Groundhog Run 5K 2014

I ran one of the most unusual races this past weekend. 

Dave, the baby, and I took a trip to Kansas to visit family over the weekend.  Of course, when we travel out of state we always look for a race to run.  We already have done a race in Kansas, but we were able to find an underground 5K in Kansas City, Missouri while we were going to be there.  Yes you read that right - underground.  There is an old limestone mine there that has been converted into storage and businesses and whatnot.  It is so big that they were holding both a 5K and a 10K.  And this race is popular!  It's been going on for 30+ years and had almost 5000 people in it.

  

Although the race is run in waves (and we were in the first wave - 24:00 and under), we had been warned that it got crowded in the tunnels.  I wasn't expecting to go fast.  I wasn't expecting to race.  

Dave and I took a little warmup and then lined up.  Surprisingly, there weren't many people in the first wave.  We took off pretty quickly, staying side by side for most of the first half mile.  Then I started to slip back.  Things just felt awful.  I felt heavy and winded and my arms were hurting.  I hit the first mile in 7:11.  Ugh, that's not even as fast as I wanted to be going.  Still, I needed to back off.  I kept Dave in sight but mile 2 was just horrendous.  I missed the mile marker so I have no idea how fast/slow I was going but I knew it wasn't pretty.  Mile 3, things started to perk up and I tried by hardest to catch Dave but he was just out of reach.  He wound up finishing just 21 seconds ahead of me.  

My finish time was 23:13 which is nearly 30 seconds slower than my last 5K.  What the heck?  I was disappointed.  I could have done better.  

We milled around for a while and waited in line to get our official results.  To my surprise, I finished third in my age group (35-39) out of 122!!  Well, shoot!  Now I couldn't be disappointed.  I walked away with a third place medal and checked off state number 17 in the process.

Next 5K....4 weeks!

 

Foto Friday

Anderson and I keep to a pretty good schedule every day.  I work in the office form 6-8:15, meet Dave, take the baby home, and work from home again until about 10:00.  At 10:00 we snuggle and watch Sesame Street. That snuggling usually leads to a small morning nap.  I've started Instagramming the nap pictures.

#ssnt (Sesame Street Nap Time)

Swimming Lessons

Man, I started off so strong in the new year with blogging every day.  I had ever intention of keeping that up and then BAM!  I'm like a week and a half behind.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

We put Anderson in swim lessons as soon as we could, which for us was after 6 months old.  He goes to a parent/child class at the Y once a week for a half hour.  Dave and I both attend with him.  For the class we sing a bunch of songs that have motions in the water, like "I'm a little teapot", which gets the kiddos to stick their ears in the water.  We also work on kicking and scooping our arms.  Anderson looks like he may be pretty good at butterfly or breaststroke.  Finally, at the end of each class the kids work on jumping off the wall and going all the way under. 

Anderson has loved swim lessons.  He hasn't cried at all.  He does get a little fussy every once in a while but that's mostly because swim lessons butt right up to his bedtime and he gets pretty tired.  He doesn't fuss when he goes under the water and has even started sticking his face in the water when he "swims".  I'm hoping this is a lifelong love of swimming.

Foto Friday

We get asked a lot who Anderson looks like.  He's got my eyes. He's got Dave's chin.  He's got my family's ears.  We have no idea how he has darker hair as both Dave and I were blondeblondeblonde as kids.  A lot of time I stare at him and all I see is my mom and my sister.  So, I put together a little picture proof that my kid looks just like my sister.  What do you think?

Week in Review

Monday:
    Scheduled - Rest Day
    Actual - 1 hour progressive run on treadmill (didn't get the run in on previous day). 6.25 miles

Tuesday:
    Scheduled - Short run with pickups and core work
    Actual - Nothing, nada, zip, zilch

Wednesday:
    Scheduled: 5K race
    Actual: 5K race, duh!  Read about it here.

Thursday:
    Scheduled: 30 minutes of biking
    Actual: 30 minutes on the bike trainer. 5.45 miles.  Yes I suck on the bike.  We established that a long time ago.

Friday:
    Scheduled: Rest day
    Actual: Rest day

Saturday:
    Scheduled: Short run warm up and core work
    Actual: 20 minute warm up run, core work, 10 minutes cool down run. 3.0 miles

Sunday:
    Scheduled: 50 minute heart rate run
    Actual: 50 minute heart rate run on the treadmill.  Ugh!  Heart rate training is so frustrating for me.  I hate going slow but understand enough the science behind it to know that it works.  5 miles.

Totals:
    Bike - 5.45 miles
    Run - 17.35 miles
    Strength - 0.75 hours

Anderson at 9 Months

 I cannot believe my baby is already nine months old.  He's been out of my belly as long as he was in it! 

At nine months Anderson is....

• Crawling like it's his job.  Anderson started crawling right before 8 months and he is good at it!  He gets faster every day.
• He is starting to pull himself up to a standing position.  We've seen him doing it four or five times.  He's not exactly stable in a standing position, but I bet he'll be walking before his first birthday.
• He has said "mama" quite a bit and "dada" once but he has no idea what he's saying when he says it. He's said "mama" to me; he's said it while he's eating; he's said it to the TV. I think it means everything. He does "talk" a lot; it just has no meaning.  :)
• He has four teeth - two up and two down.
• He continues to like all foods we've given him as long as they're pureed.  He doesn't exactly like the texture of real food and usually chews and chews it and then winds up spitting it out.
• He's just a happy kid.  He smiles pretty much all the time and laughs a lot (I have a video of this I'll be posting next week).

Happy nine months, kiddo!

Foto Friday

Get ready for a whole slew of pictures this year as (a) I have a totally badass camera and my phone is also always in hand and (b) my kid is cute and loves having his picture taken.

PS - I post lots of pictures on Instagram.  Become my friend: @meredithgordon.

First on the 1st 5K 2014

The pre-race instructions from coach said....

"Go hard.  Puke or it doesn't count."

I don't like to puke, but I got the point. 

Race morning was a little hectic.  The race didn't start until 11:00am which meant there were no alarms set in our house.  The baby woke us up sometime in the 7:00 hour so we pulled him in bed with us for some snuggling.  Next thing we knew it was 9:00 and we needed to get moving.  We didn't really know how cold it was going to be so I didn't know if I would be going to the race by myself, taking the baby to my parents so Dave could come along, or if the whole family would be going.  It was going to be in the mid-30s so we decided to bundle up the baby and go as a family, which bought us an additional 15 minutes.  That 15 minutes didn't matter as we got to the site, I waited in line at the bathroom, lost Dave and Anderson, and only had time for a short warmup.  I found Dave again, who took my sweats, and then it was time to line up.

 

Look at my cute spectators.

This was a big 5K, like 1500 people, and even had pace groups.  Pace groups for a 5K?  Whatever.  Anyway, I lined up right in front of the 25:00 pace group as they were nearly in the front of the pack.  The plan was to start conservatively and I really tried.  First mile was 7:15.  The second mile had a lot of twists and turns, so it was hard to pick up any speed - 7:18.   The last mile was all about catching people, including the chick who had passed me at the end of mile 1.  I worked and got some people including that girl, but then quickly got a stitch in my side which slowed me down a little.  The girl passed me again (she would have beat me anyway because the race was chipped time and she started behind me).  I pushed until the verge of throwing up (that's for you coach) and then the race was over.  Mile 3 was a 7:11.

 Those are gloves tucked in my pants; I'm not that blubbery post-baby.

My time was a 22:45 which is about a minute off my PR but faster than anything I have run since I had the baby.  I love working with a coach; she gives me confidence to run fast even when I've had minimal training due to baby, house for sale, work, etc. I'm looking forward to crashing the PR party in 2014.

2013 Year in Review

Wow!  What a year it has been!

Obviously my year has been all about him.

  

Anderson came into our lives in March and my life is forever changed for the better.

After the baby was born it was time to get my running groove back.  This proved to be a little harder than I envisioned.  I had and continue to have a hard time losing the last bit of pregnancy weight, which obviously affects my running.  In addition, my c-section hurt for a long time and sometimes still bothers me doing certain core workouts.  I haven't gotten all my speed back but I've certainly had glimpses of my former self in racing this year.  I did 13 races in 2013, anything from a 5K to a marathon.  I did my first and a few more trail races.  I even won a race.  I finished a little shy of my 1000 mile goal at 925, but that's a heck of an effort considering I really didn't start running until May and I endured an injury at the end of the year.

What else?  What else?

I read a lot in 2013.  Sixteen books, in fact.  There were at least two other books I started and did not finish (both about nutrition, funny enough).  Here's the list of the books I did read.

    1. "The Art of Racing" in the Rain by Garth Stein
    2. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chobsky
    3. "C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race" by Geoff Williams
    4. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed
    5. "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman
    6. "Sway" by Amber McRee Turner
    7. "Forever" by Judy Blume
    8. "That's Why I'm Here" by Chris Spielman
    9. "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd
    10. "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" by Mindy Kaling
    11. "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell
    12. "Keep on Running" by Phil Hewitt
    13. "A Life Without Limits" by Chrissie Wellington
    14. "Naked" by David Sedaris
    15. "Don't Put Me in Coach" by Mark Titus
    16. "The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving" by Jonathan Evison 

We traveled quite a bit in 2013.  In fact, Anderson has visited seven states already.  We spent a partial week of vacation in Michigan with my entire family.  We had a great time kayaking, tubing, and boating.   Make sure you click on the link for tons of pictures.  We also went to Hilton Head (where all Ohioans go) for a week with my parents.  We had a great time relaxing at the beach.

Finally, we closed out the year by buying a new house and putting our house up on the market.  Our house is still for sale and we're really praying it will sell quickly as we really don't want to lose out on the other house.  We really, really love the new house and want to be able to make it a home for Anderson.  If you want information on our house for sale or know anyone who wants to move to New Albany, please let a comment with an email address and I'll forward you the information.

Happy New Year internet.  I'm looking forward to a great 2014.