Sweat Pink

Those of you who actually visit this blog instead of reading it in your reader of choice may have noticed a new badge in my right sidebar. I am now a Sweat Pink ambassador! I never in a million years thought I would ever run willingly and actually enter races and care about it, but here I am. If I can help someone else realize that she too can do it, well, that would be pretty awesome.

I also added a link to Bia but they don't have pretty badges yet. I think I'll break them down and make them make me an ambassador one of these days. I recommend it everywhere I go!

May stats

I started May with a race and ended it with one! It was actually a pretty light running month because I did have so many races. I like to take a couple of days off before and after a race. And I took some extra time off after Ragnar. 

Stats: 

Mileage: 46.9

Runs: 7

Races: 3 (I'm counting the 3 Ragnar legs as one race) Spring Runoff, Ragnar, Freihofer's

Cross training Days: 3. I know I know. 

I'm hoping June will have a little more consistency and cross training. There are always so many school obligations though so I'm not beating myself up. I've started on the right foot by getting up wicked early (4:30) on Wednesday to get in a short run for National Running Day with some of my best running friends. And then spending 3 hours at Field Day because that's what Running Mamas do. 

2014 Freihofer's Run for Women recap

We've had a run-filled week. Last Thursday the kids and I completed the first Wildcats Marathon at our local high school. SkyWalker ran with his friends so I'm not really sure how he did except that he was way in front of us. The Princess refused to be more than 2 inches away from me at all times and spent most of her 1.2 miles whining and complaining that she couldn't do it and we were even walking too fast. At the last minute I decided to let Chewie run because she wanted to. She started out so fast I had to run to catch up to her but by the end she petered out and this happened:

Chewie on my back, The Princess beside me pretending she wasn't whining the whole time.

Whining aside, it was a great program and I look forward to doing it again next year. 

Just a couple of days later I ran in my 4th Freihofer's race. I didn't post any goals or anything ahead of time because I didn't really have any. I just wanted to run as well as I could and not pee myself. The kids decided they wanted to go this year so we skipped their soccer games and went as a family. Unfortunately we couldn't all go up as a family--they wouldn't let non runners past a certain point on the road we were walking, so Vader and the kids had to take the long way around. I met up with my friends but I really wanted to see my family before I started. I lined up with the yellow group again (3rd group from the front) and got a text from Vader that he made it to the viewing area and would try to at least get a starting picture. The race started and I got stuck behind a bunch of people but I was okay because I was intentionally running slower and looking for him. I spotted him on the side and he was able to grab a quick picture:

I was just happy to see him.

After I saw him I knew it was time to speed up a bit and try to reclaim some lost ground. Once I got into the park things opened up a bit and I was happy to see that my first mile was in 9:12. I had thought for sure I had lost too much in the beginning. I ran pretty well and every time I wanted to slow down I just sped up instead. I truly wasn't aiming for any particular time, I just wanted to run well. I did my second mile in 9:05 and was just happy that I hadn't peed myself yet. I was getting a bit hot and tired but after doing Ragnar 3 miles is a piece of cake, so I just pushed myself on. My last mile was 8:30 and the last bit was 7:11. I was thrilled that I had negative splits and was able to kick it in the end. I crossed the line at 28:16 and was happy that it wasn't 28:30. But then I remembered 28:16 was my gun time and I was not right at the start line when the gun went off. My net time was 27:59 with a 9:01 pace. It was a definite post-baby PR and just 1 second away from my course best. 807/3611 total 68/389 division. 

I felt like I ran well and I didn't pee myself (although the Tena pads did come to the rescue when I had to walk a bit to get to the bathroom after the race). I tried to just be grateful that I was able to race at all and that my family was there and to just enjoy it all. Getting back to 27, even with a 59 behind it, was just an added bonus. 

I'm taking a break from races for now, even though there are a bunch I want to do, so that Vader can get some work done on the weekends and we can go to soccer games and not split ourselves. I'm planning to do the Clove Run in August but I haven't seen any registration info for it yet which is a bit troubling. I was hoping to get Vader to race it with me so I really hope they're still doing it.