The majority of last week was spent running easy and getting ready for the Runners World Festival. While I knew, both courses were difficult, and I’m not in shape to PR yet, I wanted to feel somewhat fresh. All of that was thrown out of the window when we did a new workout the day before. Honestly, it was fun, and I’m okay with that.
Monday: | Easy Run |
Tuesday: | Easy Run |
Wednesday: | Easy Run with Montana before she moved |
Thursday: | Rest |
Friday: | November Project |
Saturday: | Runners World Festival 5k (18:41) |
Sunday | Runners World Festival 13.1 (1:24.17) |
Easy Runs:
As usual, there is nothing much to say about easy runs. There was nothing particularly good or bad about them. Soon, I think I’ll be ready to add an additional speed workout back into my routine. I’ve been running healthy for over two months, and my base is just about back.
November Project:
Any runner has likely heard of November project. I had beforehand, but I had never done a workout before. I knew it was intense and it didn’t disappoint. There was a Pop Up in Bethlehem at the Runner’s World Festival. All of the Runners World Influencers were asked to attend, and it was great to meet a lot of people. We had to climb the Steel stack stairs, do push-ups and dips and a lot of core work. It was a lot of fun, and I don’t regret going, but I was definitely sore for the races!

Runners World Festival 5k: 18:41
I’ll have a full recap this week, but I’m happy with the time. The course is hilly, and after November project I have no complaints. My splits were 6:16, 5:45 and 6:02. I placed fourth woman overall.
Runners World Festival 13.1 (1:24.17)

The half marathon was honestly my biggest shock of the weekend. My hopeful goal was to be faster than the 1:28 I ran in 2015. I couldn’t believe when I crossed the finish line in 1:24. I never felt good during the race (tired legs and lack of sleep) but I never felt bad either.
Thoughts:
I’m really happy with how this week went and I have zero complaints. I had a great time at the Runners World Festival and two great races. This week will probably be filled with Runners World Festival race recaps and behind the scenes recaps too.
Posts from last week:
Fall Running Products I’m Enjoying
LunarGlide 8 Review
6 Weeks of Deployment Later…
Questions for you:
Do you do better at hilly race courses or flat?
I’m beginning to think I run better on hilly half marathon courses. This was my third fastest half marathon behind Carlsbad and Atlantic City (2014). Carlsbad was a rolling hilly (to me) course too.
How was your week of training?
i can’t tell if my body responds better to flat or hilly. I think my brain likes the grade change though!
Holy cow! Amazing, Hollie. Congratulations on your races. I live very close to the “original” November Project. I haven’t been to their workouts b/c I would have to drive there and get home just a bit too late to get the dog walked and myself ready for work 🙂
Congrats on 2 great races! You did really well in them and I can’t wait to read more about them as well as the festival.
We don’t have hills here so I guess I will say flat. I seem to do well on any run involving the many bridges here, though that’s different than hills.
I love hilly courses. Hills are where I excel. I use them to make up ground. For some reason, perhaps because they challenge me, I get adrenalized to hit hills on a course whether it be a trail run or road race.
Great job on your two races over the weekend!
Dang girl. Heavy weekend and you crushed it!
I saw they were adding the November project to the line up for influencers and wondered how that was going to work before before racing! But it does sound like fun. And regardless, you nailed both races! Especially the half- amazing! Congrats on surprising yourself with such a great run!
What a fun weekend!
I’d love to attend the RW festival one year – it just sounds like so much fun!
Looking forward to the recaps. I need to make it up to Bethlehem for RW one of these years.
Congrats on the races! Especially the unexpectedly (for this point in training) half!
Also, I do better on hill races because I’ve learned how to power up and float down, which is often where the competition fails. 🙂
Congrats, that is an AMAZING time! Haha tack on about 50 minutes and you’ve got my half time from this weekend!
Awesome races Hollie, especially back to back and after the November Project workout!! (My boyfriend just started going to the November Project workouts at the Art Museum steps in Philly, and they sound killer)