March 2023 Monthly Running Challenge

March 1 – 5.05 miles
March 4 – 12.01 miles
March 6 – 5.02 miles
March 8 – 5.09 miles
March 11 – 18.97 miles
Total – 46.14 miles

Sorry I didn't check in over the weekend. We were at the park all day Saturday and yesterday was spent traveling, unpacking, doing laundry, etc. plus we lost that hour from the time change! Race report below for those interested.

On Saturday, I participated as part of a 2-person team in Peyton’s Wild n Wacky 50k. There were 5 of us that traveled to Charleston for this annual event. This was the 8th year of the race and I think this made my 5th or 6th year participating. The race is in honor of Peyton Moore who passed away when he was 9 years old. Peyton was a local runner and track and field star. The race is organized by his parents and all proceeds are donated to local organizations. As I mentioned earlier, the race is a series of 5Ks run every hour on the hour at Laurel County Park. Everyone sets up tents and it’s one giant tailgate party with running mixed in. Food is provided throughout the day (bacon, potato chips, candy, PB&J sandwiches, PB pretzels, etc.) plus they have a BBQ food truck provide sandwiches at lunch and another truck provides ice slushies near the end. A coffee truck also sets up and provides free basic coffee plus sells the fancy stuff. Everything smoothed out with our 6th participant who ended up getting sick before we left; she was hoping to drive down and join us on Friday however, she had a rough Thursday night and just didn’t feel like it. So, we all pitched in and ran one extra loop so that her 2-person team would be able to finish. This team was officially not eligible to be a 2-person team, but we wanted to complete it anyway.

We drove down on Thursday arriving in time for a walk on the beach, dinner at a local seafood place and a trip to the grocery store. It rained most of the day on Friday so we had a lazy morning at the rental house, picked up our packets and then did some shopping. As I was loading the pop-up tent into the back of the mini-van on Friday night, I strained a muscle on the right side of my back. Running was ok on Saturday after I got going. The first few steps were pretty painful but thankfully it loosened up as the day progressed. It’s not quite back to normal but doing better.

The race began at 7:00 am. I ran loops 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 9. Pretty much everyone walks the last loop whether it is their assigned leg or not so I walked the last one with my teammate and the rest of the crew. My results were: (1) 3.2 miles – 35:46; (2) 3.16 miles – 36:13; (3) 3.17 miles – 36:27; (5) 3.14 miles – 34:54; (7) 3.12 miles – 36:52; (9) 3.18 miles – 37:44. Our team placed 48 out of 76 in the 2-person relay with an overall moving time of 5:57 hours. The winning 2-person team had an overall moving time of 3:08 hours and they guy who won the solo category completed it in 3:20 hours.
@Scott6255 – I’m so thankful that you found that toddler and saved her from something terrible. Bless you!

Pretty shoes @Laurz9191! I have a pair of Saucony trail shoes but haven’t tried their road shoes.

@quilteryoyo – Not a great week weather wise for getting out early! Where did our Spring weather go?

@katharmonic – It is fabulous to see you back with us but oh my goodness I’m so sorry about your diagnosis. We will all be here cheering you on every step of the way!

Thanks for the warm welcome back and your support. Great to hear from you again, and some new faces. I've missed hearing what everyone is up to.

@Teresa502 Great job on your race. I remember you talking about that one before. It sounds like a cool event and I can imagine it being a blast. You kept up a good pace for running so many 5ks!

We are expecting 9-18" of snow overnight and through tomorrow. Happy spring break! I went to the grocery store today and wasn't even thinking about the storm, but everyone else was. Crazy long lines.

Oh and I ran for 20 minutes! So that's something No promises on tomorrow but I'm hoping to make it to yoga in the morning if the weather isn't too ridiculous.

Somehow the running Gods were looking down on me today...or maybe it was the perfect 57F with 12mph North wind, but I felt like I had a little more bounce in my step. According to Garmin this was the fastest 8 miles ever. My stride length was much longer than normal, combined with a slightly elevated cadence got me 8.15 miles @8.16/mi pace, with the last 1.2 miles @ 7.36/mi. Not sure where that came from 😁

March total: 37.5/100 miles

3/4: 13.2 miles
3/8: 4.2 miles
3/9: 4 miles
3/10: 5.1 miles
3/11: 6.9 miles
3/13: 4.1 miles

Yesterday’s run was loads better! I’m in the hill country and some cooler weather came in. It was upper 40’s and windy. Felt loads better than my last run despite the hills!
I learned a valuable lesson about the direction of my loop yesterday. I ran an out and back using part of a larger loop I have run before. The downhill on way out doesn’t feel very steep, but it is deceiving. I ran it uphill for the first time on my way back, discovered there is a strava segment there called the “The Beast”, and it is hard! The segment is a half mile with an average incline of 3.8%, totaling 100ft of elevation gain. I didn’t make it running all the way up. I was pretty close to the top when I realized I was basically running at a hiking pace, so I switched over to a hike. No point burning all that energy if I’m not going faster.
After my run and breakfast, the family started cleanup of the fallen branches around our property. We got a fair bit cleaned up and now the view out the kitchen window looks better. We still have a lot to do, but it feels better to see some progress.

With our hiking holiday looming and work getting crazy, this week was going to be my last chance for a decent length long run. We get home 3 weeks out from my marathon, so whether I'll get another 18 or 20 miler in will depend on how my legs and I feel. I also had this month's challenge from my club's so-called Golden Series to do, which was a run with at least 600m of ascent and at least 10km long as fast as possible. I realised if I did one of those today I was highly unlikely to have the energy to do the other later in the week, so decided to just combine the two. So I headed up the mountain to do the challenge, then stopped for 5 minutes and had a flapjack, then did another 22km. I explored a new (for me) dirt road on the way down which added some more elevation I hadn't really wanted but helped get the distance I wanted, although I still had to tack on some extra loops on the road at the end.
Now I'm looking at all the work people have sent me while I was skiving this morning and wishing I I could go for a nap instead lol. So. Tired. Gonna be stiff tomorrow, too.

We had snow showers this morning but it cleared up to blue sky and light breeze so perfect for running but my energy was really low and I didn't enjoy it like I wanted to. Happy I got it done tho!
01/03 2.84 miles
04/03 2.56 miles
05/03 2.56 miles
06/03 3.03 miles
11/03 2.57 miles
13/03 2.90 miles
14/03 2.91 miles

Total 19.37/30 miles