A weekend review in photos...and an award ...for me....for running?!?!?

Happy belated Father's Day to all the dads out there.  Hope you had a nice time celebrating!

Right now I am trying to recover from what proved to be a very busy and fun weekend.  As I sit here typing, my hamstring and left glute are still mildly aching from all the running I tried to do - after my first week of speed work.  More on that in another post.  But, here, I have my weekend in review....starting at the tail end of the weekend's adventures.

Last night, we took the kids to their first run in the Neenah Summer Fun Run series.  This series of five races is solely for kids, completely sponsored and free and open to the public.  It's amazing!  I think this is our fourth year doing it, and the kids really look forward to the event.

Pre-race, E. and LG are all geared up to run their quarter-mile sprint.

Gathering at the start.  This is race one of two 'six-year-old and under' races.  There are also separate races for girls and boys 7 to 9, and 10-14.... There are HUNDREDS of kids who show up to these each weekend they are held.

 And they are off....It's hard to see, but E. is in the lead for a short bit.

E. coming around the bend.  She has a tendency (like me) to take walk breaks, so she was no longer in the lead, but I was impressed that she was still in the first wave of runners who came into the finish.  She is getting so big! 

LG wanted to run with Daddy, which I thought was sweet on Father's Day.  Apparently, he ran the whole way, and he definitely came into the finish strong!  

The real reason the kids like these events....free pizza, cookies, fruit, and popsicles afterwards.  No wonder kids like running with all the junk they get to eat after race events!  :)

 Red, white, and blue popsicles allow the kids to show their patriotism.

Another big hit at the race is the "mountain." Luckily, Hubby likes hiking up there with them and then racing down.  I love the way they all start out together and then end up widely dispersed at the bottom.  Is that following the rules of physics or something?

I didn't run with the kids last night, as my hamstring and left glute were really bothering me....Looking back, there are several things that contributed to that - one being my attempt at a long run yesterday morning. I headed out for fifteen miles but only made it eleven before I had to do something I have NEVER done before, namely call Hubby for a ride home.  My hamstring and glute were bothering me throughout the run, and it was a slow slog through the heat anyway.  Normally, in a situation like this, I would just slow down even more or go to a run/walk.  I am not sure what made me make the call; I just knew that I didn't care enough to continue.  That is a first for me.  When I called, Hubby and the kids were in the middle of Wii Bowling.  After laughing a bit and then trying to make me feel better by saying it happens to all of us, I was told that they would finish their frame and then head out to collect me.  A quick Facebook update while I walked and waited, and there they were.  Yay!

The run wasn't a complete loss.... I took a couple of nice pictures at my halfway point - the same place we had had the fun run the week before....

I even finally got a picture of the toxic green algae...

Even at the halfway point, I knew I wasn't really into this long run.  Here's a picture of what I really wanted to be doing.  See all the sweat beaded on my brow?  It was only in the mid-70s, but it felt HOT. Must have been the sun.

So, what caused my long run blow-up?  (Aside from the soreness left over from my week's running?)  Well, this may have contributed... Date Night, a rare occurrence for Hubby and me.  We hit The Melting Pot for fondue (we had a gift card!). So, it's been decided that:

Too much cheese....

 Plus, too much chocolate and desserty items...

 Plus, too much wine....

Does not make for a good long run the next morning.  Did you already know that?  You learn something new everyday.

It does, however, make for a happy Average Runner while it lasted, though...

So, prior to date night, I decided I am pretty pathetic.  I went to put on these gem of high heels that I haven't worn in forever (I don't really wear heels anymore), and I decided that they were WAY too uncomfortable.  So, then I decided I would wear the Birkenstocks until we got to the restaurant.  We were still on the road, however, when I decided screw it - once again comfort trumps fashion.  As Hubby pointed out, we're not that cool anyway.  Might as well enjoy ourselves instead of being uncomfortable.  Sad, I know, but true.  Oh well.

I would have worn my strappy but comfortable sandals, but they had gotten soaked earlier in the day when we stood for five hours (also possibly a contributing factor to the soreness I experienced running) while working our running club's water station at the High Cliff Triathlon.

Triathlete running through our station as the deluge came down.  I retreated to the safety of shelter and selfishly decided the runners could grab their own gel packets for a few minutes. (Sorry!  But the rain was coming down sideways!)

Here I am actually doing my job...Hammer gel anyone?  As LG proclaimed as he helped sell the gel packs - "Hammer Gel! It makes you speedy fast!"  Only a four-year-old could get away with that.  If I had said it, I would have been flipped off no doubt.  

LG and E. did a fantastic job hawking gels, but then at some point, they found they liked working at the orange slice and cookie table more.  I wonder why?

Anyway, working at the water station was a blast again.  We've done this for several years, and as the kids get older, it gets more enjoyable.  They work really hard doing this event.  I am so proud of them.  Afterwards we treat ourselves to beer (not the kids!) and a cookout.

So, if you have stuck with me thus far as I have worked my way backwards through my weekend, here is a brief synopsis of how my weekend started....With the Kornerstone 5K on Friday evening.  This was a race put on by a friend's daughter as she tried to raise money for her school's community garden.  The race was a lot of fun.  It was a small crowd that showed up to run a local high school's cross-country course in the heat, but that was okay because it meant I got my first running award EVER - third place female .... OVERALL.  I was so geeked.  I realize I only got this because it was such a small group of runners. After all, I didn't even run my fastest 5K (by far!); the heat got to me and running on grass was tough.  But, I'll take it!  Woot!

Here's the shirt I still owe $3 on....it's nice to know the race director's mom....and the pair of socks I won getting third place.  Very cool.  I hope they have this race again next year.  I would like to improve on my time a bit.  Although, sadly, I am sure year two will draw a larger crowd, thus lowering my chances of placing again.  That's okay, though.... it's all about improving for myself. Right?

So, how was your weekend?  Any races? Any events? A good Father's Day?

An Outsider's Race Report of the Kettle Moraine 100 Mile Endurance Run

Ok, so I feel like this blog is supposed to be all about ME and MY accomplishments, but - of course - I have to write about this one.... Hubby did it!  He pulled off his first 100-mile ultramarathon. There were doubts, there was pain, there was one helluva sleepless night, but he finished the Kettle Moraine 100 in 27 hours, 36 minutes, and he's been convalescing ever since.

I was able to see Hubby and "crew" for him at three different spots on the course.  Here are some of the few pix I got at the event.

Hubby coming in to the County ZZ aid station at Mile 26.  Still a smile on his face although he said his gut had started to bother him....

Heading down the single-track trail leading out of the station.  Getting peeks down these trails intrigued me to such a degree that for the briefest of moments, I thought to myself Maybe I would want to do that. Mental head slap,....Okay, maybe not.

Coming in to the Scuppernong aid station - Mile 31.4.  Gut still bugging him, but we were able to fuel him up and get him on his way.  Already he was falling off his estimated finish time, but he was still going.

Last spot I was able to see Hubby would be here at the Emma Carlin aid station (Mile 47.3).  This is the point on the trail that they pop out of the woods to head to the aid station at the trail head parking lot.  I watched this spot for about an hour waiting for him to appear.

I wasn't the only one.  At any given time, there were friends and families hanging out watching that narrow sliver of trail as well.

Finally, out of the woods he comes!

Tired, hand-flip wave. At this point, he told me if I wanted to join him for any of the run (since I had planned tentatively to join him for the last seven miles or so) he said to do it now, because he wasn't sure he could go much longer.  Apparently, his gut finally settled down - after 20 miles! But then he noticed his whole body hurting.

After a half hour of rest while I fixed him up with some dried mangoes, Mountain Dew, and Advil and resupplied him with stuff from his drop bag, he headed out over the mats.  It was 6 p.m. - 12 hours underway already.  He told me at that point if the hurt didn't go away to some degree, he wouldn't make it to the finish.  With that doubt creeping in and the fact that his time was so off his estimates, we decided I wouldn't try to find him in the final seven miles. It would be too hard to determine when he would be into the final aid station.

So, that's the last I saw of him until the finish.  I spent a semi-sleepless night waking intermittently to check the webcast site to see what aid stations he had passed.  Around 1 a.m. I was heartened to see he had made it to the 100K point earlier in the evening where he would meet our friend D. to pace him.  A check at 4-something a.m. showed that he had made it to the 77-mile point, but there was no update to the 82 mile marker.  That was worrisome given that he should have made that point.  A few minutes later, however, an update showing his arrival at Mile 86 eased my mind.  (They never did update that 82 mile point.)  Then a couple of hours later - a call from D. saying they were eight miles from the finish.  Yeah!  Apparently, the Advil (and the three others he took) did their work.  Those and some coffee later in the night helped get him over the hump of despair, and he was able to keep going.  I know our friend D., who showed up to pace Hubby for the last 38 miles, helped immensely too.

So, finally - the finish. Approaching the finish line at 9:30 a.m. - 27:30 hours after starting this adventure - the kids are excited to run out and meet Daddy and head back over the finish line with him.

Crossing the finish line!

DONE and DONE IN....

I am incredibly proud of Hubby's achievement.  I know this was extremely hard for him, and I don't think he's even begun to process what he has accomplished yet, but he did it!  Out of 244 registered participants, only 118 finished before the cutoff.  And he was one of them.

So, what do I take from this event?  Well, first that it is an amazing race.  I mean, to run 100 miles on flat land would be accomplishment enough, but the KM100 is a hard, hilly course on the Ice Age Trail. Check out the elevation chart....

Source

I was not inspired to try to run one of these one day, however I was inspired to volunteer if I could.  It would be an awesome event to be part of and helping all these amazing runners trying to get through a tough event like this would be very rewarding I believe.

Crewing was fun, too, and I definitely would enjoy doing that again if Hubby ever recovers fully and forgets the pain of this one. Next time, though, I would want to plan on just crewing.  Trying to juggle crewing here and there with entertaining the kiddos elsewhere was a bit too stressful.  I think they would enjoy crewing, too, if their expectations were appropriately set.  Something to think about....

Speaking of the kids,... here's what WE did while Hubby ran for 27 hours....

Two nights of tent camping meant two nearly sleepless nights for all three of us....

It was still fun, though!  Really!  I seriously enjoyed camping and hope to do more of it in the future.  The howls and yips of coyotes aside (and I really shouldn't have read the book Killer Grizzly as a kid), I really thought this was a fun way to spend a couple of days.  What's not to like?  You can get as dirty as you want, eat all the pre-packaged junk you want, and spend all your time outdoors.  It's great!

Although next time I would plan a camping trip that was more kid-friendly.  I am sure it was not quite so much fun for them when the camping trip was kind of shoe-horned around Daddy's race.  Anyhoo...a small park at the campground helped for entertainment - as did having friends along to play with!

Between crewing gigs, a trip to Old World Wisconsin was educational and fun for everyone.  Too bad the kids were so pooped out from a night of little sleep.  They got something out of it, though, I believe.  I have to say I didn't even know this place existed!  However, if you ever have a hankering to experience what life was like for the different ethnic groups who inhabited Wisconsin in the mid-1800s, this is the place to be!

Hands on wheel making for the kids...

Hands on horse feeding...

Hands on school learning....(I have to say the scritch of slate pencil on slate board would have driven me batty 150 years ago.)

Hands on toys and games....

So, that's how we spent our weekend...How about you?

What did you do on your weekend?  Anything fun, educational, challenging, or otherwise a$$ kicking?