Get Ready To Rock 20 Mile Race Report!

Hi everyone! I would like to apologize for being a bad blogger as of late! Life has been so hectic and busy that I feel like my head is going to spin off! There are several reasons for my lack of blogging. First of all, work has been so crazy and when I get home...I am spent! I am tired and still need to make time for a few runs each week. Secondly, my daughter Kay has cross country practice every night after school and I am her transportation. She has also had a few weeks of drivers training. Kay now has her driver's permit:) God, please help me! I have also lost my computer rights because my hubby has taken it over with his 6 fantasy football teams! Last weekend I ran a 17 miler and it went okay. I was pretty tired after mile ten. I stopped at a SA to purchase a water and to take a bathroom break. I continued on and did the final seven. This morning I ran my first 20 miler race! I ran the Get Ready To Rock 20 miler in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The picture above is me with my pacers Scott and Juli:) I was pondering what pace group to go with. I looked at the 10 minute, the 9:30 and the 9 minute mile paces. When I run my half marathons I usually can finish in a little under that 9 minute mile pace. It was my plan to run this bad boy easy....one of the pacers talked me into the 9:30 pace with a goal time of 3:10.

There was also a 5K and 10K race going on this morning. Oh boy, I can't believe that I am typing this...I was actually a little chilly before the start. It was in the low 60's, cloudy and a bit windy.

The Minnesota Pacers before the race. I love this pacing group and have used them for several of my past half marathons! They are the best:)

This was my view of the people in front of me about 5 minutes before the start. The 10K and 20 mile racers started out together.

This is the view of the runners behind me. We were told to start our watches at the gun. We moved up a few feet and we were off! The first few miles were along roads in White Bear Lake.

It was right before mile 5 that the 10K runners took a different road. The 20 mile group started to make our way around Bald Eagle Lake for the first time. We had to run around the lake twice:)

I was pretty quiet just listening to the other runners chat. I was trying to get in my happy running place:) I was thinking positive thoughts and secretly hoping that this would be a good run for me. There was part of me that was scared to death of the potential GI disaster! I was thinking about what my doctor told me about the possibility of another blood clot and what that could do to me. I knew that I would have to take this one slow and listen to my body.

Mile six was where I experienced my first little wall. WTH! This was mile six not mile 15 or 16! I kept on going and the wall went away after a few minutes. We were keeping perfect time and all was well! I needed to make a Biffy stop at mile 8 and ran ahead so that I could have an easier time catching back up to my group. I did have to wait in line...but thankfully...not long:) I busted butt and cheek to catch up to my group:)

Here they are:) It took me a few minutes to recover from my little sprint....about 400 meters:) At mile 13 we ran around the lake once. We needed to go around one more time....Oh Lordy! I was doing pretty good and feeling fine. I made sure to walk through all of the water stops and took my gel at mile 5, 10, 15 and 18.

Here is my pacer Juli:)

I ran a little ahead to get a picture of who was left of my group at mile 18:) This was where my second little wall hit. I hurt my ankle earlier this week..stupid me! I was walking into my parent's garage with my sunglasses on and couldn't see a damn thing! I ended up walking into cement steps and fell onto the steps crushing my left ankle! I am still black and blue and a tad bit swollen. My ankle started to throb but I wasn't going to stop! My pacers kept up conversation and I was able to get through my little wall within a minute or two:) At mile 19 they both encouraged anyone who was left in our group to move ahead and finish before our goal time of 3:10. I made my move at about mile 19.5....I didn't go all gang busters, I just picked it up a bit:) When I made that right hand turn into the final stetch I was smiling:) I was almost done with my first 20 mile race and I was going to finish a little under my goal! I ran into the finisher's chute and I could see the clock:) It read 3:08 something! It must have taken me some time to run to the finish mats because my final time turned out to be 3:09 flat. Wouldn't you know...I flipping forgot to stop my Garmin again!!! I drank a whole bottle of water and slowly walked over to the table with post race food. I was hurting....my legs were cramping up and I had to take at least 15 minutes to stretch! Holy crap, I can honestly say that my legs have never cramped that bad after a race!

After the race I caught up with blogger Mark again! He finished before me and came in a little under his goal time too:)

After I got home I turned on my hose and ran cold water over my legs for about 15 minutes:) I felt so much better after a good soaking and I plan on doing this after all of my longer runs.

Official stats...

Final Time...3:09

I placed 122 out of 210.

I placed 12 out of 23 for my age group.

Now, I have blogs to catch up on! Happy running, biking, swimming and lifting! Cheers to you all:)