YEEHAW!!!
Today's run:
Liberty Run 4 Miler
4.10 miles/49:44
Why, yes, now that you mention it... that IS a significantly faster pace than Saturday's downer run. And YES, I AM COMPLETELY THRILLED!
This was a pretty wonderful race. I ran it and my mom walked it. Sidenote: SNAPS FOR MY MOMMY FOR ROCKING THOSE FOUR MILES! And she came in 20 minutes before she thought she would! My mom rocks.
Okay, enough bragging. This was a pretty cool race. First of all, it was a green race, meaning no cups for water. And before you start thinking this was abusive, they gave us these kind of weird kidney-looking things called a HydraPouch - it's a $17 value, and was included in the registration fee! The only problem was that they ran out of water fast... I kind of regretted not bringing along my running water bottle. In the future, I probably will, because I'm a baby.
Like that... only mine has a sweet Liberty Run sticker on it. All in all, not a bad deal, especially since the shirt included as well was a tech shirt, and kind of awesome looking. I'm already looking forward to wearing it, and I rarely wear tech shirts.
The race was significantly smaller than I thought it would be, which I really appreciated - a little bit of bottlenecking at the beginning, but that was it. No real crowds to fight through, and in my case, I didn't feel like I had to sneak into a corner to take my walk breaks so that I didn't get trampled by the stampede behind me. And I did take a significant amount of walk breaks, especially in the last two miles.
As great as the race was, and as ECSTATIC as I am over my improved pace (all I wanted was to get sub-50 today, and I DID IT, KIDS!)... it was another important lesson in pacing. I felt really good at the start and so I ran pretty quick for the first two miles. I did take my walk breaks, but when I was running, it was generally right around a 10:00 mile pace. Yes, SkinnyRunners of the world, this is slow for you... but bear with me, as it was pretty speedy for Miss SlowPants over here. And around the 2 or 2.5 mile mark, I hit a bit of a wall. I got a bad blister on the arch of my left foot (how sad, I have to go shopping for new insoles... or maybe new shoes...) and my left hamstring seized up so badly that it made my knee throb. Heck, it made my whole leg throb. But at that point, I knew I was over halfway done, and I wanted my sub-50! So I pushed anyway... and then came home, immediately got in my sweatpants, abused myself with The Stick for a while, and then iced the hell out of my knees. And now I'm in bed under a down comforter. Thanks, forefathers, for making this dream possible :)
Also, I owe a huge THANK YOU to Christy and Christina for the wonderful comments on my whiny post from Saturday. You ladies are awesome - honestly, as much as I love the whole blogging thing because it gives me an excuse to talk about myself (and I really, seriously love that), I am so motivated and inspired by the other amazing bloggers that I have had the honor of coming in contact with. So thank you two, and thank you to all of my readers! Even if I slack sometimes, I really love having the opportunity to connect with all of you.
More pictures of the Liberty Run are to come because my very tolerant father tried to snap lots of pictures of me with my thumbs up, per usual. For now, please enjoy this advertisement that I found in a mall in LA with David. And yes, I do want this smoothie now.
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