In Every Run That Must Be Done; There is an Element of Fun (comments welcome)

[avondale]

Congratulations! Great job!

 

[Naomeri]

13 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

Now that the WRC 10 Miler is in the books, it’s almost time for my next race—only 2 weeks away!

Other than being tired, I’m feeling perfectly fine today. I’ve got a short easy run tomorrow, so we’ll see how my feet are really feeling.

I didn’t do much today— we went to my great aunt’s for more garage sale set-up, then came home and my grandma helped me reorganize my closet a bit. All my race shirts ended up rolled up in plastic bins and put on the bottom of a couple of my bookshelves, which isn’t ideal, but it’s better than having them stacked up in the floor.

After dinner, I went out to see if any chipmunks were braving the chilly evening. I found a few down in the woods.

Gus didn’t want to come out and eat





But Fern was happy to, climbing on King’s tree to do it (since King wasn’t around)



Here’s Fern in his namesake habitat



And then there’s this sweet, goofy boy







2022 workout data to date: 128h 53m 18s of exercise; 56,119 active calories burned; 68,367 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

12 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

Today’s easy run was good. I had a little tightness in one calf, but it worked itself out pretty quickly.



My chipmunks were being a bit bratty tonight and tried to chomp on me a couple time (but I was too quick for them to draw blood). So there are no new pictures of chipmunks. But I had some orioles on the patio today.

Mama was stealing cocoa fiber for nesting material



And papa was sampling the hummingbird nectar because his jelly dish on the deck was empty



2022 workout data to date: 129h 23m 55s of exercise; 56,372 active calories burned; 68,672 total calories burned

 

[Cabius]

Just discovered this journal, and let me say first: CONGRATS on your new PR!!

But also, those chipmunk pictures are amazing. We have a 'pet' squirrel named Elsa who comes to our backdoor to be fed by hand (though she doesn't perch on our hands). I thought we were the only ones! What an absolute delight. <3

 

[Naomeri]

Just discovered this journal, and let me say first: CONGRATS on your new PR!!

But also, those chipmunk pictures are amazing. We have a 'pet' squirrel named Elsa who comes to our backdoor to be fed by hand (though she doesn't perch on our hands). I thought we were the only ones! What an absolute delight. <3

The chipmunks are adorable (and mildly annoying ) but the best thing is that they encourage me to get up and move during the workday.

 

[Naomeri]

9 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

This week has been a mess!! I didn’t get to run on Tuesday because there was some confusion about what we were doing for dinner, and by the time we got it figured out, it was time to eat, and I know better than to run after dinner. And then it was raining on Wednesday, so definitely no running. And then today, I was out at my great-aunt’s garage sale all day, running the cash box, and sitting in a somewhat terrible chair and I could barely walk upright, let alone run.

But tomorrow, I get off work 2 hours early for the holiday weekend, and no one else will be around to bother me, so I’m going to run. And I think I’ll be able to run again Saturday morning, before going out to the garage sale again.

I’ve got some chipmunk pictures from Tuesday.









2022 workout data to date: 130h 51m 23s of exercise; 57,015 active calories burned; 69,405 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

8 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

Well, I ran today, but it wasn’t great. This weird spring weather is messing with me. I spent yesterday at the garage sale shivering in a coat and gloves, and today running in a tank and capris and overheating. I’m going to try again tomorrow morning, assuming I feel good when I wake up. Luckily, the forecast for next weekend’s race is low of 55 and high of 70, so the morning hours should be nice.



No chipmunk pictures today, but I did see a bunny down in the woods, being very helpful and clearing up some fallen leaves.





2022 workout data to date: 131h 47m 32s of exercise; 57,461 active calories burned; 69,944 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

5 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

This garage sale is a PITA and throws off my whole schedule. I didn’t get to run Saturday, but I did manage 45 minutes on the bike, and another 30 minutes on Sunday. I didn’t think I was going to be able to run today either, with storms in the morning and the evening, but I charged up my running light and got out after dark. It was still pretty humid, but without the sun, the heat was reasonable. I did 2 laps of the neighborhood in an hour and felt pretty good.





When I was out feeding chipmunks yesterday, there was a little toad that hopped across my path. The chipmunks weren’t sure what to do about it



We also had a little red squirrel taking a rest on our deck railing.



Today, I decided to name this chipmunk “Roo” because he’s very friendly, eager, and capable of jumping higher than any of my other chipmunks.



2022 workout data to date: 134h 8m 51s of exercise; 58,414 active calories burned; 71,134 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

4 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

I didn’t have time to run in the time between work and dinner, and by the time dinner was settled enough for a workout, I was too tired to run. Also, I’m not sure if the glue on my running light is fully dry yet; it kept tipping too far down on Monday night and only showing the ground immediately in front of me, instead of the road ahead, making it hard to see potential obstacles (like the sticks I almost got tangled in).

Since I couldn’t run outside, and was too tired to run in general, I decided to do some cycling and walking. The plan was to do 20 minutes on the bike, 20 minutes walking on the treadmill, and then 20 more minutes on the bike, but after 10 minutes on the treadmill, I was getting an irritation on one foot, so I stopped. I didn’t want to risk a blister with the half coming up on Saturday. The shoes I was wearing today have given me blisters in the past (but they’ve also not given me blisters at other times, so ).

We had quite few fallen sticks and branches after the storms on Monday—this is only some of them. Thankfully, most of the stuff was just dead things, and the one big live one that fell landed in empty space in the woods.



2022 workout data to date: 135h 2m 15s of exercise; 58,696 active calories burned; 71,507 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

3 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

I was really bored at work today, and then as soon as I was off, there were a million things to get done. I needed to go pick up my bib and shirt for Saturday’s race, and my grandma had asked me to pick up some stuff on the way home, so I originally planned to do that on my own, but since she had been busy all day and still needed to do some grocery shopping, she came along and we did everything in one trip. Then we had to make a pasta salad for her to take to the second weekend of the garage sale at her sister’s house. Then I did my dumbbell workout.

After that, I noticed that one of my grandma’s mosaic gazing balls in the garden that I added solar fairy lights to wasn’t lit up, so I went out to see if I could fix it. It turns out that some of her stupid plants had overgrown the solar panel, so I tried to move it, but the cord was stuck on the gazing ball stand, so I lifted up the gazing ball, but it slipped and rolled down the hill, trailing fairy lights the whole way. The ball ended up all the way at the edge of our woods, about 20-30 feet beyond where the fairy light trail ran out. So I had to walk back up the hill while holding a little flashlight in my mouth and feeding fairy lights back into the ball. I finally got the ball put back together, and the solar panel moved out from under the plant, so it should charge up tomorrow and be pretty again.

This is the gazing ball that was lighting up properly tonight



And this is what the one that decided to roll down the hill is supposed to look like at night



This morning, I learned an important lesson: don’t feed chipmunks until after the grass dries out, unless you like paw prints on your hand.



King was being standoffish and just watching me from his tree.



Since King wasn’t coming down, Rocky came over and climbed halfway up the tree to take advantage of the food on offer.



King came partway down, but still wouldn’t come to get his food from my hand.



Duchess wasn’t happy about the wind, so she wanted to stay close to the rock wall.





2022 workout data to date: 135h 25m 43s of exercise; 58,886 active calories burned; 71,724 total calories burned

 

[Naomeri]

2 Days Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

Well, I didn’t get to run today, it was much too windy when I got off work, and by the time the wind died down, I had a sore muscle in my back, so I opted for yoga instead.

The organizers for Saturday’s race sent out an email, and they said “no earbuds.” Well, nuts to that, I’m not spending 3+ hours listening to nothing but my breathing and footfalls, I’ll go mad. If they don’t like it, they can give me my medal and I’ll go run 13.1 miles on my own. Also, they’re not closing the roads, and we have to run single file?! I have a feeling I’m going to hate this. Oh, and it might rain. Yay



Because of the wind, I didn’t find many chipmunks out and about today, but Roo popped out for food one of the times I walked by his hole.



My grandma and I planted some flowers in the deck planters tonight, and Lucy had to come out to help us.



2022 workout data to date: 135h 57m 43s of exercise; 59,111 active calories burned; 71,982 total calories burned

 

[HangWithMerida]

Good luck on your race! Can you do 1 earbud? They are probably saying no earbuds as a safety precaution because the roads aren’t closed. Honestly, no road closure seems really weird for a HM. I have done some shorter races where they coned off 1 lane but didn’t close the road completely But for longer distances, they have had roads fully closed with cops at the traffic crossings. Maybe you’ll get lucky and it will turn out there is a coned off lane at least.
As for rain, embrace the rain!! There is something magical about racing in the rain. It seems to bring out a different type of camaraderie. At those temps it won’t feel cold once you are running. Staying dry until the start will be the only challenge. And you never know, 50% is definitely within the window of potentially seeing no rain or minimal rain.

 

[Naomeri]

Good luck on your race! Can you do 1 earbud? They are probably saying no earbuds as a safety precaution because the roads aren’t closed. Honestly, no road closure seems really weird for a HM. I have done some shorter races where they coned off 1 lane but didn’t close the road completely But for longer distances, they have had roads fully closed with cops at the traffic crossings. Maybe you’ll get lucky and it will turn out there is a coned off lane at least.
As for rain, embrace the rain!! There is something magical about racing in the rain. It seems to bring out a different type of camaraderie. At those temps it won’t feel cold once you are running. Staying dry until the start will be the only challenge. And you never know, 50% is definitely within the window of potentially seeing no rain or minimal rain.

I keep my music low enough that I can hear traffic or people talking, so I’m not too worried about safety. I wouldn’t mind the rain, except for needing to see through my glasses. I’ll have a visor on, so hopefully my face can stay dry.

 

[HangWithMerida]

I keep my music low enough that I can hear traffic or people talking, so I’m not too worried about safety. I wouldn’t mind the rain, except for needing to see through my glasses. I’ll have a visor on, so hopefully my face can stay dry.

A visor will do the trick unless it is blowing sideways. That’s what I use for rain runs. The last race I did, it was pouring at packet pickup (though it tapered to a sprinkle by race start) and almost everyone had no hat/visor. The ones who did were mostly the run club people. So, people probably more experienced with running in rain. People were standing around with water running down their faces. That looked miserable!

 

[azrivest]

Good luck for tomorrow! I also could not run without earbuds, I'd go nuts of boredom and exhaustion

 

[Naomeri]

1 Day Until: Lola’s Lake Waconia Half

Yay! The weather is looking dry for tomorrow!



I’ve got all my gear set out and a bag ready to grab and go. I decided to do yesterday’s skipped run today, and I’m glad I did. I sat down to put Body Glide on my feet and noticed this giant bruise on my right foot! I have no idea where it came from, but it didn’t seem to bother me during my run today. I might’ve freaked out a bit if I’d first seen it at 6 am tomorrow right before the race.



The run felt good, and I was trying to take it easy, but I might’ve been a bit fast. I’m feeling good about myself for tomorrow’s race, but I’m still a bit wary of the “run single file” bit. I don’t know how well that’s going to work for me doing run/walk. I’ll be sure to be diligent about signaling my walks, and trying to glance over my shoulder to make sure no one’s right behind me.



2022 workout data to date: 136h 28m 6s of exercise; 59,376 active calories burned; 72,298 total calories burned

 

[SheHulk]

good luck!

 

[JAMIESMITH]

Good luck!

 

[xjillianpaige]

Happy race day! Good luck!

 

[Naomeri]

Lola’s Lake Waconia Half: Race Report

I’m never running this course again!! I don’t care that I smashed my PR (by 12 minutes if you go by a 1:1 comparison, since the previous PR was virtual, so I stopped at exactly 13.1, or by 5 minutes if you go by today’s on-course time)—there were nasty hills, and changing road surfaces. There’s nothing worse on sore feet than running on a dirt road and hitting large stones. Also, I don’t like running along active highways.

Anyway, I got to Waconia a little less than a half hour before the start, and parked a couple blocks away. I got a warm up stretch in just by walking up a giant steep hill to get from where I parked to the race I checked my bag (really glad I packed my stuff in a bag at home, since they didn’t have any). The start chute wasn’t particularly organized, so I stuck myself between the 2:20 pace group (which was the slowest one, but much too fast for me) and the “Last Runner” lady, who was only about 20 feet behind the pacer lady.

This is technically a picture of the back of the start line, but it was what I could get easily.



We hit the first hill of the race not far past the start, and then we got on a bike path and ran through a park, then onto the first dirt road, then back onto a bike path, then onto the first highway. This one wasn’t too bad because it had a real shoulder lane, so we had space to pass people if needed. Then we hit the second dirt road, and that was a longer stretch and I hated it. Then we hit a lakeside residential road which was hilly and in bad shape. They actually had a sign about how bad it was:



So we had to avoid potholes, gravel that was supposed to be in the potholes, vehicular traffic, and the fast runners that had emerged from a loop. I dunno who thought it was a brilliant idea to have the course loop back on itself so the fast runners came back to mix in with the slow runners. Then we were going up another steep hill, with a water stop in the middle. As a half runner, I got to turn left at the top of the hill to do the loop back to the dirt road and the pothole road. Then go back up the awful hill with the water stop. I refilled my water bottle on the second time through this stop, and had a cup of water and a cup of Gatorade. The Gatorade was a mistake—warm blue Gatorade made from powder was the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted

Then it was time for more busy highway running, this time into the wind. Yay Then there was a more residential highway, but no longer into the wind. You’d think it would start feeling good to hit the home stretch, except that there was a giant nasty hill in the last mile I finally got back onto the city streets, and more hills, but no traffic. Lots of finished runners walking around and cheering us stragglers on. I stopped for a few seconds when my watch hit 13.1 miles so I could get a shot of my exact half marathon time



I still had a half mile to go at this point, but I finished strong and almost broke 3 hours on the course. If there hadn’t been so many steep hills that I had to walk up, I probably could have done it. I grabbed my bag and switched into my Sanuks (still the best feeling in the world, taking the race shoes off). On my way out of the park, I got to ring the PR bell, which is fun. There was free food available at a local restaurant, but that involved walking down a bunch of hills in the opposite direction of my car, so I chose that instead and went to Dairy Queen for a hot dog and fries (and an Oreo blizzard, but that was a bit too much for my stomach, so it’s still 3/4 full in my freezer).



My feet are a little sore, but I’m otherwise doing just fine. I hit the segment function on my watch when I hit each mile marker, so I could see afterward how my watch miles stacked up against the course miles.







2022 workout data to date: 139h 31m 9s of exercise; 60,954 active calories burned; 74,184 total calories burned