Sweetheart 10K race

This race was originally scheduled for last Saturday, but as I mentioned, the City of Overland Park called a snow emergency; when that happens, they won’t provide support for races, and the races can’t be held without the support. So it was rescheduled for today.

The weather was far yuckier today than last Saturday (which was merely frigid). I woke up to a wintery mix, which turned to a bit of snow and then sleet and then rain, all within an hour’s time. I’d planned to run a warm up couple of miles around 7 but at that point it was raining.

I decided I’d try to warm up at the racing venue instead, since everything was supposed to start drying up around 8:30. Unfortunately, the only thing my warm up run did was get my feet soaking wet. I mean they were squelching! Temps were in the low 30s and we had a good wind from the west, so the wind chill was in the upper 20s. Brrr.

Still, the rain had stopped which was good. Here I am under the orange arrow with the super bright pink ball cap on as we started:

And at the finish:

Huh, I thought the clouds had cleared out more than that.

And my official times:

My three goals for this 10K were:

• Don’t injure myself—most important goal. Achieved!
• Finish the race—so that reinforces the first goal because I can’t finish if I hurt myself. Achieved!
• If possible, keep my pace under 10 minutes per mile. Achieved! And I'm so tickled, my average pace per mile was 9:05.

My official chip time for the 10K was 56:22:9, I came in second in my age group, 26th out of all females and 59th out of the 249 who ran the 10k. I joked with Kent that I keep improving, and still keep coming in second in my age group. We looked at the results for the younger women, and I’d have won a couple of them. What can I say, I’m in a fast age group.

That is the blingiest finisher's medal I've ever seen.

Next up, I won an entry to the Big 12 races on March 10 from my employer, so I'll be running a (hilly) 12K proudly wearing a Jayhawk cap. And I'm fully focused on the first of three half marathons on April 14. 

Training does pay off

I’m not very experienced at running races. I’ve run a grand total of five races: a Jingle Bell run in the Detroit area in 2007 (not timed, purely a fun run), Hospital Hill 5K in 2008, another 5k in 2008 that I don’t remember the name of but it was some sort of fund raiser for physical therapy school at KU or something like that, and then the two races late last year.

On a whim, I looked up the results for the very first 5k I ever ran, which was the Hospital Hill 5K 10 years ago.

Then I pulled my results from the race I ran in October, the double race that was a 5K and then a 3K: 

Finally, I grabbed my results from the Jingle Bell 5K I ran in December:

It's really gratifying to see that I've improved despite being 10 years older. Now I'm even more determined to see how good I can get. 

Catching up, part 4

My birthday also happened to be the same day as Amanda’s bridal shower, and honestly I couldn’t think of a better way to spend it. She very kindly opened her home to me so I didn’t have to get a hotel, and she and Jordan drove me around so I didn’t need to get a rental car.

That Friday, we had dinner at the Taj, an Indian restaurant in Nashville. I love Indian food, and the biriyani was excellent.

The next day, my actual birthday, I took a 9 mile run first thing in the morning. My piriformis and hamstring felt pretty good and it was gratifying to know I can run that kind of distance at this point in my life. It was also freaking cold, like 20F.

After the bridal shower, we talked through where to go for dinner. Apparently, hot chicken is a big deal in Nashville so we decided to go to Kitchen Notes. Don’t be fooled by it being in a hotel, that restaurant is good! We had the hot chicken, savory biscuits, charred okra and marinated root vegetables. Everything was amazing, and I will say even I found the chicken to be quite spicy. I’m on a hunt now to find a good charred okra recipe—the ones I’ve found so far, include tomatoes or sauces and that’s not how the dish was that night. It’s very pared down, just the okra and some flakey salt and some sort of oil, and it was so good.

I flew home on Sunday and got back to Kansas City that had yet another arctic front move through—it was 13, and 3 inches of snow had fallen. Yuck.

On Monday, I got to work and found that my team had gotten me balloons.

Catching up, part 3

My older son is getting married in March, and his fiancée has been so wonderful about including me in the festivities. When my younger son got married, Jen (his now-wife) was also inclusive and I really enjoyed that so much. Of course, it was easier to go to the various showers and pre-wedding events because they lived about 45 minutes away from us. It’s harder since Jordan and Amanda live in Nashville.

But I’ve been so thankful to be included. Her mother and her mother’s friends hosted a shower for her the first weekend in February and invited me. Kent and I figured out a way to make it possible for me to go, and so off I flew to Nashville.

Let me tell you, Amanda’s mother and friends sure know how to throw a shower! Here are some photos:

I'm definitely the short one in the family

L to R: Karen (Amanda's mother), Amanda and me

The food was as tasty as it was beautiful

These were made by hand!

Our future grandcat on a catnip blanket I made for him.

Catching up, part 2

My brother and I have birthdays that are just three weeks apart (he’s 11 months younger). This year, we invited him and his wife to dinner with us—unfortunately she had to make an emergency trip out of town, so we didn’t get to see her. But we did get to see Doug.

Since his birthday was just a couple of days after our get-together, I wanted to make him food that might remind him of fun times we had as kids, so I asked Kent to make chicken pot pie.

When Doug and I were little, we loved those awful chicken pot pies, you know the ones you get in the frozen food section, that are dirt cheap and made with chicken parts (best not to ask which parts), pasty gluey gravy, some weak pathetic carrots and peas, and of course the top crust?

I’ll be honest, the crust was the part I loved. I liked to pry the crust up as one piece and then eat it separately; the best crusts were the ones that got pretty brown around the edges. Then I’d sort of pick at the rest of the pot pie and eat some of it but mostly push it around in the little pot pie tin.

Doug and I used to play a game when we would eat dinner. We’d put our arms on the table around our dishes so we kind of encircled our own dishes, and then we’d pretend we were running away by paddling our feet. I’m sure we drove mom crazy because we’d make our feet run (which was noisy) and then laugh hysterically as only small kids can do.

Anyway, for dessert I made a chocolate cake. Doug always chose chocolate cake for his birthday (I always chose plain angel food cake, nothing on it), so I made him a cake. I think he had a good time, and I know I did.

Catching up, part 1

When I changed positions at my job last summer, I also moved into a role with different busy times of the year. I’m in that busy time now (it started in October) and I’ll be there through April. When work is crazy, it takes more of my energy and I just can’t muster up the ability to write and post an update.

So I’m picking away at these updates a little at a time, mostly because I like being able to look back over the course of the year and see what I’ve done or not done and what I was thinking and feeling about stuff.

Today’s catch up is about the weather. Yes, I’m so lame and I’m turning into that old lady who talks about the weather. Last winter, I griped because we didn’t have enough deep freezes to kill the weeds and the oak mites (you might remember I got chewed up by oak mites this past fall, and that was just pure misery). Well not to worry this year. We’ve had weeks and weeks with temps below freezing, and plenty of days where we never broke into the 30s.

Since this is Kansas, we also get wind which makes things even more miserable. I’ve had two winter races postponed and/or canceled this year. The Hangover Half made sense—that day, the temps were life-threateningly cold. But yesterday’s race was moved because the city of Overland Park completely spazzed out and initiated their emergency snow protocols on Friday, and refused to support the race Saturday morning. We got nothing on Saturday, and this is what I woke up to this morning:

And here’s a photo of the roof-top pool I can see from my desk at work. If you look closely, you’ll see that the three fountains are nearly frozen. I have no idea why that pool wasn’t drained because it’s clearly not heated. At various points last month, I saw maintenance guys chipping away at the ice with pool cleaners (you know, those long poles with nets?), and pick axes. Yes, pick axes. Seems like it might easier to just drain the darn thing.

Rescheduled again

I'm beginning to think I'm the frozen kiss of death for winter races. Click the photo to read the email.

Round two

The replacement race for the half marathon that got scrapped due to life-threatening cold is this Saturday. I'm supposed to run the 10k (this race doesn't have a half marathon option) . . . except yes, once again weather is a concern.

I've been watching the forecast for the last week and it's teetered between rain, rain and snow, snow showers, wintry mix until today. Now we're supposed to get three to five inches of snow and the temp will be a balmy 17 with a wind chill of 4 at 9 AM when the race starts. Just shoot me now.