Weekend Recap: PR's and Diamond Rings

If you are an athletic lady and that title did not grab your attention then we probably aren't meant to be best friends. Personal records and diamond rings are very wonderful things. Just sayin'.

This weekend started early on Friday with an amazing bike ride where I hit a distance PR. I covered just over 73 miles. I was pretty excited with my distance and how comfortable I felt being on my bike that long.

After 4 hours of my ass being in my bike saddle I headed home to Philly to celebrate my big sister's engagement and spend an awesome weekend with my family.

We all gathered at a nice italian restaurant where the wine and food was flowing freely. At first I was holding back a little since I was running the Broad Street 10 Miler the next day and I really wanted to run a good race- but after 2 glasses of wine I said the hell with the run, I am here to hang out with family and have fun and celebrate with my big sister...so I drank more wine and stuffed my face with calamari, pasta and whatever else was on the table. We had a blast!




the future Mrs. Pumphrey



family picture!

sisters

After dinner we went out to a local bar for some more fun. Before I knew it, it was 1 am and I had to be up in a few hours to try and survive 10 miles down Broad Street.

My alarm went off at 5:45 and I had a very hard time pulling myself out of bed. I was still super tired and the wine had not had enough time to make its way out of my system. This race was going to suck- so instead of getting down about it I reminded myself that it was just a training run and my pace or the time I ran the race did not matter. My original goal for this race was to PR my only other 10 miler which I ran in 1:38. My pie-in-the-sky goal that I had told Phil was that I would have loved to break 1:30. I am still a very new runner and to be able to run sub 9 minute miles for 10 miles would be a huge accomplishment for me. But when I woke up I knew sub 9's were not possible given the 4 hours of sleep and the 4 (or 6) glasses of wine the night before.

I was feeling a little better by the time I got to the start line so I decided I would start out with the intention to PR the race (so under 1:38) and if I needed to slow down or walk then I would. When I crossed the starting mat, I started my watch and began to jog. I felt ok. I did my first mile at 8:03. I did the second mile in 8:23. That is when I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, I could break 1:30.

I kept on pace to break 1:30 until mile 4, where I had a hard time passing people due to how crowded the race course was (30,000 people!). Mile 4 took me 9:27. At around mile 5, I let 1:30 slip out of my mind because it seemed unrealistic and focused on finding Rachael and my parents on the sidelines cheering.

At mile 6.5 I found my parents and Phil . To my surprise Phil jumped into the race with me and said he would run the rest of the way with me. He asked me my time and then told me we had to pick up the pace a little if I wanted to break 1:30. I grunted and picked up the pace. I could really feel those 4 (or 6) glasses of wine now. I felt like I was going to die but I kept my little legs turning over as fast as I could and kept right on Phil's hip.

Mile 7 was 8:31
Mile 8 was 8:53
Mile 9 was 8:26

I knew this was going to be close. My legs couldn't go any faster. At mile 9.5 Phil was offering words of encouragement to get me to sprint to the finish. I dug as deep as I could and sprinted the last quarter mile at a sub 7 minute pace.

We crossed the finish line together at 1:29:02.

and then I puked.

I gave those last 3 miles everything my body could at the time which was enough for a 9 minute PR from my previous 10 mile time and breaking 1:30.

Thanks to Phil for pushing me through those last 3 miles (and catching me when I almost collapsed at the finish line)- because I wouldn't have broken 1:30 if he hadn't been running next to me.

what a weekend! Distance PR on the bike, speed PR on the 10 miler, and quality time with my awesome family.

I think next time I try to PR, I'll lay off the wine the night before... :)