Happy Trees

I wake up this morning to find a little surprise - snow! :) I've never seen it snow this much in the Willamette valley, let alone at the end of April. Crazy! I wanted to take some pictures, but the batteries in my camera were dead. Again. Stupid POS camera :P

The Recycle Run 15k was nice but a little lonely. I did this race as a fun alternative to doing a training run by myself yet ended up spending 99% of the race alone lol We separated from the 5k'ers within the first mile. I passed a lady about mile 3, then another after the turn around by the mall. Other than that, just me and my heart rate monitor.

My goal for the race was to practice for Eugene Marathon by keeping my heart rate at 160. But no matter what I just couldn't slow myself down to more than 172-ish. No major problems though. Even got in some negative splits. My feet were a little cranky by the end, but that's to be expected (they always start barking at mile 9).

I decided right after the start my other goal was only positive thoughts. No getting on myself for being slow or having 5k gazelles pass me like I'm running backwards. I told the pissy voice to stfu. If she wanted to be nasty, she should have stayed in bed. Worked pretty well, kept my mind enjoying what was left of the snow and the spring flowers in the parks. Near the end when I was hoping the course went straight back to the park and instead turned up to the canals, the other voice started up again. I Bob Rossed right over her by saying, "hey, this runner needs a little friend. Let's put a happy little stream with our happy hills and happy trees. There we go...beautiful..." And just kept talking like that until I saw mile marker 9. Whatever gets you to the finish line I guess lol

I finished just in time to grab some apple newtons then the awards ceremony started. Not to sound like a sore loser - but I was robbed! lol The overall runners weren't taken out of the age group awards. There were 5 in my age group and without the overall winners, I would have gotten 3rd place - my second AG hardware ever :( Poop.

Next Sunday the Leadership Dash 5k. Should be a fun little race (ah! I can't make it stop lol), then it's A-Team time with the Eugene Marathon in just 12 days :)