Lucky Number 1402: Elkhart Lake Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Wow. Where do I even begin with this one? Well, let's put it this way: it's been my goal for awhile to win my age group in a race - for the most part, I've had a pretty good track record of getting 2nd or 3rd, but never quite squeaked out the win. The thought of that win coming in a triathlon...let alone my first triathlon...was pretty much absurd, since this ridiculous idea didn't even surface until a little over a month ago, when the BF somehow cajoled me into signing up for this race. So reader beware: this is going to be a loooong story, because I want to remember every second of it...since I have the feeling this won't be the last you hear of triathlons from me. In sections, as always, here is my race report!

Pre-Race
I left for Elkhart Lake on Thursday afternoon and don't worry, I was already starting to get nervous. A really great swim workout on Tuesday followed up by a 15 mile bike ride/6:19 mile combo on Wednesday had left me feeling a little more confident than expected about my chances to actually compete, as opposed to just finish the race, and I was in a fabulous mood as I cruised down the highway belting out songs on the radio [one reason I liked driving down by myself, hehe]. I stopped in Brookfield to pick up my wetsuit and as soon as it was in my hands a shot of adrenaline went through me - I'm going to be wearing this, I'm going to be swimming in a lake... -Thursday night was full of non-triathlon related things, but I was already starting to get nervous/excited for what lay ahead. Friday was pretty much entirely devoted to race prep. I drove the bike course with the BF - now THAT got me nervous. Hills, hills, and more hills...well, at least we got to ride past a llama farm! But it was just a little bit of a shock seeing how long it actually was, and how hilly. Yikes. Next up, biking the run course. The BF's mom is amazing and let me borrow her incredible road bike for the race, and I wanted to take it out for a spin since I'm used to riding crappy mountain bikes. I can't even describe the difference - it was sooo smooth and even going uphill wasn't too terrible. The BF and I went out for a quick run for me to just shake out my legs [and since he hadn't run in awhile, hehe :)], then his sister [who was also doing the race] arrived and so it was time to go for a swim!

So first of all let me just say - wetsuits are AWESOME! The water was 60 degrees, but I wasn't cold in the least bit. You feel so smooth and swimming feels easy, and if you do decide to stop, you just float! It's seriously fantastic. We swam around most of the course [and honestly, I was having so much fun I could have stayed out there all day], then decided we didn't want to tire ourselves out too much. Getting the wetsuit off went off without a hitch - good news for trying to get through transition fast! I was initially a little concerned about being cold in the sleeveless version, but I ended up loving it.

Trying to look like I know what I'm doing in my sweet Zoot suit! :)

We then went to check in - I found my number on the list...1402! My lucky number is 14 [it's a long, ridiculous story as to why, dating back to 4th grade...I won't explain it now], and I honestly hope every time I get a race number that it's going to have a 14 in it..and it's never happened...until this! So I felt like that was a pretty good omen of things to come. We then went to a pre-race meeting where they went over the course and penalties and things [there are a LOT of bike penalties in triathlons...made me really nervous]. But I had already gone over the courses so I was just sitting there, kind of zoning out, when all of a sudden I looked over and saw these two girls I went to school with...one of whom I had a bit of a long-standing rivalry with dating back to 6th grade band chair tests for oboe [I got first chair, she was not a happy camper, we never got along after that]. Anyway, if you know me at all, you know I'm insanely competitive - to a fault at times -so if I didn't already have enough motivation to try to do well in this race, I now had one more goal - beat those two girls.

After an amazing dinner of stuffed shells, spinach salad, and bread [the BF's mom is an amazing cook], it was pretty much time for bed. We went to bed at around 9:15 and I was honestly surprised I could fall asleep that early, but I completely passed out.

Race Day
As soon as my alarm went off at 5:15 am, I was wide awake. I was hoping to leave for the transition area by 6, with the race actually starting at 7:30. As always, the first thing I did when I got out of bed was start eating...I wanted to be fully digested by the time I had to start swimming. I had a banana, peanut butter Clif Bar, and some fierce grape Gatorade I had mixed up the night before, then I quickly got into my triathlon outfit [spandex track shorts and one of my Nike running tank tops] and put on the bottom of my wetsuit. It wasn't that nice out, so I was wearing a few layers on top, plus socks and sandals...the wetsuit kept my bottom half nice and toasty. I double checked all of my stuff, got 'my' bike ready, and was pretty much ready to go by a little after 5:30...I'm always the total weirdo who is ready excessively early for races...hey, I like getting there early and being able to relax and get in my zone at the actual race site. I walked with the BF and all of my crap down to the resort where the race was taking place - only about a 5 minute walk from his house which couldn't have been more perfect. I got body marked [both arms, both legs, and both hands...I really don't think I had 1402 written on me enough times...] then one last kiss from the BF and I was headed into transition!

All ready to go at 6 am on race morning.

I quickly found my spot and got all set up - it didn't take too long since I honestly didn't have too much to deal with. I got my bike up on the rack with the helmet on the seat, laid out my shoes with the laces loosened so they would be easy to slip into, pinned my number onto my race belt and laid it out for the run...that was really about it! I was happy because the numbers were organized by age group, with the youngest at the end, so my bike was in the last rack and so was really easy to find. All of a sudden, I noticed that most of the people around me were wearing chips. I knew we were supposed to have chips since it was a time trial start...but I hadn't seen anyone giving them out or anything. I asked someone where she got hers, and apparently we were supposed to get them at check-in the night before! Uh, makes a ton of sense, but no one had said anything about picking up chips at check-in. Ahhh! It turns out they were still doing chip pickup inside the resort, so I was dashing around with my heart pounding trying to find someone who knew where the day-of check in was...there were only 15 minutes until transition closed and I needed to go back and get my swim stuff and drop off my warmup layers. Let's just say I was VERY relieved when I finally had the chip in my hand - that kind of stress was the last thing I wanted to deal with right before a race.

With transition all set up and as ready as I was ever going to be, I headed down to the beach for the pre-race briefing. I waded in the water to get my swim cap wet and put it on, then headed back over to the staging area, where I ran into Nikki and Mindy [the two girls I knew]. The three of us were chatting with one other girl who was also doing her first triathlon - Nikki had done 2 and Mindy 6, so I was feeling pretty much like I didn't know what I was doing compared to them. A couple of last minute announcements, and soon the first sprint wave was headed down to the beach. I was nervous, excited, and just kind of in awe - I'm doing this. I can't believe I'm doing this! It seemed to take forever, but finally they were calling the 1400 group forward down into the chute. Some quick good lucks, and everyone focused on the start banner. The timing mat got closer, closer, closer...finally I stepped onto the mat with Nikki [oh the weirdness, that I should start my first triathlon with someone who I spent 3 years in a much different type of competition with]. "5 seconds" Wait...wait...wait...."GO!"

The Swim
With the yell of GO, I sprinted off the beach and into the water. I really had no clue when I should switch over from running to swimming, but I basically wanted to get ahead of Nikki ASAP so I dove in when I got about up to my knees. Kind of strange, swimming as people are running all around you...but yeah. The first few strokes after diving into the water were a little bit of a shock - my wetsuit was sleeveless so my arms were exposed [although I was happy to have my full range of motion] and I kind of gasped a little bit with each breath just because of the sudden cold, but everything quickly resolved itself and I was almost immediately passing people who had started just ahead of me. The swim seemed to take about a minute. I don't really remember thinking at all, all that was going through my mind was relax, relax, don't kill yourself, this is just the beginning...get past these people, stay ahead of the Tosa girls. I was passing people pretty consistently, which was sometimes a problem because I would be practically on top of some lady leisurely backstroking along before I realized what was going on and then would have to do some kind of weird head-out-of-water stroke to get away and keep swimming. I was at the turnaround buoy before I knew it and headed back to shore - and when did I think I couldn't even swim 400 meters? I had some trouble swimming straight in the second half, I think because the lane was a little bigger and I was running into more people who were slowing down in the second half of the swim, so I got a little off course a couple of times but overall it wasn't too bad. I also really didn't know when to stop swimming and stand up and run out of the water...but I guess when my arms started hitting the bottom I knew it was time. I stood up and started to run out of the water - and honestly, that was probably the most difficult part of my race! My heart was pounding like crazy and I was tiiiiired...I hit the timing mat on the beach and quickly looked at my watch...it read 6:20...ahh! I was expecting something like 8:30 for the swim so....yeah. Pleasant surprise! It suddenly dawned on me that maybe I should be taking off my swim cap and goggles and unzipping my wetsuit and things as I was running, so I started trying to do that as I ran up into transition....which seemed to take soooo long! Swim - check!

Swim split: 6:22 (32nd overall/11th woman)
I'm in this picture somewhere...maybe? Everyone looks the same in a wetsuit and swim cap!

T1
I finally made it into the transition area and found my bike - like I said, it was easy since I was in the last row. This was all craziness to me and I really had no idea what to do other than go, go, go! My wetsuit came off fabulously, and my shoes were perfect - I'm so glad I went with the XC spikes because they were really easy to slip into and I could wear them without socks - seriously, I probably saved myself a minute right there! That was really about all there was to do. I put on my helmet before even grabbing my bike [you get DQed if you get on your bike without your helmet buckled, and I wasn't taking any chances] and soon enough I was dashing down the walkway towards the bike start. Right before the mount line, I saw the BF and family and my mom who were cheering for me and I flashed them a big smile...hell, the swim was over, I was feeling great, and this was so much freaking fun! There was an orange line to mount your bike after...I dashed over it, got my feet into the pedals without a hitch...and I was off for a 20K on the bike!
T1 split: 3:03 (17th overall/7th woman)


The Bike
This was where I knew things were going to get interesting, since my "training" for the bike portion of this race consisted of one 10 mile ride and one 15 mile ride...so I was feeling unprepared at best. But I did have a phenomenal bike under me so that raised my confidence at least a bit. The first couple of miles I tried to just relax and calm down a little bit - after the frenzy of the swim and transition, my heart rate was still up like crazy after transition. Mindy passed me right after the start [I had seen her in transition, so I knew she wasn't far behind me starting the bike] and while I wasn't concerned exactly about catching her, I definitely didn't want to get back by more than a few minutes. Soon enough, I was into a rhythm and lo and behold I was passing people from the start. The bike course was almost 100% rolling hills...up and down and up and down, on and on and on. I was really nervous about getting a penalty and so was kind of scared to pass at first [if you decide to pass, you can't back out on it or it's a penalty, and you have to be more than 3 bike lengths back from the person in front of you]...the last thing I wanted was to get a penalty on the bike. But I gradually loosened up a little bit and realized that hey, when I decide to pass people, I totally CAN! The 5K mark came up pretty fast and I just thought - a quarter of the way done, no problem. You can do this. Soon after that, the Gu that I had been planning on eating on the bike fell off...ohhh well. I was feeling good hunger wise so I wasn't too concerned about it being gone, and I had Gatorade which was really all I needed. Actually, the first time I thought about grabbing a drink, I looked down at the water bottle in the cage and was like -uh...I think I can get it out of there...but I'm never going to be able to get it back in without falling off my bike! Yes, I have never cycled before...eventually, I went for it about halfway through the bike, and I managed to not drop my bottle or crash, so that was a good thing. :) There was this woman in pink who kept yo-yoing back and forth with me...I would pass her on the uphill, she would pass me on the downhill, etc, etc, and at one point she passed me and was like "Well, it looks like this is going to be going on for awhile!". Um, no, lady. It is not. So on the next uphill, I put in a little extra surge to shoot past her and 3 other people, and I never saw her again. Competitiveness: it hits me even when I'm in the middle of something I haven't the slightest clue about. A similar thing happened with a guy in the second half of the race...I would have been completely OK with him being in front of me, until he decided it was a good idea to pass me on the inside when I was practically on the shoulder of the road anyway. If track has taught me one thing, its that you NEVER pass on the inside. That dude was history shortly thereafter. :) The only thing that was really hard was this weird S-bend uphill at about mile 10...there was a really sharp turn going into it, so I pretty much lost all momentum before going up the hill, and that hurt a lot. But I tried to get back into my rhythm as soon as possible, and things were fine again. As for the rest of the bike...I honestly don't know. I passed a lot of people. I don't think I was really pushing it to the max, but then again I don't think I know HOW to push it to the max on a bike yet. All I can really remember was this feeling of total, utter, joy. That's the only way I can describe it. On the uphills I would really bear down to pass people, gearing down and pumping my legs and just putting my head down and GOING, and on the down hills I would just fly. I felt like I was flying. I probably spent all of my time when I wasn't passing people just absolutely grinning my fool head off. It's honestly hard to explain how incredibly wonderful I felt during the entire bike. Yeah, you're probably not supposed to feel that awesome in the middle of a race...but for once, I was letting myself absolutely enjoy the moment. And boy, was it amazing. We passed the llama farm [believe, me I was looking forward to this the WHOLE ride] and the llamas weren't outside, except for one little guy who was poking his head out of the barn like he was doing it just for me! One last uphill and then a glorious, glorious downhill back into down...I would have thrown my hands in the air with joy if I could have. I saw the cheer crew as I came back into town and once again, grinned my face off. I was loving every single second of this ridiculous race. I got to the dismount line and almost fell over in my attempt to be smooth hopping off my bike...uh...that might be something to work on in the future. :) Onward to T2!
Bike split: 44:59 (143rd overall/I don't feel like counting through the results, lets just say I wasn't in the top 15 women...um, the bike might be the thing I need to work on :))

T2
Welcome to speedsville! I racked my bike wrong the first time but got it right shortly after, clipped on my race belt...and yeah, that was it! Wearing the same shoes/clothes for the bike and run was a great idea and saved me a ton of time. Mindy left transition about 20 seconds before me so she was in my sights as I cruised over the mat and into what I knew was my domain...the run!
T2 split: 1:27 (12th overall/5th woman)


The Run
Ah, the run. Legs like jello, lungs on fire, and yet I knew...this is MY territory, this is what I do, this is what I've been training for for 8 years as opposed to 2 weeks! And so, despite feeling like utter crap, I was ready to rock. Although, unfortunately, from the instant I left transition, I had to pee! Ugh. Not much to do about that, and I just reassured myself that it was only a 5K, at the absolute MAX 25 minutes [that was my allowed slowest time that I wouldn't be cranky with, this being a triathlon and not a straight 5K race after all. Honestly, for most of the run, I thought that was about what I was going to run...I guess after biking 3.5 minute miles, 7:23 just seems damn slow!]. I passed Mindy about a minute in and knew that I wasn't going to see her again. The first mile was deathly. I can't even explain how bizzare it feels to try to run after you just rode a bike as fast as you could for 45 minutes. It's really, REALLY weird. I felt like I was moving so incredibly slowly, and yet somehow, I was just continuously passing people. It was like everyone else was moving at the same pace in one lane, and I was running at a completely different pace in the other. It was nothing like a normal road race. I didn't really know where the mile markers were - they had them for the Olympic distance but not the sprint, but eventually I figured out that they were every mile. The first mile was a slight uphill - not fun in my current state - although one house had a boombox out blasting Rocky music which pretty much made my day. So the worst point in the course is this GIANT hill that comes around mile 1.5. I knew it was coming, I've run/biked up it multiple times in my life, and I know that it comes right after a turn...but somehow in my ridiculous state I managed to convince myself that another, pretty decent sized hill [which happens to come right before mega-hill] was "the big one". So I'm thinking to myself alright, look at all these people walking around you, you can make it up this hill, it sucks, but you can do it, and right around this bend it's all downhill! Imagine my surprise when I turned the corner and MEGA-HILL is staring me down! Actually, I kind of giggled a little bit. It was so absurd, and I had felt so crappy on the last hill that somehow I knew I could make it up this one...and make it up I did, passing still more people in the process. Then we turned the REAL corner into "it's all downhill from here", and that was absolutely amazing. As I passed one woman, she was like "you can carry me on your back if you want!" I laughed and responded with "yeah, that was quite a hill, huh?" Me...talking to people during a race. What is this madness? Just another testament to what an amazing time I was having. The ~half mile downhill was absolutely amazing. I let my legs go and just flew with as little effort as possible. One more mile. I can do this. I'm going to finish a triathlon. I stopped thinking about anything and just ran...and before I knew it, the finish line was in sight. I honestly probably would have run a little faster at the end if I had realized just how close the finish line was but hey...what are you going to do. I saw the cheering crew once again, and once again, gave a HUGE smile...I was almost there and still loving every second of this ridiculous race. I kicked it in at least the last 100 meters, passed one last person...and BEEP! BEEP! I was across the timing mat, and there I was. I had finished my first triathlon.
Run split: 22:55 (26th overall/5th woman)

I slammed my watch and looked at my time. 1:18:44
What? What?? WHAT???
Shock doesn't even begin to describe how I felt about that time. I had honestly expected to do around 1:30, hoped to do around 1:25...and yeah...1:18:44. I didn't really know what to do with myself. I eventually located my mom [who had driven an hour and a half to see me race, she is amazing!] and the BF and was just being my usual giddy post-race self, grinning from ear to ear and yapping like an idiot. I went and got my stuff out of transition, taking a couple seconds as I did to take it all in...did that really just happen? As I made my way back, I noticed some results had gone up on the Porta Potties [classy, huh?] Since I had come in awhile before, I figured I might be up already, and since I knew my time it would be easy to check. I scanned the list for the 1:18s...3rd page...2nd page...1st page...and suddenly I see my name...50TH [what would turn out to be 45th after relays were removed]...and then I look over to DivPlace...and see that number I've been waiting to see since I started running competitively...1. I had to double check it about 5 times before I was sure it was true. I won my division? This can't be right...I've never done one of these before...I really didn't train enough..WHAT?!! I wandered back to the BF and mom in a daze, ridiculous grin on my face once again. "Uh...I won my age group" "You WHAT? Are you sure?!" And so of course I had to go back and check again. No, the results hadn't changed...and there it was. Finally...FINALLY, after wanting the AG win for who knows how long, I had done it. In my first triathlon ever...a race I initially hadn't wanted to do at all...a race I'd been terrified of...a race that for the first time in my life I was going to do 'just for fun'. And here I was...and it was true...I had done it.

OK, this post is getting infinitely long, so maybe I'll save all of my musings on triathlons for another day. But let's just say that I think I might have found something that I have the potential to be really good at. I've always been a good runner but never quite the fastest and in recent years I've been realizing that endurance is probably more my thing than speed. And I LOVE the multiple sports aspect of triathlons - every second was exciting. And for the first time in my life, I have no specific running season to train for...and it's really weirding me out. So who knows...I might be taking the dive into the triathlon lifestyle sooner rather than later. As I told the BF..."In 10 years, when I decide I want to train for an Ironman...you are going to have no one to blame but yourself!" :P

And in case you haven't noticed, I wrote this 3 days later, and I'm still on a post-race high. Really...what have I gotten myself into? I'm thinking something great. :)

"Watch out, you might get addicted...."

Elkhart Lake Sprint Triathlon [400 m swim, 20K bike, 5K run]
1:18:44
1/25 AG
9/210 women
45/372 overall

Oh. My. God. I had more fun doing this race than I've ever had doing ANY athletic event in my entire life...and then I did about a thousand times better than I EVER would have expected. I could not stop smiling while I was on the bike, I cruised through the swim, and I somehow ran a 22:55 5K even after all of that. It was absolutely incredible and seriously...all I want to do is do another one. :) Full race report coming soon!!

Tri-fecta

It feels like its been a really long time since I updated about anything much...but for some reason I feel like I've been crazy busy lately. So in honor of my upcoming triathlon, I have 3 random topics to ramble about today! Warning: this post is LONG! [You can tell its been awhile since I last wrote :)]

Triathlon training:
Apparently normal people generally give themselves more than 2 weeks to get ready for one of these...who knew? Although in all seriousness, I'm going to go ahead and say that coming off of a 5 month track season/half marathon race, I'm probably starting off in better shape than most people I guess. I think the hardest thing about the past couple of weeks has been dealing with the fact that I just don't have time [or energy!] to run as many miles as I'm used to when I'm also trying to get in swim and bike workouts. I'm such a mileage whore...I love nothing more than seeing my weekly mileage go over 50, and to be honest I feel like I'm slacking if it's under 35 or 40. But I just have to keep telling myself that running is NOT what I need to be worried about in this triathlon - that's where I'm going to rock everyone's socks off because that's what I do [running that is, not rocking off socks...although I do that on occasion :P] - it's what I've been doing for the past 8 years. So I've been trying really hard to work on my swimming [mostly] and biking [less than I should] so I have less time to make up on the run. Swimming has actually been going a LOT better than expected, especially today! When I got in the pool 2 weeks ago, I was seriously concerned that I couldn't actually swim 400 meters without stopping. But then I went with my friend Nicole, who was a swimmer in high school, and she was talking about some drill they used to do for freestyle to get the proper arm form -like, you're not supposed to windmill your arm around because that just wastes energy. Well seriously, once I figured that out, it changed everything!

So today I went and was like...I am going to do 400 meters of freestyle without stopping [the past few times, I've only made it to 300, and I've had to go to breaststroke in the middle which I'm soooo slow at]. And I did it - 3 times! I got into a really great rhythm and just focused on my breathing and staying relaxed, not worrying about speed, and I honestly felt awesome. I decided to time the second 2 [I did 3 x 400 with 2 minutes rest] and the second one was 8:16, the third one was 8:07 - and that's with having to turn around. That's SO much faster than I thought I would be! Obviously open water swimming is a whole different ballgame, and I'm going to get my wetsuit Tuesday so hopefully I will get out in the lake before the weekend - but since the swim was what I was most worried about, I'm feeling so much better/more excited about everything now!

Today I also attempted to see what running is going to feel like after biking. The consensus: not fun! I first have to sidetrack and say: to the inventor of the Expresso exercise bike, you are my hero. Finally, someone has invented an exercise machine that keeps me entertained! Basically, its an exercise bike with a normal bike seat and handlebars that resemble a road bike. But the amazing part - you have a screen that gives you a 'virtual' route, complete with a pacer set to whatever time you want to do the ride in. I only wanted to bike for like 10 minutes, so I chose the "Evening Bliss" route...2.37 miles at sunset through a lovely town. There's stuff with stats for the elevation and you can see when you're going up hills, change gears, etc. SO ENTERTAINING! I can't even explain how amused I was. It reminded me of this thing I did at Disneyworld when I was like 9. I mean, I'm not all about stationary bikes or biking in general, but I am seriously so entertained by this thing that I might go to the Nat once in awhile to do it. But anyway, fun times aside, I did the bike thing which took not quite 10 minutes, and then I went out to run what actually ended up being about a 5K. The first couple minutes weren't fun, my legs felt like crap and I was still breathing really hard. But once I told myself to relaxxxx, everything started to feel a lot better, and I got through it just fine. As I said - not really worried about the run. I'm not sure about pace since I didn't have my watch, but I'd estimate it was in the 7:30-7:40 range, which I feel like is just fine for that point in my day. :)

Who knows...I might actually LIKE this triathlon business?? Insanity.

Magical runs:
So running itself hasn't been all that great lately, mostly just because I haven't had a lot of time for it due to being much more concerned about the other triathlon things, and when I have run its generally been crappy. I've been going back and forth on whether or not I like the shoes I got for free for winning the Black Tie 5K (Etonic Kendari's). It seems like a waste to buy a new pair of shoes when I got this pair for free, so I'm really really trying to like them. The first few times I wore them they felt really heavy, and I'm still not completely sold since sometimes my arches hurt a little bit after I run in them, but I went for a run on Saturday that made me feel like at least they have potential.

What a glorious, glorious run. You know how sometimes you really don't feel like going running and you keep on procrastinating and finally you just throw yourself out the door, convincing yourself that you'll keep it short and take it easy? That's basically how my Saturday was. I wasn't feeling that great [I think I had a sympathy hangover from the BF, even though I didn't drink Friday night, haha] and I just wasn't in the mood, plus it was like 50 out, which is just not June weather! Oh wait...except for 50 degrees is my favorite weather to run in...I'm not all about running in the heat. So I started off and was feeling pretty good. I was running on the bike path near my house that practically could have footprints worn in it just from me, that's how much I run there. We did a lot of higher intensity tempo runs there during track since it's flat and there are markers every 1/10 mile [this is the site of the infamous 6:10 :P], and I like doing longer runs there because its flat, pretty, and there are 5 roads to cross, each of which is a turnaround for a different distance - 2.5, 4.2, 5, 6.2, and 7.5 miles - so you can go further if you're feeling good, less if you're feeling bad, without having to completely complicate your life and change your route.

So I planned to go out to the 5 mile road, but was feeling good so I continued on to the next marker past the 6.2 road. [I kind of wish I had a Garmin or some other fancy gadget so I could see the exact distances...mapmyrun.com is all I've got :)] I started running back and was still feeling awesome...there was hardly anyone on the road because it was a gross day and I just felt like I was flying down the path. At the last street before the end of the path I decided to take a detour and run down a long hill to the lake and back, just to add on some miles. Even as I was running back UP the hill, I was still feeling great! I got home and figured out the stats: 7.75 miles @ 7:15 pace. Best run I've had in SUCH a long time!

It's runs like these that remind me why I do it. Sure, there are races and PRs and all of that is amazing - there's no feeling I've found in my life that compares to the high of running a PR. But there's also no feeling like cruising down a well worn path, feeling invincible, free, like you can fly. Like you ARE flying. And knowing that no matter what bad days you have, how tough your workouts have been, how tired your legs are...you will have that feeling again. You just have to remember those incredible days that make it all worth it. The runner's high...it's not a myth, I'll tell you that.

Super fast people:
My work shift on Sunday ended up getting extended from 7-11 to 7-2:30 [trust me, dog hotels are a busy place on Sundays!] so I really didn't get to watch as much of the Pre Classic as I had wanted to...sad day. Thank goodness for sites like flotrack and runnerspace that let me watch the videos online! So - women's 1500 meters - absolute insanity. Jenny Barringer ran a 3:59.90 to a) set a new collegiate record by a TON, b) get second place by .01 second, c) become only the 4th American woman ever to run under 4 minutes. INSANITY! I've been enjoying following professional running more and more lately, but its funny because I remember reading an article about her maybe...my junior year in high school? in some random magazine they gave out to the track team. She was already really impressive back then, and I remember hearing about her in steeplechase awhile after that, but seriously? She is ridiculously good. Sometimes its fun to watch really, really awesome people run. Super inspirational, for sure!

OK, well that will wrap up my mega-post for the day. Today is a day off after my triple sport fiesta yesterday...tomorrow will most likely be a run/swim combo platter. I really need to get on the damn bike again but I would so much rather run than do that...exciting virtual reality bike, I need you now! :)

Back from Boston

Just a quick post to say I'm back with a lease for an apartment in Boston in hand - eek! I had a lovely 5 days off of running after the half, and I did go on one beautiful run while I was in Boston...lets just say I'm really looking forward to it being a place I can run every day!! Running this week is going to be pretty low mileage, I'm getting over a cold and I'm trying to split my time between running and attempting to swim/bike to prepare for this ridiculous triathlon next weekend...really not so sure how that's going to go. Basically if I can get through the swim I think I'll be fine, but that's probably going to take quite a bit of work in the next 10 days. But I think I can do it, I just need to get into a routine and stop being such a lazy bum. That's one of the things I don't like about summer - my job hours aren't the same every week and its just impossible to get into a routine. Oh well...

Today was just an easy 4.5 miles...I realized I forgot my watch and didn't feel like going back to get it so I'm not sure on time, but it felt pretty decent. Much better than yesterday's run - I was having so much trouble breathing, stupid colds. It was only like 50 degrees out...umm...last time I checked, it was JUNE?? I don't mind it being cooler for the sake of running, but seriously...I just got a new swimsuit, I would like to wear it at some point! I was going to go swimming but I think I'm going to go tomorrow before work instead..it's lunchtime and I'm really hungry! Tonight I'm going to the Madison Mallards game for a friend's birthday...soo excited, first of all the games are so much fun, there are tons of free giveaways, and the Duck Blind where we're sitting is all you can eat, all you can drink for $25...so I will be eating a LOT of brats. :)

Madison Half Marathon Race Report!

Wow, what a race. I finished in 1:42:25, not quite getting my 'crazy' goal, but coming in just about at my secondary goal - and based on how I felt during the race, I am REALLY happy with that! Warning: this is a crazy, epic post...I like to ramble, what can I say?

The race started at 7 so I went to bed super early on Saturday but obviously didn't get a good night's sleep...I was tossing and turning like crazy like I always do before big events. I was probably awake around 4, so when my alarm went off at 5 I popped right up. I ate breakfast right away - orange Gatorade, a banana, and a black cherry-almond Clif Bar. It was super sticky and humid early, but it was supposed to burn off later in the day so I wasn't too worried about it. I definitely got a shot of adrenaline pumping through my system when I looked out the window and could see the cones set out for the course...
A bunch of them had already been knocked over, because besides being muggy, it was also windy...lovely! I decided I should probably just get going because I was pretty much just pacing around my house nervously, so I figured I might as well at least pace around with a bunch of other nervous people!

It actually turned out to be a good thing that I got to the start early, because no one had any idea where they were going. The parking lot was on the other side of the grounds from where the race start was, everyone was confused because the half marathon and marathon starts were at different places...basically everyone was just asking each other "what's going on? do you know where the start is?" and nobody knew. Eventually I figured out that the half start was by the runner's village, and the full was over on the other side of the parking lots, so I ended up in the right place. I was so early that there was NO line for the porta potties when I arrived - insanity! I just kind of wandered around for awhile, and then finally ended up running into the WTC guys which was sweet. They went off to warm up, I wasn't really too worried about that so I checked my bag and got to the start line - which was also smart, because the 10 minutes leading up to the race were absolute mayhem. The lines for the porta potties were so insane that a ton of people weren't in the starting area yet with only a couple minute to go, so I was really happy to have gotten a good spot. I lined myself up somewhere near the 1:40 pace group - I didn't plan on actually running with them, but I figured that the people nearby would be running about my pace. The UW Marching Band played the national anthem, the horn sounded...and we were off!

Miles 1-4
1: 7:26
2: 7:24
3: 7:35
4: 7:36
So I went out too fast. If you know me you know this isn't surprising at all...going out way too fast in races is pretty much the story of my life. I will give myself some credit - it could have been a lot worse, but the extra 12-13 seconds slower over the first 2 miles could have made a difference later in the race...or maybe not. I tried to fall into a comfortable pace right off the line and just focused on staying relaxed and remembering that this was going to be a long race. I also had to pee, literally as soon as we started running - I was like are you serious?? Luckily it didn't end up being a problem but I was still a little irritated. It was kind of funny because the marathon 1 mile mark was less than half a mile into our race, so everyone saw it and was laughing like "mile PR? I think so!" since it was like 3 minutes in or something. The starts of big races, especially early in the morning, are so cool - everything is ust silent except for the sounds of feet hitting the ground and breathing. The first mile was one of several moments during the race when I just thought to myself "you know, I am so lucky to be able to be a part of this elite group that can do this, that can have this experience." We came through the 1 mile and Poker Face was playing which made me really happy...such a good pump up song! I wasn't too happy to see a split under 7:30 since I knew that was too fast, but I just tried not to worry about it although I honestly already wasn't feeling that great. Fittingly, there was also a sign tied to a tree that said "this is NOT the time to set your 5K PR!!" Definitely a good reminder for me :P Around the 2 mile, a girl who ran for my high school passed me - she's a really good runner and finished in something like 1:30 - crazy fast! I got really excited coming up to my house - I couldn't hear the music coming out my window very well, but I caught enough to know it was Don't Stop Believin'! Which made me very happy. The BF cheered as I ran by and I gave him a big smile and blew a kiss - I'm glad he got to see me when I was feeling good enough to do that, haha. The first couple miles were really flat, so I wasn't that excited to turn onto Breese - not that it's even a big hill, but I already wasn't feeling all that spectacular. But still, miles 3 and 4 went by pretty uneventfully. There was a nice big downhill leading up to the 4 mile marker, and I tried to use that to really relax, relax, relax! That was pretty much my word of the day, because when I start feeling bad, I tend to freak out about how bad I'm feeling, then I start tightening up and hyperventilating and its just bad news bears. So especially everytime there was a downhill, I just told myself to RELAX!

Miles 5-8
5-6: 16:00 (I didn't see the 5 mile marker)
7: 7:45
8: 7:56
Clearly, my plan of running even or even negative splits was going out the window pretty quickly. We ran past the Nat, home of basically all of my classes for the past year, and there was a nice flat part which gave me a boost, but I was starting to feel tired - not good, since I wasn't even halfway! I hadn't stopped at a water station yet so I figured that would probably help me out. Running along the lakeshore path was probably one of my favorite parts of the race. It was shady, it was flat, it was glorious, and best of all, the trees blocked the wind, which had been pretty unpleasant for the first part of the race. I grabbed some Gatorade when we came out of the woods by the Union - I really, really wish someone could teach me how to drink while I'm running! Even though I tried really hard to pinch the top and get as much into my mouth as possible, like 80% of it ended up on my face...gross. Nothing like sticky Gatorade drying on your face as you run. But hey - it did its job - it was like a shot of pure energy straight into my system. Although I definitely wasn't feeling that great by this point, and we were coming up on an insanely hilly part of the course. Right before I headed up the first big hill, I saw Jade cheering from in front of her house which also was also sweet - pretty much, seeing anyone you know along the course is such a pick me up. The crowd support in general was AMAZING - there were so many more people out than I ever would have expected! It was so cute to see some of the little kids getting super excited about the race - my favorite was a couple of kids who had done chalkings all over the street that were just adorable and it made me really happy as I ran by. But you know what didn't make me happy? The hills of Langdon Street. Leading up to mile 6 was when I started getting worried about how the rest of the race was going to pan out. The 1:40 pace group passed me somewhere around there, but I had honestly given up on my crazy goal within the first 4 miles - if I wasn't feeling good running that pace at mile 3, there's no way I'd be holding it at mile 13. So the hills. SUCKED. Mile 7 was not fun at all...my legs were really starting to feel the constant uphills. But 2 great things happened during mile 7 - I saw Claire, who had also chalked some great "GO WTC" things on the road, and I saw a group of people drinking (keep in mind, this is before 8 am) and offering beer to the runners. I wanted to take some just for the hilarity of it, but I wasn't feeling good, and I felt like that might not be the best choice. I guess my friend Ben took some (he would NEVER pass up a beer, not even mid-race) and Dallas got handed a cup but didn't know what it was, and got really mad when he found out it was beer. By the time I came along, the people were just screaming BEER! BEEEEER! and it was definitely good for a laugh. I would say mile 8 was the point when things really started to go downhill. I was getting really, really tired, and my legs were starting to send out the signals that this was no longer fun. I wanted to walk. I wanted to stop. When I got to mile 8, I was honestly amazed that I was still under 8 minute pace. At the water stop just past mile 8, I decided to walk through just so I could actually get some hydration in my mouth, as opposed to on my singlet. This turned out to be a great idea because when I started running again, I felt infinitely better.

Miles 9-12
9: 8:06 (walked through water stop)
10: 7:58
11: 7:53
12: 8:15 (walked through water stop)
So this is definitely where the race really started. It turned into a complete battle of my legs wanting to give up versus my mind forcing them to keep going. I forgot how half marathons are so different from 5Ks or whatever in that it's not that you're breathing hard and running super fast, it's like your muscles just eventually fatigue and give up. My quads were cramping up pretty bad (partially because I was dehydrated I think, since water seemed to help that a little) and it was just painful to continue...but I did. Because I knew I would NOT be happy if I didn't at least get close to my 'realistic' goal. I honestly thought I was running a lot slower than I actually was through all this - it just felt like I was plodding along. But I think what was really happening is that it was just taking a LOT more effort to run at the same pace, just mentally tough to not give up and stop. But every time I really wanted to, something would perk me up and I would just push on. A lady with a dog who was barking, and the woman was like "see, Molly wants you to run fast too!" People actually yelling my name because it was on my bib. An adorable little girl handing out water at a water stop. A couple of hippie guys in ponchos playing guitar and flute at the top of a hill. The fact that despite how crappy I felt, I was still passing people. I remember feeling this way last time I did a half - that each individual mile just seems to crawl on endlessly but the whole race itself seems to be over in a flash. I found myself just living from mile marker to mile marker and playing stupid mental games like "ok, you can walk at the next mile mark" but then not actually allowing myself to do it. Tricky mind, tricky. :) We finally came out of the neighborhood and onto the bike path that goes around the lake towards the finish, and the 10 mile marker was there, and it was just like - OK, 5K to go. That's no big deal, right? Ohhh but it was a long and difficult 5K. I saw Claire again around mile 11, and she told me she had tried to catch up with the guys but they were too fast. All I could yell back was "I'm SO TIRED!!" Which, I was. 2 miles to go. Come on legs, don't fail me now! We came around a bend and I saw a professional looking dude with a camera. Since I know my mom is going to order probably 50 pictures from my race (that's how she rolls) I was like - OK, I can't look like I'm dying in my race pictures! (PS - why on earth would you put the camera at mile 12?? For the love of god, go to mile 4 or someplace where everyone looks like they've been running for a bit but isn't dragging themselves across the ground looking like death. Nobody wants to buy those) Anyway, I put on my best 'determined' face, lengthened my stride a bit, and passed a pack of about 6 people as I passed the camera. I can't wait to see how those pics turn out :P Just before the 12 mile I walked through the last water stop - I really wanted to finish strong and I was feeling super dehydrated, so I figured a quick break and some water would help me do that. One mile to go...lets do this.

Mile 13.1
13.1: 8:25 (7:39 pace)
So with 1 mile to go, it was time to just push through the pain and get to the finish line. I didn't immediately pick it up when I saw the 12 mile mark, but I tried to anyway. The 13th mile was by far the most unpleasant part of the entire race. Not only was I really tired, and my quads felt like they were ready to explode, but it was the ONE part of the course with NO crowd support! We ran through this park with no shade next to what looked like a garbage dump, and then turned onto - what else? - a hill! Getting up that hill without stopping was possibly one of the most difficult things I've done during a race. People were walking all over the place but I just absolutely refused to allow myself to do it. After what seemed like forever, we finally crested the hill, made a quick left turn, and got to see the most glorious sight any distance runner can ever see - a big downhill leading straight to the finish line. That was really all I needed - I took every last ounce of energy remaining in my legs, and I kicked with everything I had. I saw the 26 mile mark for the marathon, had no clue where the 13 mile mark was, but I wasn't going to worry about splits at that point. The clock started to come into focus and I saw 1:42 and it was just like....yesssss! It had been such a long race, and I had doubted being able to get even my secondary goal so many times, but at that moment I finally knew I was going to do it. I came across the line with a big smile on my face (again, good pictures please! :)) I was happy I was done, I was happy with my time, I was just plain happy.

After the race
The 'recovery lane' as they called it after you cross the finish line after a long distance race is kind of weird. I was really in a daze and people just keep handing you things - here's your medal, here's some water, here's a banana, do you want some pretzels?, here's a Sobe and you keep taking them because you don't know what else to do. Pretty much the last thing I wanted to do right after finishing was eat, but the water was deeeelish. Amazingly, I found my mom almost immediately after getting out of the insanity of post-race food. She was excited and glad I was happy with my time, even though I was still having trouble putting together coherent thoughts at that point. I decided to go get my bag so I could get my camera and I ran into the guys over by the gear check. Dallas ended up finishing 8th, although he wasn't that happy with his time, and I think the other two felt similarly. We all grouped up for a WTC picture:
Then the guys split off to see someone finish, and Kaitlyn, Vanessa and I wandered around trying not to fall over. I saw a Michelob tent and decided I just had to have a post-race beer:

I mean, Michelob Ultra is practically water, so I didn't feel toooo bad. :) We met up with the guys again by the results tent, where you could get these fun little printouts with your time on them. We stood around there for awhile and I made the mistake of sitting down on the ground...ouch...getting up was NOT fun. Actually, doing much of anything the rest of the day wasn't fun. My quads felt like they were pretty much giving up on life anytime I tried to walk, stand up, etc. But in a way, I love that feeling...its how you know you really accomplished something.

Well I will try to wrap this up because this is the longest post EVER. Overall, I'm really happy with how the race went. I was really in no shape to run 1:40, especially since my last run over 10 miles was over a month ago, and I didn't do anything specifically to train for this race. That being said, I would really like to actually train hard for a half and see what I can do! There's a new half in Madison at the end of August, the Madison Mini Marathon, and I think I might incorporate that as a goal race for the summer. It goes along well if I'm training for a marathon, and it would be a nice farewell victory lap through Madison before I move to Boston in September! Don't worry though, I've got plenty of 5K PRs still to set too. I just want to do it all. :) Still, this race is just another indicator that showed me how far I've come as a runner..it amazes me that I ran this race over 6 minutes faster than I did 2 years ago. And I'm ready to just keep on running faster. :)

1:42:25!

The WTC half marathon crew, happy to be done! :)

Even though it wasn't quite my "ultimate" goal, based on how the race went I'm really happy with that time!! I think I'm still learning how to 'race' a half marathon, but for now I'm pretty proud of a 6:15 PR! :)
Madison Half Marathon
1:42:25 (7:49 pace)
20/357 AG (20-24)
76/2182 women
366/3687 overall

Full race report coming soon!

Ready to roll!

Just a quick post before the half tomorrow! In about 12 hours, I'll be getting up and getting ready to run. I've got my favorite pre-race breakfast of a Clif Bar and a banana ready to go, I've got my racing outfit ready...all that's left to do is race this thing! And I'm definitely excited to actually race! :)

Also, I've never had my name on a bib number before...or a beer logo...guess there's a first time for everything...haha.

#7834!

So it's official: my bib number for the Madison Half Marathon is 7834...I got the email yesterday and immediately started to actually get nervous about the race! I haven't talked much about it in this blog just because it's been so overshadowed by track season haha. I think what's weird about this race is that I haven't specifically trained for it - I mean, by training for the 5K on the track, and running 40-50 miles a week, including up to 14 mile long runs, I guess I've kind of trained for it, but not on purpose...its just kind of something that happened along the way to something else. Not that that means I'm not excited or I don't have goals for it, because oh, I do. The last time I ran a half I had NO idea what I was doing, lots of the mileage I ran over the summer was super slow with a track camp I coached, and while I was all excited about "doubling" for the first time in my career, I really didn't get in that many quality miles. So at that race, my goal was to run 8 minute pace, but it was really humid, I got super dehydrated (getting chills when its 80 out? never a good thing), and I just don't think I was quite in shape to do what I thought I was ready to do - and I finished in 1:48:46 - mostly thanks to my WTC friend Nick dragging me along and telling me that I had better run faster (He hadn't 'trained' for the race and decided to pace me instead of trying to race it...needless to say, an 8:18 pace wasn't much of an effort for him, But I definitely appreciated him being there!). But anyway, at that time, I pretty much just wanted to finish decently. I was pretty much a newbie to distance running, having only 1 'real' year of cross country and running the 800 in track under my belt, and training-wise I really had no idea. So obviously, 2 years later, I have some new goals. :)

My ultimate goal: to break 1:40. Don't ask me why I picked this as my goal...it just kind of seemed like a logical 'break' to shoot for. This calls for a 7:37 pace. Given that my usual long run distance during the season has hovered somewhere around 7:45, this isn't completely unreasonable, especially when you consider that every day/night before the long run, I had raced, drank, or both (what can I say, I'm a college student! I had to celebrate those PRs :)) and during an actual race, the adrenaline is always flowing! But at the same time, I'm not completely confident that I can do that, since it's been a looooong season. So backup goal: 1:42..which is 7:46 pace, and I think I'd be happy with that. All in all, if I PR (and if I don't, I'll probably cry) I won't be sad about the race. But I would really love to put up a time that I'm happy with! Plus, it's my last race as a 21-year-old! Not that that means much, but getting my goal time would be a great birthday present to myself. :)

Speaking of goal pace - today I went out for a 5 mile run that I was going to TRY to run at goal pace - actually, the goal was to run the first half mile super easy (from my house to a mile marker on the bike path so I could actually keep track), run 4 miles at goal pace, and a half mile easy back. My grade for myself? FAIL!! Here's how my splits panned out:
.55 miles - 3:45 (6:49 pace)
Mile 1 - 7:26
Mile 2 - 7:25
Mile 3 - 7:14
Mile 4 - 7:29
.55 miles - 3:38 (6:36 pace)
Total: 5.1 miles, 36:59 (7:16 pace)
Ahh! Not that I'm opposed to running fast, but every time I TRIED to slow down, I actually sped up! The 3rd mile, "Somewhere Over The Rainbow/What A Wonderful World" by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (the Hawaiian ukelele guy) came on my ipod, and I thought I was really trying to relax and sloooow down since I knew my first 2 miles were fast....and look how that turned out! I REALLY have to try to not get all crazy and go out in like 7 flat on Sunday because that's just not going to end well. I have to controoool the adrenaline. But how am I supposed to do that when I can't even control my pace on a training run? I think I was just happy because for the first time in a week, my legs felt GOOD! I've been feeling really weak and sluggish lately, so it was nice to actually not feel crappy for once...maybe the time off last week was good for me after all! Plus, I know I'm going to get excited at 2.5 miles, because I get to run past my house! I got some ipod speakers for graduation, and I'm making a playlist so the BF can play them out my window for the runners...because who doesn't need a good pump up song when it's 7:20 am and you've still got 11 miles go to? I wish I could pinpoint exactly when I was going to be running by so he could have "Don't Stop Believin'" playing. :)

And on my one non-running related note of the day, today after work I went to the Sephora at the mall to redeem my gift card that I've had since Christmas and get my free birthday gift- double the fun! Who doesn't love shopping when it's technically free? I'm not a big makeup girl, but I've been searching for some natural looking blush and I found the perfect shade...plus buying expensive makeup on occasion makes me feel special! My birthday gift was a set of 3 little lip glosses, all in really pretty shades, and since I don't wear lip gloss that often I'm sure they'll last me awhile! Plus I got a free sample of some passionfruit-mango body scrub that smells amazing - if they had given it to me before I bought the blush, I might have bought some of that instead! :) I decided to save my Movin' Shoes gift card from the WTC girls for another day...I almost never get to shop for myself, so its fun to split it up. Then the BF and I went to the zoo - seriously, the best free activity EVER! The prairie dogs had babies, and they were absolutely adorable -sooo tiny! Also, there are always tons of little kids at the zoo, which after being on a college campus for 9 months (aka...no kids anywhere), is almost as much fun to watch as the animals!

Hmm, well I think this post is long enough. 4 easy miles on the schedule tomorrow, plus a mile with the BF - I'm trying to get him up to at least a whole mile without stopping in the next couple weeks. Yesterday we did a 'fartlek' thing - 3 minutes of running, 2 minutes walking. He actually was running pretty fast for the middle 2 intervals...I was so proud! It's a lot of fun running with him and he seems to like getting a taste of the running thing- since he's pretty much an honorary member of the WTC, he might as well! We're also making my favorite pre-race meal tomorrow - chicken parmesan...yum! I didn't want to make it on Saturday since the race is so early and I work until 7, I don't want to still be full from dinner when I wake up at some ungodly hour to get ready for the race. Luckily, thanks to working at 6 or 6:30 am every Monday for this whole semester, getting up really early isn't even a big deal for me anymore...thanks, puppies!

Time to get pumped!!

Standing on the edge of summer

Oooh boy...so I realized today that the word of the summer is going to be...INTENSE. Between working [hopefully] full time, marathon training, and training the BF for his first 5K, I seriously don't know when I'm going to be doing anything other than running or playing with puppies. Today I sold my books back and used some of the money to buy Brad Hudson's "Run Faster", which is what my WTC coach used to develop our training program for this season. Since it obviously helped me a lot (hello, huge PRs), I figured that it would be a good start to base something off of as I begin the crazy journey that is attempting to train for a marathon. His training philosophy is based on the idea that everyone responds differently to different types of training, and the goal is to find the right balance between different types of things that's going to help you to accomplish your best race. He also puts a really big emphasis on being flexible in training - like, if you're supposed to do a major workout and from the start your legs feel dead, sometimes the best thing is to either shorten it, or even cancel it alltogether, to benefit your training in the long run. I really like that idea - some days, for whatever reason, you're just not feeling it, and in my experience trying to gut it out through the workout anyway usually leads to feeling like shit long after its over. But anyway - digression about the book - but it's quite interesting.

Anyway, I'm trying to loosely base my training program off of the "level 2" marathon program out of this book. I'm having to alter it a LOT for the first 4 weeks due to the fact that I'm racing a half marathon, going to Boston for 4 days, and attempting to train for a triathlon June 13, so obviously not all of my time can be devoted to running...but after that, it's going to be a LOT. In a way though, its really good for me to plan out my training ahead of time, because then its like - I HAVE to get this workout done or at least attempt it. It doesn't matter if I'm not in the mood to get up in the morning before work, well then, I guess I'm doing it after work. I also really like knowing when I have a hard workout coming up so I have time to mentally prepare for it, even a day or 2 in advance. And of course, the fact that I'm going to be running mostly by myself is going to be interesting. Hell, today I ran 5 miles and I kept wanting to stop. Granted, I was running at 7:15 pace [because...I'm an idiot], but basically the bottom line is I tend to get really lazy when I run by myself. So pushing through the "I'm sick of this, I don't feel like running anymore, and no one is here to make sure I keep going" barrier is going to be key. Basically, I think here are the things that I'm going to need to work on/make sure happen this summer:

• LEARN TO RUN SLOWER. Seems counterintuitive, but since I've been all about running FAST even on my easy runs during track and XC, this could probably pose a problem when I attempt to run 26.2 miles. I'm training for a marathon, with the general goal of trying to BQ on my first try [not an easy task, I realize, but hey, go big or go home right?]. So to do that, I have to run a 3:40:59 - which is 8:25/mile pace. Therefore, I can't be running at 7:15-7:30 pace on every single run I do...trying to do that is only going to make me fail on my longer runs and probably make me go out too fast in just about every situation. I'm not saying I would be opposed to running closer to 8:00/mile pace, but I'm trying to be realistic - this is my first marathon, after all. But if my marathon pace is 8:25, and I'm supposed to be doing 10 miles easy, 10 miles at marathon pace...well then I guess I'm going to have to run slower, is the bottom line.
• Along those same lines, actually run the pace I'm supposed to during workouts. See above example - if I'm supposed to be running SLOWER than marathon goal pace for 10 miles, then I sure as hell better be running 8:45s even if I probably could be doing 7:30s. I think I am going to try to throw in at least 1 or 2 "speed" days per week, just so I don't lose all of my 5K speed, and so I don't go completely insane running slow all the time, but when I'm doing workouts, especially key ones, I really want to try to hit pace.
• Not get injured. One of my friends is dealing with double stress fractures as a result of trying to train for a marathon, and that's really not something I want to happen to me. So basically - if things are hurting, I will back off.
• Remember why I'm doing it. I'm used to training for a 5K. A 5K is a LOT shorter than a marathon. I think if I keep focused on why I'm doing what I'm doing, it will make the extensive amount of time I'll be spending running this summer a lot easier. It's hard for me to train when I don't feel like I'm going to be 'racing' - for me, 8:25 is so slow that I can't even imagine it. But I have to remember that a marathon is a COMPLETELY different deal than anything else I've ever done. Now that my time with the WTC is over, I'm feeling a little lost in terms of running, and as far as racing is concerned I have no idea how easy it will be to get assimilated into a new team in time to start racing road races or cross country or whatever. So a marathon is something different - something I can do alone [I guess] and show myself how far I've come.

Anyway, those are my marathon musings. I'm a little nervous about starting to train for it just because its going to be such a huge undertaking, and deep down I think I'm a little scared that I won't be able to do it, especially without a group to train with. But at the same time, I know that I'm a strong enough runner at this point that I can do it. And I will.

And speaking of undertakings, I took the BF out for his first 5K training session today! We just did a mile, broken up a bit because cardio-wise he hasn't done anything in...years? He managed to run a half mile without stopping in 4:37, then we made it like 3 minutes back, took another break, and finished in 9:09. I'm thinking that ~9:00 pace is probably going to be a good pace to shoot for for the actual 5K, although who knows! It's kind of fun playing coach a little bit, and I'm all for introducing people to the greatest sport in the world...running! :) I'll keep you posted on how that, along with my crazy training, goes!

Random tidbits

Because I'm too lazy to write a long drawn out post about these things...

I. I won my first road race! Granted, it was a VERY small race - like, maybe 40 people - but you know what, a win's a win! I think I was maybe 7th overall in 21:48 and I won a free pair of shoes! Since Etonic was apparently sponsoring the race, they are Etonic Kendari's ($110...I got them freee!) I took them out for a spin today and while the run in general was a total suckfest (apparently if I take 2 days off of running, I completely forget how? Or I didn't eat enough? Either way, I felt like shit and had to keep stopping. Gross) the shoes themselves felt great - and it will be fantastic to have a pair of trainers going into what's apparently going to be the summer of marathon training!

II. I never really wrote much of a report about the steeplechase last weekend, but let's just say it wasn't fun. I thought that since I was in much better shape that it would be easier this year, but noooo. Not in the least bit. I don't think it's possible for that race to be fun, although feeling like I was going to puke from the emptiness sloshing around in my stomach for the entire time didn't help. I can't believe that I still managed to PR, and I think I owe that all to my water pit (except my 'giving up on life' jump...that was quite a fail). I think overall I got through it a lot better than last year...it was just the running part that sucked! I really didn't get as emotional about the season ending as I thought I would - maybe because that race was just so horrible and I was so happy to be done! Mentally, I think I was done after Loras for sure, so this was just kind of something to cap it off. That's kind of how I felt about the road race too - a nice victory lap to cap off quite possibly my best season of running ever. Now if only I can make it through this half marathon. The past week has been a total failure of running - between finals and graduation, I've only managed to get out 3 times...at least one of them was a race, right?

III. Did I mention...I GRADUATED? I'm now an alumnus of UW- Madison...and I have to say, out of all the things I thought I would tear up about, the only one that I KNEW would happen is the one that actually did. Singing Varsity one last time at graduation...I definitely thought I was going to start crying. But then Dallas knocked my hat off...so I laughed instead. And in a way, I think that sums up a lot of things about college - just when things get rough and you think you're going to burst into tears, something ridiculous happens and you laugh, and you realize that everything is going to be OK.

Varsity, varsity
U rah rah Wisconsin
Praise to thee we sing (we sing!)
Praise to thee our alma mater
U - rah - rah - Wis - co - n - sin!

A fitting end to a season of ridiculous long runs

Today Brittany, Kaitlyn and I met for what is basically our last long run of the season - although the track season is technically over, Brittany wanted to get the crap out of her legs after the meet and Kaitlyn and I have the half marathon in 2 weeks so we won't be taking time off until after that. This was pretty much our usual long run crew throughout the semester, minus Claire, who can't run right now because of an injury, and basically, on our long runs, we would always do ridiculous things. Like negative split on the way back (this happened basically EVERY time), run way faster than we were supposed to, etc. Well, today's long run pretty much summed up the ridiculousness in the best way possible, and in a way that made me feel REALLY good going into the half.

We decided to run on the bike path because none of us wanted to deal with hills after racing yesterday and we were hoping we could get at least somewhat out of the wind. On the way out I would say we were running maybe 7:45 pace, still faster than is theoretically necessary for a long run but not insane by any means. We got to the turnaround and started back...which is when the ridiculousness began. Now, keep in mind that this is happening like 7 miles into this run. All of a sudden on the path in front of us there was this girl, who was obviously running a bit slower than us but not much. IMMEDIATELY, the 3 of us picked it up - like a pretty large drop in pace, and eventually passed her (and then started laughing because each of us noticed the others pick it up). Well after that, we were just running fast. And I was feeling GREAT. I happened to look at my watch at the 2.3 mile mark (there are posts every .1 mile on the bike path with the distance on them, its really sweet) and since I figured we were running at a decent pace, I would time this mile to see how fast it ended up being. Halfway through, it dawned on me that we were definitely under 7 minute pace. By 1200 meters, I knew we were WAY under 7 minute pace. And then, I missed the mile mark, but .1 after the mile mark, we were at 6:44. AKA, we had just run a ~6:10 mile. IN THE MIDDLE OF A LONG RUN. We were seriously just like, um, did that really just happen? And then we ran like a 7:30 to finish out the day. Overall pace in the end was 7:27 for 9.5 miles...so, I am feeling much more confident that if I can do something this absurd, the day after a race [sidenote: legs, why didn't you feel like this yesterday? huh?] then I definitely have a shot at going under 1:40 in the half. And strangely enough, you know what I think my strategy is going to be? Negative splits. Its not something that's ever really worked for me in a shorter race, but I think over the longer distances, it takes me awhile to get warmed up, and then I just get faster and faster until I'm cruising the last mile. 1:40 is 7:37 pace, so if I start at 7:45 and just work my way down...who knows? Anyway, that gets me excited about that, and makes me feel less bad about not running the 5K this week...I guess.

So thanks, random girl in the blue shirt running at a decent pace on the bike path, for inspiring us to the heights of ridiculousness on a long run. The feeling of just kicking ass when you least expect it is just plain awesome.

"You call it madness, I call it love"

I'll write an actual post later about the twilight (steeplechase = PAIN), but for now, enjoy this random rambling/essay I wrote last year after cross country season. Believe me, this is only the beginning of my WTC reminiscings...although I did manage to not have a breakdown yesterday :)

“you call it madness, i call it love”
this quote can basically sum up my feelings about the track club. coming into this group 3 years ago, i never could possibly IMAGINED that things would end up the way that they are. basically, i thought it was cool that i would get to race again. what i got was so much more than that…so much more. over the years this team has gone from just some people i run with…to my team…to some of my best friends. i can honestly say i’ve never met a more amazing group of people. we come from all over, we all have different friends, majors, everything…but somehow we get together and we just click. and why? because we love to run.

a lot of people probably think we’re nuts for doing what we do. who in their right mind wants to spend an ungodly number of hours a week pushing themselves to their physical limit, miss out on nights of drinking and hours of sleep to get up every weekend and trek across the state to go kill themselves for 20 or 30 minutes? and on top of all that, why would you EVER want to do this for no recognition, no glory, no free clothes or scholarships or sponsorships. and, for the majority, not even for the potential of winning? just to suffer anonymously and finish somewhere in the middle of the pack, how could that possibly make you happy? people ask. and we can’t explain. we don’t need to. because we understand. we understand each other. we’ve seen the frustration after a crappy race, and we can relate. we celebrate each other’s victories, because we know that it doesn’t get much better than that. and we know that an outsider can never understand that. they don’t realize that if you run a PR, it doesn’t matter if you finished fifth or three hundredth. they don’t realize that winning a race doesn’t mean that you’re happy with it. but we do.

but the best part is that we’ve realized that we aren’t just a team. we’re a family. pasta parties, random team gatherings, a whole lot of flip cup…we know that we’re amazing off the track too. there are few things funnier than getting up for a 10 mile run on sunday, mere hours after you were playing beer pong with the same people. drunk or sober, we know how to have a good time – from pasta parties that end up with a head of lettuce getting thrown like a football and catchphrase marathons in the van to and from meets, to shirtless man parties and drinking beer out of Gatorade cups. we’re entirely ridiculous, and i guess that’s our charm. lets face it, you need to be a little ridiculous to want to do what we do. we’re all huge running dorks and we know it…and we don’t care. and so we can have drunken conversations about our mileage and workouts, or talk about the us marathon trials like it’s the superbowl, or have hour-long conversations about the day’s race. and people think we’re insane. no non-runner gives a crap about your first mile split or how you can’t believe you got beat by a guy in a ponytail…but talk to one of us about it, and we’ll listen like it’s the most entertaining thing we’ve ever heard.

the pictures are another thing. honestly, how many pictures of people running can you have? but we always want more…why? because that one moment of that one race is immortalized. you can never go back to that moment…you can never go back to that race. once its over you can hardly remember how you felt while it was going on (and lets face it, if you could, there would probably be a lot less people who ever did it again). but you look at that picture months or even years later, and think “yes, that was a great day”. or “wow, i was really dying in that race”. and come on, running pictures are badass. who doesn’t want to feel hardcore?

running is crazy. distance running in particular. which is probably why the camaraderie of distance is so much stronger than anything i’ve ever seen in sprints. that’s half of what made me want to be a distance runner in the first place – so i could be in that elite club that can go out for an hour long run and hardly be tired, who gets excited about 800 repeats, who thinks a 5 mile run is an easy pre-race day. and now that i’m in, i can’t ever imagine going back. because you’ve got to be a little crazy to want to do what we do. and maybe we are. but i can’t think that i’m crazy when i’m standing at the start line on a gorgeous fall day, after cheering with my girls and knowing that my boys are going to be cheering along the course, with hundreds of miles in my legs that have all led up to this, and knowing i’m ready to rock. and crossing that finish line, seeing the clock, and knowing that i’m a second, a minute faster than i was before. and knowing that tonight i’ll get to celebrate with the very people i’ve just been racing with, but first i need to cheer for my favorite boys. does it really get much better than that? doubt it. maybe we are crazy. but i couldn’t possibly love it more.

I'm going to be a triathlete...oh my lord

Dear Audrey,

Congratulations! You are now registered for 2009 Elkhart Lake Sprint Triathlon. Please check the event's official website for updates: http://www.ElkhartLakeMultiSports.com

View your complete registration details »

Thank you for registering for the Elkhart Lake International Triathlon. Your registration has been received. I can't wait to greet you at the finish line - a wonderful Elkhart Lake Triathlon tradition. You have registered for the SPRINT DISTANCE event. Remember, accommodations go early in Elkhart Lake and the surrounding area so get your reservations in. Also, check-in and packet pick-up is Friday June 12th at The Osthoff Resort from 4-10pm. Good luck. For complete complete race information, download the full Participant Guide available from the event website (main and event pages). Jeff Grady Event Director

So...thanks to the BF volunteering to pay the entry fee and bargaining that I could train him to run a 5K by the end of the summer if I did this, the Elkhart Lake Triathlon is no longer a tenative on the schedule. What the hell have I done??? Secretly, I'm kind of excited, but also quite nervous as its been a long time since I went into a race situation without knowing exactly what I was getting into. Stay tuned for details on how this pans out..

F the AD

I ran on the Wisconsin outdoor track yesterday!
For the first time ALL SEASON!
And...I wasn't even supposed to be there.

Yes, the amazing organization that is the athletic department decided to completely ignore our repeated requests for track time. They also were going to charge us some obscene amount of money to get track time at all...because although we are a registered student organization, apparently that wasn't enough for them - we needed to be sponsored by a department too. And yet, even after we got sponsorship from the opthamology department, they still paid no attention to us. So here it is, the last week of outdoor season, and we haven't been able to practice on an outdoor track once.

Now, I realize that the athletic department has a lot of weight, this being a DI school and all, and its their perogative if they want to be ridiculous about their track. BUT - if you're going to restrict a track to athletic teams only, the least you could do is have another location for the public, or at the very least, students. We're all paying a crapload of money to attend this university, and the athletic department hauls in so much money every year [hello, record numbers at Crazylegs?] its not like they're pressed for cash. Or like it would affect them THAT MUCH to let a student track organization practice on the track twice a week. And at the very least, give us the time of day. Acknowledge we exist, and don't ignore our requests until its way too late for them to even mean anything.

But despite all this - they leave the track open randomly all the time. So yesterday between classes, I went to do some steeple practice on the actual track, and it went pretty well! I definitely think I'm a lot stronger in the water pit than last year - I can launch myself pretty far out, even though I usually either two-foot the landing or put my hands down, if I can be only a few inches in the water, that would be fantastic! It was also really nice being on the track...and there's something really peaceful and calming about being on a track alone. I don't know what it is - I've kind of always felt this way. Usually at a meet or whatever, there's just so much going on, people flying everywhere, running, jumping, crap being thrown, whatever - and being there when everything is quiet and calm is just like taking a deep breath. I don't even know. Either way, it was nice, and I was happy with how my workout went, plus it made me laugh when just as I was leaving, some kind of official looking truck pulled in, and I just gave them one look and went sprinting away. Yeah, that's right. Suckas.

So did I mention I graduate in a week and a half? Yeah, it kind of snuck up on me too. I have been having these random moments lately where I get incredibly nostalgic about things. We're running a senior 4 x 400 with me, Nicole, Claire, and Kaitlyn - the girls who have been there since the beginning and the ones who've stuck with it all along - and I have a very bad feeling I'm probably going to burst into tears at the end haha. Considering I'm tearing up just thinking about this, I can say that that is a definite yes. I think it's pretty much impossible to put into words how much the track club has meant to me. The people I've met are absolutely incredible, the experience has been incredible, and I am a different, and better person, because of my time with the club. Oh but don't worry, there will be a whole post along these lines coming your way sometime soon. I swear, I am the most sentimental person alive...I definitely get that from my mom.

Time to go study some exercise physiology. Which probably should be interesting to me, and it is, kind of....but just not right now. :P

Silly steeples

Tuesday is usually my day off, but it was so gorgeous today that I felt like I had to do something, so I decided I would try to get on the track and do some steeple practice since that's the next thing I'm racing. Buuut I totally forgot that the break I have between classes is right during the actual track team's practice so I couldn't get on the track (well, technically, we - and by we I mean anyone who isn't a member of the UW track team - can never get on the track anyway...but that's another story. It's easy enough to jump the fence.) So I ended up McGyvering a steeple workout that worked out surprisingly well! First I ran to the slanted situp boards on the parcourse thing and did some practice on the lowest one running up to it, not stuttering, jumping off and continuing to run - it was obviously quite a bit lower than the actual steeple but just kind of getting the general feeling in my legs. Then I got up on a higher board and practiced just jumping off - this one was closer to the actual distance from the top of the barrier to the bottom of the water pit, and my landing is my big problem so I was trying to land on one foot (which is hard!) I was planning on just running the rest of the way around the UBay fields back to the Nat, but all of a sudden something else caught my eye...there is a sort of fence set up around the edge of the field with posts every few meters. The posts come up about to my knee and they're situated on the side of a little hill...so if you were to jump off them, you would be jumping extra distance down the hill. See where I'm going with this? So yes, I got more than one awkward look as I ran across a street and jumped off a tiny post. And seriously - it was a GREAT approximation of steeple - at least what I remember it being like. A bit shorter than the real thing obviously, but still, the impact felt similar. I also realized while doing this that I think if I'm going to try to land on one foot, I'm going to have to take off my left (weaker, or at least not dominant) leg. When I take off my right, I can't land on my left without basically breaking an ankle but landing on my right is fine. I think that anything I lose from taking off of my non-dominant leg is going to be more than made up for if I can actually land on one foot and get my ass out of the pit, so this is a good thing to know!

So it was a fun time. I actually seriously considered trying a similar drill except actually into a flooded gulley thing, but I decided it wasn't worth the possibility of accidently killing myself on a random stick and turning my XC spikes into a muddier mess than they already are. I was laughing pretty much the whole time - seriously, I think I've completely accepted my running weirdness. Last night I had dance rehearsal after practice and I was walking around campus in my spandex shorts - and I thought to myself that only someone who's used to racing in almost nothing would just not give a crap about wearing that little in public. I mean hell, if fat coasties can wear long spandex, why shouldn't I show off my runners legs in short spandex? I mean, it was also 50 degrees and raining. But whatever...

Fun fun stuff. I'm really busy this week with my Optima dance show so I have been and will be dancing up a storm - which is quite a workout in and of itself. It's a good thing I'm a distance runner, because 8 dances basically back to back is kind of insanity...3-4 minutes of pretty much nonstop craziness. It's like 800 repeats! Lol...yeah...

That one race

So I'm cranky about a number of things right now, one of which is how much my race sucked yesterday. I always have one race every season that just sucks ass, and frustrates me, and my legs just refuse to move, and I spend the entire time KNOWING I'm going to run a time much worse than I'm capable of and there's nothing I can do about it. The Loras Open 5K was that race for this track season. I could see it coming a mile away -my legs felt like crap all week, I was completely not in meet mode when I woke up Saturday morning, and ironically enough, I felt good during the warmup (you would think that would be a good thing, but apparently not in my world). And the thought actually crossed my mind, with all this crap going on "huh, I haven't had my 'bad' race this season yet". Boy. I'm glad I thought that, before I went out and ran practically my slowest time of the season, and by far my crappiest feeling race. It sucks when you think about how much more effort you have to put in to run a crappy time - when your legs are dying and its taking every ounce of your effort just to keep moving forward at a slow pace, and the entire time you know that this isn't going well and there's just nothing you can do. Its frustrating as hell. And its frustrating to know that you're in 19:54 shape, probably even better shape than that, and go out and run a 20:32. UGH. I knew it was going to be bad when I went out in 6:13 and already felt like shit...then the rest of the race was basically just a struggle to survive and keep moving and not completely fail. I was really cranky right after the race. In the grand scheme of things I know its fine, we had a ridiculous week of training leading up to this, and I already broke 20 so I know that I can do it - one crappy race doesn't mean I suck, and of course there's gotta be THAT one race every season. But that didn't stop me from feeling frustrated and annoyed with myself for not being able to run better somehow. The sad part too was that it was my best race of the year, placement wise, and had I actually run well, I would have actually been in the top 10.

I don't want to dwell on it too much because I know a million different things contributed to it sucking and I can't make excuses for myself, but it still makes me cranky. Its hard having a limited number of times to race and I really don't want to end my 5K season on that note. The twilight doesn't have a 5K so I'm doing steeple which will be really fun, and I'm sure I'll PR, but since the 5K really became my love this season I'd really like to get one more crack at a really good time at the end...which I could possibly run at a last chance meet the week after Twilight. I don't know...is that stupid? There's always the chance I'd do even worse. But I feel like after a good taper and NOT dancing every second that I'm not running, I could pull out at least a 19:45. I don't know. All I know is its time to back off - my legs are starting to poop out on me. I know that racing a 5K every weekend all season was probably dumb, I realize I should have jumped in a 1500 or something some weekend, but why - when every weekend up until this one I've been improving? Whatever. But tapering is sounding good, and hopefully my legs will stop feeling like bricks once I stop putting them through so much torture for a little while. Claire and Brittany didn't have good races either, and Brittany has been doing the same hard workouts, while Claire has been training for a freaking marathon - that can't be easy! So I think we all agree that its just the point of the season where the training starts to get to us...but after 2 weeks of taper, that training that got to us this week will be stored in our legs, ready to explode into our best times of the year...or so we hope.

Saturday was also our dual with the Illinois club, which was strange but definitely added some excitement to the meet, even though we ended up losing due to the fact that we don't have sprinters...and they do. So they cleaned up in the 400 and even though our guys ran great races in the 1500 and 800, we ended up winning the 15 but not by a huge margin, and we couldn't pull out the 800 - but what can you do when everyone we have running the race has already run a 1500, and most of their guys are fresh? Then there was the 5K - what a ridiculous mess. There was a huge downpour like 5 minutes before the race was supposed to start, and so there was all this confusion, and they said there was going to be a 10 minute delay. So a couple of our guys are still milling around or hiding under trees outside, but once they announced the delay Zach and (we thought) Ben went inside. Well all of a sudden, they're lining up to start the damn race! So of course our entire team was freaking out because 2 of our fastest runners weren't there...Claire ran inside to get Zach who had to sprint down the track throwing off his sweats to make it to the start line, but we still couldn't see Ben...so we're all freaking out yelling "Where's Garbe??" and Dallas went and yelled at the ref that if they had called a 10 minute delay, there was no way they could start 2 minutes later without everyone there. It turns out Ben was at the line, so everyone made it and it was fine (although it definitely cost Zach his kick), but it was just stupid the way it worked out. Mostly it was just the ref being an ass...whatever. The guys raced really hard but it didn't end up being a big enough margin for the 4 x 4 to not matter...and we had no confidence in our 4 x 4, but nevertheless, it was EXTREMELY exciting. It reminded me of high school - when you're always fighting for team titles and sometimes it all comes down to that 4 x 4 under the lights. It was a great race - I haven't screamed so hard for our team - ever, probably, and we were seriously ahead for awhile, which was amazing...but then...their stupid actual 50 second 400 runner closed, and with that combined with a bad handoff to Jeff, there was nothing he could do. Its funny because all of the guys in their relay were fresh or had only run the 400 earlier, and we had one guy just coming off the 5K, two guys who had run an 800 and a 1500, and one guy who had run an 8K at Crazylegs that morning, then run the 400, and was then doing this. So the fact that they only beat us by a few seconds was pretty respectable.

Well, I really wasn't planning on this being this long...but when I get to rambling, there's no stopping me I guess. I'll sign off for the weekend with this video that I discovered and absolutely love. It makes me really happy and I think just really captures running just for the love of it. Screw bad races. I can deal. There's still nothing like running. :)

Onwards from AKQA on Vimeo.

Looking forward

Not too much to say today...my legs are still feeling crappy, whether as an after-effect of Monday's death march or from the insane amounts of dance I'm putting myself through, I don't know, but either way, I attempted my first lower body ice bath last night (painful, but not terrible...I'm guessing the water could have been colder) and tonight I will be Sticking the shit out of myself. While enjoying a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA...yum. But today, I actually am trying not to think about my race on Saturday because regardless of what happens I'm thrilled with my season. Today I signed up for the Madison Half-Marathon! A lot of WTC people are doing this race, which will be a lot of fun, it goes right past my house, and I'm pretty sure every inch of the course I've run on before at some point in my life. What better way to wish myself happy birthday/I love running in Madison than to run a race on my own stomping grounds? So I'm pretty excited. And I can all but guarantee I'll PR, most likely in under 8 minute pace if things go according to plan. Sweeeet. Did I mention I love running? There's always something to look forward to, and when you're in good shape it feels like there's nothing you can't do.

Also...I may be doing a spint triathlon June 13? Would someone please explain to me how I go about doing this? The BF is really excited because its in his hometown and is really gung-ho about me doing it...I guess, if all else fails, I just completely suck and say "hey, it was my first triathlon!" And then probably get addicted. Because that's just how I roll.

Well, Drake and Penn Relays are this weekend, so it will be cool to see how those go down. Its kind of fun actually following elite distance running to some degree (thanks, letsrun.com) and kind of being able to cheer people on, especially since distance running in the US has been improving so much lately. I didn't actually get to watch the Boston Marathon, but it was cool to hear about Hall and Goucher...even though I especially wanted Kara to pull it out, it's still damn impressive for both of them to get 3rd.

I'm nervous for Saturday. I haven't had a chance to think about it too much because I've had so much other crap going on, but I really feel like I have a lot to prove now (and isn't that funny, how now that I've actually achieved my end-all goal that NOW I feel like I have to prove something?). I've been so cranky this week because my legs just haven't been feeling good, but I'm hoping that when I get out of bed on Saturday morning, I'm ready to race. I KNOW I'm ready to race, and this will probably be my one chance to compete in a field where I actually have a chance of placing decently. There are a few WIAC schools coming, but most of their faster runners will be at Drake, and other than that its a lot of smaller schools without many good runners. So here it is: my chance to RACE. Last week, I ran a 19:54 by myself...lets see what I can do when there are people to pass, people to race with, people to beat.

Also, its supposed to be windy. Why is the weekend of April 25 ALWAYS WINDY?? Sigh.