THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

28 degrees and windy. 1:12:24/8:29 pace.  two circuits of strength drills afterward.  Can't wait for saturday!

1:09:40/8:09 pace.  Felt great today.  23 degrees but sunny and no wind.  I was cruising quite comfortably and just had a lot of spring in my step.  I hope I feel that way on Saturday!  I plan on trying to really slow the pace down tomorrow and  run real slow--give my legs some recovery.

As promised to myself, I exercised restraint today and took it very, very easy.  It was hard because it was beautiful, sunny, and breezy, 40 degrees, and I felt great.  I kept putting myself in check again and again.   1:13:43/9:03 pace.  I think 40 degrees is actually my ideal running temperature.  I prefer to be a little cool rather than warm.  

Still holding the reigns in and taking it very easy.  Ran super easy except for 7 short(50-100 meter) bursts of 10K race pace--just trying to get a handle on what the pace feels like.  Time was 1:16:21/8:56 pace.  Will probably run 4 or 5 super slow tomorrow just to stay loose.  Looks like I will be bringing 4 of my kids with me to the race--early morning for us Saturday!  Jesse, my 14 year old, will have to keep track of all his little siblings while I run.  Knowing my children are unattended in all those crowds of people will just make me run faster so I can be with them!

Had two toddlers(Vanessa and Leo), Nick, and Ian all morning.  Jesse wasn't much help but that's okay.  At naptime I went out for a very,very, very slow 4 miles.  Felt phantom pains all over the place the first mile--I was convinced I was badly injured--boy my nerves are jangly!  Of course the body-wide phantom pains disappeared by the second mile.  Geez I can't believe how nervous I am about this race--ridiculous!  I will be waking the kids up early so they can get fed and loaded up in the van tomorrow morning.  It is about a 35 minute drive and then I've got to get them all settled in a designated area where I can find them after the race.  I will be lucky to get much of a warmup in.  Neither Grandma is available to help tomorrow and David will be at work.  I'm loading the van now.  Stroller-check, water bottles-check, snacks-check, phone for me and phone for Jesse-check, changes of clothes for the little ones-check, blankets-check, some sweats for me-check, diaper bag-check, man if you are going to go ANYWHERE for more than an hour or so with this many kids you have to bring EVERYTHING!

44:29 was what the clock said when I crossed the finish line, but I don't know my official time so I may be off a second.  Anyways,  I'm PUMPED.  Slaughtered my PR by almost 5 minutes.  Anyways, got the kids up early, drank a cup of coffee and ate a banana, then drank a cup of water, loaded up, and drove to the course.  We got there with an hour to spare.  There was a playground right by the finish line!  I couldn't have asked for a better setup than that!  Warmed up with about 10 or 15 minutes of slow jogging and one burst of race pace, then found the starting line and lined up about 5 minutes before we were off.  There was a ton of people there.  Anyways, I took off at what I thought was about the right pace, trying not to get overexcited.  1K split was 4:15.  A little fast.  Can't remember my 2k exactly but it was 8 something.  Still a little fast.  Saw my kids cheering for me when we passed by the playground around the 4k mark.  Then we ran through a bunch of people lined up cheering for us and that was actually really awesome and made me run faster.  Crossed 5K in 22:13 still feeling pretty good and just kept plugging away.  Somewhere between 6k and 7k it started to get harder.  I just kept telling myself to relax.  Relax. Tempo.  Relax. Tempo.  That was what I kept repeating over and over in my head.  Don't know why!  Anyways legs were feeling clompy like my feet were slapping really hard, but around 8k that feeling seemed to pass.  I started to push at 8k knowing that I was probably slowing down.  Concentrated on form and staying relaxed.  Crossed 9k at 40something and knew if I wanted under 45 minutes I better turn it on.  I turned it on, dropped into a dead sprint as soon as I could see the finish line, and when I was coming down the home stretch I could see the clock was 44 something so I was grinning like a fool when I crossed the finish line!  Not to mention my kids were screaming at me to sprint!  I am very happy with this race!  I feel like I had some left when I finished so at my next 10k in a month I will not be afraid to push a little harder--I now know that at this pace I will not blow up and die before the finish.  Leg tiredness seems to be what slows me down in the end more than my breathing.  My breathing felt pretty good and controlled the whole race.  I will have to keep plugging away at those strength drills.  Anyways everyone have a great Easter!