Soooooo...I ran the Bix 7

The Bix 7 miler was a very fun race. Wayyyyy too many people for such a tight space, but my running friend and I had a good time splashing in all the puddles.

Downside?....Sunday after the race I felt great. No muscle soreness. Hamstrings felt a little tight but they've been tight for some time.

But wait? What about the NEXT day? Monday morning???? O.....My.....GOD!!!!! I couldn't even walk getting out of bed. Something was off. Hips...legs...something!!!
Put a call in to work...said in order for me to even function there, I was gonna have to get a chiropractic adjustment. Well....got the adjustment. Chiropractor said my hip was locked out. Go figure! Running back and forth from the sidewalk and the road and trying to run around slow people on Saturday had NOTHING to do with it. Right!

Was able to walk enough to get home. Decided to STILL not run. Went back Wed. for another adjustment. Felt just a tad better but it felt like someone was stabbing me in the ass. I decided to visit my ART Chiro. in Bettendorf, IA to see what he could do about my muscles. Come to find out.....I had a whole lot of nothing but scar tissue upon scar tissue in my right leg....mainly the hamstring. Hmmmm...maybe that's what my hamstrings had been trying to tell me for the last month now? Woke up Saturday morning with a full blown case of Sciatica....or so they tell me. Never had it until now.

So here I am icing....doing some nerve flossing(recommended by my ART chiro) and scheduled another appt. Seems I have some major imbalance issues. You don't say!!

Here I sit....not being able to run(huge bummer)...and the physical therapist says I shouldn't even walk for exercise until my feeling comes back fully in my right foot(right side of the foot is numb). The numbness is causing me to not be able to push off properly so I have a slight limp. Which if I walk through it...will cause even more scar tissue.

I don't have much pain anymore. Down to a 3 from an 8. Pain is now in my lower tailbone area. Not much pain from the sciatica...just the blessed numbness in my foot.

I have another appt. with my ART chiro Friday. We will see what he has to say. Hopefully, the sciatica will be a tad better. Not seeing any improvement so far.

I FEEL OLD!!!

It's official! 1st Bix complete!

It was a learning experience to say the least. I have never seen so many people clogging up a small city street. Just looking up the Brady Street hill in the first mile was so cool. It looked like thousands of ants charging up a hill.

I was a little nervous upon awakening. Thunderstorms and rain all around us. Water over the roads on the way. I wasn't sure if it would even be pulled off.

It rained the whole race, which made me feel like a little kid again splashing in the puddles. Although it was more like streams after all the rain we had.

Any other race I would have taken the first mile at 8:30/mile. Well...this one....we were pretty close to fast walking speed. My friend and I decided to hit the sidewalks to get around all the people walking. The first 2 miles were basically zigzagging around everybody because it was so painful to be going so slow.

Around mile 3 we decided to find a portapotty. I could have waited but I thought, "What the hell, we're going nowhere anyway". So we waited in line for a portapotty to open up.

After the turn around between mile 3 and 4, the people were more spread out. Don't ask me why. I never did figure that out.

I was able to get free and just run comfortably even though it was totally uphill for two straight miles.

Best part of the race was the downhill on Brady Street heading back to the finish. Felt like I was flying.

Here's the comparison: First mile was 10:46, last mile was 7:02. You do the math!

Final chip time: 1:04:04.

Next year....get into the front of the yellow corral or get into orange.

Tomorrow...weather permitting!

Tomorrow morning is to be the very first time I run the famous Bix 7 miler. Hillasciously hilly, but I plan to make it fun. Heck, I'm already guaranteed a PR.

My two running buds, Gina and Guy, will be by my side. Well, at least Gina will....Guy may just get bored with our slow pace and crazy antics and decide he doesn't want to be seen with us. Whereas Gina and I will have to eat his dust as he takes off.

I usually get a little nervous the night before a race, but since I'm not really "racing" this and I won't be half dead when I get done, I'm actually really excited.

Except for one thing.....

It's been very wet today and doesn't look much better for tomorrow morning. I can handle running in rain but if they cancel the race due to storms, I'll be so disappointed. I've been looking forward to this race all summer. Usually I can't do this race because of something else going on.

I will post tomorrow the series of events yet to transpire.

Now to my Rehydrate!!!!

Lost one from my hometown!

What a sad day. I found out one of the boys from my hometown is coming home from Afghanistan today. But not in the way we wanted. Seems he was killed in action after volunteering to go out on patrol.

Thought and prayers go out to his family and friends during this rough journey ahead.

Every mother's nightmare: Four Marine soldiers dressed in their blues, coming to the work place to tell the bad news!!

Rest in peace Justus Bartelt! You are a hero!

Raging Road Rally 5K

Here are all the award winners together at the awards cermony.

Last night was the annual 5K race here in town. This race is not only challenging(hilly), but there is alot of competition. My goal was to uphold my title of Local Master's Female from last year.

Mission Accomplished! Time 23:52. My last 5K at the beginning of the month was 23:49, so as challenging as this course is, I was happy with my time.

Goal for the end of summer is still to get under 23 minutes.

This race is a killer because the first part of the race is a slight downhill and the rest is up and down with a suicide 1/2 mile hill halfway through. Goal while running on that hill.....put one foot in front of the other. Below is a picture of said hill!



Wouldn't ya know it? Another hill at the end!!! Damn!



My first mile was wayyyyy too fast, which killed me in the end, 7:09. Last two were at 8:05ish. Sometimes I forget when I step up to the starting line how much this is going to hurt. Can you see the pain on my face at the finish line?



Kinda like having a baby. While you''re delivering, you're thinking,"No way am I doing this again!" Then some time later, you're going through it again. Although labor lasting 23 minutes would be awesome. I could handle that.

Followed the race up with my carb of choice.....BEER, of course! Awards ceremony, music and dancing. Good way to end a good, hot race!

Rain? Seriously? More rain?

Mother Nature I laugh in your face! You tried to stop me from my long run on Friday with success, but you played unfair. You brought more than rain....you brought lightning. NOT FAIR! You know I won't run in lightning!!

So...I tried again. On Saturay. Thought I was getting out early enough. Then again....maybe not! Damn! Foiled again! Bringin' on the same nasty, stormy weather.

One more try. Wake up Sunday morning...late....look at the weather and see it coming. How many miles can I get in before it hits. Three miles?.....Four? Oh yeah...the rain started to come between miles 4 and 5. But.....what?.....no lightning? I can handle that! Rain? Ohhhhh.....Mmmmmmmm.......Geeeee! What a downpour!! The curb and gutters couldn't even keep up! Oh....but......guess.....what? I had a TON of fun!!!! What a way to make me feel like a kid again!! Running through the rain. I was soaked to the bone. But loved every minute of my total 8 mile long run. I DID IT!! I succeeded in getting all the miles in. I actually felt like continuuing but thought I'd pay for it later!!!

Now....if I could only get my running friends to run in the rain with me! :P

Decisions, decisions!

Here's the thing. A friend of mine, Gina, and her husband, Guy, just finished their first half marathon in Madison, WI and they are hooked. They have been officially bitten by the half marathon bug, soon to be full marathon bug. Well, next year perhaps. That's what Gina said.

We are looking for a decent half marathon in October in the Midwest. September is out due to their schedule. Grand Rapids, MI is out because I did the full last year and although it's a great race, it's a little more than we want to pay for a half.

Here are some of the options we are trying to decide on(although Gina has told me I HAVE to pick! Thanks! No pressure or anything.):

Wisconsin Dells Half Marathon Wisconsin Dells, WI (first inaugural)
Haunted Hustle Half Marathon, Middleton, WI
Mauston Pumpkin Bash Half Marathon, Mauston, WI

Right now I'm leaning more towards the Haunted Hustle. It's on Saturday, October 30th and the finish is at Capital Brewery. And you know what that means. FREE beer for the finishers. Plus after the medal ceremony, free brewery tour and post race goodies, we are invited inside to rock out to music and more beer. How can one say no to that. Best part is, it's only $40 and the price doesn't go up the closer to race day. Must be a pretty small one.

So here I am, instead of deciding on a half marathon, I'm writing about one.

Best get to deciding.

Brad Onken Summer Sizzler 2010 5K

Goal: Shave off some more seconds of my 5K time from 4 wks ago.

May: 24:12
Today: 23:47

So today I took along my friend's hs daughter of 15 yrs. I'm trying to keep her running so she doesn't start all over in the spring with track so I invited her to run the 5K.

Not one to spend alot of time warming up, we got there and registered just 10 minutes before race start. There were 195 runners and I was number 193,Kayla was 194.
This course is a pretty challenging course, but I love it. Through some side neighborhoods, into the park trails, along the river. Beautiful, cool summer morning.

I finished pretty much spent. I actually thought I was gonna have to vomit at the end. Can't say I didn't give it my all. I actually quickly walked about 30 steps up a very steep hill at the end. Part of my strategy....catch my breath and then pour it all out to the finish, where I end up passing everyone that passed me on the hill and then some.

Finish time: 23:47 Very happy with that.

On a side note, I really didn't expect to place today because there were so many good runners. I was hoping at least a 3rd place to take home something. We listened to the guy giving out door prizes. I didn't win anything...I never do! Rats!

After he announced the overall female and male winners, Kayla and I sauntered over to the listing of runners to see where we placed. I thought I heard my name and Kayla said the announcer called me. So I walked over and said, "You called my name? Why?" He said,"Because you won 1st overall Masters female!" Totally shocked me! Did NOT see that coming! The woman that won overall female is one year younger than me but ran it in 19:47, so that opened up the old lady group for me. Woohoo!

Anyway, as we were standing there, in all seriousness, Kayla said, "Master's, isn't that for old people?" I couldn't help but laugh and say, "Yes, Kayla, I'm one of those old people?" 40+ lol

Kayla got 1st in her age group 14-16, with a time of 22:57. Ohhhh...in my dreams!

Went home, showered and went to my nephew's graduation party.

Oh, and the overall female and male won a year's supply of Buffalo Wild Wings. You think they will share them? Hmm?

Next goal.....sub 23 minutes.

ADVOCARE

I have found what I was looking for!!! A friend recently introduced me to Advocare products and I am HOOKED! I started out taking their energy/mental focus drink called Spark and lost 5 lbs. right away.

Prior to trying Advocare products, I had been purchasing my nutrient products from an herbalist. I thought they were the best products out there until I compared them with Advocare. Not only was Advocare better, but I liked the idea of money going into my pocket, rather than my herbalist.

I am a runner and when I was laid up with an injury I had gained some extra pounds and just couldn't shake them even when I started back running again. I started out by taking the Spark Energy drink before my morning runs and noticed a huge energy difference that I wasn't getting from my cup of coffee plus lost 5 lbs.

I've recently finished the Advocare 24 day challenge and I've lost 10 lbs total. The biggest advantage I've noticed is I no longer have the craving for my favorite sweets(Reeses) during the day. As a matter of fact, my coworker, trying to sabotage my progress, bought a huge pack of Reeses and guess who's eating them? Not me....HER!!

My goal is to ultimately qualify for the Boston Marathon and I have no doubt with Advocare's help, that goal will be met. I'm lighter on my feet and getting faster all the time thanks to the products they have for cardio and muscle strength!!