Live, Laugh, Love, Run, Fun! ...Repeat

The last week has been spent recovering from the half marathon that I ran on May 7th (and preparing to ride the bike leg of an upcoming triathlon). Last Saturday I ran the Indianapolis Mini Marathon. Going into the race I had a "realistic" goal and a "super great" goal. I met my realistic goal. I'll get to that in a bit. This was the second time that I ran this particular race and my 3rd half marathon.

The area that we live in has a great Roadrunners club and a training program to prepare runners to run the half marathon. The Mr. and I signed up in November and started training in late January for this race. I met some really great friends through the training and really ended up learning a bit about myself in the process too. I am really looking forward to continue running with my new sweat buddies. I've already signed up for another half in two weeks...a little crazy, but why stop now! :) Thanks to my running buddy for talking me into it...

The Mr. and I went over the night before the race and walked around downtown, grabbed some good food and relaxed a bit without the kiddos. Niiiiice!! It was even better to be able to sleep until 6:00 instead of getting up super early and driving over the morning of the race. We were within walking distance of the start line. Which was also very niiice. I was a good girl and didn't over eat the night before, and packed my prerace meal of a half of a bagel and some OJ. My blood sugar was normal and I didn't forget anything! (yeeehaw) But my training buddy, who was in the same corral as me, was running late and we never found each other until after the race! Boo! The Mr. and I already had a bit of a competitive thing going on and we agreed to start together, but not worry about running with each other...but I was a little bummed about not getting to start the race with Sarah.

It ended up being a good thing that I didn't bet anything too costly with the Mr. because he ended up beating my by 3 minutes! Darn him!!!

I ran a decent race...I could have pushed myself a little harder at a few different points. I finished in 1:55:29! This is a new PR for me and almost exactly 2 minutes off my time from last year!!
mile 1 - 8:56 lots of weaving through people
mile 2 - 8:18 making up for the first mile
mile 3 - 8:41 trying to find my groove
mile 4 - 8:38 feeling good
mile 5 - 9:09 slowed down a bit for fuel and water
mile 6 - 8:45 back in comfortable pace
mile 7 - 8:49 feeling good
mile 8 - 8:49 holdin steady
mile 9 - 8:55 not bad, but could be better
mile 10 9:14  ohmyheck!! more fuel and water, but I didn't think I was that slow...

mile 11 8:40 trying to make up for mile 10

mile 12 9:08 paying for trying to make up for mile 10

finish 13.1 9:23 sprinted the last .25....HARD, but felt a lot better than the finish last year...

which made me think that maybe I could have pushed a little harder on those slower miles....but it is what it is. I guess the fact that I think I can do just a little bit better next time keeps me running (smile). 

By The Way....the Mr. may have beat me by 3 minutes, but he could barely walk the next day while I was getting along pretty good.....(insert evil laugh)!        .....which of course makes me think I shoulda' pushed harder, maybe I'll beat him next time (*wink)

Me and the Mr. after the race....uh yeah...It was cold! This was his first half...and in all seriousness I'm very impressed at how well he did!

Me and Sarah...we finally found each other...she beat me too darnitt!! But she rocked a PR too!

So I'm excited for her! (smile)

Great new friends!