Firehouse Pickle in the Streets 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

On Thursday evening Matt and I finally got to participate in a “Pickle Run,” one of a series of prediction 5Ks hosted by our awesome local race timing organization, Run the Day. We tried to race in a Pickle Run in February but we were thwarted by the Ice Storm, and then we were signed up for another in March but I goofed and showed up for the start 4 hours late (we ended up running the race anyway and dubbed it the Un-Pickle Run). Luckily history did not repeat itself a third time on Thursday because — spoiler alert — I ran a HUGE PR!!!

This edition of the Pickle Run was dubbed the Firehouse Pickle in the Streets 5K and it was hosted by the Garden City Fire Company in Wallingford, PA. Since this was a prediction race, all of the participants guessed their finish times in advance and ran the race without any timing devices. The “winner” wasn’t the fastest runner, but rather the one that guessed closest to their actual completion time. I think this is a really fun idea and I’d definitely do a Pickle Run again in the future!

Me with The Pickle after the race

Garden City Fire Co. hosted the after party and BBQ

The race itself had about 100 participants and the course wound through the gloriously flat, quiet neighborhoods around the firehouse. The first mile seemed slightly downhill and I went out FAST, thinking to myself that I better take advantage of that downhill while I could. (Somehow it never felt like we had any uphills to make up for that downhill, but hey, I’m not complaining!) I didn’t have RunKeeper telling my my splits so at points I felt a little disoriented in terms of how far along in the race I was and how fast I was going. I really wanted a PR so I kept pushing myself to keep up my pace (whatever that pace was…). The last thing I wanted was to feel like I let up at some point in the race only to find out that I missed a PR by a few seconds.

After what felt like way more than 3 miles of really hard running the finish line finally came into sight. The race clock was turned around backwards so we couldn’t see it, of course… wouldn’t want anyone speeding up or slowing down to get closer to their predicted time! Without any idea of my time I pounded across the finish feeling like I had left everything out on the course. I turned around as I crossed the line and saw the clock…

23:41 !!!

YES!!!! A HUGE PR of more than 35 seconds!!!!! The race felt hard but being totally surprised by that enormous PR made it all worth it. The (very small) downside was that I had only predicted a 2-second PR time of 24:15 so I was way off my prediction time but hey, who cares, I ran sub-24!!! 🙂

Matt also had a PR time of 23:08, a big improvement from his previous best of 23:47. He had predicted a finish time of 23:00 so he won a pickle in a beer stein for being so close. (Did I mention that the Pickle Runs have ridiculous prizes and awards?) 🙂

I’m thrilled to have run a sub-24 5K, but I’m pretty sure that the faster time was not an accident. I’ve been doing weekly speedwork at a track with a local running group and, quite frankly, I would have been a little disappointed had I not run some sort of PR. The speed workouts are really challenging but it’s great to see that the time spent on the track is clearly having an effect on my running. Can’t wait to see how I’ll feel after a few more weeks of training during my next race, Willistown Conservation Trust’s Run-a-Muck on September 20th. Run-a-Muck was my first race ever last year and I’m hoping to run significantly faster this year!

Miles since last post: 70
Days since last post: 14
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.82
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1165

Related Posts:
• Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K (8/17/14)
• Riddlewood Swim Club 5K (8/3/14)
• Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K (7/18/14)
• Cam’s ‘Moonlight’ 5K (7/10/14)
• Media 5 Miler (6/20/14)
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-a-Muck 5K (9/21/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

17Aug2014

Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Woohoo! First obstacle race COMPLETE! This morning Matt and I ran the Radnor Red Steeplechase 5K at Radnor Hunt in Malvern, PA. The event web site proclaims that this is “NOT YOUR ORDINARY 5K RACE!” and they aren’t kidding! The course included multiple horse jumps, ditches, and three trips through muddy, mucky water jumps. What fun!

I spent hundreds of hours of my childhood on the grounds of Radnor Hunt. In the 90s I was a proud member of Radnor Hunt Pony Club and I used to love dashing around and jumping over the horse jumps on foot after finishing up on horseback. (I’m pretty sure this is why I became a hurdler once I started running track.) I must admit, however, that clearing the jumps today was harder than I remembered… probably because as a kid I wasn’t also running a 5K in between the obstacles!

Today’s course was challenging, with steep hills and tall grass (and jumps, obviously). By now I’ve done a few XC races but it still surprises me how much harder it is to run on grass than pavement, especially with soaking wet shoes! Nevertheless, I ran hard and felt pretty positive throughout the entire race. I’ve been doing speed workouts on the track for 3 weeks in a row now and I kept finding myself thinking in terms of track intervals like, at the halfway-ish point: “only 3 x 800s left to go… I can do that!” or, at the .25 to go mark, “just one more lap!!” Despite feeling really tired on some of the steep uphill climbs, I was happily surprised at the finish as I kicked it in with what felt like a whole new level of speed than I am used to having at the end of a race.

Post Race – my RHPC t-shirt is from around 1990… I dug it out of storage for this race.

Radnor Red Steeplechase Runkeeper Stats

I finished with a chip time of 27:49, 26th out of 265 women and 5th in my age group. Matt finished in 27:05, 91st out of 289 men and 6th in his age group. We agreed after the race that the hardest obstacle was by far the sequence where we ran into a water jump (deeper than the one shown above), then had to climb out of the water up a ~3 ft. bank before going over an enormous log jump. That’s the one jump I actually sat on in the process of climbing over… it was big (and wet and muddy from everyone’s waterlogged shoes!) I definitely gained a new appreciation for horses on today’s XC course. 🙂

Our next race will be the Firehouse Pickle in the Streets on August 28th. This is a prediction format race where you guess your time in advance and then there’s a beer garden and BBQ afterwards. Oh, and the course is fast, flat and ON PAVEMENT! 🙂 Looking forward to it!

Miles since last post: 72.5
Days since last post: 14
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.82
2014 TOTAL MILES: 1095

Related Posts:
• Riddlewood Swim Club 5K (8/3/14)
• Swarthmore Lions Independence Eve 8K (7/18/14)
• Cam’s ‘Moonlight’ 5K (7/10/14)
• Media 5 Miler (6/20/14)
• Radnor Conservancy 5K Trail Run (6/1/14)
• Rocky Run 5K Trail Run (5/30/14)
• Run for Victory 5K (5/18/14)
• Elwyn 5K (5/3/14)
• St. Tim’s 5K (4/26/14)
• Rick’s Run 5K (4/19/14)
• Las Vegas Security 5K (4/3/14)
• Color Out Cancer 5K (3/30/14)
• Athlete’s Closet March 5 Miler (3/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet February 5K (2/1/14)
• Athlete’s Closet January 5K (1/4/14)
• New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA (12/31/13)
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/21/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

14Aug2014

Peach and Blueberry Crumble

Posted in Recipes by Annie T

Back in June Matt and I were on a fruity dessert kick. We made apple and blackberry crumble for my mom and stepfather, strawberry-rhubarb crisp for the entire crew at the hunting camp, and, my favorite, peach and blueberry crumble for Matt’s parents. I would have shared these delicious desserts on the blog as soon as we made them, but I’m pretty sure our family members would have killed me if I asked them to sit around waiting for their dessert while I arranged the scoops of ice cream “just so” and took photos for 10 minutes.

So, with the best blogging intentions in mind, last night Matt and I made a batch of peach and blueberry crumble for ourselves just so I could take all the photos I wanted (the things we do for the blog!). 🙂 We used fresh peaches that had been ripening on the counter all week (they smelled SO GOOD!!) and this mouth-watering dessert came together in about 30 minutes plus baking time.

One note about peeling the peaches – in the original recipe Ina Garten suggests immersing the peaches in boiling water and then putting them in cold water to make the skins easier to peel off. We did this the first time we made this recipe (while Matt’s parents looked on) and the boiling water “trick” didn’t seem to have any effect on our peach skins at all (it just made a mess of my kitchen!). So, this time Matt just peeled the peaches normally and the recipe worked out just fine.

Peach and Blueberry Crumble (from Ina Garten / The Food Network)

Filling Ingredients:
6 to 8 Ripe Peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced into wedges
2 tablespoons Lemon Zest
2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 cup Blueberries

Topping Ingredients:
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/3 cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 cup Light Brown Sugar, lightly packed
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/4 lb. (1 stick) Cold Unsalted Butter, diced

Vanilla Ice Cream

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine the peaches, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar and flour in a large bowl and mix gently until the dry ingredients are completely dissolved. Fold in the blueberries. Allow mixture to sit for 5 minutes, then spoon into ramekins. (We used 2 ramekins and spooned the rest into a larger baking dish.)

Combine the topping ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on low speed for 30-90 seconds until the topping is crumbly. If desired, use your fingers to press the mixture to your preferred level of crumbly-ness (I liked the even texture that came straight out of my mixer.) Sprinkle the topping evenly over the filled ramekins.

Place the ramekins on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 15-20 minutes before serving with a big scoop of ice cream on top. Enjoy!

Peach and Blueberry Crumble

Filling the ramekins

Topping time!

3Aug2014

Riddlewood 5K and a familiar face in a random meme!

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

This morning I ran the Riddlewood Swim Club 5K and I was the first woman to cross the finish line! But first, check out this totally random picture that I saw while scrolling through my Facebook feed this afternoon…

That’s my BAILEY!!! Somebody turned one of her flying dockdogs photos into an internet meme that’s being shared around Facebook. Cool! I don’t know who added the words but it definitely made me smile to see the determined, non-nonsense look on her little brown face as she flies through the air. If you’re interested, you can view (and share) the original Facebook post here.

But back to running… I signed up last minute for a little 5K race this morning and it went really well! The race was sponsored by the Riddlewood Swim Club and the course wound around the extremely hilly “Riddlewood” neighborhood of Media, PA. I’m a big fan of local history so I have to share a quick bit of trivia behind the Riddlewood name:

“The name [Riddlewood] comes from famous racehorse owner Samuel D. Riddle, who owned the property before it was developed in the 1950s. The names of the streets in Riddlewood are named after Sam Riddle’s horses as follows: Man o’ War, War Admiral, War Trophy, Rampart East, Rampart West, Anamosa, and Soldier Song.” (Source: Wikipedia)

Man o’ War was, according to Wikipedia, one of the greatest Thoroughbred race horses of all time. He sired Triple Crown Winner War Admiral and was the grandfather (grandhorse?) to Seabiscuit. Man o’ War’s owner, Sam Riddle died in 1951 and left his estate to be turned into what is now Riddle Memorial Hospital (and also Riddlewood!). As another local twist, it was Sam’s relatives the Jeffords family that owned the estate that is now my favorite running spot, Ridley Creek State Park.

OK… history lesson over!

The 5K itself was tiny, with only around 30 participants. We started by running straight up a steep hill and kept climbing for what felt like the entire first mile. Around the halfway point the course took us along an equally steep downhill before looping by the swim club and going right back up the huge hill again. Talk about a good hill workout! 🙂

I felt like I managed all of these hills pretty well and during the second lap’s climb I was actually able to pass two guys who had been in front of me for the whole race. I pulled away from them and set my sights on a younger guy that was about 200 feet ahead of me. I knew that the finish was going to be a steep downhill and I really thought I could catch this guy, but he picked up his pace significantly during the last 1/4 mile or so and I couldn’t quite get him. As it was, I ended up finishing the race with a 7:53 third mile split (my fastest last mile ever!) and clocked a ridiculous 5:10 split on my final 0.1 mile. I was running into the finish so fast that I thought I might fall over!

Struggling to keep my balance down the hill into the finish.

In addition to running my best third mile split, today also marks the first time that I’ve ever raced purely negative splits! Of course, the fact that the whole first mile was uphill and the third mile was primarily flat or downhill certainly helped this happen, but I’m still pretty psyched! Oh, and also, I was the first place woman! Woohoo! 🙂