Another Brookhaven 5K...

I have a love/hate relationship with the Brookhaven 5k. I ran my first race there back in 2009, and somehow have managed to not miss one since then. Even after my bike crash last year, I was back and laced up for a 26:40, and 6th place in my age group.

I picked up Rochelle and we met up with the group at about 7. Even during the warm-up it was hot, but I slogged through two easy miles.

We had one good photo op during the warm-up.

We made it back to the start, got in a few strides, and had time for some pre-race selfies. You should always carry your camera, and time management is important when you want starting line pics.

Kristy, me and Rochelle

Lauren, Kristy, Rochelle, me and Tiffany

It has been a few years since I actually felt ready to run Brookhaven. In years past I always managed to kill myself in the first mile, and I resolved to not to that this time. My plan was to settle into a comfortably hard pace for the first mile, hang on for the second, and hopefully kick it in on the last.

My watch clicked out a 7:47 on mile one, and I kinda felt like I was in trouble. If you unfamiliar with this race, it's sort of a big loop, but after the first mile you make a right hand turn and head straight into the sun before turning right again. Just when you think you are about done, you head back into the neighborhood and wind to the finish line.

My right hand turn into the sun about killed me. It was a perfectly clear day, and it was hot and humid. After all, this is Oklahoma. By the time I turned right again, my stomach started to not feel so well, I think the Advil I took when I got up was not agreeing with me. Mile two clicked off at 8:10, and I was ready to be done.

I had no kick for the last mile, I felt empty. Mile three was 8:15 and I was so glad to be almost done. I finished with at 25:23, and fourth place in my new age group. I was happy with how I did, and even happier to see all my super sweaty friends at the finish.

More pictures!

Rochelle and I.

Me, Kristy, Lauren and Ro

 I do love this race! I always see lots of friends, and it's put on by my favorite running store. I sure wish it was put on in weather that is more agreeable to running. There's always next year.



Marathon Training...

It has been a month since my last super whiny marathon training post. So I thought I would check back in and see how it's going.

A few weeks ago, I am not going to lie, I had a "Holy crap, what was I thinking, I never want to run again" run. It was 14 miles, and my fabulous friend Sarah stuck with my slow self the entire time, and by slow I mean, how about we walk about three of these 14 miles? It was awful. It was so freaking hot outside and so humid that I could squeeze the sweat out of my socks and my shoes were soaked. It was not raining, that was a couple of shoes full of my sweaty, not so fabulous, self.

I even considered, and said, more than once, that I was doubting my decision to even be training for this race. Yes, I have said it a few times since then, but less this week than in previous weeks.

The Saturday after that horribleness, I ran 16 miles that turned out to be a tad less horrible. It has been so hot, and humid here. It is crazy. I feel bad when I need to take walk breaks when I am running with others, but I can't run without them. My last seven miles were all on my own, and with my headphones on I managed to have the best five mile run in a while. I ran and walked when I needed to. No pressure to keep up, or to not walk.

Last week was better, although the fact that it didn't feel as humid as it had been probably was a big factor in this. I ran some of it by myself, and then ran some with a friend that is training for a half ironman and said that she would be walking during the half portion of her race so it was okay to have some walk breaks with me.

When we got back I looked like I had jumped into a swimming pool. NO joke.

You should thank me for not including my super sweaty self in this picture, although it's kind of rude of me to block out half of Anne's face with my visor. The second after I snapped the picture Ro stuck her tongue out, so it's a pretty big group selfie fail.

Oh well.

So this run was much better for me mentally. It felt manageable, even if it was painfully slow. This weekend I am planning for 18, although I think we are running on Monday, which sounds awful. We are running the Brookhaven 5k on Saturday, oh if I didn't love our local running store so much I would not do it. I guess we will see if my track workouts are paying off, but I did skip the track party yesterday in order to get an hour more sleep, so that might not have helped much.

Running is an adventure, and it's supposed to be fun. It is getting to be more fun, but I sure can't wait until Fall.

Brookhaven 5k...

This was my fourth year running the Brookhaven 5k, you can see last year's recap here. Not sure what happened to the pictures in that post.

Anyway, today is September first and it was time for my first race since Cowtown. I was a little bummed yesterday when I was thinking that I was gonna have to run it solo, turned out that Ro and Laura were there with me. It was funny, Josh had been thinking he was gonna come if I didn't have anyone to run with. He and the girls used to come watch me run 5k's.

Ro and I got there early and became those runners that we've always made fun of. We ran two easy miles before the race, it was a nice 9:45 pace and I was a little worried about how it was gonna go.

It was hot out, and our usual photographer was out of town. We ran into Jeanne and had her take a pre-race picture for us.

I already looked like a hot sweaty mess.

So we visited with some fellow runners (I love Brookhaven for that) and lined up at the start. I ran this race a lot smarter than last year, my splits were a lot more even. My miles were 7:45, 7:48 and 7:54.

My official chip time was 24:36, which is almost the same as last year. I was 6th out of 47 in my age group and 58 out of 399 women overall. Not a bad start to September.

I came home and iced my feet.

And had some leftover pizza.

Now, I'm hoping to get a brick workout in this weekend and get packed to leave for Colorado on Wednesday.

 

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