So this post is WAYY overdue! But here it is: The Wolfson Children’s Challenge was started by Paul Wilson. Watch the incredible story behind this unique race here. It is a 55K race with the choice to run as an individual or break up the 34 some miles into legs for a team relay.

This is the third year I’ve participated in the event and the second consecutive year I’ve organized a team. This year, they moved the location to inside the baseball grounds downtown. In previous years, it was held outside Everbank Field.

With this sort of event, I assume at least a few people will drop out due to last minute demands or family emergencies, which inevitably happened. One teammate was stuck in NYC because of the snow storm and another had a family memorial to attend. Luckily, I was able to convince B and our high school buddy John to join the team a few days before the event. John was such a trooper! After working in Saint Augustine the night before until 2 am, he showed up downtown before me! This year, we lacked a pop-up tent, but we made do by arranging our couple of lawn chairs around mine and B’s bags to claim an area. It was close to freezing when our first runner took off.

Amanda celebrating.

Amanda booked it, despite rolling her ankle during ultimate frisbee the night before. She passed the ankle monitor/race chip device off to her significant other, Matt and then we quickly found her the beer station.

Once the sun was up, other teammates slowly started arriving. I was most excited for my friend Hayley’s leg. This was her very first 5K and she had been training for it for a month or two. Her sweet husband even showed up to surprise her right as it was her turn to run.

Hayley ready to run!

My oldest sister, Anna Laura even came to run the event, mostly because I forced her to. She hates running. And she nearly gave me a panic attack not answering her phone, until I remembered she is a college student and it was 8 am on a Saturday.

My best friend from high school, Hayley, also joined the team and started training a few months before the event. She was so excited to run her first 5K and made great time!

Our fastest runner was my coworker and friend, Whitney. She booked it and ran her 5k in 26 minutes and some change.

I waited all day for my turn and was unsure about what to eat. Because a few people dropped out, John and I agreed to run the extra legs so our team would still complete the 55k. When John started his double-leg, I was getting really hungry but was nervous about eating too much before running. Plus, the weather had really warmed up.

Then before I knew it, it was my turn! The first mile and a half of the course was a little odd. The course took runners about half way around Everbank Field before turning around and running a small loop in the parking lot and then heading back towards and around the baseball grounds. Mile 2 takes you along scenic Bay Street towards the Landing. I had really started to overheat before the breeze coming off the river on Bay Street started to cool me down. I felt great finishing my first leg and crossing the finish line. Seriously, check out this finish line photo:

But as I turned the corner out of the baseball grounds, I was NOT excited to run the entire course AGAIN. Point-to-point relay races, like the Ragnar Relay series, are way more intense but much less boring. The second time around the course I had to tell myself mind over muscle pain and power through. While I didn’t finish with my best time, I did have a fantastic day hanging out with my friends and raising money for a great cause.

Had a blast running a 55K relay for @wolfsonchildrens with these fine folks! Thank you to everyone who donated! The event is continuing to accept donations to help Jacksonville-area children at Wolfson’s. Check my bio for the link to donate! #forthekids #wolfsons #10k #running

A photo posted by Monica Rose (@monicaroseruns) on Jan 30, 2016 at 2:54pm PST

What’s the most fun race you’ve ever ran?

I had been looking for a local race to sign up for when my friend Becca, of Chambray + Coffee, suggested the annual Subaru Thanksgiving Day Classic. I jumped at the chance to do something new this Turkey Day and registered weeks ahead of time. My favorite thing about this race is that organizers used packet pick-up as a canned food drive for local homeless shelters.

Thanks to Becca’s wisdom from running this race in previous years, we made sure to get to the race start extra early before police started shutting down roads. This year there was a record turnout with hundreds of people showing up to register Thanksgiving morning. A finisher medal was offered for the first time this year and I think that may have motivated more people to run.

The on-site registration line was insane.

Walking up to the race area, Becca and I ran right into an old friend from high school. Jacksonville really is the biggest small town. After pinning our race bibs on and making a porta-potty pit stop, we  took  advantage of the finisher photo op spot before the race started.

We look nice because this was *before* the race.

I was surprised  by how close the 10-minute-per-mile pace flag was to the actual starting line. Fall in Florida is wildly unpredictable. One year the timing mats were frozen. The previous year, the temperatures were in the 80s. This year, it was nice and cool – at least until the sun got all the way up. After the national anthem and the gun, we were off!

The course is an entirely flat loop through the Mandarin area. After the first half a mile on a major road, we turned into a more residential area with lots of oak trees and hanging Spanish moss. I felt great and felt like I was going pretty fast – until a dad pushing a double stroller passed me.

I only stopped to walk at the one water station on the 6K course. A quarter mile before the finish line there were other runners who had finished that walked back onto the course to cheer on friends, so I really picked up the pace at the end.

As soon as I crossed the timing pads, I grabbed a water bottle and found the beautiful pile of bananas. The only time I ever crave a banana is after a race.

I was so happy to collect my medal and snag a picture of my race time. My watch read 9:28 minute-per-mile pace, but the official race results gave me a chip time of 9:16 minute-per-mile pace.

As soon as my friends and I found each other in the crowd, we headed home to shower and make our way to the annual block party at Pete’s Bar in Neptune Beach. It’s a great local tradition of mimosas, bloody marys and pilgrim costumes on Thanksgiving morning.

All in all – I loved adding this race to my holiday tradition and would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to gourge themselves on turkey guilt-free.

Football season is finally here! My fantasy football league had our draft earlier today. I think I managed to build a decent roster despite this error showing up multiple times:

More importantly, the return of football season means heading downtown to tailgate with lifelong friends and cheer on my Jaguars. This year, the Jacksonville Jaguar Foundation brought back an awesome 5K race that takes you through the team’s practice fields, up and down the ramps  of the stadium and finishes on the field. The best part is they have cameras set up, so you can see yourself run on the world’s largest video boards right before the finish line. And the proceeds go to a great cause – youth sports and fitness programs in northeast Florida.

This race was set for Saturday evening. My non-competitive runner wave started at 6:15 in what felt like 100 degree weather.  I never know what to eat or drink for evening races. Morning races are pretty straightforward. Wake up, drink some water, eat some toast with peanut butter and head out the door.  Right before the race, I was at my friend Andrea’s daughter’s first birthday party – surrounded by delicious Spanish food and only let myself have a few bites.

While waiting for the race to start, I talked to two nice women who drove down from Valdosta for the race. They asked me how tough it was going to be with the ramps after I told them I ran the same race three years ago. I was surprisingly positive and said the inclines aren’t so bad (big fat lie – they suck when you’ve already ran a mile in 110 degree heat. ) The ladies advised me to invest in a runner’s belt after seeing my keys tied up in my shoelaces. I wore shorts with no key pocket and thought that would be better than carrying them. Big mistake – they fell out a quarter mile in and I had to stop, retie my shoe and then run holding my keys.

My legs were not ready for those inclines. I had to walk up two of them. I definitely need more practice running up and down hills before my half marathon in San Francisco. I had tickets to a beer festival happening downtown at the same time as the race, so I just kept picturing cold beer waiting for me when my legs got sore.

I didn’t get a PR and now I wish I had stopped and gotten a picture of myself on the MASSIVE video boards. Running on the field is a really cool experience and I always look over to section 142 where I spend game days with my friends who have season tickets. It would have been nice for the race to start later so that runners could get the “under the stadium lights” experience.

I crossed the finish line and a wonderful volunteer took my timing chip off my shoe and retied it. God bless those volunteers. I grabbed a banana and managed to find a friendly stranger to take my picture with my race medal before leaving for the beer festival.

I can’t wait until the next time I climb those ramps – this time to see the Jaguars play.