I RAN THE DAM RACE

Someone must love me because I woke-up this morning and besides having chronic bloody noses, I felt SO MUCH BETTER! I felt excited to run, rested, and suprisingly not near as sick. Besides those AMAZING shots of antibiotics I was really able to focus in my mental game last night, which always, always helps.

I got to ride up to Rexburg with Lynette Kunz, one of my running icons. I actually jogged 2 miles BEFORE racing as a warm-up with her, something I've never done. I'll have to play around with whether that helped or hindered me today... not real sure since that was the first time doing that. We loaded up on carbs, stretched, and gave each other our last "YOUR AWESOME" speeches and we were off.

I felt good starting out. I kept a pretty steady 6:40 pace for the first 6 miles, right alongside my competition. A tall skinny as a bean girl with effortless running. Great I thought, she's going to make this already HARD course even harder.

Which she did.

When the 4 mile dreaded climb came I was lucky to keep my miles under 7:30 and of course, got left behind by skinny girl. But, in my mind I thought... I am lucky to be running today. I am so happy to running today. I can't let her being ahead of me ruin my mental strength on these hills. Just saying that to myself freed my mind so much!!! I steadily climbed those hills and though VERY drained at the top, I recouped some energy taking my gu and felt really strong that last 3 miles.

I ran THOSE miles in all under a 6 minute pace.

But, even with a 5:04 on that last mile headed downhill to the park, it wasn't enough to catch Mrs. Speedy who beat me by a little less than 2 min. My final time was 1:32:21.

The awesome news is I BROKE THE COURSE RECORD!!! So cool huh? We both did I guess. So it wasn't my fastest time, but considering the course and being sick I was really proud of my finish. I'd never broken a course record before...that was almost better than a win!

Here is me with my Dam Metal and my Dam Award... haha. It's just TOO fun to say... I also got some free pilates sessons at some studio.

AND this awesome shirt.


It was probably the most perfect weather I have ever ran in. 60 degrees and overcast. Amazing really, with a slight drizzle at the end. Perfect.

As I was driving home I was laughing at the irony of my race number.


I told myself back in April I would be a runner who consistently ran 1/2s under 90 minutes. I guess that was a little, ok BIG reminder I still should..

I would definitely run this one again. :)