First and foremost, I need to give a shout-out to Leanne O. for driving down from Denver before dawn on a Sunday morning to support - can't thank you enough! Secondly, I was NOT letting Anton Krupicka beat me in this race, held him off by about 45 seconds. Hey, a win is a win, no matter what regard it's in!

Garden of the Gods 10-Miler...a race that, every year, makes me want to walk at multiple points throughout the race, but always keeps you going with it's beauty and knowledge that, after every grueling climb up, there is a wicked fast downhill coming up. The USATF advertising wasn't as high this year, so only a few elite Kenyan's raced this year...although the woman's overall record was destroyed again. The Carson ATM showed up in good force today, and we were well-represented throughout the ranks (Andrew took 7th overall, I took 15th overall, Heidi won her age group).

Ran the first two miles with Andrew and Nick. Andrew joked and chatted the whole time, and we came through the first rolling mile at 5:41 before starting the climbs. He pulled away, Nick fell back, I tried to hang out to Andrews coat-tails as best I could and keep him in sight. My main (and only) goal was to break 60:00 this year for the first time. So as he pulled away, my thought process was to just keep plugging away up the hills with strong, short strides and open up the legs on the downhills. Ran by a group of ladies around mile 4, just after the start of the long climb on the back side. They yelled out that I was looking good, I sarcastically said 'don't you lie to me'. As I moved past them, one of them yelled out 'you look pretty damn good from this point of view!'...that brought a smile to my face and got me laughing, which was needed up that climb. The fifth mile slowed down to 6:17 thanks to that damn climb, and really knocked me off pace. Next three miles were rolling, and I was able to pick up some time, running 5:47-5:57 through all three, and I was back on track for my goal time.

At this point, I was running solo. The guy I was with had dropped me and there was no one near me to catch up. Just did all I could to chug along...and then I hit the last big climb around 8.5 up to Balancing Rock...and that climb destroyed me. My pace up the hill slowed to around 7:30 and I was struggling. Thankfully I knew there was a screaming downhill coming up that I could make up some time, but ended up at 6:05 for that mile, which knocked me off pace. The last mile is a rolling uphill, and I knew I needed to throw down around 5:30 to go sub-60 on the course, and it just wasn't happening with that much uphill.

I did hit 10 miles at 59:40, but I still had another 1/10th of a mile to go until the finish line and I just dropped an all out sprint to the finish to come as close as I could. Official finishing time was 1:00:11, good enough for 15th overall and 2nd in my age-group (they give top 10 overall, and then do age-group awards).

But damn, I'll take this and hold my head high. 1:07 in 2011, 1:04 in 2012, 1:01 in 2013, and now 1:00 (with an asterisk, maybe?).

After that down phase the last few months, it feels SO damn great to be out there and racing and being in the element I love so much and hold so dear to my heart. This just gives me something to shoot for next year - an unofficial 59:xx finishing time on this very tough, very hilly course.