OSF Heritage 10K

This particular race brings out alot of the good runners. Last year I didn't even place in the top 5 of my age group. Sixth to be exact with a time of 52:40.

So on this day my goal was to just set a new PR. My goal was to get under 50 minutes. I knew it was possible because I was in another 10K in January with slippery roads and near white out conditions. Plus there were more hills. This course was completely flat and the temps were good....mid 60's.

The only thing that I could see stopping me was the extreme wind. But last year it was the same so the conditions were equal.

Going out my first split was 7:35 and I knew I needed to slow down. But it was on a slight decline so I figured that was it. Little did I realize that the wind was to my back.

I felt really good during the whole race. Even when I had to dip my head like a horse coming back against that headwind. But it seemed to help.

The turnaround point was 23:38 which wasn't much slower than a recent 5K for 3.1 miles.

At this point is where I slowly picked person after person off. There were plenty of distractions along this bike path because it was such a nice day. I almost ran over a little girl on her bike with training wheels. I don't think she saw me coming and she cut in front of me.

As I got closer to the finish there was one man that I just couldn't catch. He stayed about 20 feet in front of me and the more I sped up, the more he did too.

As I turned the corner before the finish line I had two blocks to go. My friend that came with me yelled,"It's 49 and change, if you kick it in you can still make it under 50." So I gave it all I had even though I was hurting. I figured there was NO WAY I was getting this close to my PR and not get it. As I got closer I could see the clock ticking....49:35, 49:36, 49:37. I didn't even realize I flew by the man that I couldn't pass earlier I was so intent on beating that clock.

Finishing time was 49:51!!! A new PR and UNDER 50. I reached my goal! What a great feeling.

I was surprised to find out that they were giving medals out to 5 places and since I got fifth in my age group, I received one. It looked like all the good runners, men and women, were within the 35-45 age bracket. Figures!!

On to CMM 1/2!

Here I am!

Okay, so I've been a little nonexistent lately. I can't help it. Things have been very crazy for me lately. I'm still doing little things here and there to the house when I can afford them. I should have the house ready to sell by the end of May. Now if I can only get my husband to sign those divorce papers. Oh, that's right....I have to be able to FIND him first! JERK! And to make matters worse, he not only has dropped off the face of the earth, the last child support payment I received was 3 wks. ago and was postmarked Las Vegas, NV!!! Alright, I'm done venting now about that.

It's a good thing that I've never minded change because that's all my life has been about lately....change. I seem to be able to take it in stride. Maybe it has something to do with my personal life and loving the job I have now. Things in those two areas couldn't be better.

Running is still going well. I have begun my two week taper prior to CMM 1/2. I have a 10K race on Sunday on a flat, fast course that I ran last year in 52something. My goal this year is under 50. I know I can do it....I KNOW IT!!!!
I'm pretty excited about it. I don't feel as if I'm ready for CMM yet. I'm ready as far as running it...just not as far as packing and getting there. Have you seen the frickin' price of gas here? $2.95?????!!!!! What's up with that? What, did the oil rigs all shut down? If I could only find a way to use my garbage for fuel. Now THAT would be nice!

I'll try to be more consistent with my blogging, but what with working more hours and having busy nights and weekends....well...let's just say it's probably not going to change soon.

Ciao for now!!

HOT HOT HOT!

Whew! What's with the unusually hot weather? Did we even have a spring or have we gone to summer already?

I had my last midweek long run of 8 miles Wednesday of this week and I can tell that this body needs a taper. I ran a 4 mile recovery Thursday and it felt like I was crawling, but the HR was up there.

My last long run of 15 miles before I taper for the CMM 1/2 is tomorrow. I'm probably not going to get out until around 9 a.m. I suppose it will be unseasonably hot then too, but I guess that's good training for warmer temps in Nashville. My thick-blooded body is rebelling

Since my mileage is up in the 40's, I'm not really sure how much to taper. I've basically been going by my own schedule.

I can't wait until two weeks from this weekend. Trigal, are you ready?

Here comes the storm!

Today I woke up early to beat the storms that are gonna be hitting us soon. I didn't want to be caught out in a lightning storm during my run. Can you imagine? Out minding my own business trying to do my business of running and getting struck by lightning? Not the way I wanta go that's for sure.

I'm getting a handle on a few of the TO DO list. Bathroom ceiling is almost done. Just another coat of fresh white paint on it. Leaves in the ditch are all raked up and ready to burn. Stain on the new base in living room is on. Trim around garage door is replaced. Next up is transplanting some perennials and mulching. Doesn't look like I'm gonna get to that in the next couple of days.

Hey, some good news! A while back I posted about a neighbors dog that was harrassing me on one of my runs. As luck would have it, they filed bankruptcy, got a divorce and moved out....dog and all! Woohoo! I still think I'll carry my mace with me though. Some of those upright, two legged animals are more than I can handle.

Today is Thursday and my last day of work for the week. Three day weekend....alright! No houses to clean tomorrow...except maybe mine, but mine doesn't take very long.

Arny Johnson 10 Mile Classic

Okay, so I've postponed this report long enough.

Some minor changes though. I looked at the updated list of names from the race on the website and saw that my time was 1:23:48, not 1:24. Also, even though they gave me a second place finisher in AG medal, it looks like I was third. I wonder what happened to the woman that took first. I didn't see or hear her complaining at the awards ceremony that she didn't get anything. Maybe she was disqualified for some reason? I hope not.

I was a little concerned at the start of this race because as some of you know I was approaching burnout all week. I toned my running down to taper for this race(hadn't planned on it prior to last week, but knew I needed it), so I only ran Tuesday and Wednesday. I stayed up late again the night before and was very tired. Slept on the way over to the race which was an hour away. I REALLY didn't feel like running this race let alone racing it. But I knew once I started I'd be fine. I just didn't know how much energy I'd have.

The night before the race was very, very windy and I was hoping it would die down before the race but I don't think it would have made too much difference since most of the race was through the woods. It was overcast and mid 30's. Perfect day for a race. Donned my baseball cap, gloves, long-sleeved wicking shirt and shorts and I was good to go.

The first 3 miles were pretty uneventful and fairly flat. Eighty percent of the race was on a paved running/biking path. We were told to stay to the left of the path and watch out for bikers which I thought was rather strange. Why the left side? This race wasn't in Europe!

Since the race was through the woods, my Garmin wouldn't register at all. I'm sure the cloudy day didn't help in that dept. either. I do know my first mile was 8:08(whoa, slow down Nellie). Not what I wanted to hear. But after a couple more miles I settled into a groove. I knew last year my pace was around 8:30/mile so this year I wanted to do a little better than that and ended up with a 8:21/mile pace.

After mile 3 the course started to get interesting. I knew by the elevation chart that we would be steadily going up and down hills. A gal pulled up beside me and we talked for a few minutes. Seems she had just started racing for the first time after her son was born.....four years ago! I guess her hands have been full? She was keeping a pretty good pace so I told her good luck and have fun. My goal was to try to keep her in my sights if I could. After she passed me her pace must have slowed a bit because she stayed ahead of me by only about 10 yds. I ended up catching up to her at about mile 7 but she could really fly down the hills and I ended up getting way behind her again. She said after the race that she slowed way down the last two miles. She finished approx. 1 minute ahead of me.

I really didn't mind the hills because this is where I caught up to most people. I guess it pays to train on hills. The only time it really bothered me was towards the end of the race when I was tired. One of the last hills I had to run on my tiptoes it was so steep. I can't say I'm used to THAT steep of hills.

At the one mile marker there was a fellow runner that is in my running group. I noticed him and said hi. He has recently been coming back from an injury so he wasn't running the race. Towards the end of the race around mile 7 I saw somebody running towards me in jeans. I couldn't help but laugh when I saw it was him. I told him he was going to get so chaffed but he didn't seem to care. He told me at mile 9 marker that he would let me finish by myself since he could tell how I was breathing that I still had alot in me. I didn't feel like it....but maybe I wasn't working as hard as I could. I had pointed out to him that I wanted to keep this other woman ahead of me in my sights and that I had spoken to her for a while. He asked me if I had asked her if she's in my age group. I said no, that didn't concern me. He laughed and said, it may later! Well, he was right. The woman I let stay in my sights but didn't make a move on was in my age group. Grrrr! Oh well, I really don't feel like I could have run it any faster anyway.

I was very happy with my race and my 10 mile time. It was a nice surprise when I finished.

I know there was probably more, but I guess I should have written this report after the race and not several days later.