Sunday, March 19, 2006

Week 14 - Day 6: The Tom King 1/2 Marathon

A New PR!! 1:51:02 Yeah!!! What an awesome race - especially considering that Michele, Tracy and I had complained all week because we thought it was going to be cold. It was pretty chili when Gary and Tracy picked me up at 6 a.m., but the sun was coming out quickly. We met Michele at The Coliseum and debated on what to wear. The 5k'ers were all bundled up for the most part...but it was getting warmer by the minute. Michele talked me into ditching my UA cold gear top (I always dress too warm), but I stuck with my cold gear tights, a cool max long sleeve shirt, and my UA gloves. As it turned out, I was glad I didn't have on anything more.

We started in front of The Coliseum, and I felt pretty good from the get go. Our first mile was 8:42 - when I saw that I knew that was a little better than we had hoped for. Michele had wanted to beat her PR of 1:56, and since my previous PR was only 2:04, I just hoped to stay with her for as long as possible. But the 8:42 felt good, the second mile of 8:35 felt good too, and then the third mile of 8:38 felt just as good. After that, Gary quit toying with us and took off to find a faster running partner. Tracy slowed down a little somewhere in there, but not by much. Michele and I found some other partners that really kept us entertained, though. Their names were Donnie and ....hmmm, I can't remember the other's name. But they were great. We ran with them for a couple miles or so, and they dropped back a little. I hated that, because they were very entertaining. Somewhere around mile 5 I saw Ed Duell, who works at Sverdrup with me, on his way back already. I noticed on the results later that he ran a 1:22:27 - unbelievable.

Our halfway time was less than 54 minutes...so I knew that if I could just hold a pace close to what we had been doing, we'd beat 1:55. Realizing this really got me pumped, and I kept picking people to catch up with. Once I saw a girl with and IronMan top on, so I thought I'd catch her. I did, but then I ended up eating her dust at the end (haha!). Oh well! Somewhere in all that Michele decided not to play those games and just let me go on. I kept thinking she'd be back at anytime. She has had a shoulder problem, and I think she had a few too many beers the night before (shame on you, Michele!). Anyways, I pressed on around The Coliseum and down into the tunnel - which was awesome! JT and I have Titans season tickets, so it was a rush to run through the tunnel and out onto the field like I see the players doing. As I did, I knew that my Dad was sitting in the stands watching for me, so I really tried to turn it on!! I went as hard as I could go around the field, and spotted him as I cam around the last turn before the finish. He was down on the front row snapping pictures. Wasn't that so sweet of him to come watch?!! So anyways, I finished up with 1:51:02. Gary was there at the finish line, and he ran a 1:49 something. Shortly after, Michele came in at 1:52:38. And Tracy smashed 2 hours with a 1:56:38. We were all pretty happy, and went and grabbed a sandwich.



Me, Michele, Tracy, and Gary


I had plans all along to go to the Grand Old Opry that night with my mom, dad, and sister. So my Dad and I left and checked into the hotel room I had booked. I went and sat in the jacuzzi, and then lifted a few weights and did some crunches. Then I went back to the room and talked with my Dad some, and got ready for dinner. Our new preacher at church, Darrell Denman called to congratulate me on my time. I thought that was so thoughtful. Darrell used to be a runner himself. Shortly after, we met my Mom and sister at PF Changs and had a great dinner. The Opry was great. We saw Lori Morgan, LeeAnn Womack, Carrie Underwood, John Conlee, Porter Wagner, and many others. I rode home with my sister, and my mom and dad stayed in Nashville all night. I was glad to get in the bed!

This is my sister - Holly, my mom - Kathy, and myself at the Grand Ole Opry

My Mom and Dad

About my foot(the tendonitus)...it started hurting around mile 10, but not too bad. I could tell I had put some stress on it after the race, but at the hotel I iced it and took my Aleive. It felt alright all night and the next day. I can tell it's going to be something I have to deal with, but I will deal with it until the CM Marathon is over, and then I'll give it some rest to heal.

And while I was running the Tom King 1/2 Marathon, Briar was running the local St. Patrick's Day 5k in Manchester. He got third place in his age group! And ofcourse got to add 3.1 miles to his log for the Kid's CM Marathon. J.T. took some pics of him running, so I'll post them soon.

2 comments:

Michele said...

Shoulder is on the mend, got some sleep last night and due to the rain am taking another recovery day today. So watch out, I am getting ready for the CMM now. and I can promise you I will not drink a DROP the entire week before that race!!!!
Great job on your race. I am so proud of all of us. We have come a long way (still have a long way to go but...)

brent d. said...

Great job on the run! That's an incredible PR increase! It was a beautiful day for a run. We were right on your tail at the halfway point but I had to back off because of some leg pain.

Maybe we can all carboload before the CMM!