The rest of the weekend....

So what better way to follow a 5K race and long bike ride than a long run, o.k well a longish run.
We had 10-12 miles on the schedule for Sunday. We had a 10 mile route planned with a 6:00am meeting time. The great thing about this route was the fact that it had a bathroom at the 3 mile mark, actually this was a 3 mile + 7 mile route. It worked perfect since several people had different mileage needs for Sunday. Andrea needed 10 and she was meeting Melisha who needed 20 they arranged to meet at 5:00am they would run the 7 mile route together and meet us at 6:00 run the 3 mile route and then Andrea would be done and Melisha who needed 20 miles would run the rest of the route with us... well not me she is very very fast!!
I decided that I would go to the school early and run 2 miles before everyone else arrived and then hopefully if I had any stomach issues I could take care of them before the 6:00am start time. I told Jane my idea and she said she would meet me. I was very thankful especially when the alarm went off at 4:00am and I didn't want to get up, knowing Jane would be waiting on me made me get out of the bed!
It was actually very nice when we first started running at 5:25, about 70 degrees and breezy. We started off by walking, I had turned my garmin on and started jogging but then remembered that we had discussed warming up with a walk. I left my garmin on anyway since this was just about getting warmed up. We still averaged a 10:33 pace for the 2 miles which I thought was great!!!
The warm up run did it's job and we ran over to the gas station so I could make a pit stop, and then we got back to the school just in time to meet everyone.
We had a pretty good size group... Brenda, Tri-Lisa, Cindy(for 3 miles)Mark O.,Kelly, Robert, me and Jane.
First up was the 3 mile Candlewood loop, I normally don't like this route but it was o.k. this time and no problems, good grief how could I forget that Jackie also came with us!! She is battling some serious health issues but she is still training to possibly run the Memphis 1/2 or whole marathon and she is also doing the Goofy Challenge at Disney World in January.
Jackie mostly ran with us but with her walk/run plan she would sometimes be behind or ahead of us mostly ahead but we had some nice stretches where she ran with us and we got to talk quite a bit. She is a good example of how well the Galloway plan can work, she is a very fast runner so even with taking 2 walk breaks each mile she was still faster than me!
We didn't take any walk breaks the first 3 miles, mostly because I knew I would stop at the gas station at the end of the route.
Jackie ran to her car while I took my pit stop and then we all met up again at the corner and now we had Heather with us.
The 7 mile route is Mt. Carmel to Dogwood to Mt. Tabor to Hwy 89. Very hilly and plenty of traffic.
As we were running up one of the many hills on Mt. Carmel I said to Jane when we get to Dogwood we will take a water break, well I didn't realize at the time how far away that was!! But we ran up every hill and didn't stop until we got to Dogwood. While on Mt. Carmel a Van had sped past us going at least 80 mph, we were all like what is the deal with this guy!! We all kind of threw our hands up in the air at him like are you crazy... well guess who went speeding by us again when we turned on Dogwood... yes it was the white van and he was driving just as fast, and Dogwood is a much narrower road with a 25 mile an hour speed limit!! Our main concern was our other runners who were up ahead of us!!
Also just before we got to Dogwood we saw an ambulance headed that way... this was before the van. Of course all I could think was OMG Brenda and the others are on that road... I hope they are O.K!! I was also mad at myself because I always run with my phone but I didn't have it Sunday morning.
We don't know where the ambulance went but all of our runners were fine.

After Dogwood is Mt. Tabor, this is a very busy road with almost no shoulder and constant hills!
The whole last .5 mile before you get to hwy 89 is a constant incline, and at this point I was starting to fall apart!! I was really kind of upset with myself and started the negative self talk, you know, the good grief why do I think I can run a marathon when I can't even run 10 miles kind of self talk. Luckily at some point I remembered what I had done the day before so I felt a little better. I also didn't do a great job of nutrition! I know that I didn't take in as many calories as I burned on Saturday and I never eat in the mornings before a run, I was probably running on a calorie deficit and all I had consumed so far that morning were 2 honey stinger chews.
When we finally made it to Hwy 89 I thought I was done, I had started trudging or as Marianne calls it slogging. Finally when we got to 11 miles I got mad at myself and said good grief Annette you can run a freaking mile so somehow I was able to pick up the pace and ran the last half mile pretty fast!!
Jane was with me for the whole run, she could have easily left me behind but she never did.
When we hit 12 miles we followed the Scarlata rule and stopped our Garmins and started walking. We had thought we were going to get more of a walk but we were almost at the gas station by the school when we finished.
Because we had added on our 2 miles early we were able to get back to the school at about the same time as Brenda and Melisha who had to add on at the end.
Avg pace for the first 2 miles was 10:33
Avg pace for the next 10 miles was 10:40
1- 10:17
2- 10:26
3- 10:11
4- 10:39
5- 10:28
6- 11:37 - walk break
7- 10:18
8- 11-25 - walk break
9- 10:52... starting to fall apart
10- 9:13... just wanted to finish
Although I had started to feel pretty bad during the last part of the run I was very happy with my avg. pace and splits. It was a very hilly route and I hadn't really recovered from my long bike ride the day before.
After the run Brenda, Heather and I went to Starbuck's in Jacksonville. I talked Brenda into trying the new Vivano Protein drinks they have and then when Heather saw them and tasted mine she went back and got one for herself. They are the perfect recovery drink! Skim milk, a whole banana, whey protein and fiber. I of course I also have to get a shot of espresso!!! :) gotta have my coffee. I like them better than the Frappacino and if you get it with a shot it isn't as thick.
Heather couldn't stay long but Brenda and I sat outside and chatted for quite a while. My car said 8:07 when we were headed to Jacksonville and I think it was 10:07 when I got back in my car to go home.

When I got home I started on laundry and other chores, I made the mistake of sitting in the recliner in the red room, it was supposed to just be for a minute and then the next think I know I am waking up from a 45 minute nap!!
The rest of the day was consumed with watching the live Ironman feed and keeping up with Gary's progress.
I did jump in the pool for a little while later in the afternoon and then Arland and I had take out from Colton's. Salmon, salad and a baked sweet potato.
We ate our dinner sitting on the couch watching the Ironman feed... we weren't sure when Gary was going to come in and we did not want to miss him. I was constantly texting with Michele, and also Brenda a little bit and Arland was texting back and forth with Rock, who was getting some updates from Curtis. It was all very exciting but also tense... we were worried about Gary it had taken him longer on the bike than we expected, and then his Marathon splits were slower than normal for him. It was such a sigh of relief when we finally saw him cross the finish line.. and he looked great! He was pumping his fists in the air and had a big smile on his face. I called him about an hour later and he told me a little about his race... the main thing is he was happy!!!!

Labor Day....
I decided to meet Joan and her group for their Monday run, normally they meet at 8:15 but we were able to talk them into 7:00am. Sure meeting at 8:15 would have meant getting to sleep in quite a bit but it is just too hot to start that late in the morning!!
The run was posted on the Forum and we had a huge group!! Vicki counted and we had 21 runners :) I really wish I could have gotten a picture of all of us running up 321! I started off o.k, and was running with Kelly, Heather, Jamie, Jane, and Vicki. But by the time we got to Cherry I was really struggling... the heat, the busy weekend, everything conspired against me!! We were running the "Cherry loop" and of course just like most of our routes it's got some good hills in it!
Somehow or another I was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other and although I did have to take some walk breaks I managed to finish on my feet and not crawling in on my knees!! LOL
We have a couple of new girls that ran with us for part of our run this morning... Aracely and Isabella, both very friendly it was nice to have them along!!
I was really proud of myself that I actually kept running when we got back to the church parking lot, I was just at 4.86 and it would have been so easy to just stop and call it good, but I really wanted that even number!! LOL
5 miles 11:02 avg pace
1-10:10
2-11:29
3-10:27
4-12:01
5-10:59

Several people had run over 6 and some a little less than 5 and we all kind of got back to the Church around the same time.
A big group of us headed to Starbuck's and Brenda and I talked most of them into trying the new Vivano protein drink... my plan is to get everyone addicted to them so they keep in on the menu!! Vicki wouldn't try one but Joan did and she really liked it! The manager came outside to see how we all liked the Vivano's I think 5 or 6 people ordered them. Everyone said how good they were and she said great and walked back in... a few minutes later she came back out and gave us all coupons for free drinks :)
It was great chatting with everyone.. it's great to get a big group of runners together after a run, all those running endorphin's make for lively conversations!!

I had to go to Wal-Mart for groceries etc. and since Starbuck's is right next door it was perfect! I ran into Brenda in there and we ended up doing our grocery shopping together.

The rest of today has kind of been a blur... I haven't gotten anything constructive done, and if I sat down for too long I would fall asleep, but I never slept for very long because either the phone was ringing or the doorbell or Arland was coming and going...

It was a great 3 day weekend and I'm not ready for it to be over, but in a way I guess I am ready to go back to work so I can get some rest!!!!