What a weekend

I ran the Run for Read 8K on Saturday morning. Honestly, with intentions of winning my age group and the whole race. Michael Harlow, you Richmond folks will know him, was there with the intention of winning. I got out with him and a couple others at the start. Before I go any further...Coach K had told me to try and hit a 7 minute first mile, knowing that I'd probably be around 6:45, then descend...Imagine my surprise when I hit the first mile and looked at my watch and saw 6:05!! The problem was that it actually felt pretty good. Follow that up with a 6:38, then a 9! Yes, a 9 minute mile in an 8K. Between miles 2 and 3, I got one of the most painful side stitches I've ever had. It turned out to be a combination of going out WAY to fast and being suffocated by my clothes. I was wearing a sleeveless compression shirt and my Dominion running singlet over top. I was anticipating much colder weather and rainy conditions. No rain and very humid. I was getting a feeling of suffocation and the heat wasn't being released. Once I pulled off the shirts and took a couple deep breaths, I was okay. Finished up with a couple 6:30 minute miles. All in all I had a decent race. PR'd by almost a minute (34:55), placed 2nd in my age group and was 10th overall. In my age group, the first place guy and myself smashed the rest of group, the third place guy was almost 5 minutes back!! Coach K was very pleased that I was able to work through that bad mile and finish as strong as I did. In the longer races, I'll have bad spots and the key to doing well, is being able to deal with them and move on. I could have bagged the whole race at that point, but I decided I was gonna make myself mentally stronger by resolving the situation and getting back on pace. What makes me mad is that I knew better. I've been working so hard on pacing and just got caught up in wanting to be in the front running with the leaders. If I'd stayed more controlled in that first mile, I could have easily dropped 1-2 minutes off my time. I would have won my age group and been close, if not in, the top 5. Race and learn I guess. I did win a pretty sweet messenger bag for placing!

After my race, we had to head straight over to Logan's soccer game. It was rainy and cold at this point. Pretty bad conditions for a soccer game. Then we headed home to watch the Hokie football game. What a terrible loss. Both QB's went down with injuries and we are now starting a WR as QB. He didn't do too bad. I'm glad we have a week off to work through those issues before our big Thursday night game against Maryland. Our first home game in almost a month. I can't wait to go back. Thursday nights in Blacksburg are electric. I'm truly bummed that we'll miss the beautiful foliage through the mountains. Just too long between home games this year.

Sunday morning I did my last 3 hour run before the marathon. Had a really good run. Put the iPod on and it turned out to be a pretty robot like, autopilot, run. Very consistent. Averaged 9:06. Not a single mile was way off that mark. No aches or pains. Right where I wanted to be for that run. A shower, 2 bacon egg and cheese biscuits, and 4 hash browns later, we all headed up to Carter's Mountain for some apple picking! Beautiful weather. We all had a blast. I have lots of pictures that I'll put up once I get them off the camera.

Oh yeah, and Allie no longer has the cone head! She got a nice bath and is all clean!