Every Mile is a Miracle

jennamfeo

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Aug 25, 2017
Hello, I'm Jenna and welcome to my journey.

About me: I am a wife, mom, Navy Veteran, West Coast desert-dweller, certified Sommelier, beer hoarder, pizza connoisseur, and a wannabe triathlete.

I ran my first 5k race exactly five years ago today, so I think that's a good enough reason to start a training journal.
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I don’t have any details from that race except: it was a Color Run that a bunch of friends talked myself and my husband into doing, I “trained” for about a month, my pace was probably like 13:00 m/m, and I wanted to die the whole time (I remember that clearly).

And so began my love for running!
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Just kidding.

Fast forward a few months to February 2013 when I actually decided to start running regularly. I figured, I have running shoes now, may as well run. I started with a run streak doing at least a mile a day. These are actual one of my favorite things to incorporate into my training plans because I do notice a difference from when I start to when I stop. But I kind of started getting burnt out on running after 3 weeks, so I pulled my rusty old Schwinn bike out of the garage and gave it a ride. I then swapped between running and biking for my daily workouts. I was a stay at home mom, with a work from home husband, and a one year old. I actually had so much time to train it was insane. So sometime in June I decided, “Hey, lemme do a Triathlon!” I signed up for a Triathlon for that year in October and also joined a swim club. I didn’t need help with my swim portion, I grew up a swimmer. I just enjoy it more than the others and wanted some comradery. I met some great people who were also doing the Triathlon I signed up for which was nice. I spent most of my summer doing brick workouts of running and biking, plus swimming twice a week. Come to think of it, this was the most training I had ever done for any race even now. By the time October rolled around I was in the best shape of my adult life. I lost tons of weight. It was awesome. I crushed my Triathlon and had a blast doing it. So much so, that I signed up for another one immediately that was only 3 weeks later. And I did even better at that one! So at that point, I knew that I had what it took in me to do whatever I put my mind to. I may not be the best, but I was a finisher and that was good enough for me!
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Then at the end of 2013, one of my photography clients who was following me on Instagram asked how my Triathlons went and then mentioned to me to check out the runDisney events. She told me all about the Dumbo Double Dare, so after her family session I googled it. I told my husband about it and how I was interested in the challenge and he told me to sign up. I remember my client Casey telling me about how you have to sign up the day it comes out because it will sell out, so I did! Boom. I was going to run a Half Marathon!

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At this point, I knew I needed a training plan, so I just winged it. Which meant I don’t think I even made a plan and then I didn’t train and then I ran a 10k and Half with no training and didn’t die. (Not recommended.)

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During that race weekend I decided that the Disneyland 10k was in fact the happiest race on the planet (I still stand by that) and that I would never do a Half Marathon again in my life (10ks 4eva).
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In 2015, I signed up for just the Disneyland 10k with my husband and then regretted not doing the challenge.
In 2016, I signed up for the Disneyland 5k & 10k, in hopes that maybe just running two races that weekend would make me feel better (it didn’t). After that race weekend I said:
“OKAY I AM GETTING MY COAST TO COAST NEXT YEAR.”
In 2017, I did the Pixie Dust Challenge and the Wine & Dine Two Course Challenge. I got all the medals. I did all the races. And because runDisney decided to ruin my life, I did the Avenger’s Super Hero Half Marathon to get one last Disneyland race medal. I went from “never running a Half Marathon again” to running THREE in one year.

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With the runDisney bug out of my system (for now, until I convince myself I can do the Dopey, and save the money to prove it), I am ready to focus on races outside of my comfort zone. With people who don’t wear tutus and costumes. With people who are actual runners. On courses I can really break some PRs at!

And that is the end of my long-winded introduction. If you read this far, maybe you should pick up a hobby. Running is kind of fun.
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*GOALS*
2018:
- Run at least 33 miles every month
- Complete three 33 day run streaks this year
- Do a Triathlon
- Run a Vacation Races Series Half Marathon
- Sub:25 5k
- Sub:60 10k
- Sub 2:20 Half Marathon
- Run 750 Miles total
- Bike 500 Miles total
- Swim once a week


*PERSONAL RECORDS*
5k – 27:15 (3/25/18)
10k – 1:03:11 (5/13/17)
Half Marathon – 2:02:11 (10/7/18)
Marathon – N/A
Sprint Triathlon – 1:47:33 (11/10/13)
 
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*RACE SCHEDULE & RECAPS*

2017:

November 18, 2017 - 29th Annual Havasu Turkey Trot 5k, Lake Havasu, AZ || Goal: 29:29, Actual: 27:53 (PR!!)
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/58485375


2018:
January 13, 2018 - Rock N Roll Arizona 5k, Tempe, AZ || Goal: 35:00, Actual: 34:23
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/58690450

January 14, 2018 - Rock N Roll Arizona Half Marathon, Tempe, AZ || Goal: 2:26:32, Actual: 2:22:22 (PR!!)
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/58690450

January 20, 2018 – Run with Balloons 5k, Lake Havasu, AZ || Goal: NG, Actual: 32:30
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/58717998

January 27, 2018 - Sandie's Pass 5k, Lake Havasu, AZ || Goal: NG, Actual: 33:25

February 24, 2018 - Red Rock Canyon Half Marathon, Las Vegas, NV || Goal: 2:11:12, Actual: 2:25:53
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/58866293

March 25, 2018 - Carlsbad All Day 20k, Carlsbad, CA || Goal: 2:10:30, Actual: 2:05:20, PLUS: 5k PR 27:15
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/58998963

March 21, 2018 - Race Against Cancer 5k, Phoenix, AZ || Goal: NG, Actual: 30:51

April 7, 2018 - Impact 5k, Lake Havasu, AZ || Goal: NG, Actual: 31:23

May 6, 2018 - Spring Recycled 10k, Henderson, NV || Goal: 59:59, Actual: 1:01:51 (PR!!)
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/59190164

August 25, 2018 - Gaspin' In The Aspen 15k, Flagstaff, AZ || Goal: NG, Actual: 1:55:30 (PR!!)
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/59667393

September 29, 2018 - Fighting Knights 5k, Lake Havasu City, AZ || Goal: NG, Actual: 29:02
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/59804676

October 7, 2018 - Oregon Women's Half, Eugene, OR || Goal: 1:59:59, Actual: 2:02:11 (PR!!)
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/59842878

November 11, 2018 - Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half, Las Vegas, NV || 2:22:00 & Booze, Actual: 2:26:09 & Booze
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/59968743

November 17, 2018 - 30th Annual Turkey Trot 5k, Lake Havasu City, AZ || Goal: 2nd place AG, Actual: 26:26 (course PR!!) & 2nd place AG!!
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/59968836

December 8, 2018 - 12ks of Christmas, Gilbert, AZ || Goal: 1:19:00, Actual: 1:15:03
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/60054719

December 9, 2018 - Scottsdale Half Marathon, Scottsdale, AZ || Goal: 2:15:00, Actual: 2:12:38
Recap: https://www.disboards.com/posts/60054896

2019:
January 10, 2019 - WDW 5k, Orlando, FL || Goal: N/A, Actual: 31:17

January 11, 2019 - WDW 10k, Orlando, FL || Goal: N/A, Actual: 1:27:27

January 12, 2019 - WDW Half Marathon, Orlando, FL || Goal: N/A, Actual: 2:38:21

January 13, 2019 - WDW Marathon, Orlando, FL || Goal: N/A, Actual: 6:34:31

April 6, 2019 - Impact 5k, Lake Havasu, AZ || Goal: N/A, Actual: 31:48

April 26, 2019 - Revel Run Mt. Charleston, Las Vegas, NV || Goal: 1:59:59, Actual: 2:06:05

October 13, 2019 - Long Beach Marathon, Long Beach, CA || Goal: 4:59:59, Actual: 5:29:49 (PR!!)
 
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Congrats on starting a journal! Excited to follow along and see what the future holds for you!
 


Race Re-cap: November 18, 2017 - 29th Annual Havasu Turkey Trot 5k

I couldn’t sleep the night before. I don’t know why, I’m not like nervous for this 5k but the wind chime kept wind-chiming ALL. NIGHT. LONG. So I was worried that it was going to be windy during the race (I hate the wind). I get up and all seems fine on my side of town. I made a cute turkey outfit to wear because if runDisney taught me anything it’s that racing in a cute outfit makes your race more fun! As I am heading towards the island that the race is on, I just see the palm trees swaying. Oh great. It’s like suuuuper windy here. People are wearing pants and long sleeves and beanies. I’m here in shorts and a tank top and a tutu hahahahaha. Well whatever. At this point I’m just concerned about the wind ruining my goal time. Plus they only have medals for the first 50 people that cross the finish line and I WANT A MEDAL. Although I don’t even see 50 people here to race, so I just might get one. They were giving out race shirts, which was nice, but they were from the race they did 2 years ago. Hahaha.

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After going between my car and the crowd because it was just too cold for me to stand out there, the race was finally about to begin. I line up close to the front and off we go. The wind was against us at the beginning but I could see the curve where I knew the wind would be on my back and my pace definitely reflects that. Try as I might, my splits were anything but negative, but my overall pace was impressive. The course was around our island and through some parks I had never seen before, always nice to find new places in your city. They had one water station around mile 2 that I skipped because what’s one more mile without water? The last .5 miles were uphill and against the wind. I was hurting. There was a sweet old lady who I was pacing myself with. We kept passing each other but in the end she beat me. Partly I let her, partly I couldn’t push myself anymore lol. I get to the end, see my husband and daughter, and book it. He took video like the sweet, supportive husband he is. After grabbing my finisher medal (YAS) I check my phone and both Runkeeper and my Apple Watch say that I only ran around 3.08 but the race coordinator got me at 27:53 for a 5k which would make that a PR. Soooo who do I believe? Well the one who told me I PR’d of course.
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In the end, it was a pretty good race. I was turned off by the wind but still pushed myself. I kept checking my pace to make sure I was staying at a pace that I wanted. I averaged at about 9:10, total time of 27:53, finished 22nd overall (of about 60 people), and got 2nd place in my age group of 30-39! Plus a portion of the race price goes to our local recreation center. If this race happens again next year I will definitely do it. But I have to get my 5k time down. The girl who won in my age group and overall came in around 22 minutes.
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We are finally seeing a season change here in Arizona. It was freezing this morning when I forced myself to get out of bed and go for a quick mile run. My city is really hilly, so my husband and I coined a one mile loop around our house the "Challenger Mile" because you have to run up the street Challenger which is a huge hill. I wanted to make it a double loop but I got out of bed too late, oops.

I am not really on a training plan right now as I don't know exactly when my next scheduled race is. But I don't want to fall off the wagon completely -- especially during the holiday season.
 


Congrats on your PR and age group award! 3.08 is really close to 3.1. I'd be more worried if it was like 2.8
Also your "challange accepted" thing made me laugh because I'm guilty of that (except usually with the 5th or 6th or 10th place person etc.)

Good luck this year! I'm in denial on my age so I'll refrain from doing age based goals :)
 
Following along. Love the turkey outfit! Congrats on the PR and the 2nd place. I totally feel you could handle Dopey, I'm gonna give it a shot and not nearly as athletic as you. But completely understand the financial savings. I probably could have bought a car for the cost of the 4 of us running and staying at marathon weekend. Oh well it the words of a mastercard commercial the accomplishment will be priceless.
 
Congrats on your PR and age group award! 3.08 is really close to 3.1. I'd be more worried if it was like 2.8
Also your "challange accepted" thing made me laugh because I'm guilty of that (except usually with the 5th or 6th or 10th place person etc.)

Good luck this year! I'm in denial on my age so I'll refrain from doing age based goals :)
Thank you!! :) As for the age group, the woman who got third place in the age group above mine came in before me, which I found funny.

Following along. Love the turkey outfit! Congrats on the PR and the 2nd place. I totally feel you could handle Dopey, I'm gonna give it a shot and not nearly as athletic as you. But completely understand the financial savings. I probably could have bought a car for the cost of the 4 of us running and staying at marathon weekend. Oh well it the words of a mastercard commercial the accomplishment will be priceless.
Thanks for following! I made the Turkey outfit the night before the race. Thanks to runDisney I can't help but dress up, but there were other Turkeys out there too, so I fit in. ;)
 
I love that photo of the medals around your glass! I’m inspired so you might see me steal the photo idea. :)

Great job on the race!!
 
What I want to do tomorrow morning before I eat my weight in sides & pie:
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What I will most likely look like in the morning while I bail on that idea:
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As predicted, I did zero amounts of running at all during the holiday weekend.
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I had a little regret on Thanksgiving day that I didn't go run, then I had even more regret when the Runner's World Run Streak started without me because I totally forgot about it. On our drive home from Vegas to AZ, I finished listening to Harry Potter book 4 on audiobook and decided to listen to some Podcasts. I put on the Mickey Miles interview with Brandon from west coast runDisney/Advanced Running Project because I am a glutton for punishment. I realized that I am not over the closure of the runDisney races because I cried again. Mainly when they started talking about how runDisney is a great gateway to new runners which is why I am who I am today. Then I put on the Runner World's new podcast Personal Best and they did an interview with Bart Yasso, which made me cry more. (I'm emotional, don't judge, haha.) But mostly these podcasts motivated me to not be upset that I took a weekend off, but to get back at it this morning. So I did....

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I did snooze and sleep an extra hour, but I still got in the 2 miles on my hilly route that I wanted to and I wasn't ~too~ late to work because of it. I am working on my training plan for the month and will update that here soon. I hope everyone had an amazing weekend!
 
64 degrees and a jacket????? That's shorts weather :)

Congrats on getting back out there. That cat and I had a lot in common a week ago.

PS I just started reading Harry Potter book #1 to my daughter. She wants me to get to the scary part with Voldemort already (she's seen the first movie once and I thought she'd be terrified but she's way into the spooky stuff.) We've made it to chapter three. :)
 
64 degrees and a jacket????? That's shorts weather :)
A) It's been colder most mornings, so I just assumed.
B) It was a new jacket and I wanted to try it out, haha.
C) It wasn't so bad during the first mile, but that second mile was toasty.

My husband and I are listening to them together for the first time ever. (I am kicking myself for not reading them when they came out.) My 5 year old will be in the car with us when we do sometimes, and she was not a fan of listening to the "unicorn part" haha. It's such an amazing story and I can't wait until mine is old enough to read the books.
 
A) It's been colder most mornings, so I just assumed.
B) It was a new jacket and I wanted to try it out, haha.
C) It wasn't so bad during the first mile, but that second mile was toasty.

My husband and I are listening to them together for the first time ever. (I am kicking myself for not reading them when they came out.) My 5 year old will be in the car with us when we do sometimes, and she was not a fan of listening to the "unicorn part" haha. It's such an amazing story and I can't wait until mine is old enough to read the books.

And that unicorn part is my kiddo's favorite part...she's like "where's the part about the unicorn blood?" I'm just like "really? You don't want me to read you about buying wands or owls?"
She's 5 years old...and I'm mostly reading the books to her so that I can teach her to sit still. I'm sure I'll be re-reading them to her at some point when her attention span gets longer :)
 
Have you guys ever heard of the Wizard People Dear Reader version? It's totally NSFW/kids, but it's hysterical. You can find it on YouTube - it's several different recordings (chapters) but there are a couple of places that they're all centralized to go through them easily. It's synced to the movie, so you CAN watch it, but we always teed it up (prior to our kiddo) in the car for road trips and just listened to it as if it were an audiobook.
 
We are also Harry Potter fans. I even did some of the virtual runs to get the medals, had to have the 9 3/4 one. I highly recommend vacations to Universal, my kids loved it (although are a bit older) more than Disney. The attention to detail is awesome and the wands that actual make spells work in the park although so expensive were totally worth it. Now if they could just do an actually run through potter world, right?
 
Have you guys ever heard of the Wizard People Dear Reader version? It's totally NSFW/kids, but it's hysterical. You can find it on YouTube - it's several different recordings (chapters) but there are a couple of places that they're all centralized to go through them easily. It's synced to the movie, so you CAN watch it, but we always teed it up (prior to our kiddo) in the car for road trips and just listened to it as if it were an audiobook.
No, I have not! But I will definitely look into it, sounds awesome!

We are also Harry Potter fans. I even did some of the virtual runs to get the medals, had to have the 9 3/4 one. I highly recommend vacations to Universal, my kids loved it (although are a bit older) more than Disney. The attention to detail is awesome and the wands that actual make spells work in the park although so expensive were totally worth it. Now if they could just do an actually run through potter world, right?
We are waiting to go to Universal since we still have the books to finish and the movies to watch and for our daughter to get a bit older. But it's definitely on our to-do list. I have seen the virtual races through Hogwarts Running Club (I think that's what they are called) but I haven't done them yet. I feel like I can't call myself a true fan until I finish the books. Haha. Then I will pick a house and geek out.
 

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