Will Run For Ice Cream

Well it happened. I said that I wasn't going to 'go there', that I wasn't going to allow myself to get caught up in comparing, but it happened Last year, I placed 3rd place overall female for the first time in my life. And I had high hopes this year of PRing at the same race. ( My First Time Placing In An Overall Category ) And not just that race, but my other races this year. I had planned that this year would be ' the ' year. You know the one that I'm talking about - where things just lined up. Because last year other than this one race that I'm referring too definitely wasn't the year that I had hoped for. So when I saw the posting today that the race was back, well, it was like a little jab.

For those of you who have been holding your breath in anticipation of my latest race reports, I apologize for my delay. Life has truly just kicked it into high gear, and I've had to let things sort of slip. But you can take a breath now, here is what happened. :) Capital 10 Miler - I could sum this up with "huge downpours, cold temps, harsh wind, flooded paths, sleet pelting face stinging" 10 Miles of insanity. And one of the hardest medals that I have fought for to receive. I went into this race knowing that my goal pace of a 9 minute mile probably wasn't going to happen. In fact, I ran the race naked. Yep. I didn't even turn on the garmin. I stopped at the port-a-potty once. My shoe came untied twice. I hopped over puddles - then gave up and ran through them. I was soaked. I was cold. And when I hit the bridges going over the river, and the sleet started pelting my face, I just wanted to be done. As in D O N E .... done. So I picked up the pace on the bridg...

As I started thinking about this part year, I just realized that I completed not one but 2 Marathons this year. I PRed a Half in June, and then ran back to back Half Marathons in September. I followed that by a PR run for my last Marathon in November, although it wasn't the race that I wanted.  As I type this post I ran 1000 miles for 2013.. not too shabby. Toss in a 5K and numerous training runs, it's been a very memorable and lesson learning year for me.  What I learned from this year and will tell my future self in 2014:  Listen to your body. Training plans are great tools, but they are just that - tools. If your plan says get in 20 miles, but at mile 10 into the run you feel pain, for pete's sake stop. Don't keep pushing through. Just stop.  Training runs are not races so stop running them as if they are.  Enjoy the journey in addition to the race. Don't just focus on the race and the end result. Focus on what got you there.  Learn some...

Can I get a WHOOOO HOOOOOOOO! Yep, I PRed. I'm not sure yet of my 'official' time. My garmin read 2:11:19. I'm thinking the clock was 2:11:21, but the results still haven't posted yet. Regardless, my time last year was 2:19:12 so this was a PR for me. How was it? It was amazing, awful, this is great, this pretty much sucks, I'm so glad I'm doing this, whose bright idea was this anyway and then I hit mile 10ish.. do not walk, do not walk, do not walk, do not walk. I knew that my pace had slowed. I was actually on target (for awhile) for a 2:10 finish. But I felt myself getting slower. I did walk a few times here and there on some hills in the last few miles, but I forced myself to pick it back up and to keep going. I was so close to getting in under 2:15 which was my 2nd goal. My first goal was to finish. My second was 2:15. My third was 2:10. So, as you can imagine, I was truly happy with myself. Around 11 or so miles, I felt the first twinge of a cram...

Well I did it - sore knee/leg and all. It was cold. I couldn't get my hands warm. I had on gloves, but still couldn't feel my fingers. I told myself to stop worrying about it. I wasn't running with my fingers anyway. After the start, we went up a gradual incline which was then followed by a fairly steep hill. On my incline on the steep hill, I felt it. Yep, that tug on the outside of the right knee. I told myself that it was too late now and I just had to push through. And push through I did. My lungs were screaming, but I didn't listen. At mile two I was around 17:15. I wanted to keep up the pace, but could feel that I was waning. I told myself to just get up the hill and then I could go downhill and try to recover. I did fine on the downhill; it was when we hit the flat again. Everything was burning - my lungs - my legs. I was starting to get passed by more and more people. I knew that my pace was slowing. Then I saw someone that I had just met before the race, an...