Saturday, June 18, 2011

Alaskan Adventure: The Race

I was a little iffy about how the race this morning would go. A lack of sleep from the evenings before and the time difference weren't in my favor, but we got our stuff ready to go and we were up early hoping for the best!



See my lovingly placed Garmin watch? The watch that I check constantly to see my pace?

Yeah, charged it last night and this morning at the start line it decided it wasn't turning on.

Put a bit of a damper on my mood.

But I realized that it wasn't the end of the world and I would run my kind of race anyway!


Leaving bright and early!




Around mile 3 feeling good!




We had ourselves a little cheering section


Complete with gummy bears


And water :)

Throughout the race there were quite a few hills (which I was in no terms prepared for), some wide open roads, and an awesome wooded trail.

Rebecca and I were doing great!
I felt great and we were really picking up our pace and picking off people in the last couple of miles.

For the last 5 miles or so we were between an 8- 8:30 pace... unheard of in my racing world


Right before mile 10 and we were feeling AWESOME!

It was right around mile 11 that I hit my wall, and Rebecca pulled ahead and the mental games started... right about the time we had a half mile, ridiculously steep and winding hill... right at around mile 12.

I was less than impressed.

I was able to finish with a 2:00:15 time, knocking 12 minutes off of my last time and PRing in a big way.

However I was a little ticked off at not getting a sub 2 hour. 
I know, I know, I should be proud of my PR... but when you're that close to under 2 hours, ugh... just feels like a slap in the face!


But I finished well, I PR'ed, and I got to run an awesome race with my sister

It doesn't get much better than that.


Oh and did I mention we later hiked a mountain??
Yeah...more on that tomorrow!

2 comments:

aho girls said...

Congrats on your race, that is awesome! I did my first half this spring and was bummed that I didn't sub 2:00 also, but you are right, look at the awesomeness of the accomplishment!

Your blog is great, and it is making me miss that wonderful family up north even more than typical! Enjoy everyone and your time!

Anonymous said...

Congrats on PR'ing your race! I think it is awesome you were able to run the race with your sister. There is nothing like the bond between sisters, very cool. I am still working on being able to do a 5k...
MS