Feeling Feisty!

My legs, that is! This past week my legs have been feeling feisty....they want to run!! Its that wonderful, magical time that comes approximately twice a year called taper.

On Wednesday, I did my last hard track workout of training:

4 x 400m at 5k pace with 200m recoveries
2 x 800m at 10k pace with 400m recoveries
4 x 400m at 5k pace with 200m recoveries

Its safe to say that I nailed this workout harder than any of my track workout this training! My paces were a good 20-30 seconds per mile faster than what I had planned....my legs just wanted to go!

On Sunday, I went out for my last "long run" of 12 miles. Bryan came with me for the first 6.5 miles and helped me push the pace some. It felt great! My heart rate stayed low and I felt awesome even with the wicked head wind!

Its working.....the taper is working!!! Now if I can just keep this "taper worm" under control and stop eating everything in site :)

Bake Sale

I remember when I was little, my brother and I would set up various "businesses" in the church driveway where we would sell lemonade and other treats to the cars leaving after meetings. We would make a couple bucks and consider ourselves rich!

Last week I hosted a bake sale in the cafeteria at work to support Boston Medical Center and Team BMC. I enlisted the help of 13 other coworkers to bake a range of goodies for me and decided to also have a 50-50 raffle. I didn't put prices on the food items, just told people to give what they felt was enough and take a plate of snacks.

A close up of the food.....quite a spread!

I figured I would make more than I did with my lemonade stand, but I was shocked when I counted up the money! The bake sale brought in $491!! The 50-50 raffle totaled another $240 and the woman who won generously donated her winnings back to BMC. All total, I made $731!! I consider myself very blessed to work with such generous people....many of which I don't even know. Its a wonderful reminder of the good in people when it seems that all we hear now are negative stories.

Here is me counting all the money :)

3/29/08 - Eastern States 20 Mile Race Report

It has been a ridiculously busy week for me so I haven't been able to post my race report from last weekend until now.

Last Sunday, I ran the Eastern States 20 mile race that started in Kittery, Maine, crossed into New Hampshire, and finished over the Massachusetts border....hence the "eastern states." I figured I couldn't pass up a chance to run in three states in the same day and it would be a good tune up to run as my last 20 miler before Boston.

Of course Mother Nature was being a bit hormonal last weekend....Saturday with was sunny and in the 50's....Sunday it was in the upper 30's with heavy rain and wind! I wasn't planning to race this all out but was hoping to use it as a marathon paced long run. My plan was to take the first 2 miles to warm up and ease into marathon pace, spend the next 16 miles between 8:10-8:15 min/mile (planned marathon pace), and have enough left in the tank to kick it up the last 2 miles. I knew that if it went well, it would be a great confidence booster with 3 weeks until Boston.....if it didn't go well...umm...I didn't want to think about that!

After driving up to Hampton Beach, NH, riding the bus to the start in Kittery, and hanging out in the gym for a couple hours (I told you it was good practice for Boston), I was ready to make my way outside into the rain. I was soaked before the race even started! I told myself there was nothing I could do about the weather so I might as well embrace it.

Miles 1-2: 8:27 and 8:18 pace......I kept telling myself these were warm up miles and to take them slow. We had to run over a grated bridge that was very scary.....the metal was wet and if you looked down through the grates you could see the water rushing past! Yikes!

Miles 3-18: I'm not going to write out every mile split, but I got in a grove here. I just started hammering out miles that ranged from 8:09 to 8:17 and I felt great. Between mile 7-9, the rain picked up and was being blown sideways at us....I could literally see the water dripping off my elbows! Later in the race actually thought it stopped raining but then I looked at a puddle and saw it was still coming down pretty hard.....guess I was just so wet I didn't realize it any more!

Miles 19-20: I decided to see what I had left in my tank and started pushing my pace some. Mile 19 came in at 8:06....feeling good and passing people. Mile 20 was 7:44!! With about 0.5 miles to go I approached a man and passed him...well he was not going to let me have it without a fight so he caught back up to me. We ran this way for a minute or so and with ~0.25 miles to go I decided to throw it down....I told myself its just one lap around the track. He decided to come with me and it was an all out sprint between the two of us. Now usually I can't out-kick men....they are by nature faster than women in sprints. But this time I had endurance on my side and I crossed the finish line before him! That's him with the red strip on his jacket! After we crossed the line he tapped me on the shoulder and said "Nice finish....I'm just glad we aren't in the same age group!"

I finished in 2:44:53 (watch time) and 2:45:06 (gun time) with an average pace of 8:15! I could not have paced this race better and I feel so good about my time. The marathon pace miles felt really good and I was pleased to see I still had some left to finish strong. It was just the race I needed to prove to myself that my Boston goal time of 3:35 is possible, especially since this race capped off a 61 mile week so I did this with no taper!

Now let's all hope that April 20th is a little bit drier than this race was......been there, done that in 2007. Come on Mother Nature....help me out some :)