It has been a whirlwind couple of days! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday. Our Thanksgiving festivities started on Tuesday night when my Dad, little sister, and their/our dog Simon arrived. That night we went to see Mockingjay, Part 1 and it was awesome! It was way past my bedtime, but the movie was so good I never felt sleepy once during it.

On Wednesday I had big plans to take my dad and sister hiking up Draper Mountain, but instead we woke up to about 3 inches of snow with it still coming down. It was fun to see Annabelle’s reaction, since it was her first snow.

She was not a huge fan of the snow, and pretty much had a “what the heck is this stuff” reaction.

It was pretty funny when all of the other cows came over to see what she thought of the snow!

As usual, Hank and Scout were over the moon that it had snowed. They love running around and playing in the stuff.

But Simon, on the other hand, sided with Annabelle. He’s not a big fan of the snow or the cold.

It would have been kind of pretty to go hiking in the snow, but around mid-morning it switched to rain and then it was just nasty outside. So instead we got a few things made in advance for Thanksgiving, including pumpkin pie and a 16 pound ham. Then it was off to bed early because we had a big day the next day that started early.

On Thanksgiving morning we were up bright and early for the Drumstick Dash 5K in Roanoke. This year my Dad and sister decided to do the race, too, so we all walked it together which was a lot of fun! We also got to meet the race’s turkey mascot, who told me he ran Marine Corps as his first marathon 10 years ago.

We mingled around for about 40 minutes while we waited for the race to start. It had rained on the way up to Roanoke, but luckily it stopped for the duration of the race. While waiting we also met up with Kim and her family.

Finally, it was time to start the race which was good since it was kind of cold standing around. Initially it was really crowded and I didn’t understand why anyone wasn’t trying to walk faster! As it turns out, we started too far back with people who were going to leisurely walk the race. But we were able to weave through and eventually found some space to walk at a faster pace. After the race we headed home to start our marathon of cooking.

In the afternoon Barry’s family arrived at our house. We all sat down to dinner in the evening shortly after Barry got home from work. We had a great Thanksgiving spread – turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, etc. I didn’t get a picture of any of it, but it was good!

Once all the dishes were done, we all hung out for a bit before Barry’s family needed to head home. Shortly thereafter, Barry went to bed (he goes to bed early for work) and my Dad, sister, and I settled down to watch Home Alone. It’s a family tradition to watch Home Alone on Thanksgiving after dinner!

Today we will be headed up to Blacksburg to tailgate and then cheer on the Hokies as they take on our in-state arch rivals, the UVA Cavaliers, in the Commonwealth Cup.

We’ve got an 8 PM kick off, so we will be under the lights in Lane Stadium. If we want to keep our bowl eligibility alive, we have to win this one. Otherwise we break a 22 year bowl game streak. Come on HOKIES!!

What are the staple foods you have to have at Thanksgiving?
What traditions does your family have for the holiday?
Did anyone go Black Friday shopping?

Do you ever think to yourself “man, it would be fun to get up at an ugodly hour on a Saturday morning when the temperature is below freezing outside to go run 13.1 miles with my best running friend?” Surely I’m not alone in this camp. There are times I question these decisions, though. Not when I’m hitting submit to send a bit of my bank account to a race, but more so when my alarm goes off at 4:45 AM. But I digress.

The Star City Half Marathon, which takes place in Roanoke, is a race I’ve been interested in for years. It just looks like a fun race! In years past, I have always had other conflicts or previous races that kept me from running this one. So this year, in the spirit of “race palooza” I made sure to carve out space in my racing schedule for it.

I was also able to convince Barry and Kim to join in, too. This would be Kim’s first half marathon since having her baby last December, and first half in two years. Kim and I run most of our long runs together, and we have run several of the same races. We would often start together, but then run our own races. This time we decided to run the whole thing together and I was excited about that. Maybe a little less so when I woke up to find that it was 17 degrees outside…

I had my typical peanut butter pancake with coffee and tried to figure out what to wear for the race. Running in cold weather can be tricky. You don’t want to overdress, because you’ll end up sweating and then you’ll be really cold. With a predicted temperature of 21 degrees at the start (which turned out to be accurate), I went with capris, a long sleeve over a short sleeve, gloves, and ear warmers. Spoiler alert: it was not enough.

Kim met Barry and me at our house, and we all piled in the truck to make an uneventful drive up to Roanoke. Luckily we stopped along the way at a rest area for a bathroom break, because the race start was seriously lacking in porta potties. I saw a total of 3, for a race that had 800 runners in the half and about 400 in the 10K. That is not enough. Barry hopped in line at one of them, but Kim and I were good to go so we headed over towards the start. We were both underdressed, and freezing. Luckily, it wasn’t windy and there was no precipitation. Thank goodness for that!

Barry caught up with us just before the start. They got the race started on time and just like that we were off! We bid Barry goodbye and wished him well, as he took off ahead of us. The first mile was a bit crowded, and we had to weave a bit before finding some space.

For the first 6 miles of the race the half marathon and 10K ran together. We did a “lolli pop” type out and back through the downtown Roanoke area.

It’s always a bit hilly running through downtown Roanoke, mainly due to the bridges. But at least with those you get a downhill for every uphill. They can be tough, but we took them one at a time as they came and focused on getting to the top of each one. I always enjoy running through the downtown area because I think the older buildings and signs are really neat.

Although I didn’t say anything to Kim, I started to feel kind of rough around miles 3 and 4. My stomach felt all bubbly/gurgly and my body was feeling tired. But I kept trucking along and just focused on the pretty downtown scenery with the mountains in the background. We got to run around the Transportation Museum, which looks like such a neat place. Kim and I commented that neither of us have been there and that we should go sometime.

Just after the museum, we ran down a road that is right next to the railroad tracks. This used to be the home stretch of the Blue Ridge Marathon before they changed the course, and Kim and I were both reliving old race memories. Naturally, I had to run right on the tracks painted on the ground, just like I used to for Blue Ridge.

During the first part of the race, we got to see Kim’s parents, her sister, and her sister’s family at mile 1.5 as we headed into downtown, and at mile 5 as we headed back towards the start area. That was a lot of fun! Around mile 6 we ran right by the finish, which is also where we had started. The 10K’ers turned left towards the finish and the half marathoners continued to go straight.

I finally started to feel better at this point, which is good because we were headed into a long two mile climb. I didn’t know it at the time, but Kim had been feeling good through the first part of the race, but started to hit a rough patch just as we hit mile 7. From miles 6 to 8 we were constantly going uphill. Sometimes it was a gradual incline and other times it was very steep, but it was always up. Kim stayed tough through this section and we made it up the entire thing without stopping to walk!

In retrospect, it wasn’t an awful climb. But running uphill like that for two miles chips away at you a bit at a time until you’re worn out. We were happy to find a decline just after mile 8, but dismayed that we still had a few small climbs as we made our way back to the valley floor. Just before mile 10, while coming down a sharp hill that was actually kind of painful, we saw Kim’s parents and sister again. I yelled that we were still having fun, but Kim said she couldn’t quite agree with that. I told her we just had a 5K to go.

This was the tough part, though. We ran right past the finish line, on a bike path that was next to it. There were people milling around with their finisher’s medals, and even people who had finished their race walking down the bike path we were trying to run up. It was tough, mentally, knowing that we had to go do a 3 mile out and back when they were done. But I told Kim before long we were going to be back where they were, so we headed out on a section of the Roanoke greenway for the final 3 miles.

Right after this picture my camera died, so I don’t have any more photos of the course. We ran along the river most of the way on the Greenway, which was pretty, but we were both just ready to be done. By mile 11 we were tired and I started playing a game of focusing on getting a half mile at a time. In over 2 hours of running I was still freezing and had not warmed up at all. My hands, feet, and face were especially cold.

It seemed to take forever, but we finally reached the turnaround (which was more of a loop around) and headed back towards the finish. Kim was really tired, and she was on the verge of cramping, but she fought through it. We ran up a few more little hills that were small, but annoying, including one right before the final stretch to the finish. We saw Kim’s sister and parents at the top of the hill and they cheered us on. A bit further Barry was there cheering us on, too. And then it was a flat/slight downhill stretch to the finish and we were done!

At the finish line we grabbed some water and Gatorade and met back up with Barry. There was a small sign indicating the post-race party was at a hotel across the street. We deliberated and decided to head over there. It was a good decision, because they had quite the spread of food! There were bagels, cream cheese and peanut butter, bananas and oranges, cornbread, pinto beans, chili beans, actual chili, and some baked goods. There was also hot apple cider and beer. Pretty awesome spread! We got our food and sat in some chairs to eat. I was still shaking so much I couldn’t even balance my chili bowl on my legs.

After hanging out in the hotel for awhile we decided it was time to head back out into the cold (it had only warmed up to about 30 at this point) and walk back to the truck. It never felt so good to put on sweat pants and a jacket! It took me nearly the entire ride home to warm up, but I finally did.

Overall, I really enjoyed the Star City Half. I would maybe put in a request for it to be about 10 degrees warmer next year, and for them to have more porta potties at the start. But other than that, I loved this race and look forward to running it again sometime. It was especially fun running the entire thing with Kim! I think both Kim and Barry enjoyed the race as well, but they both echoed my wishes for warmer weather. But it’s November after all, and things could have been much worse.

What’s the coldest race you’ve ever run? This was definitely one of the coldest for me. The Drumstick Dash last year was colder, but I was more appropriately dressed. This year’s Hokie Half and Asheville Half were a close second because of the rain.

I don’t typically do weekend recaps, but I figured why not since I’m not currently doing any kind of weekly training/workout recap. This past weekend was a whirlwind of a weekend, anyway.

Friday evening after work I picked up our turkey for Thanksgiving. We ended up buying a turkey from Virginia Tech that was raised by the Poultry Science Club and processed by the VT Meat Center. Bearing in mind that Virginia Tech’s mascot is the Hokie Bird, I found this kind of funny. Don’t worry, we’re having ham, too.

Friday started bright and early with the Star City Half Marathon in Roanoke. It was a very chilly 21 degrees during the race, and I was underdressed and freezing the whole time. My running buddy, Kim, and I ran together. Despite the cold we had a pretty good time.

Barry also ran the race and had a pretty good day, finishing in 1:41 and change. He placed 10th in a very competitive 30-34 age group. He recently aged up to this new age group, and was bummed to find that if he were still 29 he would have placed first in his age group by about 5 minutes. Tough break.

After the race and hanging out for a bit we hit the road to head home. It felt so good to put my sweat pants on, but it took me nearly the entire hour drive home to warm up and stop shaking. Full race report on Wednesday!

The rest of the day was spent watching the Hokies take on Wake Forest. All I can really say about the game is both teams suck, and it ended in a 6-3 win for the Demon Deacons in double overtime. Then Barry put the Christmas lights up on the roof. We won’t turn them on until closer to Christmas, but were taking advantage of the favorable weather. We ended Saturday with our big grocery store trip for Thanksgiving. They had everything I needed except chives. Who runs out of chives!?

Sunday morning we got to sleep in (and by that I mean we got to wake up without an alarm, which is nice). I did some stuff around the house and then we headed back up to Roanoke for some Search & Rescue training with the bloodhounds.

We worked on a long trail that crossed two roads and a paved foot bridge, and then did some lineup work (identifying someone in a lineup). We also worked on a trail where the person we were tracking went in an elevator and up three levels in a parking garage. The dogs would get off at each floor and if they didn’t pick up the trail we would get back on the elevator and go up another floor. At some point I need to do a full post about these trainings. I don’t have any pictures from training, but here’s one that shows what Hank and Scout do afterwards! They are always totally worn out.

The rest of Sunday afternoon and evening was spent doing lots of cleaning around the house. My Dad and sister will be staying with us Tuesday through Saturday, and we will have 8 people total for Thanksgiving dinner. I had to get the house in order! I did get to relax a bit before bed and watch the AMA’s. I enjoyed watching most of the performances, and I thought Pitbull was a great host.

Did you have a busy weekend?
What are you Thanksgiving plans? We are playing host again this year!
Who raced this weekend?

It’s time for the November edition of the Runners Tell All link-up! This month is dedicated to the ones who support us. The ones who get up early, chase us around race courses, listen to endless retellings of a race or an epic run, and hug us at the finish line. For me personally, I have two #1 fans: my husband, Barry, and my Dad.

Barry and I have always been the couple that runs together but not together. That’s because he is faster than me, although he does have over a foot in height advantage. Often, Barry is also running the race I’m running. But more often than not, he always finishes his own race and then runs back to collect me and encourage me to the finish.

Barry provides me with a lot of support and encouragement through each of my running endeavors. We support each other, and I am always excited to hear about how his day went and share my own stories from the day.

My Dad is pretty much up for anything I decide to do. He studies race courses and road closures and makes a game plan for ways to see me during the race. He’ll ride his bike all over the race course (often riding 20+ miles) to see me multiple times during a race.

Sometimes he’s in so many locations that I have to write the mile markers I will see him on my hand so I can remember.

The above picture is from the 2013 Thunder Road Marathon. I ended up hitting a rough patch a little over halfway, and my dad ended up just biking alongside me for the rest of the race. He was able to do so, since it was a small race. Having him there to talk to (or at times to tell him to leave me be – sorry Dad!) was the best support I could have asked for. Somewhere past mile 20, I was really struggling. My dad told me “well, I may not have given you the genes to be an elite long-distance runner, but I did give you the genes to finish what you start.” And finish I did.

He has been along to support me for so many of my races – at least 14 races that I can think of off the top of my head. One of the funniest things was this past spring when I told him I was going to participate in the DC Ragnar Relay, a 199 mile overnight relay from Maryland to DC. After explaining to him what it was he let out a long sigh and said “I don’t know about you anymore.” And in the next breath he said “okay, how can I help.” He ended up driving our van, and navigating the whole course, all with little to no sleep for the duration of the event.

Overall, I wouldn’t have had the success I’ve had with running or the guts to enter some of the races I’ve run, without my support crew. Both Barry and my Dad have played a significant role in my running career. And honestly, it wouldn’t be as much fun without someone (or two someone’s, in this case) to share it with.

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Recently I sat down and took a few pictures I’ve captured while running and created some more “homemade motivation.” This time it’s homemade motivation, trail-style, since I’ve got a lot of trail races coming up this spring!

The first photo comes from a trail run at Pandapas Pond. The quote is something I thought up myself that I think goes well with trail running 🙂

The below picture is one I snapped while running the Trail Nut 10K in Bedford this past spring. As usual, it was one of those times where I had no idea I’d actually captured a really good picture until I got home and loaded the photo onto my computer. The quote is from a book I’m currently reading called Continental Quotient, by Kristen Lodge.

I got a photo of this bridge while running trails in the Wolf Creek Day Use area of the Jefferson National Forest on my birthday this past July. The quote was inspired by a Tom Brokaw quote about running.

The below scene comes from the 2014 Conquer the Cove 25K trail race. Specifically, it is during a roughly 2 mile climb up a mountain from miles 8-10. The quote just fits this part of the race, and the race as a whole, perfectly. I came across the quote on several motivational posters on Pinterest, but I couldn’t find the source.

Finally, I had to end with some motivation from Dean Karnazes, of course. Photo taken on the Snake Root Trail at Pandapas Pond.

And I stopped there because five seemed like enough, and six seemed excessive.

Are you feeling motivated? 🙂