Oooo, another shiny medal!

Yesterday I ran a surprise 5k race. It wasn't a surprise to me, because I had been planning to run it for several weeks. But it was a surprise to everyone else because I never told anyone that I was planning to run it. I'm sneaky like that. I like racing "under the radar" every now and then - nobody expects anything from me, and so I put less pressure on myself, and if I have a bad race, I don't even have to tell anyone about it.

The problem with trying to run races under the radar around here is that I now have a lot of local runner friends and they are everywhere. And as it happened, one of my fellow FASTies, Kristi, had the exact same plan as I did: to race under the radar at the same race I was racing. Imagine my surprise when I saw her easily-recognizable curly blonde hair. Imagine her surprise when she saw... whatever feature about me that is easily-identifiable (my loud mouth shouting "Ohmigod, it's Kristi!", probably).

Kristi and I are both training for the Chicago Marathon, doing our long runs with the Stashies. Frank Stash, our leader, has mentioned to us many times that he thinks it's a good idea to race a 5k about once a month during marathon training, just to keep one's speed up and get out of the long-slow mode. It had been a while since my last 5k race (about a month, actually), and since this weekend had a shorter long run, I thought it would be a good time to put on my 5k legs.

I chose the Lacon Old Settlers 5k for several reasons. (1) A coworker was running it and had been telling me about his training, and I wanted to give him a little moral support (2) It's far away enough from Peoria that I might not run into anyone else I knew and (3) It's a small enough race that I might be able to win an age group award. Call me greedy, but I will not pass up a chance to earn more hardware for my yet-to-be-built trophy room. I know, I know - it's not all about the awards. Coach Brad always tells us to "run for fun and personal bests". But you know what's fun? Winning awards!

The race itself was very nice. It was well-organized - the pre-race registration process was quick and easy. It would've been nice to see a map of the course prior to the race, but the course was easy enough to follow with green arrows painted on the ground (well, I pretty much just followed everyone else and hoped they were going the right way). The course was not flat - there were a lot of gentle rolling hills, and the first 1/2 mile was entirely uphill, which caused some runners to bitch and moan. Personally, I didn't mind it, and I really appreciated the fact that the last 1/4 mile was entirely downhill. It made for an excellent finishing kick.

We really lucked out in that the weather was spectacular for the morning of this race: crisp, cool and not humid. We could not have asked for better race conditions, and it was such a wonderful change from every other race I've run in the last 3 months.

The weather definitely worked in everyone's favor. My coworker, Kristi and I all ran PR's. With a time of 25:11, I beat my previous best by over 40 seconds, which may not sound like much, but for a 5k, it's huge.

And as an added bonus, Kristi and I both placed 2nd in our respective age groups! Yes, winning hardware is definitely fun. Don't we look like we're having fun???


It's hard work setting a PR, though. Although this race was far less torturous than the hot, humid and wet Washington Cherry Festival 5k (where I had my previous PR), it was still not easy. The voices in my head were at war between pushing harder and pulling back. Pushing harder meant more pain. Pulling back meant increasing my finish time. My lungs were burning, my legs felt heavy, but when I passed the 2nd mile marker and the timing-guy called out 16:02, I though "Hey, I really have a chance to PR here, if I keep up my pace!" It was just what I needed to hear to keep me going. I wore my Garmin, but I never looked at it during the race. I wanted to run by feel.


As it turned out, I think I did a pretty good job of pacing by feel. I slowed down each mile, as I tend to do in short races like this, but not by a lot. Considering the last mile was mostly uphill (and that hill never seemed to end!), you would expect that mile to be slower anyway. I was able to have a nice finishing kick on that last downhill. The timer-guy at the 3 mile mark called out something around 24:40 and I knew I was going to run a PR. Part of me wished I could've pushed just a little more so I could come in under 25:00, but a larger part of me realizes that probably would have involved inheriting the Puke Crown. I am quite satisfied with my 25:11 finish time.

I also need to mention the post-race smorgasbord. It was incredible! Here is just part of it. What you can't see are the bazillion Subway sandwiches in the boxes on the other table. There were bananas, grapes, cookies, brownies, muffins, donuts, and probably a bunch of other things I'm forgetting.


For a small-town race, this is a very nice spread. Heck, this would be a nice spread for a big-city race. I was particularly fond of the large selection of cookies.

So all-in-all, the Lacon Old Settlers 5k was an excellent race. Why? Because I ran a PR, and because I won a 2nd place medal, and because there were lots of cookies. Oh yeah, and because it was well-organized and a nice course too, blah blah blah. But mostly because of the winning and the cookies.

Peace. Love. Train.

Extreme Makeover: FAST Edition

Do you remember when I was telling you all about that workout that Coach Brad dubbed "The FAST"? Remember how I predicted that it would become a signature workout for us, because why else would he give it a name like that?

Well, my prediction became reality last night.

Told you so. *sticks tongue out*

There was a difference, though. You see, "The FAST" has gotten a bit of a makeover. Particularly in the area of length. Meaning: it got longer. A lot longer.

Let's review "The FAST", shall we? In its original incarnation, it consisted of about a 1 mile warmup, a 2 mile interval on the track (8 laps), one Hill of Death, and another 2 mile interval on the track (another 8 laps). Altogether, it was about 6 miles of "fun". Personally, I think that's plenty long. But our coaches disagreed.

Indeed, they took "The FAST" to a whole new level of "fun". And by "fun", of course I mean "torture". The warmup was lengthened, and the coup de grâce (if you can call it that, because there was no mercy in this workout) was the addition of a second Hill of Death. Yep, that pretty much ensured a hasty demise for us all. It ended up being over 7 miles - easily our longest FAST workout ever.


Coach Brad instructed us marathoners to run our 2-mile track repeats at marathon pace or slightly faster. I opted for slightly faster, since my marathon pace is... well... slow. My first two miles were about a 10:30 pace, which is 30 seconds faster than my goal marathon pace. It felt pretty easy, actually. *shhhhh don't tell my coaches I said that!* When I returned to the track after my first Hill of Death (huffing and puffing and generally dying), Coach Brad advised me to pick up the pace for the last 2 miles and run about a 10:00 - 10:15 pace. Okay, I think I can do that. Then he challenged me to catch up to and pass several other FASTies who were on the track.

A challenge, eh? I can't pass up a good challenge!

I passed the first two people in the first lap. No problem. I passed the second two people in the next lap. And I passed the last person about 4 laps in. I ended up running my second 2 miles at about a 9:30 pace, a wee bit faster than the 10:00-10:15 pace Coach Brad told me to shoot for.

How's that, Coach Brad?

He told me I was an animal. I asked him "Which animal?" Because it makes a difference, you know. It's one thing to be a cheetah or a gazelle. It's another thing entirely to be a walrus or a buffalo or a chicken.

He never did specify which animal... *looks worried*

And as if that over-7-mile workout wasn't enough "fun" (torture) for one night, we then had to endure Coach Maggie's core workout, which was focused entirely on the posterior chain (back, glutes, hamstrings). She had us rolling around on the ground like flipped-over beetles trying to right themselves, and bending our legs back over our heads in pretzel-like fashion. At one point, fellow FASTie Sue asked if it was possible to earn the Puke Crown from the core workout.

Oh yeah. It's possible.

Nobody puked though. *hears collective sigh of disappointment from readers*

So what will the next episode of "The FAST" have in store for us? Will it get another makeover? Will we run even farther? How soon will it be? Only time will tell. In the mean time, I need to figure out what kind of animal I am. Does anyone know how fast chickens can run?

*wanders off aimlessly, clucking and flapping arms*

Peace. Love. Train.

Look kids, Big Ben!... Look kids, Big Ben!... Hey kids...

We know. *rolling eyes* Big Ben.

I'm sure we all remember that scene from National Lampoon's European Vacation - you know, the one where they get stuck driving in a roundabout in England?

Well, that's a lot like how my 18-mile long run went on Sunday. Except the dialogue (um, monologue?) was more like: Look, the newspaper delivery man! ... Look, the newspaper delivery man! ...

You see, I took a little trip to visit my parents this weekend and not being terribly familiar with the area, I wanted to keep my run confined to a reasonably small area in order to avoid getting lost, kidnapped, or having to carry water with me. I stashed water and Sharkies at my parents' house and ran a 3-mile loop through their subdivision a total of six times, like running laps on a very convoluted track.

I began my run before the break of dawn, at 5:30am. The neighborhood was quiet and peaceful - it was very serene. As the sun started to break over the horizon, more people came out of their homes to walk their dogs, water their flowers, and get in their cars to go to church. Everyone waved a friendly hello. This subdivision is a gated community and they don't like nonresidents roaming about the streets unsupervised, so I was a little concerned that someone might call security on me. Fortunately, nobody seemed very worried by my presence on the streets. Over and over and over.

Look kids, the crazy runner girl!... Look kids, the crazy runner girl!... Hey kids...

Most of the people I saw on my run, I only saw once. But I saw the newspaper delivery man at least four times (I lost count). I'm not sure if he thought I was stalking him... or if he thought that I thought that he was stalking me. I did get the feeling that at one point he was going to pull over, hand me a bag of newspapers and ask me to help him deliver them. Which I would've been happy to do, for a small fee.

Despite the fact my run was filled with moments of déjà vu, it ended up being a very good run. The route was essentially flat, which was a nice change from my usual hilly routes. (The graph makes it look a lot hillier than it was - the difference between the low and high point is only about 35 feet.)


I was able to finish strong, even as the summer sun got higher in the sky. I was hoping to finish my 18 miles in under 3:30, and indeed, I did. In fact, I finished in under 3:20. I was very pleased with that.

And I'm pretty sure I could've finished in under 3:30 even if I had to deliver newspapers. Because I'm a good multi-tasker like that.

*happily tosses newspapers into everyone's driveways while running and chewing Sharkies*

*trips and falls, newspapers flying everywhere*

Uhhhh... Okay, maybe not.

Peace. Love. Train.