Mid-week Thoughts

1. I am a terrible, terrible, terrible racer. "Races" are what caused my mental anguish to a point that I quit cross country my senior year of high school. And I was decent back then! I have a 10k coming up this weekend - a real one, not a virtual one. The Virtual 10k was fun. The real 10k scares me. It scares me so much that I was driving my running route on Monday and was completely intimidated by every.single.mile. Any tips on how to get past my mental block on racing? I feel better, now, having a few (10) years under my belt and I know I am racing myself, and no one else matters. But, the thought of being in a race situation just makes me want to stop running. I'd rather go do 16 miles, uphill both ways, and in the snow.

2. My children puked starting Saturday night, and it ended yesterday, finally. On my run Monday (the one I was freakishly intimidated over) I went into it feeling tired, gross, and slow. I was sure I was doing 12 minute miles, and I was fine with it. Here were the actual results:

1 - 9:37
2 - 9:22
3 - 8:52 (Huh?)
4 - 11:53 (Oh yeah. Walked a good part of that one after I hit the 5k mark.)

Turned out to be quite a great run. I really needed that. Then I had my bootie handed to myself on a platter in the very easy Yoga class that night. Running before Yoga = Hard.

3. Ran 8 miles with some teammates this morning. Very very windy. Great temperature - upper 50's. I just never knew (or I had blocked it from my mind) what an energy sucker the wind can be. I felt like it was a crawl. And then when the last two miles felt super fast, they weren't. Doh!

1 - 10:16
2 - 10:00
3 - 10:03
4 - 9:57
5 - 11:34 (this was when we stood around taking layers off. Super hot.)
6 - 10:13
7 - 10:14
8 - 9:54

4. While a rough running week, and rough family week with so much sickness, it has been a great week in many other ways...

* My Team is awesome. I'm thankful more and more every day for their support and friendship.

* My Coaches are fabulous. And knowledgeable. And caring. And awesome.

* I hit the $4,000 mark: my original fundraising goal for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I plan to shatter that original goal, and get myself to the $6,500 mark. There is nothing that will stop me. Every dollar raised is a dollar that is going to something so much bigger than myself. I love it. Truly life changing.

* I turned in my "recommitment" paperwork for the Rock 'n Roll San Diego marathon. After I finished filling it out, I breathed a sigh of relief, and felt awesome. I smiled. And got excited! As I folded it up to put it in the envelope, I got quite teary. It was an emotional and intense moment. What an awesome feeling to have come so far. Yay!

* Blogger support has been, and always is, incredible. Thank you all so much for your words of advice and friendship. Warm fuzzies.

Getting my run in tomorrow will be tough. Has to happen sometime, though. Might be late and on the treadmill. Friday is off, and Saturday is the big race. Freaking.Out. We have a "boot block" Saturday afternoon from 11am - 4pm, benefitting The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If you're a local and you cross the intersection of Central and Hillside, honk for my Team, and bring some change to throw in our buckets! 

Have a great rest of the week!