4 weeks to go!

I kind of feel bad for my friends right now because I'm so focused on Boston it's all I talk about. Only 4 more weeks then I'll be talking about summer races. Hahaha

What an amazing week I had last week!!!!!!!

Tuesday, I did a timed 2 mile run in 16:10, trying to get under 16:00. Will attempt again this week. Then I went for a 6 mile hill run with a friend.

Wednesday, I discussed active rest with the trainers at the gym because it's the one thing I struggle the most with - REST. Who woulda thunk it, I'd rather run 18 miles than take a rest day. I ended up doing 45 minutes on a stationary bike to kill time and try not to raise my heart rate too much. It was a fun challenge.

Thursday, I did another 6 mile hill run with another friend and visited our running friend that just had her baby girl, Ryann Ann, on Monday. Adorable!

Friday, did a nice easy 7 miler and some yard work because it was gorgeous out.

Saturday, 18 miler at race pace. I felt AMAZING! I still can't believe how awesome I did. I went out easy in the first 4 miles and then found my stride and held onto it for the rest of the run and even picked up the pace in the last 3 miles. Here are my splits:
1- 10:33
2- 9:44
3- 10:34
4- 9:55
5- 9:25
6- 9:17
7- 9:48
8- 9:33
9- 9:20
10- 9:35
11- 9:07
12- 9:22
13- 9:31
14- 10:23 (huge hill)
15- 9:55
16- 8:55
17- 9:08
18- 8:56

After the run I got lunch at Life Alive and brought some food to my friend and visited with the new baby again.

Sunday morning was the Historic Quincy half marathon. I wasn't expecting to break any records considering that I ran 18 the day before and did it super fast. So, I met up with a friend from the Thursday night Crossroads runs and decided to try and stick with his pace. We were targeting 10:00s for the first 3 miles and ended up going out quite a bit faster. I felt really good. When we reached the first water stop my friend stopped and I kept going. He never caught up. I was in the zone. I reached the half and realized I was on pace to PR and maybe even break 2 hours. I just needed to run 9:00s or less for the last 5 miles. AND I DID IT!!!!!!!!! Here are my splits for the race:
1- 9:13
2- 9:13
3- 9:13
4- 9:12
5- 9:09
6- 9:14
7- 9:04
8- 8:58
9- 8:58
10- 9:13
11- 9:01
12- 8:43
13- 8:22
.1- 7:16

I felt like I had rockets on my shoes. I need to go back to the running store and get another pairs. Like Forrest Gump said, "they were my magic shoes".