Bloggie Get Together and Madison Mini Marathon

Last evening we had a bloggie get together organized by the infectiously happy, cheerful and beautiful Jamie, Running Diva Mom.  Also at the get together were Chelsea, Early Runner, Kerri, Running for (My) Life, Erika, MCM Mama and Heather, RunODonnell.  Jamie had great goodie bags for all of us and made cookies too.  WOW!!!  We met at a wonderful Italian Restaurant, Porta Bella, and both the food and conversation was great.  It is so nice to meet other women that blog and run.  I love it.  It makes me feel part of such a large community.  Here is a photo of us after we ate - thanks to the wonderful hostess that took out picture -  (stole this photo from Chelsea)

THANKS Jamie for organizing the get together, goodie bags and the cookies.  I know that I should have taken a picture of them - but I devoured the shoe and flower cookies as soon as I got back from the run this morning.  Not normal post run food - but there were calling to me.

This morning I set the alarm for 5:00.  I had set the coffee pot the night before to start at 5:00 - but missed the AM part of the start time.  ;-)    So when I got to the kitchen - NO coffee.  So I started it manually - I thought maybe this was a bad omen that the day wasn't going to go as planned.

Headed out around 6:10 - I had wanted to get going a little earlier - but that didn't happen.  It takes about 10-15 minutes to get to campus and when I rounded the corner to the parking ramp and traffic was backed up - I got a little nervous - me thinks - bad omen number 2.  Eventually, I pulled into the ramp and headed to the Memorial Union.  I walked back and forth looking for Jamie or Chelsea or Kerri or Heather . . . but didn't see anyone else in a black 13.1 Bondi Band.  Found my spot near the 2:00 - 2:15 time area and waited for the start.

The race started and I felt pretty good.  Mile over mile I was pretty consistent with last year.  Shaving a few seconds off on most miles - but nothing major.  BUT I did kick it in the last mile + and for that I am happy.  Knowing the lake shore path and knowing that I could do it was great.  I tacked a little time to mile 1 from this year because my Garmin didn't have a satellite at the start of the race.  ;-(

	2010	2009
1	9:53	9:25
2	9:47	9:10
3	9:25	9:36
4	9:30	9:47
5	9:48	9:57
6	10:06	10:09
7	9:58	10:05
8	9:52	10:08
9	10:21	10:04
10	9:42	10:34
11	10:08	10:20
12	10:07	10:27
13	8:48	10:38
0.1	8:42	9:16
	2:08	2:12

There were a lot of people along the route cheering.  Many races in Madison run through the Arboretum - in the past I have not liked running through there - while it is beautiful - I find it somewhat boring.  Trees - trees and more trees.  I like looking at people, and houses and dogs and kids . . . . But this year I have biked through the Arb on a lot of my bike training rides - so I felt like I really knew what was coming and have come to enjoy the coolness of the air.  I looked for wild turkey's (there were some at last years race and I have seen them during bike rides) but none were visible today.  


Can't wait to read the recap from Jamie, Chelsea, Kerri and Heather.  


ENJOY - on to the next goal . . . youngest son moves to college next Saturday.   I will be looking for some runs this fall and I can't wait to get back on my bike.  I haven't biked for two weeks and I can't wait to bike to work next week.


Peace