When I started this blog, I hoped to use it to follow my journey of getting back into shape after Miles was born. It sort of evolved to following our lives with M&M and less on the running/exercise. That's ok by me, since there is only so much running talk I can take! Saturday October 16th was my goal race, the Buffalo Creek Half Marathon.
Since I hadn't run a step from August 2009 to April 2010, I decided to start my training routine for the half in July, 15 weeks out. At first the mileage was low and my pace was slow, but I stuck with it. There were certainly many times I didn't feel like running for one reason or another. But I stuck with it and got my butt out the door. It really helped to have a buddy for the long runs. Sarah, I doubt I could have made it through this without you!
At the end of each month, I saw improvement. My miles were increasing and my pace was decreasing. At the beginning, I couldn't have imagined being able to run an 8:40 pace during a race. By the end, I was easily running that pace for my easy runs for the week.
| Month | Distance | Avg Pace |
| (miles) | (min/mile) | |
| May | 32.3 | 10:11 |
| June | 36.45 | 9:50 |
| July | 71.8 | 9:26 |
| August | 86.5 | 9:08 |
| September | 109.1 | 8:55 |
| October | 62.8 | 8:37 |
So after 15 weeks and 311 miles of training, how did it go?
I PRed by close to 7 minutes and finished in a time of 1:45:26. That equates to a pace of 8:03/mile. I am very happy with my time. It certainly wasn't easy. There were 2 times where I really questioned what the heck I was doing, but in the end I am really glad I went out and ran my best. On a side note, Kevin won the race in a time of 1:09:54.9. We are all so proud of him too!
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| Kevin finishing the race - Top finisher! |
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| Almost at the finish line - 4th/45 in my age group and 149/514 finishers overall |
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| The family after the race - Kevin, Maddie, Me, Miles |
My mom asked me if I have changed my mind about running a full marathon after I was done. I am still pretty firmly going to go with "no" on that one. I really have no desire to run anything longer than 13.1. I will be taking the next couple days off to recoup. Then it will back at it to train for the Nittany Valley Half in December. This one is going to be a lot tougher; big hills to deal with and most likely really cold temperatures. This is the the type of half where you look to get out and run with other motivated people and finish. I am also looking to next Spring and what other races I want to enter to keep me getting out the door every day. I'm really thinking about doing the half marathon in Pittsburgh next May.
Getting out and training for this really got me into running again. It has also helped me lose the baby weight and then some. Hopefully I will find ways to keep it up during the winter when it's dark, snowy, and cold. I'm thinking the Doyle's need to break down and get a treadmill. Happy Running!
