Spinx Run Fest Recap & A Pleasant Surprise

Ok, maybe we should all acknowledge that there was no way in hell I was running the 13.1 this weekend. I don't know what came over me last week causing that rush of courage, but it certainly was a flash in the pan. Maybe it was my inner rationale taking over? Either way, it was a good decision, as many people told me the course was insanely difficult. Here is a link to the elevation graphs. Overall, it doesn't appear that imposing but two of the worst miles are in the last 1/3 of the race.

So I don't have any awesome pictures of the finish or anything because I had to attend the race solo. We had a lot of plans after the race Saturday, so Laura opted to sleep in and conserve her energy. So here's a picture of someone who obviously had a great time running!

I did get to run the race (sort of, we didn't exactly run the race together) with a good friend. And I'm going to go ahead and get this piece of info out of the way and behind me. My buddy, Ian, doesn't really run as much as I do...and he sort of went out the night before...and didn't look all that enthused at the start line. Nevertheless, he managed to finish a full two minutes ahead of me! Oh well, congrats, Ian.

So, my race was a little disappointing. My goal was 28:00 because I knew the course had a couple of hills. But my normal loops around the neighborhood have hills and doesn't seem to bother me. So I figure running early, after a good night's sleep, and the adrenaline rush of racing would be enough to meet that goal. I vastly overestimated the course. But Saturday was a perfect storm of problems. First off, I overslept and had to rush to the course without eating/drinking anything that morning. Sucks. Next, I almost got taken out by a double baby-stroller decorated as a pirate ship complete with cannons sticking out the side. Jack Sparrow was taking up more than his fair share of real estate and clipped me somewhere during the first mile. Move onto the final mile and I'm stuck trying to power up a 3/4 mile hill to the finish inside the stadium. It killed me, plain and simple.

My secondary goal was/is always to run negative splits. I at least managed to accomplish this:

Mile 1 - 9:23 - I probably started out too hot
Mile 2 - 9:20 - about right
Mile 3 - 9:17 - I got down under 9:10 but the final hill dashed any hopes of going lower

So there you have it...I'm still waiting on the chip times because the gun time was pretty far off. My watch clocked the run in 29:22. Meh. Better luck next time.

So here's the teaser - had a GREAT run tonight, a little over 5 miles. And I could've gone a couple more I'm pretty sure. So I'm thinking a 13.1 is going to happen. Let's call it Spring 2013 as a warm-up for the P200.