January 25, 2015

2015 Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K race report

A huge congrats to everyone who did the third annual Runs for Cookies Virtual 5K today! When I woke up this morning, I was kind of dreading going to the pool to "run" for the 5K, so I had the thought to see if I might be able to run it on the treadmill--not fast, but just to test out my ankle and see if it's better yet. I hadn't had any ankle pain in a few days, even when I tried to make it painful by pointing my toes, so I hoped that it would be good to go.

Today marks three weeks since my last run, which is officially the longest I've gone without a run since 2010. Even after my body lift surgery, I started running at two weeks and five days post-op. I got dressed to run, and set up the treadmill. I promised myself that if I felt any pain at ALL, I'd stop running and just do the run in the pool as planned.

I started running, and pressed Start on my Garmin. And instantly, I felt the twinges of pain in my ankle. I stopped the treadmill, and had a good, long cry. I spent all of 2014 trying to get excited about running again, and in November, I finally started to get pumped up for 2015. I made all sorts of running goals--really ambitious ones--and was so excited to start training! And now I'm injured, so I can't work on them. It's SO frustrating!

Right as I was feeling really sorry for myself, as if on cue, my phone rang. I hardly ever get phone calls (everyone texts now), and I was thrilled to see that it was Thomas. He had just run a half-marathon in Miami this morning, and was calling to wish me a happy birthday. That cheered me up, so I quit feeling sorry for myself and packed a bag for the pool to do my deep water run.

Jerry had to work today, so I took the kids with me. There really isn't a way to run 5K in the pool, so I just did my otherwise scheduled pool run--5 minute warm-up, 4 x 5 min. hard running with 1 minute recovery between intervals, and 5 minute cool down. It wasn't exactly exciting, but it felt good to be doing something. Doing five-minute intervals are HARD. That's a long time to push my legs in the water! The workout went by pretty quickly, and then I sat in the bleachers so the kids could play longer. I wish I'd have thought to have had them at least get a pic of me for my 5K, but I didn't even think about it.

When I got home, there were TONS of posts from the Virtual 5K up on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. It was so fun looking through them! I love that my family participates in the Virtual 5K each year--and I was really excited ton see my younger brother, Nathan, do it for the first time!

In his words: "I went out way too fast, so only the last 3 miles sucked!" ;)


My sister, Jeanie, and her friend, Tonya, got up at 4:15 this morning to run their 5K together at the gym. Jeanie had to squeeze it in before work, but Tonya got up that early voluntarily on her day off!


My brother-in-law, Shawn, ran his 5K today as well:


I got a text from my older brother, Brian, who ran the 5K with his wife, Becky, this afternoon:

They are apparently having a "date night" in Florida tonight (they live in Minnesota). The things you get to do when you're a pilot! haha

My mom was even up bright and early to do her 5K on the treadmill...


Jerry worked a 12-hour shift today, but as soon as he got home, he jumped onto the treadmill to do the virtual 5K as well. He pushed himself pretty hard, and finished in 26:45!


This 5K has become a fun tradition that I hope to keep doing each year. And next year, hopefully, I'll be able to actually run it. Maybe even a treadmill PR ;)

Noah had a big surprise for my birthday that he's been working very hard on. My mom has been taking him to JoAnn Fabrics for a cake decorating class (Noah loves watching Cake Boss, which is what gave her the idea). Today, when I went over there, Noah gave me a birthday cake that he decorated entirely by himself:

I was just coming from the rec center, which is why
I look rather frightening ;)

Isn't it great? He is very proud of himself! He said the lettering was the hardest part.

Okay, if you did the Virtual 5K today, please make sure to fill out the Finishers' Form. I'll leave that open until Monday at 8:00 pm, and I'll post the results on Tuesday. Meanwhile, make sure you check out all the fun pictures and stories from others doing the race today. If you go to my Facebook page, and look at the left side where it says "Posts to page", you can find all of the posts that others wrote about the race today. (I wish they were more prominent, but I can't figure out if Facebook will allow me to change the layout, so that's the best I can do for now). You can also use hashtag #RfCVirtual5K on social media like Twitter and Instagram to see other pics.

A huge thank you for all of the birthday wishes, and for all of you that participated in the 5K! Once again, it was a big success :)

17 comments:

  1. Your family is Awesome! Very cool that they would do that. Just had to say that your son decorates cakes better than me!! Let him know it looks AMAZING!!! Posted on FB, but thank you again for your time putting the 5k together. Happy Birthday

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  2. Happy birthday! Thank you for all your honest blog posts. You're truly an inspiration!!

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  3. Happy birthday! Signed up but didn't end up doing 5k today. Was traveling and ended up walking a lot with a good friend I never see. The opportunity to run will be here tomorrow but she won't be... Your cake looks amazing - enjoy. :-)

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  4. Happy birthday Kaite! I signed up and it was a beautiful day outside here in East Tennessee but I think I've got the flu, so I didn't run. So, like you, I'm disappointed that I didn't get to do it today.

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  5. Happy Birthday! It was fun to run as part of something bigger and imagine all the others out running the virtual 5K!

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  6. Okay, Noah's lettering is 700 times better than anything I could ever do. What a lovely cake! Happy birthday!

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  7. Happy Birthday! I love seeing how your whole family participated--they are so supportive! Noah's cake is fantastic too.

    I didn't think I could do the virtual 5K because my ankle started hurting yesterday, but it was fine when I tried to run on the treadmill this morning. I ran (jogged slowly) the entire thing--the longest I've ever run before without taking a walk break is around 10 minutes!! Thanks for all of your inspiration.

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  8. Happy Birthday, Katie! Noah's cake looks fabulous! He's very talented.

    I'm sorry you weren't able to complete your 5K as you wanted to. I've been battling some injuries during the past few months, myself, so you're not alone. I'm slow, but getting out there little by little (and faster than when I started all of this last May).

    Cheers!
    Martine

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  9. That cake looks amazing! I'm seriously impressed that he did that all by himself. I posted a race recap of the 5k, it was my first! Thanks for organizing it Katie!

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  10. Happy birthday! And to cheer you up because you're stuck with pool running for the next little while, here's some info: according to Olympic runner Kara Goucher, a test was done on aqua jogging vs road jogging. After 6 weeks, the aqua joggers performed the same in a race as the road joggers. So you're losing absolutely nothing and gaining strength and fixing your injury.

    Karen in Sydney

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  11. I'm so sorry about your foot. I really hope you figure it out soon. I'm glad that you are seeking other exercise though to keep your conditioning up? Can you do the elliptical or an AMT (adaptive motion trainer I think it stands for) without pain? Those might be other options . . . I like the AMT you can really adjust your stride as needed - the elliptical strides always feel unnatural to me.

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  12. Happy Birthday! I'm super bummed I didn't run yesterday! I was planning on it ever since your original post. I had a goal and everything. Well yesterday I went to church, a self defense class (which was way cool) and then went grocery shopping and prepped food. It wasn't until after dinner that I saw on FB that I FORGOT about the 5K. :( I'm glad everyone had fun. I'll just have to make up for it later.

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  13. Katie

    WOW - the cake is amazing !!! Noah did a wonderful job...what a sweet gift, in more ways than one ! I think one of the kindest, most loving acts is to cook for someone... I hope you enjoy every slice : )

    So sorry your ankle is still being a bother. But....please, let it HEAL. Otherwise, your recovery time will double...at least. Trust me, I speak from unpleasant experience : (

    Until then ...water jog ! You're still reaping all the benefits of exercise with NONE of the pain : )

    Kimberly

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