It's been a while since I've written because things have been mighty busy here in Cleveland! I've been traveling a TON and racking up the frequent flier miles! I'd planned to travel back to SF this weekend to race at Bay to Breakers, but decided against another trip and the accompanying jet lag and exhaustion. Instead, I'm sticking close to home and racing a 10k here in Cleveland! But before delving into that, a long-overdue recap of the past few weeks...
I raced in Chicago last month, my first race in over 4 months. I finished a respectable 11th at the Shamrock Shuffle, running 27:46 for 8k, just 10 seconds out of 7th place. I wish I'd had the strength (and guts) to push it a little more in the middle miles and make contact with the group in front of me. I ran a strong last mile and closed the gap that I'd let form, but as per usual the finish line came up all too quickly and I couldn't catch the pack of girls in front of me.
A top 10 finish would have been nice, but I was pleased knowing that I'd led the New Balance Silicon Valley ladies to a 4th place finish in the team competition. All told, it was a solid return to racing and a very fun weekend in Chicago with family and friends!
Following Chicago, I ventured to Rochester Hills, Michigan, where I got to visit little brother Brendan, who recently joined the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. It was great to meet Brendan's new teammates and see where he'll be training in the coming years. I feel lucky that Cleveland and Rochester Hills are only 3 hours apart, so sibling weekend visits are possible! :-)
The end of April brought me to Charlotte, North Carolina for work, where I joined the MOVABLE team at the annual conference for the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD).
We worked our butts off selling MOVbands to the masses and I was pretty beat at the end of the week. But it was all worth it when people came back to our booth to tell us how much they liked their MOVband and how they couldn't wait to use it in their PE classes to help get kids MOVing more! Although I'm only 6 weeks into the job, I'm LOVING it so far and each day I'm energized and excited about my work. Feeling very blessed to have landed at such an awesome company here in Ohio!
Following AAHPERD, I flew from North Carolina to San Francisco for a glorious return to my home state. The weekend was filled with reunions with family and friends, joyful runs at my old stomping grounds at Kezar and in Golden Gate Park, and oh yeah, A RACE! I opened up my track season with a 5k at Payton Jordan.
I raced in Chicago last month, my first race in over 4 months. I finished a respectable 11th at the Shamrock Shuffle, running 27:46 for 8k, just 10 seconds out of 7th place. I wish I'd had the strength (and guts) to push it a little more in the middle miles and make contact with the group in front of me. I ran a strong last mile and closed the gap that I'd let form, but as per usual the finish line came up all too quickly and I couldn't catch the pack of girls in front of me.
A top 10 finish would have been nice, but I was pleased knowing that I'd led the New Balance Silicon Valley ladies to a 4th place finish in the team competition. All told, it was a solid return to racing and a very fun weekend in Chicago with family and friends!
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| NBSV does Chicago! |
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| Cousin/sibling reunion in Chicago :-) |
The end of April brought me to Charlotte, North Carolina for work, where I joined the MOVABLE team at the annual conference for the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD).
We worked our butts off selling MOVbands to the masses and I was pretty beat at the end of the week. But it was all worth it when people came back to our booth to tell us how much they liked their MOVband and how they couldn't wait to use it in their PE classes to help get kids MOVing more! Although I'm only 6 weeks into the job, I'm LOVING it so far and each day I'm energized and excited about my work. Feeling very blessed to have landed at such an awesome company here in Ohio!
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| MOVING joyfully :-) |
To my dismay, the race didn't go as planned. I haven't had great luck at Payton Jordan in years past and 2013 was no different. Workouts indicated that my fitness was right around 16:00-16:10, so I went into the race planning on running 77-78s and aiming for a PR. Unfortunately, the rabbit took us through 400 meters in 70 seconds and I was dead last in 73. Whatever happened to even splitting? The first mile of 5:04 was a bit too hot for me and I paid dearly for it, struggling in the 2nd half of the race and finishing in 16:39. Definitely not what I was hoping for nor what I flew across the country to run. I won't be back on the track til USA Outdoor Nationals; I'm sticking to the roads til the 10k in Des Moines in June.
And that brings us to May. I've been working a lot and fitting in my training with sunrise and sunset runs before and after work. Some days it's hard to motivate myself, as all my workouts this winter and spring have been done entirely solo. No coach, no training partners, just me and the roads or me around the oval. Not gonna lie, it has been a challenge, and I have work still to do before June, but I'm hoping that all this time working out alone will prepare me all the better for those lonely miles in the middle of a marathon. Well, no marathons in my future just yet, but Coach Dad and I have talked about training seriously for a half this fall. Stay tuned!
Next up - the Cleveland 10k on Sunday and Friehofer's 5k for Women in Albany, NY on June 1!
