Saratoga Firecracker 4

There was something different about this race. 

Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve had a handful of training runs which left me feeling super strong.
It could simply be the fact that I’ve been more diligent in my training this year than ever before, that I’ve hit new distances and am pacing better, and faster, than ever before.  Perhaps that this was my first repeat race, or that I recently redefined my goals for my performance.  Or, it’s possible that all of these reasons played a factor in my feeling the night before this year’s Firecracker 4 Mile race in Saratoga was definitely different. [sponsored by Poise in Parma!]

I’ve gotten prerace jitters prior to races before, but this time was different. 

The race wasn’t until Monday morning, but on last Thursday afternoon, I started to feel a sort of new-to-me  nerves.  Friday I decided that the weekend needed to be “chill” in order to best prepare myself for the run.  Saturday I gave myself a long pep talk after taking a few minutes early in the morning to meditate and focus on positive self energy. Sunday evening and night, my racing buddy Cynthia [we’ve already run a few races together this year, and will no doubt face more starting lines together!] and I spent the time together resting up.  Dinner from the grocery store, some reading and discussion, and a few hours in front of the television, sprawled out on the bed.  First watching my brilliant friend Megan’s performance thesis, followed by Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long blog. [In case you were wondering, I’m still singing “Laundry Day” to myself.]

 

Then we went to slumber. ish. I tossed. I turned. I tossed some more.  I woke up about 17 times before finally getting out of bed at 6:30, getting dressed, brewing some tea, making breakfast, and heading to Cynthia’s van.  Saratoga or bust!

Thankfully we arrived a bit earlier than expected [thanks to my thinking Saratoga was a bit farther away than it actually is], because although I left the house WEARING my IPod, I somehow managed to forget my ear-buds.  Cynthia was also in need of some sunscreen, so went on a walk to CVS.  It was a good pre-race stretch, too, if you ask me. [which you technically didn’t, but if you’re still reading this, then I’m going to just pretend like you did, okay? okay.]

 

On our walk back to the start line, my blackberry camera and I got into a fight, which made Cynthia laugh. [I may have also told a joke. Because I am funny and stuff.]

The fight with the blackberry did not make me laugh.  The fight turned me into a duck; an angry, frustrated, duck.

A quick restroom break later, we were lining up with 2,500+ others to get our run on.  

 

Only a few minutes of waiting before blends started popping up all around us!  Was so excited with Alicia joined us. 
 

Followed only a few moments later by Mareesa!

And before long we were off. 

Alicia and I decided to try and stay with one another for as long as possible.  Running with Alicia was so awesome.  The first mile seemed to fly by, because we were chit chatting through most of it. 

We were able to stay together for almost the entire race, rejoicing over misting stations and taking our time to walk through water stations.  [water has NEVER been so refreshing as it was during this race!] Alicia started getting a cramp near the end of the second mile, so we took about a 45 second walking break before powering through a hill. 

After the final water station, she instructed me to keep going if she needed to break again, and when she started to pull back, I took her encouragement of “go!” to heart and started to really push it.  I was running at about 8:30 pace for much of the last mile, and took two short walking breaks before powering through the last quarter mile.  I finished in a sprint and felt so strong! 

We also found this super strong lady, beaming after the race!  Erica had a strong race, too! She, Alicia and I all did the “under 45 minutes!” dance.

After the three of us found one another, we cheered Cynthia over the finish line.  Cynthia did a great job!  She is coming off of an injury, and her doctor and physical therapist have instructed her to only run for half an hour, so after she jogged the first couple of miles at a comfortable pace, she finished the race walking. I am so proud of her for listening to her doctors and her body in order to prevent further injury.  Cynthia is seriously one of the strongest women I know!

2010 time: 50:46 
2011 time: 43:42

I’m sorry. What’s that?  Oh, that’s nothing but a SEVEN MINUTE AND FOUR SECOND SPEED-UP! That’s what I call a PERSONAL RECORD!! What!?! What!?!?

I think that means I was pretty happy with my race results:

Another super fun note: This is the first run I’ve ever managed an average pace of under 11 minutes a mile. Holy-ma-joly – I am one proud runner