Runner's World 10k and Festival

Josh and I ran in the Runner's World 10k yesterday and went to the accompanying "festival afterwards." It was so amazing! I had my doubts since we don't normally do 10k's and it was 1.5 hours away, but it was so worth the time and the money. It was held at the Steel Stacks in Bethlehem, PA. We got there just in time to park, pick up our packets, check our gear, and get to the finish line.

The course was pretty hilly, but there were so many people running it that it went fast and was fun. Josh finished in 44:38 with a 7:11 pace (he's such a speedster!) and I finished in 54:10 with an 8:43 pace, which I was very pleased with considering I've only been running 1-2 times a week, no more than 4 miles at a time, for the past month. The weather was beautiful, the leaves were changing up there, and it was fun to run through a new city.

See the flame archway in the back? Pretty cool!

As soon as I crossed the finish line, Josh said, "Sarah, Jenae is right up there!"One of the reasons I had been so excited about this race was that I knew my favorite running blogger (Hungry Runner Girl) would be at the event and I was hoping to meet her. I got over my feelings of awkwardness and went up and met her! She was super nice and we took a picture together that she put on her blog! And she invited us to stay with her if we ever go back to Utah! Basically best friends now :)

After the race, we picked up our T-shirts and wandered around the expo for about an hour. The rest of the day, they offered different seminars about running.

The first one we went to was on nutrition and was by John Graham (Director of Sports & Human Performance, St. Luke's University Health Network) and Pamela Nisevich Bede (Sports Nutritionist and Runner's World Columnist-also a 16 time marathoner and Ironman!!)

Take away points:

• what you eat is important: it's not just the night before the race that counts, but the few days leading up to the race, as well. This goes for training runs also!
• If Gu's make you cramp up, you probably need to chase them with more water to help them break down in your stomach. One suggestion was pretzels.
• Don't eat too much fiber the day before/morning of a race.

The next seminar I went to was for Women's Running, and how running as a woman is different than running as a man. This was by Summer Sanders (two-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, TV personality, and mother of two), Dr. Laura Dunne (Sports Medicine Physician and mother of three), and Jennifer Van Allen (Runner's World Special Projects Editor and author, and Ultramarathoner!). I liked this one a lot more than the first one. 

Take away points:

• Don't let someone else's definition of success become your definition of success. What is great for you might be mediocre for someone else, and vice versa. 
• Don't judge your current performance to past performances, because you are at a different stage of life than ever before. Stay focused on the future and what you can keep doing to improve. 
• Focus on why you run; i.e., I want to run for a long time, so I need to focus more on taking care of my body for the long-term (strength training and core exercises more)
• They recommended doing single leg dead lifts, planks, and bridges to strengthen your glutes and core
• Jennifer Van Allen started a running streak 142 days ago, where she has run at least 1 mile every day since she started. This has meant that sometimes she will only run 1 mile at a 15/16 minute pace in order to recover from longer runs. I like this because the focus is on getting out and running rather than how fast you are going. 
• Running helps with your mental health.

While I was in the women's class, Josh went to one on running longer and faster. This was by Budd Coates (Rodale Senior Director of Health and Fitness and four-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier) and Jonathan Beverly (Editor-in-Chief, Running Times). 

Main message: 

• Go slow! Do slow long runs and do speedwork, and gradually these will come together, but don't try and go your race pace on every run.

One of the things I liked most about the event was being around people who love being active and running, as well as being around so many people who are AMAZING--like Olympians and Ironmans Ultramarathoners. If they can be so awesome, I can be just a little bit awesome. 

Overall, it was a great event and a really fun day!