Sunday, September 13, 2009

Recap of Summer 2009

My lack of blogging is in no way reflective of my running and racing.  I have been quite active since the last post, but just not as eager to share the specifics.  After the Zooma 10k, I continued to be caught in the rut that has been ever present since Beantown. 
Addie and I ran the Father's Day 10k in Severna Park on June 21st.  She did great!  Me, not so much.  Basically I just jogged the 10k.  I wasn't feeling like myself and had zero desire to race that day.  Addie placed first in her age group though! 
Through the rest of June I focused on coaching my 5k group for the Women's Distance Festival 5k (July 11th)  in Annapolis. It was a great race and everyone ran a PR! I had a lot of fun running with each of my runners at some point over the course.
July 18th I ran the John Wall Mile.  My goal for the summer was to participate in all the Annapolis Strider Race Series events.  This, as the 10k, was one of the them.  My expectations were low, but I did warm up properly and I did try.  Before my 1 mile race I paced Addie though hers. She did awesome and once again walked away with a medal.  My sister, Jenny, was there too. She raced and did awesome!  I came across at 6:27 and peed in my pants during the last 800 meters.  I had my period and thought it was blood dripping, but alas, it was urine.  Never had that happen before.  Either way, a litte depressed with the finishing time and the fact that I didn't bring a change of clothes. 
Since July I have started to incorporate circuit training into my mix.  I wrote an article about it for Women's Running Mag (due out in the Nov-Dec 09, I believe) and I am hooked.  I feel stronger overall.
On to August.  Addie and I head to the next race of the series, the Dog Days 8k at Annapolis Community College.  Apparently it uses part of the XC course, which is on trails in the woods behind the college.  I have not run on trails in forever and had some reservations given my ankle.  But, I strapped on my ankle brace and off we went.  Describing conditions as humid is doing an injustice to that day.  It was soupy!  Addie felt faint afterwards.  My time was horrible, but I guess you can't compare a strictly road race time to a part trail race time.  Both Addie and I walked away empty handed that day.  Addie just barely getting 4th.  But the frozen freezy pops were awesome.

At the end of August came the Annapolis 10 Miler (or A10).  This is not a series race, but one that gets a lot of press and has been mentioned in Runner's World.  Last year I was closed out, so this year I made a point of getting in early.  As with all the races this summer, this was done without any specific training.  In fact, I had only run one 10 mile long run a couple weeks before.  I ended up doing alright.  Ran a 1:25.30.  Not horrible considering the training and the freakin' hills on this course.  Some of the course was similar to the Zooma.  It is so hilly back in those Annap 'hoods.  Beautiful, but tough.  I vowed that day to add more hills into my training and toughen up.
People along the course were amazing.  Locals have really embraced this race.  Many were giving out food and drinks (one had a table of beer which a runner gladly stopped for) as well as playing music and being very supportive.  All in all I had a lot of fun at this race, but not sure I would do it again.  I, personally, don't like fighting crowds for the first half of a race. The start was very narrow for the 5000 runners.  I know many runners that love the lively, festive and crowded atmosphere, and if I do run it again it would be strictly as a fun race with no race intentions.  I just like the smaller venues.  That said the long sleeve race top was amazing!

This month (September) I will begin coaching an 8k and a 10k group in Crofton.   I am starting to up my mileage in anticipation of the Metric Marathon on Oct. 4th (part of the series) and as prep for a March marathon.  I hope to do the B&A Trail marathon.  After that I am toying with the idea of an ultra. 

I feel like maybe I am starting to get some of my old drive back!