Race Recap: YuKanRun Ipswich 10 Miler

I'm going to start this post with a story. In high school I was sitting in my peer leadership meeting when our advisor asked us to write down our favorite quote.  I've been a quote collector since grade school and I pretty much love inspiring quotes.  While we sat there during the meeting, I remember making a collage with a quote I made up on the fly, "A positive attitude will get you through anything in life."  Ten plus years later I remember that quote often and the impact it can have.  And while this blog post will contradict the last race recap I wrote about giving up on distance running, you can blame it on that quote I wrote out when I was a sophomore in high school.

Because a positive attitude can get you through most things in life, especially when it comes to races.  If you go in with the RIGHT mental attitude, you can usually accomplish anything.

Early in the week I was gchatting with my college roomie Lindsay about her trip home to Maine in August.  Awhile back we decided to run the Freeport Half Marathon while she was home.  I then convinced her to also sign up for Marine Corps Marathon when I thought I was running it.  I backed out of the marathon and I felt awful backing out of the half as well.  So I asked my twitter friends if they thought I could run a half marathon in 4 weeks.  And unanimously, you all told me yes.  So, I took a look at the MCM {aggressive} training plan I laid out awhile back and randomly saw that I had planned to run the Ipswich 10 Miler on July 16th (today).  I asked my favorite running buddies if they were interested and just like that it was decided.  With a positive attitude, I was going to run 10 Miles today after not running over 6.20 since the Boston Marathon. And let me just tell you it was awesome!!!

I ran 10 miles, 7 with my friend Kate (my co-captain from the Corporate Challenge) and I felt great.  Both Kate and I haven't run double digits in a long time.  Both of us were hoping for an average of ten minute pace with water stop breaks.  Well, I'm happy to say I ran 9:24 pace for ten miles and I'm psyched!!!

The one downside to this race is I got there too late and the bathroom line was insane.  I ended up not being able to go before the race and missed the start (which meant I ran the entire 10 miles having to pee REALLY bad).  Kate and I started 3 minutes and 48 seconds after the gun went off which kind of sucked since they didn't have chip timing.  But I wasn't going for a personal best so I didn't really care.  Really, I was just going for a confidence booster, which I got.

10 Miles/1:32:23/9:24 pace

8:54

9:11

9:07

9:18

9:23

9:49

9:45

9:51

9:35

9:02

The splits were a little bit all over the place but I was still so happy with our times especially because the course was tough and it was pretty hot out!

The best part was definitely running this race with my bloggy buddies Corey and Lauren.

Who went 1-2 in placing on a "training day."  They are pretty amazing runners : )

 The second most amazing part about the race was heading to the beach after.  Cranes Beach is one of my favorite places in the world and I was so happy to get over there for a few hours with Lauren and Corey!

And now I'm off to celebrate my friend Meg's 30th birthday.  Remember Meg?  She designed my blog header and is insanely talented : )

Happy Saturday!!! What's your favorite quote or personal mantra?