Bridge Day 5k

In 2013 a 5k would have been nothing for me to run. That is what I ran when I didn't have a lot of time. On Saturday, October 15th, a 5k was a big deal. I've worked on getting back to that mileage. I'm slower, a lot slower.

And it wasn't easy.

Let's start on Friday. I joined my sisters in an adventure in itself. We went tent camping for the night. It was located in Fayetteville, WV (the location of the race) which is not far from where I live. We got the tent set up. Realized it has two holes in it because it's probably twenty years old and was given to me by my grandfather. So I crossed my fingers that it didn't rain.

After dinner and trying to find my sisters friend who ended up going the completely wrong direction and having to stay with my mom, we went to the bar at the campground to watch several bands play. I should note that the bands didn't start until 10 pm. I usually go to bed at 10! And close crowds are not my scene. And I'm trying to not drink a bunch of alcohol so that it doesn't throw my body off course from eating healthy. Needless to say by 12:30 I was back at our campsite, sitting by the fire. I went to bed shortly thereafter. I was doing okay with my three blankets on top (it dropped into the 40's) and two sleeping bags underneath me for some cushion...for about an hour. Then the musicians decided to move the party to their cabin. Which was right behind our tents. All night. Literally all night of singing, loud talking, laughing, etc. I woke up at 6:20am to get ready and they were still going. How in the hell did they still have voices after that long???


Other than being tired and a bit pissed, I felt okay. I was afraid my back would act up from being on the ground all night, but I got lucky and after some stretching it felt okay.

I was at the high school by 7am to pick up my bib. I ate peanut butter and banana on a slice of Ezekiel bread for breakfast in my warm car. We had to load onto buses by 8 to get to the start line, so I just hung out, looked at Facebook for a while, used the port-o-potty, stretched some more until 8.

Security for this event was extremely high. Higher than any other race I've been to. We listened to the local police give us directions and they checked anything we took with us. Bags weren't allowed. I suppose they are rightly cautious in this day and age of any bomb material that people could take on the bridge. The FBI was even there!

We had a strict start time of 9:15. Therefore, we just had to hang out on the side of the highway for an hour. Since this is the inaugural event, maybe that will change in the future, but it got to be a bit boring. No one was allowed onto the bridge yet, but they had bathrooms that everyone could use. Which was a good thing! I did meet a lady, Lynn, on the bus who lives in Fairmont. Where I used to live. So I got to reminisce about the wonderful trails in that area that I miss so much.

Lynn and I at the finish line.

FINALLY, 9:15 came and we were off!

Going across the New River Gorge Bridge was beautiful. I tried to take it all in.

My first running selfie, haha

The morning had started out relatively chilly, so most of us had on jackets. The race offered to take our things to the finish line, but most of us kept ours. I think we all regretted that. Two minutes on the bridge in the sun and I was hot! But it was beautiful! And my sisters arrived to the bridge in time to see me go by! That made my day!

I was still smiling at this point! After the highway, it was all hills. I don't think I've ever run on so many hills for a 5k ever! They had posted a video of the race course, but I didn't bother watching it. Maybe it was a good thing I didn't because I would have been dreading it. I knew there were some hills, but I didn't expect them to be as steep as they were. I'm not ashamed to say that I walked up just about all of them.

Walking the first hill

If you want to see the race course video you can go here, https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=D6n44zX1q

After a lot more hills and a loop around the town park, my watch vibrated with the notification of three miles. We weren't close to the finish yet! Turns out it was more around 3.65 miles long rather than the 3.1 it was supposed to be. But that was okay. My time was off because of that, but I knew it was going to be slow. I finished with a time of 45 mins and 46 seconds. I was happy to be done!

After I got my beautiful handmade medal for finishing I met my sisters to enjoy the festivities.

By the time I finished, the bridge was pretty packed. We had a good time though. The jumpers from the bridge are crazy! Here are a few pictures from the day.

"Jumping from the bridge" yeah right!

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Can you tell we are sisters?

Santa? Kei finally made it safely to Bridge Day (after getting lost the night before)

Those specks are people!

We probably walked another three miles that day! But it was a beautiful day.

After lunch in town and packing up our campsite, I immediately went home, showered, and took a two hour nap. It was glorious!

In all, I wasn't exactly happy with how my 5k turned out. I was glad I could do it and finish it. However, I was hoping that my legs would have been stronger. That is something I am now working on. I set up my bike trainer and I'm already working in more strength training.

I also wasn't thrilled to see how I looked in the photos of the race. I long for a day where I am happy with how I look. But it's a work in progress. I definitely feel better now that my eating habits are getting better. I can already tell a difference in my energy levels. I've lost a few pounds and I'm pretty sure I've already lost some weight around my waist. So that is all good. But really I am just so happy right now that I can do any of this that what I look like is an after thought. I know I can get stronger, it will take consistency though.

My next race will be the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, so I'll keep working at it all. And it's a flat course so I'm hoping to see my finish time to be closer to 32-34 minutes. But we'll see!

Until next time, I will be consistent with my exercise and eating habits and work on getting stronger! :)

Stick and Stones May Break My Bones

This is a bit delayed, but life has been busy lately. I'm laid up on the couch after going trick or treating in hills last night so I figured it was a good day to catch up.

On October 10th I "ran" the Stick and Stones 15K. I put ran in quotation marks due to the fact that I walked up all of the hills and for most of the last mile, ha. Due to my back I felt like I would suffer a lot more if I tried to run up them.

This was a trail run and it rained the entire week prior to the run. So I went out and got some new shoes for the occasion ;)

These beauties are the Brooks Pure Grit 4. The local running store rushed ordered them for me since I have a foot the size of Big Foot. (Size 11's!). But I got them on Tuesday and therefore I was able to get a whole whopping six miles in them before the race. But it was fine. I liked them a lot and they were pretty comfortable. I did roll my ankle a couple of times, but I don't think that was really do to the shoe I think that was more due to wet ground and my clumsiness.

The race was located at beautiful Babcock State Park, which is around 40 minutes from my house. So I got up bright and early. Driving there was fun, it was a cool morning with lots and lots of fog.

You can kind of see the fog behind this building at Camp Washington Carver. The race was a point to point, which I love. So the buses dropped us off here for the starting line.

The fog was already clearing up as we began. The first mile was kind of frustrating. It was single track and where there were spots to pass people, I kept getting stuck behind couples that liked to run side by side and not move over. I eventually just had to start asking to pass people. But the field started to spread out after the first mile to where I could get into a comfortable pace.

The first half of the race I loved. It was mostly downhill :) The scenery was beautiful the entire time. I don't like to wear headphones on the trails, especially in new places. I'm glad I didn't here so that I could hear the rivers and little waterfalls and the people that would eventually pass me as they were coming up behind me around the massive uphills at around mile 7.

These bridges were extremely slick! I was holding on to the sides for dear life.

 When we started climbing the hills, I knew I wasn't ready to run them. I would get a bit of pain every time I tried. It was beyond frustrating to walk for so long. One hill lasted for over a mile.

One of the few places that was on paved road.

Then by mile 7.5 or 8 it got very steep in some places and that just wore me out. My legs were spent even though I was walking them! I guess it's not that surprising since I haven't been able to really practice that many hills lately. But my overall time was not that bad.

      

Place	Name	Gender	City	State	Country	Clock  Time	Pace	Age

					108    Alisha Lilly  F      Beckley  WV US         2:24:34   15:31     29

I was actually kind of pleased with the time. Hopefully next year I will get even better results if I can get myself stronger and practice some hills!