All about that pace.

9:30am

I ran the Bloomsday race with my daughter today. It's an annual event in Spokane, WA that draws about 50,000 runners/walkers every year. Karina had never ran that far before, but since she's graduating from Whitworth College in a couple weeks and moving back home she really wanted to run it this year. I am so proud of her! She only trained for about 2 months and was able to run the whole thing without walking! We ran it together along with her friend Sara at about a 10 minute pace and I took lots of pictures of them and all the other interesting things going on during the race. I'll post some of those pics later...

Pace 10:25

At the start about half way back. People are still lining up behind us.

Sara on the left, Karina on the right about 20 minutes after the gun.

It's tradition to throw your extra layers in the trees at the start. They are collected for the homeless shelter after the race.

Me and Karina still waiting to get to the start after the gun...

Cool Army band playing some Tom Petty. "Runnin' Down a Dream"

One mile and still smiling.

Some inspirational accordion music.

Water station at the 2 mile mark. Look how crowded it still is up the road...

The coolest jogging suit ever.

The bucket band banging out some cool beats.

High 5'n the cool mascott dude.

Funky white boy.

Approaching "Doomsday Hill" in the background.

Half way up and still smiling...

Still going...

Doomsday buzzard at the top of the hill.

Yay! We made it to the top!

Sweet "swing bike" I haven't seen one of those for 30 years. I always wanted one when I was a kid.

Karina and the Nalley pickle dude.

Superhero father and son. I don't know them, I just thought they were cool.

I bet that was fun to run in.

At the finish area.

Me and my girl :)

4:30am

I took it easy for the first 8 miles and finished fast with the last 2 at 7:08 and 6:37.

Pace 7:35

Distance Split pace
1.00 7:33
2.00 7:13
3.00 7:47
4.00 8:00
5.00 8:01
6.00 7:53
7.00 7:45
8.00 7:56
9.00 7:08
10.00 6:37
10.04 6:16

5:00am

Windy and rainy.

Pace 7:33

Distance Split pace
1.00 7:32
2.00 7:09
3.00 7:30
4.00 7:26
5.00 7:47
6.00 7:45
7.00 7:53
8.00 8:15
9.00 7:23
10.00 6:54
10.05 6:54
 

4:30am

I didn't run yet today. I had to take my best friend to the airport before work, he's going back to Iraq for 6 more months. We had a great time while he was home! Maybe I'll get that 10 miler in after work. I finally posted some pictures of Sunday's race:

http://rattletrap.fastrunningblog.com/blog-05-03-2009.html

5:00am

I couldn't convince myself to run yesterday after work. I just went to bed early and figured I would be well rested and ready to run today. I hit the snooze button 4 or 5 times this morning and barely made it out the door by 5:00am. I felt like a slug the whole way, I should have been much faster after a day off. I really need to get back on track with my schedule. Only 7 more weeks until race day.

Pace 7:40

Distance Split pace
1.00 7:31
2.00 7:08
3.00 7:38
4.00 7:48
5.00 8:04
6.00 7:57
7.00 7:58
8.00 8:05
9.00 7:22
10.00 7:10
10.03 6:53

7:30am

My goal today was to run 21 miles and go at least a little bit faster than my goal marathon pace for as long as I could stand it. As soon as I slipped behind 7:38 for a mile I would slow down to a comfortable recovery pace and finish the course without looking at my watch until the end. The hill on mile 19 was the killer. The rest of the course was relatively flat except for a few rolling hills. Once I slowed down after that big hill I felt like I was recovering ok in just a mile or so. I'm sure I could have done another 5 miles at MP with some live music and cheerleaders on the course :) Only 7 more weeks until the Seattle Rock and Roll!

Pace 7:22

Distance Split pace
1.00 7:11 - both my shins were killing me
2.00 7:06
3.00 7:12
4.00 7:16 - shins finally quit hurting
5.00 7:28
6.00 7:34 - spacing out thinking about work, I guess this might be my default pace now :)
7.00 7:02 - back on track
8.00 7:19
9.00 7:10
10.00 7:12
11.00 7:06
12.00 7:14
13.00 7:10
14.00 7:10
15.00 7:29 - starting to feel it
16.00 7:28
17.00 7:35
18.00 7:36 - still hanging in there
19.00 7:49 - big hill
20.00 7:46
21.00 7:43 - recovering from the hill, but really thirsty. glad it's over. 
21.04 8:05 - almost forgot to hit the stop button.

5:30am

Ran with Preston this morning. We started out slow and progressively got faster with nice 5k pace mile at the end.

Pace 7:30

Distance Split pace
1.00 8:14
2.00 7:58
3.00 7:39
4.00 7:38
5.00 7:29
6.00 7:31
7.00 7:26
8.00 7:27
9.00 7:35
10.00 6:36
10.37 6:03