Catching up!

I realized I've failed to chronicle some things I know I will want to reflect on later, so here's the quick and dirty on my running adventures!

Ran my second 23 miler in Orlando, after being on the road for 9 days! Not literally on the road, but away from home. Tyler and I ran this on a Sunday, after spending the Saturday before at Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure. His work had their Spring Picnic there so I got into two parks with lunch for $20, pretty sweet. The week leading up to this I spent down in Jupiter helping my cousin with her 3 month old twins, because her husband was out of town for the week. My sleep schedule was pretty erratic but managed to keep up with my scheduled mid-week runs, which actually surprised me.

So, given the week's events I wasn't very confident going into the 23 miler. We ran an out and back on the West Orange Trail. Started out "slow" and then got progressively faster, our last mile was 7:54! Our average pace was 8:22 min/mile, I hadn't planned on us running that fast, but we felt good! It was the furthest Tyler had ever gone during a training run, so I was pretty proud of both of us.

The next Saturday 3/20 I ran in the first Trail of Payne 10K here in Gainesville. It was held at Payne's Prairie State Park and was mostly trail. It was really fun, perfect weather for a race, a bit chilly, nice and clear. Given the intense emotional week I had before it I had low expectations of my performance, but I ended up doing better than expected with a 46:53 time which got me 1st place in my age group! Pretty fun I must say!

It's funny how racing really does bring out the best in us. I very rarely feel like I could run 7:30s for 6 miles during a training run. So it's always surprising to crank them out on race day.

Hoping to solidify my Vancouver plans very very soon! My ticket WILL be purchased this week and I hope to book a place and car. This trip has changed a lot since the fall. What was going to be a big group of peeps in a house, might end up just being me and my friend Scott who lives out in Portland. I know it will be fabulous no matter what, because this is my big marathon dangit!! Seriously, even though things have changed drastically from my initial expectations, I will make the most of this trip!