So last weekend was loaded with lots of running. Saturday I had a tough marathon pace long run with 17 total miles. As I've said before most of the time long runs are done significantly slower than marathon pace, but twice during my training I have marathon pace long runs. I started out on my own and ran a 3 mile warm up....then I kicked it up to goal marathon pace for 14 miles. Bryan met up with me for the last 4 of the goal pace miles. As we started out together, he says "wow...this is how fast you've been running?? This is how fast you want to run the marathon in?? WOW!!" It made me smile :) The run felt pretty good....my legs were tired and felt a little heavy, but I averaged 8:24 min/mile!! I'm really glad this run went well and that I was able to hit my pace without too much struggle. It leaves me confident that with a good taper and race day adrenaline I will be prepared for Vermont in 5 weeks....aaaahhhhh!!
I learned that I need to be wearing sun screen on all my runs even in the middle of April....I am now sporting a nice sports bra tan line on my back and an iPod arm band around my left bicep. I must be more careful about this!!!
Sunday was the women's Olympic Marathon Trials in Boston and I could not have been more excited to go watch it. I met up with Janette early Sunday and the weather was perfect....sunny, but cool. The course was four 6 mile loops through Boston and Cambridge so we could see the runners about 10 different times. Deena Kastor (who I love!!), Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, and Blake Russell came in 1, 2, and 3 and qualified for the Olympic Marathon in Beijing. It was an exciting race with Magdalena leading by almost 2 minutes at the half, but Deena kicking it up, passing her at mile 23 and going on to win by 45 seconds....she is truly my idol! It was also awesome to see Joan Benoit-Samuelson run a 2:49 at the age of 50!! She was the oldest woman to have qualified for the trials......very inspiring.
One of the highlights of the day was meeting Ryan Hall, the men's marathon trials winner. We were waiting for the runners to come by and Janette saw him standing two people down from us.....we were star stuck!! I mean he is the top American male marathoner!! We got up some courage and asked to get our picture with him....he was so nice! Below are some of the pictures I took at the trials (click on the picture to view it larger).
Janette and I with Ryan Hall!
Deena Kastor looking strong
Deena again!
Magdalena in the lead
Lead pack crossing the Mass Ave bridge for the 1st timeMarathon Monday was equally exciting!! I was sad not to be running it this year, but excited to watch. It was a beautiful day for the race....not at all like last year's weather! I took the day off work so Bryan, Janette and I walked up to mile 21 (top of Heartbreak Hill right before Boston College) and set up camp. Watching the elites is always amazing, seeing Lance Armstrong cruise by was fun too, but we were most excited to see our friends. I trained a lot with John this winter so I was really hoping he'd have a good run. We saw him coming over the hill and he was smiling....good sign! We started screaming for him and holding up our signs. I ran a couple yards with him and he said he was feeling good and having fun. I was so happy for him....after last year and then Chicago last fall, he deserved a good run. By my calculations he was doing great on time and looked like he would keep it up for the last 5 miles. Next we saw Steph and she had an equally big smile on her face....another good sign! A few minutes later, Jeff came looking tired, but still with a smile on his face. I am so proud of all my friends for an awesome race!! John broke his previous record by 12 minutes....GO JOHN!!! Jeff and Steph both came in a little slower than last year but said they had more fun this time around....and that's all that really matters!
Overall it was a great weekend and just what I needed to keep me motivated over the next 5 weeks before Vermont.
Total miles for the week = 54.5!
2 comments:
Wow that Ryan Hall is one lucky guy! :)
It was so much fun watching the races with you. I hope you and Brian made out better than me in the sun department Monday... my face just became more red as the day went on. ha-ha! So sexy!
Umm, the girl running the marathon kind of forgot to put sunscreen on and is peeling all over her arms-guess Mexicans can burn! S-can we track you during Vermont? Getting ready for Ozomatli?
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