This weekend in Review

This weekend was the Northeastern Invitational for me on Saturday and the Mill Cities Relay for Amber and her parents and sister on Sunday. I had originally been signed up for the Las Vegas Marathon so didn't commit to the Relay, taking instead the role of alternate.
The Northeastern Invitational would be my first test to see where my baseline speed was at and to use as a guide of where I can hopefully get by the Greater Boston Track Meet on January 22nd. I'm hoping to run a sub- 4:30 mile there so I was looking to run in the 4:45-4:50 range this weekend. Barely pulled it off with a 4:49.81. Not a lot of breathing room but I figure with some speed work, I can hopefully end my mile down in the 4:40 range by the end of December and then, as Pre said, it's gonna be a guts race on the 22nd. I also ran the 800m in 2:14, out like a lion in 61 and in like a lamb in 73. Yikes!
Amber ran the first leg(5.6 miles) of the Mill Cities Relay for the Women's Open Gate City Striders team. I parked at the transition area and ran back towards her, thinking I'd catch her about the 3 mile mark. Well, apparently no one told Amber about that as it only took me a mile and a half to meet up with her. She had gone through the first four miles in less than 24 minutes. Here I was thinking I'd be kind and pace her in, and instead, I'm hanging on for dear life just not to be dropped by her. She ended up being the first women to hand off but barely beating out a strong SRR racer.

Amber outkicking Danny

We then hopped in the car to cheer on Amber's sister, Deidre, who would then pass off the baton to her mother who would then pass it on to her father who had the 9.5 mile leg. We would drive ahead, stop and run back to cheer him on. Every time we saw him we were amazed just how fast he was running. Here's a fifty year old guy that has only been running about six years running sub-seven's for over 9 miles. Pretty impressive. Guess I know where Amber got her speed. BUT her love for running may have come from her mother. After finishing her leg, Gloria, comes up saying: "I got ripped offfff! I only got the 2.5 mile leg. I want to run further!" Well Gloria, let's work on the speed and maybe they'll give you a longer leg:)  

Up Next:  Amber AND Danny: 12/10/2011 Frozen 5k