Race Recap: Goodwin Forest Trail Race

Fun facts: It's been a month and half since I've posted on here (sorry) and alsooooo I'm racing a half marathon in 3 weeks.

My training has been going well so far but hasn't taken off like I was hoping it would. I've been enjoying my long runs, cross training, and doing strength work but I'm missing the crucial speed work that will allow me to run a good race. I would like to PR, and my goal is 1:35, but honestly I don't think that I'm in shape to run 7:15 per mile for 13 miles. In an effort to engage my fast twitch muscles, I signed up for a local 10k trail race.

Let me preface this by saying that I have never run a trail race before. I assumed it was like running cross country, and since I'm knee-deep into my team's cross country season, I was fired up. In fact, I borrowed back my college cross country spikes from my top runner so that I could fly through the trails. But fly I did not. The first mile was pretty flat but a little rocky and I was completely disheartened to see my watch beep at 7:57 for the first split. From there, the race just got worse. I had a blister on my heel that was rubbing annoyingly, the footing was hard and the trails were narrow. I wanted to go faster but I was afraid of falling. Those cross country spikes were actually not a good idea because although I could grip the humid ground well, my feet and ankles weren't supported. During the rougher patches, ankles were slightly rolled, paces slowed and many choice words were uttered. The race also was advertised as a 10k but even the website admitted it was only 5.8 miles. Once I hit 4 miles, I knew it was time to go. My hopes of finishing in any sort of respectable time had long flown the coop but I wanted to at least make up some ground. I saw that there was a woman behind me and if there's one thing I can't stand in races it's losing to people I shouldn't. I wanted some sort of female award (top female? 1st age group?) so instead of letting her overtake me, I focused on the hairy dude* in front of me and reeled him in.

*Sidenote: I think I'll need to do some more research, but I think trail runners are a different breed of human. Lots of crazy hair and too many hydration belts for my comfort level. I felt very out of place.

As I turned the corner and headed up the last quarter mile stretch of the path, one man who had already finished yelled at me that there was someone hot on my tail. I was still frustrated with the whole race and feeling tired from the trail, the humidity, and life, but I gave it one last push. I was not  about to let that girl beat me so as to at least have something good to say about the race, and I opened up the gap and finished strong. Turns out, it was hairy dude who was behind me and then the woman, so I shouldn't have been too worried, but feeling that pressure definitely propelled me to run faster than I wanted to.

I look too happy on this cool down

Once I crossed the finish line, I learned two things. 1: I was the 2nd female, yay! 2: Only 1st female got a prize, bummer. I chatted with the race director about the trails and training for my upcoming half marathon. He pointed out that while I didn't work my speed as much as I had hoped, I definitely worked on my running strength, and I liked this perspective. Perhaps all was not lost with this race. Another runner (tall skinny guy) started talking to me, but he was a little creepy, so I peaced out with the excuse of a long cool down to hit my 10 miles for the day. After standing around for a while, the cool down started out rough, and especially my butt felt heavy. I understood what the race director meant by running strength as I took my first couple steps. I headed onto the local Airline Trails that bisect this state forest, knowing the the trails are flat and smooth. I slogged 3 miles, took a selfie to show my incredibly sweaty Oiselle #flystyle, and finished at the pavilion to get one more drink of water and steal a banana. As I arrived, I heard the race director call out my name; I won a loaf of zucchini bread after all. Turns out all was not lost, and actually, I'm pretty glad I did this race.

Exciting news and a not-so-exciting race

Those of you who know me well, or have been following me closely on the blog know that I've been talking a lot about Oiselle recently. This by-women, for-women company makes awesome clothes and sponsors a number of elite and non-elite athletes throughout the country. Last year, I applied too late to be considered to join their team, but I couldn't let it go. Oiselle fosters a great community that's so inspirational, plus their clothes are so stylin'. I kept in touch with the team manager throughout the year, and I'm pleased to finally officially announce that I'm one of the newest members of the Oiselle Volée team! If you don't believe me, check out my profile on the Oiselle website. I am already really feeling the love--women that I've never met wished me luck on my race via Twitter and I can't wait to meet up with some of the more local ones. And now I'm essentially sister-runners with the likes of Lauren Fleshman, Kate Grace and Kara Goucher. It's going to be a great year.

My awesome Volée welcome kit

I had my first race running for Oiselle this past weekend. As you'll surely recall, I'm up in Vermont for the summer, and Middlebury put on a 5k fun run to benefit student scholarships. The race took place on their cross country course, which forms part of their incredible TAM-trail around Middlebury. I run this section of the TAM at least twice a week; it's well groomed and keeps me on my toes due to the rolling hills. That being said, I knew that this 5k was not going to be my fastest.

Spot the bird! Some of the Spanish school before the race.

Even though this race was small and local, I wanted to run well because it was my first race repping Oiselle. Like any well-trained runner, my intentions started days before with track workouts, proper hydration and attention to sleep...except that I'm also taking advantage of my Spanish summer and have been going out dancing salsa. So while my plan for the Saturday race was to get a solid 8 hours of sleep on Thursday night (sleep runs on a 2 days cycle and this Thursday is the night before the night before, we've talked about this right?), I ended up dancing until at least 1 in the morning with class at 9 AM the following day. Friday night wasn't much better so I was worried how this serious lack of sleep would affect my performance. 

Going into the race I had a couple of goals. It was being "scored" by language school and the top 3 runners of each school were to win a prize. This prize ended up being a tiny plastic trophy so it wasn't worth much. What I was more aiming for was to be one of the top women, and to run a respectable time. As I warmed up and stretched out before the race, I was able to size up the competition--there wasn't much. A couple of girls looked like they could maybe be fast, but this was a small race so I figured that I could do well. 

None of us paying attention, on purpose

The course was an out and back that was heavily downhill for the first half, and regrettably uphill the second half. I knew my splits were going to be fast for the first half and I was ready. I also knew (and let me get up on my soapbox here for a minute) that a lot of the people running this race were doing so for fun, and didn't have a great sense of pacing. The race went out fast but I stayed just a little behind the lead group. Sure enough, within half a mile, I was passing some of them already. There was one girl in front of me, wearing spikes, who looked pretty legit. I tried to hang on but she already had a lead on me. I settled in to make sure no other girls were around me, and that a couple of buddies stayed behind me. My first (extremely) downhill mile was a 7:10. I was happy with that and tried to keep pushing myself, because a 5k at 7:10 pace on this course would be awesome. Unfortunately, things went, only figuratively, downhill from there. I turned around at the halfway mark, tried to focus on running the tangents and hit my second mile at 7:42. Not great, but I could work with it. 

At this point, I was in no man's land. The guy (in Vibrams, what?) in front of me was gone, and there wasn't anyone behind me, breathing down my neck to push me forward. I came out of the woods onto the grass that approached the hill. It is a massive hill, and it killed me. I hadn't felt lactic acid burn in my legs like that for ages. I realized then, in that moment, that despite the great and consistent track workouts I'd been doing for weeks, I hadn't trained on hills. My body couldn't respond. I was a little embarrassed at my lack of training foresight and totally sucking air. As I crested the hill, I tried to shake it out and keep up whatever momentum I had left. Then my Garmin struck again, and my 3rd mile showed up as 8:17. I was toast. I finished in 24:25--definitely NOT my best time, and ended up 5th overall for the Spanish school but 2nd girl. It was a hard race but given my limitations, I don't know that I could have done any better. Afterwards, I talked to the girl who finished ahead of me. She talked in Portuguese and I in Spanish, and she told me that she had run mid-distance at Lafayette, a DI school. I didn't feel so bad after that; she would have beaten me any day. We cheered the rest of the runners in, I cooled down and headed first to brunch, then to a lake, then to a local beer festival. Despite not running a fast time, it was a great way to start the day. 

Recently Played

Hola from grad school!

This summer I'm up in the beautiful green mountains of Vermont starting my first of 4 summers working towards my master's degree. It's insanely beautiful here and I'm constantly inspired to go running. Those of you who follow me on Instagram saw a photo recently where I mentioned a great run and a rockin' playlist. As I'm listening to more and more music in Spanish, I've found certain songs whose rhythm and beats really pump me up. (On a side note, I'm also learning to dance salsa, and some of these songs are great for that too.) I wanted to share my playlist here for those of you looking for new music. I recommend these songs for when you need a boost, either on a long run or during a workout. I think you'll find it's hard not to pick up the pace with them!

¡Que disfruten!

Race Recap: Hollis Fast 5k

Finally, a fast 5k! (Try saying that five times fast)

After scouring the web for a good race with which to end my spring racing circuit, I settled on running the Hollis Fast 5k, up in NH. Our speedy friend Kat had run it the year before, and after runner-stalking her and being impressed with her time, I signed up myself.

Unlike my last race, this 5k was very well put together. It was point-to-point, which was super cool and I got to see the whole course as I drove to the parking lot. The course was very downhill (hence the Fast 5k name) and was clearly marked. I got there early enough to have plenty of time to use the bathroom, drink lots of water and get bussed to the starting line. I warmed up thoroughly and even did some Dynamic Mobility exercises to kill the time. There were lots of people there; some of whom were there just for an evening jog (did I mention this race was 6:30 pm on a Thursday?) and some of whom were ready to rock it. I spied a number of team singlets: Western Mass Distance Project, Greater Boston Track Club, etc. I even spied some other women wearing Oiselle duds. I myself was enjoying being seen by everyone in this Oiselle Big O Burnout Tank in fresh green, with my neon yellow Strappy Bra poking through. Some of these women looked fast, so as the race started out I picked a couple and tried to stay with them.

I'll say it before and I'll say it again, I do not like going out too fast in a race. Some of the women that I had my eyes on took off and I was tempted to go with them. But I knew that if I ran a smart race, I'd be able to reel many of them back in. So I settled for a comfortably hard effort and ran my own race. I hit the first mile in 7:07, and that was exciting because I did not feel like I was running that fast yet. The second mile was slightly slower, 7:09, but still pretty good. After Mile 2, I felt like I was starting to slow down, and some of those women were pulling away from me. After two pretty quick miles, I was expecting to feel tired and run-down, but I did a quick body-scan and realized that I felt fine. Why not push it a little more? I set my targets on a woman in purple and a very sweaty man. As we closed in on the final stretch of the race, we had to zigzag through some of the slower people in front of us, and I lost the purple woman. However, my Garmin beeped at me for the last mile: 7:05. I crossed the line and immediately checked my time (22:10) and Age Group position. I hadn't thought I even had a chance to "Age Group" but it turns out I was 4th. I think I said a couple of choice words out loud at missing 3rd, and headed back to the banquet hall and parking lot to cool down.

The Hollis Fast 5K definitely lives up to its name, and my splits showed how beneficial a downhill can be. I like to think my time was due to weekly track sessions and some solid milage, but in reality the negative slope did most of the work for me. I'm still really happy with my time and my effort. I ran a smart race, and I will never complain about negative splitting. I initially was bummed that I missed getting an AG medal and was worried that the purple woman, who beat me by 5 seconds, got it instead. Turns out, however, that she was 40+ years old, and that 3rd in my AG ran almost a minute faster than I did, so there's no shame in my 4th place after all. 

The biggest disappointment is that there is no photographic evidence! It was a weird sensation driving to the race all by myself and not knowing anyone there. I didn't have a change to snap any selfies, and the official race photographer apparently decided to take a break for about 2 minutes, during which time I crossed the finish line. Suffice it to say, it was a good race but I'll have to go back next year to get my proof. 

Hitting the Trails

Recently I've been getting off the roads and hitting the trails. I'm really digging the scenery, the shade, and the post-run tick checks. Embarrassingly, I'm not the best at remembering to apply sunscreen before I head out on my runs, so if I'm running in the woods I can at least feel a little better about all the sun exposure I'm getting. One of my favorite parts of trail running is that you work hard for your run. You need to stay focused and maneuver the trails and because of this, it never gets boring. My Garmin watch doesn't love the trails so I often just run a timer and forget about my pace. These are the days that remind me why I love to run. It's not everyday I wake up and instantly want to hit the trails, but when they're beautiful and not sweltering hot, I just can't resist.

Since I'm into this whole being a responsible runner thing, I always bring my cellphone with me now, for safety and for music. The bonus is that I get to document all of my noteworthy and particularly verdant runs. This June, I have run on trails in Lincoln, MA (bike trails and Mt. Misery), Dover, MA for Father's Day:

Noanet Woodlands

Squinty family (minus Mom), Oiselle, and Boston in the background

Newly blazed and beautiful trails in Pomfret, CT:

A muggy morning run in Portland, ME, while visiting fellow CCTF teammates: 

Back Cove Panorama

My old stomping grounds in Concord, MA: 

Old Rifle Range

Obligatory selfie. Go Mules!

And attended a wedding on a beautiful estate in Virginia, where I got completely lost and loved exploring the winding paths:

Goodstone Inn trails

Post run, what a handsome date.

Up next, I'm headed to Vermont for 6 weeks of grad school and hopefully many more trails!

Race Recap: 5K PurpleStride DC (Pancreatic Cancer Fundraiser)

Even though I've been feeling reluctant to admit that I did not have a very fantastic race, or even a mediocre race, a couple of weekends ago, it wasn't the reason I hadn't blogged. The real (and more legitimate) reason is that I've been working my buns off all month. And TODAY was my LAST DAY of work! In my sleep-deprived delirium, and as procrastination of packing for the big move in 36h, I'll give a brief update...

I raced, I attempted to break 19, I didn't break 20. Ooops. Turns out that my 60+ hour weeks seemed to win over my carefully calculated and perfect training peak and taper. No worries though, I can tell that I am actually in fantastic shape and as soon as I get some consecutive nights of sleep I'll be chasing that goal again. This time in cooler New England temperatures. The best part of that day was knowing that I had reached and surpassed my fundraising goals with the help of friends, family, and friends of friends. It was a great event for pancreatic cancer fundraising efforts and I was happy to be a part of it for the second year in a row.

On top of all of that, I got to experience the most awkward high-five of my life, thanks to an enthusiastic photographer who doesn't understand that nerdy boys are terrible at giving high-fives when forced.

So, should we just keep our hands touching?
No rush, this isn't uncomfortable or anything

Am I taller?

Race Recap: Girls on the Run 10k

The 10K: 6.2 miles, 25 laps on the track, 2 5ks, and way too far for some people. Robyn would likely never run a 10k since it goes way beyond her racing distance limit, but for me it's a fun change of pace. All spring, my friend and training partner Jillian has been running and racing to stay in shape for her wedding, and we ran this race as a final push just one week before she got hitched.

This race was sponsored by Girls On The Run, and held in the beautiful Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence. The event itself offered a 5k and a 10k, which was just 2 laps around the park. Prior to the race, I'd taken a look at the 2013 results and knew that I had a chance of winning something. I arrived right on time and warmed up and did strides with plenty of time before the start. The first mile included a hairpin turn and I was able to see about 8 women ahead of me. This was a smaller race and I was excited to see only a handful of women in front of me, especially because I assumed most of them would be only running the 5k. As we looped around the park, my mile splits were pretty even: I started out at 7:20, then hit 7:30 and 7:30. At about 2.5 miles, I came up on a young runner and chatted with her for a little bit. I didn't get her name, but she is in 7th grade, loves cross country and had a 24:00 5k PR. As we closed in on the 5k finish together, my watch told me that this girl was about to run an PR, and I cheered her on as she finished around 23:30.

As my new buddy cross the finish line, I followed the path to continue on for the 10k. This is where the race got tricky, since my finish line was the same, but my starting line was not at the finish line. My Garmin watch had already told me that the mile markers were off (even if the Garmin is right, one must abide by those incorrect race markers), but with such a discrepancy between loop 1 and loop 2, I knew I was about to run more than 10 kilometers. It was a hot day, and my mile splits were starting to slow down: 7:42, 7:59. Not too embarrassing, but I knew I could do better. I took water around mile 4, but the heat and loneliness of the 10k were still getting to me. Approaching the final turns and hills of the second loop, I started kicking. My watch beeped 6 miles (7:24!) way before I saw the 6-mile sign on the course, so I paid attention to my watch, and I hit 10k at 46:55. There was still a ways to go until the actual finish line, and I crossed that at 48:30. I got some water and turned around to cheer for Jillian as she finished. I knew that she wouldn't be happy with her time, so as she finished I yelled to her not to worry about her time because the race was long. Definitely got some weird looks for that one...

So even with our "slow" times due to running more than a 10k, it turns out she and I took 1-2 in our Age Group! There was even a little ceremony and podium, but most people had left after the 5k awards so we didn't get to bask in all of our glory. Nonetheless, we did get medals, a few good pictures and some serious tan lines.

And then a week later, Jillian got married. It was a beautiful ceremony and we were able to hide our sports bra tans well enough for the pictures. Photographic evidence:

So we ran a race and celebrated a marriage. What will happen after the next 10k?