Dev on Running.

Last night I did a “recovery run” of five miles (quotation marks because the level of recovery I achieved is doubtful):

I just ran by feel and didn’t look at my watch until it beeped with each mile split. My legs actually felt great! My quads have been sore due to the 19.3 racing/running adventure on Saturday, but they caused no trouble on this run.

Today is a rest day because it’s my birthday!!! I’m 26, although you’d never know it from the maturity level demonstrated in the photo below.

I’ve already celebrated my birthday twice — last weekend with my mom, Don (her fiance), and my brother, and on Sunday with Greta and Mark (Aaron’s stepdad) — so it feels odd to now have the actual day here when I’ve already blown out candles and eaten epic Peppermint Patty cake.

Who cares? Let’s celebrate again!

I just got a 20% discount code from Nuun yesterday to share with everyone (not related to my birthday, but let’s pretend it is), so here you go! Get 20% off of Nuun through June 7 if you want!

I’ll be using the discount to get some watermelon Nuun (new flavor!) at least. I might just go nuts and get one of everything.

FYI, I don’t get any cool-kid benefits if you use the discount — it’s just for fun and sharesies.

Happy birthday to me. Happy Nuun-day to you!

Unlike the nightmare of getting to the start line of the Lake Sammamish Half, it took us exactly seven minutes to drive on nearly car-less streets to Gas Works Park and easily find a spot in the regular parking lot for Seattle’s Best 15K. Huzzah!

That’s the beauty of a race with only 415 participants (309 for the 15K, 106 for the 10K).

I had plenty of time to hang out in the car, eat a Clif Bar, use the restroom, and decide I definitely needed to wear arm-warmers for the 7:30 a.m. start. Brrrr.

I wore my trusty Brooks Ghost 4 shoes with brand-spankin’-new (as in, made the night before) custom inserts from Road Runner Sports, hoping they would help my shoes feel better than they had in the last few weeks. They didn’t disappoint!

What’s that on my quad, you ask? Why, a temporary tattoo of a lion leaping through flames, of course.

I picked it up at a restaurant last weekend and thought it was kind of hilarious. And fierce. Rawr.

There were no official corrals; a man with a bullhorn just asked us to organize ourselves by pace. He had everyone who planned to run sub-7:00 miles go in front, followed by the sub-8:00 milers, and so on.

I jumped in near the back of the sub-8:00 milers, and it felt weird to be so close to the front of the pack. Then again… small race.

Soon enough, we were off!

I was worried about starting off too quickly since I knew I was surrounded by speedy people, but my legs and lungs felt great in the first mile (8:06). I realized I kind of, sort of, maybe belonged with these people.

I do enjoy a nice power-walk.

Aaron did an incredible job driving around and meeting me at various parts of the course. I saw him four times! By the fourth time, I threw my hands up in the air, like, “How the eff did you get here so quickly??” Black magic.

At about the 1.5 mile mark, I tossed Aaron my arm-warmers. They had done their job, but I had more than warmed up in mile 2 (7:56 <—- first sub-8:00 mile since 2011, whaaaat!).

This part of the race was an out-and-back along the Ship Canal. I remember haaaaating this part two years ago, since it lasts a few miles, and then you still have all of Lake Union to run around.

This year, I just appreciated how nice and flat and straight it was — easy-peasy stuff to take me through miles three and four (8:06, 8:10).

Then, I realized mayyyybe I’d gone out a little too fast. My legs were starting to feel a wee bit tired. Nothing crazy, but I knew I’d need them to be strong for a few hills later on.

I ate my chocolate Clif Shot at mile 4.5 (I brought it and two bottles of Nuun in my fuel belt so I could skip the aid stations), and slowed down for miles five and six (8:17, 8:17 <—- completely accidental consistency).

I saw Aaron again in mile seven (8:09) on Fairview Avenue and sped around that guy in the gray shirt so Aaron could get an unobstructed photo. Hey, I’ll take motivation in any form!

This is where things started to get tough. The small-to-begin-with crowd of runners had thinned out loooong ago, so I was pretty much running by myself with only one or two people in my sights ahead of me. It was weird to not have other runners from whom I could glean some energy.

Also, mile eight (8:42) brought a few hills. We had to work our way from Fairview Avenue up to Eastlake Avenue in order to cross the University Bridge, and that involved some short, steep hills.

At one point we went up a steep hill only to go down again (which I did verrrrry slowly because I didn’t want to slip and fall on loose gravel; it was that steep) and then go up again. I felt like this up-and-down nonsense was entirely preventable with just a slight course change, so I was all like, what in the actual f*ck!

The positive part was that I passed a few people who really had trouble with the uphills, which I just attacked without a second thought (not that they didn’t hurt, but I wasn’t afraid of them). Thank you, hill repeats. And flaming-lion tattoo.

I picked things back up for the last full mile (8:16), as one does, but I felt so much slower than that. I was really feeling tired and ready to be done.

I’m super-proud of my last 0.3-mile kick at 7:37 pace. There was no one right ahead of me and no one very close behind me for the finish, so I got some nice cheers just for me and the announcer even said my name! (He pronounced it wrong by saying Dev-ON instead of Dev-IN, but I do realize it’s spelled Dev-ON, so I’ll forgive him.)

A smile for Aaron before the finish.

And a hand over my heart for Boston.

Plus, the WORST part of ANY race — when they make you stand still to cut off your timing chip when you really just want to flop onto the grass.

Oh, here we go. This is good now.

Official time: 1:16:13 — 8:12 pace

I eventually came back to life and actually put on my medal. Wheee!

Garmin splits:

Overall, this was a great race and I’m proud of my time! I really, really wanted to run at least one sub-8:00 mile (although it was probably not ideal to do that in mile two), and I PR’d by just under seven minutes.

Plus, I ran 10 more miles afterward at a very decent clip. Even though I’m training for a marathon, and running 19 miles in one day is kind of standard, that sh*% is still crazy.

Perhaps I should change my blog tagline to, “Just crazy enough.”

Here’s what I posted on Twitter after the race yesterday.

Here’s what I posted on Facebook.

Here’s what really happened.

10 post-race miles: DONE.

I hung out at home for a few hours after the race, eating lots of food and refreshing Online Race Results obsessively until the official results were posted. I was the 21st female, 6th in my division, and 57th overall out of 309 finishers. Whoop!!!

And then I surprised myself with how good my legs felt, and with the pace I was able to maintain during the 10 miles.

The last few miles were really mentally tough because I had been running… for… so… longgggg.

And now I’m stupid-tired and hanging out on the floor, from which I’ll only rise to get food.

Total miles: 19.3
Total running time: 2:44:23
Overall average pace: 8:30
Total calories burned (according to Garmin): 2,128

Make that lots and LOTS of food.

Some Tumblr people met up for dinner in Capitol Hill tonight, someone ordered about 40 clams and ate them all, and then someone (possibly the same person) suggested we go eat cupcakes.

What can I say? I’m a seafood-loving cupcake-enabler.

Anna and I went halfsies on red velvet and salted caramel cupcakes, and Darcy and Amy went for a mini cupcake and a cake pop, respectively. YUM.

It was absolutely lovely to meet Anna after following her blog for something crazy like two years now, and to meet Darcy and Amy, both of whom I didn’t follow before tonight even though they live in the same city and go to my alma mater because WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME. Don’t worry, I’ve rectified that situation.

Those young whippersnappers continued on to a bar after the cupcakes, but because I’m a grandma, I went home and ate this cookie that Aaron brought home from work, too. Might as well get all my sugar in in one day, yes?

This… this is what happens when a chocolate chip cookie and an Oreo meet and fall in love. GAME-CHANGER.

Now I must relax, give into my sugar coma, and give thanks for fun times with friends from the Interwebs!

Surprise! Morning run! I got out the door at 5:27 a.m.

Not all 9:00+ miles, but the average was nice ‘n easy, so I’ll take it.

A cloudy morning at the lake is still beautiful. I love the clouds reflected in the water.

A good thinking bench, for those who do their thinking while sitting rather than running.

Oh, and I’m definitely wearing my Ghosts for the race. They felt great today — like old friends. So happy to have that decision made!

Time to rest my legs today and tomorrow. Packet pickup tomorrow night. Race Saturday morning.

I can’t wait. It’s my favorite race distance and a fabulous course, and I’m so excited to smoke my time from two years ago!!