Rage

I debated on whether to post this about the road rage incident in the UK or not since it's a fairly divisive issue but decided to go ahead and put the vid up as well as my thoughts about it...........First off I am a cyclist and have been subjected to some abuse and dangerous situations while out riding and many of my friends have as well.  But after viewing this clip several times in full screen mode and watching the cyclist's actions I am of the opinion that he should have been charged as well as the bus driver.  His actions were just as deplorable and endangered lives as well.  Don't get me wrong, I am NOT defending the bus driver, he is damn lucky he didn't kill the cyclist or anyone else (chain reactions) and his conviction is well-deserved but I do not think "oh poor, innocent cyclist" after watching this either.  Just because you are on two wheels doesn't mean you are exempt from safe road conduct any more than any other vehicle.

http://road.cc/content/news/52730-bristol-bus-driver-used-vehicle-weapon



Thank you goes out to TWBrit for sending me the link to this incident

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!

Reaching goals and an earworm

I'm sitting here still on a bit of a high from last night.  I managed to reach a goal of getting my chin up over the pull-up bar much, much, much sooner than I expected. Not only did I do it once--after a bit of shouting all about it on twitter--I was able to pull up 3 more times.  Sorry, I realize I'm doing a bit too much bragging about it all over the place but I'm incredibly stoked to have been able to do a full one less than a week after putting up the bar.  May not be able to do it again for another 2 weeks but I'm totally ok with that :D.

Blurry pic via a webcam still

Right enough about that.  This week's earworm is from The XX. Such a hauntingly beautiful song, can't get enough of it.

shaking things up

This past week, this month even, has been all about trying to shake things up fitness and food-wise mostly because of the frustration I've been experiencing with the birth control pill weight gain and puffiness.  I've not had any soda, beer or wine since the middle of January, I drink 1-3 cups of coffee in the morning then for the remainder of the day it's all water, all the time.........which means lots of trips to the bathroom, lol.  Oh yeah, the water thing is for trying to ease the constant dry mouth side effect from the bc pill too, my next dentist visit is gonna be soooooooooo fun.  

The fresh veggie intake has gone up (even MORE trips to the bathroom! yay?), I have a kale smoothie mix for breakfast nearly every morning which consists of whatever I have in the fridge and freezer and I've started purchasing homemade energy/snack bars from a friend who makes them (incredibly delicious and healthy) for my sweet tooth cravings. 

coconut and chocolate, mmmmm

Quinoa is my "new" favorite grain (technically it's not a grain as I just learned from WHFoods) , I use it in lieu of rice. Not only is it tastier, it packs a fairly mean nutritional punch.  My only complaint is how bloody expensive it is around here.

Since I mentioned the unmentionable of the increased bathroom trips (well, unless you're a runner then you know we talk about that quite often, lol) earlier, that kind of brings me around to a neat little fitness challenge that was going around on twitter--do 10 push-ups after every trip (please wash your hands first!!!!!!! ick!). Depending on how much you're hydrating (or how many cups of coffee you've had) it's easy to get in a good 50-70 push-ups a day.  

There's also a pull-up bar installed in (on?) the doorway of my downstairs bathroom as of this past week.  Can't believe I've lived here over a year and just now got around to putting one up.  What's a bit discouraging is that last summer I could do 15 consecutive pull-ups and now can't even complete one, I can muscle my way 2/3 of the way up but can't quite get that last little bit done :-(.  At least it's there for the attempting now.  

My newest obsession is a 2.5 pound weighted hula-hoop. After struggling with an el-cheapo .97 cent hoop for months I finally googled "why can't I hula-hoop?"--yes, that's the exact term I used--I discovered that adults need a larger and heavier (thus slower) hoop to hula with. Ohmygosh, that thing is amazing!!!!!!! I went from not being able to spin more than 15x to doing 5-20 minutes at once (after getting warmed up) and ended up with extremely sore abs in the process. It's hilarious how incredibly fun it is, I end up giggling a good bit of the time using it.  

working on my technique

I think I've already mentioned the mini-trampoline in a previous post but it's another "toy" I've got sitting in my living room--which is starting to resemble a mini-gym what with the bike trainer, foam roller, and everything else scattered about.  Again, it's kinda like the other things, very easy to just take a couple of moments and do a bit of playing.  Elsie certainly thinks it's fun to chase me about while I'm jumping around on the trampoline.  Oh, and do 100 jumping jacks on one.........gets the heart rate right on up there fast. 

Why am I doing this again?

Since I ran a 5k on Saturday I guess I should do a quickie race report before I forget all about it...........What I won't forget is how freaking cold it was! 20F/-6.7C with a windchill of 9F.  For a southerner that is brutal cold, we're just not used to those kind of temperatures.  This was one race where we weren't standing around talking beforehand or even going for much of anything resembling a warmup run (or maybe that was just me?).  Nope, lots of huddling about in giant coats or in idling vehicles trying to stay warm.  So why in the world would I drive an hour and run in miserable conditions?  For the points! The Valentine's Day 5k is the 3rd race in our state RRCA Grand Prix series.

We did manage to leave the warmth of the pickup long enough to go for a 1 mile shuffle to loosen up the muscles but I felt like my feet were gonna fall off and my sinuses decided to go into outflow overload, ewwwww.  Since the Valentine's Day 5k was split up into four heats this year (male masters, female masters, female open, and male open) the start line was MUCH less crowded than in years past--I also think the brutal cold and winds kept a lot of people home.  I'm not sure how I feel about the division but I will admit that not getting kicked or accidentally kicking people was a very nice change from the previous time I'd ran this 5k.  There was no guessing about who in front of you was in your age group, you KNEW that everyone there was female and in the masters class.

\

The actual race?  Despite my lack of speed and saying I wasn't "racing" I did the first mile a wee bit too fast, 7:58 if I remember correctly from the garmin data afterwards but darn it, I was cold and wanted it over with already.  The problem with jackrabbiting is that the remaining 2 miles feel incredibly, interminably slow.  Then comes mile 2 and I'm feeling nauseous--which is my gauge of knowing I'm racing a 5k right--and I start burning up.  Oh yeah, frigid air, extreme exertion, burning lungs, and sweat..........either the best combination ever or the worst depending on what day you ask me, lol.  Mile 2.5 and my damn stomach starts cramping again--this is simply me pushing my body at a pace I'm no longer used to hitting and why I need to start doing speed work.  The temptation is strong to look at my garmin (I try never to look at it in a short distance race) and walk but I keep pushing on at a slightly lower level of exertion.  

Going into this I was hoping to be around 26-27 minutes finishing up but imagine my surprise when I come around the corner see the finish line clock and it's showing just over 25 minutes...........that my friends is what my fall-back time was on the couple of years when I was faster and having a bad 5k.  Oh yeah, I'm well happy with a finish time of 25:19 right now.  Looking back over my splits, it showed there to only be one second of difference in my miles 2 & 3 times, so while not a negative split race, it was evenly paced after I settled down.

Even with that I wasn't expecting an age group award but because quite a few of the faster women stayed home I managed to snag 2nd place in the 40-44 women's division, 11th place overall in the masters.

Gotta send a huge shout-out to my friends, quite a few of them ended up with personal records despite the conditions.  Well done!!!!!!! Shoot, it's well done for us to have gotten up and driven that far for a 5k in below freezing temps but to combine it with your faster time ever? Amazing stuff, proud of everyone.

Patti & me (isn't she adorable?!?!)

On a more serious note, Saturday, February the 11th was also the Virtual Run for Sherry.  I'd heard about this from twitter and then our running club president posted up a link to it on facebook. Several of us wore our Running For Sherry bibs during the 5k and even more of our running club wore them on their runs that day. I encourage you to go read about what happened and while it's too late to participate in the virtual run, you can still have a thought in remembrance on your next run (or next several). Please leave a note of encouragement and if possible donate to the fund that's been set up for her children.  

Things that leave you stunned

Very articulate and humorous (with a very serious edge) rebuttal video response to a woman who chose to put her ranting about Laredo out over the interwebs via youtube.  Apparently she's since taken her vid down but hey, in this age nothing ever truly disappears.

Randomology

Yes, Laredo does have a crime problem but as a "minority" (and female), I've gotta say that I always felt safer and more comfortable wandering about the city than I did staying at the truck stops north of town.  I always took a lot of flack for not being fearful but like all cities you have to use some common sense about where you go and how you carry yourself.  I even ran before dawn in several areas with absolutely no problem--again the common sense about where comes into play and always carrying pepper spray and/or a phone.  Is it wrong for me to be glad this woman is from Colorado instead of one of the southern states though?  

Plan, what plan?

I'm slow this year. Yes, I realize fast is a relative term, I wasn't really terribly fast before, but this year I'm slower than usual.......it's really odd having people come up and comment on me being fast from before and asking what my plan, goal, time, etc is this year.  In reality, I have none, my only real goal is to finish the distances I've signed up for.  I'm not gonna say it's not frustrating but then again one can't expect to pull fast(ish) times out of their arse if they haven't done speed work in many, many months.  Shoot, half the time I go out to run now and I don't even have a specific mileage in mind other than anything over 3 miles much less having a set pace to do it in.  
But I do think after the past 2 races the "fast" reputation is long gone, LOL!!!  


So this brings me to the second race of the RRCA Grand Prix season, the Rivertrail 15k, I've never really had a great time at this race. It's always windy, rainy, or cold. Usually all 3........this year, we had moderate winds after the turnaround point, misty rain beforehand and 58F temps.  Short sleeve shirts and shorts were definitely the appropriate wear once you got moving and I was nearly begging for the mist to resume after about 3 miles.  And the no plan? Well, I'd settled in behind Brenda and one of the younger Cruisers (who IS speedy!) into a comfortably hard pace when after our first loop in the soccer fields, we spied Alise walking back towards us.  She'd been on some antibiotics and wasn't feeling well but after asking if she felt like she was in passing out kind of trouble I talked her into resuming and ran at her (slower) pace for a while.  Well, she's an amazing runner and her slower pace nearly killed me, lol!!!!!!!!!!  I knew I would crash and burn after that, even said so to Brenda when we passed them, but it was well worth it to get Alise back into the race. 

Click to see larger image

Looking at my splits, you can see where I lost it, taking water at the first stop combined with the faster than I'm used to/capable of sustaining speed resulted in some nasty stomach cramps and I ended up having to walk several times after to let them ease.  I'm not grumbling (other than about the worry of having to maybe make an emergency portapotty stop) but this does show that I need to start adding a day of speed work if for no other reason than to be able to survive little bursts like I did in the beginning of the race.

Oh, and even if I'd kept at the pace I was at near the beginning I still wouldn't have placed, there are some VERY speedy women in my age group this year. The top 3 masters women were 6th, 7th, and 8th place overall with 2 in my age-group and times that ranged from 1:04:11 to 1:07:28, I was 14th in the female 40-44 age group this year.  No way I can even come close to those times when I am closer to race-ready.  This year's time by the way, was 5:18 slower than my 15k pr.

Other news, Patti and I have decided to start meeting every Tuesday at 8am to run together.  I've missed her an incredible amount, didn't realize just how much until we met back up this past week.  Studying for the Comp-TIA A+ is going ok, at least it was until today when I had every intention of hitting the books after the race but instead got waylaid with a blissful nap.  My weight in the LoseAThon challenge keeps going up and down the same 3 freaking pounds.  I am seeing a slight change in body composition though so trying not to be discouraged.  Another fun little challenge that was put out is to do 10 pushups after every bathroom visit, I did so many on Friday I thought I was gonna face-plant on the last 2 sets (hydrate much?).  

Elsie "helping" me study

I seem to have made peace with the trainer, I've found that if I read a magazine for the warm-up bit, which for me is longer than what most require, then I can get through the session fairly easy and the intervals or hard steady sections seems to fly by.  Loud music helps too, I'm sure I'm not helping my already extremely poor hearing out any :D.  

Elsie's fear and what did I get myself into this time

Elsie waiting not so patiently to head out for a run, for the moment at least.

Sunday is our usual recovery, let the dogs run off leash, run.  We talk, the dogs play and get rid of some of their excess energy and just all around have fun.  Well, usually we do.  Despite the presence of other people and dogs, Elsie still freaked out about the distant gunshots.  First 1/2 mile she would start, then stop, then when we got too far ahead she'd run to catch up........right up until the 3rd or 4th time.  Then she just sat there until I had to turn around and go back for her. All well and good but once I started back she took off back towards where we parked and wouldn't stop when commanded.  Not a good thing.  When I caught back up to her at the vehicles, I leashed her up and took her back out.  Yes, there was reluctance and I had to pull her along at times but I need her to be trained to listen to me despite the fear.  I'm hoping that it will be like it was with the rain and by being surrounded by other people and dogs, she'll learn that it's ok.  Until I started taking her out in those conditions with the group, she wouldn't even go outside to pee if it even hinted that there was going to be precipitation present.  Now so long as it isn't a thunderstorm she has pretty much become tolerant of it.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated on how to deal with this.

Very pretty but cold morning

Other news, I learned at a very late age not to bring something up at a meeting unless you want to be in charge of it, lol.  Our running club had a meeting to discuss the upcoming Spring Fling 5k and after that was over during the general discussion I mentioned that we should really think about forming teams for the upcoming Hogeye Marathon so our club could garner team points for the state RRCA grand prix.  Gonna be a hard sell on this one due to some of the rules, the distance of Fayetteville and the fact that no individual points are at stake but I will do my best.

LoseAThon update

The LoseAThon thing is a friendly little competition started and administered (thankfully!) by @hellasound as a result of a bit of twitter joking around to encourage eating right, drinking lots of water, and exercising more--a bit of keeping each other accountable if you will.  My first 2 weigh-ins after the initial one showed some great progress but take one day of sushi and 3 HobNobs cookies (I'm NOT calling them biscuits!) and the scale showed a gain of 3 pounds this morning, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  

So, my lesson learned? While sushi and sashimi is an EXCELLENT night before a long run fueling meal for me, it's not good for the scale the next morning. Oh, and British snacks are just evil.

BTW, buy some music while you're over at the hella sound site, it's a bit on the excellent side!

I shop, therefore I am......

I rarely get out and go shopping at the malls much anymore, even less now that I'm not getting laid over in Laredo every weekend (of course, not driving has a lot to do that, lol) but yesterday was just feeling out of it and thought a trip out that didn't involve working out was needed.  Lo and behold I ended up at Dillard's to peruse their winter clearance racks--does any shopping in Arkansas not end up there?

My tastes have been tending towards vintage lately, kind of a mix of pencil skirts with sweaters or things with a 70's vibe thanks to a marathon netflix viewing of "United States of Tara" and a first time viewing of "Last Tango in Paris".  Loved the Shoshanna (spelling?) shrink alter of Tara, her outfits reminded me of what I remember my cousin Jill wearing when I was a kid.  So what does Dillards have to do with this?  One of the first things I saw when I walked in was this coat:

                                            Source: jessicasimpsoncollection.com via Gabby on Pinterest

I tried it on, admired it, then put it back on the rack to go wander about to see if anything else caught my interest.  Managed to find 3 dresses to try on, one was ok but even though ultra-cheap, it wasn't great so back it went.  The 2nd was very tailored and had a bit of a Mad Men vintage vibe but didn't fit quite right around the chest area (bit loose, definitely made for someone a little bustier) and then there was the 3rd dress.........

Ignore the weird pose.  Maggy London dress

Cute, cheap, will look great with boots of all colors for now AND sandals for summer. It drapes well, isn't going to require a slip, and doesn't show my arse if I lift my arms over my head.  Yep, it was purchased.

Left the store to meander throughout the mall and couldn't quit thinking about the coat.........nothing else was catching my eye so meandered back to try it on again.  This time while there I got started chatting with another shopper who was also trying on some of the other 70's vintagey jackets--it is kind of sad how this kind of interaction really doesn't occur that much anymore. Or maybe it's because I don't shop b&m that often and I don't notice it as much. Anyway it was a nice chat and also affirmed what I thought about the coat not looking half-bad on me.  I'd tried on the ivory version this time rather than the vicuna color and while that color looked best on me, with my track record of spilling coffee on my clothes,it  was definitely not going to remain pristine for long in my possession.  The ivory also left bits of fluff ALL OVER my black sweater!!!!! Ick!!!! Really kind of funny though with me, the sales associate, and the customer behind me in line all trying to use various tape rollers and brushes trying to get it off to no avail.  

Oh, and the boots I'm wearing in the dress pic are the black Heidi Klum Rosegold ones that I bought back in late November or early December when Amazon had them on sale for $54.  Get tons of compliments on them, while in Austin I had a girl tell me they were "killer boots" and yesterday walking out of the mall another lady in the parking lot stopped to tell me how great they were.  Most definitely a worthy purchase, my only regret is not buying the cigar colored pair when I could have gotten all three for less than what one pair costs normally.  

Ok, so how many of y'all have I lost with this shopping post? Sometimes a girl just needs to natter on about things other than running and cycling though, lol.

running mojo peeking through

I love it when my running mojo starts peeking out like it has this past week.  Now if it will only quit this shy act and get back with things full force.....ok, enough on dwelling on the negative, I'm gonna be happy with 2 great ones consecutively and hope that there is more in my very near future.

Every other week, Brenda and company tries to get in a long trail run and this week we did Pinnacle.  Yes, there were huge smilies when she texted back what the plan was, I've only ran this route once before but I love it.  Beautiful views, friendly people (everyone always chats on the trail), and some major calorie and lung burns from the uphill climbs.  It is a very technical trail (too damn rocky!) and has been made even more so with all the rains exposing more of the rocks and tree roots and washing away the dirt that so nicely pads things.  That means you have to pay attention to your footing otherwise you're gonna be reminded that Mother Nature is boss right quick.  The frequent and heavy rains also meant LOTS of muddy spots, even sections under water that normally aren't, we all had sopping wet shoes and socks before long and when I stripped mine off once home, even my toenails were ringed with mud that had soaked through, ewwwww.  Still lots of fun though (huge grin).

I think I might be getting my nutrition dialed in at least a little for the trails.  So far a liquid breakfast consisting of half a cup of coffee with cream and one scoop of Hammer Nutrition Perpetuem in a pint glass of water seems to be working the best.  If I have any boiled eggs I will eat one of those but even that will occasionally set my tummy off.  Today at our turnaround point I had a mini almond and apricot KIND bar and of course there's my bottle of Heed that I drink throughout.  No issues at all today but we were keeping a fairly low-key pace and I did start feeling the need for more calories at around miles 11-12.  Perhaps supplement it with a gel at this point?

View of Lake Maumelle at the turnaround point (paused to eat and 3 out of 4 of us had to find a place to pee, lol)

When we got back to our cars, our garmins were all showing different distances, none of 'em with the 15 miles that were planned so we added on with a flat loop on the paved walking trail around the parking lot and playground area.  Even with that my garmin was still NOT at the 15 miles and while most of the time I'm perfectly ok with being just under for some reason I wanted the even  mileage today so another loop through the parking lot was made.

Gorgeous, huge cypress trees

Our elevation, speed, and mileage chart from my garmin data

a twofer

Time to hit the books 

A shorn Elsie

Half-marathon of awesomeness

Little Rock Tweed Ride

Fun research :-)

Thursday

I mentioned day before yesterday that we were in for some rainy days and oh has that forecast come through, ugh.  It's been a gloomy, doomy mid-week and everything is saturated so both Elsie and I are kinda grumpy.  With that being said, I've still managed to get outside in it a bit.  Yesterday morning I drug the mutt out around the neighborhood loop for an extended first thing in the morning walk--from my door and back it's just over a mile then came back and spent some time on the trainer.  Finally felt like I had built enough of a base that I did some intervals after a 20 minute warm-up spin: 1 minute at 20-21mph then 1 minute recovery spin for 10 minutes.  Followed that up with a cooldown spin of almost 4 minutes, last minute was full out whatever I could get my legs to do.  Yes, there was major sweatage occurring even with the ceiling fan blowing on high speed.

Last week I finally made a trip to Wal-Mart to buy a mini-trampoline based on Andrea's advice from a few weeks ago.  Oh. My.  First off, it's kinda fun just bouncing about playing on it, 2nd, it's HARD!  Just a couple of minutes on it and I'm breathing hard, although that's probably a combination of being out of shape and laughing so hard.  I try to make it a habit of jumping on it a couple of times a day whenever I pass by it--yes, it's another piece of workout equipment in the living room, lol.  Hey, this way I know I'm gonna use it at least occasionally and while my veggies were heating up last night I took the time and did 2 minutes of jumping jacks on it.  My calves were feeling it by the end!!!!

Today was Elsie's day to get groomed and again trying to use my time constructively (not quite a resolution but close) by combining errands with workouts, I leashed her up and we ran to the vet's since it's so close and it was only foggy & misty.  That 2 miles didn't even come near to tiring her out though, she was still bouncing about when we walked (ran!) in the door.  However when it came time for her to be led into the back, she was giving me the most pitiful, why are you abandoning me look.........yes, I feel guilty, going to be even more so when I pick her up because I'm having her legs and underbelly shaved this time to hopefully minimize our grass allergies.

Oh back to the run.......after I dropped her off I ran back to my place to throw my gloves and her leash on my doorstep and see if I could manage to get 5 miles in altogether.  While running through the parking lot one of my neighbors hollered out "You're gonna catch the flu running in the rain like that!".  Yeah by this time the conditions had changed from mist to a light rain but what blew my mind is someone actually believing that you can catch a virus from exercising in the cold/rain, lol.  As a twitter friend commented, it's those nasty sky germs that get you every time, hahaha!  And that run where I was risking my health? Ended up with 6.25 miles altogether :-).  Gonna take a cardio rest day tomorrow, hopefully Brenda & company have a trail run planned for Saturday. Either way I need to give the legs a break.

While I'm on about exercise related stuff, this technical shirt I ordered from another twitter friend's CafePress  store (Bailey's By Design) arrived in today's post.  Cute, eh?  Really loving it although I think they may run a bit small, I ordered a medium and it fits more like a Nike small in my opinion.

A taste of spring in January

You know how people always say about the weather where they live "Wait 5 minutes and it will change"?  Well, I can't quite say that's what it's like all the time in the midsouth of the US but we do have some fairly wicked extremes sometimes.  For example, on Sunday it was supposed to be a high of 60F but we ended up running in chilly, foggy, misty conditions and on my way home from the race I was caught in some nasty weather involving sheeting rain and 60 plus mph winds (there were tornadoes spotted from this system later on in the night).  This morning was 28F but the forecast was for bright, sunny skies and 61F.  I'm glad to say the forecast proved right and I decided to load up Elsie and head to North Little Rock to run some trails with her to enjoy it.

My pickup is parked way down there! 

Unfortunately I am still having some aftereffects from the Pepto Bismol I took Sunday for the upset stomach prior to the race so we ended up cutting it short (very sad face) but the mutt and I did get to enjoy the gorgeous day outdoors at least a little bit.  Elsie's currently curled up on the couch napping and I think I'm going to join her just as soon as I hit publish on this post.

Big Dam Bridge in the distance

What's this? A race you say?

Oh yes, the first race of the state RRCA Grand Prix was this afternoon.  Despite having signed up for it last week I almost didn't go because of a headache that sidelined what was supposed to have been a 13-miler yesterday and a slight bit of intestinal distress I think was a side effect of said dastardly headache. Ugh......yes, TMI, I know but this blog does chronicle a lot of my running--good, bad, mediocre, and gross.

Soooooooooo, this race is the One Hour Track Run and while running around a 440 meter track for an hour trying to get as many laps down as you can sounds like something akin to waterboarding, it's actually quite fun.  Well, it usually is. Today was just an ohmygosh make that clock countdown quicker-kinda race for me.  Usual blather about starting too fast and not pacing myself, yadda, yadda, yadda.  So, I went not so fast after the first 3 laps, and continually turned left and tried my utmost not to pass out on the track because it causes such a brouhaha.

However, getting to cheer on friends as you're running in such close proximity and being cheered on by those smart enough to not race every 2-2.5 minutes very much rocks.  Also getting to hear a couple of 8-9 year old girls discuss their race strategy and how they felt while we were running:  PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!  One tidbit of the convo "Ok, I will try not to push you too hard then", freaking adorable.  It's still making me smile.

While my race time wasn't quite up to par (understatement, lol), I did have so much fun chatting with friends and getting to see how great they were doing and looking that I am glad I made the trip to run.  Even better was getting to see my sis and brother-in-law afterwards and introducing them to a handful of those friends.