The Rural Runner: cardio

Showing posts with label cardio. Show all posts

After realizing now that I forgot to post about the 5k New Years Eve fun run I did with my boyfriend Kirk, I decided it's better late than never!

I signed us up for this free race sometime in October, which was good because it ended up selling out quickly! The race race bibs were super cute and had our 2016 New Years resolution written on them too (mine is to run my first marathon). We also got a nice hat with registration.. Which is super warm and I wear basically every outside run now.

Me and Kirk decided to dress up a little bit and wrapped ourselves in battery operated lights and wore happy new year hats! After all.. It was not timed and just a super fun event!

At the start line, we did a little countdown to new year (pretending it was actually midnight.. The race was really at like 5pm haha), and then they set off ALOT of amazing fireworks!

Everyone watching the fireworks when we started. That darn light up head band was falling off the entire time.. Worth it though!

The race was basically a little loop around the town, staying on the edge of the road or the sidewalk, with all right hand turns. There was a short part through a subdivision, which was great because people still had their Christmas lights on, and made for a more scenic run.

We weren't really pushing crazy hard, but somehow managed to PR my 5k at 26:36! It's not crazy fast.. And my goal is a sub 25min 5k. But it's not often I head out specifically for 5k fast paced runs, since I've been focusing so much more on longer distances recently, so I'm pretty excited about this!

All smiles at the finish knowing I hit a PR!

After the race there was tons of food and drinks to fill up on! Hot chocolate, timbits and subway deli sandwiches.

We're hoping to do this race again next year because it was such a blast!

After the race we headed back up to Cape Breton to go to a Celtic music concert and to celebrate together.

As much as wearing workout clothes all the time is great.. I LOVE any excuse to dress up!

We had some champagne and danced until we were sweaty, it was a great way to ring in the new year!

So.. it's a little late.. But Happy New Year!

Here are some of my running/fitness goals for 2016:

- run my first marathon (Maratime race weekend, September 16)

- complete a Spartan Race Beast (April 30, in New Jersey)

- complete the Montreal Spartan Race Ultra Beast (July 31)

- do a muscle up

- do 10 pull-ups in a row (half way there!)

- do a 50k run for my birthday

- finish top 10 elite female at a Spartan Race

- sub 25 minute 5k

- sub 2:15 half marathon

Here's to making 2016 amazing!

What are some of your goals for this new year?

The Rural Runner

Sometimes things just don't work out the way we want them to. Not everything can always go our ways I guess, because what fun would life be if it was always easy? (Trick question.. That would probably be great.) anyways, without the shitty things that happen, and the road blocks along the way, we wouldn't learn or gain anything. (I will explain the point to this later on.. Keep reading!)

I've been training for 3 months now for the Hypothermic Half marathon, January 17, and last week (stupidly) thought I would be working, so I convinced Kirk (well.. not really convinced cause he's always down for a gruelling/long run) anyways, I asked Kirk if he would like to do the half marathon with me a week before instead (plus were both pretty broke so saving $80 was another argument for running it early).

Either way, I was feeling pretty disappointed that I couldn't make it to the race (Ps.. I found out that I'm not actually working, opps.. We're still will not be entering though, were poor haha). So we figured we would go and run the same route we would have been taking during the race!

Luckily the entire trail was clear except for some snow half way (for about 6km). The temperature was fairly mild at only just below 0, so it was the perfect day for a long run.

We packed the camelbak, stashing Gu and shot bloks, did a quick warm up, started the tunes and our tracking watches, then we were on our way.

We maintained a pace around 6:00-6:30 The route was absolutely gorgeous and winded past multiple lakes, all while remaining completely flat. A great trail for PRs!

We hit the 10km mark at just over an hour, which was exciting because I was hoping to finish in under 2:30. However, shortly after was when my hip pain started (again, ugh) and we hit the first section of unpaved road with snow/ice. Neither of us had spikes and it slowed us down quite a bit, keeping our average pace at around 7:00/km.

We reached the turn around point and walked for the first time for a minute while we quickly ate some chocolate Gu, drank water and continued on our way (Btw, having a camelbak is a lifesaver).

Kirk was really pushing me near the end, we ran our quickest km of the entire half, at around 6:00/km.

It was so painful, I may have told Kirk he better run fast cause I was gonna catch up and kick his ass.. Haha I can't be held accountable for the things I say while run-suffering.

We finished the 21.1km at 2:33:58.

At first I was slightly disappointed that we didn't finish in under 2 and a half hours, like I'd hoped, but then I realized, there's 1 of 2 ways I can let this affect me. Either I can see it as a failure (pretty shitty way to look at it..) OR I can use this positively, and learn from it. I know more about my limits now and what kind of pace I can currently maintain for long distances, and also, I now know that I'm fully capable of emptying the tank with a couple fast kilometres toward the finish line.

You're always capable of more.

We can either take our struggles and find a positive within them, or ruin ourselves with stress over the negatives.

For this (non competitive) half marathon, I am going to look at the positives:

- even though I wasn't able to race the actual half marathon, I still ran the same distance and route anyways. After all, why put 3 months of hard work to waste?

- I got to spend 2.5 hours with my amazing boyfriend, enjoying (almost) every minute ;)

- I learned even more about my long distance running ability.

- I beat my original half marathon time by almost 30 minutes!! Yes, you read that right. A half hour PR. How can you not be happy with that? Especially since the races were less than 4 months apart. Which tells me that I've obviously made some serious improvements on my pace!

- after realizing we burned off like 1700 calories.. We went and got Izzy's bagels.. Our tradition and obsession (except for relish veggie burgers.. Can't beat it!). The Runger was real.

Overall, it was a great run with a lot of positives! Also, it added fuel to my fire and I will complete my next 21.1km run in under 2 and a half hours.

I'm coming for you next year, Hypothermic Half!

But for now, on to training for my first ultra, April 30 in New Jersey!

Stay positive friends,

The Rural Runner

The past week I've been spending time with Kirk and his family in Cape Breton. There's no better way to spend the holidays than with family. I baked some vegan cookies before I left to bring with me, since I hate showing up empty handed if I'm staying for a bit.

I found an awesome vegan eggnog spice cookie recipe and decided to give it a try. Original recipe here. I love it when websites offer vegetarian alternatives!

They didn't spread out as well as I thought.. Opps. Had to flatten them with a fork.

Kinda look like timbits, YUM!

The finished product was a hit!

I stayed with Kirk and his family for a few days and had an amazing time as always. I love Cape Breton and plan on living there eventually.

Of course while I was visiting, Kirk and myself went for a couple runs.

Our first run was 8km on the Ceildh Trail. It's old an old train track trail that runs for hundreds of kilometres along the Western Coast of Cape Breton that's well maintained and (for the most part) sheltered by trees. It's also pretty flat, so it made for a good run.

Zoom, zoom!

Of course we also found some obstacles to play on.

Some day, I plan to climb across this entire thing.. Ninja warrior training!

The next day we did a quick 5k up the mountain and back down, which really made me realize how much I need to start adding hill training to my workouts!

It was a much more difficult trail than I normally train on.. With a couple technical climbs and some rivers to cross. We go until we reach a hunters cabin hidden in the woods, then turn around as our half way point.

It was a great week away and I love spending it with Kirk and his family.

This week we're planning on spending time in the valley with my family over Christmas, and fitting in our long run tomorrow on Xmas eve! My longest distance ever - 24 km (cause we're all festive and shit). Stay tuned for a recap.

Merry Christmas friends,

The Rural Runner

Now that Ive been home a bit and life has calmed down, I figured it was time for a race recap.

Kirk and I arrived in Fort Lauderdale after a long day of flights and being at 4 different airports. We picked up our rental car (note to self.. Book this in advance next time. Airport car rentals are a nightmare.. And Canadian debit cards are apparently useless in America.)

We finally got everything sorted and headed straight to Whole Foods.

Seriously, there needs to be a whole foods in Nova Scotia.

We got all carbed up and ready for a weekend of racing.

The race venue was pretty flooded, and it was raining hard on and off.. But that didn't rain on our parade, duh we are Spartans! Aroo!

The race went very well, I only ended up doing Burpees for the Hercules hoist (this seriously weighed more than I did and lifted me off the ground) and the rig (opps, need to practice my monkey bars). I'll get you one day, burpee free race!!

Heres the pictures from Saturday's race

Who's this happy during a bucket carry?? Me apparently.. Lol like I said, we were in Miami, it was warm, can't rain on my parade!

The only obstacle that is easier when you're a shorty.. Also, man buns and barbed wire don't get along.

Mmmm doesn't that water look delish.

Pretty excited because I passed a dude! #spartanchicked

Kirk was waiting for me at the finish line with a big hug :)

Ps - you get a free Shock Top at American races.. Now that's what I'm talking about!

I placed 33rd in my elite heat for females, and 5th age group, which makes me super happy because I thought I would be near the bottom of the group! A goal for me had been to place top 50 of elite females so to do this at my first elite race was pretty exciting!

New goal: top 10 female.

Kirk placed 3rd in elite and made it to the podium! He has been training his ass off and deserves a big win like this!

Look at that smile! :)

Holy moly am I ever a proud girlfriend, I literally bragged to anyone who would listen to me that weekend about him winning! Well deserved. Someday, I'll be up there with him :)

The next day I was far too bruised and beat up (8 foot wall probs) to race elite again so I had the wonderful opportunity to cheer on Kirk instead. Watching him race is amazing, he's so fast and focused and when he goes through obstacles he makes it look effortless. I've never been so proud! He came in at 4th place in a very close finish! That man never fails to impress me.

Later on that day, we met up with our friend Juan and ran in the open heat (less competitive). It was super fun completing the race with friends and getting some awesome pictures along the way.

Romantic date idea.. Bucket carry through a swamp, haha😂

Again, man buns and barbed wire don't mix.

We decided to do a sexy hair flip dunk wall photo.. But I forgot.. Hahaha still the best picture ever.

Dunk wall photos are beautiful.

Note to self.. Don't wear a strappy sports bra at Spartan races. Also, say hi to my awesome friend Juan! :)

Overall it was SUCH a amazing weekend. I made a bunch of new friends, completed some goals and had fun racing. For now, it's technically Spartan race off season, but we're training for our upcoming race, the hypothermic half marathon. Back to the cold in Nova Scotia!

After that race, the workouts will be getting very intense as we have decided to compete in the Montreal ultra beast (45+km) July 31.

Ps - we made the 3 hour drive to Orlando to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and it was literally the BEST DAY EVER!

Cheers,

The Rural Runner

After Saturday's near death experience and what I felt was a very crappy run (okay, obviously if you almost die, it was a shitty run).. I was looking forward to getting back out there and making things right. What some might call "get back on the horse" haha, well actually more like getting back on the trail.

As I was telling my boyfriend Kirk earlier, I have a theory that every bad run always precedes a great one. He completely agrees, it's like whenever you're having what seems like the worst run ever, getting back out there for another go is the best thing you can do. It's like redemption.. So hang in there, better days are coming.

Today I went out for a 10k run, just like any other normal day, except this run felt different than Saturday's. My legs weren't tired, I felt very energized and easily maintained my pace at under 6.00/km. This alone is great news for me because only a month ago my average pace was around 7.00/km.. So huge improvements in speed!

It was a little chilly and there was some snow on the ground, but overall it was a great, clear day for a run.

I finished the run in around 58 minutes.. A new PR for me! I was so excited because last week when I PR'ed my 10k in under an hour for the first time ever.. I was struggling hard. Literally pushing it with everything I had. Where as today it felt easy and natural for me. I happened to look down at my gps watch and was like "woah really.. Was that my time!?" Seriously.. Big improvements because last week I was panting like a dying animal.

Hahaha this was me last week.

2 cat pictures in one post.. I swear I'm not a crazy cat lady..

Anyway, I was also super excited today because I finally reached one of my newest goals.. To run 160km in one month!

Oh yeah baby, finally a member of the platinum club!

It's been a busy month with a lot of training for me and I'm really noticing the improvements I've made by sticking to my training plan. This half marathon in a January should be a piece of cake!

So remember, embrace the shitty runs, because more than likely something great is coming along right after!

Cheers friends,

The Rural Runner

For the longest time, I've wanted a gps watch so that I can accurately track my runs without carrying around my chunky phone the entire time (seriously why are all phones basically the size of iPads now?!).

I also really wanted it to be waterproof so I could wear it in obstacle course races, black so it matches everything, and round shaped but not too chunky. Okay I'm a little picky.. Haha.

Recently, I was given a refurbished Garmin forerunner 610, which covered everything on my gps watch wish list and more! It's a tad big in size, but is practically weightless so it's not as noticeable. At first it felt awkward on my wrist because I'm used to smaller watches (aka the cheap Walmart one I wore everyday), but eventually I got used to the feel and the strap doesn't bother me at all.

Okay it looks big for my little arm.. But it's super comfy, I swear!

Using it for the first time was fairly easy and straightforward with the manual, however I found the first time I turned the gps on I had to wait for what felt like 20 minutes for it to locate a satellite and was getting worried that it wouldn't work. However, since then I haven't had any difficulties syncing, and it only takes about 60 seconds now.

The main screens are customizable which I really liked too, because I edited it to show my total distance, total time and average pace overall, plus after every km it tells me the average pace for that lap (there's tons more options than this, but this is all I like to know when I'm running). I also really like the back light at the push of a button and the long battery life (should last all week even with an hour of tracking your run every day).

I was super excited to test this baby out, so I decided to head out for some interval training on the old railway tracks.

I started off with a 1km warm up run then moved onto sprints.

The workout was intervals of 30 seconds each, at around a 3.30 minute km pace, followed by a 2 minute slower pace between 7-7.30 minute km. I completed 8 of these intervals total, and literally thought I was going to puke or faint.. One of the two.

After that I had a nice and slow run back home, for a total of 6.75km.

After the run, I posted on Instagram like I normally do, and recieved a funny offer through direct message shortly after..

Declined!

I'm literally bundled up in this picture with 2 jackets and showing absolutely no boob.. How does this request even happen?? Haha. Gave me a good giggle though. Maybe someday if I ever get engaged I would do it as a gift to my fiancé.. but even then it wouldn't be for anyone else to see.

I may be poor.. But not that desperate haha.

Anyways, in other exciting news, I've completely packed for Miami (okay, I may have finished packing like 2 weeks ago, but that's besides the point).

Here's what I'm bringing to Miami

I also packed fancy clothes for going out (we're going to Liv night club!) and sports bras/shorts/running shoes for the races Saturday and Sunday.

I may have also packed an entire box of oatmeal.. Don't judge me, I said I'm poor!

Less than a week now until I'm in the sunshine and I'm getting very excited!

The races should be fun and so warm as opposed to Nova Scotia weather. Hoping to finish the 8ish km course in under an hour.. Especially considering there's no mountains like there was in the Halifax Spartan race! We will see how it goes.

Cheers friends,

The Rural Runner

This past weekend, I had my longest run so far during training. On Saturday I was due to run 19.3km. This is the furthest I've ever run besides my first half marathon in October. As some of you may know, due to injury, I was unable to train for this at all, but ran it anyways. This led to me having a horrible (in my opinion) finish time. My goal had originally been an under 2:30 half, but that dream was crushed by a serious stress fracture, and turned into just wanting to finish the race.

This led me to be a little concerned about this simple training run, mostly for the fact that this is the most distance I have done since the actual race.

So far my training has been going great.. And has been injury free.. But I was nervous that the severe pain I normally felt in my hip during longer distance runs, might come back with a vengeance.

BUT, I knew that if I wanted to beat my time at my next half in January, long runs like these are important.

Saturday it was pouring rain, but luckily not too cold out. I put on my long sleeve and running pants, and laced up my shoes.

I also wore a rain coat and packed some Energy Bloks into my pockets, knowing I would need them about half way in.

Seriously, these things are great! My body doesn't hate me when I eat them (much like it does with most food), they're easy to eat, small, yummy (have had all the berry flavours, strawberry is my fave), and have tons of quick carbs and caffeine. Plus you don't really need water with them, like most other quick energy nutrition does (I don't own a camelbak/hydration pack yet). They're a really good choice for race/running supplementation.

Okay back on topic..

I started off in the rain, heading toward my typical route, which is an old train tracks turned into trail, and goes for about 200km straight (sometime I will do a bike trip on this entire thing!).

About 3km in, my Nike plus app stopped giving me feedback. At first, I was freaking out, like oh no how will I know how far I've gone?, or when I've reached the halfway point?, or how fast I'm going?!

Until I realized how free I actually felt without it.

Don't I look like I'm having so much fun?? Haha.

Running without stressing over pace or distance like I always do actually felt great. I wasn't worried about anything, I was just simply enjoying the run and how peaceful it was. Knowing I had to do 19.3km, I kept an eye on the distance around 9km so I could turn around at halfway.

When I reached 9.65km I stopped to quickly eat the cliff energy bloks, then continued on my way.

A little rurther ahead, I ran past another girl running, we both acknowledged each other, and commented on the commitment of running during a rain storm. True story.

Side note.. I normally always run with a hat as well.. However recently I've been wearing my hair up in what I like to call a female man bun (Feman bun, hehe). I've always had crazy long hair and a couple months ago, stupidly decided to chop it all off, so now I'm dealing with the consequences of trying to exercise with hair too short for a ponytail. It's a serious struggle.

Man buns for life!!? Also why my mom started calling me sprout. I guess it's growing on me.

Anyways, back to the story, so after my Nike plus losing its voice, I finally arrived home. I opened up the app to make it stop tracking, and to my delight I had finished the run in 2 hours and 5 minutes!

This is very exciting news, considering with that pace, if I had of kept going, I could have finished a half marathon in about 2 hours and 15 minutes. That's over a whole half hour shorter that my first half! And from that comes my newest goal..

Run the hypothermic half in less than 2:15.

Considering this run, that's very possible for me. So long as I continue to be healthy and fully healed like I am so far this time with training (knock on wood).

This weekend, I'm due for another 19.3km run, so you can bet I'll be aiming for around the same time, if not better. That will be a great indicator of how I'll do while in the actual race, so I'm excited to see if I can improve with a weeks worth of training.

Stay tuned friends,

The Rural Runner

I've always loved the saying, "if your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough." I believe this to be very true in life, whether it comes to employment, relationships, fitness, travel.. Anything. For me setting goals is highly important and something review and revise frequently. I wrote a post on it here!

For months now, I've had a goal which was pretty big to me.. To run 10km in under an hour. Now, to many experienced runners, this may seem like such a simple thing, or like just another slow run. For me however.. This is something I have been working my ass off towards for almost an entire year.

Attempt after frustrating attempt, I would make it so close, but just not make it in time. I have been floating around 1:04 for quite a while now.

Tonight, I was due for my 12.9km run for training. I figured this was a perfect time to attempt my goal again. Why not? The weather was great (it had just stopped snowing, yay Nova Scotia sporadic weather!), I felt great (my nutrition has been on point all week), and I was determined.

The first 3km I flew through with an average pace of 5'40" a kilometre. I knew if I maintained this pace I would be in the clear for my goal. The problem, however was maintaining this pace.

My average pace normally floats between 6-6'50" a km, so I was getting concerned that I would burn out my energy. 5km.. Half way in. I reached this at exactly 29:50. Knowing I had to do that distance all over again at the same pace, or faster, made me really start to worry and push it.

The seconds were getting closer with each kilometre! My body was aching, eyes watering from the cold wind and blisters throbbing still.

I finished with a time of exactly 59:00.

I can't even describe what an amazing feeling it was, reaching 10km and realizing after all of those failed attempts, and months of hard work, it finally happened.. I finally did it.

I may have done a couple (hundred) celebratory jumps in the air..

I know my goals may seem small to others, but they're big to me and finally achieving this felt like a huge accomplishment! Sure, most people can probably do the same run in way less time, but this shows huge improvement and is the reason I set these goals in the first place.

For now, I'm going to review my goals and make them even bigger.

Aim for the moon, that way if you fall, at least you'll land in the stars.

Keep reaching those goals friends,

The Rural Runner

Monday - this week starts out with a basic 8.05km run, an easy 6.4k and finish with the last 1.6k at a faster pace.

Tuesday - today was my first progression run, starting with 3.2k at an easy pace, then 4.8k increasing the pace as I went. The last 1.6k was cool down. I ended up doing 10km instead of 9.6 just to round it off and the run went fairly well, finishing with a time of 64 minutes. I posted about this run earlier in the week.

Someday soon I'll get my 10k to under an hour! I'm so close it's driving me nuts!

Wednesday - today's run was another 8.05km run at a steady pace. I also worked for the Remembrance Day parade today, and ended up with a couple HUGE blisters on my heels from my dress uniform. This unfortunately led to me to not being able to run for the rest of the week because I lost so much skin. Talk about sad panda :(

Thursday - today was scheduled for cross training, and I took the bike for a spin because it didn't bother my heels at all. I also posted about this workout earlier this week, and really enjoyed it so I will definitely be biking again!

Friday - another 8.05k run was scheduled for today.. That didn't get done :( stupid injuries setting me back. On the bright side.. It could be worse.. Skin heals pretty fast luckily!

Saturday - today was supposed to be my long run of the week - 16.1km. That didn't happen.. My heels were still pretty bad.. I could feel my heart beat in the blister so I figured it was best to give it some more time before pushing it or making the injury worse. Not running for 4 days takes a lot out of you mentally when you know you're supposed to be training but just can't. But.. It's always best to heal first and not risk it though. So I sucked it up and waited to run.

I did however do a workout today to make up for my lack of exercise..

3 rounds of:

- 30 triceps dips

- 30 push-ups

- 30 squats

- 40 crunches

- pull ups to failure

My upper body is still sore!

Ps new under armour pants! They're crazy comfy and kept me warm on my run Sunday.

Sunday - each week, this is my rest day. This week however, I was feeling guilty about not running for what felt like ALL week, and figured if I put some blister pads on my heels I would be okay to run.. So, to make up for the long run I missed, I did the 16.1k that had been scheduled for Saturday.

I was so happy to finally get back out there, and the weather was cooperating perfectly. My mom even came along biking beside me! We chatted the entire way and it was wonderful having someone to carry my water and snacks, hehe. I maintained a very steady pace around 6.30 km, without stopping once to walk.. Which is huge for me, considering normally whenever I hit anything past 8k I need to slow down for a minute. That's an hour and 45 minutes running without walking and I was pretty darn excited!

We did however stop for a minute when we hit the halfway point, so mom could find a bathroom and I could chow down on a vanilla flavoured Gu.

I always think it's a good idea to try out whatever you'll be using race day.. before race day. This goes for everything.. Supplementation/nutrition, sneakers, clothes.. Everything. Planning ahead and doing a run through, so you will be prepared on race day, is always a good idea.

The Gu went down easily and caused absolutely no problems with my stomach (happily surprised about that). And I actually enjoyed the flavour. The texture is a little weird.. It's thicker than pudding. And mine was a little cold because of the outside temp, so I think that made it a bit tastier. After I ate it, it wasn't like a had a huge jump in energy, but instead I was able to maintain my pace without feeling tired or having a crash, which was great. I'll definitely be continuing to use these in the future.

I also was able to practice on some obstacles while waiting for mom.. 18 days until the Miami Spartan race sprint! Must be prepared because I do not want to do any 30 burpee penalties.

Yes, I am also somewhat of a child when it come to playgrounds. Can't help myself!

Once mom returned, we were back on the trail to finish our run/bike. I know I'm still slow, but I'm so happy with my improvements so far! Even though I'm sad I wasn't able to do the entire 49.9k scheduled this week, I'm glad I didn't push it with my injury. During the long run on Sunday my blisters didn't even bother me since a had the bandages on so now I'm ready to make up for lost time!

This week coming will be my training week 4.. Things step up a notch now and I'm due for 62.8km for the week. I'll be posting later in the week about my schedule.

Until then,

Keep training friends

The Rural Runner

Yesterday my boyfriend Kirk drove from Cape Breton to meet me early in Halifax. We spent the morning wandering around a craft fair and shopping for Xmas presents, then headed downtown in the evening to find our race host hotel. After checking in, we found the race kit pick up area and grabbed our swag. The kit came with a nice bright long sleeve finisher shirt a magazine, a race sticker and our bibs. We were super excited when our race bibs all were personalized with our team name (Captain Kirk and his Crew) as well as our own names.

Holy moly they actually spelt my name right, haha. #impressed

I'll more than likely wear this shirt again, it's pretty nice.

After we picked up our race kits, we decided to head out to a restaurant downtown, and found a place called The Wooden Monkey. The food there was all organic and local, with plenty of vegan options. Kirk and myself both got the lentil burger and roasties (potato wedges with spices), if only I had taken a picture.. I need to work on my white girl skills.. Sorry.

It was delicious and just what we needed pre-race.. pretty healthy too, and while we were there we decided last minute to head over to the Scotiabank Center to catch the mooseheads hockey game (they won in overtime.. GO MOOSE GO!).

After the game we were pooped so we walked back to the hotel to catch some zzz's.

The next morning we woke up at 7am (my 630 alarm didn't go off.. Opps). Luckily the hotel was right by the race venue, and they had free breakfast, so we popped down to the lobby for some food, grabbed our jackets and blankets and headed to the hill.

The race was done in teams of 3, with each team member running 6.5 laps around Citadel Hill. This equals out to be 7km each. My leg was first at 8am, Erika was running second at 9am, and Kirk was our anchor running at 10am. We got to the top of Citadel Hill to see a big crown (with many people in costumes), music playing, and a generally excited and buzzing atmosphere! I instantly got pumped up to run. We found the Atlantic chip vehicle and strapped on the ankle for our timer.

It was clear skies with a slight chill from the very strong wind. I stripped some layers down and handed them off to Kirk to take care of while I ran the first leg. Standing on the start line, a mixture of pre-race jitters and excitement.. The horn blew and we were off. I wanted to open up and go full speed ahead, but remembering what Kirk had taught me, I held back at a steady pace to maintain energy and keep my heart rate under control.

Im behind bat girl in the white.. took my sweater off and threw it to Kirk after the first lap.
The race was going great, it was very scenic up top of the hill, and the route was relatively flat. Every lap around I would get excited all over again when I saw Kirk, Erika and our friend Lee there cheering me on. It was great motivation to carry on and keep pushing every lap. Only problem was one side was SO windy I could feel it pushing against me, and losing seconds off my pace.

My goal coming into the race was to finish in under 45 minutes. Checking the clock every lap, I knew I was close, but right on pace to hit my goal. Coming around on lap 6, the final lap, I was halfway and saw the clock timer was at 42 minutes. I had less than 3 minutes to get across the finish line on the other side or I wouldn't make my goal. Muttering a quick couple curse words under my breath, and knowing that my team was waiting for me at the finish line, I put the pedal to the metal and pushed my pace.

I reached the finish line just under my goal of 45 minutes! It was such an amazing feeling knowing I ran the entire way, and that I accomplished my goal.

Acting like a goof reaching the finish line.
Getting that medal put around my neck was a pretty good victory!

And it's a sweet medal (the 3 teammate medals attach at the bottom by magnets). Plus it makes me laugh that it says Hampton in is where I got lucky (we stayed there the night before haha).

Once my leg was done, we switched off and Erika took the timing strap and she was off to complete leg 2. Standing by the finish line cheering her on for every lap she did was super fun (even though we were freezing our asses off by this point). Erika finished at 38 minutes! By this point, the wind had picked up a lot more and was really strong on one entire side of the course. Luckily, speedy Gonzales was our last runner.

Kirk is the one leading the pack there in black (don't let the sunshine fool you, it was like 3 degrees and thousand km winds haha).

He cruised through his leg of the race,running the 7km in less that 29 minutes, even with the crazy wind (hello top 10 finish for Kirk!!). Now you understand why he was team captain.

It was such a fun day spent with friends, and everyone had an awesome time!

Go team Captain Kirk and his Crew! Erika ran with us again (she joined us for the Valley Harvest Half as well, and is a pretty strong runner). It was great to be reunited!

Here's us with our friend Lee, who I met at the Halifax spartan race in June. Oh the people you meet through running!

Victory is sweet! Especially when it's with people you love.

After the race, we walked back to the hotel to have the complimentary post race meal, then packed up, checked out and headed home.

Overall, the Lucky 7 Relay was a day well spent, and I would definitely recommend it as a fun relay to do with a team. Until next time..

Stay lucky friends,

The Rural Runner

The Rural Runner

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