Frisco Greenway Run

AM: 9 miles
10 mins. core
PM: Travel

A few days before heading to Joplin, I sent a message out to Kimi Shank, a Missouri Southern runner (technically a former runner, since she just graduated). I know Kimi peripherally after having competed against her this year both indoors and outdoors, and at Nationals I'd mentioned that I might be in touch with her about meeting up to run when I was in town. As it turns out, she has since moved to Kansas City, but she hooked me up with the contact info of her former coach. And that's how Jordan and I ended up parking at the Joplin fire station at 6:30am on Sunday morning, slightly groggy but nonetheless excited to run with a few new peeps. The reason for parking at the fire station was that it's adjacent to a gravel, shaded, mostly flat trail called the Frisco Greenway. It runs almost four miles in one direction, and for the life of me I can't understand why I've never known this was here before. Countless miles of running along main thoroughfares and down hilly back roads could've been avoided over the years I've spent visiting family here had I known about the trail. Oh well, at least I know now.

As for the run, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It's always nice to run with new people in new areas, as the combination of the two somehow makes the miles pass twice as quickly. Jordan and I spent most of the run with Jamie, the coach, and Ashley, a distance runner who just missed out on making All-American in the steeple at Nationals. Both of them were super nice and amenable to geeking out with running talk. Though I'm not sure when I'll be back in Joplin, I definitely plan on hooking up with these two again. Good times were had by all.

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Joplin Jaunt

AM: 6 miles
15 mins. core

After a busy day of travel and an evening of math games with my cousin Preston--smartest 8-year-old you'll ever meet--Jordan and I were understandably exhausted last night. Does that justify being asleep--not just in bed, but asleep--before 9pm? Perhaps not, but the 10 hours of uninterrupted slumber was absolutely blissful. This morning we took our time getting moving and enjoyed a few cups of coffee courtesy of my aunt Kelly before heading out the door for our run destination: the Missouri Southern State University track. Jordan's schedule called for an 800m workout, and as per usual I would just be tagging along. We figured that a university track would be practically deserted at 9am on a hot and sticky Saturday morning--imagine our surprise, then, to discover that we couldn't be farther from the truth. Since the old timers were on the track, that meant we were relegated to the surrounding areas. We used this opportunity to scout out the MSSU cross country course (future site of the 2011 Division II National XC meet) and the roads surrounding the campus. Certainly not ideal, but we had no other choice given the unforseen circumstances.

I should also mention that I'm halfway disappointed and halfway relieved that we missed out on this year's Boomtown Days Half Marathon by a mere week. Jordan and I both had horrendous races there last year, but judging by this year's results at least one of us could've won some coin. Oh well, maybe next time.

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Easy Does It

Friday, June 18
AM: 46 mins. (6 miles)

Thursday, June 17
PM: 6-6.5 miles

The "down" week continues with more of the same. Part of me absolutely loves it, while a louder, more insistent part feels unnecessarily guilty for not doing more. I guess that's what an abrupt break after months of hard training will do to the psyche. Hopefully this weekend's diversion--a Father's Day surprise for my grandpa in Joplin, Missouri--will allow me to fully immerse myself in this break from training.

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Not Gonna Happen

Day off

To be honest, part of me wanted to run today. I wasn't sore from yesterday's race, which is supremely disappointing, but I'm sure my body could still use the rest. (As an aside, I'm pretty sure this is my first exercise-free day since Easter Sunday.) So Jordan and I spent the morning sleeping in, drinking coffee, watching the Spongebob Squarepants movie with Kelly and Preston and attending their church. We capped off the trip with Mexican food and cookies before departing the Show Me State. It was great to spend time with family this weekend, and I'll admit I was long overdue on visit, so I'm definitely glad we made the trip.

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Boomtown Days Half Marathon

~1 mile w/u + strides
13.1 miles in 1:24:42 (minus ~50 secs. bathroom break, obviously)
0.00 mile c/d
Total: 14-14.5 miles
3rd overall female

First of all, big thanks to Jilane, Tush, Jeff and Ozzie for their blog shout-outs. I do this for the fans.

Secondly, this race sucked. Or maybe I sucked and the race was just fine. At any rate, whoever put together the elevation chart for this run certainly wasn't a math major (and, for that matter, wasn't even as good at math as my seven-year-old cousin Preston, who wowed us at dinner Friday night with his swift addition, subtraction and multiplication skills that included negative numbers).

Anyhow, let me start from the beginning. Jordan and I made it safely to Joplin and to my Aunt Kelly's house yesterday evening and enjoyed dinner and family time before hitting the hay early. We were on the road to the race bright and early at 6am, and managed to easily find parking and secure our chips and numbers by 6:30. This left us a bit of time for jogging around and otherwise warming up before the 7am start. At this point the sun was already peaking through on the horizon and the air was fraught with humidity--in short, it promised to be a typical steamy summer morning in the Midwest. Not ideal race conditions, but certainly no different than what we were expecting.

The gun went off at 7am sharp and we were on our way. I quickly spotted a few other speedy ladies in the mix, although no one who looked as though they could light the world on fire, so I decided to take off conservatively and see how the first few miles played out. Though I felt like I was jogging, I passed the first mile marker in just under 6:10 (also, side note here: since I didn't have Jordan's Garmin and I'm fairly incapable of operating even a standard Timex watch, I don't have splits for each mile). I felt absolutely great the first five miles, clicking off splits in the 6:08-6:15 range fairly easily (31:10ish through five, I believe). I soon learned that this would be my fastest section of the course, as just past five miles we started what would be a steady ascent for virtually the entire second half of the course.

Also, naturally, this was the point in the race where I realized that I would, um, have to make a bathroom stop. Those of you who have ever run with me know this is pretty much the norm, although I would've liked to not have to deal with it during a race situation. However, stopping was better than any conceivable alternative, so when I spotted a port-a-potty around 7.5 miles I ducked in. To be honest, part of me was grateful for the break, as we'd already been climbing steadily for over two miles at this point. I doubt I would've run faster than 6:30 for that mile regardless, but with the stop included I clicked my watch at 7:15, so you can do the math as to how this impacted my total time (I'll give you a hint, it didn't help).

For the remaining five miles I was pretty much in the hurt tank. None of the hills were particularly steep, but they seemed to just keep coming and coming. Every time we rounded a corner I expected to find some relief, only to find that the course continued to go uphill. I helplessly watched my splits hover in the 6:25-6:30 range and knew that survival was the only goal going forward. I simply could not find a groove in the second half of the race, what with the sun climbing higher in the sky and the unrelenting terrain. It was all I could do to keep it together to the tape, as I wogged the final 1.1 in 7:10.

After the race, I sat on the curb with Jordan and our friend Jerry absolutely dripping sweat--I looked like I'd taken a dive headfirst into a swimming pool--and completely exhausted. When Jerry asked, "Do you guys want to do a cool down?", my response was, "Not really." So we didn't.

I'll let Jordan tell the story from his perspective when he gets around to blogging, but he ran an extremely tough race, finishing 4th behind three Kips in just under 69 minutes. On another course I know he is fit enough to run 66, just as I think/hope I'm capable of running under 1:22, but today wasn't stellar for either of us. I will say that for a first-time event the race was extremely well-organized and everything ran incredibly smoothly, so props to the Boomtown folks and race director Audie Dennis for putting all the pieces together. Perhaps we will be back next year with a better idea of what the course will be like and a tougher mental mindset. For now, it's time to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation.

Thanks, Boomtown Run. It's been pretty real.

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Destination: Joplin

43 mins. + strides
6 miles

The legs felt great this morning on our short shakeout jaunt. Shortly after 2pm we hit the road in our rental car (which was a PT Cruiser and NOT the Pontiac G6 we were promised), bound for Joplin. A few weeks ago a customer at the store said, "Wow, it's sure pretty up there" when Jordan and I mentioned we were headed to Joplin for a race. I would contend that this man was confusing Joplin with another locale, seeing as how I've spent quite a few Thanksgivings and other holidays there with my mom's side of the family and never once thought, "Wow, it's sure pretty up here." That said, I'm excited to spend the weekend visiting family that I haven't seen in a while and (hopefully) watching Jordan bring home the big bucks.

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