See Diva Run

RunnerGirl Nancy, one of my favorite BRFs (blogging running friends) suggested a virtual 8 mile race called “8 on the 8th”. I ran my virtual race on the Centennial Trail in Snohomish, where I do many of my longer runs. In addition to 8 on the 8th, I needed to run 15K (9.36 miles) for a Nike+ challenge, so I ended up running a total of 10.12 miles. Why 10.12? Why not?

The weather was cold but clear Saturday morning. I received several phone calls from work, so I decided to wait until afternoon to go out for my run. I’ve got a wicked case of plantar fasciitis and can barely walk in the morning, so there were no bad excuses for procrastinating. Best of all, any ice that may have been on the trail melted by the time I go there. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may remember that I have a bad habit of falling and tearing holes in my knees.

The temperature was in the mid to upper 30s when I finally got out the door. I decided to use the race to test some of my recent purchases including the Sub4USA running tights I bought at the Las Vegas Marathon expo and the Champion Dri-Fit vest that I bought at Target. I wore the vest over a long-sleeved tech shirt, with my Road Runner Sports running hat and my $1.49 Target gloves. I own several running jackets but have noticed that my arms get overly warm and sweaty. The vest over the long sleeved shirt worked very well, and I was also happy with the tights for cold, dry weather. I’ll reserve final judgment until I’ve worn them in cold, wet weather. This was also my first run with my new Sennheiser PMX70 Sport Headphones, that I got just for getting older! I have quite a collection of headphones, I’ll have to do a separate post just on running headphones!

When I left the house I intended to drive to the Machias trail head which is 5 miles up the trail. It has a nicer parking lot than the 3 Lakes trail head. It also has a bathroom with flushable toilets and a drinking fountain. Unfortunately, the road to Machias was closed, so I headed to the start of the trail, which is here in town. Since I didn’t know why the road was closed, I wasn’t sure if the trail would be open. It was. I set my iPod for an 8 mile run and headed north. The sky was bright blue and the mountains were covered in fresh, white snow. It was very much like my Thanksgiving run. Since I was planning to stretch the 8 miles into at least 15K, I ran past mile marker 4. My destination the Machias trail head. My reward, a drink of water and a trip to the bathroom. I could have saved a couple of minutes by skipping the bathroom, but it was worth it. By the time I reached Machias, I was starting to feel warm. My gloves were off, my vest unzipped and my sleeves were pushed up. As I started running back toward town I discovered a brisk head wind. Soon my sleeves were down and my zipper was back up. I reached mile 7 in just under 70 minutes and decided that I should pick up the pace for mile 8. I ran the last mile in 8:40, to finish the 8 miles in 1:17:36. You can see the details of the run here.

I slowed down to a 9:00 mile for mile 9, and 9:14 for mile 10, finishing the run in 1:37:21 with an average pace of 9:34. Not exactly my target pace for a distance race, but not bad for someone who can barely walk in the morning! Yes I know I need to cut back on the running, but I’m only 110 miles from my 2,000th Nike+ mile. I am a woman possessed! I promise to rest for a week when I reach my goal, and then limit my running before P.F. Chang’s Rock n Roll Arizona Half Marathon.

I didn’t take a camera along for the run. Here I am back at home, ready to celebrate with pizza. Things are not looking good for me in the Holiday Weight Loss Challenge.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Race Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.