Bad times, good times

Saturday was the Midsummer Night's 10k in Corvallis. Worst. 10k. Ever. Not only did I set a PW (personal worst), I wanted to DNF but the course sweeper wouldn't let me. The race itself would have been a good, hilly course and all the volunteers and other runners were great. I was just having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I was feeling pretty tired during my swim practice on Friday. Just not able to keep a breath for very long, being sloppy in my drills, sucking down water because I wasn't turning enough, ect. I decided to skip my bike and swim on Saturday to rest up before the 10k. But all day Saturday I felt half awake and hungry. I was klutzy and grouchy, even slicing my palm open on the medicine cabinet's latch. (I still don't know how I managed that one because it'd be like cutting your hand open on a spoon.) I took a nap before the 10k and felt really good heading out to the start line. I planned on taking the race at a nice, slow long run pace. The field was pretty small so I knew I'd be in the back of the pack. No worries, this one's just for the t-shirt. Started off nothing out of the ordinary, but after 2 miles, I felt like I had nothing to give mentally or physically. Near the end, with the course sweeper following me on his bicycle I wanted to cut off the final loop and head to the finish. DNF be damned. I know I can endure, I know I can gut out some shit, I have nothing to prove to myself or anyone else. But the course sweeper was like nope, keep going. So I did. Very embarrassing to have all the finish line volunteers cheering for me as I ran in. They're all like, "good for you! way to go!" when I'm feeling like "don't look at me, I'm pathetic." Blah. I haven't checked my official finish time (and I probably never will), but I'm guessing it was around 1:10-1:15 and 15-20 minutes after the last runner. Double blah.

Then the cherry on my poop sundae - I forgot my snowcone ticket at home! No postrace snowcone for me. And I bet they had bubblegum flavor too :_(

But it happens. I'm not going to let one craptacular run turn into weeks of crappy attitude. Moving on...

We had our Hood to Coast team meeting yesterday. After 3 cocktails, I decided that I'm going for it - I'm taking Leg 1!

At our meeting yesterday, only one other runner from Van 1 attended and she wanted Leg 6. The team captain gave Leg 5 to one of our stronger runners (who I believe ran the same leg last year), which left me to pick from legs 1-4. At first I thought I'd take Leg 4, but since no one at the meeting was opposed to me taking Leg 1 and I was Leg 12 last year, I figured how fun will it be to end last year's race and begin this year's? And even if I'm able to run Hood to Coast again, what are the chances of being offered Leg 1??

I know my first section is a pretty gnarly downhill. Hell, I don't even like driving up to Timberline Lodge - and I'm going to run that?? lol But even with my shin and knee problems, I usually don't have a problem with running downhills. I ran the Timberline Marathon in 2006 that drops appox. 2000ft from the Timberline Lodge to Barlow Pass in about 5 miles without any trouble. That's pretty much what I'm looking at with the HTC first leg. Yeah, the marathon was on trails not paved roads, details details details lol

I am really looking forward to HTC this year. Next year we could be in Quantico, we could be parents, who knows what a year and the Marine Corps can bring, so this is probably our last HTC for a long time. It's interesting remembering back to last year's run and the trippy feeling that the only thing that exists is the van. Real time doesn't matter, just whatever the stopwatch in the van says. Where you are doesn't matter, just make it out of the van and back into the van. Eat when you can, drink when you can, sleep if you can, stand in line for the potties before you think you have to go. Last year, we were in the "Real World" van. Besides the two couples (me and Chris, Dan and Jessica) our van had never met each other before. We had one HTC vetran and the rest of us were noobs. Crazy good times and I've never appreciated a bed so much. Can't wait to do it all again this year!

I gotta get going. We're helping my parents clean my grandparents house in Lincoln City.