Athlete’s Closet January 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Matt and I ran the second 5K in the Athlete’s Closet Winter Series this morning. This race was special for two reasons… we had our first-ever spectators/cheering squad (my mom and stepfather) AND both of our brothers ran the race with us!!! Here we are at the finish… my brother Billy (#167), Matt’s brother Dylan (#145), me, and Matt. Yay for family running together!

Billy was the first finisher of our group (15th overall) with Dylan (17th), Matt (20th) and me (23rd) close behind. Matt’s time was 25:45 and mine was 26:19… much slower than usual but we had a good excuse… the roads were partially covered in snow and it was really, really cold out. It was a mere 1°F when we arrived at the event. ONE DEGREE!!! By the time the race actually started it had probably warmed up to around 10° but that’s still pretty chilly!

I knew it was going to be cold so I tried to plan my clothing accordingly. I was wearing SmartWool compression socks, Athleta’s Relay Tights, a thin Under Armour Twisted Tech T-shirt, Athleta’s Queen’s Luscious super-soft long-sleeve half zip, the Sugoi Firewall 180 Jacket, a head band, lightweight gloves, and a neck warmer from my mom that was made out of some sort of super-breathable tech material. All of that layering paid off because I felt good at the start line and got just hot enough during the race to unzip my jacket and long-sleeved shirt and put my gloves in my pockets. Oddly my toes went numb for the first mile or so but I’m not sure if that was from the cold or from my compression socks… I’ve never run in these socks before so I’ll have to do some investigating to figure out what was going on!

Today’s 3.1 mile course took us on the same route as the Athlete’s Closet December 5K. It was fairly hilly with a few big, slippery uphills towards the end of the race. I tracked the run on my iPhone with Runkeeper as usual but unfortunately I couldn’t get the “start” button to work at the beginning of the race. I ended up running the first several hundred yards looking at my armband trying in vain to push the stupid button with my “iPhone friendly” gloves (which, for the record, had been working fine up to that point!). I finally got it to work about .1 into the race after taking one glove off and licking my finger before tapping the phone screen Jeez! Maybe it was too cold out? All of this excitement resulted in my splits being a little messed up since I had to manually edit the course distance in Runkeeper afterwards. Oh well!

Overall today was chilly and not quite as fast as I was hoping for, but it was really fun to have our brothers running with us and to have our very own spectators. I figure if our family was able to survive today’s frigid temperatures they can survive anything! Hopefully they will join us again for the next 5K of the Winter Series on February 1st! 🙂

Miles since last post: 16.3
Days since last post: 4
Avg. Daily Miles since July 18th: 4.84
2014 TOTAL MILES: 16.3

Related Posts:
• 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)
• Let’s Go Streaking! (11/21/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

31Dec2013

A (Long) Look Back at 2013

Posted in Bailey, Race Recaps, Trips by Annie T

As 2014 rapidly approaches I am happily reflecting on the wonderful year that I had in 2013. Most importantly, I married my best friend and the love of my life (and had a blast doing so!). I also started running again after a six year hiatus, I spent time with Bailey, and I cooked lots of yummy foods. All in all a good year. Here’s my official recap!

Matt and I got married!

On June 8th Matt and I got married at Sweetwater Farm in Glen Mills, PA. The celebration started Friday night with a laid back barbecue ‘rehearsal dinner’ during Tropical Storm Andrea (luckily we were under a covered patio!). Then the sun came out on Saturday and we got married outside at the edge of the woods before partying the night away with our guests in a renovated 18th century red bank barn that doubles as a winery. After our wedding Matt and I honeymooned in beautiful St. Lucia.

St. Lucia’s Piton Mountain

Sugar Beach

Paradise!

I ran! (a lot)

When Matt and I returned from our honeymoon I decided it was time to get back in shape. I started streaking on July 1st and we bought a treadmill on July 18th. Spurred on by a goal that I set for myself (100 miles in 42 days), I started walking, jogging, and then running like crazy. I hit 100 miles in 21 days, 200 in 37 days, and 300 in 54 days. Then I nervously entered and triumphantly finished the Run-A-Muck, my first 5K race since freshman year in high school.

Matt at the Trinity 5K

My 8 mile run!

After a run in Ridley Creek State Park

Working hard on the treadmill!

After Run-A-Muck I was completely hooked on running. So much so that I overdid my training and injured my foot to the point where I could hardly walk. I didn’t want to break my streak, so I switched my training over to the elliptical trainer in our garage. With time my peroneal tendonitis healed and I was ready for more 5Ks. Matt and I ran three races on consecutive weekends in late October/early November (Fueled Up, Oy Vey, and Trinity) and then enjoyed a crowded Turkey Trot on a chilly 29° Thanksgiving morning. Matt hurt his back so he cheered me on from the sidelines at the Athlete’s Closet 5K in mid-December, then I finished off the year with a new personal best (25:13) at the New Year’s Eve 5K at the Upper Main Line YMCA.

I started tracking my mileage on July 18th and I’m finishing off 2013 with exactly 812 miles. That’s an average of 4.86 miles a day since mid-July, whew! My best month was August with 180.2 miles, followed by a strong December with 161 miles. My longest run was an 8 mile jaunt in Wallingford, PA on December 22nd (I didn’t mean for it to be that long… I got lost!). I’ve been streaking for 184 consecutive days and I don’t plan on stopping any time soon!

Bailey played!

Little mud puppy

Seeing Double… GSPs!

SNOW!

Bailey the little GSP

I can’t write a year end recap without mentioning our cuddly, energetic, “petite” German Shorthair, Bailey. Bailey turned 6 in May, competed at the DockDogs Regional Championships in June, had a GSP house guest in July, wallowed in the mud in August, and frolicked in the snow in December. When she wasn’t outside patrolling the yard for squirrels, Bailey snuggled with us on the couch (she’s only allowed on the furniture if we invite her up) and snoozed in her doggie den bed. She also started K9 Nosework classes in January and she’s working on hunting for birch scent now. (That reminds me that I really need to do a post about NW one of these days… maybe next year!) 🙂

We cooked!

When we weren’t busy planning a wedding or running, Matt and I spent time in the kitchen making lots of yummy meals. Here are a few of our favorites from 2013:

I blogged!

And, finally… in 2013 I blogged! WordPress sent me a stats summary for the year so I thought I’d share a few quick factoids. My blog had over 58,000 views in 2013 and my visitors came from 150 different countries! Thank you very much for visiting, everyone!!!

My most popular post by far was this recipe for Candied Yams (it had over 1300 hits on Thanksgiving day alone!). Other popular posts were my DIY Tutorial on making your own “vintage” blue ball jars and my Rotisserie Chicken Burritos. I’ve really enjoyed blogging in 2013 and I can’t wait to continue next year!

OK, I’m off to get ready for a New Year’s Eve party. Have a wonderful last few hours of 2013 and happy new year!!!

31Dec2013

New Year’s Eve 5K at the YMCA

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

I ran my seventh and final 5K of 2013 this morning and I set a new personal best!!! I finished in 25 minutes, 13 seconds which is 3 seconds better than my previous best time from the Oy Vey 5K back in October, woohoo! This course was hillier than Oy Vey (and at 29°F it was a little chillier out!!) so overall I am thrilled to end my year on this note. Yippee!!!

A very happy post-race selfie in the car. Notice Bailey in the back?

Matt couldn’t make it to this race because he had to finish his year-end inventory count at the office. (The realities of managing a manufacturing business!) This means that this was my first solo race. I wasn’t completely alone however because Bailey came along for the ride! She loves the car and she waited patiently under a comforter on her big fleecy car bed while I ran. What a good pup!

My four-legged 5K companion waiting patiently in the car.

Getting back to the race… This was the 30th Annual New Year’s Eve 5K sponsored by the YMCA of the Upper Main Line in Berwyn, PA. The course was a neighborhood out-and-back and I think it was the first race that I’ve run where the beginning half of the course has a lot of uphill climbs (which leaves more downhill for the second half!!). I really liked that and as I was running the first part of the race I kept thinking about how I was going to take advantage of those downhills on my way back.

I pushed myself through the whole race and when I rounded the final turn and saw the clock at 24:51 I started sprinting (well, it was probably more of a powerful jog at that point but I felt like I was sprinting!) and I cruised across the finish with 3 seconds to spare. I think I was 2nd in my age group, 5th female overall, and 30th runner overall in a field of around 100. Cool!

My next race is the Athlete’s Closet January 5K this Saturday. Rumor has it that Matt, Matt’s brother, AND my brother are all running in it too! I think that will be fun to see familiar faces out on the course and I’m looking forward to it! Happy New Year everyone!!!

Miles since last post: 95.2
Days since last post: 17
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 4.86
TOTAL MILES: 812.0

Related Posts:
• Athlete’s Closet December 5K (12/14/13)
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Let’s Go Streaking! (11/21/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Limping my Way to 400 Miles (10/3/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

14Dec2013

Athlete’s Closet December 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Guess what? It’s snowing out again! I’ll be headed to the kitchen to make another warm and hearty stew in a few minutes, but first I want to recap the 5K that I ran this morning. It was the first in a series of four winter races sponsored by the Athlete’s Closet, a local running store in West Chester, PA. I finished in 25:27 (approximately… official results aren’t posted yet) and I somehow managed to place first in my age group!

Matt sat this race out because he’s been having some serious back pain. I missed him on the course but I still got to see him at the start and finish cheering me on which was nice.

I tried something new with RunKeeper today. Usually I have the app report my time, pace, distance, etc. every 5 minutes and every .5 miles. I realize that’s a ton of stat reporting but it gives me something to think about during the race. This race, however, I decided to do away with all of the stats. I set RunKeeper to only tell me my stats when the race time hit 25 minutes. In other words, I hoped that I would finish the race before hearing any stats! As it turned out, the finish line was within sight and I was already running as fast as I could when my phone started talking to me, so I was pretty close to my goal. After I crossed the finish line I looked at my splits and realized that this is the first time that I’ve ever managed to run my 3rd mile faster than my 2nd… woohoo!!

When the race was over all of the runners gathered at the Athlete’s Closet for cookies, water, and a quick awards ceremony. The results weren’t posted so I didn’t even know my official time, much less how I had finished relative to other 20-29 year old females. As a result I was shocked when they called my name for top in my age group. I got this shiny medal with the event name engraved on the back… cool!!

Our next race is the Athlete’s Closet New Year’s 5K on January 4th. I don’t know if it will be the exact same course, but based on today’s terrain I should probably do some serious hill training between now and then! 🙂

Miles since last post: 75.6
Days since last post: 16
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 4.778
TOTAL MILES: 716.8

Related Posts:
• Turkey Trot 5K (11/28/13)
• Let’s Go Streaking! (11/21/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Limping my Way to 400 Miles (10/3/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

28Nov2013

Turkey Trot 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Happy Thanksgiving! Matt and I kicked off our holiday weekend at 8:45am with the Seven Summits 5K Turkey Trot in Chesterbrook, PA. Well actually we didn’t end up kicking anything off at 8:45 because the race started extremely late… What I really should say is that we stood around with 595 other runners for 30 minutes in the windy 29°F weather before kicking our weekend off at 9:15! 🙂 The cold wait obviously didn’t slow Matt down… he was one of the top 100 finishers and his 23:53 finishing time was a 28 second personal best!

My race wasn’t too shabby, either. I finished in 25:23 which was good enough for 56th female (out of 317). Overall, I’m happy with that because of the wind and frigid temps, but I have to admit that my goal going into the race was to run sub-25 so I’m a tiny bit sad that I didn’t do that. Not too sad though, because I still came within a mere 7 seconds of my personal best! Plus, now I feel that much more determined to run even faster in our next 5K on December 15th!!

Here are my RunKeeper stats for the race. Probably my most even-paced race so far… I was attempting to go out nice and steady and maintain an 8:00-ish pace for the entire race (which would have given me my desired sub-25 time) but I couldn’t quite keep that pace up. In my next race I think I’ll go back to the strategy of going out more aggressively in the first mile and finishing with whatever I have left.

As I mentioned before there were several hundred people in the race so after we finished we didn’t stick around. Instead we hopped in the car, cranked up the heat, and went out for bagels and coffee. Oh, but we were well disciplined and did run a little cool down in the bagel shop’s parking lot before going in to eat. I’m sure the people in the shop thought we were nuts! Here I am on the drive home with my coffee. I was very happy to be done running and ready to start the Thanksgiving festivities!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!!

Miles since last post: 27.2
Days since last post: 7
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 4.79
TOTAL MILES: 641.2

Related Posts:
• Let’s Go Streaking! (11/21/13)
• Trinity Presbyterian 5K (11/2/13)
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Limping my Way to 400 Miles (10/3/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)

2Nov2013

Trinity Presbyterian 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

This morning Matt and I completed three race weekends in a row with the Trinity Presbyterian 5K Run/Walk in Berwyn, PA. The course wound through Berwyn’s neighborhoods and took us right by my grandparents’ old house. I have many fond memories of their neighborhood (it’s where I learned to ride a bike!) so it was neat to run through it during the first mile of the race.

This was the most competitive race that we’ve gone to so far. The guy who won finished in 16 minutes!! Matt finished 13th overall with a 24:31 and I was 16th overall and 3rd place female with a 25:48. We both didn’t feel as fast as we did in last weeks’ Oy Vey 5K but that’s probably because today’s race ended with a looooong uphill climb. I had to walk a little up the hill but I’m still very happy with my second sub-26 minute time in 2 weeks!

Today’s weather was absolutely gorgeous. The Fall leaves were at their peak color, the cloud-streaked blue sky looked like a work of art, and the temperature was in the mid-fifties. I snapped this photo of Trinity Presbyterian Church before the race went off. Wasn’t it beautiful out?

I finally figured out how to edit my run on Runkeeper to show the correct time which is good since I’m not usually very quick about hitting “end run” on my iPhone when I cross the finish line. Here’s the official Runkeeper recap. I’m proud of that 6:59 first mile split but as expected I slowed down big time at the end… that final hill was evil!!

After three weekends in a row Matt and I now get to enjoy a few weeks off from racing. Our next 5K is Thanksgiving day and I’m already looking forward to it!

Miles since last post: 21.9
Days since last post: 6
Average Daily Miles since July 18th: 4.84
TOTAL MILES: 523.2

Related Posts:
• Oy Vey 5K (10/27/13)
• Fueled Up & Fired Up 5K (10/19/13)
• Limping my Way to 400 Miles (10/3/13)
• Run-A-Muck 5K (9/22/13)
• 300 miles and a 5K in my future (9/9/13)
• 200 miles! (8/26/13)
• 100 Miles in 21 Days! (8/7/13)
• 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge: 49 Miles to Go! (7/29/13)
• The Challenge Begins: 100 Mile iPad Mini Challenge (7/23/13)