Running with friends, and dogs

I'm a week behind posting about my Jan. 9 race, the Frostbite 5K: Run With the Dogs.
It was a little too warm again this year for it to be frosty, but there were plenty of dogs (and humans) at the race.
I like this race. It's close to my house and it starts at 9 a.m., so I'm not up super early on a dark winter morning.
One of the nicest surprises this year was my friend Julie and her dog Brewer ran with me! I should have guessed Julie might be there, but I neglected to email or text her before the race, so it was a very pleasant surprise to see her just as we were lining up for the start.

Julie at the start

Brewer is here too!

I ran the Atlanta 10 Miler with Julie last fall and she's doing a run 3, walk 1 minute program, so we followed that (mostly) during the race. We came out really fast and that hampered me later on the course, but overall we did really well. We'd get to our walk portion of the program and Brewer wanted to keep running! I think he helped us be a little more speedy for this race.

Finishers!

I need to remind Julie that we've done this race together three or four times (except for the year when lightning forced the cancellation, but Julie and Brewer were there!)
In fact, I met Brewer almost right after Julie and her husband Chris got him. I think I met Chris, who was then her boyfriend, at this race.
I even found 27 cents this morning, so the found money pig got fed!

The found money pig

So 2016 running is off to a great start, running with the dogs (and friends).

A chilly, hilly resolution

Atlanta's unseasonably warm weather decided to leave just as I'm ready to return to running.
So this morning's Resolution Run 4 miler was sunny and crisp. The race is in Brookhaven and it was kind of fun to see some of the areas I usually drive right by.
Here I am before the race, even wearing that Ugly Sweater Run hat, which I actually needed today!

Pre-race selfies

I looked for found money during my walk breaks, but didn't find any. I counted up all of my found money for 2015 last night. I earned $3.09, just enough for a small coffee at Starbucks. :)
At the end of the race, I went to the area that asked you to share your resolution. I put down to run four more states in 2016. You can barely see it in the photo!

It doesn't matter. It's a resolution I very much hope to keep. Happy New Year!

Final race of 2015

All good things must come to an end, and with my foot still bothering me, I've run my final 5K for 2015 with the Lakeside Viking 5K on Dec. 12. I ran it with my friends Carolyn and Susan though, so I went out exactly how I wanted: with friends.

Me, Susan and Carolyn

I am ready for a short break. But I'm also looking forward to 2016. I've got four more states lined up for sure: Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Colorado, all of which will be run with friends! I'm so excited that friends want to join me on my destination running adventures.
2015 was a great year for me, I think. I got to run with family members for the first time, I ran races in the great states of Kansas, Washington, New Mexico, Maryland and Connecticut. Five states this year! And I either ran with friends or met up with friends in each state. How cool is that?
I never realized how much fun this bucket list was going to become. How much I look forward to planning trips and then planning who I might see while there.
So, thanks 2015 for a wonderful year. See you at the starting line in 2016!

Ugly Sweaters and the Constitution State

I'm home from a short, fun trip to Connecticut, where I ran the Ugly Sweater Run in Hartford with my friend Peggy.
I didn't expect to run in five states this year. I thought it would simply be four, which I think is ambitious to begin with!
But the stars aligned and I ended up flying up to Connecticut and running one more race this year.
Here we are before the race, wearing our Ugly Sweater hats. Great hats!

Sporting our race swag -- fun hats!

Ugly sweaters on display

The full effect

Wow, we look stylish! My sweater looks like it is two sizes too big! And to think I used to wear that to work!

Along the course!

Coming into the finish

You can tell the temps were up for the race by the last photo. I had to take my sweater off! I was roasting. The race wasn't my best. My foot, which I've stayed off of for three weeks, almost immediately began hurting. It's hurting right now as I type this. Grrr...

The trip also included lunch with my friend Val, who lives in Massachusetts and drove about 90 minutes to meet me for lunch!

Val and me at lunch

It was a great weekend. Over way too fast. And my goodness it was warm! Almost a little too warm for all the sweaters I brought thinking it would be really cold in Connecticut in December. After all, Peggy said it sleeted at last year's Ugly Sweater Run.

This race in Connecticut represented my 21st state. It may not have been the right weekend for sweaters, but our ugly ones sure were fun!!

An honor to run

Cooler fall temps have certainly returned to Atlanta. I was not quite prepared to pull out the long pants and long shirts for running. I was sure I'd get to wear my running capris at least once!
This morning I ran the DAV 5K with my friend Angela at Piedmont Park. It benefited disabled American vets. As you can see from the photo of us at the finish, it was a bright blue morning.

Me and Angela, post race

That was a far cry from last weekend's race. I attempted to run Strong Legs Run 10K again this year, but Mother Nature had other ideas. A thunderstorm rolled through around 4 a.m. and flooded some of the race course, so the race was canceled. Race organizers decided to continue with the 5K race, but that started two hours after my friends Erin and Carolyn and I got there. We decided to go get coffee to warm up and then nixed going back to the race. :)

Erin, Carolyn and me

So once again I had a race get canceled on me this fall. I just wish I'd gotten the email that this one canceled before I'd left the house! Oh well. The coffee and fellowship was wonderful.
I'm closing out on my races for 2015. It's been a great year, other than the tendinitis in my foot!
And in just a few weeks I should pick up another state!

Sleep deprived and wet

I ran that crazy time change 5K last night, or rather early this morning.
Last year it was so cold, tonight is was so wet!
It poured the whole three miles of the Anything is Possible 5K, where the race starts at 1:50 a.m., just before Daylight Saving Time ends. So, we "fall back" and finish the race before we start it. But here I am with Joy and Sasha, my intrepid and crazy friends who did it with me!

Joy, Sasha and me

Recognize that blue rain poncho? That poncho is about two and half years old and I have gotten more than my fair share out of it! I'd really rather not!
The bad part about the rainy race tonight was how few people showed up. Not surprising, but in nicer weather the Anything is Possible 5K is a near party atmosphere, with lots of music, lots of food.
We tried to get some food at one vendor and it ran out just as we walked up.
We didn't stick around this year. Back to our cars to dry off and warm up.
For this race, rather than a T-shirt, we get pajama bottoms. They came in handy for the rest of night. I'm still a little sleep deprived, but I'm nice and warm and dry now.
Until next year, crazy friends!

10 [more] miles of uphill

I successfully completed this year's Atlanta 10 Miler, and once again I felt like it was 10 miles of all uphill.
And it was on one of those uphills, or maybe a short downhill, that my right running shoe decided to disintegrate. At least the heel. Not cool, running shoe!
Needless to say, it was an early start.

The finish line in pre-race darkness

However, I would say it was a fun race. I got to run nearly all of it with my friend Julie, who is coming off foot surgery after a bad stress fracture.

Me and Julie

For this selfie, I managed to keep my finger out of the photo. Ha!
Julie and I were well suited to run together, taking walk breaks at about the same time. It wasn't until about mile 7, at the start of Cardiac Hill, that one mile of straight uphill on Peachtree Road, that she needed a walk break and I still had something in the tank and went on ahead.

Hi from the chute to the finish

Headed toward the finish

Many thanks to my friend Angela, who was volunteering at the race as a course monitor at mile 2. I saw her at mile 2 and then she waited at the finish and caught me as I was coming in.

Finishers!

Me and Angela

New medal to add to the collection

I do like this race, however. I'm glad the Atlanta Track Club offers the 10 miler. It's a good challenge, and the introduction of the Cardiac Hill mile, where the 100 fastest runners to take Cardiac Hill can win prizes, is a great addition. Turns out, that mile of Cardiac Hill was my fastest split! I guess I was motivated to "get over it."