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Saturday, April 24, 2010

Run Like a God

Today was a success!!

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Today was my last long run before the Big Race, and The Cleveland 10 Miler fell into my training perfectly. Plus, the new race course runs so close to my house that I couldn't pass it up. J even biked down to the next street to be the paparazzi (thanks, Babe!).

Before the race:

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I have to be honest, for as much as Cleveland really hypes up this race, I was a little disappointed. The start of the race was very anticlimactic, as some random guy just yelled out "Ready, Set, Go!" along with some cow bells. I mean, really? And then, at the finish line, the lady handing out the medals kind of threw one at the person who finished the race in front of me and it landed on the ground. She could have at least said "Congratulations!" as she was handing them out, right? Ten miles is a big deal for most people!! The race was sold out, so I thought they might put a little more time and effort into making the experience special for the runners. Oh well.

In any case, I did pretty well, especially considering I wasn't out to shatter any records. My goal was to run slower, and just treat the race as any other training run.

Here we are around mile 3 or so:

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But, check this out, see those 2 people directly in front of us? Well, they decided to completely STOP so that the photographer could take their picture. Totally unprepared, this is what happened:

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Haha! It's a good thing we have a good sense of humor!! :)

The course went out 4 miles or so, then doubled back before we looped around to the end. J hung around and caught us on the way back, too:

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This was around mile 5. I was feeling good, but was staying at a consistent 9:20ish pace with Jenay. Once we hit mile 7 I decided to speed it up. I was feeling too good not to! I lost Jen, but she didn't finish far behind me! My last 3 miles were fantastic: Mile 8=8:58, Mile 9=8:41, and Mile 10=8:01 (!!). I finished in 1:31:19, averaging 9:08/mile. Not too bad for a "training run"!

In any case, this race really gave me the confidence boost I needed for next weekend. It really made me feel that I can do this, and do it well.

So, check out the back of the shirts we got at the race today:

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I did just that! :)

Non running related, I got a spray tan today. Super cool! I'll post about it soon.....

Happy Saturday, everyone!



3 comments:

  1. Nice job! Sorry I didn't see you, you finished just a few mins behind me. Way to pick it up. I am horrible at negative splitting. I just tried to keep a consistant pace a hair under 9 and pulled it off. So, I am happy, the weather could have been awful. Great day.

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  2. Way to go!!! Good luck next weekend! You'll be amazing! Wish I could be there to cheer you on.

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  3. Great job girl! Way to rock through those last few miles. I can't believe those people stopped for the photographer??? I ran a 10 miler in October that was disorganized like that- drove me nutso. Glad you had fun. Can't wait to see the post spray tan pics!

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