Paws & Claws 5K - June 29, 2013

Paws & Claws 5K - June 29, 2013

The Animal Welfare League of Frederick hosted their 1st annual Paws & Claws Run!!!! This was a   5K Run or 1 Mile Walk to benefit the AWLFC cat & dog programs!   374 runners and walkers (and dogs) turned out for this inaugural event!  I don't tend to run too many races in the Summer months, but the Lillard's group running for Sophie and Madigan were going to do this one, so I definitely wanted to join them to continue to show my support!   A great group turned out for the event!!   Here is the link to learn more about how you can help support them as well:  http://sophieandmadigansplayground.org/homepage.php

For a late June morning, it was actually pleasant out, just a little on the humid side.  This was my 1st 5K race for 2013, so I really had no goal other than to push myself and see where I was in timing.   I was pleasantly surprised that I only missed my 2012 personal 5K record by 10 seconds!!   I finished the Paws and Claws 5K in 26:20.  I came in #34 overall, and 3rd in my "new" age group of 40-49 women :)

For an inaugural event, this was very well run with a lot of vendors.  It was a lot of fun to see all the dogs out running today too!  I am happy to support the AWLFC!  Our cat, Tippy, was adopted from them :)

Love for the Lillards 5K & Half Marathon

The Love for the Lillards 5K and Half Marathon Virtual Race came about when a friend from my former Mom's group suffered an unimaginable tragedy on January 31st, 2013.  Two of their four daughters were killed in a house fire, Sophie (6), and Madigan (3).   I was like everyone else hearing the news.  Shock, denial, tears, and the desire to help in any way possible!   My local running group, Run Mama Run, wanted to do the same, and one member asked the question of "can we do a virtual race to raise money?".  This threw into motion many phone calls and emails to friends who have done this before, and we were able to kick off the virutal event that lasted from February 8th - March 24th, 2013.  

We had 70 runners, 52 for the 5K, and 18 for the Half Marathon.  We raised over $1,500 for the Lillards!

Joan, from Bitsy Creations, donated her time and designed the Virtual Race Bib for us.  Beautiful!!

After word was out about the Virtual Run, I was contacted by the Frederick News Post.  They ran an awesome story about the Love for the Lillards Virtual event and really helped increase our participants!!

Below are a few pictures that were posted on the Facebook Event page by the runners.  Thanks to EVERYONE that ran the Love for the Lillards 5K or Half Marathon!  

 If you didn't get to run in this event and would still like to help, please go to the Sophie and Madigan Lillard Memorial Park Facebook page.  The family will be running the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February 2014, and plans to bring another virtual or sister run to the Frederick County area are being considered!!

Click HERE for the Facebook event page for the Disney Princess Half details.

Much love and continued prayers to the Lillards for peace, strength and healing !!

JellyBean Virtual 5K

This is an annual virtual race that is put together by RunWithJess.com. She is a blogger I started following some time ago, and as a busy mom and runner, I related to her and love reading her posts. The JellyBean Virtual race gives participants the option to run various distances or even bike from March 20-31, 2013, to be given prize entries. This year, Run Mama Run decided to enter as a Team. Unfortunately, this years horribly cold and miserable Winter/start to Spring has made for less than optimal conditions for group runs. Half of the team was able to come out at least for the photo opp, then participated in the run when they could :)

5K in 32:14. And first race bling of the year.

Women's Distance Festival 5K

Well, I will say this was a great race in terms of organization and support.  But not so much a great race for me, personally.

My head was NOT in this race this year.  I'm in the midst of MCM training; its been a hot and humid Summer, and I did not wake up feeling great!  Honestly, I wanted to shut off the alarm and roll back over in bed, but when friends are expecting me to show up..... I show up!!

I met up with all the RMR ladies for the obligatory pre-race picture !!   This is why I got out of bed!  Good friends to suffer  run with!

Run, Mama, Run ladies! 

After the pic, we moved up to the Start line.  Still not feeling this race.....but we're off, and then my music wouldn't start.  Ummmm, I feel like hell, it's hot and humid, I NEED motivation!  While I made my way through the bottleneck of runners in the first 1/2 mile, I managed to get my music working and find my pace.  It wasn't great, it wasn't horrible!  Then Mile 2 - the great side stitch that would stay with me for almost a mile!  Then Mile 3 - "oh thank God this is almost over"!!   As I sprinted into the finish, I felt as if I was going to die, throw up, pass out, etc.  And my thought was ..... oh, I get to go run 15 miles tomorrow .....this sucks!

Me (far left - see, armband in hand - had to stop fixing music for photographer LOL)

Well, I don't look tooooo miserable yet!

So again, my head was NOT in the game here!!

The organizers and volunteers did a fantastic job, and I'm sorry my mood couldn't go along with the great race they put together!  Next year, I don't plan on any marathons, so maybe I can go back to enjoying 5K's again :)

Rebel Race 2012

Well, I can finally say I did a "mud" race!  I definitely overcame a whole lot of not wanting to get dirty issues today.  The first obstacle was just running through a water/mud pit, but it got me wet, dirty, and over it!  LOL

Today was all about just having fun with friends.  In the 100+ degree heat, you really just didn't want to do anything more than that anyway!  Kind of scary when you show up and see people being taken out by ambulance!  A lot of heat exhaustion issues!

I was quite happy that I managed all the obstacles (minus 1).  Out of 22, that wasn't bad.  The 1 I wouldn't do was a repeat of one I had just fallen down from that was much higher.  I had already whacked my knee, so I decided not to break anything and skip it!  I really need to work on that upper body strength!! 

Most disgusting obstacle - the pond......blech!  Never wanted to throw up over a stinky pond before LOL  But it was horrible!!  I'd go through the super deep mud pit again over that pond!!  The photographer got some good pictures of us going through the mud pit.  We were laughing hysterically the whole time!

Take a look at that gross pond!  The smell was 100 times worse!!

Over/Under obstacle!  Pure MUD!!

So a really fun day in extreme temperatures, we made it all the way through, and had a lot of mud to show for it!  The only real complaint I have is that the generator to the water truck broke, or the truck ran out of water and standing around for another hour in direct sunlight waiting to get hosed off wasn't an option!  So we used whatever water we had left and baby wipes to get as cleaned up as we could to head home :)

Rebel Race conquered!!

Before

After

Run Like 'Nun' Other - Memorial Weekend 5K

For starters, HUMID!! HOT!!! Miserable, but that was just how my body felt today. I woke up feeling crummy hoping I'd be better at the race. After running just under a mile with Michael, I wasn't sure how I was going to get thru a 5K :/. The sun was blaring, the course was grass and path (I personally don't like running on grass), no water stops (which I'm so happy I carried my own today), and then wanting to throw up once I was done. Not a stellar performance in my part as I finished in 30:05, but I'm happy with finishing. I had to take walk breaks and drink because I got lightheaded and ugh, the side stitch. Ok ok. Enough whining !!

Mile 1: 9:00
Mile 2: 9:57
Mile 3: 9:56
Point 1: 9:15 avg

I was off to a decent start...

For the good part - always great being with the RMR girls :). Happy to have so many friends to run with and whine to about bad race days ;)

Next race is Jeremy's Run on Memorial Day and the forecast is HOT!! I'm hydrating like crazy hoping to tackle the 10k without a repeat of today!!

We did get to see a hot air balloon come down before the race. That was a 'good' highlight of the day LOL

The hot air balloon landing was a big highlight :)

RMR Ladies - hot and sweaty after the race!