Butler Bulldog Jog 5K | Recap

This morning we ran the 20th Annual Butler University Bulldog Jog 5K.  I sort of pressured my husband into running it with me, but I thought it would be a fun run and a good way to support Butler.  I of course signed us up after the early bird deadline (I’m terrible about that kind of stuff).  We stopped by the Butler HRC last night to pick up our bibs.  I was concerned that we weren’t going to get shirts since we registered late.  Luckily, they still had our sizes, which was awesome because these shirts are great.  They are tech shirts and so soft.  Considering the registration cost of $20 (if you were an early bird), this is a pretty good return on investment.

This year’s event also included the inaugural one mile dog walk.  I seriously considered signing us up for that, but was afraid that the dogs would just embarrass us too much.  I think it was wise that we decided to run the 5K.  There were so many dogs (tons of bulldogs, obviously), and I know Maggie would have flipped out.  One of the goals of the event was to gather items to donate to the Indiana Bulldog Rescue and the Indianapolis Humane Society.  Spearheaded by Butler’s mascot, Blue II, he asked participants to bring items that would be put to good use for those dogs less fortunate than him and our spoiled mutts.  So, we gathered up all of the leashes and harnesses that we no longer use (or never really used because Maggie is so picky) and dropped them off when we got our bibs last night.

We had a pretty decent storm come through last evening, and I was  a little concerned that we were going to get rained on and/or that the tow path would be a puddle-ridden, soggy mess.  I would not have been too upset if it had rained because I’m convinced that it’s going to rain during the Mini because we’ve had such great training weather.  However, I knew that rain would not have pleased my husband, and with this being his first race, I wanted it to go smoothly.

We woke up and the weather was perfect.  Just a little chilly, and the sun was coming up.  We needed to run more than just 3.1 miles, so we figured we would run over to campus and back to get in a little over 5 miles.  We walked outside and were greeted by this sunrise.  Pretty good way to start a Saturday if you ask me.  I can only hope that May 5 dawns the same way.  I could already hear the music and festivities coming from Butler.

We made it over in under 8 minutes.  As soon as we walked up I saw the Back on My Feet Indy group.  It was great to finally meet some of the members.  I received a big package of fundracing gear yesterday, so I was sporting one of my new shirts.  I definitely felt a sense of pride being affiliated with the group. (If you are interested in helping me reach my fundraising goal, visit my campaign page here.)

As we made our way towards the starting line, I saw them: Blue II and Trip!  Blue was hanging out in his Burley Trailers Tail Wagon, ready for his duties as Grand Marshall of the Dog Walk.  I finally had my chance to meet and get my picture with him, but I didn’t do it.  I’m so silly.

It was about ten minutes to go time, and I wanted to get up towards the front of the pack.  I had no delusions that I was going to stay at the front of the pack, but I wanted to avoid having to weave in and out of people.  I was really impressed with the fact that they had pacers.  We started behind the girl with the 7:50 sign.  As expected, when the race started people took off in a dead sprint, us included.

As the crowd thinned, I told my husband we were going too fast, and we backed off.  I know it was only a 5K, but I didn’t think running a 7:30 pace would be good for either of us.  Perhaps I was wrong.  We stuck together for almost the first mile, and he started to pull ahead of me.  We passed the first mile marker, and he continued to pull ahead of me.  By the time we hit the tow path, I stopped trying to spot him!  I just focused on my own pace, thinking that if I stayed where I was, I might finish around an 8:00 pace.

I kept closing the gap on the 7:50 pacer, and as I neared the 3 mile sign, I kicked it into gear.  I passed her, and tried not to think about the steep hill that was waiting for me at the end.  I hit the bottom of it and just looked down.  For me, hills are easier if I’m not looking up the steep grade ahead of me.  I saw the finish line, and realized the finish was actually on the football field.  That was pretty cool, and I’ll admit I pretended I was a college athlete as I gave it all I had those last few feet.

My unofficial time was 25:09.  I’m pretty pleased about that.  My husband was waiting for me, and one of the Back on My Feet runners gave me a high-five.  I definitely felt like I had given it my all, which is always my main goal for a race.  We walked back by Hinkle, got some water, and marveled over the impressive race set up.  They had the normal after race food, but they also had a nice area for stretching and massages!  All along the race route we were cheered on by smiling and friendly student volunteers.  I will definitely run this race again.  Great job, Butler HRC!

I hoped to maybe see Blue again, but the dog walk was still going on and we had to get going.  We had a busy day ahead of us and a mile run home.  So off we went at an easy jog.  The official race results aren’t posted yet, but I expect my husband ran at least a 7:50 pace or faster.  Pretty impressive for a first race (although I like to take some credit since I told him we need to slow down at the start).  It’s only a matter of time before I get him to the start of a half marathon.  Happy running!

Getting the Lead Out | 7 Weeks to the Mini

I can’t believe it’s only seven weeks until the Mini (that’s me in the pink crossing the finish line last year).  Where has the time gone?  I have been a little concerned about my training this time around.  I’ve had very few good runs.  You know, those runs where everything just feels right? Your pace is good, your form is good, you just feel good. Those have been few and far between.

This past week I was just thinking about how my legs have been feeling like lead for a long time.  My pace has been so-so, but the runs are hard. I can barely lift my legs up, and I’m tired two miles in.  This is only my fourth half marathon, and I haven’t run a race in a year.  I thought maybe this is just how I’m supposed to feel a little over halfway through the training.  Maybe I just forgot how I usually feel as this point.

But today – today was different.  I woke up looking forward to the run.  (It still kind of amazes me how much of an impact a positive attitude has on a run.) The weather was beautiful.  Even though I already had 17 miles in for the week, I felt good.  My Saturday morning running buddy is nursing a sore Achilles right now, but my husband agreed to run the eight miles with me.  We took off and a couple of miles in I realized this could be a decent run.

It was a bit chilly in the breeze, but the sun was warm.  I mentally kicked myself for not putting on sun screen before we left.  We passed the same goose on the tow path that always hisses at us.  We made it into Broad Ripple and turned onto the Monon heading north.  There were tons of people out.  It was great.  We even passed a couple of Back on My Feet runners out training for the Carmel Marathon.  We got to our turn around point and I looked at my watch for the first time.  I was shocked.  It didn’t really feel like we were going that fast.  I thought perhaps I’d messed up starting/stopping my watch at one of the intersections.

Whether it was accurate or not, I was motivated to pick it up the rest of the way home.  We took a quick break then started off.  And something amazing happened.  My legs felt light, quick, like they wanted to run.  Finally!  I picked up the pace, feeling a little guilty about it since this was the first time my husband had run 8 miles (not to mention he’s run with me every day this week, so he’s probably at his highest mileage for a week).

We passed a man who waved at us and told us to have a safe jog.  We passed another man who waved and shouted “Hello!”.  After we passed him, I could hear him doing the same to all the other runners and walkers.  At around 2 miles left, I wasn’t sure I could keep the pace up.  There was no longer a chill in the breeze, and the sun was warming up.  I checked my watch again.  If we made it 52nd Street in another ten minutes, we might be able to make the eight miles in under 1:10:00.  We passed a man wearing a shirt that said “Running Sucks.”  I wished I was wearing my “My Sport is Your Sport’s Punishment” shirt.  And then we hit 52nd Street in under 9 minutes.

Even thought I already felt a bit like vomiting, I knew if I just pushed myself a little harder, I would have an awesome time to pair with the awesome feeling.  I looked over my shoulder and told my husband I was going to pick it up for the last mile, and I took off.  I pulled my headphones out of my ears.  It was just me, the sound of my shoes on the pavement, my breathing, and the chirping birds.

I wasn’t going to look at my watch again until I was done.  I was just going to focus on how I felt.  We came up to 49th and College and something I wasn’t expecting happened.  My husband passed me.  And I don’t mean by a little.  He blew by me!  He is faster than me, but I knew he hadn’t been feeling as good as me that morning – some aches and pains, not enough water yesterday.  I tried to keep up with him, or at least close the gap, but he finished more than half a block ahead of me.

I used that as motivation to go as fast as I possibly could.  I rounded the corner towards home, and pretended I was approaching the Mini finish line.  I stopped my watch – 1:08:24.  Success!  The need to vomit immediately went away.  I congratulated my husband and we finished the cool down together.

I really needed that run today.  I needed a mental adjustment.  Sometimes your legs feel like lead.  Sometimes you’re tired.  But you just have to keep putting in the miles.  It will pay off.  What this means is that now I need to focus on speed work.  I hate speed work.  But it too will pay off.  I really want that 1:45:00 finish.

Running with Dogs | How Maggie & I Saved a Bulldog

Yesterday was day two of running with the dogs.  I was a little nervous about how it would go because it was fairly warm.  Maggie, like her mama, doesn’t do well in heat.  But I am determined to get them exercising on a regular basis, so off we went.

We started out the same as Sunday.  Pete and Maggie were both weaving back and forth.  It took them a while to get into the swing of it.  Of course, the boys pulled ahead in no time.  I could tell that Maggie was taking it a little slower.  She also had a lot more slobber this time.  I mean, to the point that she shook her head and the slimy foam went flying everywhere ala Hooch. (You know, as in Turner and Hooch.  Please tell me you know Turner and Hooch.)

We were a couple of blocks from home and there was a barking dog in its back yard.  Maggie started flipping around and yipping at it.  Just as we made it past that house, I heard some shouting.  “No!”  “Moses, no!” “MOSES!” I did not know who Moses was, but I recognized the tone in the voice.  Panic rising to the level of hysteria.  Moses was a dog, he was loose, and he was heading for the busy street.

I slowed my pace and shouted at my husband to stop.  I looked behind me in the direction of the yells, and sure enough, here was this big, white bulldog barreling straight towards us.  Of course, we were on the opposite side of the street.  Luckily there were no cars close by, but two were approaching.

I got a tight grip on Maggie’s leash and ran out into the street, waving my arms like a crazy person to make sure that the drivers saw us.  The one time I’m not wearing bright, reflective clothing is obviously the one time I’m going to have to run into the middle of the street.  Moses ran to us to say hello.  All I could do was hope that Maggie didn’t freak out on him.  She’s so squirrely around other dogs, and you never know how she might react.  She does not take kindly to other dogs’ noses near her butt.  At a very minimum, I expected barking.

As Moses greeted Maggie, I grabbed his collar.  That was my first priority – stop him from going anywhere else.  My second priority was to try to keep them separated, or at least avoid a fight.  Man, was he strong and solid.  He really wanted to sniff her, and there wasn’t much I could do to keep them apart.  I tried walking them over to the sidewalk, but we didn’t get very far.  I can just imagine what we looked like!  Me bent halfway over with my right hand on his collar, while I had my left hand raised up to tighten the leash and keep Maggie away from him.

All of this took place in a matter of seconds.  I doubt we were even standing there for thirty seconds.  His owner ran over, thanked us, put a leash on him, and we all made it safely to the other sidewalk.  As Moses walked off, I looked down at Maggie, amazed.  She was still just sitting there quietly.  I don’t know if it was the exercise, or whether she could tell another canine was in trouble and needed help, but I was very proud of how she responded.  We waited for the cars to pass and took off to catch up with the boys.

Pete was in top form again, running way too fast for me to stay up with them.  Maggie and I just took our time.  We even got to the point where there was some slack in the leash.  That never happens.  We made it the rest of the way without incident…well, except for Pete slamming on the brakes to take a pee right on the sidewalk.  We even made it past a very crowded Waffle Cone Wednesday with no crazy barks from Maggie.  There was even a small dog that started barking at us, but she just looked in that direction for a split second and paid no mind.

We went back out tonight, and it was totally uneventful.  That is, except for Pete unexpectedly lunging for a squirrel and nearly flying head over heels.  I looked up just as his butt was coming back down out of the air.

In case you’re keeping track, that’s three successful runs, and one successful bulldog rescue.  I’d say that’s a pretty good record so far.

Getting Back in the Groove

I had five very simple goals for the new year.  They included running 1000 miles during the year, writing every day, and getting organized (including keeping my house clean).  I’ve stayed on track with running only.  My inability to get organized  has hindered my ability to write every day.  This weekend I was determined to get back on track.  I spent part of Friday fashioning a very specific list of things to accomplish.  I like lists.  I like crossing things off those lists even more.

By the end of the weekend, I was exhausted, but pleased.  I accomplished a good portion of the tasks.  I fixed the deadbolt knob that keeps falling off.  I cleaned the house to 85% satisfaction (which is satisfactory).  I did the laundry. I wrote.  I did a blog post for this blog. I edited photos for four posts. I felt accomplished.

The best part of this exercise was that I felt re-energized to write.  Finally.  I have been in such a slump lately.  In a three-week span, I think I wrote maybe three times.  I was definitely beating myself up about it.  But I just couldn’t force myself to go upstairs and write for thirty minutes.  I’d had some ideas about reworking a main part of the story, but I wasn’t sure how to go about doing it.  I realized that having that uncertainty hanging over my head was a big part of why I didn’t want to write.  I didn’t know which direction the story was going in. I had to figure that out before I could do anything else.

So I spent part of Saturday doing just that.  I thought while I scrubbed, dusted, and swept.  The lightbulb finally went off, and the words and ideas have been flowing out like water from a faucet.  I thought of a few ideas for short stories and personal essays.  I’ve always had trouble finishing short stories.  I start with a concept and it quickly derails.  I think it’s because I just start writing with no sense of what the goal is.  For me, short stories need more structure.  It’s OK to have an outline.  I have high hopes for these ideas.

I feel like I’m finally back in the groove.  Here’s to hoping I can stay there.

Running With Dogs

We own a couple of pretty neurotic hyper dogs.  We know that exercise will help them behave better.  We talk about it all the time.  “We really need to get a pass to the dog park.” “We should really start walking them more.” “We should try running with them.”  Yet every week passes and we do none of those things.

They have really been atrocious the last few weeks.  They try to “protect” us from everything that goes by the front window, including other dogs, cats, squirrels, and the occasional piece of trash floating by (you know how dangerous trash can be).  As Spring nears and the temperature rises, we again discussed getting them outside.

Pete loves to walk.  He prances around with this big grin on his face.  Maggie, on the other hand, is so embarrassing.  She barks the entire time, but not normal barking.  Oh, no. That would be too easy.  No, she uses her high-pitched, shrill, “everyone look, my mommy is killing me” bark.  I know that it must echo for a five block radius.  She walks on her back legs.  She dives at the ground and rolls around to try to get the Gentle Leader off her face.  And she foams at the mouth.  That’s right.  It looks like she has rabies (or what I imagine a dog who has rabies to look like).  When we get home, her eyes are all bloodshot from tugging so hard, even though the Leader goes around her nose.

She’s such an anxious dog, she just doesn’t enjoy walking.  But we feel bad leaving her home if we take Pete.  We’ve talked about running with Pete ever since we got him.  He’s fast, and he’s strong.  We figured he could handle a few miles.  Maggie, maybe not so much. She’s also fast (not as fast as he is), but she always acts like she is dying after a mile long walk.  We get home and she huffs and puffs and lays around for the rest of the evening.  That is, after she drinks too much water too quickly and vomits everywhere.

We talked about it last night and decided we would just go for it this morning.  We were only running 4 miles and we could drop them off after two.  There is no excuse for us not getting them out.  I mean, how selfish are we that we run 20-30 miles a week but can’t take the dogs out?  We are bad dog parents.

We got up this morning and got ourselves ready.  There was no real game plan.  I decided I would take Maggie, even though the last time we ran together (over two years ago), she knocked me over and I fell flat on my face.  Since Pete is faster, I figured he would be a better fit with my husband.  We got them all harnessed up and we were ready to go.

We’d barely left the driveway and Maggie was already weaving back and forth in front of me.  I finally got her situated on my left side.  Pete took off like he always does, ears flapping in the wind, huge grin on his face. (For those of you who don’t think dogs smile, I can assure you that they do).  Maggie was yipping like she normally does, but not as loudly.  She decided to run along the sidewalk while I stayed in the street.  We hadn’t even made it two blocks when we came upon a dog in a yard.  He sort of growled at us. Oh, no, I thought.  Here we go.

Maggie did not even notice him.  No acknowledgement.  She just kept right on running.  I was stunned.  If we had been walking, she would have lunged at the dog, choked herself, and barked for the next three blocks.  I was beginning to think this just might work.

Around a half a mile, Pete and my husband were pulling ahead of us.  Maggie looked up and saw them and tried to speed ahead.  It was really pretty cute.  Unfortunately, I could not run that fast.  It already seemed like we were sprinting.  We took a short walking break around a mile.  We couldn’t believe how well everyone was doing.  Except for the humans, anyway.  The dogs were running about 20-30 seconds per mile faster than we usually run.  It was a good thing we planned to drop them off after only 2 miles.

At about a mile and half, Pete saw some squirrels he really wanted to go after.  Maggie saw him, and decided she better go after the squirrels too.  We made it past without anyone getting hurt (me included). When we were almost home, Maggie decided it was now time to dive into vegetation and try to get the Leader off.  We had a couple of instances were she ran on one side of a post and I ran on the other, and we bounced back at the end of the leash.  Again, everyone stayed upright.

As we neared our street, I tried to pick up the pace so Maggie and Pete could finish together.  I was pretty impressed with their athletic skills.  We dropped them off and headed back out for the last two miles, discussing how well that went considering what our walks are usually like.  Maggie didn’t have time to be anxious, and may have actually enjoyed herself.  There was never a question about Pete.  Now we have no excuses for not exercising them.  They can come with us on our runs, and I think as time goes by, they will be able to go farther.  Which will be a good thing, considering they weren’t even tired the rest of the day! (What we were hoping for, but did not achieve) ————–>