Bonus Resolution 3 - 30 Days of Running - Halfway There!

We are halfway through June and I have only missed running on one day for Altru's #30daysofrunning promotion. Only day I missed was procrastinating too long to see if the rain would let up where I should have just hit the treadmill at the gym instead. Speaking of rain, we have had a ton of it lately this month. I do not think I am exaggerating too much by saying that 15 days into June it seems like we only went three or four days without rain.

I mentioned last blog how we started a running group with several friends. Week two of the running group was quite the run as myself, Ryan and Justine ran and Justine's husband, Mike joined us on bike. It was a heavy overcast and you could definitely smell rain in the air, but I was hoping we would manage to sneak by the brunt of it in our planned 40-45 minute route along the greenway. It was not to be however, about 10 minutes in it started sprinkling, and not another 10 minutes later it was full on pouring for the final 15-20 minutes of the run. I guess I am lucky I went this long running and not getting caught in a downpour. Part of it felt great, but my super squishy shoes were not appreciating it afterwards.

Yesterday was the third meeting of our running group which consisted of myself, Ryan, Justine and Adam. I was really looking forward to this day as it was the first time I ever went trail running. We drove about 20 minutes out of town to Turtle River State Park, and hit a variety of trails. I was a little trepid on our way there as there was another overcast looming and a few scattered sprinkles on the way there, but luckily it cleared up by the time we started running. Hitting the trails was an experience like no other, I finally got to take advantage of the trail running shoes I have possessed for too long without going trail running, and the wide array of twists and turns on its narrow paths, along with a ton of hills made it a fun and challenging run throughout.

We all took turns leading and basically kept turning off at random forks in the trails as we saw fit. It was a recipe for disaster, but Ryan and Adam biked on these trails a few times before and had a general idea where we were heading and in the end we eventually found our way back. I guess I would be remiss if I did not mention one of my lows occurred on this run as we ventured off the trail off a rather steep decline for a shortcut back to the vehicle for a water and bugspray pit stop (the skeeters were out in full force after all that rain) and leave it to me to lose my footing on this treacherous, slightly muddy decline and slide on my stomach about a good 20-30 feet before I somehow lunged onto a nearby branch. I only suffered a few light scratches and managed to regain my composure and make my way down....all for naught because our shortcut turned out to be a dead end and we had to go right back up, luckily without hazard this time around. Minus that tumble however and I had a blast tearing up the Turtle River trails and look forward to doing it again.

One last run to recap, and that was from last Thursday on 6/13 when I participated in my fifth race this year, the Hillsboro 10k. Hillsboro is a small town of about 1,500 about a half hour away. I was looking at the results of their 10k last year where it featured only 30-some odd racers and with my new PR I set at the beginning of the month at 50:21, and comparing it to the top 10 of the 2012 Hillsboro race I thought I stood a marginal shot of cracking that top 10. There must be a big buzz going on in the running community this year, because after looking at the results the amount of finishers for both the 5k and 10k nearly doubled with about 300 in the 5k and 55 people in the 10k.

It was a pleasant surprise to bump into Chris and Lyzz again at this race after seeing them in Fargo. Lyzz definitely has the running bug and she was thrilled to be competing in her second race. I felt pretty good about my tempo and pace I was keeping for this race, especially considering I went on a good practice run with a few runners from the local running club the day before and was able to maintain a 8:40 pace for five and a half miles. However, I did notice a bit more of a competitive field at the front of the pack and my hopes of cracking the top 10 quickly went out the window. I still had a backup goal of breaking the 50 minute mark for the first time ever in a 10k, so that was what I was shooting for.

The race flowed about the same as the Dewey 10k where the pack thinned out after a good mile or so, but there was usually a few runners within reach of me. In the first half of the race another green shirt runner passed me and I tried my best to stay on pace with him for a km before he shook me off. A short while later a runner in a red shirt just snuck by me for a short while before I caught up with him and we ran side by side for at least 2-3 km before I finally went ahead. It felt a little weird intentionally running alongside him to maintain pace, almost cheating. All I know was we were side by side for about 15 minutes and then I went to quickly wipe the streaming sweat off my face with my shirt and when I looked up, he was (presumably) behind me. Yes, I managed to not look behind me again for this race, minus one part where there was a 180 turnaround in the track.

I felt pretty good about my pace on this race, and according to my RunKeeper app, I set a new PR for myself with a 7:56/mile pace. I never thought I would break the eight minute a mile barrier for that minimum of a distance. For the last half of the race I saw the same two runners side by side quite a distance ahead of me, I would guess about nearly a minute ahead. The last mile I really stepped it up into high gear determined to pass both of them before the finish. I only managed to pass one, and finished a few seconds behind the other, but that last push helped enable me to just sneak by my old PR from a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately I did not break my 50 minute goal mark, but I did vanquish my old PR by a whopping four seconds with a final official time of 50:17. As I was crossing the finish I was in disbelief at how close I was to my same time as before and thought for sure I would beat 50 minutes. Oh well, a new PR is a new PR. As far as my placement went, I finished 23rd out of 55 in the field. Not a bad day, and I definitely loved the small town vibe this race was held in. Hopefully, I will manage to stay on track for the rest of June and not miss another day.

Shout out to Chris for taking these pics, and props to coworkers Nikole and Danelle for the shirt I was wearing in the photos. I am in a volleyball league with several coworkers and Thursday night is usually our volleyball night, and Danelle & Nikole made some slick custom shirts for our team to debut that night. I was unable to make the game because of the race, but met up with Nikole before I left town to at least sport our team's colors at the race!