Another early run, and a Run Around the Square

Horray!  Haakan no longer has the honor of having run all my slowest races with me!  We did the Run Around the Square on Saturday and it was a gorgeous day for it.  Actually even a little on the chilly side, even, which was a very welcome change.  Another nice little surprise is that they've put a mat at the start of the race, which is awesome since it took us more than a minute to cross the starting line.  But, as usual, this was a challenging race for me, and I didn't quite make it in under 30 minutes.  I think my biggest mistake was stopping twice for water.  I definitely could have run through that second water stop, and that might just have put me under 30.  And as usual, that freaking hill from 1.5 to 2.5 was so much longer than I thought it would be.  At one point Haakan turned to me and said "It's all down hill from here!"  I almost turned to him and called bullshit on it, I knew it was too early.  But we really pushed through during the last half mile of all downhill and I definitely gave it my all in the end.  So, though I came in over my goal, I'm still pleased and it was a good race.

We left the kids with my mom and sister at the big playground at Forbes and Braddock and when we ran past I heard Oliver scream "Run faster, mommy!"  Everyone around us laughed, and it was pretty funny.  Poor kid was actually tearful after the race when I told him that no, I didn't win.  Since I still had some mileage for the week to finish up, and the kids weren't ready to leave the playground, I decided to run back home and just meet Haakan and the kids back there.  It turned out to be almost exactly 4 miles, which is not as far as I thought it would be.  It's amazing to live in a city and for it to take forever to get anywhere with traffic and stoplights, and then realize that I can actually run to all these places.  It tickles me to think that I could put Elliot and Charlie in the double stroller, run to the park, let them play, and then go home.  The run itself wasn't bad once I hit the crest at the top of Beechwood Blvd.  I was flying down the hill, wondering why I was getting so tired.  Duh, I was like a minute and a half faster than my usual pace!  Which is why downhills are cool.  I'm a fan.

I also managed to get in another early run this week, which was excellent.  Charlie woke up around 5am to eat, and I decided I'd just get up and run after I got him fed.  I was up at the reservoir at 6am and had my 8 miles finished before 8am, and then felt all virtuous and fit for the rest of the day.  And hungry.  I swear, I ate like crazy all day because I just felt like I was starving!  I think I need to fuel better for those long runs, but I'm at a loss about how to do that for an early morning one.  I guess I'll figure it out.

I'm doing a 10 miler this weekend in anticipation of the half marathon that we're doing next weekend.  I'm not too worried about it.  I've been doing 8 miles pretty handily, 10 miles is only 2 more than that.  and 13 miles is only 3 more than that, right?  Subdividing the mileage doesn't make it seem quite so far.