Today is Globally Organized Hug A Runner Day (GO HARD).
A couple of years ago some friends wanted to get some runners together to recognize what they do and that has now turned into a running holiday that keeps getting bigger and better.
This year the folks from Run the Edge (the people behind GO HARD) decided they wanted to raise money for the charity Girls on the Run. This is a wonderful charity that I heard about this past year and I hope to be a part of next year.
GO HARD is hosting a virtual run, and all the proceeds go to Girls on the Run, plus you have chances to win some cool prizes. You can join the virtual race for a mere $5.95 and run any distance you want, just sign up for 5k, 10k or 13.1 miles. You then post your times and see how you placed. You can run outside, inside, on a track or treadmill. You have till Nov 30th to post your times.
You can also register for the race and get a medal and/or shirt (with a higher registration fee.
(above images are from hugarunner.com)
Once you register you can download and print out your bib. Take a picture of you with your bib and post it to the Hug a Runner Facebook group.
If you are not a runner but want to support one you can send them a hug. Or you can just actually hug a runner that you know and support.
I registered for the virtual 5k race and got the shirt. I have to run on the treadmill at the gym because I run either too late at night or too early in the morning for outside runs this time of year.
Go ahead, hug your runner.
Just. Keep. Running.
Want to find out what races I’ll be doing next year? Check out my list.
Before we talk about my experience with the race, let’s talk about the name of the race and the what the race is fundraising for.
The Mustache Dache takes place in November (mostly), because it is also Movember.
But what is Movemeber you might ask? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you.
About a decade ago some Bros in Australia decided to challenge other men to a Mo* contest.
*A MO is a mustache, short for the English spelling of Moustache.
The Bros decided that during the month of November they would grow their mustaches for a cause, after some research they decide their cause would be prostate and testicular cancer, as well as depression. After a couple of years donating their proceeds to local charities they ended up creating a charitable organization of their own.
Fast Forward to now: Movember is a world-wide charity raising money and bringing awareness for men’s health. You can go to the Movember website and donate, or participate in the Mo growing contest during the month of November. You can also find tons of information on men’s health issues and look at pictures of men with awesome Mos. You can also read the whole story behind the campaign.
Us women have October as breast cancer awareness month, and the men now have Movember because these guys wanted to change the face of men’s health.
picture from race site, click image for link
Now that the history lesson is done we can talk about my race. (OK, maybe not yet) The race was put together as one of the ways to raise money for the above mentioned charity. It is a fun 5k, there are lots of costumes, booze, fun prizes, kids race, humor, awareness and mustaches everywhere; the real ones and fake. This race is held in various location across the country. It is a fun good time.
I thought ‘5k (3.1 miles), easy peasy’ I could do that in my sleep. In fact I do that on multiple times a week. I wanted to get my 5k time down to (and below) 3o minutes, giving me a 10 min/mile pace. In my last treadmill work out prior to this race I ran a 10.07 min/mile 5k. So, I was ready.
I read a race recap and looked at the course map, and so I knew there would a hill. But I didn’t really comprehend what that meant. The course is a 3.1 mile loop with over 400 feet (435 ft gain, to be exact) of elevation gain in the first 1.7 miles (aprox.). That is about a 5% pitch for this race. At times, I seriously thought I could reach forward and touch the road in front of me with my hand. Remember when I was complaining about the hills in my Wine Country Half Marathon? Well during that whole 13.1 mile race there was only a 328 foot elevation gain.
Yep, you read that right.
So I will confess that I did not run a 10 min/mile. In fact, there was a great deal of times that I didn’t even run. And I was questioning my ability to even walk up those ridiculous hills. It wasn’t one big hill though. The first 9/10th of a mile had ups and downs with a couple of flats. After running too fast up the very first hill (I was running 8:30 min/mile) I realized I need to walk up the hills. So I would walk up and run when it was flat or down. You get caught up in the moment, everyone was running fast, I felt great, so I did too. So the first mile I clocked in at about 11:30.
The last hill though, that one was the killer. At mile 0.91 were were at an elevation of 372 ft; at mile 1.73 we were at 660 ft. That is 288 ft in less than a mile! It was anything but ‘fun’! Oh and did I mention it was a balmy 30°F out that day too? Have you ever had your lungs freeze while you were breathing? The second mile took about 14 minutes.
But what goes up must come down. I could have made up a bunch of time on the downhill but I didn’t want to lose control and fall. Cause you know, I would be the one that rolled down the hill to the finish line. So I ran and I tried to keep my pace to a manageable one, on both the down hill and the flat part. I ended up completing third mile in about 9:30 minutes.
I had a chip time of 0:36:46, giving me a 11:50 min/mile pace. I finished 360/827 overall and 119/321 for my age. Pretty good under the circumstances.
These are the friends who did the race with me
Even with the deadly hill the atmosphere was fun and enjoyable. Everyone was having a good time and wearing mustaches.
Finishers all got these awesome medals (which is also a bottle opener),
a free beer and a free tequila drink;
you also received a shirt with registration.
However, if the race is in the same local next year, I might have to pass.
This summer I ran a half-marathon located in another city. The location wasn’t that far, maybe an hour or an hour and a half from home. But when you need to be there at six in the morning that is very far!
So my cousin and I decided to stay the night before the race. The race was in the wine country and there are not a lot of hotels around there. But there are a lot of bed and breakfast places. The other thing the surrounding city had was rooms for rent located in people’s houses. You could rent the room, like a bed and breakfast, but there wouldn’t be other guests.
As it turned out my cousin had a friend who grew up down there and that friend’s parents still live there. And they had a room that they rent out to guests and they were gracious enough to let us stay the night there. Because of their generosity, I want to make them a thank you card and a little gift.
I first used some crayons from my son’s art kit and made a little rainbowish pattern on a mini canvas. The min canvases and easels can be found at Michel’s Craft Store and are about 3″x3″.
Using my Silhouette Cameo I cut out the dandelion, floating seeds and words out of different colored vinyl. Because of the waxy nature of the crayons and the texture of the vinyl I went ahead and sealed it all with some Mod Podge, then added the adhesive rhinestones.
I thought the words ‘relax’ and ‘breathe’ fit well with the room they let us use. It was a very calming house and atmosphere, which was just the thing we needed prior to our race.
I also designed and cut out this thank you card using my Silhouette Cameo.
UPDATE:
My dutiful sister has informed me that the canvas says ‘breath’ when I intended it to say ‘breathe’
*sigh* such is my life. it is always after I post it that she finds the errors…
Yep, that stroller I talked about before, the one that I was so excited to get. Yeah, that one. I hate it.
It is so heavy and hard to steer because it is misaligned. It adds a minute or two to my pace and I can’t run as long with it.
Last Wednesday while Ian was in school I decided to take Sid for a run. Not only was I slow by after two miles I had to stop. I just didn’t want to push it anymore. I was running in our neighborhood, so I went back to the house. Parked him in the grass and did sprints up and down the street in front of our house.
I love that I have the freedom to still go for a run when I just have one kid, and I probably still will….but you bet your sweet ass I’m gonna bitch about it the whole time!
So to recap my speed training last week; ran two miles with the stroller at a 11:52 min/mile pace. I ran 3.14 miles at a 10:54 pace, and 3.20 miles at a 10:42 pace. Those were on the treadmill and the distance includes my cool down time.
When I did the 3.14 miles I walked about 1/4 of a mile twice during the run. But the last one, the 3.20 miles, I didn’t walk even a 1/4 of a mile once. To me this shows that I am improving my lung function, which is making me stronger and faster.
And then there was last night. Last night I ran the first mile at 10:42 then increased the speed for the second mile to 10:31. For the 3rd mile I increased it again to a 10:21. But at the almost 3/4 mark I increased it again and again at when I had 1/10th of a mile to go. I was at just over 32 minutes when I hit 3 miles so I kept running till I got to 33 minutes, then started my cool down, for a full five minutes. My total run was 3.30 miles, I had a technical issue during the first mile that set my time back by a minute, but other than that I didn’t walk at all.
I updated my iOS for my iPhone, recently and there is a new app that Apple installs with this update. At first I was like “ugh! another Apple forced app that I don’t use but takes up space on my home screen!”
But then I opened it and found something I could use! (no, this is not an endorsement, just my opinion) It’s called Health, or referred to as Healthkit.
Some of you may already have known this, but I didn’t, the iPhone has a motion sensor (at least the 5 and higher does). This means it has a pedometer capabilities. Again, this may be old news to you, but not to me. I have been wanting to record my steps as well as my miles running. A GPS app, like Map My Run, won’t work inside my building where I work, especially in the stairwells. Now I can! This is exciting news to me, so I thought I’d share it. I can also record the flights of stairs I take each day, and it connects to Map My Run so I don’t have to record my runs twice. (It also works with Nike Fuel)
You can also record a bunch of other stuff, but the exciting thing for me is the pedometer function. Plus it has been recording all month, I saw on Sunday I took over 9,000 steps!
I Tri and Craft 