Once again Little Rock Marathon recovery has included a 2 mile race! Why would I do this? Well, besides this particular race being in the Arkansas Grand Prix series this is an all around fun race for the whole family- including our new puppy Pepper! After last year’s surprising 2 mile race success (6 days post marathon) I decided to follow my same “training” strategy. This is basically do nothing but recover! I can handle that!
Below is the week leading up to the 2 Mile Race:
Sunday (3/5)- Run 26.2 miles @ 6:51 pace followed by a post-race massage
Monday (3/6)- Run 1 mile @ 10:14 pace
Tuesday (3/7)- Run 1 mile @ 10:10 pace
Wednesday (3/8)- Run 1 mile w youngest daughter @ 12:13 pace and later went on 1.5 hour hike with kids
Thursday (3/9)- Run 1 mile @ 8:24 pace
Friday (3/10)- Run 4 miles @ 7:56 and then massage & Graston at PT
Saturday (3/11)- Run 1.1 mile warm-up, RACE 2 miles, 3.6 mile cool-down
The Race
We left for Conway around 6:20 Saturday morning. The whole family- including our new dog Pepper was going. This race raises money for the Conway Animal Shelter so after the 2 mile race was a 1 mile dog race. Abi was running in the 1 mile dog race with Pepper and she was so excited. We’ve always cheered for those in the dog race but this was our first year to have one of our own in it.
It always takes longer than planned for packet pickup/ restrooms when all the kids are with me. John made sure all their race bibs and timing chips were on their shoes so I could warm-up. (With 4 kids this takes a while!) I got in just over a mile before it was time to head to the starting line.
Fortunately, I went into the race with little to no expectations. I really think I used up all possible race anxiety/ nervousness with the Little Rock Marathon because I was very relaxed about this one. I’d try to go out around last year’s pace and if I could hold it I would but if not I was ok with that. Every marathon recovery is different so I was just going to do what I could.
The Chase race course is basically a long out and back. I knew from last year that the first mile has a slight incline which meant the last mile had a little decline. I went through mile 1 at 5:48 which was 3 seconds slower than last year. I got a little discouraged but I kept pushing and told myself to pick it up. I was going back and forth with some high school kid but I wasn’t going down without a fight. Around 1.5 I looked down and saw that my current mile average was a 5:42. If I could maintain this pace for just 800 meters more I could possibly PR! So my new goal was to hold on! I kept pushing and finished mile 2 in exactly 5:42. The high school kid ended up beating me by 1 second but I was so happy I PR’d I was ok with that!
Official Time: 11:32 (2nd female OA). Official Results can be found here.
As soon as I finished I turned around to find the kids. It was hard running past my older 3 but I was heading back for my baby. As a general rule, when my kids are racing I go back to run in with the youngest. So I cheered for each of them as they ran by and then found Ashton.
Abi finished in 14:45
Rocky finished in 15:56
Anna finished in 18:26
I ran Ashton’s last half mile with him and he did not stop one time. He finished strong in 22:04.
After the two mile race was one mile dog race. Abi ran this one with Pepper (her first race!) and finished right around 9 minutes.
Anna posing with Amy’s sweet dog Bentley
Our ladies team also won in team points!
All in all a fun race morning, despite it being COLD!! Also, THANK YOU Chase Race for the free race pictures! I wish more races did this!
Last but not least, I thought I would mention my first ever running shirt quilt arrived!! I’ve always wanted to make one but besides not knowing how, I also didn’t know how I would pick and choose which races to use. Last year Abi and I ran all the Arkansas Grand Prix races so I thought that would make a special quilt. I found a great company online and when they had a good holiday promotion I decided to go for it. I’m so happy with how it turned out! If you have a bunch of tshirts and have been wanting to do something like this you should check out Project Repat. (This is not a sponsored post- I just recommend their product!)
