Athlete’s Closet Run for Love 5K

Posted in Race Recaps by Annie T

Matt and I ran the third race in the Athlete’s Closet Winter Series on Saturday. Following the loss of our beautiful pup, Bailey, on Thursday night, we decided that we still wanted to race but we were also feeling completely emotionally and physically drained. As a result, the race didn’t feel particularly good, but it was definitely good for us to get outside and run.

My brother Billy (or “Bill” as he likes to be called now that he’s an adult!!) wasn’t planning on running with us but he decided last minute that he’d come and run with me for support. We all wore our “The Little GSP” t-shirts in memory of Bailey and, true to his word, Billy kept pace with me throughout the entire race. I told him at the start that he should tell me to go faster when I was plodding up the (many) hills on the course, so he did and I think it made me go a little faster.

Despite Billy’s best efforts, this was not a stellar race for Matt and me. We both finished within seconds of each other in the 26:02-ish range which is 2+ minutes off of Matt’s target time and at least 45 seconds slower than I was aiming for. At least I was able to finish strong AND I have photographic proof of it! With a few hundred feet to go I started sprinting and my step-father captured this photo. I think this may be the first photo of me in a 5K where I look like I’m actually running! (Usually I’m mid-stride with a painful expression on my face!)

Here are my RunKeeper stats for the race. Again, nothing too impressive but, considering the circumstances, not terrible either. The weather was beautiful (35° and sunny) and we had a great cheering section in the form of my brother’s girlfriend Suzanne, my mom, and my step-father. It was really nice of them all to come out to support us… thanks guys!!!

Our next race will be the Pickle Run in Ridley Creek State Park on February 15th. I’ve heard great things about the Pickle Run Series (they’re super fun AND they’re predictive, meaning that the winner is the one who most accurately predicts their time in advance!) and it should be really neat to finally run a race on our “home” course at the park. I’m looking forward to it!

Miles since last post: 75.3
Days since last post: 15
Avg. Daily Miles since 7/18/13: 4.87
2014 TOTAL MILES: 166.9

Related Posts:
• 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)
• 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)

4Jan2014

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

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)