Linda's Earth Day 5K Race Report

Snow pellets caught in spider web.

Submitted by Linda Iroff @LindaofNote

Boy I sure know how to pick ‘em—the days for 5Ks that is! If anything, the weather was even colder for the Oberlin Earth Day 5K on April 20 than it was for the Run for the Red the previous Saturday. In fact, two hours before the race started there was a bout of snow flurries and snow pellets!

By race time, it looked like the sun was going to come out, but the wind blew a fresh set of dark clouds overhead, making it a darned chilly run. Still, I had home-court advantage: the race started at Tappan Square, a 13 acre park in the center of town with an approximately 1 km circumference, and my favorite place for training. The course itself wound through a quiet residential neighborhood, a nice easy trip with no hills.

Click for supersize panoramic view!

Linda's Run for the Red Race Report

Submitted by Linda Iroff @LindaofNote

It was one of those cloudy, cold, dreary, damp days when you just want to stay in bed. But with a sheet full of #run3rd dedications to put in my back pocket, I was motivated to get up, get dressed, get a photo and head out for the Run for the Red 5K in support of the local Red Cross chapter.
Now when I say it was damp, I mean VERY damp. Recent downpours caused flooding near the original start location for the race, so it was moved further north along the Black River to the appropriately named Steel Mill Trail. (The race was sponsored by US Steel.)

That's not a pond, that's standing water in the woods!

The turnout was small, about 150 runners, and those who weren’t jogging to warm up waited in their cars until near to start up time. The path followed the river, crossing it twice before the turn-around and return trip. I’d recently been adding a bit of jogging to my walking, and during training was rather disappointed in how short a distance I could go before running out of breath. I found though that during the race, I seemed to be able to go a little further. I tried experimenting with how I held my body and how I breathed to try to increase my stamina. I kept my eye on the young woman a couple hundred yards ahead of me. I never did catch up to her, but I made sure she didn’t get so far ahead that I lost sight of her!

Brandie's Santa Cruz Half Marathon Report

Submitted by Brandie Garcia @BrandieCakez

Santa Cruz Half Marathon, Sunday April 7th, 2013

I’m woken up by my boyfriend Mike bright and early at 5 am and the first thing he does is kiss me and say “Happy Birthday-Eve,” roll over and cuddle him for “just FIVE MORE minutes,” like I begged of him until he pushed me out of bed and urged me to get a move on it. I hadn’t had a chance to get to packet pick up before the race, so we had to head to Santa Cruz early in order to make sure I had enough time to get my packet. Happy Birthday Eve to MEEEEE

Cheyanne's Hollywood Half Marathon race report

Submitted by Cheyanne Witte @cheygirl1

I decided to run the 5k at the Hollywood Half Marathon awhile ago. I am originally from Southern California and I go back there on occasion. Back when I decided to start running my father told me that running a 5k was on his bucket list and wanted to come out to Colorado to run one with me. I decided to pick the Hollywood Half and make a family vacation out of it. About a month before the race my dad found out that the stent he had put in after his heart attack had to be replaced. He went in to the hospital but the artery was too far closed to put one in. But the doctor told him he was doing much better than expected and gave him the okay to still run!

After spending a night in Las Vegas and a couple nights with family we checked in to our hotel. We decided to stay at the Sheraton because I wanted to be close to the Expo and they gave me a better discount than the Hilton! After checking in my oldest daughter and I decided to go check out the Expo while my husband and my other 2 girls went to the pool.  It was fun walking around looking at everything and my daughter got so excited about the race she decided to sign up right then. I was so excited that we would have 3 generations all running together! I let my daughter wear my Sean Astin signed #Run3rd hat! We decided to walk over to Universal City Walk for some food and fun!

Heather's Hollywood Half Marathon race report

Captains Cheyanne Witte, Lupe Steele,
Heather Stewart and Leah Gutierrez before race.

Submitted by Heather Stewart @captainstewie

Last Minute Races: A stRUNg out Confession

Okay, I’ll admit it. After the LA Marathon I was jubilant. I was proud. I was, let’s face it, a bit of a braggart. I ran an EFFING MARATHON people!

But, like every addict, there comes a point where you come down from the high. I needed to know where my next fix was coming from. I gave in and signed up for a half marathon this June, but that didn’t seem soon enough.

Then through the magic of Social Media, the answer came to me in the form of a post…

Read the rest of the story here!

Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin joins Vancouver Sun Run

Lord of the Rings star and avid long distance runner Sean Astin has signed up to run The Vancouver Sun Run on Sunday, and will be wearing a Boston jersey in homage to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The Goonies actor will arrive in Vancouver Friday for the Fan Expo at the Vancouver Convention Centre on the weekend.

He contacted Sun Run organizers to register when he found out about the race and its plans to commemorate the Boston terror attacks Monday that left three people dead, including an eight-year-old boy, and more than 170 injured.

In an interview Thursday, Astin said he’s always saddened when there is violence, but the attacks hit him hard because of his close ties with the running community.

“I just skipped over shock and went straight to fury,” he said. “Since then I’ve just been running hot … so when I found about (The Sun Run) on social media, well, I just wanted to be a part of it.”

Astin, who has run the Los Angeles Marathon four times, said he was excited to be running in Vancouver, a city he knows well having filmed here several times. He’s hoping for a 10 km time of about 57 minutes.

“I am just so damn proud to be running with thousands of Canadians, it just melts away all the anger (about the bombings).”

Astin said he has many friends in this country, and in his experience they’re always banding together to help others.

“When bad things happen you can always count on Canadians to demonstrate a show of support,” he said. “That’s what I love about Canadians, they are always visibly caring about each other. And that’s what we need, to double down on caring about each other.”

Astin is part of an inspirational running campaign called Run 3rd that encourages people to “run first for me, second for family, and third for a you,” or a cause that helps people.

In Astin’s case, he’ll be running for his wife and three daughters. He’s also planning to run the San Francisco Marathon this summer, if he isn’t too busy shooting a film.

The 42-year-old actor, director, voice artist and producer is best known for his film roles as Samwise Gamgee in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Mikey Walsh in The Goonies. He also appeared as Lynn McGill in the fifth season of 24.

ticrawford@vancouversun.com

Source

Around the Bay Road Race 5K race report

Submitted by Christina Boulard @ChristinaBWho

Oddly, it took me until the night before the race to get excited about it. You see, I'm not where I'd hoped to be in my running journey. I mean, it's been almost a year since I started! So because of that, I was really just very 'meh' about this—my second—race. I'd decided to start again at the beginning and go back to walking exclusively. My calf pain just got to be too much when I tried to run, so to strengthen them slowly and safely, walking seemed best. The night before my race, I realized that that meant no pressure on me, and that's when I started to get excited!

I woke early the next morning. It takes me FOREVER to wake up and I wanted to be bright-eyed and busy-tailed for the start line. My boyfriend drove and my 5 year old was singing in the back seat as we tried to find a parking spot. It took AGES to find one! Who knew that 13000 runners and 12000 spectators would need so much parking?!

Shamrock'n race report

Submitted by Sarah Diamond @Voxpax2

Feeling lucky?

As my socks gently asked "feeling lucky", at that particular moment I honestly didn't know. I call myself lucky, I'm Irish and on this day we are suppose to celebrate our heritage. In all the times I have had a chance to celebrate it here in vancouver, I never have. This year was going to change :)

I arrived at the running site, and there was so much green. Not only is it my favorite colour, but to see everyone else wearing it made me happy. The exercises began and at one point our leader tried the one-leg up and she wobbled. I was really muttering to myself but I quite by accident said it a bit too loudly for my neighbour to hear: “Wow people are drinking already?”

She laughed and when I realized she had heard I laughed and lost my balance.

“Looks like someone has already started” she replied.

Laura's Sandy Hook Virtual/Firefly Actual 5K race report

Submitted by Laura Lawson @GrammaHobbit

March 23, 2013: Sandy Hook Run for the Families Virtual 5K, Firefly Actual 5K, Plano Texas

For anyone newly venturing into the world of race events, walking or running, I would highly recommend searching out family-friendly events.

This was my 3rd event, and I chose the evening Firefly event for the convenience of the time as well as how interesting the go-for-the-glow theme sounded.

I was not disappointed. Arriving several hours prior to racetime, it was really fun to see in the increasing darkness the variety of race outfits that people had come up with for the run. Head to toe, with wings and hats and every manner of costuming, the crowd really did "glow"and twinkle and shine!

Because this was a family event, there were groups and individuals of all ages, many kids, a lot of highly decorated strollers and quite a few dogs!

I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the fact that for this race I was not time-chipped and there had been no "dire warnings" that you might be "swept up" if you did not maintain a suitable pace. (For me, the pressure that I put on myself to do my best is enough!)

The music before the race had the crowd dancing and having a great time and certainly getting warmed up in the 50 degree evening air!

Blogs about #Run3rd

The concept of #run3rd has gotten a lot of attention recently from other runners. Here are some recent blogs about Sean Astin and #run3rd.

January 26: Run Third (#run3rd) by Amy Smith

February 23: Run Disney And #Run3rd: A Great Combo For Making Dreams Come True by Beth Barbara

February 27: Sean Astin’s Run3rd: A Global Movement Developed With Love by Losillë

February 28: iRun for me, family, you. #run3rd by Carrie Burrows

March 3: 2013 Princess Half—The Race Dedication by Julie Franklin

March 4: Sean Astin is the Lord of Running by Fitz Koehler

March 5: Why Do You Run? by Jessica Urgelles

March 7: I #Run3rd for Them by lovemymoos

March 12: Thoughts on #Run3rd by Angi Lanciano

March 20: An Interview With Sean Astin by Heather Montgomery

March 20: My #run3rd Mission for the USO by Ashley


[Let me know if I missed any and I'll add to the list!]