Archive for June 15th, 2009

Two blog posts in one day but this is the one I’ve been dying to post for the last couple weeks…

OK, The Gifted Runner 2.0 is finally live for public consumption.  Take a look and let me know if something is weird or wrong because at this point, I’m absolutely cross-eyed.

No pressure for anyone here to ever buy anything ever, but if you spread the word among your running friends, I’ll be ever so grateful.

A couple fab things with the new site:

1. The shirts are customizable!  You can add your name and/or a message or graphic to the opposite side of the shirt for only $3.40.  You can actually attempt to add it to the existing graphic side for free, though you’ll probably have to mess around with my graphic to get it to fit.

2. A lot of the gift items are also customizable, you can change the background color on many of them so have at it…make that refrigerator magnet match your kitchen!

2. Besides the wicking shirts (yay!!!) there are tons of different regular t-shirt styles and colors.  Just click one of the picks under Fashion Shirts on each design page, there’s a link that takes you to all the available colors and styles.

3. I’m open to requests.  If you see a design you’d like in a different color, I’ll do it for you.  Ditto a design on the front or back that you’d like on the opposite side of the shirt, just email me through the customer service thing and I’ll post it with the rest of the collection.

I hope you like it.  I’m on a mission to keep designing and adding new stuff on a regular basis, so if you don’t like anything yet, keep checking, there might just be something for you there eventually.

Whew, I think I need a drink.

Because as Jim noted, the previous post wasn’t really a report, more like a glossing over, I’ll expand here.

The race itself was small, 300 people.  Weather was cloudy and 68 degrees with a dewpoint of 59.

Unlike my other races this season, I put no pressure on myself at all.  I kind of knew I’d get a PR because the weather was better than my last 5K, plus I know the course completely and I had my magic shoes.

My goal was to see something between 6:30-6:35s in the Garmin and that’s how it went down.  I was the third woman at the beginning, then I passed Christine (who I know from the park and this blog) which left some tiny 20-something wisp of a gal in front of me.

She was an odd duck because she came out of nowhere about 3/4′s of a mile in, passing me and zooming ahead.  I talked to her after the race and she said she likes to do the slow start.  She also likes humidity, told me it means there’s more oxygen in the air.  Doesn’t work for me, but good for her.

Anyway, during the race I was thinking how good it was that she was there (as with all the women I’m ever behind) because without them, I wouldn’t push so hard.  I kept her in my sights the whole time, knew I couldn’t pass her but just tried to keep the space between us as tight as I could for as long as I could.

I noticed as I ran that for the most part my breath was 2:2, so I knew I was doing alright.  I tend to pay attention to these things now as it’s a barometer of how hard I’m working.  Not sure when my breath went 1:1, somewhere around the last half mile.

My Garmin autolap splits were right on with the first two mile markers which doesn’t happen too often.  You go under some overpasses so the Garmin tends to get wonky at those places (which I’ve just realized today after overlaying two races on the same course), but my Garmin splits were:
6:34,6:34,6:29, and though the last bit doesn’t come out right, Garmin shows me kicking in at 6:01 to finish.

As far as socializing, as mentioned, Audra’s girlfriend Loren was there with Bea the dog, Audra’s mom came with her nephews, also their friend and friend’s kid, plus my friend Yvonne showed up, so with Judy there too, it was quite a little party.

So looking to Friday evening, I really want to race it now because I’m feeling great off yesterday’s effort, but the weather looks like crap at this point, 77 degrees with dewpoint of 62 (exactly what I had for my last 5K) so unless that changes, I’m not going to drive out there for a tempo run.

And that’s it from race central for the moment.  Must get the website finished up today…

Later, loves.