Two Races in 24 hours!

This weekend I officially lost my mind and ran 2 races in one weekend! The even crazier part is that I run the Pittsburgh half on Sunday!

At this point in my training cycle I knew I wasn't motivated to get in quality runs (just burned out, tired, ready for race day) and so I figured I might as well get a good tempo run in and then a nice hill/speed workout the next day.

Saturday morning I got up reasonably early and got a nice breakfast and a shower to help wake myself up. The race was only 25 mins away (probably the closest I'll run all year since I don't live in a great place for running!) and it was a memorial run for a State Trooper killed by a drunk driver. It was at a local Catholic College and was such a great event put on for an awesome cause and I LOVED that they prayed before the race! They had children's races (a 100m and a half mile--it was so cute!) because the trooper who died LOVED kids. His family put on an awesome event to honor their son! All along the course they had signs with different stats about drunk driving and all the proceeds from the race bought breathalyzers for the troopers.

Anyway, on to the race! It was a 5k and 10k and I ran the 10, so I did the loop twice. It was really hilly but my goal was just to treat it as a nice HMP tempo and I ended up getting a race PR of 55:48 (I have run a 53 workout)

Mi 1: 8:16 Felt good-stayed with the crowd and I figured I'd do two miles hard, back off for 2, and finish strong--then I saw the hills and figured I'd cruise downhill but stay consistent uphill

Mi 2: 9:28 Bit of an uphill here but I stayed strong. Was sad when I saw how slow this was but I had to back off in order to race 4 more miles

Mi 3: 8:43 Finished up the first loop with a solid mile, passing people on the downhills.

Mi 4: 8:54

Mi 5: 9:49 Same hill--this time I allowed myself to walk a bit

Mi 6: 9:05 Kept looking at my pace for my goal of 9' miles--I JUST made it!

.2 Mi: 1:33 Finished strong!

1.8 cool down miles for 8 total and I did some serious stretching followed by using a massage chair at babysitting that night! haha

Sun I woke up a bit earlier as this race was 40 mins away. This was the Mt. Summit 3.5 Mi challenge and was, quite simply, running up a mountain! At the top there was an after party and most people had rides down but I chose to run downhill (I earned it after that 1700ft climb and enjoyed the fast running!) for 7.25 miles total.

Mi 1: The first .6 were barely uphill and was just about getting into a groove. I had decided I was going to run the first mile straight no matter what and then would alternate walking and running as needed. 9:55 first mile after the last .4 started getting really tough!

Mi 2: 13:46. Ran 5 minutes, trudged 1 minute, etc.

Mi 3: 15:37..  At this point I was trying to run for 2 cones and walked the rest of the way...7:11 for the last .53. I got a little inspired to run more when I got closer to the finish!

Run down: 3.72 miles in 31:14 (8:24/mi pace) 8:30, 8:13, 7:56, 6:35 for the last .72. It was kind of scary to run all-out downhill so I gradually got more fearless with it. I also didn't want to destroy my knees!