Running with the Cows 2015 recap

Whelp, the Heartland series is done.  All three races in the books and once again, I am so happy, thankful, surprised my body has made it through all of this racing and training.  I have so many people to thank as usual including Doug at Body First that kept my body together and devised my plan for not repeating my injury and radically changed my biomechanics.  

I have to thank my new Coach Jenny for a KILLER training plan this training cycle.  I can't wait for her to devise a plan for my first marathon.  I love putting in the hard work and seeing the results in huge PRs.  Even yesterday I had over a two minute PB on a slightly tougher course than we had last year.  

I have to thank my mom for driving all night while I slept to get me to the Garmin half, so I wouldn't break the series after Tony's grandma passed and we had to make an emergency trip to Tennessee.  She was also up at 5 am to get me dropped off at the start line and walked a mile and a half in the dark back to the hotel so we would have a parking spot.  She also came back for the race this weekend and even ran the 5 K and placed 5th in her age group!!!!!

I also owe a huge thank you to my hubby.  Without him I wouldn't have a baby sitter and chief cheerleader.  He always says yes to any gear request I have ,and is always happy to drag him, our stuff and our kiddo to any finish line.  Love you Tony!!!!  I also have to stay thank you to my two running partners miss stella and my human BRF.  The countless hours we spend together is therapy and training all rolled into one.  I hope we can all stay healthy for yet another training cycle:)

 Let's start the recap shall we?  We headed down to packet pick up on friday.  Running with the cows is the smallest of the three races, so there isn't an expo, but they have the cutest merch AND they sell it at packet pick up. I had promised mom that I would buy her a mom's day present there, so we now are twins!

I want to get my embroidered with the years I run this race.  I plan on coming back every year even if I am not doing the heartland series.

We made sure to hit up the Cheesecake factory for some carbs and of course, cheesecake.  Mom really loved it despite her tongue sticking out.

We had carb loaded for three straight days by mistake really.  We had leftover pasta on wednesday night, then mom wanted some pasta after Diva night at the running store, so we hit up noodles for some mac and cheese.  Then of course at the CF we had to have some yummy pasta again (and no I did not clean my plate on any of these meals:)

Running with the cows really is the BEST race EVER!  The merch is awesome, the bibs have cows on them and the medals are SUPER cute!

We were all kind of worried about the weather.  Mom and i had ponchos just in case, but there was the threat of severe weather and postponement of the race.  We knew that parking was going to change because all of the parking fields were wet.  When we woke up saturday morning to fuel, we found out that they were going to bus us in, and that we had to be at the bus parking an hour an a half before the race started.  Whoops.  We were at least 20 minutes away from the school and we were planning on getting there an hour before the race.  We were not going to make it to be there an hour and a half early.  Oh well, no panicking, everything was to be fine.  We were told to park on a certain road and be bused to the start line.  Everything moved quickly and efficiently.  They even had jokes for us on the bus to keep us laughing.  What do you call a cow that has just had a calf????  De-calf-inated!!!!

It was cloudy and cool but super humid.  We had bag check so we could bring real jackets and stuff to keep us warm.  We made a quick stop to the potty area and then did bag check.  I think because I got slightly stressed that morning, my tummy was off, so I had to hop back into line once again for the potties.  After potty stop number two, I quickly tried to get in line near my pacer.  Since this is a smaller race, there aren't any corrals, so you just hop in the mass and try and get near your pacer.  I was able to get near the 2:10 pacer but knew i could catch up to the 2:05.  I didn't get any pictures of the race, because it looked like rain the whole time and I had put my phone in a ziploc bag.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get it back in, so never got it out.  The scenery on this race was beautiful.  It is a very rural area with very large houses and of course cows!  They had changed the course this year, so I got to see new scenery.  That also meant some new hills.  Some new hills that kicked my ass at the end for sure.  I was holding on to the 2:05 pacer from about mile 2 till mile 9.  We had a mile long incline from 9 to 10 that just kicked me in the gut, and I just couldn't get it back.  I finished in 2:07:22 which is over a 2 minute PB for this course.  I did drink a lot more water than I normally do.  I probably stopped at every water station, and got a drink, which is something i normally don't do.  I just felt like the humidity was at a dangerous level and I needed to protect my self.  I even started pouring water on my head and back the last few to cool down.  I am really proud of my effort and will continue to shoot for my 2:05 next year! 

We didn't really partake in much of the food afterwards, but boy was there plenty.  Mom and I had some of my recovery fuel and then headed to the buses.  I really just wanted to get back to the hotel before check out and take a shower.  I was a mix of sweat and water and stink.  A hot shower trumps all in that situation.  My tummy isn't ever really ready to eat anyway at that point.  

I got both of my super awesome medals.  I LOVE my queenie medal.  Her cowbell moves and rings.  SO CUTE!  As always, I can't wait till next year.  My goal was to do this series for three straight years although they have added a fourth.  I am sure mom will be back to run the 5 K again and of course shop!  I am going to take a little time off this week with just some cross training and then June 1st I start marathon training!  I am SO ready!