Tuesday, March 8, 2011

The start of the 2011 racing season

The racing season has officially begun. Woo!  I personally think that I've set the bar a tad too high for this season.  Next year I'm making a note to myself to start slower! 

In February, I was recruited to the faculty/staff Noontime Running League at Syracuse University by Roger Hahn, one of the emeritus faculty members in Chemistry, a Department I'm particularly fond of. How can I say no to a fellow chemist who also runs?  So on one Friday afternoon in February I found myself lining up with colleagues from ESF and SU to run an 8k.  I was also a bit intrigued by the thought of running at Manley.  Manley has had a special place in my heart ever since I saw a wild SU-Georgetown game there back in the 90s (when isn't an SU-Georgetown game wild?). I was expecting to trudge along slowly, but much to my surprise, I found myself being paced by my new friend Javier to a new PR of 31:44.  Granted, this is the first time I've ever run indoor track, so anything would be a PR, but for reference, the pace was 20 seconds faster per mile than what I ran for the St. Patrick's Day 8k last year.  Booya!  Happy happy  happy

So that brings us to my first real race of the year on February 27th, the Dahlgren Trail Half Marathon.  I was so hungry to race that waiting for the start was excruciating for me (and probably for Jerille by default).  I semi-missed that weird feeling of being completely nervous to the point where I want to retreat immediately and completely excited to the point where I just want to start running stat!  The race started in waves because of the narrowness of the trail and I was up front with the "elite" wave.  Elite in this case really just meant, the people who wanted the money.  I, not wanting to be cranky on the drive home with Jerille, decided that I was going to have to maximize my win money.  And so I started off strong and held it..the entire race!  Well, I yet again managed to lose all my food and my inhaler..yes..again..really...and so I ran backwards for a bit to see if I could retrieve those items (not successfully))..but otherwise I was totally strong!  The footing was a bit tricky in parts and much to my surprise there were a ton of false flats (for something that used to be a railroad), but all in all I think that race was badass!  I ended up winning for the women by 6:43 and came in 7th overall for the men.  Jerille was rewarded with a happy girlfriend and a nice dinner at our new fave restaurant, Eggspectations.  A great day :) 







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