Rollie Fingers (5K) Fun Run

Rollie Fingers (5K) Fun Run - May 17, 2014
time = 27:25
pace = 9:01 average

i'm going to start this one out by saying that i NEVER run fun runs.  NEVER.  i feel that they are a waste of time and especially money.  this was no exception.  you're probably wondering why the hell i signed up, paid, and subsequently ran the race then... yeah, i was asking myself the same damn question.

i'll tell ya... it was a simple case of me not paying attention to very important details.  let me explain.  i was perusing the internets for races to run since my leg was feeling so good for awhile there and everyone was talking about this race on the book of face.  talking about mustaches and cracker jack and rollie fingers... i mean... i'm an 80's kid so... well, you know.

with a face like that who could resist?  if you know anything about milwaukeeans you know that we love our icons.  i grew up with this guy... i grew up with the brewers.  my mother LOVED the brewers.  she made me sit through countless baseball games (in person and on tv).  more than i care to remember.  so whether i like it or not i suppose that baseball is in my blood.



i guess i got caught up in the hype for this race and well... CRACKER JACK!

so i sign up for the race and then i notice the following:

what?  so i send an e-mail asking if there will be age group awards.  i got a response telling me about the above awards.  so... um, no age group awards.  then i notice this:

are you serious?  there's no timing chips?  what kind of race has no timing chips?  how can it even be called a "race"?  such bullshit.  since i'm the dummy who didn't read pretty much ANYTHING before i went all crazy pants and signed up... i have no one to blame but myself so what did i do?  i enlisted kellie to do the "race" with me.  she opted to volunteer at packet pick up in order to get a free race entry... again something i failed to read when i was blinded by my overzealous itchy race fingers.  in retrospect i am not very good at looking before i am leaping.  sometimes this proves to be a hinderance... in this case, it turned out ok.  i had a good time.

since kellie was volunteering i opted to volunteer alongside her being that i'm currently unemployed and had nothing better to do with my friday afternoon.  so we hung out at running performance outfitters in brookfield, wi handing out race packets.  it was a decent time overall.  i got a mustache t-shirt out of the deal so that's cool.  i also got an excellent idea that i can't tell you about yet so stay tuned for that in the next few months.  i promise it is going to be amazing if kellie and i can pull it off!

race morning was well put together so that was nice.  being on the stadium grounds was great in that there are ample bathrooms and they had a ton of porta pottys to go around as well.  

oh so sassy before the race

there were several thousand people signed up for the race so they sent people off in waves.  i liked that because it spread us out so there wasn't much clumping.  i'm really disappointed that they didn't offer chip timing.  i mean... REALLY disappointed.

corralled

i also opted to pace kellie to a PR which is great because she ran really well and did such a great job.  the course was awesome and ended at the start, but the finish shoot sort of wasn't at all awesome.  it wasn't well organized with the water and the refreshments.  i mean... it was ok but it wasn't the best.  the volunteers were not organized and weren't handing out the items and there weren't any BANANAS?  how can there not be any bananas?  aren't bananas a staple of ANY race?!?  for the amount of money this race cost they really could have timed it and they could have had freaking bananas.  those are my biggest complaints.  also... my garmin put the race at 3.04 not a 3.01 so it wasn't accurate either.  based on my experience i won't run this race again and i probably won't run a race that i see cerulean sports group is putting on.  while it was ok... it was only that... ok.  i would much rather spend my money on something that i walk away from feeling great about.   lastly, the company website is out of date and clearly not kept up which i also find off putting.  if you're going to have a company website you should probably have up to day information on it.  the events they have listed are from 2013.  while that's not too out of date it certainly doesn't reflect what is going on right now.  i hope that they send out a survey regarding this race because i would like to give them some feedback on how it went.

in totally other news i've been doing the exercises my PT gave me and that i thought were totally bollox.  a couple of days ago i ran 8 miles.  not fast but i ran them and wasn't out of commission for days afterwards.  i plan to run another 8 tomorrow and i see my PT again on monday.  maybe what i'm doing is helping?  only time will tell but i'm going to be cautiously optimistic.

Run Like a Mother (5K)

Run Like a Mother (5K) - May 11, 2014
time = 25:22
pace = 8:10 average
placed 9th in my age group (40-44) out of 64
placed 29th in women out of 420
placed 29th overall out of 424

i had a great running streak from saturday to monday and then it seems that those 3 days of just over 6 miles was overdoing it because on wednesday when i wanted to run again... i simply couldn't.  my leg hurt so badly that i couldn't even do a little jump on it without pain.  i went for a long dog walk with the husband and then thought that it would be loose enough after that for a short run.  not so much.  got home and took off for my run and didn't even make it down the driveway.  went to PT on thursday and i feel really defeated.  all the PT did was give me some exercises to do at home and quite frankly i don't think that's going to do anything for my issue.  so here i am today after not having run for the past 5 days and i try to run a 5K.  i am so slow now and it is really disappointing.

i'm trying to be optimistic and positive.  i'm trying to cut myself some slack given the current circumstances but i'm really pissed off.  i'm pissed off because no one seems to have an answer on how to fix me.  no one has been able to say to me... i can help you fix this problem in x amount of time and you'll be back to running your normal pace pain free in x amount of time.

so basically i have nothing to look forward to but more of this weird numbness and non-pain and weakness and nerve stuff.  my heal is numb right now... my heal!

so this morning when i got up for the race i was pretty indifferent about it.  i wasn't sure i was even going to bother going because i feel like i'm settling into this slower race pace and i don't want to get comfortable here.  once i got moving this morning tho' i decided that i would probably regret it if i didn't go and i've been getting more and more bummed out the less i've been able to run so i figured all the activity and the other runners would do me some good.

i got my boys up and we all left for the race.  the 1 miler kid race was first and the kid that won it did it in 5:58!  insane!  kids are so fast!

when it was time for the 5K to start suddenly i had to go to the bathroom.  3 minutes to start and i need to go to the bathroom?!?  sheesh... in and out in a jiffy and i'm at the start line.  no one wanted to be at the front so there i was... in the front.  of course, i took off too fast and was clocking under a 7 minute mile out of the gate and when i realized it i dialed it back.  good thing too because by mile 2 my leg was hurting.  not exactly hurting but feeling tight and weird.

still feeling fresh

by 2.5 miles there was a double loop which i managed to slow down down down for and then i got stuck behind a 2 deep team that was clocking a 8:30 mile (yes i checked my garmin).  while i was stuck behind them i was debating staying there because it was comfortable or trying to get around them because i can run faster.  i stayed behind them and then when the water station came up i decided to stop, walk, and drink some water.  i NEVER stop in a 5K so that was deeply disappointing.  This was an out and back which i always like because i enjoy seeing all the people in the race as well as seeing who is in front of me.  i finished strong and am a little afraid to see the pictures because (of course) i wasn't working on my "race face" as i was uncomfortable and my leg wasn't feeling good.  i really just wanted it to be over as i was thinking about my lack of endurance the whole time.  i need to figure out how to build my endurance while not aggravating my leg further.  i just don't know what to do about that.       

my beautiful children on mother's day

these beautiful faces

afterwards my boys were right there and that was wonderful!  we went to brunch at juniper 61 where my little brothers are chefs and had a lovely meal.  all in all it was a worthwhile experience and i would do it again.  hopefully faster.

the shirt, the bib, the medal

only one mile left to go

still trying to be positive

almost done

the finish!

physical therapy & all this tedious leg business

first day of physical therapy.  i guess i really didn't know what to expect but i expected a lot more than what i got.  the therapist just did a lot of range of motion tests and wrote down the results, made me do a bunch of exercises to see where my weaknesses were, and we talked about what went down with my stupid body in the first place.

i was with her for about an hour.

i left with a handful of exercises that she wants me to do two times a day and she wants to see me weekly for the next 6 weeks.

i have no idea what for but i'm going to do the exercises and go with it for now... if i see no progress in a few weeks i'm gonna quit.

i couldn't run today because my leg hurts every time it strikes the ground.  3 strikes in and i had to quit my run so basically i didn't even make it down the driveway.  it is numb a lot of the time and i'm certain that the pain is from my running saturday, sunday, and monday.  i felt so good running those days that i thought i was back.  too much too soon as is always my struggle.

i have a 5K on sunday for mother's day.  not sure i'm going to do it now.  i guess i'll just NOT run until then and see how i feel sunday morning.

i'm so frustrated and tired of this leg business...

the black route

yesterday i ran at lapham peak again for the first time since february.  now that the snow is gone runners can be back on the ski trails which is absolutely wonderful!  i brought my dog luda, he's 9, since he's always so bummed when i leave him behind.  i figured that since i've been injured i'm slow enough for him to keep up.  when we arrived at the park (at 7 in the morning) there was only one other car in the parking lot and i was stoked!  it's hard for me to run with him leashed because he's so close to the ground and i tend to pull on him too much so i like to run without leashing him.  besides that he tends to lag behind a few feet once he starts to fatigue so i like him to be able to run his own pace.  he's a great dog and listens well so i don't worry about him bothering others or chasing animals.  generally, when i see other people i call him and leash him until we've passed.  yesterday tho'... i didn't suspect we'd see anyone considering the time and the fact that there was only one car.

we took off and it was pretty wet from all the rain the previous days.  i decided right away to skip the lower meadow as that area tends to flood pretty significantly and it is almost impossible to run (or even walk) through it without having to go through huge puddles.  unfortunately this cut off almost a mile from the route but better that than fully soaked shoes.  so i cut out the lower meadow and we were on our way.

it was glorious!

it was about 38 degrees and overcast.  no wind but very humid.  everything felt good and i was going pretty slowly so as not to aggravate anything.  luda was keeping up well and we puttered along.  i walked all the hills mostly for luda's benefit as he pooped out about 3 miles in.  we saw some deer, a black squirrel, and several puddles we had to walk around.

i felt good at the end of the run.  no pain in my leg.  just pain in the stupid bunion i developed in my left foot but let's not talk about that.

however... last night a few hours before bed my left calf began to ache.  it wasn't painful but it didn't feel good.  i kept stretching it and was feeling a bit panicked but this morning it feels ok.  i woke at 3am to take some ibuprofen for the ache.  i'm really excited to have my insurance kick in so i can go back to my doctor and try and figure this out.  i'm glad that i'm no longer experiencing the pain and/or numbness when running (fingers crossed) but the fact that i'm still having other weird symptoms is causing me pause.  i don't want to over do the running and make it worse.  i planned to run 3 today but i'm thinking i should hold off given the ache from yesterday.  maybe 6 was too much too soon?  i have 7 planned for saturday and 6 planned for sunday.  i guess i'll run saturday and see how i feel for sunday.  sunday's run will be slower than i normally run as i'm running with a friend who's pace is slower than mine so that mileage for those two days might be fine.

i just get so frustrated with my progress being so slow.  in other news i felt so good yesterday after my run that i was inspired to sign up for the rollie 5K fun run.

... and that's all i've got to say about that.