Here I go again!

I was going to wait till tomorrow to post this to give it more suspense... but decided against it... I can't do that to poor Eric!

Since the start was only 1 mile away from my house, I decided to get up only 40 minutes before race start... which wasn't such a good idea because I wouldn't have much time to digest breakfast... I got dressed, had a piece of toast and a little coffee, and off I went - jogged 1 mile to the start line, it was drizzling a little... My stomach wasn't liking it too much but it held up alright. I really liked that jog by the way, I'm going to start doing it for every race. It really loosened up my legs so I felt stronger during the race. I found my friends Mai and Guy at the start line, this was their 2nd race and they are becoming great runners, very exciting. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time the race started. I forgot to start my watch, but I remember the first mile was almost exactly 8 minutes, the second about the same, the third was faster, like 7:30... and then it was down and up the hill, miles 4 and 5. I was ready... I flew up it feeling great, and ran the last mile pretty fast towards the finish line. Clock time was 47:58 and chip time 47:40, much better than my previous time (50:23) - not my 10k PR, but for a hillier course it wasn't too bad. 57th place out of 1,143 women, and 9th out of 274 in my age group, hey, top 10, that's not too shabby for Lucy!

The elite guys are going to be mad though - at one point during the race one of the course marshalls wasn't paying attention, and we got on the way of the elite runners! People coming in were supposed to stay on the left side of the road and the faster guys coming out after the hill were supposed to stay on the right - someone screwed up. I hope it wasn't too bad, I'm sure we'll read about it on the washington running paper - this race has been going on for 30 years, very strange they don't have everything figured out.

Will was supposed to meet me at the finish line but he got lost. He grew up here and he's never been to the library of congress or the Arboretum, and he gets lost in the city. Go figure. I ran home and we went to brunch - banana crepes with nutella and whipped cream, yummm!

Now I'm at work getting things ready for this week's conference, and going to also read the race reports for all the Ogden runners! Happy Sunday!

Nada. Conference for work, too much going on, too lazy...

Ran to the office. Gorgeous day. Feelin' good.

Ran to the office. Gorgeous day. Feeling great.

Still working on conference - fun but a lot of work! Exhausting! It's over tomorrow after lunch, thank goodness. I have 3 pairs of running shoes in the office now, from running here but going to events after work so I don't take them back home!

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Ran home after work! Sooooo nice out!!!

Ran to the office. Checked the distance with the new Gmaps pedometer map, it seems more precise, and you can check a box for runners or cyclist. It doesn't have all sidewalks, but works for the most part. Will try to get 4 miles more before heading home tonight.

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Ok, so I told my boyfriend that I was aiming to qualify for Boston in October and he laughed! He wasn't being mean, he just thought I was actually joking... He's ran several marathons (his fastest time 3:40 I believe) so he knows it's not easy, but still... well, it made me think about it... my first and only marathon, October 2006, was 4:08... the 10k I ran last week was 48:40...  the McMillan running calculator translates that time into a 3:48 marathon... Can I shave 2 minutes off my 10k and 8 minutes off that marathon time in 4.5 months??? I ran a 46:30 10k in November... so I think it's possible... I need to do some speed work/hills in the next few months... a lot of it!

Does anyone know how accurate the McMillan calculator is in practice?

What do you fellow runners think, am I dreaming? I don't want to get my hopes up too much and then be disappointed... I rather be realistic... doubt sucks!

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Ran 3 miles to Clarendon to get some dulce de leche at the latin american store and ran back to the office. Felt very tired and hot. Metroed home and made ice cream for my friend Diego's graduation party. Made dulce de leche, and earler this week I made strawberry.... yummm!

Woke up early and metroed to my friend Sangeeta's house - drove her to the hospital to get surgery to remove a cyst from her tailbone. Poor thing. It was actually sort-of fun being in the hospital when someone else is getting surgery and not me!

The surgery was quick, and I drove her home, picked up some pain medication and went back to her place. Didn't run... partly for being lazy and partly I didn't want to leave her alone the day of surgery... But she was feeling ok, was able to walk and everything...

Stayed with Sangeeta last night to make sure she was OK with the pain killers and all... she was, so this morning I metroed home. Her sister and some other friends were coming over to see her today, so I knew she'd be ok. I was planning on going backcountry camping with Will and some friends, so I got home and packed for 2 hours, had everything ready for when Will picked me up... the rest of the group was already in Shenandoah, we were supposed to meet them at the backcountry site. Will got to my house and told me he really shouldn't hike with a heavy pack at all because of his injury (he needs to get surgery on his feet for an issue the doctors can't tell exactly what it is but think surgery would help...) - he had told me he couldn't hike "very much", but I asked him how much is too much and he said 3 miles would be OK... but then his macho man retreated and his reasonable man came out and realized he shouldn't hike at all. Grrrrr, why didn't you say so before I wasted my time making all those plans and packing? Water under the bridge... so we went mountain biking instead, to Schaffer Farms, GOR-GEOUS! Had a fabulous time, didn't fall, got tons of bruises though, not sure how. I was able to get over most roots, rocks, and logs, but a few I can't do yet... Fun times!

We went back to Bethesda and I ran 4 miles on the Capitol Crescent trail.

15-ish miles mountain biking.