The Wall

It's been awhile since I've posted a photo of my wall. It has since grown a second tier.

Click here for blogs about the races! 

Top
Warrior Dash hat, Logan, Ohio 2011

First tier (Left to right):
Flower City Duathlon, Rochester, NY 2013
YMCA indoor Triathlon, Rochester, NY 2013
Flower City Half Marathon, Rochester, NY 2013
Quakerman Duathlon, Orchard Park, NY 2013

Second Tier
Hocking Hills Indian Run, Logan, Ohio 2010 and 2011 (my favorite medals, made of clay by school kids)
Holiday run at Sharon Woods, Columbus, Ohio, 2010
Buckeye Classic, Columbus, Ohio, 2011
Cinco de Julio, Columbus, Ohio, 2012
Flying Pig Marathon, Cincinnati, Ohio 2012
Cleveland Marathon, Cleveland, Ohio 2011
Warrior Dash, Logan, Ohio 2011
Columbus Marathon, Columbus, Ohio, 2011
First on the First, Westerville, Ohio 2011
First on the First, Westerville, Ohio 2012

Bottom:
Sticker from the Highlander Cycle Tour, Canandaigua, NY 2012
Rochester Autumn Clasic Duathlon, first in my age group, Rochester, NY 2012
Tough Mudder sweatband, Attica, Indiana 2011, atop a photo of my Columbus friends
Keuka Lake Triathlon race bib, Penn Ya, NY 2013
Reindeer run antler ears, Rochester, NY 2012
A Nu Race Trail Run, Perrysville, Ohio 2011, first overall female

Race Report: Hocking Hills Indian Run 2011 20K

This race has the best medals, made by school kids!

I remember going down to Hocking Hills for the first time for this race last year. Driving in I was freaking out. It was my first 10K and it was going to be crazy hilly.

This year, I was super excited driving up and down the rolling hills headed to Logan. This was my second time doing the Hocking Hills Indian Run. I did the 20K in 2:03:22, finished 7th in my age group of 17, and 104th of 256 overall. Last year I did the 10K in 56:53.

Age group results here. Overall results here. Course map here. Topographic map here.

Nothing went right from the beginning of the day, but all ended well! My iPod was dead and I lost the cable, and as I'm driving off from my apartment my wrist felt kind light. What's missing? Crap, gotta go back for the Garmin.

Driving down I got stuck in traffic twice in Thornville, once for the Hell Run and then for the Backwoods Festival. But all was well, I made it to the Hills, and as I'm picking up my race packet a familiar face waltzes in.

Trail therapy

Today is my second Hocking Hills Indian Run! I'm doing the 20K with Beth O. I ran the 10K last year.

Struggling with the loss of Gigi, I've found trail running to be one of the most therapeutic things around. I've been spending quite a bit of time at the Bioreserve at Denison in Granville and it's just a phenomenal place to run.

I did three trail runs last year and I'm doing at least two of them again this year. I really can't wait! My goal for the run is to do it under an 11:00 pace. We'll see if that happens!!

Indian Run registration, and other musings

For the second year in a row I'm going to do the Hocking Hills Indian Run down in Logan. I did the 10K last year and it's a fantastic race. This year I'm signed up for the 20K, that's 12.4 miles. I haven't been running off-road much this year so I think in the next few weeks I'm going to get to Dawes and the Bio to get acclimated to trails again.

I'm also eying the Nu Hop Trail Run again this year at Mohican. It was fun running it last year, though I'm not sure what I can do two weeks after Columbus. 

I've been a bad blogger lately. Really, there's not a lot to report. We're in the heart of the training season, our long runs jump from 14 miles to 16 miles Saturday, and our weekday miles are building rapidly. Providing I complete the long run I will have done 30 miles this week alone. At least the heat has taken a break and I'm back to running a 9:30-10:30 pace weekdays and a 10:30 pace Saturday. The 14-mile long run went great last week, we ran from Ohio Health in Westerville up to Galena and back, beautiful scenery. This week it's back to Worthington High, while I adore MIT I have to admit I'm getting sick of running the same trail every week.

I've been taking Lizzie dog out for my 3 mile runs. We didn't get out this week but in general she's been coming for one run a week. She loves it. We can't do the pet run in Granville Sept. 3 but I'm hoping to find a 5K that I can do with her.

My other dog, Gigi, has lymphoma and hasn't been doing well at all, so that's been an added layer of stress. The poor girl isn't responding to the prednisone, so I'm going to try her on a new med this week.

Overall, running, work and life has left me thoroughly exhausted. Going to rest up tonight to prepare for tomorrow (we have to be in Worthington at 6:30, ick!), I want to check out the 10TV health and fitness expo, but beyond that I plan on taking it real easy.

Dog days of summer: Lull time for running!

Life has been a little crazy lately, hence the lack of updates, but in all reality there hasn't been a lot to report. It's icky outside. No fun to be out and about. Still I did two races in two weeks.

The results kind of made me want to stick my tail between my legs, hide in a corner and sulk, not because the times were necessarily bad, but because I ran the races so poorly.


Cinco de Julio Cuatro Miler July 9: I signed up for this one simply because it involved tequila and I got in for free. To clarify: The tequila came after the run.

It was 90 degrees out and brutal! There was no mercy on the course, either, the run went a mile plus on Broad Street, a short distance through a shady park and then back through the unforgiving heat!

I met up with my MIT buddies Jessica and Brandon and we did a two mile warmup to meet our six for the day. The event was at The Bluestone, a fancy bar in Columbus inside an old church. The race started at 6 and the heat was by no means dying down. We basked in the air conditioning to stretch and then it was back outside for the run itself. (continued after the jump)

Urban Dare Columbus race report, and other musings

Life has kept me a little busy lately, in good ways, so this is going to be uncharacteristically short (as in -- here's what I can write while inhaling a hummus sandwich on my lunch break).

First up -- the Urban Dare Saturday. This was a fun event -- though it was more scavenger hunt, less dare. I did it with my buddy Jason. We had no idea what to expect when we got there, we were handed blue shirts to wear and told to await further instructions. There were about 80 teams.


First instruction: Run to the statue 20 feet away. That was easy. We got our other instructions -- all clues of places to go around downtown Columbus. In Columbus, I know where the statehouse is. And Einstein's bagels across from the statehouse. And... that's it.

Thanks to a glorious invention called the smartphone (I'm not cool enough for one, but Jason was) we got online and deciphered the clues, and plugged them into the GPS. They were all statues, restaurants and landmarks.

We got turned around a couple times, and almost ran 3 miles out of our way. We ended up having to run a mile back because we missed a landmark. We also had to stop a couple total strangers on the street and ask them to recreate this photo:

Beyond this, though, the "dares" were pretty pathetic. At most landmarks we just had to take a picture to prove we were there. At one we had to do a 3-legged race. At another we had to jump rope. Far from the rock climbing walls and stuff the event advertised! It was still a good day though.

The event was billed as 5-7 miles. I decided to be crazy and I went to MIT that morning and did 6 with Kim, and my hamstrings were screaming from Crossfit two days before. Thanks in part to my superior navigating skills, we ended up covering 9.3 (with lots of stops in between!). Our official time was 3:32 (there were many stops). Total was 15.3 miles for the day, giving me a 27 mile week, my highest since Cleveland.

I'll update later with some more links and stuff. In the meantime, a few other random musings:

Warrior Dash 2011 in Hocking Hills: The real race report, and 30 lessons learned

T-shirt and medal

I kind of skimped on the previous Warrior Dash race report, so here's the no-holds-barred, nitty-gritty detail-ridden, bare-all report!!!

See results and photos here!

Warrior Evelyn

Miss Evelyn H. arrived at my apartment at about 1 p.m. last Sunday and after a brief detour to Quiznos we started the southbound journey to Hocking Hills. We stopped at a Big Lots for duct tape, face paint and band-aids. No face paint, so we settled on magic markers.

Lesson #1: If you hurriedly walk into a Big Lots, approach the clerk and ask where you can find duct tape, face paint and band-aids, you will get looks.

Warrior Beth

I finally touched base with the always-adventurous Beth O., slowly recovering from a wedding the night before. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Beth!!"
Beth: "I am soooooo hungover"
Me: **Laughs hysterically** "That's no excuse, you ready??"
Beth: "He77 yea"
(Boring logistical talk)

Lesson #2: A hangover is never an excuse not to run. I set my 5K PR on Jan. 1.

Warrior Jessica

We approach Hocking Hills on a long and windy road and make a pit stop at Wendy's. Very clean people sought race advice from very dirty people celebrating their muddy victories with burgers and Frosties. The consensus: "Dude, that was awesome."

Lesson #3: If you don't like port-a-pottys, stop at Wendy's on your way in to pee.

The parking lot, two miles away from the actual event, was a madhouse. Mud tracks went in both directions. Some people were tailgating. I saw some clean people walking back to their cars. "If I come out that clean I'm going to be sorely disappointed", I say. "Don't worry, you won't!" a guy replies. Then I saw the solution to their cleanliness -- a long line of people waiting to be sprayed down by a hose. The parking lot was in a very open area and I saw several people stripping down and changing, chucking their muddy clothes in the trash.

Lesson #4: This should be obvious, but bring a change of clothes!

Muddy shoe pile

We boarded a bus to get to Kaeppner Woods. Walking in we saw a mound of muddy shoes. The event was going to clean them off and donate them to charity.

With 20,000 people participating throughout the weekend I was impressed by the organization. First we had to sign a waiver, the only thing I really remember on the form was "I will not dive headfirst into the mud", beyond that I just wrote "JAs" down the line and scribbled my name at the bottom. Then we got our packets which included a shoe chip, that doubled as our free beer token, a viking hat and a shirt. Evelyn paid extra money for these cool stickers that went under the eyes.

(More after the jump. Much more. Keep reading!!) 

I want to do everything, but my debit card says otherwise

It is going to be a phenomenal summer, especially since I am now doing a 40K at Hocking Hills, I think I just got talked into doing the Ohio/Indiana Tough Mudder (more on that later), and of course training for the Columbus Marathon with MIT.

But, I'm just a single gal living off a reporter's salary in Ohio, and some of these events cost mucho dinero, especially with gas at $4 a gallon. (And at some point I need to buy some new furniture, and a new DVD player/Netflix streamer, and a new phone, and a new laptop, and and and...)

So, today I decided to bow out of Hood to Coast. I'm sad to do it, there are some really phenomenal people on the Spark team and I've always wanted to visit Oregon. After looking at the costs, in order to do Hood to Coast I basically would have to bow out of every other event here in Ohio. It's something I would have considered, except the Coasties and Ghosties have 11 alternates lined up, so I figured I'd let someone else have fun there while I tromp through the woods, the mud, and the streets of Columbus here at home, hopefully with my partner in crime!

After all, I'm young, there will be plenty of other opportunities! 

Race report: Warrior Dash 2011

I just decided to make a new post with the entire report. Check it out here!

Original post:

I emerged from the woods covered head to toe in mud, I later counted seven scrapes and bruises, but I conquered the Warrior Dash.

It was brutal.

It was awesome.

I ran it with my college friend Evelyn and my MIT friend Beth. I honestly don't know our time, and don't care! We took it slow and had fun!

The Warrior Dash was Saturday and Sunday in Hocking Hills (Logan, Ohio). It was a 5K race with some massive hills, a junkyard and tires to run, a pool with logs to conquer, tunnels, planks to walk, a wall to jump over, fire to leap over, a cargo net and several mud pits. All fun. 

Before

After

The only obstacle I couldn't do was the biggest wall. I beat my knee up pretty bad jumping off the previous obstacle, so I went around it.

I'd write more but I am so sleepy. Will update tomorrow, stay tuned :) 

Cinco de Julio Cuatro Miler

I'm making a new addition to my race schedule, the Cinco de Julio Cuatro Miler race July 9. Why? It just looks like fun! Plus I get a free entry because I volunteered at Cap City! 

I'm really excited -- my race schedule lines up perfectly with my training schedule!

July 9 there are six miles on the schedule, so I'll do a 2-mile warmup to the 4-mile race.

My share of Hood to Coast is 18 miles. There are 18 miles on the schedule that weekend!

The Hocking Hills Indian Run has a 20K distance, just over 12 miles. That week, I have 12 scheduled!

The only races that don't fit are the Warrior Dash, which I have no intention of taking seriously -- I'm going to do the full seven the day before, and the triathlon relay, which I will have to figure out since I want to run that well. I'm scheduled for 10 the day before. In the relay I'm doing a 5K. 

My fledgling wall of accomplishments

It's cleaning/organizing day in the new apartment, and I finally did something with the small collection of medals from various races, and of course my 1st place plaque from the Nu Race Trial Run! 

A closeup of the medals: 

From left to right: Holiday Run at Sharon Woods, First on the First, Cleveland Marathon, Hocking Hills Indian Run. 

Maybe I'll put a small shelf up and display the beer glasses I got from Salt Fork and the Beerathlon! 

Summer lineup

After a week of doing virtually nothing I'm trying to get back in the swing of things. I took the dogs for a good walk with some hills Friday, made like a floundering fish and jumped in the Y pool Saturday and Sunday, and did spinning, some lifting and ran a whopping one mile at a 12 minute pace yesterday. I'm shooting for spinning and lifting today and tomorrow, and then I'm going to jump into the MIT training schedule Saturday with 6 miles.

The good folks at Fleet Feet Sports have another pair of Mizuno Precisions ready for me to pick up Saturday, at 20% off plus a free pair of socks! My ultimate goal is to run the Columbus Marathon Oct. 16 in under 4:20. I'd like to beat a 10:00 pace so that should do it. I'm going to stick with MIT and their training plan, and keep going with the 10:30s.

But until then I have a few other plans. At some point I need to update my Daily Mile upcoming races!

My other goal this summer is to PR in a 5K. My time to beat is 24:27, set Jan. 1 of this year, I'd love to bring it under 24, that's a 7:44 pace.

JUNE 5 Warrior Dash -- I'm really stoked for this one! I'm doing it with my MIT friend Beth, Spark friend Sara and college friend Evelyn, in the 5 p.m. wave Sunday. We need to figure out ... something... costumes, war paint... something! It's in Hocking Hills, a 5K race, but with cargo nets, a mud puddle, a wind tunnel and a scrapyard to climb through, it's safe to say this won't be a PR contender! So instead I'll just toss back a few and have some fun.

Myself, Abbey and Anna.

JULY 17 Greenswell Triathlon relay -- Meet the Manic Mojos, comprised of myself and all-star Newark Advocate reporters Abbey Roy and Anna Sudar. We're doing a short triathalon relay at Alum Creek, women only, for breast cancer research. Since the run is the third leg, I don't know if this would be the best shot for a PR, either, but it will be a good time.

AUG. 26-27 Hood to Coast -- I am a proud member of Coasties and Ghosties of Sparkpeople.com. I'm stoked, and nervous, given that I've never met my 11 teammates before! It will be two days in Oregon, 197 miles starting at the top of Mt. Hood and running to the ocean. It's coming up fast, time to start planning my trip!

SEPT. 17 Hocking Hills Indian Run -- This was my first 10K, and my first trail run, last year, and I am definitely going back. Not sure on the distance yet, probably a 20K or a 40K, I'll compare it to my training schedule later and do what fits.

So, I still need to find a good 5K. I have a free entry for an M3S event, and there's something called the Bull Run in Columbus Aug. 6 that looks fun!

As long as the legs hold up, it's going to be a good summer!

Warrior Dash 2011, I signed up!

I'm pumped, I just registered for the Warrior Dash in Hocking Hills on June 5. I'm in the last wave, at 5 p.m. It's going to be fun!

Link: http://www.warriordash.com/register2011_ohio.php.

Now how on earth do I train for this thing?

Warrior Dash 2011

Hey kids!! It happened, I completed the Warrior Dash! Check out my race report here.

Original post:

I checked my traffic today and I have gotten a surprising amount of hits this week. Seriously, I'm shocked that many people care but thanks for reading! (Hi Mom.)

So to sum up: I'm running 8 miles at Mohican this weekend and after looking at a topo map of the course I realized how completely insane that was.

But even though it's just a third of the distance, this upcoming race tops it.

Meet the 2011 Warrior Dash. 2.91 miles in Hocking Hills... with a windstorm, tires, a junkyard, logs, tunnels, something called "hell's hill", a plank, a wall, hay, a river, a cliff, a net, fire and barbed wire. In that order.

15 heats of up to 500 people, and you have to sign a waiver. I'm intrigued. But that insane? Umm, maybe. Stay tuned.

Oct. 30 course

At work yesterday we had one of those find-your-personality-type training sessions.

I came up with this description: "You live in the here and now and your impulsiveness drives everything you do. You love competition and you never miss an opportunity to make a deal."

So maybe that's why I sign up for stuff like this? Topo map of the 8-miler I'm doing Oct. 30.

Yalp.

Race Report: Hocking Hills Indian Run

Wow. That's all. My legs are threatening to revolt if I dare get off the couch tonight. I am absolutely doing this one next year.

The short of it: 10K (6.2 miles) in 56:53, 6th in my age group, 49th overall.

Age group results

Overall results

I was really worried... I woke up with a runny nose and a scratchy throat. Eight weeks of training about to be foiled by a simple cold. And most cold medicine gives me mild stomach upset, tolerable on a normal day but not while running. So I took some allergy meds and crossed my fingers. By the time I got to Hocking Hills I was feeling great. Phew!

Driving in I got a sense of what I was in for, the single lane roads were windy, curvy and hilly, the kind of terrain I really miss from living in Maine.

This race was a complex animal -- five different distances, but it was very well organized. The registration area was kind of a zoo with runners doing their pre-race stuff. Another sign of what was about to come: I looked for a place to run my warmup and there was not a single flat stretch of road in sight. To conserve I jogged around the parking lot a few times.

Showtime

The iPod has been synced and packed (trying to decide between the new Arcade Fire or my classic rock mix for the race.)

My purple tech tank top and black jogging shorts are laid out.

My watch has been located and packed.

My alarm is set for 6 am.

It's 10k time!

Goals for Saturday and beyond

It’s my first 10K and I’m ready. I’ve covered up to 8 miles on the completely flat Licking County bike trail, 7 miles at the completely hilly Dawes Arboretum. Cranked the treadmill all the way up to 10 grade, to the point where someone even asked me if I had a death wish.

I really want to finish in under an hour but I know better than to set that goal. My training pace is a 10 minute mile. My last 5k pace was an 8:25 mile but that’s mostly because I sprinted the last half mile trying to get third place (I did). BUT! It’s rough terrain and I don’t know how bad these hills are. And last year only three of 15 women in my age group beat an hour. So I’m going to be good and set my goal at 66 minutes. Moreover, my goal is just to run the whole thing, no stops.

I keep telling myself that I’m going to wait until the race is over before plotting out the next steps. I’m going to take a few days off. But I just can’t stop myself from looking ahead. There’s a 10 mile race at Salt Fork state park Dec. 4. Or I could just try to improve my 10K time? Or my 5K time? My mind wanders and then suddenly I’m on Fleet Feet’s site again!

One step at a time!

Hocking Hills Indian Run site

Hocking Hills Indian Run map

Hocking Hills Indian run 2009 results