I was SO excited to have such a big group this morning! Paul, Kelli, Amy and Kim all came to tackle this run with me. We started late (and I'd told everyone we'd leave early, but it was MY fault I we were late!), but headed out at 6:05, dark and COLD! I only had a running skirt and a t-shirt. SO bitter cold, I left my stinky jacket that doesn't zip up on - it was a pain, but I was thankful for it. I really wanted to pull sub 9mm up the hills, but I barely missed it! 9:00 for the climb to the top, but I think that is the fastest I've EVER run those hills in my life, so I'm not going to complain. I did drop my jacket at mile 4 when we stopped for a quick water break, but I was nearly warm by then. After using the pop at Yellow Fork we headed down. Goal was to run MP miles on the downhill grade after burning them out and having fatigued legs from the climb. A shorter run and tempo, but hopefully more realistic. Paul humored me and said he'd run MP (7:45 -7:50 was my goal) with me. Well, the miles down the canyon kept ticking away 7:25-7:35; crap Rachel. SLOW DOWN! But, I then decided to just go with it. Now my goal was to not lose pace. Hold it. You set it, now hold it! No falling off pace when the course doesn't have such nice downhill. We again stopped half way down (mile 12) for a water break and did a re-group. I thought for sure that next mile would tick in slower...nope, hangin' on! All right girl, you can do this. I then decided I was just going to run comfortably hard. I can talk and not feel like I'm gonna die, but still pushing pace. Miles still came in on time! Finally the last 1/4 mile I was done. D-O-N-E. As we turned to go to the cars my garmin said 15.81...last .2 stretch to the finish. Hang in there and give it your all. Still had to do a turn, but then we clicked 16. Whew! I was happy to see that my AP had pulled down so much and that I'd exceeded my MP goal. This is starting to sink in. I CAN do this...and I WILL do this. My body can do a 3:30, I just need my mind to let it. Perfect 'lucky' run in the bag. Now...taper time baby! Let the madness begin :) AP: 8:15 splits: 9:23 (why such a slow start, I swear it was faster than that! blech); 8:56, 9:01; 8:38, 8:40; 9:02; 9:09; 9:09 (1200 ft of elevation GAIN at this point, the last 2 miles were the worst at 200+/mile); 7:24; 7:26; 7:28; 7:36; 7:24; 7:36; 7:26; 7:35; 6:52 (last 31 feet recorded...see I tried to push a strong finish). I think I like running downhill :)
As a side note, this morning has been crazy! I got home, sent dad and boy #2 to soccer; showered, got me and 3 other kiddos to the game; went to flag football clinic to make sure son #1 could do 11:00 clinic instead of 10:00 assigned time; back to son #1's soccer game to drop off all the boys with dad; took daughter to volleyball to coach while dad finished #1 soccer then took him to flag football; had back to back volleyball games (lost one, won one); dad got back with 3 boys to watch last volleyball game; then volleyball pictures...then, finally...HOME! Then to clean out the car from the mess of the morning transitions (between cars and uniforms and blankets and treats etc) and now, finally at 2:15 I finally get to sit down! WHEW! I don't know how you "soccer moms" do things. It takes 2 people, 2 cars and a lot of coordination to run a family of kids to their crap ALL day on Saturday. Luckily, when we got home the neighbor wanted to take the 2 oldest swimming and baby is napping now. I might just get a few things done before I have to leave again at 4:30 for a tri clinic and work. Nap anyone?
| 
