Shorts Run Race Report

Whew! Another crazy week/weekend just full of activities. Let's see...since I last posted I will catch you guys up and break it down by the day.

THURSDAY

Speed work at Varsity Sports again. They called for 4x1000 repeats with recovery in between. Ryan, the owner, calculated what my split times should be based on my last 5K. He said to aim for 5:15 (about an 8:30 pace) for each 1000 and to really just try and pace myself and keep it consistent. Last week I went out too hard and too fast for that first 1600 and just wore myself out. This time (with a lot of help from Minnie and Susan pushing me) I managed to hold 5:15 for the first three and 5:09 for the last 1000. It was a great workout and I was so glad that Susan came again. She and I are perfect pacers for each other. She would push me and I would push her to keep the pace up and consistent. It was a total 5 miles in all with warm up and cool down jogs. My legs were tired, but I wasn't dead like I was the week before.

FRIDAY

I had intended Friday to be a rest day in preparation for the 4 mile Shorts Run race on Saturday and to recover from the speed work on Thursday. Thursday night Claudia and Lourdes (my long run friends on Saturdays) e-mail me saying they can't run on Saturday and ask if I can meet them for an 8 miler on Friday. I was off on Friday and figured I would go ahead and run it to get my mileage in. So, I got up at 5:30 and met them at 6:30 for our morning run (yes - ON MY DAY OFF I GOT UP THAT EARLY....I AM a crazy person). We had every intention of running it slow and easy on Friday morning but a nice little cool front had rolled in the night before and really cooled things down. The cool, breezy air just made the run pleasant and the conversation carried us easily to the 4 mile marker. The 4 miles back came just as quickly and easily. I checked Minnie when we got back to the car and I couldn't believe that we held an average 9:47 pace for all 8 miles. I think that's the first time I've broken a sub 10:00 pace for that distance. We all went to Starbucks after to sit outside and cool down and drink some coffee to re-energize. It was a great run.

SATURDAY

Susan really wanted me to come run the 4 mile race with her so I decided to just suck it up and go run and have fun on Saturday morning. My legs were pretty tired from Thursday and Friday's runs. She got her booty kicked at boot camp on Friday, so she was tired too. We decided just to treat this race as a recovery run and have fun with it.

I parked about a half mile away from the race start to try and get my legs to loosen up a bit. I snapped some pics on my walk down toward the Lakefront.

This is just a view down the historic street toward the lakefront. I love how it's lined with all the trees and greenery.

Vianne's Tea Room - serves high tea and lunch. Such a cute, cute place.

This always cracks me up! You can get your documents notarized, get married and buy all your Christmas gifts in the same place! One stop shopping!

This little guy was just hanging out on the front porch taking in the morning sun and quiet.

This is a glassworks art studio. The mural is an old soda pop advertisement that they are repainting and bringing it back to life.

Varsity Sports - the race start!

The "official" race course map. I loved that they put "*Drawing not to scale" at the bottom!


Everyone lining up to get their race numbers.

And I was SOOO thankful that they had coffee out there. I was in desperate need of some go-go juice.

Annnddd....we're off!! See - I'm so fast I'm a blur! Heee...

Running along the lakefront.

The finish! Finish time 36:23

I was pleased with my finish time. My legs were pretty tired from the previous two days' runs. I just went out and had a good, fun run with the race. I'm a total middle of the packer in races. I just tried to keep my pace steady and strong. I wasn't aiming for a PR or anything. I ran it in strong and had a great time at the race. Susan had a great race too and finished just a few seconds behind me. It was so good to have her there for the support. We decided to stick around for the awards and bananas and oranges and door prizes. They posted the race results and , yup, there I was right smack in the middle. But, on closer look I finished 3rd in my age class! What tha??? AND I only missed 2nd place by one minute. Argh!! They only gave out prizes for 1st and 2nd in each age group. Had I known I could have totally pushed it. That's what I get. Ha. I'll know better next time. Overall it was a great, fun race.

I'm stoked about my third place finish!

My race shorts (you don't get a race t-shirt with this race, you get a pair of Asics running shorts) and my race number.

SUNDAY

Rest day. I was thinking of running another local 5K, but my knee objected. Three days in a row of running (and 17 miles) my right knee was having none of it. I decided to listen to my body and rest. And I had to drive up to Jackson, MS (2.5 hours away) to pick up my niece, so I figured I should rest up and relax for the drive. I had a full two days of non-stop 8 year old ahead of me. :)

Today I LOVE: Rest...sweet, much needed rest.