Freihofer's Round Two

Sure, it's a goofy smile, but it's a smile damnit!
I am most happy that I am wearing an orange bib (slower expected finish) in a sea of yellow bibs (faster expected finish)

I outlined my goals in my last post and of them the smiling thing was actually the most important to me. I had been hoping to achieve my A goal of 28 minutes but with my foot hurting the past week I thought I would be happy with anything in the 28 range... but really expecting 29 or slower. But that still beat my last year's time of 33:18.

I came in at 27:58 (chip time). It's only 2 seconds, but it's 2 seconds UNDER my A goal. I think that's a 5 minute and 20 second improvement over last year but feel free to correct my math.

I'm pretty happy.

I ran smiling most of the way. Around mile 2 my bladder rebelled and I once again felt the urge to pee (I peed 3 times before I left the house and 2 times before the race). What's odd is that I was fine for a long time and it's just been the past few weeks that mile 2 sets off the pee-urge (no, I'm not pregnant). Always mile 2. It might just be in my head now. Anyway, I ignored it and kept on trucking. My foot felt miraculously fine. I didn't even have to pretend it wasn't there. It just didn't hurt (sure I'm icing it now and it hurt like hell walking to the car, but it was totally worth it.) I've been reading lots of barefoot runner blogs and ultramarathon runner blogs and used a trick I learned from them--it's easier to run faster than slower. When I felt tired I sped up. I guess it worked. The really funny thing was that I had been anticipating really bad hills. I've been running the big hill on my road A LOT the last couple of weeks to prepare. There was the one hill when we first started running but there are SO MANY other women it's impossible to get ahead that I didn't even notice the hill. And then the rest of the way there were some gradual inclines, but I kept waiting for the hills! After running my big hill it was EASY for me! Amazing!

It was a great race all around. My Strong Running Mama friends did great! It's so nice to run a race with good friends by your side. Okay, not by my side since they all smoked me, but you get my meaning. Our fearless leader, The Happy Runner, did beyond amazing, smashing her A goal and finishing in 22:51! I can't even fathom that!!

The stats for those of you interested (i.e future me): 1036/4142 overall; 120/520 age group; splits: 9:12/8:53/8:46 (I like it when the numbers go in that direction. Kind of easy too when you're starting out with 4000 other women!)

We are the pink/black duo because pink is the new black.
Or maybe black is the new pink.

SkyWalker and the Princess ran their own races. Unfortunately they were a couple of hours after my race, but it gave us an opportunity to walk around and eat lunch and see Andy Morse for a few minutes. The Princess's race was first and she was raring to go. In fact once she got to her mark she just started going and I had to grab her back! I held the Princess's hand (her request) for her 50 meter dash. We unintentionally color-coordinated. She was so excited and happy and smiled the entire way and really had a great time. She says that next year she will run without holding my hand so that she can try to beat me.  Once again, she insisted on showering with me when we got home.

See, he's ahead. 

SkyWalker did so much better than I thought he would. He really gave it his all and ran trying to beat me. I let him. But it wasn't that hard to let him... of course I did run a lot more before and had just run with the Princess, but still I foresee the days of my children beating me coming very soon. He was smiling and laughing the whole way and enjoying himself. He had to run further than the Princess--a whole 100 meters. He did a GREAT job. And then complained about having to walk so far to the car.

Race goals & minimalist shoes

In just 4 days I will run in the Freihofer's Run for Women. For the second time.

I've been doing a lot of running lately. Not as much as I was supposed to, but a lot more than I had been. In March I ran 39.9 miles (more than the 26.8 I did in February). April was similar with 40.1 miles, but for May I have run 58.2 miles. That's more than I have run in a month ever. I'm not sure how I managed that because I feel like I skipped a lot of runs.

My time in last year's race was 33:18. So, my goals:

A. 28 minutes or faster
B. Beat 29:25 (my last 5K time)
C. Beat 33:18

The biggest goal has nothing to do with time or pace. I want to run smiling. I want to look like I'm actually enjoying myself instead of like I'm going to pass out at any second. I want to embrace the Run Smiley Collective. And I want to finally get a good picture of me running.

My new shoes (Merrell Pace Glove) will be getting here on Friday. Just in time. I will NOT be wearing them for the race since it will take a good 6-8 weeks to transition to them! Kinda crazy. But they are minimalist shoes and totally different than the cushioned Mizuno's I'm wearing now. I flirted with the idea of barefoot running, but I'm just not there yet. I also thought about the Vibram's Five Fingers, but decided against them. These shoes have the Vibram soles so I can still feel the road and get the feedback by feet need, but it's more of a traditional shoe than the VFF. I wear the Injinji toe socks so my toes get a little more individual action, just not as much as the VFF. I had to order them online so I'm hoping I got the right size. I've got a general idea of how to transition to the shoes (very slowly) but I need to sit down and come up with a weekly plan for the summer.

As much as I'm not ready for barefoot running, I think I'm going to do it down the driveway getting SkyWalker off the bus.