Saturday, February 20, 2010

7 Miles - TAPER

This is the last long run before our big half marathon next weekend! I am SOOOOOO excited! We are doing the Gasparilla Half, and it is several of the group's first half. Heather, Stacey, Nicole, Monica, and Amy D are all part of the Wesley Chapel Tri team group that did the Longleaf Triathlon as our first race in October. This is our second group goal, and we are all excited. We also added Carmen and Brian to the group, and they will be doing the half as well. Morgan calls Carmen my running BFF as she was the first person that I could run long distance with the entire time by pace. :) She is FAST in the short distances though, so I have a feeling this will be our last long run together as she will get faster quickly. I enjoy her company on the runs though, so I will enjoy the race for sure! She is a singer, and she has an album I am downloading now (available at http://www.carmenrae.com/). From the samples, it sounds awesome!

Anyway, we ran 7 miles as our long run taper, and we averaged about 11:24 per mile. Not too shabby! It was hysterical at the end, Carmen and Jenn's husbands were coming behind us, and they TOOK OFF running so that the boys wouldn't beat us. :) Of course, they had done a longer distance, but we still finished in front of them. :) Nicole, Stacey, Heather, Jenn, and Carmen were there to run it with me. I had a blast! As I look back over the last 6 months or so, it is amazing to me how much I have learned, experienced, grown, laughed, struggled, felt strong, felt weak, felt nervous, felt proud, and many, many more emotions. How much richer my life is now due to this group and the accomplishments!

2 comments:

Ali Smith said...

Just wanted to comment and let you know that you are inspiring me! I just started the couch to 5k plan, and came across your blog. I know you started the C25k back in 2007, but it is so encouraging to see that you did it and are still active and moving on to bigger things like triathalons! Almost all the authors of other C25k blogs seem to have given up or at least stopped posting partway through so I am so thankful that you are still blogging!

Unknown said...

Thanks Ali! I am so glad you are enjoying! I started in 2007, but I didn't finish it then due to kidney stones. I did start again in July 2009, and now I hvae done several 5K's, a sprint triathlon, a half marathon, and I am training for an Olympic distance triathlon! Hang in there! It is SO worth it!