catherine's running efforts

Kind of a bummer run. I had planned on 4, but everything was going wrong. Most of the problem was that I was running in the evening. After eating four orange rolls earlier. And after a rough (but fun) pilates/barre class with my sister yesterday. Tomorrow will be better. 

I did a zumba class at the Orem rec center with my sister-in-law. Afterward I ran a couple of laps around their funny orange indoor track.

We renewed our gym memberships since it's all sorts of cold and dark all the time now. So I headed over to the Cardio Cinema right after dinner (but with a 1% incline because I'm pretty sure their treadmills are slanted downhill). Note to self: of course you're going to get sick if you go run right after you eat. Stop doing that. 

I was looking forward to today for a couple of reasons. First, even though I've kind of had a bummer running summer, I thought I could get a post-pregnancy PR (and I did, by 3 seconds). Second, it was ELLOTT'S FIRST RACE! We realized yesterday that they also have a 200m run for kids 1-4, so we entered her. She did so good. She was the last one to finish, but she was also the smallest and youngest that we could see. And she was happy the whole time. Eric posted the video over on his race report. I'll just post a picture. 

My race was okay. I've run around campus several times in the last few weeks (and I've done a few campus 5Ks), so I knew exactly how the elevation would go. I tried to not go out too fast on the uphill start, to relax but push myself a little bit for the downhill part, and to not give up for the last uphill mile. Every time I wanted to slow down I would tell myself, "post-pregnancy PR...post-pregnancy PR.." But in the last mile I got tired (and I *hate* that gradual uphill) and I started telling myself that I didn't deserve a post-pregnancy PR. I had more consistency going into other races, I've been kind of sick and tired this week, etc. I know I need to work on the mental game. I don't think I could have gone a *lot* faster today, but I think I could have at least picked off the two girls that ended up a few seconds ahead of me. Or I could have at least tried. 

Splits: 7:19, 6:29, 7:38, 7:03 for last .13 (and THANK YOU to whoever decided not to make us run on the grass before the track - two years ago I almost slipped and died (not really) there) 

Anyway, I was happy with my race overall. Running isn't just about how fast my body can go; it's also a lot about thoughts and emotions and confidence. I know I held it together for the last mile better than I did at the Rex Lee 5K earlier this year and the Homecoming 5K two years ago, so that's good. I also took first in my age group. Age group wins are hard for me, though - it's hard to not feel silly about winning a medal or something when I'm several minutes behind the overall winners. But that's a whole other topic.  

After the awards Eric and I did 2 miles with Elliott in the stroller before heading home. I wish we would have done it right after the race; my legs were already pretty tight by then, and they didn't start to feel better until we were almost done.