Let the training begin!

Yes, folks, for those of you have been following my blog for a while now, half marathon training has once again begun!  I am going into my second week and it seems to be going well, so far.  I am getting ready for the Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon in October and really hoping it does not rain all day again.  This time around I have a lot of people who are training for this race too so it will be nice to have people to talk to about training and people to meet up with at the race!
Oh, and I survived the Foamfest 5K and had a blast!   It was a very hot day which created some challenges but I managed.  Just wish some of the pools of water we had to go through were colder!
Remember the big slide I was dreading?  Well it turns out they had three of them in the beginning of the weekend and were down to one slide by the time I got there and the wait for the slide was over an hour...so we skipped it.   Needless to say I wasn't really too disappointed.
I am still waiting for the official pictures to be ready, but here are some shots we did manage to get on our own.

Had a blast, I can check this off my "bucket list"!
So until next time, stay clean, or run dirty if you want, stay strong, and keep running!

New Shoes For Old Feet

Hey, guess what?!  I turned 40 and survived!!!  I am not saying I like it, but I am still here.
I completed my last race in my 30s on July 3 and am proud to say that I finished the race in less time then I did last year!!  I finished in 31:20 which ended up being about in the middle of my age group.  This was not an easy race since it was extremely hot and humid.   I went into this race with a stomach ache and feeling like I would be happy to just finish and ended up running much faster then I wanted to....I felt like crap through most of the race which sucked because the final mile is downhill and I had nothing left in me.  But hey, my race photo made it look like I was happy!

Anyways...on to the actual topic of this post and that is new shoes!  Every year for my birthday I get money and this year I decided to spend some of my money on a second pair of sneakers!!

Aren't they pretty?!  Ok so I tried to get a little fancy with the picture collage but I think you can still see them.    These are Brooks Pureflow 2 and are part of Brooks PureProject line of shoes...or minimalist.  I have only worn them on one 2 mile run so far and I felt the run went well, but I also felt as though I was a little more winded then usual.  My plan is to use these on lower mileage runs so that my other pair of sneakers can be worn on longer runs and last me longer.    I am really hoping this works!!
So wish me luck with the new sneakers, and  the new decade.... keep running and stay strong!

Ho, Ho, Ho!!!

I'm the Santa on the Right!

Last weekend, I ran in The Santa Shuffle in Manchester, NH.  This was the second year for this race and let me tell you it was quite the sight to see!  Imagine 2500 Santa's running down the street...along with the Easter bunny, some elves, and one man in only a red speedo.  It's this kind of fun race that makes me glad to be a runner.
All this being said, this race was quite a challenge for me.  The day of the race it was snowing and this made the road quite slippery.  I could feel the snow building up in my treads making it hard to grip the road.  I was also in pain...I pulled my hip flexor in the Fisher Cat 5K on Thanksgiving day and I thought it was healed, but I was wrong.  So it has been a week of complete rest for me hoping to heal and be ready to really get my butt in gear for the new year that is fast approaching. 

Manchester City Marathon Relay Recap

Last weekend I participated in the Manchester City Marathon as a part of a relay team.   The race had 2500 runners with 600 of those runners being people who were supposed to run in the New York City Marathon.

 Here's my team....Clinton, myself in the middle and Ericka!  We had one more member but he did not stay after his leg.
 The weekend started with volunteering to help stuff the goodie bags for the race Friday night.  This was my first time actually volunteering for a race and found that it was a lot of fun!  I met some nice people and am glad I signed up.
The next day was the Pre race Expo!

 There I was able to pick up bibs and goodie bags for my team and checked out all the booths of different running related products.  I even saw a fashion show with some great running clothes being modeled by some local runners.

Later that night was pasta time!  One of the women from the running club I belong to hosted a pasta dinner and a pre race hot tub soak.  It was a small group of us that went but a good time was had by all.

Now to race day....a chilly race day.

A group of us from the club met up before the race to say good luck and for some group photos!


For my team, I ran the longest leg of the race, 8.5 miles.


My time for my leg was pretty decent!  I ran at an 11:18 pace which I was happy with....could have been better.
Overall my team finished in 4:04:18!!!  This time was good enough so we did not have to do a shot...that's a long story..ha, ha!

Here's the latest medal to add to my growing collection!  All in all it was an awesome weekend!  One that I will never forget :)

Half Marathon PR!!!!

O.k. so I am waaayyy behind here but I am proud to say that I ran the Smuttynose Rockfest Half Marathon on September 30th and surprised myself with a finish time 15 minutes faster then my last half marathon!  Sadly there are no pictures to post with this....the professional ones were very bad and I did not have anyone there to take any pictures...but it did happen! Oh and did I mention that it rained through the entire race?!

Half Way to St. Patty's Day!!!

Today I ran in the Half way to St. Patty day 5k and finished in 30:24....a PR for me!! It was extremely exciting for me as I have been hoping for a sub 30 finish for some time now. I know I did not break that today but I was so close that I can now imagine this is a goal that I just might reach. For now I am going to continue to be psyched for my finish time today!!!