**I commited a blog fail today by neglecting to actually get a picture of myself to document my race… you will have to make do with my other pictures :)**

This morning started with a wake up call shortly after 5:00 AM. I ate a piece of toast with peanut butter just to wake up my stomach, we took care of the dogs, and were on the road to make the hour and 15 minute drive to Roanoke a little after 6. I intended to eat a Power Bar (my typical pre-race/pre-long run breakfast) on the way up to Roanoke but I completely forgot. That led to me feeling very empty and hungry during the race.

The race had race day packet pickup from 6:30 to 7:30, prior to an 8 AM race start. It was nice not to have to make a trip up to Roanoke on Friday just to get our bibs. We parked in the race-designated parking garage, which was right next to the start/finish line and packet pick up. There was no wait to get our packets so we easily got those, made a quick porta potty trip, and then went back to the car to pin on our bibs and drop off our packets (which included a unisex-sized technical race shirt).

Once we were ready to go we headed back over to the start/finish line with about 15 minutes to go before the start. We made another porta potty trip (only 3 people in line… if you can call that a line), and lined up at the start. The race ended up starting about 20 minutes late. I may or may not have made a joke about that being typical for Appalachian Power, who is our electricity provider and has a reputation for not getting the power back on when they say they’re going to.

The race was an out and back course that was described as “flat and fast”. And it mostly was, except for the two bridges we ran over in the first and last mile. Guess they forgot about those when they wrote the description? We started with running a half mile through the downtown area (and over the two bridges) and then turned onto the greenway, where the majority of the race took place. There was also a 5K that started at the same time. The two races ran the first half mile together and then the 5K’ers went left on the greenway while the 10K’ers turned right. Here is the elevation profile, according to my Garmin.

Not exactly my definition of flat and fast, but I’m also not complaining. I didn’t exactly expect to run a flat course in Roanoke.

I felt pretty good for the first 3 miles (including my calves and Achilles!!) and got into a rhythym behind a lady who was running a steady pace. Miles 1-3 clocked in at 9:20, 9:21, and 9:16. A little before mile 3 I saw Barry speeding by on his way in and we high fived. Shortly after mile 3 we reached the turnaround point. I was surprised that there was no timing mat, since the race was chip timed, especially for an out and back course. Unfortunately I did witness one cheater and I guess that’s on her concience but I hate to see it.

Roanoke Greenway

Once I passsed the turn around I tried to pick it up on the way back, but I started to falter. There was a bit of a head wind on the way back and my legs started feeling really fatigued. I just took it one mile at a time and finally we were making the turn off of the greenway to go back through downtown (back over the two bridges) and to the finish line. Miles 4-6 clocked in at 9:18, 9:35, and 9:25. Positive splits… oops.

I saw Barry as I came down the final hill and he cheered me on as I made the turn for the final 0.2 miles to the finish. As per usual, I developed my tunnel vision and focused on the finish line arch. After I crossed the finish line I immediately had to clamp my hand over my mouth to keep from embarassing myself. That’s right. Apparently I ran hard enough to induce potential retching at the finish line. This has only ever happened to me one other time at a Thanksgiving 5K two years ago. As soon as I walked out of the finish chute area, I assumed the hands on knees position and proceeded to fight my body while making lovely “throwing up” noises. This happened 5 or 6 times and I speed walked over to a grassy area to get some privacy, but luckily I kept the water in my stomach where it was and did not actually throw up. Crisis averted. Barry thinks I nearly got sick at the finish from forgetting to eat my Power Bar on our way to Roanoke.

I finished in 57:27, a six second PR from my last 10K in March. I also placed 6th in my age group out of 16. Barry ran a great race, finishing in 43:52 and placed third in his age group.

The race was part of a festival called the Appalachian Power Festival (duh) so there were a bunch of craft and food vendors. We walked around after the awards ceremony and looked at each of the booths, but didn’t buy anything. That’s really saying something especially since there was a fruit smoothie vendor and a craft vendor selling homemade Hokie stuff. Call it self control or call it only having $5 on me… which was not enough to purchase any of the above mentioned items.

Overall it was a great day for a race. The weather was almost ideal for running with temperatures in the mid-50’s with a light amount of wind. It got a little warm running, but there were shady stretches on the greenway, which runs along the Roanoke River.  I chose to carry my handheld water bottle today, as I have gotten really used to having access to water whenever I want it versus only at water stops. I’ve also found that I can drink a lot easier without breaking stride from my waterbottle than I can when I am grabbing a cup of water.

Speaking of water stops, the race had at least 3 as far as I can remember. The water stops were pretty much the only places where there were people cheering the runners on. The only other spot I saw spectators was at the start/finish line. It was a smaller race, though, with 212 participants in the 10K and 228 in the 5K. With the race being an out and back you got to see lots of runners on the greenway and we cheered each other on as we passed.

After doing two 10K races I’m not sure how I feel about the distance. I’m not in love with it, but I also had a pretty good time today (except when I was hating life during miles 4-5). I’ve got a half marathon coming up and then I’m planning to hop into a couple of 5K’s before I start marathon training.

Does it bother you when a race starts late?
Not really, but today was the latest a race I’ve participated in has started.
What style of race course do you prefer: out and back, point to point, or loop?

Do you prefer smaller or larger races?
Smaller.
For those who have run a 10K before, how do you feel about the distance?

I had the day off from work today and took a rest day from running, since I am running a 10K race tomorrow. I spent the day doing errands, watched the movie The Imposible, and then did more errands. Once Barry got home from work we took Hank and Scout to Petsmart to get some more dog food.

They love going to the store because of all of the attention they get. They don’t have much interest in other dogs, but they both absolutely love people. On the way home they decided they both needed to sleep on the center console of the truck, even though they have the whole back seat.

Silly puppies. It amazes me the positions that are apparently comfortable for them to sleep in.

So this race tomorrow, the Appalachian Power Festival Run, will be my second ever 10K. When I signed up for the race my goal was to beat my time from my first 10K. I ran 57:33 back in March, so I think my goal for tomorrow is still to beat that time. Ideally I’d like to run under 57 minutes. But with the way my calves and Achilles have been lately I know that may not be realistic. I will have to go by feel and back off if my Achilles catch fire like they have been doing lately.

If that ends up being the case, I will be okay with that. I want to be healthy for the Varmint 1/2 Marathon in three weeks. Either way, the weather looks perfect for running tomorrow so it will be a good day.

If you have dogs or other pets, do they ride in your vehicle well?
Hank and Scout have always been great travelers. They don’t get carsick and they mostly sleep the whole way.

Anyone racing this weekend?? Good luck if you are!

Have you ever heard of fainting goats? Below is a video about them, if you haven’t. Basically their muscles freeze for around ten seconds when they’re startled.

You probably guessed it already, but the goats that I run past are fainting goats! They don’t faint quite like the ones on the video, because they can kind of build up a tolerance meaning they don’t fully faint. So when I run by and they’re at the fence, they turn to run around and their hind ends go stiff but their front legs still work. So they “half faint”. It makes me laugh every time!

This evening my in-laws are coming by for dinner tonight. They are on their way home from a trip and our house is on the way! It’s always nice to see them. I’m making cornbread chicken pot pie for dinner.

It’s a recipe out of my Campbell’s Casseroles, One-Dish Meals, and More recipe book that my grandparents got me for Christmas back in 2008. This is one of our favorite simple dinners. The only thing I change from the recipe is I don’t top it with cheddar cheese. The pot pie itself has chicken, corn, and cream of chicken soup and is topped with cornbread mix. I made tonight’s pot pie with sweet corn from last fall that we vacuum packaged and froze. One hundred times better than store-bought corn!

Have you ever seen/heard of fainting goats before?

What is your simple, go-to, family-favorite dinner?

Do you ever get “farm fresh/garden fresh” foods? Do you have a garden?
We don’t have a garden, but Barry always brings home sweet corn from the farm in the fall.

Continuing prayers for Oklahoma.
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Today we had duck weather all day long, and by that I mean it was raining. At times it was storming, but it was just plain old rain when I headed out for my run after work.

This evening I did a 4 mile easy run on the Dora Trail (the bike trail in town). I kept it at a comfortable pace and my Achilles were still bothersome, but not as bad they were during yesterday’s tempo run. I didn’t have to stop and stretch during my run, but I did lots of stretching and foam rolled my calves when I got home. Hopefully my Achilles will stop being jerks soon. 

The trail is really pretty right now, with a bunch of flowers in bloom along the trail. I tried to snap a quick picture today with my phone. It came out a little blurry since I was tyring to be quick since it was pouring down rain. Don’t ask why I had to have a picture of the trail on a rainy day…. I don’t know. Speaking of the rain, I really enjoyed running in the rain today. It was nice and cool (mid-60’s) and the rain made my run kind of invigorating. I also got to see a deer during my run today.

He/she stayed put in that spot and watched me run by, and then decided to take off. I also saw him/her hanging out in the same general area on my way back to the start of the trail.

After my run and before my foam rolling session I swung by the grocery store and stocked up. Look at all the fruit!!

Carrots, cantaloupe, honeydew, pears, apples, bananas, strawberries, cherry tomatoes, and avocado!!

The cantaloupe and honeydew were $2 each and they will feed me for over a week. However, if I had bought the small pre-cut container of cantaloupe or honeydew it cost $4.35 and would feed me for a day. Crazy!

I wanted to apologize for my downer post yesterday. Honestly I was just being truthful about how my run went and how I felt about it. It’s not my intention to use my blog to whine or complain. But at the same time if I just act like everything is perfect all the time, I’m not being real with you. I want to treat this blog like I’m talking to a friend/running buddy and that means being able to be honest and share details of how my workouts went, both the good ones and the bad ones. Mmkay?

Do you enjoy running in the rain?

Any other big fans of fruit out there?

Tonight I planned to take a week off from the track and do a 6 mile tempo run. I wanted to do a workout that incorporated a sustained effort, but wouldn’t beat me up the way the track seems to, since I have a 10K race on Saturday. And I did run 6 miles tonight, but I’m not sure it could necessarily be considered a tempo run. Miles 2-5 were faster, but that was the only way my run resembled a tempo.

I used the x-large size so you could see a little better