half marathon – French Fry Runner

Race Plans for 2015

I’m linking up with Patty from My No-Guilt Life, Erika from MCM Mama Runs, and April from Run the Great Wide Somewhere for Tuesdays on the Run. This week’s topic is 2015 Race Plans.

So far, I have my races planned through May and then one in September.

January: Frigid 5k. This is a small local race to get everyone motivated. I’ve never run it, but it’ll be a good experience, I’m sure.

February: Hale Freezes Over 5k or 10k. I’m not sure whether I’ll be running the 5k or the 10k, but I’ve run the race before. It’s put on by the Hale Center Theater, and all participants receive free show tickets in their swag. Pretty sweet, right? There’s delicious food at the start and finish, and it really just feels like a family event. 🙂 I can’t say enough good things about this race. And I’m running it with a lot of the Blister Sisters! We haven’t run a race together in a really long time, so that will be great!

Blister Sisters! — Blister Sisters at Moab’s Winter Sun 10k!

March: Rex Lee Run 5k or 10k. This is an annual local race that’s celebrating its 30th anniversary. This will be my third time running the race. It features a good course, a great price, and a huge raffle at the end. All in all, a great choice for me.

See? We do run together sometimes! Me and the Engineer

April: Pink Series 10k. This is an all-women race in a neighboring town. I’ve never run one of the Pink Series races, but I’m excited about it.

May: My first half marathon of the year! I’m still trying to decide which half to run, but I’m leaning toward a smaller race, the Alpine Half, on May 23–or my town’s local race, the Provo City Half Marathon, which is larger but earlier in the month (May 2).

– – No idea for June through August – – I’ll get back to you on that.

Then, of course, the Dumbo Double Dare the first week of September! Woo! Looking forward to this.

Fast forward to November. I’d really like to run my marathon in November, but I’m waiting on choosing one until I know where we’ll be living at that time.

I'm ready to #race in 2015! What are your race plans? @frenchfryrunner #running #goals Click To Tweet

What race are you most looking forward to this year? Anyone in Utah running any of these races?

See my other races/recaps here.

Thanksgiving Point Half Recap

On April 27, I ran the Thanksgiving Point Half Marathon. It was hard. The end.

Just kidding. Actually, it was a pretty good race, even though I ran a couple minutes slower than my first half. Why slower? Well, basically the whole course was made up of hills, but I feel that since I only ran slightly slower than my first half—which was mostly downhill—I’ve improved a bit. I’m excited to see how I can do with better training.

Speaking of training, for this half, I definitely should have trained better. It seems that even though I can cover the distance, I have a lot to work on.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself . . .

The night before the race, we ate some DEE-licious pizza at a small-town pizza restaurant. After that, it was time to go home and get a good night’s sleep. My beautiful sister-in-law stayed over so we could ride to the race together in the morning. I love her, and I love that we do some races together. We chatted a bit (and the Engineer and his brother talked about video games?) about our training, the race, etc. Good stuff.

Race morning, we woke up at 4:45 (or something ridiculous), got ready and made our way up to the race venue. We parked pretty much next to the start, so that was nice. We milled around a bit, tried to do our business, and got ready to race. Eventually we headed to the start line. My sister-in-law was running with one of her friends (who was running her first half marathon! Way to go!!), so they lined up a little further back. I lined up near the 10:40 pacer (I was optimistic because I didn’t really know what was coming even though I’d seen the elevation map), ready to rock this half. We had a moment of silence for the Boston Marathon victims. Then we were off!!

I kept up with the pacer for a few miles—maybe 5—but eventually I had to slow down because of all the HILLS! I had looked at the elevation profile a few times, but I really had no idea how hilly it would be. There were a lot of steep declines and more steep inclines. And moderate inclines. And short inclines. Sigh. At least the course was pretty. 🙂 It’s not like I hate hills—I don’t—but after a while, it was just a bit much. We raced through some tulip gardens, though, which were really pretty. I think I fueled decently (could have eaten too much, though) and was well hydrated. That’s a win for me. Finally the course flattened out for the last mile and a half. And I just wanted it to be over. I sprinted to the finish (and looked really “great” in my finish pics). I got my medal and helped myself to the delicious treats at the end (definitely a plus for me since I have really high expectations). The Engineer found me and helped me hobble around and carried all my stuff. We made our way to where my brother-in-law was standing, and surprise! my in-laws were there to watch us finish! We watched my sister-in-law finish and then headed to the PT booth. The PT worked on my feet and stretched out my IT bands. I felt tired but great overall. Definitely better than my first half.

FINAL TIME: 2:26:22 (slower than my last, but I felt a ton better this time around)

Next up: Nestle 5k on June 1, Freedom Run 10k on July 4, and another half on July 13

Running with the Cows

Today was the first day this week that I went running, and I really needed it. It’s been really crazy at work–actually extremely crazy. I guess in publishing you just can’t get away from the deadlines, but to me it seems I can run away for a little while and feel a lot better afterward. I ran 4 miles with an overall pace faster than average, which is awesome because it means that I’m getting better and–more important–that my foot’s getting better (and I’m well on my way to meeting my POTM goal). Because this route (and my place of work) is in the country, I got to run next to a herd of cows. Okay, so they weren’t running (do cows “run”?), and I was running past them, and they were in a field, and I was on the road next to the field . . . but it was still kind of fun. I didn’t take any pictures, but to give you an idea of what a cow looks like . . .

In other news, I’m thinking about running the Canyonlands Half Marathon in March. There’s a lottery entry, but two of my friends have guaranteed entry, and I want to run with them. Sigh. We’ll see. And I have another friend who wants to me to run a half marathon with her in January . . . not sure how I feel about that (the running, not the invitation to run). I definitely want to run another soon–and I’m definitely more obsessed than ever with running. Good stuff.

ALSO, The Engineer will be taking a yoga class with me when it starts up again at the local college in January. SO EXCITED!

FFR

p.s. Have you signed up for Lora’s fundraiser for Hurricane Sandy relief yet? It’s not too late! The fundraiser is almost at its goal of $1000. Tell your friends!