I am realy shocked by my progress lately. I set 2 PRs in the past week! I ran the Lake Placid Half Marathon on Sunday June 10. A beautiful day, nice and cool, sunny with some clouds. It did heat up, but in the Adirondacks, the shade that early in the morning is still great air-conditioning.

So my last Half Marathon was a 2:09. That race was awfully cold and I was under-dressed. My IT bands also kicked in for that race and I was reduced to a hobble for the last 3 miles.

ANYWAY…..I set a big goal. I wanted to run under 2 hours to see if I could do it. I had my Bodylink on and the GPS unit on my arm. So by monitoring my heart rate and my real time pace I was going to go for it, or go at that pace for as long as I could! The first couple of miles I was in a big pack of people. Then it started to thin out. I was never really alone and I was trading spots with a couple of people depending on who stopped at what aid station. I have to say the station volunteers were great and I was out of character and a little rude to one person. VERY SORRY! I am not used to pushing myself like that and I think it really got to me towards mile 9. I also couldn’t understand what he was telling me. Totally my fault. EVERYONE – thank your volunteers!

So, in order to come in under 2 hours I had to maintain a sub 9-minute pace for the whole time. I was doing pretty well and my splits were really great in the beginning. I ran 4 miles in 32 minutes, then 7 miles in 1 hour. For me, thats pretty quick! I knew it would float up towards the end and it did, but by pacing myself this way I was able to buy time for the last mile or so that is mostly uphill. I hit mile 10 at 1:27. So I thought to myself, even if I run 10 minute miles, i will make it under the 2 hour goal! Phew. BUT I didn’t let up, and that was the big lesson I taught myself this weekend. Push yourself, you don’t know how far you can go and what you can withstand.

For those of you who have run the Ironman course there, it is about 85% the same course. A little different for the start and finish (ugh, that finish) but the majority is the same. A lot more pounding downhills in this course that I thought would be the end of my knee! (Big shout out to Cassidy and the TP roller!)

So the finish is this big ugly hill with SWITCHBACKS. When I hear that word, that can only mean one thing. STEEP. Oh man, they were steep. I was reduced to a jog, but i kept running. Then I ran the oval to the finish with very dead legs, trying to hold off anyone from passing me. I had a little over 1 minute when I hit the oval to make my sub 2 hour goal. My husband had finished ahead of me and came back to run the oval with me. He was giving me a countdown as I was trying not to blow up too soon. I paced it very well and had a kick at the last 100 yards. I always like to do that no matter how hard it is or how much it hurts. I made it! 1:59:18. WHOO HOO!

My other PR I did last night was a time trial. The Trek Equinox 7 WSD rode great for me. 10 miles, rolling hills. A month ago I did a 32 minute race. Yesterday was a 29:20! That was the first time I had broken 30 minutes on that course. I am so happy!

We are going up to the Whiteface Uphill Bike race Saturday June 16 and Ironman Coeur d’Alene June 24. Come and join us for some climbing pain! (I have a compact and a 27)