Rodes City Run 10k

This past Saturday was the Rodes City Run 10k which is also the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown,

I had one goal- beat my previous time I did in the Great Pumpkin 10k,   In that race my time was 1:06:11 with pace of 11 min/mile.

I was shooting for a pace around 10.30 or 10.35.  I've been doing that pace with I run 3 or 4 miles at a time but I haven't run 6 at that.  I honestly haven't run 6 much at all unless it's been in a long run.  I was ready to push myself.

The first mile came in right at 10 minute mile. What?!  I don't go that fast.  I slowed down some during the 2nd, probably due to the hill we had.  I just kept on.  I knew I was going faster than usual because my the finish line I was beat.  Exhausted but happy to be done.

My time you ask?

The race time had me at 1 hour, 2 minutes and 6 seconds.  I beat my last race by over 6 minutes.  I came in at a 10 min/mile pace.   No wonder I was beat.

That was the race time, but... I like to also go by my watch since that is what I normally use for time and pace.  My watch had me 2 seconds slower, but it had me running 6.28 miles instead of 6.2... I ended up with a 9 minute 54 second pace per mile.  My watch stores all my runs, I had my fastest mile, fastest 5k and fastest 10k.  

2 races down and 2 to go.  Papa John's 10 miler is in 11 days and Mini is in 4 1/2 weeks.

Just Breathe

In 6 1/2 hours Spring Break will officially begin and we can all take a deep breath.  It's been a busy week, all fun, but busy.

The fun started on Sunday afternoon when Sharon and kids came down to go see Annie Jr at JJ.  The show was amazing, JJ has some talented kiddos.

The little girl who played Annie was perfect, Cooper gave  her a flower after the show.

Baseball started up Monday night. We had practices Monday and Tuesday, Tuesday we were there until 8.  Our coach said we would have practices every night. Um...no!  Luckily it's been cancelled for the past two nights.  My child will last about a week if I make him go every single night, he's 7, not 12.  

I was scheduled to run with Laura on Wednesday morning, she ended up having to work and since my mother in law was coming to watch Cameron I took advantage.  I did 9.3 miles by myself.  So glad I pushed myself, that is long a time to be alone with just your thoughts.

I worked a class party that afternoon at school, picked Cooper up, then rushed back home to get ready for The Lion King!

It was just as amazing as it was 8 years ago.  I would have loved to have taken Cooper but it's just so long, maybe next time... he could be 15 by then.  Crazy!

Cameron had his preschool Easter party on Thursday morning.  He was in it to win it on the egg hunt.

They colored, did crafts, colored eggs, and played games,  The usual stuff.

No Easter party is complete without a visit from the Easter Bunny.

After the party it was off to JJ for the 1st grade performance.

Let me preface this by saying that when I'm 80 years old I'm not going to remember what Cooper's 1st grade performance was like.  That being said, I couldn't see him at all.  Which is why I have no pictures.  It's not because if where I sat, it was where he was.  They used choral risers, each level had 2 rows, he was directly behind kids a head taller than he.  Couldn't even see the top of his head.  Looking at pictures on Facebook from other parents, couldn't see him on those either. He was little upset after the program saying that he could only see the heads in front of him and not the audience.  Like I said, is it a big deal, not really.  Just frustrating.  It would have just been nice to at least see him a little bit. But it's life and it happens.

I am ready for these next two weeks off, we have zero plans for the entire break.  We will just take it day by day.

My Mental Hurdle

Y'all are probably getting tired of me writing about running but I had to share the one big hurdle I crossed yesterday, that was my first 10 mile run.  

This run was originally on our schedule way back on February 28th.  The week before was our snow storm that caused us to be out of school for a week, then on that Saturday we got more snow, sleet, and some ice.  So we didn't run our 9 mile run at all and we ended up doing that on the 28th.  The following week was the 5k and we didn't even have a long run scheduled so we added one in mid-week while Cameron was at school, but it snowed again. 

Yesterday morning I dropped Cameron off at school, the sun was shining, no ear warmers needed, no gloves needed, no 5 layers of clothes needed, it was the weather and run I had been looking forward to for months.  

It pretty much took us the entire time Cameron was in school but we got it done.

I  can usually go anywhere between 10:30 and 11/mile on my short runs, I slow myself down quite a bit for the long ones.  This pace was 12:33 but I feel that was a little off, we slowed way down the last 2 miles or it would have been around 12:15 or 20.  Laura was having some physical issues, she's all good now, just had to slow down so we wouldn't have to stop.  

I felt great!  Better than I ever have on any long run.  A lot had to do with the weather, that's a huge factor.  I have 100% confidence that if it would have been the day of the mini I would have finished without a problem,  My legs didn't hurt last night, they don't hurt today.  I needed this, I needed this for my confidence, it's a huge hurdle to cross.   I'm more excited than ever for April 25th to get there.

I think I've mentioned that I'm already looking into doing other half marathon's, whether it's the Derby again or another.  I really want to do the Indianapolis Monumental Half, it's held in November and I don't know if I can pull it off this year since I'm already taking a trip in October and I've only been away once in the past 7 1/2 years without kids and Steve and I have never been away, but it's on my list.  Hopefully by 2016.  

I started looking at ways to display medals, in the downstairs office of course.  I loved the look of this one..

but with the Hebrew's scripture instead of "Every journal begins with a single step".  I don't need the space to put PR's, heck I just want to finish.  Might be something I look into after all these races are over.

Just so I don't bore you to tears with running stories, I will go ahead and share a few pics.

Steve was off Monday and Tuesday.  He hurt his ribs, doctor is not ruling out a rib fracture and muscle tear, he's much better now, but I wouldn't complain if this is how I spent my day off.

Big Ten Tournament play kicked off yesterday so the boys wore their IU gear to school.  Apparently Cameron wanted to called Yogi all day.

IU ended up winning!  We play Maryland tonight.  We beat them once by almost 20 then they beat us by just a couple points.  If we can win tonight it should ensure a spot in the NCAA tournament, if not, we still may be on the bubble.  A player from Indiana got hurt last night so hoping they play hard and good tonight.

Have a good weekend!  Let's get through the rain cause Monday looks fabulous.

Anthem 5K

Race season has officially begun. The Anthem 5k, which also happens to be the first leg of the Triple Crown, was held this morning.

 I honestly had no intention of running the triple crown in addition to the mini.  Then on New Years Eve, the last day before prices went up, Karen convinced me to do all 4.  I knew I would regret it if I didn't do them all so here I am.  It's a huge commitment taking 4 out of 8 Saturday mornings to run races but I'm ready.

My training schedule is designed for those running the triple crown, so even though Saturdays are my long run, I wasn't really scheduled to do one this week.  However, due to the snow storm in February we we were off a week, Laura and I were going to make it up on Thursday but again, snow.  Then I came up with a plan.  Why not park in downtown Jeff, jog over to the race, run the race, and jog back.  It won't give me all my miles back, but it's better than just 3.  

The plans were for Karen and me to meet Alicia and go over.  Karen still wasn't feeling well so Laura took her bib.  I forgot to take a pic of use on the bridge, this was after our initial jog just trying to stay warm before the start of the race.  When we started out, it was about 25 degrees and the sun was just coming out. 

Alicia is a pro at these things and helped us make our way up to the front.  

So thankful I found a running partner in Laura.  I never thought I enjoy running up to 9 miles, but this gal make it enjoyable.  It was about this time before the race that my fingers were going numb.  

Alicia ran ahead and finished her ran and jogged back to her car.  Although it wasn't my fastet 5k, it was my fastest race 5k.  It was Laura's fastest ever and 5 minutes quicker than her last 5k race.  Way to go!!!

I took this up on the 2nd street bridge on our way back.  I remember doing my first 5k race and seeing people run the course prior to the start of the race. I thought they were crazy, why would you want to run more?  Now, here I am parking in another state.  We ended up with a total of over 6 miles for the day, not the 10 I needed, but it was better than nothing.

Now that the first one is over I am pumped and ready.  Rodes City 10k is in 2 weeks.  I've given myself a pace goal on this one.  

2 weeks till 10k

4 weeks till 10 milers

7 weeks till mini