Liberty Hospital Half marathon and 5 K

First time running this race and I am happy to say I would run it again!  Let's start at the beginning.  If you checked out my weekly post, you know I came down Friday night to stay with one of my old students for some good food and some visiting.  We had flat bread pizza and beer and good conversations.  I am so proud of her for getting an amazing job and doing so well in the big city!

Packet pick up was for several days at several different locations.  Since I was coming in Friday afternoon and the packet pick up was about 50 minutes from where I was staying, I opted to get my packet pre-race.  I am always up early on race days anyway, and was planning on leaving super early to get to the race sight since it was a new to me race, so that plan of attack made the most sense.

I was up by 4:45 am and on the road by 5 am to go North to North KC into Liberty.  I knew I would be traffic free, but the fact that I don't know my way around the north side of KC was kind of daunting, especially when I needed to find parking and get my packet.  Lucky for me, there was little to no traffic, and my GPS found the place very easily. I got checked in and got my packet easily, and headed back to my prime parking spot right behind the porta potties to listen to a podcast and chill.  There were several options for parking, and they had great maps for the shuttle lots and the parking lots around the community center, which was the start/finish for the race.

It was still a bit chilly out, so I was glad I had on my tights and not my shorts and also had a long
sleeved shirt on.  I was actually able to use the restroom in the community center after getting my packet, but then after that, I just hopped over to the porta potties right in front of my car. I did end up using one porta potty on the course, and had no lines to wait in or any issues.  As the race grows, I am sure they will want to increase the numbers of potties on the course, but I did not see any issues this year either pre-race or on course.

My front pacer for the 2:40 group had picked up my stick and shirt for me, since i was racing Psycho Wyco the day that they were giving them out.  I am sure they are glad I didn't stop by the store, since I was COVERED in mud that day.  Anyway, the shirt was not a tech tee, instead it was a soft cotton shirt, so I decided not to layer it over a tech long sleeved T, but instead put on my Gypsy Runner arm warmers to keep warm.  I sure am glad I did, because by the end of the race, I was sweating!  I did decide to have my Trail Nerds buff on just in case, more so because the wind was a little chilly at first, but also because it's purple and I just adore it.  

the course map

I would describe the course as unrelenting hills.  They weren't horrible hills, they just never let up.  There were two pretty steep and long ones that we did walk partially up, but for the most part, we ran everything.  The scenery was varied with lots of big beautiful houses, some rural area, and some residential.  We went through one neighborhood that had the prettiest house I have even seen and each one was unique and brightly colored.  We oooo'd and ahhh'd  a lot and had guessing games to figure out how much they were worth.  I had my pace band on my arm and was keeping a close eye on it the whole time, and we were able to bank an extra minute in our time back for a little bit of a cushion.  The course is mainly on a four lane road with the runners having the entire 2 lane side of the road to run on without the threat of cars, which is super nice.  We started out with several people in our pace group, and by the end, I had two ladies that were sticking with me.

This was Danielle's first half and she ROCKED it!

I am so happy that both ladies rocked it out and got in a little after the 2:40 pace group.  Neither had time goals, both just wanted to finish, and they did so!  I headed back on the course to check on runners that had dropped from our group and got another 1.5 mile in before calling good.  I didn't want to leave without a beer and some food, and I was worried that they might run out.  

Love the medal and love the soft t shirt that we got for the race (plus my pacer shirt is the same material, YIPEEE).  While I prefer to run in a tech tee, I really prefer getting t shirts in my swag bag.  We also had tons of coupons and goodies in our drawstring swag bag, including two stickers for the car and some chapstick.  Unfortunately,  all of the coupons are for KC located businesses, and I don't go to Liberty very often, but if I was local, I would be so excited!!!!  For a small race, this race had everything very well organized.  Three packet pick ups at different locations, to ensure everyone could get their packets easily was nice.  I think I heard this was their second year and I could see this race growing by a ton.  There is lots to do for the kiddos, food trucks for food post race, merch for sale, and amazing beer.  Plus, it's nice to have an early in the year half marathon to cut your teeth on.  I will for sure pace this race again in a heartbeat and would love to try and run it for time as well!  I would like to bring Andrew and Tony to this one as well since there was so much to do while waiting.  Well done Liberty Half Marathon and 5K!!!!!

Mile 90 Photography of the 2018 Psycho Wyco 10 miler

You can't beat a race that gives free photos but you'd better bet if I know that Mile 90 is going to be there, the pictures are going to be AMAZING!  Here are a few for your viewing pleasure!

 She has always been a camera hog and when she saw Kristi, she totally hammed for the camera!

Charging up the hill in full pull mode!

I think she had the right idea.  Why run in the mess if you can balance on the side of the trail?  

 She was SO tired at the end and so was I!  Mel calling her got her back to pulling us both over the finish line!

Her second favorite human in the whole world.  On our weekly training runs, she is leashed up to Mel.  

 She was a little confused when the RD put her medal on but after he got it on, she looked like she was smiling for the camera.

I so love this picture and will probably get it framed.  Kristi at Mile 90 does an amazing job and Stella knows how to look right at the camera!  She is a big ham!!!!  This race was so special to me because the Alternate Chili 10 miler was our first big trail race a few years ago before her IMPA diagnosis and battle and this was a signal that we are back!!!!  Can't wait to do more with my baby girl, hopefully less muddy though! 

Week 10 of 18: Training for the Flint Hills 50 and Trail Marathon

Welcome to another week of Mother Nature needs her meds ASAP!  After a weekend of 50-60s we plummeted right back into winter with freezing rain, snow, and cold, cold, cold.  I am so ready for spring, but NOT ready for humidity.  Race on Saturday. Cue the freaking out and falling apart of the body. 

our project for the day.  Rose and Finn's plane

Monday:  Rest day.  Official day off of school for Andrew.  Day 5 of being in the house.  I have mopped, cleaned, cooked, and repeated x 5.  I need to get out!!!!  I kid though, I am loving being home with him and doing mom stuff that i really didn't' get to do till now.

Stella is famous!  She is being featured on the Honey Stinger FB page :)

Tuesday:  Snow day, day off.  Around 1 am, we had thunder, lightening, hail, and ice storm.  Luckily, I don't think we got as much as they thought we would, but we got enough that roads were a mess even with a 2 hour delay.  I am really glad that the school system called it, because even by 10 am the roads were still a big huge mess.  I knew that I was going to hit the mill, probably after work, but when i was forced to stay home, I figured I could hop on and get it done early.  I got all prepared, turned my watch on, and set out.  The first thing was I noticed my watch was back to being Kara Goucher, so my plan was post the warm up mile, I would have to hand time what I was doing.  Sigh.  Doable but not fun.  Well, about three quarters of the way in, I had shooting pain from my butt check up my lower back.  WTF????? I immediately got off and stretched and walked around a bit.  Got back on and walked some.  Was a little sore, but no more shooting pain.  I decided to scrap the speed work, but try and finish the mileage and walk if I needed to, unless there was pain.  Got 5 miles in, but had to hop off of the mill a few times and take care of business.

Wednesday:  I decided to venture onto the mill and see what I felt like.  I didn't think the speed work would be doable and with it being this close to the race and a pacing gig next weekend, I didn't want to push it.  About three miles in, I started feeling a little sore, so I got off and did some stretching, some rolling, and MYRTL.  I will probably do those three things religiously until the race and then after the race.  I finished Ozark.  WOW!  I can't wait to see season two, if my heart can handle it.   I am going to be very honest, the toe nail scene almost did me in for sure.  I couldn't watch and I almost couldn't listen either.  BLEH!

Ice, Ice baby

Thursday:  Another snow day.  I  am not complaining.  Who doesn't want to stay in their PJs all day and work out whenever you want?????  We had another round of ice overnight and after a 2 hour delay, the schools decided to just be out all together.  I decided today would be about stretching, rolling, icing, and MYRTL again.  We did get my shoes screwed.  The race reports coming out from the trails were saying that there was still significant ice and of course mud with more rain, ice, and mess to come, so since I had the ice spikes that I ordered like 2 years ago and a willing hubby, we got an old pair of shoes done and ready to go just in case.

Friday:  Repeat of Thursday.  The side streets and rural areas that buses need to run on where still horrible.  We are suppose to have a warm up today, so we should be good to go next week for sure.    I was hoping we could at least make it town for Sylvan and a good old target trip.  I did get my 2 mile shake out run done.  Spent time either staring at the wall or the floor to practice for the 2 plus hours of staring at my feet tomorrow.

Saturday:  Trail race PSYCHO WYCO 10 miles.  Yep, I am a one looper.  The weather for this race has changed so many times that I quit looking.  The day of the race was cold, drizzly, MUDDY, and insane.  Check out my race report here!

Sunday: Rest day!!!!  I woke up super duper sore, as I knew I would be.  It's kind of stupid to expect anything else if you haven't done any trails, much less technical trails in a long long time, and then you go and do technical plus MUDDY trails.  I used muscles that probably haven't been used in a long, long time.  My feet were a mess from being wet and cold for so long, and I had five BIG blisters, two on my big toes, two on the balls of my feet, and one between my toes.  One had popped on its on but the other three hadn't and I really didn't want to have to pop them.  My plan for the day was active rest.  Grocery shopping, walking the dogs, playing outside with Andrew where all on tap! 

Have a great weekend and a great next week!  I will be pacing a half marathon, so I will be taking it super easy next week to avoid injury.  No speed work and probably low miles.  See y'all on the flip side!

Psycho Wyco 10 mile Trail race

Wow, this was one TOUGH race.  Let's start at the beginning shall we?  Mel, Pat, and I headed over around 6:15 am to catch the shuttle to the start.  The 50K racers were allowed to park at the start/finish area, but the rest of us had to go to a church and be bused over. Lucky for us, the weather driving up while foggy, was above freezing and all precip was rain.  Pat drove, and stella and I cuddled in the back.  I had been watching the weather all this week and I knew the trails were going to be a mess but honestly, i had no clue they were going to be as bad as they were.  Let's not get ahead of ourselves shall we?  

or maybe we shall get ahead of ourselves since blogger is being weird!

The 50K/20 mile runners started at 8 am sharp, and as we were getting off of the shuttle bus, they were taking off.  We got to see Lindsey and Cindy start off with a very large pack of runners.  I think I saw there were close to 300 runners in the 50K/20 mile distance.  We tried our best to stay warm and dry while getting our packets and getting our bibs pinned on and ready.  Stella had to wear a bib too, and I totally forgot to bring zip ties, so we had to get creative with her bib.  I ended up pinning her bib around her leash, while trying not to bend her timing strip.  It wasn't long till we were lining up to head out.  

I knew from the past that I was going to be at the back end of the runners, and that I would be walking for quite a while due to all of the runners in my distance.  I think we had pretty close to 300 runners just in the 10 mile run.  The first part of the race goes over a bridge, up a hill, and then turns onto a rocky single track trail, where you are basically single file for quite some time.  The advantage of being at the back?  You don't have to worry about too many people passing you.  The disadvantage of being at the back?  The trail gets destroyed before you even get to the hard parts.  I ran this trail a couple of years ago and it had muddy tough spots.  This time, I would say 80% of the trail was MUD.  Just when you thought you were going to be able to run, you would realize that you had 10 lbs of mud on your shoes or that the section you thought was runnable actually wasn't.  I fell twice, one going up a hill, and once coming down.  I managed not to go face first into the mud, by catching myself with my hands and of course got mud all over my gloves.  I quickly shed that pair and then fell backwards not too long after that and got that pair muddy too.  I was basically covered in mud by the end and so was stella.  I swear there was one hill I was on my hands and knees crawling up.  If Stella had not been there, I don't know how I would have gotten through some of that mud.  The fact that some of those 50 K super awesome ultra guys ran most of that, even slowly amazes me.  I had very few runnable portions.  Probably the road crossings and the part along the dam where about it.  

 I mostly had prayable portions.  Praying not to fall and hurt myself, praying not to fall on and hurt stella, or praying not to step on stella with my screwed shoes.

You can see my pace was pretty slow compared to what I normally can do.  I can usually get around the 15-16 minute mile mark on this trail.  Not today.  I did forget to start my watch, so my distance is a tad bit short.  Plus, well trails mess with GPS.  I learned after last time to use the distance on my watch as a suggestion, and not a be all end all.  I mainly judged my distances based on where the aid stations where.  I saw so many people fall, and I truly hope everyone is okay.  I know I am super sore, even after soaking in the tub for a full thirty minutes in epsoms salts.  This trail is SUPER fun and there were portions that I had a good laugh, like the hill I basically had to climb up on my hands and knees because it was so slippery, or the parts with the ropes, or when stella would pull my butt up the hills and then look back at me like, why am I doing all the work.  I also got a really good laugh at the guy that complained that running with a dog isn't fair.  Did you see my horrible finish time dude?  I really don't think she helped me win or anything like that, so don't get your panties in a wad.

Let's just say by the end of this race, we were both covered in mud.  I had mud on my shoes, in my shoes, all over my gloves, all over my face, and on my butt.  Stella was a giant mud monster as well.  Super thanks to my bestie for letting me transport stella in her jeep, and putting blankets and towels down so we could cuddle up and be warm on the ride home. 

Is this not the cutest medal you have ever seen?  The little tornado spins!

We got so much awesome swag though!  A full zip hoodie, a glass, a new PURPLE buff, and a medal with a spinning tornado, plus Stella got a new...something.  Not sure what it is, but it sure is pretty!

running it in!  I think my time was pretty close to 3:43-3:44

I did love this race and I do love the volunteers, but running in that mud for that period of time just did me in mentally and physically.   I really love that trail, and would love to do it when I am not swimming in mud, just to see what I could really do.  I can't wait to see the pictures that Mile 90 got as well!  You can't beat free pictures, and you especially don't want to miss Mile 90s AMAZING shots!   I will be back to avenge my horrible time with Stella ella by my side!

my running family

I do want to send a shout out to my super speedy running partners in crime.  Not only did they both kick ass on the course, they drove me to and from the race because I am a wuss, they were at the finish taking pictures, and they got me chili and beer post race and took Stella and fed her, so I could eat in peace.  Plus, they stopped at McDonald and got me some coffee for warming up and Stella a burger.  I don't know what I would do without them and love them dearly!  Next time maybe I can rope them into coming to my house and helping me wash the muddy beast know as stella ella!

Stella says night night all!!!!  Thanks Trail nerds for an amazing race!  See you down the line!

Let's have a beer....or February Runfessions!

Welcome to today's addition of let's have a beer or good ole February runfessions.  Grab your favorite cold one and sit down for random musings from Michelle's head.  This is going to be all over the place as usual, so buckle up!

Grab a cold one and let's talk about Andrew's issues with school.  Yeah I know, last runfession I was singing his praises with school.  Now we are back at square one, so let's start there so we can jog our memories.   See what I did there, jog???  At first he seemed to have a super hard time adapting to the rigors of kindergarten.  If you have been with me for a while, you know I was super torn about him even starting kindergarten since he is a young 5.  Since the majority of his pre-K class was graduating and going to school together, I felt confident that all would be fine. I am very honest in saying it has been very rough for him.    I am SO glad that his teacher is very communicative to the point where we have had so many meetings thus far that i don't even think we really need parent teacher conferences at this point.  If you remember, after Christmas, the behavior issues seem to get better and his behavior chart started being dominated by purple or green, the top two colors.  Then I heard the news that we needed to fill out a Vanderbilt test, that his issues with focus were not getting better, and needed to be addressed as he was falling behind on his reading and math.  I am not going to lie, I immediately researched the test and found it was a preliminary test for the path of ADHD diagnosis.  While I feel like that he could have some form of ADHD (Because honestly don't we all), I also feel like he is a super young 5, so how would we know the difference????  Plus, all the literature I looked at said 5 was way too young to even make a proper diagnosis.  When I have brought up maturity issues, I am always told that is not what is going on.  I am super confused, but I do feel like the teacher has Andrew's best interest at hand, and that i have to put away any defensiveness I have against labels. Now we are heading down the path of testing and tutoring, and let's make it rain money to get this taken care of.  How do people that are not blessed with financial stability or good health insurance deal with this????  As always, I will keep you posted.  At this point we are going to try Sylvan as it comes highly recommended, and also hold off on any ADHD specific tests to see if just the extra tutoring helps him improve.  If anyone has had a similar experience or has any advice, please let me know!

just singed up for the 10K since I can actually do this race this year!

I also runfess  I super love racing and pacing races, but the training part is just not as fun as it use to be.  I am having super hard time getting motivated to go out and run, especially early in the morning, and during my long runs, I am counting down the miles till it is done.  This really scares me, because the weather lately has been pretty conducive to running, yet my mojo isn't where it needs to be.  Yet, I LOVE signing up for races and I keep looking at more and more.  I still am not ready to do a 50 miler and am at peace with the decision that I may never actually do one.  I am thinking about doing the timed race I did last year again and signing up for the 12 hour option, but just running as long as I can, not really going for a specific distance.  Anyway, I need to get that love for training back.  I am killing my speed work lately, but still not as happy as I use to be about getting hard stuff done.  It's almost like it is job right now, and I just am not interested in running as a job. I have never had motivation issues before, so this is all new to me.  I think part of the problem is in winter, I do have more flexibility with running because I don't have to beat the heat, so I end up beating around the bush at home instead of getting ready and getting out.  Maybe this will change once the heat and humidity comes back around as it always does in good old Kansas.

Momma I'm coming home!!!!

One last runfession here.  I am super excited to go home for spring break!!!!  Nothing like a trip back home to rejuvenate yourself.  Mom and Mom in law's good cooking, time with friends, and trips to see things that have been built since I have moved away are good for the soul!  Sad that I couldn't find a race to do while I am there but still holding out hope that a St. Pat's race pops up nearby.  I never really enjoy the 9 hour drive by myself with a toddler, but by breaking it up into two days and stopping and doing something fun, I can mentally manage.

Well, we are on day 3 of snow days here in Wamego, so hoping March showers bring April flowers and no more snow days!  At this rate, we may be going to school right up until school starts again LOL!!!!

Week 9 of 18: HALFWAY POINT!

Half way point of the training plan and i haven't even been on a trail yet.  BAM.  How is that for smart training????  Yeah, not going to lie, the trail run I am doing in 2 weekends is going to KILL me, but will be super fun too, so going to laugh and have fun with miss stella ella!  This is going to be one busy week with scheduling, with three meetings planned, one un-fun dental appointment for Andrew, a valentine's party, and a un-invited virus!  Let'get down to it!!

Monday:  Rest day.  Why can't I just sit and binge watch the Olympics?  Every night I get all excited about sitting and bingeing, and every night a thousand things come up and i don't get to.  Major sad face.  I was SO excited about watching curling this year, and I have seen one period in one match.  ONE.  URGH!  We did have Andrew's team meeting today at school, and I am super glad to get that done.  Basically, we met with the principal, the social worker, and Andrew's teacher to go over his Vanderbilt test scores (basically an unofficial first test for ADHD), and try and form a plan forward.  I felt like there were three opinions and none really agreeing, because we just don't know.  I feel much frustration from his teacher, as she knows knowledge is in there, he just isn't performing up to his potential.  His reading teacher wasn't present due to sick kids, but her scores were the highest (meaning the worst).  I kind of can see that, if he is struggling so much in reading, then he would have higher scores because he is probably having issues sitting still and behaving.  Overall, we are going to get him independently tested for ADHD just to try and see what is really going on from that end, AND we are going to get him in tutoring of some sort to build his love of learning and reading, before we get to a point where he hates school.  IEP was not mentioned just yet, which kind of surprises me that it wasn't an option.  If he needs help with time limits or needs help with staying on task, I think an IEP would be a wonderful option.  I am going to be honest, the words "daydreamer" and "anxiety" kept coming up, and those words scare me.  Especially since I put NO pressure on him to learn or be at a certain level.  I am super scared he has that pressure within, just like me, and that means school is going to be super tough.

this makes me laugh because his dad never takes him to school!!!!

Tuesday:  I have decided since my schedule tends to float so much, that I am not going to put a label on here as to what the work out is, but what I get accomplished.  5 easy miles.  It really helps that two of my running buddies are teachers and moms  I really, really appreciate them listening to my thoughts and ideas, and giving me more ideas to think about.  Even though it was feels like 13, there was no wind and no crazy woman sprinting past us at the rec complex.  I left the dogs at home to let stella's paw heal, so it figures sprinter girl wouldn't be there.  We had our next team meeting with Sylvan and are going to proceed with some tutoring at their center to build on what the school is doing as well.  We figure it won't hurt and they found some interesting holes that need to be filled anyway. 

Wednesday:  Unexpected rest day.  Andrew came home from school running a 101 degree fever.  Most of the night was spent cuddling, watching cartoons, and resting.  He would be fine for an hour or so, but the fever would crescendo up to 103, and he would shake and cry.  103 is my end point for stepping in and using fever meds, but it never went over that, thank goodness.  Then as quickly as it would come up, it would go back down to 99.5.  So weird.  He finally got good sleep around 1:30 am, but of course then my mind was up and awake and I couldn't get it to stop.

Thursday:    Decided to go ahead and get testing done for flu, even though we probably were not going to put any of us on tamiflu.  I  know I have nothing to fear with the anti-viral, but I have this irrational fear of it that I can't shake.  The doctor basically told us that the science really doesn't even have evidence that it buys you that much time off of being sick anyway, so why put him through it. In some ways, this was the best weekend to be sick, because he has a long weekend due to a Monday holiday.  I hate seeing him so sick, and being at home usually means i have to mill it to get my run in, but I am so deep into Ozark right now that I don't mind being on the mill at all.  I decided to do speed work that i skipped Monday, so 800 meter repeats x 6 with 400 meter recoveries was where it was at.  My watch for whatever reason, kept up better with the mill and had me running a titch bit faster than I had the mill set at, but not  Kara Goucher speed bad.

Happy Birthday to my BRF Mel!!!

Friday: Another night of broken sleep.  Andrew woke up around 2:30 am and told me he was super hot.  I took his temp and we were at 102.8.  That had been as high as we had gone thus far, so we cuddled up and tried to go back to sleep.  Then about 30 minutes later, he woke up crying and hotter than I have ever felt.  104!!!!!!  I popped up and ran a cool bath, then ran downstairs to get popsicles, ice packs, and advil.  Once we got the advil on board and got him in the bath, his temp went down quickly.  He still woke up at 101 and ranged all day long.  I did manage to get my strength training done, and seriously contemplated trying to get more done, but decided against it. I feel like i am on the edge of coming down with this mess, and I don't need both of us down for the count at the same time.

Saturday: Another night of less sleep than ideal, but my body is getting the hang of it now.  I actually had stayed up late watching figure skating, and was up when his fever initially spiked.  I gave him some meds and got him comfortable, but 30 minutes later when I rechecked him, he had gone up more and that scared me yet again.  The meds should have kicked in by then and they hadn't.  Up we went to get a cool bath, ice packs, compresses, and our normal Popsicles.  Of course once my adrenaline gets to flowing, I am wide awake, so even after we got him comfortable, I was still awake feeling of him and taking his pulse.  My two options for the day were 6 easy miles or a long run of 12 miles.  My hubby had to be at both of his big customer's plants all day, as both of his teams were working on Saturday, and he had no indication of when they would be done.  I really, really wanted to be outside for a run for a couple of reasons, one being that the dogs are about to go NUTS not running.  The second reason was we were suppose to have crazy wind gust with the worst being on Sunday.  The weathermen were saying up to 35 mph!!!!!!!  He came home a little after lunch and I geared up to head out and get my 12.  My coach had some faster miles built in from 6-9 but I got to 6 and had 0 amount of gas to give to do speed work.  Even though the wind was only around 15 mph, it was still pretty tough running west.  I didn't want to do my whole out and back and back tracking so I did an out and around and then went through town, visited the house for a potty break, and then headed back out to finish.

Sunday:  Easy 6 miles.   Nothing like 35 mph wind gusts to add excitement to our run.  I seriously thought about running on Millie instead, but it was just too nice outside to not get some vitamin D.  I had an east/west route i could do that would just have some cross wind so decided to head out.  Let's just say my legs got sandblasted a few times and a few times I ran backwards with deuce's head in my middle section to protect his eyes.  Yes, that took major coordination.  Usually i listen to podcasts but today was all about Prince Pandora channel and it didn't disappoint.  At one time when we had a brief jog directly into the wind, You Dropped a Bomb on me started playing and I just had to laugh.  It was the perfect song for running headlong into horrendous wind. 




As this goes live, I am still illness free and I hope it stays that way.  Andrew's fever broke Saturday night and is still 99 or below.   I actually have two races coming up, one for me and one for pacing for Smart Edge so I need to be healthy.  Looks like this coming week may have some rain forecasted, and I am really hoping they get it wrong because I don't want mudfest 2018 again on the trails.  I guess it will be what it is and there is no use in worrying.  Have a great week and see you next week where I will hopefully still be Flu/virus free!!!!!