Not as easy as it looks.....

The Patrol Stroll race on Saturday (9/26) was the perfect motivational pick me up! We had a blast. The weather cooperated (started raining after we left) and the atmosphere was energetic. Me, Calvin, and my younger sister, Sallie, participated in the race.

Wanting a race PR, we lined up close to the start. There were only 141 runners for the 5k. Calvin's time was 24:56, mine was 30:55, and Sallie's was 41:19. New PR for us all! My last 5k time was 34 minutes, give or take, and Sallie's was around 45. Sallie isn't a road runner. She runs mostly on the treadmill at the gym...she did an amazing job shaving off almost 4 minutes since June. I can't remember what Calvin's previous PR was but he said this was the fastest his ever run a 5k! Running is truly amazing. When I did my first 5k, June 2008, I finished in 45 minutes and had a terrible migraine afterward. Truly amazing what a year of training can do.

Early Sunday morning Calvin, me, Anne, and her friend (lets call him Jay to protect the not so innocent) set out for our 10 mile long run. It was lightly raining and cool. Jay hasn't run with us before and, since he can run 6 miles on the treadmill, thought he could keep up. Some say that because we interval (run 3 minutes:walk 1 minute) during the long runs that it's not as hard as it seems, I beg to differ.

We planned to do an out and back from Shelley Lake down the Crabtree trail extension toward the mall. Miles 1-5 went off without a hitch. Jay made several mistakes to begin but managed to make it to mile 5 without complaint. Hungover, no water, cotton shirt and long pants, and the fact that he is untrained, Jay was determined he could do this.

I loaned Jay one of my 10 oz water bottles which he refilled at the turn around point. As we head back toward Shelley, Jay begins to complain about cramps and told us to keep moving, he would catch up with us later. Fearing Jay may get lost (he isn't from here) and worried he may get progressively sick, we would run ahead, turn around and run back to him. Each interval, Jay is looking more and more ghost like. Not as easy as it looks, huh? NO, I didn't say this to him but that's what I was thinking.

We all finally made it back to Shelley after a 2 hour run. Later, Anne texted to say she had to make an emergency pit stop so Jay could get sick......... Sooooo to those who have the idea that running intervals is easy, join us for our next 10+ miler and let's see what you are made of. ;) LOL!!