Leap Year 4 mile Race

Saturday:3.5 miles Easy
Sunday: 14 miles Painful ...I struggled
Monday 10 miles; Great Run, did 10:1 intervals and it felt great.
MONDAY NIGHT: 4 Mile Leap Year Race.

Leap Year Race: New Boston Michigan. 6:30 pm.
I signed up for this race several weeks ago. Maximum participants 2000.
Lacey had me meeting her and Melissa at her house at 4:45.
As soon as I pulled in Lacey jumped in solo.
Melissa was going to be a good trooper and try to run with us but due to a recent injury she bowed out.

Lacey and I had made a early morning plan.
It was her 6 day straight running.
It was my second long run after a very painful run on Sunday. We both decided we would try to take a nap and have rested legs before we raced.
I actually took a great nap. I was rested and ready to run again!

Lacey was fresh and ready to roll. She had printed out the directions and had a bag full of goodies. It was a Monday night Girls Nite. A new race and dinner after, we were giddy.
In pure excitement, I made a bad decision. Tim Hortons was a very emotional choice, I HAD TO HAVE just one cup. We hit the Tim Hortons in Milford. I felt like a junkie my craving was so bad.

New Boston is located near metro Airport. The planes were coming out of the tree lines making my heart skip a beat. They looked like they were going to land on your head.
In the middle of chaos and expressways rests' this Metro Park called WILLOW PARK. This was where our race was.
The parking lot was filling up. The sun was setting and it was a magnificent bright pink color. Other than having to pee I was feeling really excited. We jumped out of my truck to get our bibs and check out the bathroom situation. It was 6:11.
WOW! It was warm. It was 44'.  Way warmer than Holly was.
The race was very organized, it took minutes to get our bib, our pins and our sweatshirts.
The bathroom was going to take 10 times longer. We headed to the truck. "I shouldn't have drank that coffee...." I wasn't going to make it a mile and I would have dropped my bladder.

Nothing is shocking to runners. We do the craziest things and don't think twice about it. So when I dumped the last couple sips of my coffee out of my truck Lacey laughed but really wasn't shocked. My truck is big enough I could hunker down and no one would see me. YES, I peed in the cup like I was 6 years old. Don't judge, would you rather I peed my pants?!

We were shedding our gloves and layers and hustling to the starting line.
The sun was setting making the race really cool looking.

GOAL: To go on Effort Level. Have a respectable race but be conscious of how our body felt. NOT CHECKING OUR PACE.

We never heard the National Anthem or a Gun Shot. We were in the back of over 1000 runners. With big smiles and a chill attitude we followed the crowd across the starting mat. Race Start about 6:40pm.

THE RACE:

Sweatshirts were cheesy, but the medals GLOWED! Very cool!

By Mile 2 it was dark. REALLY DARK. Dancing in the blackness of the night were HUNDREDS of glow in the dark necklaces, shoes, head lamps and accessories. It was pretty groovy looking.
Lacey and I were heated up and running really good. You actually never ran on the trails, they had you running on the road throughout the park. IT was SOO flat that Lacey and I found it comical, waiting for the dreaded hill to arise in the dark to torture us. It never DID! The total elevation of the race was 6 FEET!
Lacey and I never quit passing people. My watch lined up perfectly with the first mile. But mile 2 seemed to be the LONGEST mile. And Mile 3, My watch beeped a quarter of a mile a we reached the 3 MILE sign.
Lacey and I picked it up the last mile and she made some gutsy moves to pass runners as we were heading into the wind. We had a gravy 3 miles with the wind at our back. But now the wind was smacking us with no remorse.
"Really Lacey, did you have to pass those people?"
"Yup, I had to get around them."
My concern was this race was going to be longer than we expected and I was nervous we would empty the tank.
Then I hear Lacey "WOW, really!?"
I looked up and tried to focus in the dark. It was the FINISH LINE! I wasn't going to argue, I felt good and together we picked it up and finished it out laughing.
They were right there putting our GLOW in the DARK medals around our neck.
Catching our breath we came to the conclusion that because this race is EVERY 4 YEARS they just forgot where the mile markers went!

Random runner!

CONCLUSION:
If the Lord Blesses me with another 4 years of running I will BE BACK! If you are looking for a race to PR, This is the one, even in the dark. Granted I wasn't in the front, being in the back I always had someone's light to follow. Mine was useless because I didn't angle it properly, Typical Airhead Anita move.
My Garmin was quite a bit different then their time. It was in my favor.
My Garmin had me at a 8:08 pace.
Their Results:
Time: 32:59
Pace:8:15

We went into the clubhouse to get our results and our goodies. The goodies were great! Cookies, Pop Tarts, Fig Bars, protein bars, bananas and boxes of snack foods.
We sat down looking at the runners coming in and munching on our food. We just chilled and soaked up the atmosphere. "Lacey, I cant believe I didn't see anyone I know."
As we were heading to get out results I SAW KIRT! A local runner I see at a lot of runs, and he gets his hair cut once in a while at my salon.

KIRT!

The DINNER: Milford Smoke Street
The best part of running, is EATING!! We found a great little Barbeque restaurant in Milford. It was the Icing on the Cake. Why is food SOO good after running?

February is officially OVER. And March came in with a BANG, Another snow storm. I TOOK A SNOW DAY TODAY TOO! I stayed home ALL day! I decided this week was would be a good week to bring my miles down. Next week I will ramp them back up. I am giving my body some recovery.

Anyone Else Run a Leap Year RACE??

Anita