Mini Practice Run

Well, Sunday 4/18 was the "big day." The day I was scheduled to do my practice mini. I had originally planned on doing the practice 13.1 on 4/24 but we made plans to go to Cincinnati to celebrate my Dad's birthday and make the first official trip on the boat for this season. Plus, I thought it might be good to have 3 weeks to rest from the long runs before the mini, instead of only 2. Especially since most race training schedules will never take you to the full mileage until the day of.

Learning from my past mistakes, I only drank a small amount of coffee on Sunday morning and drank plenty of water all afternoon. For lunch, we went to Olive Garden so I had a carb-heavy meal with pasta and breadsticks. I even held myself back from eating too much salad even though I love it :)

I don't have much to say about this run, mostly because it went exactly as planned. For once. I felt great the whole run, minus aching knees and getting ever so slightly dizzy on the last 2 miles. I stationed Chad out with Powerade in regular increments, 3 times total (It was supposed to be 4, but we got our timing mixed up a little). I didn't even run a new route; I ran the same one I did last weekend for the 11-miler, I just extended it one mile farther to make 13 out and back. (See map.)


My finish time was 2:05:25. Ten whole minutes faster than my Mini time last May!! I was really excited about that, but at the same time, it was completely anti-climactic. Out of all the cars driving by me and people outside at our apartment complex, I was the only one who knew that I had just finished a mini-marathon run, and not just a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. There wasn't a big crowd cheering me on, there weren't other runners around me, there wasn't a medal waiting, and Eminem "Lose Yourself" wasn't playing like it was the last time I ran 13.1 miles. I was quietly proud.

Then, I started to get nervous, only because 10 minutes isn't a lot of room for give and take the day of the race. I started remembering how slow the first mile is since the runners are all packed like sardines, and initially it's a big chore to get around the slightly slower participants. Also, there will be more water stops at the mini that I will take advantage of. On the flip side, I won't have to wait to cross busy roads like Allisonville. And for the water breaks, yes there will be more, but I won't linger as long--my shortest Powerade break on Sunday was at least 30 seconds. Chad said that maybe with adrenaline's help, I'll even break 2 hours at the mini. I don't even want to let my mind go there. I set a goal of beating 2:15, so if my time is 2:14, that will still be something to show.

Really, why let a documented finish time at a huge race determine how proud I am? I already won. I beat my goal on Sunday, again let me remind myself, by TEN minutes. I remember back to last year's mini at how fast my pace was to me at that time--5.8 mph--and how I couldn't believe I kept that speed for so long. This time around, my average pace was 6.3 mph. So if I can't recreate that time in 3 weeks, who cares? I have the satisfaction that I did it once--my watch times just as accurately as the mini shoe tag!

Ok. Who am I kidding? The official mini time is all that matters!!!

Songs of the run:
In My Head -Jason DeRulo
Break Your Heart -Taio Cruz ft. Ludacris
(those first two I downloaded just for this run--needed some new, motivating tunes!)
Pencil-Thin Mustache -Jimmy Buffett (just a good song I don't ever listen to, except when it comes on ipod shuffle!)
Taking Care of Business -BTO (because I WAS taking care of business)
Love Generation -Bob Sinclair (came on during my last 5 minutes of the run!)