Are You Ready for Some Racin’?

As you know from our post yesterday we have got Kacie’s Run AND Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas on tap for this weekend!  This is almost exactly what we did this weekend last year – we say almost because last year we paired up with our friends Joe & Bitner to do Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas as a relay!

Saturday morning we will head out to Standridge Stadium in Carrollton to run this 5K benefiting Carrollton Farmers Branch ISD Special Olympics.

We have been pretty fortunate this week in Dallas with some rain on a couple of days that have left us with some nice cool temperatures!  We are hoping we’ll be in the 50’s the whole time we are out there for this 5K.

Goals: Teal will run this 5K as a race.  It is a nice flat course so maybe she’ll bring home a PR.  Her current 5K PR sits at 23:58.  Beth will be treating this 5K as more of a shakeout run so don’t expect any new PR from her, put in 3.1 at a nice easy pace and be ready for what the next day has to hold!

And Sunday holds our longer day with Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas!  We’ve been watching the weather all week to see what it would do for Sunday morning and not to mention it seems like a lot of Rock ‘n’ Roll races have had some HOT weather lately! Anyone else notice that?

As of now we are looking at a low of 62 and a high of 84. Here’s to hoping it stays in the 60’s for as long as possible!  Something else we are hoping for on Sunday is another Troy Aikman sighting! 🙂  Last year Teal saw him as she was running her leg of the relay!

Hello there, Troy Aikman!

Goals: Well, Beth made it one of her March goals to run a sub 2 hour half marathon at this race so that is the goal!  Ultimately she’d like to see a bright shiny new half PR come out of this race!  Kind of scary admitting it because there could be a huge chance it doesn’t happen, but she’s gonna try gosh darn it!  For Teal, she’s just wanting to complete the race!  If you remember from her March goals that she was taking pretty much two weeks off from any type of working out that wasn’t yoga or weights with her trainer, Will.

We are excited for this weekend! There are lots of people we know who will be out running Rock ‘n’ Roll Dallas and to all of you good luck!  We would like to give a special good luck to Cynthia MacDonald!  Girl, you are going to rock your first half marathon!  Soak up every second of it because you’ll never get another first half marathon! You’ve trained hard and will do GREAT!

If you are going out to Rock n Roll to spectate you will hopefully be able to spot Beth easily in her yellow Nike shorts, gray top and yellow headband.  Teal is trying to figure out what outfit combo will result in the least amount of chaffing (yes, she wears BodyGlide sometimes it still happens!) possible so maybe you can just look for the tall girl running down the streets of Dallas! 😉

Oh and one last thing – we’ll be hitting up the expo tomorrow afternoon! When are YOU going? Maybe we could meet up!

March’s Races

This past weekend was a very busy race weekend and is a little bit of a glimpse into how crazy the two of us are with a short race on Saturday, Kacie’s Run, and a bit of a longer run on Sunday, Rock ‘n’ Roll Half.  But first let’s back up to our week leading up to our race weekend – Teal had a lingering cough and ultimately started treatment for bronchitis.  Mid-week Beth got a cold and with a double race weekend we would be lying if we said we were not nervous.  We looked and sounded crazy, Teal would break into coughing attacks, and Beth had to carry around a box of tissues.  Not a pretty sight.

Kacie’s Run on Saturday went GREAT!  CFBISD had over 500 people participate in either the 1 mile or 5k races.  The crazy wind we had all week in Dallas stuck around for the run but the sun was definitely out and the temperature was in the high 70’s by the time we ran.  The course was awesome as it is super flat and plenty of space to not run into or have to dodge other runners.  I am pretty sure our nerves had taken over slightly as we both ran the first mile in right under 8 minutes. By mile two we were great, only one small coughing attack but we pulled through!

Our Results

Teal: 26:26, finished 6th in age group and 68th over all

Beth: 26:19, finished 4th in age group and 63rd overall

 

 

For the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half, we decided to run the relay and that we might have a better chance of placing if we ran on co-ed teams than as a Life is a Run team.  Teal partnered up with Joe and Beth partnered up with Bitner.  The boys were given the first leg of the half marathon to run, 7.1 miles, and the girls got the last leg, 6 miles.  As crazy as we were expecting the race to be with making sure we got to the right place, Rock ‘n’ Roll staff seriously had it under control.  The exchange area was well organized and it was awesome to see all the race action.  At about 35 minutes in, the first place runner passed all of us waiting for our partners at the exchange.  Oh to run a 5 minute mile…

L to R: Bitner, Beth, Teal & Joe

 

The weather in Dallas literally changed over night – Saturday we had a high in the 80’s and by the time we went to run our relay Sunday morning I think the temperature had maybe gotten up to 50 degrees with no sun.  Even the Rock ‘n’ Roll staff said that it must have been some kind of cruel joke.  It was freezing.

None of us had run a race in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, but we were so impressed with how organized and just how great overall the event was.  There were spectators everywhere, awesome bands, and even the High School cheerleaders from Teal’s school district.  We both talked after the race about being moved, almost to tears, by some of the pictures on runner’s shirts.  Beth saw a girl who ran with an extra bib that said “I run for my mother” and Teal ran behind a boy who had lost his mother to breast cancer, he had a giant picture of her on his back.  It is seriously motivating to run for a good cause and to see those affected by cancer, working for a cure!  This race also supported Susan G. Komen!

One of the exciting parts of the race was when Teal actually ran beside Troy Aikman!  Teal said that he literally just ran up on the side of her, he was on the left and his pacer on the right, and was talking about his race bib.  He thought he was the only one wearing it.  She looked up at him as it is weird to hear a lot of talking during a race and realized who the heck it was!  She looked at the girl on the other side of her for reassurance and yep, it was really him.  Teal looked right at him and asked, “Can I take your picture?”  He said, “Sure if you run fast!”  He had a pace to keep afterall!  Teal, who was running with her iphone to use the runkeeper app, took a quick picture and tweeted it while running.  Seriously cool!  Troy even contacted Life is a Run afterwards to find out about the picture!  How cool is that?

Beth and Teal both finished the race with an excellent pace.  It is safe to say our best 6 miles run ever!

Our Results

Teal & Joe: Ran the half in 1:50:22 (an avg. 8:26/mile pace) Teal’s half in 51:44.  They finished 8th amongst the co-ed teams and 19th out of 305 relay teams!

Beth & Bitner: Ran the half in 1:44:55 (an avg. 8:01/mile pace) Beth’s half in 50:37.  They finished 4th amongst the co-ed teams and 13th out of 305 relay teams!