She may look sweet and innocent but she is keeping us on our toes around here!
First up: Tiki Run 10k (Aug 2, 2014)
This was a new run this year for Team Ortho, and my first 10k race! I ran it with my cousin Jessie who is running Twin Cities marathon with me next weekend! Here we are before the race:
Good old blurry stranger photo
It was very humid but at least the rain stopped right before the run. The course description said it was flat, but we did not feel that way. It started at the Union Depot in St. Paul and followed some of the Get Lucky course, but then went out on a big bridge over the train tracks. Anyway, we had fun and finished in 1:07:27. The after party was pretty lame, long lines for a piece of pizza and a beer, but we did get a great photo with the signature Team Ortho shirtless hunk:
Also our leis didn't work (they were supposed to have blinking lights)
All in all, we had fun but I probably won't bother with this race next year!
Next up: Milk Run 5k (Aug 24, 2014)
This year I did the Milk Run with Jackie, her first race back after having a baby! I also did this race in 2012 with my mom. I love it and will try to do it every year! It's fun because you get to the fair super early and then get free admission and a free malt from the dairy building. The race itself is fun and hilly! I am bummed that we didn't take any pictures before or after the race, but here is our time:
Not too shabby!
Finally: Esprit de She 10k (Sep 18, 2014)
I was so mad that I couldn't do this race last year, because I had nobody to watch my kids. This year I made sure I didn't miss it (even though it was my hubby's birthday, sorry honey)! I ran with both Jackie and Jessie! It was really fun and we got a lot of free goodies from the various vendors there. I think my favorite was the arm warmers from Allina, they will be perfect for the start of the marathon. We also got samples from Cold Stone and turkey burgers and wine at the finish!
The race was fun but hard to run as fast as we wanted because we were sharing a path for most of the race with all the other slow people who lined up in a faster corral than they should have! The 10k was two loops of the 5k course, so after the first lap the crowd thinned out and we were able to run a little faster. Even with those challenges, I managed a PR of 1:04:05! Again, we forgot to take pictures of the race, but here is one professional photo with me and Jessie (Jackie must have been just out of the frame):
We also got those cute tanks for the race!
Last but not least, yes I have been training for a marathon these past few months! Training has been going good overall, I did my two longest training runs with Jessie (16 miles and 20 miles). I learned that I need to take salt pills every hour or so, and learned my lesson about running out of water, too! I think we are ready for race day, aiming for around a 5:30 finish? That is just a guess, hopefully the stars align and we have good weather, good hydration, etc. for race day! Right now I am just tapering and trying to eat super healthy and take all my supplements. Trying not to get sick. Trying to get a lot of sleep (hard with the new puppy). I scheduled a sports massage for Friday to work out some of these knots in my calves and my tight right IT band!
