race day....the best yet...

first, and foremost, i had hoped for some fun pics to add to this post.

no dice. you'll read soon why not.

this morning started early.

4:45am or so...didn't sleep well as it was the night before race day.

'6000 people in my race' race day, in the hometown no less.

for some reason i was a little freaked about it....turned out to be my best race. ever. yep, i PR'd. set a personal record. 1:43:12. last time i ran a 10 mile my time was 5 minutes slower...so any kind of PR is one that i'll take....

despite 1.5 miles or so of cold hard rain at the finish...still a stellar day..

i ran the whole race with my amazing teammate (and she just so happens to live 2 blocks from me) Cindy..

we carpooled together with team member Val to the Kelly Inn in St Paul...

caught the school bus to the Dome near the start. fretted about how a steady rain was evident on the drive over the to Dome. hoped it would stop.

waited around the dome for a good 30-40 minutes and then it was time to find our corral. think cattle. 3 corrals. 3 sets of many many humans crammed into these starting areas that are fenced off.

finally, our wave, the last, was able to start....yay! we're off. except that there are so many people running that it takes a solid 2 miles or more to really get any room to spread out comfortably.

big cheers went up as we ran under the new 35W bridge (which prior to that i had yet to even drive over)...and we were soon a good 3-4 miles into the race...

it was awesome to run the race with Cindy. We played off each other's strengths really well, kept each other company and it was just a great time all around. we both said over and over we would never be where we are as runners if we hadn't joined our run club, and we are so SO thankful for our coaches working with us to make us competent, educated and successful runners....

3 times we saw our fellow runner gals, Allison, Karen, Claudia & Rudi at various viewing spots along Summit...having fans be there in person will do nothing but get you more motivated to get through another mile....so thanks girls! Ally, loved the sign! SO you!

the miles continued to flew by, and as they did the skies got a little bit darker....finally, by just after mile 8, the drizzle started. lightly at first of course, and then, with about 1.5 left, the skies opened into a really steady rain. by this point i was pretty chilled....and the rain didn't help.

but regardless of that, the finish to the race, soggy or not, was *awesome*. There was the end of Summit Ave, with Garrison Keillor walking to his house...'hi Garrison!' then the Catherdral looming in all of it's glory with the church bells striking 9am was right around the corner...

then the beautifully magnificent downhill into the finish area, complete with a ginormous American flag hoisted between two fire trucks...rain or no rain, i had my game face on with a smile no less, my legs were flying, and it was my best finish ever....

then we stopped running. give me that mylar blanket. now. holy cold to the bone! still smiling, still just being in the elements, literally....but it took a solid few hours to warm up! so the camera was in my sweats bag, and with the rain, there was just no reason to take pictures....sadly.

so was it the perfect day? yes and no. but overall, yet another thing that makes me feel that all of this work is worth it and that if you have a goal, all of that hard work pays off big time...

after the race we went to one of my favorite breakfast spots ever for corn pancakes, and then i took a huge nap. bliss.

one week from tonight I return from my last race of the season...hoping it goes just as well, even if it's 3.1 miles longer than today....

it's a full week for this runner girl. i turn into computer teaching girl for a few nights leading library patrons who wish to know more about Facebook & blogging through the paces....

so for now, that's all she wrote...~jd