Pretty in Pink 15k Recap Numero Dos

Race #2 of the fall is in the books. Maria already provided an awesome recap of all the race particulars, so I don’t need to rehash all of that stuff, but I want to add my two cents about the experience. This was the first race I have run put on by Premier Racing Institute, and I was impressed. As much as I love running the big races, I also like supporting the smaller, local races as well, and this one was a lot of fun. I definitely got the feeling that they put on races with the runners in mind rather than with the sole focus of making a bunch of money. They are putting on a half marathon on November 4th, and based on yesterday, I am thisclose to signing up.

Yesterday was a new PR for me at the 15k distance! I finished in 1:12:09 (7:48 pace), which was about 2 minutes faster than my previous PR and was good enough for 1st in my age group and 24th overall. While I’m really happy with the results, I am less than happy with how I got there. Maria and I started off slowly because the course was narrow and there were a lot of runners to navigate around in the first mile. We were able to speed up around mile 2, and things went well for the next few miles. However, things quit going according to plan for me a little past halfway through the race. I don’t think I did a good job of hydrating at the first few water stops, and by mile 6, I was not feeling well at all. At that point, I started walking through all of the aid stations and making sure I was getting in a decent amount of H2O, but the damage was already done, and my pace definitely took a hit. I wish I could say it was abnormal for me to get slower as a race progresses, but for some reason, the marathon is the only distance where I have been able to do decent job of running negative splits. Oh well, live and learn, right??

Yesterday’s excitement did not end with the race. After we ate breakfast, Maria and I dropped into Fresh Market to pick up some groceries, and after months of searching in every grocery store I have visited in multiple states, I finally found this little bit of heaven in a jar. It is every bit as good as I had imagined it might be…maybe even better.



Sigh. I’m never going to give up my dream of a world where scientists have managed to make celery taste just like peanut butter.