Have you ever had that kind of run that keeps you up at night?  Makes you want to go back because you know you can do better?  That's how I felt about the Reservoir trail run I did with my friend Liza earlier this month. 

It was rough.  Took me out for a week but I really wanted to do it again.

The Reservoir trail really is a beautiful trail in the Middlesex Fells Reservation.  It's about a 6 mile loop around 3 reservoirs; South Reservoir, Middle Reservoir, and North Reservoir.  The trail crosses two towns, Medford and Winchester and is marked with orange markers.  It can be hilly but it's not very technical.  It has a lot of little nuisances in the many rocks and roots waiting to trip you up.  The Skyline trail (white markers) also circles the reservoirs as well as some access roads and smaller unmarked paths.

This weekend was the Vermont 100.
  
I went up this year as a volunteer with a couple of folks from my road running group, Adena and Shaun.  

The Vermont 100 Endurance Race is one of the oldest in the US and one of the only races that still have horse race.  I got turned onto this race a few years ago when I started following ultrarunning.  It is a part of the Grand Slam Series which attracts some fast people.  Some of these folks can run 100 miles at a faster overall pace than I can run a 5k!  Really exciting.  The race is put on by and supports the Vermont Adaptive, a local conservancy group.

Two weekends ago my friend Liza and I attended the TARC Trail Running Camp held at the Hale Reservation in Westwood, MA.  

TARC (Trail Animals Running Club) is a local trail running group with active members mostly in New England but in other states as well.  I have been interested in running with them for quite some time but haven't up until now. 

I raced both Saturday and Sunday this weekend.  Who am I?

This weekend was perfect, weather-wise...for sitting in the shade on the beach.  

It was a little hot for running.   

Thankfully both races started early and were short.  Saturday morning was my club's relay challenge which began at 8:30am.  I only had to run 1600 meters.  Sunday was a 10k starting at 8am.  Having run a 10k before, I was much more nervous about the 1600.  Running a mile on a track is hard and everyone is watching.  It was okay though. Everyone was so supportive and I beat my goal at both races!

This is going to be a quick one.

A couple weeks ago my friend, Laura and I ran in the Boston's Run to Remember Half Marathon.  I've run this race once before in 2011 which was my debut to distance running.  The 2011 race was okay.  I remember getting sick the week before it and being miserable the whole time.  

This race was kinda similar.  I was a little off to start but got through.

Official race photo. cred:Runner Buzz Media

Halfs are not really my thing...  

My year started out with another plan but due to some setbacks early in the year and an ongoing health issue, training for a spring marathon (or ultra as I was originally signed up for) was out of the question. I threw this into the schedule mainly as motivation to keep running. 

The goal:  take it easy and try for even splits.

Somewhere in the back of my head I thought I could maintain an 11:30 min/mile pace for the whole race.  I had been working hard at track and have been getting more consistent with my reps.  On easy runs, my mile times have been in the 11:50-12:30 min/mile range which, though much slower than past years, is a great improvement from this winter and from last year's marathon (avg'ing 13ish pace).  For the shorter faster stuff, I can now get down into the 10's and I have been getting a lot out of our group long runs once a month.

Joining my running group at the track this winter and coaching myself to stay positive has made the world of difference.  For this race, I made the decision to run my own pace and not get distracted by the crowd or what others were doing.  I had some mild abdominal cramping at the start but I was confident that my goal was attainable.  I kept with the plan.  I aimed to walk all the hills and water stops [and smile for all the course cameras].  In the end, I was surprised at how close I was to hitting the 11:30 pace!  Below are my splits.
 

Official race photo. cred:Runner Buzz Media

                    mile 1- 11:22
                    mile 2- 11:19

                    mile 3- 10:55
                    mile 4- 11:57
                    mile 5- 11:08
                    mile 6- 11:36
                    mile 7- 11:39
                    mile 8- 11:19
                    mile 9- 12:12
                    mile 10- 11:24
                    mile 11- 11:53
                    mile 12- 11:24
                    mile 13- 11:03 


 
All things considered, it was a good race.  Perfect cloudy 60 degrees.  Perfect-ish pacing and super sweet race pics. :) 

My friend also had a wicked good race.  We decided to run separately and she finished up in 1:48 something!  Congrats, Laura!

How about you?

How is your race training going?

Have you had to make adjustments in your 2016 race schedule? 

Do you ever plan walk breaks in a race?