Races and Random

I am not much of a race report writer...I enjoy reading race reports but I just have a difficult time writing and rehashing in words. That being said, I've run 2 races the last 2 weeks, and this is a running blog so perhaps I should be putting more effort into actually blogging about these. Perhaps I should be putting more effort into blogging period-ha! In typical Jenn random fashion, race tidbits from the last 2 weeks.

First, as I mentioned I broke my 5K PR a couple of weeks ago. My official results which I received in the mail old school style, ended up being 19:48. I was very proud of this considering I wasn't training for 5K. I think this race did A LOT for me mentally. I didn't necessarily run even splits but I held on and finished STRONG in the last .11.

I moved on this past week from that run to run a solid 20 mile on Tuesday and then a hill workout on Thursday and decided not to rest before heading into my first of 2 consecutive half marathons this past weekend. Women Rock in St. Paul. I traveled to St. Paul with a group of girls and wanted this weekend to be relaxed and fun and not filled with the pressure of a goal race. I worked my training schedule to accommodate this run as a MP training run which would be followed by a goal HM on September 8th. This turned out to be the PERFECT decision for me. We arrived in St. Paul on Friday, picked up our packets, headed to the wonderful Pazzaluna for dinner in which case we sowed down on succulent pasta and bread and St. Paul's very own Summit Pale Ale. I felt calm, I felt comfortable, I felt excited to be spending the weekend with running friends and I felt very confident about my ability to hold 7:20-7:25 pace!

This was an inaugural all women's race. It was advertised as net downhill (ummm-quite deceiving) and marketed with the allure of shirtless firefighters, sterling silver pendants instead of race medals, champagne at the finish line and race jackets instead of your typical race T. None of this played into my decision to run this race per se but I have run Team Ortho events in the past and have always been impressed with their organization. I was not disappointed. A quality event for sure. That being said, it was very tailored to the 10K and the HM and I would NOT have wanted to run the full marathon here.

I will skip all the boring pre-race meal crap (I didn't eat a pre-race meal so easy to skip-ha!) I did have a cup of coffee. We hopped the shuttle to the race start. I started the race and ended up running faster than GMP but feeling so comfortable that I decided to go with it by effort. I knew it wasn't the perfect situation for a "race" with the week I had run but I also didn't feel like slowing down too much if my body wanted to do otherwise.... I ended up very near the front early and found myself a running partner of sorts who I just decided to stick with and feed off. Good thing as for most of the race there were NO other runners in sight! Other than a slight bathroom distress issue, I felt great throughout. I finished thinking that I could have kept going and held pace for awhile but that my GMP should be a bit slower. I did not feel NEARLY rough enough to consider this HM race pace. I think I can run much harder and better in a goal half. For now, I'll take the 4 minute official PR and be happy with my results!

Garmin results showed 13.2/1:33:37 for 7:06 pace.

Weekend was super as a whole and much needed right now. I was extremely tired to come home on Sunday night. Hadn't slept much over the weekend as I find the need to act like I'm in college when I'm on girls trips and stay up all night....I had a wonderful time though and this will be an annual event for sure. Bi-yearly as 4 of us have also tentatively committed to a weekend trip to Fargo in May!

Other very random news and pictures:

My son Max's birthday on Monday! 9 years old. He made and decorated his own cake!

I lost my Iphone in a taxi cab in Minneapolis on Saturday night. EXTREMELY annoying as this is phone #8 or something like that. Also annoying as ALL of my pictures from both this weekend, my trip to Boston this summer, my Dad's 60th birthday were on this phone.....Good thing I have so many great memories in my head.

Max's second day of school. Unfortunately without my replacement Iphone yet, I had no working camera to capture the first day-ha!

Reese and I before we headed out on a school shopping trip together!

Greatly appreciate all the support I've received behind the scenes with my running and in life in general lately. So blessed. Good friends to share a passion and a weekend with, good friends sending encouraging emails before the race and supportive uplifting ones after, a phone call from a running friend I greatly look up to who set her alarm to call me at 6 am on race morning even though she knew this wasn't a major goal race, and a package that arrived in the mail yesterday that made me take a very deep breath and realize what a GIFT I've been given here.

Off to try to force myself to sleep and fight off this nasty sinus cold that I somehow caught in 80 degree weather. How does one catch a cold in this weather...