Labor Day Weekend

Winding down the last few hours of my long weekend and feeling thankful for all the good that happened. Smartly took today off to recover from all the adventures of the weekend. A breakdown by days:

Friday
Fleet Feet posted a nice surprise on their FB page that Kathrine Switzer would be in their store until 7. I took full advantage of this and was so happy I did. There were less people there and I got some great time with her. Since I already blogged about it here, I won't say more. So glad I met her.

Saturday
Got up bright and early for the weekly session of MIT. Kathrine spoke to us briefly before we went out. She is amazing and has a lot of good insight. I loved how impressed she was that our group was mighty! She said she thought we had about 50 people and to hear 450 warmed her heart! She could not resist running with us so out she went with people who move much faster than I walk. Speaking of walking, I was only going to go 3 or 4 miles since I had two races coming up over the weekend but I ended up going 5. Everyone else was there for 9! I missed doing the long distance but enjoyed walking with Deb. The picture is me with my 2 pace coaches and one of our walkers. The angle is because a giant took the picture and he makes us all look short!! After finishing up at MIT, I headed to the Farmer's Market to get some goodies for the week! All in a goal to get to Joe's Original in time for the noon kickoff of the new Buckeye season. They do half price appetizers during football Saturdays which makes for bad for you food but a cheap date! Since I had a race the next day, we rested most of the afternoon and just hung out with the dogs after the Buckeyes won! It was funny - the race on Sunday was the Emerald City Quarter & Half Marathon. I was scheduled just to pace the race and you'd think I was racing! I could NOT sleep the night before. I think I slept about 2 hours. A race on no sleep is no fun but everyone was in the same boat as a terrible storm was rolling through all night long. Steve was surprised I couldn't sleep since I can pretty much fall asleep anywhere, any time. I guess I was due for a night watching the clock.

Sunday
Race day! Up and out of the house by 6AM to head over to Dublin for the race. The weather wasn't looking good and I have to say - we were there way too early considering we were "just" pacing! It was touch and go with the weather. A storm was tracking its way through Dayton but thankfully took a turn and missed us giving us just long enough to have the race. We headed out for the Quarter Marathon and were happy to have people who actually wanted to keep pace with us! I had to say it was awesome! I made up a little chart for my wrist so I'd know we were right on pace with 16:02:
Yes, I did notice before I left that I gave us 6 minutes to go from Mile 2 to Mile 3 so I fixed it before I left! I'll do this again at the Oktoberfest race so there is no questioning our pace! Doing math while you're exercising is just a no no! I can never do it and this will make my life much much easier! We finished pacing the race in a near perfect finish - 1:44:25. We were to be done at 1:45 so that works! The women who finished with us were quite happy! We met some interesting people along the way. There was a woman who comes to every M3S Sports event from WV. She had driven in the night before and slept in her car! Crazy! The course had dead frogs and snakes, but at least I didn't step on them!

The best part? A woman won the Quarter Marathon race! She was speedy and did a great job! Picked up some bling to add to my collection:



I was surprised at how heavy this medal was! It has a pretty green ribbon on it too. I spent Sunday afternoon relaxing with Steve and finally getting to the theater to see Crazy Stupid Love. Good movie & nice way to relax.

Monday

I had signed up for the Run 4 the Health of It as one of my Race Club races. It was a cheap race - $5.65 after the race club discount AND it was competitively timing walkers! Bonus! Being a 4 miler, I had mentally set my goal to be 48 minutes or less. My previous PR had been a 12:12 minute mile at the Westerville Rotary 5K so I thought I'd try to best it. When I got to the race, I looked for some of my MIT friends who run in the 13 minute pace group. Found them and started seeing some New Albany Walking Club folks I knew I'd have to look out for! Two of the women always walk the fastest on Sundays which are supposedly long slow days, and I let them psych me out! I saw them and knew I wouldn't beat them. They had advertised that the race would begin at 9 for the runners and 9:02 for the walkers. It didn't seem like they were paying all that much attention to it, so I took off when the Lucky 13's did. Good thinking! I was able to stay with them the entire race and we finished together (well, I was a few seconds behind). I ended up finish in 46:43 seconds for a 11:42 minute pace according to the race results. The race was not 4 miles as my Garmin clocked it at 3.85 but I'll take it! As I crossed the finish line, I was handed a medal that said 3rd in competitive walking! Woohoo! No one else was getting medals but the finishers. Yay! There was some confusion about first but I think that's because some of the walkers didn't register properly. Either way, the race paid me for being there - for placing 3rd, I have to take the medal to Fleet Feet to get a $25 gift card. They also gave us a water bottle so all in all good! Next race up is the New Albany Walking Classic Half Marathon on Sunday, September 11th! Wish me luck!

A bonus was winning a signed by the new coach OSU football.

Winning the football makes me have to take back my "I never win anything" statement. Officially rescinded. My guess is that this football has about a $35 (cost of said ball) value right now. If Luke Fickell coaches well, it'll go up in value, I suppose! Go Bucks!!