catherine's running efforts

Today was my first run since the (relatively minor) surgery last Friday. It's been over a week because work got crazy busy the few days before the weekend. I was kind of nervous about how I'd feel, but it went really well. 

It helped me realize how grateful I am that I can exercise. A couple of days ago I felt like I was going crazy because I couldn't move enough. I even used a little arm weight in bed to try to get the feeling to go away. And the last couple of days at work I've felt lazy, puffy, and bleh. Even though I've never been super consistent about running, I don't think I've ever gone more than a couple of weeks without some kind of physical activity (hiking, running, cycling, dancing, etc). It makes me wonder what it feels like for people who *never* exercise. I don't imagine it feels very happy. 

Another wonderful three miles that I looked forward to all day. 

A happy three miles on the track. Did the first mile barefoot and felt great, but maybe got a couple of little blisters on my toes. 

45:00

24:00

34:03

16:00

29:53

Eric (facelessghost) and I decided to do the Utah Running Club 15K this Saturday because it was a good distance, it was where we needed to be that day (Provo), and it was cheap. In retrospect, we might have enjoyed a bigger race more (e.g., the 5K that was at Liberty Park), but now we know for next time.

We started about 20 seconds late because the race timer said "Go" right after Eric started retying his shoe. He got pretty far ahead of everyone right away, but I was surprised that I passed almost everyone (even the two girls I thought would beat me because they looked so lean) within about a minute. After a few miles I knew I probably wouldn't make my "dream" goal of an under-8:30 pace, but I was able to make my "realistic" goal of beating my 15K time from January. January's course was flatter, too, so I feel like I've improved (though yesterday's course was mentally easier because it was more interesting).

When Eric passed me on the way back he said there were two men and one woman in front of me, but it turned out that the woman was the race director who hadn't run the whole course, so he and I ended up being the first man and woman back. Like he said in his race report, though, there might have only been a couple or a few other people running the 15K. And I think a lot of people might have been treating it like a training run. But even though it was small and super informal, I'm glad we did it because I probably tried harder than I would have if I were just out by myself.

Oh - it was my first run with my new Garmin 205. I liked the average pace function, but I was super annoyed that it did the autostop when I was *not* stopped (I'll be turning that feature off, but was it the clouds? The trees?). And Eric's and my elevations don't match (even though the maps  of our runs are identical). Is it defective? Less accurate than Eric's because it's the 205 and not the 305? Was it because of the autostop (but why would that make such a difference in the elevation)? Was it because I had it set to record at every second, and his was on smart record? Lame.

30ish (with dog)

43:52

28:39

I was 4th or 5th out of 21 or 22 women (results aren't yet separated for men and women and there are a couple of androgynous names), 21st out of 59 total people. Is race division an age thing, and is overall *overall*? Or overall within women? Anyway... Eric (facelessghost) won the 50K, so check out his race report!

The first half was uphill, and for at least half of that I was just hiking. Parts of the course were pretty steep. It was a gorgeous venue and an almost ideal morning, though, and the routes were clearly marked, and the bagels at the end were yummy.

I met my goals of finishing before 2 hours and in the top half. As I was watching all the 30K people come in I kind of wished I had done that distance, but I'll probably be pretty sore from all the hills in just the 15K. Maybe next year I'll do the 30.

Splits: 9:55, 13:02, 12:38, 22:28, 11:28, 11:50, 7:39, 7:54, 8:14, 7:49, 6:25 (0.78)

Cemetery loop, 27:14. Previous best time was 28:18. 

Snagged a Utah Valley half-marathon spot for 30.00. Yay. :)