Streak much? and the Holiday Hustle 5K

Silly stuff first: on the relay team my family created for the Yark Subaru Glass City Marathon (the Willford Wonders) we will be running with the following names: Lightning Lisa, Zippy Zachary, Speedy Sydney, and All Star Alan!  I’m visioning team shirts right now 🙂

The buzz on my Mom’s Running Facebook group was loud.  A Running Streak challenge was going down!  It was the very simple premise supported by Runner’s World where you run at least a mile a day between Thanksgiving and New Years.  Simple!  I signed myself up, because I love a good challenge (use my many failed attempts at qualifying for Boston to support this fact).

Day 1 of the challenge was no problem –  Thanksgiving Turkey Trot day.  Day 2 started with “oh crap, why did I sign up for that”.  Not because I’m unmotivated, but more so because I’m too easily motivated to go for a run!  And yes, that can be bad.  It was supposed to be my rest day, but on Day 2 I had to do it.  3.1 more miles run.

Day 3 and 4 came and several miles were run – a 5K race and a morning run.  It was actually quite fun because I actually went outdoors (gasp!!) in the cold weather.  Normally I’d just be a treadmill hermit in my warm cozy house watching my DVR, but no, I braved the elements.  Yeah me!!

As a super quick recap of the Holiday Hustle race, Alan and I paired up with the kids and I ran with Zachary.  My son was the “slower” runner last year, but this year he’s been just a little behind Sydney (our fast kid) so this was interesting.  We were all decked out for this night race in our lights and holiday wear.

Our pace for the first mile was our slowest at 8:29… and he TALKED most of the time!  He insisted we have a conversation during the race to “keep his mind off the running”.  He talked in depth about Minecraft.  When video games are the topic, my son sure can talk!! My part of the conversation consisted of “uh huh” and “oh” and “yep”.  I mean seriously, who chats it up during a 5K race?  The next mile was 8:24.  Somewhere around 2.5 miles he passed Sydney who had to talk a walk due to a pain, and around 2.85 miles I told him to just go for it.  This was all him.  And he sprinted away from me towards the finish line.  Mile 3 was 8:14 and his time was 25:41 – a new PR!!  he was a darn happy kid!  He also informed us that he wanted to have a training plan next summer and run.  Now that makes me happy!!

Sidenote:  Sydney ended up finishing after him at 26:14, but still got 1st in her age group even though she “wasn’t racing”.  What luck!!!   The awards are ornaments.  The boys age group was highly competitive and Zachary only got 22nd in his age group, which was the same age group as Sydney (10-14)!!

On Day 5, I put on the breaks.  No more running streak. Stop the insanity.  My body tells me that it doesn’t like running more than 4 days in a row.  I need my full days of rest.  Sure I could have got out there for a little one miler, but honestly, I don’t get all geared up to run and only run one mile.  It’s going to be 3 miles or more!  I was just setting myself up for injury and I was losing sight of my 2016 goal – to run more than 1,813.2 miles this year (last year’s total).  It may seem opposite, but running more days is not the way for me to reach my goal.

So there you have it – my short streak!  4 whole days!  Not really worthy of another slice of pumpkin pie, but too bad.  The holidays are a wonderful time of slacking off and enjoying yourself, so get to it!

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How about you?….

Q: Have you ever done a running streak?  How long did it last?

Q: Have you ever had the great fortune of placing 1st in your age group when you weren’t trying??  

Uh, not lately.  Wait, not ever.

Q: Are you on track to set any mileage records this year?