Venture outside your comfort zone: the rewards are worth it! KSellers88’s Journal (Comments Welcome)

It's about dang time...

All that summer running finally paid off for something, a 10K PR! It was still hot and humid, so I don't think this is even my best time, but I'm very happy with the results. The run was our local Labor Day 10k that starts at a Nissan dealership and runs to our running store. It was a point to point race and I absolutely love those kinds of races! They are more difficult to coordinate because you have to wake up super early to get on a shuttle to the start, but that is okay!

This was my first time running this race since we are normally at the beach for Labor Day. Our trip was shifted back a few weeks this year so it worked out that I could run this race, which was also the final race in our Summer Series (two 5ks, a 5 miler and 10k). I did a short warm up before the race just to get my legs working. It started out with a pretty significant hill and then was smaller rolling hills until the end. I ran the first mile too fast (shocker) and then settled into a steady pace for the rest of the run. T&D throughout the run started at 140 and ended around 145, with 90+% humidity as is normal for Georgia.

Managed to finish in 49:17, a PR of 1:40! Also managed to snag 2nd in my age group and won a car! LOL :rotfl:

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Woohoo for a new car 🤣

Congrats on the PR!!!!

See the source image


LOL! Thanks!!
 
Byeeeee September!

September was a whirlwind of a month with a week at the beach and a super busy time at work. I was still able to keep up my streak of 33 months straight 100+ miles with 111 miles. Unfortunately that week long vacation meant Barkley didn't get nearly as many miles as normal, but with the weather cooling down we will make up for it in the next few months!

I am officially in training for the Kiawah Island half marathon, so I'll do my best to stay consistent with updates on here. Training is going well so far, no missed runs! I am incorporating some more strength training with my running this time so I am excited to see if that has any impact at all. My mom and I leave on 10/31 for Disney and return on 11/8. I am excited to run the Wine and Dine races again and hope to see some of you there!!

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This poor training journal...

It has been so neglected. I promise I am running, but between work, building a house and everything else, updating this journal has not been happening. Training for Kiawah Island has been going really well, even though I have not registered yet. I am averaging between 35-40 miles per week pretty consistently, and my husband has even taken a slight interest in running! Right now we are just doing run/walk, so if you follow me on Strava and see some weird paces, that is why. I am trying not to push too hard and scare him away. LOL.

I managed to win 2nd in my age group in our local Summer Series (2 5Ks, 1 10K and a 5 miler) and I decided to sign up for the Winter Series (6 5Ks) because I love bling and it was cheaper to just sign up for the series and you get a special medal for doing all the races. These are the medals from the Summer Series, nothing too special, but I am excited to add them to the collection.


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The first race in the Winter Series was this past Saturday at our Big Dog Howl 5K. I was already supposed to run 6 miles at a 9:34 pace that day, so I ran 3 miles slower with my husband and then raced the 5K. That probably doesn't even out the way coach would prefer, but I couldn't seem to control myself from racing. I managed to snag 1st in my age group and got 22 seconds from a PR on a humid night so I was happy with the results!!

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I am also super proud of my furry running buddy because he has ran 16 miles with me over the last two days. Sunday we ran 9 miles at an 8:58 average pace and yesterday we ran 7 miles at an average pace of 10:02. I was worried at first about him making it through all these miles, but I think he could have kept on running and been just fine!

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My mom and I leave Thursday for Disney World and will be there through the 8th. We are headed to the Halloween party on Thursday and I hope to make it to the expo before we head to the Magic Kingdom. I am just running the Challenge, so I can technically go on Friday if we don't make it in time Thursday (depends on traffic). We are staying at POP so if anyone sees me there or anywhere else, please say hi. I am super introverted and shy, but plan to try my best to make it to the meet up on Saturday or become brave and say hello to people if I see any of you in the corrals!
 
Congrats on the great finish at the "Big Dog Howl!" But the real "dog" story here... Barkley... is killing it on the runs! Way to go pup!

Hope you're have the BEST time at WDW!! :)
 
Catching up as usual...

Same story, different post. LOL. Working full time, building a house and training is just getting in the way of me updating this journal, but I am still putting in the miles. My next post will be a mini trip report for Wine and Dine weekend and our trip, but we had such a good time!

October was a whirlwind month, but I managed to continue the 100+ mile per month streak (I think this was month 34?). Barkley also had one of his higher mileage months thanks to some longer runs. He is really loving these runs and is so fast! I wish I could pin my bib to him and have him get some PRs for me. :rotfl:

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Wine and Dine Recap: Part 1

Ok, I made a promise and I'm going to stick to it. LOL. I am going to break my Wine and Dine Race Recap and Disney trip into two posts because I have way too many pictures to fit in one. My mom and I were at Disney from 10/31-11/8 staying at Pop Century. Pop is not my favorite, I'd personally prefer BLT for every trip but my hopes and dreams and our pocketbooks don't always align. However, this trip the Skyliner was open and even though I was terrified of getting stuck, it was amazing!


We drove down on Halloween (six hour drive) and got there in time to unload and change before heading to the Halloween party. I love the Halloween party so much because the Headless Horsemen and grave diggers are so cool and Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. This year was must easier to maneuver because my mom was not in a wheelchair for her broken foot, so we got a lot of rides done, a ton of candy and enjoyed the parade and fireworks.

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Friday morning we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for a bit to ride some rides and see the main man before heading to the expo. I had to pick up my shorts for the 10K at the expo, but I was super bummed because all the pins were already sold out and I hadn't pre-ordered them. I was able to snag the spirit jersey because I love those so much. After the expo, we headed to Disney Springs so my mom could shop and ate at Earl of Sandwich.

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Saturday morning my alarm went off bright and early at 2:45 because I am always ridiculously early and worried about being late. I was outside waiting on a bus at 3:10 and they already had one bus loaded and waiting to leave. I am not really sure why, but for some reason they held that bus there until 3:20 and finally let it leave before loading the other three buses that were waiting. :confused3 Luckily we got to the start area with no issues and I went to hang out by the crowd waiting for corrals to open. I always enjoy people watching and this spot is a great place to do it.

Corrals opened at 4:15 and I went straight to corral A to ask the volunteers what time they planned to close the corral. They told me around 4:45 so I spent that time stretching, pacing back and forth and making sure all that water I drank was out of my system. LOL. Of course that wouldn't help, because as soon as they started moving the corral (around 4:50) I had to pee again. This always happens to me in Disney races where I am in agony listening to the announcers waiting on the start and praying for a porta potty. Sorry if that is TMI, but it was part of my trip.:rotfl: Based on my Garmin data, I crossed the start line at 5:31 AM.

I have a horrible memory, but I know I skipped Mary Poppins both days and I am pretty sure she was first. I stopped for Chip and Dale, Chef Daisy, Thumper, Marie, Lightning McQueen and Mater, Jiminy Cricket and my favorite stop of the day, Pluto. I just love him and he reminds me of Barkley. I was lucky and got some pretty good pictures throughout Epcot, my finish line pic is me looking down as usual because I am terrified of falling.

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I was supposed to run this race at around a 9:18 pace, but as you can see on mile 2 I finally located a porta-potty and stopped for Chef Daisy and Chip and Dale and so that was a much slower mile. I also (as usual) ran too fast because I get caught up in the race environment and forget to look at my watch like a good runner.

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I was unsure about the medal for the 10k, but I actually ended up loving it. I really like Olaf and I am glad they did something different than having the Frozen sisters on the medal.

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Up next: Wine and Dine half and the rest of our trip!
 
Wine and Dine Recap: Part 2

Saturday after the 10K we headed to my favorite park, Animal Kingdom! After a few rides and lunch at one of my favorite places (FlameTree BBQ), we headed to Epcot for our dinner reservation at Via Napoli. I am a creature of habit and always eat pizza the night before a longer run or race, so I didn't want to break that tradition. After dinner, it was back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before another early morning. We got to ride the skyliner back to Pop for the first time and absolutely loved it, although I was afraid I may be stuck up there until the half started the next morning.
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One good thing about the timing of this race weekend is it fell when we would gain an hour of sleep, but the bad thing is when my alarm went off at 2:10 on Sunday morning I had no idea what time it really was. My solution was to Google "current time in Orlando, FL" where I found out I really was supposed to be awake already. I got up, ate my bagel and banana, got dresses and headed for the bus stop. I was on the second bus this morning and had no delays in getting to the start line. I headed back to my usual spot to wait by the corral entrance and was very thankful I had a long sleeve throwaway (I'm from Alabama and it was cold to me, LOL).

I basically followed the same timeline as the 10K. Corrals opened at 4:15ish, I went and asked the corral A handlers what time they planned to close it, then spent the rest of the time stretching, using the porta-potty and pacing back and forth like a crazy person. Unfortunately since service absolutely stunk, I missed the DIS meetup because corral A was already lined up at the start line by the time I got @jennamfeo's text. Sad day. Based on my Garmin, I crossed the start line at 5:32 AM.

Based on my pictures, it appears I stopped for Lotso, Timon, Kevin, Everest, Pandora, Dino Chip and Dale, Pluto, Donald, Daisy, Beast, Dopey and Cars. That is probably not the right order, but my memories of running before the sun came up are pretty blurred.


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I did do one thing I have never done before, which is throw my hands up for a finish line photo and I am very happy with how it turned out. I might just be weird, but I feel so strange holding my hands up in the air for a really long period of time which I know you have to do to get a good shot.

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I was supposed to run this race at a 9:18 pace, but again I am a horrible athlete and ran faster than I was supposed to. #facepalm Mile 3 was the Lotso stop and the only line I really encountered for any of the character stops. I'm guessing there was another few stops for mile 5, but I have no idea what they were. I did not have to stop for the bathroom during this race, which was a win!

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After finishing, I headed back to the room and we rode the Skyliner over to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon. The rest of our trip was a whirlwind with visits to all the parks, amazing dinner reservations, and pretty good weather overall. I'm not sure when we will be heading back to Disney, so it was nice to be able to ride everything we wanted, eat everywhere we wanted and cover a lot of ground in the 8 days we were there. Getting some nice bling to add to my collection was the icing on the cake!


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