back cove series 5k and b2b weekend!

wednesday night was my 6th back cove 5k race in the series (it was week 10 but ive missed 4). the weather was pretty perfect, just a little windy. kristal and i warmed up for a little over half a mile before the race started and i had planned on taking it easy since i had already run 4 earlier in the day (i also ate half a bag of potato chips about an hour before the race, maybe sooner, and i fully expected to see them make an appearance if i ran too fast). i feel like i should just stop saying im going to take runs "easy"... that hasnt been working well for me lately...

there are 4 races left in the series but i can only make 2 of them because of work, so i had decided that my ultimate goal for the rest of the series was to get sub 25 minutes. ive been close twice (25:03/25:07) but i figured i didnt have it in me last night so my plan at the start line was that i wasnt even going to try. i didnt reset my garmin after the .61 mile warm up so i only really had my average pace to look at and know that when i hit 2.71 i only had a mile left to go. i continued seeing 7:49 and various times around there whenever i would look at my watch, and i just kept running along, feeling good. apparently running all the hills earlier in the day and eating tons of salt helps...

24:16. boom.

i almost couldnt believe it when i came around the final turn and saw 23:xx on the clock. so i can quit, right? please tell me i dont have to go back and do this race anymore!

i look like a watermelon. and wtf is up with my landing?!

in other news, this weekend is one of my favorite races!! TD beach 2 beacon!! ive written about this race a few times throughout the years of this blog, but to recap- it was founded in 1998 by the gold medal winner of the first womens olympic marathon in 1984, joan benoit samuelson! this race is run in the town i grew up in (cape elizabeth) and is absolutely beautiful. starting near crescent beach and ending at the portland head light (aka beach to beacon!), the town literally shuts down and spectators come out to cheer on the 6,000+ runners on what is usually a beautiful august morning. in march this race sold out online in less than 5 minutes, and people from around the world come to enjoy what this 10k has to offer. i am so excited to run this year, as it will be my 10th year running it!

also this year ryan hall, deena kastor, and meb keflezighi will be running. sweet!

(goes on the fridge, not the car. or in my case, the microwave since our fridge isnt magnetic)

course record: 27:27 (is this not ridiculous?! im maybe half way done at this point haha)

my previous b2b times:
2002- 68:47 (didnt train, oops. also my first 10k, and probably the longest distance id ever run)
2003- 58:07 (trained a lot, took 10 minutes off previous years time!)
2004- 55:19
2005- 53:02
2006- 52:08
2008- 60:29 (ran with ty, his first time running it)
2009- 47:50 (current 10k PR... holy crap, ill never get back there)
2010- 49:47
2011- 51:06 (getting slower in my old age haha)

i signed ty up again this year (in my defense he did actually say that he wanted to run...) but his training was less than stellar. so i told him i would run with him this year (i have an extra 6 miles to run before/after the race for mdi training) as long as he wrote my blog recap for me. so you will have that to look forward to next week! my goal for this race is to have ALL THE FUN and take ALL THE PICTURES! i love love love this race and will enjoy each and every second without having to run as fast as i can.

(photos courtesy of beach 2 beacon FB page)

start line

along the course... check out the spectators!

shortly before mile 5, my favorite part of the race
(right before all the hills!)

finish line

finish line

2010

2011

(kristal wanted to lay down in the road. with oncoming traffic, i told her it was not a good idea)