Run for Eli

Today's group run was a little different.  We met in a park instead of the usual fitness studio.  The owners of the fitness studio wanted to have a special run today to remember their son,Eli, who was stillborn one year ago.  Before taking off, we released light blue balloons which we wrote  messages on.  It was very simple, she said one, two, three and we let go of the balloons and they all floated upward. 
The run route started with a 3.1 mile loop that came back to the park because Eli weighed 3 lbs, 1 oz.  They had a lot of family and friends there who walked the 3.1 mile loop and many were pushing kids in strollers.  The run then continued on, for those of us in the running group, another 7.41 miles to equal 10.51 miles because Eli was born at 10:51.  They also asked everyone to wear blue and most people did.  It was really special and even though it was just my weekly long run, it really did feel like I was part of something special.  It was very nice.
After running, they invited everyone to join them and their family members in the park for snacks.  They were also taking donations for March of Dimes.  (Eli had a fatal genetic disorder.) 

While running the first 3.1 mile loop of the run we saw many students in cap and gown headed over to the big house for graduation!  That was really exciting!  We were all saying congratulations to them.  

I really didn't want to get up at the crazy early hour that my alarm went off but I'm now glad I did as this was a very memorable group run day.

Runner Nerd
ran for a purpose today

10 miles for the first time in forever

I ran ten  miles today!  I went to the group long run this morning.  The course was a 10 mile loop and I couldn't find any good way to cut back for 8 miles other than going out 4 and back 4 and everyone knows how much I hate out and backs.  I've run 8 miles 4 times now so I decided to go for it and do the whole ten mile loop.  It went pretty good, the last mile got tough but I felt pretty good when I was done. 
We got out on roads we haven't run on since the fall.  There was over a mile on a dirt road; it was kind of hard to run on.  I haven't run on a dirt road in quite some time.  Wednesday night the running store group run also went out in an area we avoided in the winter which included mostly dirt roads and I noticed that they were hard to run on.  I think it's the unevenness of the road and this time of year they are full of holes.  I felt like I was always dodging holes. 
This week I'm going to have higher mileage that I've had in a long time.  I've already run 25 miles and I still have one more day! 
I went out to run on Monday after all my friends running Boston were beyond the halfway point.  I ran in Chelsea.  I intended to run five miles but the route I was thinking was five was actually six miles so I ran six miles.  The temperature hit 70 degrees that afternoon!  It was the first time I wore a sleeveless top this year!  In true Michigan style, the next day I needed a coat! 

Soooooo, Meb won the Boston Marathon wearing Sketchers shoes! 
I was so excited watching Shalane lead the marathon most of the race and was sad to see her fall back.  At seventh place she still broke the American female record! 

Most of the people I know who ran the Boston Marathon had slower than usual times.  \

Getting up crazy early and running ten miles makes for a tired nerd so it's off to bed.  I can barely keep my eyes open! 

Runner Nerd

The Sister-in-Laws will be in Vegas!

There will be another Sister-in-Law running adventure!!  This time it will be a half marathon.  We're running the Strip at night!!  We will be running the Las Vegas Half Marathon on November 16th!
We came up with this on the train on the way back to her cousin's house after the Chicago Marathon.  I was texting with a friend about my marathon and then he said that I should register for the Vegas half which was a month later.  I told my Sister-in-Law what my friend said and she said, "maybe next year!"  An idea was born! 
I was really disappointed that we weren't able to run the whole Chicago Marathon together and cross the finish line together.  We talked about it again at Christmas when her and my sister were here and she said that she still wanted to do it. 
Registration opened the 2nd and I registered a few days ago.  The price went up after only a few days.  She hasn't registered yet.  Today I got an email with a discount code for the 13th, tomorrow, for $13.00.  This means that she will be able to register for $3.00 less than I did even though the price went up by $10.00!  So much for early registration!  This will be fun and the training runs will be half the distances of last summer's training runs!

I ran eight miles this morning with a long run group.  It got tough at the end just like last week.  There were five of us who stayed together the whole distance; it's been a while since I've been in a group of that many.  Today was the best weather we've had in a really long time.  It was in the low 40s.  A large number of the group are headed to Boston next week for the Boston Marathon. 
My run went well but I've been super tired and sore the rest of the day.  My feet hurt and I'm stiff.  That happened a few weeks ago. 

A couple of day before the dog got sick I had bought a 42 lb bag of his food.  It never got opened and I planned to donate it to the Humane Society.  I found out that the Humane Society has an urgent need for Puppy food so I was able to return the dog food and exchange it for two 25 lb bags of puppy food.  I took them to an event they were having at a pet store this afternoon.  They were calling it a puppy shower.  They had a "baby registry" of things they could use so I also bought some kitten toys that they were asking for. 
We are adjusting to life as a non dog household.  We are still finding things here and there that remind us that a doggy lived here until recently.  For now, we just leave them where they are.  His dishes are still in their places.  I did dump the water but I put it right back.  We will eventually put them away but for now they are fine. 

reminders of a doggy

This afternoon was so nice.  I took the Christmas lights down from the front porch and from around the garage door! Yep, it's April 12 and I took down the Christmas lights!! It was too cold to do it before now.  I also got some lights that were stuck into the ground pulled out and brought in.  They were completely buried under snow all winter.  I unplugged the cord after the holidays but I couldn't even pull it out of the snow; it was frozen in.  I had a set of three little trees that I was setting up by the steps of the front porch back in December and my hands got so cold that they hurt and I was to the point that I couldn't continue setting them up.  I had two of them complete but didn't get the third one done.  I intended to come in and warm up and then go back out and finish the job and get them plugged in to the timer that I had out there but never got back out there and then it snowed and completely buried them so they never even got turned on.  I had forgotten about them until the snow melted and there they were! 

Getting up stupid early, running, donating puppy food, and taking down holiday lights makes for an exhausted me!  I think I'm going to go to bed now. 

Runner Nerd
needs to sleep

Every Hill is an Opportunity

I ran cross country and track in high school and college (the first time, right after graduating from high school).  Don't be too impressed, it was a teeny tiny Christian college, not MSU or U of M!!  I've heard all the sayings, such as:  "no pain, no gain", "every hill is an opportunity", etc etc.  "Every hill is an opportunity" was a favorite of my cross country coaches in both high school and college.   I guess I had all kinds of opportunities this afternoon!   Hills were on the agenda today instead of a track workout for the triathlon group I work out with on Wednesdays.  My total mileage for this workout was 8.2 miles.  1 mile easy on the paved trail then about another half mile to the street where we confused many residents by running back and forth over and over like a bunch of weirdos!  This street is a complete hill from one end to the other so we would run fast uphill to the highest point and then slow downhill, turn around and run fast up the hill and slow downhill, if that makes any sense.  We did 5 times so we ended up at the other end of the street and then jogged over to a park with a HUGE sledding hill and proceeded to entertain even more people by picking the steepest place on the hill and running up and down 5 times!  It was a beautiful afternoon, sunny and 80 degrees so there were a lot of people at the park.  There was even 2 other people running up and down the hill at a place where it wasn't quite as steep!  After the sledding hill fun, we returned to the street we came from and did 5 more laps.  My legs were spent!  It was a very slow jog back to our cars, approx. 1/2 mile.  We had a group of 5 tonight.  One guy was always way out ahead of the rest of us but I wasn't always the last one to the top of the hill! (most of the time but not every time)  I did not fall as far behind the others like I did last summer; I was only a few seconds behind!  The sledding hill was ridiculous and my pace for those repeats were in the 10s and 11s but for the repeats on the street, I was doing them in the 8:50 - 9:20 range and I'm super happy with that!!
This is from Garmin Connect:

Lots of hills/opportunities

 The green line is elevation.  The first set of repeats is messed up because I was hitting the start/stop button instead of the lap button so only the uphills were recorded.  I got it right after that. 
This crazy workout took about an hour and a half'; it was after 8pm when we finished.  It was 8:30 pm when I got home and I was starving! 
I'm working toward a decent 5K time on May 18th at the Detroit Race for the Cure.  I know I won't PR but, hopefully, I will PR for 5Ks in my 50s!  The 5K I'm running is the race where my current PR was run.   I'm convinced that it's the flattest 5K course in the world!  If pain = gain then I should have made some major gains this evening!!! 
Well, I am exhausted! (gee, I wonder why!)  I'm sore and I even used my foam roller.  My right foot is just a bit sore so I will wear my splint tonight.  (that's the plantar fasciitis foot from last year)

Runner Nerd
runs up many hills because every one is an opportunity

The World's Oldest College Student is on Spring Break

The world's oldest college student is on spring break so you know what that means!!!!!! I got to go to Tuesday night running group!!!!!  I've sooooooo missed Tuesday night running group this semester.  I had to give it up due to my afternoon shift clinicals on Tuesdays. 
We meet up at the very cool local running store for an informal run.  It was really fun because one of the running store employees who qualified for and ran the Olympic marathon trial last month ran with us! 
We ran 4.1 miles.  When I got home and uploaded my run on Garmin.com I see that I ran a 9:48 pace!  Sadly, that's fast for me these days.  It was a great evening for a run in February in southeast Michigan, 38 degrees!  It was fun to run with the old gang again and I can't wait until I am a regular groupie again!!  I will be back on April 24th!!

Runner Nerd
happy to run with friends