Come Run in the Sun. The Good,Bad, and the Ugly.

I'm writing this post quick, fast, and in a hurry.  I don't want to think about this race any longer than I have to.

So, where do I begin? I try to be positive, because I love to run. I also love to race. The race I ran a few days ago was a bust.......Big Time. Is it the end of the world? No. Will I recover?, Yes. OK. On with the post.

Come Run in the Sun is a 10k that I am quite fond of. It's a tough out and back course that I have run twice before with great success. In 2008 I won the race.

Lean and Mean 2008- 43:51. I love my electric blue Mizuno racing flats.

In 2009 I ran the race again, and I have pictures to prove that this is a tough course. I came in 2nd in 2009 with a time of 45:25.

 I didn't run this race in 2010. I just found out I was pregnant so, I didn't want to race.  In 2011 I was still unpacking boxes and dealing with a 4 month old that was way more fun than running up a hill.

This year I thought that this would be another test of my fitness. Plus, (I feel like a dick face for admitting this) but, I thought this would be any easy race where I could place in the top three overall (women's runners) 10k  race.  I ran a 10k in February in  47:10. Since then I have been enjoying my workouts, my schedule is getting easier and  I feel, as though I have been getting faster.  I ran a great half in April and I ran a decent 5k at the beginning of the month.

On Saturday I woke up tired. It was windy and I was asking my self, "Do I want to run this?'. 

I got dressed, ate breakfast, and left the house.  I got to the race site and picked up my bib.  I was still feeling "wonky and off" I took a lap around the track where the race was going to start and I felt like poop, and the strangest thing popped into my mind. "Wow, Dolly you haven't had a bad race in awhile". "Huh, what?' I finished my warm up and lined up behind the front runners. 

The gun went off and I found a good spot to find my groove in. Then we rounded the corner and we headed up the hill.

There were two other female runners with me. We started to climb up the grade. Two miles of straight climbing followed by another mile of rolling hills. I tried to show these ladies who knew the hills best but, I got my ass handed to me on the climbs.

Another picture from the 2009 race. Thank you Daly Costanza for taking the pics. :)

Then the turn around followed by another mile of rolling hills, followed by two miles of downhill thunder on the quads.  Hindsight is always going to be 20/20, but I feel like I had no 'huevos" (balls) during the second half. I was less than a minute back from the leaders on a course that I had smashed in previous years. I finished 49:12.

I finished 3rd overall. Yeah, I accomplished my original goal. But, I feel that this was not a good race mentally for me. I don't normally race with an Ipod for 5k 10k races. I wish I would have had a distraction during the climb. It was a day where I got in my own way.

Again, I feel like an asshole for venting about race times. I also feel like Al Bundy from Married with Children. He loves to talk about his glory days "4 Touch Downs in one game".

1999 and 2009 were some of my best racing days ever!!

  Again hindsight is 20/20 I wish I would have started this blog in 2005. I can't help but want people to know about my past and future potential.  

Distracted drivers suck

My mother's day rocked! But, it got off to a really fucked up start. I had been getting bored with taking my son out to run loops around the park. So for the last two months I have been taking him out for a four mile loop around my neighborhood. On Sunday morning I headed to the park to do a loop around the track. Then I crossed the street to exit the park.I was then walking  on the sidewalk with my stroller. As I was crossing another street, I was running  with my son in the stroller and a Ford pick up truck comes flying around the corner. It almost seemed as if he was speeding up towards me. I know he didn't see either myself or my son. I was able to push my son out of the way and I  narrowly missed being hit by a truck. I screamed out at the top of my lungs. I was terrified of what almost happened. The driver of the truck then hopped out of his vehicle. He was a big burly man and he  started to approach me.  I was so shaken up that I didn't even want to talk to the man. Several people at the park saw what happened and came over to diffuse the situation. I ended up walking back towards home with my son and I walked two miles with him to calm myself down. I didn't want to be a hysterical mess when I came home to my husband.  I dropped my son off and I ran 5 more miles solo.

I have always been a fearless runner when I am out running. But, I am also really careful to face traffic head on, I never cross in front of a car if I know they do not see me and I'm always scanning the road for what's coming up ahead.

I don't want to be afraid to take my son out running. I know he enjoys going out to see the neighborhood. I'm just going to have to take even more precautions when I am out running with him. I am so grateful that we are both safe and sound.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k

Photo courtesy of Southern Nevada Susan G. Komen

I want to get this race report out before the details start to become fuzzy.  The morning of the race, I woke up at 5:30 with my son so I could feed him breakfast, eat breakfast myself and leave the house early.

For  breakfast I ate a toaster waffle with a little bit of butter and a tiny amount of syrup. I also threw half of a cliff bar in my purse to snack on before the race.  I left home at 6:30 anticipating that the traffic and parking downtown would be awful. I got  to the Las Vegas downtown area around 6:45 and scored great parking. I had a half hour to kill so I just sat in my car and listened to the radio on my phone. At 7:15 I met up with a runner friend, and we hung out before the race. It really made the time go by much faster. At 7:45 we did our warm up together, and then it was time to head into the corrals.



photo courtesy of Spy on Vegas. I'm the little bit of yellow in the picture.

I was pretty nervous about this race. I was worried about my performance but, the start of this race always scares me. It is a large race and sometimes with big starts there can be a bit of pushing and shoving. I lined up pretty close to the front and my goal was to run a sub 22:00 5k.

The thing I love about 5k's is that they are over before you know it. The first mile I ran it  bit fast for the first 400 meters to get away from the crowds and to find my groove. By the second mile the crowds had thinned out and the lead women were way ahead of me.  I don't really know what my split times were. I'm using a really cheap watch that just acts like a normal stopwatch.

With a mile to go I  just tried to keep my speed constant. I was able to pick off a few runners but, I also got passed by a few runners.  My allergies were still bugging me but, I was able to run fine.

I borrowed this picture from Facebook.  This picture is kind of deceiving.
The lady who is behind me in the picture actually beat me by four seconds.

I crossed the finish line 21:54.  I felt like I was going to barf  right after I crossed the finish line.  I dry heaved a little bit. After I walked for a few moments I was fine. They gave awards out for the top three finishers. I ended up being the 10th woman overall and 2nd in my age group. I am happy to have placed in my age group. I'm even more excited about getting faster and watching my times get lower.

* By the way my runner friend did really well she was 4th woman overall with a time of 20:44. Nice!

I went to the Dr. today

Well I went to my general practitioner today because my allergies are bugging the heck out of me.  In the last year I have had bronchitis and sinusitis due to allergies. 

In previous years I have been able to deal with allergies by taking Claritin or Zyrtec for a few days during the beginning of Spring. Then I become acclimatized and I am fine. I am usually able to run just fine, blowing a few snot rockets here or there.  This year I feel like a pansy.  I went for a run outside last Friday and I gutted out 7 miles. It felt like I was breathing through a straw and when I returned I had a nasty coughing fit followed by spitting up enormous amounts of phlegm. I know this sounds gross, but I wanted to write down my feelings before I change my mind.

I was hoping to get an allergy shot. My husband suffers from terrible allergies (much worse than I).  He got an allergy shot last month and he is fine. Well my Dr. suggested a different route and I have a few medications to try.

I signed up for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 5k this weekend. This race has special meaning for me. Personally, I have not lost any close family members to this horrible disease. I do have an aunt that is a survivor. I also have friends that have lost mothers, sisters, and friends to breast cancer.

This race is also one of the largest 5k's in Las Vegas. I ran this race in 2005, 2007, 2008, & 2010.

In 2010, I was pregnant (4 weeks, but I didn't know it at the time).  Last year so much was going on, my son was only 3 months old and we had just moved into a new home. Talk about hectic.

I am hoping to see what kind of 5k shape I am in. I don't like to enter races just for fun or use them as training runs. I like to push myself as hard as I can. There is something very satisfying in knowing that you have left it all out there on the course.


*My last post got a bit of traffic from the whole Nicole and Gwendolyn craziness. I decided to comment on her blog, because she had some unkind remarks about Deena Kastor. I love all things running, and I am quite fond of Deena. I watched her on TV in 2004 during the Barcelona Olymipics when she won a bronze medal.  She is an inspiration and a class act. I never decided to attack Nicole or call  her any names.  She chose to come to my blog to harass me. Either way, Thank you for stopping by.