Week 11 / Runnin' of the Green

Week 10 2010:
Week’s Running totals: 44.75
Running Total for 2010: 428.20
Weight training: 3 (yep, 3!!)
Swim: zero. Again. I'm just going to accept the fact this isn't going to happen right now


Yep, another race for me; that’s two in one week, folks, with Razz’s 6.66virtual race and all. And here I am being all sneaky and such, not telling anyone about this little Irish gem. I think only a handful of bloggers knew ….

One of my all-time favorite races in Denver land is The St. Patrick’s “Runnin’ of the Green 7K” always held the Sunday before St. Patty’s Day. The Irish in me loves, loves, LOVES, all the green-ness of this fun holiday and why not do what I love best on my favy holiday: running! Don’t ya just love how it’s a 7k!??!! How many races in your life do you get to run a 7K (Lucky #7, Luck of the Irish….see the connection??? So clever!)!

I haven’t actually “raced” a race since I ran the Tucson Marathon back in early December, which is pretty rare for this girl. Last year at this time, I was already 3 races into the calendar year. I’m not sure if y’all are like me but if I get out of race mode for a while, I kinda get race-lazy and really don’t relish jumping back into it. So as I stood there at the start line today, I was kinda dreading this race. The fact it was a balmy 34 degrees and windy didn’t help matters any.
I got stuck in the inevitable large-race cluster start. As I was standing there at the start line with my boys, about 20’ from the actual start like banner, I had a feeling this was going to happen. As I looked at those around me, I sensed most were not serious runners. You know who they are. I have absolutely nothing against these people at all, I was just placed too far behind them (and they too far up in the front. But I won’t get into that issue right now). The gun went off and it took a bit to get to the actual start line, and THEN …. Man, what a mess….people just lollygagging everywhere. I thought about my friend, Dennis, and how he’d be having heart-failure right now. Ha. It was a little frustrating but I really had no intentions to kill myself in this race; my job was to get a race under my belt and get a feel for my racing fitness. I had no expectation and no goals other than to see what I can do.

This race is hilly. HILL-E! The first mile is relatively flat with a small downhill; I tried to stay off to the left hand side were there were less people but I still was stuck behind people moving too slow. And that was okay, it keep me from killing myself at a neck-breaking 1st mile pace like I tend to do. I hit mile 1 at a 8:00 min/mile. Slow but consider all at the start, it’s good. 2nd mile is probably close to 80% hills, and they come in a series of about 3 big ones. Kinda nice as it gives you a little reprieve at each but man, them are tough. I was stoked to see how well I was killing the hills. Not perfect or easy by any means, but I wasn’t sucking up a lung like I am hill-notorious for. Mile 2 I hit at exactly 8 again. I’m pleased, this is not an easy mile. Mile 3 is on the turn around and thus all them uphills are now down – woohooo! I hit mile 3 at 7:22. YES! But moreso, I’m stoked I’m feeling fine. More than fine! I’m breathing and my lungs don’t hurt and I’m not slowing. There was no mile 4 marker so I have no idea what I did…and btw, I do NOT wear my Garmin in a race because I refuse to become a slave to the clock; I wanted to run a hard effort on my own ability and just enjoy my surroundings. This is a LARGE race, I think about 6000 runners, and most are dressed in some sort of very fun Irish attire. I wore my GREEN shorts (not orange) and my Portland marathon shirt, which has some green in it, and a green bow in my hair, which I lost somewhere along the course :(. I didn’t see a finish line race clock so it wasn’t until I stopped my watch and checked it a few second later that I realized I came within a few seconds slower than my PR time last year (unofficial Jill watch time: 33:43).
HUH??? I was absolutely stunned! I wasn’t even doing the math along the way to realize that two 8 min/miles and one 7:22 could land me close to my last-year-in-prime-condition’s PR time if I continued to feel well for the last 1.45 miles….so when I saw what my time was, I was thrilled! THRILLED! And the best part, I felt great and didn't even push it to an all-out max effort! That feels so good! (I also heard on someone's blog that the course was changed, and lengthened slightly from last year, to make it a "certified" course. Even more bonus on my behalf - yea!!).

Yeah, I’ll take it!!!!
race results just in:
age group: 17/428 in age group
Female placement: 79/2180
Overall: 239/3730
Official time: 33:43 (Gun time 34:27 - yeah, I got a bad start)

I found the boys after and we grabbed our free garb and headed home; snow was starting to come down and I was flipping freezing!!! I wish I could have gone to the beer garden to see if any of the prostate teammates were there, last year we had a great time downing a few Killian’s, but no way this year, I was frozen to the core!

Ryan, twin #1, managed to knock off 9 minutes off from last year (he attributes this to the last semester in P.E. where they played floor hockey and had to run a lot); he wants to run cross country this summer as he enters high school so I hope this little race helped motivate him some. Twin #2, Brendan, didn’t run as well but I admire him for getting out there; it’s not easy to just go run 4.35 miles with zero cardio training whatsoever (well, he does box, remember "the eye"???). I’m so proud of both of them!!

Next weekend I have a little ½ marathon down in Atlanta (Atlanta ING). I’ve run this race the past two years and absolutely love it. The course, the weather, the support, the city – I love it all! I used to live in the South for a period of time and have the most dear-to-my-heart friends there so I try to venture down each spring (thanks frequent flyer miles) and spend some girlie time with them and run. This year, my ex-neighbor, and fun running friend, Shari, is going too – I’m so excited!! I’m not sure how I’ll run down there, I thought after I was done today that I really couldn’t maintain that pace for much longer so how I’ll perform in Atlanta will certainly be a mystery…but for the first time since before I contracted that nasty lung crud, I’m actually looking forward to it. We shall see!! I ran a 15-miler on Friday night after work and my back was killing me. Again. This is really starting to concern me because if there is one thing that can destroy your marathon pace quickly, back issues would be one.

Anyway….

I was inspired by Anne-Marie’s blog how she lists her goals for the week. I always feel that each day I’m just frantically cramming everything in and feel so disorganized and frustrated (stressed!) each day so I decided that instead of my weekly gratitude list, today I’m going to make a “goals for the week” list, so here ya go:
- Eat perfectly
- Be in bed each night by 10:15
- Do my weight training at max effort and do not whine about going for 3 hours prior
- Stretch my back at least 2 times a day, morning and night
- Do Katie’s 50 sit-ups a day challenge
- Do 50 glute pull backs everyday
- Make sure meals are planned before I go to work so I’m not scraping together dinner at the last second, like I tend to do
- Bite my tongue when college daughter tests my nerves (this will be a tough one - haha - she's home for spring break this week...but on her way out of town in the opposite direction of me on Thursday)
- Get all arrangements for my boys to stay with friends next weekend all in place by Monday evening. Get all food for them and laundry done before Wednesday so I’m not a scattered mess when I leave them on Thursday (I’ll miss them :( )
- Clean my bathrooms
- Iron all clothes the night before work for the next day (this will be tough…but I can DO IT!)
- Get a resume out for a writing job that sounds awesome (even if it’s probably too ambitious for me)

Congrats to all those that raced this past weekend. I heard/read from a couple, they did awesome!!

Run well this week, Friends!!

My boys, R and B, before the start

Us three, all in our Irish beads

Thes Irish Step Dancer girls had to be FREEZING! I love LOVE Irish Step Dance...can't wait to get my "Lord of the Dance" dvd out on St. Patty's day, my dorky tradition!

Freezing....and boys eating corned beef bagles :)