Double Duty With a Side of PR

This weekend was a double race weekend. Time for some official recap's! A while back Molly asked me if I wanted to do the last Freezeroo race with her and her cousin who was coming into town. I said sure, why not, even though I already had a half marathon on the books the following day. The last Freezeroo race is only a 5k, so I shifted my training schedule around and used it as one of my weeknight short runs. Score, extra rest day during the week.

I met Molly and her cousin Liz at Molly's place and we rode to the race in Gates together. Since this wasn't really a race I had much interest in doing I didn't bother to register ahead of time or even check out the course or location of the race. If you know me and my race planning rituals, this is very uncharacteristic of me. It would also come back to bite me in the buns. We got to the race site pretty early and I registered and we all picked up our timing chips. Saw lots of familiar faces but very quickly realized this was going to be a smaller race.

Since we were there early and it was a bit chilly, we just hung out inside the school and chatted and wait for time to pass. We didn't even have to wait in a line for the bathroom, sweet! Once we were outside for the start they delivered the race announcements and we were off...through a parking lot!!

Ready to go!

Yea so the course was a little weird. We started running in a parking lot going behind and around buildings. Then we went into a park. Okay I can handle this, pretty flat and bit of ice and slush but decent conditions. Then it got interesting, the course went through a field of snow and packed down ice. I didn't know this because I did no planning ahead and didn't wear my screw shoes. My pace slowed and I got kinda annoyed. Then I got really annoyed when I saw the leader coming at me and I realized I was going to have to run through that field again. Running through the field the second time was making my calves tight and I was worried about being sore for the half marathon so I walked a bit and finished in a respectable time. Then we went to The Highland Diner.

Katie and I headed to Syracuse around 4pm and we went right to Mom and Dads house. Then the four of us went out to Spaghetti Warehouse and did some carb loading. I had manicotti with red and alfredo sauce...yum!!! Blogger fail because I didn't photograph any of it.

Sunday morning Katie and I headed to Onondaga Lake Parkway around 8:20ish. Got to the Salt Museum and picked up our race packets. Loved the design of the shirts, bibs and medals and the race slogan was pretty cool too: Run 13.1 Like There's Snow Tomorrow. We met up with Molly and did some prepping at the car.

Molly normally gives a good game face,
not sure what is going on here!

We then met up with a bunch of fellow Rochestarians who were taking the early start like us. Photo Opp!

Lovely ladies rockin' it!

Headin' to the start

The course was a double loop so there were lots of opportunities to cheer on fellow runners and get tons of high fives along the way. It was also easy for my parents to stay in one spot and watch me pass by four times. I started out a little conservative running and talking to the ladies. We noticed at mile 3 the mile markers were a bit off but other then that it was run smoothly and there were a decent amount of volunteers and aid stations. I was feeling pretty strong and kept plugging away. When we started there was a light snow fall and a decent amount of wind coming off the lake, but the temperature was perfect once we got moving.

Molly & Katie

Once the leaders and fasties started passing us I felt myself picking up my pace and I felt good so I just went with it. The course was pretty boring, but flat and that's all that mattered to me. I stopped a couple times to get some stones out of my shoes but other then that I kept moving. I separated from the rest of the girls and decided I would put my music on since it was a little boring/quiet. On the second loop coming back the wind started to pick up and that got annoying I felt like it was pushing against me and it seemed to be coming from all directions. At mile 11 a realized I could maybe PR based on the distance I (thought) had left. Since the mile markers were messed up the distance never matched with my Garmin, but based on where I thought the race ended I thought I could do it. I kept telling myself to keep moving and to keep a consistent pace. 

Ready to pass off my headband, ear warmers
and glasses to my Dad.

As I was approaching the finish area I knew I would PR by 3 or 4 minutes, I was so excited until I saw runners veering right, AWAY from the finish line. Holy crap we had to do an extra (not so small) loop that was going to mess with my PR chances. We did the loop the first time around but I didn't think we had to do it the second time. As I ran bye the finish line my dad was there cheering me on and telling me I was ahead of my usual pace. I booked it, as fast as I could, and cut every tangent possible, including maybe cutting off some runners heading towards me. Sorry fellow runners but a PR was on the line. I knew my half marathon time was 2:38:?? and I knew it was going to be close. As I rounded the last curve leading up to the finish line I turned on whatever afterburners I had left and hauled into the finish line at 2:38:33. 

Too focused on my Garmin to celebrate just yet. 

Too bad I couldn't remember what my complete time was from Flower City last year. I was mad that I didn't look ahead of time. Until I realized I could look up those past race results on my phone!! 2:38:59 I beat my time by 26 seconds. Not a huge PR, but a PR none the less. I waited and cheered in the rest of my running posse and overall felt pretty decent, chilly but decent. 

I grabbed two bowls of hot, chicken noodle soup and we reminisced about everyones experience. Overall I think it was a good race. Katie and Molly struggled a bit mentally, but rocked it. Laura was strong the entire time and her determination to finish was inspiring. Thea did her half marathon pregnant at 18 weeks and officially announced her pregnancy to the world. So proud of all of my friends on their accomplishments today. You keep me going!