2015 Race Results

2015 was a solid running and racing year for me.  To be able to run at all is a blessing, and to be able to compete is icing on the cake!  I can't put in the mileage that many runners do since I am injury-prone, but I focus on making those miles into quality workouts and finished the year with 1941.7 running miles (an average of 37.3 miles/week).

I kept a table of my race results over the year, and the laziness in me thinks it's the easiest way to share my results.  I pray that you all reading this have healthy, happy, speedy 2016s!

My highlights were:

• No injuries that required time off (see my this post for how I conquered PF with no time off)
• PR half marathon - 1:24:33
• PR full marathon - 3:01:45
• Garmin PR 10K (unofficial, but it made me happy) - 38:05
• Overall female at the Bass Pro Marathon (with my husband, daughter, mother, and father watching)
• 2nd overall female at the Dallas Marathon
• Meeting an awesome training partner who pushes me on long runs and who shares my Christian faith 
• Sharing most events with my husband and daughter, and seeing them compete sometimes
• Winning my local running club's Runner of the Year competition

Runner of the Year award & $$ at the OMRR banquet

My low-lights were:

• Contracting cryptoporiduim after tubing and swimming in Table Rock over the summer.  It took me about 8 weeks to re-gain full running strength after that!
• DNFing a half marathon when I had crypto (should have DNSed, but you know).
• Missing a sub-3:00 in Dallas
• Every 5K I ran, except the second 5Ks of my 10Ks which were always faster than my open 5Ks!

Date	Event	Place	Time	Notes
Jan. 24	Frostbite Series Half Marathon, St. Louis, MO	2nd overall female; 1st AG 30-39	1:29:24
Jan. 31	Jack Frost 5K, Springfield	2nd overall female	18:42 (short)	I think the course was about 30 seconds short
Feb. 14	Run with the Wind 25K, Carthage, MO	1st overall female	1:50:14	Missouri state record for age 34; very hilly course
March 21	Dash for Down Syndrome 5K, Springfield	1st overall (female & male)	19:45 (long)	While leading I took a wrong turn that resulted in running about 0.15 farther than the course distance
March 28	Highline Run for Scouting Half Marathon, Springfield	2nd overall female	1:27:51	1 male ahead of me, windy out and back
April 4	Crystal Springs 2 mile, Cassville, MO	1st overall (female & male)	12:08	Missouri overall state record, despite being a poor time run on very tired legs
April 11	Rock the Parkway Half Marathon, Kansas City	9th overall female; 2nd AG 30-34	1:27:08	Hilly course
April 25	Frisco Railroad Run 8K, Willard, MO	1st overall (female & male)	32:29	Course record; very windy and tricky elevation profile
May 3	Prairie Fire Spring Half, Wichita, KS	3rd overall female	1:30:15	Very windy; felt horrible
May 9	Running of the Squirrels 10K, Marionville, MO	1st overall (female & male)	35:45 (short)	Course was about a half mile short
May 30	Medical Mile, Springfield	1st overall female	(5:36 Garmin time)	Course was 0.1+ long & official time was 6:08
May 30	Medical Mile 5K, Springfield	2nd overall female, 1st AG 30-34	14:59 or 17:59 (short)	Course was short & 3 minutes were added to times but that wasn't enough; actual time would have been 18:50ish
June 6	Ken Coleman 5K, Springfield	1st overall female	19:09
June 13	Maryville Half Marathon, Maryville, MO	2nd overall female; 1st AG 30-34	1:31:41	Extremely hilly course
June 28	The Double Road Race 15K, Overland Park, KS	2nd overall female; 1st AG 30-34	59:58	39:57 10K, then 20:01 5K
July 4	Firecracker Cross Country 5K, Pittsburg, KS	1st overall female	19:41	Muddy course
July 18	Missouri 10 Series 10 mile, Springfield	1st overall female	1:08:42	Over 90 degrees at the finish; 1 male ahead of me
July 25	Bentley Fund 5K, Springfield	1st overall female	19:08
Sep. 5	KLife 5K, Branson, MO	1st overall female	19:46	1 male ahead of me
Sep. 7	Run for a Child’s Hunger 10K, Rogers, AR	3rd overall female	40:22	Both women ahead of me were professional athletes
Sep. 13	Johnston’s Half Marathon, Wichita, KS	1st overall female	1:28:08	2 males ahead of me
Oct. 3	Panther Run 10K, Springfield	1st overall female	39:19	2 males ahead of me; many turns on the course & ran through slower 5K & 15K runners that hampered my path (10K at 38:35 on Garmin)
Oct. 10	The Arc Trick or Trot 5K, Joplin, MO	1st overall (female and male)	19:55 (long)	While leading, took a wrong turn at the end and ran extra distance (3.28 miles on Garmin)
Oct. 17	Waddell and Reed Half Marathon, Kansas City	5th overall female	1:24:33	Personal record on a course with around 800 ft of elevation gain
Nov. 1	Bass Pro Marathon, Springfield	1st overall female	3:06:57	Ran as a training run for the Dallas Marathon
Nov. 26	Joplin Turkey Trot 5K, Joplin, MO	1st overall female	19:06	Out-and-back course with a 22 mph headwind coming back
Dec. 2	10K Time Trial, Ozark, MO	n/a	38:05	Not official, but you know
Dec. 13	Dallas Marathon, Dallas, TX	2nd overall female	3:01:45	Rainy and windy, but managed a PR!
Dec. 19	Run for the Ranch Half Marathon, Springfield, MO	2nd overall female	1:26:15	4-loop course with turns/congestion, 6 days post-marathon
Dec. 31	Eve Fest 5K, Columbia, MO	2nd overall female	19:03	5K course with 217 feet elevation gain

The craziest of the crazy workouts

If someone had told me I was going to run this workout, I wouldn't have believed them.

It was borne during my recovery from a respiratory illness that caused me to wheeze like a chain smoker.  My lungs were 80% better, but I feared that running in a snowstorm and 20 degree windchill would set me back significantly.  I didn't want to miss my Saturday run completely, so I settled on running a treadmill run.  I shuffled a few workouts around on my training schedule, and came away with missing nothing but a local 20K race I had scheduled the following weekend as a tentative tempo effort.  I replaced that race with the 20-22 miler I planned to miss in lieu of the treadmill run.

Getting much distance in on the treadmill for me requires speed work, so I settled on half mile repeats that I had scheduled for next week.  I figured I would aim for a 2 mile warm-up followed by 10 x 0.5 repeats with 0.5 recoveries (the actual workout was 8 x 0.5 mile repeats in 2:55 with 0.25 mile recoveries, but I was trying to draw out my mileage).  That would give me 12 miles and the satisfaction of a mostly salvaged training weekend.

I finished the warm-up and 6 x 0.5 miles in 2:58s (5:56 pace or 10.1 mph) before the treadmill started nearing it's shut off time of an hour.  I always stop it before the hour at a time that is convenient for me, and this time was at 54 minutes.  Then I re-started it for my next hour.  8 and 9 repeats in I was still feeling great, so I decided I would up it to 12 repeats, which would also get me to 14 miles.  At 12 repeats I wasn't feeling like I was at the end of a speed workout, so I decided on 14.  Repeat 14 was a little harder, but I still had another one in me, so I made it 15.  At that point I was at 16.5 miles total, so there was not turning back on cooling down to 20 miles to give myself the option of still racing next weekend!

The most mentally taxing part of the workout was the 3.5 mile cool-down.  I ended up bumping it up to about goal marathon pace (6:48) just to get the miles finished.  In the end, I came away with:

20 miles total in 2:24:25ish (not quite exact on the seconds since I had to re-start the treadmill twice)
15 x 0.5 mile repeats, all in 2:58 (0.5 mile recoveries were run in 4:10, or 8:20 pace)
1-1.5% incline the entire run

That was a significant treadmill distance PR for me, and it wasn't nearly as taxing as the 15 mile progression run that was my previous treadmill PR.  I credit the intervals, as well as having missed a couple of runs while sick.

Mentally, I could have never wrapped my head around this workout had I known I was going to run it when I started that day.  There is a lot to be said for just getting started and going as far as you can!  Even though I think treadmill runs and paces are kind of fake (easier than running outside), I think this was still a solid effort and what I needed to keep my lungs healthy on this day.  Here's hoping it's my only treadmill 20 of the season, but if it's not I know what I need to do to make another one happen.