It's Official

Racing season has officially begun.

Last Saturday, my friends Michelle, Ken and I headed down to Snake River Canyon which is about 2 hours south of Spokane.  I have never been there before so it was a bit of a fun roadtrip. Except for the getting up early...but Ken bought me a coffee on the way so that made up for it.

We arrived early...( thanks again Ken)...and it worked out perfectly. We were some of the first ones there so we breezed through packet pick up and then headed back to the car. Did I mention that it was cold.  Yeah...the forecast said 50 but it felt about 30 with a wind chill so we had to do some outfit adjustments back in the car.  After all the races that I've done you would think I would have the outfit thing down....but I spend way too much time thinking about it and second guessing the weather gods. And. every. time. I .get. it. wrong.  I ALWAYS overdress. Even though I know I'm prone to overdressing. I can't seem to help myself.I think its an illness or a phobia of being cold.  Gaahh...trying living in my brain...it ain't fun you know.

Back to the race...I was secretly hoping for a PR. My coach's instructions were simple.  He wanted to see a negative split. Hmmm...some self control was required.

So from the get go I decided to find someone who was running a nice easy 8:45 pace and who was bigger than me so I could tuck in behind and escape the head wind we were running into.  I found the perfect guy and followed him for the first half of the race all the way to the turn around. I must have been driving him crazy.  Always one step right behind him for 6.5 miles.  But at the end of the race I would learn that 2 separate girls were using me to pace them so that was funny.  As we were coming up to the turn around I saw my friend Amy who was trying to PR and run under 2 hours. She had started ahead of me so I had to speed up at that point to catch her. When I caught her we chatted for a moment then she told me to keep going. So then I decided to run 8:15s all the way back. 

{I think I am the Queen of the awkward race photo.Who gives 2 thumbs up just before crossing the finish line? Me evidently.  As my brother would say. "What a tool!"}

I crossed the line in 1:52:06 with a new PR. After the race I texted my coach and his response..." Good job. Let's build on that....you can go faster".  Hehehe...he cracks me up.