THOU SHALT BE A COMEBACK

1:19:00/8:42 pace.  Took it easy.  My feet and back were hurting from the long week on my feet last night.  Today they felt okay but took it easy anyway just to be sure.  Very pleasant run.  Tried to drink water at the halfway point by my house.  My husband held the cup out and I tried to drink and run at the same time and it did not work!  I got water all over my face and my shirt but not a drop in  my mouth!  I threw the cup down and sprinted off yelling WAHOO mostly for the benefit of my boys since they were on their bicycles enjoying the spectacle.  I guess I need some practice.

1:06:32/8:10.  Felt great today!  Did not push the pace, but nor did I hold the reigns in!  Just ran however fast I felt like running--but always at a comfortable pace.  Such a nice run!  The sun was shining, the breeze was cool and refreshing, the birds were singing--I felt joyful!  Now I am off to a nice big breakfast courtesy of my husband!

1:22:08/9:03 pace.  I was on a mission today to take it very very easy and mission accomplished.  Enjoyed my run.  Tried again today to drink water out of a cup on the run.  I splashed it all over my face and shirt again but this time actually got two good gulps down.  So, there is improvement. My wonderful husband is outside mowing my grass track for barefoot running, and is going to rake all the sticks and rocks out of the path.  I can't wait to try it out!

1:19:14/8:45 pace.  Ran mostly easy except for three bursts of practice 5K race pace since I am running a 5k on Saturday.  I was trying to get a feel for a pace that is comfortably very hard.  Did a run-by with gatorade and while I still got it all over my face and shirt I successfully swallowed quite a bit as well.  It is supposed to be windy this weekend so that stinks.  It's an all-women's 5k and the turnout is usually around 1200 so I think this will be a really fun event.

4 nice and easy, 8:53 pace with one burst of the comfortably very hard 5k race pace, although I suspect the pace will be complete agony the last mile.  We'll see!

Well that was just really awesome!  It was an all women's 5k--a field of 1027 I believe the announcer said.  It was overcast and very humid and windy but the wind helped balance out the humidity so the conditions were not bad at all.  My sister-in-law Sasha and I drove to the race together.  We jogged around a little while to warm up and that was about it.  My legs felt ready to go.  We lined up, the horn blew, and I found my comfortably very hard pace that I have been practicing.  Surprisingly, I found myself in 5th place at the 1 mile mark--6:52.  I still felt really good and just kept going.  I was pretty close to 4th place so I finally passed her.  Third took a little longer but I passed her at the end of the second mile.  I was still feeling good so I decided to go after 2nd place(I was pretty incredulous at this point that I was up front, what is going on?!?).  Anyways I got next to the second place girl and got up the wind to surge and pass her and then I was scared that they would all come pass me so I was running pretty hard to stay on pace.  Someone started yelling at me to go after first.  I could see her and the bicycle so I just concentrated on relaxing and going after her.  She was slowing down and I was closing the gap but we were too close to the finish for me to catch her.  She finished 16 seconds ahead of me.   I am happy with my time and very happy with my placing!  I was not totally drained after the race at all and I think I could have pushed the pace harder so at my next 5k I will push harder.  I would like to go under 21 minutes on my next try!  Sasha did awesome she got 7th place overall with a 22:14!  We are going to start going to races together!  She placed first in her age group at a 5k last weekend and this weekend took 17 seconds off her time!  The awards ceremony was like being on an episode of Oprah!  It was  gym full of women and everybody cheered for everybody.  I had to stand on this podium thingy with the top 3 and hold my bouquet while they took all these pictures.  I felt like I was at the olympics or something it was crazy!  All of the top 10 got a handcrafted ceramic plate, a bouquet of flowers, a $40 gift certificate to some online fitness store, another $15 gift certificate to road ID, and some chapstick.  Craziness!  Madness!  They go all out at this 5k!  I will definitely be back next year!  It was totally worth the drive!  Went for a 3 mile recovery run at a very slow pace after I picked the kids up and put Vanessa down for her nap.