Races and training

Hey!  This is NiCole.  While I wasn't taking any classes this summer I was teaching a Microbiology class.  It was a pretty intense summer semester because it was so short and the amount of information that I had to go through.  Now I am currently on a small break before I start teaching in the fall.  

Since the last time I wrote I have run two races on my own here in Jacksonville.  While Nic ran the Melon run on the fourth of the July I ran the Celebration 5K run on that day.  In fact this was my fastest 5K so far.  I only need to shave off a couple more minutes and then I will finally get under 30 minutes.  While not very fast to everyone but it is fast to me and a definite improvement over my other races over the years.  Here is a pic of me at the finish.  Even though Nic wasn't there to run with me one of my Running Buddies ran the race with her brother so we all started together.  Then hung out for a little bit afterwards.

The next race that I decided to do was the Vestcor Bridges 5K.  I thought I could use a little bridge running in my life.  Which was hard considering that most of the time I run on flat, fast roads.  This run was later at night on a Saturday so I still did a long run that morning but only 6 miles because total I needed to run 9 miles.  Considering that I ran earlier that morning I was pretty proud of finishing just a minute slower than my fastest 5K time.  

It seems that all this running is paying off.  While I may not be super fast to other people to me I have definitely gotten stronger and faster.  I never thought I would get up at 5am so I could go meet my running buddies at 6am.  I now get up earlier to go running then I do to go to work.  I guess that totally makes me a runner.  

I am trying to do better on this whole blog thing but sometimes it is a struggle to find time between running, teaching at night and working a normal full time job during the day.  I can say that just by keeping up a consistent running program I have more energy because of it.

Until the next blog post which will probably be a combined blog!