Marathon Monday #2

I had such a wonderful birthday! One of my favorites for sure. :) I'll tell you all about it tomorrow. Right now, let's take a look at how my first week of marathon training went plus a recap of the Sprinkler Sprint 5k.

	The Plan	The Reality
Mon, 8/5	2	2
Tue, 8/6	3	3
Wed, 8/7	REST	REST
Thu, 8/8	3	3
Fri, 8/9	REST	REST
Sat, 8/10	3.1	9.7
Sun, 8/11	6	2

I'm pretty pleased with how Week One went. Whoo hoo!!

Unfortunately, by Thursday, I was already pretty tired. I chalk it up mostly to staying up too late. I'm really going to have to focus on hitting the sack a bit earlier.

Also, the back tire on my bike still isn't fixed, so no biking last week. I did a little yoga, but not every day. Or even after every run. I hope to do better this week.

When I was planning my training schedule, I wasn't sure how to handle my birthday. I wanted to get in a long(ish) run, but wasn't sure how to do it with the 5k Saturday morning and going out for my birthday Saturday night. I planned on the 5k and then doing 6 miles on Sunday, but then I came up with a different, brilliant plan.

Why not run to and from the race?

This would allow me to get my long run in on Saturday. Plus, we wouldn't have to worry about trying to find parking. AND I wouldn't have to worry about getting to bed early Saturday night in order to go for a long run Sunday morning. A nice 2 mile recovery run was much more appealing.

So back to the race. Jeff rode his bike slowly on the sidewalk with me while I ran. Jeff hasn't run a 5k with me since Feb 2005. And he hasn't really run much since. He didn't do too badly. We probably walked about 1/2 the race, but it was fun to be out there with him. Plus with all the walking, I got to snap some fun pictures throughout the race.

All the different water stations made the race go by much faster - and cooler. It was really awesome! I didn't get pictures at any of the water gun stations - mostly because we tried to run through them. :) One station even gave away ice pops. Yum!

Jeff and I skipped the slip 'n slide finish. There was a long line, and we didn't feel like waiting for it. There was no clock at the finish line. In fact, other than the slip 'n slide, the finish was pretty lackluster.

Except for the towels. Jeff grabbed a wet one, and I grabbed a dry one. The wet towel felt absolutely wonderful to wipe our faces after the race. Plus, we now have two perfect-sized sweat towels for going to the gym, etc. The towel was also much appreciated for my run home. :)

Overall, this was a really fun run. It was the first race put together by Downtown Runners, and founder Tanya "Tutu Tanya" Carrier, did a fabulous job putting it all together. I didn't even mind the lack of treats at the end of the race, and I'm looking forward to their next event. :)

Did you race this weekend?
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