Notes
Yay! What a day! PR’d, and more importantly, qualified for Natties with my chicks!!!
Right before this race, I was doing strides and I basically got tapped by the dude driving the golf cart! He was literally just plowing through the warm up area where all the teams were, and if I hadn’t stopped, I most definitely would’ve been a pancake. He didn’t even say sorry! Ugh, men. Anywho,
It was a very interesting start. I was in the middle of fixing my spandex when all the sudden, the gun just goes off! The starter said absolutely nothing and none of us were ready to go at all! If he would’ve done that 10 seconds earlier, we no joke would’ve been mid butt slap. ANYWAY, it didn’t phase us too much and I honestly just kinda laughed about it, cause at the time I thought it was just me being dumb and not paying attention. We got out hot but nothing too crazy, so the first K was extremely congested as there were lots of people trying to run up there with us. I got boxed in and Natalie was a few steps ahead, but I could tell that she was slowly gapping the rest of us, so I broke out of the box and caught back up to her. We began to speed up a little around 2k-2.5k, because cotton eye joe was playing and that song gets everyone going! Around 3k, I made a move, (mostly because I thought the girl running right next to me was Natalie and that girl had made a move so I was trying to follow it, then I said “Good job Nat” and turned to see it wasn’t her LOL). But it was good because during race strategy, Chapman gave me the green light to go around 3k due to my lack of closing speed. Thankfully, Natalie went with me (she was just right behind me, not the girl next to me like I had thought) and we started cruising through the second half. I genuinely thought we were closing in on that WASHU pack, but I think we just let them gap us a little too much and by the time we realized we needed to make a big move to get to them, we only had a K left. At 5k I started speeding up in anticipation, knowing that my mediocre kick would not be enough to hold others off. Someone spat and the wind flew it back on my face, which was quite possibly, one of the worst surprises I’ve ever had. Natalie took off and I followed her through to the finish. It’s too bad we couldn’t get those WASHU girls, but Natalie and I built really well and I had so much fun racing with her! I’m good for her mid race and she’s good for me at the end of the race, so we are a good duo.
Overall, there were things we could’ve done better but we stuck to the plan and even exceeded expectations and won the dang thing! The plan was to get out, pack up, and just run like we’ve been running, and that’s basically what we did. I PR'd by like over 20 seconds, qualified for Nats, and my Achilles didn’t snap in half like I thought it might so I’m pretty darn satisfied.
Ultra pumped for next weekend! However, it is a quick turn around, and I do not do well with those, so I’m really going to have to take care of myself in order to be at my best. Still amazed at how I have even gotten to this point! Deep down, I knew going to nationals was a goal of mine but I wasn’t quite sure how I would get there with everything that happened over last spring/summer. I had to take the most atypical, unconventional, backwards way possible, but I got there! I am actually sort of close to breaking 22, so that would be super awesome if I did that next weekend! But more importantly, I’m going to run for my chicks next weekend so we can all do something special together! <3
Also, HUGE shoutout to everyone that showed up to support! Every time I saw the sea of orange, it made me smile :) Y'all are the best!!! <3