Trails to Ale 10k

Now that I have finished my 7 continent goal, I finally am able to try out all the fun local races that I've been wanting to do for years! This Sunday, that meant the Trails to Ale 10k. The race is a benefit for Portland Trails, which builds and maintains great trails all over Portland.

I was psyched to finally get to run this race, and even more excited to run it as party of a team. I ran with a great group of people from nursing school. Since we are all going into medical professions, we made a pun with a medical term and called ourselves Tachy Cardio.

team Tachy Cardio

I had been hoping when I signed up mid summer that it would be a perfect, crisp fall day. Instead, when I woke up it was humid and raining. It started to clear as I walked to the race. By race time it was sunny, but still humid. Whomp.

My focus this fall has been school, not running, so I didn't have a major goal. I was just hoping to come in under 9 minute/miles. The race starts on top of Munjoy Hill, so the first mile and half had a lot of downhill. My legs weren't loving the combination of downhill and asphalt. Luckily just past mile 2, the course turns onto back bay trail, which is dirt. Despite the crazy head wind in places, I really enjoyed the 3 miles around back cove. 

Although we had all decided to run our own races, my friend Rose and I ended up running almost the same pace and so we stuck together for most of the race. It was really nice to have someone to chat with. It made the time go so much faster!

Just after mile five, the course crosses a bridge and then loops off on a paved extension of the trail. The combination of the concrete, an uphill, and my pace hit me. My legs felt like absolute lead. I told myself I had less than a mile to go and tried to push on to the finish. 

I finished in 53:03, an 8:36 pace. Goal met! It was awesome to come across that finish and have most of my team there to high five me!

It was also awesome to head up the hill after the finish and get Portland Pie pizza and beer! Although it felt like summer, I decided that based on the date it was time to have my first Shipyard pumpkin head of the season! It was so good, I had one more. Nothing like beer at 10 on Sunday!

We hung around for quite awhile, enjoying our ale and chatting. Making great runner friends is a nice fringe benefit of nursing school!

This was such a great race, I think it may become a yearly event. 

Nursing School: A Day in the Life

Hey, remember me? I used to blog here. Then I decided to do an accelerated nursing program and now I'm having trouble finding time to do things like shower. So posts around here may be pretty sparse for awhile. Just so you understand why, here's what my life looks like now.

A Tuesday

4:45 Alarm goes off. I grumble and haul myself out of bed.

5-6 am Run. This week my headlamp decided to die exactly half-way through my run so I was stuck 3 miles away from home in the pitch black.

6-6:40 Shower/Breakfast/Internets

6:40-7 Drive to Spring Harbor

7-3 Mental Health Clinical
This is a pretty emotionally heavy experience. We usually break for lunch around 12:30 and then debrief during the last hour.

3-3:15 Drive to Maine Med. Eat a snack in the car.

3:15-6 Prep for my med-surg clinical the next day. This involves checking my patient assignment and then researching the patient's history, the pathophysiology of his/her conditions, all about his/her medications. I have a care plan to fill out with all of this information.

6:15 Get Home. Let dogs out.

6:15-7 Shove some food in my face. I am usually starving by the time I get home, so I've given up eating anything that takes more than 15 minutes to prepare. After I eat, I pack my lunch for the next day, set the coffee maker, pack my bag, and lay out my clothes.

7-8:30 Finish my care plan and do some other homework

8:30-9 Foam roll/yoga/strength training while watching TV

9-9:30 Get ready for bed and read

9:30 Attempt to fall asleep. I am usually exhausted, but still worrying about all the things I need to do that it takes me awhile to actually fall asleep.