2019 Irish Road Rover 5K

Coming into the finish of the Irish Road Rover 5K

As I mentioned in the last blog post, I signed up for a 5K in Portland just to get some sort of fast race in. Plus, I was having race withdrawal. I knew it wouldn't be a very good time. I honestly didn't expect to break 20 minutes. And guess what? I didn't! 20:01. Haha. BUT, and there's a huge "but" because I was not disappointed. This was actually one of the most challenging 5K courses that I've run in awhile. I had looked at the elevation profile and saw it had one hill so I didn't think much of it.

From Strava. Doesn't look bad.

I was REALLY glad that I decided to run the whole course for my warm up because it ended up being a lot harder than that profile suggests. It actually felt more like the Strava App's version of the elevation profile. Haha.

That one is a little overly dramatic, but it gives you a more detailed look. The first mile was pretty quick except for a section over one of the cobblestone roads in Old Port. Those are not smooth so it was a bit slow going through there. Shortly after that, you hit the hill. It's gradual at first for about .4 miles and then continues on a steep climb for another .2 miles. It's crests the hill and maybe goes .1 before dropping down a short steep hill, only to climb right back up the other side. You get a slight break and gentle decline to the turnaround, but then you go back up to the top of the big hill where you hit mile 2. The downhill is great, but at the bottom you start your half mile gradual climb to the finish. So this course was no joke. I at least knew the course beforehand which helped me run a smart race.

I was able to park right in front of the start and Brian Boru (race HQ), which was very convenient. So convenient that the best Maine race photographer (Don Penta) from Maine Running Photos sat at the back of my car for the start line shots. Haha. This was literally taken from the back of my car. And John slept through all of it. Haha.

By Don Penta

The weather was absolutely perfect. Upper 30s. Sunny. Very little wind. I lined up much farther back than I usually do at the start since I wasn't expecting to do very well. A fast-looking high school girl lined up next to me. I was thinking she should move up since she'd probably do well. I watched as two Dirigo women lined up near the front. I knew they would most likely be 1 & 2 (and they were!). There were quite a few fast-looking women who lined up near the front, even some who were obviously over 40 so I figured I didn't stand a chance at placing. So I stayed where I was. We had a 10 minute start delay waiting for police to give the go-ahead. I was glad it wasn't that cold or I would have been frozen.

The start is on a slight downhill so my plan was not to go out too fast. I was somewhat glad I started as far back as I did since it didn't allow me to jump off the line at full speed. Although, too many people had lined up way closer to the front than they should have so I had to weave around them. I was surprised to find myself catching and passing most of the woman. I don't think we had even gone a quarter mile before I found myself in 4th for the women. I didn't expect to hold this with the upcoming hill, but I actually felt pretty good and even started gaining on the 3rd woman. I passed her in the middle of the steep part of the hill. Mile 1 in 6:16. Mile 2 ended up being much slower, but it made sense with the course. I felt like I was moving pretty well, but my feel is still SO off. But I managed to quickly make a good lead on the other women behind me by the time we hit the turnaround. The two Dirigo women were way ahead by this point. I actually had a feeling I was going to be able to hold third since no one was really that close by the halfway point. Mile 2 in 6:33. Wicked slow. And I wasn't actually looking at my watch at all. Everything felt faster than it was, but I never felt like I went out too fast, and I felt like I had a really strong finish. Knowing prize money was at stake I really pushed for the final half mile. The gradual uphill wasn't too bad. When the finish clock came in view, I saw that I was going to be really close to breaking 20 minutes, but it wasn't to happen. I had 20:00 even on my watch. The official results were 20:01. My slowest 5K since early 2011. But like I said, I felt like I ran a really good race. My effort was all there. My body is failing me so I had to let the time go. Finishing 3rd was something to be happy about! I beat the 4th woman by almost 30 seconds and the next masters woman was over 2 minutes back. Knowing I ran the best I could was also something to be happy about. I wasn't disappointed at all. I needed the speed work and the mental work. It was a good day.

I didn't cool down at all. I just changed clothes then walked back over to Brian Boru where the race HQ was. I was going to buy a beer, but they had nothing worth spending money on. I grabbed some snacks and brought them back to John then waited for awards which didn't take too long to start. The top 3 men were called up first and they got mugs and prize money. Then he called up the top 3 women. We got mugs and no prize money. I was like wtf? He continued the age group awards then all of a sudden, he called us back up. Phew! Haha. I wasn't expecting much for 3rd place so I was surprised to find $75 in the envelope. Wow! That made my day. I'm already halfway to last year's prize money! Hahaha! (That's a dig on how little money I won in 2018. :) ).

Attempted to get a pic of the cobblestone section as we drove to the Eastern Prom

The 1st woman and me. 

Cool mug

I have to say that I really enjoyed this race. It was well-organized, and I liked the course, despite its difficulty. I might add it to my regular list since I'm no longer snowshoe racing and the 4th Season Trail Race Series is now dead. It would definitely make a nice addition to my regular racing schedule.

After the awards, I walked down to the Holy Donut to get coffee and donuts for John and me, then drove to the Eastern Prom to take a walk. I couldn't get over how nice of a day it was. We walked in the direction of the water treatment plant so I could show John the cool graffiti near the end of the path. We just did a short 1.6 mile out-and-back.

She's only been walking on snow for months that she preferred it over the pavement. Haha.

After the walk, we went to Bunker Brewing where I had one stout and then took some cans to go before driving home.

The Irish Road Rover was a nice way to finish off what was mostly a very dull week. Not going on our trip to Texas was disappointing. I was only able to pick back up a 10 hour shift on Tuesday and 12 hour shift on Wednesday so that I didn't waste all 40 hours of my earned time. I still had to let 18 hours go. It was nice being home every night, though, especially with John recovering from his surgery. He couldn't do much, so we only took a few very short walks during the week. It got pretty boring for both of us. Luckily, Bryan took him to the movies on Wednesday while I was at work so that was a nice surprise and good for John.

I had ZERO motivation to do anything all week. I didn't want to run at all, but I forced myself to do it every day except Wednesday. I had no desire to get on the treadmill a 4th day in a row, especially only for 3 miles, so I did a 30 minute sprint interval workout on the bike instead. That ended up being so much more enjoyable and probably more beneficial, as well. Every run felt like a chore, but I still manged 50.8 miles. My difficulty running longer distances is getting worse so my long run was totally awful. My head wasn't in it, and I made a bad choice of routes to go along with it. Very little elevation gain this week with 2 treadmill runs and a flat long run. Not even sure how I got 1,234ft of elevation gain in at all. Haha. Just a very blah week so I was thankful I had a good race on Sunday to perk me up.

Running for the Week

Monday, 2/25- 9 miles. Conditions outside were pretty bad, and I didn't really want to leave John and drive somewhere else for a run yet so treadmill it was. Even though I had already done that 8x400 workout the day before, I decided to a 5x1-mile today. I needed some sort of workout to get through another treadmill run. And I'm only able to run fast-ish on the treadmill these days, anyway. Ran a 2-mile warm up, then got into the workout. Not super fast miles, but I still felt like I was getting something out of it. 6:40, 6:37, 6:32, 6:28, 6:24. Cooled down enough to make the whole run 9 miles even. 1:05:36 for total time. 7:17 total avg pace. I was really pleased with this because I had shoveled snow for over 3 hours prior to. I was exhausted.

Tuesday, 2/26- 5 miles. I worked a 10 hour shift today, so that meant I could wait to run when I got home. I don't normally work Tuesdays but it was one of my only option for picking up hours. With John on break that meant I had to leave him home alone. It was such a nice day that I would have actually run outside after work, but since I wanted to get home to John, I went straight home and did another treadmill run. Just ran an easy progression run. Nothing special tonight.

Wednesday, 2/27- Zero. 30 minutes on the spin bike instead for sprint intervals by CycleOps.

John got on the bike after I did, but not for 30 minutes. Haha.

Thursday, 2/28- 18 miles. I had not an inkling of a desire to do my long run today. I was supposed to be doing my long run in Texas this week, and now I was stuck with only one option since I didn't want to drive anywhere. I'd already be gone long enough, and I was getting tired of leaving John alone since I had on Tuesday. So my only real option with a runnable roads was West Side Rd. What a miserable run that is anyway. So flat and boring. Prolonged flat running hurts more than anything. And with so much snow leftover from the previous storm, the shoulders were mostly non-existent due to ice and snow. What was left was barely room for me to be over the white line. It's a slow speed road in general, though, so I thought it would be ok. I think the one thing that got me out was that it was a beautiful, sunny, warmish day. Any wind is always blocked. So it was good to get out. The part that sucked the most was actually from my house to West Side Rd. 2.5 miles of ice, snow and freezing puddles. The sidewalks were a total mess. My feet were soaked and freezing by the time I got to West Side. I almost turned around, but it got better so I kept going. I got stopped around mile 5 by road work, but it was only 2-3 minutes.

I moved on and got to a section where the shoulder was completely snow-covered. I was on a straightaway so I ran in the road for this. (I will run on the snow/ice if cars are coming and the road is curving or if there is traffic coming the other way at the same time.) A car came into view ahead of me. It was hugging the white line. I expected him to move away from it since no cars were coming in the other direction, but instead, he pointed his car right me and moved over the white line. I've had people almost hit me, but never like this. This was the first time it appeared intentional. I jumped off onto the snowy/icy shoulder and he still kept coming. Never leaving the white line. For the first time EVER on a run, I called the police. I didn't think it was a mistake at all. I really think he was trying to scare me and forced me to jump off the road. Or maybe he would have hit me. I don't know, but it honestly appeared to be on purpose. I only got a partial license plate and description and I never followed up to see if they stopped him or not, but I hope so.

At this point, I had 13 miles to go. I should have turned around. I wasn't into it at all for the rest of the run. And the more I ran, the more I shuffled. The hamstrings got more sore and the tendons hurt. I couldn't move. I turned around at Cathedral Ledge Rd and wanted to put my thumb out for a ride, but I didn't. I finished it up. The last 2.5 miles (same as the first) weren't quite as bad on the way back since some of the shoulder on 16/113 had melted. I couldn't wait for this to end. I was so happy when I got back to my driveway. Another shitty long run. 18 miles. 2:22:16. 7:54 avg pace. 399ft of elevation gain. Apparently I now run just as fast on flat as I do on runs with over 1000ft of elevation gain. Ugh.

My legs post run.

I know. You're probably asking why the hell am I doing this if it hurts so much and I can barely run. Well, the only reason is that I want to be ready for Boston. Not the speed I'd hoped for, but the distance. I need to get back in shape for the distance. I know if my deep tissue massage does nothing for my hamstrings and tendons, then Boston will be a wash. But if for some reason, it works wonders, I want to have the distance training set so that I can work on some speed. It's too late for that really, but one can hope.

Friday, 3/1- 6.1 miles. Today's run was an easy one on the Corridor 19A/19 snowmobile trail from home. .4 miles on pavement before joining the snowmobile trail. Just an out and back. Another gorgeous day. The snow was extremely soft so it was slow going, snowmobile traffic was heavy, but I really enjoyed the slow pace of today's run. 56:01. 9:10 avg pace. Mostly flat.

Saturday, 3/2- 6.1 miles. These miles were broken up into 2 runs. I had to go to the dump in the morning so I decided to try out something I've been meaning to for months. Snowshoe running in my old Redfeather Vapor running shoes with the Thunderbolt bindings. My one and only ever sponsor was Redfeather back in 2013. I was actually featured in their ads in a few magazines like Trailrunner. They gave me the Redfeather Vapors and installed my shoes onto the snowshoes with their direct mount binding (not after market; an actual official binding made by Redfeather). I wore these snowshoes for the 2013 and 2014 season. I actually really liked them but I bought into the whole Dion Snowshoe thing. And don't get me wrong; I liked the Dion's, but I was never a fan of the tail since it would hold snow and kick it up on you. Also, my Redfeather's never once had snowballs stick in the cleats like the Dion's. Plus I hate the bindings on the Dion's. Their design is the reason I got hypothermic at Nationals. Impossible to get off quickly especially covered in ice and snow. As for the Redfeather's, they're slightly heavier and wider. The wider part was an issue at times, but it wasn't too bad. The pointed tail of the Redfeathers, I loved, since it decreased the weight in the back. That's where I was having the most issues with snowshoeing and my tendons. Too much weight to pull up from the back since the Dion's were like a table for it in the soft snow.

Since I was already out and nearby, I decided to give the Redfeather's a 3-mile test run. Nothing more since I didn't want to overdo anything. Wouldn't you know it? Way better than the Dion's. I still have tendon pain but nothing more than what I have normally. I ran out and back on Corridor 19 from behind Walmart. The snow was still super soft, but it's so much easier to run on it in snowshoes than microspikes. Not any faster, but easier. Haha. Ran the 3 miles in 30:07. 9:53 pace. Only minimal hills.

So I might actually do some short snowshoe runs now. Nothing crazy, but I feel ok with it. I do know that if I ever snowshoe race again (doubtful), it won't be in Dion's. I'll either stick with my Redfeather's or go for the Northern Lite Race Wave. I had a chance to examine a pair of these at World's in 2017, and wow. Amazing. As a disclaimer, I'm not putting down Dion Snowshoes in general, and I'm not trying to deter anyone from buying a pair. They're great shoes, but I'm specifically talking about their use by me. They don't work with my current injury so they aren't right for me. They're great for other people, and I wore them for years. Bob Dion even gave me two pairs for free. I did love them, but if I do want to snowshoe run again, they no longer work for me with this injury.

I really don't think I'll spend money on snowshoes, though. I'm pretty much sold on this AT skiing over the winter now. I'd rather spend my money on skis if I have any money to spare...which I don't. Haha. But if I did...

Anyway, I ran 3.1 miles through my neighborhood when I got home. Just up and back 3 times from my house. Other than down by my driveway, the road was pretty clear. 25:17. 8:08 avg pace. 233ft of elevation gain, more than the snowshoe run. Haha.

Sunday, 3/3- 6.4 miles. 3.1 mile warm up. .2 miles just to stay loosened up. 3.1 miles for the race. Screw the cool down. :)

Walks/Skiing

Monday, 2/25- Over 3 hours of snow shoveling. One of the most exhausting yet. At one point I just had to sit down in the driveway for about 5 minutes. I'm not physically capable of lifting the snow any higher. I did luck out that by the last hour, the snow started to get sticky so I was able to make snow "walls" for the last 30 yards. I was destroyed from this so I don't know how I did that 9 miles on the treadmill after.

Just before heading out to dinner for John's birthday, I took the dogs for a walk down the driveway and discovered that whoever plowed out the community well area off my driveway, went past the well and 10 yards (approx 30 ft. I loosely measured) down my driveway destroying my snow walls and then dumped it back into the driveway. I was in shock and wanted to cry. I didn't have time to shovel it again before dinner and I ended up getting my car stuck in it briefly as we tried to leave. Like, seriously, wtf. After dinner, I went back out and shoveled it again. Turned out not to be as bad as I thought and only took about 20 minutes. I tried to give the guy the benefit of the doubt since it's possible he was trying to help by widening my now very narrow driveway, but if that's the case why did he stop after 30 ft? If he was trying to help, he would have gone down the whole straightaway. I don't know. I was going to complain to the well company, but since I didn't know the intentions for sure and it only took 20 minutes to fix, I let it go.

Thursday, 2/28- After my run, I took John and the dogs on a short walk down the tracks off Hemlock Ln. The same walk we would do all week except the walk in Portland on Sunday. Only a mile, but I was moving slowly from my long run. After the walk, we went to Frontside just to do something other than have John hanging out at home.

Racing to the Moon Uphill Ski Race- The faux last race of the Series. The one positive to not going to Texas was that I could make the last race. Well, it turns out that it won't be the last after all. Haha. I was pretty beat, as expected, after running 18 miles, so I didn't plan on going all out tonight.

Photo I took while it was still a bit light out 

Andrew had decided to use the east side of Shawnee for tonight's race which meant a lot of darkness. When he told me the first downhill wasn't groomed, but ice with a "dusty" layer, I was once again in panic mode. Haha. Not as bad as the week before, but I think that was because I didn't really grasp what he meant. Tonight also had 3 transitions which bummed me out, too. I much prefer only the one.

It was nice to see my friend, Maine Jeff Walker (as opposed to my friend Rhode Island Jeff Walker) show up for tonight's race. Jeff has been steering clear of these races because he's not a fan downhill, much like myself, but both Andrew and Rick finally talked him into coming out using the "even Leslie's doing it" push. I'm not sure whether to be offended or not. Hahaha. 😄 I would end up with Jeff for most of the race until he got a good jump on me out of the last transition.

By the time we lined up my hands were in frozen agony so I was warming them under my jacket on my stomach. Once you get going, they warm right up, but I was dying on the start line. Speaking of the start line, I got on it, the everyone moved back leaving me in the front by myself like an idiot. It was funny, and Rick actually got a shot of it. You can see my hands under my jacket.

Look at that huge ass! Come at me bro and you'll bounce off that thing. Haha.

Once we got started, I actually went pretty hard on the first climb since most of it was in the light, and I knew I would struggle with the rest in the dark. I had my knuckle lights again, but even with lights, I struggle to see. I had zero expectations for today's race. I ended up passing Rick and staying not far from Jeff on the way up. Just as we turned onto the darkness, a groomer came by. Andrew was racing with us, but stopped to ask the groomer if he would make a pass down and up the scary icy slope we were about to go down. My relief when I got to the first transition to see that the groomer had done it!

The transition was on a hill so I struggled to clip in tonight taking 4 minutes. I started down and caught up with Jeff who was as apprehensive as I was. It was hard to see where the groomed tracks ended so I kept skiing off of it at first and oh my god, nothing but ice. Eek. Once I figured out the width of the groomed part, I was able to stay in it, but I didn't rush it. I ended up basically in sync with Jeff the whole way down. I was so happy to be done with that and headed back up. Still struggled to clip in again and took 3.5 minutes on this transition. Jeff had gotten a jump on me but came out of his ski so I caught up to him for the climb to the 3rd transition. I was so happy to be back in the slope lights again. But I still struggled to clip in here, taking 3:15 to transition. I really didn't care tonight, though. Liz wasn't there tonight so I had no competition. Skied down to the finish from there. Forgot to stop my watch, but tonight took over 48 minutes. 2.5 miles and 1,379ft of elevation gain.

Other people loved that course, but it really wasn't my cup of tea. I liked how he made it a loop with two different climbs, but it was just too dark for my comfort level. Our official last race tomorrow will once again be on the dark east side slopes. I'm not super excited about it, but I still wouldn't miss it. I like being taken out of my comfort zone as long as I don't hurt myself.

Post race was good. I won another chocolate baguette and a shot glass with chocolates in it in the raffle. Enjoyed catching up with Jeff and chatting with Rick and this other guy who joined us.

Funny story. I was starving by this point so I decided to eat my entire baguette on the way home. They're tough to bite into, and I noticed that every time I did, I could feel drool dripping down my chin. I was like what the fuck and kept wiping it off. After awhile, I actually said out loud to myself, "What the hell?! Why am I drooling?!" I don't normally drool, but I assumed I was just unskilled at eating a baguette. When I got home, I stopped at the mailbox to get the mail and flipped the light on. And oh my god, the first thing I noticed was that my hands were covered in blood! I looked in the mirror and saw blood literally pouring from my lip. My face and teeth were covered. It was all over my clothes, the steering wheel, and the seat. I just busted out laughing. What if I had been pulled over?! Haha. So anyway, the crusty part of the baguette had cut my lip, and I guess I didn't feel it. So it wasn't drool; it was blood! I know, gross, right? But fucking funny. The crazy part is that it took over half an hour to get it to stop. Pressure didn't work at all. I ended up having to put two layers of liquid bandage on it to get it to stop.

Friday, 3/1- John and I took the dogs on the same walk but longer. This time 2 miles to Pudding Pond and back. I wish we had more to do, but there's really nothing to do here other than walk if you have a busted shoulder.

Came across snowshoe tracks. Not sure why they were wearing snowshoes since they were totally unnecessary today. See my footprint next to the snowshoes.

Rodent running across the pond. Haha.

John petting Chill

Throwing snow for Phoenix. Yes, even with his bum shoulder.

Saturday, 3/2- Took a very short walk in the Bolles Preserve. Started to posthole so we turned around. Walked a bit up the Hammond Trail which was more packed down but still not super fun so we only walked a mile total.

John did this to freak people out. Haha.

Workouts- This week was so messed up with the circumstances and my schedule and lack of motivation. I still got in my 3 LIIFT4 workouts, though. 1 day of glutes. The only reason I didn't do the Bulletproof Leg Circuit this week was because of the race. I didn't want sore legs.

Random Stuff

The oozing snowball is still hanging in there!

John wrapped her up. She's loving it. I can tell. :)

Snuck this one in since he thought I was taking photo of Phoenix. Haha.

She thought I was about to leave without her.

 My favorite tweet during the Cohen testimony:

Found this in the ambulance at work on Tuesday. Like I always say, any candy found in the truck is finders keepers. I ate the whole thing while I was there.

I know I covered John's 13th birthday in the last post, but it was actually during this week, so here's one more pic from dinner. :)

Not a terribly exciting week. I wasn't looking forward to working in Tamworth on Tuesday, but it turned out not to be that bad. We had two 911s and transports for our truck. My main partner was the same one who let the stretcher flip the last time we worked together. He can seriously barely move, and Mike, who is why too nice, jumped in to take his place on our second call. Got back from that one and got out of work on time. Wednesday, I worked half of my regular shift (since I asked for it back), but we had no calls at all. Like I said in the last post, we watched the Cohen testimony for a long time. (Oh, and I realized that may be confusing when I said we had no internet so we watched TV instead. For some reason our cable tv never got shut off for the unpaid bill, just the internet. Tamworth's TV and internet got cut off. Not sure how that happened.)

Really not much else to talk about since I covered most of it two days ago. Haha. BUT I did add 2 races to my calendaf. The 1st, forJuly 20th. My first 12 hour race! The new and improved Bucks For Bernie here in town has been changed to a mile trail loop at Whitaker Woods and the cost significantly reduced. They're hoping to have more interest with this new format, and it's already working since they already got me to commit. Haha. Thankfully, it's in the day time, too. I'd trip like crazy over all of those roots at night. This will just be for fun and the experience of doing my first timed race, and I'm so excited for it to be on my home turf.

The 2nd race is an ultra team at Reach the Beach. After all of these years of wanting to do it as an ultra team, I finally found people wanting to do it and who were already committing to it. They invited me! Yay! White Mountain Milers women, Terry Ballou, Kim Proulx, Suz Laughlin, Michelle Henley and me. We're just shy one person, but we have time to fill that. Should be fun. Adding these has made me narrow down the 50 mile race to just two to choose between, but I'll wait until the summer to figure that out.

Coming up! Another race-free week...except the actual last ski race at Shawnee Peak. A 5K next weekend and then Eastern States 20. I'm counting down the days to my deep tissue massage with Tina. Really crossing my fingers she can get me back running for real again or else I'm in trouble for ES20 and Boston.

Oops. I feel a rant coming on before I close this out and only because I came across yet another woman's blog with questions at the end intending to draw followers. I'm getting so sick of the "inspirational" blogs out there that I'm considering promoting my blog as the anti-inspiration. Not really. I don't have the need to promote this boring crap. Like I said, I write it for myself and whoever might find it and reads it, great. But I just needed to create this hashtag: #gofuckyourselfandyourproductsyougetforfreebecausepeoplearedumbenoughtofollowyouroverlydramaticselfpromotingblog. Haha. Sorry couldn't resist. I'm just SO sick of women's blogs lately. They've turned into nothing but self promotion, product pushing, false pictures of reality. Beating issues like a dead horse to draw followers. Ending with questions to draw people in as if they care about their answers. It's really just about building the ego with the "I want to be an inspiration," front. I get it, though, I really do. You write (as I do) to share your thoughts with people and to get out the words you want to say, but I feel like we've crossed a line into the ridiculous. The innocence is lost, ladies. Take a good look at yourself and ask if you're still doing this for the same reasons as when you started. If you're promoting products that you seek out to get for free and offering your inexperienced coaching advice for most of your blog posts, then I think you're missing the big picture of why you started your blog in the first place. Go back to your roots. Step back from the Instagram persona. Then see what you miss. I bet you it will be the attention and the free shit, not the inspiration you claim to be selflessly giving. Instead, just share yourself, your raw story, without the drama. Promote products you truly believe in, not ones you got for free in exchange for promotion. Just be real!

Funny. I just wrote that to basically no one but myself. Most of my readers are men, and I'm not going to advertise this. Haha. So anyway, on to another week!