Memorial Day Race (Race Recap)

On Monday I ran a local Memorial Day race. The race takes place in Boalsburg, PA, which claims to be the first to celebrate Memorial Day. They have a parade, festival, art vendors, food, etc during the three day weekend every year. The 3.8 mile race has also been a part of the celebration for 30-something years.

The last time I ran it was two years ago (race recap is here – check out the crazy elevation chart!). I couldn’t do it last year because we were in Florida for a wedding, so I was excited to do it again. I wanted to just enjoy the race, come in under 50 minutes, and secretly I wanted to beat my time from 2 years ago – 48:57 – because who doesn’t want to beat their previous time. 🙂

The start of the race was a little jumbled this year. We started in a grassy field so everyone was just sort of standing around and then all of a sudden people were running. It was weird, because last time I did it they started us with a cannon shot. So needless to say my start wasn’t very precise.

Let me preface by saying that I don’t have my Garmin data right now (purely because I’m lazy) so I’m not sure of my mile splits or anything. Anyhow, the first mile or so goes through the town of Boalsburg. I felt pretty speedy. Then at about a mile in the first hill starts. I knew to run/walk it so that’s just what I did. I picked mailboxes to say “okay walk from the blue one to the white one, then run.” I slowly made my way up. At the turn around at the top of the hill I picked up speed and went down as fast as I could while letting gravity to the majority of the work.

A picture of the leaders at the top of hill 1. From the Memorial Day in Boalsburg Facebook page.

I tried to keep up my momentum going up the second hill but had to start taking walk breaks about half way up. The second hill is MUCH steeper and longer.

Naturally, I enjoyed speeding down it. Downhills are so much more fun. 🙂

When I was on my way down the second hill there were a couple people who I saw turn around on the course to basically cut off 80% of the hill. And yes, they had chips on. I don’t know why, but seeing people cheat like that (even when it wasn’t a situation where any of us were going to place or anything), really pissed me off and lit a fire. It was my goal to pass those two girls and not let them place higher than me, so that’s just what I did.

The last bit of the race runs through the town again, which is very scenic. I kept checking my watch and I knew my time was going to be very close to last time.

I crossed in 48:51 according to my watch. A six second PR!!! I will absolutely take it! Given my lack of hard training lately, I was psyched!

This marks race 11 of my 13 in 2013 goal!

Quick Memorial Day Weekend Recap and Randomness

Happy Wednesday! I love that the work week is flyin’ by sine we had Monday off for Memorial Day. I was planning to do a quick post yesterday but fell asleep on the couch after dinner…around 7:30. whoops. I was exhausted though, I guess my body needed the extra sleep because I feel pretty good today!

Anyhow, I hope your weekend was fabulous and if you had a long weekend it was great! We spent the weekend doing a ton of yard work on Saturday, I got in an eight mile run on Sunday before we went into a house cleaning frenzy, and then I did a Memorial Day race on Monday before hanging out on the couch for the rest of the day. The weekend was a nice mix of productivity and taking it easy. Just how I like em. 🙂

Yesterday I got up at 5 to hit up a spinning class which felt great. This morning I got in a 3 mile run. I am SO slow lately. And walk breaks have been necessary and frequent. But I’m really trying to go with the flow and just do what I feel like. I’m trying to enjoy the time I have before I start training again.

Yesterday I was having an eat-all-the-things day. I just coudn’t get full no matter what I ate. I recently found Kind bars and their amazingness. I know I’m late to the party but I really love the coconut one. I had TWO yesterday in my must eat everything madness.

So that’s what’s been going on. I’m looking at my calendar for June and between my birthday, two fun races (and accompanying trips to Philly and Pittsburgh), a visit from my mother-in-law and the typical shenanigans it’s going to be a little crazy. Does anyone else feel like their summer books up quickly? It’s all fun stuff but wow, it’s a lot.

Oh! I almost forgot. My Pittsburgh Half Marathon recap was featured on Race Kred today! So if you’re new here, welcome, I hope you enjoy my sporadic posting. 🙂 And if you’re interested in hearing about others’ experiences with the Pittsburgh races check out their blog post where they round up some great race recaps.

Have a good day folks!