2018 Belleville Pond "10K" Trail Race

View of Chocorua from Heavenly Hill

Another good week of running despite STILL dealing with intestinal issues. Not sure what's going on, but I felt a lack of energy by race time on Sunday. I don't know if it's from that or just from the early 3:45am rise and drive. Haha. Maybe a combo of both! But anyway, I had some really good runs this week AND my race wasn't even that bad considering not feeling well for half of it. I was only 2 seconds off my 2016 pace (different/shorter course in 2016) so I was actually a little shocked. I ran my 5K PR (18:30) a week later at An Ras Mor, so maybe things are actually looking up. I really don't know.

Finished the week off with 61.6 miles. Three treadmill runs, three road runs and then 1 trail run for the trail race. I had planned to drive down to southern NH to run on dry trails Saturday but decided against making the drive knowing I had to make the longer drive to Rhode Island on Sunday. I was a little bummed out not to get on the trail, but it was better to run on the road than in the slop that covers our trails right now. Not much elevation gain since most of my road runs were on the flatter side this week. Only 1,421ft. Plenty of time for that once the trails are clear, though. I have road training to do right now, so that's my priority.

My week didn't start off great, and I'm still a little on the meh side. Last week's isolation did a number on me. Like I've said before, I love my alone time, but when I'm not even talking to another adult for 5 out of 7 days (if you can call half of my coworkers adults), I start to struggle a bit. And then when I do get around people, I'm so people deprived that I talk way too much to the point where I'm probably annoying. This then leaves me thinking I shouldn't subject that annoying me on other people and it starts the cycle all over again to where I purposely avoid people. Haha. Oh well. I just keep telling myself that this is all temporary....but is it? I'm really not certain since I can't see past each day; I really can't envision a better future; that's how stuck I am. I wish there was some sort of group I could join here, but there is NOTHING that fits in with my life. I just feel SO stuck and like a failure in nearly every aspect of my life...except for John. I've had success at running, but that's why I wrote "nearly". Haha. I'll stop here before I blah blah blah about the same old thing AGAIN. :) Just one of those weeks, I guess. Wallow, wallow, wallow. Waahh, waahh, wahh. Haha.

Monday, February 26, 2018- Hard to believe this marks the 19th anniversary of my hire date at Delta Airlines as a flight attendant. It seems like yesterday, but at the same time, it's seriously like 5 lifetimes ago. I almost mean that literally.

My parents and me after our training class graduation. Stupid film camera.

Got up early for an easy 3 miles on the treadmill. After Saturday's workout and Sunday's 12 mile run, 3 miles was all I could handle. 23:10. 7:43 avg pace. The best part is that I'm still actually getting up to do these. It's nice having someone else telling me what to do for a change so I think it's why I can do it. I'm very self-motivated, but at the the same time, I'm also very lazy. And if I want to be lazy and no one is there to tell me I shouldn't be, then I'll just continue to be lazy. Haha.

Work was still on the quiet side even though it was another school vacation week. We only had two real calls and they were back-to-back. One to Huggins then one to Memorial. About 4 hours for the two calls, but that was basically it for the entire 24 hour shift. One call was a little sad because sometimes you have to deal with a family member who's upset. You have to say the right thing, and I couldn't just state the truth that the patient was dying. I can't do that even though I knew that was the case. Those are tough moments that call for kindness and sympathy, but they're also when I realize these emotions really do still exist in me. So that's always a good sign. Haha.

I managed to get in 10 minutes of abs, but other than that I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open by 8pm so I went to bed early and fortunately got sleep all night.

Tuesday, February 27, 2018- Thankful for a beautiful day for my long run! I was also thankful for almost 10 hours of sleep! Woohoo. My run started off a little chilly, but by the end I was overdressed. Today was 16 miles with an attempt at running the last 2 miles hard. Eeek. This made me nervous because my last 2 miles in every race (over 2 miles) are always slower than the rest, but I said I would try.

Since John was out of school for the vacation week, I didn't have a lot time for the run so I just ran from work. I ran down Ossipee Lake Rd with a loop around Pequawket Trail and back then a short loop around Windsock Village to make the run 16 miles. Other than my gut problems, I felt really good for this one. Fairly quick pace. Not totally consistent, but generally faster for the second half of it. I was able to pick up the pace the last two in 6:52 and 6:59, and I was happy with that. I lost it a bit in the last mile with the uphill finish, but it was fine. 16 miles in 1:56:16. 7:16 avg pace. 418ft of elevation gain (on the "flat" side for me).

The oil tank hadn't been filled yet so I stopped for some wood pellets on the way home to heat up the house until the oil was delivered. Over 24 hours without any heat, and it was only 42 in the house. That's not bad at all. The oil was delivered late morning so it all worked out. I was able to clear the air out of the system and restart the furnace myself this time so that was a relief. I was not relieved when I got the $600+ bill, however. Haha. That's how I'm spending my tax refund this year. That plus car repairs and new tires.

Oil! Yay!

I got in an upper body and abs workout, surprisingly. I usually struggle with these on long run days, but I felt really good. It kicked my ass, and my upper body muscles were shaking when I was done. Haha.

I gave John a few hours before I made him take a walk and run some errands with me. It was just way too nice out not to get out for a walk by the Saco River on the Conway Rec path.

I finally got my mail again since my mailbox is stuck in a block of ice and the mailman still won't deliver it. There's just nothing I can do at this point, but I'm planning to do the mailbox in a bucket of sand thing next year. That way I can move it around. In my mail was my water bottle award from the Hilo to Volcano 50K. Nothing special, but I thought it was nice that they had my name put on it.

John had his usual ninja class tonight. Although I run errands sometimes, I really do enjoy staying and watching. There's only one other parent who does that besides me. Haha. It's the only "sport" he does so it's like the equivalent of me watching his game.

Wednesday, February 28, 2018- Treadmill run before work. 4 miles in 31:10. 7:48 avg pace. Like I said in the last post. I'm loving slowing down for these runs now. Knowing I don't "have" to run fast for every run is actually making me more motivated. Haha. You'd think I would have figured this all out on my own a long time ago, but I am stubborn and blond. Haha. :)

My partner today was a kid I've known since he was 14 and shorter than me. Now, he's 21 and well over 6ft tall. Haha. He also only got his EMT about a year ago, but then went right into the Advanced EMT class is now making more money than me. Haha. I laugh, but in a way, this is starting to get to me a little bit. 6.5 years and I'm still "just a Basic". The fact that I haven't been able to advance when I was well past the point of being ready to do so years ago definitely is feeding the failure feelings. All of these brand new, inexperienced EMTs who have the time and money to get their Advanced while I'm stuck as an EMT. I'm good EMT, but there comes a point where it's a bit defeating knowing I can't move on with my skills while people who really need more experience as Basics are ahead of me in level of care and pay.

Anyway, though, my partner is a good kid, and we actually worked well together today. That's a good sign when you can mesh well as partners on the first day. We were actually pretty busy, and I was up until almost 1am. Had a good day in between calls since it was beautiful out, and I got my blog post done early. The trail behind work was mostly dry so I walked out there for the first time since the fall! It was so nice. It was interrupted by truck washing and then my partner wanted to run to the bank, but I still got in 2.6 miles. I did Abs later that afternoon, too. It was great. Need Spring to come NOW.

Thursday, March 1, 2018- Workout day! EEEK! I was scared, but not as scared at those 2-mile torture things. Bryan and I had traded days with John this week, so John was with me today and then would be with Bryan for half a day on Saturday. Since he was home alone from about 6:40am on, I decided this run needed to happen right from work and right at 7am when I was off the clock. I wanted to get home as soon as possible before he woke up. Thanks to Kevin Tilton, I remembered that Settler's Green was a good place for workouts so that was my plan.

It was another GORGEOUS morning, and the roads were quiet. I ran an easy 2 mile warm up to Settler's Green then started my 5x 1-mile loops around the outlets. 3 min jogging rest. The loop is .85 miles so each mile started and ended in a different place. The loop was mostly flat, but has one hill that I hit once each mile, except for mile 4 when I hit it twice. The goal was to start at 6:35 pace and work down to 6:20. Well, I failed at that. Haha. But not in the slower way. It was actually much faster.

6:13
6:12
6:15
6:17
6:13

Pretty consistent, but I kept thinking I was running slower with each mile when I really wasn't. I guess I just felt good. And I obviously have no idea how to pace myself. Did six 20 second strides after, that I was told were better than my previous attempts. Then 2 miles easy cool down back to the base. 11.2 miles total. I felt really good after this workout. I like doing the shorter distance speed work best, I think.

Just as suspected, John was still asleep when I got home so I woke him up then gave him some time before dragging him out to xc ski. I wanted to show him the ski trail up Mt Katherine. While, it wasn't freshly groomed or very good snow, it was still really nice and such perfect weather. I actually spent most of the ski alone since I can't keep up with him. Haha. I love it.

Ridiculous bandana that my company gave us. Gee thanks. How about a raise instead?

Went by the Sandwich Spring to fill up my water jugs then made the mistake of going to the Ossipee Hannaford. I swear some of the dumbest people flock to Ossipee. At least the shelves weren't picked clean like North Conway Hannaford. Haha.

Friday, March 2, 2018- Attempted to sleep in but woke up early. Boo. I decided to have a lazy morning since the weather was pretty shitty. Pouring rain and a light layer of snow had fallen overnight. I wasn't running in that so I knew I had plenty of time to do other things before getting on the treadmill. John was supposed to go with Bryan for the day until 2pm and picked him up around 8am....then dropped him back off with me at 9:30am. No heads up. No making sure I was even going to be there. Not cool. I let him know that and made sure he was going to be taking John with him until 2pm the next day as we had arranged in our trade. He said he would, and he did end up following through on that. It's not like I'm so much more awesome of a parent than him. I don't think that at all, but I just feel like he shirks responsibility sometimes. I guess I see why, though. If John says he doesn't want to do anything, and then Bryan makes him, that's when things end up blowing up out of control. So I kind of get it that it's his way of avoiding that confrontation right now, but there's a point where he still has to be a parent and not shift most of the responsibility onto me. I think he understood, though, since the next day went well for everyone.

I eventually got on the treadmill for an easy 8 miles in 1:02:54. 7:52 avg pace. Felt ok. Legs were a little beat from Thursday's workout. Not much else to say about this one. The view hasn't changed much. Spider webs are still where they were before. The unpacked boxes are all still a disaster and where I put them in August of 2013. Only one new song on my running playlist. Haha.

I ran the errands I had planned and then John and I went to Saco River Brewing around 5pm. They had live music, and I REALLY needed to get out. Unfortunately, there was no place to sit near the music and couldn't hear it well, so I just had one drink and then we left. It was still a good time with John, though. I'm glad I still got us out into the land of the living a little bit.

Par for the course in rural Maine. Haha.

Saturday, March 3, 2018- This turned out to be a really nice day. Blue skies and sun for part of it. Yay! As I mentioned before, I opted out of the southern NH trail run which meant a road run for me. Not what I really wanted, but I'm just not going to attempt trail running in slop right now. I chose to go back to one of my old haunts from when I worked in Fryeburg...Haley Town Rd. It's a super quiet road, and I knew it would be clear of ice after our many days of thawing. I think the last time I ran it was last year when I got caught in a surprise white-out snowstorm, which seems to happen to me a lot. Plan was just to run an easy out-and-back for 8 miles, which I did. Looking back at my Strava, that's only the second time I've ever run these 8 miles over a 7 min avg pace. The only other time was in January 2016 when I averaged 7:16 pace and labeled the run "Took it easy" Hahahaha. My fastest run was back in my fastest year on April 1, 2015 when I ran it in a 6:41 avg pace. Crazy. If I only hadn't gotten injured I might still be that fast. But I have never been as fast since. Today was 8 miles in 1:00:56. 7:35 avg pace. Ran exactly as planned, though, so it's time to stop being nostalgic of what once was and never will be again.

I had some time after that so I went to Walmart to get John snacks for his school field trip and then to Starbucks since I had a free drink. I never sit in Starbucks, but I did today since one of the couches was free. I just wanted to hang out somewhere for a bit before I had to go back home to my isolation. Haha.

John arrived home just as I did. He and Bryan had had a really good day xc skiing. I was happy to hear things went really well with them. Like I said before, Bryan followed through on his parental responsibility so that was great.

I had a lot of energy today for some reason so I got in my ab workout and then took the dogs for a snowshoe walk up Heavenly Hill. It was too gorgeous of a day not to. The snowshoes were necessary for about 3/4 of the walk. I was happy to get to the top and find it nearly bare of snow! Yay! We went out to the overlook for a bit since I hadn't been up here since before the first snow fall and just wanted to hang out.

Sunday, March 4, 2018- Belleville Pond Trail "10K"-

Waking up at 3:45am was tough this morning. That's always a bad sign when I struggle to get up on race morning. That means I'm tired and nearly 100% of the time leads to a mediocre race performance so I was a little worried about that but had no issues staying awake the first part of the drive. When I got on 95, though, all of a sudden I felt super nauseous to my stomach. By the time I got to Dedham, I had to stop at a CVS and grab some Tums. It was actually the fresh air that made me feel better initially but the Tums helped, I think.

We got there around 8:15ish. I told John he had to do the Kids 3K trail race that started at 9am so we had to get there earlier than usual to wake the beast. Haha. It wasn't actually that simple to get him to do the race. It ended up being a paid gig for him. Hahaha! $5 to start. $5 to finish. And then the kid won a box of Girl Scout Cookies!! He made out. It was good, though. He didn't want to be doing it, but he really didn't complain at all until the end of the race when I was running behind him briefly. And he actually ended up running the ENTIRE 1.8 miles. That's a first! He came in last of 5 kids, but he did it. I was so happy he at least got out there and made an effort. He needed the exercise and fresh air. I think it made him less cranky about being there, too, since he was super pleasant the rest of the day. It was enjoyable to me following them around during the race grabbing some photos. It's rare to ever have anyone taking photos if Scott Mason isn't there (he actually did show up but just to run and spectate; he didn't take any photos), so I wanted to get some of all of the kids. Brian Trahan got a few as well that he sent me. Kid photo overload incoming...

Waiting for the start

Waiting at the bridge for the kids

I ended up with 2.9 miles total as a warm up by the time it was all said and done. 1.2 miles following the kids race, 1 mile with Chill and .7 miles with Phoenix. And I didn't have to rush over to the start either. I can't say I felt much better at this point, though. In general, I just felt tired and drained. The "gut issue" seems like it's starting to take a toll and is STILL going on with no improvement now 15 days later. I had probiotics at home, but I'm thinking they're no good now and really need to get some more. I think that might be what I need to help my body fight off whatever this is. I generally have no nausea or stomach pain, but this morning was an exception, unfortunately. You'd think I would have lost weight from this after two weeks, though, but nope. The fat ass remains. Not lucky enough to have THAT kind of bug. Haha. Just 8lbs. That's all I ask! Just 8lbs!! Haha.

Anyway, John went back to the car and under his sleeping bag for the rest of the time after the race. I saw his arm briefly when it reached out to take his box of girl scout cookies. Haha. I meandered over to the start and lined up behind the group of usual fast guys. Ciara wasn't there, as she had told me at Old Mountain, so I had absolutely no female competition that I could see. Although it's sometimes nice, it was also kind of a bummer since I really wanted to push myself to see where I am fitness-wise. Luckily, I ended up with two of the guys I had been racing near at Old Mountain. I beat them there, but just barely, so I figured I would use them as my competition for the day to keep me from slacking off which worked out well.

The race started off fast as it always does due to the mostly flat double-track section before veering off onto the trail briefly and then a long stretch back on the flat. This was a fast section for me two years ago, and it was basically the same pace this year. The thing about Mike's races is that you rarely ever get the same course twice so I had no idea if this would be like last year's or more like the year before. You really couldn't know until around mile 3. Haha. The difference between the two courses the previous year's was a half mile, so I had to be prepared for 6.7 ish as opposed to 6.2 ish. Haha.

I stayed right with these two guys, and we caught up with a 3rd who would take the most of awesome spill with a huge smile on his face. Haha. Unfortunately, it messed him up a bit pace-wise and he slowed down significantly until the end. The two other guys really aren't great on single track so I passed both just after we entered the woods on the other side of the power lines. One followed and would run right with me for the rest of the singletrack back to the the flat double-track. He wasn't annoyingly close which was nice. I could tell he was actually just trying to stay with me as opposed to using me to pace off of. In the latter case, I won't tolerate it and usually step aside to let them by. But he was fine and actually kept me in check.

Unfortunately, right at mile 3.06, I felt drained and badly wanted to puke. All I could think about was that the puke would be bright green from the Honey Stinger chews I had eaten prior to the start. Haha. I don't normally use those, but I had a free sample pack in my bag. I wasn't even thinking they might not go over well with my stomach, but oh man, I seriously had moments when I thought I might actually puke mid-race for the first time ever. So from this point on, I just felt really flat, like I had nothing left in the tank. I was trying my best, but assumed it probably wasn't great speed wise. I realized at this point that the course was definitely going to be the longer distance since we did the exact same route around the power lines as last year. This caught me by surprise last year so, today, I was prepared. When we finally came back out to the flat double-track section, the guy I was with pulled ahead of me which actually ended up being a good thing since it kept me from backing off. I had to give 100% to stay close to him. He ended up getting away from me once we entered the woods again and hit the short, steep bitch of a hill. This is where I felt the most drained so he got a good jump on me that I never could regain. I was happy to be crossing the pond bridge since that meant the finish was near. The run around the field hurt, but yay to be finishing on the other side. 1st female. 12th overall. 48:40. I had 6.59 miles on my watch. Others had something around 6.6-6.7 for the most part. I was actually pretty shocked with the time, thinking it had to pretty close pace-wise to 2016 (2017 isn't comparable since it was run in snow). 7:21 avg pace in 2016 to 7:23 avg pace today. For being about .4-ish longer AND nearly double the elevation gain, I was pretty happy! Stunned, in fact. I'm hoping that it's a good sign for me that my speed is finally on the mend. To feel sick and still run close to the same as 2016 when I felt good might be proof of that. We'll see, though! Full Results.

I got in a very SLOW cool down with Chill after. 1.7 miles. Random mileage since I just made up a loop. Changed clothes and stayed for awards. More beer for my individual win and then another WTAC team win for both the men and women. We divvied up the two 12 packs between us all.

It was off to the usual Oak Hill Tavern for Belleville post-race. I mean to get group photos for these, but I always forget. I'm especially mad I didn't get a photo of the traditional Oak Hill stuffie. John's phone was dead so he was much more sociable which I love. He did read an entire book while we were there, too, though. Haha. A few of stayed on an extra hour probably and then John and I made our north. I stopped into Foolproof briefly for some cans. Heard, "Hey, Leslie," as I was on my way out. This always catches me off guard when I'm elsewhere in New England and run into people I know randomly and not at a race. Haha. It was Nick Fox, a bonafide, paid member of the Tuesday Night Turtles. I just chatted for a minute then we drove north. The drive went by fast it seemed and we were home by 7pm, I was crazy tired at this point, but I stayed up to watch The Walking Dead, but I didn't cry this time! No more waking up on a Monday with puffy eyes. :)

Good song. A little optimistic for me, but maybe that's what I need. Here's a funny meme first, though...