Big Miles!

This week was my Spring Break.  My kids were still in school for most of the week, so I got a lot of alone time.  What did this teacher do during her Spring Break?

This is EXACTLY how I look when I take a grad school class during break.

But wait!  That isn't all I did!  I set a personal weekly mileage record with 36 miles!

On Tuesday I did my intervals (12x 400s + 1 minute recovery).  Wednesday was lifting day, and I did lift weights and do ab work, but not as much as I normally do.  This is because I powerwalked a hilly neighborhood with Sheila--6 miles of hills, Baby.  My butt STILL hurts, so you know it was a good workout.

On Thursday I decided to do the tempo run, which I usually do on Friday, but the temperature was in the 60s with the prediction being in the 30s the next day.  Ya gotta get it while it's good, Peeps, so I did.  This time I added another mile to the run, and I DIDN'T PASS OUT OR DIE!  So proud of myself.

Something I believe strongly is that I shouldn't be running every day--that way lies injury--so I took Friday off and cleaned the house.  I'm really glad I did because the recovery time gave me the energy on Saturday to do the Chocolate Bunny Run, sponsored by Vertical Runner Hudson.  Joy and I ran 6.5 miles through Hudson with a taste of trail at Hudson Springs.  It was chilly but overall a good run.

Joy, Shelby, me, and Elizabeth inside Vertical Runner

The whole group just before we took off

Afterward there was CHOCOLATE and a raffle drawing for fabulous prizes at Vertical Runner.  I won a chocolate bunny!

See those Dove bunnies?  I won one of them!  I gave it to my kids, of course.

Today I ran Sand Run TWICE.  That's twelve miles of hills, Peeps.  Shelby and I took our time (except at the end when she smoked me, as she always does), and we enjoyed talking to Jen, who did the first out and back with us.

I'm really satisfied with my running this week because I feel like I played it smart--lots of recovery, lots of stretching.  Tomorrow I will definitely enjoy my yoga session.  

Next week I look forward to testing my training with a 10k, my first race since January.  Will the speedwork pay off?  Stay tuned to find out!

What is in your Spring racing plans, Peeps?  Why don't you join me for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon? I hope you blow away your goals!  Until then. . . 

Run HOPPY, Peeps!  (See what I did there?)

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Tapers and Tweets

Today I ran nine beautiful miles on the Towpath in Peninsula.  I started from Lock 29 with Renee, Kathy, and Carrie, and we ran for five miles before the Turtle training session.  Then I ran with my favorite band, Gogol Bordello, for the last four.




This is such a cute video, and it has the bonus of being one of the few "clean" Gogol Bordello songs I can post here.  I am in love with Eugene Hutz, the lead singer with the sweet 'stache.  My husband and I have an agreement: if Eugene ever calls for me,  I am outta here.

Anyway, I was running and zoning, and I passed a couple with my typical warning, "Passing on your left. . .unless I die first."  I thought I heard my name, but I was still in music mode, so it didn't register until I heard it a second time.  I turned around.

"Are you Stephani?" the gentleman asked.

"Yes," I said, wondering if the Turtles had passed a message on to me somehow.  You see, when my running peeps and I get separated on a path, we rely on people (usually the bikers) to relay messages for us.  We usually say things like, "When you see a woman wearing a neon pink shirt that says 'I'd rather be drinking,' ask her to turn around at the four mile mark."  So, it was for this reason that I thought I'd be getting a message.

"I follow you on Twitter," he said, extending his hand to shake mine.  Holy schmoly!  What are the odds of that?  Anyway,  I hope I remembered this correctly, but my newfound friend's name is Michael, and he found me by reading my posts in the Fairlawn-Bath Patch online.  Michael and his friend and I discussed the Cleveland Marathon, which is coming up next Sunday.  I will be running the half, and Michael and his friend will be run-walking the 10k.  They will love the 10k; I ran it last year and I had a blast.  Remember this review?

I am so happy that I met someone through running AND social media.  I used to think that Twitter was, well, for twits, but now I realize that I have connected with so many people from whom I learn many great lessons.  Thank you for reminding me of that, Michael.

I would love to meet up with anyone who is running Cleveland next Sunday.  When we all get more information on the staging area, I'll tweet out a meeting time/place for anyone who is interested.

Happy tapering, Peeps!

You know I can't leave you without mentioning Mother's Day, so here is Mike Polk's tribute to mothers.  Well, it's actually his Mother's Day tribute to MILFs.  If Mike Polk or MILFs offend you, don't watch this.  For the rest of you, this is hilarious.


Happy Mother's Day!

Like what you read?  Follow me on Twitter @itibrout.

Race Review: Jim Klett 10k

It was a beautiful day in Merriman Valley, a great day to run 10k, and that is what the Turtles did.

Here we are, revved up!

Look, a bale of Turtles!  Fear them!

Today was the Jim Klett 10k, sponsored by Summit Athletic Running Club.  This race is part road, part trail, and it winds through really gorgeous country.  I have lots of opinions on this race, so let's just get to it, shall we?

The Good:  This was a very small race--less than 200 participants.  This means that I was able to take 3rd place in my age group!  I've got a nice plaque on my dresser now.  I think I'm going to mount it in my classroom and make the students bow to it when they enter.

 I've already mentioned the scenery and the weather.  Both were outstanding.  The course has a few hills on the trails, and I'm a hill person, so I was happy there.

This is NOT me.  This is a hillbilly; it's not the same thing.  

The Bad:  The race was small because, in my opinion, SARC made a lot of errors.
1.  They moved the start time from 9:00 (which is kind of late anyway) to 8:45, and they did it a mere few days before the race.

2.  They eliminated the 5k portion of the race, a REALLY bad move.  People LOVE 5k's.  I don't understand why they got rid of it because I would think it would be the money part of the race.

Some errors didn't directly limit registration, but they were obvious nonetheless:

3.  Runners had to park and walk through a wet field to get to the starting line.  My shoes and socks were wet before I started the race.

4.  Not only did we have to walk through that wet field to get there, packet pick up was only that morning, so we were now supposed to WALK BACK through that wet field to stow our packet.  Uh, no.  The Turtles put all of their bags together and left them (Great idea, Sheila!) in the hopes that nobody would swipe anything.

5.  The t-shirts were COTTON!! UGH!  If I'm running 10k, I want a TECH SHIRT!!!  If anyone HAD stolen my cotton tee, I honestly wouldn't have cared.




The Ugly:  Bear with me here because I'm a little angry.  I guess right now you could call me a Snapping Turtle.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm pissed off about a race.

There were more than twenty Turtles at that race, which means that we made up about fifteen percent of the participants, something SARC knew from registration data.  We are named the Turtles for a reason: we believe that slow and steady wins the race.  Some of the racers had never run an official 10k, and they were really looking forward to this race.  In a weird, clueless move, SARC rerouted the race to go over railroad tracks.  They moved the race time to 8:45 at the last minute because they actually checked a train schedule, but in doing so, they only thought about their faster runners.  As a result, about half of the Turtles got caught waiting on a train.  That is completely unfair.  These runners paid just as much as anyone, and SARC never thought about their needs.  I don't think it's too much to ask to allow participants the opportunity to run from beginning to end.

Furthermore, SARC served a breakfast starting forty-five minutes after the beginning of the race, so when the Turtles showed up en masse to eat, we got the leftovers.  I'm not saying everyone should have waited; I am saying that someone should have realized that a huge group of runners (some of whom had to wait for the train) would be coming much later, and that someone should have started a second wave of food prep.  It's not rocket science, people.  Hold back some eggs and stuff, and make those later.

I'd like to end this post on a good note, so I will.  I LOVED watching the Turtles come in today, and my favorite part was when we all ran in together with our Tail at the end.  Sheila taught us that being a Turtle is more than just running; we cheer on all runners, and we cheer them on until the finish line.  I'm so proud today to belong to our running club, The Ohio Runners Network, of which the Towpath Turtles are a subgroup.  Thank you for a great time today, runners!  I love you, Man!

Cleveland Rite Aid Experience

I was totally prepared to dislike the Cleveland Rite Aid race.  I didn't sign up last year (even though it was a Turtle race) because I was worried that a) I wouldn't be able to find a parking space in time, b) there wouldn't be enough bathrooms, and c) I wouldn't be capable of running a 10k.  I looked up the race on Marathon Guide, and as you can see, the reviews were horrible.  This year I realized that I must face my fears, and I signed up for the 10k for twenty bucks.  Twenty dollars, people; that's it.  I figured that even if it was bad, I only paid twenty dollars for it, so I couldn't complain too much.

Let me tell you, I was soooo wrong.  This race was awesome!  There were over 22,000 runners in four events: the 5k (on Saturday), the 10k, the half marathon, and the marathon.

This is how I look from a helicopter.  See me smiling and waving?

Let's get the worries over with, shall we?

Parking:  I parked in the Cleveland Muni lot (cost was only $5.00), and it seems that NOBODY else did.  It was difficult to get to the lot because I had to go through the city first, but it was super-easy to get out because I could get directly onto the expressway to go home.  PLUS.  People in front of me were waiting in line to get into parking garages that cost $15.00 or more.  Suckas.

Bathrooms:  There were several huge lines for the portapotties and the bathrooms just inside the stadium, but I walked about 500 feet farther around the stadium, and I NEVER had a line.  And I went at least four times, just sayin'.  Oops.  Was that TMI?

Ability to Run a 10k:  Pshhhhh.  I got rid of that fear running the 10k at the Canton Marathon last year.  In fact, I PR'd here by 4+ minutes!


The Good:  The last 1.2 miles were COMPLETELY downhill.  How awesome is that?  I felt GREAT in the last kick, partly because of the hill and partly because of the St. Ed's Trash Talkers, who played cadence on trash cans as we came in.  Also, it was a great surprise to see this guy:

John Adams , the Tribe drummer, is the bomb-diggity.

The Bad:  The crowd was too big for me to get my beer.  Boo.  Never fear; I drank one with lunch at home.

The Ugly:  I would like to sincerely apologize to the gentleman that I punched in the area-where-gentlemen-should-not-be-punched-unless-they-are-very, very-bad-men.  It was a complete accident.  I was walking through a water stop, and I dropped my right hand (which was in a loose fist) to shake it out a bit.  Unfortunately, this poor man was right behind me (in my blind spot), and I nailed him.  Since it happened around mile 3, I'm sure the rest of his race wasn't very comfortable.  I hope he's had all the kids he wants.

Shout-Outs:  Thank you to Jenn, who was just near the finish line cheering for us.  Thank you to Sheila, who has made sure that we are more than adequately trained for our races.  Great job to Bill, Amanda, Marilyn, Steve, Suegene, and any other TORN members who ran this race.  Lastly, a message to Vashti and Rosie:  I am so impressed with the two of you!  This time last year I chickened out and refused to run this race, but the two of you came on your own (ok, with Bill), and you ROCKED it!  There will be plenty of great races in your future!

Overall, this was a wonderful day for a race; I thoroughly enjoyed it!  I love you, Man.

Video of my finish

I'm the one in turquoise shorts and a red turtle shirt at :50.