Happy belated 4th of July!  Had a great race experience yesterday.  Here’s a recap of the day!

Made sure to eat a carb-o-licious spaghetti dinner on Friday evening with the family and laid out all of my race gear and outfit.  Got to bed early at about 10:30 pm and got a good night’s sleep before waking up at 4:00 on Saturday morning.

Tara and I left my house at 5:00 pm and were to the start in (what we thought) was plenty of time.  Dumped my bag at the bag drop and waited in line for the porta-potties.  And waited…and waited…and waited.  Tara left for the start.  I was late.  It was my own fault.  I had actually paid a little extra $$ for the “VIP Experience” which included separate porta-potties, but forgot that little perk at the time.  Bummer!

I missed the start for a few minutes but caught up with Tara quickly.  Was feeling fantastic!  Was hitting my splits really well.  No stomach issues, no leg issues, no motivation issues.  I actually thought I had a shot at beating my (ridiculously fast for me) PR of 2:21:22.  That is until somewhere around mile 5.  My feet of all things just kinda gave out.  I was in an amazing amount of pain.  Every foot fall was excruciating.  I even attempted heel striking on purpose to take the pressure off the balls of my feet but that only made things worse.  I tried to recover but it just all fell apart when I had to switch to walk/jog intervals.

I chalk it up to another stupid mistake.  I knew my shoes were about over due.  My precious Asics Gel Kayano 21s have approximately 500 miles on them and should have been replaced about a month ago.  I knew better but just didn’t prioritize my time properly to get over to the running store.

All in all though it was still such a fun race!  Twin Cities in Motion does a great job with organizing really nice events.  The volunteers were so nice, friendly and helpful and really made running (limping?) 13.1 miles enjoyable.

After the race, it was time for cooking out, hanging out with family and friends and watching the fireworks display.  I hope you had a fantastic 4th too!

And don’t worry 2:21:22… I’ve got all Summer, and I’m coming for you.