Sunday, May 25, 2008

Seabiscuit and Me

An easy 3 miles on Tue, 1.2 miles on Wed, and a long run (*) of 9.6 miles on Thu that felt like a breeze completed my week of training before a Saturday race: the Low Tide Run, a 4-mile run in Long Beach. The course? “A beautiful beach Low Tide out and back run on hard packed sand near the water”.

The day started with pouring rain and in the low 50's. My hubby asked me if I really wanted to do that... I told him: "well, the only problem is that with the rain the sand is now going to be wet…" He didn't think my joke was funny. For a Seattleite that is used to run in the rain, who cares...?

The rain stopped @ 7:45. The race, scheduled at 8 am, was delayed by 15 min because the logistics giving the numbers was a mess due to the rain. The sun showed up and the temperature stayed in mid 50's so IT WAS A PERFECT DAY...

My bib? 128. Guess what? It's my daughter's B-day 12/8, but it was not mere coincidence. They were going to give me 127, and I asked "can I have next?"

The course was not bad at all. The sand was really hard packed and it was easy to avoid the water, however there were a couple of spots where the inevitable happened, and my shoes got soaked.

About mile 2.5, two ladies (mom and daughter, I believed) passed me, and then they started to distance from me… One mile before the finish line they were really far. Competing against myself, I decided to play a race game, “I’ll catch up with them”. So, all the silly thoughts that you can imagine went through me…

  • “They are in my age bracket and are in 1st and 2nd place…If I pass them, I win”
  • “I am Seabiscuit, I just need to get a little bit closer to beat them…”
I sped up and started to shorten the distance, they seem far though. I kept speeding up, and got closer and closer… one tenth of a mile before the finish line I passed them. I felt like Seabiscuit running his last Santa Anita Handicap…

My official time was 40:48 for a 10:12 pace, and third in my category.

Placement: Division: 3/10 - Overall Female: 50/131 - Overall: 114/221

Not bad at all…It's the first time a run a 4-mile race, so a new PR in my pocket.

Like the race was 2 miles from our home, I ran an easy 2-miler going back for a total week of 19.7 miles.

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(*) I started to slack with the long runs as the longest run this year before this week’s was 8.3 miles and five weeks ago…

In addition, in two of the last three weeks I did only one run a week of 5 miles, so I thought there was no chance on doing the SeaFair Half. I changed my mind after this Thursday 9.6 miles where I felt so "fresh" when finished. Actually I could’ve kept going but I needed to get back home... I remember last year feeling destroyed after long runs. This week it was a breeze...So, I'll definitely do the half on June 28th.


8 comments:

Backofpack said...

Nicely done! The race on the beach sounds like fun - I love running on the hard sand along the edge of the ocean.

Backofpack said...

Oh, and my favorite restaurant in North Bend is Jay Berry's. They have great veggie pizza! Better than any I can find around here.

Susan said...

Congrats! And you look AMAZING!

MarathonChris said...

Way to go on your race!!!! :-) You are the running queen.

BTW - I am still planning a business trip to Seattle the week of July 14th. If you are in town we must find some time to run together. Email me at marathonchris@gmail.com to coordinate.

Run strong!

Jade Lady said...

Thanks for visiting my blog. I like you silly thoughts about how to pass up people! I will definitely be putting those silly thoughts in my head when I run my next race! Hey, it worked for you, maybe for me too!

Congrats on the 4 mile PR!

Irish Blue said...

Nice work lady! Looks like a beautiful day too. I have to agree with Susan, you look AMAZING!!

Petraruns said...

you gorgeous woman! And what a fabulous smile! Well done and I love the motivational thoughts - I'm going to steal the Seabiscuit one for sure...

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my blog - I am sorry I didn't tell you I was coming to California but I assumed you were in Southern California - silly me! Next time I will coordinate - I promise. And as for Furman - Shirley is telling me to consider Jeff Galloway. So I'm weighing both at the moment - I have another few weeks to finalise plans.. T

ShirleyPerly said...

Nice job, Lizzie!

Sounds like a fun run along the beach. The speedwork looks to have paid off already. Love the photos of you!!

About VRR, email me (my email is available on my blog profile) and I'll give you the details on how to join.