Saturday morning I drove up to Grand Rapids to get the Mini Cooper serviced, then walked around the expo and realized that I had the next 24 hours WITHOUT kids!!! so what did I do? ......
I rode my bike on the trainer in my hotel room for 3 hours and then ran 2 miles! It was great! :) I watched a special on the Boston Marathon (can't believe it's been 1 year!) and some other random shows that I never watch at home. Then I got some dinner and walked around Meijer doing my Easter Bunny shopping. Went to bed early and woke up to run my half marathon.
official time = 1:31:58. my goal was to run a 1:32. So, I'm very happy with my time :) I took 4 minutes of my personal best half-marathon time!! Considering I biked for 3 hours the day before the race (part of my Ironman training program), I'm very happy with my results!
At about the 5 mile mark of the race there was a turnaround point where I could see where I was in the racing field. I counted myself as 11th overall - so I started my game of "catch". I would focus on the person in front of me until I caught up to them, then I would hang back slightly and pass them with a purpose. A few of them sped up to a 6:40 mile but I hung in there for 0.5 miles or so and eventually passed them and didn't look back. I felt really strong the entire race, I was trying to pace between 7:10 and 7:15 but I was feeling pretty good so I pushed the pace a bit. I didn't want to start out too fast for fear of what I would feel like later in the race...... but finishing the race I felt really strong and it became a race against the clock for me to beat my time goal --- I ended up doing the last half mile or so at a 6:00 pace and later realized that the last 0.2 miles were uphill and as usual I didn't cut the corners very well and ended up running 13.3 miles - ugh!!
Original results had me in 5/1556 and 1/350 in my AG but when I checked my results online I was bumped to 6th overall and first in my AG. Still happy with those results!! I am hopeful that I can run a 3:15 or slightly faster marathon in May.
On the way home, I decided to stop at the Y and swim..... you know, enjoying every minute of my 24 hour getaway :) ----- I didn't have any of my equipment so I decided to just swim 2.5 miles straight --- I'm happy with my overall pace -- I usually swim @ 1:44 pace.
I don't know what it is about racing, but I seem to get this surge of energy after the race :) In December when I came home from my 50k, I finished painting the kid's bathroom. On Sunday when I got home, I baked a cake for dinner, ate dinner with the family, put the kids to bed, folded laundry, scrubbed the kitchen floor, cleaned all the bathrooms, prepped for my 5k class @ the gym, and got my grocery and meal list together for the week! phew!
a 9 mile tempo run on the treadmill --- so proud of myself for sticking with the pace the entire time and not backing down on the speed. it's so tempting for me to back down the speed on the treadmill. I'm ready to see what I can do in the Wisconsin Marathon on May 3!
LOVING my NutriBullet --- frozen blueberries that we picked in Michigan last summer!
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