Totally Trials Trip Day 2, Part 1

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Jen

My trip to Eugene coincided with a cross-country move, and I’m backed up on blog posting. Since everyone-and-their-mother has already read all the Track & Field Olympic Trials results they can handle by now, I’m going to skip that part (even though it was the most important part and reason for my trip!) and get right into my personal life those 4 days in Eugene.

My luggage came at 8:06am the morning after I arrived. An employee brought it in her own personal car since I called enough times to ask about it and it was labeled “first class baggage”. (Thank goodness for Jeff’s frequent flyer miles once again!) I had just enough time to run about 4 miles. I was kicking myself for not bringing my phone to take pictures on the run. There were so many people, athletes, fans, and locals just hanging around. The energy was contagious and I was so excited to be a part of it! I couldn’t wait to see the action at the track!

When I got back to the house, I had 30 minutes to shower, pack, and be ready for rehearsal for the Oiselle RUNway. Kristin, the team manager, kindly came to get me and the ladies from the Fly South house and we were on our way to the Downtown Athletic Club. Once we arrived I met quite a few of my Oiselle teammates. These ladies are all SO WONDERFUL! I felt a connection with so many of them instantly. We got some coffee and ate some bagels and cream cheese, then it was time to get to work. We did 3 RUN-throughs on the RUNway and we were all feeling nervous, but excited and more confident after having some practice.

Oiselle Ladies discussing looks for the models

The stage during rehearsal

A few of the "models" chatting between RUNthroughs

After rehearsal and lunch it was time for the track action! I enjoyed the 1500 meter semi-final for both men and women and the women’s steeplechase final. We had Oiselle athletes Kate Grace in the 1500 and Jamie Cheever in the steeple. I enjoyed watching the shorter events as well but it’s more exciting for me to watch middle to long distance races because I can relate! Watching the track action inspired my own racing and I’m excited for the next 3-4 years of competition!

When track events concluded I wanted to hit up the Picky Bars booth with my Oiselle ladies, including Picky-mega-fan Meggie for some samples and to replenish my stash. The bars were as tasty as ever. In fact, I got a bar that had 9 chocolate chips!

I've never had more than 6 chocolate chips until my Olympic Trials Picky Bar purchase!

Showing off my Picky Swag at the Picky Bars booth

From there we headed back to the Hippie House, another one of Oiselle’s houses for the week, and waited to be transported to hair and makeup for the fashion show! The party and fashion show deserve their own post so I’ll stop here for now.

to be continued…

What are your favorite track & field events? Do you tend to enjoy the events that are similar to what you run or the ones that you have never attempted?

Running in Seattle-3 Years Later

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Jen

In July 2009, we moved to Boston after living in Seattle for over 5 years. Now, it’s July 2012 and we are back in Seattle for the summer. I’m loving almost everything about Seattle. In fact, I like it more now than I did back then! One thing I’m loving in particular is running on my old routes. A simple run around Greenlake brought back all sorts of memories and observations. These three things made me smile:

I saw two separate people who I used to pass by every time I ran the lake counterclockwise at that time of the day. So much fun to see they are still running and on the exact same running schedule!
I’m definitely not in Rochester anymore. Waving and saying “hi” to every person I see on the path at Greenlake is not practical or acceptable. Too many people are on the path and I found myself saying “hi” quite often. Also, I got a bunch of strange looks reminding me people around here are used to seeing lots of active people and it’s not normal to greet every stranger. (I still can’t help but give a smile or nod.)
It’s the perfect temperature here, for running anyway! Back in Rochester I was dying from the heat and humidity. This morning I ran in Oiselle Lesley Knicker, Easy Run Cap Tee, and the Gilman Vest. Yes… I needed a vest!

Yes, I had to wear all of these things plus gloves on my run!

Do you wave at or acknowledge every person you pass on the run? Are you surviving the heat much of the country is experiencing?

Oiselle Totally Trials Trip-Part 1-The Ugly

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Jen

Wow. I really don’t want to post about the Olympic Trials experience, fashion show, or spectacular running meetups because there is no way my words can express the perfection of the trip. I guess I’ll start with the only negative (other than having to leave) which was the travel to Eugene.

I was up by 5am to tackle an easy run before my flight then I was on my way to the airport! I started the trip with high hopes, set to fly first class the whole way, thanks to Jeff’s frequent flyer miles. The first of 3 flights, ROC–>ORD went great. I boarded the second flight, was sitting there about an hour when they announced there were problems with the hydraulics and we would need to get off the plane. To avoid boring you too much, I’ll write the rest in bullet points and pictures.

Spent 4 hours waiting

Not happy about the delayed flight

Booked on 3 different flights, set to leave on whatever boarded first
Took original flight
Met masters division Cross Fit champ
Sprinted across SFO airport in wedges

Poor shoe choice for cross country trip.

Devoured food and drink in flight
No seat on flight to EUG
Jeff on phone with United, me in person talking = finally got a seat
Sat by pilot who explained every question I had about flying- pilots, flight staff, flights in general
Arrived in EUG, 5 hours late, with no luggage
Met awesome roomie Frency!

Picture taken in dark cab around 10:30pm! Get us to our house "Fly South"!

Slept in tee and jean shorts, dirty body and teeth

My bed the first few nights

Woke to no luggage still.
Frantic calls to United baggage team
Luggage arrived with just enough time for a 30 minute run before Fashion Show rehearsal.

The rest of the trip was spectacular! More to come…

How do you handle crazy travel experiences? Go to bed in tears like me?! Any questions you have about flights/flight staff/pilots? I probably know the answer thanks to Mr. Pilot who I chatted with for a good hour on the flight!

Running Shoe Ramblings

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Jen

I’m sitting in the airport, waiting to board my plane for my Eugene! Ahhhhhh!!!! I’m so excited I can’t stand it!

Speaking of the Olympic Trials, I was reading someone’s post on Twitter a few days ago (and unfortunately, I don’t remember who!) but they posted the foot strikes of all the women in the 10k. I was happy to see a lot those ladies have the crazy land-on-the-side-of-your-foot strike like me. Mine’s worse on the right side. This could explain why I demolish all my running shoes. After 200 miles, they are looking pretty bad and by 300 I’m in desperate need of a new pair! They are just TORN UP!

Check out the bottom of my Asics!

And my New Balance 890s!

The exciting news is I just got 2 new pairs of running shoes in the mail. I don’t know why after all these years it makes me so happy to get new running shoes! It also makes me sad to get them muddy for the first time! I used to strictly wear Asics Gel Cumulus. Now I’ve branched out and switching between those and my new favorites, the New Balance 890s. I LOVE the 890s because they are so lightweight! I wear them for workouts instead of racing flats.

Do you get excited to get new running shoes? Do you like getting them dirty for the first time or despise it like me? Do you tear the bottoms up like me?

A Big Week Ahead

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Jen

Today is an exciting and somewhat stressful day as I complete my packing and house preparation so I can live across the country for the next 2 months! The trip starts with me flying solo to Eugene to watch the track & field Olympic Trials and walk the RUNway at the Oiselle fashion show. After the Trials, I’m headed to Seattle to meet my daughter and husband at the condo where we will be living for the next few months, thanks to a summer position my husband secured a few weeks ago. I’ve been feeling really blessed lately and thankful for all the opportunities my family has been given. I am so excited for the next few months!

As far as running goes, after the Airport 5k on Saturday my husband and I did a 3.5 mile shakeout pushing our daughter in the stroller and ending at the grocery store. We didn’t get a cooldown in the morning after racing so we figured we should get a little running in that evening. The next morning we decided to attempt another run together – a 10 mile run with the jog stroller. I was excited because I love running with my husband. I was less than excited about how our daughter would react for 10 miles since 6 miles is usually her absolute limit. I thought about a great blog post I read on Salty Running on the rules of jog stroller running, especially tip #3 and I decided we were going to make it 10 miles. We really deserved 80 minutes of run time together! It ended up being my favorite stroller run ever. Our daughter sang to us and entertained us and the other people on the trails for the first 9 miles! She fell asleep the last mile or so and perfectly transferred down for her nap after the run. So glad we did that run together. It was awesome family bonding and gave me confidence for longer stroller runs in Seattle!

On Monday my in-laws came into town to watch our daughter because Jeff was headed to Boston Tuesday morning and I’m headed to Eugene on Thursday and we needed someone to watch our daughter on Thursday while we were both out of town. Since the in-laws are here, Jeff and I ran together both mornings. The weather was perfect – cool and sunny and we got our 10k-a-day done both days, nice and easy.

There’s the week so far! Can’t wait to report on my trip to the Trials! Hoping to get some pics of fast runners to share!

Just found another awkward post-race photo from a few weeks ago

What are you excited about this week?

Airport 5k 2012 – Race Recap

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Jen

I ended up running the local 5k on Saturday. It was at the airport and a very cool race for a few reasons:

They closed down some runways and that’s where we raced! How often does that happen?
The course was spectator friendly and flat. It went up one runway, then back, then up another runway and back.
Frank Shorter was there to give a talk, sign autographs, run the race, and hand out awards!
Entertaining for kids. The zoomobile was there, the US Army National Guard had a display aircraft and there was a kids race.

Post-race posing by display aircraft

Awards happened quickly after the race and there was decent prize money.

We had a neighborhood block party the night before so I ended up eating cheese (on pizza) and watermelon (I have a bad history with watermelon the night before hard efforts) plus lots of desserts and snack foods. Not the ideal pre-race foods but they didn’t effect me so I got lucky! Our friends came to the race site to watch our daughter so both Jeff and I could race. Amazing! We were so thankful!

I lined up on the start line this week, and guess who planted himself right in front of me? Frank Shorter! I was star-struck, but tried to keep my cool. I made a little small talk, he made a little small talk, and I found out he was planning to run 10 minute miles. I was planning to run 5:28-5:38 so I knew our time next to each other was short.

The gun went off and I felt pretty good. I did a 5:24 first mile which was exactly what I was planning. The women’s leader did a 5:13. I’m glad I didn’t hang, that would have been too fast and resulted in a slower time because my speedwork has been lacking. I didn’t see the 2 mile or 3 mile markers, but I obviously slowed down as I finished in 17:32 and second woman. This was 16 seconds slower than my 5k 2 weeks ago, but 17 seconds faster than my 5k last weekend. All courses were USATF certified. The female winner ran 17:11 and I wanted to run 17-17:05 which is probably unrealistic until I do some more track work which I haven’t done in over 3 weeks now.

You can view the race highlights in the video below by Team Boyce. If you would like to see me struggling toward the finish, check out around 2:40 into the video. I can also be seen at :40, 1:07, and 1:34 of the video.

After the race we ran around trying to get our daughter signed up for the kids run, since she was really excited about doing it. We actually skipped our cooldown! She was so excited to be on the starting line. I positioned myself at the finish and my husband was all set to take video. All of a sudden, my husband lost sight of my daughter (she is VERY quick!) Thankfully, our buddy, Joe, was standing there and spotted her heading the wrong direction. Jeff redirected her and she was off and running in her first race ever!

Currie's first race. Pushing in to the finish to get a low-5 from Frank Shorter!

Currie was so happy to get a bottle of water and ribbon post-race!

Jeff took a video of the kids race, which can be seen below. You can see Currie give Frank a low-5 and he says “ha-ha! I love it!”

Shortly after the kids race, it was time for the 5k awards ceremony. They were really on top of things! Again, no time to do the cooldown. We slurped down frozen cappuccinos and listened to the awards. The women’s awards were initially messed up because they had me entered as a male. That was quickly straightened out and I collected my $100 (first place got $200). Jeff was 1st in his age group and got a family four pack of tickets to the Rochester Science Museum.

Frank Shorter gave out the awards. Very cool experience!

After the awards, we had Frank sign our bibs and Currie’s ribbon. He was a really nice guy. I love runners! What a fun race! While I wasn’t ecstatic about my time or place, I had a great day and was glad the whole family could join in on the race action.

Posing with Frank after autographs!

Our autographed bibs, ribbon and prizes from the race.

Have you met any famous runners (or famous people in general)?

US Half Marathon Championships 2012- Race Recap

Posted on June 23, 2012 by Jen

This Guest Post is by my youngest brother, Jason Ordway! You can learn more about Jason at the end of this post.

My bro looking ripped while racing a few months ago.

Here’s my review of the US Half Marathon Championships that took place last weekend in Duluth, Minnesota.

First off, let me say I never believed that my legs would be able to take me to so many amazing and interesting places. In high school, I was always in the top 10 at State every year in track and cross country in the small school division in Ohio, yet I didn’t believe I was even good enough to run in college. Flash forward a couple years and I’m getting comped entries into races, free hotel rooms to myself, and $400 towards travel and food for a US Championship race! I often ask myself, “How did I get here!?”

The race was held within the Grandma’s Marathon and Half Marathon. The course was slightly rolling and ran right along beautiful Lake Superior. 57 and clear skies overhead as we had our 6:15am start time! The earliest race start of my life! I had to get up at 4:00am to be bused over to the half marathon start line. I was on a bus with the likes of some of the best runners in the US. Like a boss!

We arrived a few blocks away from the starting line to our own private tent with chairs, water, and such and 6 portable bathrooms all to ourselves. Gotta love those perks! As we toed the starting line I notice I was directly in the middle. Front and center. RIGHT beside Abdi Abdirahman (the eventual winner). No big deal! We made small talk before the gun went off and he slapped my hand. Down the way was Ian Burrell, Josh Hartmann, Patrick Rizzo, and all sorts of people I’d seen in magazines or high up in the results at big time races. Kara Goucher (the women’s winner) had passed me on the bike path behind our hotel the day before so the races were all stacked with big names.

Personalized Bib at US Half Marathon Championships

Personalized bibs are just one perk of elite entry into races.

The race went about as well as I could have hoped. For the first time in my running career, I actually caught a second wind at mile 8 and was able to change gears. I caught about 8 people from that point on and ended up at a comfortable 21st place with a 1:05:29, 24 seconds off my PR. 21st in the nation has a good ring to it! Plus, the $500 bonus I got for running under 1:06:00 was a refreshing surprise! Almost directly after I finished, 2 fighter jets had a fly-by that gave me goosebumps and short term hearing loss! Worth it!

I know I can’t exactly go to races like this and expect to win, but I can get an amazing experience out it. I got to hang out with some of the biggest names in our sport and get treated like one, a feeling that I feel I didn’t deserve. It’s kind of like playing dress up, except people are actually waiting on you hand and foot and giving you free stuff!! Oh yeah, the night after the race there was an awards ceremony and elites-only party where I drank free champagne and other drinks with some Ohio people and Abdi in a train car built in 1916 in a museum. That was a sweet way to cap off the night! All in all, it was a fantastic experience and I can’t wait to go back and do the full marathon. Who knows where these legs will take me next!?

Abdi walking into the train car

Jason Ordway is my youngest brother, and a local elite! He has been tearing up the racing scene since he was about 8 years old running in the Junior Olympics. After a successful high school career, Jason attended college and ran at Southern Illinois (with my former Ohio State coach, Matt Sparks)! Jason took to the roads and within months of graduating he ran (and won!) his first marathon where he qualified for the Olympic Trials Marathon (Columbus Marathon in 2010, 2:18:08)! He has since run a 1:05:05 half marathon in Columbus 2011, and ran in the Olympic Trials Marathon in Houston this past January. Jason races every chance he gets and makes some cash along the way. He’s also a Saucony Hurricane Team Captain. Jason says, “I run to push myself and see just how fast I can get. I know I don’t have near as much talent as Ryan Hall or Dathan Ritzenhein, but I strive to maximize my own potential.”

Pre-Race

Posted on June 22, 2012 by Jen

Ok, I made my decision and I’m going to race the local 5k on Saturday. The deciding factors were:

Comments from you! Thanks for the thoughts/advice!
The race is close to my house and awards are scheduled to happen quickly after the race so I’ll still have time to get stuff done for our move.
This is my last Rochester race of the summer before moving to Seattle.
I haven’t done any speedwork this week, and this will ensure I get it done.
Frank Shorter is giving a talk and handing out awards!
My daughter loves to watch me race and cheer for all the runners and there will be entertainment for her before and after.
I’d like to win some cash for new running shoes.

Sign daughter (with help from daddy) made before a race earlier this year!

Today is my pre-race day where I usually run 4-5 miles. I used to try to relax the day before a race and sat around thinking/worrying about the race all day, but I found that doesn’t help – it makes me run worse! So now I take it easy on the running, short and easy pace, but keep the rest of my day as active as ever. Plus, how can you take it easy the day before a race when you have an extremely active toddler?

As far as eating goes, that will be fairly normal too, but I’ll try to avoid dairy since I’m lactose intolerant. Usually I eat a lot of cheese which I can handle normally, but for racing it doesn’t sit well in my stomach. I’ll have pasta with red sauce or tofu with brown rice for dinner and I will try to go to bed early enough to get 7-8 hours of sleep. (dependent on toddler’s sleep schedule). Before bed, I’ll lay out everything I need to race in the morning so when I wake up I’m not digging around waking up the family.

That’s my pre-race routine! Nothing too fancy!

What’s your pre-race routing like? Are you racing this weekend?

Run Ruiner Smoothie!

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Jen

As if the hot weather wasn’t enough of a challenge today, I got the bright idea of drinking a green smoothie an hour before my run in the heat. Not the smartest idea. Here’s my recipe for what I decided to call the “Run Ruiner Smoothie”, adapted from a Cuisinart recipe book. For best (worst) results, drink an hour or less before run. Serves 2-3 hungry runners.

1 cup cold water
a few ice cubes (added chill on hot day)
2 frozen bananas
1 apple (I use gala usually, but doesn’t matter)
a splash of flax oil
6-8 cups of loosely packed greens (I used spinach, kale, swiss chard and some beet greens)

Blend first 5 ingredients in a blender until smooth. Gradually add in greens and blend for about another minute until really smooth. Drink the deliciousness. Have horrible stomach pains entire run.

The Run Ruiner

Thankfully, I decided to just do an easy run because of the heat so I could power through the stomach problems. I had to laugh at myself for making such a silly food choice pre-run though.

Also, I’d like to add that this smoothie is actually quite tasty. I would never believe it by looking at the picture, but the banana flavor really over-powers the greens. It’s super nutritious so I recommend you try it – AFTER YOU RUN!

What crazy food choices have you made before a run that you regretted later? What were the consequences?

Busy Life = Racing Dilemma

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Jen

It’s about a week until my trip to Eugene for the Olympic Trials which goes straight into our move to Seattle for the summer. We have a lot going on. My stress level is medium right now, my sleep is lacking for sure, and my running is suffering a bit. (I’m running every day and getting the quantity, but not getting the quality I was hoping for!) I know once I board the plane for Eugene, everything will be fine, but for right now, there’a a lot to do and not much time to do it!

So, here’s my dilemma… I can’t figure out whether to race this weekend. There are at least 3 options for this weekend.

Race a local road race for money
Race the USATF Niagara track championships
Take the weekend easy, and get some packing done

I’m going to run no matter what so part of me thinks one of the racing options would be a good idea. I love to race! But, races happen at a particular time and place and usually eat up at least 3 hours (usually more) of a weekend, time which might be better spent with packing and planning.

So, friends… what would YOU do?

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