Posts tagged running friends

I am super thankful for my running friends. It still boggles my mind that I have been able to step out of my comfort zone and meet all these people. A couple of years ago I would have been too shy to do that. But I have stepped out and met a couple of awesome people in the process.

Last night I had the opportunity to meet Courtenay from http://autopilotlegs.com/ for supper (I stole all my pictures from her ;) I was looking forward to it. It is really nice to have someone to talk about running and life with. I love my husband dearly but sometimes he does not get my crazy running ideas. 

We met at a Mexican restaurant that is about half way in between our homes. It works out pretty well for us. We enjoyed some yummy food! Maybe a little too much ;]

She actually issued me a challenge. I am fairly addicted to my Garmin. So much so that it is often all I can concentrate on when I am running/racing. She is too and has been racing without. So she came up with this crazy idea that I should race without this weekend as well. I am pretty hesitant about this.

But I think I am going to give it a shot kind of. I run ratios. So I run for three minutes and then I walk for a minute until I finish up my run. So I need some kind of technology otherwise I will be a complete mess. So I am still going to have my Garmin. But I already have it set up so all I will be able to see is the stopwatch screen. I will have no idea what my pace. I am very interested to see how this will affect me. Hopfeully I will go faster and not slower. Either way I think I will be able to enjoy the run more. Which is why I run in the first place.

After we hashed out our stragedies we are ready for the Get Luck 7k on Saturday. We are going to meet some other friends down there. I am so excited to be down there and enjoy the racing atmosphere again. It gets me pretty pumped. :]

Thanks for the challenge Courtenay! We will see what happens…

Anyone else racing this weekend?!?

I am a runner! For the first time I feel like a legit runner and I am loving it. :D

The plan was to get to the race early and crank out a couple of miles. That just did not happen. My the time I got there, registered and got everything all figured out it was too late. I already was up at 4:30 am. Oh, well I am not gonna beat myself up over it. 

When I got there it was down right cold 35 degrees. But it was perfect running weather :] Although my hands felt a little frost bitten.

I ran this race with some friends. I love running with friends. It just adds an extra bunch of fun. I ran it with Courtenay (www.autopilotlegs.wordpress.com check her out) whom I met before. She has a great blog and I love following her journey. I have her to thank for the pictures!

I also meant Katy and Melissa for the first time. We all ran together. Along with 1400 some other people.

And then we were to off to the starting line. Then the whole thing started. It took us a while to get going with so many runners. I was not used to getting bottled up so much in the start of the race. I was dodging all over the place. I am used to 300ish runners. So I started off running pretty slow. So I ran straight out for the first 11 minutes. I wanted to continue all out running but I new that was not smart for me.

So I began doing ratios. I ran 4 minutes and walked for one. I continued through most of my run. Until I got to the end when I bolted into to the finish line. It started and finished at the State Capital. So at the finish line you came down the hill and saw the capital and bunched of people cheering. It was such a cool sight to see.

Can I just say the crowd support was amazing. It was an out and back course. There were people all lined up along the course yelling and cheering. There was some people playing some loud rock music it was great!

I had a major PR at this race. My official time was 59 minutes and 31 seconds. Just two months ago I ran 6.6 miles in 1 hour and 21 minutes at a race. That is close to a 20 minute PR!!!

My Splits :

Mile 1: 9:45

Mile 2: 9:55

Mile 3: 9:15

Mile 4: 9:33

Mile 5: 9:50

Mile 6: 9:23

Mile 7: 7:18

I could go on and on about this race it was just that amazing. I have such a runners high the last couple of days. I am sad that it is over :[ But I have to move on with my life. Ugh. Time to get ready for the Monster Dash Half. I have no idea what I am gonna do with my life when that is over…