The 2015 Gate River Run 15K.. aka the really fun race in Jacksonville that was really freaking hot this year! Not that it really mattered to me, since I didn’t have a time goal this year. In fact, I went into this race determined to have fun and not stress over time so I made it my goal to PR in drink stops. Spoiler Alert – I totally hit my goal!
This past Saturday, Mackenzie and I ran the 2015 8K River Day race at Grace Episcopal Day School. I was unable to run it last year but heard lots of good things about the event, so I was excited to add it to my calendar this year. It’s super close to my house (I left the house 45 minutes before gun time!) and I love running down River Road in Orange Park, it’s beautiful.
Every time I start to write a race recap, I want to say it’s one of my favorite races. I feel like I say that about all of the races.. perhaps I just like to run races? Who knows. Last year, I went into pretty great detail about the Bainbridge Half Marathon so I’ll spare you this year. If you’re not familiar with it though and you’re anywhere near South West Georgia, you may want to check it out. I posted lots of pictures of the course last year and it’s really pretty. Adam was running the half this year too, along with my cousins Drew and Celia. Technically I guess Celia is my cousin-in-law. She’s married to my cousin Daryl, but I like her so I claim her as my own
How’s that for a lot crammed into one blog post?!
A question that I’m asked often is “Why do you run?” It’s kind of a hard question for me to answer. I know why I started running. I enjoy it most of the time. I like how it makes me feel and I like that it allows me to eat chocolate every day without gaining a ton of weight. That’s not really why though. I mean.. It isn’t something that feels good all the time, in fact it often makes me hobble around the house like an old lady. It even makes me miserable at times. I think the reason it’s so hard to explain is because I don’t do it for any particular reason, I just do it for me.
This was probably the most fun I’ve ever had at a race. I’ve been really looking forward to the Florida Striders Memorial Day 5K for a few reasons — some friends (Jenn from Runs with Pugs and Devon from The Food Bitch Blog) were running with us, our kids were running the 1-mile fun run, and it was the first race I was running against with my brother.
One of the things I love about living in Florida is being surrounded by water. It’s so peaceful and relaxing – I love being out on a boat in the middle of the river, floating on a raft in the pool, or even just staring out my office window at the beautiful (but not so clean) St. John’s River when I’m stressed out at work.
I kind of don’t know where to start with my recap of the Disney Princess Half Marathon, so forgive me if my thoughts are scattered all over the place. I was really worried about the early race time, I thought there was no way I’d be able to get to sleep early enough to feel well-rested for the race. I didn’t get to bed quite as early as I’d like, but I think I was finally out by 9:30PM and surprisingly slept until my first alarm went off.. and then the snooze. Have I mentioned that I’m not a morning person?
Mackenzie Sarah Smith
July 22, 2011
8 lb, 10 oz – 19 inches
