Author Archives: Jessica

10.04.13
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Race Report: Fremont Oktoberfest 5k – September 22, 2013

After three sunny days in Seattle (I must’ve lucked out with the timing of my trip), I woke up Sunday morning to overcast skies and drizzle. The race wasn’t until 10am, so I took my time getting ready and (stupidly) ate a fiber bar for breakfast.

My bestie Sabrina drove us down to Fremont, and we parked and walked down to packet pick-up. They had a board set up with your name and bib number. Once you found your bib number, you got in the pick-up line to get your stuff: a neon green t-shirt, race bib, and shoe timing chip.

As I was putting on my bib and timing chip, I looked around at the other runners. Most of them were dressed much more warmly than me, with pull-overs and long sleeves dominating the crowd. I was wearing a skirt and a tank, of course. It was in the low 60s, so I had a hoodie on for warmth, but handed it over to Sabrina before the start, since it was not anything I wanted to run in.

before the fremont oktoberfest 5k

Tired but ready to start!

As I was waiting at the start line, a man next to me asked if I had run this 5k before. I said that I hadn’t and was actually from Nashville. He looked surprised and then said, “I’m from Tennessee too!” Turns out, he was also running on vacation from Johnson City. Small world!

Soon we were off. It had warmed up considerably and the sun was trying to peak through the clouds. I kind of laughed at all the people who were regretting their long sleeves and stripping off their pull-overs while trying to run.

I ran along at a pretty steady pace of 10:30 min/mile for the first mile, but by that time I was really wanting some water. I had (stupidly) failed to drink any that morning beforehand, and since the day before had been spent at on a wine tour and at Oktoberfest, I was probably pretty dehydrated. I had started to get side stitches, which, for me, is usually a pretty good indicator that I’m in need of water. On top of that, I think the fiber bar was making my stomach ache a bit. Usually a 5k will have a water stop every mile or maybe just one at the halfway point. I passed the one mile point with no water stop. I kept going. Shortly before the halfway point, I paused to catch my breath and hopefully try to see if there was a water stop ahead. There wasn’t. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to hold my pace without any water, so I started doing run/walk intervals for the remainder. I knew it wasn’t going to be my fastest 5k, but I was a bit disappointed that it also wasn’t going to be my first 5k without walking.

I finished in a little over 35 minutes, which isn’t terrible. It was around what I was expecting to run, especially considering all the walking I’d been doing around Seattle and the imbibing from the day before.

My quarter mile splits:
quarter mile splits

Started too fast, eh?

They gave us a beer at the end, but I was way more interested in the water! So Sabrina downed half my beer and then we left to go check out the Fremont troll. 😀

Thrilled about beer, obviously.

Thrilled about beer, obviously.

the fremont troll

Fremont troll!

Shoes: Skechers GoRun 2

10.01.13
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Week of 9/23/13 – 9/29/13: WDW Half Training, Week 2

week of 9/23/13 to 9/29/13
I’m not even going to pretend like this was a good week. I was supposed to run a total of 12.5 miles, and I ended up coming up 5 miles short (and probably only half of my mileage was actual running).

My first run was supposed to be on Tuesday before I got on a plane to head back to Nashville from Seattle. But I woke up not feeling it and chose to spend my last few hours hanging out with my friends and packing.

Wednesday I spent the day in Atlanta, so there was no time for making up Tuesday’s run.

On Thursday I was supposed to do two miles, but I went climbing instead. (Yay, crosstraining! That counts for something, right?)

Although my head wasn’t into it, I was going to make up those two miles on Friday. (I may have been trying to make up excuses about my arms being sore, but those don’t work for running). However, I got stuck in traffic and didn’t get home until after sunset, so no excuse necessary. (I really need to start my gym membership.) So I got a pizza and slothed around instead.

On Saturday, despite being completely sore from climbing on Thursday (legs included this time), I did head out to do my 4.5 mile long run. When I found myself walking less than half a mile in, I knew it wasn’t going to be a good run. I had been short on sleep the whole week, so I slept in instead of getting up early when it was cooler. So it was 85 or so by the time I got out there. Big mistake. My legs were stiff and sore. And my head was playing mental games the whole time. I forced myself to do the whole 4.5 miles, but I did walk a great deal of it. And I didn’t enjoy it.

Sunday was the Zombie Run. I was doing it with my friends Lauren and Chris, neither of whom run, so I suspected I’d be walking a bit. And we did. A lot of it was either slow jogging next to them while they were walking, sprinting through the zombies and then waiting on them, or coaxing them to run the downhills. If it had been a timed event, I would have just ran on my own pace, but it was a fun run, so I stuck with them…well, mostly. I did take off the last half mile (although, most of that was spent dodging all the walkers…and by walkers, I mean non-runners, not zombies). I’ll have a full recap of the event up soon!

Am I burnt out on running, two weeks into half marathon training?

09.23.13
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Week of 9/16/13 – 9/22/13: WDW Half Training, Week 1

week of 9/16/13 to 9/22/13

First week of half marathon training complete! This is going to be short, since I’m out of town.

On Monday, I went out to the greenway for my first day. I planned on taking it easy, but somehow managed to run my fastest 5k time ever, 33:28. Woohoo! Great way to start out.

Tuesday, I flew out of Nashville to go visit friends in Seattle. I did my first Washington run on Wednesday, two miles easy.

On Friday, I went out to Green Lake, which was beautiful. I wore my Blerch shirt, in case I ran into the guy who writes the Oatmeal. (I didn’t.) I took my four miles pretty easy, walking briefly after each mile.

Then I had a 5k race on Sunday, which I will write a full race report for later. I had been constantly on my feet for days at that point, and my feet/legs were pretty stiff going into it, so I didn’t really race it, treating it more like an easy training run. I finished in 35:17.

It was a pretty good first week!

09.16.13
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Week of 9/9/13 – 9/15/13

week of 9/9/13 to 9/15/13

I went out on Tuesday with a lot on my mind. I had three miles scheduled, and I wanted to keep about a 12 min/mile pace on them. I did really good with pacing, only glancing at my watch once or twice during the first mile. I felt pretty good, so I upped the pace a little in the second mile. I still felt good after that, so I pushed a little more on the third. Yes, I completed all three miles without walking and on rolling hills, no less. Woohoo! I did pause once about 0.6 of a mile in to take a picture of a faint rainbow, but I think it still counts that I ran the entire distance. That puts me exactly where I wanted to be to start half marathon training and just in time!

Unfortunately my good runs didn’t last this week. Wednesday’s run was a speed workout, one tougher than the ones I’ve been doing. It consisted of 12 intervals of 90 seconds running fast, 60 seconds recovery. I did it, but not well or all that fast. To put into perspective, my fastest interval was still a minute slower than I’ve been doing on my speed runs (and on the second running interval, no less, so I probably wore myself out) and my slowest was over a 13 min/mile, which cannot be considered a “fast” pace by any means.

After two days off, I hit the road again on Saturday morning for another three mile run. I checked the weather before I headed out and saw that it was chillier than it had been, so I decided to wear running tights instead of a skirt and a short-sleeved dark shirt instead of a light tank. Yeah, it was still too hot for that. I had to take several walk breaks (mostly to drown myself in water) before I finished the day’s run.

This week starts half marathon training, and I have a nice warm-up 5k on Sunday!