Running for Bagels

I ran my first race in over 2 months yesterday. Boy it was a bit rough. Of course when I looked back on what I did to prep for the race I realized "no wonder it was rough". A week ago I biked 30 miles and ran 4 miles in one day, donated blood the following day, ran Tues. through Fri. night, and ran a long run (6 miles) on Saturday. In addition, since I've been training for the Marathon Relay I've been training more for distance and less about speed and this race showed that.

I ran the 24th Brueger's Bagel 5k Run to benefit the JCC in Rochester.  The race was a bit disorganized but all worked out.  Most of the run was along the canal which is nice and flat but it's also open and windy. I thought I was running into the wind hoping that it meant the way back would be easier. This was not the case. In addition, I've been starting out way to fast on my runs, getting caught up in the rush instead of my normal trot which gets faster as the race goes on.  Instead I started at a 7.37 mile pace and I'm worn out by mile 2 and have to slow down in order to not vomit and have to stop. So, I finished a (self) disappointing 42nd out of 125 runners. My time was 24.13. I did finish 3rd in my age group and missed second by 8 seconds which kind of stinks. If it would have been a bigger race I wouldn't have placed. There was some very fast runners.  Oh well! There were a lot of perks to this race- a long sleeve tech shirt, a coupon for 3 free bagels at Brueger's, and a free day pass at the JCC.

So, what's next?  Well, I'm going to try and run faster for my shorter runs... but other than that I now have to survive the Marathon Relay this weekend. Goal...not to walk!