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Monday, December 31, 2012

Last post for 2012

Happy New Years to who ever is reading this. 2012 has been a busy year. I started my running year with the Lou Gehrig 5K in January. It was during that first race that I hurt my left foot and have been dealing with arch and heel pain ever since. (It's been better since I stated wearing inserts about a month ago). In February I ran the Super Bowl 10k and in March I ran my first half marathon of the year at the Shamrock'n half. In April I ran the American River Parkway half and than, two weeks later, the River City Half. In May I went back to Fremont to run the Mermaid half again. This time Sami, my niece, Maddie, and her mom, Michelle, ran the 5K at the Mermaid Run. The Mermaid events are so much fun! In June I took a break from the halves and ran the women's fitness festival 5K. I really love this event. In 2010 I trained for the WFF 5K after taking seven years off from running (I had an injury then was too deposed to try again) and I finished feeling great without a hint of my old injury. In July I ran the Fab 40's 5K, the color run in August and the Giants Race in September. I also ran the McKinley Park 5K with my new running buddy, Tracy, in August and and a Pumpkin patch 5K in September. October brought me my fifth and final half marathon of the year, the Urban Cow. I didn't come close too my PR but I hadn't trained well for it and still beat my time for the year before. (In 2011 I got injured at mile 1 and had too hobble most of the curse-but I crossed the finish line) This year at the Urban Cow I won an iPad so I didn't really care what my time was. On Thanksgiving day in November Tracy and I participated in the run to feed the hungry. I'm proud to say that with the help and support of my friends and family I raised just over $300 for the Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services! Also in November, Sami and I went I to San Francisco for the Mermaid Run 5K and then spent the day exploring Alcatraz and pier 49. That was a great day! A few weeks ago in December I ran in the CIM as part of a relay team. It was a very wet day but it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to running it again next year.

That,s my very quick recap of my 2012 running year. There are some races I left out but I wrote about most of them earlier in the year.

I wish you and your loved ones a fantastic 2013!

Anna

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Post CIM... post

It's been a long time since my last blog. I haven't been able to grab on to one thought long enough to write it out and, apparently, that means I've been on a blog hiatus. But I'm back (for now) and I have lots to share.

The CIM (California International Marathon) was held this past Sunday. I participated as part of a four person relay team this time. The weather was a mess but the race was a lot of fun. If you haven't been out running in the rain I recommend you try it. Some of my favorite training runs in the past have been done in the rain and the race was even more fun. I ran a seven mile stretch of the 26.2 mile course and my team finished in 5 hours, 34 minutes. We Rocked It!
Zachary, Nancy, me, Rebecca, Janice (David had to leave) 

Organizing the relay team was more of a roller coaster ride than I was expecting. It all started after last year's CIM. I was sitting around my table chatting with my sister and my friend, David. (David ran the CIM about  four years ago and he ran part of it with me last year as a supporting cheerleader.) We decided we would run the relay. As 2012 moved along I started talking to other runners about the relay hoping to find a fourth person. My sister-in-law, Rebecca said she wanted be our fourth runner. Yay! But then more people said they wanted to run the relay too so I organized a second team. This team took a little bit longer to fill up but eventually we got four runners.

Not long after everyone was registered (and paid for) someone on team 2 needed to drop out. Then another person. Then we replaced one, but she dropped out too. Then someone got sick. Someone couldn't make it into town. Another replacement got injured. In total, there were eight people who had to drop and one of those people dropped twice. In fact, there wasn't a single original person on team 2 who ran on race day. Fortunately we were able to pull things together.

Team 2 didn't have a person for the first leg so Rebecca ran with the timing chips for both teams. My team, team 1, didn't have a person for the last leg of the relay. I was ready to run both my leg and the final leg but once my socks were fully saturated and bunching under my toes I realized that running another five miles would be harder than I anticipated Thankfully I came up with a plan. I sent a text to Zachary, the leg 4 runner for team 2, and asked (begged) if he would take both timing chips if I got to the relay exchange before his team member. He was more than willing to help out and it gave me the motivation I needed to keep my pace up. I had to beat Janice to the exchange!

Everything worked out. I got to the exchange before the team 2 runner so after my seven miles I was done. We all got our medals and had a great time! Both teams were a runner short but we made it work :o) A big THANK YOU to my teammates, Rebecca, David, Nancy, Janice and Zachary! Who's excited for next year?!?!