Great Pumpkin 10K!

I don't seem to do many 10K races. I'm not sure if that is because they aren't as popular as the ever cringe inducing 5K, or if I'd just prefer to spend my money on a longer race. Regardless, I think I have only run a grand total of 4 10K's ever.  (and maybe that is ok?)

 

We all know the story of how, after running Around The Lake on one leg, I then ran Beach To Beacon 6 days later and hated every second of it. I was hoping that that this would not be a repeat performance. While I might not have been in a mood of great enthusiasm "Trying to talk myself into loving to run" I believe was my FB post of the AM, it was still a much better time than B2B (I also had a full week more to recover- this made a difference I think!)

 

I requested a nice, sunny, warm day. FAIL. It was not a deluge like the last two races but it was drizzly, windy and cool. With Sandy looming on the horizon it could have been much worse, but I still complained. A LOT. To anyone who would listen...

 

The whole gang! And we are all shivering uncontrollably at this point...

We got there in plenty of time for me to sit in the car for 40 minutes complaining about how cold it was (and therefore, not warming up... good solid plan!) But whaaaaaaaaaaaa it was cold and damp and I'm so sick of racing in the drizzle disgustingness! I told Eric that I didn't feel like running and would spectate while he PR'd . He said that he had already called doing that and so I could not. MEH.

We got out of the car. We almost missed the start (if only we had walked slower!) we met up our friends who looked just as excited as we felt. Well, maybe a little more excited as there was a cute costumed doggie hanging with them!

Eric needed to run faster than 53ish minutes to PR. That seemed likely. I needed to run faster than 43 something to PR and I knew THAT wasn't going to happen because who in their right mind runs that fast?? I remembered a time long, long ago (or 4 weeks) when I tried and failed to help my exclusive running partner to PR (failed) and so I devised a potentially risky plan... Last time we ran together for the whole race (which is the funnest, duh) and I tried to be the worlds best pacer which apparently I'm terrible at. This time, the gun went off, we ran the first mile together like we were young and in love and THEN... I dropped him like a bad habit and took the hell off.

Whoops. HEH HEH.

Anyway, I ran along faster than I would have liked to in a perfect world, assuming that he would chase me. I REALLY didn't feel like murdering myself and my legs were less than thrilled with my faster-than-marathon speed but it was alright. The thing about a 10K is that you have a little more time to think than in a 5K but not enough time for your thought to become severely mentally challenged- like in a marathon.

Here is what I thought about:
-I wish a marathon was 1 mile. Actually, I wish all races were 1 mile or less. Maybe 0.3 miles.
-I wish I could run an 8:50 pace and WIN!!!
-Well now I'm hot. Isn't THIS a slap in the FACE??
-Hang on, did that guy just say that we got to the 5k mark in 27 minutes?? That can't be right. (it wasn't)
-.....omg what if he was right...????????
-Shit I'm slow and stupid. I think I hate running.
-OMG I'm GONNA SET A RECORD FOR BEING THE SLOWEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*sigh* Anyway. I finally finished and it was in 44:49. That would be my second best 10K time ever so not too bad. I was 3rd in my age group and felt cheated since there were only prizes for the top 2...

I grabbed my coat and went back to look for Eric and THERE HE WAS!!!! Crossing the line in 47:49. And his first words were: "I'm KINDA MAD AT YOU....." Hmmm, I thought that might happen! I gave him a donut and he forgot all about his troubles as he basked in the glow of accomplishment and great speed, congratulating me for being clever enough to force him to give chase. Then he complimented my amazing womanly good looks and high IQ.  (OK, OK.. It didn't play out exactly like that. but close enough... Really close. Right Eric??)

It was still cold and nasty so once everyone finished we dashed out of there as fast as possible. Racing is less fun when the weather discourages ambling around talking about our amazing racing domination (yeah, that happens quite a bit...) So to recap: we ran fast, ate donuts, froze, left. BOOM!

I feel that my Halloween race outfit deserves mention. Grey tights, socks, arm sleeves and gloves... I was 50 shades of grey. I'm a crafty girl...

Post Marathon Aftermath...

Post Marathon recovery time was delightful. I took several guilt free days "off" (I wish they had been off my damn feet, ALAS, they were just off from running...) My legs were sore and crabby but uninjured. I felt 100% better than after Around The Lake! Not to mention the fact that I was on a legit post awesome run high for a full 48 hours after (maybe more) which I'm sure was very annoying to everyone around me. Too bad suckers!!

 

I think I ran 14 miles total last week and they were all nice and easy.

I'm only planning to get into the mid 20's this week but already did hills and a tempo run so clearly things are sorting out in the leg department. YAY!

 

So what's next?

 

 

So Excited!!!!

I am really excited to run this race. I missed it last year due to a prior real life commitment and so am even MORE excited to be able to make it this year!

All that OMG I LOVE RUNNING chatter aside I definitely don't think I'll be busting out a PR next week and that's cool. Everything was so awesome at the Maine Half and MDI that I feel like I might be due for a less than delightful race, but I could be wrong. Either way, I love Half's because you get done really fast and in plenty of time for lunch!

Well thank you!!!

I totally bailed on any "extra" mileage this week because my stupid toes hurt and I'm sure I'm on the verge of loosing all my toenails! I'm scared to look. So I won't.

 

There seem to be many exciting plans on the horizon but I'm not going to overwhelm the interwebs with them right now. (can you feel the suspense???)

I have a 10K with a bunch of friends today which should be fun, and then we are going to see what this big overhyped storm brings for the next few days. I'm just hoping for the first non rainy race in ages so, Sandy, please hold off!

In which I am a ghostwriter...

Some people are just too damn lazy to write their own blogs...

Getting to pose as an Ironman for a blog post was quite fun for me. (maniacal laugh!)

Go here to check out my excellent work!!!

Oh and Andy? You might think the smack talk backfired but it didn't. My cheesecake/wine training plan is still in full effect and working amazingly well for me. You're gonna have to work awfully hard to catch up with me so good luck with that.. (more trash talk...!!)

I'm clearly a very serious athlete...

 

I have a big-long-epic-awesome blog coming up soon about how to recover from a marathon like a boss (hint: it involves lots of candy..)

 

But for today... This picture from MDI really puts my fashion out there. And IT IS AMAZING!!

 

Someday I'll be famous/fast/award winning enough to have GATORADE or similar in big bold letters on all my garb. But until they come knocking at my door, ready to give my slow poke butt freebies, this is how I plan to dress. Badly.

 

Proof right here. I look like a bag lady!

 

 

MDI Marathon, a lengthy racap of a lengthy race!

Three Words: BEST. RACE. EVER!!

 

I mentioned in my post yesterday that things leading up to this marathon (training or lack of training, pressure- or LACK- of pressure) were much different than for Around The Lake.

This trend continued right thru race weekend which was a pleasant surprise!

 

There is absolutely no denying that in spite of the less than stellar weather (it rained- HARD) it was an amazing race. I loved the course despite the undeniable challenge that it presented, loved how I felt the whole time, had a TON of fun with a delightful group of people and am honestly still on cloud 9 from the whole experience.

So much so that I signed up for 2013 MDI at 9:00 this morning *ahem* *crazy*

 

OK. We'll start from the beginning (I hope to find more pics soon- I didn't have a great camera so this will be word heavy picture light I'm afraid.)

 

 

I made it to the expo!

I made the drive to Bar Harbor on Saturday after working for a few hours, running two easy miles, packing everything I owned and eating a PB&J and an entire bag of twizzlers. Oops. My friends were already up there, being of a more organized mindset than myself and I was excited to see all of them! The expo was quite easy to navigate (being small) and I was quickly able to obtain my race number and my extra extra large jacket. Which was actually an XS cleverly disguised as an XL. I'm grumpy about this as I wish to wear my marathon jacket everywhere I go!

A blurry group photo after a delicious carb loading dinner!

I met up with all the cool people that I run with at the hotel and proceeded to eat ALL the cookies that Meg had baked and brought. They were delicious- that girl is a genius!!

As usual the amazingly organized Danielle acted as party planner extraordinaire and that meant that I could just follow her around and not think. I really enjoyed this and it reminded me that I need to go to many, many more races with her ASAP (yes, I'm already counting down...)

I got to meet the adorable Christy and Ally (who came all the way from TEXAS! and I thought MY trip was long....) Sarah was there as well, to run her second Marathon is a 3 week period (Danielle did as well, those girls are BADASS!!!) To offer up serious course support and bedtime stories Andy bravely showed up and now apparently can't wait to join in the running next year (smart!)

Since most of these peeps blog too (and blog better than I do...) I'm not going to give away details of their races other than to say that there was some serious ass kicking going on. I have some fast, amazing friends!!! YOU GUYS are INCREDIBLE!!

 

My number and humongous aqua jacket.

I woke up the next morning at some ridiculous hour and heard it pouring rain. "Don't worry" said Danielle "it's just coming off the roof!" In disbelief I RAN outside to look and she was right. For the moment the weather was cooperating....

I ate 3 bagels (the little ones), took 2 Advil, 2 Pepto and 2 Tums (to be on the safe side) drank a Gatorade and told Meg and Danielle all about my unfortunate butt-poison-ivy incident. Sometimes in the morning my words just come out, sorry girls.

Then I proceeded to get very, very nervous and loose my ability to speak. And everyone was glad!

We WERE SO EXCITED and SO COLD!!!!!!

We all seemed to be more or less ready to race despite the fact that it was about 38 degrees and legit raining at this point. Given the fact that none of us had slept well this is remarkable.

Here's the tweet to prove it (lucky Andy... and thanks Andy!!)

Yeah, this happened...

I saw Jen at the start, who was fully recovered after her SUPER fast Tufts race and was ready to rock it. We all were actually, as it was teeth chatteringly COLD!

 

The gun went off and we all moseyed along for the first, and only downhill portion of the race. Right away I started reminding myself of my "taking it easy" plan. "You can't go TOO FAST" I hollered at myself "YOU CAN'T DECOMPENSATE LIKE LAST TIME... because you need to drive your own damn self home....!!!" This was definite inspiration to run slowly, carefully and not like a fool....

 

It took until mile 4 for my feet to thaw and then they felt very odd, like there was stuff in my shoes. Apparently that is what happens in freezing effing cold weather as clearly, with the exception of my feet, there was nothing in my shoes. My legs started to feel awesome at mile 4 and I felt like I was running at a really easy happy pace that I could keep up forever!

 

I saw Meg, Ally and Andy around mile 5 and it was nice to have a cheering squad because I was drowning a little in the rain at that point. I also really needed to pee, but decided to ignore it in the hopes that it would go away (hmmmm...)

 

The miles seriously flew by as I kept my eyes out for the amazing scenery and only saw fog, cloud banks and rain. My legs felt good and I never got out of breath, leading me to believe that I was probably running about a 9:30 m/m pace.

 

UNTIL.... at mile 12.8 or so Andy drove up on his bike. "BRADLEY" he yelled at me "YOU. ARE. GOING. TOO!!! FAST!!!!!" I replied with confusion that it simply was not possible and what time was it??? "NINE. THIRTY. EIGHT." He shouted back. "OH shit I AM going to fast" I squeaked. "Well... I feel ok, I think I'm gonna be fine" Was my declaration at that point. After he rode off I started of having dark thoughts of crashing and burning at mile 20, throwing up on everyone around me and hearing Andy smugly say "I told you so...." I did NOT want this to happen so I mellowed out. For exactly 5 minutes. (and as it turns out, Andy was not actually chastising me for being too fast. he just meant that he was having to bike around too much to find me... not a bad misunderstanding in retrospect! I was quite amused when he explained this to me though.)

 

Things just felt too damn fine! It was the strangest!  Mile 13-18 flew by and I happily ate some GU, had a little dance party, and mentally prepared myself for the last 10K. Oh, and I REALLY had to pee at this point...

 

At mile 20 I was starting to hurt a little and get tired. I felt like I had slowed down but Garmin-less running is a guessing game. I saw Andy again just after mile 20 but didn't ask about the time because it didn't matter one way or the other. I knew that from 20-26 I would have to take it mile to mile and man the EFF up...

 

At mile 22 I gave up and scampered into the woods to finally pee. I WAS DYING. I simply could NOT run any more and HAD to go. The whole process took less than a minute- maybe 45 seconds (remember that- it is important...)

 

For the last 2 miles I was tired but never hit the wall like I did back in July. I started taking it step to step instead of mile to mile and could not wait to cross the finish line and stop running!

 

My eyes were so waterlogged that I couldn't see the clock until I ran across the finish and in amazement I say 3:35:40. My first thought was HOLY SHIT I kicked the CRAP out of my goal time!!! My second thought.... I shouldn't have taken a pee break because I would have BQ'd AGAIN (on a tough as nails course....!!!!) Honestly I could have cared less because I was so pleased with how the whole race played out for me, especially since I was convinced that I had under trained like a boss. I was seriously, seriously excited. And shivering freezing cold!

 

I wrapped myself in 200 space blankets and walked up and down the road eating bagels and trying not to let my legs cramp up. I was also scared of the notorious GI problems that I have, sneaking up on me and THANK GAHD they did not (who knows why..) Andy turned up and gave me my bag of dry clothing- I have never been so happy to see dry clothes ever. EVER! 

After not too long at all everyone else finished and there was much celebration over successful runs, huge PR's and finally being able to get the hell out of the weather! Even though it was a crapola day there were a ton of people out on the roads cheering us on, the volunteers were incredible and it was a really well run race. With fantastic finishers medals. And, evidently, beautiful age group prizes- and I'll never get to find out because my depleted brain didn't think to check- I won my AG- and (very) sadly, they don't mail prizes. DUMB me!

 

All of us got together for a little after party lunch and to rehash the day in epic detail. You know you're in a group of runners when shots of pepto are being taken instead of actual shots.... All afternoon and evening the Twitter was exploding with excited MDI chatter! Clearly, a very fun and successful day for all... We all went our seperate ways for the long trips home, and I believe that there was much cake eaten by a few lucky girls! (you know who you are and I'm jealous that I didn't grab a slice. or the whole thing..)

 

I'm taking a few days off now before moving on to my next race adventure. And yes, after yesterday my plan to only run one Marathon a year was blown all to smithereens... I officially have the bug now and am planning my winter accordingly!

 

So one more time- congratulations to ALL of us who braved the mountains and conditions yesterday and came away with some fabulous race memories (or, with good stories to tell if nothing else!)