Easter Sunday & Boston Monday

Has it really already been two weeks since Easter? I promise that by the end of the week I will be all caught up with my blog posts. You’ll finally get some “real time” information! For now though, here’s a recap of our Easter weekend:

After my half marathon (and 3 hour nap), we drove down to Bardstown to celebrate Easter with Justin’s family. We had a delicious Easter dinner and then dyed Easter eggs. I have not dyed eggs in FOREVER. We had a blast. We also went on a 2 mile walk at a local park. It was by far the most painful walk I've ever been on…but was totally worth it to work out my sore running muscles.

First thing on Sunday morning, we found a Starbucks. Justin gave up coffee for Lent and was in desperate need of some caffeine. 

We went to church with Justin’s parents before heading north to celebrate with my family. It was almost 80 degrees out – the perfect weather for Easter dresses! 

After the most epic photobomb ever, my dad put together an Easter egg hunt for us in the backyard. No, there was no one there under the age of 23. Yes, it was awesome. I am not very the most competitive person ever. I totally had the most eggs at the end :)

We went to my grandma’s for lunch with the Huber family and played our annual game of Easter Whiffle Ball. It’s a good thing Justin & Shane got new bats from the Easter Bunny.

I was super excited for my stuffed bulldog :)

We closed out the day by enjoying dessert and playing cornhole with my mom’s parents on Sunday night. I gave up sweets for Lent so you can only imagine the sugar high I was on after eating an entire bag of Sweet tart jellybeans and about 100 Reese’s eggs! The sugar crash hit me hard and I could barely stay awake to pack up my suitcase that night.

I put in a full day’s work watched every minute of the Boston Marathon on Monday. I had 2 friends running and I was super excited to stalk them for 26.2 miles.

I know I’m a little late, but how awesome is it that Meb won?! I’ll add my congrats to the women’s field as well. A new course record and a bunch of PRs this year! Watching Boston makes me want to quit my job and become a professional runner. Is a contact running high a thing? My vote is yes.  

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

KDF Mini Marathon Recap

I haven’t talked a lot about it, but I trained for and ran the Kentucky Derby Festival Mini Marathon two weeks ago. I knew training would be tough with work, class, and the winter weather but I decided to go for it. It was so difficult to set goals for this race. At first I was disappointed because I knew I would be nowhere close to the times I was running two years ago. It took a few pep talks before I realized that it didn’t matter what my time was as long as I did the best I could given my current situation and time constraints.

As always – it was great to be back in Louisville with the old running crew and be a part of all the usual race traditions.  We kicked off the weekend with some carbo loading at Rockey’s followed by a trip to the Expo. I usually try to avoid most of the vendor booths, but they made you walk all the way through. Your timing chip could only be activated by walking through the “exit” expo doors. Bummer. I did sign the “I Run Because” banner. It was pretty cool to read all of the reasons people were running before adding my own.

On race morning, I tried to eat before I left the house, but my stomach was not having it. I did manage to scarf down a banana while were driving to the course. I was MUCH more relaxed and excited once we got our warm up out of the way.

As usual I took the first mile out way to fast (8:57) but I settled into a grove after that. I was planning for a 10:15 pace but I was feeling really good so I decided to pick it up a bit. Just as I was starting to feel tired, I reached my favorite part of the course. My #1 fans(s) were waiting for me just before the 8 mile mark. My mom, dad, and Justin gave me the boost of energy I needed before heading into Churchill Downs (which is one of my favorite parts of this course!).

I held a 9:30 pace all the way through mile 9.5 and then I hit a wall….maybe not a wall…but definitely a very tall fence. The next 2.5 miles were rough! Of course I was looking my worst for the cameraman at mile 11…why couldn’t he have been at mile 5 when I was still feeling/looking great?! Right after the 12 mile mark (as I was giving myself a DO NOT QUIT pep talk), I passed my #1 Fan(s) again. I guess that was all it took because I got a burst of energy (which I NEVER have at the finish) and finished the race at a 9:30 pace.

My goal in life is to get a great finish photo. I was actually pretty happy with these J I’m not gonna lie – that smile lasted about 10 seconds. It was a rough couple hours after the race. I got back to my parents’ house and slept on the floor of their sunroom for almost 3 hours before feeling human again. I was super pumped with my finish time: 2:08:02. 

I actually had some pretty decent finish photos...which never happens! I might actually order one of these. My finish time was way faster than expected and gave me the motivation to sign up for a fall half. Now I just have to decide which one!

Here are my splits if you’re interested:

Mile 1: 8:57     Mile 4: 9:37     Mile 7: 9:29     Mile 10: 9:49      Mile 13: 9:38

Mile 2: 9:33     Mile 5: 9:39     Mile 8: 9:31     Mile 11: 10:07    Last 0.3: 3.22

Mile 3: 9:30     Mile 6: 9:34     Mile 9: 8:44     Mile 12: 10:31

My Garmin clocked mile 9 short and the last bit of the race as 0.3 instead of 0.1. I'm running with it (pun intended :)

Have you ever run the KDF half? Or full?

What is your favorite fall half marathon?