12 miles, a girls' night, and then a blogger meet up at a race

Saturday morning I had a 12 mile run scheduled. When I woke up in the morning there was sun peeking through the clouds, but it was still a pretty chilly 53F (12C). I was feeling pretty optimistic and I put on a short sleeve shirt and a skirt, laced up my green 2110s and headed out the door to Baker Park. I tried to pace myself and not start out too fast since I was heading out for 12 miles. I've never run 12 in a training run before so I wasn't sure what to expect. I eased into mile 1, but was confronted with some hills in mile 2 that made things interesting. By mile 3 I found my groove and it was feeling really good. The pathway I was following went along the Bow River and continued into Shouldice Park and Edworthy - two places that I have gone and run a fair bit. I hit the 6 mile mark at Edworthy so I turned around. Things were still good until I hit the second to last mile and hit those hills again. By that point in time my legs were pretty tired but once I got through it I cruised through the last mile to the finish. I didn't run as fast as last week, but I wasn't to far off. The temperature was perfect the entire way throughout the run and definitely nice and sunny.

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Saturday evening was a girls' night for a friend's stagette (also known as a bachelorette or hen party depending on where in the world you hail from). I am happy to report that either I'm wearing the right size shoes or the mileage isn't high enough yet, but I still have all ten toenails. And after the stagette they are looking that much prettier. It was a fun night of jello shooters, apple pie shots and other mayhem....so needless to say it was a short night before my volunteer gig at the Robert Hamilton Memorial 5 and 10 mile run.
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I was at the start site of the Robert Hamilton Memorial run at 7:30 am near Shouldice. It was overcast, threatening rain, and 48F (9C). Brr. I found the volunteer coordinator and was given a pair of socks for my effort. I was going to be working the finish line this time. This wasn't a chip timed race, so every time a runner crossed the finish line I pressed a button so a time was recorded that was later matched up with the racer's number. I ran into Dawn - a blog I read all the time, but a runner I had never met before. I also finally met Karen, another blog I read, and also one of the Calgary Roadrunners who heads up weekly runs. Karen recognized me as the girl who wrote about all the push ups I did! It was neat to finally meet them, and Karen, I promise that when I am back to running on Tuesdays I will be at the Roadrunner group runs. I also recognized Instructor S's husband who was running the 5 mile so I said hello. It was a pretty small race - around 100 people total registered for the events and it was a fast field. The guy who won the 5 mi race was minutes ahead of the 2nd place finisher. People who run that fast truly amaze me. It was a fun morning - after I was done it was time to grab a really big coffee from Starbucks to warm up and I headed out. Otherwise that's about it for the weekend. If any cross training happens outside of the housework variety I'll be sure to let you know.