All it takes is all you've got

On a whim and by invitation from friends, I ran the first leg of a half-marathon relay in Fort Collins this morning.

Aside from the four men ahead of me and the biker leading me along, I was alone pretty much after mile one. Gave me a lot of time to think and re-connect with the Nan who likes to race.

The sign held by a spectator near mile four described my feelings precicely: "Runner's High: 100% LEGAL IN ALL 50 STATES!" 

I definitely had a runner's high this morning.

My leg of the relay was pretty flat with just over a hundred feet of total elevation change. I ran negative splits and happened to look down at my watch right when 6.2 miles clicked by and remembered seeing 37:22. Then I kicked to the relay exchage "finish line" at 6.9 miles in 41:41 and handed the chip-anklet-baton off to Annie.

Annie ran the remaining 6.2 miles, in a time of 38:31, for a combined half marathon time of 1:20:11. 

After my leg of the race, I jogged in the remaining mileage to the finish line to make it a long run. Accidentally went off course just after the exchange point, but only added on .4 mile. Once I got back on course it was fun to watch the racers pass me by as I took it easy the rest of the way. One guy was like "Hey, you can tuck in and draft if you want! Keep going!" I laughed and declined, explaining that my "race" was over.

I kept looking back wishing to see my friend, Marianne who was running on another relay team with our Athletics Boulder group. I also kept hoping the lead woman would come up on me and I could run with her for a bit, but she didn't catch me until less than a half mile to go, and Marianne was right behind her so I ran the last few minutes with Marianne instead.

Aaron and the kids came up to the finish line and the kids got to swim in the pool at the finish line party. Saw Paul Peterson and enjoyed catching up with him too. Such a fun morning!

Ran to N. Boulder to pick up my car from where I left it yesterday when we carpooled to the race.

Got back at 7:40 a.m. and the kids were playing with legos and casually eating breakfast. Aaron was still asleep, as he had been up late working. 

I got the kids moving, made lunches, drove them to school by 8:20 a.m. and took Kelsie with me to Rally Sport for some strength work. I used to go there a few years ago, but haven't had a gym membership since then. I renewed my membership so Kelsie can socialize in child care and I can run or do strength work. Rally is the only place in town where I can leave a kid in child care and run outside with my cell phone. Score!

Medium Long run. 7:50 AP

I've been logging my miles on Strava because it feeds my geeky data interest, but I'm not sure how to get it to show my actual pace instead of the graduated adjusted pace. It keeps telling me I ran faster than I actually did. What's the point of that? Any other Strava users out there?

80 minutes of pool running at Rally Sport. An hour of that was with a class including some intervals and drills. Great workout!

I would like to get in the habit of cross-training one day per week. I think it will build fitness and keep my achilles tendons happy. Pool running is a great option because it is such a great full body workout and sends healing and strength to my ankles and achilles.

Easy run from Rally Sport. Nice, cool, slightly drizzly morning.

I found out I got a free "elite entry" into the Monumental Half in Indianapolis on November 1st, so I'm going to do it! Looks like a pretty flat, fast course. I am excited to see what I can do. I'm going to room with Emily Jameson, which will be fun too.

Workout with my group on the Cottonwood Trail.

Warm up, strides 

4K, 2K, 2K with 2:30 jog between each. Each push was between 5:50-6:00 pace. 

Long cooldown

Last night I decided I am going to utilize my fast running blog to hold myself accountable for running AND writing.

I'm writing a memoir from my life experiences of 2011-2014 titled "Finding the Silver Lining." Currently I have over 44,000 words but over the past few months, my progress has been slower than molasses in January. I often go days or a week without opening the document at all. I wish I could say its because of my lack of time but really I'm just not focusing well and allowing myself to feel overwhelmed and then distracted.

Last night, Aaron gave me the idea to just commit to writing a minimum of 50 words every day, and I'll still be making progress little by little. Once I get going, I will often write much more than 50 words per day, but I just want to break it up and write on one topic at a time. Then, I'll have to go through and edit the whole thing and meld it all together, but that will be a different project titled "Pages edited in my book."

SO. "Words written in my book," is not some fancy new shoe brand. And its not miles, its words that I write each day. My goal is to finish the book before the end of 2014.