Tuesdays...on the Run: Running in Costume

I promise you it's Tuesday right now.  It's not Thursday.  Nope...not at all.

Patty, Erika, and April host Tuesdays on the Run, and this week we're posting about running in costume!

If you've ever looked into a Disney race, I'm sure you've seen plenty of runners in costume.  I will say that the only time I've run in full costume was at my Disney races.  For Tower of Terror I was Ursula, for the Princess Half Weekend 10k I was Anna, and for the Half I was Elsa.

Usually, I tend to run in theme instead of costume.

This was for a Tunnels to Towers race, which is of course very patriotically themed.

This was a Reindeer Run 8k, a tutu with foam decorations.  I will admit that I took the hat off most of the way through and just put it on for finishing pictures.  It got way too hot!


This is the SparkleSkirt HotChocolate for a Hot Cocoa 10k.  (P.S. If anyone is selling HotChocolate in a medium, I'll take it!)


This is a Shamrock Run 5k.


This was for the RunTheBluegrass Half Marathon which was raising money for Boston Strong, and had a Boston bombing survivor there as well.


I usually tend to try to dress somewhat to the theme.  Small plug: SparkleSkirts makes this so easy and comfortable.  All of the skirts you see are SparkleSkirts, there are SparkleSkirts shorts under my Ursula tutu, and I believe a SparkleSkirt under my candy cane tutu.  I can't run without them, and I definitely wouldn't be able to do costumes without them!  They make a great cute base for anything.

Keeping it comfortable is definitely necessary for costumes.  My only problems have been getting too hot - my Santa hat, and my Elsa cape.  I just stash my extra pieces in my SparkleSkirt pocket, but that's just me.

What should my costume be for Wine and Dine? I haven't started planning yet!
Lauren

Enchanted 10k

Saturday morning was an early wake-up call to get to the 10k.  I think our alarms were set for 2:45 and 3:00, but I didn't even need the second one!  I was up and getting ready while Ray fell back asleep until the last minute.  Thankfully I had braided my hair the night before, so I didn't have to worry about messing with that (I have temperamental hair).  We were on the busses by 3:45, and I hung out with him in the bleachers at the finish until about 5:00, then headed to the corrals for the 5:30 start.  Luckily I found some people to talk to most of the time, so it went by fairly quickly.  I do wish I'd gotten their names, or at least bib numbers, but they were very nice!  I was in Corral E, so I had a fair bit of time to wait since there were about 10 minutes in between corrals.  When we walked up to the start line, we were joking about how someone probably already finished.  I said it probably wouldn't be for another 10 minutes or so, since the first people usually come in around 45 minutes.  Not two minutes later, Ray texted me "First person just finished, 34:34" so there went that theory!  I was amazed.  That such a fast, unimaginable time to me!

Anyway, we got to watch the fireworks (which I have a video of but it won't upload) and then we were off!  

I ran for 8 minutes straight so I was happy about that!  And I'm pretty sure I only took about 5 extra walk break minutes, which means that overall I only took about 1 extra walk break, since I skipped 4 in the beginning.  After the White Rabbit I decided that I felt great running, and as much as I really wanted to get pictures with characters, I chose to just get pictures of them instead.  I also didn't want a repeat of ToT where I was racing the pacers.  Overall, this was a super super super amazing race.  According to my Garmin, I went 6.44 miles in 1:33, a 14:26 pace.  For some reason it shows that I was moving the whole time, even though I know I wasn't, but oh well!  I never expected a PR, but I'm happy that my time wasn't too off from my normal 10k time.  I would run this race again in a heartbeat if I had the chance, but from here I'm going to let the pictures do the talking.  I believe they're all in order so you can figure out what happens when!  You can click on most of the pictures to make them bigger.  (The random other person is the wonderful lady who gave me my medal!)

Did you run the 10k? What did you think?

Lauren

Princess Packing List

I feel so underprepared for Princess Weekend but so excited at the same time!  I just wrote out a packing list and will start packing hopefully tomorrow.  I always feel like I'm missing things on my list though, and would love any suggestions!  We're driving down Friday and home Sunday, so we aren't there for long.

This is what I have so far:

10k:

- black tech shirt

- black sports bra

- LittleSister skirt

- running underwear

- purple socks

Half:

- Tiffany skirt

- teal tank top

- purple sports bra

- Elsa cape

- running underwear

- white socks

- tiara

- margarita ShotBlox

- watermelon Chomps

Both:

- Garmin

- Shoes

- iPod

- phone

- camera

Chargers:

- Garmin

- phone

- iPod

- Fitbit

- camera

Other:

- underwear

- regular bras

- after 10k park outfit

- after half outfit

- park shoes – Cinderella sneakers

- socks

- waivers

- MagicBands

- hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste, face wash, shampoo, body wash, razor

- body glide

- compression socks

- KT Tape

- Luna bars, peanut butter, apples

- The Stick
- bobby pins and hair elastics

Have you made a list?  What would you add to mine?  (I don't really do meds, Biofreeze, etc. so those aren't on the list for a reason).

Lauren

Savannah Snow Day & PHM Updates!

So, since Tuesday at noon I have been out of my college classes.  Technically we started again at 10 a.m. this morning, but my class was 9:30-11:20 and my teacher just cancelled it.  Why has everything been canceled?  Due to "forecasted hazardous conditions".  What has happened outside?  It drizzled.  We got ice drops on signs.  Not even big enough to be considered icicles, just little baby drops of ice. Granted, many other places in the state, such as Atlanta, had read problems with the snow and ice.  I don't discredit those at all.  But Savannah had literally nothing.  I drove yesterday.  There wasn't a single square inch of ice on the roads.  The temperature didn't drop below 25 degrees or so.  It's supposed to get up to 62 tomorrow, and 70 on Saturday (for my first half!).  But I've basically been out of school for two total days now, and personally I think that's ridiculous.  But that's just my rant!

On a much happier and less frustrated note, PHM bib numbers and corrals came out!  I'm bib 25414 for the Glass Slipper Challenge, in Corral M.  Sure, that's certainly not as high as I want, but I'm a slow runner.  At least I'm not last!  For more info about the corral system, Julie put up a wonderful guide here and the lovely women of We Run Disney even have the maps up here!  This is making everything so absolutely real. I have my MagicBands and I'll be at Disney in 22 days!  I need to start making a packing list!  Ack, so much excitement over here!

How's your weather been?  What's your bib number/corral if you're running Princess weekend?

Lauren

Past Two Races

I've been slacking with racing information!  I do a lot of races, mostly 5ks, because I find it helps keep me motivated.  I do try to match things up with my training schedule though, so I don't get too off track!

On September 14th, I ran the Tunnels to Towers race in downtown Savannah.  This run is to honor Stephen Siller, a FDNY firefighter.  He was off work when the attacks on 9/11 occurred, but called his wife to tell her that he had to help those in need.  When he couldn't get through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in his truck, he literally ran towards the towers with all of his gear strapped to him.  Unfortunately, Mr. Siller lost his life that day, and now there are Tunnels to Towers runs in his honor, and for the other 343 firefighters that were lost that day.

Sgt. Michael Schlitz ran with us, who was wounded in Iraq.  Proceeds from the race were going to assist in building his smart home.  You can see some of his story here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NceL12VFYeE.

I felt good during this race.  It started out cooler than it has been in Savannah, but warmed up pretty quickly.  I have been working with 1:1 run:walk intervals, as I've mentioned before, but I did manage to run the first .6 miles or so, so I was proud of myself for that!  I ended up finishing with an official time of 41:22, which puts me at an official PR!  For some reason at the end of the race I felt completely wiped out, but after a banana half and a little water I was fine.  I think I didn't hydrate enough the morning of.  I'd love to do this race again next year, for the cause and because it's a nice course. 

Patriotic Minnie Mouse look!

Running up one of the very few hills in Savannah!

Many firefighters from local areas ran in full gear, and competed in teams for the Siller Cup.

Boy Scouts & Girl Scouts lined Forsyth Park with pictures of all of the fallen firefighters.

Coming through the finish line!

All done!

Then this past Saturday, the 21st, I ran in the Tiger Bass 12k in Bluffton, SC.  I wanted to run this so I had a timed 10k+ I could turn in for Tower of Terror.  I finished with an official time of 1:48:58.04, so I don't know if it will bump be up a corral, but it's worth a shot!  I finished dead last overall, but defaulted to 3rd in my age group, so I need to go pick up my medal sometime!  I'm surprisingly ok with finishing last, probably because there were a few times I thought about quitting.

This run was about half trail, which is shown below.  There wasn't a single foot long section of this trail that was flat, and my ankles were not happy with it.  I literally walked the entire trail portion of it, except for maybe .25 mile that was done with small bits of jogging here and there.  This was also my longest race to date, since I've only done 5k's up until now!

I did learn that this whole minimalist shoe deal is not working for me.  I'll probably still use my Nike Free's for short runs and 5k's, but anything about 5 miles or more is killer.  I broke my foot about 6 years ago, I believe.  They think that I also tore a ligament and it healed itself incorrectly.  So now whenever I run 5+ miles, the arch of my foot gets almost unbearably sore.  I think due to compensating for that, I also get knee pain and the worst hip pain!  It's on the inside of my hip, and still hurts now - 4 days later!  I don't want to switch to a new shoe that I can't do a long run in before ToT, so I'm going to push through that race in my current shoes, but as soon as I stop being sore from that I'm going in to Fleet Feet and having them analyze my running, etc.  My other leg, that I didn't break the foot on, is completely fine though.  I'd like to stay with an extremely flexible shoe, etc. but my injured foot definitely needs better arch support.  I'll keep everyone updated on this!

Blurry Savannah Bridge - running up this in December!

Blurry Savannah River at sunrise.

Most of my ToT costume, but SparkleBottoms + tutu instead of SparkleSkirt.

And we're off!

I must admit, the views were pretty!

The bridges on parts of the trail.  They were great to run on.

The trail =( See that soft unpacked sand/dirt? It was like running on the beach.

Highest mile marker I've seen!

Then there were turkeys!

They ran away from me =(

Then decided to ignore me and look the other way! Silly birds.

Overall, I have decided I'm not going to do anymore trail runs.  They just don't work for me personally, as much as I love the idea of them.  I also can't wait to get new shoes!  And I'm so excited for ToT in less than 2 weeks!!

Have you ever realized that something major needed to change in your running?
Lauren