2017 was another running year.

I ran more virtual events than ever before. I spent my 40th birthday run/jog/walking a half marathon at Disneyland.

I wore my fitbit, of course. But, I switched my focus from 10,000 steps a day to concentrating on the number of miles I ran.

My plantar fasciitis was still a bit of an annoyance. But, it was better than in 2016. My guess is this is due to the fact that I was training for a marathon in 2016. I didn’t do as many long runs in 2017 – which would then make sense that I didn’t log as many miles in 2017 as I did in 2016.

I completed the You vs Year challenge sponsored by MapMyRun & Under Armour. The goal was to run 1017k in the year 2017.

* RUNNING HIGHLIGHTS: MONTH BY MONTH *

January

• Due to snow & ice, many miles were done on the elliptical
• Total miles this month: 60.29

February

• Finished HRC’s Mad Eye Moody 5K
• Total miles this month: 58.99

March

• Finished Yo Ho Ho Virtual 5K
• Finished Shamrock Run 15K
• Total miles this month: 46.01

April

• Finished Race for the Roses 10K
• Finished HRC’s 10K and SPEW
• Finished HRC’s Unmasked 10 miler
• Total miles this month: 66.98

May

• Finished Hippie Chick Half Marathon
• Total miles this month: 49.27

June

• Finished Helvetia Half Marathon
• Total miles this month: 43.02

July

• Finished HRC’s Eternal Glory 4 Miler
• Total miles this month: 33.28

August

• Finished She Believed She Could Virtual 10K
• Total miles this month: 34.55

September

• Finished the 5K, 10K, & Half Marathon in Disneyland
• Finished the Quest for the Lost Scroll Virtual 10K
• Finished HRC’s Platform 9 3/4K
• Total miles this month: 68.32

October

• Finished HRC’s Sirius Half Marathon
• Total miles this month: 84.48

November

• Finished Wobble Before we Gobble 4 Miler
• Total miles this month: 61.89

December

• Finished Virtual Santa Hustle 5K
• Total miles this month: 49.41

I RUN FOR BLING

This year’s medal count: 19

2017 Stats

5K Events: 4
10K Events: 5
Half Marathon Events: 4
Other Events: 4
Total Miles Run/Jogged: 656.5

2015 Total Miles: 440 miles
2016 Total Miles: 761 miles

I have signed up for a couple events in 2018 already. So, apparently 2018 will be a running year also. I will complete a half marathon or two (or three), but I would like to focus on speed. I know I can accomplish the distance. Now, I would like to go the distance a tad more quickly.

Happy Running!

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The Vernonia Half Marathon marked my 5th half in a year, as well as my 5th half marathon ever. Last May I ran my first half at Disneyland. Apparently the enjoyment outweighed the pain and agony since I keep going back for more. I commemorated #5 by wearing the same outfit as I wore at my first one. Trust me, I felt like I needed all the help I could get to finish this race. As it turned out, I did better than I dared to hope for.

Getting to the Start Line

This was a point to point course, which I believe is a first for me. I parked in Banks and at the High School were buses ready to take us to the start line at Stub Stewart State Park.

The Start

Fairly typical start line routine.

The Course

The course began uphill, but amazingly enough that first mile went by quickly. My time wasn’t faster than normal, it just seemed to go by quick. It was a great way to start the event.

A little after the mile 1 marker were two people cheering us on in critter masks. I took a selfie with them because I really appreciate people going out of their way to make sure we have a good race.

The next number of miles were downhill. Downhill! Woop, woop! It only seemed like a steep downgrade for the first little bit, then it felt very gradual.

By about mile 7 the course flattened out and was fairly flat the rest of the way… no wonder I enjoyed this course.

Mile 10 tends to be where I slow down. I don’t often run over 10 miles while training, so it’s no wonder that I’m not used to it. However, this time I kept my pace and was still feeling good past mile 10!

I don’t know who the photographer was who took this photo, but I’d like to thank him. This is the first professional race photo I’ve ever liked of myself. And, even better is that it was taken during a PR race and is taken on my home turf in the Oregon Coast Range.

Map My Run Stats

I did 5min/2:15min intervals throughout the entire race. Those times seemed to work perfectly that day.

Eats

I have never been so happy to see olives and oranges. By happy I mean I nearly started crying. Two weeks prior to the race I began the JJ Virgin Diet. I realize starting a new way of eating 2 weeks before an event is not smart. But, lately I always seem to be training for an event and at some point I was just going to have to go for it. So, I went for it. I am not bashing the JJ Virgin Diet, but I have never felt worse than I did those 2 weeks of starting that diet. I think there were a few contributing factors that were out of my normal. But, whatever the reasons, I had been miserable.

Because of the diet I couldn’t partake in my normal race gu’s, gels, gatorade, etc. I hadn’t cheated one tiny bit during those two weeks and I had one week left to go. I didn’t want to mess it up because of the run. However, I did want to have a good event. So, I made an electrolyte drink to take with me and packed filberts for a snack. Unfortunately, I forgot the filberts in the car and the electrolyte drink was so horrible I could hardly drink it.

So when I got to the aid station to find not only the normal gu and gatorade, but also a wide range of other snacks, I was ecstatic. They had gummy bears and m&m’s, which I couldn’t have. They had bananas and peanuts, which I also couldn’t have. They had oranges and olives and I couldn’t believe my luck. As stupid as it sounds – and maybe I have a food issue – but those few olives and orange slices were the encouragement I needed. I was getting slightly concerned how I was going to finish the race strong on just water and a few sips of disgusting homemade electrolyte drink.

They had these treats at 2 of the aid stations. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

The Finish

Coming off the trail and into the town of Banks I realized I could actually PR this race, so even though I was getting tired I gave it all I had ’til the very end. I knew it wouldn’t be the case, but I was still hoping that once I got to the high school track the finish would be right there. But, nope. Of course I had to do a lap around the track. I completed the lap and sure enough I PR’d.

My chip time was 26 minutes faster than my chip time at the Star Wars Half in January.

My Food & Drink

As I mentioned earlier, I was doing the first phase of the JJ Virgin Diet when this half marathon came around. This screwed up my typical food options before, during and after the race.

I typically have water at the aid stations and often also have the gatorade or other similar drink. Not this time. I found an electrolyte drink to make at home and brought it with me. I guesstimated on the amounts when adding the honey & sea salt. I may have over done them. Or, I’m not a huge honey fan, so I may just not have liked it. But, either way, the drink was horrible. So horrible it was all I could do to drink the amount I did. After I found the olives and oranges I quit drinking it all together. FYI: honey was technically a no-no on the diet, too. But, I figured I would have it anyway since I was opting out of the gatorade.

Another missing drink from my normal was Advocare’s Spark, or some other drink with caffeine. I usually drink it on the way to an event. Then, I’ll have a gu or clif shot blok during the run. All of those items were out this time. So, I opted for a caffeine tablet. I had never bought them before and was shocked to see how much caffeine was in one tablet. I cut it in half and had one section before the race and the other half during. Maybe that’s what put a little boost in my step.

And finally, my post race food. I would have loved to partake in the soup and stuff offered at the event. Unfortunately, not this time. I wasn’t sure what I would want afterwards or how hungry I’d be so I packed an apple, cutie, almonds, rice crackers and gimme chips.

Music

The final difference during this race than previous races was my music. Maybe I need to climb out of the rock I apparently live under, but I had know idea until recently that you could download your amazon prime music to your phone.

Normally I buy the music I want to listen to from Amazon and download the mp3’s to my phone.

However, I have Amazon Prime. So, most of that buying wasn’t necessary. I listen to Amazon Prime music all the time when I’m at home and sitting at my computer. I have hundreds of songs in my library and have a few playlists set up. I stream it when I’m home. I assumed that’s how it worked on your phone, too. A fabulous friend of mine recently told me, though, that I could download the songs using the Amazon app on my phone. This tidbit of info saved my patootie. About a week before the race I got a new phone and when I went for a training run I realized I hadn’t downloaded any music on it. Dang it! How was I going to run an hour and a half without music? Then I remembered what my friend told me. So, I thought I’d try it. And sure enough. Using wi-fi at the library, I quickly saved a number of songs using the Amazon app, went for my run and enjoyed some tunes. The nice thing about this method was that it gave me a whole new playlist to listen to during this half marathon than what I usually listen to run after run.

Fitbit Stats

Not all 30,000 steps were from the race, but the majority were. Ironically, the 30,000 step badge is named a trail shoe. Fitting since I just ran on a trail.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed this event a lot. It was definitely the pick me up I needed from the last 2 weeks of feeling miserable. The people running the event seemed efficient. Taking the bus to the start line went smoothly. I loved running on the Banks-Vernonia Trail. The people at the aid stations were friendly and encouraging. I felt good the majority of the race. And, the PR was amazing. I’m not gonna lie, though. I was sore the next few days. More sore than I had been in a long time. Maybe it was those miles of downhill? Maybe it was my lightning quick feet that day? Maybe it was all the fatigue from the 2 weeks prior? I’m not sure, but wowzers I was feeling the pains of this race for days.

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Saturday was the first race of the Star Wars Rebel Challenge at Disneyland. It was a 10K, which at this point, is my favorite distance. It’s more challenging than a 5K. But not near as challenging as a half marathon. I still feel fairly new to running. I’ve actually not run many 10K’s and the next day would only be my 3rd half marathon. So, I was looking forward to this event.

I woke up bright and early at 3:30am. Left the hotel at 4:30 and headed to the start line. I followed this routine each of the race days.

Waiting to Start

The start line was in the same place for all 3 races, making it even simpler to find the next day. Based on my submitted time, I was placed in Corral C for the 10K.

The Start

MapMyRun says I started the race at 5:46am.

Running Through Disneyland

I kept a decent pace through the Disneyland section. I stopped for photos, of course. But, didn’t wait in lines for character pics. It was as amazing as ever running through the park.

One of My Favorite Things

I love running through the gated section between the parks. The crowd cheering the runners is amazing and I feel like I’ve already accomplished a section of the race and it’s exciting knowing I’m moving on to the next.

Running Through California Adventure

Well.. now things didn’t go quite as planned. A good learning experience, though.

Hollywood Blvd, beautiful as always.

This is the line for BB8. I missed him the day before at the 5K and knew I wouldn’t have time to spare the next day during the half. So, I got in line. We were told it was about a 45 minute wait – longer than I would have liked. But, I guess I didn’t feel in a huge hurry and I love the photo ops. So, I stayed. Not far behind me, they shut off the line and didn’t let anyone else in. I guess I thought since I was already in the line, I was safe from the balloon ladies…

I waited in line about half an hour. I didn’t mind. I was chit chatting with the others in line and watching the runners go by. Right about the time I was getting close to my photo op – just another zig and maybe a zag in the line – the sweeper guys came by. Not far in front of them were the balloon ladies. We saw them go by, but we didn’t know for sure if they were the official balloon ladies. I’ve never actually seen the balloon ladies and somebody near me said they carry much bigger balloons. We thought we were fine, although we knew we needed to hurry.

The sweeper guys said we were behind pace and if we didn’t hurry there was a chance we’d be swept.

Less than a minute later, a sweeper said if we didn’t leave now we would definitely be swept. We had to be at Mile 4 by a certain time – a time that was very soon. That was the incentive we needed. We got out of the line we’d just been waiting in forever.

I snapped this quickie selfie as I high tailed it outta there.

Things weren’t quite so fun anymore. It was stressful. I’ll be damned if I was going to get swept – especially just for a photo.

So, so happy to make it to mile 4. I didn’t even stop to take a decent pic. I snapped this as I was running by. At this point, I heard I was 45 seconds behind pace.

The rest of the race was uneventful. I took a few pics. But, I was mainly concerned about finishing before the balloon ladies. Once I passed them, I had no desire to see them again.

The Final Stretch

When I reached Downtown Disney I heard I was 4 minutes ahead of the pace. Ah, a sigh of relief. However, I wasn’t going to breath easy until I crossed the finish line.

My kids and hubby were near the finish line ringing cow bells and Farm Kid2 was holding the sign he made at the Expo. Amazing! Very, very rarely do I have supporters at a race. It was a great end to a stressful race.

I did cross the finish line in time and received the medal. Woop, woop!

Never again will I take the pace time for granted. It was way too stressful.

Snacks & Stuff

The drinks and snacks at the finish were the same as the 5K, plus we got a heat sheet.

The medal

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