glidergirl

• 5.51 miles, 5th south loop 9:41 AP
• abs with 2x1 min planks

My little alarm clock woke up (starving!) a few hours earlier than normal so I was able to easily run outside before James needed to leave.  This loop at that AP used to be harder than it was this morning.  What used to be a hard effort to get under 10:00 is now an easy run.  I can tell my base mileage is finally paying off!  And I never have to worry about seeing 10:00 AP anymore (unless I'm really tired).  Looking forward to having 8:00's AP being the new norm, but that may take awhile.  Now that I've been back to work just over a month, I can see that the lack of sleep from the night shift is slowing my progress a bit (I had to cut back on the longer runs for now), but we're getting there!

• 4 easy TM miles, 39:11 (9:47 AP)
• abs w/ 2x1 min planks

• 8:47 AP

I went into this race thinking I would just run as much as I could and walk if I needed to, but once I started running, I realized I could probably run the whole thing at a decent pace and shoot for sub 2 hours because my very first half was a 1:54:28 (Moab Canyonlands) so I figured if I could get close to that I would feel good about it considering my very sub-par training right now.  I got 1:55:22! :)  The longest I've ran post baby was 10.54 miles back on Aug 17th, so I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn't fall apart a the end.  But I just kept getting more warmed up so I was able to keep up the pace.  It was fairly easy to keep up the pace since it was so aided. I really think I could have gone faster if I was more aware of my fitness level and had more courage.  I look forward to getting back to running half marathons with lots of speed with my heart and lungs wide open feeling the fire and then feel so great afterwards!

The course was VERY steep at some parts and the roads were cantered for most of it, so I didn't really like that. My toes aren't going to be happy (from hitting the tops of my shoes most of the way) as well as my quads and probably other random muscles thrown in there.  And I got blisters on the outsides of my feet by about 6 miles!  Pansy feet!  They are way too pampered right now and are not used to the longer distances.  I feel more haggered and sore in my feet and soleus muscles and shins than I know I would have if I had more long runs under my belt.  My feet/legs felt at mile 7-9 how they do at mile 18-21 during a marathon.

I stayed afterwards to see the marathon winner come in.  It's camdog from the blog (I'm assuming that is how it is spelled).  I congratulated him and asked him if he was on the blog.  He was happy to have won his first marathon!  Great job!

The scenery was gorgeous.  There was one spot in particular with a patch flaming red trees, it was so pretty!  There were lots of other fall colors, too.  I felt like this was a very organized race, I think they'll do a great job in the years to come with it. 

Finally got my garmin sync working again: (mile 5 had a potty break, hence the slow time....I had to wait in line for the POP!)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/225569590