Upping the Ante

Starting on Saturday, July 4, we loyally followed our training schedule and upped the ante of our runs, from 4 miles to 5 miles, 3 times per week.

Our Independence Day run left us feeling a little worried about bumping to 5 miles; fortunately, we were able to attribute our "lack of excitement/long time to finish" to the route itself. We had put together what seemed to be a well thought-out route when looking at a map. In reality, changes in elevation that you don't readily see on a flat map can have a HUGE impact on your run. Long story short, our run simply included far too many, poorly located hills. :)

Our subsequent 5 miles runs have resulted in a much better experience. Due to the humidity (thanks, Ohio), we switched to early morning runs (aka pre-sunrise). We've worked out a great out-and-back route that we continuously chip a few seconds off with each run. Yesterday was our first time back with running club since it started and we actually completed the 5 mile run nearly as fast as we had completed the 4 mile run a few weeks back - now that's improvement!

We stick at 5 mile runs for a couple weeks which is great because we'll have the opportunity to continuously improve our speed and form without having to worry about the additional miles.

HP Blast!

We were out of the country last year during the Hyde Park Blast and the year before that we were moving into our new place. I can't offer an comparison to how this event rolled in the past but this year, it was larger than life.

The race itself was packed with over 2100 runners and walkers. The water stops were well-placed just after the 1- and 3-mile splits. There were plenty of dogs. The route's aesthetics were stunning. And Jen and I started, ran, and finished strong! We beat our Wednesday night test run by a full 8 minutes - the fastest improvement we've ever had on a course. Running the route before the race took a little suspense out of the race but we were able to pace ourselves better and mentally prepare for the hills (there was quite the abundance of these).

Immediately following the finish line, we grabbed our complimentary biodegradable and reusable sport water bottles (very nice!) and caught the attention of a few friends that also ran the race. A little stretching led to the best part of the race - the after-race food! Some delicious Bavarian pretzels, mimosas, toast, eggs, and ice cold Moerlein draft later, we witnessed the incredibly speedy Elite racers cross the finish line. These men and women are fast...they ran roughly 4:15 miles. Wow!

Great race, all around. Looking forward to chopping double digits of my time next year. :)