Konrad and I somewhere around the "1/2 point"of the Marathon today....
This has been a “fast and furious” weekend. On Saturday I left the house at 5:15 am to make my way to Northeast Park in Greensboro, NC for the Groundhound Gallop Trail Half marathon. This morning I left at 6:30 am to head back to Greensboro for the St. Valentines Massacre Marathon.
Originally George planned to be in Florida with his dad and my brother Ron…yet “life
got in the way” and work at NCNR got crazy…so he chose to postpone his trip to next month. I had planned to stay in Greensboro, doing errands and taking advantage of being in an urban area…until George learned he’s be home for Valentine’s Day, and asked me on a date for Saturday night! (YAY!)
Sooo…both events were worth the drive…and the “date” with George was awesome too!
The Gallup-involved 2 laps of a varied course. All but 8/10 a mile per lap was on trail and each lap included 2 “low water” crossings of a creek. What a BLAST I HAD-and almost everyone else too! It was curvy, roller-coaster-like single track...and what fun! There was an 8k and 21k. I think about 200 folks participated in the events. Jason (36) and Alison Bryant (30) took 1st in the half…I came in 20th overall and 2nd to Alison with a time of 1:36:??. I had a great time and was pushed by Amy Mercer (we kept switching places-she is a strong runner, we are about the same age, and we’ve run together several times in the past) and a young lass named Leanne from Wilmington, NC. I was thrilled for the push as it made the day more fun! Windy up and down trails, other women on your tail or in front of me on and off was invigorating! (Alison B was WAyyyy up there and not for a moment within my ability of catching!)
THE DATE: (Details spared) We went ½ mile across town to “Sweet Aromas” that had a special Valentines Day menu and George made and unheard of early reservation for 6pm-knowing I had an early day the next day. There was wine and good acoustic music and yummy food (I had coconut crusted whitefish and George some pork thing...it’s cool they used local pig and local sweet potatoes in their dishes. We took dessert “to go” and were home and in bed by 8:30-much to the dismay of our night roamer kitty, Mama Grey!
IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE LOVED! To set aside time amongst crazy work and training schedules just to “hang out” and be together!
Today at the St Valentine’s Day Massacre Marathon, I set a PR for 26.2. Not impressive. Yet I wasn’t trying to impress…3:23:26 on a rolling course. The course consisted of 16 laps and I chose to run to work on my pacing …in order to get ready for the multi lap course of Caumsett Park 50k 2 weeks from today. I think today’s run is hillier than CP (George and I ran at CP for a few hours when we were in the area at Christmas this past year)…
The first lap this morning was 2.2 miles followed by 15 laps of 1.6. Those laps were run between 11:56 (last lap) and 12:38. I averaged around 12:19 per lap or 7:42 per mile…variations had to do with grabbing Clifshot drink, tying a shoe and running 2 laps with Konrad…just the pleasant conversation was enough to slow a bit for! (And I got to meet his 2 beautiful daughters and Mom afterwards!) I was pleased and think this will help with my planning for CP…where I hope the planets and stars line up to allow me to run a sub 3:50! (Right now my PR at 50k is 3:52 at Frosty 50k 2007 3:52:24.)….I think it could be close, yet still happen if I can stay smart!
Just for the record, I wound up 1st solo marathoner overall…Sounds impressive ‘till you see only 4 runners entered solo for the marathon….Heh! What fun it was and fabulous training regardless. (I wasn’t out to compete against others, only to selfishly work on “me!”
I am very appreciative of the many excellent “cheerleaders” I had today encouraging # 52! Super cool and super inspiring. This experience is a great reminder to the power of support and cheering!
Full results and photo links to both races are at: http://www.offnrunningsports.com/results/results.htm
2 comments:
Annette,
Congrats on the strong runs this weekend---sound like you are more than ready for CP. And so glad to hear that you and George were able to share Valentines together---Rusty and I had a special date as well and on Sunday he followed me around on his mountain bike while I ran easy on the trails---another fun way to spend time together!
I am looking forward to hearing about CP! Best of luck---I will be thinking of you and sending good kharma from VA!!!
Annette, What a fabulous weekend. Rest up for that PR attempt at Caumsett Park. I looked at the pictures from the 1/2 marathon. Enjoyed your water crossing pictures! You looked like you were just having a grand old time. Rick
Post a Comment