Pocatello Half / ME Weekend

This past weekend, I spent two days doing what I called "ME Weekend." Sounds pretty selfish, I know, but it was just two days! Anyway, I love to have a purpose to my running, and training for a race always motivates me. It just so happened this year that I was able to find a race that was on a weekend that my team wasn't playing, and my sister's team WAS. Even better, they were playing in the same town as the race! I couldn' have asked for a more perfect situation. So I was able to take in a ton of watching volleyball, which I LOVE, a ton of watching Olivia play volleyball (even better!), two days spent with my family (minus anybody younger than 15), and a half marathon.

The race went really well. My goal was to PR, and I needed a 1:48 to do that. Secondly, I really wanted to run an 8 minute mile pace, since that's the pace I've been trying to train at for about the past 6 months or so. I said I'd be thrilled with a 1:45, but just a PR would be okay with me. Well, the weather conditions were perfect, the course was mainly flat, and I felt good. I surprised myself, beating 8 minutes at every single mile, and finishing in 1:41:24, which is a 7:44 pace. I was even more stoked today to learn that I took 3rd out of 57 runners in my age group, 8th out of 197 women, and 31st overall out of 303 runners, males included! It was a very rewarding experience, and a great way to top off my ME weekend!