September 2nd

Refocus.  Re-energize.

Hi Everyone,
Wow, what a weekend!  My mom and I ran in the inaugural Women Rock Half Marathon in St Paul this weekend.  The race itself was more difficult than I had envisioned it being.  I started my race with the 2:10 pacer.  As I was talking and running with her I learned that she paces over twenty races a season!  They can be a mixture of marathons, half marathons and triathlons.  How inspiring and what an amazing job!  She travels to an average of five states per season for various races.  She was so motivating and provided encouragement when tackling hills, encouraging to not stop, don't walk and providing updates when she knew a shaded corner was coming or reminders to roll our shoulders when running downhill.  I stayed with her for the first four miles then ventured out in front of the pack for the next five miles and then regrouped with them when there were around three miles left.  I was really glad that I ended up with the small group when their were a few miles left, I was really losing my pace and was mentally struggling with the hills.  At least with running with the group again I managed to maintain my pace and follow their feet through the end and never slowed down to a walk.  The course was MUCH more hilly that I thought it would be.  Even though the course showed a net decrease in elevation, the hills were so long, steep and rolling that it felt like the majority of the race was spent running up hill.  Oh well, I still made it and did pretty darn well!  I finished in 2:10, which is averaging about a 9:55 mile.  This was about twelve minutes faster than the overall average speed and nine minutes under the median for the race.  Yeah for me!
Of course with spending the day/night/day in the metro area I consumed more food than I would have liked to see myself eat.  I am not going to spend time dwelling on that and instead am going to choose to refocus on what I need to do to get where I want to go.  Obviously all of my work outs are paying off!

I also have a new event to look forward to!  While we were at the health expo my sister Cheyenne said that she really wanted to train for a half marathon and try one.  So we signed up and committed to running the Monster Dash on October 27th!  I love having goals like this because it forces me to re-energize in everything I do and continue my training and healthy eating.  Cheyenne heard that it could be the same race course, so if that is the case I will definitely be adding more hill training to my routine!

Have a great week!  Make today a great day!

Jessica