The Day I Beat my Dad

So if you've read any of my other blogs, you know I'm trying to be a baby momma. It's been a year and among other things I suck at, apparently getting knocked up is one of them so I'm trying to change things up a bit. Throwing them out there to see what sticks. One of those things is cutting back on running. I still run often, just not as much. I probably (key word here) won't run a marathon this year and I'm not signed up for any half marathons either. I thought it'd be fun to get out and race 5 and 10k's. I haven't really raced anything short since college and given I'm cutting down on milage, was up for the challenge! To keep me motivated (and because my husband is amazing and patient) I signed up for the Explore Minnesota Challenge which is a series of races put on my Anderson Race Management around Minnesota. You get pins for the different areas you run in and at the end, a medal. I love Swag. LOVE SWAG. The first race of the year was the Securian Winter Run  I was debating a half but signed up for a 10k and oh so glad I did!

 Here's where things get interesting. My very fastest 10k prior to this was 50:12. Little known fact, my dad's pr is 49:59. I'd been chasing that time each 10k I ran and had never succeeded in dipping below 50. Since one of my 2012 goals is to run more days than not, I'm doing pretty well on my fitness running about 30 miles a week and averaging about 5 miles a run. When I signed up for this, I wasn't planning on really racing it but more to get a feel for a 10k race again. Then I started looking at times. Based on a recent dreadmill WO of 6.02 mi in 47 and a combo of my other run averages, I thought, meh, maybe I can be in the top half, then I looked a little closer, I thought hmm... Maybe top 25. I was getting pretty pumped.

Race day rolled around and of course, I didn't want to get out of bed, it was 14 degrees out but sunny. Grabbed a banana and a yogurt and headed out the door. 

As usual, I lined up too far back and spent a considerable amount of time passing walkers. It all felt too easy. We took off and it was easy, all of a sudden we were at mile three and it was easy. The miles kept ticking off and I felt fine. Not even fine, awesome, I was cheering on other runners and high five'ing fans. Since it was out and back, I was trying to count the girls who were in front of me. After the turnaround I just kept picking them off, it was an awesome feeling. As I turned the corner to the finish line I saw 49:09 on the clock and kicked it home. I've never been so excited in my life. I spent the whole of yesterday cheesing out, not only because I beat dad but...

47th out of 357 runners, 17th woman out of 210 and a 10k PR of 48:53. The most exciting thing? I beat my mentor, by a full minute. It was just an amazing feeling. I actually waffled about calling my dad. He was training for a marathon about 20 years ago and got planter fasciitis so bad he all but quit running. I've run 4 so I'll always have that over him so I wanted to let him keep his victory. However, as I thought about it, don't your parents always want you to be better than they were/are? Obviously I'm not a parent yet but I imagine I'll only want my kids to be the best at whatever they do. I called my dad and I told him because I wanted to make him proud. He, and my mom, got me here and this is their PR as much as it is mine. It was awesome, mom actually got to come watch me race again. They are the best parents a runner could ask for. 

Congrats to my parents for an awesome race and cheers to my future lil babes at being better than me.

Heh, 69. 

My pre-race ritual

Me and Dad at my first 5k. I puked.

Start of the race. PS, I LOVE INSTAGRAM.