After almost six weeks of off runs, I've had THREE great tempo/race runs in a row. First off was the Froggy Five last Sunday. It was a five-mile trail race down in Dippykill. I came in third overall out of thirty women. My first time placing overall! I was two minutes behind the second-place girl - although I had better footwork on the downhills, she had obviously done more hillwork and was able to pull away during the uphill portions for the win.
My next tempo run was the Fun Run on Thursday. It was cool and rainy (in fact, almost called off due to thunder) and the course was HillyMan. GoldenBraid showed up and I planted myself behind her according to plan. I was tempted to pull away but just reminded myself I still had miles to go. Around mile two we went separate ways up the hill and I came back down about three hundred meters ahead of her. I managed to pull away even further and came in at a PR-shattering 30:50, which translates into (wait for it), a 7:32 pace. Holy shit! I am officially a 7:30 runner! I'm mad though - they didn't have the results in Saturday's paper so I have to wait for Dr. Z to go through the back issues to see where I placed.
It wasn't a fluke either. This morning I ran a 23:30 5K WITHOUT GoldenBraid there to pace me. (It showed - I did take a very brief walk break.) A little better pacing and I'll break 23:30 without having to improve my cardio.
So yay for breakthroughs!
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