FSU Autism 5K - Sub30, did I make it?

Back in January I set a goal of trying to reach sub - 30 in a 5K, for my non-runner friends that means under 30 minutes. Then I had a little set back in my running thanks to the ol' IT Band so my goal has been a tad delayed. I watched as several of my friends joined the "Sub 30 Club" and I was starting to feel a little defeated. I just kept working hard in the gym to rehab the leg. I knew I was not going to give up. I knew if I stay focused on my goal, even during my break periods it would eventually happen.

I have been running a 5K every Saturday for the past few weeks. March 2nd was the TRBC 5K where I finished in 33:18. That was the first race back from my injury and the first race I ran the whole time without stopping. Next was the Shamrock Scurry 5K on March 9th where I finished in 30:52. Oh so close to my goal! The following weekend was the Doggie Dash 5K where I came in at the 30:10 time marker. That one hurt! The fact that I was 10 seconds from getting my goal simply cut me to the core. I was happy with my run but very disappointed that I let the goal slip away! 

The FSU Autism 5K was held March 30th, this was a last minute decision. I was not planning to race again until the Springtime Tallahassee 5K on April 6th. Once I realized that most of the girls were running I decided to join them. This happens often for me, peer pressure gets me every time, hehe! Saturday was a beautiful morning in North Florida. We all met at the Southwood YMCA and snapped our usual pre-race photos. I love that everyone says "if Mitzi is around, there will be photos". It makes me smile to think they might actually appreciate this part of my personality!! There were 273 registered for the 5K. We thought that was pretty good considering it was Easter weekend, etc.. Our group made our way to the start to be up front. This wasn't a chipped race and we all knew we needed to be up front for accurate timing. I was nervous but didn't share that with any of them. I was trying to enjoy the morning but all I wanted was to get the race over with and know I made the GOAL.. URGH! 

A sweet young lady gave us the countdown.. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - GO! Off we went! The first .5 miles I had cell phone issues, not the best at the beginning of a race. I finally got it to work right and zipped it into the back pocket of my skirt, relief! I focused on my pace and breathing. The weather was absolutely perfect for a run. I could see two of my running buddies in front of me and I made sure to keep them in sight. We encountered one large hill where I caught up with one of my girls. Jennifer and I ran the rest of the race together. We laughed and encouraged each other the next 1.5 miles. Once I knew we were close the finish I glanced at my watch... 26 something.. O.M.Goodness. The goal was in sight for us both! The finish line was uphill, not pleasant, I pushed hard. Jennifer pushed hard just a step or two behind me. It was awesome to see my husband, my BRB and 3 of our running friends jumping up and down at the finish. I crossed the finish line; however, I never looked at the clock, I was in pain! (stupid leg, another post for another day) The last push up the hill took all I had in me. As I knelt down my BRB came over with the biggest smile saying "You did it, You beat 30!".  Another told me "get up, you did it!" What they wanted me to see was not only did I beat 30 but I had beaten it by more than any of us expected. My official time was 28:51, a photo finish thanks to my husband's handy work with a camera! 

What a moment! Yes, I met my goal but I do not want this to be about me. I want people to realize that through faith anything is possible! We all set goals every day and let them slip away without a second thought. I set this goal and prayed over it for months! It was special to me meet this goal over Easter weekend, the most important weekend of our Christian lives. Our risen savior gave up everything so that I could have the chance to run, to workout, to pray openly, to live a life full of blessings. I ran this race wearing "Run for God" shirt and I immediately praised him for giving me the ability to run on Saturday. I blessed and I am thankful! 

The "what a moment" feeling continued into the evening as we all realized after the official results were posted that most of our group had finished in the top of all our age groups! We took the 1-4 spots in the 35 age group and the top 2 spots in the 3o age group. We even had a young lady with us who finished 3rd overall for females! It is always amazing to spend time with such awesome friends; however, it's icing on the cake to find out we all did so well. The Run for God group, The Moms Run This Town group, and The Badass Babes have all been additional blessing my life lately. 

As always, here's a few photos from the FSU Autism 5K 

The Finish! WOOHOO! 

My BRB

Run for God  - Love these girls! 

Awesome Friends! 

I apologize for such a lengthy post, maybe I am still in the "what a moment" mode! HA! 

Run for God - 12 weeks later

WOW! I can't believe last night was the end of our 12 week Run for God bible study! Allison and I had no idea what to expect when we started this process. Our group blew our minds, God blew our minds during this study. We experienced our own success and defeats as the leaders of the study. More importantly we experienced the success of many of the members. 

During the closing session last night we asked "What did you gain from the past 12 weeks?" Here's a few of the answers : 

"We, as a couple, talk more openly and more often about Christ in our home and with our children." 

"I ran my first 5K and praised God at the finish line." 

"I ran an 8K and felt pretty good." 

"I have never participated in a study such as this and I hope to continue more involvement to get in the word even more." 

"I have started reading my bible daily, that's new for me." 

"I have connected with new friends and reconnected with old ones." 

"I have enjoyed encouraging others along the same path as me." 

"I have sore feet." - This comment received an arousing amen, ha! :-)

All of these answers bring a tear to my eyes. This was our/my hope! I wanted to share our passion in faith and our love of fitness with others around us. I wanted people to see that our fitness goals are often similar to our faith related goals. I wanted everyone, including myself to live out Hebrews 12:1 ~ "Therefore we also, since are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so ensares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us". We each have our own race to run but that doesn't mean you can't stop and encourage a friend or stranger along the way. 

I am so excited for all our members who gave it their all through the training. Even when struggling with shin splints and various other painful issues, they never gave up. We have some that have set goals of running longer races in the coming months or year. 

On this Good Friday, I am excited to celebrate with the Fellowship Baptist Run for God family. Y'all did it! Congratulations!! 

I hope everyone has a joyful Easter weekend. Several of our Run for God members will be running a local 5k Saturday morning. My hope is through our group we can reach out to the fellow runners and show them love and faith for 3.1 miles! 

Coming in May, the Fellowship Baptist Run for God group will run alongside the Generations Church Run for God group in support of the Mercy Ministries 5K. If you're in Tallahassee or within driving distance please consider joining us for this race. Register online : http://mmoa.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=RFM2012HomePage

Happy Easter! 
Mitzi

Wordless Wednesday

So I know my next post was supposed to be a wrap up on Run for God; however, I'm missing the beach. It's 35 degree here in FLORIDA today. I just finished an hour of bootcamp outside in the cold. I realize summer bodies are made in the winter but this beach bum is tired of the cold! 

These pictures are from our Honeymoon cruise with our dear friends who were celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary. 

Take me back to this place!! 

It's clear.. my BRB and I need a beach trip - SOON VERY VERY SOON!! 

Family Break not just Spring Break!

We are fresh off a wonderful Spring Break 2013! 

I will not recap every single event as that would make for a super long post, ha! If you've been following my little blog since January then you know that one of my 2013 goals was to find ways to have more family time. This past week accomplished just that! 

This break provided a lot of much needed family time. I realize that spring break is a normal occurrence for many households but for my split family breaks like this are even more special. It allows for us to have more uninterrupted time with Riley. 

Riley started off Spring Break with a terrible cold which meant I had to take a few extra days off. Thankfully, I had sick leave and an understanding office who totally supported me in taking the extra days without any hesitation. This means that starting on March 14th, Riley and I were together non-stop until today, March 26th. 12 whole days with my boy!! Scott was able to join us for the last 6 days of that time. We made the most of those 12 days  together that's for sure.  

We enjoyed spending some of that time with several of our close friends.  Our outings included putt-putt, go karts, zip lining, a super cold beach trip and various dinners on the town. We had a blast with all of them!! Riley was able to see family and celebrate his 10th birthday as well. We took a fabulous, stress free low stress trip to Orlando. (Yes, I said low stress!) We even managed to fit in several family workouts, including the Bad Donkey Easter Egg Hunt! 

I feel refreshed and ready to take on the last 9 weeks of 4th grade with my boy. I think he is  rested and ready to face the upcoming FCAT. I think he feels confident that he will end this school year with a bang. We are ready for the craziness that comes with baseball season, too. All in all, we are just happy! 

Breaks like this are great for the family to reconnect and just enjoy each other...even enjoy the bad attitudes that may arise! We were able to "make memories" even while driving down 75 in the pouring rain or sitting on the side of the 75 waiting for the rain to stop, ha. 

People tend to forget that we are still a "new" family unit. Scott and I are approaching our 1 year anniversary in 6 weeks - May 5th. We are blessed to be able to spend this time together! Now, we are back into routine... Mom at the gym at 5am, everyone back to work/school, back to church activities, and baseball in the evenings. 

I hope that everyone has the chance to experience a nice "Spring Break" with their loved ones.  

Happy Spring! 
Mitzi

My little family!

Up next for the blog.... WEEK #12 - Completion of Run for God! 

Wordless Wednesday: 5 days!!

5 days til Riley James is the big 10!

 

Double Digits!

 

Enjoy the photos!!

The Elusive under 30 minute 5K

Today marked the 3rd Annual Doggie Dash held in the Southwood Community. The Florida Department of Corrections sponsors the race each year. It was an extremely well organized event which I appreciate. This is a race I look forward to running again next year.

My goal today was to come in under the 30 minute mark for this 5K. Earlier in the week Scott ran the course in preparation for his 8K so I knew it was fairly flat. This seemed like a great opportunity to push for that 30 minute mark. After snapping a few photos with all our friends at the start line, we were ready! The race started promptly at 9:00am. As we expected it was flat, only one hill for the 5K - YAY! I felt great the entire race. Legs were holding up really good and I felt like I was headed for a strong finish. As we made the turn at the 2.5 mile mark I had the pleasure of running beside a friend daughter, Lauren. As I rounded the corner at the finish line and saw the clock said 29:55. I pushed hard to get there by 30:00 but the clock read 30:09:00 when I stepped across the timing pad. This is still a PR and I finished in the top half overall! I quickly grabbed a bottle of water and my cute little dog tag/medal. I returned to the finish line to cheer on the rest of my MRTT friends, my hubby and my best friend.

One by one they all started coming in, everyone was smiling! Noone more so than Crystal. She had set a goal for herself and thanks to me she was running her 5k today minus compression sleeves. She ran the entire 3.1 miles without stopping and came in under her goal with very little pain in her legs!! I was worried that her shins would act up without the compression sleeves, she proved that she can do anything she set her mind to. Great Job Crystal!

This proved to be a great course, a great run and a great morning for ALL! Another weekend of PR's for the group! Scott finished his first 8K in 47:46. He was pleased with his time and his placement in the overall standings.

 Here's a few highlights from the Doggie Dash

Run for God

Logan, Becca, Gina and Scott all had a great 8K run!!

My sweet friend Lauren, Great job today!

My Hubby! You rocked today!

MRTT Group Shot - Post Race

My girl, Crystal, rocking that dog tag!

We missed our 3rd BRB today!

 

Now we have a two week break before the Springtime 5K (or maybe we will push for the 10K). Hopefully, Riley will be back in the swing of things with us well. My legs are feeling great! I will be a little cautious with them over the next two weeks but overall I am feeling good!

 

Can't wait to hear about everyone's weekend runs!

Mitzi

Shamrock Scurry - First Family 5K

After a little discussion between Scott and I we decided that the 2013 Shamrock Scurry would be our first family 5K - together! I was feeling good from the previous race and we felt it was a good race for us to choose as our first one all running! Riley was stoked to learn that both Scott and I would be with him, not in the literal sense but participating in the same race at least :-). I realize to some this seems silly; however, it meant the world to me. One of my goals for 2013 is more family time and including the fellas in my hobby (for lack of a better term) of choice it just awesome!

Saturday morning was a little on the rough side, lots of attitude from all three of us! Once we arrived at the church all seemed well. We snapped tons of pictures with all our race buddies & everyone seemed to get in the spirit of enjoying the morning together. Riley chose to run this race along side Ms. Laura. They had such a great time at the Trailblazer run that I wasn't surprised by this choice.

The race started promptly at 8:30am. 600 runners headed out on a hilly 3.1 mile course throughout the Killearn Estates neighborhood. The first mile was pretty much down hill, the next 2 not so much. Once the race started I never saw Scott again! He has been training really hard lately and it's shown the past two races. I did run with Riley and Laura between mile 1 and 2; unfortunately, Riley struggled with the hills a little bit and had to walk some. I couldn't stop to walk with them. Since suffering my IT injury I have noticed that if I stop I can't get going again. I kept going! (typing that makes me feel very guilty for leaving my son with a friend and continuing running, yikes!!) Anyways, we all continued the race. Mile 2 included a huge hill, I ran the whole thing. The last little bit of the race I was joined by one of our music graduate students. Megan completed her 3rd 5K today and I am so happy we finished together. It really did my heart good to hear her excitment at the end of the race. The finish line was a great site as our little cheering squad was there going wild for us!

Proud wife moment - Scott ran sub 30 with an official time of 28:06! I'm so excited for him.

Proud parent moment - Riley finished in 31minutes and had a smile on his face. He's learning that it's not about the time on the clock it's about the joy in your heart after a run. Love his little spirit and loved seeing him encourage others as they finished!

Personal proud moment - I ran my fatest 5K to date with an official time of 30:52. Megan says we ran faster than that and doesn't believe the clock, love her!

All in all our family and our fitness family had an awesome day! It's nice to be surrounded by the love of my fellas and the encouragement of my fitness family. We all celebrate each other, isnt' that how life should be?!



Y'all have figured out by now that I love ending my posts with pictures. Unfortunately, if you're friends with me on Facebook these are duplicate shots so I do apologize for that. 
Just to give everyone a little perspective on my running journey and becuause it's always fun to look back Scurry 2011 I walked up the "Big Hill / Scurry 2013 I ran up the "Big Hill": 

Here's a few highlights from the Shamrock Scurry 2013:

Shamrock Scurry marks my 7th race of 13 in 2013. I am starting to be "okay" with the fact that my goal has changed a little bit. 13 races of varying distances is still 13 races - period! I'm half way to my goal and it's only March.

What's next in my running journey... another 5K! I had hoped to be strong enough to complete the Doggie Dash 8K next weekend (3/16); however, after feeling the need to ice both legs I am thinking I made a good decision in taking it nice and easy until April.

#6 of 13 in 2013

Well, it's been two weeks since I posted an update of any kind! There has been lots of activity in our house on the running front!! 

Personally, I have taken the 2 week break that was suggested to help my leg heal. It's not been fun to go from super active to nothing. It's been a battle physically and mentally. I tried to keep up with my upper body workouts. I found it very hard to go to the gym and not get in any cardio via the treadmill, the bike or the elliptical. This may seem trivial and childish to some but for me it was a struggle. I rely on my workouts, specifically running as a stress reliever. Simply stated I have struggled with it, end of story :-). 

Feb 25th was the Trailblazer 5K supporting a local school in our area. I was not able to run this particular race due to my leg needing a little more recovery time. Thankfully Riley ran the 5K along with several of our running friends while Scott and I waited for him at the finish line.  He completed his 2nd 5K with a time of 28:17 coming in 2 minutes after his running partner! Two of the other moms, Tonya and Laura, in our group ran a portion of the course with Riley and I think they all enjoyed the later part of the run together! At least it looks like it from this photo: 

Needless to say we were all ecstatic to learn that Riley had finished 2nd in his age group and 28th out of 128. Keeping him interested in running isn't going to be a problem! 

March 2nd was the Thomasville Baptist Road 10/5K. Back in January I had this race on the calendar and planned to run the 10K; however, given this would be the "test" run for the leg I decided to register for the 5K instead. That proved to be a smart decision! Scott and I were joined by numerous friends from the Fellowship Run for God, the Badass Army and the Tallahassee Moms Run This Town groups! I enjoy going to races where we have a large group hanging out before the race. It adds an element of encouragement through friendship that is so vital to all of us. 

One a side note, the TRBC 5K is a special one for me. March 2011 all I could run was 1 mile fun run, this past weekend I ran the 5K. The one mile then was exhausting but I had done it at the request of Riley. Saturday the only person missing was Riley. Pictures speak louder than words or so they say! Take a look at 2011! 

TRBC 1 Mile - March 2011

TRBC 5K - March 2013

I was very nervous prior to the race. I was not sure how my leg would hold up. I enjoyed the distraction of chatting with all our friends leading up to the start. I enjoyed talking with Tonya during the first mile or so of the race until we got to the 10/5K split and off she went to complete her first 10K. Around mile 2 of this extremely hilly course I started feeling some discomfort in the leg; however, I knew if I stopped I wouldn't finish. I kept going! I was able to high five and encourage several other friends including Logan, Becca, Gina and Crystal who were all completing their first 5K. I am so proud of their accomplishment! I even got to high five my husband who was a good bit in front of all of us - Go Scooter!! I rounded the corner of the church parking lot and heard the little voice on my Nike running program say "Congrats, you've run your fastest 5K ever!". I was pumped!! I had ran the entire 3.1 miles (or 3.45 according to Nike) with no stopping and finished with only a small amount of pain discomfort in my leg. After a quick celebration with my husband at the finish line I went back to snap photos of everyone else coming down to the finish. I take the role as encourager very seriously and I wanted to be there for each of them. Our group had several PR's and first timers, it was great to see them meet their various goals! We celebrated in style with each finisher! I'm a proud friend still today just thinking of all the hard work that everyone put in and hearing all the excitement in their voices. 

As for my time, well that's a "sore subject" - HA! My Nike running program said it was 30:11 - the fastest ever; however, the TRBC folks only took the clock times which said the official time 33:18. That means I came in 78th out of 255. When you factor in the GPS issues with the Nike program as opposed to the official GPS that tracked the length of the course and it all makes sense. I am happy that I stayed within my usual "official" time after very little working out for 2 weeks! I rejoice in the fact that I ran the whole thing without stopping and I can walk with no pain today. I rejoiced as I crossed the finish line and I continue to praise God for blessing me through running! 

Here's a few pictures from the race of Saturday: 

BA Army and Run for God

 

Love races that include my family! 

Tonya and I - YAY on her first 10K!

My girl, Crystal, rocked out her first 5K!!!

We didn't even plan to match this time! 

Great minds think alike! 

TRBC 5K brings me to the 6th race toward my goal of 13! My goal has been forced to be scaled back a tad, meaning that I have to include some 5K's rather than only running 10K's and Half Marathons. I am aiming to add one more Half Marathon into the schedule before the heat of summer hits us. 

Next up for our group is the Shamrock Scurry 5K on Saturday March 9th!! I'm crossing my fingers that the Scurry will be the first family 5K for Scott and I to run "with" Riley. This is sure to be a great story so be on the look out for a race update next week!