Run Stronger with Strength Training: aka Training Hard doesn't have to be Hard

This past week I talked to 3 different runners at different places, who all said basically the same thing - I know I should be doing Strength Training, but just don't quite know where to start. 

I get it. I've been there. When I started running just over a decade ago, I only ran. I was just starting out, and that in itself was overwhelming. The thought of adding in other exercises when I could barely jog for 60 seconds without stopping was not something I could think of at the time. But when you only run, you are using the same set of muscles and only those on repeat. Eventually, you either get to a place where you are not making any improvement, or worse, injuring yourself. 

So eventually, when I was finally able to get the running thing into a place where I felt more  confident, I was ready to add on. Especially because I found myself plateauing. Running alone can only take you so far. 

It can be confusing what to do, especially when starting out. Before I get to that, let's look at some of the benefits of Strength Training in case you are still on the fence yourself:

Injury Prevention: One of the primary benefits of incorporating strength training into a running regimen is injury prevention. Running, especially over long distances, puts a significant amount of stress on joints, muscles, and ligaments. Strength training helps fortify these structures, reducing the risk of common running injuries such as shin splints, stress fractures, and tendonitis.

Muscle Endurance: Running requires more than just cardiovascular endurance; it demands muscle endurance as well. Strength training targets specific muscle groups, improving their stamina and resistance to fatigue. This, in turn, allows runners to maintain good form and sustain their pace over extended distances.

Power and Speed Boost: Contrary to popular belief, strength training doesn't necessarily equate to bulk. Instead, it enhances power and speed by improving muscle coordination and recruitment. A well-rounded strength training routine can help runners generate more force with each stride, translating to increased speed and efficiency.

Core Stability: A strong core is the linchpin of effective running. It stabilizes the body, ensuring proper posture and balance. Strength training exercises targeting the core muscles, such as planks and Russian twists, contribute significantly to better running form and reduced energy wastage.

Improved Running Economy: Running economy refers to the energy cost of running at a particular pace. Studies have shown that incorporating strength training into a running routine can enhance running economy by promoting better biomechanics and reducing excessive energy expenditure. This means that runners can cover more distance with the same amount of energy.

Enhanced Mental Toughness: Endurance athletes often face mental challenges during races or long runs. Strength training, with its focus on discipline and perseverance, can contribute to mental toughness. The resilience built through strength training can be a valuable asset when facing the mental hurdles that often accompany distance running.

 

Ok, so now you know WHY you need to Strength Train, here's a place to start. 

Full disclosure, while I am a certified RCAA Running Coach, I am NOT a trained PT or Personal Training. I have consulted tons and tons of both live and online resources and these are my recommendations on 10 very basic moves that pretty much will serve you well for a solid, full body strength routine. 

1. Squats
2. Deadlifts
3. Push Ups
4. Lunge (forward and rear)
5. Plank
6. Elevated Split Squat
7. Glute Bridge
8. Lateral Lunge
9. Rows
10. Shoulder Press
11. Supermans
12. Calf Raises

I do this circuit 2 days a week, each exercise for 60 seconds with 15 seconds rest in between, for 3 rounds. You can do them either a true circuit (each exercise once and then repeat them 3 times) or a super circuit (each exercise 3 times before moving to the next). The order does not matter. Feel 

Don't like the looks of this routine? That is ok, do you own research and find what works for you. There are numerous resources out there. Try out some things, see what you like. My biggest recommendation would be to not over complicate things. Basic is good. 

PS: Stretching is also important, but that is a topic for another day... 

Keeping 2024 Pinteresting

I love Pinterest. The organization, the ideas, the creativity. Most of all, I want to be the kind of person that uses Pinterest to make awesome and amazing things that make my life better and inspire others. And since this year is all about becoming the person that I want to be, part of that will be to focus on tackling some of those Pinterest Pins that I have collected over the years. 

Each week I plan to choose at least one pin to attempt. I have a wide variety of boards, just chock full of amazing ideas for crafts, meals, gifts and so much more. I also plan to make more of my own pins. I have create a board for RunNerdGirl and have posted a few pins here and there, but I need to be more consistent with promoting my own things. Like this blog!

I have already completed Step 1 - Cleaning out my Boards and Pins. I removed any dead links and removed any projects that are outdated for my current life. For example, I had a whole board of Toddler Fun ideas. Not sure that any of those ideas would be suitable for my now almost 14 year old. 

A few of my Pinterest Boards

The plan is to post some, if not all of the things that I try out here on the blog to let you know how it went. Both the good and the bad. I know there will be a few candidates for Pinstrosities and I plan to show it all. 

If you are interested in checking out my Pinterest, you can find it here: https://www.pinterest.com/lissayn And if you see anything on there in particular that you would like to see me attempt, drop me a suggestion in the comments. I haven't picked my first project quite yet, but my guess is it will be either a meal, or something from my Best Life board. After all, finding my best life is what this is all about. 

Are you on Pinterest? Drop my your links in the comments. I would love to check out your boards for ideas as well. 

Failure to Launch

So yeah, keeping things real here to admit that in fact, I wasn't actually ready to get back to work apparently. 

This month I learned that it isn't exactly setting yourself up for success to schedule a comeback during a month when you are planning to be travelling approximately 80% of it. 

So while I did have some really great adventures...

Trip to Myrtle Beach with my Not-So-Little One

Girls Trip to Lake Lure/Chimney Rock

Sibling Vacay to Vancouver with my brother

I did not have any great successes in getting my life back under control. 

But I am trying hard to not beat myself up about it. Instead, I am going to regroup, and give myself the grace to try again. 

I am not defeated just delayed.

I'm Back, and Ready to Work!

Me at the Duomo di Milano at night

So in my previous post here: https://runnerdgirl.blogspot.com/2023/05/as-soon-as-im-back-from-italy.html I explained how all of my focus lately had been on stressing out over everything - both professionally and personally near constantly. Seriously, it felt to me like every day was just a constant struggle to survive. Was that being a bit dramatic, absolutely. But it's hard to calm yourself down when everything feels just so wrong and beyond your control. 

And while I know it is never a good idea to "put off until tomorrow what you can do today" that is basically what I had been doing for a while. Well, now it is tomorrow...

Do I think being back from Italy will magically make things better and instantly my motivation, self control and habits will all instantly come back? Of course not. But now I am in a much better mindset to actually put in the hard work necessary to get myself back on track in a few areas of my life. It won't be easy, but I am now mentally able to try. And, I've even come up with a new project to keep me motivated (I'm not quite ready to talk about it yet, but will soon and am pretty excited about this). 

So how am I starting? This morning I started 2 different programs to help me focus on getting back on track. 

The first is the Greatness App. This is a Habit Tracker app that helps you build routines and includes courses and lessons to help with mental and personal development. When you first download the app, it gives you a very detailed quiz to help you identify your goals and then suggests different plans and courses for building a customized plan. The app offers all of the following:

• Fully personalized habit programs, tailored specifically to your goals and lifestyle.
• Easy-to-adopt custom routines, which can be tweaked along the way as you learn to replace bad habits.
• Habit tracker and friendly reminders for daily motivation and tracking progress – so you stay consistent and accountable.
• In-depth expert courses to help you grow any area of your life and make better everyday choices.
• Daily audio coaching from certified cognitive behavior therapists and psychologists that will help you to stay focused.
• Intermittent fasting tracker to help you build healthier eating habits. You can choose a fasting goal and track your progress, all in one convenient place.
• Mental health coaching library – bite-sized audio lessons on managing worry, overcoming procrastination, reducing anxiety, stress, and more.
• Guided video workouts with step-by-step guidance, led by expert trainers.\

To access all of the content, you do have to pay for a subscription, but there is a free version, which I am trying currently. I am not opposed to paying for content if I find it useful, so if I do find that I am benefiting from using this app, I will subscribe, but I want to get a good feel for how to integrate it into my life before shelling out $ for it, especially when some apps make it a challenge to unsubscribe. 

The app recommends that you start out on the Sticky Habits program, so that is where I am starting. This program says that it will help you develop "5 essential habits that will transform the way you start each day." It lasts 15 days. Currently the only habit it has me focusing on drinking a glass of water first thing in the morning, which I pretty much already did, but I am committed to trying the 15 day program as it is. Each of the 5 habits have multiple Steps to Success that gives tips and reasoning behind why each habit is considered essential and how mastering them will start your day out on the path to success. I will post a comprehensive review of the program when I finish the 15 day Stick Habits program. So far, it reminds me a lot of the Tiny Habits concept, which I read the book earlier this year, where you start small and build on to making lasting changes without becoming overwhelmed. 

The other program that I am starting to day is the 75 Medium Challenge. This is a less extreme version of the 75 Hard Challenge, where you follow an extremely strict meal plan (no cheat meals, no alcohol), exercise outdoors 2x a day for 45 minutes, drink a gallon of water, read 10 pages of a nonfiction book each day, take a progress picture each day. If you fail any 1 thing, you start over. Yeah, that is a bit much. So I am doing a scaled down "Medium" version. 

The 75 Medium Challenge consists of the following:

• Eat Well 90% of the time and only drink alcohol on social occasions
• Drink 3 liters of water per day
• Read 10 pages of any book each day
• Exercise for 45 minutes every day
• Take a progress picture

Way more doable. Today is Day 1 for me. I am confident that I can stick to this as it has some room for adaptation while still being pretty strict. It's almost Noon and I have already put in my 45 minutes of exercise (iRock this morning), stuck to a meal plan for breakfast and snack, plus brought for lunch and afternoon snack, and have drank almost half my water for the day. I also took my progress picture first thing this morning, which will never see the light of day, but I took it. Maybe at the end to show how far I have come (hopefully). 

So that is where I am now. Back. Motivated. Ready to get back on track. I will try to post an update each week to see how things are progressing. And I will do full reviews of both the Greatness App and 75 Medium Challenge to help others decide if they would benefit them as well. 

I may have felt like I was starting over this morning, but I got up and gave it my all

Ville to Ville Relay Recap

Earlier this month, I got to run one of my bucket list races, the Ville to Ville Craft Beer Relay. Every year I had suffered from a serious case of FOMO seeing all the pictures from teams that friends of mine were on and I vowed I would do this race one day. Well, last Fall, I was approached by one of my fellow Fleet Feet runners, Nicole, had a few spots open on a team she had registered. I immediately claimed one!

So here are the basics. The races is a 72 mile relay from AsheVille, NC to GreenVille, SC. A team of up to 6 runners take turns running a total of 12 legs that vary from the shortest being 4.16 miles (Leg 12) to the longest being 9.64 miles (Leg 9). Most were around 6-7 miles. And if you are not familiar with this area, you are running over some pretty severe elevation. 

The elevation profile for my first Leg - Fletcher to Hendersonville

Before the race, you submit your anticipated team average pace and based on that, your team is given a start time around two weeks before race day. These waves start at 5:00 am and go through at least 8:30 am (that was the latest time I heard at least). My team submitted a 9:45 average pace and were given a 7 am start time. 

Gail, Christine, Victoria, Me, Jeramy and Nicole

The website has a TON of information on it, super useful when preparing. There are detailed breakdowns of each leg including directions for both runners and drivers for you print out and carry with you. Each of the 12 legs were rated by difficulty: Easy, Moderate, Hard and Super Hard. Our team was extremely thoughtful when assigning legs attempting to fairly distribute the mileage and the difficulty. For example, I was assigned Leg 4 and Leg 11 which gave me 12 miles with one leg rated Super Hard (the 2nd hardest leg) and one leg rated Easy (the 2nd easiest). My teammates legs all looked pretty similar, 12-ish miles give or take and fairly distributed difficulty. One of our teammates was a WIZ at creating complicated Excel spreadsheets. Seriously, I think she might be a math witch. 

The theme of the 2023 Ville to Ville race was Hollywood. It is strongly encouraged for your team to dress up to theme and there are awards for things like Best Costumes, Best Team Name and Best Social Media Postings. So once we noticed we had a team of 1 guy and 5 girls, we leaned into the Hollywood theme and named ourselves Jeramy's Angels. This worked doubly well in that our Charlie (or Jeramy) had to leave the team before the finish line so he would be crossing "virtually" as a voice in a box, much like Charlie would on Charlie's Angels. We decided on color coordinated outfits with tutus for the ladies and a running tux shirt for our fella. These were for photo purposes only as the tutus were a bit much to run in and according to Jeramy, running in the tux shirt was like "being under a wool blanket with 2 cats". We looked amazing though. 

One of the rules is that you can only have one vehicle on the course for transporting your team from exchange point to exchange point. Our team rented a minivan to act as our transport vehicle for the weekend. We packed her up with all our gear (Chistine was our baggage check to make sure that we did not overpack) and food (we totally packed way too much - Victoria made SO many PB&Js and PB Bagels, we were never hungry), gathered the crew and drove to Asheville.

Packet pick up for the race was at New Belgium Brewing in Asheville the evening before the race (no day of pick up). We drove straight there and arrived around 4:30 after a bit of yucky traffic from it raining. In addition to our team tracking bracelet, shirts, bibs, and medals, we were given a pint glass, beer koozie and drink ticket each. You had a choice of 4 different beers, I chose the Voodoo Ranger Juicy Hazy IPA, a really great beer I have had before. 

We met up with 3 other groups of runners (our sister Fleet Feet team plus 2 other local groups from Rock Hill/Fort Mill). We got to meet the race director as well, who was dressed in a tuxedo, leaning into the Hollywood theme. There was music, vendors plus the bar had drinks specials for those who wanted more than their initial free beer. The rain stopped while we hung out and we took some pics and had a great time. 

Teams: Jeramy's Angels and CeCe's Friends

Afterwards, my team, and the other team of Fleet Feet runners (CeCe's Friends) went out to dinner then off to the hotel to get some sleep before the big day. I roomed with a girl on the other team, and they had an hour earlier wave time (they started at 6:00 am), so it was a 4:15 am wake up call for me! 

Out hotel was very close to the start, so we met in the lobby at 6:00 am for our 7:00 am start time. We dressed in our Jeramy's Angels shirts and headed off to the race site with a quick stop to fill the gas tank so we wouldn't have to during the race. 

There were about 40-50 other teams starting with us, each with their own van, so parking was a bit of a struggle to maneuver the parking area, but we found a space that we thought would be easy to get out of (spoiler alert: it was not). We took some fun pics and then walked our first runner, Jeramy, to the start area. Right at 7:00 am, Jeramy's Angels had officially begun! 

Nicole handing off the tracker to me

This post is starting to get super long, so I am not going to go into the minutia of the race here. Our team had a runner on course at all times with a timing bracelet that we would exchange to the next runner in a marked transition zone. We tracked the runners via the RaceJoy App which I will most likely do a post about just that. Overall, it was a solid way to track with just a few minor issues. We mostly knew where our runner was at all times. The legs were on roads (with the exception of the first leg had some trail sections and the last 3 legs had sections on the Swamp Rabbit trail (which was paved and ran parallel to the main roads. The course was straight up HARD in some places, but it was an enjoyable hard. I enjoyed the parts, even though there was a lot of UPHILL. Like A LOT!

Here are some notable observations:

• I never felt alone on the course like I did when running the previous relays I have done like the GAP and Ragnar Relays. There were many more teams and we ran on roads, so it felt more like an actual race. You had plenty of opportunity to pass and be passed.
  
  
• 

  People watching the other teams was a ton of fun. Many dressed in fun costumes. Some of the notable ones were: Will Ferral characters, Muppets, full on ball gowns, Top Gun, The Hollywood Sign, League of Their Own, The Pink Ladies, different Brittany Spears outfits and many more. I had huge admiration for the dude I saw running the hardest leg of the race dressed as Ron Burgundy (pictured to the right)!
  
  
• The exchange points were chaotic, but an organized chaos. There were plenty of port-a-potties including 2 reserved for the "Runner on Deck" at each exchange. However, do note that later in the day, you will want to bring your own toilet paper just in case. The only exchange I was at that had zero TP was the leg 9/10 hand off. 
  
  
• The course was hands down, absolutely BEAUTIFUL! I took a ton of scenic pictures. If you have never been through this area of NC/SC, you are missing out.

• You will want to bring your own food, water and other race day essentials. There are no aid stations, not even at the transitions, and most exchange stations were not near town centers with easy to get in and out of restaurant options (though we did find a cool coffee shop during leg 3). The exception was the Leg 10/11 transition which was at Swamp Rabbit Brewing. The food and beer there looked amazing and there were lots of other options close by, but Leg 11 was mine, so I had to run instead of partaking!
  
  
• You are given your medals at packet pick up so that you can "award" yourself your medal after your last leg. My team decided to hold on to ours and put them on all together at the finish line. That you have the option was nice and kept the finish line clearer. 
  
  
• There were FREE race pictures! I only saw a photographer at the finish, but there were some scattered throughout the course during the day. We just somehow seemed to miss them. See below for our Finish Line Photo!
  
  

The girls are ready to help Gail into 
her tutu for our triumphant finish

After 12 long legs of challenging running, my team changed back into our tutus for that final run as a group across the finish line (sans Jeramy as he had to leave us after Leg 10, but I did call him on my cell so he could "experience" the finish. The 4 of us left waited along the straightaway close to the finish for our final runner, Gail, to come in. We helped her quickly into her shirt and tutu and crossed the finish together in a vision of colorful tulle. 

Jeramy's Angels had a finish time of 11 hours, 38 minutes and 8 seconds. Our goal average pace was 9:45 and we hit 9:47, which I think was pretty dang awesome! (All thanks to Gail and her complicated spreadsheets).

The after party at Hampton Station was really nice. My brother lives in Greenville, but I had never been to Hampton Station before. There were lots of cool shops, bars and resturants there and they brought in a ton of food trucks for the occasion as well. Everyone got a free beer with a ticket on their bib. You could purchase others if you wanted to. There was also Ville to Ville gear for sale. I had preordered a 4-pack of the "official" Ville to Ville beer andNicole and I walked over to Birds Fly South Ale Project to pick those up. We met up with CeCe's Friends and took a ton of pictures before deciding that we needed to head out to get some dinner. It was a long day, but it was SO MUCH FUN! 

Jeramy's Angels and Jeramy's Angels and CeCe's Friends

Like I said, I didn't really do a play-by-play the day, but if you have any specific questions about the race, the course or anything, just drop me a comment below. I am happy to discuss this awesome race further. 

Would I recommend Ville to Ville: Heck Yeah! Would I do it again? Well my team has already registered for next year's race! While I am not 100% sure I will be able to run it (it is so hard to commit that far in advance) but I have first rights of refusal with my team and I will do what I can to work it in. This race is SO popular though, you pretty much have to register you team the day immediately after running it. Seriously, it sold out in 25 hours!! 

My GAP Relay Experience: #GapTrailBR Race Recap (part 2)

 I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

We Conquered the GAP Relay!! #GapTrailBR Race Recap

I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

The GAP Relay is IMMINENT!!!

 I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

How About 40 Wild Miles Instead? - GAP Relay 40 Mile Relay

I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

Exploring the Greater Allegany Passage: 150 Miles of Pure Adventure

 I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

So Just What Is This Crazy GAP Relay Anyway?

I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

Oops I Did It Again... (And Will Again)

I received team entry to the GAP Relay as a part of being a BibRave Pro. Check out BibRave.com to read and write race reviews.

January Goals Recap

So time to reflect back on how January went. 

First a quick word on January. It's a lot, am I right? We all come in all hopeful that things will be better this year and we will be better this year and then BAM, we are smacked right in the face with the fact that January is cold and dark and basically just YUCK and thus sapping all of our forward momentum. It's tough to keep moving forward in the face of that. And yet we optimistic individuals solider on. Yay us! We all deserve a huge pat on the back for not giving in. And some warmth and sunshine.

So quick reminder, here were my January goals:

Here's how I did:

Renew CPR Certification. Big ol CHECK! I scheduled a class with the Red Cross that was a hybrid online/in person on January 26. First I had to watch 31 videos with practice activities to learn (or relearn) all the course materials and then go into the Red Cross facility for another 2 hours to demonstrate all of the lessons on the demonstration mannequins (I even kinda bonded with my infant mannequin, Tilly but alas, she had to stay behind to help educate others). And I passed, yay! I am certified Red Cross Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED for the next two years!

Next up, Pass my RRCA Certification. Well... I technically haven't passed YET. I am hoping to today, however. And it is not that I have failed, it is just that I haven't yet completed my test. I took the RRCA Coaching Certification class last weekend (Jan 29-30) but you have 30 days to complete the 100 question test, and tbh, with all the running info running through my brain these days, I needed a small break (and to ya know, do some things around the house and what not) so I haven't rushed to complete the test. Currently, I have 40 questions answered and I feel pretty confident about how it is going so far. UPDATE: I PASSED!!!!!

Dry January. Well, this one I am also giving myself a partial credit for. I actually did have 2 beers in January, but at the very end. On the Saturday after sitting in my RRCA class all day long, I got a message from some friends that they were checking out a place near my house and to come meet them. Long story short, the place (Carolina Brewing Supply) was pretty amazing and they had all the nanobrew beers. I had one called Elvis's Sandwich (Peanut Butter and Banana beer) and a Grapefruit IPA that was pretty amazing. So technically I did fail Dry January, but again, I went most of the month and I did cut WAAAAAY down on the amount of beer I drink. It was a good reset. And I play to keep my consumption much lower in the future as well.

Whole Food Detox week. I plan to do an entire blog post on this, but yes, this one was a total success for me. I spent a week following a plan from Fit Girls Guide to basically from scratch prepare every single thing I ate from real, whole foods for a whole week. In a future (very near future hopefully) blog I will provide a full review of the week in detail. But this is a big CHECK!

15 Burn Boot Camps. Another big CHECK! 15 exactly! I am on course to hit my year goal of 175 camps.

Me, January 31, hitting 101!

100 Running Miles. On Monday evening after work, I logged onto my Strava to check my miles for January and I was at 99. So you know what I had to do! I changed into my running gear and hit the neighborhood. I actually run 2 just to make sure, but this one is another bigh CHECK. I ended January with 101 miles run. I needed to actually be around 105 in order for me to be on course to finish my year at my 1256 mile (or 2022 km) goal, but I plan to make up some miles later in the year. Y'all it is just HARD to get out there an run in the cold. Especially since this January was particularly brutal. We had snow/ice storms 3 weekends in a row! And they are calling for maybe another this weekend! I promise, I will make it up in July. But for now, as long as I don't get too far behind, I am okay being a bit short for the year. And a side note, I am honestly considering changing this goal as my priorities have been sort of shifting as of late so I am not sure cranking out massive mileage is really what I want to focus on in 2022. I may try a more quality over quantity approach. But for now, I'll keep moving forward.

Yoga every Sunday. Big ol CHECK here as well. Each Sunday morning, I did a 30 minute Beginner Yoga class each Sunday (with the exception of Jan 30, I was rushing to get to my RRCA class so only did a 20 minute class) via YouTube. My cats were very interested in my progress, which, alas I will say felt very minimal. Maybe I need to do it more often to see results, but y'all I am stiffer than a board and don't seem to be getting any better at stretching. I plan to keep on doing the Yoga going forward. Here's hoping for any progress in the future.

Two Blog Posts. Yup and Yup. You can see the 2 blog posts that I wrote in January here:

https://runnerdgirl.blogspot.com/2022/01/starting-off-2022-right-goals-edition.html

https://runnerdgirl.blogspot.com/2022/01/from-sunglasses-hoarder-to-knocksquad.html

So I guess that is that! A mostly successful January.

I am hoping to sort out my February goals this week and get those up and posted soon. In the meantime, what do you have going on that you want to get accomplished in February. Or even for the rest of 2022? Let me know in the comments below. 

5th annual Common Heart Firecracker Run

This year my Fleet Feet Training Group chose as their Summer goal race the 5th annual Common Heart Firecracker Run. It was my first time running this race, but I had heard some really great things about it from friends, so I was excited to do it. Not only was the course highly praised, but it is a great local race in that it supports the Common Heart charity, a local food pantry that does a lot of amazing work in the area. I signed up for the 10K course.

We've been having a rough summer here in the Charlotte area already as far as heat and humidity and race day was no exception. In fact, it was 98% humidity when I arrived that the race site in the Lake Park Village in Indian Trail, NC (about a 40 min drive for me). The Start/Finish area was located right in the village center near a big park and shops, so there was plenty of parking available. My training group coordinator had picked up our packets for us the day before so I cannot comment on pick up, but the packets were in red, white, and blue bags and contained the usual trinkets, a few pens, key chain, magnet, lots of sponsor flyers, literature about Common Heart and the race shirt. Shirts were your basic 100% cotton grey unisex t-shirt with race logo on front and sponsors on the back. TBH, I will probably never wear it.

15 minutes before the 7:30 10K start, we were all called to line up at the Start. The 10K course was a large 3 mile loop around the Lake Park Village with a few turns here and there (basically, it was the 5K course twice with the start backed up .2 miles from the finish to get in the requite miles. The 5K course had been officially certified, but not the 10K. 

There was lots of cloud cover and some slight rain at the start, which did nothing to dent the oppressive humidity and temps were already rising in the mid-70s. The loop was beautiful, winding past the park, through the business district, around a lake and weaving through a few streets in the neighborhood. There were lots of course volunteers and a few police officers to direct traffic (the roads were partially closed, but being inside a neighborhood, there was very little traffic, all of which was held or re-routed away from runners. There was an aid station at the half-way point of the loop so 5K runners got 1 water station at mile 1.5 while the 10K runners passed it at 1.5 and again at 4.5. The clouds dispersed pretty quickly after the start and soon we were in full sun with little to no shade on the course. The course was very flat, but the humidity and the heat made the race a real challenge. I fell pretty short of my 10K PR but it wasn't my worst 10K performance and the course atmosphere, scenery and supporting a great cause made up for my lack of performance. Let's put it this way, I plan to make an impressive come back when I run it again next year.

There were no participation medals for either distance, but 1st, 2nd, and 3rd overall and AG winners received medals with 1st and 2nd also receiving gift cards to Omega Sports. Overall all, it was a great, well organized race for a great cause on a beautiful course, and I hope to run it again.