10 miler relay.

last saturday my brother and i ran our first relay, as a part of the cleveland 10 miler.  it was something new for both of us, his third race and first relay, and my first relay!

it was a great day for running, a little chilly at the start, but once the sun came up, it was hot!  mike started the race at the start line, while i jumped on the shuttle to the exchange point.  it was fun for me to be a spectator for a bit, i got to see the fast leaders come by and cheer everyone on.  i never get to see the fasties go by! 

we both decided that we weren't out to do anything but have a good race for ourselves.  i had taken some time off due to a sore foot, and had just gotten in some short runs that week, and mike was just trying to get himself a good time. mike is a speedster, and was the first or second person to hit the exchange point.  we high fived and i took off!  as i joined the other runners, i realized that i was with the higher paced runners, and i took off, looked at my watch and saw i was wayyyy too fast.  the watch had me in the 7 minute range!  i tried to slow down but it was hard, being with all these faster runners, i didn't want to get run over!  i was passed a lot, but i didn't let it bother me, and i kept at a pace i could handle, albeit it was a little fast, but i decided to try and see what i could do at that level. as i ran, i thought of boston and those who couldn't finish the run, or won't be able to run again, and that pushed me to keep my pace up. once i hit the final mile, i knew that i was going to have a pr (personal record), after glancing at my watch.  woohoo!  i hauled a** that whole race and couldn't be prouder of my time, a new 5 mile race pr.  it was such a fun race, and a perfect day for it.

hauling. a**.   i gave it all i had!

after my brother found his way back to us, we both recieved our medals, and remembered we could scan our bibs bar code thing to see what our results were.  we were shocked to find out we placed 2nd in the coed relay teams, out of 13!  my brother has run 3 races in his short running career, and has placed at all 3.  insane.  this was his largest race to date. i tell him winning these prizes in not normal, and will not happen at his next big race cleveland marathon weekend. unless he has kenyan blood we don't know about. 

 we collected our 2nd place medals and couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces!  

our hardware!
(the clear medal says 2nd place coed relay team)

what a great day!  i am so proud of mike for his fast, great run, and proud of myself after my foot issues to push myself harder than i had anticipated!  and special thanks to our mom and aunt for cheering us on!

our final stats:

overall time  1:21:31

division:  2nd out of 13 coed teams

overall placement:  5th out of 36 teams

mike/leg 1:  37:12, average pace 7:26 (1st out of 13 division runners)

me/leg 2:    44:18,  average pace 8:51 (8th out of 13 division runners)

our dramatic reenactment of the exchange point

great run, mike!  so glad to have a running buddy now!!!