The Falmouth Road Race

A big thanks to all who donated, we raised close to $1600 for the Providence Ronald McDonald House!

The problem with fundraising for a race, is that then you have no choice but to run it! I didn't know how this would go, we had run 16 miles the day before and last year this race felt awful. It the corral I was nervous, very nervous. We don't usually run after long runs, never mind 7 miles. I think some of my anxiety stemmed from the potential pain I was fearing. Too late now, we are here and are going to run this.

We were in the last wave to start and made no attempt to move to the front of our group, last year we were in an earlier wave and smack in the front. Before I knew it the gun went off, but we were walking. I don't know how far we were from the start but walked a good 3-5 mins! Finally here we go, the first tentative steps over the start. So far so good, but I was just waiting for the pain to set in. Thankfully we had to run slow due to the crowds. This forced us to stay within ourselves and warm our legs up very gradually. A good thing. Pretty quickly in this race you escape the sun and run a few miles (2) in the woods. During this time I noticed that things felt ok, (probably due to the ibuprofen I downed before leaving the house).

Coming out of the woods the next stretch is a long stretch along the beach, in full sun. Last year I melted down out there, it was pretty ugly. Coming out of the woods there is a nice downhill and I just went with it. After flattening out I didn't back off the pace as planned. Let's go with it and see what happens. What happened was amazing, or at least for me it was.

For the first time ever I felt like I was racing, not just running. My form was tight, breathing was rhythmic, things were just going well. We continued to weave in and out of the crowd and I couldn't believe how many people we were passing. I don't know our mile splits but checking our pace periodically we were btw a 9:40 and 9:10 pace for the next 3.5 miles. Never did I feel like I was out running myself. It really hit me when I realized that for a good mile I was pacing Joe, he couldn't go any faster! This NEVER happens!

It felt great, arms were pumping and the legs were doing what they have learned on the track. I stopped thinking and just let my body go and enjoyed it. Before I knew it were were back into town and the roads were lined 3 people deep with cheerleaders, a mile to go! We had one last climb before the downhill to the finish. I dug in and just ran it. Before I knew it, there was the huge American flag hanging over the finish. Joe grabbed my hand and we glided across it!

For sure I was convinced that I blew last years time out the water, to my dismay we were only 20 seconds faster. This was so much of a better run, I controlled it rather than the other way around. I'm psyched, it felt great and we knocked it out of the park!

Days till NYC: 83
Miles trained today: 7