Not a great start to a race morning - Volleyball team breakfast driving and rounding up teenage girls. So we ended up leaving for the race late. On the way, I realized I left my Garmin home, so I would be running by feel the entire time. If you know me, you know I have no sense of pace...what-so-ever.
Goal: Stay mentailly strong and do not give up
Jenny and I got to the start about 30 min early and chatted with a few people and really tried to stay warm and debated leaving our long sleeves or not.
We lined up and started out on the trail. The course for this race takes you on another part of the trail system that I have never run, which was very nice since we seem to run the same 10-12 miles all the time. I fell in quite a ways behind the lead pack and started out as the 4th girl. I passed the 3rd girl about .5 mile in and then was 3rd until about mile 6. I really did not want to pass the two lead girls that early on, but they were slowing and I was feeling good. Passed the girl dressed as Wonder Women and then the lead lady about 2 min. later. I could tell the lead lady was struggling, so if I could run strong and stay focused, I would be good. The out portion of the race always takes longer then the return, and while I like the trail system, the up and down on the levees drives me crazy. Short steep climbs 3-4 times each way, plus some normal idoliations of up and down on the course. I continued to feel pretty good until we turned for the last two miles and hit a wall of wind. These last two mile were hard, very hard. I just kept focused on running and trying to push as much as possible. I had no idea what my time was, but based on effort I felt like I would have been faster than 1:48, but I will take it. I ran strong and didn't give up.
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