Senior Bowl Charity Run 10K Recap!

I love running local races! You still enjoy the race atmosphere but you get to sleep in your own bed! ;-) Of course I love traveling to races too! Who am I kidding? I just love to race!!!

This past weekend I ran the Senior Bowl Charity Run 10K! I've run this race 4 times! It's one that I love to run! There have been a couple of years when I missed it because I was running other races (RnR Savannah and Pensacola Half Marathon) but I love to run it when I can.

Every time I've run this race it's been pretty cold. Last year it was freezing! But not this year. It was in the high 70's with 100% humidity. And it was foggy too. So I knew that this race would be a little tougher than in the past.

I always sport my favorite football team for this race....Auburn!

I was excited that Jenny and Kirstin were running this race too! Their husbands also ran. (If you remember my hubby was at home sick with an upper respiratory infection).

Race morning we started out by taking a few pictures in front of the start line.

After a gorgeous singing of the National Anthem by one of my friend's 10 year old daughter, it was time to line up at the start line. This race isn't chipped timed so Jenny and I decided to get pretty close to the front without getting run over. They played music to get us all pumped up! I will admit that I was dancing and having a blast and the race hadn't even started yet lol!

A race start selfie is a must!!!

And then....we were off! Jenny and I had plans to just have fun for this one. We weren't planning on a PR especially since the weather wasn't very cooperative. But being the competitive runners that we are....we both were running pretty fast. In fact...we started out faster than we should have. The first mile flew by. And then we headed into one of the neighborhoods. I love looking at all the houses. But the roads here are not in great shape. We had to really watch where we were stepping. I almost twisted my ankle a few times.

Finally we were out of the neighborhood and turned onto Dauphin Street where we would run until we reached the finish line. I'm not gonna lie. This run was tough. My legs felt great but I was having a hard time breathing. The heat and humidity were making it really difficult.

Looking at my Garmin I knew I wouldn't PR. But there was a chance for Jenny to PR. We were almost at the finish line and I wanted to yell at her to "Go!" but I couldn't! I couldn't get my breath enough to talk! Luckily she went took off and went for it! I was a few paces behind her and then out of the corner of my eye I saw someone creeping up on me. We will call him "Red Shirt" since he was wearing a red shirt. I thought to myself, "Oh no! You are NOT getting between me and my Jennyfren!" And I sprinted the hardest I think I've ever sprinted!

Thanks to Jenny's husband Eric for these pictures! You can see Red Shirt trying to pass me...and me determined not to let him!

And I'm happy to say...Red Shirt did NOT pass me!!!! :-)

But sprinting at the end in that heat and humidity was rough! It took me a while to catch my breath. I was about one minute shy of my 10K PR. Not too bad in such weather conditions! I found out later that my official time was 52:34!

Once we caught our breath Jenny and I celebrated our run!

I just happened to look up and guess who I saw? My cousin James!!! I had no idea he was running this race! He had run the 5K and placed 1st in his age group!!!!

While we were waiting on the official results for the 10K we chased down the Chick Fil A Cow AND the man with boxes and boxes of pumpkin shaped Reese's peanut butter cups!!!

But my happiness subsided a bit when I discovered that one of those Reese's was 170 calories! Wow! I gave it away instead. It wasn't worth it. I wanted to eat real food with all those calories I had just burned running!

Jenny and I had a few more photo opps! I love the candid ones of us where we are asking each other....how do you want to pose? Funny or normal? Lol!

Finally the 10K results were posted! And I had placed 2nd in my age group!!!!! I was shocked!!! This was a fairly big race and I couldn't believe I had placed!!!!

We waited for awards of course! And I got to cheer for James as he got his 1st place award!

It was a tough race but so much fun! And I'm so glad I got to see my cousin at the end! I loved sharing our wins together!

As always...it was a blast running with Jenny!!! I can't wait to race together again...which will be THIS weekend for the Battleship 12K!!!! :-)

QOTD: Have you ever run hard in tough weather conditions and surprised yourself with what your body could do?

Fiesta 10K Recap!

Saturday was the last race of the season for me. It is getting too hot for racing now here on the Gulf Coast. So I was really looking forward to this race! I ran the 5K part of this race years ago but have never run the 10K. I was excited to run in my hometown again AND run a new course!

We had to wake up pretty early for this one since it's about an hour commute to get there. I met my friends at our meeting spot and off we went!

We arrived at the finish line area around 6:15. We had to take a shuttle bus to the start line. There was no wait for a bus which was really nice.

I was really excited to run another race with my friend Jenny! We've run two races together but this would be the first time we actually started together. The last two times we found each other on the course and then ran the rest together.

We knew the course was going to be hilly so we didn't really have any goals in mind. We wanted to come as close to our previous PR as possible. But we knew it was going to be hot and hilly and would be happy to finish with a smile on our faces!

I'm so lucky to have so many friends that love to run as much as I do!!!

The shuttle ride didn't take too long and then we were at Pensacola State College where the start line was. We had about 30 minutes until the race began. We found a few friends and then before long it was time to get going!

Jenny and I started running and we were feeling great! Since this race didn't have corrals we just jumped in where we thought we should be. But...we should have moved closer to the start line. We had to dodge several people within that first mile.

Around mile 1.5 we came to the first hill. It was pretty steep but we pushed through and made it! Then we turned onto a road that reminded me of Mobile, AL. The road was covered with oak tree branches...so gorgeous! (Sorry the picture is blurry...but it's hard to get a picture in focus when you are running! Thanks for taking the picture Jenny!)

The rest of the race just kind of flew by as Jenny and I did what we do best when we are together...talk! We had so much fun!!!

We had a few more inclines and then between mile 5 and 6 we had an overpass to climb. But we didn't back down and kept on running. Both Jenny and I said we were having a hard time breathing. It was hard to recover from those hills. But we are both so competitive and would slow down...only to speed right back up in less than a minute lol!

Finally...we made it to the finish line!!! We did it! Our official finish time was 53:43...about 2 minutes shy of a PR for me. But I was super happy with that time considering the hilly route!

We came through the finish line shute and there was Jenny's husband Eric. He had a great race and even PRed! (Yeah he's fast and came in about 10 minutes ahead of us)

Then it was time to find some food! This race had so much to offer! There was pizza (you think I ate that don't you? Nope...I usually only eat pizza the night before the race), bananas, donuts, salad, sandwich wraps, and probably more food that we didn't even see! It was a great after party!

Jenny and I headed straight for the chocolate donuts!!! So yummy!

Oh yeah...we totally run for donuts!!!

After watching Eric eat and eat (lol) we found the rest of our friends. Every one seemed to have had a good race!

Funny story....Jenny and her husband's bib numbers were numbers 1 and 2! Pretty awesome! I so felt like I was running with elites!

And every time I see this picture I crack up laughing! We have so much fun!!!!

Before long it was time to head out. We told Jenny and Eric goodbye and then me and the rest of the girls headed to Pensacola Beach! I was so excited to spend girl time on the beach!

But first things first...Starbucks Coffee of course! I totally earned the big one!

We made it to the beach in no time. The water was absolutely gorgeous! We had a blast relaxing in the sun!

It was an amazing day! I did several of my favorite things...running, racing, spending time with friends, and relaxing at the beach! :-)

QOTD: Do you race in the summer? Or is it too hot?

Crescent City Classic 10K Recap!

Disclaimer: As a Crescent City Classic Blogger I received a free race entry. No other compensation was provided. All opinions are mine alone.

New Orleans is one of my favorite cities to run in! So I was super excited to get to run the Crescent City Classic, one of the oldest 10K races in the nation, for the third time!

This was going to be a quick trip for me and my running friends since this race is always held on Easter weekend. I have to get back to my boys for the holiday.

We started the trip Friday afternoon. But before we had even left town we got stuck in traffic for an hour due to a wreck right before the tunnel. We didn't let it spoil our fun though. And the fun included a snowball! If you haven't tried one of these famous snowballs then you are missing out! Don't confuse them with a snow cone because it just isn't the same! I got the wedding cake snowball...so yummy!

Finally we made it to the expo! Of course being a blogger means you have to take pictures...of everything! My friends are used to all my pictures...and LOVE to photobomb me during them lol! Makes for some very fun pics though!

Yeah...they got caught! Lol!

Race packet pick up was super easy like always. When I got my bib the race volunteer said, "Wow you're fast! Go Mindy!" Yes...that literally made my day!

After picking up our shirts we then got a quick picture of us with our bibs. We were all in different corrals so it made for a colorful picture!

We did a little bit of shopping around the expo. There were several vendors there!

And then we ran into Mike...the coolest race director out there! We came up to his booth and he said, "Mindy! Just the person I need to talk to!" He is organizing a new race called the Battleship 12K and I am super super excited about it! I can't wait to tell y'all all about it! Susanne took a few pics of Mike and I discussing business!

After the expo we headed up to the pool. Paige works for Fat Tuesday and needed to check on the hotel's daiquiri machine before we headed out. Of course we had to take a picture by the pool!

Then it was time to eat! We headed to Mellow Mushroom for my pre-race tradition...pepperoni and mushroom pizza! So yummy!

We arrived at the hotel, set out all our race things for the next day, and then crawled into bed.

After a horrible night of TRYING to sleep, the alarm finally sounded. We got ready to go! I just LOVED our shirts for this race! The "S2S" stands for Sole2Soul Sisters (our running group).

We drove to City Park where the finish line was. Thanks to being a CCC blogger we got VIP parking! :-) We had a short walk to the buses that dropped us off at the Superdome where the start line was. Upon exiting the bus we ran into some storm troopers! So much fun! These guys were running for charity! SO awesome!

We headed to Champions Square and took a few pictures. There were runners everywhere! It was so crowded!

I was supposed to meet the other Crescent City Classic bloggers at the start line for a group picture but I couldn't get through. They were only letting the seeded runners go in. So I was sad about missing that picture. :-( But I did run into Heather!

And Joe!

The time passed quickly and it was time to head to our corrals. I said goodbye and good luck to my friends and headed to corral D. I was excited about starting with runners that would be running my pace. I didn't want a repeat of last week and my shoe coming off again!

The weather wasn't great. It was misting rain the entire time we were in the corral and for most of the race and after. It was also windy so I was freezing in my corral. It seemed to take forever for the race to start. Luckily Mike (the race director from the expo) was the start line announcer and kept us entertained. He also gave me a shout out TWICE as my corral was easing up to the start line to start...thanks so much Mike!

You can see how the wind was blowing the start line banner!

And then...off my corral went! I didn't have any goals for this race. I just wanted to run for fun. And I wanted to run the way I felt.

The beginning of the race was so much better than last week's race! Everyone was running about the same pace so there was no weaving in and out of runners trying to pass each other. It was great! The only thing I worried about were the wet streets. The misty rain made the streets slick in spots. And if you've ever run in New Orleans you know that there are potholes all over the streets so combining that with the slickness was concerning. Luckily I had steady feet the entire race and didn't fall.

Despite hardly any sleep I felt great! I was running strong and the miles were flying by! Before I knew it I had made it to mile 3! I was halfway done!

Around mile 4 I started getting a side stitch. I knew at this point that I was close to a PR. Even though I hadn't planned on one I was going for it! The stitch made me realize I was pushing myself but I wasn't going to slow down. I knew I could run through it and that's what I did.

We entered City Park and I knew I only had a little over mile to go. The finish line is almost identical to Rock 'n' Roll New Orleans. I had to go around the art museum and then I knew the finish line was not far.

I kicked into a sprint as soon as I saw it! (Not sure what the thumbs up was for...lol!)

I looked down at my Garmin...I had done it! A one minute PR!!! My official time was 51:30!!!

A nice guy took a finisher picture of me with my phone...I only wished he'd gotten one of me actually looking at him instead of me looking at the professional photographer. Oh well!

I headed to the VIP tent in the after party area to meet the other bloggers. When I got there no one was there yet! I knew Joe should be there though because he was a seeded runner for the race and super fast. I grabbed a chocolate milk and then Joe was behind me! I went and sat at a table with him while we waited for the other bloggers to trickle in. Joe finished the race in 43 minutes! So awesome!

I got to see Heather and her husband again as well as Nicole, Gina, and Jen. Not long after Paige texted me and they were done and ready to leave.

I said my goodbyes and headed out of the VIP area...as Larisa and George were coming in! I hated I couldn't stay and hang out more. But at least I got to see them some! And of course...I missed another picture! :-(

I met my friends and told them all about my PR! They are so awesome and were so excited for me! I have the best running friends ever! They are always so excited for me and my accomplishments and I'm so thankful for friends like that!

Later that night I checked the official results. I found out my official time AND that I finished in the Top 500 females! I was the 370th female to finish! I am pretty proud of that!

Crescent City Classic, like always, was an amazing race! It was full of so much fun and energy! There weren't as many spectators this year as there were in the past but I know that's due to the rain. They still had plenty of "beer stops" in addition to the water stops lol!

I'm already looking forward to running this race again next year!

QOTD: Have you ever run in New Orleans?