This weekend ended up quite nicely!
I took Friday and Saturday as rest days. Since I’m still not so much in the groove of things, I wasn’t resisting the rest like I normally would. Chuck and I had all three kids at the house this weekend. We took them to the pool most of the morning on Saturday. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching rented movies.
Sunday was THE day. We had been training for the XTERRA Dauset Trails Deep South 15K. It’s been our goal race since the Gate River Run in March. I was putting a lot of stock into this run. BUT, who am I to decide when I get sick, and when I lose my magic running mojo?
We got up at 5:30 AM and went through our normal race morning routine. Shower, coffee, bagel with peanut butter…. We filled up the Camel back and packed up the running gear and headed to Dauset Trails.
I wasn’t nervous about the run at all. I guess because at this point I hadn’t properly trained in my mind, so if I totally screwed up, I would certainly know why. I had only run a total of about 15 miles in 2 weeks, as opposed to my normal 20ish each week. Also, looking back we didn’t run on the trails to “practice” nearly as much as we would have liked.
We arrived right at 8AM. Picked up our packets, visited the potties, got geared up and pinned on the bibs, then stood around for about 15 minutes until the start. At 8:30 we began around the parking lot about a half a mile and finally into the woods. It was pretty, as usual. I was feeling OK, I was telling myself “this isn’t so bad” “I can do this” “It’s JUST 9 miles”… This worked for about the first 4 miles. Then I started to lose some wind. We went up a big hill that I normally probably would have been fine running up. Not this time. I just let the fatigue set in and I started walking. Mom was feeling her fire, so she took off. Chuck, being my sweetheart, stayed back with me and walked and encouraged me to keep on going. I started jogging again. The whole time not wanting to get too fast and trip and bust my face open.
I had my Garmin on. I know it’s not totally accurate in the woods, but it’s usually pretty good. It was showing right past 7.5 miles. I was thinking, less than 2 to go, I can SO do this. THEN… we got to the last water stop. The guy at the stop told us we were at 6.5. WHAT???? Your telling me I have 3 more miles to run??? WHAT? I stopped running and walked and I must admit, whined about it. I really didn’t think I had it in me to run 3 more miles on that trail. But Chuck reminded me that I either had to run it or walk it. There were no short cuts… so step step. I did start running again. Not happy about it. I kept repeating how I was going to finish this race… trying to be positive.
Then right at about 9 miles (according to my Garmin)… the clearing popped up ahead to the finish line. WHAT? The Garmin was right? I had done all that whining for nothing. Apparently the guy was at 7.5, not 6.5. We ran into the finish holding hands. Yeah, mushy! Our time was right at 1:50:59. Did we kick butt & take names. Nah. Did we do our best considering and did we finish! Heck Yeah!
We loaded up in the car and drove back home with the top down. NICE!
I took Friday and Saturday as rest days. Since I’m still not so much in the groove of things, I wasn’t resisting the rest like I normally would. Chuck and I had all three kids at the house this weekend. We took them to the pool most of the morning on Saturday. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon watching rented movies.
Sunday was THE day. We had been training for the XTERRA Dauset Trails Deep South 15K. It’s been our goal race since the Gate River Run in March. I was putting a lot of stock into this run. BUT, who am I to decide when I get sick, and when I lose my magic running mojo?
We got up at 5:30 AM and went through our normal race morning routine. Shower, coffee, bagel with peanut butter…. We filled up the Camel back and packed up the running gear and headed to Dauset Trails.
I wasn’t nervous about the run at all. I guess because at this point I hadn’t properly trained in my mind, so if I totally screwed up, I would certainly know why. I had only run a total of about 15 miles in 2 weeks, as opposed to my normal 20ish each week. Also, looking back we didn’t run on the trails to “practice” nearly as much as we would have liked.
We arrived right at 8AM. Picked up our packets, visited the potties, got geared up and pinned on the bibs, then stood around for about 15 minutes until the start. At 8:30 we began around the parking lot about a half a mile and finally into the woods. It was pretty, as usual. I was feeling OK, I was telling myself “this isn’t so bad” “I can do this” “It’s JUST 9 miles”… This worked for about the first 4 miles. Then I started to lose some wind. We went up a big hill that I normally probably would have been fine running up. Not this time. I just let the fatigue set in and I started walking. Mom was feeling her fire, so she took off. Chuck, being my sweetheart, stayed back with me and walked and encouraged me to keep on going. I started jogging again. The whole time not wanting to get too fast and trip and bust my face open.
I had my Garmin on. I know it’s not totally accurate in the woods, but it’s usually pretty good. It was showing right past 7.5 miles. I was thinking, less than 2 to go, I can SO do this. THEN… we got to the last water stop. The guy at the stop told us we were at 6.5. WHAT???? Your telling me I have 3 more miles to run??? WHAT? I stopped running and walked and I must admit, whined about it. I really didn’t think I had it in me to run 3 more miles on that trail. But Chuck reminded me that I either had to run it or walk it. There were no short cuts… so step step. I did start running again. Not happy about it. I kept repeating how I was going to finish this race… trying to be positive.
Then right at about 9 miles (according to my Garmin)… the clearing popped up ahead to the finish line. WHAT? The Garmin was right? I had done all that whining for nothing. Apparently the guy was at 7.5, not 6.5. We ran into the finish holding hands. Yeah, mushy! Our time was right at 1:50:59. Did we kick butt & take names. Nah. Did we do our best considering and did we finish! Heck Yeah!
We loaded up in the car and drove back home with the top down. NICE!
Got home, showered, changed into DRY clothes, rested for a bit, and got a sandwich for lunch.
Next Stop…. Bike Clinic 4PM at the Pig Trail. We loaded up the bikes and all our bike gear and headed back up to Macon. The clinic was designed for beginners. Which, I consider myself to be due to the fact that I’ve taken my bike off road only about 5 times.
The OMBA put on the clinic, and they did a great job. We went over some routine bike info and then practiced a few skills. After that we were off to the trails for a ride. I really enjoyed the ride, less having to stop one time and being scared to go down the next hill. There were two experienced riders behind me that stopped to help. I felt like a big goober, but they were nice and didn’t make me feel bad. I ended up getting down the hill without planting my face into the side of a pine tree. So mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned. I think we ended up riding for about an hour. We all got back to the cars and packed up once again.
Next Stop…. Wild Wings Café. Yes, we went and indulged. We treated ourselves to Hot Wings and Nachos. It was great. We got a sweet tooth after dinner so we had to stop at the DQ in Byron on the way home and get Blizzards.
Once we got back to the house and showered AGAIN… and got the bikes and gear put up then cleaned up the apt. a little, we were spent.
Off to bed we went, only to start another work week.
I hope this week I am more focused on my training. I guess it’s only a matter of what I have time for right? Hopefully I’ll have more to report soon.
Next Stop…. Bike Clinic 4PM at the Pig Trail. We loaded up the bikes and all our bike gear and headed back up to Macon. The clinic was designed for beginners. Which, I consider myself to be due to the fact that I’ve taken my bike off road only about 5 times.
The OMBA put on the clinic, and they did a great job. We went over some routine bike info and then practiced a few skills. After that we were off to the trails for a ride. I really enjoyed the ride, less having to stop one time and being scared to go down the next hill. There were two experienced riders behind me that stopped to help. I felt like a big goober, but they were nice and didn’t make me feel bad. I ended up getting down the hill without planting my face into the side of a pine tree. So mission accomplished as far as I’m concerned. I think we ended up riding for about an hour. We all got back to the cars and packed up once again.Next Stop…. Wild Wings Café. Yes, we went and indulged. We treated ourselves to Hot Wings and Nachos. It was great. We got a sweet tooth after dinner so we had to stop at the DQ in Byron on the way home and get Blizzards.
Once we got back to the house and showered AGAIN… and got the bikes and gear put up then cleaned up the apt. a little, we were spent.
Off to bed we went, only to start another work week.
I hope this week I am more focused on my training. I guess it’s only a matter of what I have time for right? Hopefully I’ll have more to report soon.
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