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March 26, 2006
Mark made the National Team!
This weekend has been a blur. We have had guests in town since Thursday and have been entertaining, at race venues, and I have had to teach a three hour class in the middle of all of this. My running plans fell to the wayside but it was worth it. On Saturday I wanted to get up and run early but I was beat and got up early to work on my lesson plans instead. I taught class and went to the National Snowshoe event held at the Bolton Valley Resort. The race had already begun when I got there so I had to anxiously wait for the finishers. It was not a spectator friendly course so my best best was by the finish line. Mark finished fifth overall making the national team and beat many competitive runners in the field. He had a great race and felt happy that all of his hard work paid off. Runners from Colorado, California, Minnesota, Canada, and even Florida were at the event. At two they had a citizen's race which was a 5k. I participated in that and had a hard enough time with this. It took me a half hour to complete the race. A junior athlete from the high school where I teach and coach made the national team by finishing in second overall in the girl's division. A male representative from the high school finished 8th so that was exciting. I did not feel motivated to run more after the 5k so I called it a day and finished with 74 miles for the week.
This morning I went to Burlington again with Mark and my friend Jen. We ran twelve miles along Lake Champlain. I wore shorts and was so happy about that. I felt good and the pace was a little faster than eight minute pace per mile. I definitely could have run more but I was satisifed with that effort for the day. I do really want to try to run an 85 mile week so I'll need to focus on my morning runs. This next weekend I'll be going to Connecticut to visit my family so I'll have to get the bulk of the mileage done by Friday morning. The weather is supposed to be nice all week so I am looking forward to that. Mark was able to run almost 20 miles today, the day after the 10k snowshoe race at a 6 minute pace on the bike path. He is in very good shape and plans to run the Boston marathon as a training run and then race the Burlington City marathon. He is headed for a fantastic spring season of racing. I am very excited about some great weather and some great races for Mark in the near future to compliment his super efforts this weekend. Now it's time to start thinking about school tomorrow.
Posted by mary at March 26, 2006 9:44 PM
Comments
Tell Mark that Brad and I said "Congratulations!" After the race, Brad ran with a friend who had competed in the snowshoe race, but he didn't know who Mark was, so I was unable to find out how he did. It sounds like he's in great shape (running wise too). Your running sounds like it's continuing to go well, also. I'm glad you have some people to run with.
Posted by: Caitlin at March 27, 2006 7:21 AM
Congratulations to Mark! I hope the success becomes contagious and rubs off on you as well!
Posted by: Alison at March 27, 2006 9:37 AM
Congrats to Mark! Did you add in your 5k snowshoe race to your weekly mileage total? Your run on Sunday sounds very nice
More later
Posted by: Liz at March 27, 2006 11:26 AM