Race Recap Runner's World Festival 5k

Saturday morning started in the low 50's, when I arrived with Alek and my parents at the ArtQuest Center in Bethlehem to pick up my packet and run the Runner's World Festival 5k.  Just before the start of the race, I found that my iPod hadn't been charged.  I didn't get to run to my Halloween Playlist.

Alek and I standing in front of the Steel Stacks.

Despite my lack of playlist, there was plenty of entertainment on the course.  Near the half mile mark, a local band was playing "Eye of the Tiger".  By the one mile mark I noticed that a "joggler" had been running the race.  Yes, it is what it sounds like - a man running the entire 5k while juggling.

The "joggler" is slightly behind me (see the ball in the air?)

In addition to the "joggler", there was also an aardvark running the 5k.  I didn't see him on course (he finished a bit ahead of me), but I did see him at the finish area.

An Aardvark!

It was fun to run through the area.  There weren't too many spectators out in the neighborhood, but it was a good run on a nice morning.  

I tried to hold back during the 5k, knowing that I would be running a 10k in an hour.  I finished in 26:54 with an 8:37 pace.  Full results can be found at on active.com.  

Finishing up in front of the smoke stacks.

Stay tuned for the 10k recap!

PlayLists: Runner's World Hat Trick

Since its going to be a three race weekend, you get three playlists today.

List 1 is for the 5k.  Since I'm not running any races next weekend, this is a 32 minute Halloween themed playlist.


Bat Out Of Hell Meat Loaf
Spooky Mormon Hell Dream The Book Of Mormon Original Broadway Cast
This Devil's Workday Modest Mouse
Monster Mash Bobby "Boris" Pickett
Love Me Dead   Ludo
Satin In A Coffin Modest Mouse
A Freak Like Me Needs Company (feat. Bono and The Edge) Patrick Page
Witch Doctor Sha Na Na

The 10k playlist is 1 hour long and its theme is insanity.  The theme is just to remind me how crazy it is of me to run the Hat Trick.

Unwell Matchbox Twenty

Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head) Ben Folds

Out Of My Head Fastball

Goin' Out of My Head Little Anthony & The Imperials

You May Be Right Billy Joel

Crazy Train Ozzy Osbourne

That was a Crazy Game of Poker O.A.R.

I Wanna Be Sedated   The Ramones

Crazy Gnarls Barkley

Crazy In Love Beyoncé

Flagpole Sitta Harvey Danger

Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter The Beatles

Breaking Down   Florence & The Machine

Insane In the Brain Cypress Hill

She's Got Issues The Offspring

Finally, the 2:18 Half Marathon playlist is all about running.  I took a few liberties, but most of the songs have something to do with running.

Here I Go Again Whitesnake

The Distance Cake

Let's Get It Started The Black Eyed Peas

Run-Around Blues Traveler

Born to Run Bruce Springsteen

I still haven't found what I'm looking for U2

Running Away Hoobastank

I Ran Away Coldplay

Runnin Down A Dream Tom Petty

Runaway Linkin Park

Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) Jay-Z

Dog Days Are Over Florence + The Machine

I Would Walk 500 Miles The Proclaimers

Chasing the Sun (Hardwell Extended) The Wanted

Sexy And I Know It  LMFAO

This River Is Wild The Killers

Runaway Del Shannon

Pumped Up Kicks Foster the People

Bionic Placebo

How Far We've Come Matchbox Twenty

I Think We're Alone Now   Tiffany

Walk This Way  Run-DMC

Run Vampire Weekend

Run to You Bryan Adams

Runaway Maroon 5

Runaround Sue Del Shannon

Party Rock Anthem LMFAO

Stronger Kanye West

Walking On Sunshine Katrina & The Waves

Time Is Running Out Muse

Lose Yourself Eminem

Dirrty (feat. Redman) Christina Aguilera

Hot Steppa Ini Kamoze

Darts Of Pleasure Franz Ferdinand

Chasing Pavements Adele

Stay tuned next week for recaps of all three races!

Runner's World Festival - This Weekend!

This weekend, I'm heading back to Pennsylvania to participate in the Runner's World Festival in Bethlehem, PA.  The festival offers three races; a 5k and 10k on Saturday followed by a half marathon on Sunday.  I've decided to participate in all three (the organizers have dubbed this "the Hat Trick").  

The series of races now will be good practice for the Goofy Challenge in January.  I'm not running with any time goals this weekend.  My plan is to take everything slowly so that I can complete all of the races with minimal pain.

All of the races start near the old Bethlehem Steel Stacks, once dubbed the Joker's Lair by comedy rock band Axis of Awesome.  The races then travel around various parts of Bethlehem before ending at the steel stacks.  There courses are somewhat hilly, and I expect it to be a challenging weekend with some fairly nice courses.

Wish me luck!

Race Recap: Grete's Great Gallop

Grete's Great Gallop, a half marathon in Central Park, began at 10:30 AM yesterday.  The late start made the morning easy (no 5am wakeup for this one).  The course was different from most other Central Park races that I've run.  It started on the east side and went clockwise around the park, rather than counter-clockwise as usual.  We ran ran just over two laps around the park finishing on the west side.  This means during the race, runners passed the finish line twice before actually passing over it.

The start line!

The first lap around the park wasn't so bad, the race leaders finished as I was passing the finish line for the second time.  They weren't even twice as fast as me (since they had a 3 minute head start)!  It was weird to run the "wrong" way around the park.  The hills that I usually dread were now the easy parts of the course, while the opposite happened with bits of the course that I normally look forward to.

It was cool during the first lap of the race, especially when there was breeze.  However, once the sun came out it warmed up.  I was a bit overdressed for the sunny conditions!  Next time, I should wear layers.

I kept a fairly steady pace throughout the race, with mile times between 9:00 - 9:30.  By mile 9 I thought I could finish in under 2 hours but I had slower miles after that as my hamstrings really started to hurt.  I finished in 2:05, so I'm still chasing a sub 2 hour half marathon.

Alek also ran this one finishing in 2:15:08.  Full results are available on the NYRR site.

We finished (only a little sore).

Sunday: Grete's Great Gallop

This weekend is another double race weekend.  I already mentioned that I'll be running the NY Rock N' Roll 10k tomorrow.  Additionally on Sunday I'll run Grete's Great Gallop, a half marathon celebrating the life of the late Grete Waits, a nine time winner of the NYC Marathon.  The 2 lap course around central park for this half marathon won't be as fun as some other races, but it will get me one race closer to my NYRR 9+1 to qualify for the 2013 NYC Marathon.

I missed the Diva Half Marathon last weekend because we got back late from a wedding and decided to sleep in.  That means I have an unused half marathon playlist that I can use for Sunday's race.  Who knows, maybe I'll finally break a 2 hour half marathon (if my hip holds out).

Stay tuned next week for two race recaps!

Playlist: Rock n' Roll NY 10k

Saturday I'll run the Rock N' Roll 10k in Brooklyn's Prospect Park!  With my hip nearly recovered, I don't expect to miss this race like I missed the previous two.  In honor of the race being held in Brooklyn, my playlist contains songs from artists who have lived in Brooklyn.  

While the Rock N' Roll series does have on course entertainment, I found it to be more sparse than I would prefer when I ran Rock N' Roll St Pete back in February. It's fun but I prefer continuously hearing music. Spacing the entertainment out every mile doesn't do it.

The list is 59 minutes long.  I want to take the 10k slow so I don't aggravate my hip again, so 59 should be a good time.  

Still Alive GLaDOS & Jonathan Coulton

Sweet Caroline (Good Times Never Seemed So Good) Neil Diamond

Hit Me With Your Best Shot Pat Benatar

Earthquake Labrinth; Busta Rhymes

Blitzkrieg Bop Ramones

Kids MGMT

Run This Town (feat. Rihanna & Kanye West) Jay-Z

Mo Money Mo Problems (feat. Mase & Puff Daddy) The Notorious B.I.G.

Where The Party At (Remix) So So Def Allstars

I Wanna Be Sedated    The Ramones

Telephone   Lady GaGa & Beyoncé

Clint Eastwood  Gorillaz

No Sleep Till Brooklyn   Beastie Boys

Try Again Aaliyah

Poker Face   Lady GaGa

Benefits of Sports Massage

Running can cause tightness and soreness in certain muscle groups.  I've been dealing with this in my hip for the past couple of months.  One great way to relieve the issue is sports massage.  You can tell the massage therapist exactly what bothers you and they will focus the massage on that area.  In addition to giving a deep tissue massage, the massage therapist will help to stretch very tight muscles.  

While you can get a deep tissue massage on your own by foam rolling or using products like "the stick",  the handiwork of a professional always feels better.  The therapist may also recommend stretches or home exercise to help with tightness or soreness.  I go for monthly massages.  Since my hip has been bothering me, my therapist recommended I use lacrosse balls to massage the hip area.  This has worked well, the hip area is bony and difficult to foam roll or get at with "the stick" but the lacrosse balls are the perfect size.

If you're sore from running, I strongly recommend sports massage!

Baltimore Running

Before coming to Baltimore, I tried to do some research into where I could run safely in the area.  I'd been to the Inner Harbor before and thought that the area along the waterfront would be safe, but I had been planning a 6 mile run while here so running around the harbor wouldn't be enough.

My hotel, the Hyatt Regency, gave a suggested running route, but it had several warnings about safety so I wasn't sure I wanted to go it alone.  I mentioned my reservations to a colleague who is also at the conference and we decided to try out the route together.

Overall it turned out to be a good run.  We went 6.6 miles, starting at the waterfront and then running down to Fort McHenry.  The waterfront and area around the fort were pretty.  The areas between were mostly residential with a few higher traffic roads.  I was glad to have a running buddy on this run, since I wasn't familiar with the area.  She brought her phone along so we were able to check Google Maps when we weren't exactly sure where to go.

Its often so easy to make excuses not to run while travelling, but I was really happy to get one run in while in Baltimore! Below is the route we too (not exactly the same as that suggested by the hotel).  We were a little slow because of some slow changing stoplights along the way.

Playlist: Long Island Diva's Half

On Sunday I'm running the Divas Half Marathon in Long Island.  This will be my first women's half marathon, and it has great timing as I'll be spending the next three days in Baltimore at the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing!  With the rest of my week being about celebrating and empowering women, I created a playlist filled with songs from some of my favorite musical divas!

The playlist is about 2:20.  I had previously been hoping to beat my previous half marathon record of 2:03:27 at this race but with recent hip pain I don't know if that will be possible.

It's All Coming Back to Me Now Céline Dion
No more drama Mary J Blige
Irreplaceable Beyoncé
Karma Alicia Keys
Total Eclipse of the Heart   Bonnie Tyler
Rolling in the Deep Adele
I Heard It Through the Grapevine Gladys Knight & the Pips
Respect Aretha Franklin
Alone Heart
I Will Survive Gloria Gaynor
What's Love Got to Do With It  Tina Turner
Poker Face Lady GaGa
Awful Hole
Man! I Feel Like a Woman! Shania Twain
Girls Just Want to Have Fun Cyndi Lauper
I'm Every Woman Whitney Houston
Glamorous Fergie
Firework Katy Perry
Telephone (feat. Beyoncé) Lady GaGa
Dirrty (feat. Redman) Christina Aguilera
On the Floor (CCW Radio Mix) Jennifer Lopez
Hips Don't Lie (featuring Wyclef Jean) Shakira
Crocodile Rock Elton John
Drumming Song Florence + The Machine
Bad Romance Lady GaGa
Everlasting Love Gloria Estefan
Like a Prayer Madonna
The Sweet Escape (feat. Akon) Gwen Stefani
You Can't Hurry Love The Supremes
Believe Cher Believe
All for You Janet Jackson
All This And Heaven Too Florence & The Machine
Material Girl Madonna
I Say a Little Prayer Dionne Warwick
Dreamlover Mariah Carey
Why'd You Come In Here Lookin' Like That Dolly Parton

Archery!

A few weeks ago I went with Alek and a group of friends to use a Google Offer we'd bought for indoor archery at Queens Archery.  I haven't touched a bow and arrow since I was 12 and in middle school gym class.  All I remember from that time is getting the arrows embedded in the grass.  

At queens archery, we used long bows and stood 5 yards, then 10 yards, and finally 20 yards (but for only one shot) away from the target.  My shoulder was less sore than I expected it to be after an hour of shooting and I managed to hit the target more often than I expected!

It was a great experience, but the hour went really quickly.  I can't wait to go again and rent a better bow for shooting.

Just fired.

My target: Not bad, but also not very good.