Pacing A Marathon, Running, School, CC & Soccer

Saturday: The alarm went off at 3:40 a.m. I slept on the floor on a mat and I actually slept pretty well. I realized last night that I forgot my watch for pacing. So waking up this morning, I was nervous for a few reasons… 1st: not having a watch; 2nd: I was the only pacer for the 3:05 time (every other pace time slot had 2 pacers just in case one had to drop or use the restroom, etc)… The paces started at 3:05 and then went up every 5 min (3:10, 3:15…); 3rd: I was going to have to hold the pacer sign the entire time; and 4th: getting in right on time… Hitting my mile marks every mile for these guys. The people racing and wanting to hit their Boston qualifying time are depending on me, so I was nervous about that. Anyway… We got on the bus at about 4:30 a.m. and headed to the top. I love the excitement of the crowd before the races start! On a great note… One of the other pacers brought 2 watches!! I was so relieved!  This course is extremely downhill. A great PR course but a thrasher on the legs!  

 We were given pace bands to tell us what every mile should be. The pace bands are course specific… It was great having it. My 3:05 time was an average of 7:03 per mile. There were some miles that we ran a 6:25 because of how steep the downhill was… We did have about a 4 1/2 mile loop (from 17/18-22) that was a hilly out and back. I started of with about 20+ men and a few ladies… All trying to hit that Boston qualifying time.  

 For the 1st 17 miles I still had a pretty good group, and then we made the turn for the out and back hilly loop. We started to lose a lot of the group. It’s amazing how thrashed your legs feel after running that much of a downhill. Once we came out of the loop we had a 3 1/2 mile downhill to the finish. A few guys pulled ahead at this point and a few more could not hold on… I tried hard to talk them through that mental block, but once you get to that point or hit the wall, it is so hard to push through (and sometimes impossible). I tried taking a few pictures here on my phone and as you can see we ran into the 1/2 marathoners…

 I came across the finish line at a 3:04.53. I loved pacing this race. It was so fun getting to know new people and hearing about their goals, lives, etc. I felt great but I did feel the soreness in my quads. Hopefully the soreness won’t be too bad come Monday!  

 One guy came in and caught everyone’s attention. Pretty amazing being able to smoke a cigar while running the marathon!  

 I left shortly after the race to head home. At home it was the normal Saturday… Chores and goofing off. We had a babysitter come in the evening while Corom and I, with 4 other couples went to the Clarion for the Steak and Stuffed Salmon meal!  

 Holy crap it was good! The salmon was so good!!! I love these dinners and if anyone is in the area… Come with us next time! 

Sunday: We had Regional Conference for church today. Then the 2 older girls and I walked home… My quads and legs were shot!!! I’m in trouble. I’ve been rolling, massaging them all day… The dang downhill! 🙂 It did help to walk home… And these 2 made it very enjoyable! 

 We had a couple of families over for dinner… Corom made the bread (he is so good at making bread/baking) and apparently it wiped him out! It was a good day and we had a great time hanging out with our neighbors. 

Monday: I was told by my coach to run today’s 8 miles as slow as I needed. Well… I ran about an 8:30-9 minute pace. I wish I could say that it felt good and it was a relaxing run, but it was anything but good and relaxing! I did a lot more stretching, rolling and massaging. I did work in my Kindergartener’s (youngest’s) classroom today…  Always fun working in the classes! 

 Tricia, Amber and I surprised our friend, Beth with a little birthday surprise at her work. Then my girls and I headed off to cross country practice… It was a tough practice today. 2 x 1 mile at race pace then 5 x 400’s at 5-10 sec faster than race pace. They were tired!  

 Because of pacing on Saturday, I was able to get free meal tickets to Costa Vida! 🙂 So the family and I went dinner.  

 We had Family Home Evening, then it was early bed time for me. 

Tuesday: Another easy run. I had a 10 miler to run…. My legs are feeling better but still sore. I had the opportunity to work in my Kindergartener’s class again… Loved it!  

 We had CC practice (an easy run), then it was dinner, homework and off to coaching and playing soccer games… I coached my 2 middle daughter’s game 1st… It was fun watching them run around. Then I coached my youngest’s game right after. They were so dang cute and pretty good at playing too!  

 We did have to end my youngest’s game short because a big rain storm came rolling in quick. Lots of lightening. I stayed up a lot later then what I would have liked, but it sure was fun having some friends come over for a chic flick movie (Austinland). Corom did hang out too. 😉 

Wednesday: I was a little worried about this morning’s speed workout! But as it turns out…It went better than what I thought it would. My warmup didn’t seem so promising so after the 2 mile warmup, I decided to go into the 400’s as 4 sets. I was going to do at least 5 400’s but after that 1st set, I felt pretty good. The 2nd set was better and then the last 10 felt really good. My legs loosened up after this speed workout. They are sore now but not as bad. I averaged 85’s-88’s. So 20 x 400’s at 90 seconds. After dropping the girls off to school, I went over to the HS. The juniors and seniors didn’t have school today so we held practice early. It was one of those days where no one wanted to run. It was way windy (and a day off of school). I did go back a couple of hours later for the freshman and sophomores to send them off on their run. 

  It was early out day for my kids (noon)… So many neighbor kids came over to play Then it was activity days and birthday parties in the afternoon. I went on RS visits and then the girls and I went to my oldests soccer game. She played so well! The whole team played well. She made a goal… And was so excited about it!  
 
Thursday: I had a 15 mile hilly run today. I ran the first 11 miles too hard. My body was tired! I did slow down for the last 4. My legs were so achy and strained. I was a little concerned after this run. It was a day of getting work done around the house… My youngest played with a neighbor after school and after the other girls came home from school, we headed to CC practice.

 The girls and I did homework, reading and dinner, then headed off to the 3 younger girl’s soccer games. Just before we left, I saw an empty caffeine strip wrapper on the floor. This strip is full of caffeine and made for long workouts!! I got in the car and asked what child took it… My 2 younger ones finally confessed that they shared it. Well, these soccer games should be interesting…

 The girls were so hyper and running around… It was way funny but also a little annoying at times (I’m the coach of all their teams… So it got hard at times to try to calm them down). They did get in trouble for getting into my stuff and I explained the dangers of these strips, but until they are old enough to read this, they won’t know how me and a few parents were laughing at them. Corom did come late (he is teaching a class at the college again every Tuesdays and Thursday’s and he has church meetings a lot on those nights). We took the girls out for ice cream because my oldest made a goal the night before.  (Our friends, the Thompsons, met up with us too… Their daughter scored a goal.) 

 Anyway… We all came home and ready for bed.