First off, huge props to Nick.  Yesterday he went on a 100-mile bike ride from New Hope, PA to NYC and arrived home at midnight, so the fact that he woke up early this morning (on his birthday, no less) to drive my nervous ass out to West Chester, PA was a big weight off my back.  Not to mention being photographer for the day.  Thank you, birthday boy!!

We get out there at 8am for a 9:00 race.  The weather is pretty nice, 66 and sunny, and the downtown area/race course has a lot of trees, so I know I won’t be able to blame the heat if I suck today.

I get my bib and walk with Nick to the nearest Starbucks so he can read the paper while I leave to stew in my own juices until the race starts.  I walk around some, repeating my new mantra to myself “I am fast, relaxed and strong” hoping it will somehow “take” during the race.  At 8:30, I do a couple warm-up miles with some strides thrown in, but I’m not feeling good about the strides, seems like I can’t get my usual pace on those, so I go back to the mantra and try to chill.

Gratuitous Standing-in-Starbucks-with-idiotic-hair-but-good-abs shot.
(I really do not have a mullet, but clip my hair back for running, so…eh)

The course is a 2-mile loop done twice with some uphills (not real steep, but a few blocks long) and thankfully with accompanying downhills, so I’m thinking ok, not killer but no free rides.  I don’t do the entire course because the volunteers are still walking around at this point with cue sheets trying to figure out where they’re supposed to stand, but I can see how it’ll go pretty much.

Time to line up and we’re off.  It’s a small clog at the start and I settle into my pace.  For the first half of the race, I’m behind a woman in blue, and though I eventually pass her, I realize on the 2nd loop that she’s sticking right behind me because the volunteers keep saying “great job, ladies” and I just know she’s the other lady.

I felt good this race, held back a tad on the first loop since I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I passed a lot of people, so that was a happy thing and on the second split when I saw I was a bit slower than my projected pace, I didn’t bitch at myself at all, just said “fast, relaxed and strong” a few times…and meant it.

After the last hill, just before the finish, I turn the corner and Blue Lady makes herself known, picks up the pace and speeds in front of me.  I take the challenge and stick on her heels with all I’ve got, both of us egging the other on.  She beat me but gave me a high-five the moment we stopped, saying “good race, I was following you the whole time.”  Laughing, I told her she was my carrot the whole first half.  Anyway, she’s 9 years younger, so that’s ok.

Home stretch, Blue Lady on left and me looking ever so determined to catch her ass.

My time?  30:48.  Not quite what I was shooting for, but considering I’m in the midst of some serious marathon mileage, it’s A-OK by me.  My splits per the Garmin were 7:37, 7:41, 7:20, 7:33 and 6:45 for the last .1.  Obviously, this doesn’t mesh with the clock (7:42 pace), but whatever.  They only had the one clock, so I just let the Garmin Autolap every mile.

Afterwards, Nick and I are walking to the restaurant and who should I see but that cute runner girl that had told me in passing that she reads my blog.  We finally introduced ourselves properly and I have to say, that girl’s a firecracker!  She’s doing Pfitz as well for NYC and it’ll be her 7th marathon, so I was totally impressed.  She mentioned that her Garmin had 4.1 and so did mine, so hmm…thought I was good with those tangents today, but anyway, just sayin’.

Finally the results are posted, I’m third in 40-49, but alas, only prizes for 1st and 2nd, so no goodies for me.  We meet up with Nick’s friend Marie for a birthday brunch and finally head home, me feeling good that one more race is over with, Nick dreaming of a long luxurious nap.  All in all, a fantastic way to spend a morning.

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