The weekend racing party continues.  Yesterday, I raced a 5K and just before heading home, was given a bib for today's HM.

This race and I have history.  First of all, it's a big, local race, and the whole town is out either running or spectating.  It was my first HM two years ago.  I finished it on an injured knee and took a couple of months to heal from that.  Last year, I was already having a terrible race when I ran past my friend who was unconscious on the course.  She was fine, thankfully, but I ended up being the one to run to the finish to let her mom and kids know that she was at the ER.  That was a major part of my racing funk last year and a big reason why I hadn't signed up to race today.

This year, that same friend is training for a May marathon.  I've run several of her quality workouts with her, since we are at a very similar level.  I knew that she was planning to run this race as a MP run.  And, since her MP is much more conservative than mine was, it sounded like a really nice way to get some miles in today.  She was wanting to start easy, then run the rest at her 9:45 GMP.  I told her that sounded like a good plan, that I would start with her, then we'd both adjust depending on how things went.

I got to put on yesterday's 5K shirt to race in today, which was fun.  I ran my usual 2 miles warmup, this time with just one set of strides.  Legs didn't feel yesterday's 5K at all.  Temps were delightful- mid 40s at the start and clear.  It heated up quickly, and there's not a lot of shade on course, but the high for the day was only 63.  The start was packed by the time we got there.  We lined up with the 11:00 pace sign, but there were a lot of people she knew around us who she knew were faster.

Start: It was fairly crowded, so we took off easy.  There was a bit of bobbing and weaving, nothing too big.  We got down to her MP pretty easily, mostly running with the crowd but just a tad faster.  The first miles wound around OSU campus, and we had to work really hard to run that slowly.

Mile 1: 9:40

Mile 2: 9:33

Mile 3: 9:32

Mile 4: 9:38

From here, the course heads out to the park to the west of town with some little rolling hills but also really nice scenery.  We know we're fast, but both agree that we're feeling good about things.  There is a big hill around mile 7, neither of us want to use up too much before then.  We're still pretty much cruising along just a tad faster than everybody else in our area.

Mile 5: 9:36

Mile 6: 9:14

Mile 7: 9:18

OK, we know the hill is in the next mile.  At this point we justified it by saying we're banking time for the hill so we'll still be on pace after.

Mile 8 (all uphill, none of it steep): 9:40

We passed a ton of people on the hill, and even more on the way down.  I took a gel at 7.5 because I knew there was water at the top of the hill.  There was also a line of cherry trees at the park at the top that you can see from like a mile back, and in the past they just never seem to be getting any closer.  Today they were like friendly signals marking the end of the only real tough spot on the course.  My RP started to inch ahead at the top of the hill, but we both picked it up on the way down.

Mile 9 (mostly downhill, still not steep): 8:53

From here it's pretty much a straight shot back to campus.  My RP looked a tad stronger and definitely had the edge.  Maybe I had some of yesterday's race in my legs?  We were both enjoying the faster pace, though.

Mile 10: 9:00

Mile 11: 8:55

Here she was inching away, but I caught up with her a bit.  I really wanted to celebrate getting past the part of the course where she had fallen last year.  Maybe that's silly on my part, it was her drama more than it was mine, but I wanted a new memory of that block.  After we went past and cheered, I encouraged her to go ahead.  I was feeling fatigued, and didn't want to hold her back.  Oh, we also passed her boyfriend right around there.  He had started at bat out of hell pace and was fading.

Mile 12: 9:15

After giving myself that little break as she got ahead, I realized that I still had some pep in my legs.  Might as well pick it up again, I'm almost home!  Also, we were now back on the part of the course that I had run yesterday during the 5K.  The train tracks and all of those little turns and things were so much easier at today's pace than they had been the day before!  And I am still hauling past everybody.

Mile 13: 8:56

I made the turn into the stadium, and I just had the biggest, goofiest grin on my face.  Finally, I had finished the course without having any major mishaps along the way.  I also used the momentum from coming down the ramp to turn on a great kick.  I was just running and grinning.

Last 0.11: 6:53 pace

Final time: 2:01:54

My RP finished just under a minute ahead of me.  We said hi to folks at the finish, then went out for a 2 mile jog since it was theoretically her 16 mile LR day (she's doing Hansons).  We talked about how enjoyable the entire race was with such a conservative start.  I ended up with just over 17 for the day- one of my highest mileage days ever.  And now I have the racing bug again.

Interesting tidbit: I noticed in the results that Craig Leon was there today, but ran a 1:18.  Looking more closely, though, I see that somebody set a new women's course record today, and finished 4 seconds ahead of Craig.  So I'm thinking she had a pacer with her?

Nice race Z!

Third time's the charm, huh? 

It's really nice to break the curse of a course.  Sounds like a really nice day for both of you.

Nice job.

it does feel great to feel great at the end of a race.

Where do we mortals sign up for elite pacers?

That would be Eugene, Oregon. 

OOTB- Having the crowd, the company, and the excitement somehow makes everything feel easier.  Maybe that plus the complete lack of stress?  Even on paper, my weekend was a 5K race on Sat, plus 17 with 13 at MP on Sunday, but today I feel mysteriously great.  How does that happen?

I'm interested in keeping up with this casual training business, paying attention to how I feel, and see where it takes me.  Although if I get too blissed out, I may just have to try out Jay's 5K workout because, as he says, "fuck you, man".  Then we will see if running is still fun, right?

Thank you to everyone for the nice comments.  Somebody even commented on Facebook that we were the happiest runners out there yesterday.  And that's from somebody who we passed at 3 separate spots.  At least we didn't stay by one group of runners for too long, I'm sure we would have been seriously annoying otherwise.

Nice race result especially for last minute. Congratulations.

I think that's an excellent time right after the day you raced a 5k! Congratulations, Zel!