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10 miles

I Have Boston Fever

April 9, 2012 by Kristy 26 Comments

I have no idea what I’m going to do with myself this week.  I’ll be pretty useless at work (yeah for a 4-day work week) since I can’t seem to think about anything but Boston.

So far the weather looks OK.  A little warm and windy but I love cloudy.  Can they really predict the wind this far out?  I doubt it.  I hope the 2003 Boston Marathon didn’t fall on April 16th…with a record high of 84 degrees!  Oh wow, the nerdy meteorologist in me just came out.

image

I did my last long run on Sunday – 10 miles in 1:29 (8:54 average pace).  I kept the pace easy and I felt great.  My legs felt light and rested.  From here on out, it’s all easy.  The hard work is done!

Taper crazies have been kept to a minimum.  Not sure why?

I’m running Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week and that’s it.  Also getting lots of sleep.  I generally don’t carbo-load.  I eat carbs all the time and may eat just a tad more of them on Saturday and Sunday.  I hate feeling too “puffy” at the start line.

On Saturday I got this awesome card in the mail from my friend Camille wishing me well in Boston.  Thank you Camille, I love it!

card
So perfect!

Do you do any special preparations before a big race?

Carbo-load – yay or nay?

Cherry Blossom 10-Miler Race Report

April 4, 2011 by Kristy 16 Comments

Matt and I made it back to Philly safe and sound, albeit a little sore from yesterday’s race.  We had a great weekend in DC and realized how much we miss living there.  Thankfully, we get to visit quite often!

I loved this race and would definitely do it again.  Fast and flat course, much like Philly’s Broad Street Run.  Well organized with the exception of numerous locked porta potties pre-race.  Apparently no one had the key either so race officials had to literally hammer the locks off.  Nice.  The weather ended up being perfect too; just a little cold at the start.

The only goal I made known to the blog world was to PR (beat my 1:23 time).  I was pretty sure I could do this.  On the way down to DC, I told Matt that I wanted to break 1:20.  Lofty?  Yes.  I knew exactly what that entailed – maintaining a sub-8:00 pace for 10 miles.  I wasn’t sure if I could do that…but I needed to try.

My strategy was to start out slow (always the best way to go) and then pick up the pace to just below 8:00 and keep it there.  We had to check in our bags pretty early so we were left hanging in the cold for almost a 1/2 hour.  My body was literally trembling and my muscles were getting stiff.  I knew I needed to take the first mile easy to allow my body to warm up.

Mile 1 (8:14): right on target.  This is exactly what I wanted to do.  We started by running down a small hill and I heard someone say that we get to come back up the hill at the end of the race.  I was hoping he was wrong and they had somehow changed to course.

Mile 2 (7:51): a little fast but my breathing was nice and controlled.  By this time I had completely warmed up.

Mile 3 (7:43): this is where I committed to running a sub-1:20.  I felt good and I wanted to give it a shot.  I figured if I crashed and burned at Mile 6 I would probably still PR.  I just had to try.

Miles 4 and 5 (both ~ 7:49): I missed the mile marker for Mile 4.  Saying that I was glued to my Garmin would be an understatement.  I must have glanced at it every 10 seconds.

Miles 6 (7:49) and 7 (7:50):  a beautiful section of the course.  We entered East Potomac Park and were running between rows of cherry blossoms along the river.

Miles 8 (7:49) and 9 (7:48): I start to get tired and I have to really push to maintain pace.  I kept thinking back to my last marathon and how I felt like slowing down at Mile 23 but didn’t allow myself to give in.  There was no way I was going to work my butt off for 23 miles and then slow down for the last 3?!  That just didn’t make sense.  I used the same thinking here – you came this far, do NOT give up.

Mile 10 (7:42): Remember the slight hill I mentioned during Mile 1?  Well it reappeared during the last 1/4 mile.  Fun.  I plowed up it and then saw the finish line.  I can’t believe I ran the last mile in 7:42!!!!  I wanted that sub-1:20!!!

Official results:
1:19:12 (7:56 pace)
age group:  135/1857 (woo hoo!)

This is so helpful mentally with a marathon less than 4 weeks away 🙂

Matt’s results:  1:42:57 (10:18 pace).  Matt doesn’t train at all.  Literally rolls out of bed and pulls 10:00 min/miles outta nowhere!

Now for the fun stuff – pictures!  I was a good blogger and made sure I snapped a few along the way…

Foam roller doubles as a tripod. Can you spot the White Chocolate Wonderful in the background?!
Sun rising over the Washington Monument

Post-race...so pretty!

I have to provide some background for the next picture.  Matt has these gloves from a race he did a few years ago.  They say “one more mile” on them.  Every time he puts them on he says to me, “You know me…just one more mile.  That’s my mantra”.  If you know Matt, this is hysterical.  Remember, he doesn’t train.  One more mile is torture to him.  After I took this picture, I almost peed myself.

One more mile!

I hope I didn’t bore you to tears!  Thank you for your kind comments on my PR.  They meant a lot to me and I thoroughly enjoyed reading them!

A New 10 Mile PR!

April 3, 2011 by Kristy 15 Comments

4/3/11

Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Race

1:19:13 (unofficial Garmin time) –> a 4-minute PR!!!

7:55 avg pace

I’m very pleased!  A full race report to come tomorrow, along with official results.  Off to lunch with Matt and Hawk and then dinner with Camille and Reggie tonight (and a few beers)!

 

 

Passer vs. Passee

December 31, 2010 by Kristy 3 Comments

12/31/10

10 miles

1:30:49

9:05 avg pace

I wanted to end 2010 with a good run so I decided to do 10 miles at my old goal marathon pace .  Plus, next week I’ll be doing 13 miles at 9:15 pace for my first long run of training so I wanted to ease myself back into things.

Let’s talk about passing people when running.  I rarely pass anyone (always a passee) but today I was the passer.  My passee was a guy in his mid-40s.  I was coming up on him for awhile and knew I would be passing him eventually.  When I passed, I said a friendly “good morning” to which I received no response.  And no, he wasn’t wearing an iPod.  He heard me.  Guess he didn’t care much for being passed by a girl.  This happened to me another time last May during the end of a 15-miler.  Except this time the guy caught up with me and ran the last 2 miles with me.  He was very nice and we talked about marathon training but he kept picking up the pace.  I glanced at my garmin and saw we were doing an 8:00 minute mile.  I told him I need to slow down a bit since this wasn’t exactly my long run pace.  At the end of the run, he confessed that he hates to get passed by anyone (in his head I’m sure he added “especially by girls”).  Why do guys care so much?  Yes, part of me likes to pass people (male or female).  I’m not being malicious; it just happens so infrequently.  And I could care less when people pass me.  I’ve been passed by 70-year-old men and women during marathons!

Check out Susan’s funny re-cap of being a passer.

Happy New Year!

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