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.

Words Runners Don't Want to Hear

"No running"

Ugh, really?? I never ever thought I'd have a stress fracture. I ran between 50-90 miles every month last year. I practically ran a Half Marathon a weekend and then some training for the Marine Corps Marathon, I ran the marathon in my goal time with only a nagging hip to complain of!!! And in the last 3 months, I've barely ran 60 miles total. And NOW I have a stress fracture. Hysterical!! Well, not really!

I can't say I took the news well. When I first went to the Ortho to have it checked, the x-ray didn't show a fracture, but he wanted to completely rule it out given my explanation of the pain. I was hoping for tendonitis, or for nothing. The MRI results show fatiguing and the start of a stress fracture in my foot. I think I just stared at the doc. It was that or burst into tears as he told me "no running", "no impact sports or activities"!! I saved the tears for when I got to the car.

Some people just don't understand why it's such a big deal. Why am I so upset! Well, running saved me! It gave me back "me"! I finally had an identity other than "Michael's mom, Daniel's mom"! I made awesome friends because of running! Friends that are helping me deal with my "funk" over this. It's my free time, my friend time, my alone time!! Now, instead of "going out for a quick run", it's "can I work in getting to the gym for this class or that one?" Pain in the a$$!!

So now that I've whined, cried, griped, and have been angry over it, it's time to move on and come up with a training plan that keeps me going strong without running until I am allowed to get back out there. The good news - not a full fracture only means 3-4 weeks off (I've already been off for 2 weeks *sigh*) So time to put my YMCA membership to full use and get swimming and spinning more!! Plus I get the physical therapy for my hip in that timeframe too. Hope to be put back together in time to at least run/walk the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in March that I'm signed up for :/

Happy New Year 2013

Looking back at 2012, I have to say it really was such an awesome year. It definitely had its ups and downs, trials, tribulations, drama, and tears, but that was just MCM training. Otherwise, I really don't know if I could ever top 2012.

Instead I'm looking to enjoy the run again, to volunteer at more races, support new runners achieve their goals, and hopefully kick a few time goals :)

My biggest goal for 2013 will be to hit a sub-2 Half Marathon.  Going to really have to bust my tail to get it done, but I'm sooooo close......

Happy Running Everyone!!

Happy Thanksgiving - Wattle Waddle 5 Miler

On Thanksgiving morning, instead of staying all nice and warm in my bed, I got up and met up with some friends to kick off the day with a 5 mile race, the Wattle Waddle 5-Miler in Emmitburg, MD.  This race raises money for Hope Alive, Inc.  They are a non-profit, non-denominational Christian ministry serving homeless women and children.  www.hopealiveministries.org

Races are so much nicer when freezing you're with friends :)

Don't we look cold ??

This race is always a fun one!  Instead of being mobbed with 3000 runners at our local Turkey Trot, this race brings in about 300 runners.  Much more relaxed and enjoyable way to start the day! 

Our awesome Run, Mama, Run ladies with the "Turkey"!  

A few fun pictures with the Turkey !

My annual Turkey picture!

Here we go!!

My finishing photo :)  A great PR for the 5 Mile Race makes for a happy picture!

Great race, great friends!  That's something to be thankful for !!

OBX Half Marathon Weekend

You really don't have to give me an excuse to travel to the Outer Banks of NC.  It's my most favorite place to go!  Beautiful weather, sunrises over the water, and this year, the Outer Banks Half Marathon!!!  Now, given this race is in November, the weather could be really nice, or really horrible!  We completely lucked out this year and had warmer than usual temperatures!  It was awesome!

The Run, Mama, Run Ladies decided to invade OBX :)

 

Pre-race Dinner Out!

Early morning pre-race picture with Rose and Crystal!

RMR Ladies ready to take on the OBX Half Marathon

Very happy runner with a new PR of 2:07:16 !! 

 

After the race, we headed down to the beach!  What a great race day !!  :) 

After the race, we all headed out to dinner.  Drinks on the menu included Rum Runners and Pain Killers.  Well those types of drinks could only lead to one thing ..... and who can forget the "wine thingy?"!!

Unfortunately, we had to leave the next day, but what a beautiful sunrise !!

Beautiful sunrise from our balcony!!

I'll be back in November 2013 to run this race again! 

Marine Corps Marathon - Part 3 - The FINISH!!

Part 3 .... Yes, we FINISHED!!!.......

Miles 21-25: Crystal City.....pain in the quad.....OMG I have to walk again.....But the spectators were blasting the music and dancing and that kept my mind off it for the most part!! Really bad when you look at your watch and go "we can still beat 5 hours if we can do 2 more miles in 30 minutes" LOL

Miles 26-26.2 (.5 per Garmin): Very hard, uphill to Iwo, spectator ran into the runners to video his friend. Hope he got it on tape us yelling at him to "move out of the way". Then we heard our RMR ladies cheering for us, we held hands and finished together. As I almost decked the guy next to me for trying to block me LOL

After crossing that finish line, Crystal and I gave each other a huge hug and that's when the tears started.  Walking up to get our medals, the road was lined with Marines giving high fives and congratulating the runners.  It was awesome, just awesome!!!    And we BEAT Hurricane Sandy!!  Thank goodness!!

Then we headed into the area where the Marines were presenting the medals :)  No words...lots of emotion!!  WE DID IT!!

Saluted by a Marine presenting my medal.  Seriously in awe of these guys.  They're awesome!!

Unfortunately, after we got our medals, it went downhill from there.  We waited a bit to get our Finisher Photo done, but it gave us time to touch base with our friends and families!  I reported in to my husband that we were alive and well, and I got a big congratulations call from him and Michael.

FINISHER!!!

Now to wait to get all the photos from along the course :)

We headed to the Finish Area to get our drop bags and meet up with our friends.  It seemed like MILES to get there!  Didn't we do enough already ??   We found "Miles" along the way for a picture since we missed him at the Expo!!  

Me, Miles, and Crystal

Looking good for 26.2 in our recovery jackets.  These were actually toasty warm!

Run Mama Run ladies!! 

We finally got our stuff, found our friends, and decided to head on home.   OMG, the line to get into the Metro and/or shuttle buses were insane!!  I mean, it would have been over an hour to get IN to the Metro station.  So we walked (another MILE) to the next stop UPHILL to the next Station.  Best move though.  We got right on the train and headed home!  Walked back to the hotel, grabbed a Starbucks for the road, and got the car from the Valet!  Traffic was easy out of DC, so we were home quickly!! 

What an adventure this was.  I was lucky to have awesome friends along the way to take this on with!

Will I ever do another marathon.....???  Right now, I can't say "never" because the Marine Corps Marathon was so wonderful!  But I am really looking forward to going back to running Half Marathons and having some down time!

OOOOORAH!!!