We are still running.
I just haven’t blogged since January which is insane. The kids have been doing great in their races
lately. I had some epic winter training
and then got sidetracked with a minor foot issue and ended up bailing on my
spring races.
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| Run Your Heart Out Finish |
In February the boys and I did Run Your Heart Out 5K. It was a new course for this race, and there
were some hills at the end. We had a
great time at the race, and even got some warm weather for February.
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| Run Your Heart Out 5K |
In March we did Run for Haiti 5K.
We love this race because it’s for an amazing
cause, and the energy at the race is always terrific.
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| Run for Haiti finish |
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| 14 and under age group awards with Moise Joseph from the Haitian Olympic team |
The boys killed it at this race putting up
big course PRs and also grabbing 2nd and 3rd places in
the 14 and under age group. This is huge
for them because it’s always hard to get an age group award at a Potomac River
Racing event. The even bigger news was
that even though I thought I ran a bad race I also ended up with 3rd
in my age group for the event. It had
been my goal for the year to age group in a Potomac River race so I was excited
about that.
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| Some friends and I...we all won age group awards! |
We were busy with other sports in April so we didn’t do any
formal races, but the kids and I hit up the 6K Walk for Water at the State
Department in DC.
We elected to run our
6K for water and had a great time on the course.
Next up was Bodies in Motion 5K in May which has an insane
amount of rolling hills.
The boys did a
great job and PRd the course as well.
Nic just straight killed this race and took 8 minutes off his time from
last year.
He almost broke 26 minutes
and is having a great year with 5Ks so far with all 5Ks sub-27 so far this
year.
I got a 3
rd place in my
age group at Bodies in Motion, but they only gave awards for the top in each
age group so no fun prize for me.
This
was Zach’s only race this year with a 27+minute finish, and he had a rough go
of it.
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| Zach finishing Bodies in Motion |
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| Some friends and I pre-race |
No racing in June, but July brought us the Freedom
Firecracker 5K. Fast, flat course that was a revisit of the PR setting
Thanksgiving race. It was rainy to start
and humid at the finish so no PRs, but the boys once again brought home 2nd
and 3rd in their age groups.
So let’s talk about the ultra season that never materialized
for me after my huge winter training cycle.
I felt stronger and fitter through this past training cycle than I ever
had. I had done tons of strength work
and a lot of specific workouts and had insane volume for me. I was at multiple 50+ mile weeks. About a week before Blue Ridge Marathon, I
started to experience pain in my left 2nd/3rd metatarsal
area which was particularly bad during hill work. I went and got checked for a stress
fracture. Phew! No stress fracture, just inflammation. After thinking it through I decided to
withdraw from Blue Ridge in an attempt
to save the bigger goal of Mohican 50 in June.
The hills of Blue Ridge would have really put me out for a long
time. I mostly biked and did some
running leading up to Glacier Ridge Trail 50K.
I was really excited for GRT and thought that I could do really well at
it. I did really well and was killing
the course and feeling very strong running the hills particularly the downhills
aggressively. It was unseasonably warm,
but I was dialed in with hydration and nutrition and feeling good.
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| Feeling the heat at the GRT |
However, by the 25K mark, the rocky terrain
and constant rolling hills on the trail were wearing on my foot. I could have pushed through and a year ago I
probably would have pushed through, but I made the decision to drop at the 25K
point. Oddly, I wasn’t upset and felt
really calm with my decision.
Truthfully, I just didn’t have the fire for it. As many others who have run Oil Creek have
said, I feel like I left a little part of myself out there on that trail last
October. Having done something so
amazing and been in such a dark place for so much of that race has put some
things in perspective. I didn’t feel the
need to prove to myself or anyone else that I could tough it out at GRT. I knew I could tough it out, but it wasn’t
smart to tough it out. I was changing my
gait and risking a longer term injury.
After that, I made the decision that Mohican was not in the cards for
this year. I backed off of running quite
a bit and focused on strength and yoga to let my foot get back to normal. I’ve just started to consistently get back to
training this month and finally got a run above 6 miles with no pain in my
foot. I don’t know what I’m going to do
for fall races, and I’m OK with that.
I’m looking forward to having fun with the kids at fall 5Ks and on the
trails and toying with the idea of trying for a PR half, but who knows?
In more exciting news we will be off on an epic adventure to
the Pacific Northwest soon so we will have a lot of exciting hiking adventures
and trail porn to post in the next month.
We were busy with other sports in April so we didn’t do any
formal races, but the kids and I hit up the 6K Walk for Water at the State
Department in DC. We elected to run our
6K for water and had a great time on the course. 
Next up was Bodies in Motion 5K in May which has an insane
amount of rolling hills. The boys did a
great job and PRd the course as well.
Nic just straight killed this race and took 8 minutes off his time from
last year. He almost broke 26 minutes
and is having a great year with 5Ks so far with all 5Ks sub-27 so far this
year. I got a 3rd place in my
age group at Bodies in Motion, but they only gave awards for the top in each
age group so no fun prize for me. This
was Zach’s only race this year with a 27+minute finish, and he had a rough go
of it. 
