Mary's 32nd Birthday present!

No it was not some useless rock on a ring or necklace, it was way more priceless.

She received something you can't buy, a "PR"!!! Thats right, we got up nice and early for Mary's special day and went to Scottsdale to run The Fiesta Bowl Half Marathon. That is the way we prefer to celebrate special days in our lives, instead of going out and eating a $100 meal that we should not have eaten any way.

My present to Mary was that I would, (like it or not) pace her through the entire 13.1, or in this case 13.3 miles. With the simple goal of getting her that new 1/2 marathon PR. I was exactly three weeks out from Ironman AZ, and had not done any real training since, as for running I had only ran one run over 8miles (11miler easy) in the last 21days. So knowing that (A) It would be pointless for me to race, and (B) it woud be sooo much more fun actually helping Mary get that fast time, that off we went.

As usual we went through mile 1 too fast for the day (6:48), so that is when I decide that I had better take over at this point and keep her in check, and make the day successful. I am sure that she could have PR"D without me, but seeing that I was with her we where without a question gonna PR, or else. So we settled in to a nice comfy 7:15ish pace pretty much the next 9 miles, each time I would hear her breathing pick up and the pace quicken I would make her hold back some. It was like holding the reins on a young colt, she just wanted to go. In my mind I wanted her to enjoy finishing strong and not strugling to the line. It is so much more of a positive to finish passing, then it is being passed, and after all, this day was a training race, the BIG PICTURE is keeping our eyes on the prize Jan 18th. So I had not told her, but was thinking hold her back until mile 10 or so and then let her set the pace. The only catch was that if she slowed down I would make her pick it up, but she could go as fast as felt comfortable. So as we approached the 10 mile mark I told her this, and I kinda just dropped back a step or two and let her go. Mary just stayed consistent another 7:15ish for mile 11. So I explained to her that it would be ok to start to build little by little from here on out, just pick it up a little bit at a time, again she would set the pace not me, and she did at just after mile12 she started to push it more up the one hill on the course, and I could tell she was starting to feel it now. GOOD, that was the point see what you can do the back end of the race. She started pushing it just a little too much to soon (6:40's pace) and we backed it off just a little again for about 50 yards so she recover for the last .25 of a mile. Then I picked out a row of trees and said when we hit them you are gonna puc to the line, and Bam she is off, so I just stayed with her we are now under 7:00 pace again and stuggling too keep it, with the last turn we can see the clock and I tell her she has 30 seconds to break 1:36:00, and she says Shit!! and picks it up to an all out sprint to the line 1:36:07!!!!

and a new PR by over 2 minutes from just 4 weeks ago!!!!!

Way to go Babe, very proud of you, and can't think of a better way to spend your birthday!!!~!