Superhero Oktoberfest 10k

This past weekend my husband and I raced in our first official 10k, the Oktoberfest 10k in Boonton, NJ.  Any race that offers beer at the end is automatically a fantastic race in my book, but we love Oktoberfest beers and food, plus it was his birthday weekend, so it was a great reason to run and celebrate another year!

I needed some new tunes for running this race. I was so bored of my other playlists and once I get bored of my music, my running suffers.  I found some new (to me) fun, motivating tunes that will also work for Spinning.  

My husband grew up a few miles from the race location and then we lived close by for another four years.  I drove on those roads quite often, and yet, I have no recollection of how hilly the course would be.  The course description said that it was a flat course, however, it was anything but...  Although the course had some steady elevation increases, it was a scenic and beautiful course.

The weather on Saturday morning was perfect.  A crisp, fall morning which warmed up by the start of the race.  The weather was quite possibly the best for any race I have run yet this year.  

It felt so wonderful to cross that finish line.  By the end of the race, my legs were on fire.  I hadn't run more than five miles in the past few months.  So I was proud of where I finished and look forward to hitting a new PR for a 10k in the next few months.

GoodBye Summer

It seems like it was just last week, my girls and I were celebrating the first day of summer at the Y's pool party and I was jetting off for a girls' weekend to Puerto Rico.  And here we are, bookbags hung by the front door all ready to go in just under two weeks.

Yes, we still have the rest of this week and another full week of summer vacation.  So we are going to live it up as we have been doing for the last ten weeks!

Some of our favorite memories from this summer are:

• Summer Play Days @ the Disney Store
• Mr. Kurt singing at the library
• Playdates with our friends from school
• ARUBA!
• The girls' birthdays & collaborative birthday party
• Having our cousins visit for a few days

Every year I do a "best of summer" playlist.  It's a collaborative playlist from the regulars in my spin class where they suggest their favorite song of that summer.  I work in all of their suggestions whether it be as a warm-up, cool down or a killer climb.  They love hearing their suggestion come up.  This year, most of my regulars are on vacation this last week before Labor Day, so they begged me to do it next week.  How could I say no??  But last night, while catching up on facebook, another instructor posted a  fantastic End of Summer playlist.  I changed a few songs around, but the idea came from Chris.  I am really excited about the playlist tonight.

GoodBye Summer

I am looking forward to the fall.  My oldest daughter starts kindergarten and my youngest is going to preschool which means lots of time to run and swim. (Yes, I have something I am training for! More info on that later!)

We have a lot to look forward to this fall:

• apple & pumpkin picking
• running an Oktoberfest 10k
• my husband's birthday
• Halloween (can you believe that the girls know what they are going to be?)
• my BFF's wedding & wedding related events

RunAPalooza Half Marathon

Yesterday was the AP RunAPalooza Half Marathon in Asbury Park and it was such an awesome experience.  It was the perfect race for my first half, in fact, this was my first race longer than a 5k.  This race was to benefit the Special Olympics of NJ, as well as to benefit the Restore the Shore campaign from Superstorm Sandy's devastation. Although I am a Jersey girl, I honestly don't remember ever going to AP aside from passing through.  When I was younger, AP was not in it's prime and recently (since '02) has been going through a revitalization. With that said, I was amazed at how fantastic the shore and city looked.

In light of the terror occurred less than a week ago in Boston, we were asked to wear blue and yellow to show support our fellow running community who endured tragedy during the marathon.  It was awesome to see everyone with not only blue and yellow clothes, but messages of hope, support and love through shirts, ribbons and signs.  Not only was it inspiring to run for those who were affected by such a horrific event, but to see runners twice my age or in a wheelchair was touching too.  If they could do this, I could too.

All week the weather forecast was showing rain showers early in the morning on Saturday.  However, the sun was trying to peek out most of the morning, but didn't come out until after I crossed the finish line.  Although it was super windy, at least it did not rain.  Not only for us runners, but for the spectators watching and cheering us on!

The first five miles I felt great.  Strong and energetic.  Miles 8-10 were quite possibly the most difficult of the race.  And twelve through thirteen point one I just had to dig deep and run to the finish - there would be no turning back and no quitting.  On the final sprint on the boardwalk, my beautiful daughters & mother-in-law were cheering me on!!!  It was the perfect sight to give me that final burst of energy.  I cross the finish at 2:25:12 (chip time was 2:24:52) and the first person I saw was my husband.

Definitely still on a runner's high from finishing my first half and looking forward to my next one!  Not sure if I am ready to tackle a full marathon.  But never say never.

There are many wonderful articles and videos on this event:
RunAPalooza Runs the Jersey Shore
CBS News Running for Boston
RunAPalooza Start & Finish

My thirteen.one chica band! 

runAPalooza Swagg!