8 months pregnant, and I’m still able to race. That makes me one happy mama!
On Sunday, I teamed up with Craig and two of my co-workers: Jen and Corbyn for a relay along the course of the Kenai River Marathon. We managed a total time of 3:30 and 3rd place for the team division. It was a picture-perfect fall day: temps in the 40s, sunny, leaves turning colors, and breath-taking scenery.
Team Raven: Craig, me, Jen, and Corbyn
Craig started off our relay through the streets of Kenai.
He was a little nervous before starting since he hasn’t done too much running within the past 6 weeks, but he did awesome!
His leg was 5.7 miles and he averaged a 10 minute mile pace. He said he felt good, and he looked much stronger than he did two years ago.
Whitney, one of my athletes ran the full marathon. Here she is at mile 5.8 with the snow-capped mountains in the background. (A little hard to see in this picture, but they were gorgeous.)
Here comes Craig getting ready to tag off to me at the first relay exchange (5.8 miles).
I have to admit though, once again I was very, very nervous that I wouldn’t be able to race or I would have to drop out because my daily runs have not been going so well. Plus they have only continued to get more difficult. BUT as I’ve said before, I think my body knows when it is race time, and once again it was good to me and let me run a decent leg of the race.
My leg was 6.7 miles, and I ran splits between 8:14 – 8:55 minutes per mile. My average was 8:34, which I was very happy about. I felt pretty good most of the time and was able to pick people off throughout my leg. Every so often my abdomen would feel tight, so I would slow down until it went away. In many ways I felt good enough to push it faster, but I wasn’t going to take my chances.
Jen ran the third leg of the relay and averaged an 8:13 pace on her 6.5 mile hilly route. She looked strong despite battling a knee injury the past couple of weeks.
In between cheering for my teammates, I stopped to check in on Whitney periodically to see how she was doing. Here she was at about mile 19 and still feeling good. Yes, she always has a smile on her face while racing.
Corbyn was the 4th person on our team and definitely the speedster. He averaged a pace of 5:50 during his 7.4 mile leg.
Corbyn pulled us ahead and helped us finish 3rd overall with a time of 3:30.
Whitney’s knee started hurting around mile 20, but she pushed on ahead and finished 1st for the women and 2nd overall!
In addition, she qualified for Boston and had a 10 minute PR, from a mere 3 months ago. SO proud of her!
Whitney being interviewed by the local paper. Here’s the article recapping the race. (My name was even mentioned!)
Post-race food was not the healthiest option, but it was free: reindeer sausage hot dog, chips, and a V8 Fusion drink. (I have been more lax with my diet during the pregnancy, which should be the exact opposite. And I told Craig once the baby is born, it is time to crack the whip on my diet again.)
What a fun day, and I love that this has become an annual event for us!
Marathon relays are a lot of fun. : ) Having the fastest person anchor the team is always exciting, you brought in quite the ringer on your team!!