we ain't neva scared

So yesterday, I, along with six of my teammates, made a serious error in judgment. We decided it was a good idea to run the Running Fit trail half marathon because, hey, it's on the MR race series. Bad choice. While six of us placed in our respective divisions, this race left a scar on our souls. I am not being overly dramatic. I won the female clydesdale division and my time of 1:56:19 was also third in my age group. No, that was not a typo. Why did it take me so long? Imagine a hill so steep, you are forced to slow your run to a labored march. Now, imagine flying down a hill so fast you nearly lose all body control in an attempt to remain upright. The terrain changed between sand, leaves, rocks, dirt, and bridges at steep angles that sway when you run across them. Imagine hitting the wall in a 13-mile race at mile 2. Imagine falling uphill (no style points). Was there ever any flat stretches to regroup and try to recover? No. I literally broke out into a smile when I saw the sign for mile 12. I may have hallucinated once or twice or ten times during the race. I think I saw the devil next to the sign for mile 9. Trail running, it's a hell of a drug.

I stopped at coach Mike's to use his outdoor pool as a makeshift ice bath. It was glorious. By the time I refueled by smashing a 2-lb Qdoba burrito, my body hurt too much to fall asleep so I just laid on the couch for a few hours. This morning, I wasn't as sore as I thought I might be, although DOMS still has 12-24 more hours to fully set in.

Moving on, I got out of work early today because the health department called and said we needed to close and shock the pool immediately. I still don't know what they found, but it scares me a little because I swam laps to loosen up today and I may now have the e.coli virus because of it. After work I took the bike Mike lent me to D&D to get the tires fixed, which was more costly than I had thought, but better than buying a new bike. Jere's old co-worker Mohammed set me up and put the tubes and tires on and from the moment he started talking, I became convinced that the man is certifiably insane. Jere was not being harsh or exaggerating in any of the stories he used to tell us. I asked him if he remembered Jere and he was like, "I knew you looked familiar. I could smell it when you walked by. Everyone has their own smell. Men aren't dogs, they're creatures of instinct and I could tell." Yeah, and I could tell you need to be somewhere where the walls are a little softer, there aren't so many sharp tools around, and your jacket is white with a few more straps. Anyway, the bike is pretty much road-ready, now all I need is a helmet and to get used to riding.

I have a ton of things to do this week and all I wanna do is sleep. Might as well go try to be productive....leave you with this....

Quotes from the weekend:

On falling during the race: "I fell so hard, my body left an imprint in the ground so deep the guy coming behind me fell in. I wish I woulda slept in today." ~Saleem

"I saw stars and my toe hurt like someone had hit it with a hammer." ~ Coach Mike

"I cannot believe you got me out here runnin this crazy trail in the middle of nowhere. I could be sittin in church."
~Jackie
"Oh, don't worry, you WILL be praying."
~Danielle