Friday, April 29, 2011

2011 Boston Marathon!

Last week Kristen ran the 115th Boston Marathon with her friend Wendy (from our AREC running club). This was her 3rd marathon with her 2nd best time, however, she kept it "slow" and fun so she could pace her friend (Wendy PR'd by almost 5 minutes - this was her 12th marathon) and truly enjoy the experience of Boston. It was an amazing event - what she calls a 26.2 mile long party with spectators lining the course the entire way. Exploring the city for the first time was an adventure as well. Lots of great wine bars in "The South Side" and a sweet (while super windy) running course right out the front door of the vacation rental in South Boston. You can follow the sidewalk and boardwalk all around Castle Island for a nice 5-10 miler. We see Boston again in the future (KJ was well within BQ time) but maybe we will skip a year. Lots of fun but a really expensive trip overall!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

3rd Place!

For the first time since I started running I won a medal. 3rd place in my age group for the Rabbit 5k held at Long Beach City College's Veteran's Memorial Stadium. Kristen won first place age group and overall women and she also broke her previous PR and posted a 19:30! Crazy.

The course was flat and pretty fast. I lost 10 second however, when I made a wrong turn and that was something that actually really pissed me off for awhile even though I knew I'd gotten 3rd place. I could have had a better time. The girl at the turning point just stared at me with a dumb look on her face even as I asked her as I was running if this was the right turn. She just stared as I ran by. So dumb. Anyway, I still received the medal and had a good run.

I plan on putting in a lot of hard work on breaking my current PR of 24:28. I got that time at the Surf City 5k which is a really fast, flat out and back race with no turns so I'll probably have to pick the races carefully. I will still be running 10k's and halfs, but I have my sights set on a new 5k PR.