Category Archives: 5k race

Goblin Gallop roundup.

Happy Halloween! I was up way too early for my Goblin Gallop on Saturday. Finally a race that is about 4 miles from home, so I can sleep in, and I woke up too early. Sigh…

Last pink item of the month! My jammies 😀

The Breast Cancer Site

I made up a pre-race breakfast of banana custard oats topped with PB and blueberry jam.

With a couple cups of coffee.  It was nice to sit and relax before going out for the race.  I dressed up as a bumble bee again this year!

It was cold, you can see my clenched fists.  38 degrees at race start.

I was going along pretty well and finally got warmed up.  This is the same exact route as last year.  I felt really slow.  Know how that happens?  Same thing with this race last year, and we think the course is a little long because they do 2 loops in the neighborhood and how could that be exactly 3.1 miles?  Anyway – I really pushed it for the last 1/2 mile or so.  I finished in 31:33!  I was so not expecting that time.  Slower than last year, but more than a minute faster than my last 5K.  Yippee!!

Happy finishers:

John finished in 27 something.  So fast!

My mom came out and supported us today:

There were a ton of snacks afterwards.  I took a picture, but it was totally fogged up because my camera was cold from being outside:

I could not resist the candy corn cupcake!

Since today was my only full day off of the week, we decided to go out to Starbucks and have a sit and just chill out:

I just get one of these a week (days off, not coffee)!

We wanted to get some apples at a local orchard, so off to Saratoga after lunch:

We were going to go picking, but it was $6 per person and we did not need $12 worth of apples (we already have some).   But we did get a few.  Check out the giant bins of apples!

Some huge apples, too.  This was in John’s hand:

I like my apples smaller, so I went for the macintosh.  We also had to have a small cider donut:

Delicious and fresh.  Dunkin Donuts has nothing on these! Some man saw me taking a picture of this and said “Taking a picture so you can remember how good it was?”  LOL.  Something like that, I guess.

We bought some local honey:

And then browsed around:

Goose neck squash gave me a laugh.

Then it was home.  I did win the football picks last week, so John took me out to dinner.  I chose Wholey Crepe.  I had a crepe with egg, feta cheese, and bacon:

Very good!  John had a salmon crepe with dill/wasabi sauce, which he did not like at all.  Poor guy.

I like crepes because they don’t make you stuffed, which leaves room for splitting dessert!

Yes, it was that good.  A scoop of chocolate mousse on top of the crepe.  They didn’t charge us for the dessert crepe because John didn’t like his meal.  That was very nice of them!  This place is so tucked away of the main drag that I fear they won’t make it, which would be a real shame.

Saturday night also included pumpkin carving!

We don’t have children, but we do love doing the carving and handing out the candy.  It’ s messy, but fun.

The results?

Hope the treaters enjoy!

Can you believe this was all in 1 day?  I was beat after all that LOL!

Happy Halloween!

Silks And Satin 5K recap and to market

We were up early for the race today.  This race benefits the Special Olympics New York and is one of the bigger races we do.  It was also my very first 5K 2 years ago, so it is a little sentimental.

Had pre run fuel of banana oats topped with cashew butter and jam.  Plus coffee.

Then we hit the road – too early!

Pre race face:

Lots of people milling around at the registration line.

There were 700 preregistrants (including me) and a huge line for race day registrants (including John). I would estimate around 1000 people or so.

The race corrals stop at a 10 minute mile, so we line up in the 8-9 minute mile because people always start further up that really should be farther back.  This race was no exception.  It took about 45 seconds to cross the start line, which gets added to your time unfortunately.  There was a large clog at the beginning and when they called out time at 1 mile they said 11:50. I was surprised at that time because I know that I was running a much faster pace than that.  I felt pretty good, although it was really, really humid out.  Yesterday was cool, but today is upper 80s and humid, as in swimmingly so.

I was passing quite a few people, as expected.  It wastes a lot of energy to weave around people. Maybe I should start farther up, even though I am no where near a 7 minute mile.  Right before mile 2, there was a sound system going and it was playing the theme to Rocky.  How awesome!  I got a big smile and matched the pace.  It gave me a good boost of energy.

Mile 2 and time called out was 22:15.  Much faster pace, so I knew there was some fudge up with where they start the clock.  Right then, a bunch of people passed me.  I think when they hit the 2-mile mark, they pushed it, but then I passed them again a little later.

During mile 3, I had my pace music on the 6.5 mph pace for 5 minutes.  I was drenched in sweat at this time and kind of wanting the race over at this point.  1/2 mile from the finish and I got a bit of a stitch in my side, but I just pressed on and crossed the line at a about 32:50.  So, I don’t know what to think about that time, but it doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that I finished! Woo Hoo!

It’s also opening day for the Saratoga Race Track, and we were parked by the warm up track.  See how foggy humid it is?  This is post race and about 8:45 a.m.  or so.

Horses are such beautiful creatures.

I didn’t have any post race snack, as we wanted an awesome bagel in Saratoga, but we did grab our swag bags and then went to the farmers market first.

Post race face.  Little more awake here! I did mop off my face before taking this.  Even my forearms and shoulders were sweating, so you know it was humid.

Such lovely produce.

We got some of these tiny plums.  They look like cherries, don’t they?

They are very sweet and delicious!

I also picked up some hot peppers and patty pan squash.

Then it was time for Uncommon Grounds!  I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with honey nut cream cheese.

View from Mount Bagel.

Yum.  Best bagels around.

Can you believe all of this done by 10 am ??

Here was the swag bag from the race:

Plus a t-shirt.  I am going to keep a few of the cookies and ship the rest off with John at his poker night, as the guys will eat those.

The drink is a cranberry/pomegranate one, but sweetened with Splenda.  Booo….  John will get both bottles (we got identical bags!)

Trest of the day was spent mowing the lawn (too hot, good thing it is small), some weeding (too hot), porch sitting (too hot),

snacking because I didn’t want a sit down meal:

Plums!

I ate each time I got hungry.

Watched the tour.  39 seconds Contador won by…..hmmmm…. that’s all I’m sayin’.

Afternoon hunger assuaging.

We are headed out for dinner now.  I want an omelet and we don’t have any eggs in the house!  Need that breakfast for dinner.  Have a super evening!

Read Run 5K recap

My first post injury race!  Woke up at 6:30 to make some brekkie and coffee.  I used to do the 1-minute muffin before races, then I moved to protein oats.  I had those today.  I skip eggs on race day.

This bowl had oats, pumpkin, 1/2 scoop whey protein isolate (plain), 1-1/2 tsp of molasses.  Filling.  This was about 2 hours pre race, so it could settle and pump up my glycogen stores.

I was a little concerned about this race because my back has been aching the last couple days, not sure why, but it isn’t really painful, so I decided to run.  I also knew there was a small hill at the beginning of the race, and I have only done flat since hurting myself.

Not so great weather at first:

We met my sister there!!

And the characters were out.

This run benefits the Literacy Volunteers New York organization.  Some participants dressed up as literary characters, and a lot of spectators did, so that was fun.

The rain stopped and I shed my jacket and just wore my trisuit.  I am so glad because I was chilled to start, but was one sweaty lady by the time I finished.

I started off pretty good and found a nice pace to run.  The first hill was not so bad, although my thigh was saying “what is this?” LOL.  It was a short hill, though and flat until the last down hill.  I always run faster in races than in training, and John and I were saying how part of it is crowd encouragement, a little adrenaline, and the ability to sort of pick off runners as you go through the race.  As I approach someone, I will try to pass them and just go on doing that.

I was surprised that I was passing people towards the end.  I felt quite good, and the aching in my back didn’t get any worse (yay!).  My legs were fine.  I am also always surprised at how many people run really fast, then stop and walk, then run really fast.  You play leap frog with those people the whole race, you know?

I crossed the finish line in 32:40!  That is way faster than I was thinking it was going to be. I was just hoping for under 35.   Last year, I finished in 29:52, so not too far off the pace.  I should be back sub 30 later this summer.   10-1/2 weeks ago I couldn’t even sit up and I am so thankful to be almost back to normal.   Yay!!

John was Mr. Speedy at 26:30.  He is very fast now.

Post race, I had 1/4 of an orange and then we stopped for the best bagels around at Uncommon Grounds!

This place roasts their own coffee, too.  Check out this massive roaster.

Happy race participants.

(John is such a goof 😀 )

Unfortunately, I still have to work today, so while you are reading this (Sunday at any rate), I am hard at work.   😉

Reindeer Run 5K and cookie time!

Up early this morning, although not that early since the race was pretty close to home.  I woke up around 6:40.  Made a delicious prerace breakfast:

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  • cream of wheat
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin
  • cinnamon
  • 1/2 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • cranberry sauce and almond butter on top.

So good and really good race fuel.  With cafe au lait.

The temperature was about 30 or 32, and not windy, although it was cloudy.  Definitely waaaay better than the 15 degrees last year!

Here I am with my sister and niece (who did Girls on the Run):

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This is why you should always watch what you are doing.  I had no idea I was being videoed here:

Okay – ready to start any time!  I was cold!

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My goal was to shoot for 29:30.  The race started on a hill, but I moved to the edge so I could pass people.  It was good in that I happened to be in front of the clot of people, so I didn’t get slowed down by this.  I had my pace music on, and my idea was to play a 6.5 mph pace and run that 3 times for 5 minutes each to hit my goal.  It worked pretty well.  When I did the faster speed, I was passing people right and left, which was kind of fun!  The time went by so fast.  It was a flat course, other than the first hill.  On my last pace segment, I accidentally hit the wrong button on my player and ended up on Sweeney Todd, so I couldn’t go back to it.  I just tried to play the music in my head and go.  I ran really hard at the end and saw I was close to hitting my goal.  I crossed in 29:32!  I was really happy with that!

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30 degrees and soaked in sweat! 🙄  Can I tell you how much I love this jacket?  I hope it never wears out.

One thing about the Adirondack Runners – they know how to put on a spread after races.  This was 1 of *3* tables of  stuff:

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Someone whose name begins with L and ends with I managed to eat back all her race calories and more at this table!  Sooo good.  I can get helpless after working hard when I want food.

After the race and after all of us went for coffee, my mother and I went to a country art/craft show.  It was pretty neat – it was out in the country, and it was a bunch of homes that had artists and craftspeople showing their wares.  Lots of driving, but so pretty and fun.  I had some serious house jealousy!  Plus it started snowing!

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Our first real snow of the season.  Each of these places had cookies and drinks, too.  I was fueled by cookies today!  I never even had lunch, either.

Ornament of the day:

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Tuba ornaments are for John.  He is a tuba/trombone player and was at school in Colorado getting a masters in composition when I was working on my doctorate.  That’s how we met, by being put together in a graduate brass quintet! 😀

John made a whole wheat pizza that is in the oven for dinner!  Have a great night!

Goblin Gallop!

Happy Halloween everyone!

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Race day!  The Goblin Gallop 5K.  250 runners, which was probably 100 more than last year.  It was fairly warm in the mid 50s at least.  I had trouble sleeping, so I was up way early.  Had a nummy cream of wheat with banana, vanilla protein powder, nut butter and a drizzle of chocolate sauce for prerace fuel.

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I did the cheapest costume ever – it cost about $8! LOL.  Black bike shorts and top, wrapped with yellow duct tape.  The antennae were some pipe cleaners that I glued puffs on and wrapped around a headband.  Voila – a bumblebee!

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I had so much fun with this, and people responded to it, which was fun.  A woman came up and took my picture and asked “Are you going to *bee* fast?”  Harhar.  When I was running, kids and people were yelling “go bumblebee!”  It was so much fun and made me laugh and grin while I was running.  I was a little slower than I was hoping for at 29:43, but I beat last year’s time for this race (30:12).  I think it was the combo of lifting and biking yesterday, plus not enough sleep.  However, I had a great time and this costume was totally fine to run in.  I’ll have to get some actual race photos from my  mom who entered the digital age with a new camera and came out to watch John and I!

Went out to lunch afterwards, where I realized that I did not eat a single veggie all day yesterday!  Not sure how that happened.  So, I had a salad

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along with my wheat pizza wrap.  So good!

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While there I spotted the last pink item for the month of October!

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I’ve had some outclicks to the National Breast Cancer website from these, so I hope that it has inspired at least a few people to learn more or do more about taking your health into your own hands!

Hope you all have a happy and safe Halloween!

John did a PR!

Just a quick buzz by – John did a PR for this 5K  race (hills and all)

26:24!!

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He rocks!  Done by a person with asthma, too.  I’m so proud!

Going out for a bike ride now because his time makes me feel like a lazy butt 😀  Catch you later….

Read to Run 5K

Got up this morning expecting rain, but it had passed through during the night – yay!  I didn’t really want to race in the rain (that is not so fun).

Fueled up with my standard prerace meal – a 1 minute muffin (although 1 time I did oatbran):

brekkie1Ingredients:

1/4 cup ground flax meal

1 egg

1 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp baking powder

Mix together and put in a silicon muffin cup and microwave for 45 seconds or so.  I normally do this with pumpkin, but I didn’t want to open a can to take out 1 tablespoon, so I just left it out.   It made it a little dry, but I spread it with fig almond jam and it was tasty.

We did the Read Run 5K to benefit literacy, always a good cause.  My sister met us there, but my neice decided against the race, since she did 2 last weekend.

John kept up with me for the first 2 miles, then I did an assessment on how I felt and decided to push faster (sorry John!).  My goal was to finish in under 3o minutes – which I did (barely!).  My time was 29:52, or approximately a 9:37 mile.  I was pretty happy with that, although not quite as good as my last race time.   Both my sister and John had new PRs for themselves, so it was a good day over all.

Here is Colleen and I enjoyed some well-deserved java after the race, although I didn’t get my bagel because they only had onion or everything ones – ick!!

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Then I had to come home and work 8 hours after the race!  Oh well, gotta earn the $$, right?

Tomorrow starts NROLW stage 2 – I’m glad to get back to lifting!

Race Day is tomorrow! Gobble, Gobble!

So, I’m not going for any time stuff tomorrow morning. Just a good Turkey Day 5K run. I’ll be glad to burn the calories. It’s early, at 8:30 am – likely to be chilly, but looks like no snow. Yay!

I did okay with eating today. Fine up until dinner, then I had fries with my grilled chicken sandwich. Oh well.

I have had some questions about what strength training I do, so if you are interested, you can check my new blog (like I really need another one!) here , and it is in my link list to the right ————->
I will update my workouts there, so it won’t bore people who don’t care about how many sets and reps I do 😀

Have a great Turkey Day, everyone!

Race Day!

Well, the weather was fairly crappy for today’s race. It started cloudy and 40ish, then it started to drizzle. John decided not to walk the 5K, because he didn’t want to be miserable. Me – I paid entry, so the cheapie that I am decided to tough it out LOL! It was cold when we started.
The course was pretty flat. Seemed like more hard core runners at this race, and there were only a little over 100. Some people in costume, which was funny. I figured I would be near the end of the pack. I was nearer the end when I started, but I just start slower than others and then speed up, so I caught up to some others as we went on.

I went a long quite well, then right near the end I got confused about the track to take, and kind of stopped to see what was going on. Some people took a wrong turn through a lot, and I was confused as to which group to follow since there was not a flagger at the lot entrance. Turns out I chose the correct way. I started my sprint too early though, misjudged the end.
Even with the stop, I did the 5K in 30:12 – which bettered my time of 30:21 a couple weeks ago. I might have broken the 30 minute barrier if I hadn’t stopped LOL!
So – that is a 9:44 mile pace. I am psyched!! And tired 🙂

Had my mom and hubby there to cheer me on, which was really great!

Race Day is tomorrow!

My next race is tomorrow. Not sure what to expect. It should be really nice weather, and the race doesn’t start until 10 am, so it won’t be too cold.

Fell into some candy corn tonight. Went to my parents’ house, where my nieces were staying over. They made S’mores, and I just had a couple bites of one, but the candy corn…. ugh! It’s like it has some kind of super power over me. Probably had a couple servings worth – so 280 calories there. Could have been much worse.
That stuff cannot even enter my house. Candy corn or mini reeses peanut butter cups. Banned!!! LOL!