From zero to......PR

Hey guys!! So here's the birthday weekend round-up!!

Friday started off really well. I'd worked some insane number of hours but I knew Friday would be much less stressful and I was really ready for it. When my coworker walked in at 8 she said "Hey! I thought you decided not to come back! Where's your car?" (I had threatened not to come back the day before.) "Uhhhh, it's right out front where it always is!" "Ummm...no. I parked right where you guys always park and it's not there." "Well, it had better be there!" "Nope, your car is NOT there." Instantly I knew Brent was up to something!! A few minutes later in he comes with a huge box of my fave cupcakes and a dozen red roses. Cue the jealous coworkers. Instantly my cube is stuffed with doting women sniffing and eating and Brent gets out of there as fast as possible before one of them attempts to molest him and steal him for their own. Close call. My fave cupcakes are loaded with icing and pretty difficult to eat "professionally" so all day long I enjoyed seeing icing smeared all over people's faces. We left work at a normal time (yeah!!) and had dinner at what USED to be our fave Italian place. Not so anymore since we literally had the RUDEST waitress ever. I don't even want to talk about it because I will get incredibly worked up. But seriously, everyone we've told had just been like "No she didn't". And yes, she did.

SO, after dinner we came home and got race ready!! The temps had been a little cooler last week, especially in the morning. Knowing my luck though I knew the sun would be out in full force no matter WHAT they said so I still set out a running tank and shorts. We literally passed out at the wild child hour of 9:30 and got a good night's sleep. Six am came too freaking early but we had a race to get ready for!! A couple of pieces of toast and some quality time in the bathroom and we were running late (as always) for the race that started just a mile from our house!! We had to park pretty far away so by the time we jogged up to get our numbers back to drop off the shirts and then back up to the start we had probably already logged a mile. And of course we got there right as they were counting down to start!! To top it off my stupid Garmin couldn't find a satellite!! Brent's 201 wasn't having any issues. We decided to just get out of the crowd and see if it would find the satellites quickly. It really stank being walking out of the crowd and watching everyone start, but since it was a chip race it didn't really matter. We stood there about 2 minutes and the dumb thing still couldn't figure out where I was, so I decided to just hit 'lap' at each mile marker.

Off we went, the last two to start!! The first mile is on pretty wide park roads, so it wasn't difficult to pass and it was a little exciting to pass so many people effortlessly. All the "drama" of just getting to the start had me all wired and naturally I started out WAY too fast. 7:53 to be exact!! That's a pace I can keep for a 5K, but not a 15K. So I instantly made myself SLOW DOWN. Mile 2: 8:28, much more like it. Around this point I picked up a friend. One of those annoying types who finds the need to use you as their pace bunny and stick to your side like glue. I'm not into that. The only person I want running next to me is Brent (unless we have a RBF meetup, of course!) And this guy was a "clopper". His feet sounded like freaking weights. And I knew what was coming. Mile 1.11 bridge (the bridge is exactly 1.11 miles from the start of the greenway, about mile 2 of this race). I hate 1.11. It's a long wooden bridge that bounces like the dickens - and if you're on it with a clopper - forgetaboutit. I swear to God when we ran over it I thought he was going to bounce me right off it. It always leaves me shaken up afterwards, too. UGH. I just couldn't lose him. Mile 3: 8:37. Mile 4: 8:27. And finally - I ditch clopper! He stopped for water but I was well prepared with my Fuel Belt. YEAH!! Along the way I passed Spitter. Spitter was full of saliva. It would have been a long race if you were running with Spitter. Mile 5:8:33. And suddenly Garmin knew where I was. Thanks for showing up!! Somewhere around 4.5 miles all the fasty-fasts were starting to meet us on their way back in. The usuals were winning, as always. Oh well, I get more value for my entry fee anyway. Mile 6: 8:15. This is really where I started to get tired. The quick start, long week, bad nutrition, and the SUN were really starting to wear me down. I just wanted the race to be OVER. Mile 7: 8:38. We were finally heading back towards the finish line and I KNEW I had a PR in my grasp. Mile 8: 8:43. I tried to pick it up towards the end, mostly just so it would be over sooner. Really. Mile 9: 8:32; Mile .3:7:07. I sprinted like mad for the last distance, mostly because I wanted to pass a bunch of people. And I did pass about 6 or so people at the end, and almost took one other guy.

My total time was 1:19:21 (an 8:32 pace) a PR of several minutes over last year's 1:26. I really do think I should have been able to do a little better, esp considering my half marathon times from last spring were faster. But, I've been training for distance lately and not speed, and last week sucked. So, I'll take it. This race brings out all the fasty-fasts so I was only 7th out of 16 in my division, and would have needed and 8:01 pace to place 3rd in my division.

From there......it was off to massages!! The one thing I asked for this year was a massage! We've been so busy we haven't gotten to enjoy one since APRIL! And it was GOOD! My back was so knotty, and she worked the hell out of my calves! There were several moments where I just whimpered in pain. Then we had a nice lunch out, and stopped by a running store for NEW TRAIL SHOES!!! I got some really cute Adidas trail shoes. We don't have a lot of trails around here, but we do have some. I've scoped out a few winter 50Ks (cough cough youknowwhoiamtalkingto) around here I'd like to try. Afterwards we came home and took a nap, a sheer luxury around here.

I knew we had dinner reservations somewhere, but I didn't know where. Brent totally threw me off course and took me to Nick and Rudy's. It was very nice! The piano singer was excellent and the food was to die for. I had a great pork tenderloin in an apple sauce and Brent had a steak. Then it was off to a neighborhood beer tasting party we had been invited to before calling it a night. On my actual birthday Brent made me pancakes for breakfast. We worked around the house painting all day before heading out to our regular Sunday night neighborhood dinner party. Brent made me a cake and everyone sang Happy B-day to me and helped me ring in 29. All I'm saying is that the female 25-29 division is going to TEAR IT UP this next year!! All the coolest bloggers are in the 25-29!!!

Well, this has rambled on and on so I'm calling it a night and picking up my paintbrush to help Brent! We're currently painting our bedroom. YEAH!

See ya!!

Rachel

Exercise-
Sat - 15k race, 1.5 mile walk with Brent and Pips
Mon - 4.1 mile run
Tue - 4.2 mile run