Serpent Run 5K 2013 (Kung Fu Kick)

 

Serpent Run 5K (3.15 miles)

27:29 PR!

Average Pace 8:43/mile

Holy crap.  Prior to writing this recap, I decided to take a look at the mileage I've completed in the last month or so. 

For those of you who don't follow my every post, I'm in the end stages of half marathon training for the Chicago Half on September 8th.  In review, I have ran...

     45 miles in July
     33 miles in August (to date)

That means I've run a measly 78 miles in the last 7 weeks.  No sweat, right?  LOL!

I guess my point to all this is, I am definitely in peak shape right now for 5K racing.  I've never run this much, this consistently, ever in my life.

Couple that with a race that has been my PR for the last two years in a row, and there's bound to be some sort of success story.  And so begins my race recap for the Serpent Run 5K in Crosby, MN.

As I said, I've run this race three years in a row now.  And the reason I keep going back is largely due to the vicinity of the race to my sister's house, and the fact that they offer a family friendly registration discount.  So, not only is it a PR course for me, it's cheap for my sister's family to participate in.  Which means a win for us all!

And, of course, what's a race with me without a costume of some sort?  I think by now most of you have seen this photo, which is actually from the Serpent race in 2012:

Not to be out done by our previous performance, I asked my nephew months ago what we should do for 2013.  His answer came quite easily, actually, as he quickly answered "Ninja Turtles".

And so, without any further adieu, ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Ninja Turtles:

 

 

Of course we had to do a few kung-fu kicks, we were ninjas after all!!

If you look carefully, you'll notice we each have a proper ninja turtle colored headband, and my niece is dressed as April O'Neil.  We're the entire crew, yo!

Speaking of, have any of you seen what they did to April now that they brought the turtles back?  I mean, I'm OK with the less boobage... but the outfit changed?  WTH!  If anything, they could have at least made her have a more normal looking body shape.  What is up with those new twig arms and tiny knees?!

 

I guess they'll never give girls a break on body image.  *Sigh*

Anyhow!

So, my sister's family and I, dressed as ninja turtles, hustle to the start line of the race.  There's not much to discuss in terms of race organization or participants this year, because the race has really shrunk since the first time we ran in 2011.  In fact, I think there were less than 40 folks on course, and a good half of them were from the cross country team that run the race.  Sad!  Hopefully the race still happens in 2014... I guess we'll see.

While we wait at the start line, it becomes apparent my nephew (who's 5 and starting kindergarten this fall) is unsure who he wants to hang with on course.  He begins asking us all how fast we are going to go to see if he can keep up.  My sister says she's going to run, so he either has to run with her the whole way or walk with dad and the stroller.  Big debate, right?

Decision time!!  What's a cool kid to do? 

DUH!  Consider running with me, of course!

I can tell he's already thinking about walking with dad, and try to encourage him to go that direction a bit by explaining I'm going to run even faster than his mom. 

He asks how fast, and I say "So fast that smoke will be coming off... (long pause to think of something kid friendly to say)... my shoes." 

He smirks and decides to jog/walk along with dad.

Now that our paces are settled, all we have to do is wait for the gun... well, that and I wait for my watch to pick up satellites, which took a bit longer than I would have liked.  But that's really my own fault, because I didn't sync my watch when I moved from Siren, WI to Crosby, MN.  So of course the 200+ mile location change threw my watch for a bit of a loop.  Thank goodness the satellites linked in about 1 minute prior to the race... I thought for sure I was going to have to go back to using my Nike+ app on my iPhone! 

Literally seconds after my watch is ready, the gun goes off and I take off.  I feel like a gazelle sprinting down the road, everything is moving so smoothly.  My watch's instance pace monitor tells me I'm doing something crazy like 6:54 in the first 1/4 mile, which I want to believe is true... but after I read my splits I guess it's not entirely accurate:

And you can see why I like this course, check out the elevation for the first two miles - a constant downhill slope!

However, I have to admit, beyond this being a flat/fast course, there isn't much more interesting going for it.  You basically run from the grocery store of the small town, down along the back side of the city, and out onto the local paved trail.  Then, shortly after crossing a highway, you hit a turn around and head back.  Not exactly thrilling.

Typically, I don't really like out and back races, and often try to avoid them if I can.  I think it's because seeing the fast racers coming back past me when I'm barely clear of the 1.25 mile mark is a little demotivating - especially for someone who's competitive like me.  However, in this race I actually like it, because it means I get to wave goodbye to my nephew at the start, then again somewhere after I pass the turn around (since he's always a bit behind me), and then one final time when he comes into the finish line.  Cheap thrills, what can I say?

I found out later that sometime after I passed them mid course, apparently my nephew decided to ditch dad and run along with mom for a bit.  I think he must have seen her at the turn around and decided running back sounded fun?  I'm not sure. 

But, what I do know is, as they're jogging along ... all the sudden my nephew strikes up a conversation with my sister.  It goes something like this:

Nephew: Mom, do you smell that?
Sister: (Confused) What?
Nephew: I said, do you smell that?
Sister: (Sniffs and thinks) Um, I don't smell anything buddy.  What do you smell?
Nephew: (Grinning) It's the smoke from Auntie Natalie's shoes!!!

LOL!  Maybe I need to start running in these guys?

While my nephew is cracking jokes back on trail, I pull into the finish line and hear the timer call out 27:29.  I can't believe it!  Not only did I crush my PR from April last week by almost 1 minute, I've crushed that PR buy almost another full minute not even a week later.  I'm pretty stoked!

Enjoying my victory, I grab some water and cool down, waiting for my sister to pull in.  Eventually I get impatient and start to walk backwards on course.  And, of course, I drill sergeant her to the finish line just to get her time as fast as possible, too.

She informs me at the finish that my nephew abandoned ship and hopped back in with dad, so we wait for them to roll in.  And, a few minutes later they show up, stroller in tow.

After a few post race snacks, we feel refreshed, and decide it's time to go.  We all pile in the car, and I review the last few stats before getting back home and jumping in the shower:

And that's the story of how race bib # ... well, nothing joined my collection!  This race didn't have bibs!

Here's to another race soon... technically, this weekend via a team event.  Stay tuned!

Webster Education Foundation 5K 2013 (Chasin' ZZ Top)

Webster Education Foundation 5K (3.15 miles)

28:28 PR!

Average Pace 9:02/mile

Do you ever have a gut feeling of pending disaster?  That's how this race started out.

Sheesh.  My last few race recaps just keep sounding horrific.  But honestly, I'm doing it to myself.  You'd think I'd have learned at the Gandy Dancer race a few weeks back not to experiment with eating crap the night before a 5K race. 

Yes, I know - just punch me in the face now.  In a pinch on Friday night, and in a car by myself with my dog in the back seat, I was fairly limited in my dinner choices.  Driving 100+ miles through rural MN/WI and hungry, what's a girl to do?

Ah, the dinner of champions - a Wendy's basic cheeseburger meal with fries.  So gross and yet so good.  I try to justify it by saying: Wendy's is a least fresh and includes a larger than average serving of lettuce, tomato and onion on the burger.  (I know a few people who are cringing right now... and I'm sure I'm about to "enjoy" a lecture on the health benefits of kale the next time I see them).

Needless to say, I HAVE to stop eating crap the night before a race.  My stomach of steel is starting to revolt by telling me grease does not do a body good. 

Moving on... and yes, I'll try to avoid the pre-race diet recaps in the future.

As I mentioned prior to my departure last week, I just took a week long vacation.  And I have to say, doing this race, I definitely started my cabin vacation off right!  How can you go wrong with doing a 5K?  Well, aside from the fact that my poor husband ended up sitting around for over a hour on my birthday to spectate... poor guy!  He's such a sport, escorting me to check in, commenting on the t-shirt we got, taking my pre-race photo:

 

Oh, see that little something blue on my left wrist?  More on that in a future post.  It will make my race recap today extra interesting, though.

Anyway, I don't have a lot to say about check in.  I got my bib number (#2... how did they know my stomach would appreciate that joke??), my t-shirt, and my instructions on how to pin the bib.  Like I mentioned in the Gandy race report, they were using the photo finish system again at this race.  So, I had to have my bib in a specific location to ensure a proper finish log.  Ok, easy enough.

Notice that I pinned the bib on the wrong side in my pre-race photo?  Yeah, I'm just that smart.  At least I figured it out and fixed it prior to gun time.

Having two strikes against me with the stomach and the bib issues, I decide things can't get much worse and proceed to line up at the start to await the gun time.  And for the first time ever, I turn on my new GPS watch and waited for the satellites to link in.  In less than a minute, my watch told me I was ready to run.  Sweet!

Just a few minutes after my watch was ready, the gun went off.  So, I clicked the "go" button on my watch and took off, excited to take my new gadget for a spin (literally).

As is typical for 5K racing, it took about 1/2 mile for runners to start to shake out.  Seems like it never fails: everyone throttles out of the gate like a bat out of hell when the gun fires.  But, by the first 1/2 mile, all the sudden people realize they went out too fast, and they start to burn out.  That, in my eyes, is when the real race begins.  And, that is also when I start to pick out my competition.  Which may be a 6 year old, a granny... or in this case, a man with a kick ass ZZ Top style beard.  I saw him and couldn't resist.  I just looked at that beard and said: Let's rock this!

I chased him for the first mile, and I have to admit, he really motivated me to move!  I forced myself to keep pace with him, even though I wasn't sure if it would be a mistake later in the race... going out too hard can definitely catch up with you in the 3rd mile. 

First mile in, my watch tells me I ran under a 9 minute mile.  Not too shabby!

I continued to chase ZZ Top until somewhere past the first mile or maybe the half way point.  Then, I don't know what happened, but he lost his spark and fell back a little (although he didn't quit running).  I have to admit, I was pretty bummed.  It was kind of fun to take bets with myself to see if I could beat a middle aged man with a beard like that.

When he pulled back, I powered ahead and picked the next person ahead of me that I was going to "race".  Yes, I do this all the time.  It's a race, and my goal is to beat whoever is ahead of me.  So, even though I'm not going to win, I am going to BEAT SOMEONE DANG IT!!  This is about where I have to admit... keeping pace with a 60 something woman taught me the humility of judging a book by its cover, again.  I started wondering almost immediately if I would be able to hold her pace to the finish line.  I realized I couldn't and started to pull back somewhere just after the 2nd mile, which my watch said I cleared just past the 18 minute mark.

About this time is when I start to realize that my watch is coming in handy!  Doing math in my head I discover that even if I ran my typical slow pace from long distance runs (about 10 min/mile), I might finally do it!  I might meet my goal of getting an official 28 minute finish time!!  Despite my legs feeling like lead, I refuse to let myself go any slower.  Which is hard to do, because we've now transitioned onto the last 1/2ish mile of the race and we're back on a trail again.  Running on gravel really sucks. 

I guess I can add a note here about the course, and use a fun feature of my new toy (a custom map, ya'll!!).  As you can see below, we started at the green dot, which was the parking lot of the Webster High School.  As indicated by the green/yellow line, I ran like a mad woman through the city streets until I started to fade a bit at the 1/2 mile mark (note how the line starts to turn orange).  A bit before the 1 mile mark, we turned right onto a gravel trail, which we promptly exited again at Oak Street... just to hop on again after clearing the 2 mile mark.  Gah!  Even flat trail running suxxxx!!!

Here's the map:

The race course was actually kind of an ingenious design, because it allowed the water stop to be stationed right in the center of all the trail running... meaning you could have a double stop to get water if needed.  Kudos to the person who figured that one out!

The last bit of the race was a transition off the trail onto the grassy field of the high school leading up to the track.  That's where this happened:

ARG!  Seriously, you guys.  This guy just came out of nowhere and passed me!  WTH!  So pissed!  Here's my after face when I realized what happened:

NOT A HAPPY CAMPER.

But, that didn't last long, because as I frantically looked for the finish clock, I realized I was on track for the ever elusive 28.  So I canned the pissy mood and pushed for my final sprint.

You should have to be nekkid to streak that fast, amirite?  I look like a pro!

And as my husband took the above photo, he then scrambled to capture this (albeit a few seconds too late):

Not going to lie.  I did a little fist pump at the finish line before handing in my bib's tear off tag... profusely sweating all over myself in the process.

Since I had high hopes that I beat most of the other 30 something women to the finish line, I decided I wanted to hang around at the finish for the awards ceremony.  I heard there were medals for the top three in every age category, and I figured even if it was 3rd, I wanted that metal dag-nabbit!

My husband and I passed the time by watching other runners come in.  Before I could even get my heart rate back in line, ZZ Top came through the finish with a very respectable 30ish minute finish. 

People kept rolling in, and at the 40 minute mark the cutest little boy realized he was almost to the finish and broke into a HIGHLY focused sprint.  I mean, it was the kind of sprint where he looked like he was shooting death rays out of his eyes and his legs were spinning so fast he put the road runner to shame.  It was so stinkin' cute the entire audience cheered him into the finish:

At this point, a few more walkers straggled in and the time keepers started tallying for the winner's circle. 

I killed time by looking at my watch and marveling in it's technology.  Here's a sample of some of the reports I was able to generate post race:

Finally, the moment came to announce the top threes.  Why is it so hard to be patient when you really want something bad? 

Top females 12 & under... top males 20s...

Ok, here it comes: top females, 30-39!!

Nope, not 3rd place...

Hmmm, not second place either?  Well, shoot.  I may as well get up and start walking back to the car. 

And then I hear it.  "First place, Natalie Cobb."  I am so shocked that all I can do is let out a yelp of "Oh my god!"

It took me a few seconds to realize I need to hustle up to the announcers and claim my prize... the whole time I'm in a daze, not able to believe I just took first place. 

And then, reality sinks in as I start to walk back to my husband.  For all the years where I thought I'd never weigh less than 200 pounds ever again, never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd EVER take first place in any kind of athletic event.  Even as a kid, I was always the chubby one on the side lines, dreading PE class and hoping to make it through any mandatory athletic event without making too much of a fool of myself.  And here I am, holding a medal for first place.  I proceeded to lose it when I've cleared the crowd, full on bawling on the way to the car.  Not out of pain or anger, but out of sheer pride. 

It's times like this that I can't believe who I've become.  Not only a PR, but first place.  Who is this person?!  I don't know, but I'll keep her!

In celebration of a race well done, we head to the local coffee shop.  Of course, I can't resist a second to bathe in my glory and pose for a Facebook ready gloat photo:

Little did I know, if I had held in there for another 10 minutes, I could have been featured on the race's website as a champion.  UGH!  Oh well, next year.  Regardless, look at that amazing group that I was a part of:

And that's the story of how race bib # 32 joined my collection.  Here's to another race soon... which already happened, actually, so watch for my next recap on Friday!

Unavoidable Fast Meals

Yep, yep.  I'm back from vacation.  And guess who took the extra lazy route of enjoying a few meals out in addition to not working?

This girl!

Ah, the evils of dining out. 

Or even worse, the evils of fast food. 

Did you know that a single meal of a double whopper with cheese, a medium order of fries, and an apple pie from Burger King contains more saturated fat than the American Heart Association recommends we consume in two days? 

If only it kept you feeling full for two days as well, right?  Eep!  Fast food is REALLY bad for you.  No wonder why we're facing an obesity epidemic.

The simple solution?  Just don't eat fast food!  Easy, right?

I know, I know - unfortunately, we've all been here...

A million things going on and all the sudden...

So, what to?

Plan ahead.  Pack your own meals.  Avoid eating out.  This is my #1 recommendation.

But there are times when fast food is unavoidable (or in my case I'm on vacation and just plain lazy).  Here are a few options I usually consider:


Subway

You can gorge yourself on a foot long veggie sub and still eat healthier than any of the other options below: just order their basic wheat bread, all the veggies, and toss on some olive oil & vinegar for dressing. 

560 calories, 16 grams of fat, 16 grams of protein
PLUS over 30-50% of your daily allowance for vitamins A & C, calcium, and iron


Wendy's

Broccoli & cheese baked potato with a side of apple slices
480 calories, 14 grams of fat, 16 grams of protein

If your extra hungry, you can add a small chili
180 calories, 5 grams of fat, 13 grams of protein

They also offer salads, but when you factor in the toppings used plus salad dressing... well, not so healthy.  If you can eat without the dressing, maybe not so bad... but I'd still recommend the above instead.


Burger King

Veggie burger with a side of apple slices
440 calories, 16 grams of fat, 21 grams of protein   **even better without mayo

Chicken, apple & cranberry salad
560 calories, 30 grams of fat, 29 grams of protein **dressing not included, and you don't even miss it


McDonalds

Ah, crap.  Literally.

This one is on the bottom of my list for a few reasons.  Mostly, because I just don't do McDonalds and wish other people wouldn't either.  Also because they really don't offer healthy options.  But if you're in a pinch... I'm choosing the option which I'm guessing is the least preserved and disgusting of the bunch:

Premium chicken ranch wrap with a side of apple slices
470 calories, 16 grams of fat, 30 grams of protein   **even better without the ranch dressing




So while I'd like to repeat the best option: plan ahead, pack your own meals, avoid eating out... I know it's not always realistic.  When stuck, some careful menu selections like the above can get you through the occasional fast food stop.

Healthy eating to you!

Happy Trees

Well, it's Friday.  And I'm about to take a vacation.

Can you tell I'm feeling lazy already?

I've decided to do something to make my life easier.  I'm going to skip posting all week next week.  So, don't be surprised when I don't follow my typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday routine.

Don't worry.  While I'm off, I'll be running TWO races, so I'll have tons of material to blog about when I get back.  I'm sure you're sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation.

In the meantime - next week, while I'm enjoying my time off, you should be enjoying things too.  After all:

Sma-schmorshions

My last few posts have been a little running heavy... which I'm sure is boring for my non-running fans.  So, that being said, let's switch it up today!

Although the title of this blog hints at something from this movie:

I'm actually about to talk about something else that also rhymes with the above.

Portions.

Before I get started, let's take a quiz.  Go to this site and see how much you know about portion control.  Don't worry, I'll wait here for you...

---

Well, how did you do?  And were you surprised by the correct answers?  I know I was when I first started learning about portion control.

When I started on my weight loss journey, the second thing I did after working on understand why I was eating, was work to understand what I was eating.  And by what, I mean - what is a portion size, how many calories are in it, and how many portions am I typically eating of said item.

I quickly became aware of how much I was overeating.  And not just on one or two items.  I was over eating a lot.  Like... Everything, and at EVERY. SINGLE. MEAL.

I was shocked, really.  I had no idea what I was doing to myself with those huge plates of pasta and the giant pieces of chicken. I mean, I thought those were healthy options... and they are, just not in the volumes in which I was eating them.

To see what I mean, here are a few visuals of what I'm talking about:

 

 

It's amazing to see typical servings and proper servings side by side... and also slightly disgusting, right?

If we just focus on the steak dinner example above, it's pretty dramatic to see what portion control does to your daily diet.  Imagine if your proper dinner meal was to be 638 calories per day, and instead you were eating the example that weighs in at 1414 calories. 


Watch out, math time: 

      1414 - 638 = 776 extra calories.  In ONE meal.



Take that a little further and assume that you overeat, on average, a similar amount of calories every day for one year: 

      776 calories x 365 days = 283,240 extra calories.



And if you remember from this post, a typical pound of fat is 3,500 calories, so:

      283,240 calories / 3,500 per pound = 80.93 pounds.



In just that one meal, over the course of 365 days, you could be eating the caloric equivalent of 80 additional pounds of body weight.  YIKES!!!!!!!!  I think I even just pooped my pants.  I wasn't expecting it to be that high either.

But what a great way to demonstrate my point.  Portion control makes a HUGE difference.  Your meal can quickly double or triple in caloric density by misjudging what you are putting on your plate.

So, how can you control your portions properly?  By teaching yourself a few basic visuals, you can make portion control decisions in a snap!

Notice any similarities in the above chart to the quiz I had you take at the beginning?  They used some similar portion controls... so there is a method to my madness, here.

Just as a starting point, here are a few visuals you can associate with serving size.

     1 ping pong ball = 1 serving of peanut butter

     4 dice = 1 serving of hard cheese

     1 deck of cards = 1 serving of meat

     1 egg = 1 serving of dried fruit

     1 computer mouse / light bulb / hockey puck =
     1 serving of pasta, rice, baked potato or chopped or cooked vegetables

     1 tennis ball = 1 serving of yogurt

     1 baseball = 1 serving of "medium" fruit or 1 cup of salad greens



And, another interesting technique to pair with portion control is plating.  Notice how much bigger or smaller a small portion looks when served in a different manner, and how easy it is to disguise a large portion accidentally:




Ok, homework time.  Tonight, when you go home and serve your plate... start imagining the above.  What size is your meat serving?  And how about your veggies?  See if you can make some minor adjustments to make your plate healthier.

I bet you can.  And if you do, your body will thank you for it.

This is the Running Community

Last week, I was reading the ever reliable MSN.com news feed again.  You know, the place that informs you about important news blurbs and fart jokes all in one blurb?

Yeah, I'm mature with my news sources.

Anyway, I ended up coming across this:

You can read the source information here, if you wish.

First off, before I get too far, I have to say - shame on whoever ditched this kid on course.  If you agree to run a race with someone, stick with them.  If they're having a bad day, help them work through it.  Lord knows one day it will be your turn to suffer and you'll appreciate the partner who doesn't ditch you.  Don't ever leave someone on course unless (1) they are old enough to navigate to the finish on their own, and (2) they encourage you to go forward without them.

Second, although the man is a marine and I'm appreciative of his service, there is more to this story than the man being in active duty and helping a kid out.  Yet everyone is focusing on this.  And by doing so, they're totally missing the point.

Why do I say this?

Because for any of you out there that have run a race, I know you have been the boy in the blue shirt above.  There is nothing worse than starting a race, having a setback somewhere on course, and then struggling to get to the finish line. 

Regardless of where I've been on course, any time I've ever been struggling, there has always been another runner behind me, next to me, in front of me... there to cheer me on.  Or, me to cheer them on.  Or, maybe we are commiserating our pain or celebrating our victories together.  Whatever the situation, there is always a runner in the crowd there to just... be with.

This image - this is what running is all about. 

Not marines, not children, not being left behind... it's about running. 

Running is about getting out there.  Pushing yourself to do something you never thought you could do, or to push yourself to do it again, maybe even better or faster this time.  And despite the fact that everyone is at a race to get their own best time, I think every runner always want to see others finish as well.


The marine who helped the little boy to the finish.

The elite who sacrificed her 1st place purse to assist an armless marathoner rehydrate.

The track star who carried her opponent across the finish line.

This is the running community.

Look At Me Now

I've been feeling a little lately like this blog has become ... well... this:

I don't want this to just be about me!

So, if you're reading my blog, give me a shout.  Post something below.  I want to hear where you're from, why you read, and what kinds of topics you like to read about.

Come on - get involved!  I'm waiting...