Bastille Day 5k - 2009

Thursday July 9, 2009
7:30 PM
1st Overall Female
18:51

Well this year I was definitely a lot more excited for this race. Injuries behind me for months now and steadily dropping 5k times had me ready to see what I could do on this super fast, super flat course. My main goal was to get myself back under 19 minutes again and I thought I had a good chance today. This race is a company sponsored race so I would be with all my running co-workers and they always make me happy and ready to go! Extra bonus this year was that Andy was coming as well and would be filming the race for me and everyone on the team.

So the day of the race comes and the weather is beautiful, unlike last year's massive rain, thunder and lightening. I warmed up with no feelings of anxiety or stress. I looked around a bit and saw just a few women who might pull me under 19 minutes. I chatted a bit with a few friends, did my strides, got a kiss from Andy and lined up.

The start:
As usual everyone went out FAST and I pushed a little bit harder than was comfortable but nothing crazy. One girl was out like a bolt and was soon out of sight. She was looking like she was going to run under 18 with the way she went out. I concentrated on getting around the first few turns and running strong, there was one other woman in the same area as me that I could see. I felt in a groove almost right away which was a really good sign.

Mile 1 - 5:59.9
Great! By this time I've dropped the woman that was near me at the beginning but I still cannot see the lead woman. I focus on getting to that next mile mark in as close to 6 minutes as I can. Gotta keep things going!

Mile 2 - 6:03.5
Yes! I'm working hard but breaking 19 minutes is looking like a reality for today but who is that I see? It's the lead woman! This is going to get interesting because I believe she is coming back to me...but will I have enough time? She still is way up there. I hate coming home after a race with regrets so I pile on some more pain and go after her. I see Andy about a quarter mile before the 3 mile mark and she has maybe 10 seconds now. A few more turns and I make my move past her. She fights and gains, I pass again and this time she let's me go. I'm in serious serious pain at this point and that 3 mile mark seems soooo far away. I briefly worry that I made my move too soon but I'm committed and I can't back down.

Mile 3 - who knows?!
I'm almost there! I just keep pushing and pushing, praying for that last turn that will take me to that finish line. I'm aware that my form is crap but I just can't get it together so I just keep grinding way. 5K's just hurt!

The finish - 18:51 (6:48.61 for last 1.1 miles)
No. Regrets. :-)

Once I recover, and I seriously thought I was going to lose my lunch, I shake hands with the 2nd place woman and go to see the rest of my co-workers finish. I find Andy filming at the last turn and help cheer everyone on. Most everyone had a great race out there! Congrats to all my co-workers (Brian Gaines, Kelly Roe, Kim Heitzman, David Chin, Jim Wood, Paul Clement, April Nowakowski) and a huge kiss to my husband Andy!

Results for top 5 women. Just look at the age of these women! No wonder I'm so tired, it's tough work fighting with 20 yr olds!

	First Name	Last Name				Age		Time	Pace
	Janeth	Salazar-Ohst				42		18:51	6:05
	Heidi	Sarna				27		19:07	6:10
	Kelly	Shuma				24		19:09	6:11
	Kara	Ciccarelli				27		19:51	6:24
	Amanda	Shike				23		19:58	6:27

NFA Runs Bastille Day 5k - 2009 from RunnerGirlJaneth on Vimeo.

Until the next race..

Peace,
Runner Girl

A great big thanks!

A great big thanks to everyone who went out to view our entry in Nike's Believe in the Run contest, voted for us and helped us spread the word.

The contest allowed photo and video entries with awards given to each category. Our video finished in the top spot for all video entries and was 4th overall. It is now up to a panel of Nike judges to decide who will win in the video and photo categories. The score depended on votes, viewings, reviews left, and how "viral" the entry was. We were able to score points with viewing and votes coming from Europe, Asia and Africa, along with all the votes from the United States.

It was exciting to watch the video climb up the ranks but I'm glad its finally over so I can stop being so nervous :-)

A very special thanks to the following people:
My husband for helping me with footage, especially the sunset runs, and his never ending efforts to spread the word among his "non" running friends. The JustImagine site showed almost 5 thousand hits after they put up a link to our video.

My daughter for her ideas and willingness to be in my video project

AND drum roll here....
to Wendy, with great appreciation and admiration, for putting the bug in my ear about the contest and giving all her talents into putting the footage, photos, and voice over elements together in a way that truly represented the message I wanted to deliver combined with her own love of THE RUN. It wasn't just my story!

Have a great day everyone and I will let everyone know when the final results come out

I Believe in the Run - We are Back On!

My friend Wendy and I put together a great clip for Nike's Believe in the Run contest. We ran into a problem when we realized that the original song used violated copyright laws so we had to scramble to replace the soundtrack. Unfortunately we have to start all over from 0 votes.

Please help us by clicking below, watching the clip and voting for us. Tell everyone you know and have them do the same! You can vote daily. I recently found out that leaving a review helps our score as well...so if you have time...leave a review :-)

My special thanks to Wendy for helping me tell why I Believe In the Run

Please hurry the contest ends April 28th!

Thanks!

Janeth & Wendy

BELIEVE IN THE RUN Sponsored by Visit NIKE USA

Boston Bound

It's hard to believe that its been a year since I had the honor of running Boston! I'm not going this year but I want to wish all my friends who are going.

Katie Owens (bib number 14158) ~ making her return appearance to Boston after running a PR 3:34:58 last year. Always humble Katie isn't making any claims of a great race ahead...WHATEVER...she will do fabulous as usual.

Val Trax Hattabaugh(bib number 18614) - is making her first appearance at Boston using her one and only marathon time from the 2007 Chicago Heat-athon - 3:47:57. A Boston qualifier the first time out! I immediately worked on convincing this "one marathon and I'm done" girl to go to Boston. Obviously she wasn't sold on it fast enough to run in 2008 but was able to enter the 2009 race. I'm excited to see how she does and I'm so glad she decided to run a marathon one more time.

John Garcia (bib number 8563) - the running news guy, see his blog http://runningnewsguy.abc7chicago.com/ is headed to Boston this year as well. Training has gone well and he's on a high after welcoming his fourth daughter into this world just recently.

Dick Pond Racing Team - Fast feet to all the members of my racing team that will be running Boston this year. Represent our team and sponsor with pride!

Remember all runners can be tracked during the race. Go to www.baa.org on race day. Click on the links that will only be visible on race day and by using their bib number you will be able to see every 5k split.

It's going to be hard to concentrate on work that day :-)

Run smart! Run fast! Enjoy!!

It's been a while!

Happy 2009!

I can't believe I have not posted anything since Jenny's first pro competition in August. I got a little wrapped up in facebook and I've had a number of nagging injuries that kept me from really racing much.

I'm currently coming back from a really painful case of runner's knee and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm going to finally be able to move forward after several attempts. Next week I get my new orthotics. It's costing me a bundle but I've really put it off for way too long. My original orthotics were stolen along with my shoes in a health club over 4 years ago and I've been limping (literally) on store bought inserts since. I'm up to 3 miles now every other day with my temporary orthotics. It feels good to run again but I still worry about every little tightness thinking that things are going to break down again AND I feel like a fat out of shape slob. I've not been able to run for some 8 weeks now.

My friends have accomplished many things over the last half of 2008 and I've neglected to post on that as well. I will see over the next week if I can put that in.

Here is to a great 2009, good friends, and great running!

RunnerGirlJaneth

Jenny Garrison's First Pro Triathlon!

My good friend and triathlete goddess Jenny Garrison competed in her first triathlon as a pro on August 24th right here in Chicago!

It was a tough day for her out there but Jenny showed us what a true athlete does on such days...you keep moving, plain and simple.

Jenny is just five months from giving birth to her second child and she is already out there competing. She kicks my butt, that's for sure.

Congrat's Jenny, I'm so proud of you!

Read all about it http://www.jennygarrison.blogspot.com/

Bastille Day 5k 2008

Thursday July 10, 2008
7:30 PM
6th Overall Female
1st AG 40 - 44
19:09

I will admit that I was not quite in the right frame of mind for the race this year. I've had a really good spring based on all my training for Boston ...but once Boston was over the bottom had kind of dropped out. I was excited about getting back into training for my fall marathon but my body just didn't want to go along for the ride. Well after a really dismal 10k race in June my good attitude followed my body out the door and I got sloppy with my training and eating and I was feeling less than comfortable around my waist! Then less than 2 weeks before this race I strained my hamstring. It was minor and I had to take a real easy week of runs of no longer than 2 miles with lot of days off, I got my eating in order focusing on nutritious food and tried to get some good sleep. The day of the race my hamstring was almost 100% but I just was feeling out of shape and under pressure considering I had done well at this race last year.

The good thing about this race is that it was a company sponsored race so I would be with all my running co-workers and I love that energy!

So the day of the race comes and the skies start looking very ominous and the rain starts coming down hard. Great. I was already working hard to be up for this race and racing in a thunderstorm isn't one of my favorite things to do. I try to keep my mind on my work and I'm either hoping it storms like crazy and they have to cancel the race and I can just go home or it better just clear up already! Well it did clear up and everyone got dressed and started the walk to the race less than a mile from the office. Andy wasn't with us as my parents were sick and could not watch the kids, I was kind of bummed about that as well.

We got about half way there and I started my warm up. I planned on really doing a good warm up, lots of drills and some stretching so that my hamstring would be ready to go. As I started running I felt like crap. What is wrong with me? I basically had to give myself a pep talk to knock off the bad attitude. Warm up, race as well and as smart as I can, and for heaven's sake just enjoy being with everyone. The air is a little thick but there is a good breeze and the temps are dropping a bit.

As I warm up and do my drills I see the competition. Oh boy! It was going to be fierce. There were some really fast ladies warming up. That's fine I tell myself, people to chase, and to be truthful knowing that winning wasn't going to be realistic took a load off my shoulders and I started to feel better and my body relaxed and got into a better groove. Weird, eh?

I look around for any of my co-workers to wish them luck but I only run into a few of them and I had to get to the starting line. I chatted with a few people up front but then it was time to fly.

The start:
Everyone went out like bats out of hell!! I felt like I was standing still. It was crazy but I held my pace. I wanted to avoid going out too hard and going into oxygen debt and I wanted to protect my hamstring a bit. So many women around me, looked like I was going to have a lot of company. The lead women were already way ahead and out of sight.

Mile 1 - 6:08.7
Not too bad and worlds better than the opening mile of my 10K a month ago...still it would have been better to be under 6 minutes. I now start hunting. I have no idea at this point what place I'm in (10th) but I know its time to really focus and get as many places and I can. Between mile 1 and mile 2 I pass two women.

Mile 2 - 6:09.7
I don't look at my watch at this point as I keep my focus on form and the next woman to pass. I feel strong but not exceptionally fast. Looking at my splits later I'm really pleased to have come back only 1 second slower so even though I'm not in the best of racing shape I'm still plenty strong. I see the next woman and she looks fit and fast but I'm catching up to her so I pass halfway to the 3 mile mark. Things are getting uncomfortable and I don't see any other women so I just continue to try and bring my form back in line every time I notice I'm getting sloppy. Constantly reminding myself to keep the turnover going, bring the arms in, keep my chin down, control, focus, push. The 3 mile mark is coming into view and HEY, what is this? Another woman in sight!

Mile 3 - who knows?!
I dig in for a fight and attempt to take the next place right at the 3 mile mark. She responds for maybe a second but since she was wearing headphones she never heard me coming. She was a sitting duck and I got her.

The finish - 19:09 (6:52.33 for last 1.1 miles)
Once I pass headphone girl I push as hard as I can around the corner and to the finish line. At this point I still have no idea what place I finished in but I felt like I put in a good honest effort and it was faster than the 19:30 that I thought I would run.

I get a Gatorade and go back to cheer everyone in. As I wait the storm clouds return complete with thunder and lightening. I fail to spot any one of my co-workers coming in and as the downpour begins I give up and run back to the office.

People start showing up at work all drenched and I get a chance to touch base with everyone. I'm ready to go home and so is everyone else. Hopefully we will get better weather next year.

Final results show that I won my age group 40 - 44 and was sixth overall. My winning time from last year would have earned me 4th place this year so obviously the competition was much deeper this year.

I'm glad I made it to the start and it definitely was a lesson in staying positive and focused on what is important. Its not always easy but I do love running and racing!

Good job to all my co-workers, Kelly, Brian, Paul, Jim, Kim, and poor David who was really sick and should have gone home!

Live to race another day!

Peace,
Runner Girl