9 Mile Tail Run!

I ran about 9 miles yesterday with the infamous Ray the Runner. I say infamous because in my circle of friends he is considered a running machine, a force to be reckoned with and he has like 6 foot long legs. First off, I don't think I have ever run 9 miles, so that in itself was awesome, but to run with Ray and actually keep up was amazing!! I felt really good towards the end of the run which was nice, I wasn't shuffling and actually upped the pace a bit. I'm always a little wary of trails as my knee is still weak and trails are pretty unstable, but I like the diversity. The trails we ran were adjacent to the normal path that I run....it was like a whole new world in there!!

Also worth mentioning, I finished 6th out of 24 at the Brightwaters Pumpkin Run (27:50, 8:53 pace). Not bad considering I was crazy sick all week and didn't run once (although managed 2 spin classes).

First Sub 9 Race Pace!

Today was the Post Office Cafe 5k race and what a race it was!! My plan was to set a PR and really get an idea of what my race pace is since I have been stadily getting faster since Cow Harbor.

This race is flat and fast and goes through my neighborhood which was pretty fun. I finished in 27:35 (8:53 pace!!) which was waaayyy better than I was hoping for!

Tomorow I am going to run with the club then enjoy the day!

Favorite Blogs and Such

My blogging has been a little light lately, life has been crazy! I have been running and running and happily running some more. I am averaging a 9:15 - 9:30 pace on my 5 - 6 mile runs, which is mainly what I have been doing lately. I did get some gym workouts in, but need to really schedule them into my crazy life. I think I am going to have to go back the 6am days if my schedule doesn't let up soon!

I have been following a bunch of great blogs/websites lately and thought I would share, they are non-running related as I think we all subscribe to many of the same favorite running blogs.

I love this site and every day has a different theme. My favorites include Tue. Megalinks and the recipe days...all so yummy and cheap!
http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/

This is my favorite of all new sites I have stumbled upon!! You can ask random questions and random people will answer them, sort of like Yahoo Answers but for some reason, waaay better!
http://ask.metafilter.com/

'Cause I'm a marketing geek.
http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/
http://www.marketingprofs.com/
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Silly fun!
http://slavetotarget.blogspot.com/
http://unclutterer.com/

So, my faithful readers (if I even have any left as I have not been posting) what are some of your favorites?

What a Whirlwind!

The past week and a half has been soooo insanely busy that I have not had any time to breath let alone post! I hate when that happens!! So I ran Cow Harbor, went camping directly after, then directly after that had two business trips back to back. My life is never this exciting!! With all of this business I am happy to report that I have been running and have even had some gym time thrown in for good measure!

Now...on to Cow Harbor!! The race was amazing! 5,000 people at the start, 6 miles of hills with the deadly James street thrown in and the mile long incline between miles 4 and 5. I kept my pace steady at 9:30 which is AMAZING and my best ever on this course (and actually all courses, I usually run between 9:50 and 10:00). I felt so at ease and comfortable that I really thought I was going at a much slower pace, I was cheering people on at the James St. hill and all around felt great. I owe the majority of that to the weekly training runs...thank you Northport Running Club!! The overall atmosphere of the race was so great, they after party was fun and the fan support was great - cheerleaders, bag pipers and thousands of spectators with cow bells and music and a few sprinklers!! The entire community gets involved...it made me totally want to move to Northport!

The whole race made me really happy that I run, and grateful too!! I often get a little cheesy after races, mainly because it wasn't that long ago that running a mile was killer!

Quick Recap

Wanted to post a very short recap from Saturday's Cow Harbor (sorry so late, but I went camping directly after the race).

10K
Final time 59:05 (!!!)
9:30 pace (!!!!)
Very, very hilly

So happy!

Gearing up!

Not a whole lot to report on the running front. I have been training and gearing up for this Saturday's Cow Harbor race. I am all signed up and ready to go, ran 4 of the 6 training runs and feel pretty confidant about knowing how to navigate the course. I have never really spent anytime strategizing races before, I always just get up and go, so this is new for me. I have the tangents figured out (I think) and feel confident about the HUGE James Street hill. The weather is supposed to be perfect, a little cool but sunny. My goal is to finish in just under an hour, but I have a feeling that I will probably end up in the 1:02:00 range, which is way OK. Ran 5 last night and may run the same route again tonight, then rest tomorrow.

Ocean 2 Sound

Yesterday I competed in my first Ocean 2 Sound Relay with the women from my club. It was an interesting day and I'm still trying to figure out if I will ever do it again. We all met up at Cedar Creek Park for leg 1 of 8 (totaling 50 miles) and decorated our 2 support cars and took some team pictures (pictures to follow). Most of the day was spent driving 1 mile jumping out of the car, cheering on our runner and giving her water, getting back in the car and doing the same thing over and over until the last runner finished. Overall it was fun, but exhausting. I ran leg 4 which was just under 6 miles and HILLY!!! I made good time with a pace of 9:54 which I was really thrilled with considering the whole thing was a climb with one crazy steep down hill. After the run there is a big after party with a band, beer, wine, food. I only stayed for a few minutes as I had a work party to go to, but it looked like a good time was had by all.

This week I am back to the gym for toning and a few days of running including(I think)the last Cow Harbor training run.