I'm Back, Baby!

I am officially BACK.  On Sunday, along with several dozen of my friends and thousands of strangers, I ran the "Donna" Breast Cancer Half Marathon.  This was my redemption race post-hysterectomy, and I came back with a bang!

Donna is a race my friends and I have been doing for the last four years because it's awesome - it's a 13.1 mile party with amazing spectators, lots of "beverages" and fun times to be had by all, so I can't think of a better race to make my return to racing.

We flew into Jacksonville on Friday, and Mel and I got to meet our "running guru," Jeff Galloway and chat with him for a few minutes!  He claims to remember us from several events he's done with the Dallas PGL's, but he's also a really nice guy and would probably say that anyway.

Mel & me with Jeff!

Saturday was a bum around the beach kind of day with lots of time with good friends, good food, and good drinks.  We relaxed, walked in the surf, and prepped for the run the next day.

Friends!

View from our balcony

Booze!

                       

Sunday morning, race morning, dawned foggy and slightly chilly (for Florida).  We welcomed the overcast skies as the forecast was for a warm and clear day, which makes for rough running conditions.  The good news is that we weren't taking the race seriously - we were all about the fun, with planned picture, "beverage," and snack stops along the route.

My awesome group of friends pre-race

I'd been training using an interval of 15 second run / 45 second walk, so the plan was just to continue with that and see how it was going.  We had a ton of fun running, and met friends old and new along the course.  

Old friends!

New friends (left) we met on course!

Friendly strangers!

The tough spot is always the last few boring miles heading to the Mayo Clinic, over a huge causeway bridge, but we kept up my run/walk intervals the whole way to the top and stopped to take a quick picture at the crest of the hill.

Mile 12 at the top of the bridge!

We finished strong with a 3:20, which was an over 30 minute course PR for me!

Texas ladies together!

Finished!

 

Then we continued our tradition of using the Atlantic Ocean as a post-race ice bath and consuming even more "beverages," lol. 

Bayou Rum punch bucket!

Ocean ice bath!

10th anniversary medal

I am SO happy to be back to racing and really looking forward to my upcoming spring full of great races and what I know will be more great times with friends!

Race Report: Too Cold to Hold - 2014

***I found this old race report floating around, un-posted, so decided to go ahead and post, just for fun...***  This is from the January 2014 Too Cold to Hold race in Dallas.

So, the blog's been a little quiet lately - not much to talk about.  Training for the Donna half had been okay - a few big hurdles but nothing that was going to keep me from finishing.  I had a really bad cold that settled in my chest (turns out maybe it was bronchitis?) and that kept me from running at all for a few weeks, so I had to start back slowly, then tweaked my left knee on the stairs (doh!) and ended up skipping a long run just to be on the safe side...

Because I'm a bling whore, when I saw the Too Cold to Hold / Too Hot to Handle race package last year I knew I needed to sign up for it, despite the rather extreme racing conditions ... because check out these medals, peeps.  Awesome, no?  And they FIT TOGETHER!!!!  Must have them!  So I signed up for the cold 10 miler and the hot 15K.

Too Cold to Hold was yesterday morning, and this was the weather forecast, true to the race's name:

Brrrrrrr.  Honestly, if not for the conjoining medals, I probably would have DNS'd this race because of the weather conditions.  And standing at the start line it looked like a lot of people had done just that.  It was COLD.  and WINDY.  At the 5 mile turnaround I made the decision to switch from the 10-miler to the 5-miler, just so I could be out of the cold faster, lol.

The race director/company always puts on a good race and has a nice after party.  They were well-prepared with hot chocolate, and portable heaters, but it was just so cold I didn't stick around too long afterward.  You can't really tell in this picture, but there was ice forming on my hat after I finished.

Post-race.  It was coooooooold!!!

The cool (pardon the pun) medal!

Dumbo in Pictures

DisneyLand 10K

DisneyLand Half Marathon

The bling

2015 WDW Marathon Weekend Races in Pictures

I'll spare y'all the details of my lackluster races...long story short - I got to see and spend time with great friends and family, both during and outside of the races, and I earned awesome bling, which were my two real goals for the weekend.  So, to make things less boring, I'm just doing a weekend recap in pictures...

At the Expo on Thursday morning

My 10K outfit - Mary Poppins inspired

Dad & me before the 10K on Friday morning

  

Some of the group before the Half Saturday morning - it was cold!

My Half Marathon outfit - Minnie

Nikki & Me in front of Cinderella's Castle

My bling from the 10K & Half

We saw a bride arrive at the Wedding Chapel

Tea @ The Grand Floridian Saturday post-race

CheEARed for friends and family during the Full Marathon on Sunday morning

Day at Magic Kingdom with the family on Monday

Photo Recap of the Double Weekend

FIRST ...  SPRINGFIELD, IL

The group in front of Lincoln's Home.

BFF & me with the Lincoln statue at the Illinois Capitol Building

Lincoln group pre-race (It was freezing that morning!)

RP, Nikki, and me finishing Lincoln.

Lincoln group post-race in front of the old state capitol building.

Nikki and me, post-race in Springfield.

Lincoln medal! 

AND NOW...ST. LOUIS!

"Holy Hill" on the Go! St. Louis course means you get a sprinkling of holy water from a priest at the beginning of the ~2 mile hill!

RP, Nikki, and me post-race in St. Louis.

St. Louis group post-race.

Go! St. Louis medal.

The two races together.

Being touristy - going to see the Gateway Arch!

 Going up in the arch!

Building our version of the arch at the St. Louis Science Center.

MCM Weekend - 5K & 10K - Picture Recap

I headed BACK to the mid-Atlantic last Friday (twice in two weeks) for some more fun with friends!!!

At the Expo w/ G on Friday

Pre-5K with J & G on Friday  

  

Outfit for the MCM Runner's bRUNch 5K on Friday  

Runner's bRUNch 5K bib and commemorative coin.

Pre-MCM 10K on Sunday morning. (Yup, that's the Capitol in the background!)

With the marine that gave me my 10K medal on Sunday!

Finisher pic after MCM 10K

MCM 10K bib and medal

ROTE group cheering on friends and strangers at the bottom of the 14th street bridge.
(approx. ~ Mile 21.5 of the full marathon)