Teaching About Theme

Psst!  You can now download a *free* poster-version of this anchor chart!  Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store here! (edit 10.6.13)

A few weeks ago, we took a two-day break from our core literacy series to spend some time studying Author's Message/Theme.  I love working on theme with the kiddos, and REALLY love teaching literacy with picture books.  Theme + Picture Books = literacy fun.  :)  Here's what we did...

First, I introduced theme by reading aloud "The Boy Who Cried Wolf."  After reading we talked about the reason this story was first written: What was the author trying to teach readers?  What message was he or she trying to get across?  I like using "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" because the message is SO obvious, even the lower readers can catch it!  I then share this anchor chart with them and go over the common theme topics and sentence frames.  

Next, we read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes.  I ask the students to listen for how Chrysanthemum changes and what she learns throughout the story.  We then mark the "common topics" on the chart paper using post-its, and I model using these topics to state the theme.  (We practice writing the theme as a complete sentence, not just a broad theme like "hope" or "friendship."  For example, the theme we developed for Chrysanthemum was, 'It's important to accept and celebrate who you are.'"  Note: It's important to clarify that the theme should not be specific to this book.  I try to be really clear that the theme of Chrysanthemum is NOT, "Unique names are special."  

After working with Chrysanthemum as a class, the kids broke up into small groups of 3-5 students.  Each group was given a picture book and a piece of chart paper with an outline on it.  They read the book, wrote a brief summary, then worked together to develop the theme.  Finally, they recorded it all on chart paper and shared with the class! 

This group read and responded to The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric--cute book!

Other great books for teaching theme:

• Smoky Night by Eve Bunting
• Terrible Things by Eve Bunting
• A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
• Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna
• The Wump World by Bill Peet
• Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco
• Weslandia by Paul Fleischman
• The Frog Prince, Continued by Jon Scieszka

A frozen run, a great book...and IS IT BREAK YET?

Hi friends :)  I just don't seem to have the attention span for writing these days!  Anticipating that this week would be at least slightly hellish, I basically did nothing but relax all weekend to mentally prepare.  I did a little christmas shopping, browsed online for gifts for a few girlfriends, and spent about 10 hours on the couch reading.  BLISS.  I finished another YA fantasy-ish novel, then moved onto another YA book, Forgotten by Cat Patrick.  (Anyone else feel like they don't have the attention span for grown-up books?  Just me??)  This book was different than a lot of the dystopian YA books I've been so obsessed with ever since Hunger Games, but I LOVED it!  A little bit adventure, a little mystery, of course a little romance...I curled up with it around 6pm Saturday night and literally didn't move from the couch (except to make a bowl of oatmeal...nothing like gourmet cooking!) until I finished it around 1am.  Nothing's better than getting completely lost in a great book.

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 Here's the summary, courtesy of goodreads: Each night when 16 year-old London Lane goes to sleep, her whole world disappears. In the morning, all that's left is a note telling her about a day she can't remember. The whole scenario doesn't exactly make high school or dating that hot guy whose name she can't seem to recall any easier. But when London starts experiencing disturbing visions she can't make sense of, she realizes it's time to learn a little more about the past she keeps forgetting-before it destroys her future.   Part psychological drama, part romance, and part mystery, this thought-provoking novel will inspire readers to consider the what-if's in their own lives and recognize the power they have to control their destinies.

Oh, I did manage to tear myself off the couch for a 5.5 mile run Saturday morning, which just so happened to be the COLDEST day we've had yet this season--it was about 15 degrees when I left the house!!!

Dear God, Please don't let me freeze on this run!

I'm not going to lie, I was a little nervous about the cold!  Thank goodness I had this awesome fleece scarf that my mom helped me make:

I wrapped it around my mouth and neck during the run, and even though my face was freezing, it sure helped!  The whole run I was thinking about the starbucks hot chocolate I was going to treat myself to after finishing.

Speaking of cold weather running, I am officially in love with winter night runs.  Perfect way to check out the Christmas lights!!  (Running on the sidewalk through quiet, safe neighborhoods, of course!!)

Clearly my brain is a scattered mess tonight, mostly due to the fact that today was QUITE the interesting (read: GOD AWFUL) day at school, so I think it's about time for me to give up trying to say anything that makes sense and read some more. :)  Seriously, thank you if you managed to make it through this whole post without giving up because I can't string two coherent thoughts together!  4 more days...THANK GOODNESS

How do you stay motivated to run in crappy weather? The cold ended up being better than I expected, but thinking about hot chocolate sure helped!

Cross Country Challenge Race Recap

I'm a mid-west girl born and raised, but in 24 years I have never gotten used to winter.  In fact, I hate it.  HATE it.  So looking back, I'm really not sure what posessed me to sign up for this muddy December trail race.  The Cross Country Challenge 8K was at the same location as the Chicago Muddy Buddy, a race I LOVED when I did it years ago, so when I got the email advertisement about this race I thought, "Hmm, that could be fun..."  I mean, the muddy buddy was messy.  How bad could this one be??  Oh, and I'm not going to lie--signing up also may have something to do with the fact that runners got a long sleeve technical shirt, a knit hat, and a mostoccoli lunch...what can I say, I'm a sucker for swag.

Last night two friends and I (only one of whom was crazy enough to sign up for the race with me...) enjoyed some yummy pasta, salad, and, oh yes, brownies straight from the pan.

All this goodness was made a million times more wonderful because we were watching, wait for it, BOY MEETS WORLD.  Yes, I snapped up three seasons of this epic show at the library.  WIN.  Of course, every wonderful pre-race food coma is inevirably followed by the actual race...or in this case, AN HOUR IN FROZEN HELL.  Basking in blissful ignorance pre-race..

Katy brought a jar of PB pretzels...see why I like to race with this girl??

Let me present the Top Ten Reasons Katy and I should probably NOT have run this race...

1. It rained the entire day yesterday.  MAYBE not the best thing before an already muddy trail race...
2. At packet pickup, race volunteers were providing runners with duct tape to...wait for it...tape their shoes on.  Apparrently losing shoes is a common occurrence of this race.

3. While duct taping our shoes, we were informed that there were a few points in the race when we'd encounter knee deep muddy water. (My reaction was to immediately grab Katy's hand and say, "Please don't leave me behind!")

4. While waiting in line at the porta potties, one runner was commenting to her friend, "I normally don't wear gloves when it's this temperature, but then I remembered that they're kind of necessary in this race, you know, for like grabbing things and climbing and stuff." (I'll let you imagine what my face looked like when I heard this one...)

5. We walked by another couple runners going the opposite direction and heard the words, "...coyotes and wolves..." Now, to be fair, we didn't exactly get a context for this, but these are NOT words I want to hear before setting out on a run in the woods!

6. At least a third of the course involved running through BOGS.  Yes bogs.  As in, "Be careful, you might sink to your death in this quick-sand-esque bog!"

7. Hills.  Enough said.  Like big hills.  

8. The Muddy Buddy involved crawling through a shallow, man-made, watery mud pit.  This race involved schlepping through thick, REAL mud about 6 inches deep.  I suddenly understood the duct tape...

9. Crossing waist-deep streams.  Waist-deep streams in December.  In Illinois.  Yeah, that happened.

10. Did I mention this was at a horse farm?  Sooo imagine what some of the mud was like...

In all seriousness, this race was a blast.  We were mostly laughing the whole time at the sheer ridiculousess of it all.  That, and talking about our general badassness.  We walked a TON up the incredibly slippery muddy hills, but finished with a respectable time averaging about 15 minutes per mile.  Before you judge our slowness, reread those 10 crazy truths about the race.  

Miraculously, we survived, though I'm still not sure how!!

After the race, the only thing that kept us from curling up under beach towels in my car was the post-race buffet in the barn that was calling our names...

Of course, we could only stand around for so long before we were forced to deal with the nastiness that was our disgusting, muddy selves.  Behold, my dirty feet...that is some serious BLACK mud...

Katy was a super badass and ran this race in shorts.  (For real.)  Check out her mud-caked legs...

 All in all, quite the Sunday adventure.  Obviously I've spent the rest of the day cotinuing to watch Boy Meets World while curled up here:

With this:

And lots more of this:

And that, friends, makes 12 total races in 2011.  I think I might be done until Spring... ;)

What did you do this weekend?

Favorite 90s TV show...GO!  Boy Meets World, for sure.  Hands down. :)

Being my Best Self

Or, "Why nobody likes a tired, stressed, crabby teacher"

I am EXHAUSTED tonight.  And, for the second night in a row, I'm skipping my workout.  But I'm okay with that.  Yesterday I just wasn't up to it after a rotten day at school (the only cure for which was Mad Men and falling asleep on the couch at 8:30...), and today I think I just need a mental health night after another long (but thankfully not rotten) day.  Oh, and my IT band is HELLA TIGHT again--sweet.  Sometimes I think skipping a run makes it tighter, but I'm hoping a night of foam rolling and icing will help!

It seems like I have a consistent trend of having just plain sucky Mondays at school.  Yesterday was one of those, "And WHY am I a teacher again??" kind of days...the kind of day when I pause and think, "Is there any possible way that I can keep doing this job for the next 30 years?"  Thankfully I don't have those days very often anymore.  You guys, I love teaching.  I love my students.  But the pressure is ridiculous.  I feel more this year than I ever have before that if my kids don't make their projected growth targets, it will be 100% my fault.  It's just a lot to handle sometimes.  Add a nutty group of kids on top of that pressure and it's easy to lose sight of what really matters (and lose my patience...).  I should probably have taken a deep breath and read this sign that I have hanging by my desk a few times...

Adapted from Quantum Learning

Today was MUCH better.  Before the bell rang I committed to giving the day ENERGY.  I forced myself to let go of the stress and worries and frustrations and gave it all I had.  The difference in my kids in comparison to the day before was ridiculous--in an awesome way.  See, when things are breaking down in the classroom it's easy to blame it on those crazy kids, but some times it helps so much to look at your own actions and think, "What can I be doing differently?"  The thing is, when I let the stress GET TO ME, I forget to enjoy teaching.  When I don't enjoy teaching, my kiddos don't enjoy learning.  And of course when my kiddos aren't enjoying learning, they check out.  Give up.  Quit.  And inevitably find one million and one ways to derail my lesson.  This is no good for anyone.

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Maybe I need this sign hanging by my desk too!

But when I bring energy to my teaching?  It's amazing what they can get excited about.  A few of the kiddos were even talking about how interesting our nonfiction guided reading books about women's suffrage were.  *love*  Really, there's no question that it's worth it.  So, here it is:

Consider this my personal commitment to being my best self every day at school until break (and beyond...).  My students deserve it.  They are worth it.  That means that no matter how stressed and tired I am, I WILL be bringing a high level of energy to every single lesson--even the boring ones on fractions. :)  WHO'S WITH ME??

After a successful day teaching, at 3:00 I found myself staring at....A PROJECT.  I don't know about you, but I'll be in the middle of a task that actually needs to be completed when suddenly I have an overwhelming urge to clean out my closet, rearrange my furniture, or alphabetize my files...(go ahead and mock.  I embraced this psycho part of my personality LONG ago!)  This happens CONSTANTLY in my classroom!  I've reorganized my cabinets and rearranged the furniture more times in the past 3 years than some teachers do in their whole careers.  (Usually when I have stacks of grading or lessons to plan!)  Anyways, I digress.  Last year I shared the simple system I used to keep desk clutter at a minimum...

This worked GREAT for me last year, but to tell you the truth, this year it's done nothing but collect dust.  Well, let me clarify that--I still dumped papers in the "to file" and "to grade" bins, but never emptied them.  "To copy" papers were being stored in piles on my desk.  Why?  No clue.  Consequently the "file" bin help math handouts and random literacy sheets from September that still needed to be filed.  On a high from my high-energy day, I decided to tackle this project.  Of course it evolved to a total reorganization and inevitably a big old mess in the process...

But hallelujah everything is in its place now.  I can rest peacefully tonight. :)  Don't know why I didn't think to take an after picture!  After that project, spending far too long stressing over the formatting on a math test, and stopping at the library to pick up picture books for a literacy lesson, thoughts of running were far long gone, having been taken over by two clear thoughts: GET FOOD and GET OUT OF HEELS asap.  

Sooo after that rambly post, I'm off to eat my effortless dinner, curl up on the couch, and enjoy some mindless Glee.  Oh, and there might be some peppermint ice cream in my near future... (That is, of course, before I start digging into my leg with my foam roller... :)  

Teachers: How do you keep a positive attitude and a smile on your face despite the incredible stress and pressure of the job?

Who's with me on my commitment to being my best self and bringing ENERGY to the classroom??

Division Fun...with cookies!

Do you hate teaching division?  For me, it is second only to fractions (aka my personal math teaching HELL).  My students really struggle with the concept of division at first because in general they are severely lacking in their number sense foundation, not to mention their basic facts.  To help ease into division, I like to kick off the unit with a fun, hands-on lesson each year featuring, wait for it, COOKIES!  Well, Cookie Crisp cereal to be exact.  Still good.

For this lesson, I give each kid a small cup of Cookie Crisp cereal, a dry erase board, and an expo marker.  I then read aloud the book The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins.

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In this simple picture book, kids have to continuously divide up a batch of cookies as more and more friends ring the doorbell.  We start with 12 "cookies" out.  On the first page, the cookies only need to be divided between two siblings.  We first divide the cookies, then write the division problem to answer the question, "How many cookies does each kid get to eat?"  12 / 2 = 6. Easy!  I pause after each page to have my kiddos solve the next division problem after more kids have arrived.

The kids love this amazing activity, and it is a great way to explain the concept of division with a real-life connection.  Everyone can relate to sharing something with friends!  After finishing the book, I have the kids take different numbers of cookies out to help solve other simple division problems.  It's also easy to make the connection back to multiplication at this point by skip counting each group of cookies to get back to the total.  

Oh the best part?  Afterwards you will likely have half a box of Cookie Crisp in your supply closet to help fight your after school munchies... ;)

Tofurkey Day Happenings

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  I don't know about you, but I've spent the past few days catching up with old friends, napping, reading, and working my way into a stuffing-and-green-bean induced coma...in short, it's been BLISS.  As much as I love Christmas and the festivities that surround it (not to mention the two glorious weeks off of school...), Thanksgiving break is always the most wonderful, much-needed relief from school stress.  By mid-November, in my classroom at least, the kids are showing their true colors, and I'm finding it harder and harder to keep a smile on my face.  Report cards are due, we're gearing up for round 2 of MAP testing, and the weather's starting to turn which always means less recess (read: squirrly kiddos).  Enter Thanksgiving, aka 5 days of student-free, food-full happiness.

I kicked off my Thanksgiving break Tuesday evening when I decided to abandon all previous plans of staying late at school and prepping for the following week...instead, I made a stop at the library, picked up a teen book I'd been dying to get my hands on, and settled myself in front of the fire at Caribou with some tea and yummies.   I didn't move for about 2 hours.  Perfection.

If you are wondering, the book is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver.  It. was. amazing.

Wednesday I spent the afternoon wandering IKEA with a friend.  Oh IKEA...How I love pretending I live in the amazing rooms, especially those featuring 2-story closets, libraries, and (wait for it) wine racks...I bought a new desk (thank goodness because my shabby old desk is older than I am and NOT in the stylish, antique-y way!), and spent the afternoon putting it together with the help of my tool-savvy friend.  Voila!

(Just so you know, we couldn't manage to get my old desk apart so it's currently sitting out on my balcony until my dad can come rescue it...)

Wednesday evening my book club and I saw BREAKING DAWN!!!!  So exciting.  You better believe we were sporting our Give Blood tshirts! Those were WELL EARNED!  Where to even begin with this movie...it was...AWFUL!!!!  And yet, so wonderful.  I really felt this movie was more awkwardly horrible than #3, but I loved it anyways.

On Thanksgiving morning, I met one of my bestest friends who was back in town from grad school to run a 5-mile Turkey Trot.  When I say we ran this race together, I mean we drove there together, lined up at the start together, then wished each other "Good Luck!" before he took off at a pace almost twice as fast as mine.  So goes the life of a Slow Runner. :)  This was a really nice race about 5 minutes from my parents house.  We ran 3 laps around the campus at a community college, which meant that the lead runners were lapping me before I was even halfway around!  I don't find that irritating or depressing, though--it is kind of awesome to watch such super fast runners!  Obv my IT band started giving me grief at mile 4, making the end of the run a little *uncomfortable*...I have been slacking big time on my foam rolling lately, which I know is why I can't seen to shake this tightness.  I am committing to foam rolling twice a day for the time being, in hopes of loosening this bad boy up.

 After the Turkey Trot, you better believe I ate my weight in stuffing, green beans, sweet potatoes, and, yes, tofu.  No, I did not have Tofurkey, but my wonderful Dad marinated some tofu for a side dish.  YUM!  The only thing missing from Thanksgiving was one of my older brothers, who lives in Florida.  :(

Many of my close friends have moved out of state in the past few years, but holidays usually bring everyone home!  Love it!  I had brunch with a college friend Friday morning and hosted several close high school friends at my apartment Friday night.  Because my friends and I are SUPER cool, we usually end up playing Catch Phrase or some other silly game that is a throw back to our lame high school past.  Friday, however, we were disappointed to find that the timer "beeping" wasn't working!  After I insisted that a stopwatch wouldn't work as a replacement because "the beeps need to get faster in catch phrase!" my computer geek (read: GENIUS) friend decided to write a quick program on my computer to play beeping sound that would progressively increase in speed...you know, just a normal Friday night...

After a busy and exhausting few days, I spend basically the entire day Saturday curled up under a blanket, reading and napping on and off.  Perfection.  I peeled myself off for a 3 mile run at some point, then promptly returned to the blanket for more reading.  LOOOVE quiet days.

Nothing like new Brooks to get you out and moving!

In other news, my brother and sister-in-law texted me from the Space Coast Marathon in Cocoa, Florida this morning.  They were spectating as sis-in-law's friend ran the 1/2 marathon, and they sent me a picture of her medal:

OMG!  BEST MEDAL EVER!  (To fully understand my excitement, you should know that my family has a major geek obsession with the space program and NASA.  This obsession has gone on my whole life, and only got worse when Older Brother got a job at NASA in 2004...)  I better convince my brother to stay in Florida again next year for Thanksgiving so I can come down and run this race...

What made your Thanksgiving wonderful?
What is the coolest race medal you have ever seen/gotten?

Everyday Endurance Giveaway Winner!

A big thank you to everyone who entered my giveaway!  I'm so glad you guys think this stuff is as awesome as I do.  The winner of the $100 Everyday Endurance giftcard is...

#91 Lauren @ The Running Cook!

Lauren--email me at juiceboxesandcrayolas AT gmail DOT com to claim your prize!

Will Give Blood for Twilight

If you've been reading for awhile, you might remember a sort of not-so-secret guilty pleasure reading addiction...

Oh yes, I caught the Twilight bug last year after swearing that I was NOT interested in these books.  But I read them at my book club's request...and then I reread them...and then I read them again...What can I say, I'm hooked.  Why even fight it?  I love Twilight.  Luckily my book club girls LOVE Twilight  (Just to be clear, I love Twilight but I HATE Bella.  Read my thoughts on Bella's annoying-ness here...)  Sooo, you can imagine my excitement last week when I got this email from the blood center I sometimes donate through...

Ummm sign me up!  Luckily the Book Club girls were game too.  I used to donate blood frequently in the past, but it'd been awhile, and this was the perfect extra incentive. :)

One hour, one pint of blood, one gatorade, and one I-think-I'm-gonna-pass-out moment later, and I had my tshirt, not to mention an ultra-processed cosmic brownie.  Score.  Oh and of course it's always nice to help out. (BTW I didn't pass out, but it was a near miss!)  We ended the night with some pumpkin pie ice cream...YUM!

While this wasn't the most exciting evening, it was a fun way to see friends midweek and do something nice for others at the same time.  And of course, who can go wrong with ice cream and Twilight apparel?  ;) You better believe I'll be wearing this shirt when we see Breaking Dawn next week!

A Case of the Mondays

Some teachers dread Fridays every week.  Not because it's the last day before the weekend (duh), but because of the crazy kiddos.  Well, I feel like it takes my kids until about Friday to get back into their routines every week!  I'm 99% sure that most of my little friends run wild all weekend long with zero bed times and zero structure.  Mondays are always a bit...trying.  It's not all them either--I'm definitely not my best on Mondays.

Today was especially frustrating.  I think I used up the majority of my patience during my oh so special PLC (team) meeting at 9:45am, thus making for an interesting rest of the day.  Working collaboratively as a PLC ideally means less work for everyone and better quality everything, but some days it just means arguing, differing opinions, and zero productivity.  Today was one of those days.  Ugh.  I'm still recovering.  Oh, and the clock in my classroom was broken.  Sweet.  Did I mention I don't wear a watch?  And keeping an eye on the clock is kinda important in the classroom?

After a frustrating day, I dragged myself to my tutoring job and scraped together any last shreds of patience I'd managed to cling onto.  Thankfully, my after school kiddo was ready to learn.  If he hadn't been, let's just say it wouldn't have been pretty.  I then dragged myself home.  After majorly failing at cross training all last week, my plan for the evening was to start the week off right by going for a swim around 8 or 8:30pm, giving the pool at the gym a chance to clear out a bit after the evening workout rush.  When I walked in my door, I knew that if I didn't IMMEDIATELY change into my swim suit, there was no way in hell that my planned swim was going to happen.  So I changed.  And sat around in a swim suit and yoga pants writing report card comments.  (While changing early was good for my motivation, it wasn't so good when I inevitably had to pee an hour later...oh the challenges of a one-piece suit...)

Several report card comments, way too many Pinterest pins, and one whiney phone vent to College Friend later, I dragged my crabby self to the gym and hopped into the *empty* pool.  Bliss.  I'm a terrible swimmer (in fact, I kind of panic in the water any time I swim a stroke other than breast stroke...so much for the years of swimming lessons as a child), but I love love love a nice easy swim workout.  While running will always be my true love, swimming is a close second.  Nothing like a bunch of methodical laps to clear my head.  I feel so. much. better now, and am DETERMINED to track down my positive attitude in time for school tomorrow.  Maybe I need to make Monday night swims a weekly thing...this could be good for my soul.

How was your Monday?


Late night workouts--love or hate?  

Trick or Treat Trot 10K Race Recap

Have you entered my Everyday Endurance giveaway???  You could win a $100 gift card for this super awesome active clothing site!  

Hi friends :)  It feels like it's been years!  I have been in a big time blogging rut.  I plan posts, take pictures, and then sit down to write...and nothing.  I end up reading or watching tv or working on school work instead.  Life's been busy, but good.  And the time that hasn't been busy has been a good kind of lazy filled with new books and much needed couch relaxing.  I'm planning some catch-up posts about both running and school, but I realized that I am about 2 weeks late with a race recap!  So here it is...

On Sunday, October 30th I ran the Trick or Treat Trot 10K.  This was both my longest race and longest run since my July injury debacle!  Also, it was my first 10K race--love that automatic PR. :)  I registered for this race ages ago with an early registration discount through my gym...at that time, I thought a 10K would be no problem!  I had just run my first half marathon and already had my eyes set on a second one (or two).    Well, after the injury nonsense, things kind of changed. :) As the race got closer I realized that 6.2 miles was going to be a little more challenging for me than I'd anticipated months ago!  I have been increasing my distance and building up a solid running base, but had been stuck in a rut of 3 and 4 mile runs.  During the week of the race, to make things more interesting, my hip flexors became the most tight, painful muscles ever thanks to a couple particularly grueling strength training and yoga classes.  Then, the temperature dropped and the winds picked up.  Yikes!  I was determined to run this race though, mostly because I have already wasted over $100 this year in race registrations, and damnit I am not wasting another dollar!!!  The night before when everyone I knew was out at Halloween parties, I curled up in bed with True Blood (my latest TV addiction) and pasta...

To be followed by dairy-free chocolate ice cream with bananas.  The ultimate pre-run dessert. :)

Unable to convince anyone (icluding my parents) to wake up early on a nasty cold morning post-Halloween parties to come to the race with me, I drove myself to Big City and caught this glorious sunrise over the lake.  I decided to take it as a good omen for the rest of the morning!  Since it was chilly and windy out, after I picked up my packet I killed time sitting in my car watching The Office on my phone (thank YOU netflix instant!), having decided that staying warm was more important than stretching out my legs...I stand by my choice.

Unfortunately, that sunrise was the only beautiful part of the race!  The sky was gray and cloudy the whole time.  I've run several 5Ks on this lakefront course, and normally it is gorgeous running along and seeing the waves and boats on the lake (the closest thing we in the Midwest get to an ocean view!).  Today the lakefront path just meant extra winds!  Yikes!  I tried to start the race conservatively, knowing my legs weren't at their best still and that it would be a challenge to get through.  My legs just didn't want to go slow, though, so I set off quicker than planned.  The first 3.5 miles or so felt great!

Turns out most of the runners were running the 5K course, so after 3 miles the runners were really spaced out.  There were a few times I couldn't even see anyone else, which felt weird because this wasn't a small town race.  I kept plugging along though, slow and steady, until I felt that familiar pain on the outside of my knees around mile 4...yep, my pesky IT bands were awake and unhappy.  I normally run just three days a week, Tuesday, Thursday, and once on the weekend.  Because of those tight hips after yoga, I skipped my Thursday run this week, and anytime I take even a couple days of hiatus, my IT bands tighten right up--I should have known.  Oh well!  I stopped to stretch the ITs a few times during those last 2 miles, walked a little extra, but just kept moving forward trying to ignore the knees and how incredibly badly I had to pee.  (No woods to dive off into at a city race...)  

At mile 6 I found some energy left to sprint to the finish, and finished strong.  Somehow despite the IT band pain at the end and the extra walking, I managed to finish the race with negative splits.  Don't know how, but I'll take it!  I think I must have programmed my legs to, no matter what, speed up as I run.  I'm not sure how else to explain the accidental pacing!  I finished in 1:09:27, an average page of 11:03/mi.  (<--This is fast for me as slow as it might sound for most of you!)  I'm happy with how this race turned out, despite the pain--it just felt good to race a distance longer than a 5K again!  I really loved the 10K distance, and will definitely be looking for more 10Ks next season!  

 This has been a great fall of races, including the Girls on the Run Fall 5K yesterday morning which I "raced" with two of the girls I coached in Spring.  Loved it!  BUT, the season isn't over yet!  I am looking forward to running a 5mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving with one of my best friends from high school, and to sloshing through mud and snow at this awesome winter trail race with Miss R!  (I convinced her to run with me only by telling her that finishers get a stocking cap and a fried chicken meal...)

From the race website: This isn't a gimmicky, glamorous, trendy run through the woods with a couple man- made mud pits. The Challenge is an authentic, european-style, 4.9 mile cross country race featuring natural bogs, streams, open fields and rolling hills.

Mrs. Mentor Teacher ran it last year and told me that many runners duct tape their shoes on so they don't come off on the muddy trails!  Yikes!  Can't wait. :)

Any more races on the calendar for you this fall/winter?