Terror Trot 5K 2017 (Deflating Wings)

Terror Trot 5K (3.15 miles)

41:55

Average Pace 13:30/mile

A couple of weeks prior to the Terror Trot, I received an email from Anderson Races that included a $20 registration discount code good for any of their upcoming fall races.  Being that cost to participate in the Terror Trot 5K was at $45 by then, the discount meant that even with online handling fees, I could sign up for this race (and take home a fleece and a finishers medal) for under $30.

Ok ... you know me.  And Halloween.  And costuming.  And races.

So even though I'm in terrible shape right now, I figured what the heck?!

JUST TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!

I know in the past, I've said I'm not a tremendous fan of Anderson Races, so you might be wondering why I knowingly signed up for another one of their events.  Before I get too far in this recap, I should clarify: while they're not on my sh!t list like Team Ortho is, I do feel like Anderson Races' management style just ... leaves somethings to be desired, I guess you could say.

For example, packet pickup on Friday prior to the race was ... interesting.

When I walked into Fleet Feet Marathon Sports, two women were running check in - one who I believe to be the owner of Anderson Races (she was busy doing something with race gear, possibly sorting sizes or something), and then another woman manning the check in table itself.

The woman manning check in was technically fine, though somewhat slow.  Overall, she seemed a little confused about what was going on.  And since I was the only person there, the amount of time it took to get my fleece and so on seemed a little much.  But honestly, I couldn't care less about that part.

What I did care about was: when I was handed my fleece shirt, it looked MIGHTY SMALL.  Especially because online registration specifically said "unisex sizing" and I had paid to receive what I expected to be a men's XL.  (At point of registration, I waffled on what size to get  since I wanted room to layer my fleece and didn't want it to be too small ... but also worried my selection would leave me swimming in fleece depending on the cut.)

Imagine my confusion, then, when I held the fleece up to my chest and determined it would be on the fitted side.

I mean - really?!  Have I gained THAT much weight post baby?!

As I checked my size tag to make sure I was given the correct item, I noted that the tag said "XL WOMENS".  Wut?  That's definitely not unisex.  Well, whatever.  I actually typically prefer women's cut anyway.  And apparently these particular fleece shirts ran small.  I'm just glad I decided to order larger than I expected needing - my friend, who did packet pickup a little after me, barely fit the large fleece ... and she is maybe a women's medium on a good day!

Funny story about that, BTW - when she was trying on the fleece, both of the Anderson Races staff members were telling my friend enthusiastically that her fleece fit well.  We realized why once my friend settled on the large, because they continued on saying "good thing you like how that fits, because women's large is the smallest we have".

Already out of stock on smaller sizes at noon on day one of packet pickup?  What about anyone coming on race day?  I was pretty shocked on that one.

And then they tried to sell us on the Chocoholic Frolic race.  My friend and I both looked at each other and at them like ... um, that's next weekend and we just dropped $30 for this.  I guess kudos for Anderson Races realizing they had a captive audience to promote to but ... they didn't even have the shirt up on display or any kind of registration info out.  If you're that eager to drive participation, maybe a little pre-planning from the marketing side ... ?

So now you see what I mean regarding "leaving something to be desired".

---

Fast forward, race morning.

Despite lack of solid info regarding the race on Anderson's web page (there was no picture of the fleece, the medal, or even a course map), I knew upon arriving at Lake Harriet that the 5K run was scheduled to start at 9:05 (5 minutes after the 10K runners left).

Since it was fairly cold, and my friend drove the family mini van ... with the family in it ... we decided to stay in the van for as long as possible prior to running.  With an added benefit of having a sweet parking spot about a block away from the start, we figured there was no need to be outside freezing, especially since we already had our bibs.

About 5-10 minutes prior to gun time, we finally left the insulation of the van and headed to the start.  There, I was a bit surprised to see such low participation numbers. Typically a race held around a lake near downtown Minneapolis is packed, but if I were to guess there was maybe 300 runners there TOTAL, and that was adding the 5K and 10K together.

I can't help but wonder ... how much of the poor attendance could be attributed to Anderson Races' lack of marketing, and how much of it is due to market saturation for races available these days?  It would be interesting to know the answer to that question ...

Even though numbers were what I would consider low, I definitely wasn't complaining.  A cheap race that isn't crowded?  Sounds good to me!

Bang!  Time to run.  (And yes, it was pretty much that blunt.  We didn't even hear the race announcer try to get the crowd ramped up or anything.  All the sudden he just says 3... 2... and the gun banged.)

Ok ... let's run, I guess!

The course started at the Lake Harriet band shell and followed the trail that circles the lake there.  Since we were late to line up, my friend, her family and myself all lined up at basically the very back of the pack - but were pleasantly surprised to find that the trails were wide enough to handle the crowd and allowed for easy passing as we went.  In fact, over the entire course there was very little bottle necking.  Score!

I wish I had done this ... alas, I did not.

As we ran, my friend and I (and her daughter, who we lost around the 1/2 mile mark) hung together.  Meanwhile, my friend's husband and their son took off ahead.  Keeping a fairly conservative pace of maybe 11-12 minute miles, my friend and I chugged along, chatted, and enjoyed people watching.

One of my favorite costumes of the race was a mom in a terrific witch costume (complete with puff sleeves and ground sweeping hem line), running with two children (which I think were girls due to their longer, tinsel haired wigs ... but I didn't look that close).  The two kids were dressed as tin men in what has got to be one of the most spectacularly home made costumes I have seen in a long time. 

As I mentioned, the kids costumes started with a shoulder length blend of gray hair and silver tinsel wigs.  Then, they were clothed in gray sweat suits.  To create the "tin" look, they had wrapped silver foil chrome duct tape around their pants in bands, spaced out every 3-4".  Additionally, they had created some "circuitry" on their backs out of those new style, hard plastic 6 pack beer can holders, which were spray painted gray and with various computer motherboard parts and wires glued onto them.  I wish I would have taken a photo of them because the end result was awesome.

Of course, I couldn't resist telling them as I ran by ... "Best costume of the whole race BY FAR!"  The kids beamed.  I hope they keep that creative spirit into adulthood.

Since I was in terrible shape for race day, around the 1 mile mark we took our first walk break.  Not wanting to spend too much time walking, though, we picked back up again maybe around 1.25 or so, running to the 2 mile mark.  It was shortly around starting to run again around 2.25-2.5, however, that my Apple watch decided to be a brat ... and shut itself off.  WTF!

Here's what I have for splits on course.

Over half a mile missing.  Boo.  Well, what do you do?  At least the race was chipped timed.

Besides, it wasn't like we were in it to win it.  Not to mention, the last half mile on course was pretty uneventful anyway.  So, no big loss.

With 41 and change on the clock, we rounded the last corner of the course and scurried across the finish line.  Boom, another race (and medal) on the books!

Yes, those are my Bay to Breakers wings.  I figured I might as well put them to good use again.  Funny thing, there was just enough juice in the batteries after Bay to Breakers to make it exactly to the finish line photo.  As we walked away, I noticed my wings were starting to sag and the fan was running slow.  All the sudden, my wings were flat and the fan just wouldn't turn on.  I couldn't have timed that better if I had planned for it!

Secretly, I think the people at the snack line were just as happy that my fan shut down.  No one ever seems to enjoy working around those giant things.  Heh.

I would have gladly sacrificed my wings anyway for what I picked up at the snack table: a bottle of water, a bag of dill pickle potato chips, and some various other snacks (the usual mini candies and granola type bars).  All of this I promptly inhaled in the name of breakfast while we awaited our long lost running partner to finish the distance - my friend's daughter, who we lost at the 1/2 mile mark, wasn't terribly far behind us.

With a fun, but not record breaking, experience on the books ... that was it.  We decided to wrap it up and head for home.  Once there, I gladly bundled up in my fleece and added my new medal to the collection.

---

Well!  That's the story of how race bib #83 joined my collection.  Here's to another race soon ... but with Halloween races pretty much in the tank at this point, my guess is I won't run again until the snow melts.

Here's to 2018 and (hopefully) a stronger training season!

Howl O'Ween 5K & Kids Run 2017 (Burger Buddies)

Carver Scott Humane Society Howl O'Ween 5K & Kids Run

No time or distance recorded - Kids Fun Run Completed

This past spring, I was asked to help out with a local 5K race hosted by the Carver Scott Humane Society (CSHS).  Race details were still pending at that time, but generally speaking, the race was anticipated to be held in Chaska late fall of 2017.

Though things didn't quite work out due to my personal schedule and available free time, I thought ... well, at least I could participate in this somehow.  So, with my son now fully mobile and walking, once I heard there was a kids fun run option for this race that was only $10 (early registration) and allowed adults, it was settled.

Fun Run - here we come!

The official race day schedule for the Howl O'Ween 5K was unclear from the get go, as the company that "organized" this event left a lot to be desired (CSHS hired an outside event planner that seemed somewhat inexperienced).

Leading up to race day, I wasn't sure if packet pickup was required in advance or offered day of.  And since the 5K was at 9 am, with the kid's run following at 10:30, I was also unsure if day of pickup would still be open after the 5K started.

Thankfully, despite their lack of accessible information on race websites, etc., the race organizers answered their Facebook page somewhat quickly.  After a few back and forth questions two days before the race, I discovered that packet pickup was open on race day until the kids run started at 10:30.

Score!  Tick the "sleeping in on race day" box for me!

---

With a quiet morning at home on Saturday, around 9:45ish my sister helped me pack 3 kids into the  car, and my husband drove us down to the race start area.  Since this is the first year the 5K has taken place on this date (and taken place in downtown Chaska), that left participation numbers  a little soft at around 100 or so folks.  Those numbers made parking downtown a non issue.

Within a few minutes of leaving my house, we found a spot about a block or so away from the race start, and headed to Chaska's City Square / Gazebo Park to check in.  For those of you unfamiliar with downtown Chaska, here's a picture of the park when it's not set up for race day.

The park itself is a fairly simple space - it's basically a full city block with a bit of a walking path through the center, a few benches, and a small gazebo.  Despite it's simplicity, the park really is a lovely little spot to sit and relax.

Also, I'd like to point out a visible mound in the right hand corner of the photo above.  Interestingly, there are a few Native American burial mounds that frame the gazebo, with approximately one mound in each corner of the park.

On race day, a handful of various vendor booths surrounded the sidewalks that hugged the gazebo (not on top of the mounds), so the park looked a tad different from the above.  Apparently race day photos haven't been posted yet on Facebook by the CSHS, so I don't have those pictures right now.  Hopefully I'll do a supplemental post of those photos later.

Regardless of photos - once we arrived at the park, lack of good race organization once again surfaced.  When I walked up with 3 kids and 2 additional adults, there was ... nothing.  No sign, no volunteers directing incoming foot traffic, nothing.  It was totally unclear where check in was taking place.

Leaving the kids to run around the park in their hamburger costumes with my husband and my sister, I took off to find check in and discovered it was taking place in the gazebo itself.  And good grief was it a mess!  I know I had six packets to pick up ... but that should NOT have taken as long as it did.

Favorite question of the day (as the race announcer is on speaker saying that kids run registrations are still being accepted):

Woman wanting to register next to me: "Can I sign up my kids for the run here?"
Staff at check in: *confused look on face* "Uh... I'm not sure.  I don't think so.  Let me check if we're still allowing people to register now."

#facepalm

Regardless of the disorganization, the shirts were pretty cool (if I do say so myself):

With check in complete, and bibs in place, the amount of time we had planned for the morning was just about perfect.  At 10:20, just as we finished taking a group photo, the race announcer started calling kids to line up at the start line.  So, we moseyed that way.

The field of participants for the kids run was around 10-15 kids.  It wasn't huge.  Maybe that small size helped, but whatever the reason - despite the other disorganization on race day, the kids run was quite well put on.

I have to say, I think the kids run organization was actually credit due to race sponsors from Orange Theory in Chanhassen and Ladybug Childcare, though, who provided volunteers to help at the event - not the paid race organizers themselves.  (Orange Theory provided the woman who lead the kids on the run, and Ladybug provided volunteers along the "course" to keep kids on the correct route.)  Volunteers aside, the announcer did a good job of telling kids the "rules of the road" and how to follow the adult leading the race.  Then, after a brief count down, he directed the kids to "GO!".

Of course, my niece and nephew are quite a bit older than my son, so they took off like bats outta hell ... leaving my sister, dressed as the Hamburgular, to chase two crazy fast hamburgers running around the perimeter of Chaska City Square Park.

While they took off, I spent a few seconds trying to convince my own little hamburger to take off running.  I don't know if it was just too many strangers, too much excitement, or what ... but he just wouldn't budge and wanted to be held.

Well?  What's a Hamburgular to do?  With a 30 pound hamburger in arms, and a hus-burger besides me, we started trotting around the park ourselves.  Though I put up the good fight and ran the first half of the race babe-in-arms, eventually my back (and my lack of cardio capacity) started to protest.  A little after the halfway point, my husband and I traded jobs and he took a turn toting a 30 pound burger.

Thankfully, the race course was only about 1/3 of a mile long, so not too much later we were at the finish line.  There, the older kids were all victory dancing that they got finishers medals.  My son ... I don't know if he was equally as impressed:

In addition to the medals, Orange Theory was passing out reusable water bottles filled with water, and every kid that finished also got a inexpensive (pp non woven) zippered and insulated lunch tote with a finisher's certificate inside.

While the kids didn't care much about the lunch tote, I thought it would be nice to have since it was perfectly sized for a 6 pack - heh.  They, meanwhile, were pretty darn excited about their race finisher certificates.

It's the little things that count, right?!

Once things settled at the finish line, all 6 of us circled the vendor booths to see if there was anything else for the kids to do.  While I noticed there were some nice things available, like natural dog treats, reduced cost micro chipping for pets, and even a few handmade art vendors ... there wasn't much interesting to the kids.

Hungry for lunch, we decided to call it and headed back to the car.

And that's the story of how race bib #82 joined my collection.  Here's to another race soon ... being that it's Halloween season, perhaps that will be sooner than you think!

Recipe: Delicious Dinner - Seared Peppercorn Tuna Steaks

A few weeks ago, I was cruising the fresh fish case at the grocery store.  On a whim, I picked out a couple of tuna steaks to take home.

Since my husband is a great cook, I left the rest up to him.  After finding this recipe, he added a few fresh veggie sides, and dinner was served.

Enjoy!


-----

Seared Peppercorn Tuna Steaks

Ingredients

• 2 tuna steaks
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon whole peppercorns
• vegetable and starch sides of your choice (recipie not included here)

Directions

Season the tuna steaks with salt and cayenne pepper.
Melt the butter with the olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the peppercorns in the mixture until they soften and pop, about 5 minutes. 

Gently place the seasoned tuna in the skillet and cook to desired doneness, 1 1/2 minutes per side for rare.  (I was in the mood for a more well done steak on this day, so my husband added an extra 90 seconds to my cooking time overall).

When plating, be sure to top the steaks with any peppercorns that are in the pan.  You will be surprised by their mild flavor and fun, crunchy texture.

Getting Back Into the Swing ...

Well, it only took me 12+ months post baby, but I'm finally settling back into a fitness routine.  Granted, my routine isn't exactly what it was pre pregnancy, but then again ... neither is my body at this point (nor will it ever likely be again).  And quite honestly, I'm ok with that.

I didn't go into motherhood expecting that everything would be the same post baby.  I knew things would change.  Of course I didn't know exactly how they would change, or to what extent, but I knew that my 15+ races a year and 2-3 times weekly 2-a-day workouts would likely be over.

So what is my current routine now that I'm a mom? 

Well, as much as I hate to admit it ... morning workouts.

Twice a week I wake up at 5 am to hit a strength training class at my gym.  And I know it is working because I've more than tripled my lift capacity in the last 2 months. I mean ... not to brag or anything, but I'm using two 11 lb plates on each side of my bar for the extended squat set ... plus I upped to another 2.5 lbs per side at my last class (11 lb plate x 2 per side + 2.5 lb plate = 24.5 lbs per side x 2 sides + 7.5 lb bar = 56.5 lbs.) 

And I only almost dropped the bar on my head once.

LOL!

Aside from my two 5 am wake up calls per week, I am officially back into teaching one night a week via a local community education program.  My first class teaching again is actually tonight, and I'm pretty excited for it, especially since I got a great headcount on a first time offering.  So, wish me luck on that!

In addition to lifting and teaching, I am WAY behind in my swim challenge, and of course I cannot admit defeat on that.  That means now I'm holding myself SUPER accountable to a minimum of twice weekly swims of 2500+ meters each.  If I'm lucky, I can squeeze a swim like that in over a work lunch ... but I'm willing to bet money I will be dedicating some serious swim sessions later this fall and winter.

Beyond that, you may notice I didn't mention much about running.  While I do hope to get back into a running schedule of some sort, I've admitted to myself that I'm a mom of a not quite 18 month old, and I only have so much time and energy in one day.  So for now, I'm going to try to get in a run when it works ... and not give myself guilt if it doesn't.

So that's it!  Basically 3 times weekly strength, 3 times weekly cardio, and whatever else might fit in as time allows.

Exciting, huh?!  (*sarcasam*)

---

Tell me, what's your current workout routine that works for you?  Discuss below!