Race Recap: Shamrock 15k

Today I ran the Shamrock 15k, organized by the Summit Athletic Running Club.

When I last checked the Weather App, it said that the temperature would be forty degrees.  By one o'clock, when I estimated that I would have climbed the hill from hell, it would be forty-three degrees and sunny.  For an Ohio runner, this information means 1) no hat, 2) a long sleeve tech shirt, and 3) capris.  My favorite racing capris were in the wash, so I wore tights instead, but I made sure not to go with my gut and bring along a jacket.  "Stephani, " I told myself, "you ALWAYS wear too much clothing, and then you get really hot and irritated.  Don't do this today."  So this is how I dressed:

Shamrock, I'm coming for you!

Boy, was I wrong.  Apparently, "forty" means "really freaking cold and gray with lots of wind."  This was not what I was expecting.  I got on the phone and pleaded with my husband to bring me a jacket, but then Jone, one of my TORN friends and now my savior, came along and lent me her vest.  So, it all worked out.

I saw Heather, Laura, Erin, Suegene, and Brad.  I hadn't seen Heather and Laura in a long time, and it was so nice to catch up today.  I also saw Marilyn, Amanda, and Stacie, who are badasses because they ran four miles before the race.

Heather and I ran the Shamrock together (it was my first time) in 2013.

Erin and I seem to find each other at every race now.

There was a bagpiper:

I know some people don't like bagpipes, so I only gave you ten seconds.

Ok, here is the lowdown on the course:

The first 5k are completely downhill.  It would have been awesome except that I lost about thirty seconds in mile 1 because my pants kept coming down, and I had to stop THREE TIMES to retie the drawstring.  GRRRRR.

The next mile or so is flat, and then the rest of the race is uphill.  I'm not joking.  The first two hills are the stuff of which nightmares are made, and then there are little inclines until the end.  My goal is to never walk on a hill.  I allowed myself to walk through three water stops, but none of them were on a hill, and I never completely stopped.

The sun did come out when I reached the top of the hill, which was nice.

I did change up my strategy from the last time I ran this race.  My official goal was to do better than I did in the Hot Chocolate 15k (where I was hungover and I actually ran slowly enough to EAT HANDFULS OF CHOCOLATE on the course), but my secret goal was of course a PR.  The first thing I did differently was wear earbuds.  I know; earbuds are bad-the course isn't completely closed-yadda yadda yadda.  I can tell you that I was completely aware of any cars on the course well before they were anywhere around me.  I was alert.  Plus, I was much safer to be around because I had drowned out my Voices, which normally want me to do terrible things in the middle of a long run without music.

The other thing I did was let myself go in the hills of the first 5k.  I usually try to slow down and warm up in the beginning miles of a race; it's part of my hope that I will run a negative split, but you know what?  I never do.  I realized (from watching Shelby do this two years ago) that I should take advantage of the downhill start and let 'er rip.  I think it made a huge difference.

Judge for yourself:

Shamrock 15k 2013:  1:34:22  10:07/mile

Hot Chocolate 15k 2014: 1:31:32  9:49/mile

Shamrock 15k 2015:   1:29:15 9:35/mile

I think I'll take it!

This is a great race if you like hills (and I do).  There was soup and bread and fruit and popcorn (!) after the race, which was very welcome when I got the shivers.  The medal is sweet, and I can never have too many long-sleeved tech shirts.  Even though I really should be doing eleven or more miles on my long runs, I thought this challenging course more than made up for the fact that I ran fewer than ten miles today.  I am right on track to prepare for the Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathon.  Are you?

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Head for the Hills!

Hill training is important, right?

Today I test-ran the course for the Shamrock 15k in Cuyahoga Falls with Shelby and Mandy.  It is EXTREMELY challenging and super-fun.  I signed up for the race in March because I was tempted by a lower race fee, and I realized that I don't have anything on my radar until April 25 (when I run the Pro Football Hall of Fame Gold Jacket 5k in Canton).

Now, keep in mind that when I say "super-fun," I mean, "This course will kick your butt.  You'll gasp, you'll groan, you'll swear a LOT.  You will be glad when it's done."  That's the kind of fun I mean.  I had a lot to say about the race when I ran it in 2013.

This is EXACTLY how I look when I run the Shamrock 15k.  This is my happy look.

Just kidding.  This is EXACTLY how I look when I run the Shamrock 15k.  In freaking 25-degree weather.

The first 5k goes down, down, downhill.  It's fabulous if you don't think about the next 5k, which is the steepest, longest set of hills EVER.  I am used to hill repeats, but this hill is tough.  I have to lean forward and run it on my toes.   Deep down I wanted to walk the hills, but I couldn't let Mandy, who is a damned kid, show me up, especially when we started the ascent and she said, "This isn't so bad."  Shut up.  Actually, I'm glad she and Shelby were there. The great thing about group runs is accountability.  I can't quit because they are watching me, and I'm sure at certain points in the run they are thinking of quitting, too.  Shelby and Mandy, you complete me.  Don't feel too flattered, though, because I say the same thing to my glass of wine at dinner.

So, how will this help me for the Rite Aid Cleveland Half Marathon in May?  I seem to remember a set of hills starting around Mile 10.  If I can continue my practice on that big-ass hill on the Shamrock run, those hills will look like NOTHING to me.  Nothing.  Right.

Do you include hill repeats in your training, or do prefer to run hilly routes regularly?  I like to do both, but I would say I enjoy the hilly routes more.

Until next week. . .Run hilly, Peeps!

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Off-Season Fitness

Today I ran on sunny Sand Run with my friend Debi.  Normally Debi and I run at five in the morning, so it was rather refreshing to see each other in daylight.  We decided to run the path, which is six miles, and tack on two neighborhood miles in the middle.  This way the last three miles were downhill, which is GENIUS when mapping out the long run.

This is EXACTLY how Sand Run looks in the sunshine. . .in pixel world.

Normally I would never run fewer than ten miles on a Sunday run. . .and I feel a bit sad that MyFitnessPal tells me I burned fewer than a thousand calories. . .but honestly, why do I need to run at least ten miles today?  Sand Run has plenty of hills, which increases my effort and consequently my fitness (tell it to MyFitnessPal, though), so it was a fantastic run.

I don't have any races planned until April, when I'll be running in with a relay team for the Canton Hall of Fame Marathon.  I might do a five-miler before then, and it's a teensy bit possible that I will run the Shamrock 15k, if I feel like torturing myself.  Click here if you want the details about that particular hellish race where I battle the Voices in my head.  Anyway, since I don't have any goal races until April, I had better think about what I'm going to do in the off-season, especially withYou-Know-What on the way.

My goals (so far):

1.  Finish my goal of 1,000 miles for 2014.  I'm pretty close.

2.  Do at least two short runs and one long run a week.  If it's too cold, I'm going to either use a Leslie Sansone DVD, or I'm going to bring up Dr. Who on Netflix and run in place to it.  Shhhhh. . .Don't tell my husband, but I'm planning to buy him a treadmill for Christmas.  I'm looking through Craigslist as I write this post.  Do you think he'll let me use it?

3.  Strength training.  I need heavier weights, and I think I'm going to try some Kettleball DVDs.

4.  Do yoga at least once a week.

The most important goal is to give myself a break.  I'm not going to set any time goals until my half marathons come up.  Our bodies need rest and relaxation, and so do our minds.  I am going to refrain from beating myself up mentally for just RUNNING instead of running with a specific purpose.  I'm going to run to enjoy.  What do you do during the off season?

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Can You Feel It?

Today was the Shamrock 15k and 5k, and many of my running peeps represented.  I hope they were able to run away from the evil leprechaun.  Oh wait.  You're saying that's not the purpose of the Shamrock race?  HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT????

When ye run the Shamrock, ye run from me!

I ran the Shamrock last year, and it was just as cold as it was this morning.  It was my first race without any music at all, and I was miserable, as you can read when you click here.

This morning I had to do at least nine miles (in honor of the Shamrock), and I was alone, but I did it with music. As I was running and trying not to be cold and miserable, I started thinking about my running playlist and how I don't have it even slightly organized.  Some people have fantastic playlists that they customize for each run:  warmup song in beginning, tempo change for negative splits, badass song for kick in the end.  I would love to do that, but I have the attention span of a gopher.  I don't mean to insult gophers, actually; for all I know, they may have great attention spans.  I'm just basing my observation on the fact that they just poke their heads up from holes for no reason.  Why do they do that?

What was I talking about?

Anyway, I was thinking about how I categorize my music, and I realize that I choose my running music for the way it makes me feel.  So far I figured out that I have these types of songs:

Songs that Make Me Feel Spiritual/Emotional (for when you need to cry-run or do some heavy thinking):

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm feeling spiritual.

     Anything by Mumford and Sons
     "Babylon" by David Gray
     "Carry On"  by Fun
     "Freedom"  by George Michael
     "My Companjera"  by Gogol Bordello
     "Clocks" by Coldplay
     "Learning to Fly" by Tom Petty

Songs that Make Me Feel Sexy (yes, that is possible when running):
     "Buffalo Stance" by Neneh Cherry
     "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover"  by Sophie B. Hawkins
     "Finish What Ya Started"  by Van Halen
     "Kiss" by Prince
     "Need You Tonight" by INXS
     "Somebody's Crying" and "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak
     "Sweet Harmony" by The Beloved
     "Whatta Man" by En Vogue
   

This is EXACTLY how I look when I'm a sexy runner.  WHADDYA MEAN which one?

Songs that Just Amuse Me
     "American Wedding"  and "Pala Tute" by Gogol Bordello
     "Ana Ng" by They Might Be Giants
     "Black or White"  and "Thriller" by Michael Jackson
     "Burning Down the House," "Psycho Killer," and "Nothing but Flowers" by Talking Heads
     "Butterbean" by The B-52's
     "Goody Two Shoes" and "Stand and Deliver" by Adam Ant
     "King of Spain" and "Michigan Militia" by Moxy Fruvous
     Anything by the Traveling Wilburys
     "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head
     "Peek-A-Boo" by Siouxsie & The Banshees
     "Yer So Bad" by Tom Petty
     "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen

Songs that Make Me Feel Like a Badass

I'm so BADASS, Chuck Norris asked me for advice on running the Shamrock!

     "Cult of Personality" by Living Colour
     "Give It Away" by Red Hot Chili Peppers
     "Immigraniada (We Comin' Rougher)"  and "Your Country" by Gogol Bordello
     "Pepper" by Butthole Surfers
     "Radioactive" by Imagine Dragons
     "Royals" by Lorde
     "Some Nights" by Fun
   
I haven't put these in separate playlists or any kind of order, but maybe I should.  What do you think?

How do you group your music?

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PR!!!

Holy Shmoly!  I just compared my finish times in the Columbus Hot Chocolate 15k and the Shamrock 15k, and . . . I PR'd by three whole seconds!!!!! Woohoo!

Reasons why I am amazed by this:

1.  The Columbus race was relatively flat, and the Shamrock was all hills.  Painful hills.

2.  I deliberately held back because I didn't want to die on the hills.

3.  I spent at least two previous posts bitching about the fact that I wasn't going to PR.

4.  I spent my last post bitching about the race itself,  and

Finally,

5.  I did it without music!  

This is EXACTLY how I look when I run a 15k without music.  Right now, the Voices in my head are saying, "Punish them.  Punish them all."

Among other things, running teaches me that I am stronger than I think.  I do know that I often try to sabotage myself with negative thinking (hence the music), but obviously my spirit is telling me something completely different.  Now I'm pissed because I'm wondering how I could have done if I hadn't held back.   Ok, enough.  A PR is a PR.  I will take it.

Thanks again for your kind words of encouragement (and of course for the Turtle calls on the course).  I will definitely run this course again, and I will start with the right attitude.  FEAR THE TURTLE!!!

Top o' the Freaking Hill to Ye!

So, today I ran the Shamrock 15k, sponsored by Summit Athletic Running Club.  It was my first race without music, and while I am happy to know that I CAN run without music, I would have actually enjoyed this race had I been listening to my tunes.

I started the race with Heather and Shelby.  Heather and I have a difficult time holding back in the beginning of a race, and we both decided to start in the ten-minute corral.  When the gun went off, we shot off with it, and we couldn't get the pace slower than 9:21.  Shelby, who is a badass, tore ahead on the downhill part, and I didn't really see her again until the turnaround toward the end.  Way to go, Shelby!

Going downhill was great except that we knew what was coming next.

Heather:  What goes down, must. . . 

Me:  Shut the hell up.

I wasn't in my "I love you, Man" phase yet.

I told myself that I would not walk the hills, and I didn't.  At the top of the steepest hill, I yelled, "Yes!  I made this hill my bitch!" which is my tradition on big hills.  Sometimes people appreciate that and sometimes they don't.  I had a lot of grumpy people around me today.

Around mile five I started dreaming about pulling a DNF, just so I could get some peace.  I was cold, tired, and hungry, and my bat-shit crazy mind was pulling me in a million different directions.  At one point I started pretending that this guy from the movie The Leprechaun was chasing me.

I'm the leprechaun; give me back my gold!

Ah, The Leprechaun.  One of Jennifer Aniston's finest oeuvres.  

Miles six through nine were where I started my chanting/breath combo.  For three freaking miles I chanted (in my head), "I am strong.  I got this.  I am fast.  I got this."  Sometimes I kept chanting, "Chicken chicken chicken chicken," in the background.   That is because I was thinking of this blog post from the Blogess about picking your battles (which is HILARIOUS).  Needless to say, this was not fun.

I would like to thank the Towpath Turtles for being Superfans around mile eight and the end.  I could hear you yelling from the opposite end of the block, so you gave me a target to run toward.  I decided at that point that I would have to at least look like I was running fast while you were out there.

I've got my medal.  I've eaten my lukewarm soup.  I've warmed up in the shower.  I think I'm going to have a beer and dream about a ribeye steak.  Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

Push It Real Good!

Spring has sprung, and with the sunshine (all five minutes of it) comes the desire for extra miles.  I haven't been running too far lately--three to four miles at a time during my midweek runs and six to eight miles on the Sunday long runs.  Work has been stressing me out, and I think I've developed an eye twitch that makes me look like Blofeld.

This is EXACTLY how I look after a staff meeting.

The solution?  Drink more.  No, I'm kidding.  The solution is to push myself more on my runs.  I've been trying to keep the pace under a ten minute mile, but some days are more difficult than others, especially when I can only run to a Leslie Sansone DVD (she never paces faster than a ten-minute mile, and usually it's a fifteen-minute mile).  One thing I really want to do is get back to the ten-miler-minimum on my long runs.  I also look forward to running Sand Run again, which isn't appealing at five o'clock in the morning but is super-appealing at eight o'clock on a Sunday morning.

I've got three half-marathons planned this year, and I want them all to be as fun as my first, the Akron Marathon.  In order for that to happen, I need to feel comfortable with a faster race pace.

Next Sunday is the Shamrock 15k, and I've only practiced the course once.  I'm trying to mentally prep myself for not even approaching a PR on the 15k.  My only other 15k was the Hot Chocolate in Columbus, which was  a very flat course.  I'm already beating myself up about it, which sort of defeats the purpose of entering the race in the first place.  Sunshine could make all the difference on this one.

You Gotta Have Faith

It looks like my plans for running a half marathon in June are coming to fruition.  To recap, I have been worried that the Hall of Fame City Challenge would not happen in June.  For more details (and some griping), check my post here.

I received an email from Hall of Fame City Challenge which directed me to the site.  There, the race director assured us that there will indeed be a marathon in Canton, and it will be Saturday, June 15:

The Hall of Fame City Challenge was formed to take the place of the Canton Marathon, which never got off the ground for 2013. Fortunately, an organization was able to be formed quickly and there will be an endurance race in Stark County again this June.

​

While you may have heard conflicting news stories about whether there was going to be a race, or that there were going to be two races back to back, the Hall of Fame City Challenge is THE June marathon.

Considering Active.com is still selling registrations for this race, I'm starting to feel better about my chances.  I realize, though, that I have possibly overbooked myself during that month:

May 19th:  I'm running a 10k in the Cleveland Marathon (Because I registered super-early, I only paid 20 bucks for this event!)

May 25th:  Medina Half Marathon  (This is a free event!  Check it out on Facebook!)

June 15th:   Half marathon in Hall of Fame City Challenge  

I don't even know if there are any 5k's I'm supposed to run with the Turtles during that time.  I'm exhausted just looking at this!  

By the way, I caved, and I am running the 15k in the SARC's Shamrock 15k and 5k.  Without music, but I can't guarantee it's without bitching and moaning. 

This is EXACTLY what the hills are like in the Shamrock 15k.

  I'm going to really need some support on this one!