Now that it’s officially fall, the Brooksie Way Half Marathon officially wrapped up my summer of racing practically every weekend. Sunday, September 22nd was my fifth time running the race around my great town of Rochester Hills, MI. As challenging as the course may be, it’s hard for me to resist running this one knowing that it’s happening half a mile down the road. Seeing so many running friends and familiar faces both participating and spectating always makes it a fun event.

I donated some canned goods at last year’s expo and received a $15 discount code from Kroger for this year’s race. I did the same thing again this year since it’s very likely that I’ll run the race again next year. My final 20-mile run for Chicago Marathon training was scheduled for the day of Brooksie. I figured I’d run seven miles beforehand and use the race to get through the majority of the distance. That meant that I probably wouldn’t really “race” this one, but there’s always that little bit of hope that I might have it in me. Spoiler alert – since this was my slowest Brooksie yet, nope, I didn’t have it in me!

Brooksie weekend was the peak of my marathon training with a total of 56 miles for the week. I was supposed to run 10 miles at marathon pace the day before the race but I took it easy. I hoped maybe I could save that kind of pace for the race. Saturday’s run was gross and humid but at least it prepared me for similar conditions on race day. Although humidity usually zaps me no matter what, being acclimated does help. It’s been warm enough lately that I’m still used to it. That 10-mile run reminded me that hydration would be a big factor. One 21 oz. bottle was barely enough for 10 miles, so maybe using my two-bottle hydration belt would be wise for Brooksie.

I followed through with my crazy plan of doing a 7-mile “warm up” run prior to the race and arrived around 6:15. As early as that was, I ran into a few people I knew right away. I was participating in the Corporate Challenge with the Chevy Running Club and ran into one of our team leaders. I helped him carry the team tent over to the field then told him I had to head out so I could get my miles in. I started my loops around Oakland University’s campus with a headlamp and glowing vest since it would be at least half an hour before the sun rose. Once I got onto the main part of campus there was plenty of lighting though.

Oakland’s campus has a good amount of rolling hills but I kept my pace easy enough to manage them. Still, half a mile into the run the temps in the 70s plus the early morning humidity hit me. It was going to be a tough, sweaty day. I planned everything very carefully so my timing would work for the race. I figured the warm up run would take around an hour and I wanted half an hour of downtime prior to the race. I had scoped out a map of the 10K race route around campus so I knew where I could find a porta potty along the way. I was able to get one all to myself a mile from the start and avoided the long lines that had built by the time I got back. I arrived a few minutes before our Chevy group gathered for a photo then I went back to the car to clean up a little. I’m glad I was smart enough to bring an extra shirt since mine was drenched at that point. I was parked next to some local running friends who knew what craziness I was up to with my run before the run and we laughed about it.

I came across my friend Jeff in the starting corral and he smartly advised that we should probably start closer to the front of our wave. At 8:06 we were off! It helped that we started downhill, but once I hit the first slight incline I could feel the weight of the two bottles on my waist. It would help keep my pace in check early and I knew they’d get lighter as I went. The race starts with a decline for the majority of the first five miles or so and I took advantage of that. I was able to run close to marathon pace even though my legs weren’t especially fresh. When things flattened out and we hit the first hill heading into downtown Rochester, I knew I couldn’t keep it up. I got 4-5 miles in at my goal pace then gave up on that plan. It was too warm and humid to maintain it and there’s no way I’d keep it going once we hit the “real” hills. Ultimately, I was there to get my 20-mile training run done. I adjusted my thinking and decided it was time to give up on trying to “race” and knew I should approach it as more of a training run. I just had to run whatever pace worked to successfully complete my last big long run and keep in mind that Chicago is the real goal.

Even though the hydration belt may have seemed excessive, it was the right choice for me to wear it. I had one bottle of GU Brew and one bottle of water. I also ate one Clif Blok almost every mile and hoped that would be enough. I didn’t eat anything other than a couple Bloks between the warm up and the race because I thought it would be risky for my stomach. It was a relief knowing that I had plenty to drink whenever I needed it. Brooksie was similarly hot and humid a couple years ago and one bottle hadn’t been enough for me. I kept grabbing water along the course in addition to drinking from my bottle that year, but I was too thirsty and had a rough time. I think it really helped this time that I stayed hydrated enough.

Still, it got rough at times simply because course is difficult and the conditions didn’t help. The first half of the course is downhill or flat for the most part and the major rolling hills come in the second half. I’m very familiar with the course yet the first steep hill that comes around seven miles into the race felt so much harder than all of the other times I’ve run it this summer. There are plenty of times when I thought about how walking would probably be nice but I didn’t do it. Instead, I just felt like I was slowly trudging along at times. It was a grind so it was helpful to see the spectators along the way. I thought it was funny that right after I had thoughts of getting pizza for dinner I happened to pass spectators holding signs about running for a purpose with little pizza guys all over. There were several bands/musicians along the course and some enthusiastic aid stations as well. A marching band was there to give us an extra boost up that first bad hill. The students who line both sides of the street in front of Adams High School are always extra loud and awesome. With my name printed on my bib, it was fun to hear people shout my name and encourage me. One familiar face did that when I had a mile or two to go. Early in the race I had noticed a spectator who had been a DJ on the radio station 89X. When I saw him again later, he called my name since it was on my bib and told me I was doing great. I think I threw him for a loop when I responded, “Thanks Cal!” He and his friends laughed and that helped boost my spirits as well.

I didn’t really have it in me to pick up the pace for the last few miles like I usually try to do, but I did end up finishing fairly strong. That last uphill climb to the finish didn’t make it easy though!

I finished in 1:50:25, which was about two and a half minutes slower than my previous slowest Brooksie time. I typically don’t run seven miles prior to the race though! I managed to run an 8:26 average on a challenging course in difficult conditions to wrap up 20 miles, so I was plenty happy with my results.

I collected water, chips, a Rice Krispies Treat, and a granola bar then found one of my Chevy running buddies. Since the post-race snacks are fairly minimal considering the distance we just ran, I’m thankful that I’ve always had access to the corporate team tent with catered food. Runners from all of the different corporate teams join together there and it’s fun to catch up with people after the race and hear how it went. There was salad, pasta, mac and cheese, bread, and beer. That was much more filling than my other post-race snacks.

Sometimes I question why I choose to continually return to a course that can be so difficult, but I love this race. It’s a community celebration with friends everywhere and sometimes the feeling of accomplishment is even greater when it’s so hard. It was fun to run alongside and chat with friends for brief moments during the race. Plenty of Chevy teammates were around and we often rooted for each other as we crossed paths during the race. I saw a woman I know from the gym cheering for people. I saw runners who I recognize from the trail out taking race photos. There was a friend handing out water at an aid station. I knew people all over the place which makes things fun even when it’s a struggle. When the weather has been nice and cool, I’ve actually had some pretty solid races at Brooksie. When the weather has been warm and humid, it seems to accentuate the difficultly of the course. I never know what I might get when I sign up, but I always have fun.

– Janet

Follow me on Twitter @reidphotography and Instagram @janetboltz

Apparently the hills at the Labor Day 30K weren’t enough to scare me away from Milford because I returned the following weekend for more hills at the Prove It 5K/10K. I think NOW I’ve had enough of Milford’s hills for a while.

Trivium Racing‘s Prove It race took place on Saturday, September 7th at GM’s Proving Ground in Milford, MI. I don’t think I’ll ever forget running the 5K there in 2016 when it snowed on race day. In the middle of May. I’m especially scarred by that experience because I ran a miserable marathon two weeks later when it was 70° and humid to start and I was not acclimated for those conditions at all. I guess this race had a couple of rough weather days when it was held in May so they switched it to September this year. Fortunately the weather cooperated this time and it was 61° at the start.

This is another race that I signed up for partially because my friend Lisa put the idea in my head. I realized I had 10 miles at marathon pace on my training schedule and the 5K/10K double would fit perfectly. In addition, I thought it would be nice to represent and show my support for the Chevy Running Club at this race since they play a large role in making it happen. It’s also a pretty unique and cool experience to run around one of GM’s test tracks. Speaking of unique…check out this wild race shirt!

We also received this cup in our race packets

The 10K was a new addition this year and started first at 8:30. We couldn’t park right by the test track and it’s about half a mile from the parking lot to the start of the race. I saw Jordan from the Chevy Running Club and he let me know that our race packets were set aside under a tent for our group. We chatted for a bit and he was on board to do a warm up jog prior to the start. I was thankful that there was a bag drop area since it was a cool morning. I could leave my jacket and other stuff there rather than make the long hike back to the car.

With fellow Chevy Running Club member Jordan

Jordan and I ran a quarter mile out and back and I definitely needed it to help loosen my heavy legs. We headed uphill to start which quickly reminded me what we were in for with this race. When I did it for the first time in 2016 I had expected a flat, round race track. I didn’t realize that it would have lots of twists and hills. I remembered that it was a challenging course but I didn’t remember how hard it truly was.

I dragged as we headed uphill at the beginning, but fortunately the downhill stretch that followed helped get me moving. I didn’t see it for long since it was ahead of the speedy runners, but how cool is it to have a Corvette lead a race on a test track?

Many thanks to Trivium for providing a ton of great photos on their Facebook page. The photo below gives you an idea of what the rolling hills were like along this course.

The track is banked in some spots. We didn’t have to run any extreme angles, but there were some areas where I made a point of running as close to the bottom edge as I could to try to find the flattest spot. I have enough tweaks on my left side that I didn’t want any of my issues to flare up by running unevenly along the banked surface.

Oh boy, those hills. Like I said, I remembered it was challenging but this was a lot harder than I remembered. Had I stuck with my training plan and actually run marathon pace maybe it wouldn’t have hurt so much. Of course I couldn’t help myself and pushed the pace, ending up a good 20-30 seconds per mile faster than I probably should have been going. The 10K was two loops around the course. I’d only run one loop in 2016 and I have a feeling doing multiple loops this time enhanced the difficulty. I tried not to think too much about how brutal a third lap would be for the 5K race that was coming next!

Thanks to a pretty steep downhill stretch at the end at least I was able to finish strong and flew across the finish line.

I was pretty excited that I was the second place female! My time was 47:23. Since the course was certified it was a little long, so I like believe my Garmin’s pace of 7:31/mile.

It took a few minutes to recover from getting beat up by that course. Then I had about an hour to kill before the 5K started. I was sweaty and it was breezy and cool. It didn’t take long before I started to get cold. Somehow I had to avoid stiffening up with all that downtime. I talked to some of the Chevy people for a bit and had some water, then I jogged about a quarter mile to the porta-potties. I jogged back and tried to keep moving for a bit. My legs felt pretty heavy and I wasn’t feeling too confident about still having to race the 5K. I ate a few of my Clif Shot Bloks in between and figured I’d hold off on the post-race treats until I was totally done so I wouldn’t mess with my stomach.

The Chevy Running Club got a group photo prior to the start of the 5K.

Then it was time to do it all over again. I was kind of dreading it!

These pictures make the course look really cool. It really is a privilege to run on a test track like that. It hurt though! Once again, I made things harder on myself by running faster than I should have. I haven’t been doing speed workouts much during training since I’ve been racing so much, so I figured it’s okay to give a little more effort while racing. The uphill start was nasty the third time around but I was thankful every time I went downhill and regained a little speed. I realized I was among the top women again which was one thing that helped pull me through. I just had to keep pushing. Somehow my pace was only a little slower than it was during the 10K. It felt a whole lot worse though!

SO happy to be done!

Again, I’ll go with my Garmin time since that makes my pace look a little faster. 7:33 pace for the 5K after running a 7:31 pace for the 10K. I’m pretty psyched about that. Plus, I placed as the third woman this time.

Brutal, brutal, brutal. But I did it. It definitely was a good workout and I keep telling myself that all of this hill training is making me stronger. It sure better!

Now it was time for trail mix, pretzels, and a granola bar. Plus an extra bar of my own and more later in the car before I left because I ran 10 miles and wanted lots of food. I stuck around for awards because they were giving out age group awards for each race, awards for the 5K/10K combo winners, plus age-graded awards. Age-graded results factor in age and gender and try to balance things so that everyone is competing on the same level. The same top people ended up winning almost every category. For the age-graded results I was 17th out of 324 for the 5K and 11th out of 162 for the 10K. I was the second female out of 29 for the double. Only the top winners were awarded in each category and the woman ahead of me in both races was in my age group. I didn’t get anything, but I was still pretty thrilled that I had done so well.

This one was really tough but also really cool. It was nice to see Lisa and her husband at yet another race and it was fun to catch up with people from the Chevy Running Club too. I’m finally taking a weekend off of racing this coming weekend but I’ll be back at it for the Brooksie Way Half Marathon on the 22nd. That will be another hilly one so hopefully these last two races in Milford have prepared me for it.

– Janet

Follow me on Twitter @reidphotography and Instagram @janetboltz

After running this race in 2013 (recapped here) I swore to myself that I would only return if I forgot how brutally tough it was or if I decided I wanted to torture myself. I still remember very clearly how difficult it was, so I guess I must enjoy subjecting myself to torture.

I’ve toyed with the idea of returning to this race several times but never followed through. This year my friend Lisa suggested the race. She hadn’t done it before and I warned her how tough the course is. Still…we discussed it so much that we finally said we may as well just sign up. We’re both training for marathons and would need to get long runs in anyway. Hot, humid, and hilly are the key words I used to describe 2013’s race. There’s no denying the hills, but the forecast actually looked cooler for this year’s race which was one factor that made me more willing to try it again.

I was training for my first marathon in 2013 and added enough distance prior to the race to make it my very first 20-mile run. Six years have gone by and I have run six marathons since then. I hoped that more experience and being a stronger runner would help me feel better this time around.

Saturday, August 31st was a beautiful morning in the 50s. It was a good sign that I was shivering before the race. The race starts and finishes at Baker’s Restaurant where there is a ton of parking. The race started at 8:00 and I got there about an hour early. Lisa found me when I took my t-shirt and bib back to the car and gave me a heads up that the porta-potty line was already pretty long, so I went over there right away. I was debating if I should run a little over 1.3 miles so I would make it to 20 miles for the day. The main road was so busy I didn’t want to try crossing it, plus the 30K cyclists were getting ready for the start of their race.

I opted to run enough laps around the parking lot to get a mile in prior to the race. That would get me close enough to a 20-miler. We lined up on Milford Road which had more traffic than I expected on a Saturday morning. Since we started in one lane of the road it was a little congested at first. I was anxious to get moving a little faster and got around people when I could. Soon enough things spaced out. We ran along the road and into downtown Milford to start. I kept thinking that it was just the path that would get us to the dirt roads where things would get tough. There’s a pretty challenging hill or two along the way though.

Somewhere around five miles into the race we hit a big hill on the dirt road. I’d been moving along pretty well prior to that and slowed down a bit to grind my way through that one. I was surprised to run a couple miles just above 8:00 pace after that. I worried that I was going a little faster than I ought to be, but I guess downhill momentum must have helped. I was also kind of shocked to go at least a couple miles without an uphill climb. In my mind I had remembered horrendous hill after hill on the dirt roads. It actually wasn’t as bad as I had remembered. Sure, there were tough hills, but there were some pretty long stretches between them too. I made it halfway through the race and thought it was easier than I had remembered. I appreciated the peacefulness of the dirt roads and lots of shade. When we were out in the open the clouds looked really cool. I felt like I was in my element with “my” people – other people who are dedicated enough to get up early and push themselves through this crazy stuff for fun.

We got back to the pavement for a while and that part was unfamiliar and had totally faded from my memory. Somehow I only remembered the hilly dirt portions of the race. We spent some time running along curbs while there was a decent amount of traffic around and I didn’t remember that at all. I had a couple more miles that were faster than I meant to run, but I figured I was running by feel and I guess I felt pretty good. I had remembered this race to be so hard that I figured maybe the second half would really do me in. By the time I got to 14 miles I started to drag a little more. I was back on the dirt by then and some hills popped up again. My fuel belt had a bottle of GU Brew and I started to run low in the last few miles of the race. I made sure to get water at the aid stations and walked through a couple of those in the late miles to make sure I drank enough. Based on my split of 8:41 for mile 16, that must have been when I hit the worst hill. I barely made any progress as I attempted to run and decided it would be better to walk part of it. I had walked at least a couple hills in 2013 and knew it was coming at some point!

I felt a twinge in my left calf during the last few miles of the race. When it persisted it started to worry me. I’d had a charley horse in that calf a couple weeks earlier when I did the Swim to the Moon 5K. I wondered if something was still lingering from that. Maybe the hills and mileage had set it off. Fortunately I was still able to finish pretty strong. When I turned off the dirt road and hit the final stretch of pavement back on Milford Road, I told myself I was going to give it a final kick through the finish. It was a little over half a mile, but it felt farther than that at the pace I was trying to run. Still, I managed to smile!

I was happy because somehow the race didn’t feel as hard to me as it had in 2013. I’m sure the cooler temps helped a lot. Heat and humidity always make things rough and it sure doesn’t help when it’s already a challenging course. I think I was right that running many more miles plus having years of experience since 2013’s race made a big difference. There’s no denying that it’s a hard course. I rarely walk during races and one of those hills brought me to a walk both times. Even though I didn’t walk the others, some of them required a pretty slow grind. Still, I felt like I had a really solid run this time around.

My official time was 2:34:02:

My average pace was 8:16 per mile. I went into this saying that it would just be a training run, not a race. That pace is a little fast for a training run for me. You can see below that my pace fluctuated all over the place. Uphill climbs slowed me down but downhill stretches sped me up. Aside from the climbs and the final stretch, I never felt like I was pushing too hard so hopefully I didn’t push more during this run than I should have.

After I received my medal I went over to the Tri-Covery tent first thing. I noticed them before the race and knew that I should have someone work on my calf. I added my name to their list and they said it might be a 20-minute wait. I used that time to check out the food, which included a choice of hamburgers, veggie burgers, or a chicken sandwich. Beer too!

The therapist from Tri-Covery was great and may have worked on me for 10 minutes or so. He had me cringing in agony at times! He gave me a few tips for the calf and I appreciated the chance to have someone work on it.

I heard the announcer say Lisa’s name so I met her after she came through the finish line. Fortunately she didn’t totally hate me for not talking her out of the race. Even though it was hard, she and her husband were both glad they had done it. I hung out with them as they enjoyed the post-race food and it was only a matter of time before we had to go to Dairy Queen directly across the street. DQ’s proximity to the race may have been another deciding factor that convinced us to sign up for the race. As I always say, I’m very motivated by good post-race treats.

Although my calf was a little tender the rest of the day, I actually felt good enough after this race to run eight miles the next day without any issues. That’s a good sign for my marathon training!

I’m really glad Lisa and I convinced each other to run this one. As tough as it was in 2013, I knew someday I was bound to be tempted by the challenge again. It was 68° and humid to start in 2013, when I finished in 2:41:47 and averaged 8:38 per mile. It was 54° and pleasant this year and I finished in 2:34:02 with an 8:16 average. I improved my time by close to eight minutes! It was supposed to be a training run both times so I wasn’t really aiming for any goal, and I know I ended up a little fast this time. It’s still a great feeling to know that I improved so much. While I cursed the course and practically hated it last time, I felt much better about it this time.

I know it might seem extreme that I’m racing so frequently lately but I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. Since I needed to do a long run anyway, it was nice to get a t-shirt and medal, have aid stations along the way, plus a party at the end. I’ve spent most of the summer running easy all week instead of working in speed and tempo runs, then I put in the hard work during the races. I’m trying to be smart about listening to my body and take a rest day or two when I can tell I need it. I have six weeks until the Chicago Marathon and I’m hoping that this method will pay off on race day since I still have a number of races to go before then. Next up – a return to Milford for a 5K/10K double on Saturday.

– Janet

Follow me on Twitter @reidphotography and Instagram @janetboltz