10 mile race + weekend happenings

My 10 mile race on Saturday morning went really well! Hurrah! I wasn’t super confident going into the race as I was just so dang tired from an intense week of travel. But I knew I had trained adequately and luckily my body did not let me down. 

It was overcast and a bit more humid than typical at the start but I was hoping the rain would hold off. Well, it didn’t. It started to rain around mile 3 and rained for most of the race. But I would rather run in rain than heat. My co-worker that lives in the area came out to cheer! I saw her twice on the course and then she was at the finish line. 

I felt really good for most of the race! I finished with a time of around 1:43 - so 7 minutes faster than my last 10 mile race in October of 2021 (which was a terrible race since I was fighting a cold - and I was only 10 months post partum and still breastfeeding…). Granted this time/pace is a far cry from previous longer race times (my half marathon PR is 1:52) but my life looks so different so I can’t really compare mom with 2 kids Lisa to pre-kids Lisa. 

While I was running, Phil was golfing at a charity tournament with my old coworker. They won the tournament for the 2nd year in a row! It’s a par 3 scramble which is not a typical format for a tournament but he has enjoyed winning it the last 2 years. My MIL watched the boys (we stayed at her house Friday night since the race was in her town) while we were out running and golfing. It’s nice that they are at ages/stages where she can handle them on her own for a couple of hours. 

The boys slept past 7 on Sunday which is such a treat. We went to church/Sunday school and the boys had matching shirts. It was hot and humid. Where is the fall weather? I like sunshine but I don’t need humidity in September!

Phil golfed with friends in the afternoon as a belated birthday celebration so he got to golf twice in one weekend! The boys had swimming lessons and then we went to a birthday party. 

I travel again this week - this time to Dallas Tuesday-Thursday where the highs will be in the mid-90s. Bleh. I’ve officially reached the point where I am ready for cool, crisp fall temps! It looks like the weather will cool off next weekend in Minneapolis, though. 

How was your weekend? Has it been unseasonably warm where you are?

Race + Weekend Recap

Is it only Tuesday? Yesterday was a brutal day at work. It was one of those days where I felt like I could not keep up and kept getting meeting requests so things will stay crazy this week it seems. Plus I travel again this week - I'm in Chicago on Thursday and Friday. The reason for my trip is a client meeting at 4pm on Friday. Could there be a worse time for a meeting? I think not. So that means I will take the 8:30 flight home and get home around 11. Fun fun. 

But back to last weekend! I had my race on Saturday morning in St. Paul. The sky was really showing off for us again!

Give me all the pink-skied sunrises! They are so pretty! That's our Capitol in the background.

I didn't have a plan for the race. After my 9:33/mile run last weekend, I figured I could run at least that fast and decided to run at whatever pace felt good. I mostly ran by myself as I figured my neighbor would run with her sister. She sprinted to catch up with me around mile 3, I think, and then fell back and said to go ahead but then ended up finishing a minute behind me. 

I ended up finishing in just over 58 minutes. Here are some stats for my other running nerds. I managed to run negative splits which is something I NEVER DO! Yay!

The race goes past the Governor's mansion. The coolest thing was seeing the governor out in his front yard, cheering us on! 

 

At the finish line feeling happy with my time!

With my running buddies!

But wow, did I pay for that run. A couple of hours after the finish, I started to feel awful and had some GI issues. I don't understand why I had such a strong reaction. 9:23 doesn't seem that much different from 9:33 pace but maybe I was dehydrated? And I did really pick up the pace in the final miles, but I never felt like I was running too fast. Who knows. 

Phil had plans to golf on Saturday afternoon and I didn't want to make him cancel so I limped through an afternoon of solo parenting. Will of course took an extremely short nap, so I turned on Little Baby Bum when he woke up and it amazingly held his attention. Paul watched countless hours of this show at the start of the pandemic when he was home with us for 7 weeks and it didn't seem to rot his brain so I'm sure an afternoon of tv for our almost-2yo is fine. 

Zoning out while watching LBB

Luckily by Sunday morning I was feeling much better!! We headed to our friend's house that morning to watch the marathon, making a pit stop to get donuts to share. 

Toddler attitude. He did not want his picture taken! If he has this much attitude at almost-2, what will the teen years bring?

Paul was really into spectating and kept asking questions about how fast they were running and how fast I can run, etc. He said spectating was the most fun part of the weekend. 

Even Will had fun. 

We headed home for lunch and quiet time after that and Will actually took a good nap! Almost 2 hours! After his nap we headed to our local park. He is very into the big slide! 

Of course we had to check out the geese on the way home. They have new costumes - now they are a firefighter and a scarecrow. The owners of this house are amazing and provide so much entertainment for the neighborhood!

We grilled steaks for dinner and had some corn on the cob. And that was a wrap on the weekend. Overall, not the best weekend since I felt horrible and could barely eat on Saturday. I don't think a 58:18 10k was worth feeling that awful, but I wonder if something else was going on - like maybe a GI bug or something.  

How was your weekend? 

Weekend + 10 Mile Race Recap

The 10 mile race is behind me! Woo hoo! It was my first race since the Twin Cities Marathon in 2015. Since then I have had hip surgery to repair a labral tear and 2 c-sections. My body has been through a lot but it's good to know that I can still consider myself a "runner." I had lost that part of my identity since getting pregnant with Paul. It feels really good to have that label back. I have my neighbor to thank for getting me back to running. She gently encouraged me to start running again this summer and threw out the idea of doing a 10k, 10 mile or 1/2 marathon this fall. If it wasn't for her, I don't think I would be running yet and certainly not 10 miles! But she helped me see that I COULD get back to running. 

We had a somewhat full weekend! On Saturday morning, Phil got our car serviced and got groceries while I watched the boys. We are looking to buy a Toyota RAV-4 Prime so it was good for him to talk to a sales person about the car market. My friend and co-worker recommended we work with the car broker he worked with last year so that guy is looking for inventory for us in different states but it was still good to get another read on the market from a sales person. Hopefully we'll have a new car in 3 months or so? Our Camry has served us well but we are ready for something slightly bigger. We got such a great deal on our Camry that we'll almost be able to sell it for the price we paid for it. It only had 30k miles on it despite being 6 years old. This is our primary car so that gives you an idea of how little we drive!

After lunch on Saturday, I took the boys for haircuts. It was Will's first haircut. His hair was getting so long and unruly. We have family pictures in 2 weeks so I wanted to give it some time to grow after the haircut  in case it didn't turn out great. I feel like it takes a couple of haircuts to figure out what works well for little boys.

Our usual happy guy SCREAMED through most of the haircut! I took a couple of pictures at the beginning before he lost it. The stylist did a great job. He looks so different and so much older!!

After we got home from the haircuts, my parents arrived! They were in town to see my nephew's football game on Friday night so they stayed with us on Saturday night. My mom helped me make a yummy lasagna and Paul and Nana made pumpkin bars. Here's a pic of Paul tasting the peanut butter. He tasted so much that my mom had to add more!

We hadn't seen my parents since August so it was great to catch up. My mom held Will lots! He is very smiley, but not when you want to take his picture of course! 

After the boys went to bed, we played some cards with my parents before turning in early.

Sunday morning came much too early! Paul unfortunately had a night terror on Saturday night and it took a long time and several returns to his bedroom to get him back to sleep. So I was "running" on 5 hours of sleep. 

Katie's husband was our uber driver for the day as he dropped us off in Minneapolis and picked us up in St. Paul afterwards. The race started at 7 so we got downtown around 6:45. They did a great job spacing people out more than usual and required masks in the corrals so overall, I think they did a great job keeping people safe. 

The first 4 miles went well and then we hit the uphill segment of the course. I felt really good when I took this picture around 4.5 miles when we stopped so my neighbor could use the bathroom.

After that, it was a bit of a slog and I was so ready to be done. I kept translating the distance left into runs in our neighborhood (the distance left is a loop around Lake Harriet... now it's a run to Lynnhurst park... etc etc). 

But I did it. I felt a little embarrassed about my time (our pace ended up being about 11 min/mile). That is so very slow compared to how fast I used to run. I mean, our time was about 1:50 and my last 1/2 marathon was 1:52! But I had to remind myself I wasn't lactating during my previous races and I wasn't waking up 3-5 times/night (that's how bad it's been lately with both boys having colds and Paul transitioning to his big boy bed). This is a different season of life, and thus, a different pace. One of my good friends said - 'Hey, you ran 10 miles and most people haven't ran that much all year!' That was just what I needed to hear to remind myself that 10 miles in itself, regardless of the pace, is something to be proud of!

I'm looking forward to continuing to run and will appreciate not having the pressure of needing to run X miles this week. Races are very motivating but even pre-kids, I was always happy when they were behind me and I could relax a bit. My goal is to continue to run around 3 times/week until the colder weather hits!

Post-race Reflections

It's been several days since the marathon.  The soreness is starting to slowly subside although it is taking longer than I'd like.  My legs are starting to recover but the pain from my blisters is awful!  My marathon recap was very stat-heavy what with all the splits and such so I thought I would do another post with some of my post-race thoughts.

- Full disclosure - I did get a little teary-eyed on Monday morning when my colleague/good friend asked how I felt about my race but I quickly tried to block out any feelings of disappointment.  It helped when my boss, who has ran several marathons, told me that I should keep in mind that I missed my goal by less than 1% and that running a 4:02 marathon is an amazing accomplishment.  I work with some really awesome people, by the way.

- After that little mini pity party, I have tried to shift my focus to what I accomplished. I'm so grateful that I was able to train for and finish a marathon.  When I was not able to run the Chicago marathon due to my stress fracture and RA diagnosis, I hated how the decision to run that race was taken away from me and I felt like my body betrayed me.  Now the ball is back in my court and I get to decide what activities and races I will tackle.  Having control is a big deal for a control freak like me!

- One of the best things I gained from training for this marathon was gaining a new friendship.  A new girl joined our club and we pretty much did all of our training runs together and got along super well.  I mean, you know it's a true friendship when you can run 3+ hours together multiple weekends in a row and not run out of things to talk about!  Forming friendships and bonds like that is what running is really all about for me.  Sure, we all have our personal goals that we are looking to achieve but the greatest gift of running is the many friendships I've formed and continue to form.

- Training for and running this marathon made my love for Minneapolis grow even more - as if that was even possible!  I was so excited to show John the beautiful running paths of Minneapolis and St. Paul during the marathon. Our marathon is known as the most beautiful urban marathon in the U.S. and it certainly lives up to that distinction!  I feel so lucky to live in a city with such a well developed trail system.

- To be quite honest, training for something like a marathon is a selfish pursuit. It takes many many hours and it seeps into other areas of your life since it impacts things like your sleep schedule and nutrition needs. Phil was a total trooper through the training and never complained. He provided a lot of encouragement, did some of my training runs with me, and put up with complaints about hot runs, exhaustion, and blister, among other things, and he was out there on race day cheering me on.  Knowing I would see him around mile 22 was pretty much the only thing that kept me going during the miles leading up to that.

- So the million dollar question is - "will I run another marathon?"  My answer is that I don't know.  I am not going to say I won't run another marathon but at this point I don't have any intentions to run one in the year to come.  We'll see what the future holds.  In the mean time, I'm looking forward to adding more diversity to my workout regimen.  I've got Groupons for a month at Core Power Yoga and 10 barre classes and after that, I'm thinking about getting a Class Pass membership for the winter. If I choose to not run another marathon, I know there are other fitness-related goals for me to achieve.

2015 Twin Cities Marathon Recap

Greetings and happy Monday!  I'm feeling sore and tired this morning but pleased with how my race went.  I did not make my goal of running a sub-4 marathon, but I am OK with it.  I gave it my all and left everything I had out there on the course.  I ended up running a 4:02:33 which is about a one minute PR so I can not complain.  After my RA diagnosis, I questioned whether I'd ever run again and never dreamed I would run another marathon.  So I am choosing to focus on that accomplishment rather than the time on the clock (although I am also proud of my time). 

Clothes and gear all lined up the night before!  I taped my name to my shirt but it only stayed on for the first 8 miles or so.

All ready to go on race morning!

John, Megan and I at the start!

Now for the race recap.  I lined up at the start with John and my running club buddy Megan.  Our goal was run around a 9 minute mile and hold that pace as long as we could.  Here are my splits:

Mile 1:  9:57
Mile 2:  9:02
Mile 3:  9:04
Mile 4:  8:50
Mile 5:  9:07
Mile 6:  8:55
Mile 7:  9:12
Mile 8:  8:45

** I saw Phil around this point which gave me some extra energy!**

Mile 9:  9:03
Mile 10:  8:42
Mile 11:  8:49
Mile 12:  8:57
Mile 13:  8:58

** Just after mile 13, I saw some of the awesome friends I've made through Phil.  It was so thoughtful of them to come out and cheer me on - and they even made a sign!  That's the first time anyone has ever made a sign for me so I was so touched!!**

Mile 14:  9:17
Mile 15:  8:54
Mile 16:  9:11
Mile 17:  9:09
Mile 18:  9:19
Mile 19:  8:55
Mile 20:  9:15

** at this point we entered a very hilly part of the course.  It's pretty cruel to have to tackle hills at this point of the course which makes Twin Cities a very challenging course.**

Mile 21:  9:16

** I pulled ahead of John around this time and Megan pulled ahead of me.  I tried so hard to keep her in sight but I just couldn't.**

Mile 22:  9:24

** I saw Phil at this point and was really hurting.  I wasn't even able to muster a smile.  :/ **

Mile 23:  9:46

** After that crappy split at mile 23, I dug deep and tried to pick up the pace.**

Mile 24:  9:08

** That faster pace lasted about a mile.  I knew at this point that sub-4 was not a possibility.  I fought the urge to walk and just kept putting one foot in front of the other.  At this point the blister that had developed on my pinky toe during the race popped so the pain from that was pretty intense.**

Mile 25:  9:43
Mile 26:  10:13
Last 0.2 (or 0.4 according to my watch):  9:03 pace

Finished!

I hobbled across the finish line and boy did it hurt.  But I was done and was proud of my performance.  The race weather was perfect, I was cheered on by the 300,000 (!!!) spectators that lined the course, and I was cheered on by a far by a whole lot of friends and family.  My phone was definitely blowing up with congratulatory text messages when I finished which was cool to see. 

Now I get to relax and enjoy some down time.  I've got a lot to look forward to between Julia Child Night and my trips to Miami and Boston.  I've worked so hard over the last 6 months between training for a triathlon and training for this marathon so I am looking forward to giving my body a much-deserved break. 

YWCA Women's Triathlon Race Recap

My first triathlon is in the books and it was a great experience!  I have a lot to say about the experience (warning - long post to follow!) but will start off with the night before.  I biked over to Phil's in the afternoon and we stayed in that evening and made one of my favorite pasta dishes which is chicken with a white wine sauce (with GF pasta, of course).  It was really good!

After dinner, I laid out everything that I was planning to bring to the race.  There is so much to remember so I am glad I had made a list last week!  I got everything to fit in my bag, though, so that is good!

After that we watched a documentary about how Champagne is made and I obsessively checked the weather forecast.  It was not looking good and the race director had sent out an email saying that the race may be cancelled if there was lightening so I was kind of freaking out a bit.

Luckily I woke up to overcast skies but no rain on Sunday morning!  I was so relieved!  My friend Courtney picked me up which saved me from having to bike to the race.  It was only about 3 miles away but I didn't need to bike any extra miles that morning!

We got to the transition area, got set up and took some pre-race photos.  Courtney is the person that talked me into doing this race as she's done it twice and loved it. However, she is 7 months pregnant so instead of doing the full race, she did the swim leg of the relay.

I was in one of the later waves so had a lot of downtime between when they closed the transition area and lined us up but it went by fairly fast.  The first wave started at 8 am and my wave started around 8:39.  I was soooo ready to start and just have the swim behind me as I was very nervous about the swim since it's my weakest sport.  From here on out, I'll break down the race by sport:

Swim:  500 yards. Goal = 15 minutes; Actual = 12:40.  The swim actually went better than I was expecting.  It's definitely the weakest of the three sports for me but it went better than I thought it would.  One thing that helped is that it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be.  When they released the waves, they had 4-5 swimmers start at a time, with 3-4 seconds in between sets of swimmers which meant that the swimmers were way more spaced out.  I was expecting to be kicked and hit and swam into but I only had one little collision.  That said, I was soooo happy when the swim part was over!

Courtney snapped this shot of me running out of the water to the transition area.

T1:  2:14.  The first transition took the most time as I had to put on socks and shoes.  I had rolled my socks which made it easier to put them on my wet feet quickly but it's still time consuming.  I had worn a water proof watch for the swim but I threw my Garmin on at this point so I'd have an idea of how fast I was biking and running.

Bike:  15.5 miles. Goal = 1 hour; Actual = 54:41.  I was really happy with how the bike went as my pace was 17 mph which is faster than I was anticipating.  I ate an applesauce within the first mile which gave me some extra energy. Those were the only calories I had during the race.  I probably should have had another applesauce during the run but all in all I felt pretty well-fueled.  I passed quite a few people during the bike ride and pushed it pretty hard on the pace, which made me nervous that I might not have much left in the tank for the run.  In the last mile I saw Phil so that gave me some extra energy and made me smile.

T2:  1:23.  This transition went really fast as all I had to do was dock my bike, ditch my helmet and throw a hat and my race bib on (which I pinned to my spibelt).

Run:  3.1 miles. Goal = 28 minutes; Actual = 26:31.  I saw Phil right away at the start of the run and he ran with me for a little bit.  He asked me how I was feeling and I told him I was tired but he gave me some encouragement and said to remember that running is my strongest sport.  I definitely needed that pick-me-up.  My legs felt pretty tired and if I had to guess, I would have said I was running slower than 10 minute/mile pace, so I was shocked to look down and see a pace of 8:30-8:40.  I was definitely very ready to be done at this point but I powered through!  I was so in the zone that I did not hear Phil, Courtney, and Courtney's family cheering for me at the end.  Those 3.1 miles were tough so I was shocked to look at my results and see that I maintained an 8:34 pace during the run!

Courtney's husband snapped this photo of me as I was coming into the finish.  You can tell that I am pretty 'in the zone'.

Total Time:  Goal = 1:50; Actual = 1:37:28.

Officially a triathlete!

Phil and I at the finish!

I was really surprised and very pleased with my time.  I ended up finishing 246th out of 935 participants and 44th out of 155 participants in my age group, which I feel good about.  My ultimate goal for this race was to finish and have fun and I definitely accomplished that!

So the big question that always gauges how good the race experience  was is - would I do this again?  And the answer is yes!  I think I would stick to this race, though, as it's really well-organized plus I think the sprint distance is the right distance for me.  And honestly, I liked that it was women-only race.  I feel like that made for a very supportive and positive environment.  I will say that my next triathlon will be done at a time when I'm NOT training for a marathon, though!  Training for two races simultaneously is too much.  Lesson learned.

Have you ever or would you ever do a triathlon?

Get in Gear Half Recap

On Saturday, I ran the Get in Gear Half Marathon.  When I went to the packet pick-up, I was surprised to learn that it was the 38th annual race - that's got to be one of the longest standing races in the Twin Cities!

Before I delve into the recap, I'll cut to the chase - I managed to PR at this race by over 2 minutes!  My official time was 1:52:14.  I didn't go into this race expecting to 'race it' or PR it and I will definitely admit that it wasn't my smartest race, but you live and learn! Here's a recap!

The night before the race, Phil and I had a quiet night in.  We made roasted broccoli and this pasta recipe but skipped the mushrooms as someone (ahem, Phil) won't eat mushrooms. It was a simple, delicious recipe and one I'd definitely recommend. 

The race didn't start until 9 on Saturday so I got to wake up without an alarm on race morning, which is always nice.  I had my usual breakfast of oatmeal with banana and 2 cups of coffee and then headed out the door to take the lightrail to the race.  I'm so glad I could get there via public transportation!

I was kind of over dressed for this race but I don't like using bag drops and I didn't want to be cold waiting for the race to start!

The race course was along the Mississippi River so it was a pretty scenic route.  I would describe the course as rolling hills with 2 decent climbs/descents (which you can see below in the elevation profile).

Here are my splits:

Mile 1 - 8:30
Mile 2 - 8:11 (WAY too fast)
Mile 3 - 8:20
Mile 4 - 8:19
Mile 5 - 8:10 (WAY too fast again, but this mile was mostly downhill)
Mile 6 - 8:20
Mile 7 - 8:19
Mile 8 -  8:25

* This is the point where the pace I ran during the first part of the race started to catch up with me and my pace started to suffer.

Mile 9 - 8:37
Mile 10 - 8:40

* At this point, I knew that I would PR as long as I ran sub-10 minute miles, which I knew I could do.  I played a lot of mental games during the last 3 miles and told myself things like:  You just have to run 5k more!  Only 18 more minutes of discomfort!  Less than 9 minutes of discomfort!

Mile 11 - 8:32
Mile 12 - 8:50 (there was a big climb during this mile)
Mile 13 - 8:53
The rest - 8:40

I was SO happy to be done when I crossed the finish line.  I grabbed my medal and hobbled down to the area where they had the food, which was SO FAR from the finish line which I think is a poor decision for the race set-up...


I am very happy with my time, but I made a couple of big mistakes during this race.  First, I went out way too fast.  I shouldn't have been running 8:20 or faster miles in the beginning!  Second, I didn't eat anything during the race besides one cup of water and gatorade at each water stop.  They did have some gu's at around mile 10 but it was a brand I haven't had before and I didn't want to risk having GI issues in the final part of the course.  I know some people can do halves without any fuel besides water/gatorade, but I was reminded on Saturday that I am not one of those people.  I felt nauseated and had to force myself to eat afterwards, which is a telltale sign of not properly fueling.  Lesson learned - next time I will bring gu's.

I checked the race website for my final results when I got home for my results and was really happy with my stats!

But all in all, I'm very proud of my time and I am excited that I'll be going into marathon training with a great level of fitness!

Hot Dash 10 Mile Race Recap

I ran the inaugural Hot Dash 10 mile race on Saturday morning.  Truth be told, I completely regretted signing up for this race in the weeks leading up to it.  I signed up thinking it would be motivational and would push me to increase my weekend long run distances.  I thought the motivation might result in me becoming a winter runner.

Well, that plan kind of failed.  As usual, January and February were cold.  February was especially cold as we didn't get above freezing for most of the month and there were many subzero mornings.  I'm a hearty Minnesotan, but I'm not THAT hearty.  So my mileage has been very low and I only got in a handful of runs in the 6-8 mile range.

I went into this race with no expectations besides finishing.  I didn't have a pace goal in mind; I decided to just try to hold a pace that felt comfortable.  My previous PR was 1:32:32, which is about a 9:15 average pace.  I went into this thinking there was no way I'd beat that PR.

Luckily the race-day weather was perfect.  It was 37 degrees and sunny so I was able to just wear a light long sleeve and running pants.  

Getting ready to head out the door, feeling awfully nervous about how this race would go.

In my mind I thought it was realistic that I'd run around a 9:20-9:30 minute/mile pace.  Here is how my splits broke out:

Mile 1 -8:24
Mile 2 - 8:26

* After the first couple of miles I was surprised how comfortable the 8:30'ish pace felt.  I figured this race would turn into a tale of me starting too fast but I decided to just stick with the pace I was running since it felt good.

Mile 3 - 8:32
Mile 4 - 8:29
Mile 5 - 8:23

* At the halfway point I thought - "huh, I guess maybe I will PR."

Mile 6 - 8:20
Mile 7 - 8:25
Mile 8 - 8:24
Mile 9 - 8:28
Mile 10 - 8:22
The rest - 1:30 (the course measured 0.17 miles long)

The happy smile of a girl that just surprised herself and PR'd!

My official time was 1:25:37 - so I was 5 seconds shy of shaving 7 minutes off my last PR!  My official average page was 8:34. I love stats, so here are some finishing stats:

- 338th out of 1,029 total runners
- 128th out 576 female runners
- 31st out of 107 F30-35 runners

The only explanation I can come up with for this surprise PR is that I've done a lot of strength training and cross training over the last year.  If you need proof that strength training and cross training matter, my PR is proof of that.  I have done no speed training, hills, tempo runs, etc since last September.  The only explanation for my ability to maintain an 8:35 pace for 10 miles is that the combination of strength training and cardio I have done has made me a far stronger runner than I was when all I did was run!

It's nice to have a strong race under my belt.  Now I can focus on my next race which is a half marathon at the end of April!!  The spring session of my running club started on Saturday so my goal is to run with the group one week night and on Saturday mornings.  This 10-mile race showed me that I am in better shape than I thought I was so I am feeling good about my overall level of fitness!

But all that said, even though I ran a strong race and PR'd  - I'm NEVER signing up for a March race again.  I learned my lesson - nothing will turn me into a person who loves running in bitterly cold Minnesota temps!

San Francisco Trip: Part 2

The second installment of my San Francisco trip will be all about the trail race that we ran in the Berkeley area.  I'll let the pictures mostly do the talking!  

We woke up to beautiful weather on Saturday morning!  I heard the race director say it was the first sunny race they'd had so I guess we got lucky!  The race started in an area that was close to a lake so it was very pretty!

This race was HARD.  Here is a picture of the elevation profile.
 

I enjoyed the race, but dang it was so hard.  I trained hard this summer and could have cranked out a strong road half marathon (and probably PR'd) but I was totally ill prepared for a trail run as I only did 3 trail runs over the course of the summer.  The thing is - I am all about convenience and trail running is not convenient for me as it requires long drives (and I dislike driving).  So as much as I enjoyed the race, I don't know that there is going to be much trail running in my future so long as I live in Minneapolis due to the inconvenience factor.

Since I knew I wasn't trained to push myself out there, I took it easy and put no pressure on myself to finish by a certain amount of time.  We walked all of the hills and stopped to take pictures as neither of us was really focused on time.  We ended up finishing in 3:07, which I was happy with because I thought it might have taken longer since it was so hilly!  I ran every step of the way with Amber, which was awesome.  We chatted during the entire race which made the time go by very fast.  I'm very thankful that she stuck with me for the whole race!

Here are some pictures from the race!

This picture probably doesn't do it justice, but this was one of the steep climbs towards the beginning.

Stopping for a photo on the way up!  It was nice to have no goal because that meant I could stop and take pictures as much as I wanted.  That would never happen in a road race!

We were rewarded with beautiful views at the peak elevation point!

This picture was taken towards the end of one of the really long climbs.  It's hard to see on the computer, but you can vaguely see some white shirts at the bottom of the hill which shows how far we had to climb!

Lauren, Amber and I at the finish.  You can see I am a little beat up because I totally bit it around mile 11.  I guess that makes me a legitimate trail runner!

All in all it was a fun run and it was nice to do a race where I put absolutely no pressure on myself regarding my time.  Not pictured is Kyria, who ran the 35k and Leigh, who was our awesome cheerleader!

Have you ever tried trail running?  If so, what did you think?  I think I would do more trail running if I lived closer to some trails as I do enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of trail running and the lack of focus on pace/splits!