Official time: 29:22 — 9:28 pace
VERY HAPPY!! I hit both of my goals:
* Finish under 30 minutes.
* Don’t walk!
I never even thought about walking. I paced myself well and sprinted across the finish line. It felt soooo good to sit on the sidewalk afterward.
More pics and details coming later. Thanks to Aaron for being the best race support person/photographer/boyfriend ever!
5K happening in less than an hour.
My last two-mile “easy” run was at a pace that should have been nothing, but felt like death.
Who knows what today holds. I’m so nervous for some reason, but keep reminding myself that I’ve run a MARATHON. It’ll be OK.
See you at the finish!
I’m a day behind on posting, as I had important-type things to do yesterday in my grown-up clothes, but here’s yesterday’s three-mile run:
I decided to make it a test 5K (my “comeback” race is on Sunday!) just to see what kind of pace I can handle for 3.1 miles.
9:43 = good, sustainable pace.
9:17 = not.
I think my strategy will be to hover around 9:30 for most of the race and then gun it with half a mile to go. My goal is to run it in under 30 minutes, but I’ll be happy if I can just run the whole thing without walking.
It’ll be tough to pace myself. Last year at this race, I ran my PR of 25:04… and then ran 10 more miles for marathon training. My, how times change after a year, a sprained ankle and an additional 10 pounds from eating my face off around the world. I gave up being down about my slower pace long ago, though — all I can focus on is doing my best right now.
Speaking of eating my face off: Aaron and I have abandoned Paleo in preparation for our trip (beginning a week from TODAY!) to Italy.
We didn’t want to go from cold-turkey Paleo to suddenly inhaling carbs and cheese in Italy and risk feeling sick and miserable, so we’re… easing ourselves back into delicious food.
Last night, after doing my important-type things, I headed downtown to meet Aaron at Serious Pie for dinner. He has been wanting to try it for two years, since he’s a pizza freak, but somehow never made it happen until last night.
I ordered the Yukon gold potato, rosemary and pecorino pizza, and A chose sweet fennel sausage, peppers and provolone — we split them half and half. The sausage pizza was the clear winner! I wouldn’t normally get a potato pizza (it was sauce-less and kind of dry, but had good flavors), but I ordered something Aaron would eat so we could split. Next time: Penn cove clams, house pancetta, chilies and lemon thyme, all for me, baby.
Today: An easy two-mile run and another important-type thing this afternoon. Also, Aaron will get his iPhone 5, and I’ll get to play with it!
I planned to run yesterday, but after a five-day streak of run-run-hike-bike-run, I decided to take a rest day.
Four miles today:
I tried a new route in my mom’s neighborhood and wound up running up even more hills than usual. The only way to really avoid them is to run on a main road just outside of the neighborhood that is full of speeding cars, but I don’t like breathing exhaust or putting myself in danger, so I’ll just have to embrace the hills!
Hmm… I should probably register for the 5K that I’m running on Sunday, right? Right.
I took my new (used) Garmin out for three miles today and was pleased to find that everything seems to function well.
I figured out during the run that the watch was not set to auto-lap to record my mile splits, but I think I’ve fixed that now. I’ll find out tomorrow!
Does anyone else get antagonized by neighborhood dogs when they run? I love dogs, but it freaks the crap out of me when they bark and sprint toward me as I run by their yards, stopping short only because of really good training or invisible fences.
I know that nine times out of 10, dogs will just sniff you and maybe lick your hand after they run up to you, but you just never know.
I once had a dachshund named Ivan go nuts on me as I made my way to Green Lake. I know, I know — I could probably defend myself from a dachshund, but I swear the little guy was vicious. His tiny legs carried him through his unfenced yard as fast as he could until his owner screamed at him to stay back, and only then did I feel somewhat safe as I continued on my innocent run. COME AT ME, BRO.
Today, I stashed my water bottle behind a fire hydrant so I could take a swig after each of my three laps around the neighborhood. On my second water break, I heard the swishing sounds of a dog running through grass toward me, and I looked up to find the calm, friendly face of a German shepherd staring curiously at me through a neighbor’s (blessed) fence.
Go figure that the one dog who might actually tear my shit up is a pacifist. Ivan, the dachshund of my nightmares, could take a page.
Today, just under two weeks after my bike accident, I got back in the saddle.
I wanted to ride again to start rebuilding my confidence on the bike and prove to myself that what happened on Labor Day was an entirely preventable accident that won’t happen again as long as I’m careful.
Aaron and I drove out to the same trail, but past that sharp turn where I slammed into a guardrail, and did an out-and-back ride for a total of 14 miles at a nice, slow, cautious 10.5 mph average speed. Thank you, Aaron, for being so patient with me!!
I can’t say that I’m 100% confident now — my heart froze every time we came to a bend that had the same type of guardrail that left me with bruises all over my body — but it was a big step just to ride again, and I know I’ll only feel better every time. I will not be riding again before our trip to Italy, though, just in case!
The next time I ride will be on “tree-lined avenues and winding country roads dotted with olive groves, villas and vineyards” — on a wine tour in Tuscany.
Because nothing helps you recover from the trauma of a bike accident like riding with a bit of wine in ya. : )
As I prepared to scramble a few eggs, I wondered if leftover salmon and pesto would add some tasty interest to the mix.
The answer is YUM.
Aaron and I have wanted to go hiking all summer, but one of us has always been injured (see: my sprained ankle, his first shoulder separation, his second shoulder separation, his surgery, my bike accident — whew).
We were finally both well enough to hike the Ira Spring Trail to Mason Lake today, and it was amazing!
The trail is 3.5 miles up, up and away to Mason Lake, and it provided just the right amount of challenge to keep things interesting but not kill us. We definitely got great calf, quad and cardio workouts.
Once we got to the lake — a gorgeous, still, mirror-like alpine gem — we lunched on PB&J sandwiches, apples and snap peas. I also took the opportunity to relax on a flat rock and soak up the sunshine. I could’ve napped there for a few hours at least, but Aaron preferred to head back down… sighhh.
It was the perfect late-summer day for a hike, with just a few orange-tinged trees suggesting the imminent arrival of fall — my favorite.
I also loved the quality time spent with my best friend, except for when he grabbed me for a hug and then pretended like he was going to throw me over a sheer cliff. I still love him… kind of. : )
This is so pathetic, but I’m lost without my Garmin. I can roughly estimate distances when I run my favorite routes, but I hate not being able to check my pace or hear that triumphant beep when I complete another mile.
Today, I set out to run from Aaron’s house to Green Lake, all the way around and part of the way back for about 4 miles (I know if I run the whole way back, it’s 4.5).
I mapped the exact route afterward and came up with 4.2! I’ll take it.
I have no idea how long it took me since I got too frustrated with the stopwatch on my phone and wound up just stuffing it in my sports bra. (Yes, it got very sweaty.)
It was a beautiful day to run at Green Lake. I took some walking breaks in the shade every now and then, plus stopped at all the water fountains since I didn’t want a repeat of yesterday’s puke-tastic feeling of dehydration.
And LOOK what arrived later in the day!!! (I’ve already acknowledged I’m pathetic, remember?)
Aaron is the king of buying and selling stuff on Ebay, and he found this barely used Garmin from a seller who had tons of positive reviews on electronics sales. It’s in practically perfect condition!
Now I just have to, you know, avoid crushing it into a million pieces.
I finally did my first run nine days after my bike accident!
I planned to do it on Monday, but both Monday and Tuesday kept me busy with job-hunting/interviewing stuff and I was just too lazy to run.
I spent Wednesday with my dad — we took advantage of the sunny weather by having lunch in downtown Seattle and riding the new ferris wheel on the waterfront.
Note the stubborn bruise on my arm. (Also, completely unrelated: My Jewelry By Cari necklace features a little dog tag that has “Devon” stamped on one side and “Aaron” on the other — a gift from Aaron’s mom. So sweet!)
My initial urge was to post other reasons why I didn’t run until today, but laziness is the real reason, so I’ll stick with that.
Since my Garmin Forerunner 305 was tragically crushed in the accident, I ran with my phone and used the stopwatch feature to time my laps around a relatively flat one-mile loop in my mom’s very hilly neighborhood. (How crazy is it that I have a perfect one-mile loop to run?? Yay for Map My Run!)
My starting point was someone’s garbage bin in front of their house, and I hit the lap button every time I passed the bin for a total of three laps/miles.
Mile 1: 9:44
Mile 2: 10:21
Mile 3: 10:21
The running itself felt fine, except for some tenderness in the bruises I still have on my legs, but I really misjudged the mid-September heat. I failed to bring water with me and realized too late that I really needed it. At one point, when I had to walk after running up an incline, I felt like I was going to puke! That never happens to me, unless I’m:
a) racing.
b) running with a hangover, in which case the puking feeling is entirely expected and deserved.
c) dehydrated, like in the last few miles of my marathon.
Lesson learned. I should start using my hydration belt again to get used to it before the 5K. If I remember correctly, this is a race with no water stops and, judging by today, I’ll definitely need at least a few sips to make it through!
Dev on Running 