Sorry for such a long lapse of blogging. We've been working on the kitchen and while, the remodel isn't quite complete, we have a some liveable space! That being said, YES, I've been running!
So the first report is Veteran's Day 10k!
I was hoping to do well, but I think I may have still been recovering from ARMY. The week before the 10k, I got shut down on the tempo run. I didn't have the greatest track workout, then on Friday's tempo run, it got very ugly. Each lap was about 20 seconds slower than the last. It started out with me thinking I should try to do a 5 miler. Then at 1 mile, coach George yelled that I should just do a 5k. At 2 mile,
coach George yelled, "Just stop, I can't even watch this anymore." and I was freakin' thrilled, cause it felt awful.
I wasn't overly worried, because it seemed everyone was dropping like flies that morning and after snooping with the night-time crew, mostly everyone was struggling.
Come Sunday morning, I decided I would wear my Saucony AMPro shorts (yes, I know
I dissed them) to race in, along with my CAR sportsbra and of course, hat and gloves. Our Top Gun runner Mary D, Liz E and I all discussed the sportsbra v. long sleeves over and over prior to the race. I decided for the sports bra and convinced them of the same. We were all glad.
Coach G.,
Jessica and
Molly were all on hand, to spectate and cheer and get us moving! Coach G reminded me of his secret plan, "Start slow". YES!
Sports bra, hat and gloves in hand, we started out! I tried to pay attention to keeping it easy. At mile one, I heard
Jess &
Molly cheering. I don't care what anyone says, it's great to have pals who cheer you on! I hit the first mile at 7:01. Yes! That's exactly how I hit the tempo runs, I tend to be on the money. I was thrilled because of last weeks tempo run melt down. At the time though, I thought it was 7:07 and was still okay with that.
I had a lady in my age group who was on my butt this first mile, I wasn't worried and wasn't going to race anyone at this point, as it isn't a race yet. But she pulled up to me at the start and looked at me like it was on and I thought, that's weird. (mainly cause I didn't think I looked her age, haha!)
I kept it together and at mile 3 started to pick it up. There was a lady who passed me at the first mile and I was now passing her. My main thought at the time was to try to keep it together. That I did.
There was also a girl from
Vibha 5k who was ahead of me that I was hoping to catch up with at this time (no such luck at the end). Anyway, I was trying to pick it up and it seemed to be working. I had stuffed the hat and gloves in my sportsbra, ala Pamela Anderson and was groovin'.
At mile 6, I felt like I was struggling a bit. I don't look at my watch past the first mile in races anymore,
Coach George has slapped me wise to that and I was just trying to race. I heard
Jess,
Molly and coach G around mile 6 yelling cheering for me and
Coach G was yelling to sprint and all of a sudden I had a lot more in the tank which I wished I realized before then.
The final result was 43:31, 1st in my AG. The girl I passed around mile 3, passed me that last mile and wound up with the first master title by 6 seconds. ARGH!
As I looked over the results,
Coach George was shaking his head at those 6 seconds. "That should not have happened." and although he didn't say it, I knew he meant, "I don't want to see any
I AM FIERCE blog posts about that, if you were fierce, those 6 seconds would be owned by you."
and he's right! My whole goal at the start of the new year was to become a
Fierce Warrior.
I told him, last year, I ran Jingle All the Way 10k 90 seconds faster than Veteran's Day, let's see if I can do that this year. He agreed. That was a good goal!
As with last year, this year I followed Veteran's Day by running Ashburn Farm 10k on Thanksgiving Morning. My dad and step-mom were running/walking the 5k, so it was a family affair. Last year I ran it 30+seconds faster than Veteran's Day. This year, I wasn't expecting to be so lucky. I wasn't going to taper, I was running 10 miles on Tuesday and a 90 minute pool run on Wed, along with weight training. I was hoping no less than a minute slower than Veteran's Day.
One of my teammates asked me if I was going to "race" or "run with my dad" and I said more a tempo run, as I wasn't going to taper and it's a hilly course.
After a great night of 5 hours worth of sleep, I picked up Dad and Step-Mom and we headed over to the race start. We got prime parking and I did a 1.5 mile warmup and switched into my Kinvara's, ditched the jacket and hat and hit the start line. But unlike Veteran's Day, NO Saucony AMPro, it was all
CW-X baby!
I noticed a girl upfront with quite the get-up, pink compression socks, Adidas running skirt, pigtails and tank top and clear warming trash bag. I thought to myself, if you're that fast, why are you at this race?
The race began and I was huffing and puffing. About .9 miles into it, a girl that is in my age group, who is a good runner, but I know starts out waaaay too fast blew by me. I was originally like, whatever, but the mile mark was just about there and as I looked at my watch I saw, 7:22.
Sh*t.
Enough with this, I need to get moving. Weight lifting may have been a mistake! (my overall time was 4 seconds slower than my watch so that first mile was probably 7:18)
I started picking it up and as I passed my AG mate (who by the way, shares my last name) she wasn't going to let it go that easy. Then I was with a couple of girls who passed me a little earlier and as I picked them up they were going a nice pace so I was trying to just run with them. It was perfect, they were running exactly what felt like a perfect pace.
Then we hit a downhill. As a toe runner, I love the downhill. It's the only time I run like a normal person, so I wound up losing my perfect pacemates.
We hit a turnaround and the volunteer seemed to be encouraging an outside the cone turn and to stay on the left outside after the turn, but as I did this, my perfect pacemates and every other runner was staying closing in the turn and picked me off. I cursed (whatever) and tried to catch them. As I saw the water stop, I picked up the pace and kept going.
I then heard one of the perfect pacemates call, "Is your name "Dash"?" I thought she looked familiar, "Yes" I called back, we were now with each other and she said she was Megan's sister (no wonder she was a perfect pacemate, she was one of
MY perfect pacemates twin!). We chatted for a moment, unlike her and her twin, I can't talk and run (I suck at it). Both sisters have recently had babies, this one more recently (like 3 months?)..
Anyway, I told her my only goal was to try to catch the pink compression sock girl. She laughed, because I'm so funny (or ridiculous) and I was moving. As we were heading down mile 4, I saw my step-mom Sam who cheered me on and I kept going.
At mile 5 we hit this road that curves. It is the rest of the race and you run it looking for the end of the race. It's a tough mental mile and I am pleased to say I ran it in 6:25. But it messes with you. I caught up with pink socks and she hit the finish a tad bit ahead of me. My perfect pacemates, just a tad behind.
Race results, 43:06, 1st in AG and exact same time as pink socks. For some reason though, I'm listed ahead of her. Maybe they were like "she's 20 years older, give it to her..."
I totally didn't expect that. I ran my ass off this week prior to the race, I just wasn't planning on it being that good. Now I'm a little concerned about JAW10k. Taper? No Taper?
I've already asked
Megan, her twin and
another local runner in our time-frame to run it with me. Why not? We are all about the same.
The goal? Well, as
Coach G and I discussed, my Sept tempo run is 42:42, so shouldn't we have that goal in mind? Yes, but if I can run 43:06 with a 7:18 first mile, I need to remember that starting slow is super important! Right?
Hope everyone is having a Happy Holiday weekend! (I've got pics and splits and elevations coming, but I couldn't get them up tonight.)
