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I was starting to think that I'd lost what little marbles I had left, this weekend I KNOW that they're gone, LOL....

This weekend was the one-two punch of back-to-back races in the AR Grand Prix, the Capital City 10k and the Hogeye Half-Marathon. I'm not sure what twisted person decided this was a good idea but from what I understand it's been this way for so long it's now a tradition. Yes, I know I didn't have to race both but as Terry says about her job, I do love me a challenge :-).

First off was the 10k Saturday. I absolutely loved this race!!!!!! It's nearly completely flat and it's out aways from the city, practically in the boondocks. I was disappointed that Brenda and Lisa weren't going to make it but was very happy to see Cindy. I thought that I would be able to run with her for a while before she left me but to my surprise I was actually feeling great so we ran together for practically the entire race. Although she did kind of fib to me about going out easy the first mile, LOL!

At the 5k point we were faster than our 5k time in last week's Spring Fling 5k so was happy about that and I was still feeling strong. It wasn't near as cold and we didn't have that hellacious wind, thank goodness. One highlight of the course was when we were running by a horse farm and we had several horses run up to check us out--beautiful. At around mile 5.5 we had another woman pass us and I couldn't stand it any longer, I felt great and started picking up the pace. I even caught and passed a guy (at the very last minute) that had been joking with Cindy and I about age. Never did catch the woman that passed us, she must have been feeling good too :-).

Ended up with a new 10k pr by one minute, 3 seconds (51:50) and was 21st female out of 173, 117/349 overall, and 2/28 in my age group. It felt sooooo good to have a race that I felt good running, it's been since October that I had one where I was really happy about my finish and didn't feel miserable afterwards.

Oh, cute story--We took Elsie and of course she was going nuts because I had my running gear on and she wanted to run too. After the race, a new acquaintance asked if she could take Elsie with her while she ran to her car and we were joking around about how long it would take Elsie to realize that neither James or I were with them and she put on the brakes. Well, Elsie made it much further than we thought and it was hilarious watching them. Wish I had video of it to share!

Saturday afternoon I packed up and roadtripped with Bailey, Jackie, and Sean up to Fayetteville for the Hogeye 1/2 Marathon. Very disappointed with the women's tech shirts, the small was more like an extra-small or xx-small so ended up not taking one home. They were giving us the option to address a large manila envelop and would send us the next size up if enough were available. Except for Bailey, the woman didn't tell her about that option and was just joking about all the women looking like they would be in a wet t-shirt contest. Very, very, very weird!

Bailey had booked the room and it was extremely nice, esp. for the price. We even had a full kitchen and would've brought our own food to cook if we'd known. The only thing I didn't like was the smoke detector. It was the style that blinked a blue light every so often and I couldn't sleep well because of it, blech. From about 12:30 on I think I was waking up every hour and found out the next morning that Jackie did the exact same thing. Oh, and we had a major thunderstorm roll through between 0200-0230. That kind of had me worried too.

Sunday morning was much colder than the previous day, it went from the low 70s on Sat. down to 48F, brrr. Strong winds were also predicted, yuck. Eugene and I had talked the previous day about him pacing me to a 2 hour finish and I was surprised that he was still willing to do it today. He's quite a bit faster than me so I knew it would be hard for him to go that slow.

On the uphills I would slow down but speed up to catch him on the downhills. Worked well until mile 10, then I kind of imploded and had to start walking up some of the inclines. Prior to that the only time I walked was through the water stations--have a hard time drinking out of a cup and jogging without it going up my nose or all over my shirt.

Garmin stats
Mile 1-11:01, slow because of the hills and crowds
Mile 2-8:29
Mile 3-8:19
Mile 4-8:48
Mile 5-8:45
Mile 6-8:47
Mile 7-8:52
Mile 8-8:44
Mile 9-9:25 (back in the hills and starting to slow)
Mile 10-9:10
Mile 11-12:51 (oops, had to walk)
Mile 12-8:25 (walked some and stomach cramps)
Mile 13,13.1-10:26 (walked some more)

I did manage to push hard the last few feet but it was absolutely, completely miserable. I have no desire whatsoever to see any finish line photos or even any in the last few miles. I was on the verge of tears and feeling horrible. My stomach started cramping around mile 12 and I thought I was going to have to find a port-a-potty, yuck. My mistake was not taking the gel that I'd been carrying in my pocket the entire race at around 1 hour in and not taking enough calories in for breakfast. Until we hit mile 10, I was actually ahead of what I needed to be to finish in 2 hours or just under.

Now the previous paragraph may have you thinking that I was unhappy with my finish time and the race, but it's the opposite. I'm absolutely thrilled!! My finish time was 2:01:36 and that's gun time, they didn't have chip timing for this race. That's a new 1/2 marathon p.r. on a course that's extremely difficult, I had been warned that's it hard to p.r. here but I did it thanks to Eugene. It was hard for him to go that slow and be passed by people he can pass with no problem but he stuck with me even though I told him to go on several times. I felt bad about slowing him down, esp. in the last 5k.

Final results on the 1/2
2:01:36
Female 44/230
Age group 3/25
Overall 183/483

Not a bad weekend!! 2 personal records on back to back races. I'm sore but happy right now. Not bad for a truck driver, eh? Did I do that right Kelownagurl?

One quick thing, I've been trying to lose a few pounds and have finally dropped the 3 from the holidays. Well today I almost had a wardrobe malfunction because the running skirt I wore is now a little loose. Until I started sweating enough for the fabric to stick to me the skirt kept sliding down my hips and I almost flashed my butt at the people behind me for the first mile. Trying to hold your skirt up and run at the same time is no easy task, LOL!