Thursday, November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am at Zach's parent's house all dressed up and waiting for the rest of the gang to arrive. The food already smells delicious and I'm starving, it's torture! I'm going to go down and have some snacks and a cocktail in a minute. 

But first, a quick running update. I only ran twice this week - Monday and then the 5k today. My legs needed the extra rest, plus I was busy visiting with friends and family, shopping, etc. 

Monday
7.0 miles/1:04:28/9:13 average pace
I ran up a dirt road that climbs pretty steeply for nearly a mile but at the top you are rewarded with sweeping views of the whole Helena valley. It was gorgeous! I did this run solo so no pictures.

Thursday
3.1 miles (ish)/23:11/7:29 average pace
It was the coldest morning since I've been here, and the coldest morning since summer. It was 16 freaking degrees when we woke up! It was a balmy 20 by the time we made it to the race start. There were a couple hundred bundled-up runners waiting around for a few minutes and then we were off. I immediately was sucking air (who knew I was such an elevation wuss? I grew up here for cryin' out loud!) and it was COLD air. My lungs felt like they were freezing! I was working pretty hard and my first mile came in about 7:35. I decided just to try to run the whole thing, Zach had long since dropped me and I  knew I wasn't going to run a fast time.  The second mile was 7:45 or so and then finally I was on the home stretch. There was this insanely fast speed-walker right ahead of me the whole time (I KNOW!) and I just had to pass him at the end. I was surprised I came in so fast, I was expecting closer to 24:00. But my GPS read the course a tiny bit short, so whatever. Anyway, there were no numbers and no awards, so who cares. I'll take it. :) Zach finished with nearly a PR and 6th place overall, the bastard. Way to ruin all my excuses!! ;)

Well I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday with their family and friends. I'll post more MT pictures when we get home on Saturday. Happy Thanksgiving!! :)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you are enjoying your visit with family and friends. Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving. Nice job on the runs.

Emily said...

You did a great job! Have fun eating your face off....i am sooo excited.

N.D. said...

Sounds like a nice day and good runs this week!

KK said...

Ha ha ha loved the end "the bastard, way to ruin all my excuses!" LOL. Way to go, I think that's very respectable, it's soooo much harder running at altitude if you don't train there. And I fully accept cold as an excuse, btw.

Glad you are having fun back home!

Ewen said...

No... he's a right bastard for running that well. Don't worry though - revenge will be sweet when he hits the wall in the marathon and begs you to slow down.

Cindy said...

i still don't understand how people can walk that fast. and speaking of fast, you were really hauling out there. nice job!

Petraruns said...

Hope you had a great visit - and a great meal.. Enjoy the time with family and the run up to Christmas... Are you staying in POrtland for that one?

ShirleyPerly said...

Oh man, that is COLD! And I know that elevation bothered me when I was in Missoula. Way to beat that walker ;-)