ah, it brings back memories

Cool shirt. Too bad it stinks.  I mean it, it smells awful.
I've washed it 5 times already and can't get the chemical
odor out.  The husband says to toss it (it actually makes the
rest of the laundry stink too) but I'm holding out hope that
some type of detergent exists that will enable it pass the
sniff test (or being in the same room without gagging test) and be wearable.

The Northern Lakes Run. (Yeah, I'm still a bit behind in my blogging - this race was on May 13th.)

Anywhoo, remember when I ran this one last year and channeled the King of Pop in my thriller jacket?  This year I got nothin' like that to tell.  Kind of disappointing really. The fact that someone actually read that post and then recognized me (or actually, my Thriller jacket) at Grandma's was amazing.  Clearly my awesome fashion sense will someday catapult me to some type of legendary status. Most likely in the "fashion don't" category but whatever.

Wait, what was I talking about?  Oh yeah, training for Grandma's. Ok, so once again, I used this race as a training run for Grandma's. The weather this year was spectacular. Such a nice change from last year's rainy and blustery run.  I actually looked around this year and saw where I was running - it's a beautiful course! The day was a little too warm for me but still a fantastic, gorgeously sunny day. The same small field size as last year - maybe 125 runners - made for some quality introspection and navel contemplation time for those of us at the end of the line (read: slowpokes),  We were strung out and alone for a good portion of the second half.

I ran with a pacer for the first 11 miles and then had to drop back.  I kind of fell apart a bit at the end.  The previous weekend's trail race and half marathon left my feet battered and they bitched a lot about being forced to carry me so far.  New shoes on the horizon.  Check.

I also hadn't hydrated very well during the week leading up to the race so the warm weather took a bit of a toll on this delicate flower, too. Hydration lesson learned. Check.

Oh, and just to make things a little more interesting, I also had some strange back pain during the last half of the run. I had to stop and stretch several times. My entire mid-back was sore. Not sure what that was all about.... maybe I was running funny because of the foot pain? Whatever it was, it went away by the next day and hasn't reared it's ugly head again. <knock on wood> Whew!

Crossing the finish line! Sadly, that's my gun time for the 30k,
not a marathon time.  Maybe someday.... <she said wistfully>
(photo credit: Gary Westlund www.charitieschallenge.org)

Overall, I was happy with this run. Despite the pain, it was a pretty easy run for me. And I shaved about 5 minutes off last year's time which makes it a PR!!

And here are the splits I know you're just dying to see:

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	3:21:24.0	18.78	10:43
1	10:48.5	1.00	10:48
2	10:41.0	1.00	10:41
3	10:34.1	1.00	10:34
4	10:28.3	1.00	10:28
5	10:47.3	1.00	10:47
6	10:38.7	1.00	10:39
7	10:29.9	1.00	10:30
8	10:28.3	1.00	10:28
9	10:07.9	1.00	10:08
10	10:18.1	1.00	10:18
11	10:02.9	1.00	10:03
12	10:52.9	1.00	10:53
13	10:44.9	1.00	10:45
14	11:56.0	1.00	11:56
15	11:03.6	1.00	11:04
16	10:58.1	1.00	10:58
17	11:50.2	1.00	11:50
18	10:50.9	1.00	10:51
19	7:42.4	0.78	9:49

Slowly but surely, I'm making my way towards Grandma's.  I can't believe it's less than three weeks away!!

Taper time has officially begun, which means I get to start obsessing about the weather, what to wear, how to trick myself into sleeping the night before the race, how to get the right food in my belly the morning of the race..... all kinds of super important first-world type issues, no?