I'm a Presidential Champion Today

It's funny how "light snow for part of the day" turned into "heavy frickin' snow the ENTIRE day". I thought my treadmill runs were over for the season. I was planning on doing my easy run outside on the Clinton River Trail. Didn't happen!! I forgot both a jacket and my gloves and with the snowfall, I would have been soaked and frozen without them. *sigh*

It really wasn't so bad. This is how I put it in my RW training log today, "Very nice, easy run on the treadmill. Nothing special and nothing to complain about."

However, I momentarily forgot about something very special that happened as a result of my run today. I won my Presidential Champions GOLD AWARD!!! Now I thought after the gold award, I'd start over in the Advanced Presidential Champions program. But apparently, there is a "very special" platinum award that one can earn in either program that they don't advertise in their literature. Very cool! The number of points I have to collect to earn it is 500,000. Bronze was 20,000, silver was 45,000 and gold was 80,000 (completed today). So I have a LOOOOONG way to go to earn that Platinum. That's a major jump in point totals!!! Go me!

red's race review

Who says you can't PR in a half marathon two days after completing a 19-miler!? Haha! Okay, it wasn't the best plan in the world, but it worked.

The Martian Marathon was this morning. I competed in the half as a warmup to the Bayshore Marathon in May. I finished in 1:34:45 -- beating my old PR from last fall by over 7 minutes, taking 5th in my age group and 15th woman overall. What a thrill!!!

I felt wonderful the entire race. I started tiring just a bit at around mile 11, but my pace hardly suffered. It was a good effort - I gave it my all. I did a good job picking my pace wisely right from the start. There were no aches and pains and the new shoes were wonderful! Came in just a minute behind my hubby. hehe! Love ya, Bear and Happy Birthday! Hope you like the new watch!

I ended up running with a nice guy named Rick from Erie, PA for 5-6 miles. He was 54 and did a great job managing my pace for that long! It was kind of fun having someone to chat with during the race. I'd never done that before.

The weather was perfect for running, though not great for standing around afterward. I quickly became uncomfortable after stopping - it was close to 40 degrees. I feel kind of bad missing the award ceremony as now I know I won an age group award. I hope I can stop by the store and pick it up next week. Matt had to work so we couldn't have stuck around had the temps been nicer anyway.

Back to Normal!

Haha! If anyone bothered reading my last post, you may well have realized how ridiculously fatigued I was. I'm much better now. I tell you, I could barely type a few hours ago. And this time, it wasn't because my fingers were cold.

The last post pretty well summarized my 19-miler, with very few words. One of my best professors in college had a saying, "Be concise and be precise." I think I managed that quite well! He'd be proud.

What I left out was my time. I finished in 2:40:17 -- 8:27 min/mile. My cheapo Timex can only recall ONE split, so I usually hit it at the halfway point on long runs. First and second half were both EXACTLY the same. Weird

It rained and rained all morning. I waited until about 11:30 when the downpour subsided a bit. I couldn't wait any longer! I lucked out. It misted a little for the first few miles, then the rain stopped altogether. It was VERY windy, but on the tree-lined trail I'm shielded from the wind most of the time. The only place where the wind really affected me was when I rounded the last corner with literally a tenth of a mile left and the wind hit me full force in the face at probably 20-30 mph. Glad there weren't any little children around to hear me curse the weather gods. It was brutal and evil.

So now I have a day and a half to rest before the Martian Half Marathon. (So much for a taper, eh?) I've been checking the weather reports every hour hoping they'd change their mind about the rain for race day. It paid off! They DID change their mind! As of a few minutes ago, it is no longer supposed to rain on race morning! WOOOO! The temps should be somewhere between 30-40F. Can't wait to run with the extra-terrestrials! Giant blow-up Martians holding mile-markers! hahaha!

Tomorrow we head out early to check out the expo and hopefully (fingers crossed) find some good gear deals. I need a waterproof (or very water resistant) running jacket, some tight summer shorts and racing tops. I doubt they'll have any, but I need some summer trail runners too. After the expo, it is off to my sister's for a pasta dinner and a birthday celebration for my husband. Happy birthday, Bear!! We'll be staying the night at her place since she's much closer to the race than we are and she's MUCH cheaper than a hotel! Thanks, sis!

Got this idea from Matty. Here's my route! -->

Killer 19-Miler

Finished my first 19-miler a few hours ago. Just now have the energy to write about it.

Wow. That was hard. Felt great for the first 10 miles. Somewhere between miles 11-12, I started getting tired. By mile 15, I was dead tired. The final 2 miles were killer. But I did it!!!!

Now I'm going to take a nap.