The picture above is us before the race. Yes, I look sleepy because I was! The air conditioner was not coming on well in our room and my husband was snoring so I was awake at 3:00 am and never could get back to sleep! I hate when that happens! I have had the thought before that a judge would understand if you accidentally smothered your partner for snoring at night! When you are trying to sleep and they are clearly getting sleep based on the snoring, it can really make you angry!
Well, we finished the race and we are back at the hotel relaxing before we head to lunch. We used this race as a training run for the Rome marathon so I was very happy with myself for keeping my pace slow and easy for the first two-thirds of the race and then I picked it up for a fast finish long run. We did it in 2:25 which as a great pace for our long run!! I have to admit it was hard to hold back and keep my pace comfortable rather than get caught up in the excitement of the race and crowd. I am notorious for starting my races too fast and blowing up near the end and struggling to keep going. This felt great. I had plenty of energy at the end and passed a lot of people which also makes you feel really awesome!! I eased into what I am hoping my marathon pace will be in Rome and then picked up the pace to finish strong.
I worked on my fueling (again) and did better this time. For those of you who know me, you know I am not too good about taking in fuel when I should. This race was fairly warm and I had salt all over me so I really tried to pop my electrolyte chews. I waited too long (and yes, I know better) to take the first ones but luckily once I got some in me and chased them with water I felt pretty darn good. This race has a pretty good climb around mile 9 but you get to come down right when you get to the top. The turn around is right at the top. Downhill is one thing I do well so I was super happy at this point.
This is a pretty nice race and it was really nice to be in warm weather. There were some really nice views throughout the race. There were plenty of water stations and porta-potties. I am not sure I would want to do the marathon because it is a point to point, so you do not end up back where you started and they are no longer shuttling you back so that would be a bummer. I think it would have been pretty warm for some of the marathoners as well. I am a sunshine girl so I like when it is a little warm, but as we all know, too much heat at a marathon makes things really difficult.
One bummer about this morning was that it was time for me to check in for our flight on Southwest during the race so I didn't check in until after and we got C boarding spots so we won't be able to sit together! I was too cheap to pay for Early Bird check in so I guess we will be stuck in center seats!!
Here I am rocking my Lioness skirt after the race before I took my much-needed shower! I seem to wear this outfit at a lot of races.
I have noticed I have a lot of pictures of myself in this!! Well, when it works, it works!!
Well, we are off to lunch at a little hole in the wall Mexican food place that we love in Scottsdale!
Happy Sunday!
Kristi
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