So this weekend was my Disney Virtual Surprise weekend.
That means I get to participate in the RunDisney events without having to travel to FL, and without having to wake up at 2am to make it to the race starting line, race, and then find my family to spend a day of activities in the parks, attempt to go to bed by 7 or 8 pm, and wake up again the next day to do it again.
Unlike the Dopey Challenge (5k, 10k, HM, Full Marathon), this springtime challenge is 3 days of races (5k, 10k, and a 10 miler). So a lot more ‘doable’ than Dopey.
Yes…I get to ‘lose’ being part of the run magic. The hype, the costumes, the characters, etc. BUT, I still get to participate, stream the online races while I complete them, and I save tons of time and money to get my awesome Disney BLING.
One thing I like to do, is make the MOST out of the challenge. You see, they give you an ‘extra medal‘ to represent the ‘challenge’ as opposed to any individual race. What I do, is come up with my own challenge/race to earn that medal as well. It usually not a timed run, but rather a total distance to do a workout.
So for this time it will be a workout run that totals all the races combined (5k, 10k, 16k = 31k or 19 total miles in a single run! Definitely a LONG RUN day.
In return, I get a foot painful with blisters, shot, legs, overall body fatigue, and a HUGE chip on my shoulder of having completed and earned these Disney Virtual Medals.
So now to the TITLE of the blog post. PBS falling down… You see I do my best to try to run/complete these races with purpose and make the most out of them. So far I ran the 10 miler at a very fast pace and finished it at 69 min (1 hr 9 min, with an average pace of under 6:58 per mile). This was the fastest I have ever hold this pace for such a long run. And holding on to THIS pace would have given me a 1/2M time of 1:31 a definite PB and way under my BQ pace (1:35).
For my 10k, I set up to break another PB. Until that day, my best time was 43:57, and that had just been broken just a few week prior on the treadmill on a midnight run. This time I started with the ‘required’ pace that would break 42 min and held on to the effort for the whole run. I even ‘negative split’ it during the last few miles to guarantee my success. Except for a smaller room when I accidentally pulled on the emergency stop cord on the treadmill with .15 miles to go and having to reset the speed, loosing precious time, I was able to complete the race with a 41:46!
This time is very important to my training and my confidence. It shows that I am ‘on track’ and should be able to, on ideal circumstances, qualify for Boston soon. So I am PSYCHED about my progress and my future in running.
At the time I am writing this BLOG post, it is 5:30 in the AM and I can’t sleep because I am ‘excited’ for my 5k run which I am doing LIVE at the St Lukes Hippie Run in Lehighton, PA. I have already broken the 20 min 5k barrier recently, but today the goal is to break that same barrier during an ACTUAL physical run. TODAY is the day!
I am waiting until 6am and them I will go to the basement and cycle (stationary bike) for a bit. This will warm up my muscles and get me ready for the race, at least I hope so.
So stay tuned and look for an update later tonight or tomorrow on how I did on this RACE DAY.
Comments