Thanksgiving Day 4-Miler - "Turkey Trot"

At 7am on Thursday morning (Thanksgiving), my whole family dressed up in our warmest outdoor running gear, attached our race "chips" to our ankles, and snapped some good ol' shots of all of us that were about to partake in OUR 1st Annual Thanksgiving Day 4-miler around the Old Port in Portland, Maine. Over 1,000 people turned out for this race - adorned with turkey hats, pilgrim suits, and feathered arms (yeah, you name it, people wore it!)

My mom's best friend, Paula, her daughter Kelly, my mom, my two sisters, Ashley and Amy, and their boyfriends Andrew (who's also running for DFMC) and Ezra participated too! We lined up, and decided to pair off for the run because there were SO many people and it would have been impossible to all stay together, so I ran with my mom! When the shotgun fired we started the slow jog with the rest of the crowd for the first couple minutes - and then we were off! It started at the City Hall, then we had a nice easy hill to jog down right to the water, we went along Commerical St. on the water (cobblestoned streets and all), and then up Dana St and Exchange St. What a hilly course! ... but we hadn't even seen a 1/4 of the hills! Then came Free St. and Congress St. - all hills, but I loved it! It was a 2 mile loop that we did 2x, and surprisingly, I found it pretty easy! I ran a steady 8 minute mile for 4 miles with my mom - and we crossed the finish line holding hands at 32:47! She was so excited :) My little sister, Amy and her boyfriend Ezra booked it for the last 2 miles, and ran a 31:00, and Ashley and Andrew finished in 34:00. But the best was Paula - who finished in 40:00 - after losing over 100lbs, she ROCKED it and we were SO proud of her! Next on her agenda - training for a marathon, like me!
Thanksgiving dinner tasted so good after that run - we definitely made some space for it - and I didn't feel the least bit guilty eating 2 pieces of pie and loads of squash and potatoes after it!!!
The Thanksgiving Day 4-Miler is DEFINITELY going to be a new Allen family tradition :)

"Making Some Room for Turkey"

I recently found out that my mother signed my WHOLE family up for the annual Portland, Maine Thanksgiving Day 4-Miler. She said it would be a great way to "make room for turkey" and all that goes along with the typical Thanksgiving Day feast! - this statement completely contradicts the whole idea of Thanksgiving. I'm pretty excited about the idea of running with my mom (a super-star triathlete), and sisters, Ashley (a sophomore all-star lacrosse player at Hamilton College) and Amy (2nd place finisher in the Maine State Cross-Country Championship Race this year!)- can you tell I'm proud of my mom and little sisters? :) I hope I can keep up with them all, especially at 9 o'clock in the morning and in the rain, too, ugh!!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Thursday Night Run!

Last night was my third Thursday night meeting up with some of my DFMC team members at Crossroads bar for our weekly run! A little less of a turn out than last week but still GREAT for so early in the season. Half the group split for the hills - which I am dreading, and probably won't make an appearance on for another couple months - and the rest of us did the 4-mile Charles loop. With my new reflector snap bracelets glowing on either arm, I hit the trail with Andrew, Tyler, and some new teammates I had just met. Tyler and I ran together and he definitely pushed me to go fast! I'd say we ran the loop in under 30 minutes - which, to me, is VERY fast! I was grateful he stayed at my pace and we got to chat along the way. After that I stretched for a couple minutes, and went back out on the trail again, this time alone. I retraced my path and ended up running another 3-miles at a much slower pace. It was so nice out - the city looked beautiful and it was really relaxing to be out on the path. I was surprised at how many people were out running in the dark - probably because it was about 55 degrees out, which is balmy for Boston in mid-November! Thank God the rain held off until today (it's pouring out right now, but the clouds are moving quickly so we should be sunny and 60 shortly!).
After the run we all changed out of our running close and crowded around the bar where they filled our glasses and gave us FREE pizza! Nothing better than pizza and beer after a long, hard run ;) It wasn't long after that the BU students stormed the upstairs for games of beer pong and darts - and our space was quickly turned into a college party - which was fine... but next time Andrew and I have decided to show the BU students our skills on the beer pong table !
Unfortunately, the running group won't get together again for another 2 weeks because next Thursday is Thanksgiving, but we're all running short road races that day instead! I can't wait to run the Turkey Trot 4-miler in Portland with my family.

Crossroad Thursdays!

Last Thursday, November 12 was a great night at Crossroads Bar! I arrived at 5:30 all ready to go and there was a big turn out! We ended up all deciding to do the same 6-mile loop around the Charles River. We headed out around 6pm in a big pack and slowly dispersed into smaller groups of running paces. I ended up running with Sarah and Becky - 2 great, very FAST runners. It was a lot of fun and I was excited to run with such well-established marathoners. I really pushed myself to run their speed and it felt great! During the run we chatted about their past race experiences, training, school, etc... I know I'll learn so much from them by being on the DFMC team! The run also helped stretch out my tight calf muscle that I was complaining about before. We stretched a lot after the run, and went inside to have pizza and beer and to socialize. I ended up meeting a lot more of my DFMC team members at Crossroads, and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again this coming week!
DFMC members and friends, if you're reading this - come on our group runs Thursday nights! It's so much fun!

Minor Training Woes

So up until recently, the farthest distance I would typically run was 7 miles. There was a great 7-mile loop around the Bowdoin campus I would run once a week - maybe twice if I was feeling ambitious. But since living in Boston, I've found it SO much easier to run longer distances... without even really meaning to! Every Monday over the summer I would run a 10-mile loop around the Charles River, and just a couple weeks ago I ran from my home in Davis Square through Harvard Square to the Charles River and it was easily a 12-miler. It felt great - and I had no problems until just last week. Lately, I've been feeling some pressure in my shins - I've never had shin splints before (even through 8 years of school soccer and lacrosse seasons) and then TODAY I felt this cramping in my left calf muscle. It feels like its contracting and knotted up. I've been stretching constantly, and I can't figure out why I'm having these issues. I've taken all the precautions with my training. Changing up the types of exercise, trying to run on soft surfaces, not overdoing it with mileage... For the past two days I've taken it really easy, doing long, but light cross-training at the gym on the elliptical and lots of stretching. I just hope that I can run the distance tonight at our group run! I've been excited for it all week - the team is so much fun and it's great to run with a new group of people. It makes the distance pass by quickly and the Charles River is beautiful at night! I also love the social scene after the run - pizza and beer at crossroads ... so much fun.
If anyone can offer advice or tips on how to treat with these "injuries" or how to prevent them I'd love to hear it! Thanks!

First Group Run!

Last night my friend (and fellow DFMC teammate) Andrew decided to meet up with some of the more experienced DFMC runners to do a group run around the Charles River! It was such a blast. We met at 5:45pm at Crossroads Bar, changed into our running gear, and hit the pavement. Tyler - who kindly introduced us to the bunch led me, Andrew and a few others on a nice little 4-miler that went over Mass Ave into Cambridge and around the Museum of Science. The view was breathtaking, and it was a lot of fun to chat with other DFMC team members while we jogged along. Just as I thought we were going to go a nice, easy, 10 min/mile pace, though, our new friend, Tyler pushed Andrew and me to practically sprint the last 2 miles of the loop. To our surprise, he had actually just ran the NYC Marathon the weekend before, and boy, is he a pro! He's hoping to run in 3 hours or LESS for Boston this year... so I've decided this guy is my new BFF and mentor for Thursday night runs! Just trying to keep up with him will definitely get me into good shape.

When we got back to the bar, our bartender Lindsey was busy setting up the upstairs for us all! It was so nice to come back together at the end, socialize more, meet new people, and change out of our sweaty clothes! I met another Bowdoin Alum, Betsy, who is an experienced Boston Marathoner and DFMC member, and many others who inspired me to train hard and come to all the weekly gatherings!

I can't wait for next Thursday night! Other DFMC members: If you're reading this and you haven't come out to Crossroads yet for Thursday night runs, COME! It's so much fun!!!