Back on Track

It's a new year, so how about some new running goals? As I mentioned in my last post, I signed up for my first marathon. I know I'm capable of running 26.2 miles if I train properly, but the training is really daunting. I have a lot of hard work and many miles ahead of me. To get my butt in gear, I met up with a Boston area runner and coach. Lauren is super speedy and also represents Oiselle through their Flock program, so we connected through Facebook. We met at the starting line of the Boston Marathon (how have I never see that before? So cool!) and got in a great 8 miles before continuing our conversation at Starbucks for over an hour. Lauren has coached a number of people before and between how well we got along and the results her athletes have gotten, I decided to entrust her with my first marathon training plan! She sends me my training plans and checks in with me periodically. It feels great knowing that someone is cheering for me and keeping me in check. I'm even more excited for my marathon now!

But before marathon training officially started, I had a track race to run. Just for giggles I signed up for the USATF-CT championship track meet and entered the 3k. I haven't raced on a track since my senior year of college, and it felt good to try something different for a change. I got in two quality track workouts and good mileage over the winter break, so I was feeling pretty good heading into this meet. My goal was to run 12:00 or under, which would be squarely within how I ran in college, but given that it had been so long since I'd laced up on any oval office I really didn't know how it would go. I anticipated that I'd be in the mix of all the women racing. Turns out, I was the only woman, so I jumped into the men's race and quickly readjusted my goal: not to be last. The gun went off and the adrenaline kicked in. I wanted to run 46-48 per 200, and realized I was running 40-42 for the first few laps. I actually felt good but knew that I couldn't sustain that. I went through the mile in 6:12 and that's where things started going downhill. The lactic acid started to build up and I wasn't able to run the splits I wanted despite my effort. I was lapping some guys but I was slowing down a lot. I was able to kick in the end, and finished in 12:07. Slower than I'd hoped for but I was happy with it. The race was fun and I had gotten in a solid race after only a few weeks of purposeful training. And because I was the only woman, I won a medal!

Also, shoutout to Robyn for letting me borrow her track spikes! And speaking of Robyn, she and I were able to ring in the new year together! A good sized sampling of Colby XC/Track alum from the past 10 years gathered at Kat and DV's house for an annual celebration, although this was just my first year. It was so fun to see and catch up with so many friends. I'm already looking forward to next year's party, though I'm sure I'll be out running with Robyn and others much sooner than that. 

So much Mule Love