I’m incredibly excited to be able to announce that I’ve started selling prints! It’s taken a long time to get to this point, but I’m so thrilled to finally have made the jump to put my work out there for purchase. If you’ve got any open spaces on your walls, take a look! And feel free to send me an email if you see something on my portfolio that’s not on the print site. I don’t have everything up there because it’s a lot of pictures!
I’m also going to be joining some other artists at Tate Studio next month! I’ll have prints available in store there, so if you’re local to Dallas, please go in and check them out in person. It feels surreal to know my work will be hanging in a store, and with so much beautiful work from so many other artists too.
Finally, my mother and I will be doing a joint pop up at the Swiss Avenue Mother’s Day event showing both of our art on May 11-12, 2019. She does the most beautiful paintings and I’m unbelievably proud of how hard she’s worked to follow her passions and make her own dreams come true. We’d love to see you there!
I recently came across an article about how people who “buy time” are happier than people who buy things. Buying time means that people pay to have other people do things for them that they don’t derive any pleasure from, like mowing the lawn and changing the oil in the car. When you buy time like that, you free yourself up to do other things with your life that do make you happy, whether it’s just spending time with your family or pursuing your hobbies.
I’ve been fed up lugging my 6D around when I wanted a camera with me just in case. 95% of the time, my 35mm lens was attached, so I didn’t need a DSLR with an interchangeable lens. I wanted something smaller that I could take with me all the time. Something that could reasonably be carried in every situation. Something like the Fujifilm X100F
Bad races happen. You set your goal too high, or you’re just not as fit as you thought you were, or there were things that were out of your control that caused you to do badly.
I’ve been lucky. I’ve had nothing but successful races, due in large part to only having started running in 2014. Beginner gains are fantastic. But they will run out. As you get faster, the PRs start getting smaller and harder to come by. Up until now, I’d had races where I didn’t PR, but I always had I reason. I was injured or I was pacing someone else, or I had signed up for the race but decided to use it as a training run instead.
That was not the case Saturday morning.
Mellew Productions is a terrible race company.
I’m not going to pull punches on this one. I’m mad about the way the race was put on and that I didn’t get the 5km race that was advertised. I signed up for the Hypnotic Donut Dash back in October when I was tapering for the DRC Half. I was scared I was going to have a horrible half marathon and wanted a couple of 5ks to look forward to if that happened. Those races were the fantastic Speedway Candy Cane Classic from Cowtown and Mellew’s Hypnotic Donut Dash.
The Speedway Classic was challenging and the weather was horrible, but it was still a great race. I will sign up for that race again this year with no hesitation. Everything about it was well done. I had specific parking and stadium entrance instructions the day before, the charity aspect was better implemented (and probably received more money from the race), and more importantly, the course was actually 5km.
The 2017 Hypnotic Donut Dash 5K was somewhere between 2.96 and 3.0 miles, according to the Strava Flybys and the other finishers I talked to at the finish line. For $30, I expect a for-profit company make the race the actual distance advertised. The DRC gets all of their courses USATF certified, and they’re a non-profit that’s entirely volunteer-run. Cowtown did the same, at least for the Candy Cane Classic. But a for-profit company whose only purpose is to put on races can’t even get the distance right?
On top of the course being short, it had entirely too many sharp turns. I managed to wing a better course that was actually 5km on my cool down than the organizers of the race did. Mellew Productions also managed to not send race day information to a huge number of participants, as evidenced by the number of cars in the caravan I was part of as we were trying to figure out which entrance we were actually allowed to use to get into Fair Park.
When I asked the race directors to send me the race information on the morning of the race, they said they couldn’t and directed me to the website, which contained no parking or entrance information. I told them that, and they told me that I wouldn’t be able to miss the signs and to follow the cars. Funny, I didn’t see any signs, and I followed the cars to different gates for fifteen minutes before we got to the right one.
Aside from a bad race experience, I raced badly.
On top of Mellew’s terrible race production, I raced badly myself. I went out too fast, knew I was toast after a mile and a half. My 21:26 for 2.98 miles still doesn’t work out to a sub-22, despite cool temperatures, clear skies and relatively okay wind.
I would probably be less upset about the course if I had been on track to break 22 based on this finishing time. I may or may not be fit enough to do it right now, but it wasn’t going to happen that day. That compounded how mad I was about the course being short.
So I fumed during my cool down. And I fumed while I was putting my shirt and Bislett pants on by bag check. I paused the fuming while the little girls were getting their age group trophies because they were absolutely adorable. I resumed my fuming on the way home, where I wrote up a race report for the Advanced Running subreddit.
As people started commenting, I stopped fuming. We started looking to how my performance improve between today and the DRC 5K next weekend. I got ideas. As I got to *identifying the problem*, I started running out of fumes. I started thinking about how I can use the next week to maximize the chance of me breaking 22 minutes on Saturday. I stopped being mad about this crappy race was and started getting excited about this week’s chances.
So that’s the key for me. I get to fume and mope for a little bit, but after that, what makes me get over a bad race is attacking the race and finding out what happened. And it really helps to talk to people about it and get their ideas on my race. I’m so glad I can always get feedback from such a great, knowledgeable group of people.
Looking ahead
So this week, I’m going start using visualization during my training runs. I’m going to make sure to throw a few strides in near the end of the week. My fellow meese led me to realize I needed to work on my mental game and really focus on pacing. My last few 5Ks have been solidly positive splits, and that’s got to change. I’m also thinking about not using my heart rate monitor. As much as I love the data, I have to admit that it does impede my breathing just slightly, and that’s not worth the data.
My legs were pretty wrecked after that race weekend – in addition to racing, I tacked on some near-LT pace miles at the end of my 10 mile long run. It’s Thursday morning and I’m just now shaking the legular fatigue. I’m going to throw some strides in this afternoon’s run and do a quick shakeout tomorrow and then it’s race day again.
After April’s HM, I decided to take the Pfitzinger plunge for the 2016 Dallas Running Club Half Marathon. Uncle Pete, as he’s fondly known to his disciples, has such a good reputation with my usual running folks, and I figured I could probably handle it. So I spent all of April dawdling around and making bad training decisions (like trying to run six miles a day every day for a month) and injuring myself. I got shin splints and my calves got so tight that my Achilles started hurting. When I finally recovered from that (after a painful month on the treadmill) I started base building from 23 miles up to 42.
After a successful buildup, I started in on the 12/47 plan. I ended up running a couple of extra miles every week and peaked at 50 miles. I hit all of my workouts and didn’t skip a run until the last night before the race when I stayed too late at a friend’s house playing with the HTC Vive and ran out of time to do a shakeout.
Pre-race
I got up at 4:30 for my 7:30 race to let my lungs wake up. I ran for about 15 minutes at a painfully easy pace, then came in and ate a Picky Bar and showered. For the first time ever, Ben was able to make it to a goal race for me, and we left the house at 6:30. I was a little short on time when we got to the race and only did a mile to warm up, but threw a couple of strides in there at least. I got out of my warmups and checked my bag and used a secret hidden portapotty that didn’t have a line and then lined up at about 7:20 with the 1:45 pacers. I asked if they were planning on doing even splits and they said they were. The anthem played, the eagles cried, and the gun went off.
Race strategy
A short word about strategy: I had planned on leaving with the 1:45 guys no matter what. If I was feeling spectacular at 8 miles (no niggles, HR still low), I’d head off on my own and shoot for 1:40. If I felt good at 10 miles, I would head out on my own then and shoot for 1:43. If I felt crappy, I’d go out at 11 and die trying to finish as fast as possible.
Miles [1] to [8] (7:42, 7:41, 7:47, 8:02, 7:55, 7:50, 8:05, 8:01)
So when the pacer said he was planning on running even splits, he lied. Even splits for a 1:45 finish are 8:00 on the nose, and 7:55 to take tangents into account, maybe. Their plan was really to bank time in the flat sections and ease off a little in the hills, of which there were way more than I remembered. None were really awful, but I was glad I had to run up a big hill every morning to get home from my runs or else I’d really have been screwed. After the first hill, my HR shot into the low-to-mid 170s and stayed there for most of the race. It was slightly alarming at first, but I ended up settling in somewhere in the second mile and getting used to the exertion level.
One of our two pacers was really chatty and funny. He’d sing songs and banter with the spectators or the people running by that weren’t racing. He told us when the hills were coming and generally distracted us from the race. If there’s one thing you can say about the DRC, it’s that their pace groups are awesome. They’re everything you want a pacer to be, and nothing more. They’ll usually get you in right underneath the goal time and help people that are struggling.
After three miles, we got out of the houses and got some breeze, which cooled us down. I think there was a water stop every mile and a half. I skipped the first one, got water at the second one and choked, got a stitch that resolved by the third one where I dumped the cup on my head. I got water again at the fourth one and Gatorade that was way too strong at the fifth one.
There was a great crowd at a turn near the sixth mile. I remember that same crowd from the first time I ran this race in 2014 and just like that race, I nearly teared up thinking that these people got up early on a Sunday just to be loud and excited for the people that were causing roads to be shut down by their houses. The crowd support at this race is pretty low on the whole, but the people that do show up are truly awesome.
Miles [9] to [11.5] (9 – 8:07, 10 – 7:50)
So we had a solid hill at mile 8 that sort of stuck with me for the rest of the race. My quads were a little busted and my legs felt a little dead. I definitely wasn’t leaving the pacers yet. Mile 9 was the slowest in the whole race. I think everyone was slowing and trying to find their second wind while battling the real wind coming off of the lake. It was in the low-ish 60s and overcast the whole race. Not as cool as I’d hoped, but not as warm as it had been all week. During this part of the race, we were on the lake battling other people who weren’t racing (or paying much attention to their surroundings) so that didn’t help either. There were a couple of water stations. One of them had Rick Astley playing, complete with lyrics and signs at the end of the area that said “U Just Got Rick Rolled!”
At the second water stop, the pacers slowed down to get drinks and I just kind of kept going. We had met up with a woman that the pacer knew and that had started right in front of us, but was just running it for fun. They had been talking for about a mile, and when I started leaving them behind, she yelled to the pacers, “Hey, she’s leaving you in the dust!” The talkative pacer said “yeah, she ought to be, she’s been hanging with us for 12 miles!”
Miles [11.5] to [13.1] (11 – 7:50, 12 – 7:50, 13 – 6:59, 13.1 – 1:42/6:43)
Well that woman ran up to me and asked what my goal was and I said “1:43, but I think that ship has sailed.” She immediately picked up the pace and told me she’d get me there. So we picked up to just barely under a 7:00 pace and she started just coaching me through the last little bit. She emphasized breathing deeply and just kept picking targets for us to reel in. With about a half mile to go, my left hamstring started getting tight, in addition to my legs feeling leaden already. If I had been on my own, I probably would have eased off, but my new pacer told me to just keep focusing on my breathing and on continuing to pass people. With 100 ft to go, I saw my mom and Ben, which was pretty great. We crossed the line in 1:43:08, hands firmly in the moose position, and my head promptly exploded.
Post-race
I met up with my mom and my husband, and tried to catch my breath. I thanked my impromptu pacer and my official pacers. For some reason, my right ear had gotten like they do in airplanes and I couldn’t get it to pop for the life of me. We did pictures and I got a Sonic breakfast burrito and donut holes and red velvet cupcake but as soon as I smelled the sweetness, I felt sick, so Ben got the sweet stuff. One of my friends running the race came in in 1:51, and informed us that they had computers where you could check your results, so we went over there to see my official time and learned that all of the fast 25-29 year old women in Dallas had decided to run NYC or were saving their legs for the Dallas Marathon next month, because I had won my age group. My mom and Ben had to leave before the awards ceremony (which, as usual, started half an hour late) but my friend stayed and took a picture for me.
What’s next/Random Thoughts
IDK, man. I never really expected to go under 1:40, but I did think 1:43 was achievable, and that’s still a 14 minute PR over April. It’s a 31 minute PR over 2014 when I ran this race the first time. My half PR was 2:14 coming into 2016, and I was just coming back from a stress fracture. It’s November, and I’ve run 1300 miles this year, cut all of my PRs down by a significant margin, and more than anything was able to train consistently because I avoided major injury by not being stupid.
I have a couple of fun 5ks coming up in December and January. I’ll probably go for PRs and AG wins (maybe overall female win for the January one, based off of last year’s results…) I’d like to do a short cycle of 5k work to hone in on some speed gains to complement my endurance gains from the HM plan before starting another half plan for the spring. No goal race decided for that. I’m up for suggestions for whether I should either run the 12/47 again, add some mileage and run it again, or try to step up to the next plan for the spring.
Finally, as much as I complain about people, I felt really good about humans on the whole after the race. Those people didn’t need to come out and cheer for us, but they did. The pacers are volunteers, and yet, instead of PRing, they decided to get up and pace us to a finish. And the woman that paced me at the end was a straight up angel. She had done a 30 mile bike ride the day before (triathletes, am I right?) and instead of just letting me go off on my own and perhaps blow up, she pushed the pace when she probably didn’t particularly feel like it and helped me achieve my goal. Seriously.
Pictures
Before the race
After the race, and a big thank you to my mother’s phone for making me look like an alien.
One of my coworkers recently showed me a picture of the most beautiful meatball sub I had ever seen in my life. Luckily, it can be found at the Cold Beer Co. in Dallas, Texas. Feast your eyes.
Naturally, Ben and I went there for dinner as soon as possible.
I’ve been wanting to take a crack at a new logo for the Dallas Running Club, or at least something a little more modern for a club singlet. I finally sat down and sketched something out in my notebook, then moved it over to Fifty-Three on my iPad, and then finally created it in Illustrator. I’m very happy with it. The bridge took a few tries to get the wiring done in a way that I liked, but everything else came together pretty quickly.
A: Sub-23 time
B: Win my age group
C: PR (under 25:14)
Training
I didn’t do any 5K specific training. I’m still just base-building for a fall half plan, but since I’ve had injury issues, I was running inside on the treadmill and had stripped out the little speedwork there is in the plan. In June, I did weeks of 22, 25, 28, and 30 miles. This week so far, I’d done 13 miles, all outside. I took Friday off of running to try to rest a little.
Strategy
This was the first race where I can honestly say that I was planning on going out as fast as possible and just holding on, which is the generally prescribed strategy for 5Ks. Specifically, since I was aiming for a sub-23 time, I wanted to do even splits at a 7:20 pace. 7:24 would be a perfect 23:00 time, so I wanted to try to build in a small buffer just in case something went wonky.
I’ve been to Bowlounge three times in the last month. I’m no good at bowling, but while I’ve been working on my game, I also took some pictures of the place. The vibe is just so cool, and there’s a wall of beer taps. I got to try out the new Rahr Kristallweizen while I was there for a work event, and it’s the first place I’ve been able to find that beer around Dallas, so they’re definitely on top of their local beer game. I definitely recommend finding time for a game or two if you’ve got some free time in DFW.
