On Sunday morning I had my last race of the season. I feel like I JUST started racing again and poof — it’s over. I’m jealous of the rest of the country who is now beginning their race season. I felt like it was fitting that my race season started AND ended at UCF.

In any case, I didn’t even know that this race existed until a few weeks ago when Paula demanded that I sign up for it. I checked the dates (I was very excited to see that it was on a Sunday so my family could cheer me on!) and immediately forked over $40. A 10-miler is something I had never raced before and we all know I am ALL about the instant PRs.

The race started at 7:30, but we decided to try to leave by 6:30 so we had time to pick up our bibs and find parking. Paula picked me up – so I got to sleep in (aka sleeping until 5:45 on race day). We arrived all of 10 minutes later and got all confused about where the parking garage was located. We ended up asking the race packet people — and killed two birds with one stone by picking UP our bibs and shirts. It’s the little things. We finally found the garage and as we parked the car we found our new racing BFF, Tyler. Paula and I had convinced him to sign up, so we actually KNEW he has going to be there this time but didn’t expect to find him right away.

No idea why I’m posing like this, but obviously it was so I could post it in the middle of this amazing blog post.

We all thought that there would be a bigger race crowd. Instead there were less than 250.

After fighting the crowds at the Winter Park Road Race, I am definitely not complaining about running in a small race. I actually thought it was pretty awesome!

We started a few minutes past 7:30 and I just went with it. I actually RAN last week (10 miles on Sunday, 5 miles on Tuesday, and 4 miles on Thursday), so my legs were feeling happy, but not over trained. The weather had changed overnight – it was horrible, humid, and rainy on Saturday – and crisp, cool (low 50s), and windy on Sunday. It was perfect racing weather (maybe minus the wind) so those first two miles were FAST (for me).

And then at Mile 3 I had a moment of clarity and thought “What the hell am I doing??” and slowed it down a little. Actually, I saw Kat (who is fast, passed her, and then thought – OMG, I am really going to fast). I also realized that I hadn’t eaten breakfast (DERP) and took a Clif Shot because I figured I would need it (I was right).

Somewhere between Mile 3-4, I saw a familiar shadow behind me. Yep, it was Tyler. He said he felt really sluggish (yet, he still managed to catch up to me – that boy), but was going to try to stick with me. I told him I was trying to stay under a 9:00 min/mile pace – but I didn’t want to kill myself before the end. So we just ran and talked and tried to avoid looking at our watches.

This was the first race where I actually tried to push myself AND talk at the same time (not including when I was pregnant) — and you know what? I kinda liked it. I truly didn’t think I could keep the pace and constantly ramble about myself, but I’ve been surprising myself a lot lately.

Because I was talking rambling, most of the race just flew by. Every time my watch beeped, Tyler and I would look to see the pace and he would say “We’re still doing good!” We saw Paula 3 times and each time I was SO happy to see that she was only a few minutes behind us. We also screamed GO PAULA – WOO! every time we saw her. She is pretty much the closest thing I know to a celebrity.

Around Mile 7, I hit my usual wall. The wind that hit us at one of the turnarounds DID NOT help. I took a gel though and sucked it up. I’m pretty sure that at that point Tyler COULD have gone on without me – but he didn’t, instead he pushed me along and I appreciated EVERY second of it. I got another little wind with about a mile to go and we started pushing the pace. I passed Kat again, who like me was NOT appreciating the wind.

The end of the race was really fun – we ran around BrightHouse Stadium and down one of the side streets. I started my finish line sprint a little TOO soon (I actually shouted to Tyler “I think I’m going to die.”), but it was worth it.

My official time is a little confusing (they gave me the wrong chip – which I had to put on my shoe). At first it was listed as 1:27:58, but since Tyler came in at 1:25:59 we knew that was WRONG. Later, it was listed online as 1:26:00. My Garmin said 1:26:03, so we’ll go with 1:26:00. By the way, Tyler BEAT ME by 1 second. That little minx.

As for my time? My A goal was 1:30 — so I guess you can say I smoked it and I’m pretty freaking happy! Plus I came in 5th in my age group. I don’t think I’ve ever been below 10 before, even in a small race. Woo!

Splits

Of course, the best part of the race is seeing my family cheering me on. Even if L told Dan that I was wearing a pink shirt and black shorts (she woke up as I was getting ready), so he had NO idea it was me coming in for the finish.

Nope, not even close.

I also caught Paula speeding into the finish just a few minutes later with a massive PR.

Overall, I think we were all pretty happy on how the race was run! The course showed up short on my Garmin, BUT it’s short everywhere. I don’t think it registers turnarounds very well — and there were quite a few of them.

Obviously, we celebrated by taking pictures. Next year I expect more people I know at this race… and more people in general.

And then we ate at IHOP.

This was L’s — I had a veggie omelette, pancakes, and hash browns, in case you thought I was going with a lame after-race meal.

Tyler joined my crazy, crazy family and they, of course, loved him.

I think we are going to adopt him.

And just like that, my 2013-2014 race season is OVER.

Up next?? THE CHICAGO MARATHON!!! And lots, and lots of running. Lots of it.

I’ve haven’t talked about it much, I had a race this weekend. The ZKS WPRR 10K (so many acronyms, so little time)…

Of course, I spent the entire week before the race doing this…

Yes, sitting on my butt, with a glass of wine in hand.

I have been insanely busy these last few weeks. I mean, how is it MARCH? Between managing the kids, social activities, visiting family, and allergies (OMGTHEYAREHORRIBLE) I’ve felt very overwhelmed. The time change was the icing on the cake. It has been BRUTAL. I am exhausted during the day, but wide awake at night. So instead of trying to “stay on schedule” and fit my workouts in – I caved and focused on relaxing. Or not doing anything.

I started questioning this strategy on Thursday though, when I actually felt better and wanted to work out again. But, I stuck with it until Saturday. I don’t normally taper for 10Ks (or even halfs!) but I figured this might help me PR.

So then, I stayed up WAAAAAY too late on Friday night watching Veronica Mars

(it was worth  it)

THEN I had to deal with multiple kid wake ups throughout the night. A #motherrunner never sleeps. I probably got about 3 hours of sleep and REALLLLY did not want to get up on Saturday. My alarm didn’t even go off though – E woke up at 4:55 and that was that. Sigh.

I have to say, it’s times like these that I’m thankful I have a race buddy – because I KNEW I had to get my booty in gear to go pick her up. She really didn’t want to run this race either – so I couldn’t skip out on her. Plus…. I really wanted that damn PR.

I picked her up around 6:20 and we headed over to Winter Park. We made it in plenty of time to grab our bibs and drop out stuff at the car. My bladder decided it was going to be a jackass though and with about 15 minutes until the start I got in the LOOOONG line to use the porta potty. I amazingly made it to the start with a few  minutes to spare, but I’m couldn’t find Paula.

My A goal for this race was sub-53. I don’t know WHY, but I figured if I could run 53:xx during a half marathon I would be able to hit 52:xx during a 10K. Spoiler: I did not hit this goal. However, my B goal was to PR – and truthfully dealing with a crappy night’s sleep, allergies (my nose was a mess the ENTIRE run), and 95% humidity – I am very happy about hitting this goal!

The gun went off at 7:30. The first mile I went out I felt like I was continuously dodging people. I love Track Shack races, I really do, but I do not love how crowded the starts are. Or maybe it’s just the people lining up in their wrong pace groups? I was really spoiled at BDR a few weeks ago. I actually watched a dude totally cut off another dude and then practically come to a halt within the first half mile. He didn’t even apologize – but gave the person he cut off a dirty look! So rude.

In any case, unlike most races – the first mile was way slower than I expected. I saw it pop up on my Garmin and thought “GET MOVING woman.” Which explains the much faster 2nd mile! I don’t really remember much from these miles, by the way, except I was constantly staring at the ground trying not to trick on the brick. Oh, the brick. I always forget how much brick there is on this course. And hills. You can kind of tell there’s some elevation… it’s still Florida, but this is probably the hilliest race I run.

Random, but I also remember checking out all of the cute shorts that other women were wearing. Man, there are a lot of cute running shorts out there right now.

I kept it fairly steady until about Mile 4 when I thoughts – how did I run this fast 2 weeks ago? Hmmm… maybe if I hadn’t sat on my ass the entire week I could have been a little speedier? I reallllly slowed it down at Mile 5 because there was this guy who was running next to me and it was starting to drive me crazy. He would get in my space during turns (and there were a lot of turns) and then it felt like he was drafting me. Me no likey. So I let him run ahead of me – just enough to keep in eyesight.

Around Mile 5.75, I was ready to dig deep and just FINISH. So I pushed myself. It felt horrible, but there was this girl next to me who kept speeding up every time I sped up. And, duh, we were racing (I lost). Then I saw the dude. I knew I was going to pass him and finish before him – but I turned around as I passed him and shouted “Come on – let’s go!” He either thought I was a major bitch or just crazy because he did not. You better believe I beat him.

And FINALLY, I was done.

Garmin OFF. Lol.

My official results say my net time and my course time are the same – but my Garmin begs to differ.

• Course time/net time: 53:47
• Garmin time: 53:17

I definitely didn’t start immediately when the gun when off – but I’m going with their time if that means I’ll be able to PR again the next time I run a 10K. Although, hopefully it will be sub-53:00!

After the race, I grabbed my medal and some water — and immediately ran into Tyler – my new race buddy. This time, I remembered to take a picture!

I did not see him during the race this time (he finished sub 50:00 — so speedy!!), but it was great catching up with him afterwards. Sidenote: he ran Sarasota the day AFTER and PR’d there as well. What a rockstar!)

We then found Paula and a whole slew of other people we knew, including my coworker BK who ran his first 10k!

Man, I know a lot of runners! I love it.

So in short: There was a lot of brick and hills, I PR’d, I can still run faster and I will, and runners are the best