Race weekend!

Getting ready to race in the rain the swelling has gone down!!

Rain in Seattle what is this!! Running in the rain.

1,000 of my closest friends running with me.

Don't mind the laundry I'm in the middle of doing that's day two Friday was worse.

Swollen cheek/Face

Don't mind that all these pics were from my cell phone but it was all I had on me :) This past weekend was my big 10k race on Sunday the 22nd of August. I had quite the busy weekend from Friday night to Sunday evening. When I got work off on Friday my focus of the weekend had shifted to preparing for the race on Sunday. I had a lapse in judgment this weekend with my preparation like playing in my slow pitch game on Friday night without taking a warm up jog and stretching. This resulted in a tight hamstring it was not completely pulled but I could feel it when I walked as soon as I felt the strain I took it easy. That however did not protect my face from the next draw back I was catching and in slowpitch catcher do not wear anything protective on their faces (until now) and i took a foul ball right off the bat into my face. I was lucky enough that it hit me right below the cheek and the only damage was pain and a bruised mouth. I looked like I had gotten in a bar fight Friday night but with the help of some Mac n Cheese and a little icing I was feeling better before bed. I woke up on Saturday morning and still had quite a bit of pain in my hamstring so I decided that it would be best to rest and skip my 3 mile run I am all about training and following this program but I can't run if I am not healthy so I skipped it..oops I was also concerned about my mouth situation I knew that I would be running for an hour the next day and that the inside of my mouth would be rubbing against my teeth the whole time and was wondering how that would work out. I know it is not a normal concern with most runner but i had a rough go Friday night. So I headed to pick up my race packet and get all the details of the race at about 1 then did some retail theory ( not the best thing to be walking around with a hurt hammy but I had to do something). I went and picked up some running clothes at the Under Armour outlet and then headed back home for the Pre season Seahawks game that started at 7pm. I got to thinking and decided to sit this game out so that I could be down at the race venue feeling as refreshed as possible. But I still walked down to the stadium to sell my friends ticket for her. I got a touch of the atmosphere and then whet home to mentally prepare/ eat pasta until I couldn't eat anymore. I know that the whole carbo loading thing does not really work but it does wonders to your mental prep. My goal was to finish the 6.2 miles in 1:15:00 I did not take any kind of stop watch or clock with me because I just wanted run and find out what my natural pace is. I got to running and I think I was a great decision to hold off on the running the day before it took me about 2 miles to really feel good but my leg felt okay the whole time the more I ran the better it felt. There were a couple of hill that gave me leg some trouble and i had to baby it a bit but other then that I finished the race in 1:10:00. So I was happy with that. It hard to know how much energy to expend when you have never run a distance before because you don't want to burn out so I think that if i did this distance again I could get done faster. Today I am feeling good with the exception of a few aches and pains but my hammy feels great so I have no worries. On to a rest day today and 5 miles tomorrow. I am going to see if I have a picture of my beat up face to throw on here but not sure I have one but stay tuned.

-RR-