I can’t believe I am actually 5 weeks into this amazing journey of marathon training. I am at 42% of my fundraising goal for MMRF too! What an extremely rewarding journey! 

Monday: Rest Day 

Tuesday: 3 miles 

I’m really trying to work on maintaining a consistent pace and negative splits. It felt good to accomplish that today. Literally was dripping sweat after this run. 

  

Wednesday: 4 Miles 

I couldn’t get my run in while it was still light out so rather than use that as an excuse I went to the gym and ran the longest 4 miles of my life. I used to be able to run on a treadmill with no problem, but after running outside so much I get overly bored. 

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday: Seacoast Running Festival 5k

Expo/Packet Pickup: I think with the rain things were thrown off a little. When I got to Salisbury center there was some music playing and beach visitors wafering. The pickup tent was tucked on a side street in the center. They had a tent set up and tables for each of the races in the festival. After picking up your bib you moved on to the next set of tables where there was a different shirt for each race. 

The race tees/tanks were gender specific, but there were no women’s XLs so men’s cut it was per usual. 

Parking was super easy – there were plenty of spots in the metered parking lots that cost me about $2.50 to cover the race and pre race time. There were also some $10 lots in the other direction. I think that the rainy weather was beneficial for the traffic situation with beach goers and visitors being kept to a low number. I walked my shirts and the bib for tomorrow’s race back to my car where my family had just arrived. 

It was sooo funny, as we were walking around the center about 15 mins before the start a random torrential downpour drenched the center. We were able to run to an overhang keeping the wet clothes damage to a minimum. 

As it got closer to race time more people slowly arrived – I assume due to people having to work and fair-weather races backing out due to the conditions. Regardless, I didn’t really expect that many people for a Friday night 5k.   

My family and I hung out for a little bit talking about how much the center has changed over the years – I have been coming here since I was born and my mom before me – as a child there was so much for kids and families to do in the carnival area and welcoming environment .. Things have changed and the carnival is gone and people just don’t care about the area as much as they used to. 

Anyway, the rain did die down for the start of the race and for the introduction by the DJ. It felt like a small town local race which was really nice. The DJ they had was all about positivity and being mentally strong, I loved it, he even played songs with positive vibes throughout the whole weekend. It was definitely a nice touch. 

As soon as we are about to start I ran into a woman I had seen earlier at the registration tent. We just started chatting about running and where we were from – that is definitely one of my favorite things about running in races. The majority of people are so approachable and love to talk about their experiences and running adventures. I’ve learned about some great race ideas for #racethe50states this way as well as some great training tips. 

  
The race started and within 20 seconds the rain picked up again. For this race I broke rule number one of running races – no cotton T-shirts. And I sure did pay the price … I was soaked. Another positive about the smaller race size is that you don’t have to fight to keep a steady pace/path in the first half mile and you don’t waste a bunch of energy dodging people trying to find their pace or slowing way down. 

In my Passion Planner I had written out my daily focus: “run hard” – while I did feel like I had started off a little quick, I was running strong and just told myself to keep this pace and push forward. 

It was a nice little loop around the area with some awesome views (despite the rain). There were all sorts of volunteers from park officials, to fellow running enthusiasts, to children and numerous police officers supporting everyone and making sure everything went smoothly. 

  
While it was no PR, I felt great and almost had too much energy after finishing, so I really felt like I could have pulled of a PR. This was one of the only courses where they said it would be completely flat and it actually was. 

It was a fun night and an enjoyable course. I was also extremely happy that my family came out to support me. Naturally we had to go to Markey’s Lobster Pool for some post race eats. 

Saturday: Seacoast Running Festival Wall’s Ford 10k 

Race Morning: I stayed over Chris’s as his house is much closer to Salisbury than mine. Since I went straight to the 5k after work this meant I got my stuff together on Friday morning before I left. 

For the most part I did pretty well except I forgot a second pair of socks .. And I could reuse the ones from the 5k due to the rain. 

So I used a pie of Chris’s and did the whole elementary school roll down.. If only I had taken a photo of how ridiculous it looked hahaha. 

This wasn’t a loop course it was point A to point B. Starting at the Ford dealership who had sponsored the race and donated a car to one lucky race participant (that sadly was not me). 

There are school busses for those who wanted to park at the center (the finish line). Luckily I have the worlds greatest gem who dropped me off at the start so I didn’t have to stress about the bus situation. 

It was so perfect planned that they had a few port o potties set up in the dealership parking lot. A definite pre-race personal necessity hah!

The DJ was also set up in the Peking lot which made for some fun pre-race entertainment and positivity. 

The Course: 

The first 2 miles were mostly on a trail which was so great for my knees – the trail was well packed down and flat. The weather was perfect running weather and the trees surrounding the trail added an additional barrier from the sun. 

After those 2 miles we popped on the main streets which were not concerning at all. The police and volunteer presence was much appreciated and the traffic was very well controlled. I picked this father and daughter (I think) running duo to pace myself with and I actually stayed within a short distance of them the entire way. 

I had heard him telling her their pace every so often so I knew they had a plan and were on track to stick to it. I often play these little mind games with myself to keep me busy. 

I also ran with music today .. Shocking I know. In this situation it did help and I picked a Pandora station that actually had a playlist with beets per minute to keep me on pace. 

Around the 4/5th mile there was a water and electrolyte drink station. With my recent track record and not carrying water with me I decided it would be best to slow down and take in some electrolytes. 

After that I decided I was going to push forward as hard as I could and finish strong – with a positive mind and consistent pace .. And I did. 

The last mile looped through the state park reservation and finished with a straight away on the main road. 

I crossed the finish line with a smile and proud knowing o had just PRed. 

  
Post-Race: 

There were a lot more people and goodies today after the race. A few sponsors had some post-race food options and a bunch of other freebies. For the most part these were local companies, which again was a nice local race touch. 

  
The winner of the car announcement wasn’t made until 12:30 so Chris and I had some time to kill. We walked back to my car where I changed out of my sweaty clothes. 

It was so much fun spending the day playing arcade games and walking around the center with him. I was glad the car raffle gave us a reason to stick around for a bit. 

  
As you can assume I didn’t win the car, but the woman who won was so so excited! I think it is awesome that they did it as a raffle and not just the fastest runner won. 

In addition to the two races I ran there was also a mile run that was strictly through the sand as well as a half marathon on Sunday. 

Overall, for an inaugural race this was very well run. Especially with the weather and the chaos this could have caused, the race organizer Eli and his family remained professional and calm. I will definitely participate again next year and PR one of the distances. 

Sunday: Non-Run Day

Some serious recover and stretching was needed after not properly cooling down/stretching after either of those races