October 27, 2012 - Trek-or-Treat 5k, Allen, TX
I had finally found my groove again for the September race and was feeling good and training consistently. I was excited for my last 3 races of the year and was confident that I could PR before the end of the year. I was especially excited about the upcoming October race because it was my 2nd Halloween race, which meant another reason to wear a tutu (not that I need a reason...I'd rock a tutu at Walmart if someone dared me to.) My race costume this year (chosen by a fb vote) was going to be Batgirl and I was super pumped to wear it.
But then a wrench was thrown into my training schedule...in the form of a 7 month old baby boy. On October 9, I temporarily became a mommy of two when Mason arrived. For the first time in 6 1/2 years, I was changing diapers and walking the halls all night with a very unhappy baby. And seeing as how I could barely manage to find the time or energy to put a bra on before walking out the door in the morning, sticking to a training schedule was pushed to the back of my mind. I was so scatterbrained and exhausted and disoriented those first several weeks that it became a joke between me and the nanny of my first patients of the day to figure out what Becca had forgotten to do before leaving home in the morning. Most days it was no makeup (not good for a pasty white girl like myself) or forgetting my coffee (dangerous). On days where I looked semi-put-together, she'd happily say, "You look refreshed today!", before I would inform her that I hadn't put deodorant on. Or brushed my teeth. By the time my days were over, running was the furthest from my mind and evenings were instead spent trying to soothe an angry baby who seemed to despise me because I wasn't his mommy. Most nights I went to bed with peas in my hair and slept in 20-30 minute spurts between screaming fits that lasted all night.
So, needless to say, I wasn't prepared for my October race. So what do I do when I'm not prepared for a race? Make up an excuse why walking it is a much better option. This time I used Mason and Isaac as my excuses. I can't run a 10:00 mile with a 21-pound baby in a stroller. Ok let's face it, I can't run a 10:00 mile anytime, but he made it particularly difficult. So I decided that we would ALL run in costume and I'd invite my friend Priscilla to run it with us. She had done a few with me in the past and had just recently come back to town. So what better way to spend some QT together and catch up? Our goal was to have no goal. Just take our time and walk. We'd get there when we got there. And that's exactly what we did. For 51 long minutes. 51:34 to be exact. My slowest 5k ever, but still one of the best.
It was the first painfully cold day of the season (35*), so I decided to wear black running pants under my tutu instead of the short shorts from last year's tutu outfit. Isaac was a ninja (with a face mask to block the cold air), Mason was an elephant and Priscilla just went as her beautiful self. Occasionally, we would run for 30 second spurts but the rest of the time we just walked, talked and took turns pushing Mason's stroller. He slept the entire time so I felt like I was getting a much needed break, even if it was while walking 3.1 miles in the freezing cold. Our slow stroll was holding Isaac back so I finally let him run ahead of us for a while. We lost track of him and when I asked a race volunteer if he had seen him, he said, "Oh, the ninja? He zoomed past here a long time ago." Isaac loves to run as it is, but he's very much like his mama in the sense that wearing a cool outfit gives him a ton more energy during a race.
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November 30, 2012 - Santa Scurry, Keller, TX
I had very few options for my November race because I was going to be in Michigan for 9 days over Thanksgiving. There was one local race the weekend before my trip but it gave me all of 9 days to train for it. So I ended up deciding to cut it very close by choosing a race at 8pm on the very last day of the month and just crossed my fingers that I didn't get sick, injured or have my car break down on the way to the race. I was so close to the end of my resolution year that I didn't want to screw it up now.
I managed to make it to the gym a few times during the week before my vacation so I was able to get a few runs in. Then, while on vacation, I decided to run at the beach, something I had always wanted to do. It was fricken cold! Not only was it Michigan winter but it's very windy at the beach. I bundled up and hoped for the best. I don't know if it was the energy I got from running at one of my favorite places or just wanting to get it over with so I could feel my numb legs and butt again, but I did very well. I broke some records in terms of speed and distance and felt awesome afterwards. If I could've felt my face, I would've been smiling from ear to ear.
When I got back from vacation, I did one last run at the gym and set my race goal at 38:00. Not my best time but definitely far from my worst. The race was in Keller, about 45 min away, so I left the boys with my friend and another friend drove me to my race to cheer me on. The Santa shirts they gave the runners were pretty sweet, but I was a little jealous of the reindeer antlers and Christmas lights some of the other runners were wearing.
This was my 2nd nighttime race and I was so excited. I don't know what it is about night races but they give me an adrenaline rush. My fastest race to date (36:08) had been a night race. Maybe it's the lights or the cooler weather, but I love every moment of it. I had also just revamped my 5k playlist on my iPod and was ready to test it out to see if it kept me motivated. Music is a key player in my runs. If I don't have any music, it's torture. If I have bad race music choices, I get tired and lazy. People say you can tell a lot about a person by their playlist, but I'm not sure what my new playlist says about me. I have everything from Drunk on You by Luke Bryan to Face the Pain by Stemm to Courageous by Casting Crowns to Scream by Usher. So I guess that makes me a little bit country, little bit hardcore, God-lovin' with a side of dirrrtay girl. (Personally, I think this makes me a great catch.)
I had a ton of energy throughout 80% of this race. I did more running than walking and when I would run, I was moving at around a 9:00 mile pace. The only downfall was that it was in an area with a poor GPS signal. I am obsessed with my Runtastic app during races because I'm able to keep track of my time and my distance. When I'm running out of steam at the end of a race, I NEED to be able to look at the app and see that I'm only a half-mile from the finish line. But as a result of the poor signal, it wasn't accurately tracking my distance or pace. For example, when I passed the 2-mile marker, the app told me I had only gone 0.9 miles and my pace was like a 17-min mile or something. So I had to take a few deep breaths and get out of my head if I wanted to finish this race. I had always been told that finishing a race was 90% mental and 10% physical (or something like that). I had always thought that was crap because I was positive my badonkadonk butt had contributed to a good 70% of my running struggles. But when my GPS wasn't working during this race and I had a brief panic attack, I realized that it really IS mental. So I turned off the app, switched my iPod to Courageous and focused on the finish line.
As I rounded the final turn and saw the finish line clock, I really couldn't believe what I was seeing. Not only was I going to beat the goal I had set for myself for this race, but I was also about to PR for the first time in 8 months. I crossed the finish line in 35:01, 1:07 faster than my previous fastest race. My friend was trying to talk to me and congratulate me but I just sat on the ground and held up my hand to say, "Give me a minute." I had to catch my breath, but I was also a little emotional and didn't trust myself to talk without busting into an ugly cry. Since it was so late by the time the race got done and we drove back home from Keller, my celebratory "meal" was McDonald's hot chocolate, but I was perfectly happy with that. :)
December 29, 2012 - Just For The Heck of It 5k, Arlington, TX
<-------Mommy
(Race #15)
Isaac--------->
(Race #5)
I did it!! :) I made it to my final race of 2012 and successfully completed my New Year's resolution to run one 5k per month for the entire year. This particular race wasn't my original plan for my final race of the year. Several months ago, I decided that I was going to compete in my first obstacle course race, so I registered for the Run For Your Lives 5k in Austin, an obstacle course race where zombies chase you the entire time and try to steal your flags. This was the plan all the way up to 20 hours before the race when I promptly changed my mind and didn't go. I had done a TON of traveling over the past month. I had driven to and from MI for Thanksgiving, I still wasn't sleeping well at night because Mason was always sick, and I had just gotten back from a 4-day cruise to Cozumel (8-hour drive to and from New Orleans). I was just drained. I had no energy left and no patience left to travel the 5 or so hours to Austin. It was only Dec 15 so I just figured that I could choose another race between then and Dec. 31. Little did I know that things would NOT go as planned and I would contract the Plague of 2012...
Around December 18, I started feeling really sick. Mason had contracted RSV at daycare and it is highly contagious. I waited about 5 days to go to the doctor, and by the time I went in, I had strep, bronchitis, laryngitis, pink eye, and impetigo (extremely painful bacterial infection that shows up as sores on your face). I was a MESS. I could barely function well enough to take care of 2 children let alone run a race, so I held out hope that I would get better by December 31. Didn't happen. This illness lasted for almost 4 weeks (I was off work from December 19 through January 8). But I wasn't about to let 11 months of a successful resolution year go down the tubes because of it, so I chose one of the last races of the year (and cheapest - $10) and just went for it. Mason was with his parents that weekend so it was just Isaac and I. We stayed in a hotel near the race the night before since it was in Arlington (45+ minutes away). Not only did I need that extra sleep, but Isaac and I desperately needed some fun QT together. We ordered pizza and watched cartoons before going to sleep early.
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| Note the lopsided, funky smile thanks to impetigo and pink eye. |
The next morning was FRIGID. Painfully frigid: 28*. We both bundled up as well as we could and I covered my face and head with a few layers. I had NO voice so I had to whisper to the race officials when we picked up our bibs. They looked at me like I was a crazy person when I told them that I was about to complete a race in freezing temps with strep and bronchitis. But it had to be done. Nothing was going to stop me at this point. Stubborn? Maybe a little. Obviously my only goal was to simply finish this race, preferably not last. I've never been last in any of my races. Second-to-last, yes. Last, no way, and I wasn't about to let it happen this time. This was a very small race - only about 70 people - so you were either fast or walking. I wanted to stay somewhere in the middle. We ran at a pretty good pace for the first 1/3 mile and put some distance between us and about 8 people who were walking. I quickly realized that I wasn't going to be running much. My lungs were heavy and I was wheezing. My mouth was covered so I could keep from breathing in frozen air, but it was almost just as bad to breathe in the humid air inside my neck gaiter. Isaac did a run-walk combo and I walked (unless I was passing a race photographer, at which point I would run at full speed so my race picture would look less pathetic).
It felt like the longest race ever and even Isaac (who had managed to stay healthy throughout all of the illness in our house) just wanted to be done. I tried to make it fun for him so we could just get through it without tears or arguing. I had no energy or voice for arguing and honestly, nothing is more frustrating than trying to yell at or argue with someone who can't understand you anyway. During the last mile, I turned on my iPod and we'd take turns running ahead of the other one and dancing like a weirdo to Justin Bieber (oh, what a mother will do to make her child happy) while the other person caught up. Luckily, we had no witnesses because the runners had long since crossed the finish line and the walkers were a good 30 yards behind us on the trail. I finally crossed the finish line at 47:20 (Isaac was 47:13). I had never been so happy to finish a race, partly because I was frozen and incredibly ill, but mostly because I had completed a huge goal for myself and hadn't given up.
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| My little runner. :) |
I never stay for the awards ceremonies because, let's face it, I'm not exactly Kara Goucher. But this day, I just needed to sit and rest and rehydrate, so we stuck around. When they had gotten through about half of the awards, we started walking towards our car when I suddenly heard my name. I thought maybe I had left my license on the bib table so I turned around to see the girl holding a medal out to me. I said, "Ummm, huh? What's this for?" She said it was an age-group award. I said, "For Rebecca Macy?!" She looked at her clip board and nodded and said, "Do you want it?" Heck yeah I wanted it! I had just completed the most miserable 5k of my entire life and I won a medal?! Clearly there was a mistake but I took it and got my picture taken.
After I got in my car, I turned the medal over and saw that I had won 3rd place in my age group. My sister was just as confused as I was. "There must've been some slow ass 30 year olds running this race." And later, "Were there 3 people in your age group??" Turns out that there WERE in fact 3 people in my age group...and I won 3rd place. HAHA!! But hey, it was a medal and it'll be a good story to tell someday. "I won 3rd place in my age group....with STREP!" I'll of course leave out the part about coming in 3rd in a group of 3.
So that is the end of my 2012 journey to becoming A Runner. There were a lot of tough times but also a lot of fun times. It started out as a resolution based solely on a fitness goal, but it turned into a journey focused on determination, mental strength and learning about myself and what I am capable of. I'm very proud of my accomplishments and I loved sharing many races with family, friends and most importantly, Isaac. He is my #1 fan. :) Thanks to all of my friends who read my blog and have followed my running adventures over the past 15 races. While I don't have the same resolution this year, I do have a major goal set for 2013. My very first 10k is scheduled for May 4, 2013! The thought of running DOUBLE the distance that I am used to is terrifying, but I know I can do it with a little bit of determination, a lot of training and the suppport of my family and friends. :)
