2015 Moonlight Run Recap

Boy that’s a long title, isn’t it?

I survived yet ANOTHER race I was completely unprepared for. You guys, I have a severe motivation problem. I like to sign up for races and not train for them! I think it stems to the fact that I really am not a fan of long distance running. I’m a sprinter and would rather do sprint workouts than log a lot of miles but there are no track meets for adults in my area so road races it is.

My buddy Cat and I signed up for the 10k last fall with intentions of conquering it again. But unlike last year, Cat now has a brand new baby (born in October) and I’ve been dealing with some emotional garbage that has caused me to reject workouts in favour of emotional eating all winter. So we changed our entries to the 6k and showed up last Saturday night ready to run with no preparation.

My lovely friend Tawny joined us with her boyfriend (and first time racer) Rick and my friend Russ came to run his first road race ever as well.

Lethbridge doesn’t have a ton of road races compared to a larger city like Calgary or Edmonton so it was a HUGE turnout and there were people everywhere. When we went to line up we wound up way in the back and off to the side and packed to closely together you couldn’t move.

As usual, I turned on my RunKeeper at the start because I like to know my pace and my distance while I run.

Distance – 3.89 miles

Duration– 55:29 (My actual time was 51:38- I forgot to turn it off right away)

Calories Burned– 472

Average Pace– 14:15 min/mi

Elevation Gain– 672 feet

And here is a brief summary of each mile :

Mile 1- 10:17 min/mi

This was my fastest mile pace because we ran down the coulee hill. The first two miles were uncomfortable. My stomach had been bugging me all day and I had to breathe through some terrible stomach cramps. At the bottom of the hill Cat fell at the exact spot she and I watched a runner fall last year. I’ll give her this, she tucked and rolled pretty good and got right back up and kept running! I was impressed! I would have stopped and called it a day I think. But then again, I’m clumsy so I would have fallen on my face.

Mile 2- 12:36 min/mi

Catie and I stopped to walk at this point. My stomach was killing me and her knee was bugging her from the fall. This is also when the bottoms of my feet started to go numb. I think I tied my laces too tight but it was too dark for me to fool around with them.

Mile 3- 14:34 min/mile

A pee break slowed down our split time in this mile.

Mile 4- 20:12 min/mile

The HILL! The dreaded, awful hill! We walked (or rather limped- her left knee was bugging her and my right was bugging me) up that one. But we ran in the final stretch and at the very end we sprinted to the finish. I’ll admit I put a little extra kick into it to cross before Cat- sorry Cat!- I’m too darn competitive for my own good.

Cat and I finished in 51 minutes. Russ finished in 31 minutes (and that’s with stopping to aid a runner who fell), and Tawny and Rick finished in 37 minutes. AND Rick proposed at the finish line!!!!!! He ran the whole race with the ring in his pocket! Awwwwwwwwww…………

So have I finally learned my lesson? Have I finally come to accept that  I can’t jump into things without training first?

My problem with running stems from the fact that I like it in the spring, summer, and fall but winter comes and I just stop. Even with a treadmill, I lack all motivation and I lose all the progress I made through the rest of the year. You have to commit to being a runner.