XC Muddy Madness

Today was my first race with the club in the winter cross country series, reminded me how much I love the crazy muddy madness that is the sport of XC.  The league (is that the correct term?) rules are similar to the RRCA Grand Prix in the states in that you must have at least 3 women and 4 men on the teams. As for anything else, I'm not sure yet about the ins and outs of how it works other than it was free if you are a paid member of a running club and must wear the club kit during the race.  I will have to go and do my research because this was so much FUN!!!! Love the camaraderie and encouragement.

Still clean and almost 5 miles to go

Just a brief recap. Had my usual pre-race nervous upset stomach but thankfully got it all out of my system before heading out the door to the race. Didn't warm up (oops!). Dressed too warm for racing (know better). Wore regular running shoes instead of trail (haven't broken them in yet) or spikes (don't own any).  Two laps for 4.8 miles and part of that was spent slip-sliding around trying to not fall in the churned up mud.  Nearly face-planted directly in front of a woman runner right on my heels (all I could think was if I go down, she's coming over the top of me!). Twice through a just over ankle deep water hazard. Threw my gloves at my partner who was taking pics, then yelled thank you on the next lap.  Missed a right turn along with two other runners because the course marshal had moved (shades of Sara Low 5k, eh?). First 1.5 miles was spent thinking ohmygosh why do I do this, next part was settling in for the plod (but trying not to fall-recurring refrain, lol), final part was thinking where in the hell is that finish line, are they moving it about on purpose to tease me???  Best of all? Getting to hang out with like minded, crazy runner types :-)

click to see larger image for the lap splits

My splits are a bit abysmal but I'm not complaining, this gives me a goal to beat for the next one and hopefully make those a bit more even.  Improper shoes definitely played a part as well as the lack of speed training (more the latter I'm afraid).  Besides this was just dirty wholesome fun for a bright December Sunday, the weather was certainly near perfect. 

The aftermath

Love my Brooks running gear #runhappy #runmuddy

The "reward" after the race, Costa coffee stop for a large latte, egg sandwich and gingerbread muffin.

The partner also bought me a HUGE canister of Celebrations mini chocolate bars afterwards, he either loves me or is trying to fatten me up ;-)

A PR at last!

PR for those who don't know is personal record, or if you're European, it's known as a PB--personal best.  PB just makes me think of peanut butter though which makes me hungry which doesn't do well for losing weight. Enough which(es)?  Arrrgggghhhh, now I have a Which Wich craving.........Right, where was I? Lol, I'm sure most people have quit reading by now in aggravation.

 So yeah, a personal record was finally attained this year even if it was in a distance that I haven't formally raced in prior to this year, the MILE! Or in this case the Go!Mile.  For the Women Can Run clinic we had 3 timed miles, my best being a 6:56 so Saturday I was hoping to get under 7 minutes again.  Obviously I managed to bust that 7 minute mark again, this time with a 6:43!!!!! Can you tell I'm happy?  A huge thank you goes out to Brenda, Vicki, and Ginny for all the quality training and advice I received from/with them this year so far. No way would I have gotten this pr without them.

Elsie in the corner checking out my sweaty towel and cute t-shirt

And the Go!Running Go!Mile race is a must-do! It's gonna hurt but it's over quickly. Very well organized (except for the one delayed starting gunshot, lol), loved the separate heats and being able to cheer on my friends.  Watermelon after a race is divine and the towel at the finish line was very welcome to mop away the sweat.  I think most of my fellow running club members had pr's or close to it and our women's team took 2nd in the state RRCA Grand Prix points, woot!  Congrats to all :-).  

Love the Brooks Running Green Silence, those are my speedy shoes

I normally won't post pics of when I'm racing because quite frankly I look absolutely horrid when I'm pushing that hard.  I'm swallowing my pride on this one because I love my form on this shot (thanks Arland!) and how me and the woman in the green shoes are almost exactly in the same pose. Looking back through the photos, we were pretty much synchronized through the series, at least at the halfway point of the race.  Too bad I couldn't have kept that up, she finished 10 seconds ahead of me.  

CCC 10k for the 4th time

Ah, the Capital City Classic 10k. I have a love/hate for this race.  Love the route, the distance, that it's flat, it's scenic, the weather is usually gorgeous. Hate that there's no chip timing and with a race that's grown to have nearly 800 participants and is a state RRCA Grand Prix race then it damn well should have.  In the past 4 years of running it I don't think my garmin, what I've seen on the clock, and the official results have ever matched.  Yes I'm a middle of the pack runner, not anywhere near a front runner but as one of the girls I ran with yesterday said, "seconds count".

So that grumble aside, I am happy with how I ran the race.  Brenda and I were kind of co-pacing one of her friends, a girl she coached last year in the WCR (women can run) clinic.  Well, it was more of a case that we tried to keep up with her on most of it, lol.  Normally I tend to slow down between miles 3 and 4 after jack-rabbiting the first couple in order to re-group and save up some strength to pick up speed at mile 5.  Not this time, we were pushing hard for us and with being sort of accountable to someone else I was able to keep it up much better than I expected, especially considering that I'd ran a tough 10 miler with Patti the previous morning.  Yes, I kind of over-scheduled myself but it was Patti's last day in the state before flying to stay with her mother for a bit and no way was I saying no when she asked me to run her long run with her.

But I digress, back to the race.  While we were pushing hard, we were also passing other runners in a fairly consistent manner.  There were a few that we kind of leap-frogged back and forth with but generally once we passed it was done (all except for the one young lady who found a HUGE sprint approximately .1 of a mile from the finish line).  I did make a mistake by stopping and grabbing a drink at the 2nd water stop, 2 sips and my stomach started cramping almost immediately after. I simply can't do plain water on a race. Lesson learned.

Despite the cramps I pushed on to try and keep up and they kinda, sorta eased.  At least after a few iffy moments I knew I wasn't gonna have to stop.  That's where my HTFU motto comes in handy, forget the smiling though, I was hurting too darn much, lol.  Around half a mile out Brenda yells out something like "come on ladies, let's push it and get this hurting over with!"  I'm paraphrasing slightly because I honestly was HURTING too much to remember exactly how she put it.  We did pick it up though! I just never thought we were gonna reach that freaking finish line though, ugggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Click to enlarge

So race recap, according to my garmin--which I started as soon as we started moving well before the actual start line--I ran 51:16, the exact same time that shows on last year's results.  The clock at the finish line showed 51:17 and my official results say 51:20.  The three of us were literally on each other's heels, Brenda was 1 second behind me, and Britney was right behind her but the results say 2 and 9 seconds behind me respectively while our garmins show us as one second each behind the other.   

One thing I'm very proud of on yesterday's race, we ran negative splits.  The 8:13 average pace on mile 5 is where my stomach started cramping but still faster than the first three miles (huge smile!).  I couldn't have pushed any harder on this one.  No age group awards for me this year, way too many speedy females in my age group showed up, I was 49/362 females and 7/56 in the 40-44 age group.  Huge shout-out to so many people for getting personal records yesterday!!!!!!!!!! Lots of happy runners that I'm incredibly proud of.

Reward for running 10 miles on Friday, breakfast courtesy of Patti and Brice at Dogtown Coffee and Cookery, yum!

seize the moment

............and blog when the mood hits you otherwise you'll end up like me this past week and have some great ideas but then lose them or the "want to" to write anything at all.  Bah. 

I've had some great runs this week, all of which have challenged me to go faster or longer than what I felt or thought I could, all of which were with some amazing friends.  That always makes the miles go by faster even on days like yesterday morning when I was feeling light-headed from not eating enough on Wednesday (not on purpose, just had a lot going on and kinda forgot that I needed to eat occasionally).  Even with that and a walk break, Isabel and I managed to kick out 6 miles in 56 minutes with the last 2 miles being the fastest.  Throw in a couple of short but fairly intense trainer sessions and some major core work and I feel like I'm getting back in serious mode with training. Finally.

My new Brooks Running kicks--the 2012 Launch

Hopefully I will have some great posts to write up over the weekend. Tomorrow I'm running the Sylamore 25k for the first time.  It will be my 2nd trail race and I hope it goes much better than the Full mOOn 25k did back over the summer.  I'm certainly better trained for this one distance wise but the creek crossing kind of has me worried since there's been so much rain here.  Apparently it's just slightly longer than 25k too, as in 17 miles as opposed to the 15ish it should be.  Guess I'll find out tomorrow, lol. 

As if that wasn't enough, I decided earlier in the week to sign up for Sunday's Run the Line Half Marathon in Texarkana since it's also a grand prix race. I am NOT trained up for back-to-back long runs, eeek.  But I'm not planning on "racing" either event, more just getting out to get the distance done and see if I survive.......Yep, color me stupid.  Please cross your fingers and wish me luck!