Where is THAT Girl!! Mayor's Marathon Part 6

I did not see the girl in blue for a long time! I thought I had lost her. I figured to catch her, she would have to take a long break at one of the rest stops or I'd have to hope she went out too fast in the beginning and would gradually run out of steam at the end. As it turned out, she did the latter.

We were at about mile eight and a half when I finally spotted her! She was way ahead of me still. We were on a bike path along the ocean side and going through a beautiful park land. I realized rather quickly, she was slowing down! Woo hoo! Here was my chance!!


I still had to be careful. We were still five miles out. That would be plenty of time for to catch me again if I sped up at this point to pass her and then ran out of steam myself at mile 11. She could totally rally and pass me on the finishing stretch if that happened. 


So instead of passing her now. I vowed to keep her in sight and follow behind. Then I would over take her in the last half mile and come in ahead of her. 


That was the plan. 


But as I followed behind, she kept slowing. I realized I was going to have to pass her. Which is ok as long as she doesn't rally. So the pressure was back on to stay in front of her. 


As I passed, I gave a little greeting about how nice the weather was. She turned to look at me and I was stunned!! This was the first time I really saw her face and she was just so pretty!!! Her eyes were so big and blue and her perky ponytail was just bouncing behind her. She smiled back at me and I melted at the sweetness like sugar in the rain! Such a totally barbie cutie! 


I must come in before now! My ego demanded it! (Ego is such a b/tch!)


So I pumped my arms and kept pressing forward hoping my steam would hold out!  

On the Trail - Mayor's Marathon Part 5

I love running on trail. I also love racing because in the back of the pack you meet so many nice people. The ones in the back of the pack are slow. We are not in any hurry! And so it is common for people to talk to you as you go by. Some of them go further than the quick greeting like "beautiful day eh?" or "Keep it up!"

I was running at a good clip and did not want to stop to chat. As I passed a man he saw my team singlet and asked, "Where are you from?" I, as chipperly as I could, replied "Santa Maria. In California."

He kept talking. I didn't want to seem rude and not reply. But I did not want to stop to chat. The girl in blue was God-knows how far ahead. I already had to knock down to the half course from the full; I did not want to suffer another disappointment in not coming in before the girl in blue. So I saw only one option.

I ran backwards.   

This way, I could keep running in the right direction and chat a little with the guy thus preserving the camaraderie and friendliness known to us "back of the pack-ers".

It's really stupid to run backwards. Especially on a trail with uneven surface as well as rocks and such. But I was also hoping that my running backwards would also cue the guy into the fact I wanted to keep moving. It helped. He asked a couple more questions which I answered cheerfully. Then I was able to gracefully turn around and kept moving forward. 

Something scared me though. I still hadn't caught sight of the girl in blue. "Damn!" I thought, "She's probably a 'dirty girl'". (A dirty girl (or boy) is someone who likes to run on dirt.) This was bad news for me. Some runners don't like trails and actually slow down on dirt. The fact that I love trail running was a small advantage I had in this race. But if the girl in blue is also a trail runner, it didn't matter. Crap!

It was afraid to push my pace because I knew the critical factor would come down to who had enough juice in their tank at the end. Especially because I knew the toughest hill on the courses was in the last mile. I needed to be sure to get to the top of that hill first if I was going to have a chance at beating her. And I would need juice to tackle that hill. Ugh! I wasn't sure what I should do. 

So I just made sure I pumped my arms and checked my form to try to be as efficient as I could. Then I made sure my pace stayed just where I could keep it up without running out of breath. The only other thing left to do was to keep scanning ahead praying I'd see a flash of blue!

I'm Back! (Mayor's Marathon Part 1)

Sorry for the hiatus especially during race weekend. Our team was put up in the Hilton which doesn't have free internet. I'd pay for it but it was ridiculously priced. Besides, I had very little time to be in the room anyway.

So now, the team has left and we've moved to a condo for the remainder of our vacation. We're still super busy trying to see the sights in the few days we have. But this is good news for you as this will keep my posts short. I know I sometimes have pretty long posts. What can I say? I write like I talk.

So let me give you a brief update on the race and I'll post more details and pictures in additional posts.

First, it was super easy to switch to the half course at the expo. I was worried there wouldn't be any spots for me and I'd have to suffer through the full course and tear my body up or suffer a DNF (Did not finish). Either way, there was going to be suffering going on if I couldn't switch.

But the super-friendly helpers switched me over right away with no fuss. That part was easy. However, the second I turned away from the table, tears immediately rose up in my eyes. I was so sad! I've never had to give up a race I trained for. I've done two other marathons and it went the way it was suposed to: train your heart out, race your heart out, take a break to recover, then repeat cycle.

It didn't work out that way this season and I was so disappointed. My injuries were no where near healed enough for the full. So I knew I was making the right decision. But it was still really hard. I also wondered how much it was going to hurt doing the half course as the last training run we did was only eight miles and pain was setting in at mile six. Bummer.

My husband seeing my tears, put his arm around me, squeezed and gave me a pep talk, reassuring me I was doing the right thing.

So during this race I was thrilled that the pain didn't start setting in until about mile 10 and it wasn't too bad. WOOT! The down side is that it appears I didn't do enough cardio cross-training as I was trying to recoup my injuries because I could barely run! I'd start running and I'd run out of breath way too soon. I'd slow down but I couldn't run slow enough and still keep my breath. So I walk almost all of it.

I HATE walking. It's so boring! And it takes forever! But if I'm on a course, I will finish it. Period. So walk I did. And when I came in, Kris said I looked a lot better than most of the racers coming off the half course.

That still didn't make me question my decision to switch to the half. There's no way I could have gone another 13.1 miles. Besides, I wanted to end with my legs still attached to my body so I could enjoy the rest of my vacation. And I did. Mission accomplished.

I'll give you the highlights of the course in my next post and I'll tell you the significance of this athlete in the bright blue top and why I could only get a shot of her from the back.

Until then, keep moving!