More Bolder Boulder and A Little Oklahoma

They posted the pictures of the Bolder Boulder yesterday :-) Some people got a whole bunch of pictures, but I only got 4 :-( but considering they completely missed me at the Diva Dash I guess I won't complain. I can't copy the pictures to my blog, but I will post a link. I also found the pictures from the fast and furriest (aka the worst race ever) yesterday so I will post that one too. I make some seriously photogenic faces in both, but at least in the fast and furriest I have my little dog who looks pretty sweet in them! My legs also look like massive disgusting tree trunks in the Bolder Boulder ones, yuck!! Nothing like a few pictures to knock you down a peg or two when you start feeling better about your body! The camera adds 10 pounds right? Here's the link to the Bolder Boulder photos:

 

http://www.marathonfoto.com/10K/Bolder-Boulder-10K-2013/LastName/SMITH/BibNumber/FA317/offering/myMarathonfotos/RaceOID/07972013S1/Language/en?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0%20Proofs%20Online%20ENG-SPA%20br%20(30)

 

They sent me an email yesterday that had this link that goes directly to the pictures of me which was pretty awesome! No having to look through mass amounts of pictures to find yourself, or having to check back to the website a bunch of times to see if the pictures are up! And here are the links to the fast and furriest pictures:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastandthefurriest/8691820464/lightbox/

 

My dog looks like he is having such a good time in this one and I just look miserable and like I am dying (I was!)... I remember seeing the camera person at the end and thinking I don't even care what I look like I just want this damn think to be over!

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastandthefurriest/8691819122/in/photostream/

 

I love how determined my monster looks in this one :-) I however still look like I am dying! I was trying to figure out why I had something stuck to my boob in this photo, and then I realized nothing was stuck to my shirt it was the bottom of my bib and I was holding it in my hand. I was so ready to be done with that race that I had ribbed it off before I even finished haha!

 

Even though I have tree trunk legs, I know I am getting in better shape because I felt a thousand times better when I finished the Bolder Boulder than I did when I finished the fast and furriest! I think a lot of my issue at fast and furriest was that I took out the first mile too fast, my phone wasn't working so I was worried about that, we were trying to get my friend a qualified time for BB, my dog was all over the place, my headphones where tangled and kept falling out, and there was the whole biffing it in the middle of the course. It just was not a good race for me! I also hadn't ran at all pretty much the whole week before so that certainly didn't help at all! I still haven't made it out to run this week GRRRRR!!! I went to bed at 8:30 last night thinking I would definitely wake up with plenty of time to run going to sleep that early, but I didn't. My monster got me up at the crack of 7:15 so it was already too late to get in a run :-( I'm definitely feeling lazy, but I have been running 9-0 all week so I know my body needed the sleep! 

 

We are leaving  tomorrow at 7 for Oklahoma so I am seriously doubting I will get a run in tomorrow morning, but maybe in the evening when we get there? We'll see what happens. Tonight I have to take the monster to my good friend's to watch him while we are gone. He loves when she puppysits because he gets spoiled rotten and she has a dog he loves to play with! I'll leave you with my race break down and a couple pictures that we took at the BB.

 

Overall place: 19,015 our of over 49,000

Gender place: 7,792 our of 23, 273

Division Place (just 23 yo females): 244 out of 520 (certainly not amazing, but I'm just proud of myself for 1. finishing! and 2. being in the first half)

Overall time: 1:07:37.05 

Overall Pace: 10:52 

Mile 1: 10:58.11 

Mile 2: 11:04.44 

Mile 3: 11:27.77 

Mile 4: 11:03.21 

Mile 5: 10:33.18 

Mile 6: 10:36.07 

Last .2: I calculated it out the other day, but now I have forgotten I think it was like 1:40 something? I know it was the fastest part of the whole race for me!

 

Like I said those middle miles just kill me! They are where I need to do the most work. I think most of it is mental, but I will definitely be putting in some treadmill work to help work on it.

 

 

before the race, oh so happy!

 

After the race, not quite as happy and pretty sweaty and growdy!

Bolder Boulder Recap!

Ah so sorry this is so late I actually wrote this out on Tuesday at work, but then I forgot to email it to myself, and yesterday was just CRAZY! We were supposed to be leaving for Oklahoma today, but they have another storm coming through where they are really likely to have more tornadoes, so we decided we didn't want to be driving through that! We will be leaving Saturday instead now.

 

Trailer is filling up!

 

Mission accomplished!! I not only survived the Bolder Boulder, but I ran the whole thing AND stayed under my goal pace!!! It was slow… like turtle slow, but that’s how I have been running lately so I just stuck with my “happy pace”. There was a group of people there called team turtle and I definitely should have been a part of it! My goal was to stay under an 11 minute mile, so about 1:08.00 was my goal time, and I squeaked in at 1:07.37! The website says my pace was 10:53  a mile so for me and what I have been running lately that’s not terrible. I definitely want to work on my speed and get down under 9 minute miles and someday I would really like to get down to 8 minute miles J

Finish area

 

 The course was pretty fun not tons of spectators, but certainly plenty to keep it interesting. We had a pretty early start time though so there certainly could have been quite a few more for the later times. Not sure how many people in life really want to wake up at 7 to stand on the side of the road to watch runners. They were handing out grapes, doritios, jello shots, and water, definitely some interesting race day aid J (By the spectators not the official race aid stations). My favorite part was that when we ran through neighborhoods several people had hoses and sprinklers set up for us to run through, which was definitely nice to cool off with J They had quite a few bands, but I ran with my headphones in the whole way. It was a super well run race and everything was really organized. We left right on time, everything went as planned, and even though SOOO MANY PEOPLE RAN IT crowding really wasn’t an issue on the course. I got passed A LOT at the beginning (even by people 2 and 3 heats behind me L we started a minute apart), but I never felt super in the way and there was always plenty of room for people to pass. Even at the water stations it wasn’t too bad. They had TONS of volunteers handing out water so I never had to break to a walk when I stopped for water.

We had stayed the night in North Denver at one of friend’s house the night before that way we wouldn’t have to wake up at like 4 in the morning (we slept a whole extra hour till 5). We were late leaving and I kind of started to panic, but luckily traffic wasn’t too bad and we got there only about 10 minutes behind schedule. I had been worried about parking, but we found a safeway not far at all from the start and parked there. We followed the flow of people and found the start no problem. We got pretty luckily with our parking spot we were only about 4 blocks away! Having an early start definitely had it’s advantages even if it did leave us sleep deprived! We made it to the start area and picked up our bibs about 6:55. We had no problems picking up our packets and it was smooth and fast. We headed over to the fed-ex trucks to do our bag drop, and also had no problems. Everything in the start area went super smooth! We were still kind of worried about time so we were hurrying through, and even though I put on sun screen I did it super fast and DEFINITELY missed most of my back (I did however thoroughly coat my hair which made for some nice mats in my little fly away hairs). 

Start area, this was as the heat in front of us was leaving, when we first got in our coral we couldn't even see the start

Right as we got to where the corals were lining up the one in front of us was passing by so it worked out perfect. We jumped in ours and ended up almost at the front of it. It was just a few minutes after 7 so we were enjoying the start area and everything going on when I realized I had pulled a total blonde moment and forgotten my timing chip in the race packet!!!! I really started to panic and I ran back to the back drop and luckily they were just shutting up the truck. The lady was super nice and found my bag for me, and I found my timing chip pretty easily. Definitely still having some rookie moments! Although I found the chip I missed the little zip times to attach it to my shoe so I just put it through my shoe strings and tied it on. It definitely got my heart pumping and gave me a good little warm up though.

 

 

Right before we started we found out CU’s basketball coach was running with us which was kind of cool, but we never saw him again after the start. The gun went off and we started and I immediately thought there was no way I was going to make it through the race without peeing my pants/finding a porta potty. I had been hoping it was just pre-race jitters making me feel like I had to pee since we had made a bathroom stop on the walk to the race (in a porta-potty not just on the side of the road!) but the more I ran and jiggled my bladder the worse I had to pee! About a 1.5 miles in there were porta-potties set up but there was already a line and if I was going to stop I didn’t want to have to wait in line so I kept trucking figuring there would be some more at the 3 mile aid station.

 

Go time baby!!

 

The first aid station was at the 2 mile mark and there were aid stations every mile after. I had planned on taking water just at 2 and 4, but by the time mile 5 rolled around I was panting up a storm so I grabbed another water. I drank half and dumped half over my, I felt like a pro :-) (Really I had just seen the guy in front of me do it and it seemed like a good idea). The course was really well marked it had signs for every mile and km, which was nice for those of us who were counting every step trying to figure out exactly how much further we had to go (who would do that?). The beginning was only bad because I could think about nothing, but how bad I had to pee, through one of the neighborhoods a guy had a sign that said restroom and I seriously almost took him up on it. There ended up not being another set of porta-potties till mile 4 and by then I didn't have to pee as bad so I decided to wait till the end.

Mile 3 was definitely the hardest for me! I don't know what it is about the mid-run miles that kill me, but they sure do! It felt like it took forever long, and it definitely felt the hardest I felt like I was NEVER EVER going to get to that half way point. I knew in my head that once I got there I would be ok, that I would be on the downhill side of things (which is funny because between mile 3 and 4 is the steepest). I really played a lot of mental games with myself through this mile, and was feeling like there was no way I was going to make it through the whole race. I just kept trudging along though and pretty soon I saw that mile 3 banner.

The night before we talked to my friends parents who had ran the Bolder Boulder before. They helped us out with the time to get there, how long the drive would be, partking, the course, etc. They said that between mile 3 and 4 it is mostly all uphill, and then that there is another hill going into the stadium. Once I hit that 3 mile marker I just kept telling myself one step at a time, one foot in front of the other. I've noticed that when I have to run hills if I look down instead of ahead it makes it easier for me. It's like I can focus just on these few steps instead of all of what is ahead of me. I really expected like some huge monster hill (it looked that way on the elevation map) or the whole mile to be pretty steep (my worst nightmare), but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. It was a little bit uphill most the way to "the hill", but nothing crazy and honestly I think the whole first 3 miles where a little bit uphill. about 3.75 we rounded a corner and there was "the hill", it was definitely a hill, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I just kept my head down and plugged along and pretty soon I was at the top and there was a sign saying "course summit, sea level is for sissies!!" and I loved it! It made me smile, and I knew for the first time that I was going to make it through this race. I had mastered the hardest part and I was 2/3 of the way through!

The rest of the race kinda seemed to breeze by. I kept checking in with myself asking how I felt, if anything hurt, what my "gas tank" was at, and honestly I was feeling pretty good! I was smiling, giving high fives, and giving thumbs up to people with signs. My favorite sign was "Worst parade ever!", and my favorite shirt I saw was PR or ER (that's the lucky thing about being new to running everything is a PR!). Once I went under the mile 5 banner, I had a little emotional moment because every step was further than I had ever ran before! I was feeling pretty good, and I was really proud of myself! I was not only running this last mile that was further than I had ever ran, but I wasn't feeling like I was dying through it either! I continued to feel pretty good till about the 9km mark and then my gas tank started getting a little low and my legs were starting to feel tired, but I was so close so I just tried to think about that. There was a pretty SERIOUS hill before you get to the stadium luckily it was pretty short. Funneling into the stadium is the only place it got a little crowded and made me a little nervous having to weave through people. The hill was making a lot of people break to a walk, and I didn't want to get stuck behind someone and have to walk. After the monstey hill we had to keep going uphill on the ramp into the stadium, and  then we ran a lap around the stadium. I was figuring it would be a 400m length and I was really dreading it, but luckily it was just the football field and it was made even smaller so it wasn't bad at all. I was so excited to see the finish and know that I was going to make it! I knew from previous experience that I didn't have much sprint in me, so I waited till the final corner and then I put everything I had into it! Which was surprisingly more than I thought I would have, I think I probably could of picked up the pace throughout the race a little, but oh well.

Finish Line

 

All in all it was a really good first 10k experience. I'm proud of myself for making it through it, and meeting my goals (even if they are turtle paced goals). My right hip and knee were sore after the race, but nothing the next day or since. I think I just have weak IT bands that I need to build up. The worst part about the dang race was that after you finish they make you walk up ANOTHER really steep hill to get to water/Gatorade, return your time chip, and get your goodie bag. I felt a little like dying then, and decided that is a really cruel joke. We got goody bags that had lots of treats, the shirts were fitted not huge baggy ones so that was nice too, and they had official race photographers and the pictures should be up TODAY. I haven't ran since the race... womp womp!!! I have been beyond busy today this week, but I am going to try and get out today and get a run in. I will post my splits tomorrow because this is already the longest post ever!!!

 

A whirlwind

Whew! So much has gone on this week  I don't even really know where to start! To start with the amount of donations I have collected for Moore, OK is incredible! The graciousness of everyone involved has been awesome and has really made my heart happy. I have WAY too much to even think about actually shipping, so I secured a ride on a truck for everything.... and I will be joining her! I met a girl from Salt Lake City whose family lives down there and lost everything in the tornado. She had been donating to red cross and encouraging others to do the same, but when her uncle went to them to ask for help they turned him away without so much as a bottle of water because he has insurance. Because of this she decided to take a truck and  trailer full of donations down to hand out to EVERYONE in need. She will be passing through Cheyenne on her way and I will be jumping in with her. I have never met her in person before, but I believe in the power of good and I have faith it will work out! We will spend 1 day passing out our donations and 2 days helping with clean up, and then she will be bringing her mom and cousins back with her since they don't have a house anymore :-( I'm really excited for the trip and for the first time in a long time I can say I'm really proud of myself! I set out with a goal and I made it happen and it grew even bigger than I could of imagined.

On the flip side of this those I have REALLY slacked at working out/eating well/blogging this week. I definitely need to find a better balance in my life, and get better at time management. I have always struggled with time management and I really need to get to working on it. I hate that just because I start getting passionate about something new I let everything else slide. I am also struggling to find a balance with finding time for the BF he has definitely been feeling a little neglected this week, and I can't really blame him. I know I need to make more time for him, but it is all just a part of getting better with my time management.

I haven't ran since Tuesday and even though I ran Monday and Tuesday I haven't had any good runs this week. I went out this morning for a run and it was AWFUL. I broke to a walk at 1.5 miles and quit at about 2.1 and walked back home. I felt like a total loser and I think it was mostly a mental game. It was HOT, I didn't drink enough water before I ran, and I hadn't eaten anything. I was really really really struggling and I decided I was better off calling it quits and trying again tonight when it cools off. I knew I should of gone earlier this morning, but when I got up at 7:30 I was still EXHAUSTED so I went back to bed about 8 and slept till 10 eek! I haven't slept that late in forever! I know I know I should of just gotten up and gotten it done, and I know that is part of my learning time management, but it didn't happen. Tomorrow is a new day and I will do my best to do better!

I'm hydrating up and going to eat a healthy snack that way I have NO EXCUSES when I head out tonight. I NEED to make it 6 miles! I am super nervous I won't be able to make it through the race on Monday, but I know most of it is a mental game and I just need to get my head in a good place and go! The last 5k I did I hadn't ran enough and I DIED at the end, I also think I went out too fast and that was part of why I was so dead at the end. I'm just going to find my happy pace and go with it and not worry about all the people who are going faster than me. I have been doing more strength training so I hope that will help me get through this run! I hate being under prepared and I HATE that I haven't been putting in the effort I should of been. I was thinking on my run earlier how proud of myself I was when I made it 5 miles, and how disappointed I was in myself that I hadn't kept going and kept pushing myself like I should of.

Life is full of highs and lows and I have had both of them today! I am going to just keep plodding along and try to have fun on Monday. It won't be the end of the world if I have to walk on Monday, but I REALLY DON'T WANT TO! And I don't think I will have to. If I can make it 5 miles I can make it 6 miles. I CAN AND I WILL!!

Happy Saturday!

I have been a freaking terrible blogger these last two weeks, but I promise to be better!!! I have also not been eating so wonderful. I made some DELICOUS brownies for the BF and the girl that helped me study for my math test, so naturally I had to taste test them to make sure they weren't poisonous ;-) And I may or may not of had sonic last night were I tried to make a healthish decision of getting a slush instead of ice cream and then I end up eating about half of the BF's ice cream, whoops.... Good thing today is a new day! The BF is home and mostly settled, aka he threw all his laundry on the floor (he actually sorted it this time) and will take forever to do it till I do it for him. Gotta love man children! We did the truck and horse trailer shuffle that we do every time he comes home/leaves (he takes his trailer and horses to his parents and trades his mom trucks because his dually doesn't fit well in town's like Chicago and DC), and today we get to pick up one of our ponies that he left in Arizona! For the first time since November all my boys will be in the same state :-) Although by Monday that may all change haha! But now that we will have that all figured out my life should calm down and I should be a better blogger! I tried to make it up by having lots of pictures today :-)

 

I didn't get in much running this week BUT I did go to the gym Monday-Wednesday! Geez I just realized I haven't even posted about spin class yet, I really did suck it up this week! Spin class went pretty well, it was definitely hard and my legs were screaming about 1 minute into it, but it was a good workout. My legs were sore the next day which is always a good sign :-) I was going to go to the muscle endurance class after, but I REALLY needed to go to the grocery store and I figured that if I got myself too sore I wouldn't go to the gym Wednesday, so I headed out after the 45 minute spin class. The instructor was super nice and I always feel bad when I only pop into a class once and don't go back. I made sure to let her know that I really liked her and her class, but that because of my hours I wouldn't be back :-( I'm thinking that I might try and work 1 spin workout into my week though either on Saturdays, or a morning Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. It won't be the same instructor, but I think it's always good to get a little variety in your workouts, and I really felt it in my booty and the outside of my legs which is one of my biggest problem areas. We'll see what next week brings.

 

Wednesday was a pump circuit class and I REALLY liked it. It wasn't at all what I expected (I thought it was going to be a knock off version of body pump ), but it was a super good workout and honestly my arms are still a little sore! I wish I could make this one every week because I think it is my favorite class so far, but it's at 4:30 so there is no way :-( The normal instructor who teaches it was gone, (the replacement one was a super cute guy so I was a-ok with it!) so I'm not sure if when she is there if it's a little more like body pump or not. It was a super small class there was just me and 2 older ladies.  A lot of the exercises that we did were partner ones so I got to do them with the cute trainer which would of been awesome except I make really not awesome faces when I work out! I was trying to not make my super awesome faces, but at the end he even said "I could tell which exercises were hard for you".... Gee thanks stupid face!

 

After the class I went and got my only run so far in the week in... Eeep!!! I'm super slacking in the running department and I don't like it and I think I am going to die at the Bolder Boulder. I went and ran on a new path that had hills! I was really proud of myself for pushing through it, but I should probably find some bigger hills this week because I hear Bolder Boulder has some super killer hills :-( So while I was out on my run I did my usual not look at my running app and just go. The first half mile sucked and I kept wondering to myself when am I going to start liking running? But I found my "happy pace" and just kept trucking. Since I had never ran on this trail I really had no clue how far I had gone, but my plan was to do between a 4 and 4.5 mile run. I got to a spot where I figured that I was at about 2 miles so I looked at my app and it saw it said over 2 miles, so I went holy shit I guess I was in the zone and didn't realize I better turn around. I turned around and then I went HOLY SHIT my phone said 17 minutes!!! And I started having an OMG  I'm super fast today I just ran 8 minute mile moment!!! And then I went wait a second... I pulled up my app again and realized it was saying I had gone 2.7 miles in just over 17 minutes.... Yeah we all know that's not true! This girl has never and most likely will never run a 6 minute mile yet alone 3 of them! So my phone had obviously had a freak out, but I had already turned around so I just kept running back and trying to figure out how off my phone was. I felt like I was keeping a pretty fast pace, so I just kept trying to keep it up and hoping that my phone was only like a half mile off. I got back to my car and stretched and tried to figure out the madness on my phone. Basically I think it added about an extra mile to my run. So it says I did 4.32 miles in 34 minutes and I think I did about 3.3 or 3.4 in 34 minutes. It says I did the first mile in 1:48 whoop whoop go me! Since I don't have jet packs we all know that isn't true, but I probably did between .15 and .2 miles in that time, so that's why I think I went about 3.4 miles. I was bummed that I ended up doing a shorter run than I wanted, BUT my time was back up towards the 6.0 mph which makes me happy. When I first realized that I was feeling kinda bummed because I really felt like I was working hard through the whole run and keeping my pace up and I expected to see a faster time. But I realized that my other runs in the last month had been between 5.2 and 5.7 I should be happy with that gain ESPECIALLY since this run included some hills.

 

 I think today I will go out for a 5 mile run and just find a happy pace to get through the distance. I think it is good to have 1 shorter run where I push the pace a week, because hopefully that will help me get my pace up over the longer runs too. I am slowly starting to come up with my own training schedule that works for me, which is nice but I definitely need to work on my consistency and getting my miles in every week! It's been fun getting in the classes every week and I wish there was a way to get in a strength class 2 other days a week, but with the class schedule offered it just doesn't work. There's one on Saturday I would like to start going to, but it's at 2pm which is smack dab in the middle of the day! It's hard to plan around it, and it sounds stupid but I don't want to have to change into workout stuff twice a day. I would like to get my run (or maybe the spin class) in and then do my strength work out, but it is going to be WAY too hot for me soon to be running at 2 pm and the spin class is at 9. I'm thinking that I may just start doing my own workout two mornings a week and on Saturdays either with my Nike Fit Club, or in the weight room at the gym. I know plenty to make my own workouts I just like the accountability of the classes.

 

Thursday I was supposed to go to boot camp, but instead I took a nap and was super grouchy when the BF woke me up to go to the class, and then I got up 15 minutes later anyway :-( I debated going for a run, but decided to make brownies instead and it started storming super bad anyways so I wouldn't of gotten more than like a 10 or 15 minute run in.... and yesterday I went with the BF on the truck/trailer shuffle instead of going for a run womp womp.... yep I sucked it up big time!

 

After my run Wednesday I headed to kohls because my friend said they were having a big sale on work out clothes. I headed there and tried on some, but wasn't a huge fan of much that they had left in my size. I did end up buying some soffee shorts that are blue with pink polka dots and really cute to wear around the house (no picture included because I do not have the legs to wear these shorts hence why they are "house" shorts) and a work out tee that is super soft, it's boring though so there aren't any pictures of it either. While I was there I did try on some pants and shorts though, so enter all my pictures I promised! (Yes I know my hair looks cray and that my face is a hot mess remember it was right after working out outside when it was hot!0

 

I REALLY want a pair of lace shorts so I tried these puppies on in 3 out of the 4 colors they had them in the pink ones were probably my least favorite of all 3

 

The black ones were ok, and this was probably the most flattering view of me in shorts

 

The cream colored ones were my favorite although this is probably the worst view! I ended up not getting any of them because I just felt like my legs looked a little too monsterous in them, plus it kinda had a funky waste ban I wasn't too sure about... seriously though does my butt always look like that?!?!

 

I really want another pair of capri leggings for working out, but I was feeling like these made my thighs look super thunderous so I didn't get them

 

I also REALLY want a pair of white capris! I have a pair of jean ones from this company and really like them, but I felt like in the colored jeans the material was a little too thin and that you could see all my cellulite through the pants... I don't know they don't look as bad in this picture as I remember I might have to go try them again

 

I also REALLY want a pair of coral and mint capris (they didn't have mint in my size) but then I try them on and I look like this and I remember why I don't have any... sigh maybe one day my thunder thighs will go away and I will be able to wear colored jeans

 

Tomorrow I will share updated measurements and progress photos! I am off to get the BF out of bed and figure out a plan for the rest of the day, WHICH WILL INCLUDE A 5 MILE RUN!!!!  I'm not letting myself skip out on it today! Oh and to try and find the THREE pairs of white shorts I can't find! I pulled out all my summer clothes this week and they are all MIA seriously where did they go?!!? I must of put them somewhere "safe" so they would stay clean, love when I do stuff like that! Happy Saturday!

 

The worst 5k in the history of 5ks

This may of only been my 2nd 5k, and I may not be very "experienced" but this 5k was a train wreck and I'm declaring it the worst ever!! It was called the fast and furriest, and was for CSU's vet students. Since it was dog friendly I decided it would be monster's first 5k! We woke up this morning all excited and got ready to go. I attempted to brushed the munch and make him look handsome, and put on his zebra bandana. We packed the car full of his bed, treats, water, his leash, and all his "friends". He doesn't travel light, ever. I ate half an English muffin with peanut butter and he licked the peanut butter off my fingers and the napkin for breakfast. We took one final potty break and we were ready to go.

 

 

 

his pre-race smile, I tried really hard to get a picture of him where you could see his bandana and he was having NO part of it

 

I stopped on the way down to Fort Collins and picked up a friend who was going to run with me. The race was supposed to start at 9 and we showed up a little before 8:40 to get our bibs since we had pre-registered (we planned to be there by 8:30, but I am ALWAYS late). We park in what we are pretty sure is the right place and see NO signs indicating that a race is going on, or where to pick up bibs. I start to slightly panic since we are already a little behind. Luckily once we parked and got out a girl went by with a dog and a bib so we figured we were in the right place. We asked her where she got her bib and head in that direction. We find where there are a few tents set up and there is a line to one, so we start standing in line. Once again there were NO signs. After getting almost to the front of the line we realize we are standing in the line to register, and that the line for pre-registered people is on the other side. We switch sides and this line moves much quicker, we get to the front give our names and they start shouting about between them. They didn't have the "swag bags" (I'm getting savvy to the lingo :-) ) put together yet, and our number wasn't included in it. I hear the guy yell for a large shirt for me, and I try to nicely tell him that I put down a small (um hello have you seen how short I am a large would be a dress on me!) he gives me a dirty look and goes back to the next person. I am finally handed a bag, but no number. I ask the guy if my number is supposed to be in the bag, and he says no someone should of handed it to me. At this point I am starting to panic because it's like 8:55, he yells back that they need my number again, and a girl yells back that they don't have it. BIG panic this time, the guy kindly ignores my panic attack so I frantically start digging through the bag just to make sure it didn't end up in there, and there it is hidden under the shirt. I grabbed some safety pins and shot the guy a nasty look. (And it says on my bib that I asked for a small so hah!)

 

I had to work damn hard for this bib! (300's must be my friend I was 318 in the other race)

 

By this time the girl I am with (btw it was her first 5k!) has her number pinned on and is all ready to go. I scramble putting my number on, poking myself in the belly in the process, and realize there is NO WAY we are going to make it back to the car to drop off our bags. A very nice lady at one of the tents agreed to let us stash our bags with her, thank goodness (only positive of the day)! We dash over to the start area, find a place we think will be good to start, and get our phones/earphones all set up just in time for them to tell us that they are moving the start. Grrr it was a little frustrating, but we figured oh well. We get over to the other side of this oval thing where the new start is going to be, get to where we think is a good place to be again, and are standing there waiting to get going. We ask this guy in a dog suit that was supposed to be leading us (he ended up not because he was too drunk... ) if we are facing the right way he gives some unintelligible answer so we start asking others around us, and nobody knows. A guy with a megaphone comes over and says something that no one around us understands, we stand there for a minute and then see people start shuffling so we all assume he said we were going to be running the other direction. We moan and groan, but join the shuffle to get towards the front since we are now at the very back. Not 2 seconds after we find a new place he announces that no we aren't changing directions he just needed everyone to scoot back behind these 2 cones that no one saw. More groaning, more shuffling. We find another new spot for the 4th freaking time. By this point in time Partner is freaking out because everyone is packed in super tight and people/dogs are running him over so I'm trying to keep him close by/calm. In the process of doing this my headphones turned into a GIANT knot, seriously I think someone was tying them in knots while I wasn't looking.

 

It's well after 9 now and they finally start us and we are off like a herd of turtles. I expect to head off through campus, but instead we start running around this damn oval. I think ok we are just heading back to the other side where we were going to start and then we'll head out on that side.... NOPE we pass that point, and pass where we started, and by this point I'm pissed. We are fairly convinced that we are just going to be running around this stupid circle for the next 3 miles. I look down at my phone to see how fast we are going/how long the distance around this stupid oval is and the time is running on my running app, but the distance says 0.00 WTF!!! I start freaking out/getting angry and the girl I'm running with starts to panic a little because we needed to be watching our pace to make sure that she would get a fast enough time to get into my heat of the Bolder Boulder. If I hadn't been so confuzzled from everything going on, it would of been smart to stop the app and start it again, but the thought that crossed my brain instead was what the hell else is going to go wrong!

 

Just as we were about to say fuck this race I'm not running in 10 circles, we saw people start to head off away from the oval and through campus. THANK YOU BABY JESUS! I felt like we were running at a pretty good pace, but I had no clue our distance which I didn't like. I figured the miles would be marked along the course though, so I wasn't too worried. My legs weren't feeling very good, and I was having a hard time finding a grove, but I just kept trucking looking for mile markers. At this point I don't know why I was expecting anything to of been set up for the race. Around one corner I look at my phone and it says 10 minutes, and I think uh-oh we haven't seen a mile marker. We keep trucking along and by 12 minutes I'm thinking we have to have gone a mile by now! At 14 minutes there is a water station so I'm thinking we must be half way, and were booking it! I started feeling pretty confident thinking we were going way fast and that I was finally feeling pretty good. Yep that didn't last long.

 

 About a minute later we get to a corner and there is a lady cheering (because the course wasn't marked so people stood at corners and directed us) and saying your half way you can do it! Ugh not booking it like I  had thought. At this point I tell the other girl with me that if she is feeling good she should go ahead and go faster to make sure she gets her time. She is in MUCH better shape than me! She picked up her pace a little and is ran a little ways in front of me the rest of the race. I am minding my own business jogging along thinking I am feeling pretty good, but wishing I had a person to pace myself with when all of a sudden BOOM!!! I don't exactly know what happened, but I went from trying to find a good race mindset to sprawled out on the ground with my phone in one place, the case in another, my headphones in my hand (which I spent ALL race messing with because they kept falling out of my ear because of the knot), and the dog leash on my foot. I was big time embarrassed! And I had scared the crap out of my dog so I was really glad the leash ended up stuck on my foot otherwise I would of spent the rest of the morning chasing him trying to catch him. I picked up the pieces of my phone and the leash and started running again. Btws of all the places I could of biffed it I did it right by the soccer fields where there was about oh 200 to 300 air force people doing workouts... I'm good like that.

 

war wound on my hand

 

And a little raspberry on the knee, there is a touch of road rash on my calf but you can't really see it in the light in my living room... I was fairly impressed I managed to not get super scrapped up... but on second thought that probably just means I was going snail pace

 

I biffed it at about 20 minutes, so I am guessing that I was at about the 2 mile mark. I spent the next minute or so trying to run/put my case back together on my phone which was no easy task. I was freaking fed up with my headphones so I was just going to not listen to music the rest of the time, but I decided that I needed music. It was a beautiful day and the sun was out, but we had only been counting on it being in the 50's and by this point it was HOT. After I biffed it I just couldn't get my grove back I was hot, I was tired, I was getting seriously thirsty, and I was over this stupid train wreck race. I saw the next corner headed back towards where we started so I started thinking thank god I'm almost done with this thing. Once I got close enough to the oval where we started I saw people were running around it and my only thought was if I have to go around this stupid thing more than once I am quitting! I quickly realized that the finish was at the end of one more lap around it, but I had no steam left and didn't feel like I could even do one more lap. I was huffing and puffing and I seriously had to pee. It was the longest lap of my whole freaking life and I don't even know how long it was (it was definitely bigger than a normal size track oval, but I don't know by how much). I almost stopped to walk twice in that last lap, but I kept telling myself JUST.KEEP.RUNNING no matter how slow my legs got I didn't want to walk. I felt like crap and figured that this time was going to be way slower than my last race time, and I was bummed but at this point I really didn't care I just wanted to finish and not walk. I FINALLY got to the finish line and saw the clock read 30:13 I seriously couldn't believe it! There were 3 timing strips though and I'm not sure which one was the official finish so my time was somewhere between 30:13 and 30:17.

 

After finishing the only thing on my mind was finding a bathroom! I don't pee in port-a-potties, end of story. When I first started dating the bf I shocked the crap out of him because I peed in a parking lot, in broad daylight, in the middle of Scottsdale because I refused to pee in a port-a-potty at the Barrett Jackson. But today I didn't care all I knew was I had to pee and I had to pee NOW. It was my only option so I made an exception to the rule, but under any other circumstances there would of been no way. The thing was super tippy and I was worried it was going to fall over so I bolted out of  there with my pants like half up and all crooked, but at least I didn't pee my pants. We hung around and ate a few oranges and got the pooch a treat, but then we decided we were ready for breakfast and mimosas :-) We headed down town filled up on some seriously yummy grub, and did a little shopping. I dropped my friend back of where she had stayed the night and headed home with the pooch.

 

he slept the whole way :-) it was the quietest car ride I've ever had with him apparently the extra .85 of a mile did him in

 

The race was supposed to be "officially" timed with timing chips, but I realized when I got home that there was no timing strip at the start so I don't know how that is going to work. I also tried to find where the results will be posted, but had no luck. After seeing what a train wreck it was I'm not surprised though! I just hope they are posted somewhere so my friend can use it as her qualifying time! She hauled booty! She said she wasn't sure what her time was, but she was at least a minute ahead of me and I'm guessing she did it in under 29 minutes. Even though the whole race was a mess from start to finish and everything that could of gone wrong did go wrong I am excited that my time was faster. I really wanted to get under 30 minutes and if I hadn't biffed it I might of had a chance, but honestly I'm just happy I finished without walking! I definitely need to do some serious training in the next month to make it through the Bolder Boulder with a half decent time (or just to make it)! No more skipping workouts, and I definitely need to do some dreadmill work to work on my pace. Definitely not how I saw the day going, but at least I got a run in :-)

 

my hair is all jacked up and I have a stupid expression on my face because I was trying REALLY hard to keep my eyes open in the bright sun... and of course Partner is not looking at the camera what else is new

 

And after the whole stupid experience all I got was this super ugly shirt! Haha when I saw it all I could think was of course...

 

And the monster is still sleeping

 

 

Hope you all are having a wonderful Saturday!