Oh my, we have made it to Week 4 of the Un-Canceled Project races. I'm glad they added two more weeks, because clearly the rest of the society is still canceling a lot of things. This week, MN announced that students would not be returning to the classroom this spring. Even though I pretty much figured that was the way things would end up, I was really sad. After I got the notice to come to the Google Hangout (still not as fun as it sounds LOL), I spent the next hour cleaning bulletin boards and stuff out of my office that I wouldn't need with no students eating at school. The next two weeks, Courage and Commitment are not canceled; Deb and I have not chosen race distances, but I'm hoping for something other than a half marathon next week as my legs are a bit tired. This week, our theme was Inspiration and the color was teal. Deb found a pretty teal shirt from a local marathon that she often volunteers for in the food area at the finish line. I dug out this shirt that commemorates a runner I knew as a teenager and she was the little sister of one of my tiniest teammates with the biggest heart. Johanna grew up to be a fabulous runner winning many titles along the way including Division III Cross Country Champion AFTER recovering from a brain tumor. She went on to qualify for the Olympic Trials in the marathon although her brain tumor recurred 3 more times before ending her life at age 33 just over 7 years ago. You can read more about her story here or just Google Johanna Olson and you'll find articles from Runner's World, ESPN and others. Here is how I most remember Johanna and Marney...as WDC runners of the 90's. Johanna was lucky to have such a great big sister as Marney who took her to treatments and took care of her quite a bit while she was fighting cancer. Here is our starting line photo and the back of my shirt...I was delighted to find a shirt that was teal-ish in color as well as containing the word "inspires." You may have noticed that we do not appear to be in front of my house as usual, nor is it dark. Well, today was the original date of the Earth Day Half Marathon and we had pledged weeks ago to run the course today whether or not there would be a virtual race...which there is in addition to a make-up date in September. We also moved our usual running of time of 6:00 to 7:00 so we'd for sure have daylight. Since the course changed a little last year in honor of the 20th anniversary of the race, we were a little unsure of a few spots along the way, but it went pretty well. In order to finish in two hours or less, I knew we'd need to average 9:10 per mile or less. This was sometimes a challenge, but we were pretty steady between 8:55 and 9:10 for most of them. The weather was perfect for a nice long run, 40's warming into the 50's by the end and virtually no wind. It's really too bad the actual race couldn't be today; people would have a lot of personal bests in this kind of weather. Last week I'd felt like I was dragging a giant trailer through the last few miles. This time I felt much better, even surging a bit at the end and I don't mind bragging just a bit that mile 13 was 8:38...one of the fastest along the way. I've read statistics that all World Records have been set with negative splits...running faster at the end than at the beginning. While I'm not setting any world, or even personal records these days, I do like the feeling of finishing strong...very inspirational! Our finish line photo was taken in front of a local bar that burned down a couple of months ago and turned out to be arson. We chose to take the photo here because the missing building really changed the landscape of downtown and we wanted to capture that. This week's run was inspiring for a number of reasons. It was a refreshing change of pace to go somewhere else to run. The weather was so beautiful that I'm more exciting for spring weather. The fact that we were nailing mile paces under 9:00 or under on 7 of the 13 miles was a reinforcement that training pays off. Running the race course made me hopeful that we'll be back there with 1,000 or so of our closest running friends in September.
What is inspiring you these days? I hope you are using your quarantine time to get some extra steps in running or walking...maybe your dog is losing a little weight like mine, which his vet wanted him to do anyway. Enjoy the sunshine whenever you can; Vitamin D really does boost moods so go soak it up. Happy running! Missee
1 Comment
Sandie
4/27/2020 07:32:18 am
Great job
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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