Blacksburg Classic 2015

10 miles

1:11:19

7:07

184 bpm

about to cross the finish line

5th place female and 1st in age group just like last year!  I was hoping for a course/distance PR this year, but it wasn't meant to be.  It's hard to run fast when you are fighting 20 mph winds.  It's also hard to run fast when your lungs are still weak from battling some sort of plague.  I'm happy with how I did because I know it was the best I was capable of given the circumstances.  There's always next year to try again for a PR!

This was only my second run with a heart rate monitor.  I just got a gps watch because my Soleus is not very reliable and it was driving me crazy.  So I got a Garmin, and it came with a HRM.  Being numbers-obsessed like I am, I decided to try out the HRM so that I could start obsessing over yet another piece of data.  It is not the most comfortable piece of running equipment, and I don't know if I will use it frequently or infrequently, but I am curious to track my running heart rate for a bit.  I went for a jog on Friday to test it out, and my average heart rate was 161, vs. 184 for the race.

Since the race was held on Valentine's Day this year, they did a "couple's challenge" where you could register with someone as a team and the fastest couple would get a prize.  My friend and I registered as "Lewisburg Legs" and won.  Our prize was a $100 gift card to Sal's Italian Restaurant.  We weren't sure we would be able to get in on such a popular eat-out day, but we also didn't want to drive all the way back to Blacksburg to use the card another day, so we figured we'd try.  We got there before 5 and there was a 40 minute wait for a table, but lucky us, the bar was empty, so we got bar seats.  The service was excellent and the food was delicious.  I got their pasta special, which had filet mignon, lobster, crab, spinach, and tomatos with penne and a pink cream sauce.  It was delicious, and I'm eating the leftovers for brunch right now.

Here's a race summary from the race director.  I wouldn't call our dinner romantic...but I suppose it could have been if we were actually in a relationship instead of just being race buddies for the day.

Getting home was a ridiculous and harrowing adventure due to a white-out snowstorm, but we were able to make it home safely thanks to Dan's superior driving skills.  It just took 3.5 hours instead taking under 2 hours like it should have.  I am very glad that we were not in my car and that I was not the one driving.