Saturday June 21st. First day of summer. The longest day of the year. This was the view from my driveway
at 6 am as I left for my race. 68 degrees. 90% humidity. Awesome (insert sarcasm here).
It poured rain as I drove into work Friday afternoon. I had a moment where I actually wished for thunderstorms and tornados for the morning so my race would be canceled. I really did not feel like racing. However, I knew that if I didn't race, I wasn't going to run. What I really wanted to do was sleep in, then get online and follow all my fellow runners that were tackling Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN. Since I had to be back at work in the afternoon, if I didn't run early, I wasn't going to run...and, left to my own devices, that wasn't going to happen. So race it was.
Midnight - I finally got off work.
1 am - home; bed sometime after
5 am - up...well not really. Awake but didn't really get out of bed til, oh, 5:30.
6 am - out the door to drive to Columbus
7 am - pick up race packet and start moving around
8 am - race time
It was miserably hot by race time. I felt OK at the start but then got really reluctant to push the pace once everyone settled into their respective "places" - meaning I wasn't too motivated to catch the person in front of me. Then I realized I was slowing down way too much and had to kick it up a few gears. My pace was all over the place...
Mile 1 - 7:44
Mile 2 - 8:41
Mile 3 - 8:17
last 0.1 - 0:50
Official time - 25:32 (8:13 pace)
My goal for this race was to just run 25-something so I was fine with that. I knew that my second mile was slow but I also knew I had plenty of reserve to pick it up at the end to get in on time, although I always get nervous sprinting down towards the finish chute when I can see the numbers turning.
Ended up 6th overall in the women's race and first in the 40-49 age group.
I was back home by 10:30 am. By the time I had showered and changed, I started getting the first of my text alerts for the runners I was tracking in Duluth. There were 13 friends running, but I could only track 4 by text alert so I got online to keep up. Then I got really sleepy...
I tried to grab a quick nap. I had to leave by 1:30 pm to go to work. Thought I'd nap til 1:00. Shortly after 12:30 though, my phone dinged. They were finishing. My friend Trena was the first of the group. She made her goal of lowering her Boston qualifying time by running 3:32. I knew everyone else would be coming in after that so I gave up on sleeping.
1:30 pm - left the house to go to work. Friends are still finishing.
2:30 pm - work
It was basically the shift from hell...
11:40 pm - DONE! clocked out and checked to see how everyone else had finished
Definitely the longest day...
One more shift today then it's off to Western States tomorrow morning.
Travel Safely! Can't wait to hear how it went. Our Saturday was looooong as well. We spent the day at the new Grand Park in Westfield for a Lacrosse Tournament. Our team played 4 games. 4 long games in the sun and heat. 2 back to back in the morning, 1 1/2 hour break and two more back to back early afternoon. My poor Sunshine is beat...although she has training all week! When you get back we definitely need to try a trail run...a SLOW trail run ;) Have fun!
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