Spring Thaw Minus the thaw

Saturday marked my first race of any kind for 2010: the Spring Thaw. Given my 09' history, I had no idea what to expect. Last years racing consisted of a whopping 2- triathlons and 2- 5ks due to injury. Don't laugh! And although I've been running for years, I have never seriously raced/trained for anything beyond the 10k distance outside of triathlons. Going into the Spring Thaw 10 miler, I wanted to be realistic and not set too high of expectations for myself. This race was just meant to be a smooth transition into the season.

Anyway the Thursday-Friday snow-hurricane set an ominous tone for the race. With the snow accumulating non-stop, I wanted it to be canceled. No love --as I received an email at 8:20 pm Friday night confirming the race was on. Luckily the late 10 am start made the balmy 25 degrees more tolerable and gave the road crew more time to clear the snow. It was quite and adventure just driving to the start as my civic fish-tailed around multiple turns and almost didn't make it up a few of the hills.

Kim and Heidi pre-race with our matching Jaggad gear

Newton love

Kim and I arrived just in enough time to grab our bags, hit the bathroom, and get in a sufficient warm-up. We made our way to the start and were off. I self-talked my self: don't go out too hard.... don't go out too hard.....

Must not of worked...

My first mile was around a 6:40...

Oooops.....

I warned myself: "Heidi this is NOT a 5k"!!!!!

I backed it off after that and just tried to stick around 7 min/mile as that was the goal in the back of my head. I was successful for the first 5 miles as I crossed the half-way point well under 35 minutes. My heart rate was consistent throughout around the 174-178 range.

The second half wasn't so pretty. My legs and glutes began to lose their juice quickly and my pace faded to more of a 7:15 pace. Fortunately my heart rate stayed consistent and I was able to squeeze out a 1:12 around a 7:12 pace. Although I was a little short of my goal, I am not complaining given the conditions and the fact that this was my first race of the season. As an added bonus, my 6 mile time was faster than I've EVER gone before and I even got 2nd in my age group and 7th OA. And shout-out to Kim who rocked out an amazing time and got 2nd overall and Jeremy who smashed his age group as well!!!Cheers to 2010! But paleeeez mr. weatherman....bring on the REAL spring thaw soon ~ luv heidi

Oh and congrats to my hubby Scott who did his first race of 2010 today the Mardi Gras Rock N Roll 1/2 Marathon... I think I would trade my silly polar bear medal for these:T-minus 2 months until NOLA!!!!