It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post, July 4th to be precise, and this may be my longest break from blogging since I started in 2006. Budapest, Hungary Greg and I traveled to Europe during the last two weeks of July. We visited Prague for a few days, and then took a river cruise from Passau, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. We stopped in Vienna, Austria and Bratislava, Slovakia along the way. The trip was incredible, and we managed to run most days. I brought 7 pairs of shorts and 7 sports bras and all of them got used! My favorite place to run was Budapest because they ha ..read more

This morning I ran my 11th Firecracker 5K. I started running this race in 2010 when it first launched, and have run it most years since, with a few exceptions for injury and illness. I even ran the virtual race in 2020! The first time I ran this race back in 2010 my time was 23:21. Since then, I have gotten significantly faster. If I'm in good shape, my goal is usually to set a course PR. My distance PR is 19:41, and it's not realistic to beat that in the summer heat. Turkey Trots are for distance PRs. Firecrackers are for course PRs.  This year, the time to beat was 20:57 from 2022. Bef ..read more

I raced my second-ever road mile over the weekend at the Loudon Street Mile in Winchester, Virginia.  My first attempt was four years ago at this same race. My time was 5:57.6.  Why Race A Mile? Why race a mile? Why drive over an hour to run for six minutes? Why pay money to run a mile? What's so hard about a mile?  These are all questions I have been asked regarding this race. I decided to race this mile because I love a running challenge and I wanted to try and beat my time from 2020. Plus, I often get asked how fast I can run a mile, so I figured I should have an up to date ..read more

I ran the Lawyer's Have Heart 5K over the weekend in Washington DC. Even though I have run Lawyer's Have heart many times in the past, this experience was entirely different. Historically, this race had been a 10K, occurred in the middle of June, and was located in Georgetown. This race was my first 10K back in 2005 and my first large road race ever! I proceeded to run it every year from 2005 to 2012, and then stopped in 2013 because I was on vacation. Around that time, I decided to stop running summertime 10Ks because I would suffer from heat exhaustion and kill my immune system. 5K became m ..read more

This blog is called "Racing Stripes" and usually it's about running/racing. But once in a while, it's about "stripes". In this case, the stripes I am referring to are the black and white stripes of the piano keys. If I had to guess where my zebra love comes from, I think it's because they made me think of pianos when I first saw them at the zoo on a subconscious level.  Ever since purchasing my new Schimmel grand piano in January, I have been obsessed and addicted to my instrument. On average, I have been spending over an hour a day playing, and sometimes more like two hours a day. Most w ..read more

I ran the Run The Greenway 5K last Saturday, 19 days after the Boston Marathon. This race kicked off my "summer of speed" in a fun way. Background I ran this race in 2022 and was the first overall female finisher with a time of 20:43. I liked that the course was relatively flat and it was an out-and-back with just one turn. I also enjoyed running on the Dulles Greenway because it felt cool to be on a major highway. A few days before the race, I realized that the course would be different from what I ran in 2022. The race would start further west on the Greenway and run in the opposite ..read more

This is going to be long. I debated writing multiple blog posts to cover all the different aspects of this race, but ultimately decided to put it all in one place so that this post will be as epic as the race itself.  To summarize the next 5,900 words into one sentence:  TL/DR Version: I ran well in the heat for the first time in my life and enjoyed meeting so many runners from Instagram, all while wearing a brand new pair of shoes (thus breaking out of my conservative approach to racing) thereby reigniting my previously fading love of the Boston Marathon.   ThursdayFor my ..read more

On Saturday morning I ran the PVTC Easter Classic 5K with my friends Allison and Cheryl. My main goal was to celebrate Allison's birthday at brunch and she just happened to be running this race, so Cheryl and I joined her. My original plan had been to run my last long run before Boston on Saturday, but it was easy enough to move that long run to Sunday, and just run it slower if my legs were tired from the race. I got to the race in what I thought was plenty of time to get my bib and warm up. But I ended up not having enough time to warm up. This was mostly due to the fact that the timing chip ..read more

I’m making my 4th trip to Boston for my 5th Boston Marathon in a few weeks. I know that sounds weird, but I ran the virtual in 2020 and I totally count it! My first Boston Marathon was 2016. I ran it again in 2018, 2020, and 2022. I think every two years is a good way to run it regularly while still keeping it special. I’m considering of moving to every four years (the leap years) after this race. That is, of course, if I keep qualifying. Training has looked different for me this cycle because the One City Half Marathon was my goal race. I tapered for it and recovered from it which meant t ..read more

The title of this blog post gave away the ending! Now let’s start at the beginning. This morning I ran the Newport News One City Half Marathon. This was my goal race for the spring, and I trained specifically for it. Even though I am running the Boston Marathon in April, I oriented all of my training towards a half marathon. In my training I focused primarily on half marathon pace and 10K pace. My goal was to work on improving my lactate threshold. My longest run was 15.5 miles, which included 2 x 3 miles at half marathon pace. Coming off of a 40:31 PR in the 10K four weeks ago (on a hill ..read more