Well I think it’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog
post, sorry I’ve been a little preoccupied. My latest project at work took a lot out of
me, but the end result was well worth it.
There has been a lot of anticipation for the inaugural Lone Star Half
Marathon and the numbers continued to increase up until the start of the race. I’m happy to say we had around 1100 runners
register for this first year event and 885 runners that actually showed up to race on
Saturday morning. Myself along with our
Split Second and iRun crew had a long weekend, setting up in Luckenbach, with
lots of details to put in place for packet pickup, water stops, vendor and
sponsor set up, iRun Expo, pooper locations, food, ice, etc., etc., etc. We met some amazing people in Luckenbach that
took care of us and really live and breathe what Luckenbach Texas is all
about. I have to send a shout out to my
new friends in Luckenbach, Terry, Virgil, Abbey, Hayden, and everyone else that
helped us this past weekend and let us take over the town.
Race morning for our crew began at 4:00am, finish line set
up, tents, packet pick up and more. Again good old Javi was up and rolling
before everyone else. Amazing
volunteers showed up to help early in the morning, which was awesome. It’s a wonderful thing to have people take
time out of their day to volunteer and help support the runners. Most races we wait and pray that our
volunteers show up, this is probably the most stressful part of my week. Will
we have volunteers??? Thankfully we have
amazing Team members, staff, family and friends of iRun and of course Team in
Training that came out and took care of everything. Sponsors and vendors began setting up by 7:00am
and everything else started falling into place.
Last minute registration and packet pickup makes for a few long lines,
but everyone was ready to go by 8:00am.
A few quick announcements and national anthem was sung by the lovely
Carol Healey, and the runners took off on a gorgeous morning. Weather couldn’t have been any better, which
is rare, as I tend to bring crumby weather to our races.
The first 5K finisher comes strolling in around 8:20am, and
the rest follow. Although we had a 5hour
time limit on this course, everyone finished by 12:00pm. We knew this was going to be a challenging
course, but hopefully everyone enjoyed the quiet Hill Country roads and
scenery. I’m sure the cows enjoyed
seeing some action for once. At 1hr and 19 minutes the first half marathoner came cruising by the finish line. Great time for this course. If you
didn’t stick around for the awards and after party you really missed out. Luckenbach is the epitome of what Texas is
all about. First and foremost there was
Lone Star Beer, the National Beer of Texas along with a few Lone Star beer
models. There was a true Texas Longhorn, Texas BBQ, Hill Country wine from Messina Hof , a local general store,
and then there was music from Dale Watson.
True Texas Country music and favorite in Luckenbach it was an honor to
have Dale and his band join us bright and early in the morning. Runners finished their race and hopefully had
a chance to recover with post race massages from our amazing Dr. Patrick Doyle
from Hill Country Spine and Sport. Thank
god for Dr. Doyle, what a lifesaver!! I
don’t want to forget about our race sponsors that provided the wonderful nutrition
and hydration on the course, along with the fabulous running apparel from
Asics, Superfeet, Nuun, Huma Chia Energy Gels, and Fuelbelt. Our runners were extremely lucky to have this
product on the course.
At the end of the day, only a few minor hiccups but overall
a very successful race. We enjoyed a
cold Lone Star before we all said goodbye and road off into the sunset. Another race down and three more to go. Next big race is the Texas Too Hot and
believe you me, it is TOO HOT!
I’ve
been hanging onto my Mizuno Rider's, just waiting for the right time to test them
out. So I gave myself time this week to
set aside for a little Mizuno action. You
know sometimes you need to feel inspired to keep you going, and I am no
exception. It just so happened after watching Mizuno’s
campaign video “What if Everybody Ran”, immediately I had to throw on my shoes
and head out the door. When I’m feeling
a little overwhelmed or bummed I like to watch a good movie. I
think I’ve seen Spirit of the Marathon, Without Limits and Rudy at least 10
times each. Actually I watch Rudy at
least twice a year and that’s been twice a year since it came out on VHS back in the
early 90’s. If you have to ask or Google what a
VHS is, your too young to be reading this.
Also, if you haven’t seen the Mizuno ad, take the next 2 minutes to
preview it at, http://www.mizunousa.com/running,
hopefully it puts a smile on your face.
So, the very, very first pair of running shoes I was fitted
for and bought at a running store was a pair of Mizuno Creations. As soon as I tried them on and walked out the
door I could not wait to get home and go for a run. They made me so happy, I wore them into the
ground. I think that’s what ended up
motivating me to run my first half marathon.
Anyways, this week I tried something new with the Wave Rider
17’s. I was a little nervous taking them
out for a run since the first thing I noticed was a crease on top of the foot
that was a bit annoying. Thankfully this
went away the more I walked around and broke it in. It certainly felt like it had a tone of space
in the toe box, seamless upper, so no irritating overlays and stitching to
worry about. I think it actually felt a
little too roomy in the toe box, at least for my foot. That might be why I felt the crease at the
top, but for someone needing that extra room the Wave Rider is
something to consider. The overall ride
in this shoe has seemed a bit flat and clunky, you won’t get that same toe-off
action you do in something like the Wave Creation, but that’s not good or bad,
it’s just not my preference. The weight
of the shoe is light, I think it’s around 7.8oz for a women’s shoe, along with
a nice cushy ride. Overall, the Rider
gets a B minus in my grade book. I think
it’s a great shoe, just not for my feet.
I’ll give it another go around, I could be completely wrong about my
initial clinical reaction. Besides, I'm still feeling inspired and Mizuno's are what got me to the start line in the first place. Maybe, it's time I start planning to train for another marathon.
iRunning Mama
