I ran another ten miler last weekend!  I didn’t walk away with the W but in many ways it was a much better race than the 10 miler I did last month. I remember now why I love racing so much. I actually had women to race this time around as opposed to running solo with a bunch of dudes that are afraid of being chicked. That alone can ruin a race as the men surge and die and just try to hang on as your trying to run a relaxed easy pace. It can be incredibly distracting and frustrating.

Going into the race, I was beyond tired, mainly because the 10 miler was only serving as my long run for that weekend, so there was zero resting, in fact I had biked 100 miles the day before. So my expectations were low, which sometimes is the best scenario. My goal was to feel good at half way, then pick it up as much as possible and hope to even split. There was a pretty stiff headwind on the way home so I knew this would feel tough plus two big overpasses inside the last two miles. Double whammy.   The race started and I was forced to let quite a few women go, which made me anxious, but I kept telling myself patience would pay off in this scenario. Within a few miles I was able to close the gap to a small group of women and we ran together in a pack until half way. I love running in packs and listening to everyone breathing, trying to figure out who is the strongest and who is about to die because it’s never who you think. So at half way, myself and another woman went off the front and the hunt was on (I will admit that she is not the one I had picked). I was sitting in fourth and I hate finishing fourth, so my goal was top three. I continued to bide my time, just trying to make the miles as comfortable as possible. I started to let myself hurt with 3 miles to go as I could see we were catching a woman in the distance. At 2 miles to go I pretty quickly closed the gap to her. This gave me a little confidence, so I let it all hang out on the final two overpasses, my whole body was screaming at this point. I was hoping to create some kind of gap and wasn’t sure if that was accomplished since I have a rule about not looking over my shoulder. So I just pushed on as hard as I could and managed to get my third place!

So I’m happy with the results obviously and it’s given me a lot of confidence going into IM South Africa in just two weeks. I have to admit though that I’m feeling exhausted. But I know this always happens, you start to see the goal in sight, rest is on the horizon, and the mind starts to give up a little bit. Like when you have to go to the bathroom and start peeing yourself as your keys are going into the door. I know this. Plus I’ve also learned at least one thing these past 5 years, and that is “rest” is not actually restful. The easy workouts that I think are supposed to be coming, never actually come, so I don’t know why I do this to myself every time.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now!