Mission Accomplished

Week in Review
45 miles
1 track workout
1 5k race
no long run

This was a low mileage week due to no long run. But finally at last. . . some time off. I've run 3 half marathons in the span of 4 weeks. Granted, not all of them were all-out effort, but I'm tired. Next week is planned to be an easy week with a few days off from running. Hopefully I'll come back feeling refreshed and ready to gear up for the fall season. Earlier this week Anthony and I had a great track workout. Everyone will be happy to know that the quest is finally over. . . last Tuesday I did infact break 70 in a quarter! *Gasp* I've run much faster, just not in a long time. I've been on a mission to break 70 again since April.

Tuesday (6/12)
2+ w/u
Goal: 800, 400, 400 x 2; 400m recovery
Actual: above
2+ c/d
total: 8 miles

It was a beautiful day to run on the track. Slight breeze, good temps, the only problem was that we were running at 7:00 in the evening. Still feeling fatigued from the past couple weeks, Anthony and I set out on a snail-pace warm-up. This was the same workout we did a few weeks earlier before one of our races, so the goal was to duplicate the splits. We cruised through the first set with no problem. In the back of my mind, I knew that this was one of the last times we were going to be on the track for a while, so of course we had to try to run "last one fast one". So we take off for our last 400m, and 150m in I start sprinting like crazy. Bad mistake. This only lasted about 100m before I really started to feel the lactic acid building up. Still managed to finish the last straight and finish in a whooping 68! Was it everything I thought it would be? Yes, but it was over-shadowed by my my 2:29 800m :)

Hope Challenge 5k
2+ w/u
Goal: 5k @ 17:10 (about 5:30 pace)
          1st place
Actual: 5k @ 17:27
            1st place female (4th overall)
2+ c/d
Total: 8 miles
Results

I set myself up with a VERY lofty goal. After the last month I've had, I'm not too surprised I didn't run as fast as I would have liked. I actually made this goal after our track workout Tuesday. Non the less, 17:25 is still a very respectable time for me on the roads. I think it's my 2nd or 3rd best time on the roads.

The race started at 8am and it was HOT and humid. I tried to open up in 5:30 and keep on truckin along at this pace. In reality my splits were 5:38, 5:40, 5:35. I came through the mile in 5th place and the guy in 4th was quickly coming back to me. It kept me running honest, as no one was even in sight behind me. He was really struggling and I blew by him at about 1.5miles. Ha! Sucka! However, the guy in 3rd was already too far for me to catch. I was close enough that I could see Anthony had taken over the lead around mile 2, but was far enough behind that I couldn't tell how much of a cushion he had. He ended up holding off the other guy and win :)

I was drenched in sweat before the race even started! Finish line picture.
First Female

First Male finishing shot!

Hospital Hill Domination

Goals:
1. Place in the top 3 (I'd like to win)
2. Run sub 80 min (or at least my PR prior to Rock the Parkway - 1:20:30)
3. Be competitive

Actual:
1. 3rd place
2. 2 MINUTE PR!!! 1:17:20 (1:17:18 - Chip time)
3. You know it!

Results

If the hills have names, they must be tough! I got a pleasant surprise Friday evening before the race. Jamie (my Coach from MOSO) called to say that he was going to come up and watch Hospital Hill. I always like it when he is present because what do coaches do best. . . they motivate. The paparazzi (aka Mom and Dad) came up also. I'm glad they did because I always run amazing when my Mom comes to watch me run. It's like she has a sixth sense and can tell when I'm about to run really well. She'd be kicking herself if she missed this race.

Saturday morning I woke up to beautiful weather for June. It was low 50's with just a little breeze, compared to last year's 80+ degrees at start time. Anthony and I found Jamie, and we went through the usual pre-race routine. I could tell that there were some fast girls lined up at the start.

We started with the blast of the cannon, and it appeared that there were going to be 6 women competing for the top 5 positions. We were only in a group for about the first 1.5 miles, when three ladies broke off, leaving myself and the "pink girl" to lead the second pack. The top two then proceeded to drop the 3rd girl (Ann Marie), and I tried to keep her in sight and reel her in. After two miles in, I was pretty sure I'd dropped the pink girl and the 6th girl (actually I didn't even realize there was a 6th girl until Jamie told me after the race) but pink girl went flying by me down past Volker around mile 5ish. Almost immediately we came to Rockhill and had to climb up past UMKC. Let's just say that I was dominating all those hills! I remained calm and passed her right back. She didn't even try to hang, so I then focused on Ann Marie's back again and surged the middle part of the race. Anthony and Jamie were on bikes, so I saw them EVERYWHERE and they informed me that I was about 20-25 seconds back. Each mile brought me closer and closer as her lead was dropping from 20 seconds, to 18 seconds, to 13 seconds, to finally like 5 seconds. I stayed focused and managed to catch her a little before 10 miles in. I knew miles 11 - 12 was going to be up hill, so I continued to press and broke her off fairly easily. I knew that my strength would be climbing the 2 mile ascent, and that if she could hold on I'd probably get out kicked in the downhill finish. Even though my 11th mile was my slowest (6:08) I continued to pull away. Haha, at one point I was actually gaining on Jamie as he was struggling to get his bike up the hill. I finally made it to the top, got a little break, then had to climb yet again another mountain. I believe this hill is called Trinity Hill, and while it isn't very long, it's very steep.

After about 50 minutes of chasing, almost where I caught her. This is heading back towards the plaza around mile 9. Trusty spectator Jamie giving his encouragement.

Getting ready to pass. Just before mile 10.

I came through 10 miles in sub 59 minutes (of at least right at), and started to get excited! This was about a minute and a half faster than what I came through 10 miles in at Rock the Parkway. Thoughts of breaking 1:19 came flying into my head. I just knew that I had to make it through the next two challenging miles. Around mile 11, we hit the 10ker's (thankfully they separated us by cones because that is not the case at the Waddell and Reed Marathon. . . it's not fun) which provided a little more motivation. I held on and got to mile 12, when thoughts of running under 1:18?! started creeping into my head. Man, I couldn't believe how well this race was going for me :) At one point I started to wonder if sub 1:17 was possible, but realized that was just out of reach. I came through 13 miles in 1:16:38, waved to Mom and Dad, and sprinted to the finish line.

Almost finished

Top 5

Did I want to win? Yes. Am I sad I didn't win? Kind of, but I was so ecstatic that I had run in the 1:17's!!! It by far exceeded my expectations. This is a 2 minute PR for me, and I still don't think the reality has quite set in. I knew I would eventually get to this point, but I didn't think it would happen on this course. Oh, and I finally beat my rival (although he doesn't know he's my rival) Ken Moran. I tucked in behind him and we went back and forth from about mile 3 - 7. I need to live this up now, as it probably won't happen again for a very long time. Haha.

Week in Review
48 miles
1 workout
1 race
1 PR @ 1:17:18
Several hills conquered
14+ mile long run (aka Hospital Hill)

I've got about 2 more weeks until I take some time off to before putting in a really good summer base. Anthony is going to race at Maryville next weekend, so I also signed up to use it as my long run. Then the week after that we have a local 5k and then headed to Jeff City for Ashley's wedding. Then time for a much needed down week. I'm not sure what my next "big" race is going to be. I'm looking at either the Saint Louis Rock - n - Roll or a Half marathon in Wichita. Both are in October. Anthony and I have big plans for this summer. We are going to try to increase our weekly mileage to the highest I have ever done, so we are aiming for around 80 miles/week. After the next 2 weeks, we probably won't start workouts again until August and just focus on obtaining a good base mileage this summer.