First 14 Miles Ever & Bloomsday 12K

 

Then coming home to immediately run Bloomsday, which was thrown into my first 14 mile run, (my furthest yet!) it’s been a crazy few days!

Where to begin? Let’s see . . .

We got back from vaca late Wednesday evening and Thursday was spent mostly on laundry and putting our house back together. It’s amazing how much laundry can accumulate from four people in a four day span. It should be impossible but we like to be overachievers like that.

I did get four miles in Thursday evening. When my sister is home she offers to come pick me up after my runs so I don’t have to run back. I LOVE THAT! Turning around and running what I’ve already ran is mentally draining. It’s like “ran that, saw it already” so if I can just keep going forward my feet seem to move faster. I did 4 miles with an average pace of 10:40. I’ll take it!

Friday was a rest day and I grocery shopped and gardened. I should have done PiYo but the time got away from me while gardening. It’s like you start pulling weeds and all the sudden they are growing right in front of you and you have to pull every. single. one. Gah! I’ll post garden after photos when I finish planting everything!

Saturday we did packet pick-up at the Convention center with our good friends and strolled through the trade show. I got some cool headbands and ran with one on Bloomsday and loved it! I’ve never ran with headbands before but I think I’m now a fan.

That night after a bit more gardening I took off on another easy four miler.

I meant to keep the same pace as my last four miler but I must have been feeling good and getting excited for Bloomsday because I was a lot faster, and it didn’t feel like it. Double win.

Plus it was fun to run through Riverfront park and watch everyone getting prepped for the next day.

Downtown was alive with activity. There was lots of Bloomsday packets in peoples hands. Emily picked me up again when I finished and I went home to prep for the next morning.

I was up at 6am, got the kids fed and settled, and threw on my gear while Travis got ready too. (He was meeting the city buses that shuttle the runners to the start line.) Emily got up and took over the kids, and at 7:15 I was off to take care of my 7 miles before meeting up with Travis at the start line.

I can’t tell you how happy I am on deciding to run the extra miles before the race instead of after. Fist off it was perfect weather and so fun to run through part of the course and watch all the volunteers gathering and setting up the water stations and blocking off roads.

Riverfront park was buzzing too with everyone walking toward main and Riverside to find their color corrals. I got a lot of crazy looks but no one asked me why the heck I was running before the race. I even passed a couple other runners doing the same thing! Gotta get those miles in!

At about 8:15 I started getting nervous that maybe I didn’t leave myself enough time to do the 7 miles and get to the corrals on time (it was a silly fear but in the moment seemed legit) so at mile 6 I turned toward the start line and made my way over to the green section. I got there so quick that I looped around the block to try and hit 7 miles, but by then there was so many people wandering everywhere that at mile 6.43 I called it and walked over and found Travis.

Looking back I should have tried to keep 11 minute miles to save more energy for the last leg, but I let the moment get away from me and went a bit too fast. Just more learning for the next time!

I found Travis and we recapped my run and his getting downtown, and then we waited for our friends Cory and Megan to get there.

So glad Travis was there to do Bloomsday with me, even if we didn’t stay together once the race started!

Excited I had just rocked over 6 miles and ready to finish the last leg.

Fun fact: Megan was a runner well before me, so when I thought about starting to run I peppered her with questions. She was so encouraging and helpful. We went on to run 4 half marathons that first year! I’ve been hooked ever since!

We hung out at the start line until the gun went off a little past 9. I said my goodbyes and hit the road.

Things to note:

– It was way harder than I thought restarting my run after a 45 minute break. My legs felt like lead the first two miles.

– My pace was much slower the last 7.5 miles than my first 6. I went out too hard in the beginning and paid for it the last stretch of the race.

– I walked Doomsday hill because it just wasn’t happening.

– I ran everything else, except walking through a few of the water stations.

– My phone was acting up the whole time and wouldn’t play any music, Pandora or iTunes. I was super irritated. Good thing there was lots to see and hear to keep me occupied.

Along with my legs feeling like solid bricks the first few miles it was so crowded! My goal was to make good enough time to get into the yellow color group next year. (it’s one up from green but you have to have a qualifying time to be allowed in.) Needless to say I was way off. A qualifying time is 1hr. 12 minutes or less, an average 9:40 minute mile. by the second hill (one before Doomsday) I knew it wasn’t going to happen. I had lost too much ground to be able to make up for it now. But that was fine! There’s always next year! I knew I was pushing it thinking I could make the group, but hey, you gotta try!

As Doomsday hill made it’s appearance I knew walking was going to happen. I was pretty spent and my legs were crying, so once we started going up I moved to the right and changed pace to a fast walk.

Emily saw me and posted to Snap Chat.

The last mile and a half was mentally so hard. My legs begged me to walk and believe me I wanted to! I kept saying to myself, “it’s almost done. If you walk it will take longer!”

I turned the final corner and the finish line was right there. I crossed with a time of 1hr. 27 minutes.

It was a slow process getting through the crowd and funneled through the shirt pick-up station.

Once through I went and hung out in Riverfront park until Travis finished.

Our official results:

Overall I’m really happy with my results! My plan for next year is just run Bloomsday on Bloomsday (what an idea hu?!) and go all out and see what I get!

We both took the bus back to our car, picked up coffees for us and Emily and vegged out the rest of the day. It was wonderful!

Now to stretch my sore legs, make it a good recovering rest day, and keep up with the training plan. I have 16 miles scheduled for this Sunday! The marathon is June 18th! It’s crunch time baby!