Saturday, December 10, 2011

Relief... and a Race!

I'm slowly making my way back to blogland. My Writing Theory class ended on Friday. WHEW!!! The instructor wasn't kidding when she said it was a 16-week class compressed into 7 weeks. OUCH! Much pain. I have less than a week left in 20th Century American Literature and then I. AM. DONE. Next semester will be my last semester of school EVER. Never say never, but I am pretty sure I will NEVER go back. Ending my academic career with an MA in English is fine by me.

So running... What's going on with that?

I've spent the past few weeks feeling like I'm running in another person's body: a healthy person's body!

I'll save what I've done differently for another post (i.e. I'm dangling a carrot to bring you back to reading my blog. Ha!).

For now, I want to tell you about my 10k this morning! This will be the lamest race report ever because well... it was a lame race.

I've made no bones about the fact that I'm not a huge fan of my town. I don't want to diss Parks and Recreation too badly because, you know, they did a good job today with the resources that they have available. The guy that gave out the medals to the winners is one of the kayaking/fishing dudes that took care of my oldest son at his day camps this past summer. He's a nice guy who does a lot for Parks and Rec., so I don't want to be a turd and make fun of the race.

(But yeah... low rent production, KWIM? Then again, the entry fee was $14. What should I expect?)

Let's interrupt for a quick pre-race photo. Because that's about it for photos. Everyone stayed home and chilled out while I went over to the park (2.54 miles away) to race.


I will tell you all about my Brooks PureFlows in another post. LOVE THEM.

So the race...

I was told by Coach to keep the first 2 miles at a 7:45 pace and if that felt ok, I could turn on my afterburners after that.

I'm entirely too lazy to download my Garmin onto the computer, but if memory serves, Miles 1 and 2 were around a 7:40 pace. I felt great, so I slowly started to pick it up.

With about .5 to go, I laid the smack down because I saw that I was 4th place female. There was no way that I was going to catch #1 or #2, but #3 was right there, and I couldn't help myself. I passed her with probably .03 miles left (it was something ridiculous). She wasn't having any of that, and we ended up crossing the finish line together. Total photo finish.

The good news: I finished in 43:32. That is *technically* a 10K PR for me. My last mile was a 6:36 (or at least when I stopped it at .95... see below). Holy cow!

The bad news: My Garmin read 5.95 miles at the finish line. What happened to the last .25 miles?!? For that reason, I don't feel like I should count this as a new PR.

At any rate, the 5.95 miles in 43:32 comes out to a 7:18 pace. I am stoked by that! I ended up winning my age group (30-39) and taking 3rd place female (along with the other girl). The winning female ran a 43:10, only 22 seconds faster than me. Woot!

Carlsbad Marathon is in 6 weeks. Very excited. I've got a good feeling... Just gotta stay healthy!!

8 comments:

  1. Sweet PR! Very nice..ignore the Garmin! That puts you in great shape for a really nice marathon.

    And congrats for almost being done with school. Huge relief to get that semester over with, I'm sure!

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  2. Welcome back!! I was wondering where you went. Now I understand! Congrats on almost being done. Man, you are speedy! What a great race even if it was a little low rent!

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  3. Even if you don't count it as an official PR, you are still smokin' fast so that should make you feel awesome!

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  4. WOW little miss speedy!! You're definitely in marathon shape, I can't wait to see that recap!

    Congrats on wrapping up the classes - I know how strenuous condensed classes can be. Oy.

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  5. 1. Wow! Great job Allison! You are coming back strong!!
    2. You look so hot in those tights! No joke!

    Congrats!

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  6. that is awesome!! i can't wait for your marathon - i have a good feeling about it, too. you are amazing!!

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  7. you're alive!!! I wanna hear your shoe review, get on it. BTW, I ran in one of those crazy floating treadmills during my physical therapist appointment before CIM and thought of you...it was pretty rad.

    Congrats on the PR and the DAMN fast last mile!!! I would ask whether others clocked a short course before worrying about it. But at the same time, I don't consider my last half marathon a PR because it was 0.1 short

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  8. huge congrats, allison on your (almost) Masters! Huge accomplishment for anyone...even more so for a mom and professional. That takes some crazy discipline. You rocked that race!! claim the PR!! Strong pace the whole way. Nice job, girl!!

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