Catching up...the quick and dirty version

Yeah, I’m a slacker.  What?  So in a nutshell, because I probably definitely shouldn’t be blogging at work…

Emerald City Half Marathon Race Report:  All in all, a pretty good experience for pacing my first “big”race.  No clue about packet pickup (one bonus to being a pacer is that you get the shirt but don’t have to actually register so no dealing with picking stuff up), but the before/after race stuff was really well organized as was the actual race.  Well manned water/gatorade stops about every 1.5 miles or so, GU stop shortly before/after the turnaround depending on how you look at it, and the course was fairly flat save for a couple of hills inside the metropark most of the race took place in.  Oh, and the squished frogs on the path and the odd small branch or two (there was a storm the night before, and rain for the last 15 min before the race started and about 5 mins into the race so there was a lot of downed stuff).  Ew, squished frogs :$  The medal was nice and big (yes, pacers still get medals…this was hard for that husband of mine to wrap his head around.  I still complete the race you big jerk!)  Plenty of fairly close parking, and getting out of the lot was a breeze because I know the back ways (I work not far from the start/finish). 

My pacing buddy switched with another girl about halfway through, and then that person had to flag down help for someone with some serious hip pain so after about mile 8 I was on my own. Thankfully, a girl running the race at the same pace was actually an experienced pacer with Marathonpacing.com so she and another girl kept me company for the last five miles.  Besides the rain, the weather was a little on the warm and humid side but nothing like what we’d had the day before so I can’t complain there.  We ended up coming in a little over a minute faster than 2:10, which I didn’t hear any complaints about.  All in all, a pretty neat experience…I can’t say I’ll never pace another half (man that’s a lot of pressure for 13 miles) but I might. 

Next up-the Hudepohl 14k in Cincinnati this weekend!  My sister and her boyfriend are also running it, and our parents are driving down from Columbus for Oktoberfest Zinzinnati that night…aka beer and fried food.  Yum   None of us are planning on racing it, but all three of us are competitive especially when it means beating your sister or significant other so we’ll see.  I do plan on embarassing the heck out of my sister with my OSU logoed Nike Tempo shorts and argyle knee socks, so she may take off like a shot just so she won’t be seen with me   Beyond that, there’s a 5k next weekend that I may try to race just to see where I’m at speedwise compared to when I set my last 5k PR…two and a half years ago :$  Plus, the proceeds benefit the nonprofit (for those of you that know me in real life and know who I work for…yes it really is a nonprofit) I work for so there’s that.

Will update more when I’m NOT at work.  But for now, check out this fun raffle!  http://www.runningwithsass.com/win-more-stuff/ Cause who doesn’t like the chance to win stuff and donating money to good causes?

About these ads