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<p>Hangover Classic 5K - Salisbury MA</p>
<p> </p>
<p>short:</p>
<p>1) you can work harder than you think you can </p>
<p>2) lose the weight</p>
<p>3) 50 second PR - 32:58</p>
<p> </p>
<p>long:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>we spent the weekend in Maine at a wedding, which was super fun but meant little sleep and more beer than normal.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>we both woke up today not terribly motivated to run, but we'd already signed up, the weather was gorgeous, and it was on the way home. so we drove down to Salisbury, picked up our numbers and t shirts, waited in a very, very long portapotty line. We didn't have time to go back to the car so we stashed our unneeded warm clothes on the beach and went to the start.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>after a completely unintelligible announcement, we were off. I was running in tri shorts and a tank top, with a sleeveless vest over it (it had the zippered pockets with the car keys, I didn't want to stash that) and I was perfectly comfortable... not normal January weather for MA, that's for sure.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>went out with Adam for the first block until it opened up, then focused on running comfortably hard. I passed a bunch of people, then the fasties that got stuck at the back of the start chaos started passing me. One girl and her friend came up on me very slowly, so I decided to try to run with them for a little while. Well, I stayed with her for the whole race. We chatted a little, and worked together to keep ourselves at a nice brisk pace. Every time I'd fall back a little, I'd work harder to keep up with her, and she did the same when she wanted to slow down. Her running pace was just slightly faster than my default "I think I'm working hard but I'm a little too comfortable" pace. I have never worked this consistently in a 5K, ever. I crossed the line (which was a giant clusterf*ck), walked over to the beach, dropped my hat and vest and glasses, ran and dove into the ocean, ran out, grabbed my stuff and my commemorative glass, and waited for Adam (he ran the 10K).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Despite thinking the race was poorly done (no water stop for the 5K is fine, but don't run out of water at the finish before the bulk of your runners - including all of the 10K runners - finish; finish line so congested that there was 30 feet of solid, stopped bodies before the finish line waiting to go through the chute), I'm super happy with my day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>and lesson #2? well, here's the thing. I run on an average of once every couple of weeks. I haven't swum more than once in 2 months. All I do regularly is pilates. So how did I smash my 5K PR? I lost 40 lbs. Just a little motivation for any people with a weight loss resolution. I can't wait to see what happens when I lose the other 40. and, um, start training.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PS - for those of you following the injury saga, my run was COMPLETELY pain free, my hip is still pain free hours later (despite running a little on soft sand). WOOOOO!!!!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>short:</p>
<p>1) you can work harder than you think you can </p>
<p>2) lose the weight</p>
<p>3) 50 second PR - 32:58</p>
<p> </p>
<p>long:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>we spent the weekend in Maine at a wedding, which was super fun but meant little sleep and more beer than normal.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>we both woke up today not terribly motivated to run, but we'd already signed up, the weather was gorgeous, and it was on the way home. so we drove down to Salisbury, picked up our numbers and t shirts, waited in a very, very long portapotty line. We didn't have time to go back to the car so we stashed our unneeded warm clothes on the beach and went to the start.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>after a completely unintelligible announcement, we were off. I was running in tri shorts and a tank top, with a sleeveless vest over it (it had the zippered pockets with the car keys, I didn't want to stash that) and I was perfectly comfortable... not normal January weather for MA, that's for sure.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>went out with Adam for the first block until it opened up, then focused on running comfortably hard. I passed a bunch of people, then the fasties that got stuck at the back of the start chaos started passing me. One girl and her friend came up on me very slowly, so I decided to try to run with them for a little while. Well, I stayed with her for the whole race. We chatted a little, and worked together to keep ourselves at a nice brisk pace. Every time I'd fall back a little, I'd work harder to keep up with her, and she did the same when she wanted to slow down. Her running pace was just slightly faster than my default "I think I'm working hard but I'm a little too comfortable" pace. I have never worked this consistently in a 5K, ever. I crossed the line (which was a giant clusterf*ck), walked over to the beach, dropped my hat and vest and glasses, ran and dove into the ocean, ran out, grabbed my stuff and my commemorative glass, and waited for Adam (he ran the 10K).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Despite thinking the race was poorly done (no water stop for the 5K is fine, but don't run out of water at the finish before the bulk of your runners - including all of the 10K runners - finish; finish line so congested that there was 30 feet of solid, stopped bodies before the finish line waiting to go through the chute), I'm super happy with my day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>and lesson #2? well, here's the thing. I run on an average of once every couple of weeks. I haven't swum more than once in 2 months. All I do regularly is pilates. So how did I smash my 5K PR? I lost 40 lbs. Just a little motivation for any people with a weight loss resolution. I can't wait to see what happens when I lose the other 40. and, um, start training.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>PS - for those of you following the injury saga, my run was COMPLETELY pain free, my hip is still pain free hours later (despite running a little on soft sand). WOOOOO!!!!</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
