I had a pretty awesome run today.  And I had to share. So I started out slow, I’m not sure what my problem was but I go faster and faster with each mile. My fastest mile was mile 5.  Mile 5!!! That is crazy. Here are my splits:

As you can see each mile was faster than the last. That never happens for me. The first 2.5 miles were in the rain the last were hot and humid but I still managed to get faster. I’m so happy. This is definitely a running high day.

I celebrated with a maple glazed donut and chocolate glazed donut. I haven’t eaten all my calories I burned so that is good. LOL!  

So I’ve been running for 318 days now and I’m always learning new things. One thing I learned early on and still struggle with today are the highs and lows of running. This week is a perfect example of how you never know what type of run you will have until you get out there. 

running lows :(

Monday was a cool day and I was really motivated to go out running. Eric had a soccer game so I was going to go for a "long" run. Well I started out feeling tired. I was very slow and struggle to get to 3 miles before I threw in the towel. I was all dejected because I really thought I’d do 4 miles, easy, and be happy the whole time. I was wrong. I was miserable and just wanted to go home.

RUNNING HIGHS!

So fast forward two days to yesterday. It was hot, humid and we spent the afternoon walking around Valleyfair, riding rides and swimming in the wave pool. I got home, made dinner and fell asleep on the couch watching TV. I woke up around 7pm and felt terrible. I guess eating a big dinner and then immediately sleeping makes your stomach upset. I knew I should go for a run but didn’t want to. Eventually I pulled my shoes on and went out. I told Eric I won’t be out long because I don’t think I’d make 3 miles.

It was AMAZING. This was the best run I have had in a long time. I went 3.75 miles on a hilly course and I could have gone even more miles. I was fast (fairly) and I was feeling great. It was hard to believe 45 minutes before this I was struggling to get off the couch.  

So I guess the moral of the story is when you feel like crap and don’t want to run, you should anyway because you could have the best run of your life.  For comparison sake here are the splits from the two days. 

Bad Run 

My overall pace was 13:24.

GOOD RUN! 

I didn't get to 4 miles so it only shows whole miles on the splits, my overall pace was 12:32. It took me 2:36 less to run 3 miles!

This was a lonely race. There were only 10 participants in the 10K which meant a for-sure-last-place-finish.

The Start

About 30 minutes before the race it poured. Great! Since the first mile was on the grass it meant wet shoes for the other 5 miles. Great! We walked over to the park to get our stuff and take a group photo. This is the Tractor Central team:

There were 4 of us on the team that did the 10K. The rest did the 5K. The start was simple. Like I said the first mile or so was on an old railroad bed…so old it was grass! And since we got a nice rain shower beforehand it was also muddy. I was never so relieved to get on crushed rock in all my life! Once we got off the railroad bed there was our first water station. It was unmanned so we had to pour our own water. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, it was a small race and it was only the second year they have run it. After that it was a stretch of gravel roads.

The Middle

The middle miles of the race (basically miles 2-5) were on the country roads. A very lonely place. It was just me, Eric and the cows. There were a lot of cows and smell. Oh well, welcome to country life. We didn’t see any traffic either. During almost the entire race we were behind the other two 10k runners on the Tractor Central team. We always had them in our sight so that made me feel good. I guess we weren’t always lonely. I’m glad I had Eric there to push me. I would have been in trouble if I was by myself.

The Water Stop

At mile 4 there was a water stop. This one had two guys, one was a medic. They handed us water so that was nice. I did pretty good up to this point. After that we rounded the corner and headed back into town. I started to fall apart at mile 4.5. It makes sense because that is the most I had run in over 2 months so of course I was struggling after that. I took more and more walk breaks. After mile five we finally were on pavement…Thank you GOD! I love pavement.

The Finish

We eventually lost the other two runners when we hit the turns in town. There was a lot of confusing at the finish. The volunteers had us running circles in town and this town isn’t very big (5 streets). The other two girls were wondering where we went because it took us so long to get to the finish line after them. I don’t know if the volunteers thought we were 5K runners because the course we ran, we should have met the two girls as we ran on the same street twice but we didn’t run into them. Around every corner I was hoping for the finish. And it wasn’t there. Eventually we got to the finish. Eric let me finish in front of him so I wasn’t last…wasn’t that nice…and uncharacteristic of him?

Awards

Being there were only 10 of us doing the 10K, are chances of getting a medal was pretty high. I didn’t plan on it but I thought I had a chance. We both got 3rd place medals. In our age groups...but we are the same age you say? Apparently they thought Eric was 35. So he got 3rd in the 24-35 age category and I got 3rd place for the 36+ age category.

Overall it was good. I need to work on my longer distance again! The temperature really warmed up after the rain and it was humid. I can’t wait to run a 10K on pavement. The two that I have completed have been on grass, dirt, gravel and sand with hardly any pavement. I want pavement!

Here are the splits, you can tell I like pavement because my pace was almost minute faster than the mile before:

Here are some more pictures. Mike finished the 5K! Good Job!

Runs: 12

Miles: 37
Races: 1 (Torchlight 5K - 36:14)
Outdoors: All!
Indoors: None

Longest: 4.5 miles
Average Pace: 12:55

I don't really have much to say for July. My pace decreased so it is under 13 again. That makes me happy. My miles went up slightly. The beginning of the month I was focusing on my biking since I was biking at the triathlon so that cut into my running. I also had 3 concerts which also takes away from evening time. I only had one race and I did well. If I didn’t have to stop for a train and traffic (stupid race), I would have had a time under 36 minutes for a 5K. But I’m still chasing that 35 minute mark. This month has been relatively cool which is surprising for July. But there have been some hot and humid days too where it was so hard to run. I would come home soaked…it was gross! I look forward to August. I have 4 races planned so I’m going to be very busy. 

Trophies for July