March 16 was the second of the OC Chili Trail Run series. This one actually got to be a trail run (yay!). Although I have done zero trail running since the last race, so I wasn't exactly prepared. But that's kinda how I roll sometimes.
Skyler was out of town for this race so I had to drop off Desmond at my brother-in-law's house. There was a big line for packet pick-up when I get there and I barely had time to grab my stuff and hit the bathroom before the starting gun went off. I wore a green Team Sparkle visor for St. Patty's Day. My watch wasn't getting location so I had to run by heart. I should have seen this as a sign of impeding disaster.
Carrie and I ran together for the first 3/4 mile until the hills really started. She stayed about 20 feet ahead of me for the next two miles. The hills really kicked my butt and I had to walk a few. But I knew who was in front of me and there were only two women (besides Carrie) who had done the first race.
The hills subsided and it was time to run downhill. It was at that time that I discovered I needed a bathroom badly. But there are no bathrooms on the trails. And I didn't want to stop, so I kept running.
This is super embarrassing to share, but I figure someone else has to have gone through this experience too so I might as well share it. We got to the mile 3 and I just had to let myself go. I've peed a million times on my runs and I have no problem with that...but this was something different and way gross.
When your mind is occupied with others things, you have no idea how fast you can run. I just wanted to finish and that's all I could think about. Since my watch wasn't working, I had no idea how fast I was running or how far I had left. I just kept running.
My previous fastest time was 40 something, so I was thrilled to see the 38 flashing at me when I crossed the finish line. I saw Carrie cross about 20 seconds in front of me. I ran straight to the bathroom and abandoned all of my clothes.
The chili was oh-so-good and after about 20 minutes, I was able to enjoy my super fast time. I had PRed by about a minute and change. Sadly, the times were recorded wrong so my official time is unknown, but I'm going to say 38:40. (NOTE: They changed my time to 39:01. Still a PR, but a few seconds off.) That put me in 3rd place for the series so far. Carrie will be out of town for the last race (thank goodness), so hopefully I can secure my 3rd place in a few weeks. Talk about pressure! I can't wait though.
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