A Musky Fest weekend and new shoes take 2!

Hi friendlies and happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  I know I sure did, so lets get to it.

As I mentioned Jake and I were headed back up to Hayward, WI for Musky Fest and to run the 5k and 10k races on Sunday.  The one bummer of the weekend was that Jake's bike race that he was supposed to do was cancelled.  I guess the area got 4-5 inches of rain so they had to postpone the race until a later date.  I felt bad since Jake put in some decent training for it, but on the plus side, he was able to just chill this weekend and join us for the race on Sunday.

So Friday after work we packed up and made our way to Hayward. 


stella make the trip again too! 


We were staying at the Porath's cabin again this year.  It so nice of them to let us bunk up there.  Their cabin is on a beautiful lake, I could have easily spent a week there.  There is just something about being up north, I love it :). 

So once everyone was there we had a great dinner, went out on the pontoon, and watched a movie before we all headed to bed.  Saturday Jake and I were up fairly early ( when did I become a morning person?!), and the only other people up were Nathan's parents.  So we hung around with them and had coffee, then went out and played a few games of bean bags.  I love lawn games!  So fun :)  We had oatmeal/pancakes for breakfast and by that time everyone else was pretty much up.  We all had to get in our respective runs, and Nichole set out for hers' with their dog Mesa (who is a running star too!), and Jake and Nathan joined me on mine.  I was excited about this run because I got to test out my brand new pair of flats.....again.

Ok, so here's the deal.  I know I said before that I got a pair of Mizuno flats and I was all excited about them and blah blah blah.  Well turns out, they were way too big.  Like about a 1/2 size too big.  I really had my heart set on racing in flats, so I was bummed that I had to return them and knew I wouldn't get a replacement in time.  Enter the most awesome friend ever, Nichole to the rescue!  She offered to stop at a running store on her way up and pick out a pair, and I would just pay her back. So let me introduce my actual new shoes!

SO SWEET!

These are great.  She brought 2 different sizes to see what would work, and wouldn't you know, the ones that fit were a 7 1/2 ( I usually wear an 8).  Plus this was the better color combo anyway :).  So I tested them out on some striders during my run.  They feel so much better than the other ones, and fit my foot really well.  Although, since they pretty much force you to push off and run more on your toes, my calves are pretty tight.  I will definitely be adding in some ankle and calf/lower leg strengthening to my workouts.

Once we all got back we had some lunch, then headed into Hayward to pick up our race shirts and putz around the vendor booths that were there.

the awesome shirts this year :)

Once we got back to the cabin, we were in charge of dinner, so we cooked up the typical pre-race dinner of pasta, grilled chicken, bread, and salad.  We took off on one more pontoon ride, watched another movie and hit that hay.

Now for the race report, I should preface this by saying that for the past 3 days I've been dealing with an annoying head-cold of sorts.  Not enough to really put me out, but enough to make me feel not quite right.  I woke up Sunday pretty congested.  I took some ibuprofen to hopefully help my head not hurt so much, and still held out hope of a good race. The race started at 9, so we left with time to get a warm up in.  I got in 1.5 miles, changed into my flats, and we got ready to race.  Jake and Nathan did the 10k and Nichole, myself, Nathan's sister, cousin, mom and dad all did the 5k.  Since the 10k was just two loops of the 5k course ( ugh, sounds awful!), Jake stuck with me for the first one, and I'm SO glad he did.  Per-usual, the first mile felt good, looked at the watch and saw 6:40 pace and though "sweet, this feels good, I can definitely stay here, yippee sub-21 PR!), but at about mile 2.5 that's when I went to the dark side.  My head felt foggy, and my legs just hurt.  ( Thinking back on it, I'm pretty sure that if my health was 100%, then I would have been just fine.  I can deal with my legs hurting, but the combo of my legs and head cold, I just could get a grip on it all).  My breathing was really labored - I was breathing out loud for pretty much the last 2 miles, which I hardly do, even in my toughest of track workouts.  My pace was all over the place and I just couldnt get myself to relax.  I would slow down randomly, then try and pick it up - nothing felt even or controlled the whole race.  If Jake hadn't been there, I probably wouldn't have gotten the time I did, which was a 21:09.  I should be happy that given the circumstances I was only 2 min. off my PR, but I really want that damn 21 to go away! 



I still got first in my age group though ( thanks to Nichole for getting overall win and getting bumped out of age group prizes :))


Nichole won the 5k for the women (even she wasn't happy with her time, the humidity wasn't great that day either), but she still did great.  Jake had a great race, so did Nathan, who won for the 10k.  Everyone else in the family had a good time as well.  After the race, Nichole and I still had some miles to get in ( I had 10 total for the day), so we finished up what I had left, and I hopped in the car with Jake and Nathan, to drive back.  Nichole set out for her last few miles and we were going to just pick her up on the way, but not without a pit stop for ice cream first.  We got some for Nichole and met her along the way.....



how's that for service!

We got back to the cabin, had a quick lunch again, then it was time to pack up and head out.  It was such a fun weekend and we all agree is turning into a pretty fun tradition.  I'm already looking forward to next year :)  Who knows, maybe by then I will be gunning for 19 min. PR.