It was a good month for running. I had a strong Labor Day race, where my goal to beat 1:45 was just barely met. I finished 7th overall and 2nd in my age group. I felt terrific, and enjoyed the very familiar course.
I trained hard. I ran some great distances every weekend and had some great track and hill workouts during the week. I cross trained and put in a ton of mileage. I ran the trail around Rampart Range a few times, preparing to have a better race in the Pony Express. The first time that I ran the Pony Express, I had raced a 5k distance a couple of times and had run the 7 miles around Waldo Canyon once. Once. 7 miles, one time. The Pony Express is 15ish single track miles around the reservoir. It was hell, and I never went back.
My goal in training was to finish it more comfortably. The third time that I ran the trail, however (a mere five days after the Labor Day race), I twisted my ankle 4 miles in. It was pretty minor, and I was able to keep running comfortably. When I showed up on race day, my only goal was to run without injury.
I started out in front, because I felt comfortable about being passed and I wanted to hit the single track without getting stuck behind people. I kept waiting and waiting for a female runner to pass me. I wasn't positive about what place I was in, so I convinced myself that it wasn't first and just kept on running. Eventually, I realized that no one would be passing me as I settled into the last 5 miles of the race. At this point, a volunteer also let me know that I was the first female.
At three miles from the finish, I broke my original goal of finishing uninjured, when I landed on the side of my ankle. It was painful. I stopped for a moment and limped along, but I kept running. Maybe it was the fact that I was in first. Maybe it was the fact that it was cold and I didn't want to just sit along the trail. Either way, I finished the race in first place. Yay?
I was scheduled to run the Colorado Springs Half Marathon the next weekend and the Xterra this weekend. I didn't run the CS Half, because my ankle was a grapefruit. It's been a little over two weeks and I think I've resigned to the fact that I will not be running the Xterra. I tried running on Monday, and it seems that I won't be running for quite awhile. This has me really questioning my half-marathon-a-month goal. I probably won't run a half in October and may bail from the November race, just to ensure that I'm healed. The purpose of my goal was really to get back into shape. I'm thinking that I've at least achieved that and I'm wondering if I should set my sights on something different. Maybe a century ride in 2015, or a fast marathon next fall, perhaps another half ironman. I haven't completely given up yet, but I'm open to new suggestions.
