Tag Archives: 5K

Race Recap: Run 4 Donuts!

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It was a freakin’ beautiful fall day for some pastries and a run! Isla has been wanting to test her legs in a 5K run, so I thought the Run 4 Donuts would be a great way for her to do that.

In a nutshell, the Run 4 Donuts is a charity run for the local food bank, and during the race you stop at donut stations to eat a delicious pastry before continuing on your way. Sounds awesome, right? (Spoiler Alert: Mowing down on donuts while running isn’t necessarily a good idea, but it’s a great motivator!)

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We got to the race bib pick-up area with plenty of time to stand in the sun and warm up and before we knew it, we were munching on donuts before heading out for the first stretch of the race! Isla did great during the first lap but got pretty tired after Donut #2. (The fact that it was a Boston cream probably didn’t help either, haha.) We took a few walking breaks due to too many donuts and sore legs, but Isla finished strong and did amazing! I really couldn’t be any prouder of her.

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The Run 4 Donuts was a super casual yet totally fun race, and I hope we can do it again in the years to come! It was a great last race of the season, and I’m glad Isla got to join me!

Of course, here’s all that technical stuff just for curiosity’s sake ;)

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Thanks to Dirty Feet for organizing and putting on such a great event to support our food bank!

Race Recap: Dirty Feet Trail Run – Vista Run

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If this race happened before the Mountain Run two weeks ago, I probably would have never run another trail race again. It’s a tough course! Or at least to me, the relatively green trail runner. Either way, it was still a great event with some awesome views, and I don’t think my legs have ever been this sore after a run, haha.

My new-found race-buddy picked me up so we could check-in with the race directors, and then we walked back to the car to stay warm until our start time. It was dang chilly!

It had basically rained almost every day the week prior to the race, so I was expecting a very wet and muddy course, but thankfully, aside from a few puddles it wasn’t too terrible. There were definitely some slick sections where you really had to watch your footing, but I was lucky enough to not bail and roll down a hill. Go me! (Kyle’s stepdad, who ran the 21K distance, unfortunately wasn’t as lucky. He’s okay though!) The views were awesome and I wish I was able to take a quick photo or two, but I had no time to stop, lol

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Fake smile. Dead legs.

The hills were brutal though! I definitely need to do more running outdoors if I want to keep doing trail runs, because my legs were just useless by the last mile and I had to will myself to keep my pace up the best I could.

While I was hoping for a sub-35 minute time, I under estimated how tough the hills would be and had to slow myself down a few times to catch my breath and rest my legs. I’m still pretty happy with my time though, which was officially clocked at being 36:41 – fast enough to place 3rd in my age category! (Hashtag: Humblebrag)

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Of course, I ate all the goodies at the end of the run, (nothing tastes better than jellybeans and cookies, haha) and hung around to see if I could win a door prize. I ended up having my number called and managed to snag a nice North Face shirt for Kyle.

So, overall it was a tough but fun course and I’ll definitely do it again next year! It was a great way to end the “competitive” race season for me! (There’s one more in October that I’m doing, but I’ll be acting as Isla’s pace bunny, lol.)

Race Recap: Dirty Feet Mountain Run

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Aside from the Foam Fest, the Dirty Feet Mountain Run up at Sun Peaks was my first “competitive” trail run. The weather on Sunday was calling for rain, but thankfully the sun mostly dominated the sky (aside from a cool breeze) and made for a great morning!

Two groups of us kind of met up and ran (somewhat) together, so it was nice to have some company and motivation on the course. It was actually was tamer than I had anticipated, but we still had an elevation gain of 428 feet! There was a pretty decent climb right at the start but after that it was fairly smooth sailing – Not super aggressive, but just enough to feel that burn! The back half was mostly downhill which was hard on my ankles and lower back, but made me feel good going into the finish!

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My “Hills are Dumb” face, somewhere during the first mile of the race, haha! (Note the obvious heavy mouth breathing!)

My time according to my Fitbit tracker was 31:03 and my official time was 31:05. I definitely wasn’t expecting to do this in a sub-35 time, especially since I hadn’t done a lot of hill training leading up to the race.

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All that technical jazz. Because if I didn’t track it, did it even happen?

 

I apparently lost my GPS signal during the last few minutes of the race so the course “ended” where it lost signal, even though my stopwatch was still going. I promise the course was 3.1 miles/5 kilometers ;)

There was some time to kill before awards and door prizes were drawn, so we headed to Bottoms Bar & Grill for some grub and celebratory Caesars! (If you’re there and like falafel, the ones on the menu are delicious!)

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I managed to have my number drawn and snagged a nice North Face shirt, and then it was time to roll on home to be a lump for the rest of the day! A big shout out to the Dirty Feet folks for making this race happen – it was an awesome run and I hope to do it again next year!