The past two weeks of running have been pretty inexplicable. My abilities have changed, daily; and I'm grateful for the natural improvement. Truthfully, I haven't even been trying. It became noticeable a week ago, when I stood at the starting line of Take 5 in the Garden. I had decided to drag my butt off the couch and get moving, but my strategy was to walk every hill and generally take it easy with some 14 minute miles. I was certain that the race would take me over an hour to finish. But, as I talked running with a coworker, I heard, "There you are!" It was my friend, Vanessa. "Shit," I thought, "I'm actually going to have to try."

As we began our run, I tried to convince her that she really wanted to run faster, without me. Needless to say, she never left my side. We actually made a great pair. I was more motivated to run up the hills, and she pushed the downhills a little harder (I have a lot of downward momentum...otherwise known as "junk in the trunk"). We actually finished around 47 minutes, which was at least 20 minutes faster than I was anticipating. If I were to do anything differently, it would only be to run with a Camelbak. Nursing mommies need more fluid, and it was super hot.

 Later in the week, I took to the Garden, again. Immediately after work, I started at the Manitou Pool and began running the Garden 10 Mile course. I made it just past Ridge Road before turning around at about 30 minutes. It was a lovely day. The next two days were spent with student award ceremonies and Kokopelli Kids. When I finally had a chance to hit the treadmill on Saturday, I was super strong. I did a progression run and finished with about 0.5 miles at a 7:30 pace, twice. In total, I ran 5 miles and swam 2/3 of a mile. This was all followed by amazingly fun kids activities. By the end of the day, I felt like I had run a marathon. Duane had run a trail half marathon in Denver, finishing 3rd overall. I'm pretty sure my day, in total, was tougher :)

 Today, I ran the Garden 10 Mile course from the Manitou Pool and hit the main entrance of the park before turning around. I felt good, but the crazy weather made the run tough. It was a cold rain, when I started, that had me soaked within 3 minutes. By the time I was warm, the rain had turned into sleet that blasted my face during every northern running section, which was basically the first 35 minutes. All in all, it was an awesome start to my Mother's Day. I'm starting to feel motivated to run, and that was a big hurdle to overcome.

Also, I probably won't double post much...but I blog about racing a lot. You can view or follow my posts at http://runcolorado.blogspot.com/