Kick Ass Weekend in Review!

Friday night I hit the tri club meeting and enjoyed listening to a interesting speaker on running and got to try out some new exercises at Velocity Sports, where the meeting was held. Of course afterwards, we headed to bar for some food and beer. (Carb loading for Saturday's run!)

Saturday I awoke early to head out to the race and had some extra time so I made a new play list for my Ipod. I left a little early so I would have plenty of time to get a decent parking spot and a good warm-up. About 6 miles down the road I realized I could not find my Ipod. After pulling over to search my bag I decided I would turn around to get it. In my head, I just felt I would not run as fast without it. So I get home and still can't find. Then I head back out and grab my bag and dump it out to find I had it the whole time. Guess now I am running late for no reason as this has now taken about 1/2 hour. A little frustrated, I get back on the road.

This morning was as warm as it had felt in some time. My car said it was 46 on the way up there and it was pretty cloudy. As I drove it started to get darker and finally just let loose with rain. Fortunately as I neared the race it quit raining but I saw no where to park. I ended up parking in the total ghetto. I was nervous even being at my car by myself. I rushed to grab my stuff, get back to my car to drop off the bag while looking over my shoulder a little uneasy. This really was not a good neighborhood. After a short warm-up I caught up with a friend who was droppin stuff back at his car so i went with him as there was still about 15 minutes. He parked in a good spot and I spied an open spot in his lot so I ran to grab my car to move it. Thank goodness as I had been feeling so uneasy about things before. Knowing I had my nice camera, my purse, my sirius unit, and a bunch of other stuff in that car in that neighborhood just was not sitting well with me. With the car moved, I was ready to race!

I started near the front of the big crowd. There had been a 2 mile that started 45 minutes earlier and between that group and the 5 mile group there was over 2700 runners. As the start was signaled I was off. The first mile had a lot of downhill and everyone's times were fast. I was feeling good but when I looked at mile watch at mile 1 and it read 5:49, it scared me a bit. Crap, I thought...this is a 5 mile race. Slow down!! So I eased off a bit and came through mile 2 at 6:44. I was in a good rhythm and was just trying to run a nice steady pace. I started to wonder where the heck mile 3 was. I looked down to see my watch read 12 something and knew I had missed it. That was not great for my mental game but at least I knew I had less than 2 to go. At mile 4 the watch read 14:03 for 3&4. as I came back into town I knew I still had a decent hill to climb so I dug in and tried to finish strong. After the steep grade at the bottom I managed to increase speed to the finish line. I was stoked to see the clock read 33:37 as I crossed the finish line. Going into the race, my goal in my head was to break 35:00 or 7 min mile pace. So this finish was fantastic at a 6:43 pace! Even bettter! I ended up 2nd in my age group and 9th female overall. The beers tasted good after that!

This was year 4 of the St. Malachi run for me. It is amazing to see how far things have come!!

2004 50:08
2005 41:20
2006 37:35
2007 33:37 !!!

So after Saturday I woke up feeling a little less than fresh for my 20 miler. Perhaps it was the beer to a degree, but my calfs were also pretty tight. Thankfully I was running with the terrific people from SERC who are an inspiration. After some good conversation, everything sort of fell into place and we were moving along a a decent pace. We did a 12 mile loop and then an 8 mile loop. The pace was even and the weather was beautiful. Total time was 2:57, actual running time was 2:44 ish (I think). Holy crap, I can't believe we were averaging and 8:12 ish pace if that is right. So we finished our 20 strong and I felt good. I only ran one 20 before my fall marathon and I felt AWFUL. This time, all is good and not even ridiculously sore or tired. Woohoo!!

Alright I better go as I need to get my butt in the shower....no time to proof read as I must get into the shower!!!