SPAIN

Sunday 13th Mike and I got onto our flight and headed to Seville, Spain. Via Madrid. It was a night flight and I managed to get a little sleep, though the seats as usual were very uncomfortable.

The Flight was on time and we got to Madrid, and had to get through the airport to our connecting flight. Once on the plane we had to wait an hour for technical trouble to be fixed. Then it was off to Seville. We were meet by one of the LOC members who picked us up with the sweet BMW ride below.

We drove through the rain to Punta Umbria, which took us about an hour. Once there we were checked into our hotel and had a little nap. The we did some checking out of the hotel, though it was still raining a little. It was deserted. its out of season for tourist and all the rain we saw very few people, just the officials for the Cross Country. Here are some pics of the hotel and pool. We found ourselves a little shopping center, which was all closed except the supermarket, so we checked that out, came back and had dinner in the hotel, all by ourselves.

Then it was off to bed.

Selected for World XC

New Zealand finally made the announcement and I have made the Team for the World Cross Country Champs in Spain, March 20th.

Team Announced

Now that the team has been announced I have made a few changes to the season, instead of doing more indoor races, will focus on getting some hard solid work outs in and race a 5k on the road closer to the championships.

So I had a good month of solid training, long runs on the hills at River Road and long solid work outs as best I could with the winter we were having.

I found the race that I wanted to do for the last hard effort. New York Road Runners have a race in the City, Coogans Salsa, Blues and Shamrocks 5k

The weather has slowly been warming up, but unfortunately this morning of the race was windy and raining, though at least it wasn't too cold. It was also a little hilly, out and back loop.

The competition in this race was kinda tough, the guys is pretty tight one and the girls is also won in a pretty decent time. So I started out and picked my way through the guys and girls, until I realized I was the girl in the lead. From then on I was working with the guys that were around me. I had a group to keep pulling me through and pushing me over the final hill. With a nice long downhill finish I came away with the win in 16.34, equalling my Road PB, but this was by far a harder course then when I ran this time in the pass.

Now its just a matter of getting through the next two weeks healthy and safe and arrive in Spain to have some relaxing running before the race March 20th!

Results Here

Indoor Track

Track season is starting. Well Indoor track so I decided to jump in and get a 3k done and see how the training was going. I knew I wasn't going to have the track speed that some people at this stage of the year would have, but I had the strength from the long work out and tempos that I have been doing.

So once again I headed to boston, stayed with a friend and ran the Boston Terrier Meet

The race was a good one, they set a quick pace at the start and I just sat in behind while they pulled me along, when the break was made I tried to go with it, but this was were the little track work I had done was now affecting me. I was unable to make the change in gear and go with the move.

This was also the first race under the new contract with Saucony, and my new uniform - I am in the bright orange

Results Here

Watch more video of 2011 BU Terrier Invite on flotrack.org

10miler

Jan 15th I ran the Sayville 10mile Brewery Run.

Bluepoint has its own beer - A must have when you come to visit this area. They have been putting on a race for a few years now and this year Sayville Running Co joined in. The race was set for the weekend prior, unfortunately we had a lot of snow in the forecast and the police postponed the event. The snow came down, but not to the extent they have called for. The race was now set for the 15th, before this day we had more snow and the roads were still a little dodgy, but they held the event and hundreds of people turned up for a cold morning.

I planned to just tempo the run. Warm up, pick up the pace and cool down in the 10miles. It ended up being a good solid run and ended up being the first women. which won me a sweet beer mug.

I am feeling like I have recovered from the cold I had earlier and was happy that I was started to get back into shape.

Results Here

New Year Run

Once Again I decided to run the Midnight run in NYC, unfortunately I fell sick with a some sort of cold a few days before the race. I took it easy and decided that I would still go out and run the race. It was a nice night, they had a tent for the elite athletes to try and stay warm in even though the night was pretty mild.

I went for a warm up and felt ok, I had a bad cough though which was hard for the lungs. The race started and I was ok, going along with the field, it was a tough field this year. I got through the first half ok, and then the cold I had got the better of me. The breathing and the lungs were burning and the legs where not getting enough oxygen it was a tough 2miles back to the finish.

But I cant complain to much the time was ok for the way I had been feeling. Now a few easy days to recover completely

Results Here

South Carolina.

Mike's Sister had recently moved to Sth Carolina to teach. The national club cross country champs where being held in North Carolina, an hour from Michelles place, so Mike decided he would give the cross country a go again, and we would stay with Michelle and check out the area.

Unfortunately Mike was unable to compete at the champs, but we were all booked and wanted to visit his sister so we went down.

The flight to South Carolina should have been about 3hrs, with a stop over in Philadelphia. So we got a ride to the airport for our midmorning flight to sit and wait for some time before our plane came in. Then we got to Philly ran through the airport to find they had closed the gates 10min early - the only flight we would have traveled on that left early! because our flight had been delayed they had moved our tickets to the next flight in case we didn't make it. Or as it looks to us, so they don't have to hold the connecting flight for us to get there. So now the trip is not off to a good start and we have to wait 3hrs for the next flight. Of course this one doesn't leave on time either - why would they!

Eventually we made it to North Carolina, got our rental car and drove an hr south to Michelle in our sweet little cube

Finally we arrived at Michelles place. The next day I needed to get a run in, so Michelle knew a few parks so we went and checked one of them out. Pics below of the State park we went to, which had a nice lake and and few trails around the lake. For dinner we had to have some southern food so tried Bojangles - Southern fried chicken - delicious.

While in South Carolina we visited the class that Michelle teaches and the half a dozen kids she looks after.

We Made our way up North on Saturday to Watch Mikes team run at the Club champs in North Carolina. It was a beautiful day and lots good quality races to watch. I did my run over the course once the races were done. One of the guys on the team had Family who the team was staying with so we went round there for so quality home cook Southern food! it was amazing Good Fried food! I would have liked to checked North Carolina more, but limited time.

Sunday Michelle took us into the town of where Columbia, which is the capital of South Carolina. We checked out the state building With all the christmas stuff set up for the season
In Columbia the football team is the one of the biggest games you can go to, so we checked out that stadium - The Stadium of the Gamecocks.

Monday Mike and I headed back up North for our trip back home to Long Island. just hoping that our day of travel was not going to be as long as on the way there.