Marathon Relay Weekend

Saturday Tim's parents and our niece came into town. We had a nice dinner at Mimi's (good Italian food). The best part of the evening, the kids! Ryan was such a good boy, despite 45 minute and we were already over an hour past his normal dinner time. Brayden did equally as well as long as he was being walked around the restaurant. They both behaved at the table and ate well. We came home and got ready for the race.

Up at 6:30 to make sure the house was clean before we left, as we had an open house again from 2-4. Race start was 10am and we had about a 1.5 hour drive. Both boys rode well today, which is a blessing. Normally if Ryan isn't pitching a fit then Brayden is crying because he absolutely hates to ride in the car. We got to the race and got the kids settled with Tim's parents.

Set-up of the race: Marathon within a park on a 1.6 mile loop course (hilly!). You can enter as a single runner, 2 man or 4 man relay. Relay teams are divided by all male, all female and co-ed. Tim and I completely thought that 13.1 for each of us was no problem, especially rotating laps...until after we both ran a lap. It was going to be a long day. I wanted to take my first few laps slow and then try to get some speed work done a little later on semi-tired legs.

Well, as I'm not very good at pacing myself, my fastest lap was my first lap at 8:03 pace with my second lap at 8:19 pace. I'm excited at these numbers given the course and the fact that I've been training at a 8:50 - 9 min pace. I followed those with 8:38, 9:04 (back to back laps), 8:53, 8:44, 8:49, and 9:11. I started this last lap feeling "OK", but as I made that first turn and headed up the first hill, I quickly realized that my hamstrings, gluts and calves had something different in store for me. I was done! I felt like I was going over 10 minute pace. My goal leaving for our last lap was to bring us in under 3 hrs 15 min. We finished in 3:15:18. Oh well. It was good enough for a 4th place finish amongst the 2 man co-ed relay group and 14th overall out of 57. Great training day for both of us.

The best thing about this race was getting to see the boys the entire time. My mother-in-law and my niece were taking Ryan around the trail playing at different place and every time I ran and they saw me, I heard cheers to keep me smiling. "Go Mommy, run Mommy run faster." Oh geeze if I could I would. My father-in law took Brayden most of the day. I tried not to let him see me on my off laps, as he's still pretty attached and would get upset if he saw me and I then left again. Out of sight, out of mind sort of thing.

After finishing, we hit up Cici's Pizza (or ChiChi's according to the Garmin) and then headed home. No visitors at the open house...:( I'm tired, it's going to be an early bed time for Mommy.