Time to catch up on the race recaps.<\/p>\n
Working backwards:<\/p>\n
This past Saturday (October 15) was the Baltimore Relay.\u00a0 This was my second of four races in four weeks, and my 4th of 6 in 2 months.\u00a0 Yes, I’ve gotten a little crazy.<\/p>\n
I was on a team with great friends – Jen, Katie, and Kim.\u00a0 We ran in that order, with me taking up the fourth leg.\u00a0 We were lucky enough to have three other relay teams from our running group, so we all had friends with us at the relay points.\u00a0 That was especially welcome at leg four.\u00a0 I didn’t expect to start running until at least noon (the race started at 8am).\u00a0 Jen’s leg was a hilly 5.7 miles through the zoo.\u00a0 Katie’s leg was 7 miles involving zombies.\u00a0 Kim’s leg was 6.3 miles run with the Godfather, and I picked up with the last 7 miles.\u00a0 No, that doesn’t quite equal 26.2, but none of the exchange points avoided any parts of the course, so we’re sure that it actually adds up.<\/p>\n
I was ready for the long wait at the relay point.\u00a0 We boarded busses to get there at 8:30.\u00a0 (I don’t know that I’ve ever seen such a long caravan of school busses.)\u00a0 We grabbed ourselves a spot by the race course, set out some trashbags to sit on, and waited.\u00a0 I brought food and snacks with me, and wore multiple layers, which was definitely a good plan.\u00a0 We joked that next year, we need to bring a BBQ grill.<\/p>\n
The wait wasn’t as bad as I feared.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because of all the runners coming through!\u00a0 We could get in lots of cheering, which we definitely did.\u00a0 We were on an incline, and the hand cyclists were really struggling, even the first guy in the pack.\u00a0 But they all made it up!<\/p>\n
This course had an 18 minute mile pace limit, and my relay team all runs sub 13:30s.\u00a0 We were actually running faster that day, but I was still one of the last people out of the relay point.\u00a0 I think that made me want to run faster.\u00a0 At first, I decided I wanted to try to run sub 13:00’s.\u00a0 I was doing well and mentally adding up the time I was gaining (“Okay, that mile was a 12:15, so that’s an extra 45 seconds…”) which is how I race when I’m trying to hit a certain average pace.\u00a0 Then one hilly mile hit me at a 13:10, so I decided to aim for 13:15’s, but still kept trying to push myself.\u00a0 I really wanted to get the team in under 6 miles.\u00a0 I wasn’t sure when Jen started, so I was basing it off of an 8:00am start time.<\/p>\n
I kept passing marathoners who were slogging through the last miles.\u00a0 Lots of pairs of people, with one experienced runner bringing a newbie through the end of the race.\u00a0 Very cool to see.\u00a0 Lots of people still going strong.\u00a0 Power walking, but going strong.\u00a0 One girl commented that this was her first and she was from Florida.\u00a0 I told her to pick a flatter race for her second marathon.<\/p>\n
It was kind of funny to see mile markers that I’ve never seen before.\u00a0 My longest race has been a half marathon, so this was my first experience with mile markers 19-26!<\/p>\n
I kept powering through, though my heartrate would get too high, and I’d have to walk.\u00a0 I was running 2\/1s, but frequently, needed to walk about 15 seconds early.\u00a0 I think for next weekend’s race, I’m going to try to run 1:45\/1, and see if that helps.\u00a0 It can’t hurt to try, though I should probably try it in training at some point before I do it in a race.\u00a0 Or not!<\/p>\n
I knew I was running faster than expected, so I figured that my friends wouldn’t be at the finish line waiting for me yet.\u00a0 But I was wrong!\u00a0 I rounded a corner and there they were, all cheering!\u00a0 Now that was a great part of being the last one in.\u00a0 Everyone was there waiting for me!<\/p>\n
I finished the race and the clock said 5:56!\u00a0 I did it!\u00a0 I got us in under 6.\u00a0 But little did I know, I got us in well under 6.\u00a0 Our final chip time was 5:51:36.\u00a0 We averaged 13:25, which is an amazing pace for us.\u00a0 And my pace?\u00a0 Well, I got a little ridiculous out there.\u00a0 I finished my leg in 1:31:26, giving me a 12:30 pace!\u00a0 I haven’t seen those kinds of numbers in a long time.\u00a0 I paid for it later – by 6:30 that evening I was ready for bed.\u00a0 But it was great fun.\u00a0 Makes me think that maybe my half marathon PR (a 13:01 pace) isn’t going to be as hard to beat as I thought.\u00a0 Won’t happen this year, but maybe next year.<\/p>\n
I think I do better on hilly races.\u00a0 I love the downhills.\u00a0 My half PR is on a very hilly course.\u00a0 Maybe I should be searching out the hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Time to catch up on the race recaps. Working backwards: This past Saturday (October 15) was the Baltimore Relay.\u00a0 This was my second of four races in four weeks, and my 4th of 6 in 2 months.\u00a0 Yes, I’ve gotten a little crazy. I was on a team with great friends – Jen, Katie, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n