Race Report: WFYRC Beach Series- Race 2 (Clearwater Beach, Florida)

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I did the second beach race in the WFYRC series on Friday night, I improved my time over the previous race by a bit....not much, but any improvement is good! I started off running with one of my good friends from the gym, then I passed her a little bit and I was feeling really good about my pace. Suddenly I realized that my craptastic headphones that I had carefully threaded through my shirt, out my collar and into the one ear that I use during races had fallen out and were rapidly winding around my legs as a ran. My friend caught up with me, helped me extricate myself from my headphones and off she went. I never did catch up with her, and she ended up finishing about 2 minutes ahead of me as I struggled with my headphone cord and never did get it arranged right. We had a tropical storm off the coast, so while the wind was delightfully at our backs on the way out, it was a struggle coming back with the wind. (In fact, on Sunday the lifeguard shacks we ran past at the races came off their foundations and were adrift in the storm surge!)I was dragging a little on the way back, and for some reason I thought if I encouraged the runners just starting the race on the opposite side of the beach that I would gain a second wind. I saw a group in matching t-shirts that indicated they were in a weight loss challenge, they were clearly struggling. I ran up to one of them, yelled "way to go!" and went in for a high five. I startled him, and he veered into me so my high five was more of an elbow to the ribs. I turned to apologize, and noted that he was doing sign language...so yeah, I totally nailed a deaf runner in the ribs. Go me! :( I don't have any pictures of this race, because my son (the official photog of my running support team) was gone at a yearbook seminar. We're leaving for vacation on Friday, so I'll miss the 3rd race in the series, but we'll be back in time for the final beach race the first week of August.

Race report: WFYRC Beach Series- Race 1 (Clearwater Beach, Pier 60)

I signed up for a summer beach race series, there are 4 races but I'll be on vacation for the July race so I'll do two in June and one in August. They all begin and end at beautiful Pier 60 on Clearwater Beach during the sunset festival that is held there each night. The races are run just inches from the water, at times you have to step quickly to the side if you'd like to avoid soaking your pricey running shoes in saltwater from the tide coming in. A friend who is a marathoner told me that beach races are harder and slower, and it surely was. It was a beautiful location, but not even half way in I got a wicked stitch in my side and nothing that I tried would clear it. So, I just focussed on finishing (and not falling in the sand castle moats that sprinkled the shoreline, THAT'S very important in this race series!) and didn't worry too much about my time. My finish time was 36:57, over 3:45 longer than my personal best. I have the second race in the series this coming Friday, I'm hoping to improve my time a bit and perhaps avoid that darn side stitch this time. The picture above is me after the race, you can see the pier where the start and finish line was under ("under the boardwalk...down by the sea..") right behind me, as well as my husband popping his head into the picture to say "it's raining, can we GO now?" :) I achieved my first "lifetime" monthly weigh in at Weight Watchers on June 2nd- you have to weigh in once a month within 2 pounds (up or down) of your goal weight to remain a lifetime (free) member. The receptionist noted that I don't have to weigh in again until sometime before July 31st, and something clicked in a bad place in my brain. I guess I got a little cocky because I decided I could "take a few days off" of WW to enjoy my anniversary and get through the last week of school. Bad move- when I went to my doctor's appointment 11 days later for a checkup, I was up over 10 pounds! (However, that was weighing in heavier clothes, with shoes on AND after eating lunch...but that surely can't account for ALL 10 of those pounds!) I've been hitting the gym hard since then and eating well and now I'm back to within 5-6 pounds of where I need to be before July 31st so things are looking up. I just have to keep reminding myself that there is NO "free week" allowed in maintaining a 100+ pound weight loss. To paraphrase the quote about the price of liberty, the price of maintaining long term weight loss is eternal (nutritional and exercise) vigilance.