February 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

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  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    Hey guys - just found this and this is great!!!

    My goal for February is running/walking for 420 minutes.
    I am just starting and alternating walking and running.

    I have signed in for 3 races at the moment and the big goal is to be able to run the distances without walking.

    March 31st => 2,5 km (I am being part of a relay Team for an 3hrs race and one round is 2,5 km)
    April 10th => 3 km (Womens Fun Run 2019)
    May 26th => 5 km (Womens Run 2019)

    I already did one run yesterday with 40 minutes.

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    Welcome!
  • polskagirl01
    polskagirl01 Posts: 2,024 Member
    hanlonsk wrote: »
    Well... that was interesting.
    Freeze your Fanny race. 4 miles (I came up with 3.8, who knows). Forecast when I went to bed last night was the same as it had been for the last several days- 35-40 degrees at race time, with a front comes in bringing snow, and dropping the temperature quickly to below zero. I had even done a practice run last week, in approximately that temp, to make sure I still knew what to wear at that temp despite my recent laziness.
    Have said clothes set out and ready to go. Look at weather, it’s a bit chillier than predicted, might want a light jacket. Start driving to the race... it’s about 10 degrees colder, already, and snowing, already. Which also means wind is stronger, if storm came quicker. Turn around, go back home, trade my short socks for my wool socks, grab the yaktrax, put a sweatshirt on instead of light layer, and think of all the recent cold butts, and put some shorts on over my tights.
    Yaktrax were an awesome decision. I fell before I was completely out of my car. One foot still in car, coffee in hand... all but face plant.. coffee goes everywhere. lady getting out of car next to me “what on earth are you doing???” Ummm, falling, apparently”. We had a ton of snow last week. 40s yesterday, and then the weirdness today. Lots of very very very slick stuff, covered in today’s layer of snow, so ya couldn’t see it.
    This is where it becomes important that this race is in my actual town of like 1500- so some of the issues to follow are to be expected. No bibs, if you didn’t register a month or more ahead of time, your shirt will be here in 2 weeks. (Wasn’t even in the paper it was happening until 2 weeks ago). No where does it say where check in or start is. All info just says “town name” luckily it is a small town. They have walkers “start” at 8. This is a loose term, as walkers apparently just self start kinda whenever they want.
    Run starts at 9. Not much better than a self start. By the time The run starts it is freezing fog, windy, snowy. Luckily the route is a segment on strava that I have looked at. Because there is no signage. No people directing. No cones. No streets closed off - and this route goes on pieces of two highways, and a frontage road. By the half way point, the freezing fog has coated my glasses, so I can’t hardly see. And my glasses are kinda cobbled together after an incident Friday, so I didn’t want to put them in my pocket and risk breakage, and I didn’t really want to face the weather without their protection. Luckily my switch to the sweatshirt meant I was in brighter colors than I would have been otherwise. Because between my glasses and the fog no one on either side of this equation can see anything. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have grabbed my new light up vest when I turned around for extra layers. Also, apparently the folks accustomed to this tradition apparently count themselves as “walkers” if they are slow runners. Because, I was going a bit faster than my usual turtle pace, and I would have been DFL had it not been for the two who kept stopping for selfies. Finally, get back to where we started. And I’m getting my yaktrax off and trying to get my glasses thawed before going inside.... and assuming they just picked up the finish without me since I was sooo far behind the rest of the runners, when someone walking back to their car goes “uhhh you know the finish is up there another block?” Uhhhh no... since there are NO SIGNS, NO CONES, NO people pointing, and since it makes no sense to run past the nice warmth of the building where the stuff is... I actually didn’t know that. Grrrrr.

    Now, I realize I may be a bit snarky, and I know this is a community ran, small town race....so maybe my heart is still frozen 2 sizes too small after all of that. But, just from a safety perspective, the above really has me bothered. Like, what if my spectacular fall had happened out on the frontage road when I was still DFL? What if I broke something? What if a car hit me because they couldn’t see me in the fog and snow. and like not many people run here is going’s to expect a runner on the frontage road or highway in that anyways? How do they know someone coming from out of town doesn’t know the route and made a wrong turn and is lost? Today was pretty warm for February in Wyoming, how do they know all the runners made it back safely? Like, I’m not even saying have bibs- heck borrow the chips the bar uses when you are owed a drink- make sure all the chips come back... or have better signage, and someone sweeping the course, so ya know no one got lost, and everyone is back safe.


    TL/DR - cluster of a 4ish mile race, froze my fanny as advertised, slippery, Icy, cold, foggy. 3.8 today = 6.1/30

    Woof, I would be bothered too! If you're going to put on an event, you really need to meet some bare minimums for safety and convenience. /hugs and great job on getting to the finish line in the face of all that!

    I completely agree. Especially if you paid to participate!
  • polskagirl01
    polskagirl01 Posts: 2,024 Member
    Alright, I need some advice from my fellow runners (i.e. I need someone to help calm my anxiety and convince me to do what I know I want to do, but am anxious about...).

    I'm signed up for a marathon on 4/13/19. I'm about to sign up for a marathon on 4/6/19. I had been thinking about also signing up for a 50K on 4/20/19. I was waiting until that gets closer to be sure I felt strong enough to do that... except that 50K is now 90% full (Thank you to Ultrasignup for the notification) and I worry that I won't be able to sign up for that 50K if I wait.

    I'm not planning to race any of them, just to finish. But a marathon / ultra every Sat. 3 weeks in a row is a bit intimidating. I have no DNF's and no DNS's even in my entire career, but I shouldn't be afraid of the possibility, right?!

    Someone please tell me that if I go ahead and sign up for the 50K also, everything will be ok.

    It seems like a lot to me, but I am not trained for that, and I don't know how well you can hold back and run those first 2 as training runs. There are some rare but awesome people who run marathons all the time and are used to it, though, so it could be okay. Have you done back to back marathon-long runs in training, and how did it go? Can you register for the 50k and wait on the first marathon?

    I'd probably be tempted to wait on the 50k and if it sells out before I decide I'm ready, take it as a sign it was a "not this year" race for me. I want to be running when I'm 80, so it's important to not injure myself by pushing to do everything right now. But you are more experienced as a runner than me, and you know your body. Is this a reasonable challenge for you? If so, go for it!
  • Elise4270
    Elise4270 Posts: 8,375 Member
    Wow @hanlonsk, what a horrible race experience. I’m glad you survived and I hope all the other runners did too. Those conditions sound terrible for a road race. I think you win “worse race venue of 2019” . Way to kill those frozen 3.8 miles though.
  • mbaker566
    mbaker566 Posts: 11,233 Member
    Congrats to all the weekend racers!
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    Avidkeo wrote: »
    Im several pages behind, mostly because we have no internet at home atm (at work now).

    No run for me today, and am seriously contemplating no gym as well. I am so tired from a crap sleep last night, I can barely keep my eyes open, and i have a major headache. Skipping one day is not going to kill me.

    Part of me thinks a walk at lunch will be good, mostly because I'm on a 16 day streak for daily steps. But Garmin keeps putting my goal up! Not sure how much longer I can keep at the extra steps, but I like the challenge haha. Today its set for 13400. Easy if I run in the morning, not so easy if i dont. I've been doing a lot of marching on the spot over the weekend but now have aches in my legs. dumb eh.

    /hugs I feel crummy after going out last night and am skipping the run today, too. It's totally allowed.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    edited February 2019
    I went back to my spreadsheet and was able to add up the mileage on my shoes - easier than it might have been since I only ran in the one pair until I bought the trail shoes last fall, and almost immediately started tracking my running outfits for winter purposes. Turns out I've got about 525 miles on the Ghost 10s and 60 on the Peregrine 8s. Definitely time for another pair! I haven't noticed any real issue with the Ghosts and don't think I'll retire them immediately, but will definitely keep an eye out for any weird twinges. @PastorVincent: I remember someone mentioning having over 800 miles on a pair of shoes - was that you?