Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday Night Vertical 2021

Friday, February 24, 2017

Triple Race Weekend- DUMB



Cue the shaking of the head. The title pretty much tells you how I'm feeling right now. Haha. Sore and tired...and regretful. But at least I'm not injured...yet! Haha. So about 3.5 weeks ago, I made the assumption that the Exeter Snowshoe Race would be cancelled due to lack of snow, AND I was almost 100% sure I wasn't racing the Amherst 10-Miler the following weekend since it's the day after the World Snowshoe Championships. So while perusing the RunningintheUSA.com calendar (which was pretty much empty) for the weekend of the 18th, the Old Fashioned 10-Miler caught my eye. And it's obviously predictable as to what happened next. I registered for it. But I didn't just stop there. Oh no. What's this new option here I see on the Old Fashioned website? Oh the BadAss Half Marathon Combo?! That sounds so Leslie! The 5K starting at 10am, followed by the 10-miler starting at 10:45am. No problemo!! Hahaha. I'll cut to the chase. Exeter Snowshoe Hullaboo ended up happening, and not just happening, but in REAL snowshoe running conditions...which meant it was pretty frickin' hard. I woke up the next morning feeling pretty worn out but still drove down to Foxborough and ran two mediocre races. And no sub-1:05 for the 10-miler. Hahaha. But, honestly, I was lucky I even finished it. I think I knew when I signed up that it was a bad idea. I only told 4 people I was doing it. One was my dental hygienist and the other three actually asked specifically. Oh, wait; I did tell Kerri Haskins the day before since I saw she was doing it, but she was the only one I openly told. Not wanting to admit it to anyone should have been a sign that I had made a bad decision. Haha. But then again, I am at a point right now where I don't want to share anything about what I'm doing with anyone except John. I'll write about it after-the-fact here on my blog, but for the most part I'm keeping things to myself. It's helped me feel so much better over the last two weeks. The anxiety is gone. I've been able to sleep. Sharing myself with other people just doesn't seem to be good for me. I think I'm meant to be alone. Seriously.

Monday, February 13, 2017- This whole week was weird. Snowmaggedon. Sweden terrorist attack. ;) Oh, and on that note. I only JUST got this joke....

Now I get it!!

I've never shopped at IKEA. That doesn't exist in my world, so it's taken me over a week to finally get the significance of the Allen wrench. I guess that's funny. But only kind of, since I feel dumb that it took me a week to get it. Haha.

My drive into work. Still snowing hard.
Anyway back to the weird week. It started off with a 4am snowblowing session of the driveway on Monday morning. I haven't been the same since. :) I woke up to so much snow, then my snowblower could barely pick up the snow, and the power to make it roll stopped working. I spent 1.5 hours to do something that should have taken half the time, but I was literally having to manually push that heavy thing the whole way. I was dying. Pouring in sweat. By the time I finished, I realized I was running a half hour late to get to work on time. I debated just bringing stuff to shower with to work, but instead opted for a quick shower and air-dried my hair. Two hours later, it looked like I had a perm. So the hair stayed under a hat all day. I was so out of it all day. Really beat. Crazy tired. That snowblowing really took a lot out of me. I guess that was a hard workout. I literally lied down on my bed in my sleeping bag for hours since it was quiet on the 911 front for the first half of the day. I didn't think I'd be able to get myself on the treadmill at all, but after getting back from a call later in the evening, I felt a little rejuvinated and ran the usual 5 miles in 36:01. A bit of a struggle, but I felt so much better after I did it.


At least it's an option and it works.

As soon as I finished running, I immediately lost the will power I had all day. These were on the table when I came in to work in the morning....



This is what happened...
I love donuts. Just writing this makes me want one right now. 
That was the start to a bad week of sugar cravings/eating. Probably gained 2-3 lbs. No. Seriously. I probably did. (Annnnnd, writing this part about the donuts just made me scrounge my food bag here at work for something to eat. I just ate an entire bag of chips! I blame the donuts!! Haha.)


I was able to get some sleep before a call in the middle of the night, but after only 4 hours the night before, I was beat on Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017- Tuesday was actually a beautiful day which never happens. I really had to get out on the roads for a run even though I knew they would be a mess with snow. It didn't matter too much to me, though, knowing the weekend I had ahead of me. I didn't need to be busting it out or even running high mileage. I still got in 10 miles doing an out and back on Bald Hill Rd, then cut across Peqwuaket Pond on the pedestrian bridge to Quint St for a loop back home. Came out to exactly 10 miles, which was my goal. Crazy how that keeps happening, but I think I just know the routes well enough that my approximations are pretty accurate. It was slipping and sliding the whole way which made the effort harder and the pace slower. Still kept the average pace under 7 minutes...barely. 1:19:45. Around 800ft of elevation gain, so it's not like it was an easy run to begin with.

I was happy that a friend had come to plow the driveway that morning. I'm so sick of snowblowing. I might have said that before. Haha. I did have to do some shoveling to make sure the vent for the oil was clear, but that wasn't bad. John and I hit King Pine for some decent skiing that afternoon. The conditions and weather were great. I did end up with a scare when John disappeared from behind me at one point. As most mothers do, I assumed the worst that he was dead with a broken neck at the base of a tree and started to panic. I waited at the bottom for awhile, then got back on the lift. My phone picked up a signal near the top, and a message from John came through. Phew. He had ended up on a different trail and come out at the other lift. We did some more runs then hit the bar. My old Monday ambulance partner, Shawn, is in charge of lift maintenance there and joined us for a drink when his shift was up. I miss working with Shawn. He's still there, but we had to change up partners. I think Shawn is one of the few people who has ever seen me really cry. Haha.

Shawn Taylor

Selfie with a beah

HUGE rice crispie treat (the sugar problem continued)

John on his phone per the usual
We had a little time at home before John's ninja class so I got in my upper body and abs workout. Tuesdays fly by too quickly.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017- After lack of sleep the two previous nights, there was no way I could get myself up to run the usual treadmill run. I just couldn't do it. I could barely get myself up for real an hour later. Another huge snowstorm was coming in and the flurries started just before I left for work. It snowed ALL day. And we had no calls ALL day...until night time. Bam. Four calls between 10pm and 5am. Once again. No sleep. And the roads weren't plowed AT ALL. It was insane how much snow fell in a matter of 2 hours around 6pm. Fortunately, the two feet they predicted didn't happen. We got around 14-15 inches which was still crazy when you add it to Sunday's storm.

This is my work environment. If I die from one of those icicles, I'm coming back to haunt this company in a demonic fashion.
Thursday, February 16, 2017- Woke up to SO much snow and a 911 call that kept us on shift just a little late. My car was buried in snow, and it took a few tries to get it through the unplowed driveway so that I could go home. My friend came and plowed the driveway, thankfully. Such a relief. I took the dogs out in the fresh snow. It was crazy. I have to wear big snowshoes all winter long to take them out on our trails, but this snow was almost too much for my snowshoes. It was SO pretty, though.





I knocked these down right after that



That's a Dodge Sprinter van under that! That van was supposed be gone 6 months ago. Grr.
I had to dig out my mailbox again, but since I had gotten all of the icy stuff the week before, it was much quicker this time around.

My mailbox is under that stick.

After digging it out
I waited awhile to head out for my run since I wanted to make sure the open portion of Bear Notch Rd and the Kanc were plowed. I called Northern Extremes to find out if the closed portion of Bear Notch Rd had been groomed yet, and it had. I was psyched with a plan to snowshoe run end-to-end. Regular roads were out of the question unless I wanted to do Chocorua  roads again, and I didn't. No shoulder and barely plowed would have been scary to run on. So I drove up to Bear Notch Rd. Sure enough, it was groomed with some snowmobile traffic already having gone through. Hahaha. This made no difference at all except that I didn't have to break through 15 inches of fresh snow. It was SO soft. I struggled to find any part that was somewhat solid. There was nothing. And this wasn't an easy run anyway. Almost 1000ft of elevation gain. I knew right away that I wasn't making it to the other end and back. It was so slow and a really hard effort. I decided I'd run out 5 and back 5. The weather was mostly sunny except at the height of the land. Beautiful. So even though it wasn't a great run on paper, I got a really good workout. It's pretty fucking hard running 10 miles in soft snow with long climbs; even the downhills took a lot of effort. By the time I got back to the car, I was beat to shit. 10.1 miles total. 1:50:28.

Bear Notch Rd ass kicker snowshoe run
I was immediately sore from that run which wasn't good considering I had a snowshoe race 2 days later. Yeah, the snowshoe race I assumed would be cancelled. Haha. Oops! I went right home and took some Ibuprofen. I don't take it often since I think it actually hinders healing, but sometimes I find taking it once immediately after a hard workout does lessen some of that immediate swelling. I rarely have to take it again after that. That shit is just so bad for you so it needs to be limited in its use. Just like the sugar I was eating all week. :)

I took a quick shower then went to Tin Mountain to pick up John from his Homeschool Group. It's normally on Wednesdays so I don't ever pick him up, but it was postponed to Thursday, and I was taking John the rest of the day/night so that Bryan could finish up training at his new job. I didn't know any of the parents there to pick up the kids, and the moms were all sitting together gabbing. There was an older dad and an older mom there, so I stayed with them while we waited for the kids to come back from snowshoeing...30 minutes later! Haha. I actually had a dentist appointment to get to. Fortunately, they were running behind when I called and said it was fine. It was weird, though, this group. I did not fit in at all. It seems like all homeschooling moms here are stay-at-home moms, and I just cannot relate to that. There was a time when I could, but those days are 6 long years gone!

I was glad John was outside getting exercise. He loves that homeschool group. When they came back, he walked in wearing this outfit that his dad bought him at the Army Barracks the day before. I busted out laughing because the first thing I thought of was Kenny from South Park. Hahaha.

Kenny is alive!
It was off to the dentist for my much overdue cleaning, and then we went home from there. I got in the upper body and abs workout later that night. I'm continuing to see improvements. I had mostly been doing Zuzka Light's Black Diamond Upper Body and Abs workouts with a few of the Upper Body and Abs Inferno thrown in there, but I decided to stick with the Inferno through its series this time to see if I have further improvements. The workouts are shorter, but very intense. The only thing I don't really like about them are the use of floor sliders (or paper plates, in my case). Those tend to work my already fatigued hip flexors just a little too much, but I'm still going to complete this series and just modify the slider part if I need to. Here's a YouTube sample of her stuff. I actually pay a monthly fee for her ZGYM. It's worth it.


Good beer for a sunny Thursday
Interrupting this snapshot of last week for a moment in the present. I was in the middle of writing this when we got a 911 that is probably the worst call I've ever been on. I can't elaborate due to HIPPA, but it's definitely one that will affect me for a long time. In the moment, we all did a great job; that's something positive we can take from this. It's easy to separate yourself from the human patient and do what needs to be done with no emotional involvement, but now, it's starting to hit me. Not to the point where I can't work or I'm a mess (I don't get that way in general), but it's going to stay with me for awhile. I'm in a little bit of shock right now, so some tears will probably be shed tomorrow. Right now would be a great time for a run followed with a beer, but I still have 10.5 hours to go until my shift is up. Going to attempt to put it out of mind and finish this blog post now....and still sitting here with nothing. Might have to bag this and finish it tomorrow. Yeah, I didn't finish it. I tried, but now, I'm just tired and should attempt sleep.

Friday, February 17, 2017- I slept in a little to catch up on my sleep. It was another absolutely beautiful day and the temps were rising. A much needed relief from Snowmageddon. I felt a sense of dread for the races to come over the weekend; that's how I knew in my gut that I made a bad decision. But I paid the $$, so I wasn't skipping Sunday. Exeter was my main focus for the weekend, and since it was the next day, I wanted to keep my run plan something slow and easy on snowshoes. Why I thought Kearsarge would be that, I don't know, but it was definitely a good thing that trail wasn't really runnable yet. On to Plan B, Middle Mountain. Drove to the Thompson Rd trailhead. The trail had been packed down enough to snowshoe run, but like the day before, it wasn't solid. In fact, it was super soft. Crazy slow pace as I "ran" up the Middle Mountain Trail. When I got to the Middle-Peaked split, I noticed that the rest of the Middle Mountain Trail was untouched. Four running steps into it, and I realized that was a no-go. I wouldn't have been able to run in that. The snow was just too thick. On to Plan C. I turned around and continued on the soft-packed trail to the top of Peaked Mt. Fortunately, I had the summit to myself.




Dion 121s

Mt Washington looked way more spectacular in person.
I ran back down via the Peaked Mt Trail. My GPS was way off; it's always off in the woods, but it was probably like a half mile short and maybe 100-200ft off the vertical gain. Came out to 3.5 miles. I was glad I ended up with Peaked instead of Kearsarge. I would have been beat to shit...again. Instead, I felt pretty good and ready for Exeter.

I had time to go to Walmart after my run. I scored John a whole bunch of $3 pants and shirts. The kid has grown 5" since July so he keeps outgrowing his clothes! I know it's Walmart, but they actually have some decent boys' clothes there. He was psyched when I showed him what I got later that day. The sugar problem also continued when I saw a heart box of Hershey's kisses on the Valentine's sale table. Oh hell yes! I love Valentine's Day...after it's over! Haha. I was going to grab some groceries there, too, but they didn't have any good tortillas (one of my favorite foods. Whole wheat tortillas!), so I made a quick trip to Shaw's. Getting errands done.

John came home just after I did. He and his dad had been outside all morning getting exercise, so I let John stay behind while I took Spot and Phoenix up Heavenly Hill. This wasn't just a walk. This was donning the big snowshoes to break trail through very thick snow. It took me over 40 minutes to go the .6 miles to the top. I was DYING. Pouring in sweat. This hike ended up being way harder than my snowshoe run earlier. I guess I wasn't taking it easy after all.


My 18 year old Tubbs still put to use nearly every day in the winter.

For a dog born in Arizona, she sure has taken to the New Hampshire winter just fine.
So funny thing. Got a Facebook memory showing I did the exact same thing two years to the day. Broke trail up Heavenly Hill. I even wore the same sweatshirt!! That's pretty crazy. Not much has changed, obviously... except my looks. Boy, have I aged in two years! Most of it happened during the two months of my injury. No lie. Granted, the picture from 2015 was after I had showered. The pic from today is after a run and then sweating to death on the hike up. I actually wasn't wearing makeup in either pic which is funny.

I used to be pretty so many long 2 years ago!

Old hag! Haha. It's the wrinkles. Now, I understand botox.
Oh, and if you think I was done and ready to relax after that hike, guess again! Next on the agenda, shovel that mound of snow in front of the double doors in preparation for all of the snow to come sliding off the roof...only to create a new pile. I'm not sure how long I shoveled, but maybe 30 minutes or so. A lot of it was ice that I couldn't even break through, but I made a good dent in it (two days later the roof snow all came down; the mound is even higher than it was before!). I was seriously so done. Sweat-inducing activity #3 was over, and I was ready for a shower and a beer. Oh but wait, why is my pocket empty?!! The pocket where my phone was when I started shoveling!! Noooooooooo! But Yessssssssssss! It had fallen out of my pocket and gotten buried somewhere in the huge pile of snow I had just shoveled. I think the whine and the "Why me?!" were justified in this case, right? I had a tiny bit of luck find me since I started digging in the right place first. It still took about 5 minutes, but there it was under about a foot of snow. I'm SO glad I have a water resistant, shatter-proof phone. It would be totally destroyed by now. I was so relieved and finally got that shower and beer. Skipped the upper body and abs workout to save more hip flexor fatigue.

Saturday, February 18, 2017- RACE #1- Exeter Snowshoe Hullabaloo

Ok. So this is actually where I stopped on Wednesday night. We ended up with 2 overnight calls, so between that and the terrible 911, I was drained. Thursday was a whirlwind of busy-ness which I'll write more about in the next post. I'm still mentally tired, so I'm not sure the rest of this blog post will be what I'd hoped for when I started writing it.

After Snowmaggedon, the snow was in the perfect range for the Exeter snowshoe race. 100% perfect. I ran Exeter one other time in 2015 when we also had good snow. I remembered it being difficult with constant rollers, but that I loved it. My memory was accurate. The course was different because of a change in the start location and went backwards on the trails from 2015. It made no difference. The course was still rollers and difficult. Haha.

I was happy for the late start since I was still trying to catch up on sleep from Monday and Wednesday nights. We left at 7:15am for the drive to Exeter. Absolutely gorgeous morning. By the time we arrived to the race sight, the temps had risen and the sun was bright. It was great. I checked in then went right out for a 3-mile road run to warm up. I ran into Exeter center to 1.5 miles, then turned around. Easy run over 8 min pace. I got back to the car and took Chill out behind the parking area which turned out to be the water treatment facility for Exeter. It was surrounded by dirt (mud, acutally) roads, so it ended up being perfect to run with Chill off-leash.

Once back at the car, I got changed, made sure John was all set then walked over to the start. A lot of people had shown up for this one. Chris Mahoney was there, as well as two guys from Boston, and a large number of Six03 and aR people. As soon as I walked into the lot by the starting area, I noticed a younger girl doing some serious warming up. My first thought was, "Oh damn. I have competition." She looked super serious like a bad ass. I didn't see anyone else who might be tough to beat. Sarah Canney is probably the closest to me at any of the snowshoe races, but other than that, I don't see much competition. So this red-headed girl had me worried.

I ran the first 100 yards of the start to get a feel of the snow and see how long we had before the single track. It wasn't long, so I knew I needed to start right up front. Just as we were lining up, the red-headed girl walked into the starting area, and then it dawned on me who she was. Hahaha. I chuckled to myself because the last time I raced her, she put on the same bad-ass show, and then I smoked her by over a minute. I knew right then that this was all a show and that she wouldn't be any competition for me. I also didn't think she would be competition for Sarah either, so when I turned around and saw Sarah lined up behind her, I motioned for her to move up ahead. She didn't, but she would end up passing Red early on and then beating her in the end. The girl is only 15, so she will be beating us soon, but I can't help but love putting cocky teenagers in their place.



Anyway, I felt I lined up pretty well for the start, and off we went. By the time we hit the single track, I realized that I had misjudged the guy in front of me and quickly passed him in one of the soft passing lanes on the first downhill. Scott Mitchell and another guy would end up doing the same thing with Scott then passing me in first mile. The course was everything I remembered. Difficult and the real deal for a snowshoe race. Although there was a packed trail, it was still soft and difficult. I hung on behind Scott and we both passed a guy who was ahead of us. The guy who had been behind Scott would do the same eventually so that it was the three of us in a line for the first two miles. It was constant ups and downs. Crazy difficult with my heart rate high. Just after mile 2, Scott slowed a bit on the downhills so I passed him. I felt good still at this point and got ahead of him and the other guy. I didn't really know where I was around mile 3, but I saw a spectator whom we had passed early on in the race so I had a feeling we were actually close to the finish. They said the race was close to 4 miles, though, so I was thinking that I couldn't do another mile of this stuff. I all of a sudden just tanked and got that feeling that I was about to vomit. Right at mile 3.2. Just like Whitaker and Moose Mt.  I was so hoping the 4-mile thing was wrong. When I heard a train go by on the tracks, I knew it was wrong and we were close. I noticed at this point that Scott and the other guy were closing in on me. Scott started being funny and telling me to go, that he was catching up. I gave everything I had, but it wasn't enough, he passed me just before the finish line. Hahaha. I called him a jerk. It was all in jest, though. He beat me fair and square...so now, I want revenge. Hahaha. I'm coming for you at the next one, Scott Mitchell. :)

Just before the finish. Photo by Gianina Lindsay
I finished first woman and 11th overall in 33:32. Not bad considering it was a decent field ahead of me. An unsuspecting guy who brought the Drink Maple won the race. The two guys from Boston, Phil Erwin  and Ed Sheldon rounded out the top 5. Sarah finished about 2.5 minutes back and Red almost 3 minutes back. Full Results

I had run so hard that it took me a bit to catch my breath. I was beat. That was 100% effort right there. Probably took me a few minutes to recover before I walked down to the lot. I ended up talking to Chris and Heather Mahoney for a bit before walking back over to the car. I took Chill and Phoenix on a short cool down back at the water treatment area before John and I walked back over to the race area for food and awards. It was so nice out. Just what we needed after being hit by all of winter in a span of 4 days. Unfortunately, this warm weather was just beginning of the major thaw that would melt the snow quickly. I ended up winning a new pair of ski goggles....hahaha... Julbo ones. BUT, as I stated in my Julbo rant back in 2015, I already wore Julbo ski goggles and liked them, but seriously, on Tuesday, I told John that I really needed a new pair. Voila! There they were. They're pretty nice so I'll be nice for once about Julbo. But, come on, the whole "Eric Narcisi's Sunglasses" post was about a pair of Julbo's! I think I've made up for being so harsh...even though I meant every word I said in that post. :) I talked to the two "fast-looking" guys from Boston for a little bit. They don't snowshoe race, so it was pretty impressive to see them come out and take 2nd and 5th.

After the awards, John and I walked back to the car where I quickly changed. Then we drove to Portsmouth to meet up with Scott Mason, Tony Wild and Chris Jasparro at the Portsmouth Brewery for drinks and food. They would be it for the Tuesday Night Turtles showing up at Exeter and probably for all of this season. With the sunny, warm weather, Portsmouth was mobbed. We had a long wait for a table, but we didn't care. Just sat at the bar. I tried to get a picture of us all through the mirror. Wasn't as cool as I thought, and you can't even see John. Haha.

Me, Chris, Scott and Tony
Scott Mason's photography skills are way better than mine. ;)
I was starving after we sat down and couldn't say no when Tony offered me one of his Volcano chicken fingers. OH MY GOD. I have never in my life eaten anything as spicy as that. I was DYING. My mouth was on fire, and tears were literally running down my face. They were laughing at me; I was laughing at myself through the tears. It took probably 20 minutes for my mouth to be mostly normal again. Wow. That was no joke at all. I could not handle it. Tony took a picture of me laughing through the tears of pain from my mouth burning off. Haha.


The waitress was about to bring me a piece of bread to ease the pain, but our food was up. Lifesaver! Pastrami with chips and salsa. We had another round and some fun conversation then parted ways. They were headed to Throwback Brewery on their way back to Rhode Island while John and I went to Blitz Air Park so John could have some fun. I'm so happy for these trampoline parks popping up everywhere. If only someone would see the huge money potential in North Conway and open one there. But, no, a Taco Bell and more outlet stores are what we get. Eye-roll.

We got home pretty late and the sense of dread and feeling like I had made a mistake in signing up for Old Fashioned hit me. I couldn't believe we were getting up early to do it all over again. Such a dumb decision. I was way more beat from Exeter than I expected. Ugh. If I hadn't paid all of that money, I wouldn't go, but I forced myself into it. I don't know how I managed to get in my upper body and abs workout in, but I did, showered, unpacked then repacked and called it a night.

Sunday, February 19, 2017- Old Fashioned 5K and 10-Miler

4:45am alarm. CRY, WHINE, CRY! I still got up, took the dogs out, went through the usual routine, got John and the dogs in the car then we hit the road at 5:45am. The drive ended up being pretty nice. Beautiful sunrise. No traffic. Just smooth sailing. Stopped at Panera in Waltham to get John breakfast then continued on, getting to Foxborough at little before 8:30am, just as planned. I was in a state of denial that I had to run a 5k....and then a 10 mile...both on tired and unexpectedly sore legs. My quads were slightly sore. I didn't know how I was going to pull this off. I knew that whatever goal I had (sub-1:05) probably wasn't going to happen, but I didn't know how bad it was going to be. Ugh. Why did I do this?

I ran into Bob Kennedy as I was checking in. He's such a nice guy. I talked to him there and then again in the parking lot before I headed out on a warm up. It was nice to run into people I knew. I wasn't sure that I would at this one. Ran 2 miles for a warm up. Normally, I do 3 if I can, but I really didn't need to today with two races. I purposely ran my warm up so I could get my bearings on where the start and finish were for both races. There was only 45 minutes between the start of the 5K and the start of 10K, so I wanted to make sure I had enough time in between to get back to the car to change clothes and check on John.

After the warm up, I went back to the car and got ready to race. Temperature was close to 50 degrees; it was awesome. Perfect racing weather. I wore shorts and a t-shirt. Walked to the start line of the 5K and lined up. Dave Schaad got in line ahead of me so I talked to him for a bit and then we were off. Three women went off ahead of me which made me go out way too fast. My goal for the 5K was between 19:30 and 20:00. "Slow" for me. I didn't care much about my time for this race since it was important not to destroy myself before the 10-miler. But I ran the first mile stupidly fast at 6:00. I smartened up after that and slowed way down. I was 2nd woman by this point with the 1st woman WAY ahead. I knew I couldn't catch her if I tried, and a look back saw no other woman in sight, so I was comfortable to slow the pace. 6:25 and 6:24 for the 2nd and 3rd miles to finish in 19:22. 2nd woman and 6th overall. It was still a little faster than I had planned due to the first mile, but I was happy with myself for slowing down. OF 5K Results

5K

Why are my quads so fat with gross skin all of a sudden?! Ew.  I do like this pic, though.
As soon as I finished, I took a cup of water and walked quickly back to the car. John went to use the bathroom while I changed clothes. I realized then that I was really tired. I couldn't do it. There was no way I could race a 10 miler in 20 minutes. I seriously just wanted to drive away right then, but that damn entry fee kept me in the game. Once I was dressed and John was back, I ran to the start of the 10-miler. I actually ended up at the start with over 10 minutes to spare. That made it worse since I was thinking of how dumb this was. I just paced up and down the road. I talked to a nice couple who had recently moved from New Jersey to Sturbridge; they noticed my Central Mass Striders shirt and asked about the club. They are searching for an active club in their area. I felt bad I wasn't much help since I live nowhere near there. After talking to them, I walked up to the start line. The woman who won the 5K was also doing the 10, just like me. I recognized a few of the men, as well. A few fast looking women, including one in a New Balance team uniform, lined up as well. I didn't care at all. The only goal in my head at this point was to finish the damn thing.

After the start, it spread out quickly. The woman who won the 5K shot out way in front where she would stay the whole race. I was passed quickly by the New Balance woman and her pacer as well as another woman. My quads felt so heavy, but I attempted to maintain my original goal pace. 6:18 and 6:15 for the first two miles, then I was done. I couldn't hold that pace. My legs were screaming at me. By mile 3, I was ready to drop out. I felt dizzy and like I couldn't move. 6:43. OUCH. If I were anywhere near the car, I would have stopped. I wanted to quit. I didn't think I could make it the whole 10. But, ugh, I kept going. I had passed the third woman somewhere in the 3rd mile so now, I was third. I thought maybe I could hold that if I just kept going. Somewhere near mile 4 the New Balance girl and her pacer were standing off to the side. I couldn't tell what was wrong, but she was bent over like she was either in pain or sick. I had no idea if she was dropping out or just taking a break, but this now put me in 2nd place. Ughhhh. No way could I give up now.

I was kind of bummed that I had destroyed myself before this race. I was loving the course since it was pretty and right up my alley with short, yet constant, rolling hills. I feel like it's a course I would actually do well on if I had been 100%. But I never could get my pace back down. It averaged around 6:40 for the last 8, I'm estimating. I know I can do way better than that on another day. But I was happy to just keep myself going. I pushed myself to my max even though it wasn't what I wanted. At a turn just before mile 8, I looked back to see the NB girl in sight. She was a ways back, but the fact that I was junk with two miles to go and she was visible meant that she had a good chance of catching me. I was happy for the gradual downhill for the first part of mile 9 and then again in mile 10. My legs were spent and gravity was on my side. When we came passed this apartment complex I recognized from my warm up, I knew it was almost over. As we turned for the final stretch, I looked back to see no woman in sight. It was a relief. I had no kick in me at all. We passed the race HQ. I could see the finish. The torture was almost over. I hadn't even looked at my watch in over a mile so I was surprised to see the clock still in the 1:05. I was shocked. I thought for sure I wouldn't finish under 1:07. I'd take it! Crossed the line in 1:05:44. 2nd woman again! Haha. 22nd overall. Ten Miler Results. And, obviously, I was 2nd woman in the BadAss Combo. Kind of funny that the top two women were the same in both races. Combo Results

Finishing the Ten Miler

I was SO done. I got my medals, a bottle of water and then started walking to the car. I remember thinking how I couldn't wait to get back to John and the dogs and how I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I even bagged a cool down. It was more fun to go out in the snowy field with the dogs while John climbed the trees. That's all I wanted to be doing at that moment. We briefly went to the awards. It was taking a long time for the 10 mile awards, and I assumed I was just getting another lapel pin so we left. I got an email later in the week saying I had won $50! So that was a nice surprise. I really need a do over with this one at some point. I liked the event and the course and hate coming out of it feeling like shit. Hopefully, it will workout to run it again in the next few years. And I definitely won't do the 5K next time. That was SO dumb! All in all, though, I still did ok. My time wasn't horrible, and I was 2nd in both races. It's just the aftermath and need for recovery that really hurt.

Clouds right at the 93/95 split
John and I stopped for lunch at the Yard House in Dedham. Just like the day before, the place was slammed with people out enjoying the awesome weather. It took us about 20 minutes to get a table, so once again I was starving. Got a burger and fries and had two beers.


After the Yard House, we waited in a ridiculously long line for ice cream for John and a coffee for me before walking back to the car and heading home. Once home, it was into the Sunday night routine of getting ready for my 24 hour shift. I managed to get in my upper body and abs workout. No idea how I had the energy. I showered, then sat down to watch the Walking Dead. All was good until about 10 minutes into it, I felt really sick to my stomach. I so wanted to throw up. When the show was over, I managed to get myself up. Found some Antacid that had expired 3 years prior and hoped for the best. Within 10 minutes, I felt fine...and I didn't die! Took the dogs out, got the dishes done then hopped into bed. I knew the next day had to be a zero. What had I done to myself? Ugh. Stupid decision, but it was over with. Just had to make sure I was smart the rest of the week before the World Snowshoe Championship. Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting the mental recovery I would need after Wednesday's 911. I guess we'll just see how it goes and give myself a break if it doesn't go well.






5 comments:

  1. Hope things get better as you process the 911. And you were killing me with all the donuts. Thanks... thanks a lot. Well done on your triple race weekend, you are certainly determined and talented, perhaps slightly kukoo? (I mean that only in the nicest way, the best people are a slightly kukoo)

    You still aren't popping up on my blog feed, so who knows what that is all about.



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  2. Haha. Thanks! I'm definitely cuckoo. :) I've been so busy that it's taken my mind off the call, so that's good. Yeah my blog is stuck at Vulcans Fury on a lot of blog rolls. I read that it's nothing to do with my blog. Some sort of Blogger error that can't be fixed on my end. I wonder if you deleted it from your blog roll or maybe unfollowed me and then added it back in and refollowed me would that fix it? At least you know how to check it otherwise. Haha. You're probably one of 5 people who read my blog anyway.

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  3. Leslie, you're an animal!

    I too noticed you're stuck in Vulcan Fury land. I've tried twice deleting you from my roll and adding you back but you're still vulcanized. Not sure why.

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  4. It's so weird! But maybe it's blogger's way of telling me I should have just ended it there. Haha.

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  5. I fixed it! Check your blog rolls! Took me a few hours, but I found a way to change the feed and reduce the feed size, which was the problem.

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