YAY!

This morning I raced a great 1/2 marathon in Geneseo NY. Whew, a tough course! One of my old acquaintances Boots designed this course. He has a knack for making some thrillingly though courses, but he's right, they all have a flow to them!!!

Now I will always carry the dram that I will wake up and run a 1:30 and I will say..... wow, how'd I do that! It was EASY!!! HA HA!. Again, just a dream.

I had a great race albeit about 2.5 minutes slower than coach had wanted. I was able to nail my pace and hold on to it pretty well through some very difficult hills and rocky footing. I tripped a few times trying to scoot over these rocks, and I kept reminding myself..... this is how Austin will be.

In my head I felt happy the entire time. In fact I didn't feel like I was in my head at all.

Saturday wasn't the ideal race prep day, but life has to be lived.... does it not? A morning of workouts and teaching and nine hours on my feet as the charge nurse in Peds Ed...... every child in Rochester broke their arm yesterday. The arm they write with. I don't know how school is going to take place on Wed because rooms will be full of colorful casts!

All day at work I hydrated, which becomes a problem when you are in a trauma and you have to pee. You can't. Ouchie!

I got home at 1am to wake up at 5am. Peeing clear = goodness. After some oatmeal and coffee I was off to Geneseo. A beautiful country town. I love it there.

Lucky for me Alan and Kim were running also. Kim is prepping for Austin and Alan is prepping for the Richmond 1/2. If anyone is going to nail this pace it would be him, so we conferred and we would run together. Whew. I thought.

Right before the start of the race my friend Stephen and I were talking. He handed me a Looney (a $1 in Canadian). He told me at the first turnaround there would be a fountain. I was to throw a coin into it for good luck the rest of the calender year. So I did! Thanks Stephen!

Gun went off and we ran. Alan is particularly good at pace so I sat right on his shoulder. We ran well. By mile 5 we were on pace with wiggle room. As we began to hit some rolling hills I kept losing footing as we were on gravel and dirt. Alan put 12 seconds on me. Very strong in the hills!!!!

As his coach I was thinking.... hold steady Alan..... and for myself I was thinking..... keep him in sight. I was able to do that the rest of the race.

Mile 10 brought us an ugly slow incline that lasted the better part of 2008. Even then my spirits were high, my smile was big.

I was running. I was feeling good, sure tired form a full week of training, a previous long run and a full day on my feet on Saturday. In Austin I will be running tired and I need to be good at running tired. After all this Iornman endurance it was time to run strong.

Once I got up that endless hill I ran the last 2 miles right on pace. I knew I'd be a bit over the goal time, but I was happy. I was running. I was seeing a finish line. I was not leaving this course in an ambulance.

Alan finished about a minute in front of me. Kim had a tough day and persevered.

And I was so proud. Proud of them, proud of me, proud of us. I felt like a kid running through the woods. I felt like a competitor calculating splits, and I felt like a runner. I even thought to myself..... I wonder if I can run Bree Wee's 1/2 marathon split as she is at IM Kentucky now (and leading.). Then I remembered her times and I laughed out loud at myself.

Nice try!

We've done absolutely nothing but E pace since IMLP. Nothing at all faster. You'd better believe the next 5 weeks will be designed to knock my socks off however. I ran well with just base training, I ran happy and I did not hit my head.

I loved this race. It was gorgeous. It was fun. The people were awesome. No chips, just rip tags. Old school. The way it used to be.

As we were running up the monster hill a man said to me..... "I ran this hill as a child..... I will run it as an adult.". It made me smile. It made me laugh. He laughed too. Again sport unites.

Things are looking up from here!