Run for Rhodes #Anywhere 5k

I know I keep saying I’m not running any races this year due to my knee issue, BUT… Virtual races don’t count!! Why not? you make ask…  Well, because you can run a virtual race as slow as you’d like and still participate and feel good about it!!  At least that’s how I feel about them! :)  Today I was able to participate in the Run for Rhodes #Anywhere 5k

It runs April 20th – April 21st  (There’s still time to get in on the action)
Just go to the Website and register and download a bib and run 5k then go back and submit your time and share a picture on facebook or twitter to be eligible for prizes! Simple as that!

 

Run for Rhodes #Anywhere 5k is in honor of Dustin Rhodes, a 28 year old runner who is 1 of only 200 people in their 20s in the whole world diagnosed with a severe brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme. To read more you can click Here.  This race is to raise awareness and donations or cards for Dustin.  Like I said… there’s still time left to participate so head on over and sign up!! :)

Anyways… so I ran my race on the treadmill and did a slow 3.1 miles trying to focus on form and keep my hips from collapsing and ended up running my 5k in 33:22.  I’ll take it!! Afterwards I stretched for about a half hour (yeah almost as long as it took me to run the 5k lol) and *knock on wood* my knee feels like it is slowly but surely getting better… hopefully!  We shall see! Sorry for the boring race recap, but it is what it is ;)

Oh yeah, BTW, you can now Follow my blog with Bloglovin (check out the new social media/follow buttons on my sidebar!)  :)

Did you race today? What about tomorrow?
Have you ever run a virtual race? Did you enjoy it?

Three Things Thursday

1. Thank you all for your kind words and prayers for my unexpected dental procedure! It went well!  In order to tell you all about it, you need a little bit of back story first!  When I was in 5th grade, I was at basketball practice.  We were running some suicide sprints and this boy got mad because I was beating him so he pushed me into the brick wall at full force.  Every tooth in my mouth was knocked loose and moved, my chin was split open, and my 4 front ADULT teeth were knocked out.  My doctor was thankfully there as his son was on the same team as me and he said that if I would’ve been about an inch more to the right I probably would’ve broken my neck on the stairs of the bleachers.  I had to miss 2+ months of school and had to go through stitches and TONS of dental work that was painful, but my dentist was able to build up my teeth so they looked real. 
Back to Tuesday, one of my teeth felt weird so I went up to the mirror and ran my tongue over my teeth and as soon as I did that, one of my fake teeth popped off.  Well, as you can imagine, I was terrified and all those horrible memories of 5th grade came rushing back and I instantly burst into tears.  Afterall, I wasn’t about to go anywhere looking like that, especially to my internship!  So I immediately called the dentist and he wasn’t available, but 10 minutes later, I got a call and he was going to come into the office just to see me!  We got my tooth built back up and all is now well again in the life of me! ;)

2. Running Update:  Well, after planning to run the Columbus Marathon, and then needing to downgrade to the half, and then not training whatsoever, I decided to not even go.  I ended up sleeping in which was amazing and saving my gas money and saving my body from being sore.  Was I disappointed… sure.  That was my first DNS.  But, right now, life is crazy hectic and I think it was the right decision.  As for running in general:  I’ve been running a mile here or there and doing a little bit of weights… some weeks I go without any exercise… I just think that sleep is more important to me right now.  I’m ok with that… as soon as this STRESSFUL semester is over (December 15th) I plan on getting back into running/exercising and slowly building my health/fitness back up to where I was before… it’s a little depressing knowing that a year ago I ran a marathon and now I can only really run about 2 miles lol… ugh!

3. Erica from Life as a Running Mom sent me a email yesterday:

Aloha Zaneta!

Ironically, I came across your business card tucked in your Christmas card last year on my work desk today and was wondering....are you doing this again this year?

Have a great day!
Erica

The answer is YES!!! The past couple of years have been a blast and I am so excited to host it again this year!!  If you’ve never taken part in the Christmas Card Swap, you can check out last year’s HERE!  I will have signups posted probably this weekend or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so keep your eyes open!! :)

I hope you all are doing well!  I really miss visiting everyone’s blogs!  Also, welcome to the couple of new friends we have here one Runner’s Luck!! :)

Sweet Corn Festival 5k Race Recap

Well, Since I’m a little behind on a couple of my recaps, I decided I’m just going to give the details and post pictures… that way, I can be caught up for the year because my marathon was my last race of the 2011 season!  Enjoy…

 

22nd Annual Sweet Corn Festival 5k
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Start Time:  9:00am

Results:
Official Time:  26:04
Overall Place:  154/509

Notes:

It was already 90 something degrees at the start of this race… it was miserable!!  I ended up running a 7something minute mile for the first mile, which I’d never done before… probably shouldn’t have done then because it drained my energy in that heat!

This was the first race my husband was able to watch me run!  My parents both came as well, and after the race we ate some corn and then left because it was too hot.

 

Pictures: (as always, you can click the image to make it bigger)

 

The Race

 

My Husband Pouring Cold Water On Me After the Race

 

My Parents and I

 

Goofing Off After the Race

My First Marathon: The Columbus Marathon Recap

I apologize… Both my blog and I are on school time, which means I do nothing but work, school, and study… just wait for Christmas vacation when I get to stalk you all like a creeper!! ;) Muah ha ha ha!!! Speaking of which… don’t forget to sign up for the 2011 Christmas Card Swap!!
Ok… back to the recap:

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I got up around 4:45am… still sicker than sick, but not gonna let it stop me… and hopped in the shower to wake up/warm up, then got dressed and ate 2 pieces of peanut butter toast.  I made sure I had everything ready, made sure I had a map of the route for my spectators and then me, my husband, my mom and dad all piled in the car and started out on the hour long drive.

We got to downtown Columbus around 6:40am and only had to walk a few blocks to get to the start line.  Well, my stomach was giving me all sorts of grief, so I had to stand in line to go to the porta pot… and soon the extra time I had had was dwindling away, but I knew I had to stay in that line!  I was still in line when they sang the national anthem and didn’t get to see the starting line fireworks around 7:30am. :(

It was finally my turn and then I took off my long sleeve shirt, put on my race bib, rubbed on some body glide, and put on my pace band… hugged and kissed my parents and husband goodbye and went and tried to squeeze in to the corral behind the one i was supposed to be in lol… I took my time walking up to the starting line with the rest of the crowd, not running at all before my toe hit the line so I wouldn’t waste any energy…. and there I was starting out on my first ever 26.2 mile journey!!

The road was covered in discarded sweats, sweatshirts, and plastic bags… I tripped over a couple of them when I tried to take in my surroundings.  I wanted to start out a little slower than my goal pace and then push it on the “downhill” finish.  I was having a blast!!  The atmosphere and vibe of the race were upbeat and positive.  It was a bit chilly and rather windy which made it a little bit not fun but not enough to dampen the spirits of everyone running. 

Yeah… I can’t downplay it… I felt miserable… sicker than a dog… hackin up my lungs…

There were so many spectators along the first part of the course.  My mom text me that they were all standing around the 5 mile mark and I updated her on where I was.  I don’t remember the specific mileage now, but I do know that in the first half (13.1 miles):

- I saw my family 2 times and gave hugs and kisses both times (mile 5 and 9)
- Took 3 gels around miles 3.5, 7, and 11
- Had to stop at a porta pot 3 times due to being sick and it wasn’t pretty
- Felt rather good running-wise and having fun even tho i was not feeling good sick-wise. 
- My goal of coming in sub-5 was still intact despite the pit stops.

 

We headed up a hill around mile 12.something and the wind came rushing at you… it was difficult… and then, before the hill was over, the half marathoners were turning left and finishing while us marathoners had to finish the hill and keep going another 13.1 miles.  It became quite lonely and my mind immediately checked out… I kept kicking myself saying “get back in the groove” but it was so hard!  My hopes of a sub-5 quickly faded away and my goal became survival and finishing!!

The 2nd half was WAY more lonely … I felt alone… there were WAY less bands and definitely NOT as many spectators… at one point we were running through the OSU campus (the horseshoe) and it was so windy and no spectators whatsoever!  My hands were getting numb and tingly cuz I had left my gloves in my bag… with my husband (a lot of good they were doing there)  I started coughing a lot more in the second half and was not having a lot of fun… not to mention my mom had text that they were around mile 16 and nowhere to be found…

Around mile 17ish… I started talking to another girl and we both felt disappointed, lonely, sick, and having a hard time running by ourselves, so we decided to run the rest of the race together no matter what!  (porta potty stops and all)  lol ;)  About a mile later I saw my parents finally!!  My husband wasn’t with them, they told me he was waiting for me at the finish line.  I started crying and hugged them tight.  I was so emotional at this point and I have no idea why.  They said they would see me around mile 23 or so and to keep going that they were proud of me.

So Kaitlin and I pushed on… around mile 20 I heard my name behind me and looked to see a girl I had gone to high school with!  I’m not gonna lie, I believe God knew what I needed and had our paths cross!  So, Kaitlin, me, and now Faith all ran the last 6.2 miles together.  It was tough, but it was way less lonely having those 2 girls with me!! 

We walked at all the water stations and up the hills and I can’t tell you how happy I was when I saw my parents again around mile 24 and then later still when I saw this sign:

When we came up to the .2 miles left marker… there he was… my husband was cheering for me waving and hollering… at that moment I never felt so blessed to have my best friend there to support me!  He ran along side us taking pictures, cheering like a maniac and making us laugh until we got to the finishing chute and he veered off to the side to go meet us at the finish.

All the emotions coming out 

The finish was downhill and Kaitlin had wanted to come in sub-5:30 after realizing her first goal wasn’t gonna make it either so we pushed as hard as we could to that finish line… Some guy looked over at us and thought we were gonna beat him so he took out on an all out sprint with this huge grin on his face… it totally made me laugh!  We crossed that finish line of our 26.2 journey together with a Garmin time of 5:24:05…

OFFICIAL TIME:  5:23:30

My husband met me just after the finish line through the fence… I was crying… I had done it!!  I was happy yet a little disappointed that I hadn’t gotten my sub-5 but SO VERY thankful for God sending me my 2 friends to help me finish!

Of course the 3 of us didn’t get individual finisher photos… we got one together… duh ;)

I’m a marathoner!!!!  I did it!!  AND although I was sick and miserable… Columbus Marathon 2011 will not be my last 26.2 mile trek… It’s only the beginning!!  Here’s the Garmin Stats:

 

 

Me and my support crew :)

After the race, we headed (I hobbled) to subway and I RICEd the rest of the day ;)  I also celebrated by putting my magnet on my car! :)

Festival 5k Race Recap

5th Annual Festival 5k Run & Walk
Saturday July 30, 2011
Start Time: 8:30am

I got my youngest sister to run this with me before she headed back to college for her sophomore year.  We got there around 8am to get her registered (I had registered in advance) and pick up our packets and warm up a little.  BTW, this year’s race shirt is my absolute favorite! Green and Blue is my favorite color combo (if you couldn’t tell!) lol… Our mom ended up coming to watch us and we got to chat with her for a little bit before we lined up. 

These small races are all gun-timed, so we lined up about 5-7 lines back from the front of the pack.  The first mile we were really bookin’ it, I kept telling her that if we kept up the pace we were at, we would both PR! lol… she really didn’t care ;)  We were going around 8:09/mile with our best pace being 5:45/mi? lol… Dont know how that happened…

Around mile 2, we slowed down… my sister has sports induced asthma and had forgotten her inhaler.  It was hot out and she was starting to have problems breathing.  We finally got to the water station and she told me to go on ahead… I was torn, because I wanted to go fast, but I didn’t want to leave her… she looked right at me and said “I’ll be fine, but I’m gonna walk so GO!!”  So, I kept running.

I couldn’t seem to get my legs back to the 8:09/mi pace, but I pushed it as best I could and came across the finish in 25:42 officially.

I ran back to cheer my sister in and then we stayed around for some door prizes. My sister won a gift certificate to a plant nursery lol… she gave it to my mom ;)  I wasn’t quite sure if my time would get me an AG place or not…  Ended up I passed a girl in my AG in the last 50 meters or so to take 2nd in my AG lol…

First time I’ve ever gotten a plaque for a race :)

After the awards were all handed out, a guy approached and asked if he could interview me for the festival, so I said sure… I don't know if anything ever came of it, but it made me feel famous lol ;) Then my mom took my sister and I to a cute little restaurant for lunch.  It was fun spending time together. :)

Here are the Garmin Stats:

Stats

Time:  25:42
Pace:  8:16/mile
AG (19-24) Place: 2/16
Overall Place:  128/313

Upcoming Race Reports

September 3, 2011 – Sweet Corn Festival 5k
September 10, 2011 – Fall Classic 5 Mile Race
October 8, 2011 – Cancer Care 5k

Upcoming Races

October 16, 2011 – Columbus Marathon

The Capital City Half Marathon Race Recap

The Capital City Half Marathon
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Start Time: 8:00am

Warning:  This post is LONG

Ok, I won’t bore you with talking about the expo… I’ll just say, I did end up going by myself which is fine because I got in and out without any problems… and J ended up calling me as I was leaving to see if I wanted to meet up in the morning… AND… before the expo I ate this awesome cookie which was sure to make me fast the next morning! ;)  (yes, it says “Fast Eddie”)

RACE MORNING, I had set my alarm to go off at 5:30am, but ended up waking up around 4:45am to the power being out! I was seriously a little skeptical on how I was going to get ready for my race in complete darkness… but it came back on around 5am so all was well!!  I ate a piece of peanut butter toast and water for breakfast and hopped in the shower to warm up a little because it was cold!!

Getting Ready 

Sidenote:  Yes, I, Zaneta (AKA: the not so girly girl) bought a running skirt!! surprise!!
Another surprise… I LOVE IT!!  Now I understand everyone’s need to buy a
different running skirt for each race ;)

I drove the 1 hour trek to Columbus and was immediately SO glad I had prepaid to park at a specific location!!  Seriously… if you have the option to prepay for parking for a race… DO IT!!!Streets were closed everywhere and traffic was backed up majorly!  While I was at a stand still I was texting back and forth with my fiancé before he had to go to work.  So by the time I parked and walked to the starting location I had about 15 minutes before go time!! lol… nothing like cutting it short! ;)  BTW, I had to pee so bad!! lol…

Well I stopped at the first port-a-pot because I thought that if I just got in a line quickly, it would be my best bet… well after waiting for about 6 minutes I decided enough was enough and started walking towards my corral… funny thing… the lines for the port-a-pots by Corral C were empty! haha… lesson learned! ;) 

I got to my corral and actually found J and her boyfriend which was surprising due to the amount of people that were there!  This was the biggest race I’ve EVER been to!  It was quite exciting!  I squeezed in beside them just in time for the national anthem and then they started each corral 30 seconds apart… 3-2-1… GO!!

We started out and it was pretty crowded still even though we had a tapered start.  It did end up spacing out quite a bit after mile 4 or so… I don’t really remember anything specific for each mile or anything like that so I’ll just post some things in general…

I ran with J and her boyfriend for about the first 5 miles BUT we started out faster than I wanted to go… I didn’t want to die before mile 6 and I wanted to have fun during this race…I ran my first half marathon last September with an average pace of 10:10 and this race so far, we had been running 8 something miles lol… um… all I kept thinking was “my 5k splits are 8 something miles!! haha… SLOOOOOOWWWW DOWWWNNNNNNN!!!”  Remember how I told you all, that due to my lack of training because of my crazy busy life right now I was forgoing my goal of a sub 2 hour half marathon?  yes… it’s sad, but I was happy with myself that I realized this and knew not to push too hard and end up hurting myself.  I told J to go on ahead because I was pulling up a little… I wanted to just run for fun and I couldn’t do that if I was constantly worrying about burning out or hurting myself.

I don’t remember exactly when I took my GUs but I remember that I took 3 of them along the course of the race and I grabbed water at EVERY water station and whatever endurance drink they had at about 3 stations… it had warmed up quite a bit and the rain was holding off. 

I had brought my IPod along but never ended up turning it on… there were so many bands and DJs and spectators along the course that I was having a blast without it and I didn’t realize it til about 1 mile left to go because it was cutting the circulation off in my arm so I took it off and held it the last mile. I loved giving all the little kids high fives because they thought this was the most exciting thing ever to watch and cheer for!

… I saw a banana with a “Don’t Poop…. out” sign lol…(the pic is taken from the capcityhalf fb page) and I saw a charlie sheen poster that said “everyone’s a winner!”  (or something like that) and also one of my faves  “humpty dumpty had wall issues too” lol

 

I don’t ever remember having any negative thoughts during this race at all… I remember thinking that I felt really good for the lack of training I’d had and thinking to myself that I would definitely PR this race… and then as I got closer to the finish line I realized that I was going to be really close to my goal time without really trying for it! lol… I was very surprised at myself… there were a few miles that I felt like slowing down but I took inventory on how everything was feeling… how my chest/heart were feeling because I didn’t want to have a repeat of last September, and everything felt good, so I made myself keep a somewhat steady pace those last 3 miles… although they were slower than the previous miles…

Right before the finish line was a hill… but after the hill it was all down hill to the finish!  I LOVED that!!  I had such a fun time… and I ran most of it by myself… no family there to cheer me on… and that was perfectly ok!  I never ended up meeting back up with J… I ended up being able to see them ahead of me for most of the race… til about 3 miles left… anyways… I sprinted down that incline to the finish because I was so proud of myself and my time!!  I was so close to my goal… but it didn’t bother me like I thought it would… I HAD A BLAST!!!

Official Time:  2:03:57
Average Pace:  9:28
Overall Place:  2453/6005
Gender Place:  1010/3502
AG (20-24) Place:  168/462

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After crossing the finish line and receiving my most favoritest medal EVER… I grabbed a bagel, water, muscle milk (i had never tried it before and it was better than i had thought it would be) and then after I cooled down a little bit, I grabbed some donatos pizza and headed over to the Brooks Cavalcade of Curiosities to get my gait analyzed… I guess I’m a moderate pronator and have a med-high arch… anyone want to kind of explain what this means and how to fix it? lol…  I guess I’ll have to do my research…

After all that fun stuff I went back up to the top of the hill before the downhill finish to cheer people on and that was so much fun… just the look on people’s faces when I cheered for them by name and told them they could do it, finish strong, it’s really all downhill from here… it was awesome!  After I cheered for a good 20 minutes, I walked back to my car and found that I hadn’t been alone at all… My fiancé and family were all cheering for me by text messages during my race!!  I have awesome support and I’m so blessed… The text from my fiancé made me tear up…

He basically just told me to keep going strong, that I was almost finished, and that he loved me… so simple, but meant the world to me!

I loved every single moment of this race!!  It was rather emotional for me too… I don’t really understand why… watching all the people after me finish… how emotional they were… I DID PR by 10 minutes, so that was awesome… and being by myself kinda did get to me a little bit, I’m not gonna lie… so I guess that all wraps up into one emotional race… Registration for the Capital City Half Marathon opens June 1st… and you better believe I will be registering for this race again!