Running Chick

Josh and I ran the five mile race at the Canal Run yesterday.  It was my first time doing this event, and considering that the event is almost as old as I am and practically in my back yard, I don’t really know why.  I’ve been a worker bee a few times and spectated a few other times, but never a participant. So, when Josh suggested we do it a few months ago, I figured it was probably time to scratch it off my bucket list.

Our respective training plans for the Fox Cities HM in September don’t have us doing enough mileage for the ten mile event, so we opted for the five which I’m glad we did, because it was hot yesterday morning.  The majority of the course was shaded with some rolling hills here & there, nothing major.  I was feeling slightly overheated, but the aid stations had plenty of water so I was able to take two cups (one down the throat, one over the head) without feeling like the people behind me were going to get screwed.

We ran out of shade with about a mile and a half left to go, which wouldn’t have been a problem, but half that last stretch is uphill.  It’s one of those hills that, as far as you can see, it just goes up. Then you round a corner and the hill continues on, but only gets steeper. Ugh.  I was feeling okay for the first portion of the hill, but the sun was starting to get to me when we hit the steep climb.  The fire department had opened up a hydrant and my first thought was wet shoes = blisters, but then I decided that there was only about a half mile to go and I probably wouldn’t blister in that short span so I ran right into the cold shower.  My shoes, and the rest of me, got soaked but I felt infinitely better. We finished in 54:34, which was around a 10:53 mile, and met Josh’s finishing goals.

In other news, Pippen turned one a few weeks ago.  Here he is at 10 weeks or so when we got him.

And here he is now, spilling out of his bed.

He likes to really stretch out when he lays on the floor. One of these days, I’m going to make him a little red Superman cape.

He can be pretty sassy, though. Especially when he does things like take the roll of toilet paper from the bathroom and drag it all over the living room. Or, chew my foam roller to pieces.

Oh well, I was looking for an excuse to buy a bigger one.

This week’s running totals were 13.25 miles @ 10:39 made up of one pathetic hill workout on Monday (note: do not do hill workouts in 80 degree weather), one speed session on Thursday and the Canal Run on Saturday.  I tossed in one 25 mile bike ride out to McLain Park because it was too hot to run on that day.

Next week, if the weather cooperates and it cools down, I’ll log around 21 miles. Fingers crossed!