Stride For Survivors Race Recap

So last night Wifey & I ran the Stride for Survivors 5K, my first race since the Milltown Firecracker on July 4, 2014.  I did absolutely zero prep for this.  When I found out Wifey was coming with me, I assumed we would be part of the "walkers" since she doesn't like running races because of her knees, but about a week before the race she said she'd like to try to run it with me.

Clearly I had ZERO expectations for this, other than to not die.  Since we had little prep time, we also had no time to get a sitter for the kids, who I intended on bringing in a stroller to walk with us.  Now that we were running this I needed to find a double jogging stroller, thankfully my friend KO had one she was giving away so I am now the proud owner of a double jogger!!  Thanks KO!!  But this meant I was also going into this race never having used a double jogging stroller before too.

Getting Ready

Needless to say, I had a little bit of anxiety before this race.  Not having run for 10 months, having zero experience with this stroller, having zero experience pushing around an additional 75+ lbs in any stroller while running, and also running with Wifey who was just as undertrained as I was. This was a much different event than I have ever run before.  It was smaller than I expected, which was a good thing and actually very nice for the type of  run it was.  It was also at night - I am used to running races first thing in the morning.  I know what breakfast foods work for me, I know the rhythm of my body first thing in the morning, I know how to prep for that.  But at night...I had a full day of eating under my belt already, I didn't want to eat dinner right before running but I didn't want to not eat anything either so I settled for a high protein snack and called it a night.

Getting Started

We got to the start line and headed out.  This was not a timed race at all but of course I had my MapMyRun app going.  And as per usual, I forgot to start it straight away.  I think we got maybe 0.2 miles in before I started it, so you look at the run on the MMR site, you'll see it only registered about 2.83 miles instead of  the regular 3.1, and we initially took the "shortcut" version that was supposed to only be 2.5 miles because right out of the gate there was a flight of stairs to run down and we weren't going to attempt that with the stroller.  Little did I know there would be much, much more where that came from.  So we took the first "shortcut" and shaved a little bit of distance off too.

Deceiving but this is a double jogger!

I have to comment here about the stroller...I was pleasantly surprised by how it handled!!  It was smaller than my regular double stroller, which was very nice for maneuvering. I have also heard horror stories about people having a hard time navigating in general with the joggers because of the locked front wheel making turns difficult.  But this stroller made it very easy and I was super happy with it.  Whenever we had to go up a curb or run over tree roots or any kind of bump in the road, I braced myself and took it waaaayyy easier than I needed to because I expected it to be jerky and to toss the kids all over the place with any kind of bump like regular strollers do, but this thing went over everything with ease, and boy am I happy about that!!  Because to my surprise, we were also running our...

First Trail Run

Satellite view of the path on the water

Yup.  This was in Historic Smithville Park in Easthampton and the course was right through the woods.  It started on paved paths but then we were on the dirt running over tree roots, up & down hills, etc.  It was fairly awesome scenery & both Wifey & I are excited to go back there and do some running on our own!  We even ran on docks in the middle of the water!!  You can see them in the satellite view on google maps!! (to the right)  When we started out on the paved path we weren't doing horrible.  It was a slow pace but respectable, all things considered.  I was hopeful that we could achieve a decent time if we kept this up.  One of the hardest things was that I am used to not having to talk while running, but R being the curious and fiery little man that he is would not lay off the questions and I was struggling to find the breath to respond.  "Mommy!!  Are we winning??!!"  "Mommy!!  Look at the trees!!"  "MOMMY!!  I see a bird!!"  Nonstop the entire time.  It was so adorable, and so, so exhausting at the same time.  Another thing I did not anticipate were the flights of stairs we would need to climb up & down, the effort involved of traversing these with 75+ lbs in the stroller, and the toll it would take. 

Dealing With Stairs, Children & a Double Jogger

When we started the run, we were greeted with stairs immediately and were pretty much forced to do the shortcut at that point because of them.  We thought that would be the end of it.  Then we crossed a bridge and were faced with a flight going up.  Next to the stairs was a very small paved path that people on bikes were walking up.  The incline was very intimidating but we gave it a whirl.  I remained at the helm of the stroller pushing upwards while Wifey went backwards and pulled.  Attempting to run or walk this incline would have been rough on our own and with the stroller it was damn near impossible.  We actually stopped moving for a while.  At one point Wifey let go and I thought for sure me & the kids were going to go rolling down the hill, but we managed to get up and were fairly spent.  So this is where we walked for the first time.

That took a lot out of us and we would be faced with more stairs.  I don't know why we didn't think of it sooner, but when we got to a downward flight right before we got to the water, it was so steep we took the kids out of the stroller, I walked down the stairs with them, and Wifey carried the stroller.  It made us come to a complete stop for a while and it took a long time, but it was much, much safer than the previous flights.  I am so mad at myself for not thinking of it sooner, except it would have made our time much, much worse. 

Fun Time for the Kids & Conclusion

At the bottom of the stairs we got to the docks on the lake and the kids decided they wanted to run too.  And stop and look at the lillipads.  And the bugs.  And look for frogs.  For run time this means dawdling but I'm glad they got to enjoy some of this too. We let them run/walk/stop across the docks but when we got back to land back in the stroller they went.  We didn't have much left to go after that which was good because Wifey's knee was killing her so we jogged it in to the finish line.  Total time was 45:32, my longest time to date but with everything we encountered, and everything this run was about, I can't be too upset. 

I am so happy my kids got to do this with me and I can't wait for us to go explore this park some more!!  And now that I have the double jogger, I am hoping to be able to get more runs in because now I can just take the kids with me.  Fingers crossed!!!

For those curious, here's the course that we ran: