Rain 10.4.21

It's such an event when it rains around here. We had to go out and splash in the puddle in our driveway after it rained. 

Bubbles! (9.27.21)

On Monday, Liam found our bubble machine. I don't know how he came across it. He asked so nicely to use it so we did. Ella came out and joined us. I took some pictures and videos. Ella posed a little for me. Liam had so much fun and he didn't notice me even when I tried to get him to look at the camera. 

I converted the live photos to videos to make the video. I tried to upload the photos but google photos is a pain in the neck so only a few uploaded. 

We used an entire bubble container in 15 minutes. It was a fun 15 minutes. We will let the preschool borrow it so they can have some fun too. 

Oops I had this post open and forgot to post it! I always have too many tabs open so I didn't even notice. 

Rock 'n' Roll 10k (10.3.21)

I ran my race I've been training for. I can't believe how much my time has improved since I started using a training plan. I also can't believe my improvement from what I started back running again in July after my surgery. But part of me is also bummed because I used to be so much faster pre-kids and even after 1 kid. I haven't gotten back my speed after having my second and definitely not after having my third. It was so fun to meet up with Beth before and after the race. I have missed in person races!

 (I used 3 devices but my Garmin stopped early. I didn't edit them)

Before the race

I had updated my Garmin Training Plan a few times since setting it up. It was hard to set it up since I was only running a half mile at a time.  It was so fun to see the confidence level improve.  I still only set it up to 64 minutes. It also had the race over a week after the actual race day.  I had a little goal myself to try to run it in 62 minutes but 2 minutes is a big improvement from 64 minutes. I was pretty close on pace except mile 4. 

At the start line I realized I never processed what my run/walk intervals should be. I did 1:15-0:15. I ran through about half of the walk intervals.  

There were 3 water stops. I skipped one. The third water stop was really annoying. Most of the tables did not have water in any of the cups so it was almost a full minute of walking just getting water from a table.  That contributed to my horrible 4th mile split. 

The start line

The start line had so many people so close together but the race itself was well spread out. They had a red light and green light and let runners start every 45 seconds.  There were 4 lanes that had 1 person start every 45 seconds.  This meant it was a very long time for everyone to start but it meant the actual race was a lot more spread out. I really enjoyed it being spread out. 

I never looked at the course in advance so I didn't even know where we'd turn in advance. It didn't matter.   I did know the 10k split off from the half marathon runners near the end of the 10k but I didn't know when. 

My garmin was spot on every single mile banner. I was in shock. But then at the end my watch knew I was running a 10k so then it actually stopped when I hit a little over 10k distance. I still had almost 30 seconds left to run! I'm not sure how my Garmin was spot on but then the last .2 of the course ended up being more like .3 on my watch. 

I hit 30:45 at the 5k mark. I was impressed and didn't think I'd have gotten there that fast.   The last water stop at 3.9 involved a lot of walking since the tables did not have cups filled with water so I had to keep checking more. I swear I walked for a minute straight just trying to get some water.  

I felt like I was just going and not super pushing. I didn't want to super push and not be able to push at the end but I guess I still could have. 

Official race results have me listed at 1:02:55. Also if I would have known top 10 in each age group were conveniently listed I would have tried harder. Granted I wouldn't have improved by 2 full minutes. 

I paid in advance for race photos. I didn't know that I paid and got such a good deal. But it took me a few extra days to get my link to download them. I was worried because the generic email went out where I could view my watermarked images. I wasted a good hour trying to figure out how to contact the company and also finding my confirmation and reading their FAQ page to figure it out.  I got my download link 3-4 days after Beth got her link with her pics. I got it 3 days after the generic link went out where you could put in a bib number and see their photos.

The race bibs were so huge. I don't know why they make the bibs so huge and annoying. 

Overall I'm happy with my time but of course I wanted faster.  I think I did a good job with my own water and I shouldn't have even bothered with the water stops. Next race, I will specifically plan what interval I want to do and why. I liked knowing I'd get race photos and when I saw a photographer I'd actually slow up or spread out more so I wasn't boxed in so then I got more photos. Lots of the photographers I saw were just for a running group and not for the entire race which was a bummer.

Because I paid for photos it said that I'd come up in the background photos and not just when I'm the spotlight. So I got a few like the one above where I was not the focus. I liked seeing those. 

At the finish line I saw a photographer up high but I didn't even notice the one on the ground to the left. Those photos were my favorite. You can see him in this photo.

When I was looking for race photos I saw the live of the finish. I clicked and then clicked again and that second click had me right on the screen which is crazy since the live was like 4 hours long.

I took video and photos of Beth finishing.

I could stalk Beth to see when she was coming in so I didn't miss her.

This shows my heart rate and also the intervals. I ran through a lot.

I sat down and stretched. 

My Garmin was set to a 10k so then it stopped before the finish line!