Check out part I of this series.
May 5 – Pittsburgh Half Marathon – 2:26:29 – This was the race that I was training for throughout the winter. Who can say no to crossing 5 bridges, over all 3 rivers and becoming a “Runner of Steel”? This could have been a disastrous day – I walked around at Kennywood for several hours the night before. I missed my alarm and woke up an hour before the race started. Most of the road closures had already gone into effect, so I parked at the only place I knew was safe – the hockey arena parking lot and had to run to the start line. I didn’t eat any breakfast (forgot it when I was rushing out the door) and hadn’t trained with any type of fuel, so I didn’t have anything with me. By mile 8 I was pretty much dead, but that’s when they were handing out GU and I got my second wind. Despite all of these issues, I managed to take 9:27 off my first half marathon time. After the race, there were a lot of festivities, including massages and an engraving station for medals. Since I was already parked at the arena, I headed back that way after the race to watch the Penguins playoff game on the big screen. The Pens won 5-4 in OT and I got to show off my new Penguins running shirt (technically it’s a bike jersey)!
May 11 – Run Back to the 80’s 5k – untimed – Team Run Like an Egyptian rocked some awesome 80’s inspired clothing for this race! I think the best costume I saw was someone dressed as a Rubik’s cube, though I’m not sure if they actually ran in the costume or not. There were also very interesting “giveaways” throughout the 5k course – we got a candy necklace at mile 1 (not great placement for this treat since it got all sweaty by the time we finished, oops), some jelly bracelets around mile 2.5 and at the end everybody got a finisher’s slap bracelet.
May 18 – Run! Ballantyne 5k – 26:41 – My company sponsors a team for this race, so this was the third year I’ve done it. There are a lot of hills in Ballantyne! The first year I ran this, I came in 3rd in my age group but I haven’t been able to get back to the podium yet.
Check back next Friday for another recap.
Check back next Friday for another recap.