Birch Bay

I had a rough start to my race as in before it even started. I spent the night at my friend's house in Bellingham and discovered at about 6:30 in the morning that I locked my keys in the car, which is typical behavior for me really, usually if they are in the car it is the only time I can actually find them. I can't handle keys! My friend very kindly, as it was 6:30 on Sunday morning, offered to drive me to the race which was when I realized I had also locked my running shoes in the car. "Oh well, let's just drive there and I'll see if I can borrow someone's shoes," I said.
Wow, the people willing to give me their shoes. A woman offered me a pair right away, right size, they were technically "walking" shoes but they felt a lot better than my ballet flats. Anyway it was only a half marathon, it's not like I would have to wear them that long.
It was a lot longer than it should have been. I didn't have my watch either, probably in the car! But I figured I must be running like the pile of bricks my legs and feet felt like. It's probably good I didn't have a watch or I would have spent the whole race crying, instead of just the finish line. You know how hard it is to sprint in someone else's walking shoes? I do- I mean like 100 meter sprinter, because that is where some woman caught me and made me run to the finish line like she was Usain Bolt, not someone running a 98 minute half marathon, yuck. Why is it that the slower you run the more pain you feel? Always.
I was still glad I ran though because I had to help out for the rest of the race and if I had not run the race I would have to do it after helping out, aaaaall day, and Joel probably would have made me do a 25k.
I helped out at the finish line, handing people medals and sometimes just standing there until the last finisher of the marathon finished at about 2:30.
Then my day got a lot better- I got to eat, and sit down, and be warm and watch Veronica Mars, where I made the comment- I wish I could do cool things like Veronica! and then my friend and I broke into my car- sooo, wish fulfilled even if we were not quite as smooth as she is. 

There should be a 24 hour steeplechase

Cuz then I could be a steeplechaser. Really. It'd be awesome :D

Geoduck Gallop

Yesterday I paid a visit to my Alma mater to run a sprint race, I'm talking of course about the half marathon. The race is called the Geoduck Gallop, which if that sounds silly to you you have obviously never seen a geoduck run a half marathon. Not many have as they do them underground usually.
When you run as much as I do you get to know the places you live better than most other people. Like it only took me about a month to run over the entire town of Bellingham and then I was already pointing out shortcuts to my roommate- a Western grad. I encircle probably every single road within a five mile radius of my parent's house everyday, at least the ones I'm not in Seattle at my sister's house. I wonder how long before I can start giving her directions places a couple miles away? And that is still true of Olympia even though I haven't run one step there since last year's Geoduck Gallop. I would know my way around better than many lifelong residents. Really I only get lost in all places I travel by car.
This was my third year doing the Geoduck gallop and my first time winning, or winning any half marathon!
I'd done a few workouts before the race but not too many, mostly just a long run everyday. But I did a few mile repeat days with goal times of 6:55 which I hit but not happily. I feel like with all the miles I've been doing 7:20 pace has become easy but 6:55 pace has become the opposite. It used to feel easier than this. Now it is like death.
I went to the race with an open mind though because you can never tell how you will feel in a race based on how you feel in a workout. I always get scared the first mile I will go too slow and be doomed to go slow the entire race so I ran a 6:40, then a 7:00 and more 7s and even 7:20 when it went up the 17th Street hill which I knew all too well was coming, twice now that they redid the course. I thought 7:10 felt a little faster than it should but when I got to 10 miles in 71:20 I realized I was fine and could probably run a marathon if I had to. So I picked it up and tried to pass as many men as I could the last 5k and finished in 1:32:22.
   I've been wondering for awhile when I will ever break 1:30 and I guess I will have to wait some more but at least I won my first half and I went over to collect my prize. WHICH WAS A FREE PAIR OF SHOES!!

I don't want to wear them though because then I would ruin them and they are my prize.
Now I feel like I am ready for the 50k with this and my 30 mile time trial last month, but just to make sure here is one more week of 140 miles.Yay.

I don't need a ride home- it's only 17 miles!

Last Friday was the first time I ran home from work since becoming my sister's nanny in Seattle. It is considerably farther than Petsmart, being 17 miles from Renton but that is just an average run for me. I have averaged 18 miles a day for the past two months. I don't really think about how far this very often. It doesn't seem very far when you are running in circles, just seems like a hamster running on a wheel, but when I run home from Seattle? That is a long ways! But I do it every single day! really puts things in perspective.
Traffic is awful here. It took me 2 hours and 20 minutes to run home and it can take anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour to drive home. I don't know how people put up with this on a daily basis. They might call me crazy, and I am because I would rather run home than be stuck sitting in my little claustrophobic cage of a car not going anywhere, not even able to stretch a leg for who knows how long or what reason. At least when you are running  there are no traffic jams. No one can tell you how fast you can go. 
You know you are getting really crazy when your long run is only 3 hours and 30 minutes and this makes you excited because it is so short! Or when you only have to do 10 mile repeats instead of 15! When 20 miles is not even a long run- it is just average. And when your coach tells you to run a 100 mile week you feel like you have the week off! You look at your old running diaries and dumfounded by how little you ran when you ran 80 miles a week. And you worry about the half marathon you are going to do because you aren't in "sprinting" shape. Well that is me now- just escaped from loony bin. And I'll be back, no doubt!