2010 - Here we come!!

Hi everyone - Wendy here. Now that we are into the new decade I decided it was time to get our butts in gear again and keep our blog updated. A lot happened last year, we got busy and as you know we haven't posted anything since May '09.
So our New Year was quiet. Usually NY Eve we are out and about somewhere, partying like rock stars (ha, ha), but this year we kinda petered out and decided to stay home, veg with a movie and generally be couch potatoes....guess what - we did a good job at it! We were asleep by 10:30!

This year I have the honor of the first race. Last weekend 1/2/10 I got up at O dark 30 and drove half asleep all the way from Chandler to near Lake Pleasant for the Castle Hot Springs 22 mile run. This was a new race for me but the race has happened every year for the past many years. The place was not on Google maps nor could the car nav system find it. Lucky for me the directions on the race registration form were accurate enough. So I got out there eventually, pay my fee and get my race number etc. It was very cold and we started off just as the sun was coming up. About 70 or so like minded runners began the loop that started out going uphill and was never flat ! We were either going up or going down... 3500 ft up and 3496 ft down to be precise :- ) by the way where does the Garmin put those extra few feet? Thankfully I decided to run this like a smart person - translate that to slowly... Karen one of the gals on our Ragnar Relay team was there and she started out strong and I soon decided it was not my day to try to hang with her right from the gun. So for about 10 miles I'm keeping it easy, watching my drinking and eating and telling myself that if I feel good at the 10 mile mark I will try to speed up. So after 10 miles I'm feeling really good, and I mean really good. I couldn't believe that being smart was working. About mile 12 I passed a bunch of runners, Karen included, who were struggling. Did I mention I LOVE downhills and they were my friends that day. So anyway, I was still feeling really good at 15 miles so I focused on lifting my pace a little more until mile 18. There I hit a little wall of sorts..my legs felt good but I could tell I was starting to tire. I'd been trying not to fixate on my time, just keeping track of the miles and around 19 miles I sneaked a peek just to see and was very surprised to see only 3:25 which meant I had about 3 miles to go and 35 mins to finish in 4 hours which was my secret goal. Right about then there were a few tough hills, steep enough to force a slow walk up and a careful jog down and I assumed I was doomed to finish after 4 hours so I just settled in counted down the last couple of miles. As I round one of the last turns I can see all the cars parked and the finish area so I pushed just a little harder and crossed the line with a hug smile coz guess what... I'd finished in 3:55:35!!! How cool was that...I think just relaxing and forgetting about the time helped. I didn't get tensed up about not making my goal and ended up doing so anyway.
It was a terrific race. Not so much coz of the result for me (which of course was great) but also the scenery up there was outstanding. The weather was absolutely perfect for running. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze and the temps rose slowly to the mid 60's. Who could ask for more?
So that's my saga for the 2010 Castle Hot Springs race. I'll be back next year.
C'y all later.

Wendy.