Happy turkey day...

This morning was fantastic! (...too bad my health went down hill from there, but that is another story)  Why was it fantastic?  Well, I had one heck of an awesome turkey trot at Advanced Rehabilitation and Health Specialists (ARHS) in Mantua.

First off, let me tell you why I love ARHS.  About fourteen years ago I was having major health issues (not like the minor seasonal cold type issues I alluded to above)...we're talking the type the doctors had a difficult time pinning down.  It had to do with my head.  I had severe headaches and other issues that caused me to have blurry vision, imbalance, sometimes an inability to stand or walk.  I couldn't focus and the pain was intense...all the time. After MRIs, blood tests and other tests, it was finally determined that I had severe tension in the muscle group that ran from the shoulders up to the top of my head.  Let's just say I carry my stress in my shoulders and neck...to the extreme.  This is where ARHS came in...they were the physical therapist group I spent several months with, a couple times a week, receiving muscle massage (the painful kind) to release the tension and learning new exercises to help me keep the stress damage in that area minimized once I was back on an even keel.  It was, quite literally, life altering and probably the reason I am devoted to running today.  Remember how I'm always saying running is my yoga...my stress reliever?...yep, exactly.

So when I (a) found out I was going to be in Garrettsvill for Thanksgiving and (b) looking for a turkey trot to replace my Annapolis event and (c) discovered there was one at ARHS, it was an easy choice...run the one at ARHS.  Bonus, it was being run on the Headwaters Trail that was nothing more than large stones on an old railroad bed the last time I was on it.  Today it is a smooth surface trail that runs through the beautiful forest and fields I spent the first 22 years old my life around.

The turkey trot kicked off at 8am and was a simple 30 minutes out on the trail, turn around and come back for another 30 minutes.  No specific distance.  Do it at your own pace.  This is what I call a fantastic event. 

So I took off.  For about the first mile I had a small seven or eight year old boy running just slightly ahead of me (and any time he started to slow down and fall behind me he would sprint ahead again).  He soon became way too tired to play at the charade of keeping up and started walking.  Soon I was out on my own, just me and the trail, and the second from the front of the pack heading out.  It provided me the ability to take in my surroundings.

Because my legs and lungs were feeling good, I was keeping a decent training pace.  I got 3.5 miles out when I hit the 30 minute mark.  That was almost to the route 700 crossing, which is where I used to pick the trail up when it only consisted of the 700 - Garrettsville section.  Then I turned it around and headed back.    I've decided I really like this trail.  It's much like the NCR trail I ran the twenty miler on earlier this year with Lara.  Smooth, relatively flat, and very fast.  It's also runs through pretty farm country, which I sometimes miss in Annapolis and Washington.

When I crossed back over the start line, I logged exactly 7 miles on the nose....7 miles and nearly 900 calories burned (which means more calories to eat great pie and potatoes at the dinner table).  As a fun, added incentive ARHS also gave out random door prizes that were more funny than serious.  Yes, and sentimental.  They gave out many Hostess prizes (how much are twinkies going for on ebay these days?) and I won the Hostess cupcakes.  So maybe I didn't have quite so many calories left by the time I got to the dinner table.

Of the turkey trots I've run over the past several years I have to say this was one of my favorites.  There were no prizes for who finished first, no one asked what your time was and you were only accountable to yourself.  Sometimes that is the way it should be in a "race."  Happy thanksgiving and happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  7.0
Time:   1:00:12 (average pace of 8:35 per mile)
Location:  Headwaters Trail, Portage County Ohio
Feeling:  one of my favorite runs this year (though I ended up with a head cold by the end of the day)

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