Running Chick

So, tonight was the first night in about a million (okay, maybe three weeks) that it wasn't raining when I got home from work. So, I decided to throw on the running shoes and hit the road. I went for a file-mile loop around campus and back to my house. I've been consistently running around the 58-minute mark for five miles since just before my half, and I figured since I had three weeks off there was no way I was going to even come close to that. At the four-mile mark, I noticed that if I hauled ass for an entire mile, I could make 59 minutes. So, that's what I did. For an entire mile, I ran at at 10:0 pace. Granted it was on a slight decline for 75% of the way, but that doesn't diminish the fact that I ran at a 10:00 (!!) pace for an entire mile. Also, another first, Sporttracks says I ran 1.90 miles at a "Running" pace. Usually I run too slow for it to register anything other than walking or jogging. This time, I'm a runner. Woot!

In other news, since I'm feeling to proud of my running accomplishments tonight, I decided to change the title of this blog to something more appropriate. I got tired of the old "Blogs are Stupid" and decided that I'd had this stupid blog long enough that it should have a real less-stupid title. I'm not sure I'll keep this title or not, but I'll keep it for a while and see if it sticks.

I have lost all motivation to run or do anything exercise related. I'm sure it's partially because of the weather ( it never stops raining!) and that for the past five months I've done nothing but build myself up mentally and physically for the HM. Now that that's over, well, I've got nothing to motivate me. I'm thinking that I should find another race to run - a 5k or something and work on getting faster at that distance. Right now, the only thing I'm going consistently is my "8 Minute.." series of abs, arms, buns and legs dvds, which I suppose is better than doing nothing. Meh.

I did run once since the HM. Last Saturday I went for a quick 2-miler. I say quick because I hit a new PR in the mile - 10:23. I was pretty pumped about that, but then I ran/walked the next mile and ended up with a 17:09 mile, ha! Oh well.

I ran the Fox Cities Half Marathon in Appleton, WI on Sunday, September 23rd. This was my first competitive running race and, all in all, I think it went pretty well.

Outside of a few hills (which were overpasses) here and there, the course was mostly flat, and traveled through the cities of Appleton, Menasha and Neenah. Crowd support was fantastic - I don't think a quarter-mile went by without somebody cheering us runners on.

Here are my results:

overall place:	1442 out of 1726
division place:	145 out of 175
gender place:	785 out of 1027
time:	2:42:04
pace:	12:12
chiptime:	2:39:48
6.9mi:	1:21:14

And my splits:



And some photos and videos.

Josh chased me around the course on his bicycle. Here's his report.

I'm already making plans to run this race again. I'll incorporate hill running and weight lifting into my running regime and hopefully my legs will last past mile 11 time.