November 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

I've decided not to log this Spartan race as run miles (and will have to take that on a course by course basis) because it's pretty much just hiking most of it. And the pace really drags down my average 🤣. So I don't have any run miles to report for November yet.

Tri-State NJ Spartan Super brief report:

This was a pretty humbling experience yesterday. It was my 6th Spartan race (just started Spartans in March this year) and I thought I had a few things figured out. I did the Beast in April at the same location as my second race and it was crazy - I failed pretty much everything upper body related (so many things), but I finished it. When I did the super and sprint in Boston in August, I had improved so much. I nailed the monkey bars, rings, and a couple of other upper body/hanging obstacles. Only failed the spear throw, rope climb, and multirig (rings and swinging bars) in the super, and only spear throw and rope climb in the sprint (see a theme here? )

So going into this super I knew it would be tough on the NJ Mountain Creek course but I had more confidence and thought "it can't be as bad as the beast". Well, it nearly was. (The Beast is 13+ miles and the super is 8+ miles, I clocked 10.1 on my Garmin yesterday).

It took forever, only an hour shorter than what I did for the beast. The hiking was grueling. I failed five obstacles including that freaking rope climb. My hands/grip were just not there. But I took my burpees like a Spartan (first time I've ever done the full amount of required burpees, not skipping any or sharing with the team) and I also had some successes. I got the spear throw to stick for the first time in 6 races. I also did a 7' wall and another obstacle for the first time without assistance.

I turn 51 tomorrow. I certainly feel like every bit of that today, but this past year at 50 has been amazing and I proved so much to myself about what I can accomplish. I ran a marathon just before my 50th birthday, three half marathons including two back to back half marathons, 6 other shorter road races and 1 trail race, 6 spartans, started rock climbing, hiked two high peaks, and did my first ever bike ride (a 35 mile charity ride). I was never any kind of athlete in my life until I started running 4 years ago and I certainly didn't see this coming. So while I felt defeated and beaten down yesterday, I'm taking it all as a win. Next time I'll get you, rope climb (still my remaining unconquered nemesis)!

I need to read back on all the race reports and updates over the weekend. In the meantime, congrats to everyone who raced!

Hello from Zihuatanejo! I can't begin to describe how stunning this place is!
I did get to do my @MobyCarp run. Do I have to upload or something?
Here are some pics. It was already so hot and I started early just after sunrise. But it was beautiful!

My marathon is in 3 1/2 months. I'd like to get my weight down to about 99 pounds but I'll settle for 102-103, which means I have about 6-7 more pounds to lose. I have short legs but I want to run as light as possible. I'm focusing on nutritional improvement and focused training this month (whatever this means). I'm just trying to get at least 100 running miles in addition to running and swimming. So far this month, I'm off to a good start. I'm considering running a half next month; right now the only aspect holding me back is that I'm not sure I want to spend $100ish right before Christmas. I hope everyone has a great Sunday.

11/1- 3.2 miles
11/2 - 6.4 miles

I had posted this really long summary of my long run yesterday. I really followed through with the additional distance and I was soooo proud of myself! I think I really like trail running! Here’s the shorter version and I’ll see if I can post pics too.

Trail run yesterday and hit a personal record in distance training, lifted, and went to a haunted house. All in all good day and my dog is tired

I ran up this hill
And at the top i found a rhinoceros 🦏

And then i ran back down and that was a lot harder than running up because it required more focus because the terrain was unpredictable. It was like strategic hopping with a lot of momentum so i also had to exercise a lot of restraint

The cool thing was that there was a group of cyclers at the bottom waiting for me to get down which i didn't fully realize til i almost ran into them and they were all cheering.

Just an itty bitty sense of accomplishment really made my day

I still don't think i could outrun a bear or mountain lion- which i considered because Eevee and I wandered into a spot that was eerily calm and untouched and i felt in my gut, "we should not be here...."

And the hill itself

1-hr time slot for @MobyCarp

I'm kinda impressed with my timing. Was 2 minutes ahead of schedule and had to return for headphones (twice, the bluetooth ones were dead) and ended up starting at exactly 8:00 my time. Had a nice run on sidewalks, roads & through the forest, and finished in my driveway at 9:00 exactly

This was my birthday week and a national holiday, and this might sound strange, but I have a yearly tradition of going for a birthday walk in the cemetery (which is filled with candles from the whole country coming out to remember their dead on Nov. 1). While I personally don't believe in praying to or for people who have passed, I do pray & have a time of reflection as I walk. Today's memory run fit right in with my week, and I'm thankful for another year, another day, another mile...

November goal 100 miles



Upcoming races:
Dec. 14 - CityTrail 5k (#3 of 6)

03/11 5.45 miles for Moby carp

I'm pretty knackered so not the best time to try and write a race report, please excuse any delirious ramblings or incorrect spelling!
Got off to a bad start when my husband decided to have a hypochondria attack at 3.30am. Absolutely nothing wrong with him, it's just something he does every few months when he can't sleep and starts thinking he's having a heart attack or something. But it meant we were awake for about 2 hours in the middle of the night. Luckily we eventually went back to sleep, and I was woken by the alarm at 8am. Awesome thing about such a local race, no early morning :-) Downed a couple of coffees and a banana, left home around 9.15 to walk down to the start. I arrived with 20 minutes to spare and went to find a bathroom. Best part about local HM with so few women running, I got an entire dressing room I didn't need and spacious, spotless bathroom with a door that locked and toilet paper all to myself! No queue!
Lots of people jogging up and down warming up, music blasting. We were called to line up at 9.50, they faffed about for 10 minutes, then at 10 (when we were due to start), there was a minute of silence for a local councillor who died unexpectedly a few months ago. I thought a lot about MobyCarp during that minute, too. Then they made us stand there and listen to the entire Chariots of Fire soundtrack before they started us off.
I'd positioned myself at the very back on purpose, I didn't look at the clock as I went through the arch but think around 35- 40 seconds had passed.
To begin, we had to do a loop of the fairground where the start/finish was located. Because I was at the very back, the sweeper (a policeman on a motorbike) was RIGHT behind me. Like almost touching my heels. And he was pushing. Because I was worried about making the 2 hour 40 cutoff time, I had calculated the exact kilometre splits and knew I needed to run at least 7:35 min/km to stay within the time. My first kilometre, which I didn't dare to run-walk as planned because of that damn cop, was done in 6:31. So over a minute faster than I needed. A couple of times he actually came up beside me, until around the 1k mark I snapped sideways "you're going too damn fast man!" and he slowed up a little. Started to run-walk-run to my plan then (90 second run, 30 second walk) and felt better, though my splits show I was still going way faster than I had wanted to.
My intention was to do the first 8km at 7:30 min/km, next 8km at 7:15 and final 5km at 7. Never happened.
The first part of the route was a little annoying, up and down the same road a couple of times under the elevated railway line. The two guys that started at the back with me but had pulled ahead when I started my walk intervals ducked behind a bush under the railway, pretended to pee then went out the other side, cutting probably half a mile off. I really don't understand why people cheat, even less so at the very back of a pack of 1000 runners. It's not like they were going to win anything.
I passed a few people who seemed to be having trouble, then soon after passing the km3 marker I came up to an English lady who seemed to be struggling quite a lot, she was running maybe 30 seconds at a time then stopping to walk. As I was about to pass her a man by the road shouted at her "you should be running" and I heard her mutter under her breath something about not running but not stopping, and for some reason I thought about how @MobyCarp was forever helping others out, so I stopped and told her she was doing fine and to hang with me and we'd do my run-walk intervals together. She was from the UK and the heat (and it was way too hot for November!) was affecting her a lot. We ran-walked-shuffled-cussed the sweeper cop who got back on our heels (and had switched to a quad bike!!!) together for about 10km. At first she was running faster than me and I was struggling to keep her pace during the runs, but she was walking more and more often even though we were trying to stick to the intervals my watch was set to beep for. By km9 she was stopping to walk every 15-20 seconds, I cajoled her for a while but she was breathing so hard and dry-retching that I didn't want to push her any harder. When we saw the aid station at km 13 come into view she told me to go on, so I ran ahead and as I passed I grabbed some water (I was carrying bottles in my belt, but had given what was left in them to her) and a piece of banana I didn't actually want but they shoved it in my hand and told them I was worried about her and asked them to check her out. My next km was done in 6:19 amazingly, I guess the few slow miles had perked me up a bit too. I ran 3 kilometres faster than target pace, then settled into quite a steady pace that was almost the 7 minute kilometres I had planned for for the final 5. Last one was a few seconds faster.
I suffered with some cramping in my toes in the last 6km or so, and in the middle knuckle of my middle finger for some weird and wonderful reason. I had a couple of gels, the second with electrolytes, and plenty of water, but looking at the HR stats from my fitbit (yeah I'm a nerd, I wear a fitbit for steps/HR/calories and the old Garmin @noblsheep so kindly gave me for the gps/distance/pace/etc) I was in peak zone for 1hour 54 minutes so guess that has something to do with it!
As we rounded the corner at km21 to head for the finish line, I saw my husband and daughter sprinting up the pavement! They had been tracking me but it hadn't updated so they had to race me to the finish line to get photos, lol!
When I crossed it and got my medal, I could feel my legs complaining about slowing down so just kept walking. I remembered later that they had said they would laser our times on the back of the medals for free, but oh well.
It wasn't a PR, I finished in 2:32:22 according to my Garmin (clock on the line said 2:32:52 so sounds about right) whereas my PR was 2:30:19. BUT I certainly stayed well ahead of the 2:40 cutoff, and I think I could have done it if I'd stuck to plan. Next time!
I was 34th of 35 women in my age group, 875th of 885 that finished. 1050 had signed up. Hey, I finished and I wasn't even last!
Note to self: stop thinking those split target tattoos are silly and you can just print them on a bit of paper. The bit of paper WILL fall out when you pull your gel out.
Sitting here with my medal round my neck now. Legs feel tired and sore but don't hurt. Tried to nap but couldn't get to sleep. Roll on bedtime!