Thursday, December 6, 2012

A Tale of Two PRs

I had the opportunity last week to run two races in within three days, and it was fun stuff.

The first was Day One of my ill-fated run streak:  The Turkey Trot in Appleton, WI. 

I lined up for the five miler on Thanksgiving morning with my friends Matt, Brian, and Lori, and had no plans for the race. 

I had been rushing around trying to get registered until just moments before the gun went off, and my buddies were teasing me about my lack of preparation.  I sort of forgot to eat or drink anything in the morning, I didn't bring water to the race, my running clothes were a random cotton assortment of lounge-wear from the depths of my dresser, and I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. 

I ran for a bit with Matt at an easy 10ish pace, and felt like I was holding myself back too much to have fun.  I sped up a bit and my first mile was just over 9 minutes. 

The course weaved through pretty neighborhoods with big old houses, and the crisp air and sunshine put me in such a good mood that I was consistently laying down miles in the 7:30-7:50s.

I crossed the finish line feeling great and actually sort of refreshed in 40:19, which was more than two and a half minutes faster than my PR

Three days later, I drove to De Pere to run the Noodleini 15k thanks to the kind heart (and checkbook) of my sweet sister-in-law Kathy. 

This race was pretty hard.  The roads were covered with icy slush, the course is not very scenic, and it was a gray and dismal day.  I'd never run that far on a slippery surface before, and that shit was difficult.  Every time I pushed off to take a step, my back foot slipped back an inch or two, which made for pretty slow going. 

I took my time, talked to a ton of other runners, and finished up in 1:20:44, a 26 minute PR.  (The last 15k I ran was in 2007 dressed as a hobo with this girl)

 
Noodleini 15k
1:20:44
8:39 pace

So there you have it.  Lesson of the day - PRs are equal parts lack of preparation and mild dehydration.  I should write a running book filled with this gold.

Have you ever raced more than one race in a week?

Are you still streaking? 

4 comments:

  1. Very interesting because my 5k pr from Saturday was under the same circumstances. I barely have been running and water certainly isn't what I want to drink in cold weather.

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  2. Congrats on the PR's!! You are such a trooper for pushing through the snowy, slippery mess for the 15K.

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  3. Congratulations on both your PR's! I really like 15K's-too bad there aren't very many.

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  4. Awesome! Congrats on the PRs! I agree - you should write a running book!

    I ran three races in 8 days for Thanksgiving Week. They were all easy though ;)

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