Run to Remember...

Not every run serves your training plan.  Sometimes a run is about so much more.

On Memorial Day, across the country, thousands of runners and non-runners took to the streets and trails to dedicate their miles to fallen service members with wear blue: run to remember.

Here on 29, though it was a hot, hot morning in the desert, Stroller Warriors banded together to add our own miles to this remembrance.  Running in memory of friends, running in memory of loved ones, or running in memory of total strangers, more than thirty women and children (even a few men) joined in to dedicate a 5K.

Miss A, Baby K, and I ran in memory of Corporal Terrence P. Allen, USMC, who was killed in Al Anbar Province on September 15, 2007 while serving with 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, NC.  

My children took to the challenge of running this course (challenge because it was hot, they have short legs, and it was 3.1 miles) like the champs they are.  Well, let's be realistic, Baby K actually cruised in the jogging stroller for all but about a quarter mile.  But he ran that quarter mile with heart.

The run also gave me the opportunity to talk with Miss A about why we were really out there on that course.  It can be confusing for small children when their moms or dads deploy into combat zones.  It's even more confusing when they don't come back home alive.  Miss A, after our talk, was happy that her daddy has come home from all his deployments, though saddened that some don't.  She picked up her chin and said "let's do this for him {CPL Allen}."

We did not know Corporal Allen before dedicating our run to his memory (we were matched with hi by wear blue: run to remember), but I have taken the time to learn about him since.  He was just 21 years old, from New Jersey, and a newly wed.  A young man who enlisted even before he graduated high school.  This young man had a long-term goal to become a high school history teacher.

After it was over, to reward my children, of course I let them have some play time on the tanks.  After all, Memorial Day is about both remembering and celebrating...what better way than playing on the tanks that have given so much to our country as well.  Happy trails!!!

2017 miles to date:  658.48 miles

Observations:  I've still got soreness in my tendon that borders on pain.  It dissipates a bit once I get a mile or so into a run.  I'm currently treating it with a bit of spray on Icy Hot before workouts to numb the pain.

 

  I'll be able to focus on healing it after Zooma half next weekend.

Running for cancer research...

I love running.  It is an extension of who I am and what keeps me calm (I can't say stress free...but perhaps less stressed?).  Several weeks ago, I made a commitment to use my love for running to help raise funds to fight cancer by entering races to benefit cancer research.  This past weekend I was able to enter the Friends of Melana 5K in my hometown.

I was in Garrettsville for a family event, and to see my niece, and learned about the 5K in conjunction with an annual festival downtown.  I thought "sure why not" and then learned the cause and knew "absolutely" I was going to be on that start line on race day.  Friends of Melana was named in memory of Melana Matson, a nine year old girl from Garrettsville, who in 2009, was diagnosed with brain cancer.  She lost her battle just nine months after her diagnosis.  Friends of Melana was formed to honor her memory and help to fund the fight against this cancer.

So on a beautiful Sunday morning, I trotted on downtown, surprisingly fast, (its only a mile from my mom's house so I decided to use it as a warm-up and to add up a couple more miles) and signed in for the race.  It's been about 14 years since I last lived in town, so I do not really recognize the new faces (or at least those who came out to sweat for cancer research) and just waited on my own for the starting gun (although I did chat a bit with Mrs. Z who was my gifted teacher through school and agreed to hold onto my race shirt for me).

When the race started, it started fast....one of the habits I've tried to break for years.  But it felt decent so I just went with it.  It was about 1/2 a mile in that I looked down at my pace and just thought "whoa...I'm going to die if I keep this up."  It was pretty fast for me.  A 1/4 mile later I looked down again and I was going even faster.  My first thought was, "I'm not a fast runner, this must be Kaitlyn and Joey carrying me."  (You may recall a post a few weeks ago about Kaitlyn and Joey...they have inspired this commitment this year).  It was then I decided that if they wanted me to go that fast, I wouldn't let them down.  And I don't think I did.

It was a hilly course, that's for sure.  The course started on Center Street up to Maple Avenue, down to Water Street, up Liberty, turned onto Pierce, then Brosius Road and back down Center Street to the finish.  Driven there lately?  Its rolling...and Center Street throws in a whopper uphill right before the finish line.  But rolling is good, rolling is fun.  I even got to see my old eighth grade English teacher and middle/high school track coach bike riding along the course.  It was great encouragement.  But mostly, I wanted to keep running for Kaitlyn and Joey.  And so I did.

So on this Sunday of small town parades, political booths along the street and Catholic church chicken dinner fundraisers, as a community we also accomplished a little something in honor of the children who did not have a cure available to them in hopes that those who come after will not have to know what childhood cancer can do.  Happy trails!!!

Oh, in the end, I turned in a 23:49 time...did not quite beat my standing PR from 19 years ago (23:10), but slipped in as my second best 5K ever.  Overall, I finished first among women 30-39 and fourth among all women.  I also got the opportunity to share some old stories with Jason Adkins about when he and his mom used to sit a couple rows behind his brother, Nathan, and I when we went on dates in middle school :)

Stats -
Miles:  5.21 (1.11 miles to the race, 5K during the race, and 1 mile trottomh back with my niece before picked up by my mom)
Time:   1st mile 9:07 (average pace of 8:12 per mile), 5K 23:49 (average pace of 7:41 per mile), last mile?  I have no idea...I was trotting with a three-year old who was convinced she could run like her aunt...it was slow, but I think she has a future :)
Location:  good old G-ville, Ohio
Feeling:  So great I can't even find the words