Non-Racing Racing Weekend - Part 2

In yesterday's Part 1, I left off having picked up my shirt and bib for Sunday's Holiday Half Marathon. The bib was pretty festive and I had a nice surprise when I saw it because I'd forgotten that they put our names on them. I, of course, chose Coyote. :)

After the expo, I went to my grandpa's to shower and get ready for the 50th Anniversary party I was taking him too. The party was for his compadres (my grandparents baptized their daughter) and they had asked me to bring him to the party and then take photos while I was there. It wasn't long but it was more time on my feet when I should have been resting. I enjoy taking photos though so it was fun. The family photos were a riot too. Lots of characters in 5 generations. 

When it was over, I took my grandpa back home and then went back to my apartment to get ready for the next party for my friend Mondi's 40th birthday. It was a surprise party and I was looking forward to it because I hadn't seen her since Halloween and I hadn't seen most of the crowd in forever because of all the racing and traveling I did this year. I planned to leave around 10 to get home and get a good night's sleep before the next day. I'd also planned to eat before I went to make sure I ate the "proper" pre-race meal. But when I was getting ready for the party, I said "screw it, I'm going to have fun tonight". And if that meant I skipped Sunday's race, so be it.

So I went to the party and ate some awesome carne asada and carnitas tacos, had cake, and danced and laughed until almost midnight. I love to dance. I cannot not dance if I hear music. I can't help it. I hear the beat and my body just moves on its own. :) I was so tired when I got home. It had been a very long day but it was totally worth it. I really need to make sure I get to our gatherings more often because I heard "I haven't seen you in so long" too many times. :( It wasn't until then that I realized how much I missed out on the past year. 

Anyway, I fell into bed and set the alarm for the morning and figured I would see how I felt when it went off whether I would race or not. And oh boy, did I want to go back to sleep when the alarm went off but I got up and started getting ready. Only I wasn't prepared and it was a scramble to get my stuff together and I cut it pretty close getting to the start. But luckily, they started a little late. When I was walking up to the start, I heard the announcer say something about the Jester Nation and I realized that RIF #121 Ed was there so I found him and got a picture.

Love his Christmas Jester hat! 

Notice I'm wearing headphones? I don't usually race with music. The only time I've done that is at the 2 12HRs and at JJ100 but I felt like I needed it for this race. There weren't as many people dressed up for this one but still a lot of festive gear. No Santa hat for me on but I did wear a green bandanna and red calf sleeves. :)

The race started at 8:15 and it was pretty crowded. A lot more people (about 5000) than I expected for a home town race. This race starts and ends inside the LA County Fairgrounds and goes around Bonelli and the surrounding areas. I knew it would be a rolling hills course and my only goal was to finish in 3 hours and I wasn't even sure I would hit that. I figured I would probably walk the hills. I had purposely not worn my Run It Fast shirt (sorry Josh :( ) because I did not have the proper attitude going into this. My level of caring on whether I completed this was non-existent. I hadn't even told my mom I was racing it because she lives a few blocks from the Fair and I knew she would probably come see me and I didn't want her to see my suck. But I knew I would be pissed at myself for not getting to the starting line so that's why I showed up. Who knew what was going to happen.

I wore my garmin for this race mostly because I wanted to at least TRY to get in by 3 hours. I wish I could say I found a deep reserve and raced it well but I didn't. I just ran. It was kind of fun running thru the Fair and we got to run on the NHRA drag strip (twice - leaving and returning to the Fair grounds). And I loved running thru Bonelli because the familiarness was nice. I knew what was coming and that I'd done it tons of times before and I could do it again. I think the fact that I was familiar with what the course was like helped me run it better than I expected because suddenly it was mile 9 and I looked at my watch and did some quick calculations and figured that all I had to do was 12 min miles for the rest of the run and I could finish around 2:30. So that was the new goal and it helped at the end because everything hurt: my feet, my knees, my left hamstring, my left shin. After just 13 flipping miles. Sigh. 

But I finished. 13.44 miles in 2:30:25. And I got my medal which I thought was cool and I love the green ribbon. 

So the race didn't totally suck. I beat my time goal by a lot more than I expected/hoped. I'd only walked 3 times for a little bit of the steepest hills. It was great to see all the Students Run LA there. Loved seeing all of them and hope they continue with running for a long, long time. I wish I'd started back then! I also got to see some fun costumes and got to see Ed. Who, by the way, parked himself at mile 13 after he finished to greet/cheer on the returning runners.

The way he gives back is the total opposite of how I feel I'm doing right now. I'm so sorry that I've gone MIA. I have some things to figure out and I need to get my head on straight and then I'll be back and I won't be so anti-socialnetwork anymore. I hope. I know that it's because I'm still so tired. After Sunday's half, I went home and went to bed. And pretty much stayed there the rest of the day, sleeping off and on. My legs and feet were really sore and I was wiped. I went back to running a 1 mile streak saver yesterday but it took me 20 minutes to get out the door for that. I just sat on my bed debating whether or not to go and finally made it out the door. I also am still not bike commuting. Half of me feels guilty about this and half of me could care less. I feel like right now my theme song could be this:

It IS getting better though. This morning, I made it out the door without any debate. I planned another 1 mile streak saver and ended up doing 5K and it didn't suck. It was slow but I felt like a runner. I even thought about doing 4 miles but decided that wouldn't be smart. No bike commute today because I took the day off but at least the thought doesn't make me cringe. 

Next weekend will be more of the same. I signed up for back-to-back halfs this coming weekend and I intend to get to the start line for both of them but not race them. I CANNOT add more DNSs to the year and I'm just praying I won't add another DNF. I HAVE to finish 2012 on a positive note. This has been an amazing year for me and I don't want a crappy December to be the thing that lingers when I think back on 2012. If that means it takes me longer to recover, then I'm okay with it. I don't really have anything planned for 2013 yet anyway. Mostly because I don't know what I want to do yet.

So the weekend wasn't pretty but I got 3 more races in, got a fun shirt and a cool medal, and had some fun. That's what counts, right?