I had an amazing and exhausting whirlwind weekend. I mentioned previously that I was homesick, so I rearranged some things on my calendar and made an impromptu overnight trip home to see my parents and best friend, which was totally worth the little bit of chaos and exhaustion going into this next week.
Saturday morning started with my last long run before EQT. I met up with a friend I haven’t run with in a long time and we crushed 10 miles. Crushed them. It was my best time for a 10-miler to date. I may not beat this time next weekend (though I’m certainly going to try) but I’m positive I’m going to PR. A longer post about this run is yet to come–I’m still processing everything that came up for me during it–but it was a very important run for me and it couldn’t have happened at a better time. I wish I’d gotten some pictures, it was an absolutely beautiful day, but quite frankly I was too focused and running too hard. So I’m still working on that.
After that I got cleaned up and packed up and headed out of town to my parent’s house. Traffic was with me and the drive in was pleasant and uneventful. I had homemade pizza dinner with my parents and one of my nieces, and went shopping with my mom and my sister. It was a great evening.
The next morning I got up and got ready to run again. My best friend was going to be at a 5k race for her work (not running, just has to make an appearance) so I decided I was going to show up and surprise her. I coordinated with her husband to make sure she would be there and that there weren’t immediate plans for after, then got myself there and registered and waited. She was so surprised. I was nervous about running given that I’d crushed 10 miles the day before, but figured fortune favors the bold and I could take it easy, I was just doing this for fun. So I ran. I took it easy. I walked a couple of times. 34:51 (official time). Not bad considering I wasn’t trying, and my current race PR is 34:12. (I have run a faster 5k–significantly faster–but in my head if it isn’t a race it’s not really a PR, so until I beat that time in a race, this stands). I almost PR’d and I wasn’t even trying. Bestie ran part of it with me near the end. Afterwards we went back to her house, hung out with her husband and pups for a bit, got changed and then we went to lunch before I set off to come back to PA.
On my way back, I got my first gingerbread latte of the season–sooo excited. I wait for gingerbread the way the rest of the world waits for pumpkin spice. It definitely made the rainy drive back to reality better. Did some grocery shopping, laundry and food prep when I got back. And here we are. Lots to catch up on, but I have a half day at work on Tuesday–we made plans but had to change them last minute, and I figured I’d keep the half day so I could get some stuff done around the house. Look for a longer post on Wednesday about that 10-mile training run.
Happy Monday, friends.