FIRSTS (SACTOWN 10 MILE RACE REPORT)

Today's blog has many meanings ...

This is the FIRST time I am posting in a long LONG while (so sorry, still no computer - borrowing one as it is to do this post);

I ran a race today ... the FIRST one of the new year;

The race I ran today ... was the FIRST time in my (ahem) new age bracket ....(eek);

I ran a new PR today for a 10 mile race .... hell, for any race over a 10K distance ... a new FIRST for me; and ...

This is the first time in a long while, I have felt this happy, healthy, alive, fit and just overall "okay" with the way life is going right now ... even though things are not "ideal" ... life is happening the way it "should" and I am okay with that.

So. Now what? Let's recap today's race AND I will update you with some recent photos of Squeaker and the Peanut ... you will not BELIEVE how much they have grown!!!

To quickly recap, I am marathon training for a marathon in late June. Since I had to DNS (Did Not Start) CIM back in December, I decided I NEEDED a marathon under my belt ... I had the "itch" so to speak and I will not be in town for CIM 2013 ... hence, the June marathon.

I signed up for the Sactown 10 Miler back when I was still employed. I actually had forgotten that I signed up to run it until late last week. Oops. No matter, I knew I wanted to run it at or near my race pace for the marathon just to see where I was at training wise. My training program called for a 10 mile run 45 seconds over my race pace. Pish-haw! I wanted speed.

Oh and another "update" to add ... I recently had an MRI of my ankle taken and discovered I have some bone growth on my talus bone. Apparently a past trauma to my ankle has caused the bone to grow some extra bone and it is basically smashing into my leg every time I run on uneven surfaces or up any hills ... not ideal for a trail runner who lives in El Dorado Hills. My doctor suggested I no longer do speed, run on trails or run up hills ... um, he apparently doesn't know me very well. Surgery is an option but not one I am going to take any time soon ... so for now, I live with the pain. Luckily, I still had some of the cortisone left in my ankle for today's race after the shot I received a week ago (which, just to add, is officially gone as I type this with my ankle throbbing).

Back to today's race ... Squeaker still does not sleep through the night. In fact, she is up every 3 to 4 hours to eat! I blame it on my one sided low supply and as a last ditch effort, I fed her a bottle last night AND nursed praying it would help her sleep longer. It did ... sort of. She woke up at 11:30 tossing but not hungry. Then proceeded to smash her head on her crib in an effort to move to the other side ... causing her to wake screaming and me to soothe her for an hour BUT ... she did ultimately go without milk from 7:30 pm to 4:30 am leading me to believe she CAN sleep IF she can just not wake herself up by tossing and turning. So despite soothing her for an hour last night between 11:30 and 12:30 and one feed at 4:30 ... I got some decent sleep.

I woke up energized and ready. I hit the road by myself and parked downtown in my usual spot for races that start and finish on the capitol steps. I had 10 minutes to spare. I quickly made my way to the starting area and just sort of positioned myself close to the front but not too close. I have never done this race before.

The gun went off and I was focused on keeping a steady pace. That is all I wanted ... a steady consistent pace (something I am not very good at doing). Here were my splits:

Mile 01: 7:33 - Hmm, way to go Trailmomma...way to not really pace yourself.
Mile 02: 7:59 - Okay ... still sub 8 and feeling okay. This isn't going to last .
Mile 03: 7:56 - Wait ... you're still sub 8? Really? And you feel okay?
Mile 04: 7:57 - Okay. This is getting interesting. Body check. Hmm, feeling good.
Mile 05: 8:02 - Aaah a little hill, this must be where I start crashing ...
Mile 06: 7:51 - Huh?
Mile 07: 8:05 - 3 miles left. Sweet. Wait a minute ... you've had some decent sub 8 minute miles ... could I?
Mile 08: 8:08 - 2 miles left. If you want a sub 8 finish it has to happen now.
Mile 09: 7:50 - Stick with this dude next to you ... stay with him. He needs you and you need him.
Mile 10: 7:34 - What? The DJ is playing what? Later dude I am outta here!

That last mile I kicked it into high gear and just focused. I crossed the finish line and they handed me a piece of paper that said "Congrats Sub 80, you get a shirt" ... score! Then, I had three different men approach me. One was the guy I was running with during mile 9. He started to fade and I yelled to him to stay with me. Apparently he did ... just behind me. He thanked me profusely for pushing him and helping him. THEN another guy came up to me and said he was impressed with my "kick" at the end and that it really helped him as well (I had passed him too) and finally a third much older guy came up to me and said that he had used me as his pacer for the first 7 miles. I remember him passing me and me cursing it but I let it go ... he was amazed at my "pacing" and thanked me for keeping him steady ... go figure ... the one thing I thought I was terrible at seemed to help someone else!

I am beyond thrilled. My average paced ended up being 7:56 minute miles which I have never done before except for a 10K or something. Although not my marathon pace, it gives me hope that my marathon goal is something attainable. Oddly, with that pace, I was 16th in my age group out of 68 ... just goes to show how tough my new age bracket really is.

The rest of the day was spent with my two lovely ladies. The Peanut proudly declared that I "won" the race when she saw my finishers medal ... who am I to crush her dreams? Squeaker just beamed when I entered the house. She could care less that I stank to high heaven ... her meal ticket was finally home!

I am sorry the blog is so slow these days. Vans is still hoping for a new Mac laptop to be introduced and is holding his ground. I am borrowing his work computer tonight to type this ... so don't get too used to it ... most nights he is busy working on it.

I am enjoying two days a week with my girls who we have removed from daycare/preschool and put on a part-time schedule. Just being home those two days is thoroughly exhausting AND rewarding. I am cherishing this time with them. They are growing so so fast ... to catch you up, here are some recent photos. The Peanut is turning FOUR this month (gosh, where has time gone?) and Squeaker is 9.5 months and just a bundle of energy. She's a daredevil too. The girl has no fear. I think Vans finally has his skate boarding mountain biking daughter ....

The Peanut was invited to a Star Wars bday party ... but she insisted on wearing her Tiger Costume.

So I made her a "space" Tiger by adding a cape and antennae. It works right?

Squeaker ... always so curious.

The daredevil enjoying a recent bounce house party ...

Already cooking up a storm in the kitchen...

Hopefully when we get a computer (soon) I will be back blogging in full force. I have a few projects that I am currently contracted with which also requires me to run the Urban Cow Half Marathon in October. It will actually require me to blog about my training for the race so that will most definitely mean more blogging and of course, more photos of the girls. Thank you to all who have stuck with me and haven't removed Trailmomma from your blog rolls. I promise, I am making a come back!