Done!

First, I want everyone to know that I drafted a post on Friday and had absolutely no time to edit it and post it (I had to work through lunch) that contained the above graphic. I absolutely couldn't let it go to waste, so there you go.

Well! Saturday morning came and went in a blaze (and I do mean a gigantic, hot, fiery sun-ball blaze) and I lived to tell about it...barely.

First things first, I did not meet my 2:20 goal. There. I knew I wasn't going to at the 5K mark. Why? Not because I wasn't prepared or didn't train enough or didn't fuel enough or didn't get enough rest. If I hadn't done any of those things, I might be disappointed. No friends, it is because the Y Race was multiple gigantic uphill loops in the side of a mountain that took off at 7:00 a.m. when it had already reached 70 degrees with zero wind. So, I guess you could say I was disappointed for a little while. But when I factored in the things that were simply out of my control...I guess I'm pretty proud to have finished that beast.

Friday night we continued the carb-load (PESTO PENNE BAKED IN A BREAD BOWL!) and went to sleep early. I woke up feeling pretty dang good. I dropped a Nuun in a water bottle and drank it throughout getting ready and eating breakfast. We got to South Mountain (emphasis on MOUNTAIN) Park in enough time to go to the bathroom and stretch before the 7:00 gun.

I have to say, the first half of the race felt pretty good. I had enough gas in the tank to take on the hills and the temperature hadn't started to factor in yet. I took water at every stop to conserve my hand-held reserves--although I realized I had forgotten to drop a Nuun in it. Rookie mistake. Remember how I said I think 10K's are my new official running time? Well I felt awesome until the turnaround halfway through!

Then. THEN. I stared back up the hill I had just happily descended and knew it was going to be a long ride on the struggle-bus to finish. I took my first walking break at mile 7 and knew I was done for. It got hot. The hills seemed steeper and longer. I trained exclusively on the Scottsdale Greenbelt and running down Shea and in neighborhoods around there. There are "hills" along those routes, but nothing like these monstrosities. 

The sun started to factor in and I started pouring water on myself. I stopped to walk through water stations and had them refill my bottle as well. I knew 2:20 was out the window and beating my previous time of 2:28 was gone too. I just had. to. finish. it.

It sucked. I was dripping from a combination of water and sweat (have you ever blinded yourself by sweating into both your eyeballs? It's amazing.) and wanted to die. I wanted to take my phone out and send AV a crying text about not making it. But I didn't. I finally, FINALLY crossed the finished line at 13.15 miles in 2:34:27. And I was just happy to have survived that sucker.

I immediately chugged 3 cold water bottles and ate half a banana, part of a blueberry oat bar and part of an apple. We came home and AV made gourmet breakfast burritos while I showered before passing out for a few hours. I woke up and felt like a new person. And then I completely annihilated the eggplant parm at Il Capo.

Sunday night I started to feel a little defeated/upset about how everything shook out this weekend. The early mornings of running before the sun came up, pushing myself to more diligently follow my training plan than last year, money spent on new shoes, etc. all seemed "for nothing." But I talked it out with AV and if I HADN'T done those things, then maybe I could be upset. But I really did do everything I could and as someone who doesn't run very naturally, who picked easily one of the hardest races in the area to tackle, I'm OK with it. I'm actually pretty proud of it.

Sunday afternoon I forced myself to the 2:45 afternoon "power" class and it was painful/necessary/amazing. I had Monday off for comp time from working the weekend before and took a 75 minute flow class at the Gainey location that also helped stretch me out. I also rewarded myself by finally drinking the kool-aid yesterday and am really excited to continue my practice more in-depth for a while. But I don't hate the idea of running and I know I will always have that to fall back on as a workout. So I can officially say I'm OK with not hitting 2:20, because I gained more out of it than a finishing time.

...As an aside, AV ran the 5K in 28 minutes. WHAT!