Omaha CC Race Report

When last we left, it was the night before Omaha's biggest and best 10k.  The race started at 9, so while I didn't get to sleep in (toddlers don't give a shit about "sleeping in opportunities"), we did get a relaxing morning together. 

As soon as I rolled into downtown, I found a sweet (free!) parking space and made my way to our meet up spot. Smiles, hugs, catching up, pace chat, etc before heading out to the start line.  The best thing about this race is the qualified corral start.  The elite race started at 7:45, but the rest of us could send in race times for "select seeded" or "seeded" corals.  It's fun to line up at the very front without all those pesky legit racers in the way.

Last year's time was 8:21 pace, so my goal was to stay ahead of that. 8:00 was my plan, but 7:45s felt even better.  The weather was foggy, humid, calm, and cool.  Pretty nice conditions.  The course is slightly hilly with plenty of people watching opportunities.

I was running what felt comfortable and couldn't believe how easy I hung onto a 7:45 pace.  Weeeee faaaaaaaaall!

Final stats
48:25
7:48/mi
85/1899 gender (got to love a race with a ton of walkers to make your finishing place look better)

I did more chatting with friends at the finish line and happily made my way to the car.  Now, remember that totally awesome free parking spot I mentioned?  I had absolutely no idea where it was.  Save for four years in college, I've lived in this city my entire life, and I STILL don't understand downtown.

I walked south...walked west...hmmm....turned back north...man I'm hungry...start running...did I go down this street already...walk again...do I remember seeing this bank...maybe I'm not west enough... goddamnit!

After searching for my stupid car for nearly as long as it took me to run the race, I made my way home to a house full of rowdy boys.  On the anniversary of my first post-baby race, I couldn't be happier with how the race went.  I was strong, fit, and loving it. 

And here's a nice bookend to my previous post.   Same couch, same kid, much less fuzzy.

And here's both our cuties still in their Sunday morning jammies. (Pay no attention to the hot mess of me.  Getting both kids to look at the camera is a like photographing a unicorn.)

Now, my focus is totally shifted to Sunday's half marathon.  Last year, I just wanted to finish and ended up surprising myself with my fastest post-baby race to date.   This year, I need to get below 2 hours again.  Need.  I haven't cared this much about a race in a very long time. Thankfully, last weekend's race has given me a great deal of confidence. 

Much like my 9 months on-9 months off post-pregnancy bod analysis, one year is long enough to play the "I just had twins/I don't have time to train" card.  I run as much as I want to these days. I have complete control over how I look and feel.  No more excuses.

Off to obsess about the weather and what the heck I'm wearing...