Race Season Fail

That's me. Of the eight to ten races I planned to do this year, so far I am doing two (hoping for four to five, but we'll see how it goes). One of those races is a half marathon I signed up for thinking I would have time train for and I was really wrong. Instead I am doing the 5k. Although, half the reason I signed up for it was because I knew if I didn't have time to train I could at least do the 5k instead and not feel like I was wasting a bunch of money. :)

Only until this past three weeks have I really had the energy to start upping my mileage. I just did five miles this past week end and it felt great. I didn't feel guilty for doing it and I still had plenty of energy when I got back home. I'm just slowly adding distance each week and not really worrying about getting faster. I'm sticking with my three mile runs during the week and counting my runs with the jogging stroller as speed training. I am also counting upping my speed on the treadmill that last half mile because I REALLY want to get off the dang thing as speed training too :) ... Any ways, I'll worry about upping those week day runs when I actually start training for a distance race or when I want to have a cheese burger and milk shake.

I'm starting to feel like a runner again and its nice to have that confidence back. It isn't how many races I do, but how I feel that counts.

Race Report: Valentine's Day Dash 2012

This past Saturday was my first post baby race. Green Lake's Valentine's Day Dash has become a new tradition for me, in which I celebrate the start of race season and February's holidays with a fellow February birthday girl. Since I am still working on getting my speed back up to where it was and she hadn't run three miles in who knows how long, we decided not to "race" the dash. It was nice though because we got to focus more on fun.

Valentine's Day Dash has about three thousand race participants and is held at Seattle's famous Green Lake. It is the perfect beginning 5k for someone starting out. The entire course is flat. The crowd is not too large to get lost, but not too small that you lose the fun. It is awesome people watching. People dress up in all sorts of festive outfits.

My Valentine and I have worked out the perfect parking spot, a short five minute walk from the starting line. We got there around 9 am, 30 minutes before the start. There was a quick bathroom pit stop and then we got our race packets. We toured around the booths really quick and then it was time to line up for the start.

Before the start we quickly realized we should have made a bathroom stop before getting in line. It's only a 5k, no big deal right? We can make it. Well after the first mile we quickly realized the race would be much more enjoyable if we stopped at the bathroom. So I was that girl, that I made fun of, who takes a potty stop during a 5k. Now I have answered my question on who really does that.

After our bathroom break, the rest of the race was a breeze. We quickly got back on pace to where we were. My final time was 34:21, with an 11:05 pace. Given the pit stop, I consider it a pretty good time! I also did not almost vomit in the Tunnel of Love this year (thanks Hailey!).

We celebrated our finish with a fruit omelet at Brown Bag in Kirkland. I'm already looking forward to next year. I need to add to my race outfit to make it more festive. Maybe some tacky hear socks?