I am really good at registering for races.  I mean REALLY good.  Running is playtime with my friends.  Often before the sun comes up I get to spend hours with anywhere from one to ten amazingly talented and incredibly entertaining runners.  So when one of them sends me a link to a run that’s new to me or looks like fun I find it really difficult to say no.  In fact, unless I already have a race that day I don’t say no.  The problem with that is often the training is quite different and training time will overlap.  I have a downhill road marathon a WEEK from today and all I want to do is run uphill on trails.  My friends are running to Barr Camp and back and I am TAPERING…a four-letter word for the girl who can’t sit still.  I am competitive, very competitive, but only with myself.  I set specific goals that I want to achieve and it is so irritating when I fall short…especially when I am the cause: not enough sleep, the wrong food, tired legs and the list goes on.  So when I found out I got selected to run with this team the first thing I wanted to do was run to Barr Camp…a sort of victory lap I suppose.  I am a casual runner who loves when the running store owners address me by name or when I get to run next to Tera Moody on the treadmill…I typically don’t get picked for the dodge ball team until the end let alone be listed as an age-group contender, and now I have a team jersey. Whoh!  But then I look at my nicely planned out, color-coded excel spreadsheet and it says 10 x 800.  SPEEDWORK…my LEAST favorite of all runs.  The nails on a chalkboard equivalent of a run.  The “I know it’s good for me and that’s the ONLY reason why I do it” kind of run.  My first thought: “I am clearly blowing this one off….I am a trail runner, I have no business trying to run fast on the road.”  BUT I am also Type A.  I like to finish on the mile, not .08 from that mile, I like my iPod in only my left ear and my Camelback hose wound perfectly so it doesn’t bounce.  So when the second look at the excel spreadsheet showed all the “actual” slots either achieved or at the very least attempted I knew what I had to do….RUN TO BARR CAMP.  Sometimes timing is everything…just when I decide to put the trail shoes on I hear the “ding…ding” text message alert  and I see it is Jill, my longest and most loyal (and virtual…she lives in Minnesota) running partner.  Message says, ”how were intervals?”  Trail shoes go back in the car and intervals get completed. 

I am excited for my race this weekend.  I am ready, healthy and as my good friend Davin says I will try hard not to race like I’m training since I have also tried hard not to train like I’m racing.  I have been smart and not overdone it.  My last lingering detail is which shoes to wear.  Feel free to cast a vote from the photo below.  Have no fear…I don’t actually own them all.     

With that being said, I am even more excited to return on Sunday and have the focus shift 180 degrees back to trails, the incline, trips to the top of the peak and loops of the Falcon Trail.  Sometimes it takes a bit of convincing to stay focused but I guess that is all part of the fun of training.  

Follow the entire team here:  Pikes Peak Sports Triple Crown Team Page