Miles with the Giant 2012

Miles with the Giant 2012

This year the Miles with the Giant was amazing, the race itself, the volunteers, the race organizers, and last but truly the best the pace bunnies. I had a plan this year and Carol my run buddy had a plan for herself. We had agreed that we would both start out together and if our plans went astray we would leave one another to fulfill our own plan, with no hard feelings.

I have learned to not start out to fast (a work in progress), I have learned to watch my pace on my watch to know where I am, and have learned to recognize when I need to gel and listening to my body.  We were running along and enjoying ourselves, I had a goal to beat my 2:40 and Carol wanted to run 2:30, so we maintained a pace between Karen Dahl and Cheryl Ready. We were running 7:1’s which meant we had run faster during the 7 minutes to make up for more walking then the pace bunnies. There was a point during the run that I kept saying to Carol “ I can see Cheryl, I can never see Cheryl, I was just so thrilled with the fact that I was running fast enough to keep up with Cheryl” I have always admired Cheryl Ready’s running, she is so steady and well balanced.

Cheryl did her part getting me to the finish line to far surpass my goal. I hope that all the pace bunnies know that by volunteering there race to help others reach their goal, affects not only the runner but all the challenges and people that sacrificed so much in the training months (families) it all pays off that one day.

I had actually kept my long sleeve shirt on until we were headed to Centennial along Arundal, that is far longer then it usually takes for me to start to warm up. When we came to Boulevard from Current River the wind came up and it was freezing cold. I was not going to put my sleeves back on, I refused. I was going to steal Carol’s Buff and wear it as a tube top boob warmer, the wind then died down, lucky for Carol.

I was flying on a high the whole race, it was so amazing. The last mile I had looked at my Garmin and we were far ahead of my goal and we were coming up to 2:30, I swore the whole last mile because I was not going to cut back after coming this far. 

We came over the Marina bridge and I thought a few hundred yards to the finish and then I realized that we had to head to the left and around the corner to the finish line, AROUND THE CORNER, I was not ready for this. Sorry for all the non PG language in that last mile, I was pulling the effort for that last mile from deep inside.

We came across the finish line in 2:26 and I could not have been happier, we surpassed my goal and surpassed Carol’s goal.

Miles with the Giant 2012 was the run of my life, who says you have to travel anywhere to experience an awesome race and a runners high I had for many days afterwards.

Congratulations to everyone in all of the race categories.

Night Before Miles with the Giant 2012

I am sitting her with butterfly's in my stomach not wanting to go to bed yet, it is 1030 pm on September 22 and tomorrow  is the Miles with the Giant Half marathon that Carol and i have been training for since June.
The temperature tomorrow am is suppose to be 2 degrees Celsius, I am thrilled with this.  I am ready for this race, I have worked very hard this summer and it has payed off in many ways.
I am prepared, I picked up my race kit today and i am lucky number 256. 

On the counter behind me is my measuring cup with my oatmeal glue which I will be choking down in the morning. I am writing this and getting more and more excited. 

Here's my pile of gear by the door ready for me to take with me in the morning. I think I have everything but there is always that last thing that pops into your head that you almost forget.

in training for Miles with the Giant I have discovered Peanut Butter GU and they are amazing. I had an obsession with the Peppermint kind that come out in the winter because they don't have that chemical taste but the Peanut Butter ones have taken the lead. I had taken the Peppermint ones to Myrtle Beach Marathon and had Gels with snowmen on them and somehow I didn't fit in. See I'm so excited I'm babbling.

I have also laid out my clothes for the morning and for me the skort is not packed for the winter yet. 

I am just debating tank or t shirt for under my long sleeve. It might be tank because this far that is what I have been training with.

I bought this red skort when I was in Winnipeg doing the 10 miler this past weekend. It is my new favorite.

Lastly the water and NUUN are in the fridge, I did go to the June Classic 5km last year with my belt and no bottles, leaving them to chill in the fridge. Hope that does not happen tomorrow.

It is now 1058 and I should go to bed even though I am bouncing on the inside, Carol, Kathy and I should have had a sleepover so we could suffer together. 

Carol, Kathy, Stephanie and I plan to meet bright and early. Good night to all you fellow Miles runners and the main thing is have a good one tomorrow.

Winnipeg 10 & 10 Mission Accomplished

I had one goal for the Winnipeg 10 miler and that was to beat my time from last year. I didn't care if it was a few minutes or 30 seconds the mission was to beat my time.
Lynda and I drove down to Winnipeg 3 days before the race to enjoy the city.
The day before the race we went for a run down Portage Ave 1.5 miles and then turned around and ran back to the hotel. The weather for me was fantastic, it was cool not hot and no Humidity, Yeah! The wind was 35km/hr during our run the day before race day. We were running into the wind on the way out and we were running into the wind on the way back. Funny how that happens, the wind blowing in both directions.
We were staying downtown around the corner from the Start line, so we got up in the morning and ran over to the Start line to warm up.
It was a beautiful morning to run, the temperature was 13 at the start line and the high only got to 17, my perfect day.

We immediately got in line for bag check because it was a looooooong line.  

We were standing in the Start corral waiting to go and the announcer was thanking the volunteers for putting all the big jugs of water at the water stations at 0600 and then he want on to say that all 15 of them had been stolen by 0800. He was telling people to drink water now because the first water station may not have water but they were working getting water to all the rest of the water stations. If it's not bolted down then it will walk away. 

I had a plan and stayed really focused on my race and did not worry about my surroundings. I am that person that starts out to fast and then pays for it later on but this time was different I ran a negative split. 

My sister in law Sherri and her daughter and grand daughter came to cheer us on. 

I blew my time from last year right out of the water.....I ran it in 2:09 last year and 1:54 this year. Can you believe it 15 minutes faster then last year. I have never been able to run 10 miles in less then 2 hrs, I was so excited. 

Here is me crossing the finish line, Yeah!

Lynda had finished in a faster time then I did, Congrats to her and she was at the finish line when I got there.

I was so happy with myself for far surpassing the time I had set out to beat, I not only beat it but felt great throughout. It was my race and I ran it for me and exactly how I had pictured it in my head.

 As you can tell by the look on my face I was just beaming inside and out. I had done it.

I was looking forward to coming back to Winnipeg to run this race as the race is so well organized and the route is gorgeous along the Assiniboine River and lined with gigantic old houses. It kept your mind occupied, gave you something to look at.

Mission Accomplished!