The Quirky Gluten Free Runner: Missing my running mojo. . . Running on Offutt

I've been trying to figure out where my running groove has gone. . . the calm and peacefullness I find when I'm out for a run.

See, it's been lost for a while. I was in my groove, did my DC Marathon and then it was like I had bonked and I went for runs and bike rides, but not because I wanted to or needed to, but because I had to do keep going. Then enter a few weeks ago, I had little sleep each night, little to no REM sleep and I didn't get any runs in, I barely got yoga in that week. Okay, I only got one day of yoga in. It was the same week as my conference, where I was getting organized for that, it was the same week of the Super Moon and full moons knock my sleep pattern off, so I'm sure having a super full moon did the same, only to the nth degree. I emailed the coach midweek and said, 'this is not happening this week. I need to try to take care of my body as it is, how about we do the same workout next week" and he said, 'okay'.

Enter last week. I did the program but didn't feel all with it. Friday I went out for a run and felt like I was back in the groove of things. Drove to the parents' Friday after work, Saturday I didn't get my small run in, though I should have. I got up, dad said he was going to need help moving some farm machinery (i.e. he'd be driving the tractor, but would need someone to move the pickup), and we needed to tidy up the house for my sister and her family (a small child and another young one) so that they wouldn't get things they shouldn't. Picked up mom from the nursing home and went to the city to pick up my "race packet" for Sunday's event. [Mom had a heart attack, bypass surgery and then a stroke last year--life has definitely changed! Outings with mom require a lot more planning than before for us]. We met up with my sister in the big city, who flew in from the bigger city. I can't even tell you what we did on Saturday afternoon! We missed out on an invite to fire pit fun due to being sooo tired from the day though, so whatever we did it was fun and/or taxing. HA.

No map of the race course. . . which meant hubby wouldn't be able to ride his bike on the course. Turns out, he really wouldn't have anyway. Only the first and last mile were on city /public property, the other five miles were on the Offutt Air Force Base, Bellvue, Nebraska --public, but not, property. We had to fork over our ID #s for background checks and have our bib numbers visible at all times while on the base.

Sunday we got up just about pre-dawn to drive to the city. Saw several deer, thankfully none in the immediate path of our vehicle. Our first thought as we pulled into the parking lot. . . "where are all the cars?" The parking lot could easily have accommodated about five times the cars parked in it. Turns out there was LOW entry. I don't know if I've been to a race with such a low entry in a large metro area. Highest bib number seen by my race friend: 119. O__O Say what? We knew it was Mother's Day, but were still shocked. The race had a cap of 300 on it, but there wasn't even near that many people there, Plus, it was 7 miles and maybe it seemed too much for those who normally run 5Ks? However, there was a race time limit of 2.5 hours. [the race story in the link below has bib numbers up to 142 and the says almost 200 people registered].

We started out jogging, and being left in the dust by everyone, that was okay, we jogged the first mile, then walked up and around the hills and next mile or so, then ran/walked on the RUNWAY of a USA Air Force base. . . how cool?!?!?! Then through /around the shops and the historic old brick homes. military personnel everywhere, saluting us, getting to run past the huge RECON planes [RC-135] and NO, we were not allowed to get too close. Well, I suppose you could have tried, but the man with the weapon in his hands at the ready pretty much deterred us from getting away from the orange cones we were to follow.

Story link

Having never done a race quite like this, and having not seen my friend in a long time, we decided to just enjoy ourselves for a 'Sunday stroll' and we walked /jogged for a little bit and then about mile 4 we started jogging /slow running constantly. I think the dude in the pickup behind us was quite happy with that ;0) Then we finished up on base, had our numbers checked off the list and we finished strong, just a few seconds behind the women in front of us who we'd had in our sights for most of the event. Yup, we were last, but we had fun, we knew that we wouldn't have been last had there been more people there (yeah, I know, we could be full of it too).

At the finish my husband was waiting for us, and apparently so were all the previous finishers. We're not sure if they were waiting to do the awards until everyone finished, or because the two ladies in front of us were winners in their age group bracket. Either way, we appreciated that things weren't all torn down when we finished, and that there were people waiting at the finish line for the last four finishers!

The rest of the family soon arrived and after cleaning up at the fine facilities available to us, we headed to the 11Worth Cafe on Leavenworth. Great diner, lots of parking, lots of waiting room inside --just not quite enough on Mother's Day, even at 10am! Fabulous staff made it easy to get mom in her wheelchair to the table and with two little ones in tow. We attempted to finish the day with a trip to the world famous zoo, but it was packed and we decided we had more fun things than spend it in a place packed.