I'm baaaaack! First race of 2010!

A little over three months ago I ran the Denver Marathon. That marked the end of my 2009 race season and I took some time off to recuperate and recover, and get an overuse injury (never, ever move households during your peak volume weeks when training for a marathon!). About 7-8 weeks ago I began to ease back into training and decided to test my progress at a local 4 mile race.
It was race #2 in the Winter Series put on by the Pikes Peak Road Runners. Start time was 10am on a moderately mild day, though the wind was picking up. The course started at the El Pomar Youth Sports Complex on the south side of Colorado Springs and just picked up the local trail for an out and back. Out was north, slightly uphill and into the wind. Back was the opposite.

I actually got a good night's sleep last night - in bed before 10:30 and up around 7:00am. There were only some small remnants of last week's cold so I felt pretty good! showered then ate a peanut butter/nutella/banana sandwich with a big glass of water. By the time I was dressed and ready, it was time to leave the house. Got to the race site with plenty of time to register and get in a 2+ mile warm-up along the course. Before the race I saw Sam, a fellow Pikes Peak Tri Club member, and TNT participant. Then I saw my dentist. He did recognize me after I turned my head upside-down. :-) I ran into a friend of mine, Jessica (another PPTCer) at the starting line. She'd kicked some butt in the 1st race of the series, so I knew she'd be some good competition.

Off we went and when we were hitting a 7:45 or so pace, I thought that would be good enough for me. I would be happy with an 8:00min/mile pace. So she snuck ahead and I just tried not to get too far behind.

Mile 1 - Getting warmed up here and trying not to go out too fast. Jessica zips past.
Mile 2 - This one was slower - more uphill maybe, tried to tuck in behind some people to stay out of the wind
Mile 3 - downhill and go! I'm feeling it for real now. what am I doing out here? just hold on!

Mile 4 - Garmin locked up so couldn't check my pace. maybe that's a good thing. Just RUN!!! Heard  my friend Shannon yell for me, but didn't see her. And then my dentist passed me...

Hit the finish line in 31:33, so that was fantastic- better than my 8:00min/mile pace that I thought would be a great time for me, so woohoo!  I think that qualifies as a hummin' moment for sure! (Check out Megan Killian's blog for a chance to win some free LARABARS! she's @megankillian) And not only that, I was wearing my brand-spankin'-new Punk Rock Racing hat from Ron. (thanks again @punkrockrunner).

Saw Jessica at the finish line - she beat me by a minute exactly. Great race for her! Then it was time for hot chocolate and donuts! I hung around for Shannon who did the 8-mile version of the race. The wind was picking up so I was glad to see her cross the finish line!

A great race day for me! 4 miles at a sub-8 pace - I'll be smiling and a hummin' all weekend for sure!