Sunday, June 26, 2011

Talk About Motivating: A 71 Year Old Man Beat Us in the 8K!

Week 4 of the 20 week training program comes to a close with a fun 8k road race in Lavallette, NJ. I met Joe, the race director, about 5 years ago when he was planning the first annual event, and for all different reasons I was never able to participate year after year. Well, this year I was FINALLY able to run the race! Steph and I had 7 miles planned and since the 8k is only about 5 miles we got there early to run a 2 mile warm up. (After our 2 mile warm up)

(Start of the race)

The best part during the race is that the residents of Lavallette sit outside their homes to cheer you on...and some of them even sit there with their garden hoses and spray you as you run by!

As much as we might have wanted to run the whole race non-stop, we kept to our training plan and ran 8 minutes and walked 1 minute through out the course. We were holding a great pace because as we hit mile 1 we were under 10 minutes. In the end we finished the race at 50 mins 23/24 seconds. (Steph crossed at 50:23 and I crossed at 50:24.)
(End of race - Not so pretty! Why am I sticking my tongue out? That's Steph's arm.)


As we were listing to the awards we hear that a 71 year old man won his age group in a time of 48 minutes and change...WOW! He beat us by about 2 minutes! (So, there is NO AGE EXCUSE for anyone out there! What motivation!)


I am starting week 5 with a relaxing day OFF from training and also getting a much needed deep tissue massage. After 4 weeks of doing a run/walk program 3 days per week I am seeing a HUGE difference in my ability to run. I don't hate it after 2 minutes like I used to a month ago. It truly is getting easier and I look forward to getting my runs in...even the long runs!


I purchased my hydration belt last week and will most likely be taking it on my next long run (8 miles.)


4 weeks down...16 more to go...I am honestly enjoying every step of this journey!

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