Tempe IronGirl

At the start line hands on watches!

What an amazing race! I won the 2009 Tempe IronGirl with a time of 1:03:27, a 6:19 average pace over the 10 miles. I felt so good! I was only aiming for 6:40's, but I surprised myself. The stars were aligned for me today!
I had some AMAZING girls to compete against (including a world-class triathlete) , which made for a good race. I left my main competitor at mile 8 to finish strong with my last 2 mile splits at 6:06 and 5:56. I just felt really, really, good. Matt, Terri, Mark, and Bradford were all there cheering me on and said I had a smile on my face the entire time. This is my first win at a big race, so I am really excited about it, not to mention, I was kind of the underdog (or unknown) going in.
On my tail. :) Great racing!

I got a lead bike! Holy cow!




So close to the finish in a sprint.
I think this has to be my best race picture of all time. :)
Crossed the mat, I'm done!

http://www.onlineraceresults.com/race/view_race.php?race_id=10228#racetop

Shannon did awesome in the 5k, a new PR for her after dealing with a severe injury this past month!
Yay! Alissa and Alanna both ran amazing 10 mile races as well. The Irongirl was a great race and so much fun!
Next up...Tucson!

Fun Stuff

So I found Tank nestled on the couch with my Runner's World the other day. I KNEW he loved running too! Maybe he just has a thing for Grete Waitz! :)

I got my FIRST pair of racing shoes in the mail today! I have been really wanting to try the new Brooks Launch performance trainer/competition shoe. Matt has been hearing about it for weeks! I was about to order them online and he broke the news that he had already ordered them for me. Seriously, I am the luckiest girl in the world. He wrote a little note to go with them that he is proud of me for chasing my dreams. He is so unbelievably sweet and thoughtful. *sigh*

This is them, nice and bright and just in time for my race on Sunday!

IRON GIRL TEMPE

So, we went to watch Terri, Brett, Jim, Jan, and many of our other friends run the Phoenix 10k/5k today. They all did so awesome ! I cannot believe how many people were there! It was great! The McMillan elite racing team from Flagstaff was also there, so it was really cool to see the women race. Holy Mackeral they are fast!

So, I *just maybe* got the itch to race and I *just maybe* signed up for the Iron Girl 10 miler next weekend at Tempe Town Lake. Maybe meaning yes. :) I am super excited for it and also I am curious to see how my training has been going. My goal is a 6:30 pace for the 10 miles. We'll see. :) I have 82 miles scheduled for this week, so I am going to cut that and taper a bit.
Yesterday I ran 20 miles with the last 14 miles at marathon goal pace (6:45-6:50) with my last mile at 6:20. It felt great!!!

Here is the link to iron girl, it looks really fun!

TEMPE IRON GIRL 10 MILER

Wish me luck!
xoxo

New Stuff

I will start out the post with some great news! Matt recently got promoted to a team leader position at Vanguard!!! We are very happy and super excited! He is such an awesome leader!

We are both still training like crazy! After my 100 miles week, I dropped to 80 miles for the next week, I have 90 miles this week, 82 next week, 90 the following, and then we get to cut back our mileage for three weeks as our legs get ready for the marathon!!! It is kind of daunting to train so hard for one race. Anything can happen on race day, so its hard to know that you are putting all of your eggs in one basket.

I recently finished up parent-teacher conferences, which were awesome, but kept me super busy. So know the storm of the holiday season begins! This is the best time to be a teacher. There are so many fun things to do with the kiddos. I love this time of year!

I love this article/survey. You might be a runner if....
The points are so true. I especially love the one about planning all of your eating around running! I will be so sick of bland chicken and Quinoa /rice/oatmeal by Dec 13th!