Believe to Achieve

Hot.  Camped in Cannoville, the finish line, in 99 degree weather with NO shade.  The ground radiated heat.  Melanie and I shared a potlock spaghetti dinner with our families.  Didn't sleep but a 20 minute block.  Air stale and HOT!!  Hands and feet began to swell.  Left at 430am to catch the first shuttle to the start.   Climbed to 7900 feet to enjoy a 15 degree difference in temp for an hour.  Hung out at Ruby's Inn chatting with Julie Esplin on the nice leather couches there.  Ran a 1.9 mile warmup just hoping not to aggravate my back/hamstrings on this run.  Felt fine.  Not feeling the least bit in race mode but knew I could just hold on for my goal.  Ran the first 5-6 miles like last year (minus the wicked fast mile I ran last year for mile 3 in 5:48, this year 6:08).  Then I just mentally told myself I could stop whenever I wanted.  And I did.  I walked thru the last 4 aid stations pouring water all over myself and soaking my sneakers pretty well.  Ooops.    I was under my last years  pace until mile 6 then I just didn't care to hang on.  I had no drive and I had a feelin' I was still the first master woman as Kerri wasn't there to push me.  I passed her the last .1 of the race last year.  And third place was minutes behind us.  And even then I decided top master was no big deal.  But come to find out I still was first even with my much slower time of 1:32:07.  AP 7:01.   I had my garmin on pace and distance so unfortunately I didn't see the finish clock until it read 1:31:58.  I would have pushed it in to be under 1:32 because I had a lot of speed left I just didn't have a lot of care left.  No reason to push it if I was trying to heal and no one to pass my age.  Annie Green passed me at .1 miles and I stayed up with by 4 seconds.  This isn't that exciting of a race report because I had typed it and then lost it so now you have the condensed version.  Camped the last two nights in Byrce Canyon in a shady spot higher up.  We hiked several great hikes and my calves and hamstrings were not too happy with me.  Got home Monday at 5pm, quickly unpacked and headed for work by 6pm.  No shower since I rinsed off Saturday morning because I forgot my shampoo (it is fragrance free) and so I roughed it.  We were down right dirty by the end of our trip.  I swelled pretty badly and had pitting edema at work so much so that my legs hurt to bend.  I gained over 5 pounds of fluid.  Ate a lot of salted peanuts with m &ms so that didn't help the swelling among other things.  Slept like a rockin the tent Saturday night and slept on a rock Sunday night-- meaning I could tell we were on the ground by then with no cushion.  Did I mention it was hot?  Fastest mile: 6:08, slowest 7:43.  Forgot visor.  That would have helped with the sun glare.  Left foot was ailing causing my left hip to stiffen.  My form was not good with my cloppy shoes.  Picked up my new mizunos Friday and currently (Tuesday) wearing them around my house.  Yay!!