Slacking

So it appears I am realy slacking on my posts lately!

Last Saturday 12/17 I ran the Pigskin Classic 5K. It was my second slowest 5K of the year. Thankfully the fun factor of this race more than made up for my time!!

First off, there were lots of friends all out there running this race. The good guys were wearing red of course!!! I headed out behind JP, who always beats me. I hung with her for a mile before the inevitable slowdown started.

Mile 1 6:12

My super light weight Nike shoes were bothering me as I had my chip bouncing around and I kept looking down for fear that it would fall off. Funny, that my warm up did not show this but I suppose the speed was quite different.

Mile 2 6:54
Mile 3 7:15 I had made the mistake of opting for my headphones which quit working at the start of mile 3. :-( Then I had to head up a hill which I run regularily which seemed so much steeper and longer than usual at this point in the race!

Finish Time 21:11 (6:52 pace). Time for beer now! After the race watched everyone else come in and grabbed a beer. The best part was that they gave away these really cool Bud Light Cooler bags with built in speakers that you can plug your ipod into to the top 5 men and top 5 female. Luckily I was able to snag one of those at the award ceremony during the tailgate party!!! Sweet! And to top it all off, the good guys won! Go Buckeyes!!

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Sunday I woke up sore from the 5K and had a rather pathetic "long run" day. I had intended to hit a swim clinic Sunday but I just felt crappy and decided to keep my suffering to the morning and skip the afternoon swim clinic.

Monday and Tuesday, I enjoyed some easy 5-6 mile runs with Salty. Every run is better with company and I was thankful to have some to get my butt outside in these cooler weather temps.

Wednesday took it easy with a very social swim with ESpeed. There was much more talking than swimming!

Thursday I ran the 5 mile turkey trot in downtown Cleveland. I lost my splits but ended with a time of 34:56 for a 6:59 pace. Again I wore stupid headphones that quit mid-race! Frustrating! Some races I opt for the music, some I don't. I just hate when I plan to have music and then my dumb ipod acts up (which has been happening frequently lately!!!). I felt better for the turkey trot than I had for the Pigskin. It was a little longer and my pace just felt more even, even up the same hill from the prior weekend! About 75 yards from the end a lady tried to pass me and I was not going to have it. We started sprinting and I gave it all I could to maintain the lead. I guess I should have applied that extra a little more evenly the last mile as I came across the line gasping for air! In the end, that lady must have started behind me with her chip time as she finised 2 seconds ahead of me in my age group so I took second place.

It was the highest I have ever placed in the big race and it will be good enough to get some free Malley's chocolate! On a side note it was a windy sleet/rainy/snowy day and I was chilled to the bone. Some days it is just an accomplishment to get out and run in those icky conditions!

Friday, my training consisted of power shopping. I left the house by 4:15 AM with sis and arrived home at 3:30 PM. Despite crowds, we got lots of deals, people seemed friendly and we enjoyed good girl time! That night I hit my mom's side of the family Thanksgiving and Chicago marathon cousin, Ar and I "A Team" cleaned up on the pool table. It was one fun evening with the family!

Saturday morning I dragged my tired butt out of bed for a long run with A & T. I was dragging...! We set out for our 14 mile run on the Buckeye Trail. I decided I could go that long without water. As we headed up and down the trail, again my clumsy butt caught a rock under some leaves and managed to take a tumble. My tuck and roll was less painful than my fall the prior time that knocked the wind right out of me.

We ended up taking a wrong turn somewhere at one point and realized we were off course. We hit this road and tried to figure out which way to run and ended up heading the wrong direction we would later find out. I was so thirsty at this point. I had too many beers the prior night and the two small sips of water I stole from T was not nearly adequate. The snow was looking tasty! As we hit Brecksville Rd at least we knew we were finally heading in the right direction. YEAH! Then we found Snowville and had some nice downhill. As we finally hit Riverview we had two miles to go and I opted for the road as I figured it would be faster and I was ready to be done and get something to drink! We arrived back to our cars 2 hours and 58 minutes later. I figure we ended up with around 17 miles on the day. Water never tasted so good!!!