RACE RECAP: Avenue of the Vines

Well, like I had mentioned in an earlier post, races don't always go as planned. Today....was one of those days. (insert words your mom would wash your mouth out with soap for saying.)

I have been working my ass off the past seven weeks to run a sub-80 (under 1:20:00 for my non-runner folk) for a half marathon. Workouts were going well - really well - and I was feeling really good about racing. I had a nice taper this week and after my shake out run yesterday my legs were feeling really good. 

Aside from the start being pushed back to 7:30 - at 6:55 meaning my warm up was already done- and then pushed back forward only to stand for 10 more minutes at the line, the day was looking great. So I thought. The gun goes off, we make the first turn and BOOM....head wind. SERIOUSLY!? Where was this all morning!? The course layout was essentially one giant box. The first 4 miles being run on the same long, straight road. (Want proof? Look here http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=115526 ) Four miles of a head wind? Not ideal. Head wind aside, the first mile was ridiculously slow from my own doing. I was trying to gauge my pace off the group of teenage guys who I assumed would be going balls to the wall from the start. They didn't go out hard and the pace felt somewhat "easy." After half a mile I had a suspicion that I was definitely going to be slow the first mile - better than too fast! I moved up to the back of that group and when we went through the mile I had two choices: Stay at this with the pack, draft, definitely miss my goal time OR battle the wind head on and hope for the best. So I decided to hope for the best. I moved around them - as they said " Man, we are going to get beat my a girl!" haha - and picked up the pace. 

Now, from having done this racing thing multiple times in my life, I knew that trying to PR pace while fighting the wind would only come back to haunt me the last few miles of the race. So I dropped the pace to where I felt like I was working "comfortably hard" without over working. Knowing that the course was a box, I knew that I was going to get a nice tailwind the second half and so I decided that was going to be when I would start to put the hammer down. By mile five I was out of the wind enough to finally get on goal pace. I could tell the wind had done some damage on my legs, but I still felt like I would be able to hold strong until the end. Mile seven is where the race turned ugly. I took my GU - like I do EVERY time I race a half or longer - and my stomach decided it did NOT care for GU today. Now, I am not talking about the normal "side-stitch" stomach cramping. I am talking about the normal side-stitch + nausea +  I might shit. F*CK. I was really hurting. I tried my best to maintain my pace but the harder I pushed, my intestines pushed back a little harder. By mile 10 I knew I had fallen off enough to miss my time. The last 3 miles turned into a suffer fest of trying not to lose it from either end and battling the wind.  Not to mention that I had run completely alone, aside from one of the cyclists, since mile two. Makes you jealous that you aren't  me, right? 

Well if you don't envy me yet, you will now.  I was able to hang on long enough to place 3rd overall and 1st female. You may be saying to yourself  "big deal, you won." Well the winner, both male and female, win their weight in wine! BOOM. Jealous now!? However, as a very vino friend of mine pointed out (thanks, Shannon Elsemore!) I am not a big drinker. Aside from a bottle or two, the wine will be going to a wedding (sorry Shannon!) of two awesome runner friends of mine; you may know them: Michelle La Sala, CIM Race Director (no big deal & yes I totally just name dropped) and Kevin Pool, pretty much a marathon badass (PR 2:18:59).

To sum up: I didn't run a PR but got a win and a crap load of wine. Aren't you glad you read all that when you could have just read that last sentence? Love you, too. ;) 

All the spectators on the course...sans the cows.

Age Group Award

Haha Ya, right!

Saying you won your weight in wine sounds a lot better than it looks! ;)

Moving Out & Moving On

If there is one thing that running has taught me it is that you can plan out the best race strategy and when race day comes, things may not go your way. You are faced with two choices: adjust your plan or watch someone else win. You have to be able to adjust as you go, take a chance, and hope for the best. What if it doesn't work? You learn from it, process it, and move on. The same principle applies to life; and especially mine at the moment. I moved, had a plan, it didn't work. So I re-evaluated  made more decisions, and here I am. 

It has been no mystery to anyone that the last year has not been kind to me or my family and things have not been easy. But, life in general isn't easy. I made my decisions and now have to live with them. Things didn't workout the way I planned them to, so I had to reevaluate. Yes, it has hurt me, but I have been through worse. What the hell am I talking about? For those who may need catching up: I am no longer living in Colorado, but am back home in Northern California, and I am no longer in the relationship I went there in. The upside: no more negative temps and running in the snow, and I am injury free and training harder than ever. 

Since moving home I have felt like a huge burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I spent so much of my time trying to please other people - between my two jobs and other things - that I wasn't doing anything to please myself. So, I have decided that I am going to take some time and do just that. I am going to focus the majority of my energy into my training. I am coming back strong right now and have a whole new level of motivation. One week after I got back to California, I ran the Sactown 10 Miler . No I didn't win, nor was I even close. However, I knew that going into the race. I was/am not in race shape and this race has some of the nations best women competing in it. I raced for two reasons 1.) to help my team win the team competition - which we did! WHOOP!- and 2.) to dust the cobwebs off my race legs. Not having raced since my PR at the Chicago Marathon in October, and training for a half marathon in May, I was a bit rusty.  I finished the race in a 1:02:13 and placing 13th female (I had a secret goal of top 15!). The pace per mile ended up being equal to that of my half marathon PR (6:14 per mile). So not so good for only a 10 miler. However, I walked away from this race feeling great about my time. I wasn't in shape, but I had just raced my ass off. From the gun I knew this race was going to hurt...and it did. I went through periods of feeling strong, and then having my legs lock up. Around mile seven I really started to hurt. The two women I had been running with were starting to pull away and my legs were screaming at me. However, I wasn't slowing down even though I was having to work harder and harder. I remember thinking to myself  "Suck it up, Erin. You have finished a marathon seeing spots, you can finish a damn 10 miler." I kept my eyes on the two women and at 8.5 miles said f*ck it, if I crash, I crash! I made a big surge to catch the first woman and right around mile 9 I did, and then went after the second. She was about 25 second or so ahead of me. I had my eyes deadlocked on her back, my arms and legs giving everything they had, and my stomach getting increasingly more nauseous with every step. I finished my last mile in 5:56, but came up short on catching her and one other woman. (both ran the Olympic trials in 2012 and are stud runners!) Though I didn't PR, what did I have to complain about? I pushed my body physically, but even more so I pushed it mentally and never gave into the pain. A win-win, as they like to call it. I am hungry for competition and  want to be in the mix racing with these women again. I am so ready to run a fast time and I can not wait to race again on May 19th at the Avenue of the Vines half marathon! 

All in all, as hard of a decision that it was to leave Colorado I truly believe that I made the right choice and it feels so good to be back. I am so much happier and I am glad to be around my family, my friends and the amazing running community that Sacramento has. It truly can not be matched!