Redemption

I feel redeemed. I *am* a runner.

Ran a 9K race this weekend - for the nonprofit Therapetics. Y'all know I am on the board, so of course I had to run this one. It was the flattest course in Tulsa, out by the zoo. I have run this course multiple times as it is one of the best courses in Tulsa - very little traffic control issues, flat course, tree-lined, pretty. Last year, I had run it pregnant and had done quite well.

Saturday, I went out. It was muggy, humid, but a bit breezy. I had some expectations. I had run a quick 1/2 mi at the house to get the feel of how fast I wanted to run it. I started strong. I ended even stronger. Granted, the field was small - only 58 women in the 9k (there was a concurrent 5k at the same time). I finished in 44:28, won my age group (by 5 minutes!), came in 8th of the women and - best of all - beat my time last year by nearly 3 minutes! Last year's time was 47:20. I average 7:58 min/mi.

I have never run that fast in my life on a sustained effort. It makes me feel like the marathon day was a fluke.

It felt amazing. I felt strong. I had negative splits. When I was tooling down the backstretch, I opened it up and there were people cheering. It was awesome.

I think I am going to continue to focus on speed for the next six months. I will do long runs of up to two hours in length, but not much longer. I want to PR in the Tulsa Run at the end of October. It's my new goal.