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Feat of Fortitude Part I - Trail Half Marathon



Can you see me?

No need to even set an alarm for this one! The kids wake up at 6am sharp every morning which gave me just enough time to eat breakfast, get dressed, and bike down to the start of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Trail Half Marathon. Love the simplicity of running races! 

The plan was to run relatively easy. There was no need to run a 1:41 and place 3rd overall like I did in 2011. Last year I was worried that maybe there were lots of other girls attempting the Feat of Fortitude*, so I wanted to give myself the best chance of winning**. This year I realized that I could take it a little easier on Saturday and maybe still end up with 2 free entries. So that's what I did.  

* Trail half marathon one day. Half-iron distance triathlon the next day.
**The girl with the fasted combined time from both days wins. 



Except that it didn't feel all that easy. Not physically and certainly not mentally. I was basically in need of an oxygen tank at Mile 2 already. Not good. What was I thinking coming into town on Wednesday night after having been gone for most of the summer? Not much apparently. 

So I kept trudging on and getting passed by girls. 

What? There is no way this girl runs faster than I do. I am going to stay with her! - No you're not. You are going to take it easy and run your own race. - Ok. I am still in the Top 5. I don't need to be Top 3 as long as I can be Top 5. - Stop counting the girls in front of you! Just forget about placing and time. Listen to your body! - But what if people think I have become lazy and slow? - It doesn't matter. You are going to show them tomorrow! - Fine! But if this isn't going to pay off tomorrow you are in big trouble! 

This went on for the 9 long miles. When I would get tired of arguing with myself, I'd try to have a conversation with the people around me. Except that most of the time there wasn't anybody around me. Just me and my lovely thoughts. Twice I thought I was having a conversation with the person next to me only to find out that there music was so loud they didn't even know I was there. Lame!*

After 8 miles I started to feel better. We had most of the climbing behind us. My friend, John, must have said the right thing (which I can't remember) when I ran past him at the aid station. A girl that had been running behind me for a while passed me and I glued myself to her heels. She was going the right speed, there were only 5 more miles to go, and I figured that beating my mind up today was just as bad as beating up my legs. So I basically stopped thinking and just looked at her feet. So nice! 

A couple of miles later I figured that I could drop her and catch up to the girl just ahead of us. So I did. I passed two more girls and decided that this was fun after all! I really did not want to be re-passed so I said bye-bye to the plan and picked up the pace a little which wasn't incredibly hard since we were now going downhill and soon hit pavement.  

* I don't mean to say that running with an iPod is lame. Believe me: I was tempted. But then I decided that (for me) iPod and Fortitude don't go together. I may or may not have wished that I had brought one!

being cheered on by Karl and the boys

I ended up finishing 6th but (by some miracle) won my AG in 1:48:08. I hadn't quite planned on going a whole 7 minutes slower than in 2011 but I convinced myself that I had run a smart race and would be thankful for it the next day. 

I am so proud of you for holding back and not letting your ego take over. - Shut up! I should've run a little faster and at least taken 5th. - But what if this is all you had? What if - even if you had wanted to - you couldn't have run any faster? - I am so done with this. Let's get some chocolate milk. - Yes. Let's! 


I knew it was time to go home and take care of myself but I wasn't going to miss out on the best part of any race: Chat with old friends and make new friends! Congratulations to all!  

I tried hard to implement the lessons learned last year. So I biked home, took an ice bath, ate lots of food, elevated the legs, put on compression socks, tried to take a nap, played with the boys while Karl went on a (much-deserved) 3-hour run, walked over to the gym and spent 90 minutes on active recovery, ate more good food, packed my bags, and went to sleep at 9 pm. 

As you might have guessed already: 

This was my kind of day! 

And I am so thankful that I get to do this stuff! 








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