Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I actually did it!!

I actually finally made a decision on my spring marathon :)

The most exciting news of the day is that I picked and registered for a spring marathon!
I will be running the Windermere Marathon on May 19th in Spokane. This just feels right! I graduated from high school in Spokane and although my parents no longer live there it will be fun to go back. I did not run in high school in fact I hated running. So funny how things can change :) The really fun thing is that I decided on my run today that I was for sure doing this marathon and then got home and found out through facebook that 2 of my really good friends from high school are running too! I am finally soooo excited about a race. Goals for the marathon, ?????, you know I can't make too many decisions in one day. In all seriousness I would love to PR, by how much, now that is the question I need to figure out.

I also joined Team Athena a couple of weeks ago. I have been running a few times on Saturdays with a group from the Team including Nikki Rafie, who is the coach and also winner of a few Portland marathons. It is a all womens running group with women of all ages and paces. The team meets on Tuesday nights for track workouts. Last night I went to my 1st ever track workout. Well it just so happened that last night was mile time trial night. Ughh, really? This was the going to be my 1st experience with track. I was really nervous and not looking forward to it at all but I thought it would be good for me. I have never raced a mile so I had no idea what to shoot for or what to expect.
After doing a good warmup with strides and drills we lined up to race this mile. Honestly I would rather run 13 miles. I know that is weird but I m a distance runner, not a sprinter.
I was going to try though, I was up for the challenge.
I did it, it hurt a little. I have not has the feeling that my lungs were on fire in a while. Not quite the time that I hoped for but a good place to start and it is nice to know where I am at and hopefully at the next time trial I can improve after doing some speed work.

I also got 3 new pairs of shoes :) 2 pairs of Brooks Launches because I love them and they came out with a new color combo the week after I ordered the other pair and I want to make sure that they don't run out of my size. I also ordered a pair of Brooks Pure Flow. They are awesome! I will be rotating between the Launches and the Pure Flows.

Today I saw on daily Mile that I ran 301 miles last month :) That is definitely a new high for me:) It helps that for 5 days I was in paradise (The Bahamas) with no kids and no responsibilities! I will leave you with a few photos from my fabulous vacay!