Jill and Kristin are both past 20 miles!  Bring it home!

Woohoo, Go Ladies Go!!!

Mile 24.5 and she's still got plenty of time to spare for her B goal.

Awesome!

I had a disappointing race.  I made two of my goals, but not the main one, which was to break 2:00.  I finished in 2:00:41. I did get a 9 second PR and 3rd in my AG (out of 18) which was good, especially since the prize was a small apple pie.  I also got a coffee cup, since I ran on the winning side (the north, of course).

We got to Gettysburg early (no traffic on a Sunday morning), walked the half mile to the starting area and were still early.  I visited the POP, talked to some people, said goodbye to Jim and Ben, (Ben reacts very badly to loud starting guns), stretched, and tried to get warmed up.  It was cool (50 ish), overcast, and windy, which fooled a lot of people into running with way too many clothes.  I kept my jacket on until Jim left, but had a t-shirt and shorts for the race and I was glad I did. About 5 minutes before the start, I realized I needed to go to the bathroom yet again, but when I looked at the line, I knew I didn't have time.  I should have gone anyway.  The start was slow and crowded, with a lot of weaving around slower runners.  There were 644 racers.  I intended to run between 9 and 9:05 minute miles, but hadn't done a lot of training at that pace.  The first mile was good, but then I sped up and went too fast. By mile 5 I knew I was in trouble.  Instead of feeling easy, the first 5 miles felt a lot like a tempo run.  When I got to mile 7.5, I finally decided I had to stop at an outhouse, but unfortunately, both POPs were busy so I had to wait.  I lost about 2 minutes with that stop.  I then took off too fast to try to make up time and ended up completely falling apart. After the bathroom break, I figured it was extremely unlikely I'd make my goals, and I pretty much lost motivation.  Every time I drank water, it was hard to get it down and keep it down.  I walked several times and could barely get back to my pace when I was running.  It was frustrating, because the course wasn't that difficult.  There was only 384' elevation gain with no big hills.  The biggest was the overpass over Rte. 15.  The final stretch was uphill to the park and I just gave up and trudged.  Then I saw the clock and realized that I was close to a PR, even if it was a very slight one, so I pushed just enough to finish running.

I was really mad at myself, because I should have been able to finish in less than 2 hours. I have the fitness.  I just didn't have the drive. When push came to shove I said "Shove it."  I wasn't actually passed by many people, even at the end. I think everybody was tired by then.  I also didn't have the discipline in the beginning to keep my pace more manageable.  I know better. And of course, I'm irritated that I drank too much before the race and paid the price for that.  Lesson learned, I hope.

1  8:58

2  8:35

3  8:40

4  8:43

5  8:52

6  9:08

7  8:39

8  10:02 (Bathroom stop)

9    9:22

10  9:07

11  9:15

12  9:40

13  9:33

.2   2:06

Ginny, I think you will break sub-2 any time now.  Gettysburg as you know is a hilly race and, no matter how much you train in hills, that affects you.  And I bet your prior PR was set in colder weather?  Chin up!

Kristin finished!  Congrats!

Jill I assume finished as well????

Yes, Jill is done!  congrats, Jill and Kristin!  Can't wait to hear about it.

Wow, Ginny.  Way to hang tough!  I know what you mean about racing, I have that same issue.  But you have a PR, an AG placing, an an apple pie.  Awesome!

I had a disappointing race.

Sounds like a negative vibe took root those last 5 miles and kept growing and you were unable to race without excess mental baggage. I've learned that this dooms me as well and I've taken to not even looking at my watch during those last miles and instead locking onto a new race effort and trying to hold it.

Sorry the race didn't go the way you thought it should and I totally understand your disappointment.