Sunday, August 27, 2017

Groundhog Day



"If something is worth doing, it's worth doing well" some famous person once said, or maybe it was my mom. Either way, this isn't a story about doing that! This is the weekend for my favorite race to hate. How better to make a mockery out of that saying and guarantee an already hard race is even harder? Little to no practice, that's how! My longest run in the past month has been a four miler. Time to see if my body can survive a trail half marathon. Oh and while at it, why not raise the bar this year? Ambitiously signed up for back to back days last year, oh boy.

A year is long time, lots can change, but honestly had much better intentions for this weekend. Primarily, the goal was getting my cousin to run this brutal course and enjoy her accomplishment, yet relish her complaining how much her body hurt afterward. Nobody reads this thing, I'm not that much of a jerk, I'm not wishing pain on my cousin for no reason. She tortured me relentlessly growing up, she's due! Turns out she side-stepped this race last minute, karma found me, because now I'm the one complaining that everything hurts as I duck walk.

Maybe everything will be fine, if I can get one more long run in......errrrrrrrrrrrr, goes the start gun. Damn it! Today is all about twos. Got two fairly easy miles to start. Two through four has the hellacious hill. Four through six, another awful climb. Six through eight, a stretch of down, finally! Eight to ten, the huge rollers. So many damn hills!! Ten to twelve, pretty much don't remember, but getting close to the end. Then, finally downhill to the finish line. As I ran, I concentrated on the current two miles and just told myself to push as long as I could before the wheels came off. Wasn't sure if I'd make it to mile four and want to be done, or if I could coax my body to do more. Turned out, made it to a little past mile eight before my body wanted to know what exactly I was doing. The rollers finished me off and it was survival for the rest of the race.

Crossing the line, honestly, I was a bit surprised. It was only two minutes worse than last years time. Granted last year I had to fight around people the whole way, but it was a moral victory knowing how little training I did coming into this weekend. CT also part of the same training program, she PR'd her time! Maybe there's something to fresh legs. We both got age group awards, which was also shocking, bonus!

Day two of Groundhog Day, the alarm goes off, it was like slow motion getting to the bathroom. This is what I wished on my cousin, but now it's both CT and I. Buy stock in ibuprofen. With a little activity, it did get better, but there were also some serious doubts as to how today is going to play out.

"It's Groundhog Day..." goes the gun. First two miles were okay. Hoped that I could last as long as yesterday, but already after the first major hill, it became apparent to me survival mode was going to start much sooner. Made it to the six mile hill before cheating with a walk. From about that point on, anything more than an ant hill, I walked up it. Day two, ended being five minutes slower. CT ended up being three minutes slower, so in her mind, she's tougher. Not even going to fight it, because I'm whipped! But, we both AG placed again.

One of the reasons I love this race is the value. Honestly, not sure if we are tired from the back to back races, or from carrying all the gear they give us!    

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