2020 Super Sunday 5-Mile Race- USATF-NE GP #1

Finish Line of the race

Last Sunday was the first race in the USATF-NE Grand Prix Road Race Series at the Super Sunday 5-Mile in Cambridge, MA. I voted for this one back in November since I loved seeing a new bidder for the 5-mile. Ribfest had run its course for me. I also love races in the city so I was really excited when it got chosen for the 5 mile championship race and looked forward to it. Fast-forward to 2 weeks out from the race, and I was feeling a little nervous about my hip. I already accepted the fact I woudn't be in top shape for a 5-mile race, but I definitely couldn't accept it if my hip wasn't healed. There was some consolation after running the track meet pain-free (in the hip), but that was only one week of no hip pain. What if it came back?!

Despite being nervous, I was a little reckless with the runs I chose to do in the days leading up to the race. My nervousness should have made me rethink the run down Mt Kearsarge North on Friday. After running downhill for almost 3 miles, I did "feel" the hip. It wasn't painful per se, but just feeling it was enough to skip running on Saturday and just hit the bike. What I did not mention to anyone prior to the race, since I didn't want to sound like a sandbagger, was that that same run down the mountain destroyed my quads. I honestly forgot I wasn't in downhill running shape so it didn't cross my mind. I woke up Saturday morning with really sore quads. And on race day... they were even worse. SO sore. I already had the head cold that I couldn't hide with the nasal-speak so I didn't want to add on one more pre-race excuse to that and the fact I've hardly run in 2 months. Haha.

By Sunday morning, the hip pain was gone, but the head cold was in full force along with totally trashed quads. Good thing I didn't expect much from the day's race. I knew the course would be on the faster side, but I honestly didn't expect to break 32 minutes. I hadn't been able to run under a 31:40 since before my chronic injury, and that was way back in 2016 at Bobby Doyle. I just assumed I would tank around mile 4 and finish just over 32 minutes. But really, I didn't care. Being a championship in the city, this race would bring in a huge field, and it certainly did. I had no expectations coming into this. Also didn't help that some of my usual masters competitors have not been injured and are now running their fastest times wearing the Vaporfly's. I can't compete with just the shoes alone, nevermind my lack of running. So I actually went into this still excited about it. I wanted to see where I was fitness-wise and if the hip would hold up. It was nice to have my focus elsewhere instead of my finish place.

John stayed home for this one since I wouldn't stay long after the race. I had to work at Conway Fire for the overnight shift at 6pm so I wanted to get home. I had a goal of leaving at noon (and literally left at 12:01 without even watching the time). For me, 2.5 hours of driving is a "short" drive so it wasn't bad at all. It's amazing how much people freak out to see I've traveled "so far" for a race. If I didn't there wouldn't be many races for me to do. But that's ok. No one understands my life in general... unless you read this blog. Haha.

On the way down, I had my keto "bread" which is half whey protein and stopped at Starbucks for my new go-to pre-race meal, the Gruyere and Bacon Egg Bites. I started this new routine before Cape Cod. Granted, I haven't had too many races to test this out, but so far, it's been perfect as a pre-race meal. Plus, they are SO good.

I got there super early on purpose. Got one of the best parking spaces in the Kendall Square Garage. All of the race stuff and start/finish were right outside the garage door. It was great. Most of us have to walk farther for nearly every other race. I ran into Mark Capperella right away...and I would proceed to run into Mark more than anyone today. Haha. Weird how that happens. I had a lot of time to kill so I went back to my car where it was warm to slowly ease into race mode. I needed to loosen up from the sitting and went out for an easy mile. I ran off the beaten path for most of it to scope out a last minute bathroom before the start (when the porta potty lines are insane). Amazingly, there were quite a few places there in Cambridge. Haha. I felt alright on the warm up except for the quads. My head cold didn't cause any problems, and I didn't expect it to during the race. Brought my Kleenex along for the ride, though.

I went back to the car for a bit. I was meeting my new teammates on HFC Striders at the start line at 9:15 for another warm up. Luckily, I found Mary right away. She a singlet for me to use for the race. It's old one and a little big, but they are doing a new design for this year's gear so there was nothing left for me. This would do. I just needed something with the team logo. We ran into two of the guys on the team, but they went on ahead while we waited and just jogged around the start area. Finally, most of the women showed up and we went out for 1.5 miles. That was all I needed. I'm not used to warming up as a team so it was a little weird. Since we were chatting, I was actually slightly out of breath. Haha. They did lose me a few times since they kept crossing roads in front of cars who had green lights. I just won't do that. Not worth the risk for me. Drivers can be so distracted and running close to traffic terrifies me. So I kept having to catch back up. Haha. Just have to say that EVERYONE I've ever run with at road races does this, not just my new teammates. And this isn't because I'm from rural NH. I'm actually from a city and have lived in the Boston suburbs (and other cities). I'd like to think it's just because I'm not impatient when it comes to stopping and waiting in order to remain uninjured and/or alive. But anyway, all-in-all it was cool to finally have a team to warm up with.

I went back to the car for final race prep...which meant stripping down to the singlet. Brr. I did a hip rotator muscle energy stretch that Kim Nedeau showed me. Not only does it activate the glutes, it also loosens up the hips. This is also a new pre-race go-to of mine. I finally went up and got into the corral. They didn't have an elite women's starting area, but I went for that area anyway and moved up to the Whirlaway group. I started to have second thoughts at this moment when I realized this is the team I line up with at every race. This is the team I'm closest to. Should I have set my misgivings aside and joined them? Well, maybe. There are reasons why I've never joined them. I find in general it's too Grand Prix focused and the owner is a bit controlling of the women. Christin gets only negative or zero recognition for her ultrarunning/mountain running successes. In fact they are often brushed aside as to the reason she gets injured. I've hear Christin and Amy both say, "He won't let me..." in reference to races they've wanted to do. So this has been my hesitance. with this team. Most of them are also too serious in training for me... but then there's Christin. We train similarly, if you can even call it training. So standing there, I did have some regret that I might have made the wrong decision. But my decision isn't forever. I can always change my mind in a year.

Someone told the RD that the women were supposed to have part of the start line so he announced that and the men moved to the right quickly. We moved up. Now, I could see who all was there. So many people I "know" but don't know, but we smiled at each other and said hey like we were friends. It's just a cool familiarity with the usuals. I love that about the New England racing community.

The RDs were short and sweet and then we were off. The start was super tight, but it's Cambridge; what can you do? They posted a video of the start from up above on Facebook. Thought it was cool.
See video here. We start and finish on this same road which was a straightaway before a sharp left turn where some dude almost took a few of us out because he needed to run the corner tight even if other people were there. 😠 Luckily, this road was wide so we were able to spread out from here. I felt really good and not like I started out to fast. Looking at my 1 mile split (6:07), it appears too fast, but I really never felt like it was since it was completely flat. I don't regret my pacing at all. My effort was solid and never felt too fast or too slow except up briefly the hill at mile 4, but that was because I lost focus.

Mile 1. Paul Hammond destroyed me today.

The course is mostly flat but had two decent climbs so it's a generally fast course. Mile 2 had the first climb which I felt like I pushed hard on. 6:27 for that. I had been focusing on certain people ahead of me whom I could see since the start. Used them to pull me along. The course took two consecutive sharp right turns in mile 3. It was crazy how many people were in this race. I was getting passed while passing others. Just before the next hill, I noticed I was gaining on Nick Fox so I decided to focus on catching him. This extra push up the hill started to make me feel queasy in my stomach and I found myself staring at the ground and worrying about it. Once I was aware of this, I actually talked myself back into the game. In my head I told myself to stop focusing on your stomach. Pay attention to the race. And strangely enough, I looked back up, paid attention to the running...and the queasiness was gone. Weird. Has that issue been mental the majority of the time? I wonder. Obviously, Boston was not, but I wonder about other races now. Who knows? (Miles 3 and 4: 6:24, 6:17).

But anyway, I caught Nick just as we came over the hill and we ran side by side for most of the last mile. It really helped having him there for that push, but just before the final right turn to the finish, he pushed ahead to outkick me. As we came around the corner, I noticed someone on the side throwing up. It only took a second to realize it was my friend, Sybil Shapiro! And it's cool that Leslie Poitras actually caught the look on my face just as I'm realizing it's Sybil.

Nick in the green shorts outkicking me. Haha.

You can see the concern on my face when I realized it was Sybil.

I made a beeline right for her and told her, "Come on! Run with me!" She got right up and bolted towards the finish before she vomited again. Leslie got an awesome play-by-play of Sybil for this whole ordeal. I won't share that, but I'll share one. We were laughing about it afterwards so she won't mind me posting this. It's also funny because I know Brad Klinedinst who is running past her.

I pushed as hard as I could to the finish since once the clock came into view. I couldn't believe it. I was going to break 32 minutes easy. About 10 yards from the finish, Ralph Lufkin passed me. I said, "Aww, Ralph!" and apparently was smiling about it because you can see it in the finish line photo at the top of this post. Haha. Ralph is just ahead of me in Tuesday Night Turtles singlet. I crossed the line in a chip time of 31:19! What?! My fastest 5-mile race since 2016 on barely any running for 2 months?! Sweet! Ralph gave a quick fist bump, then Christin came up to me just as I noticed Sybil was doubled over so I made a beeline to her (I apologized to Christin later for blowing her off). I stood there for a few seconds with Sybil until she was ok. Gave her some space as we left the finish area. (Oh yeah, mile 5 split was 6:09).

I was so happy with my time. I know this is a fast course, but it's no downhill Westfield 5K or something. The two hills were enough to slow you down a bit. I was surprised not to finish that far back from a few people I normally compete against. This was a real boost to my confidence that I really am faster now than I was a year ago.... or at least more fit. I really think the spinning was the trick to keep me in decent shape for the short stuff. It's the long stuff that I'm going to struggle with, but I'll get there eventually. Not expecting much out of New Bedford Half and Frank Nealon other than good training runs for VCM. I just won't have the time to get in HM shape with this course I'm taking. I'm ok with it. And I'm really just happy to be throwing down a time like I did today on very little training. My base is good so I'll get back to the distance pretty quickly, I hope. My goal for next Saturday is 13-15 miles, weather permitting. I've gotten in some good 10 mile runs, so I'm ready to just see how I feel going a little farther. I can't do any other long runs until this course is over, but it will be good to have time to do one decent run over the next two weeks.

I stayed after the race to have my two free beers and food, but ended up standing in line for the good beer for almost 45 minutes. It was really good stuff from Mighty Squirrel, but by the time I got it, I was freezing and hungry, and I had been alone this whole time. I eventually found my teammates in the food line, but that was also long so by the time I got my free chicken bites, they were long gone, and I had to leave. That's something the race could improve on, but they were dealing with a much larger field this year, and other than that, I thought it was a well done race. I really liked it and would definitely do it again even if it wasn't a GP race. I probably would have had more fun post race if I didn't have to rush home.

I was glad I had about 3 hours to hang out with John and the dogs before I went to Conway Fire for my first shift there. I was at least working with someone I've known for years. This is such a different world to me since I've never been on the fire side of things. There's just so much more to know and do. The station is SO nice, too. The crew quarters is huge, and women have their own bathroom!! There's a treadmill and a stair climber and weights so working out there is a possibility. I'd like to pick up more shifts, but there really aren't many available. My main job is to come in for second ambulance calls. I've been listening in in hopes of getting one, but that didn't happen until Friday when I was already working in North Conway. Grr. The overnight shift went ok. We had two car accidents, but no transports, so it was super easy. I just couldn't go back to sleep when we got back at 3am. Got up a 5am to wash the truck before I left at 6am. I'm glad I got that first shift out of the way, but it did set me up for a huge sleep deficit that I'm in right now a week later. Haha.

Funny. This was in my FB memories from today 12 years ago at the Children's Museum in Monterey. The only 2 photos I took that day were of John in the "ambulance". This job wasn't even a blip on my radar then.

That's a good segue into John. One thing I forgot to mention in the last post was that John's school is closing... well kind of. When we got the email, I wasn't surprised. John and I had literally just talked about this and he said none of the students thought the school would still be open next year. They just can't make it financially with so many kids leaving the last two years. Their vision is to turn it into a boarding school and sell the land off for senior co-housing. I don't see either of those happening. And also when I said "kind of", I got a separate email that they wanted to keep the school going for one more year, but only for 6 students, the two who would be seniors next year and 4 others they felt did well there. One of them was John. While I thought it was great they chose John, I just don't think it's a good idea for him to stay there, especially knowing that it's just one more year. He'd have to transfer to the public high school as a sophomore. That sounded like a bad idea. Better for him to start as a freshman with the rest of his class. I'm both nervous and excited for him. I'm nervous about it being overwhelming and strict, but he'll get used to it. He'll be around kids who live in the area. The Career and Tech center offers so much. I know he's going to struggle a bit, but once he gets the hang of it, he'll be ok. It also takes the financial burden off of Bryan for The Community School. And that's a good segue into Bryan. Haha.

So Bryan finally went to court for the child endangerment case, but I guess it wasn't the trial. Instead it was their findings after his psych eval. He texted me afterward which surprised me, but it shouldn't have. We actually had a good conversation via text over the weekend about his mental state and how he feels about missing John, stuff like that. He said there's nothing wrong. Said he feels great and healthy. I told him that I did believe that there was something off mentally, and he actually didn't get angry or defensive. So when he texted me after he got out of court, I could tell he was sad. They found him legally incompetent to stand trial. He's been appointed a State attorney and forced treatment at the VA. He couldn't really answer many questions because the court will only deal with his attorney because he isn't allowed to be "an active participant" in this. I told him that I see positives to this. First off, if he complies, then the case is very likely to get dismissed. Also, getting treatment is exactly what John has asked him to do so this could save his relationship with John. I'll admit I had one selfish thought in that I was glad that this happened. Not in a vindictive way, but just for the fact that all this time, it wasn't just me who thought something was wrong. Everything I hid from people the last few years of our marriage because I was embarrassed actually had solid ground. I was right to feel there was something wrong with him. This makes me feel better, but that doesn't mean I'm cheering about it. Like I've written before, the whole thing is just sad. I mean, imagine being in his shoes thinking everything is fine to all of a sudden having people tell you you're crazy and then that being backed up by a mental health specialist. I haven't talked to him since so I don't know how he's handling it. Hopefully he keeps me updated as he finds things out. He has no idea right now if his treatment is in-patient or out-patient. I know he'll tell me that part when the time comes.

Overall, I think this could lead to a good outcome. I hope so at least for John's sake. He hasn't had a dad for over 5 months. Well, he's there, but John doesn't want to see him. John's having to spend more time alone at home because of this since I work 24 hour shifts. (Just another reason going to school at Kennett will be good. New friends will be closer). He and Bryan's relationship did have some positives to it so he's definitely missing out on that. There is no "stepdad" potential either. I don't even make an ounce of effort. I have too much baggage to put on someone else, and I can't do that. Not that I've had any opportunities anyway. Haha. So single mom life it is.

So, anyway, I'm writing this on the 82nd hour of my 96 hour work week. This has been tough, but I had to do it. Looking forward to my AEMT class starting tomorrow. I'll be home every night and no work again until next Sunday's 24 hour shift. I can't wait to be in my own bed for 6 days straight. Tough 3 weeks for sure, but worth it in the end. We'll find out Tuesday when we should be getting our raises. I'm hoping by March 1st so I can give the overtime a break for a bit. No idea if I'll have any time to update my blog over the next two weeks. Maybe next Sunday I can do a quick blurb, but we'll see. Since I was at work for 4 days this week, I'll just do a quick recap of the week so I'm caught up.

Monday, 2/3- 24 hour shift. 20 minute Tabata Ride with Robin (Peloton) on my work spin bike.

Got to work to find the place a disgusting mess. Raw chicken blood spilled all in the refrigerator. I made Dale clean up his mess before he left, but he still walked out leaving a spilling over trash can and the ambulance a mess... also with the trash spilling over. I went right to the manager. I spent over an hour cleaning up his filth.

Dirty dish and Skoal can. You can just see the trash takeout box on the table. There was also trash on the floor.

On a bright note, one of our recent patients stopped by to thank Jeff and me for coming to her house to check her out after she fainted. So sweet. And this is a rarity in our profession. She gave us each $10 gift cards to The Met. I couldn't believe it. Unnecessary, but so appreciated.

Tuesday,2/4- 10.3 mile run through Cranmore Shores up Tasker Hill to Allard Hill then turning around. 1:23:19. 8:05 avg pace. 886ft of elevation gain. Took a 3 mile walk on Corridor 19 with the dogs in the afternoon.

So spoiled

She puts herself in all the warm blankets

Wednesday, 2/5- 2nd 24 hour shift. Still couldn't get up early to workout. Head cold made my head pound for a few hours. Did the work spin bike instead. Climb Ride with Robin. 20 minutes of a real ass kicking. Dumb post bike selfie...

It was such a gorgeous, mild day, and most of the snow had melted on the trail out back so I actually got in a 2-mile walk. That would have been unheard of on Feb 5th last year. Haha.

Thursday, 2/6- The opposite of Wednesday. Snowed all morning so it was a treadmill day. I decided not to do a Peloton workout and instead mile repeats with one 800m at the end. 10 miles total in 1:10:16. 7:03 avg pace. I didn't feel good in the first mile so I kept the treadmill at the same speed for the second mile. Felt fine after that and worked my way down in pace.

After my run, I showered then snowblowed the driveway for an hour. It had snowed way less than expected. Only about 3 inches so it was easy. Just as I finished it started raining. Perfect timing. We didn't do anything outside otherwise. Weather was gross.

Friday, 2/7- 3rd 24 shift for the week. Woke up to everything covered in ice. The weather was SO nasty all day. I couldn't believe we didn't have a single car accident in North Conway. I rolled down my window as I was driving down my driveway on the way to work. The ice stayed. Haha.

Craig and I did a call as soon as we got there. Hadn't even gotten in the truck. Get on scene. I go in the back to find trash all over the floor and the used glucometer still sitting out on the counter with a dirty (blood on it) strip still in it. WTF. I was so mad. Dirty nasal cannula also sitting there in the action area. Manager heard from me again after I messaged Dale. He drove all the way down to apologize. Haha. He was definitely spoken to AGAIN and I guess he stepped up his game on Saturday according to his partner. Haha. I've fucking had it with his lazy ass.

We stopped at The Met on the way back from the hospital. I used my gift card and actually ordered a carb-full breakfast sandwich. I knew I wouldn't be eating for hours otherwise since we had to do the monthly cleaning on the truck once we got back.

Around 1pm I decided to do stair repeats instead of the bike for 30 minutes. 13 stairs up and down. Watch recorded just over 2 miles without using the GPS. Might be close to accurate, but I don't know. Had the nastiest weather all day long until it turned to wet snow later in the evening. Had me dreaming of being in Hilton Head again.

Saturday, 2/8- Woke up to my car covered in a layer of 2in-thick ice. No exaggeration. Took me 35 minutes to scrape it all off. My fingers were dying. Finally leave and start passing cars covered in ice. Lazy. This is the stuff that kills people when it flies off your car, morons.

Got home to find a wall of frozen solid snow that had been made by the road plow. Slush that had frozen overnight. I had to break out the regular old shovel for this stuff. I first shoveled the light snow layer that fell in the parking area then spent 30 minutes just digging out my mailbox. Maybe only 10 feet of the driveway to shovel but I was looking at at least another hour. I literally had to break it up layer by layer and shovel it off layer-by-layer.

I had gotten part way through the mailbox section. I wasn't using that blue shovel.

As soon as I finished the mailbox area, I saw a private plow guy pull up at the house next door. Looks like the poor vacation renters complained. I decided I was going to flag down the plow guy if he drove my direction. Sure enough, he did. I flagged him down and said, "If I gave you $20 would you just plow the end of my driveway?" He smiled and said he would do it for free. Took him about 1 minute. I had the cash in my pocket. I held up the $20 to try and make him take it, but he smiled and waved at me as he drove off. Wow! I was floored. He saved my day and my back. It probably helped that I was in my uniform since he knew I was a local. I was SO thankful. If he only knew.

I had a haircut at 12:30pm so I barely had time to run. It was SO nice out, though, so I drove down to Chocorua Lake to run the roads there. They are so well-plowed. Still not fast moving uphill with some softness, but totally runnable. I wore screwshoes again, but not sure they helped at all. 5.1 miles in 41:30. 429ft of elevation gain. It was mostly all up hill on the way out and downhill on the way back. Mile 1 was 8:51 and Mile 5 was 7:20.

I didn't really have time, but Batter Up was literally 2 minutes away so I drove down there for a cinnamon roll for John and some keto bagels and fat bombs for me. I usually make all my own stuff, but her bagels are awesome. Everything she makes is awesome. If you're driving up Rt 16 to Conway, stop at Batter Up, the last business on your left in Chocorua Village just before you climb the hill.

By the time I got home I only had 20 minutes to get showered and head out. I woke John up before I left. Haircut was at JC Penny. I originally wanted just a straight 1/2 trim, but I gave in to layers. I think I like it. Haha. Just different. After that I had to go to REI to buy a new pair of Microspikes. My knock-offs made it less than 10 uses before breaking. Ugh. My last pair of knock-offs lasted just as long as my previous pairs of real Microspikes, but not this time. I decided to just bite the bullet and buy a real pair instead of taking a risk on a different brand of knock-offs.

After I got home, John and I took the dogs on a snowshoe walk in the Albany Town Forest. We only went a mile, but it was something.

I felt like I was in a hurry all day, and I pretty much was. I only had time to sit down for a bit before I headed to Shawnee Peak for the second Racing to the Moon Uphill Ski Race. If this was still a weekly series, I would have skipped it, but since it's only 3 times the whole winter, I had to go. Plus, I do the registration for Andrew. On the drive over, I caught a glimpse of the moon. Wow!!! It was amazing. The pics don't do it justice.

Shortly after we got set up, Andrew and this guy, John, headed out to mark the course. I brought along a protein bar that I bought awhile ago and decided to eat that so I'd have energy for the race. Well, within 5 minutes of eating it, my stomach started to hurt. It got worse, but never too bad throughout the registration. We had 11 people there again. Small turnout, unfortunately. This time I wasn't the only girl, but the other two were young girls who just did the touring option (started early just to complete the course). Other than them, I was once again the only woman in the race. Luckily it was so cold out that I didn't feel my stomach ache once I stepped outside. Although it was really cold, the moon was full and there was zero wind. I didn't need my headlamp for the way up except for the last section through the glades. It was cool, too because the first part had the moon at our backs so I could see my shadow skiing in front of me. Haha. I don't know how, but I beat last month's Strava segment by 4 minutes! I'm thinking one of these readings is off because that just isn't possible. Haha. I felt really good the whole way up to the summit. Luckily, I was so warm that the cold didn't bother me in the transition or the whole way down. I don't wear goggles for these, but I really haven't had an issue with that since the downhill is only a few minutes. Ended up finishing 3rd overall in the race again. It was only one lap since we went to the summit. No splits because I accidentally stopped my watch instead of hitting the split button at the top. Luckily, I noticed before I left the transition so I could start it again. 2.2 miles total in about 35:39 (didn't stop my watch right away when I finished). 1,226ft of elevation gain.

I'm messing with my watch because I kept hitting start by accident. I never wear mittens, but I did tonight. That's why I had watch button issues. Haha.

As soon as I walked inside and felt warm, I also felt the stomach. The ache got worse and worse. I changed clothes and then attempted to eat the pizza and drink a beer. I thought maybe it would help, but oh no. I started feel like I was in a daze and just as Andrew finished the raffle, I knew I was about to hurl. I didn't say anything. Just casually got up and walked down the stairs. Just as I hit the bottom of the stairs, everything came up. Somehow I managed to stop myself from barfing all over the place and made it to the toilet where I threw up 4 times. So gross. I hate throwing up!! I cleaned myself and walked back upstairs acting like nothing was amiss. I never told anyone I got sick. Haha. But I was suddenly really drained and felt so tired. I basically had no sustenance for hours. Luckily, whatever was in that bar that made me sick was immediately out of my system and I felt totally fine in that sense. I have no idea what made me sick. I had another one at home so I looked at the ingredients when I got home and there was nothing amiss. The only thing that stood out was the egg whites. I had an RX Bar that made me almost as sick. It also had egg whites in the ingredients. That was the only common ingredient other than almonds, and I eat almond flour every day. Never had an issue with them. So who knows what it was, but I was thankful it was gone. Haha. Threw that second bar in the trash.

I was SO tired when I got home. I had John take the dogs out. All I could do was shower, throw the laundry in the wash and then get in bed. I was beat.

Sunday, 2/9 (today!)- 4th and final 24 hour shift for the week! The day isn't over, but I'll go ahead and write about its excitement. Ok. There is none. I did get on my spin bike for a good 20 min Tabata ride with Leanne. First time taking a class from this Peloton instructor. It was really good. I honestly feel like I've gotten in a hard workout after only 20 minutes. Other than that, we've only had one fire alarm. As soon as I'm done with this, I'm going to sweep and mop. Haha.

Running for the week: 27.5 miles. 1,312ft of elevation gain. Not great, but getting in my runs this week was a challenge. Headcold, work and laziness combined.

And that's a wrap. Maybe you'll hear from me in a week. Maybe not. Just depends on how busy I am studying. Running will be a challenge, but I'll get 'er done. Probably only a 30-mile week, but I'm doing what I can.