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February 3, 2007
A hilly "race"
I met my friend Emily at her house this morning and we jogged over to the start of this club race nearby. The club has both a summer and a winter series of races that vary in distance and location and they are scored cumulatively by age group. Some people get really into them; I never have, mostly because the summer ones are largely during the week after work and because the winter ones are on Saturdays when I would normally be doing my long run. Anyway--today's race was a 12K and it started where a bunch of bike paths intersect, so I was thinking it was on a flatter one when it was actually mostly on a very hilly one. (I obviously did not read the course description!)
Emily wanted to just keep it pretty easy for about three quarters of the distance and then pick it up after that. I just wanted to start out easy and test my leg by putting in a little more effort than usual but nothing crazy. I have never started so far in the pack (on a narrow bike path) and it was an eye-opening experience. We basically ran the first mile pretty easy but passing a lot of people. Then we kept up a pretty steady pace for the rest of it and never really picked it up because I think we were both running a little harder than we had intended. It was very weird seeing the lead woman, who I ran the D.C. Marathon with last year, on the out and back and realizing how out of shape I am. But mostly I enjoyed myself. My hamstring did not bother me for the first few miles but once we hit the hills (which I SUCKED on--Emily would beat me up every time and then I'd catch her) I could feel it getting tight. On the last (steep) downhill, I actually backed off because I started to feel it behind my knee and I did not follow Emily's sprint to the finish line--no point. It is quite sore now but surprisingly my legs feel fine otherwise. It is to be expected as I haven't pushed my hamstring in any sense in probably nine months. But of course I would rather have no discomfort at all.
Emily and I jogged back to her house after socializing a little bit post-race. I also ran into another friend I hadn't seen in ages and met her fiance, which was nice. We had waffles and coffee back at Emily's and eventually I came back to my place and Matt! This afternoon I did a couple of errands--including getting some new running socks because mine all have holes--and took an apparently much-needed nap. We are going to try and catch a movie on TV or OnDemand tonight as the air outside is predicted to turn quite chilly (a big deal for us Southerners).
Posted by becky at February 3, 2007 6:30 PM
Comments
That sounds so fun Becky!!! I believe it's your first "race" back, right? Miss you guys down there!
Posted by: Audrey at February 3, 2007 7:44 PM