One Bad Ass Runner

On October 31, 2020, I ran the Halloween Brew Haha 5K, another live race! It was a gorgeous day for a run, and more so for a race. It was also nice to be running a live race after being cooped up and working from home for months. I've been very careful selecting smaller races with minimum travel (local races specifically) that follow the state requirements and guidelines during Covid. This one was a good one to choose from. Since I was never able to wear full costumes in the Miami Halloween races due to Halloween being hot and humid, I wanted to wear something I couldn't wear in Miami. The weather cooperated, bring low 30s, and feels like high 20s on that day. Slightly windy and sunny; perfect running weather. As I struggled with my allergy shots and asthma through October, and being mentally and physically drained, my running suffered. I switched from running to run/walking to help me breathe through the worse of the asthma/allergies. I switched from allergy shots twice a week...

On October 11, 2020, I ran a live race! It's been quite a while since I've run one and although I went to the Indy Women's Half Marathon live race, I ended up DNFing the race as I wasn't feeling well with my allergies and after six miles I was literally done with the race, lol. It also felt weird being around the thousands of runners there so I think that might have played a bit with my mind as I never felt comfortable in that race at all. But the Mission 22: Run for Hope was substantially smaller race than the Indy Women's Half and was also for a great cause. Mission 22 supports veterans by providing veteran treatment programs, memorials, and community social impact, especially to those veterans that have suffered from traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries. It was a 5K, a distance you know I hate, ha, but being of a great cause and held at the Fort Benjamin Harrison State Park, which means the course was hilly and gorgeous in the Fall, it was a chance for m...

  It has been a while since I've posted anything here. Ever since my last race, we have been part of a weird and scary year, and although we are almost at the end of the year, nothing much has changed since. I have been working from home since March 12, and although I have been able to go to the office one day or two for specific purposes, the federal government does not expect us back for at least six more months if we are lucky. It's has been quite a year! With the pandemic, many races have been canceled, including all marathons I was training and planning for. Indiana fared relatively well during the worse months of the pandemic and we were able to reopen in stages (this is no longer the case). With that, races started happening, smaller ones at first, then somewhat larger ones. The first ones occurred during the Summer, when it was hot and my lungs had no intention of running outside at all. But that does not mean there were no challenges to attempt. 100 Mile Week Challenge...

I wasn't going to write this RR until my next Shamrock race was done, but then the coronavirus pandemic happened and I didn't even get to run any of my next races nor write this RR. This was my first St. Patrick's Day race in a few years and my first in Indianapolis. A lot of people from my running group were doing it so I signed up assuming I would get to run my LR on my Friday off and had one day off in between to recover. Plan was to treat it like a race or at least to treat it as speedwork. Neither happened, lol. On Friday, when I woke up, we were under a wind and storm warnings, with gusts in the 40s. I had 18 miles to run and I could've run them on the TM or outside, but instead, I decided to change them to Saturday and then treat the race as a fun race. I was bummed because I wanted to race it and see if my PR was soft (I still think it is), but also I didn't want to run 18 miles on the TM if I didn't have to. So, with tired and sore legs, I ...

Summary: Last week I ran part of the Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge. The weekend was hot AF and the Marathon was red-flagged and the distance was shortened after 11am due to record breaking heat. Disney's Marathon Weekend includes four races (a 5K on Thursday, a 10K on Friday, a Half Marathon on Saturday and the Marathon on Sunday) and you can register for one, more, or all the races in different challenges. The Dopey Challenge is all the races, while the Goofy Challenge is the Half and the Marathon. I have done the Goofy Challenge around five times and the Dopey once. After two years without a Disney race, I decided to head back there to run Goofy. At the time I registered and paid for the hotel, meal plan, park tickets, photo pass, and the works, I was living in Miami and not expecting to move any time soon. Since Orlando is around 3-4 hours from Miami, my plan was to drive there, enjoy the parks and run. I was also looking forward to seeing this group of bad ass ladi...

Today, I ran the Cheers to the New Year 5K in Indianapolis, IN in 30:33 and 12 seconds faster than my last one in Thanksgiving. I wanted to continue re-learning to race 5Ks, even if I cannot get close to my PR of 24:03 from way way back in the last decade, lol. Especially, I wanted to be able to race them without crashing and burning sometime during the race. At the Thanksgiving Jog 5K, I was done and burned by Mile 1 because I started out too fast. I finished there at 30:45 and I suspected my time was soft. I know I am not in PR shape but I think I might be able to break 30 minutes in the next few races, so I wanted another chance at it. Hence this race. I have been eyeing the race for a few weeks and I knew that if I registered too late I wouldn't be able to get this year's shirt and/or this year's medal (if they run out, they give you a prior year's shirt and/or medal). But of course, I forgot about it and remembered to check the race this last weekend. I was ab...