Another running blog

Vacation continues to go very well.  Had a fantastic time at Topsfield fair with my dad and Eddie.  It’s definitely a sign of age, though, when I’ve had enough after about 3 hours, and I don’t go on any of the rides or do any of the games.  Luckily, I can still eat my fair share of disgusting food.  Over the course of three hours, I managed to consume:  corn on the cob dipped in butter, 1/2 of an italian sausage, pretzels with dip, fried dough, donuts dipped in apple cider, and part of a fried onion.  Delicious.  After all that, I wanted to go for a run when I got home,  but I was trying to take it easy before my race today so instead I went for a beautiful bike ride along the river.  I should start bringing my camera with me and take some pictures.

In addition to all the eating at the fair, we saw the giant pumpkin (world record breaking at over 1600 lbs), a vast assortment of ducks, chickens, rabbits, cavies, pigs, sheep, and cows (can you tell I like animals?), the state police K9 unit (both cute and terrifying) and the beginning of the Mrs. Essex County Pageant!  A great day.  I promise pictures soon.

Today was the Tufts Health Plan 10K for women.  This was supposed to be my goal race that I trained for all summer, but sadly residency and a nasty bronchitis severely limited my training, so I went there feeling vastly underprepared.  Of course, I’ve run 6.2 miles plenty of times, but I’ve never tried to sustain a fast pace for that long.  During both my marathon and half marathon, my only goal was to finish, so this was a very different experience for me.  It was a perfect day for it, cool and overcast.  The race didn’t start until noon, but I had to get there early to pick up my race packet.  Thankfully, Eddie came to cheer me along and keep me company while I waited for the race to start.  Before the race, we were wandering around and ran into one of Eddie’s friends, Parker, and his wife Alison.  They’re both amazing runners and do some writing for various running publications.  They were both covering the race today so we got to hang out with them near the press tent and catch a glimpse of Deena Kastor and Katie McGregor who went on to come in first and second in a ridiculous 32:01 and 32:41.  That’s a little over a 5 minute mile!

The race itself was pretty well organized, although the course was a challenge because it involved several tight turns which often caused back ups so it was hard to maintain a consistent pace.  It was very cool to run a race with only women and to get a glimpse of the elite runners.  My goal was to finish in under an hour by running the following splits: 9:40, 9:40, 9:30, 9:30, 9:20, 9:20.  Luckily, the course was along the Charles River which ensured a cool breeze with very few hills.  The first miles went well.  I ran the first one in 9:44 and then sped up to 9:30 for the second mile.  By around mile 3, I was starting to feel tired, but still not too bad yet.  By mile 4, I was exhausted, but kept reminding myself that if I could run the last 2.2 miles of a marathon, I could certainly run the next 2.2 miles of this race.  I ran miles 3 and 4 in 9:32 and 9:35, respectively.  Miles 5 and 6 were a haze for me, but I managed them in 9:25 and 9:02 to come in just under my goal at 59:46!  I was very pleased with this time, especially given my lack of training.  Pictures to come soon!