In the beginning...

I want to get back to the beginning of when I started running and why...and throw in a few old pictures for fun!  But real quick I just want to say I am still figuring out this whole blog thing, I am making an effort to read every pin on pinterest about it and hopefully the outcome will be wonderful ;) (insert sarcasm). But for real, I am going to give this my best effort!

It all started back in the fall of 2011, my baby was almost 3 years old and I had not completely lost all the baby weight. I still had about 10 pounds to go and felt frumpy. So one day after dinner I told my husband I was going to go for a run and that is exactly what I did. I laced up whatever pair of shoes I had and threw on some workout clothes and out the door I went.  I think I ran about 2 miles but I have no idea how far I actually went. And I felt like I was going to puke when I was done, but for some reason, I loved it and wanted to do it again the next day.  

And so it began, my love of running. I can't even tell you how many races I have ran or how many total miles it all adds up to but I can tell you I don't ever want to stop. There are so many good feelings I get from running that I don't think there is anything that can replace it.  

I have since learned that I need a supportive stability shoe and the best running clothes are made of technical material. 

And now for some fun!

Here I am with my son, Gavin after my very first Half Marathon. The Med City Half Marathon in May of 2013

This is me and my sister at the Dirty Girl Mud run back in 2012.  

And this is me at the Warrior Dash in 2013, I actually had just found out I was pregnant in this photo. I think I was about 6 weeks along at the time.

This was my first race after I had my second baby. I was only 6 weeks post-par tom at the time. I am with my friend, Kara and we ran the Unleash the She that raises money for Ovarian Cancer research.

Lastly, here is the one year after that last photo. I ran the Unleash the She again and all my baby weight was gone!

That is all for tonight, I want to do some race recaps for some of the bigger races I have ran especially Ragnar! 

Stay tuned!

Metronic Twin Cities 10-Mile race recap!

This race is run on part of the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon course. It is labeled as "One of the most beautiful urban marathons in America" according to their website. And let me tell you it sure is! I love running this race for so many reasons and a few of them are: they have an epic race expo, the spectators are the best in the world and the race is run on a super beautiful course. If I were ever to run a marathon this would be the one I would run! But that is somewhere in my far away future. For now I will stick to Half Marathons or shorter distances other than a Ragnar. 

OK on with the race recap. But first a few pics from the expo which was at the River Center in St. Paul! There were so many booths with so much great gear for all your running needs and more. It was actually hard to check them all out there were so many. I did love the signs that were up for the runners. 
 
This was on our way in!                                             This was on our way out!

After the expo we decided to eat at the Liffey which was just down the street. It was crazy busy because there was a MN Wild Hockey game starting soon. So we had a bit of a wait for food. But it sure was delicious. I had the fish with fries, it is not my normal pre-race dinner, but it was good.

 Here is my best running friend Tracy and me.  You will see her in lots of my photos because we run together a lot!

After dinner we headed to our hotel, we stayed at the Hyatt just down the street. And it was a very nice hotel. Our room had the tallest ceilings ever and it was just fancy. There was a total of 8 of us and somehow the hotel over booked their double queen bed rooms and we ended up with a king bed and a pull out couch in our room. So we had 3 of us in our room and there were 5 in the other room. I need to tell you that as soon as this race lottery opens all the hotels in the Twin Cities book up super fast. We were lucky to get these two rooms. We went to bed by 10pm because we had to get up at 4:30am to get ready.

Morning did come fast. I did sleep pretty good, but I was anxious and a little nervous.  I had my regular english muffin and banana for breakfast. We had to walk a few blocks down to another hotel to catch a shuttle bus.  The race started at the brand new US Bank stadium!
    

That place is huge! I had not been there before that morning.

Here we are all freezing our butts off. We were not allowed in the stadium because there was a Vikings game happening at noon that day.

We hit up the porta potties a few more times and headed to bag drop. Which meant we had to ditch our warm clothes. But I have to say this is one of the best bag drop experiences I have had with any race. At packet pick up we all got a clear plastic bag and a sticker with our bib number on it to attach to the bag. Then there were lots and lots of UPS trucks lined up with numbers on them and we just had to find our number range and drop the bag off and they would transport them to the finish line. 

We headed to the start line and Tracy and I were in corral B.  The race started at 7am, but we didn't start running until 7:12am.



As soon as we started running we both realized that we had to pee again. And we went to the bathroom at least 5 times that morning, I guess it was just nerves. As soon as we saw the first porta potties we stopped. And that was around 2 1/2 miles. Of course I love to take pictures during my runs so I captured these beauties within the first 5 miles of the race. 


 
I am not sure which bridge this was, but it was so pretty!

The last 5 miles I really enjoyed all the spectators and their signs and music. It is so inspiring to hear Beach Boys music blaring and strangers cheering you on. I just love the atmosphere around this race. It is just awesome! 
Unfortunately I had to use the bathroom one more time, so around mile 4 I stopped again and Tracy kept going. Which was fine with me, I would have felt bad if she waited for me but didn't have to go. After that I was good to go the rest of the race. I did eat some GU around mile 7 because I felt like I needed a boost of energy. At mile 9 they have this huge tunnel that has music blaring that you can run through. On the inside the walls say "Go" and "Run".  It is a nice little boost to get you through that last mile! 

  


Once you come around a corner and see this gigantic American Flag and the State Capitol you know you are close to the end.



And I finished at 1 hour 42 minutes. It is not my best time for a 10-mile race, but I did stop a lot and just really enjoyed this race.  

 

The bag drop was so efficient I was able to get my warm clothes within minutes of finishing! Then I headed over to find the rest of my group. We waited for everyone to finish since we all started out in different corrals and then had to take one more group picture.



We had just over a mile walk back to our hotel and then got to shower. I just love showers after a race, they are so refreshing!  After we got all cleaned up we checked out of our hotel and headed out for some brunch. We decided on IHOP.  I had never been to one before and let me tell you it was amazing!
I had an egg, ham and broccoli omelet and pancakes. I actually only ate half of all of it and saved the rest for dinner/breakfast the next day!

  

Once we were done eating we headed home. It was such a fun time I can't wait to do it again next year! The lottery opens in July!

Weekend Plans!

I am going to do a weekly update on Friday to let you know my weekend plans! This will include any long run plans or any races I plan to run. And of course I will sprinkle in any other fun activities too!
This weekend I will be running the Twin Cities 10-mile race. I ran this last year and I am looking forward to running it again this year. I will be heading to the race expo around 5pm Saturday and the race is at 7am on Sunday. I will have a race recap on Wednesday next week.

About Me!

My name is Jessica and I am a wife and mom who loves to run! I have been running since early 2012 and haven't stopped! Well, I may have slowed down during pregnancy, but never really stopped. I have been married to my husband Mike for 13 years and we have two boys. They are Gavin age 7 (almost 8) and Logan age 2. Our family is complete and we live in Minnesota. For the record, I hate the cold and snow, but we were both born & raised here so that is why I tolerate it! I am starting this blog to help give readers information about all things running! I hope you enjoy and share with your friends! 

Here we are November 2015!