Winter Marathon Relay

It's been a pretty busy week here in our house.  We had new furniture arrive on Friday so I spent most of my free time this week painting the family room and cleaning it to prepare for the new furniture.  Now that its here we love it.  Despite it being a busy week, I kept up with my running and had a great running week!

Yesterday was the Winter Marathon and Marathon Relay put on by our running club.  I ran in the relay with two of my running mom friends.  There as also another team of strong running mamas and my husband had a team.  It was fun to have so many friends there participating.

My team (thanks Suzy for the pic!)

The weather was also perfect.  Sunshine, temperature in the mid 30's and minimal wind.  In the past it's been extremely cold and windy for this race, so this weather was awesome!

I had the final leg- 11 miles.  My teammates, who are rock stars, ran the first two legs together, to get their long run in for the week.  I had contemplated jumping in with them for the second leg- 5.4 miles and making my run 16 miles, but I had switched my weeks around and 11 is exactly what I needed this week, so I decided to stick with that.

I was nervous since my leg was the last leg and I wouldn't start until 12:30.  I wasn't sure how waiting around all morning would affect my running but I knew I would have fun no matter what.  I was really hoping to use this as a test of my goal marathon pace which is 9:09 min per mile.  I just wanted to maintain as close to that pace as possible and see how I felt.

Tami and Karen at the turnaround having fun!

When Tami and Karen came in, they looked great, like they could keep running.  I took off and just tried to run at a pace that felt good.  I looked at my garmin and realized I was running an 8:45 pace, definitely faster than I planned but I felt good.  The miles seemed to fly by and before I knew it I was done with the first loop and I was running under a 9 minute pace!  At this point I got a little nervous- could I hold this pace, should I slow down...and then I told myself to shut up and just keep running and find out!  Again the second loop breezed by and I felt strong.  My pace didn't vary much and I knew I was on target to be under a 9 minute pace.  As I approached the finish line I saw my husband taking pictures and some of my friends at the finish line.  I was so happy to see everyone and happy about my run that I think I had the biggest smile ever on my face.  As I passed the finish clock, the time said 3:58:27! My teammate Tami, who is also shooting for a sub 4 hour marathon, commented that it might be a sign!  I hope so!

approaching the finish

All in all, it was a really fun day!