stu's 30k and mileage madness

Today Laura and I ran the Stu's 30K in Clinton, MA. Tom was the super duper committed coach that he is and picked us up from our door steps, drove 22.2 miles just to cheer us along the 18.6 mile course, and then drove us both back home.

Laura ran a pretty consistent and solid race. I'm sure she'll tell you her race story soon. The course was hilly but not nearly as bad as I had expected. The hills were long and gradual and the hardest hill was the steep little bugger that came right before the mile 18 mark. I think the wind was actually tougher than the hills, but we survived and ran well.

I ran really cautiously. I was approaching the race as a "hard training run" since I ran tons of miles this week and knew my legs wouldn't feel "fresh" and didn't want to get discouraged. The first 10k was crazy slow; I think I ran a 43:30. I picked it up a bit for the next few miles, but not by much - my 10 mile split was 69 flat. I was a bit uncomfortable at this point because I had to pee so bad and was consequently hesitant to take any water or Gatorade or energy gu. So I just held on and hoped that the urge to pee would subside and that last night's huge bowl of pasta would be a good substitute for the citrus flavored gel stashed in my shorts.

Well, I still had to pee wicked bad, but luckily the next 8 miles went pretty well. I totally negative splitted and passed a bunch of the nicest men I've ever run with. They were all so excited about GBTC and kept praising the team's performance at the Amherst 10-miler last weekend. I felt so lucky and admired to be running for GBTC -- an awesome brand to have splattered on your singlet. I was doing fine until the last hill, struggled a bit, and just kept my eyes on the chute. I ran the last 5.5 miles at a 6:32 pace. Not bad, considering the first 10k was a 7-minute pace.

Laura, Tom, and I went for a short cool down after shmoozing with some local reporters. We noshed bagels and crackers and powdered Swiss Miss hot cocoa and traded race stories with runners from SiSu project, CSU, and the B.A.A.

These pre-Boston tune-up races are great. Laura and I are determined to get more New England women to run these. I'd rather place 20th in a competitive field than 2nd in a race with few hard-core women, you know?

I came home to discover a raging party of 8-year-olds had overflowed into the lobby of my building. So loud and obnoxious! Luckily, my roommate Danielle wanted to run a few miles really slow, so I went with her, and by the time we came back, the chaos of the party had quieted. Danielle is just trying to get back into running, and I just wanted to loosen my legs up, so we just jogged really slowly for less than 20 minutes. My legs feel better now.

I'm super impressed with Laura who totally dominated today and with Emily who ran well over a marathon yesterday. It is so easy to be inspired by one's teammates. They are both on track to run awesome races at the Boston Marathon. I know Laura, Emily, and I have all finally officially registered, and I'm getting excited for the race! Only 7 weeks left!!!

*megha