Race Reports for 6/9 and Encouragement/Kudos!

[Maherae]

Yes, folks..it has happened...we have only events on Saturday!! Everyone enjoy their training/rest day, bur root for our WISH warriors that will be out there!

Saturday, 9th

cdn_gal_eeyore (Leana) Footstock 10K in Cochrane, Alberta
Sir Bouncealot (Andrew) & DW DJBounce (Darcey) Race for the Cure 5K in Moline, Illinois

Have fun, be safe, run well!!

:cheer2: GO! WISH TEAM GO! :cheer2:

[DianeL]

Go WISH!!!!!

Hope the weather is fine, the courses speedy and that everyone has a great time and gets excellent PRs :cheer2:

Best of luck!!!!

[Kristi1357]

:cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: Go WISHers! :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2:

[Optimator]

Good Luck everyone! Hoping for nice T-shirts and fine post-race food!

[nucpharm29]

GO WISH GO!!!

[scoolover]

Good luck everyone. I may have a 5K Sunday but after working two 16 hour shifts with 5 hours sleep, I may also skip it. Besides, it is called the "up against the wall 5K". Sounds scarry. :trembling knees:
Scott:)

[solotraveler]

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!!!!

[Mouse Skywalker]

Go Leana!!!

Go Andrew!!!

Go Darcey!!!

[wtpclc]

Go WISHers!!!:cheer2: :cheer2:

[msblrobs]

GO WISH TEAM GO!!!
Best of luck to Leana, Andrew & Darcey this weekend:woohoo: :cool1: :banana: !!

[cdn_gal_eeyore]

Good luck to our racers this weekend!

9 - cdn_gal_eeyore (Leana) Footstock 10K in Cochrane, Alberta
9 - monte (Monica) 31st annual Run the Rockies 1/2 marathon
9 - Sir Bouncealot (Andrew) & DW DJBounce (Darcey) Race for the Cure 5K in Moline, Illinois

[Sir Bouncealot]

Let's Go Team WISH!!!:cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :yay: :yay: :yay: :banana: :banana: :banana:

[kareneast]

GOOD LUCK WISH TEAM!!!!
:cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2:

[chimera]

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

[Big Vic]

Good luck team!!

[Sir Bouncealot]

Waking up this morning and seeing the rays of sunlight filter through the blinds, I knew this was going to be a beautiful day. Went downstairs for a pre-race breakfast and check the local weather (49 deg F). Pretty chilly for a June morning in Iowa. DW came down and called her Mom and her sister getting the info on where to meet and when. Got our race clothes together, numbers on, chips tied in place, and iPods loaded and ready for the rockin'.
Met up with her Mom and Sis, headed across the river to Moline, Il and find a parking spot. Got to the starting area and heard the announcement that the race start was delayed for 15min due to an accident on the I-74 bridge (one of the bridges connecting the Iowa and Illinois Quad Cities). There were a lot of Pink shirts around signifying Breast Cancer survivors, and even more Pink signs on shirts commemorating those in remembrance. I saw a mother and her two daughters in matching tanks, on the back said Mom, and her daughters read "We" and "Can". I saw a big guy (about the size of Big Vic) with a shirt that said "Real Men Wear Pink", I was not about to argue that point. The emotion was that of celebration and awareness, as well as comraderie, we were all here together, for this reason. I found out after the race that all proceeds from our local 5K went to mammograms for those women that cannot afford one otherwise, as well as community education. My $22 was very well spent. The race started and I began walking with my crew (DW, MiL, SiL), looking for the mat to start my chip, passing the starting line, I still did not see one, so I started running. I weaved through other racers as I was getting my pace up to where I felt fast enough, but still comfortable to keep it up for 3.1 miles. There were lines and lines of volunteers, cheering sections, people holding up signs of freinds, family, loved ones for whom this race signifies a lasting memorial. My iPod kicking out my most favorite, most motivating, most rockin'getyourbloodpumpingandlegswhipping songs I had on my playlist. I ran past the turn off for the 1 mile fun runners and continued on with my other 5kers. It was a pretty flat course and by that time it had warmed up, with a full sun in the sky, no clouds at all...a pretty magnificent day. I'm sure the glare off of my bright neon yellow WISH shirt could be seen from the heavens. Eventually I saw the last turn into the finishing area and kicked it up to use the last of what I left in the tank and crossed over the chip mat hearing the beeping sounds of success over my iPod. I could har the announcer calling out names as I went over to have my chip removed and grab a water and banana while I waited for my crew. There was a volunteer with head shaved for a mother going through chemo who lost her own hair, she told me I did a great job, I told her she did an even better one. Eventually my crew finished and we walked out of the finishers area and headed back to our cars to head home. I am glad I was able to change my schedule at work to be able to comete in this race as it meant a lot to more than just me. $22 was a small price to pay in comparison to the price others here today have had to endure.

Thank you for joining me for this new chapter in the journal of my quest to become a Marathoner. At least it was a short one, my finishing time was 28:09 for a 9:05/mile pace.
Congrats in advance to Leana and Monica in their own races today, I know they did great...they had the courage to start.

[cdn_gal_eeyore]

Andrew - Excellent race report. Congratulations to you and your family for completing the race. It is great to hear that it was such a positive experience for you!

:cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2:

[cdn_gal_eeyore]

Well, I just got back from my 10K race out in Cochrane this morning. Cochrane is about 15 min north of Calgary. According to my training plan today was supposed to be an 8 mile run, so I drove out a bit early to get the additional 1.8 miles in. I ran that in 19:17 (10:43/mi). I then drove out to the start of the race.

They had quite a few events going on today - a full and half marathon, a 10K and a 5K. Tomorrow they are having a kids tri and an adult du as well. The marathoners started off at 8 am, then all the 10K folks started lining up for our 8:20 start.
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u85/lkketo/Footstock%2010K/Footstock003.jpg
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u85/lkketo/Footstock%2010K/Footstock005.jpg

The race started off on the road, and the one and only hill was in the first mile for us to climb.
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u85/lkketo/Footstock%2010K/Footstock006.jpg

Only one side of the road was shut down for us, and unfortunately some drivers were impatient and didn't understand the need to slow down as they were driving past us. Luckily we made it off the roads pretty quickly and were on to Cochrane's red shale pathway that runs all along the Bow River. It was absolutely beautiful out, sunny, but not too hot. The 10K course overlapped a bit with the full and half marathoners which was pretty neat. There were also great spectators and volunteers out there. I really appreciated all of their cheering! We did an out and back on the pathway, and as you can see on the way back it started to thin out quite a bit.
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u85/lkketo/Footstock%2010K/Footstock007.jpg

When I realized we were close to the finish line I kicked it into overdrive for what I could muster for a last sprint. I passed a couple of people, but all of a sudden....whoosh....past me....flew the 4th place half marathon finisher. Holy smokes he was fast!!! I'm not sure of the official results yet, but I recorded 1:05:39 for a 10:36/mi average pace. I shaved a bit of time off my last 10K, and that was with the 2 mile warm up beforehand!

After the race was probably one of the best spreads I have seen...a pancake breakfast with sausage and coffee!
http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u85/lkketo/Footstock%2010K/Footstock008.jpg
They also had bagels, bananas, oranges, cookies, juice boxes and yogurt as well. I saw the medals for the half and they were super cute, plus they got really nice technical tees. I may add this one in for next year. I got to see the medal for my upcoming Calgary half (well, last year's medal anyway), and I have to say that the Footstock medal greatly trumped the medal from the Calgary half...sniff.

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u85/lkketo/Footstock%2010K/Footstock001.jpg

All in all, a great morning.

Good luck Monica!

[SilverE]

Andrew: Congratulations to you and your crew; sounded like a nice race promoting a excellent cause.

Leana: Great effort. And really cool blog!

[Big Vic]

Andrew - Congrats, and a great time!

Leana - Congrats! Love the pics!

[Tiger Lily 03]

Monica said on "The Calendar" thread that she got her event nixed today by the doc that is treating her.

Monica, hope you are better soon.

Leana, good pics and a good race report.

Andrew, glad you and DW had a good event. The Race for the Cure events are are amazing to be part of and provide definite motivation for me. We don't get chips for ours. We participate and keep track of our own time.

[Tiger Lily 03]

And, since we had two WISH Team members working on making sure our WISH Team was having support by starting the threads, I figured it would be ok to merge the two threads.

Hope it is ok with you.

[chimera]

Leana...great job on your race and really cool pictures!

Andrew...now what were you saying the other day about needing a crash cart for a 9 minute pace? Great job on your race!

[Mouse Skywalker]

Andrew- Great race, great report, and great time! What a good cause you were running for too. Congratulations on your next step to become a marathoner.

Leana- Also a great race and time. The pictures were beautiful. Thanks for posting them.

[nucpharm29]

Andrew--great race and report!!!

Leana--great race and love all the pictures--yummy breakfast!

[hockeygirl]

Andrew-Great job on you race!!! Sounds like a really great race.

Leana--Great job on your race!! I love the pictures, looks like a beautiful race course.

[princessmomma]

Andrew, great race report!:banana:

Leana, great work! Love that pancake breakfast/post run food!

[bekkiz]

Bad me for not putting in that calendar....but....

I did my first 5K this morning! It was the Seattle Furry 5K that supports the Seattle animal shelter. People are encouraged to bring their dogs, and after the race there was a pet expo and pet tricks contest. I chose this one because I knew it wasn't super competative and scary--a good first timer's race.

It didn't start until 10 am, so I spent the morning puttering around the house and hitting the grocery store. Also took my dog for a walk (1.1 miles. He wasn't coming with us because he has some on-leash issues that would be a huge deal with so many other dogs and people).

We had to park about .65 miles away, but that was a nice little (downhill) warm up. We arrived around 9:30 and picked up our race numbers and goody bags, although we handed the bags right back because we didn't want to carry it around OR walk it back to the car. We just sort of hung around looking at all of the different dogs playing around.

The start was sort of confusing. Runners (aka people who elected to be timed with the chip thing) were meant to start at 10 and walkers (no chip/no timing) were going to start at 10:10. We had decided to be walkers because I didn't want to get in any runners way, and we have a garmin to time us anyway. We stood off to the side and the announced the runners to start. However, it looked like pretty much anyone could start then, as tons of people with the green (walker) numbers just went. We waited about 6 minutes before deciding to just go too, as we did not want to get stuck behind the huge throng of people coming.

The first mile was CRAZY. I had hoped to hold a 15:15 for the first mile, but knew if would be difficult because of the people, dogs, stollers etc. I pulled out my best tourist ducking moves and zig zagged around (I was really happy at this point to not have a dog!) DH said I took off like a rocket. When we finally got ahead of most the crowd, I realized we had been doing like a 13 minute pace! A little fast for me, but I felt ok. We slowed down slightly and the first mile was 13:50.

Mile 1.5-2.0 was a long slightly steep hill. I was doing ok, but certainly not going that fast :) DH charged up it though. The nice part was the downhill return was a little longer, and it was a good recovery area. We actually jogged down for part of it.

Last .5 mile or so was flat again into the finish line. It was really fun to cross one, I've never done that before. There were loads of people cheerings. So fun!

My total time was 44:26, or a 14:17 pace. I usually go 3 miles during a workout, so the distance was comfortable, but that was A LOT faster then I tend to go. Like I said, I would have been pretty happy with a 15 or 15:15 mile. This was much better.

The expo was cute, but I was tired and wanted to get out of there. The walk back up to the car was KILLER! The hill was very steep, and again, about .65 miles. Even DH, who rarely complains about walking, was super bummed about it :lmao:

I cannot wait to try something like this again! I esp. can't wait for the 1/2 in January. The energy of this type of event is awesome, and I can't wait to experiance it again :)

[Big Vic]

bekkiz - Congrats!

[cdn_gal_eeyore]

Bekkiz - Congratulations on your first race! It sounds like a great event. I couldn't ever take my dogs to anything like that either - Maggie wants to bark at all the dogs that are bigger than her.... I find that my race pace too is faster than my training runs. Chalk it up to the race day adrenalin! Way to go!

[Sir Bouncealot]

bekkiz - Way to go on your first 5K!!! That last uphill walk back to your car was something you could definately do without. Great Job!!

[Tiger Lily 03]

bekkiz, Congratulations! on your first event. What a smart one to pick.

Great report. You will so be feeding off the excitement for that half. You'll have no trouble at all.

[msblrobs]

Bekkiz - Congrats on a great first race:cheer2: !! Glad it inspired you to consider your next racing endeavor.

Andrew - Wonderfully inspiring race report:woohoo: . Glad you guys had a great time.

Leana - Awesome race report with pics:cool1: :woohoo: !!

[kareneast]

Andrew – Nice finish time. Congratulations to you and Darcy!:woohoo:
Leana – Congratulations! Nice photos.:thumbsup2
Bekkiz – Congratulations on your first 5k!:yay:

[Cindylou]

Andrew: Congratulations on a good time and helping a great cause.

Leana: Thanks for the pictures. Congrats on your race.

Bekkiz: I'm glad that your first race was such a positive experience. Be careful, it can be addicting. Congrats on your good time.

Cindy