April 5k Recap

my running partners

Friday and Saturday were a first for me: I ran two 5ks in 12 hours. After running the glow run Friday night, I turned around and ran another 5k Saturday morning. I ran this race last year while pregnant with Ocean and pushing River in the jogger. This year I pushed both boys in the jogger while Sunshine had an early morning playdate. It's the first time I ran a race pushing the jogger since last May, and it was the first time pushing both boys in the jogger.

Since Ocean is hiding in the back, spectators didn't see him until I ran past them. At that point, several of them awarded me "double extra bonus points" for pushing two boys instead of the just one. Two other strollers finished before me, but they each only had one kiddo. So I won the double jogger division :) too bad that wasn't an actual division....

I ran 3.08 miles in 41:15, which is just slightly slower than last year's 40:05.
1st mile: 11:46
2nd mile: 14:31
3rd mile: 14:09

The last half of the race has multiple hills and I barely made it up the last one. I had to work so hard to push close to a hundred pounds of little boys and jogger up the steepest hill of the race. At least the half mile long hill earlier in the race wasn't nearly as steep. Not that that one was easy, either. Regardless of steepness and length, I walked up all the hills, which is evident in my split times.

Running two 5ks so close together was tiring. Because of travel times I didn't get a good nights sleep Friday night, though Ocean contributed to that by waking up to eat before my alarm went off. So I started off tired and my muscles were still fatigued from Friday's 5k. Despite that, I didn't feel horrible while running. I've definitely felt worse while running races. Pushing the boys added to the challenge of the hills, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I rather enjoy the challenge.

Last week I went on one hike and completed two 5ks. The week before I completed one treadmill workout before we headed out of town for our road trip. Things are settling down a smidge so I'm hoping to be more consistent with my workouts, though I've said that before without actually managing to be more consistent.

In other news, this race marks the half way point of my 40 by 40 goal. It's the 20th race out of 40 I plan on completing, and I'm two months ahead of schedule. Yay me!

9 Races in 2016

Month	Event	Time
January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
February	Mud Run	1:35:37
March	4k Walk	33:19
March	March 5k	33:49
March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	1:01:30
March	Obstacle Race	44:06
April	Glow Run	35:16
April	April 5k	41:15

20 Races Towards my 40 by 40 Goal

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run
14.	March	4k Walk	4k	Walk
15.	March	March 5k	5k	Road race
16.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k Walk
17.	March	10 mile race	Not applicable	Water stop volunteer
18.	March	Obstacle Race	5k	Obstacle run
19.	April	Glow Run	5k	Glow Run, 1st of 2 races in 12 hours
20.	April	April 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 2nd of 2 races in 12 hours

Glow Run Recap

bright colors are a necessity for a glow run

Friday night I ran my first nighttime 5k. It was a glow run with glow-related games before and during the race for the kiddos. So Mr M took the kiddos around to the games while I ran the 5k. Most were a bit too advanced for River, but Sunshine had fun.

it looks like Ocean is wielding a lightsaber behind River

and now he's chewing on the lightsaber. good thing it's not real....

The 5k itself started out quite flat, but the second half had some hills mixed in with the flat portions. I enjoyed the course for the most part, but I didn't enjoy the accompanying weather. It had been raining off and on all day and even sprinkled some in the time leading up to the start of the race. All that moisture in the air meant that the humidity was very high, which is never fun for running. The saving grace was that it wasn't super hot also. It was pleasantly cool if you were just walking around. I warmed up pretty good while running but Sunshine complained of being cold while waiting for me.

Running at dusk was an interesting experience. I've actively avoided running at dusk since I got hit by a van while running at dusk when I was 14. I don't even like driving at dusk because lights glare too much for me. Despite that, there was enough street lights on the course that visibility was pretty good for most of the race. I had on a battery-operated light-up bracelet, but I will probably wear more lights the next time I run a race at night. I started out with a glow necklace as well, but it wouldn't stay together, so I ditched it at the water stop. It was bouncing around and bugging me, so no big loss :)

nighttime group selfies are ridiculously hard to take

Once again, this race was run with very little preparation.  We went for a hike on Thursday, but the next most recent treadmill walk was Tuesday the week before. More than a week between workouts isn't optimal, especially when most of that week was spent in the car, eating junk food. At least it was gluten free junk food and I survived another road trip without getting glutened. I'll take the win.

The race was a smidge short at 3.06 miles, which I ran in 35:16.
1st mile: 10:53
2nd mile: 12:12
3rd mile: 11:41

Tomorrow I'll be posting a recap of the race I ran Saturday morning. Yep, I ran two races in 12 hours. Mark that off my 40 by 40 list.

8 Races in 2016

Month	Event	Time
January	New Year’s Day 5k	33:01
February	Frostbite 5k	37:37
February	Mud Run	1:35:37
March	4k Walk	33:19
March	March 5k	33:49
March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	1:01:30
March	Obstacle Race	44:06
April	Glow Run	35:16

19 Races towards my 40 by 40 goal

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run
14.	March	4k Walk	4k	Walk
15.	March	March 5k	5k	Road race
16.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k Walk
17.	March	10 mile race	Not applicable	Water stop volunteer
18.	March	Obstacle Race	5k	Obstacle run
19.	April	Glow Run	5k	Glow Run, 1st of 2 races in 12 hours