Bringing in 2014 -- Donkey Style

Ever since we ran a half marathon on 1/1/11, Mr K and I have started New Year's Day on an active note: 2012 brought the second day of back-to-back half marathons at the New Year's Double and 2013 had us running the New Year's 5 Mile. This year we joined a group of Frunners on wheels and hit the open roads for a little spin on our Donkey Ride route.

Layers? We got 'em! (Photo: That Pink Girl)

I'll have to admit, I was quite apprehensive when I woke up and saw the weather on New Year's Day. Forty degrees with 15 mph (and gusting higher) winds -- not especially bad for a regular day, but it sounded downright frigid for a bike ride. I have done very little cold weather riding and I just didn't know what to expect. Thank goodness for peer pressure! We layered up, loaded up the bikes and headed out to meet our friends.

 

Mary, Erin and I are ready to roll (photo: TPG)

The first few miles on the bike were quite "refreshing!" My fingers and toes went numb fairly quickly, but it wasn't as bad as I had feared. We headed over to Celebration Park, cowbells in our pockets, to cheer for the runners at the New Year's Double. I felt like I was part of a gang as we rolled up to the race site. Runners and cyclists don't always see eye to eye, you know. We were able to spot Stude, Matt Flo, Matt H, Beth, and Teal before we headed off on our way. I love spectathleting!!

We didn't let a little grass stop our cheering spirit! (Photo: TPG)

My hands warmed up quickly once the sun was fully shining on my black gloves leaving only my toes feeling numb. We made our first stop at the home of some very friendly dogs, some alpacas, and the famous donkeys. Unfortunately the donkeys were being quite lazy (cue bad jokes) and wouldn't come to the fence, but the puppies were more than happy to visit.

Mr K greets the donkeys (Photo: TPG)

Onward we went in search of our camel friend (it was Hump Day after all!) only to find him missing in action. His donkey friends were available and spent some time visiting us before we turned around and headed back to our cars. I'm so glad that I didn't chicken out -- a whole new world of winter cycling has opened up to me! A pair of toe covers and I will be ready to rock!



Happy 2014!! (Photo: TPG)

After we loaded up our bikes we went for our traditional New Year's lunch of dim sum. Three years in a row makes it a tradition, right? It is one of my favorite meals of the year, I love having everyone gathered around the big table sharing some delicious and unique food.

Delicious dim sum lunch!  (photo courtesy of Ninja)

They say that the way you spend New Years is the way you will spend the rest of the year. I hope this is true as I cannot think of a better way to spend my year: being active, enjoying the sunshine, surrounded by good friends, and feasting on delicious food.

New Year's 5 Mile: A Winning Start to 2013

Mr K and I have stumbled into a little tradition of starting our New Year's Day with a race.  In 2011 we were excited to take part in the brand new New Year's Day Half held on 1/1/11 and last year we completed back-to-back half marathons at the New Year's Double.  This year we tried another local tradition, the New Year's 5 Mile held at Flagpole Hill near White Rock Lake.  The real beauty of this race is that it doesn't start until 10:00 am on New Year's Day so we were able to see 2013 in and then get a decent amount of sleep.

Shivering after the race

I spent the days leading up to the race sick with a yucky allergy induced cold, but I was determined to run (and run well) on New Year's Day.  The weather was cold for hanging around before and after the race, but terrific for running. Couple that with a smallish race field (approx 300 runners) and awards given five deep in each age bracket and I was ready to roll.  The distance just happened to be the same as my planned tempo run for the day so I set that as my goal pace.

While it was a small group, we still saw some great friends to start off 2013.  We saw Carolyn at the park chunking the ball with her overly energetic pup, Berrin.  Music Mary and her husband Keith were also running this race.  I was especially grateful that EW was manning the camera today because my fingers were a little too cold to operate the camera on my phone.

You never know where Carolyn will turn up!

I enjoyed this race because it took me through a section of paved trail that I had never seen before.  The course was an out and back with a loop at the turn around and was pretty and wooded.  The only issue was that the path was sometimes slick from mud and we frequently jumped off the sidewalk and ran in the grass for better footing. I planned to take this race as a training lesson and work on starting slower and picking up speed at the end.  I still took off a little bit faster than I should have, but I thought that I could maybe keep Mr K in my sights this time (umm...didn't happen).  I heard the labored breathing of some of the runners as they came around me in the first couple of miles and I told myself to hang in there because they would not be able to keep that pace the whole time. 

Once I got to mile four I knew that it was okay to give it all that I had to get to the finish with a nice negative split.  My patience paid off and I was able to pass some of the people that passed me early in the race.  I was keenly aware of anyone who looked like they might be in my age group and I tried to put them behind me.  I am proud of my splits and I think that I ran a solid race (8:10, 8:28, 8:23, 8:16, 8:08).  I thought that I was feeling better, but looking back I realized that I wasn't as well as I thought.  I am not sure now exactly how I pulled that off, but I do remember thinking that the pace felt harder to hold than it did during my usual tempo runs. 

We both collected some nice New Year's bling

Mr K and I shivered and shook while we waited for the awards to be announced and were thrilled when both of us took home a beautiful champagne flute.  He ran a speedy 39:23 which earned him 5th in his age group.  I ran 41:58 which was good enough for 2nd place (but far from 1st!).  It was an automatic PR for both of us as neither of us has run a 5 mile race before.

Afterwards we met up with a huge group of Frunners for a our newest New Year's tradition--a delicious lunch of dim sum and a lazy afternoon of hanging out.  I couldn't think of a better way to start the new year! 

(Thanks again to EW for sharing his pictures for this blog.  I really appreciate it!)

The New Year's Day Half Marathon: Starting 2011 Off Right

Erik and I did something new and different this New Year's Day...we ran a half marathon. Race director and friend Libby announced this race on Facebook during the early fall. It was one of those word-of-mouth kind of things and was limited to 200 runners because Libby had her 2nd child on December 1 (Hello!) and knew that the race would have to be manageable in order for her to do it. Erik and I were numbers 193 and 194 out of 200, because a New Year's half marathon was a bit of a hard sale to Mr. Kennemer. I loved the idea of having 13.1 miles on the calendar on the 1st day of January and Erik agreed to join me in my enthusiasm.

We had a lovely pasta dinner with my brother Michael and sister-in-law Mikki on New Year's Eve and then it was off to bed. I can't remember the last time I wasn't awake to usher in a new year, but I just couldn't stay up that late and run early the next morning. Texas weather is crazy and it was 60 degrees on New Year's Eve....and then 28 when we woke up on New Year's Day. Gotta love it! However, the winds were very light and the sun was shining brightly and I consider this perfect for running. We arrived early to pick up our race packets and were surprised to find not one, but two technical race shirts in our envelopes (one long sleeve and one short)...sweet! Because the race was small we had little problem parking or finding the starting line. We huddled and shivered as we waited to start and then we were off!

I was wearing my brand new Garmin GPS running watch and found that I started off at a brisk pace. I soon settled into something a little more manageable and tried to enjoy the scenery. This race went through a wooded area in Allen, Tx and I found it to be quite beautiful. Because it was an out-and-back course, I was able to see some of the fastest runners as they headed back to the finish. It is always so much fun to see these super-star runners, they are amazing. I also saw Erik when he passed me as he was running a bit ahead of me during this race.

As you know, I have been on vacation for two weeks now and during this break my nutrition has been...well...not so great. I have enjoyed all kinds of cookies and desserts and have not always been good about eating my fruits and veggies. I really began to feel this in the 2nd half of the race. My legs felt like lead at times and I was overcome with straight-up fatigue. I even found myself standing still at the mile 11 aide station in order to eat my gel and enjoy some gummy bears. This is something that I never do, but I had to take what the day gave me. I got the message loud and clear...nutrition is IMPORTANT! Back to my leafy greens, fruits/veggies, and healthy carbs PRONTO! I also had some wonkiness from that hip of mine and was slowed a bit by that.

This course was somewhat complicated and had lots of little u-turns and cul-de-sacs, etc. Add to that the small field of runners and I found that I really had to pay attention to where I was going. Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 the runner in front of me because unsure of the route. We backtracked about 50 yards before I decided that I was right and headed back in the direction that I was going. This rattled me a bit mentally as I became worried that I had missed a part of the course and would finish without doing the full 13.1. I was reassured at mile 10 when I checked the mile marker against my Garmin. Whew! A later review of the race map and my Garmin map shows that I was correct after all. Earlier in the week I discovered that a runner named Michelle would be at the race cheering for a friend. Michelle and I met on Daily Mile and found that we had much in common including a mutual acquaintance. Michelle was waiting between mile 12 and 13 and was such a great cheerleader...I really needed a boost right at that time as I knew the finish was close but not yet in sight. It was super cool to meet another Daily Mile/Facebook friend in person.

I was hoping to finish in less than 2 hours, but ended up with 2:01:47. So there goes my streak of sub 1:55 races...looks like I will have to start again! My little detour might have added to my distance because my final mileage reading was 13.4 miles. Erik had a great race and ended up placing 2nd in his age group and scoring a nice trophy...a champagne flute with the race logo on it! I came in 5th out of 21 runners in my age group.


Erik shows off his 2nd place award

The race ended up being quite difficult and reminded me that no matter how many times I run a half marathon, it is still a challenge and the distance should be respected. I am not sure that I had my game face on yesterday and fought some mental battles. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to run a half on New Year's Day, looks like a new tradition is born as Libby is already promoting the 2012 edition of the New Year's Day Half Marathon. A special note...I now have 2 race medals with special dates on them-the 10/10/10 Tyler Rose Half and now 1/1/11 New Year's Day Half.