legs felt all tight and terrible

There are a couple loops from my house that can be strung together to make up a long run for these months when the carriage roads are offically closed. Mark came over and ran me through the 10 miler, and then with him peeling off and having just run by my driveway it truly felt like the run reset itself. Lucky for me, mile 11 felt like a mile 1 and I had the best 15 miler I can remember. Nothing lightning fast, just relaxed and felt great. All the speed can go to the midwinter 10 crew--have a blast folks!

and 7 down. Tried a new course today, from the river, up and out of the valley on the Parkway, then back. No shoulder to speak of, but the traffic was light and the drivers courteous. The hills felt good, except for the first one which starts after only a half mile warmup and gains about 1000 ft over the next mile and a half. Made for a pounding, fast finish!

Ginger just called she ran 1:25 3 min. faster than last year
Suzanne ran 1:23
Judson was 3rd not sure of his time

Great to hear of those good long runs, Shannon and Chris. Congratulations on those PR's Ginger & Suzanne & a 3rd overall for Judson.

I had a beautiful 10K run and good company (Gary & John) but sure felt like I was dragging out there despite a relatively easy pace. I tossed in a couple more on the ET for a cool down. 6.6m Thursday on the ET and 7 running along the river Friday. Life is good in the neighborhood.

My route near home. Good job at the mid winter classic. Nice running!

Well, I am just delighted. I ran the 10 miler in 1:23:01, and that put me at an 8:19 pace. When I think back on the fact that the first time I ever ran 10 miles was on 7/22/07, and at a 10:30 pace, I just can't believe it. I actually think I am still just a bit numb from the excitement. :)

I think one of the things I am most proud of is the way I handled the mental aspect. I knew that I had followed all of Judson's coaching, and I knew my legs felt great. What I was worried about was pacing and thoughts in my head. Judson said to not go out too fast in mile 1 and shoot for 8:30. I got to mile 1 and ran 8:00. I told myself this was perfectly OK, and that I just needed to adjust a bit. Mile 2 was 8:22, so that was better. Then I had an idea. I decided I wasn't racing 8 more miles, but 8 more individual races. I decided to honor each mile on its own and run each one where I felt best. Immediately, that relieved pressure, as I knew there would be some fluctuation and that was OK. In mile 6, I started feeling tired. I said to myself, "Suzanne, this is a race- you are working hard and you are meant to be tired. Hang on and the feeling will pass." And it did! Within 30 seconds or so I felt better. I also told myself if I needed to back off a bit at any given point, that was OK. This all worked so perfectly for me. I felt great, but I worked hard. I had a great kick at the end. I'm happy and proud.

To top it off, we enjoyed a nice meal out with Ginger, and it made my day to see her have such a fabulous PR. I also can't thank Jimmy enough....not easy to entertain DeLaney that long and he did it all for me. I'm lucky. :)

Lastly, there is NO WAY I could have run this race without Judson's guidance. He is amazing, and I am so grateful.

to the 10 milers down in Cape E. Great running everyone! And Suzanne, after last week's run I'm not in the least surprised by your 8:19s. You seemed very comfy at the low 8s we ran in non-race conditions, even after the brutal hill in the middle.

I ran around Trenton with Shannon again and thanks to her had a very nice long(ish) run after a busy and stressful week. Nice weather too--it felt good to run in still air after the hurricane yesterday.

Well I at least finished in the top 4. We went out really slow and for the first 3 miles I felt really bad so never was able to take the lead very much during this period. Although I did lead most of the first 1 and a 1/2. The rolling hills through the next mile hurt me more then they should and at the top of each one I found myself 10 feet of the lead pack in 5th place and breathing very heavy. I kept waiting for one of them to surge and totally drop me but they never did and I was able to real them in each time. It happened 3 hills in a row and that was fine by me they were leaving me in the race. Pack of 5 of us.

Went something like 5:25, 5:26, 5:21 for the first 3 miles which was slow but it felt harder than it should have. I should have warmed up better because all of a sudden I felt good and we ran the next 2 miles in 5:13 and 5:03. Andy surged going down mile 3 and everyone covered. By mile 4 we had started to lose Andy, and I went up side by side with Mr. Vermont and for about 2 minutes we surged together which got rid of Andy for good and really got things going up to mile 5. Ethan and Kirby went with us and then there was 4.

Mile 6 was where everything happened, and the hills here hurt me like the hills in the first few miles had. Real quick the guy from Vermont was leading with Ethan hanging on 10 feet back to him, 20 feet back Kirby Davis off Ethan and I was 10 feet off Kirby. Kirby seemed to lose a lot of distance up the hill at mile 6 and I was 20 feet back in 4th place losing more ground. Real fast the Vermont guy was stretching out his lead Ethan and Kirby staying about the same distance away from me. By 8 miles I'd caught Kirby and we worked for the next mile trying to catch Ethan. We were catching him and got within 20 seconds before Ethan surged again. I went past Kirby with about a mile to go and finished third. Last 5 miles were 5:28, 5:21, 5:28, 5:23, and 5:17, so 53:28 for the total or 5:21 pace. Didn't I just race a 5-k a month ago at 5:16 pace? I definetly could have kept clicking off 5:20's for at least another 5 miles, I just didn't have any speed today, so i'm strong.

For whatever reason I felt very uncomfortable every uphill I came too. On a scale from
1 to 10 I'd say I ran about a 7. It was ok. At 3 miles I really thought getting in the top 4 was not going to happen so getting that feeling the way I did gave me some confidence. Overall it was ok, but I've gone through 10 miles faster in a 20-k, 1/2 marathon, 25-k and even in the marathon, so it wasn't that good either. Officially it was my 3rd best 10-miler, but like I said I've run the first 10 of a marathon faster. Anyhow I get my rematch against both Ethan and Mr. Vermont at the New Bedford 1/2 marathon in about 6 weeks. Bet your butts I'll be ready and Now I finally get to start doing some faster training, so hopefully by then 5:20 pace will feel easy and I'll be able to run 5;10 pace or so.

It was fun to race again and good to get back into the Maine scene. Ginger, Steve, Brian and Suzanne all ran well. The ladies raced, the guys ran long runs.

Sounds like you all ran well, and you should be proud. Suzanne, I love your mid-race self-counseling. It worked!

And a huge win for Sheri P. in 58:25, down from 1:02:39 last year. Holy smokes!

Mid-Winter 10-mile Classic results.

but... I had a great run today, I was a bit emotional at the end. Nice Pr's do that to me. I gave Suzanne a big hug and told her that she's a big reason I ran a great race. Judson's hill workouts have definitely helped me, the hills were cake today. Ant hills compared to what I've been training on. Last year I had to walk! Yay. I'm a happy camper, and EXTREMELY proud of Suzanne.

Keep the good racing and reports coming. A special congrats to the Dynamic Duo. Looks like DT had a solid run, too.

2.5M w/u, 10M in 1:10:51 at the Mid -Winter Classic, 1M c/d/ Great day for a race. Great seeing Judson, Ginger & Suzanne. Go Patriots!

Keep running!

ideal weather this morning for the race.Low-30's,overcast,light wind.After treadmill running for past 1.5 months and not using flats since T-Day 4 miler last Nov I did an elongated warm-up to shake off the cobwebs and check the knee on pavement.Everything felt fine.I know I could have covered the course a bit faster but lack of hillwork because knee was bothering a while back did me in.Congrats all on PR's and good races.A new 10 mile PR for me 1:03:35.

to you all. Thanks for the great race reports. I'm on a rest day and spent a good part of it getting to DC for work meetings tomorrow. Yaeah! Judson, Suzanne and Ginger. whew

for the day off. I'm tired today. I can't wait to put myself down for my nap.

I need to work on pacing, my first mile yesterday was 8:20 and my second to last mile was 8:45. No negative split for me, although, I think Brian ran a negative split. I was happy that I didn't run one mile as slow as I averaged last year's race. Of course, the weather was terrible last year too, but we won't dwell on that!

the official clock at the mile was 8:20ish. I did hear you scolding yourself at mile 1, now I know why. Suzanne, there's two great picture of you on David's site. Go to Maine Track Club, scroll down to David's site and look through all the pictures. I like the one of you finishing.