Some things will probably never change, like the somewhat restless sleep the night before a race or the second guessing my wardrobe for race day. I was struggling with the decision of whether to wear long sleeves or not when Dan told me that the temperature had already risen 4 degrees in the last hour. I also realized that it was later than I thought so I needed to book it to Woodman's to meet Kim and Jen.
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| On your mark.... |
Meeting up with friends to carpool to the race was definitely calming because we were able to talk about lots of things which kept my mind off the race. We got there really early and spent a lot of time walking around visiting the sponsor booths and watching the half marathoners start their race. Soon it was time for us to begin but I hadn't seen Dan yet. A last minute change of plans for him meant he was going to be able to come watch us race and that really meant the world to me. Shortly before we were ready to begin Dan walked up and gave me the needed boost of energy and excitement that I needed.
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| Jen M, Jen B, Kim - let's get this race started! |
Finally, we'd been waiting about an hour before our start time, we were lined up to start the race and we were off. Jen and I had planned to run intervals for the race. Our plan was to run 3 minutes then walk 2 minutes and repeat for the duration of the 3.1 miles. After the first 3 minute interval we both felt awesome so we decided to change our strategy and run 4 minutes, walk 2 minutes. At the end of mile 1 my Forerunner alerted us that we logged a 12:14 mile. I told Jen and I know we were both surprised. It hadn't really dawned on me that we started out too fast and we needed to slow our pace if we were going to be able to keep running for the whole race. We pushed on and logged mile 2 at 13:04 and mile 3 at 13:58.
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Jen B is "encouraging me" to keep going. I {heart} her!
Plus don't you love our matching running tights/skirts?! |
One thing I didn't like about this race is that it consisted of two out and backs. If you're not familiar this is basically where you run one direction, get to a certain point, turn around and run the exact same path but in the opposite direction. I'm not crazy about that because there is nothing new to look at so I'm much more likely to get into my head rather than enjoy the run. Plus I felt like I knew how far it was and at least at one point it felt like we were 10 miles away from the start rather than 1 mile away. I know they changed the first two miles of the race course because they had so many people sign up to do the 5K so this might be the reason. The other problem was that the first mile and a half (or so) was mostly downhill so the back part of the first out and back was mostly uphill and even though the hills weren't really bad it's enough to psyche you out. I guess I need to work on that part so I'm better prepared for hills next time.
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| Hanging with the Easter Bunny after the race |
The best part of the race was running with Jen. While I think it is a little difficult (mostly because I'm not used to it) to run with someone else it was really the kick in the *ss I needed when we were about a quarter mile out from the finish. I had told Jen that one goal I had for the race was to cross the finish line running and she reminded me of that yesterday. So, we crossed the finish line pushing it hard and I logged a new PR (for the 2nd time this week) of 40:20! I was completely thrilled, you know once I had caught my breath and all!
Great job!!!
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