Feelin' it
Wow, I just sat down after being on my feet for the past hour and a forty-five minutes. As I bent my knees to sit, I could feel it...a little, bitty feeling. Pain, I guess, but nothing major and only for a split second. As I sit here, I feel slight pain in my back. I am sure from standing and maybe slouching earlier. I sat in a meeting earlier for two hours and didn't sit straight, abs taut, like I should have.
So, how did my race go? Very well!! My goal was to run the 8k (5 miles) in 48 minutes. I started out in the middle to the back of the crowd so as not to get in the way of the "elite runners". As we started out, I tried to pace myself and find someone I could pace with. I focused on a large man that seemed to know what he was doing and was keeping a steady pace through the crowd. I stayed with him up Pennsylvania and onto Louisiana. After a while I knew it had been at least a mile but never saw this mile marker. I had no way to gage my time on my first mile! I looked down at my watch and it read 13 minutes and I had not seen the first mile marker. Thus, I picked up the pace. By this time, the man was running out of steam, I could hear him breathing hard and slowing down. I had to leave him behind. Finally as we ran back down Louisiana, I saw the mile 2 marker. My time was a little over 20 minutes so I was a bit behind but close. During mile 3, I felt great. I was getting faster and even though I hadn't found another to pace with, I thought I was making good time and not expending to much energy too early. Now, this is a good time to take you back and talk about the little things you have to think about when, one, not only doing a race, but two just being on your own. These are the times when I can appreciate having someone in your life that you know is there to do the little things like hold your stuff while you run for 45 minutes. Since I was running this race by myself, I didn't have anywhere to put my necessities like my ID, debit and metro card, cash, key (to my car), and chapstick. My key went on my shoelace, the chapstick in my sports bra (yes, in my cleavage), the cash and cell phone in my pocket, and the cards in my sports bra on the right side between my chest and shoulder. The pocket in not made big enough to hold credit cards. Now, back to the race; I am in a good rhythm and feel that I am getting faster with every step. From behind, a woman tells me: "I think you dropped your license back there!". I immediately stop and turn back to look for it. I am now going against traffic, people are looking and gasping at me like I am crazy, and I am frantically searching the asphalt pavement among hundreds of legs and feet coming at me. Finally someone else hollers, "I think the cop over there has it". I run over to the cop who with a smug grin says, "What's your name?". Evidently he can't "ID" me because I have sunglasses on and I do look A LOT different than my picture. I blurt out "Audrey Copeland" all the while thinking quit being a wise guy, who the heck else is stopping to look for a license? Well, that did put me behind, as I sped back up to reach my pace I started passing people for the second time. It's a bit disheartening to see yourself having to pass some again and realizing that this may really cost you. Well, it just made me work harder. I finally found a couple of women to keep pace with. Soon I realized it was a group of runners that probably work out together on their long runs. I did my best to keep up with them the rest of the race. Finally we passed the mile 4 marker as we turned back on Pennsylvania. I realized then, that I could make it if I kept pressing on. I just kept telling myself "one more mile, one more mile, less than 10 minutes". Finally after another detour onto 10th street and back, I could see the finish line. I held off a little longer and then turned it loose for the final stretch. I knew as I crossed the finish line by looking at my watch that I was just over 48 minutes, even with the setback. Thank god!
My official time was 48:06. I ran a pace of 9.68 (9:41 minutes/mile) which my goal was 9.66. Not too bad...
Out of all the women, I placed 1269 out of 2489. In my division (25-29 years old), I placed 419 out of 789. That puts me right smack dab in the middle of the pack.
Today, I ran 4.5 miles outside. It was eighty degrees today and felt great. I got a bit warm during my run and I definitely struggled a little due to my legs being tired. I made it (in 48 minutes), though, and felt better for it. I also biked to work again today. No wonder my knees are complaining a little...
By the way, I have been on my feet for the past hour and a half or so cooking an Indian dish. I had some chicken I need to cook and decided to try a new recipe.
So, how did my race go? Very well!! My goal was to run the 8k (5 miles) in 48 minutes. I started out in the middle to the back of the crowd so as not to get in the way of the "elite runners". As we started out, I tried to pace myself and find someone I could pace with. I focused on a large man that seemed to know what he was doing and was keeping a steady pace through the crowd. I stayed with him up Pennsylvania and onto Louisiana. After a while I knew it had been at least a mile but never saw this mile marker. I had no way to gage my time on my first mile! I looked down at my watch and it read 13 minutes and I had not seen the first mile marker. Thus, I picked up the pace. By this time, the man was running out of steam, I could hear him breathing hard and slowing down. I had to leave him behind. Finally as we ran back down Louisiana, I saw the mile 2 marker. My time was a little over 20 minutes so I was a bit behind but close. During mile 3, I felt great. I was getting faster and even though I hadn't found another to pace with, I thought I was making good time and not expending to much energy too early. Now, this is a good time to take you back and talk about the little things you have to think about when, one, not only doing a race, but two just being on your own. These are the times when I can appreciate having someone in your life that you know is there to do the little things like hold your stuff while you run for 45 minutes. Since I was running this race by myself, I didn't have anywhere to put my necessities like my ID, debit and metro card, cash, key (to my car), and chapstick. My key went on my shoelace, the chapstick in my sports bra (yes, in my cleavage), the cash and cell phone in my pocket, and the cards in my sports bra on the right side between my chest and shoulder. The pocket in not made big enough to hold credit cards. Now, back to the race; I am in a good rhythm and feel that I am getting faster with every step. From behind, a woman tells me: "I think you dropped your license back there!". I immediately stop and turn back to look for it. I am now going against traffic, people are looking and gasping at me like I am crazy, and I am frantically searching the asphalt pavement among hundreds of legs and feet coming at me. Finally someone else hollers, "I think the cop over there has it". I run over to the cop who with a smug grin says, "What's your name?". Evidently he can't "ID" me because I have sunglasses on and I do look A LOT different than my picture. I blurt out "Audrey Copeland" all the while thinking quit being a wise guy, who the heck else is stopping to look for a license? Well, that did put me behind, as I sped back up to reach my pace I started passing people for the second time. It's a bit disheartening to see yourself having to pass some again and realizing that this may really cost you. Well, it just made me work harder. I finally found a couple of women to keep pace with. Soon I realized it was a group of runners that probably work out together on their long runs. I did my best to keep up with them the rest of the race. Finally we passed the mile 4 marker as we turned back on Pennsylvania. I realized then, that I could make it if I kept pressing on. I just kept telling myself "one more mile, one more mile, less than 10 minutes". Finally after another detour onto 10th street and back, I could see the finish line. I held off a little longer and then turned it loose for the final stretch. I knew as I crossed the finish line by looking at my watch that I was just over 48 minutes, even with the setback. Thank god!
My official time was 48:06. I ran a pace of 9.68 (9:41 minutes/mile) which my goal was 9.66. Not too bad...
Out of all the women, I placed 1269 out of 2489. In my division (25-29 years old), I placed 419 out of 789. That puts me right smack dab in the middle of the pack.
Today, I ran 4.5 miles outside. It was eighty degrees today and felt great. I got a bit warm during my run and I definitely struggled a little due to my legs being tired. I made it (in 48 minutes), though, and felt better for it. I also biked to work again today. No wonder my knees are complaining a little...
By the way, I have been on my feet for the past hour and a half or so cooking an Indian dish. I had some chicken I need to cook and decided to try a new recipe.
posted by Aud at 9:35 PM
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