The St. Pat's Day race course was a wee bit icy (OK, really icy), but fortunately it was covered with a nice layer of traction-providing snow!

Many of the runners were wearing "yak tracks" -- a rubber web-type thing that stretches over your running shoe and provides traction -- I may look into getting myself a pair of those.

The conditions slowed me down a bit -- I had just over a 50 which is far from the P.R. I had in mind, but, weather-providing, I was pretty happy with my performance. I felt good throughout and probably could've pushed it a little harder, but saw no point in doing that in the middle of marathon training when a fall could put an end to qualifying for Boston.

Results for the St. Pat's race can be found at www.erie-runnersclub.org. I ended up with 2nd place in my age group.

After the race, the husband and I ran an extra five miles so that both of us could call it our long run day.

I realized that was the first time we'd run together since I was pregnant with our first child -- almost 6 years ago now. I remember the last time we did any kind of a real run together (not counting races). I was about 6 months pregnant, I think -- and we were doing 7 miles. We were coming up Conrad road -- off E. 38th Street -- headed for Shannon Road and I couldn't keep up. I had to stop & walk (Conrad is uphill). I said "no, really, go ahead, it's OK..." he says, "are you sure?" I'm like..."yeah, really...wait for me at the top."

He took off and I spent the next 10 minutes shooting daggers into his back and he gleefully charged up the hill while I trudged behind carrying his child in my womb. (note to guys: when a woman says "No, really, it's OK -- it's usually not...unless it is...but, good luck telling the difference, even we don't know sometimes!). :-)

After that, we quit running together. I just couldn't handle the longer runs anymore and I was angry that I couldn't keep up with him. Once our girl arrived, running together was a thing of the past. Now it's always one of us watching the kids while the other runs.

We (OK, mostly me) often lament how we never have time to talk -- we never have time for date-nights, etc. But, you can do a lot of talking on a good 5 or 10-miler.

As we ran our extra 5 miles yesterday I filled him in on all the going-on's at work, my training schedule and family stuff -- all the things I rarely feel like going into when we're driving to drop a kid off at dance class or running to the in-laws or cleaning the house. It just seems there's no time to go into the details in our busy lives -- but when it's just two people and the street -- there's all the time in the world to elaborate.

And, this shouldn't suprise you --I'm kind of a talker.

P.S. Today -- Sunday -- is a rest day for me. And, since I don't know what to do with myself when I am not running in the morning, I blog.