Double race weekend

This weekend was busy for Nik & I -- on Saturday we ran the St. Pat's 5K in Providence, and on Sunday was the New Bedford Half Marathon.

The St. Pat's 5K was the last race in the Tour de Patrick series. We both approached the series pretty casually -- just as a bunch of fun runs. Even so, we both did pretty well. The scenery was great, the crowd support was fantastic, we met up with friends, and we felt awesome afterward. Check out our race reports on Daily Mile for more details (Nik and Dan).

How did Nik do so well on the race? Turns out she's only 5 inches tall.

A nice, and unexpected, perk of the St. Pat's 5K was that we got medals. Medals! For a 5K! Stand back and be jealous!

The next day, we went to New Bedford for the half marathon. I had signed up for the race ages ago but I didn't run it. Getting the flu for about 3 weeks in January, then recovering from the flu for a few weeks after that, then getting hit with 7 feet of snow all winter -- all of that put the kibosh on my winter training. So I haven't run very long lately, and rather than suffer through 13 miles when I was unprepared, I figured I'd be a happier person standing on the side and cheering for other people.

Nik, on the other hand, approached the race like a casual long run -- she hadn't run 13 miles since January. She wasn't entirely into running it, but she has a good base and figured she'd see what happened.

There were 1,700 runners -- pretty typical for the NB half. Great weather for a race, too. Crisp.

I spent my time being Nik's purse, drinking coffee, taking pictures, and finding open WiFi networks around downtown New Bedford. 

The fella who won the half marathon was fast as hell, unsurprisingly. After taking this picture, he stood over to the side, bent over like he was going to throw up and stayed that way for about half a minute, then got up and was interviewed.

The first female finisher did great, too. I managed to snap a picture right as she broke the tape, which I'm pretty proud of.

Nik did wonderfully on the race: 2:03:31, which is not far behind her course PR. New Bedford is a tough half -- hilly in the beginning, flat to downhill in the middle, windy and uphill at the end. Considering she hasn't been running much lately and isn't particularly bothered by that, she did amazing.

Another piece of bling to add to her collection. She's got, what? Five of these? Something like that. Not bad!