much 🙂

That’s better!

We have already signed up for year 3, because we need to finish our medal puzzle, naturally!  We’re not quitters! 🙂