20 Miles...Crushed.

Today, I completed the Historic 20 Miler at the Clarksburg Country Run. It was a fun day, and I think I accomplished my race goals!


As a reminder, here were my goals based on my previous post:
1) take in adequate nutrition and hydration along the route
2) Finish with a 10:00/mile pace
3) Finish strong and not hit the wall
4) For every race, I want to be sure to have fun! 

And, here's how I did...

1) I think I did a pretty good job with this. Ended up eating most of a PowerBar, and a few Shot Bloks. I took water at every water station. They were about ever 2 miles or so. I think it worked out pretty well.
2) Finished in under 10:00/mile pace!! Sweet!
3) Probably started the race a bit too fast, but more or less maintained pace. Was also able to pick up the pace the last two miles for a strong finish.
4) Definitely lots of fun. Such a beautiful area. Nice quiet country roads, small field of runners!

My final finish time was 3:16:26 for an average pace of 9:49/mi.

As I said above, I think I started the run a little too fast -- especially for the first mile or two. But generally had fairly consistent splits. This is something I need to work on in the my last couple runs during my taper, and will be one of my big goals for the marathon.



Clarksburg was an adorable little area. I had never been there before, but it is so close to Sacramento! It is right on the Sacramento River, and has a bunch of vineyards and wineries in the area. It was pretty chilly first thing in the morning, but warmed up a little as the morning went on. Frost was on the ground this morning! The other awesome thing about this race was a hot lunch when we were done -- it was pasta, salad, fruit, and cookies. Yum!

Overall, I am so proud of myself for this race. I made a couple friends on the route -- one woman I ran with for about 4-5 miles! To think that my first half marathon I ran at about at 10 min mile pace, and now I'm hoping to run my first marathon at that pace is so awesome! Just got to keep putting your mind to what you want and you can make it happen.


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Other fun weekend events included:
- early Thanksgiving party
- trip to the movies to see Argo (I'd recommend it.)
- dinner out to our favorite Mexican restaurant
- lots of chicken nuggets :)

This afternoon, Ry and I had a second lunch of some chicken nuggets, and have been relaxing. Sunday is always the day we catch up with family on the East coast, so we were busy with some phone calls. Since then we've been watching the night football games and enjoying a glass of wine to celebrate our great races! Probably time to make dinner...I think I'm hungry every 3 hours after a long run. Haha!


It's now officially taper time! 3 weeks to go.