Run with patience the race that is set before us

Fun race today! Thanks to my fast running friend, Taryn, I started out faster than I normally would. I stuck with her until 1.5 miles. Then she gradually got farther and farther ahead and raced off to finish her 10k.

I felt good. It started out rainy a bit but didn't really rain during the run. There were two hills that were a bit challenging. I enjoyed that the finish line took me right past the American Fork cemetery where my mom is buried.

I thought of Tara my sister in law who just did Boston much faster than this in the rain and thought "Just keep going." I even said a few prayers to give me strength. I didn't want to lose the momentum I had started with.

Overall, great race, felt good,wore me out and that is good. I recovered quickly so maybe I should push myself harder next time.

This was a speed workout at a high school track. We started with 200, then 400, then 800, then 1200, then 800, then 400, then 200. So hard! It wiped me out. By the end I felt I was getting faster though. Also I dry-heaved after the 800 I think it was. Yuck...but kept pushing myself. Haven't pushed myself that hard in a long time and it actually felt good to try so hard.

Ran 8 miles at 7:23 pace. Felt great! Here are my splits: 8:30, 7:30, 7:15, 7:00. 6:48, 7:00, 7:15, 7:15...or something like that. I sped up at the last quarter of a mile to 6:48 or so. 

I was glad to stop. I got a side ache during mile two. After about 4 minutes it was gone and I felt good the rest of the time.

This race is a free race in Sandy for my cousin's son who died a few years back. He was in high school. There is a balloon send off which was really sweet. His younger brother is now back from a mission and dating a girl--so crazy to see my cousin's boy growing up. I was happy to be there with a lot of cousins and relatives to support Brandon and his family.

I ran this race on my own and I find it easier to run with someone. The last 5k I did was with my running partner, Brittany. She was faster than me and I kept striving to keep up. This was hard to mentally keep pushing myself. Plus the GPS on my phone is not always giving the current speed accurately so I have to go off of how I feel a lot. 

My first mile was 6:48 pace. Second mile I never heard the time on my phone but I think it was around 7:15. The third mile, my phone said my pace was 7:06 which would have made my third split 7:15.

6:48

7:15

7:15

1:11 for the final .107

My final overall pace was 7:14.

I was disappointed I didn't beat my PR which was 22:11. And I thought I was the first woman, but I didn't stick around the leaderboard long enough to see how two other women got placed ahead of me. No big deal. I really just wanted to beat my time and I didn't. So I didn't quite feel like the winner I wanted to. :)

I enjoyed this race today. Honestly, I was really excited to run it and wok up every hour last night to check the time. My mind was reeling with ideas and many thoughts about the race as well as other things. So it was difficult to fall asleep. Also, my daughter woke up twice to ask for milk. So the second time, at 5:15 am, I just decided to stay up. My alarm was set for 5:30 anyway.

I wanted to get to the race by 6:00 am to give me time to run the course, get warmed up and feel familiar with the whole thing. I almost arrived by 6:15 when I realized I didn't have my number! So I turned around and went home for it. I got there by 6:25 and had time to find a course map and run 1.75 miles at a comfortable 8:30 pace. I was so glad I did that because there were some challenging hills at the beginning. Then I did a few 100 m. distance at pace-- around 7:00 min/mile.

I felt the 7min/mile pace was very hard. I wondered if I'd be able to do it. But I was very glad to have woken up my body, stretched and jogged first. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have run that pace right off the bat in the morning.

I found my friends, Brittany, Heidi, Bruce, and Heidi's family. We all had a few good laughs before walking to the starting line. 

I had been telling Brittany, it would be awesome if we could get under 20 minutes. However, I was realizing I would be lucky to even do 7 min/mile. I told Brittany I would try to stick with her. In our practices, 7 minute miles were easier for her than me. She's doing awesome!

So I did just that. Tried to stick with her. She was doing great! I stayed with her until about 1.25 when I started to fall behind a bit. Still, the first 2 miles I was on target with a 6:58 pace on each. The third mile became very hard. I was praying for strength and endurance. At about 2.75 I dropped my car key. It slipped out from my arm band. I had to turn around and pick it up. I think I lost a few seconds on that and I would have liked to see what my time would have been without that mistake. Could I have gotten under 22 minutes? 

I finished 3 miles and came to a straight stretch to a finish. I pushed myself harder and then ran out of steam. The finish line wasn't approaching as fast as I'd thought it would. So I slowed a bit. Then I saw the clock, "22:00" and I really wanted to beat my last PR of 22:17. So I kicked it into gear again. Crossed the line at 22:06. My legs were wobbly. I was so glad to be done. That last mile was really hard mentally. Just ran out of motivation and willpower.

I used RockMyRun, an app, to listen to music. It worked out really well. My left arm did get tangled in my earphone cord a few times. But overall, it wasn't as distracting as I feared to wear earphones and wear my phone on my arm band. I've only tried it one other time.

My phone was completely accurate on time and pace. But I was glad to have some sort of reference. I knew my pace was likely faster than it was reporting and in the end it was. That's always a good feeling!

Overall, loved it! Good course. One small hill around mile 2.75 was challenging. And the first mile has two hills (one gradual and one sort of short steep one). So the course is mostly flat. 

I pushed myself today! I was disappointed by my race time yesterday and wanted to prove to myself that I could run faster. And I did!! I got a PR. Granted it was on a treadmill watching the movie "Edge of Tomorrow", but I did it nonetheless. So I'm going to count it!

I walked and ran a slow 3 miles as a warmup. I wasn't sure I was up for the challenge for myself as it was already 11:45pm when I started. Well, after 3 miles I felt like I had waisted enough time and had to get to it.

I stopped the clock and started it again with a pace of 6:48 min/mile. I proceeded to focus on the movie and told myself I wasn't going to check my distance for at least 22 minutes. I must have misjudged the start time on the movie's clock because when I checked the distance, it was at 3.81!!! So I did it! That would have been a 21:08 finish time!! Well I slowed down my time after checking the distance for a brief 20 seconds or less and then ended the run. So it said my pace was 6:55. Even that would have been a 21:29 finish! Both PR's. Before that my fastest was 22:11.

During the run, I was sweating SO much! Literally dripping. I was watching Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise intensely fighting aliens on the movie and enjoying all the energy.

Well, then I stopped for a minute to record my progress on my Nike Running App.

I knew I would keep running but hadn't decided how fast. I wanted a long run today. Well, I set the pace to 7:00 min/mile and did 3.13 miles! 

Both the first and second speed runs were very hard. But I was determined not to give up. And the movie helped a lot. I felt good. Legs, lungs, body felt good. Mentally, I was determined so I stayed focused on the movie. Overall, I felt like a winner at the end! :)

I ran this race with my friend Brittany. My sister in law, Tara, came and met me in the course about halfway through. That was so helpful because I was starting to get burnt out, but she kept encouraging me and got me through a tough spot around mile 10. At the end, she was really encouraging me and I wanted to give up very badly. But I slowed my pace a bit and just kept going to the end. This was my fastest time and something I was very proud of. I'm writing this blog 2 years later as I realize that although I'm training now, I'm not nearly as fast as I was then. This was quite an accomplishment for myself. I was running 5 days a week with speed workouts at a track when possible. Brittany, Taryn (another friend) and I trained together and did hills and other types of training exercises to prepare.