A Big Week Ahead

Today is an exciting and somewhat stressful day as I complete my packing and house preparation so I can live across the country for the next 2 months! The trip starts with me flying solo to Eugene to watch the track & field Olympic Trials and walk the RUNway at the Oiselle fashion show.  After the Trials, I’m headed to Seattle to meet my daughter and husband at the condo where we will be living for the next few months, thanks to a summer position my husband secured a few weeks ago. I’ve been feeling really blessed lately and thankful for all the opportunities my family has been given. I am so excited for the next few months!

As far as running goes, after the Airport 5k on Saturday my husband and I did a 3.5 mile shakeout pushing our daughter in the stroller and ending at the grocery store. We didn’t get a cooldown in the morning after racing so we figured we should get a little running in that evening. The next morning we decided to attempt another run together – a 10 mile run with the jog stroller. I was excited because I love running with my husband. I was less than excited about how our daughter would react for 10 miles since 6 miles is usually her absolute limit. I thought about a great blog post I read on Salty Running on the rules of jog stroller running, especially tip #3 and I decided we were going to make it 10 miles. We really deserved 80 minutes of run time together! It ended up being my favorite stroller run ever. Our daughter sang to us and entertained us and the other people on the trails for the first 9 miles! She fell asleep the last mile or so and perfectly transferred down for her nap after the run. So glad we did that run together. It was awesome family bonding and gave me confidence for longer stroller runs in Seattle!

On Monday my in-laws came into town to watch our daughter because Jeff was headed to Boston Tuesday morning and I’m headed to Eugene on Thursday and we needed someone to watch our daughter on Thursday while we were both out of town. Since the in-laws are here, Jeff and I ran together both mornings. The weather was perfect – cool and sunny and we got our 10k-a-day done both days, nice and easy.

There’s the week so far! Can’t wait to report on my trip to the Trials! Hoping to get some pics of fast runners to share!

racing prize money

Just found another awkward post-race photo from a few weeks ago

What are you excited about this week?

Airport 5k 2012 – Race Recap

I ended up running the local 5k on Saturday. It was at the airport and a very cool race for a few reasons:

  • They closed down some runways and that’s where we raced! How often does that happen?
  • The course was spectator friendly and flat. It went up one runway, then back, then up another runway and back.
  • Frank Shorter was there to give a talk, sign autographs, run the race, and hand out awards!
  • Entertaining for kids. The zoomobile was there, the US Army National Guard had a display aircraft and there was a kids race.
airport 5k

Post-race posing by display aircraft

  • Awards happened quickly after the race and there was decent prize money.

We had a neighborhood block party the night before so I ended up eating cheese (on pizza) and watermelon (I have a bad history with watermelon the night before hard efforts) plus lots of desserts and snack foods. Not the ideal pre-race foods but they didn’t effect me so I got lucky! Our friends came to the race site to watch our daughter so both Jeff and I could race. Amazing! We were so thankful!

I lined up on the start line this week, and guess who planted himself right in front of me? Frank Shorter! I was star-struck, but tried to keep my cool. I made a little small talk, he made a little small talk, and I found out he was planning to run 10 minute miles. I was planning to run 5:28-5:38 so I knew our time next to each other was short.

The gun went off and I felt pretty good. I did a 5:24 first mile which was exactly what I was planning. The women’s leader did a 5:13. I’m glad I didn’t hang, that would have been too fast and resulted in a slower time because my speedwork has been lacking. I didn’t see the 2 mile or 3 mile markers, but I obviously slowed down as I finished in 17:32 and second woman. This was 16 seconds slower than my 5k 2 weeks ago, but 17 seconds faster than my 5k last weekend. All courses were USATF certified. The female winner ran 17:11 and I wanted to run 17-17:05 which is probably unrealistic until I do some more track work which I haven’t done in over 3 weeks now.

You can view the race highlights in the video below by Team Boyce. If you would like to see me struggling toward the finish, check out around 2:40 into the video. I can also be seen at :40, 1:07, and 1:34 of the video.

After the race we ran around trying to get our daughter signed up for the kids run, since she was really excited about doing it. We actually skipped our cooldown! She was so excited to be on the starting line. I positioned myself at the finish and my husband was all set to take video. All of a sudden, my husband lost sight of my daughter (she is VERY quick!) Thankfully, our buddy, Joe, was standing there and spotted her heading the wrong direction. Jeff redirected her and she was off and running in her first race ever!

Airport 5k kids race

Currie's first race. Pushing in to the finish to get a low-5 from Frank Shorter!

airport 5k kids race

Currie was so happy to get a bottle of water and ribbon post-race!

Jeff took a video of the kids race, which can be seen below. You can see Currie give Frank a low-5 and he says “ha-ha! I love it!”

Shortly after the kids race, it was time for the 5k awards ceremony. They were really on top of things! Again, no time to do the cooldown. We slurped down frozen cappuccinos and listened to the awards. The women’s awards were initially messed up because they had me entered as a male. That was quickly straightened out and I collected my $100 (first place got $200). Jeff was 1st in his age group and got a family four pack of tickets to the Rochester Science Museum.

getting award from Frank Shorter

Frank Shorter gave out the awards. Very cool experience!

After the awards, we had Frank sign our bibs and Currie’s ribbon. He was a really nice guy. I love runners! What a fun race! While I wasn’t ecstatic about my time or place, I had a great day and was glad the whole family could join in on the race action.

frank shorter autograph

Posing with Frank after autographs!

autographed race bibs, race winnings

Our autographed bibs, ribbon and prizes from the race.

 Have you met any famous runners (or famous people in general)?