Virtual Race Recap: Revenge of the 5th 5K

Last night I ran my first virtual race of the season. If you aren't sure what a virtual race is, the people over at Jost Running give a pretty good explanation.

Last year, I took part in the inaugural Nerd Herd Running trilogy that included the May the Fourth be With You 5K, Happy Birthday Harry Potter 10K, and the Banned Books Week Half Marathon. All the medals joined up to make their logo:

All of their profits went to cancer research and I love nerdy things, so I knew I would have to do the series again this year! Little did I know, things would get even better. This year's runs are the Revenge of the Fifth 5K, Lord of the Bling 10K, and The Rebellion Begins Half Marathon. They all make a super awesome shield and have been dubbed "The Hero's Quest".

Oh, and they all will make a 9 inch shield when put together (the top part is for completing the whole series)! 

Yesterday was the Revenge of the Fifth (since Sunday was May the 4th be With You) and I absolutely did not feel like running. It was my last day of class and I got up earlier than normal for my final, and then I had to do a bunch of final assignments for some other classes. I then came home and was hit in the face by my allergies. The pollen count has been really bad here lately, and I've been feeling it.

Oh, and it's getting worse.

I was tired and sniffly and all I wanted to do was nap (which I did). But I was dead set on running this on the 5th, and so I printed out my bib for some motivation. I then did a Google search for "running with allergies" and found out that in the Spring it is actually better to run later in the day since trees pollinate in the morning. I figured I would give it a try and head out. 

I actually ran really well. I wasn't planning on running fast at all, I just wanted to listen to my body. I was coughing a bit thanks to the allergies, and my nose was running, but I finished in 33:45, which is amazing for me. A year ago for the May the 4th race, I ran my fastest 5K ever to that point at 34:43. I was barely trying last night and beat that! Its crazy how much faster and stronger I have gotten!

There's a costume contest on Nerd Herd's Facebook page, so I figured I would participate. Zach got me this awesome R2D2 tank top, and I bought the ears at Disney World a few years ago. Add a tutu, and it's the perfect girly Star Wars running costume! (Okay, I didn't wear the ears while I ran. There's no way they would have stayed on!)

Official race photo. Thanks to Zach for being a willing photographer!

Last night's run was a great one, and knowing that I almost skipped out made me feel even better after finishing! Thanks, Nerd Herd for such a fun series, looking forward to the next one already!

I'll be getting this bad boy in about a month. His eyes glow in the dark!

Race Recap: The Color Run Kaleidoscope Tour

As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I did two races. Okay, well I wouldn't really consider The Color Run a "race" since it's not even timed and the main goal is to have fun.

You may remember that I wrote about my last Color Run in this post. I was hoping for the same exciting event this year, but it didn't top last year.

Kaleidoscope shot 

Don't get me wrong, I had a blast! However, they changed the location from last year, and it was just an overall lackluster event. We have decided that next year we are probably going to end up doing the Flying Pirate half marathon in the Outer Banks instead.

This year was the Kaleidoscope Tour, which I thought was a good marketing move. No one wants to do the exact same event twice, so they tweaked it just enough that people would want to do it again.

We went to packet pickup on Friday night. Last year the whole thing had a party feel to it, but this year it was more of an assembly line. They also didn't give us our color packet, but instead the bibs had a tear-off part at the bottom to get it at the finish line. I think they have had a problem with people using them before the color throw at the end, so that actually was kind of smart of them to change it.

The "swag" had improved from the year before. The packet came in an awesome reusable bag, and had temporary tattoos, a newly designed shirt, a headband, and a wristband. They also had a store set up with all kinds of cool, reasonably priced (as far as race gear goes) merchandise. I purchased a purple tutu, a reversible headband (because I LOVE headbands), and a sticker (which I plan on making a magnet and putting on my car).

The rest of Friday was pretty much a girls night out with my mom. We shopped (and found a pet store and played with the most adorable English Bulldog puppy) and ate and then went back to hang out at our hotel. Side story about the hotel: at the same time we arrived to check in, about 60 obnoxious high school students were doing the same thing. Apparently there was a technical school conference nearby at the same time, and the hotel lady felt sorry for us and gave us a complementary upgrade to a VERY fancy room I'm still not sure why anyone would need a room that large in a hotel, but it was kind of fun.

The bag my shirt came in. Pretty cute!

After a horrible night's sleep (the pillows on the beds were too fat), we woke up and mom and I decided to go for a matching 80s inspired look with the headbands they had given us. For some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to wear shorts and a short sleeve shirt. I figured it worked last year so it would work this year. However, last year it was in June, and this year it was in April. I regretted that decision as soon as I walked outside into the windy 48* weather.

Luckily, the race started at a civic center, so we were able to stand inside until the race started.

The following is a breakdown of various aspects of the event:

Course: Eh. It went through a residential area and had some cool houses but wasn't very scenic. There were some hills. Nothing super special.

Volunteers: They were very into what they were doing! They were all covered in the color they were throwing and threw out generous amounts to the runners.

Color Zones: There was one less than last year, but this year they added purple (my favorite color) so that kind of made up for it.

Finish line: The area to exchange the tab from your bib for your color packet was a disaster. It was a mob of people thinking they were going to run out or something. I got stepped on several times. There were also KIND bars, water, and Panera goodies (with no limit on how many you could eat). That was my favorite.

The best part of The Color Run is the color throw at the end. This year, they did them less frequently, so there were a lot of people participating in each one. Somehow we got in the middle, and the sun was blocked out for a minute or so when the color was thrown. It was pretty awesome and I got covered in color.

Overall, it was a fun event, but next year I may stick closer to home. I'm not sure I want to travel for an event that several charities in my area are trying to host for the upcoming Fall/Spring race season. I think next year I may choose a smaller event, and use the money to try something new.

Check out my colorful hair!

Don't get me wrong, I had a blast! But I'm always ready for a new challenge. Maybe I'll replace the color with mud ;)

Race Recap: Liberty Mountain 5K

This past weekend was a busy one, with two races almost back to back (Liberty Mountain on Thursday night and The Color Run on Saturday morning, that post to come later).

The Liberty Mountain 5K is part of the Liberty Mountain Trail Series and was originally scheduled for February 15. However, it got snowed out and the new date was a Thursday night (which I don't really understand).

I did this race last year and was excited to run the course. However, I looked at the map the day before the race and discovered that they had completely changed the course! It wasn't even starting at the same building this year.

Slightly disappointed, I got to the race early to pick up my "packet". These races are run by Liberty University Student Activities, and they only cost me $10 to do. Because they are so cheap, all you get is a shirt and race bib. The shirts were long sleeve and heavy, and had the original race date printed on them. That would have been fine in February, but Thursday it was 70 out and it just seemed out of place!

I had gone to running class earlier in the day and done 4 miles with them in the 80 degree humidity, and was exhausted. Before the race, I ran into my friend Drew who has recently gotten back into running. I decided to stay with him during the race because I was so tired I was just aiming to finish, the time didn't matter at all.

The race started and I got a good look at the new course. It was very very hilly. Just like the Arctic 5K, it seemed to just keep going up and never come down. There was nothing too exciting about it other than the hills. There were a few bridges we got to run over, which covered some of the swampy parts of the trail (that was nice).

It was a pretty uneventful race, but I had fun nonetheless. I'll do it again next year, but mainly just because it's so cheap.

Finish line selfie in my Shamrock gear

Throwback Thursday: Sunrise 5K

Last summer I ran 3 races presented by Outer Banks Runcations. They do races all summer long, some are one time only and some are weekly events. The first one that I did in June was a one-time event: The Sunrise 5K.

It started really really early, and it was pretty chilly and windy. I had only brought shorts and a short sleeved shirt so I was going to have to wear that, but I kept my hoodie on until the last possible second.

Before I get too far into the story, let me make one thing clear. I had stupidly forgotten 2 things: my running shoes and a headband. Luckily (or not) the race was on the beach so I chose to run the race barefoot- that's what most people were doing anyway.

Anyway, I picked up my number and not-so-exiting t-shirt and waited for the race to start (still wearing my hoodie). At the very very last second I took the hoodie off and headed to the starting line.

There was one thing I learned very fast: running on sand is HARD. I thought I would be okay, since Lynchburg is nothing but hills running on flat sand would be easy. Wrong. The dry sand was too loose and I felt like I wasn't making any progress so I followed everyone else to the wet sand by the water. This sand was really hard and almost immediately I knew I was going to be feeling this run the next day.

The race itself was pretty simple. Out 1.6 miles to a turnaround and water station, and then back again. I was fine the first 1.6 miles when the wind was blowing into my face. However, as soon as I turned around, I immediately regretted not having a headband. I have a lot of hair, and my hair doesn't like to stay in place. I eventually even gave up pushing it back, but it was really annoying and really frustrating.

I don't remember my time, but I did enjoy the race. If I ever did it again I would run it in shoes (I've since run one on sand with shoes, and it was much easier). All of Runcation's races are very well organized and run very smoothly.

Oh, and I almost forgot the best part! You get wonderful medals at the end of all their races!

Throwback Thursday: The Color Run

There's a trend on social media called "Throwback Thursday". I have decided that since this blog wasn't around when I first started running (and through some really fun races) I'm going to do a couple of Throwbacks of my own.

The first one is the Color Run last June.

Runicorn!

This was the biggest race I had done to date, and the only one not organized by local charities. I was so impressed at packet pick up how organized and how smoothly things went!

 We arrived later in the day so there weren't that many people there, but the whole thing is like a party. There's music blasting, and games to play, and you can even meet their mascot, a unicorn.

All the race goodies

They give you a white shirt and encourage you to wear it in the race. You also get to pick out what color packet you want to throw in the end celebration. I chose purple, of course. There are also temporary tattoos to wear to make you look extra fierce as you they pelt you with color. You also get a white headband to wear, but I thought it looked ridiculous on me so I chose not to wear it.

The next morning we started off all nice and clean. We had bought white shirts at Old Navy to wear because they are cheap and we didn't want to mess up the nice ones they gave us. We put on our pink tutus and temporary tattoos and headed to the start.

The race goes in waves, and if you ever have the opportunity to run a Color Run, get towards the beginning wave. When we finished there were still a lot of people waiting to start and it was really hot that day. I can't imagine waiting that long in the heat.

On the course there are a total of 4 color stations if I remember correctly. Pink, blue, orange, and yellow corn starch are squirted at runners through bottles. My favorite station was the blue one because most of the volunteers were younger kids and they were very generous with their color!

At times the course gets really crowded so you can't really run, but since I was doing it with my mom I had planned on walking anyway. I have no clue what our time was because it isn't officially timed, but it was over way too fast due to all the fun we were having. If they made half marathon color runs, I would probably set a PR!

At the end everyone throws their color packets up in one final color explosion. This is done every 15 minutes to accommodate all the finishers. Note to self next time I do this: keep my mouth closed. The dust tastes like chalk and it isn't fun.

The "after" photos were so much fun to take! Both of us were super colorful, and I had it in my mouth and hair and just about every crevice of my body.

It took about 30 minutes to scrub all that off. Mainly the purple that was in my hair:

This was one of the most fun races I did last year and I can't wait to do it again in April with my mom. Color Run Kaleidoscope Tour 2014: here we come!

Race Recap: Arctic 5K

Yesterday I ran the Arctic 5K presented by Liberty University Student Activities. I did this race last year as my first 5K as a runner, but I wouldn't recommend any of Liberty's Spring races as a first. You go straight up a mountain for almost a mile, and it's slightly miserable.

On Friday, the day before the race, I got an email that said this:  In case nobody warned you, let me be the first to say that this may be the TOUGHEST 5k you will ever do. This is not for the faint of heart, so put your game face on and get ready to finish a race you’re sure to be proud of.

This is what I tell people when they ask about the race. I always tell them DO NOT do it as your first trail race. I did and I almost wanted to give up running after my first race.

So yesterday I woke up, bundled up, and was determined to beat my time from last year of 48 minutes. The course started out all nice and easy and then there was hill one. I walked. I didn't' want to walk but I did. Last year I was so tired after the uphill parts that I had to walk down hill. This year I made it my goal to run all the downhill parts, and run them I did.

Elevation Profile for the Course

However, the hills were just too long and too many and when it came time to finish, I was one minute slower than last year. But, I was okay with that. I had met my goal of running all the down hills and flat parts, and didn't feel like I was going to die at the end. I also wasn't almost last like last year, and finished before 50 other people. I felt so proud of myself, that I didn't even care about my extra minute. This year was for a change in mentality. There's always next year for a change in speed.

Finisher's photo, temperature, and participant shirt