Another PA weekend in the books...

Man, I love my hometown in Pennsylvania!!
You truly don't know what you have till it's "gone".
I remember not being able to wait to get away and now I would give anything to move back!

But alas, that's another argument with my husband story for another day!!

I have to tell you guys that I was totally going through the play-by-play of this past weekend and was up to Saturday only to delete everything I'd just written!
We were on the go go go and saw a lot of people we love but y'all don't care about all that.

Especially, too, since I have like no pictures to share of this weekend.
It all started when I was trying to take a picture of the delicious cannoli that jumped into my cart at the grocery store and my phone told me it could not take a picture due to not enough storage on my phone!
Womp womp womp...
Looks like someone has to delete some pictures and apps!!
Anyway...

I figured I would skip over all the boring details and jump straight to the race I ran in on Friday night!

This was the Race Against Poverty that serves to raise money and awareness to help those in the area living in poverty.
They raised almost $10,000!!

My dear friend coordinates the race so I was beyond excited to run it for that reason!
I saw lots of old and wonderful friends at this race and it made me so happy!!
I even convinced my long-time friend (Hi Ang!!) to run it with me!!

Friends since Kindegarten!! 25 years!!
She did GREAT!! :)

It had rained all day Friday and the event was "Rain or Shine" so I was going to run regardless but I don't love to run on slick road.
Homegirl is clumsy enough...don't need anything else to aid in me falling on my ass!
Miraculously, when I arrived around 6:30 pm, there was no rain!!
And an extra props to the Big Man Upstairs cos it was cool, but not freezing...perfect running weather!

After catching up with lots of familiar faces, it was 8 o'clock and time to run!
I LOVED the course.
It may have been due to the fact that I knew the area and could reminisce as I passed by the sights.
But this course was flat and fast.
It was seriously over in no time.
I felt like I was flying!!

As most of you know, I have been working on speed training for the last month in order to PR (Personal Record) on this race.
I knew I would, for sure, PR.
And I did!

What I didn't know, was if I could reach my goal time...
of under 26 minutes.
And that, I did not.

My time: 26:46
An 8:30 average mile.
7th in my age group out of 48
101 (out of 238) overall

Now, since you all know me, let's over-analyze the shit out of this!

Just a little over a week ago, my Nike+ app told me I completed 3.1 miles in 25:56

I was beyond pleased and really looking forward to doing even better at the actual race.
I used my Nike+ app for this race too, but forgot to turn it off after I finished so I didn't get the time on there.
But here are my 3 mile splits

I'm irritated as hell with that 8:51 mile
Primarily because I seriously felt like I was flying this whole course.
I never felt "slow".
(Disclaimer...I am not saying "you suck, slow ass" if you run an 8:51 minute mile or slower. For me, personally, in a 3 mile RACE, that is slow....FOR ME!! We all good now?!?)

So, with .11 miles to go, I know for sure, per the Nike+ app it would have been under 26 minutes.
(yes, the app started exactly as the race started!)

Here's where I get discouraged.
I am a numbers girl.
I am all about accuracy.
Perhaps a perfectionist. (Well at least with running...I wish I were a perfectionist when it came to cleaning!)

I hate going into a race thinking I am faster than I actually am.
I set goals and then get discouraged when I don't meet them.
Like my 10k in April where I wanted under 55 minutes and got 55:03!!
Like this race where I wanted under 26 minutes and got 26:46!!

Please don't get me wrong...
I AM pleased with my time!
That's a great time!
That's a freaking PR!!!

I just don't like not having an accurate account of what to aim for when setting a goal for a race.
Of course all the race courses are going to be different.

And of course I can't completely depend on any app using GPS to give me complete accuracy.

So how does one that strives for running perfection and accuracy adapt to this truth?!?

I have no answer to that!

What I can tell you is that with each race, my goal is to beat any previous PR!
I don't have a 5k set up to run in July or August, but you better believe I'm looking for some!
I am going to continue even harder with speed training in July and August.
And I want to continually beat my PR's!
No, I WILL continually beat my PR's!

Another goal I want to set for myself is that I desperately want to place in my age group at a race!

I'm hard on myself with running.
I know that.
But that just makes me push harder in training.
I seriously love this sport and want to be the best that I can be.

There will be a day when I cannot run.
Today...is not that day.
So I will push myself...
Stronger.
Faster.
Farther.